The Matrix Revolutions

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox film/short descriptionTemplate:Template other The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis.Template:Efn The direct sequel to The Matrix Reloaded, it is the third installment in The Matrix film series, released six months following its predecessor. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Monica Bellucci, Lambert Wilson, and Mary Alice who replaced Gloria Foster as the Oracle following Foster's death in 2001. This is Alice's final film role before her death in July 2022. The film follows Neo and his allies as they fight to end the war between humanity and the machines permanently while opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

The film was released simultaneously in 108 territories on November 5, 2003, by Warner Bros. Pictures. While being the final entry in the original trilogy of the series, the Matrix storyline was continued in The Matrix Online video game. The Matrix Revolutions was the first live-action feature film to be released in both regular and IMAX theaters at the same time. It grossed $427 million worldwide, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2003. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

A fourth film, titled The Matrix Resurrections, began production in February 2020 and was released on December 22, 2021.

Plot

After the Mjolnir saved the crew of Nebuchadnezzar,Template:Efn Neo and Bane still lie unconscious in the ship's medical bay. Neo's consciousness is trapped in a subway station named Mobil Ave, a transition zone between the Matrix and the machine world. He meets a "family" of programs, including a girl named Sati. The "father" of Sati tells Neo the subway is controlled by the Trainman, a program loyal to the Merovingian. When Neo tries to board a train with the family, the Trainman refuses Neo and overpowers him.

Seraph contacts Morpheus and Trinity on behalf of the Oracle, who informs them of Neo's confinement. Seraph, Morpheus, and Trinity enter Club Hel, where they confront the Merovingian and force him to release Neo. Troubled by visions of the Machine City, Neo visits the Oracle, who reveals that Smith intends to destroy both the Matrix and the real world. She tells him "everything that has a beginning has an end". After Neo leaves, a large group of Smiths appears and assimilates Sati and Seraph. The Oracle does not resist assimilation, and Smith gains her powers of precognition.

In the real world, the crews of the Nebuchadnezzar and the Mjolnir find and reactivate Niobe's ship, the Logos. They interrogate Bane, who says that he has no recollection of the earlier massacre. As the captains plan their return to Zion to help its defence, Neo requests a ship to travel to the Machine City. Motivated by her encounter with the Oracle,Template:Efn Niobe offers him the Logos. Neo departs, accompanied by Trinity. Bane, who has stowed away on the Logos, takes Trinity hostage. Neo realizes Smith has assimilated Bane and, in their fight, Bane blinds Neo with a power cable. Neo discovers he can still "see" machine source code in the real world and uses this ability to kill Bane. Trinity pilots them to the Machine City.

Zion's shipyard is overwhelmed by a horde of Sentinels. Niobe and Morpheus rush toward Zion in the Mjolnir to aid the human defenses. During the shipyard battle, the fatally-wounded Captain Mifune instructs Kid to open the gate, which he does with the aid of Zee. After crashing through the half-open gate, the Mjolnir crew discharge its EMP, disabling all the Sentinels present but also Zion's remaining defenses. The humans are forced to retreat and wait for the next attack, thinking it will be their last stand.

The Logos approaches Machine City and is besieged by machines. Neo shuts several of them down using his newfound powersTemplate:Efn but passes out from exhaustion. To avoid their attackers, Trinity flies above them, briefly glimpsing the open sky before crashing. Impaled by debris from the crash, Trinity declares her love for Neo before dying. Neo enters the Machine City and encounters the machine leader, the "Deus Ex Machina".Template:Efn Neo warns them that Smith threatens both the machine and human worlds. He offers to stop Smith in exchange for peace between humans and machines. The Deus Ex Machina agrees, and the Sentinels pause their attack on Zion.

The machines plug Neo into the Matrix, whose population has now been entirely assimilated by Smith. The Smith-assimilated Oracle steps forth, telling Neo he has foreseen Smith's own victory. After a protracted fight, Smith recalls a vision and tells Neo that "everything that has a beginning has an end", unknowingly repeating what the Oracle had said to Neo earlier. This appears to cause Neo to concede defeat and allow himself to be assimilated. Outside the Matrix, pulses of energy surge into Neo's body, which causes the Neo-Smith clone, then all the other Smith clones in the Matrix, to be destroyed. This kills Neo but restores the Oracle and everyone in the Matrix. The Sentinels withdraw from Zion, Morpheus and Niobe embrace, and the city rejoices. The machines carry Neo's body away.

The Matrix is rebooted, and the Architect meets the Oracle in a park, scolding her for having "played a dangerous game". He begrudgingly concedes that those who desire to leave the Matrix will be allowed their freedom. After the Architect leaves, Seraph asks the Oracle if she had always known Neo would save them. She replies that she did not know, but she believed.

Cast

Zee was originally played by Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, before filming was complete, requiring her scenes to be reshot with Nona Gaye. Jet Li was offered the role of Seraph, but turned it down as he did not want his martial arts moves digitally recorded.

Production

The film's budget was estimated between US$110 million and $150 million.

Filming occurred concurrently with its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded, and live-action sequences for the video game Enter the Matrix. This took place primarily at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia. Most notably, the subway scenes were filmed at the disused tunnels of St James railway station, and the end sequence with the Oracle and the Architect was filmed in the Royal Botanic Garden. Carrie-Anne Moss injured her ankle during the shooting in Australia.

Soundtrack

In contrast to its predecessors, very few "source" tracks are used in the film. Aside from Don Davis' score, again collaborating with Juno Reactor, only one external track (by Pale 3) is used. Although Davis rarely focuses on strong melodies, familiar leitmotifs from earlier in the series reappear. For example, Neo and Trinity's love theme—which briefly surfaces in the two preceding films—is finally fully expanded into "Trinity Definitely"; the theme from the Zion docks in Reloaded returns as "Men in Metal", and the energetic drumming from the Reloaded tea house fight between Neo and Seraph opens "Tetsujin", as Seraph, Trinity and Morpheus fight off Club Hel's three doormen. The climactic battle theme, named "Neodämmerung" (in reference to Wagner's Götterdämmerung), features a choir singing extracts (shlokas) from the Pavamana Mantra, introduced in the Upanishads. The chorus can be roughly translated from Sanskrit as follows: "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace". The extracts were brought to Davis by the Wachowskis when he informed them that it would be wasteful for such a large choir to be singing simple "ooh"s and "aah"s (according to the DVD commentary, Davis felt that the dramatic impact of the piece would be lost if the choir was to sing 'This is the one, see what he can do' in plain English). These extracts return in the film's denouement, and in Navras, the track that plays over the closing credits (which may be considered a loose remix of "Neodämmerung").

Release

The Matrix Revolutions was released in theaters roughly three weeks after The Matrix Reloaded arrived on DVD, on October 14, 2003.

The film had the widest release ever opening simultaneously in 108 territories at 1400 Greenwich Mean Time on November 5, 2003.

Reception

Box office

On opening day, The Matrix Revolutions scored $24.3 million, becoming the third-highest Wednesday opening, behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. During its three-day opening weekend, it earned $48.5 million. In its first five days of release, the film grossed $83.8 million in the United States and Canada from 3,502 theaters, but dropped 66% during the second week. For three years, it had the highest five-day Wednesday opening for any Warner Bros. film until it was taken by Superman Returns in 2006. The film even competed against the newly released family films Brother Bear and Elf.

Internationally, the film grossed $119 million in its first 5 days from 10,013 prints in 107 territories, with the third-biggest opening ever in Japan and Spain and the fourth biggest in the United Kingdom, Italy and Mexico. Combined, it grossed $203 million in its first five days. This made it the highest worldwide opening weekend for any film, holding the record until it was beaten by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King a month later. The Matrix Revolutions also achieved the record for having the biggest international opening weekend for an R-rated film until 2015 when it was surpassed by Fifty Shades of Grey. The film grossed over $139 million in North America and approximately $427 million worldwide, roughly half of The Matrix Reloaded box-office total, and was the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2003.

Home media

The Matrix Revolutions was released on DVD and VHS on April 6, 2004. The film grossed $116 million in DVD sales. Additionally, it was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, The Matrix Revolutions holds an approval rating of 33% based on 215 reviews and an average rating of 5.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A disappointing conclusion to the Matrix trilogy as characters and ideas take a back seat to the special effects." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 41 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, a grade down from the "B+" earned by the previous film and two grades down from the "A−" earned by the first film, therefore the second lowest grade earned by a film in the series.

Some critics criticized the film for being anticlimactic. Additionally, some critics regard the film as less philosophically ambiguous than its predecessor, The Matrix Reloaded. Critics had difficulty finding closure pertaining to events from The Matrix Reloaded, and were generally dissatisfied.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, despite offering criticisms of his own, on the grounds that it at least provided closure to the story well enough so that fans following the series would prefer seeing it as to not.

Sequel

While making the Matrix films, the Wachowskis told their close collaborators that at that time they had no intention of making another installment after The Matrix Revolutions. Instead, they gave their blessing to the notion of gamers "inherit[ing] the storyline", and The Matrix Online video game was billed as the official continuation. In February 2015, in interviews promoting Jupiter Ascending, Lilly Wachowski called a return to The Matrix a "particularly repelling idea in these times", noting the studios' tendency to green-light sequels, reboots, and adaptations over original material, while Lana Wachowski, addressing rumors about a potential reboot, said that they had not heard anything, but she believed that the studio might be looking to replace them. At various times, Keanu Reeves and Hugo Weaving have stated that they would be willing to reprise their roles in potential Matrix films, but only if the Wachowskis were involved.

In March 2017, The Hollywood Reporter wrote that Warner Bros. was in early stages of developing a relaunch of the franchise, with Zak Penn in talks to write a treatment, and interest in getting Michael B. Jordan attached to star. According to the article neither the Wachowskis nor Joel Silver were involved at that stage, although the studio would like to get at minimum the blessing of the Wachowskis.

Warner Bros. officially announced the development on a fourth film in August 2019, with Lana Wachowski serving as director and producer on it. Lana wrote the screenplay with David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon. Grant Hill produced it alongside Lana. The production is a joint-venture between Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures, similar to the original films. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss reprise their roles from the previous films; Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving do not appear in the film. Production began in February 2020 in San Francisco, briefly halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and wrapped in November of that same year. The film, The Matrix Resurrections, had its world premiere in Toronto, Canada on December 16, 2021, and was released in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22, 2021.

See also

• List of films featuring powered exoskeletons

External links

• Template:Trim/ Template:Trim at IMDbTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
• Template:Trim/ Template:PAGENAMEBASE at Box Office Mojo
• Template:Trim Template:PAGENAMEBASE at Rotten TomatoesTemplate:WikidataCheck
• Template:First word Template:PAGENAMEBASE at MetacriticTemplate:EditAtWikidata
• The Matrix Revolutions Explained – a comparative-literature-style exegesis of selected parts of Matrix Revolutions.
• Understanding The Matrix Revolutions – A comparative guide to possible meaning and interpretations of The Matrix Revolutions
• The Matrix Revolution October 27, 2000 draft script by Andy & Larry Wachowski