The Matrix #17 Reggie’s Take Movie Franchise Countdown

By Reggie's Take on June 30, 2014

The films trilogy is set on Earth in which it’s future is dominated by sentient machines that were created early in the 21st century and then rebelled against man. The Matrix franchise comes in at #17 in my Reggie’s Take Movie Franchise Countdown.

Created by Andy and Lana Wachowski. The Matrix was first released on March 31, 1999, followed by two sequels in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.

The Matrix, filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia, shows the recruitment of hacker Neo into man’s rebellion against sentient machines. The film being highly successful earned $460 million in worldwide box office sales, and became the first DVD released in the United States to hit three million copies sold.

The Matrix received Academy Awards for film editing, sound effects editing, visual effects, and sound. It also had a huge influence on action films for several years. The film’s use of wire fu techniques affected the approach to fight scenes in Hollywood.

The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions were filmed simultaneously as one shoot under the code name “The Burly Man” and then released in two parts in 2003. The films tell the story of the coming attack on the human civilization of Zion by a vast machine army. Neo learns more about the history of the Matrix and his role as the One.

The franchise was produced by Joel Silver and stared Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. The franchise as a whole took in $1.6 billion dollars world wide.

The Matrix 1999 / Warner brothers

Plot:
Thomas A. Anderson is a man living two lives. By day he is an average computer programmer and by night a hacker known as Neo. Neo has always questioned his reality, but the truth is far beyond his imagination. Neo finds himself targeted by the police when he is contacted by Morpheus, a legendary computer hacker branded a terrorist by the government.

Morpheus awakens Neo to the real world, a ravaged wasteland where most of humanity have been captured by a race of machines that live off of the humans’ body heat and electrochemical energy and who imprison their minds within an artificial reality known as the Matrix. As a rebel against the machines, Neo must return to the Matrix and confront the agents: super-powerful computer programs devoted to snuffing out Neo and the entire human rebellion.

The Matrix Reloaded 2003 / Warner Brothers

Plot:
Neo and Trinity have been summoned by Morpheus to join him on a voyage to Zion, the last outpost of free human beings on Earth. Neo and Trinity’s work together has been complicated by the fact the two are involved in a serious romantic relationship. Upon their arrival in Zion, Morpheus locks horns with rival Commander Lock and encounters his old flame Niobe. Meanwhile, Agent Smith has returned with some surprises for Neo, most notably the ability to replicate himself as many times as he pleases.

Neo makes his way to The Oracle, who informs him that if he wishes to save humankind, he must unlock “The Source,” which means having to release The Key Maker from the clutches of Merovingian. While Merovingian refuses to cooperate, his wife, Persephone, angry at her husband’s dalliances with other women, offers to help, but only in exchange for a taste of Neo’s affections. With The Keymaker in tow, Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus are chased by Merovingian’s henchmen: a pair of deadly albino twins.

The Matrix Revolutions 2003 / Warner Brothers

Plot:
Neo remains unconscious in the real world, caught in a mysterious subway station that lies between the machine world and the Matrix, and Bane is still a conduit for Agent Smith, who continues to grow out of control, threatening to destroy both worlds. Meanwhile, as the sentinels get closer and closer to Zion, the citizens of the earth’s last inhabited city prepare for the inevitable onslaught.

By bargaining with The Merovingian, Trinity and Morpheus are able to free Neo who, after meeting with The Oracle, decides that he must leave Zion and head for the machine mainframe. As Neo and Trinity venture into the dangerous machine world, with hopes of stopping both the machines and Agent Smith, their comrades in Zion attempt to fight off the attacking sentinels with the odds stacked greatly against them.