Film · 1999

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction–action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. The first installment in the Matrix film series, it stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. The film follows a disillusioned computer hacker Neo (Reeves) who discovers that the life he knows is an elaborate deception created by intelligent machines. He is recruited by underground insurgents Morpheus (Fishburne) and Trinity (Moss), to join the rebellion against the machines. Following the success of the Wachowskis' 1996 film Bound, Warner Bros. gave the directing duo the go-ahead to make The Matrix. The film's action scenes were influenced by anime and martial arts films, particularly fight choreography and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema. Other influences include Plato's cave, 1990's Telnet hacker communities, and William Gibson's cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. The Matrix popularized terms such as the red pill, as well as a novel visual effect known as "bullet time" in which a character's heightened perception is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed.