Observations about the movie "The Matrix"

Observations about the movie The Matrix

This movie uses color themes, where a single color dominates many scenes in the movie. Some other movies I've seen that use this visual technique are The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and Temptation of a Monk, to name just two. The three main colors (other than black) in the movie, in order of how often they occur are Green, Blue, and Red.

Green

The green color theme starts at the very beginning of the movie, and it is the most often used theme. The green-on-black theme may be a reference to old monochrome computer monitors, which often displayed green on a black background. The original Compaq Portable computer was like this, for example.

Green theme notes:

The initial WB logo is a special green and black version, as is the Village Roadshow logo.
The start and end titles are green lettering on a black background.
The glyphs that appear on the monitors in the Nebuchadnezzar are green on black.
Neo's alarm clock shows green letters on a black background.
When Morpheus is in the Matrix, he wears a green necktie. When he is in the real world, he doesn't.
The wallpaper in the Oracle's apartment is green, and all the walls in that building are painted green.
The Oracle's outfit is green.
"All of the Exit signs in Neo's city are green, and not the typical red color." -- quoted from Jen's Matrix Site [Note: reader [email protected] explains that this is the standard color scheme in Sydney, where the movie was filmed, so this is not an "intentional" use of green.]
Green seems to be associated with the Matrix. Most scenes in the Matrix use a green theme.
Agent Smith's file folder that he brings into the interrogation room is green.
Neo's telephone is green. [submitted by [email protected]]
Green may also stand for danger. The entire opening action
sequence, where Trinity comes very close to being very dead, is very
green, as is the interrogation scene, where Neo is bugged. [submitted by "teasmoke" [email protected]]

The green and black opening title sequence of The Matrix seems influenced by another movie, Ghost in the Shell. In Ghost in the Shell, a Japanese animated movie, green digits on a black background rapidly change and then resolve into the title credit text. (The Matrix does it better, I think, but it is clearly the same idea.) Also, at the beginning of Ghost in the Shell, green wireframe-like graphics on a black background are used to represent cyberspace.

The first computer displays seen in the beginning of the movie Blade Runner (at the police station) also use these "retro" green-on-black displays.

Blue

Blue is the second most used color theme.

Blue theme notes:

The scenes that take place in the Metacortex building (Neo's office) are blue themed.
The delivery guy who gives Neo the cell phone is wearing blue.
Scenes inside the Nebuchadnezzar (Morpheus' ship) are blue themed.
If Neo had taken the Blue Pill, he would have returned to life in the Matrix without finding out what it really was.
There is a blue sign outside the building where the cops are looking for Trinity in the beginning.
Blue seems to be associated with the mundane. "teasmoke" ([email protected]) says "Blue would appear to stand for slavery in the Matrix. The office building scenes are blue, and there is the blue pill, which would have returned Neo to slavery."

Red

There isn't much Red in the movie. It is used for a few particular things, rather than whole scenes.

The Red Pill gives Neo knowledge of the Matrix
The Woman in Red appears in the training program, and later Mouse has an autographed picture of her.
The chair Morpheus sits in when Neo first meets him is red. Those same red chairs appear later in the "staging area" program with the white background.
The scene where Neo wakes up in the pod is mostly red or pink. [suggested by Cyberdolphin: [email protected]]

Yellow Theme?

"teasmoke" ([email protected]) says that there is a yellow theme, too. I'm not sure about this, but here is the information so you can make up your own mind:

I think yellow stands for the AIs' control in the Matrix. I'm not sure, as we don't see yellow all that much, but the Agents' jackets have yellow linings, and Neo's did too when he was in the office building. Plus, the scenes with the Agents trying to break Morpheus (the AIs exerting control if they ever do) are yellow-tinted. However, they stop being yellow at all and turn to normal coloration when Neo and Trinity set the sprinklers going with the bomb-- when the Agents aren't in control of the situation any more.

Cyberdolphin([email protected]) adds that the fight between Agent Smith and Morpheus in the hotel is yellow.

Reflections

Reflections form another visual theme in the movie. Many of these may be seen in the characters' sunglasses. Most of these sunglass-lens reflections are probably digital effects and not "actual" reflections, because they either show things that are in the Matrix, or they are shot from such an angle that a real reflection would show the camera.

During the "woman in red" training sequence, if you look carefully at the reflections in Morpheus' sunglasses, they don't seem to reflect everything that they ought to. Neo's reflection is clearly there, but the background objects and other people seem to have vanished.

Reflection notes:

In the shot of the helicopter flying directly overhead, it seems to approach and then merge into its reflected image in the windows on the side of the building. This foreshadows the destruction of the helicopter after Morpheus is rescued, when it crashes into the side of a building and once again seems to collide with its own reflection.
In the Red Pill / Blue Pill scene, one pill is reflected in each sunglass lens.
After Neo takes the Red Pill and is connected to the equipment, he sees his own reflection in a cracked mirror, which then becomes a liquid-like surface that he reaches out and touches. The mirrored surface spreads over his body, still reflecting his face and other objects in the room.
We see Neo reflected in the silver doorknob outside the Oracle's apartment.
Inside the Oracle's apartment, we see both Neo and the child reflected in the spoon that bends.
When Neo awakens in the pod, and the strange spiderlike robot approaches him, his face is reflected in the headlight-like probe of the robot.
We see Neo being carted out of his office building by the agents in the rear view mirror of a motorcycle, which seconds later we see belongs to Trinity. So, in a sense we are seeing exactly what she was seeing becuase she was looking at the action through the mirror as well. (contributed by [email protected])

"teasmoke" ([email protected]) contributes the following analysis:

I think distorted reflections stand for the real world's interface with and control over the Matrix: Neo is rescued from the Matrix, the real overpowering the dream, through the molten mirror. The Oracle, the resistance's interface with the secrets of the Matrix, has a mirrored doorknob. The bending spoon, demonstrating the awakened’s ability to control the Matrix, reflects the spoon boy's face and Neo's. Lastly, the serum the Agents inject Morpheus with, looking for a controlling interface over his mind, appears quicksilvery, like mercury.

The Matrix as a Buddhist metaphor

The central problem facing humanity in the movie is delusion. Most humans do not understand the illusory nature of the Matrix. Morpheus says:"The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."
After Neo realizes the true nature of the Matrix and escapes into the real world, he returns to the Matrix to help liberate others, in the manner of a Bodhisattva.
"... it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself." (Said by the boy at the Oracle's apartment to Neo.) This (and perhaps other pieces of dialogue, too) seems like an allusion to a famous Zen koan. In the version of the koan I remember reading, three monks are looking at a flag waving in the breeze. The first says, "the flag is moving." The second says, "no, it is the wind that moves." The third says, "no, it is not the flag or the wind, it is your mind that moves." Credit goes to [email protected] for bringing this to my attention.
Awakening: The first message that mysteriously shows up on Neo's screen says "Wake up, Neo." Later Morpheus says, "You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he expects to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth." The word "Buddha" means "awakened." (reference) Also, the song that plays over the end credits is called "Wake Up."

Visual References to Other Movies

When Neo goes to meet Morpheus, and the characters walk up the stairs, the stairway is shown from above, looking straight down with a dizzying, turning camera angle. This could be a visual reference to Hitchcock's Vertigo.
Near the end, when Neo and Smith face off in the subway, the two of them stand there for a moment looking at each other, with their hands hovering at their sides, and a few scraps of newspaper blow across the space between them. The camera angles, poses, and general effects here are a visual reference to High Noon (and other Westerns). The blowing scraps of newspaper may be the equivalent of tumbleweeds.
At the end, when Neo and Trinity kiss, sparks fly behind their heads . . . quite literally, because the sentinels are attacking their ship! But this "kiss = fireworks going off" visual image could be interpreted as a reference to corny old romance movies and TV shows.

More Vertigo References?

[email protected] has suggested the following additional references to the movie Vertigo:

The initial chase scene in the Matrix across the rooftops with the cops pursuing Trinity is nearly identical in structure to the first scene in Vertigo, with some shots set up exactly as filmed by Hitchcock.

The elements seeming very similar are:

The shot of one of the cops who almost doesn't make the jump from one building to the other (shot looking directly up from below) is practically identical.
I think the scene on the roof begins with a shot of Trinity's hands on a ladder? If so, then it's another element that invokes Vertigo.
The tin roofs with the sounds of clattering footsteps as they run.

Other interesting things to look for

In the training program fight scene, Morpheus does two obvious moves from Yang style Tai Chi Chuan: "Single Whip" and "White Crane Spreads Wings." There may be more, but those were the easiest to pick out.
When Neo is getting downloads of various martial arts programs, one of the programs listed on the screen is "drunken boxing." This is not a joke, though. Drunken Boxing is the name of a real style of Chinese martial arts.
When Cypher is seen in the real world his left ear is scarred. In the Matrix, it looks normal and he has an earring.
My friend Greg explains: I was amused by the button on the elevator after they clean out the lobby of the government building. There is a clear shot of one of them pressing the up button on the elevator. The button reads "Do not use in the event of a fire." This, of course, precedes the huge fire bomb they are about to drop into the lobby.
In the scene where bullet casings can be seen dropping straight down towards the camera from the helicopter, if you look at the building you can see a great deal of water streaming down the side of the building. This is because the sprinkler system has been activated by the bomb.
"Neo" is an anagram of "One" as in "The One." Neo also means new, and Neo is the newest member of the group.
When the Oracle tells Neo he isn't The One, she says "maybe in your next life." Near the end of the movie, he does briefly die and then come back to life, so technically maybe he is in his "next life" at the very end.
At the end, when Neo is being chased by the Agents, he goes into the Heart o' the City hotel, room 303. This is the same room Trinity was in at the very beginning of the movie, so it creates a kind of plot symmetry. The number 303 may be a reference to the real-life computer hacker group "303." Even if not intentional, it is an interesting coincidence.
I think both Neo and the Oracle live in room 101 (of different buildings).
Another symmetry: the movie starts and (nearly) ends with a flashing green cursor on a black background, and the sound of a phone ringing.
Rhineheart (Neo's boss) says to him, "The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Anderson. Either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forth, or you choose to find yourself another job." There is an echo of this later, when the Oracle tells Neo, "you're going to have to make a choice." (i.e. to sacrifice himself or Morpheus)
Near the beginning when Neo is at work and following Morpheus' instructions, he goes into one of the offices, opens the window, and steps out onto the ledge. This is kind of weird because windows in giant office buildings usually cannot be opened.
When Neo is out on the ledge of the office building, he drops his phone, tries to get it back as it falls but then gives up. As he does this, the phone's fall pauses, then resumes accompanied by the sound effect that occurs whenever a "law" such as gravity is bent. This may foreshadow his ability to control the Matrix. [Contributed by "Paulus" ([email protected]). Note: the shot of the falling phone also is echoed near the end in the shot of Cypher's phone falling into the garbage can.]
In the interrogation room, Agent Smith tells Neo he has been living "two lives" and that one of these lives has a future and the other does not, but he doesn't say which one. He turns out to be right, although it is the normal life as Thomas Anderson that doesn't have a future, and the life as Neo that does, probably the opposite of what he (the Agent) meant to say. [suggested by [email protected]]
On the way to visit the Oracle, Morpheus sees an old man who appears to be blind (he is wearing dark glasses and carrying a white cane). Morpheus nods his head toward the man in greeting. This would be a weird thing to do towards a blind person. The man appears to nod back! At least, I'm about 80% sure that the man intentionally nods back. It could be a coincidental motion, I suppose. [The idea for this item was submitted by [email protected].]
The Oracle never says that Neo wouldn't be the one, Neo says it by himself. The Oracle looks at him and his hands and he says "I'm not the one" and the Oracle just says "I'm sorry," which doesn't mean that the Oracle confirms what Neo said. This is quite interesting, because Neo always says "The Oracle told me that I'm not the one" after his chat with the Oracle, I guess this means that Neo is like the Oracle said: "not too bright though..." [submitted by [email protected]]
In the scene where Morpheus is being interrogated, he has blood and cuts on his face, and as he runs towards the helicopter to escape, it looks like he is shot in the leg. After he exits the helicopter, he has no blood on his face and for the rest of the movie his leg seems fine. This is either a continuity error in the movie, or it shows that Morpheus can use his control over the Matrix to heal his body. [Info submitted by "Neo" [email protected] ]

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