Minute 3: “No lieutenant, your men are already dead.”

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 Matrix film one minute at a time. Hi, I'm Phil. Trinity has a really leather jacket. Hey, I'm Jake. Trinity does indeed have a really leather jacket. I'm Tim, and Trinity does really, really have a leather jacket. Just like 100% leather. So hey everybody, welcome back. This is episode 3, where we discuss Minute 3. You know what happens in Minute 3? No, what happens? Trinity holds her hands way up. Agent Smith, Brown, and Jones make their first appearance. They talk to the head of police in front of the building. No, Lieutenant, your men are already dead.

0:41The minute ends as Trinity punches a cop in the face. So, first things first. That's the longest description we ever had. Um, when I watched this when I was a kid. Just keep ignoring him. For the first time, I did not realize that that cop was saying jurisdiction crap. I thought he was saying jurisdiction crap. Yeah, he was making a pun. He was making a pun. What? He was making a dick pun. Jurisdiction crap. Really? Yeah. Yeah. What? What did you think? No way. Then he says he can cram it up his ass. I thought he was just saying, like, his accent was a little weird and he was just separating the words.

1:21He was just special. Well, speaking of which, we'll talk about the cop a little later. We'll talk about the cop a little bit later. This is Matrix Revelations. Yes. The Matrix Revelations. Matrix Revelations. Hmm? Uh, so what do you guys think? Turn these ten fingers. What do you guys think of this scene? I wanted to say, I wanted to say the, um, very scary opening that we're getting. Like, it's very unsure, very mysterious and dark and noir-like, right? And this goes on when they find her. Remember that in the last minute, they point the guns and the flashlight at her in that one shot? Yeah, where were we? We left off. Hands over your head. Do it, you know. Do it now. Back outside. And then this minute comes in where Trinity is putting her hands up.

2:03Now, the thing is, uh, we... Just like you do in a hip-hop track. Yeah. But the thing is, that close-up is important. Like, it's important to me because it's showing, you know, the lighting is bouncing back to her face. We get a nice little... A beautiful face. We get a nice little, uh, soft lighting and it's a nice close-up to show you her face. So it's like inviting you into this character. And so we sort of get that. And also, let's talk about the location that they're in. Okay. The heart of the city hotel. Tell us about it. I love the little fakery, the film noir looking place. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That's right. Yeah, it is fakery film noir. And also, here's a good question. Backlod Street. That hotel, though, comes back at the end.

2:43Oh, yeah. No. It does? What I love about this is that... Yes, the same hotel. Yeah. That's full circle. Oh. I guess they have, like, specific phone lines for specific places. Yeah. Yeah. No, I like that, though, like, how they did that visually, where you come back to the same location you began to film in. And that's the climax. Oh, wait. Doesn't he, like, run by a 303 room? Yeah. No, he runs... His room... That's not the same hotel. It is the same hotel. At the end... Because that was an apartment building. Remember? There was a woman cooking. He just jumps over to different buildings. Yeah, he jumps over to different buildings. We'll see. We'll see. When we get there. I'm telling you. It's the same one. Okay. All right. Okay. I'm betting you five euros. Five euros. Place your bets. We're not American. What? Oh, no. I'm not.

3:24I'm not. So, I wanted to tell you about room 303. And this is... I was doing some research, and I dug into the Matrix wiki, if that can be trusted. And it gives you a nice description about the hotel. So, let's hear it. And room 303 in particular. The room, like the other rooms within the hotel, carry a vintage look. The room is small, square-shaped, one-room complex that, from the inside, appears to have an extra room. It's an abandoned hotel. Okay. Members of the Resistance, you know, place their computers on whenever they require space to search their targets and blue pills. The room, with its vintage style, is also quite clean and less dusty, because the Resistance members travel within the room regularly for business.

4:08Where are you using this from? The Matrix wiki. Also, the Resistance sounds so lame. The room is also used for reaching an exit, where red pills can safely exit from the Matrix without any equivocations from blue pills agents and others from seeing them. This is too much, Phil. We can't... This is astonishing our reputation. This is turning into, like... The red pills, the Resistance. I'll tell you, cut this out. Yeah, this is too much. Don't cut it. It's fine. Leave it. I was gonna say... Man up to it. When I... It's the man you are. Watched this when I was a kid. Wiki's. Right? Here we have a scene, which, when I was a kid watching this, I thought it was really cool how the cop is so confident that they're gonna capture Trinity,

4:48and he's gonna bring in a whole, you know, five or ten guys in there to get her out, and he's like, you know what? We got it covered, no problem, you know. Daily routine stuff. She's some renegade criminal. And then Aiden Smith comes in, and he knows. He knows that Trinity is dangerous to be messed with. She's the red pill of Resistance leader. So when I was a kid, I loved that, because I thought I was like, man, I was like, the good guys? Yes! I was like, the good guys are so... Oh, you already knew she was a good guy? Yeah, of course. Because when I was watching... I thought it was a bad guy, maybe. What? No, I thought she was a good guy. The policemen are good. Why would the policemen be apprehending a good guy? Because when I was watching it... Because the good guys are being oppressed. Because when Aiden Smith said, your men are already dead, it was like...

5:31I knew she was a good guy. I was like, oh, dangerous. What's she gonna do? You know? No. But Lil Jake was such an innocent man, he was like, always rooting for the good... Exactly. For the heroes. The heroes, and I knew in my heart she was a hero. He could smell a hero. And I loved it. From a mile away. When he said that, I was like, yes. I was like, Trinity, she's so good. The good guys have such good people that they train so hard that she's gonna wipe these cops out because she has to. You know, look what's happening. Lil Jacob looked into her big blue eyes and saw that she was brave. And so I wanted to ask you, what do you guys think of that? She was brave, pretty eyes. Looking at it now. Because now watching with fresh eyes, I don't know. I don't know if it works so much, that line where it says, Lieutenant, your men are already dead. I think it's perfect because it sets up that she's actually dangerous.

6:13That's true. I agree with that. But I'm saying, do you think that it's become a sort of, you know, trope where it's like, you know, you wouldn't expect this, you know, like, you know, right? You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I mean, to be honest, like, I don't remember when I first saw it, like how it worked on me. Because I don't remember what was I thinking. I think at that point, you're just way like new into it. And you're thinking about the stuff previously, you know, what the conversation is about. And then when I watched it later on, I was just like, oh, you know, you can't wait for the good part when she starts, you know, running, you know, doing all the action bits. So you're like, you know, it's like a buildup. And I never actually thought about this entire scene. You're like mentioning a hotel, how it looks.

6:53And this is for honestly, for the first time, I'm looking at all the details. Speaking of details, as the agent's car comes into frame and drives into the wide shot on the left, there's a little red sign. It says Kung Fu for some reason. I don't even know. I just found that out. But I have to say that during, you know, when you were making your movies and I made movies with you or by myself when we were kids, I'm just watching and I'm looking at the shots and I just realized, I don't know if it was consciously or subconsciously, but pretty much every shot that I saw here probably ended up in any of my movies. Yes. The foot coming out of the car, the closeup of the hand, every shot, everything, the cutting,

7:36exactly the same. That's probably just, I think the school of learning that's like, oh, that's how you make a movie. You have to show every detail. You cut to it. Yeah. Of course. What I do like about the scene is that it pretty quickly sets up the story. Meaning you get to immediately see the Trinity is something like eight year old Jake, the good guys are always in trouble somehow. Well, or for me it was that someone, some dangerous woman is being apprehended. Phil doesn't trust women and Jacob always is rooting for the good guys. I trust all women. Because I can tell when they're good.

8:17Of course. So you really thought that when you guys were young? Well, it was, it was just, it was scary. I had no idea what to expect. So I was on my guard. A little baby like Phillip. I was nervous. Because of the, because of the lighting and because of the mood, because of the music, because of how the cops are slowly approaching this, this woman. I think, you know. And then the scary agents that wear sunglasses, even at night. Well, I didn't think about that. What are the details you're thinking about? They have sunglasses. This is, I think I've seen more like action movies, especially even probably some John Wu movies that that was like normal to me. Like they're just being cool. So I don't think I ever thought about that. This could be me completely retroactively like re-imagining what I thought. You know what?

8:57But I have to say, if we're going on that tangent, I think that when we see Trinity, you know, about to do some action, which we're going to see. About. I think I knew already then, then it's not going to be this intense, scary thing. I guess. Okay. But I guess like everyone has, everyone. Everyone has their own like perception when they're watching the first time where it's going to go. Yeah. Totally. I feel a little scared and you are waiting for some. And you were just like the perfect, you just could handle everything. I was, I was a mega boy. You're a mega boy who just like, bring it on. I have some things to share guys. Okay. Share. Share them. I wanted to say this is the first appearance of the agents. So we have Agent Jones, Agent Brown, and Agent Smith.

9:42I never knew their names. Now you do. I remember in the sequels, Agent Brown, he's pretty much an agent. They're not in the sequels, man. Oh yeah, you're right. Of course. No. There's only one agent. They're not. They're the upgrade agents that are in the sequels. Oh man. In Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions, the bigger, stronger, and more fast agents are in the bigger, stronger. Stronger. The machines were coding all night. And they're like, I'm going to get these spots better. And I wanted to mention, I think we're going to try to do some of these as the movie goes on, but the actor for the lieutenant. Okay. We can talk about him. Also, we should mention that the lieutenant isn't a lieutenant. He has two gold bars on his sleeve.

10:26I mean, like the- So he's a prospector? Which, those two bars symbolize being a captain. A lieutenant has only one metal bar. What? What's Agent Smith doing? Is he like talking down at him? He's not even an upgrade yet. He's coding. His coding doesn't know how to read two golden bars. The software firmware update didn't happen recently. I'm a captain, not a lieutenant. No, lieutenant. You're a lieutenant. I demoted you right now. That would be funny. For that terrible pun about dictionaries. So the actor is Bill Young. He's an Australian actor. Eh? Eh? He started acting in 1976. And he directed a film called Roly Poly Man in 1994. No way. Have you seen that film?

11:07No, sir. Nope. I have not witnessed no Roly Poly Man. But in any case, what he's been doing lately is he plays small roles such as the mission control flight director in Superman Returns. Ooh. So, you know, take a- Gotta look out for him. Gotta look out for him. And then another policeman in The Great Gatsby. No way. And both of these are Australian productions. I think he's being typecast. Both of these are- Two cop roles. Yeah. Oh, do you ever- What is that guy's name? The- Dean Norris? I think he plays a cop in like 30 different movies. The guy, the- Don't know. The brother-in-law from Breaking Bad. Didn't watch Breaking Bad. Okay. Uh, he's a- Well, he's basically cop in everything. He- He's a- Always like the second in command cop.

11:49He was like in the- What is that movie called? The Fugitive? He's a cop there. All right. Look him up. He's like cop everywhere. All right. We'll look him up. And for like the last three years, he's been a cop. That's great. So the way Agent Smith turns in his close-up. Okay. And he goes, No, Lieutenant. Your men are already dead. I love it. I just like how it was edited and how he was- The pacing and everything. And I think that this is going to be a recurring thing where Agent always kind of turns with an over-the-shoulder shot. I'm not sure. I can't remember, but I think that's kind of like a- Like a theme going on. And also to notice that he has a little- Oh, yeah. Intercom phone. Yeah. Headphone. What is this called? We should flick that up. Mm-hmm. It's the water- Curly wire.

12:29Water tube. So it doesn't get dehydrated. I just wanted to mention two more things. And that is, at the end of the minute, is the shot with Trinity with her hands behind her head. And it's her- It's a close-up of her face. It's like one of the best shots. Just one of the side of her eye. And you're going to notice that the cop is in focus as well. Yeah. That is not something a regular lens will be able to do. And so- You have two lenses pointing at one thing. I was thinking, could it be a split diopter lens? I don't know. Or a tilt shift? Mm. Do you guys know- No, a tilt shift wouldn't- Do you guys know what a split diopter lens is? No, tell us. Well, it's a lens that was popular in the 70s and 80s.

13:12It's primarily been used by Brian De Palma in many of his films. Sounds familiar. He's one of the friends of- He's one of the film brats from the 1960s that came out in the 70s with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. Out of USC? Yeah. Or UCLA. Yeah, I'm trying to think of the two schools. He directed movies like Carrie and Scarface and in this case I wanted to mention that he was using this split diopter in a movie called Blowout which he used it extensively. And also the split diopter lens is used in Jaws and Close Encounters. So basically what happens is the lens is literally split in half where one is-

13:54Vertically? Yes. Vertically. Oh. You can do horizontally but it's mostly vertically. You just switch, you know, roll it. Yeah. Whatever. Yeah. So you can focus on one thing in the close-up and one thing in the backdrop. So both are in focus. No way. But there's always this little seam that you can see that's blurry. So that's a split diopter. And I thought that might be the case with Trinity's shot here. Or it could be a really big zoom lens. Or they could have, you know, went to the future and bought the Lytro camera. Oh yes, yes. I love those. This is great. In post, changing the focus. But another thing about that shot- Or it could be a mirror. Another thing about that shot is that we're, like, again, it's another close-up on Trinity.

14:35So we kind of, you know, relate to her as a character. See, those are the cues that I knew she was a good guy. Yes, those are signals that you didn't notice it. Once your brain did. Yeah. And you get stuff like that. Phil was starting to get worried. Where is it going? Okay, so the last thing is- And it's such a comic book frame as well. Oh, that's a good point. I just wanted to say, that's a very comic book composition. And the last thing I want to say is that in the last episode I messed up and I read the stamp wrong on the wall. It's actually city boarding. You know, boarding houses? Yeah, yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. So anyway, she karate chops the guy's forearm at the end.

15:15Ah! Also bops him on the nose. That's going to be a screenshot. But in the script, it's a little different. If you want to hear- Yeah, let's hear this. Give us the script. So this is the original- Give us the tidbits. This is the original script. Or one of the original drafts. Just put your mouth- Okay, here we go. Ready? Interior Chase Hotel. It used to be called Chase Hotel. Now it's not. The big cop flicks out his cuffs. The other cop's holding a bead. They know they've got her. Until the big cop reaches with the cuff and Trinity moves. It almost doesn't register. So smooth and fast. Inhumanly fast. The eye blinks and Trinity's palm snaps up and the nose explodes. Blood erupting.

15:55The cop is dead before he begins to fall. Wow. And Trinity is moving again. Seizing a wrist. Misdirecting a gun. As a startled cop fires. A head explodes. In blind panic. Another airs his gun. The barrel. A fixed black hole. And fires. Trinity twists out of the way. The bullet missing as she reverses into a roundhouse kick. Knocking the gun away. The cops begin to scream when a jump kick crushes his windpipe. Killing the scream as he falls to the ground. She looks down at the four bodies. That was brutal. Tim, it started like Total Recall.

16:36Did you see? They wanted to do Total Recall. You know what's funny? That's actually not surprising that they were so violent. Because I remember, you know those, I think some of the concept artists who worked on... Jeff Darrow. Is it Jeff Darrow? Mm-hmm. Didn't he do kind of like brutal scenarios? Very detailed. Very detailed. Even like heads exploding and stuff like that. Yeah. Well, all this stuff in the Animatrix is pretty brutal. I was going to say Animatrix, he has a perfect example that is brutality. Yeah. I think that's like more of the... So I think that's kind of maybe not surprising that that's sort of in their repertoire of tools. So that's about it. That's the minute. And we'll catch you on the next minute. Oh wait, I'm Phil.

17:17I don't think we have to do that for the end. Twitter. Phil. Phil Twitter. Phil. At Phil Dragush. That's my Twitter. I'm at Jake Dragush. I'm at Timo Meerski. Twitter. Tim. Titter? Why not? Why not? Follow us on Titterbit. That's a different site. That's a dating site. Yeah. Could you tell me again, like don't you want Instagram? Uh, let's see. I don't know. No? Sure. Yeah. I'll do Instagram. It's much better. So follow me and Phil on Twitter, but Tim on Instagram. Follow me on... No, no. That's stupid. Just do Twitter. Follow me. Twitter is the official social network platform for official things.

17:58Here's the conundrum, right? I have Twitter, but I don't post there much. Go post. But, okay. I'll post. I'll post things. Post your Instagram photos on Twitter. Oh, yeah. Just spam everywhere. Spam it. All right, guys. We'll see you on the next episode. Okay, bye. Bye.