Semiotic Matrix for The Matrix

Some things to think about for our discussion and movie viewing of The Matrix

• Consider what I call the "strong sense" of intertextuality/ intermediality in The Matrix. It's not about "influence" or direct references to other movies, but about whole genres and codes for intelligibility that make the movie possible per se.
• What kinds of movies and cultural knowledge does The Matrix presuppose? What is presupposed in the cultural encyclopedia that gives the movie its meaning?
• What other forms of popular culture (for example, comic books, animations) are presupposed?
• Where does the black leather and fetish clothing styles come from? How does it work as it becomes a style detached from the sexual and erotic origins?

Other Intertexts

• Hong Kong kung fu movies martial arts choreography
  • Bruce Lee movies, like the famous Enter the Dragon (1973). It uses the now well-known "Hong Kong" kung fu stylized choreography, the wire leaps and mid-air flips that you've probably seen in other movies. This stylization is behind many of the fight scenes in all of The Matrix films.
  • For a list of Bruce Lee films that helped define the genre, see BruceLee.com.
  • Yuen Wo-Ping's Crouching Tiger and Iron Monkey: extreme wire-aided martial arts sequences as culmination of the Hong Kong style.
• Kung Fu movies: lessons from the master/teacher as part of the education of the kung fu warrior on his quest.
• References to historical and literary myths, including Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Judeo-Christian imagery.
• The cyberpunk fiction tradition: Phillip K. Dick, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson.
• The novels of William Gibson, especially Neuromancer. Gibson popularized the concept of a world wide computer network with a virtual reality interface, which was named "the matrix" in his "Sprawl Trilogy". Gibson also coined the term "cyberspace."
  • The plot of The Matrix bears some resemblance to the basic plot of the book Neuromancer. In both a computer hacker is recruited to perform a particularly difficult task. Parallels:
    • Neo : Case
    • Trinity : Molly
    • Morpheus : Armitage
    • Cypher : Riviera
    • Oracle : Wintermute
    • Mouse : Finn
    • Agents : the Turing Police
    • Zion : Zion
    • The Matrix : Neuromancer and cyberspace in general
• The concept and name of "the matrix" originated earlier in the 1976 story, "The Deadly Assassin," on the British sci-fi series Doctor Who.
• Classic American action movie tropes: rooftop chases in police dramas, car and motorcycle chase scenes, fight scenes.
• Blade Runner and the techno-dystopian future; first movie version of the cyberpunk look and style.
• Influences from Japanese animation (anime).
  • Both a scene almost at the end of the movie, where Neo's breathing seems to buckle the fabric of reality in a corridor he is standing in, as well as the "psychic children" scene in the Oracle's waiting room are evocative of similar scenes from the 1980s anime classic Akira.
  • The opening rooftop chase scene and many others are practically identical to shots in another anime science fiction classic, Ghost in the Shell.

Decoding the New Stylization and Effects

• 360 degree camera work: digital stitching of multiple camera angles.
• Moving and rotating camera point of view: where is the story being narrated? The moving camera as "omniscient narrator"?
• "Bullet time": extreme slow mo and changing camera point of view.
• What do these techniques mean beyond style and the technical possibilities of digital work in cinema?

The Warner Brothers Official Matrix Website