Minute 16: “I’m gonna die.”

Transcript

Transcribed automatically from the audio, and imperfect for it — names and punchlines suffer worst. Useful for finding a moment, not for quoting one.

0:00Welcome to the Matrix Minute, a podcast where we discuss the first film one minute at a time because the Matrix is really... I'm running out of things to say, but anyway, hey, welcome guys, welcome back. I'm Phil. Hi, I'm Jake and my iPhone screen cracked but now it's fixed and it's good, it's better. Really? Well, congratulations. Thanks. It's really nice in the summer days. Congratulations. Says Tim, who is also here. And he thinks this podcast is really great. Yeah, it's really great. From back in the day. To us three. No one else. You know, the movie executives said this script was the script that nobody understands. Really? Indeed. Well, if they read the 1996 version.

0:42They should have read, yeah, you're right. If they read that one, they would have definitely been confused. This is Minute 16 and what happens in Minute 16 is... Neo's crouching low as fast as he can and turns a corner to get to the office at the end of the hall. How do you do this? Neo asks. Morpheus says there's no time and he has to use the scaffold out of the window to get to the roof. Neo reluctantly agrees and attempts to crawl out the window to reach the scaffold. The minute ends showing us the immense drop from the building. Love it. I love that music.

1:23And it looks like Mr. Bean is running away in his little gray suit. The first shot. Really? First shot. Because I have it on pause and it's like, you know, Mr. Bean with the gray suit. Yep. I see it. I see it. I see it. Yeah. The first shots when he's crouching around like Mr. Bean, they're all done with steadicam. So it's all low angle. It's like, you know, really cool. It's very frantic feeling. It's loose enough for it to feel like the camera is actually giving you a sense of it being worrisome and frightening and something you aren't very, it's not calm, you know. There's lots of green walls. By the way, if you took out the green tint of this whole shot here, you would notice that the walls are actually blue, which is odd.

2:09But how they were gray. I never knew that. Yeah, it's kind of like a grayish baby blue kind of color. And that's, that's something. So let's talk about the office in the hall. Whose office is this? I always thought it was, um, I always thought it was, uh, Mr. Reinhardt's office, the one that he just left. That's stupid. But when I was a kid, I thought that, but I, well, here's the thing. The scaffolding is there for the window wipers. Hmm. But they move, you know, they move. That's true. Yeah. But it could be. I mean, I don't know. I mean, it has some kids. Does Reinhardt have some kids? Oh man, like the pictures in the office, those are so hilarious. There's like photos of buildings, more or less. It's like most of it is just buildings and then the cities. And then in one photo, there's a logo initials of MC.

2:50You can see it says like, oh, it's a cortex. I thought it was you. One, I think, look, one is the photo of the metacortex building. Yeah, I know. Yes, it's like a close up. It's just funny. He just loves it. But, uh, why is the guy scanning stuff with the lid open? Well, the photocopy man, I think he was about to pull his trousers down. Oh, he was, he was, he was the butt photocopier. He's the butt photocopier. Yeah. Yeah, he's gonna, you know, pop his pants down and just start. And Neo is quite the croucher in this scene. Oh yeah, he's going full on stealth mode there. He's doing a really good job. Um, really, really impressed with his, uh, with his frantic, uh, running away. So since we're here, I would love to address a question I've had forever.

3:31Since first watching this movie is, um, Morpheus is telling him an option to leave the building is via the scaffolding, right? Yes. Uh, does that mean that he would have to make a jump to the crane and then manually climb down like a mountain climber? No, you can, you can get the crane down. I'm confused how that works. Basically operate, operate the crane. Cause it's a thing that goes up and down and then they sort of, from there they wash the windows or they move left and right. Oh, I see. So he would have to stand on the platform. Yeah. Remember gang beasts? Yeah. Basically one of those. So he would get on top of that and then he would like basically elevator himself down.

4:14Yes. Yeah. Elevator himself down and then Trinity's on the bike and he jumps on and romance continues. So she blasts some Rob Zombie. So the question is, I mean, we'll get to this in the next minute, but essentially all he has to do is go around and just stand there. And he's like, no way. No way. No way. This is crazy. Oh, it's crazy. Sorry. I forgot. He talks about, he talks to himself quite a lot. This Neo guy. What do you think? Well, he doesn't talk all day. Who's he going to talk to? Himself. Exactly. Yeah. Going into the theme of having two personalities, two sides of the same coin. Hmm. Yes. Very deep indeed. So anyway, like I wanted to say, let's see what we got in this minute as well.

4:55But that was just the thing I never understood is why is Neo so shocked and terrified by this scaffold? Because he's just. That's pretty high up. Come on. He's a guy who sits at the computer all day. Exactly. True. If this was real, he would be fat belly, had a neck beard, balding, probably a little ponytail. Maybe not. Maybe he has a good metabolism. He's older. Blessed. Blessed with the. Usually they don't last, those metabolisms. Well, yours is pretty good. Yeah. But how old is, let's say, how old is Neo here? 30. 30. That is true. But it did start running and stuff like that for the last three or four years. Otherwise, I wouldn't. Okay. I would have a little belly. He may be 30. We're going to find out his age later when we see his passport.

5:38Really? We're going to find out the age? Oh, we got all the info, man. We got all that info. Ooh. Dude, I think even in that scene, we'll get some juicy deets. Like, he actually switched high schools, I think. Stuff like that. Yeah. Oh, is this the interrogation? Yeah. Well, in this case, we're still on this minute. And I wanted to say that his lips look really weird and orange in the gray that we're looking at. Yeah. What is this? The Blu-ray rip? Or what grade is this? This will segue us. Segway us? This will put us into the topic of... Yeah. This is the 2004 regraded version that they shipped for the Ultimate Matrix Collection Edition, which is the one that I've been waiting for for the past, I don't know, since 2002, I think.

6:20I've been waiting to get this DVD trilogy because I knew the sequels were going to come out and I knew they're going to eventually have to package it into a Blu-ray. What? Blu-ray. Into a DVD back in 2004. So I waited. I waited six years, I think it was. Is it the same one I have? Yeah, this is the same one we have. This is the current one. You can't get the older VHS and DVD and pre-Blu-ray HD broadcasts. Those were less green, weren't they? Yeah, they were a lot more amber and the contrast was a lot more flat. It was very flattened out. By the way, there's a YouTube behind the scenes special, I think it was for TV or something

7:05like that, and all the shots that are from the movie are actually ungraded in it. Man, yeah, I would... Did you see that? No. That was so weird because it's actual shots from the movie. It's not like extra, you know, B-roll stuff. Yeah, no, it's not digitally graded, yeah. It's just not graded. It's just like actual color. It's so weird. It's the most bizarre thing. I would love to watch that. And there's also an open matte version because this film was filmed on Super 35 as opposed to anamorphic, so there was a lot of headspace. Okay, let's remind us, please, the differences. Okay, so the technique of Super 35 is just a fancy term of saying they filmed it full screen and they just cropped it. So they filmed it essentially 5x4. 4x3, yeah.

7:45Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah, just a classic 35. Almost like a box. Millimeter frame, yeah. Yeah, but then you just... And then they cropped it to get the widescreen. Yeah, they cropped it. This is what they did for Lord of the Rings as well. You crop out the boom mics. So this is cropped. This is all cropped. And there is an open matte version available somewhere. Some people have it, but it's not an officially full screen version. Yeah. And is it graded or not? It is graded, but it's like you can see some of the... That would be amazing just to watch. And then crop it even more. Make it like, you know, the TV square and then ungraded. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Isn't it that with these uncropped versions, you can often see a lot of stuff that's in the bleed that's not supposed to be there, like mics and... Yeah, that's someone holding a script or something. By the way, the VHFs, that would be cropped, right?

8:26It would be both cropped and it would also be uncropped. There's some stuff that's open matte in the VHS version. It's full screen version. Really interesting. So they opened it up for some shots. Wow. For some shots as well. And so the new graded Matrix version is the one from the 2004 Ultimate Collection that, you know, came out. And here's where we get into some conspiracy because this is kind of like George Lucas-ing in a way because before the 2004 one, all we had was the video transfer from the pre-Blu-ray version. HD broadcasts and VHS and... The DVD. DVD pre-trilogy pack, you know. Okay.

9:07The classic DVD case with the blue cover. And that old grade had a more urine yellow looking green and a much shallower contrast, which is what I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago. And it looks kind of like a 90s commercial, to be honest, like a music video or something like that. The old version. Yes. The one that's the video transfer for that. Now, we all thought it kind of might have been the original cinematic version. That's what I thought too. But we were looking through some old YouTube videos and of course the forum OriginalTrilogy.com where all the nerds come in to talk about video formats and picture grades for some reason. And they were talking about... Some people had some scans of the 35mm print and some people had actual projecting video footage

9:49from the movie. And to my surprise, the one that we're watching right now is a lot more accurate to the original cinematic version for the 35mm distribution prints than the urine. So the green tint was actually, in fact, very purposeful. Yeah. And people look more pink in the real world when you watch the old 1999 or 2000 transfer for the old pre-trilogy DVD. Yeah. I think I remember watching the DVD for the first time and realizing how much grading it there is. Having only seen the VHS version before. So it was a bit strange.

10:30But I think they might have done that because of like, oh, it's going to go for probably for VHS and you don't want to kind of like mess with the crappy TV. I think these are more visible. Who knows, man? I think these are mysteries by middlemen who have to transfer the film without the supervision of the original. Oh, and they're like... Without Bill Pope or any of the Wachowskis. I know this better than the Wachowskis. I remember watching it. Yeah. I've been doing this for 30 years. Yeah, which is another weird conspiracy when it comes down to Fellowship of the Ring, the Blu-ray. Oh, yeah, that is. Have you ever heard of this, Tim? I don't know the conspiracy. I just saw the look. Or controversy, actually. Okay, sure. The controversy is the theatrical Blu-ray and the DVD of the extended.

11:14So both of those have a regular looking grade. It was quite neutral looking and everything. Because in comparison, the 2011 Blu-ray release of the extended Lord of the Rings films, the Fellowship of the Ring was the only one that actually had a weird green tint on it all over the film. So extended Fellowship of the Ring Blu-ray, right? Yes. Not the DVD. The DVD is not green. Okay. Only the extended Blu-ray is. Did the Blu-ray become theatrical? Yes, but that was not green. Okay. What? So the only thing that is green is the extended, the extended, I was going to say extended theatrical.

11:57No. No. The extended Blu-ray is the one that's green tinted. It was theatrically extended. And, you know, all the nerds that care about that, like me, want to know why, right? And we want to know what this is. And apparently, back when Andrew Lesney, the cinematographer, was still alive and Peter Jackson, they both confirmed that this is the way it's supposed to be. Oh. And I have no idea. Well, now we get into the argument of, do they remember? That's the other thing. That's the question. Are they George Lucas? Are their eyes going slightly shifting? Because they could be going like, yeah, that looks great. And then you show them the other version like, oh, wait a second. Maybe this other one's more close. So, yeah, on Original Trilogy, you can actually see people talking about that and scanning some film frames. But the funny thing is that there's many films where the color is lost in the transfer.

12:41Like Aliens. Or Found. Who knows? Yeah. Aliens, the Blu-ray, is a lot more teal than the video transfer is for the Blu-ray. So we don't know. Like, you have to go back to the Original Prince. So the takeaway is, let's all go back to VHS. No, it's not. Because the VHS doesn't have, isn't accurate. It's all downgrade. No, you just have to go back. Go back to the theatrical prints. Go back to the theatrical prints. Even if they get faded, you have to figure it out. See how difficult this is? I love the retro VHS. You see how difficult this stuff is? So anyway, all I'm going to say here is that this new Matrix edition from 2004, not very new anymore, but newer than the 2001 with the depleted contrast, is more accurate to the

13:25cinematic experience from the beginning. Even though the 2000 DVD had more of an old monitor look, which looked more like an old monitor than this did. This is more. And thank you for tuning in to Color Grading with Jay, Phil, and Tim. I had to. I had to talk about it. Tomorrow's episode, we'll talk about it. There's nothing happening in this episode, so it's fine. What is it? Well, the way that Neo goes through from the room into the light is symbolizing his extra... His extra... Taking a step to a larger world. His escape from the cave of unknownness. Symbolism. Symbolism. Ah, yes, Tim, you're right. Plato's cave.

14:06Ah, yes, the cave of the unknown. Yes. That's right. He's coming out. Also, a piece of trivia. If you look at the picture, that's a little child. That's actually Neo as a child. And the Morpheus put that there as a reminder. Yeah, yeah, sure. No, it's actually you as a kid, Tim. That's me. I hacked into the Matrix. You hacked the Blu-ray. I hacked the Blu-ray and made Neo's lips yellow like he was drinking. And the last comment we can make is that Neo's hair kind of, you know, takes a wild turn in the middle of this minute. And you can tell how it's cut. His hair gets washed. It does get washed, doesn't it? Like, he's sweaty. Sweaty. And then suddenly he's...

14:47And then all of a sudden... Freshly. No, it's the wind. It's the wind. It dries his hair. Look at that. Fresh Matrix wind. It's beautiful now. Is that wind he's feeling? See, you can chalk this up to being like, no, this was intentional. This was going to show you there's a glitch in the Matrix. Ah, yes. So it just automatically just made his hair clean. A machine accidentally unplugged the rendering of the hair. A machine. This Matrix. A machine. It's so glitchy. It was like, it was fired, then machine and slapped. What else can we say? There's nothing else to say. Nothing. The only thing I can say is that the music, when Morpheus hangs up... Yeah, it goes... Those are the ones. Those are the notes.

15:27That's the ones. All the music is like mathematical here in this and this. I love the soundtrack. It's wonderful. We're going to talk about that later. So anyway, this is... That's our minute. That's it. Did you know that the phone is shaped like a banana because monkeys? Yeah. Monkeys designed it. Monkeys used it and designed it. The Nokia team. Ah! Ah! Banana! Connecting people. Ah! Okay, cool. Enough of this minute. I'm sick of this minute. My name is Phil and you can get me on Twitter at PhilDragas. I can get you. I can just get you. You can just get me. Pick you up and get you. That's right. You can reach me there. Also, go to our Facebook page because I always post things there because I think that's the place to put things.

16:07Speaking of which, at this time, there's a picture of Neo holding a banana. That's right. So go check it out. If you want to see it. It's to his ear. Yeah. Yes, go to iTunes and stuff. My name is Jake. Please go to iTunes. Please write a review. I really want a review. Is my banking? Making good. Oh, also that shot that Neo is looking down at the end, at the very end, you know, the camera looks at Neo looking down and then moves all the way down. That's really cool. I like it. It's a good one. It's like one of those, like, where's the camera, man? Is he in the sky? You don't want to know. All right. I'm Tim. All right. Yep. iTunes review would help a lot. And you'll have to join us for the next episode to find out where you can get me.

16:50Absolutely. That's something. Winning. Winning. See ya. Do,