Minute 37: “You believe it’s the year 1999…”

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, because this movie is wonderful. Hi, I am Phil, and the Matrix was officially in development for 14 months before it was greenlit. Aloha, I am Jake. Is that how you use aloha? Aloha! Okay. Stitch. Oh, that's it? Okay, and I'm Tim. Yes, that's it. And, let's see, my piece of trivia is that, did you guys know that the Wachowskis had the wake-up song from Rage Against the Machine in their plan as the credit scenes since 1993 when it was released? That's insane! That's crazy.

0:40Crazy. Ten years. Way before 1996 script. Wow. And with us, once again, is our wonderful older cousin, who showed us the light, as it were. Stan. Hello. Welcome back, sir. Welcome back, sir. Welcome back to Wednesday. Oh, thank you very much. Ooh, Wednesday. Thank you very much. Lovely to have you. As the Serbs would say, it's good to find you. Ah. Yes. Ah, just literal translation. It's silly. Literal translations are very strange, indeed. By the way, Slovenian language sounds so weird. It's like, everything you know, but then it just completely messes up. It's like, oh, dober dan, dober dan.

1:23Oh, lebi dan, njovir dan. And you're like, what? What? What are you doing? What's going on? Most of the people listening to this won't even know what, like, Croatian or Serbian actually is, so it's all alien to them. And then they say, like, Czech words. Like, you're picking now, languages. What is happening? This is crazy. Maybe they like it like that. Okay. Well, welcome to Minute 37. What was it amazing that you found on the radio in Slovenia when you were on vacation there? It was like, what was it? Like, something with a Z. It was amazing. What? I can't remember. Forget it. Forget it. What a horrible digression. Let's keep going. It doesn't matter. It's all we do. Hey, Minute 37. Welcome. Minute 37. Let's hear it. We're back with Stan. And what happens in Minute 37 is, Neo wakes up once more, finding himself alone in a submarine-like room.

2:08He takes out a needle from his wrist and notices an odd plug in the back of his head. Morpheus comes in and Neo quickly asks what is happening to him. To which he replies, more important than what is when. You believe it's the year 1999, when in fact it's closer to 2199. Dun, dun, dun! Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun

2:57um i feel revealed to go first oh bollocks what you feel relieved yeah relief i said revealed well technically well it's a lot nicer that's true changing the clothes yeah i mean it's a lot more comfortable yeah it used to be let's ask our guest huh we got a guest we do i guess i don't think that he's he's concerned about the clothing it's more like again he's waking up from not being aware of where he is again oh i'm at the ship i'm not you know in my old life that's right that's right and there's still a wire in me okay he figures out how to pull out but it's kind of a gradual disconnection to me that sounds like it you know it was getting out of the pod and everything and

3:41there's still things that are hooked onto him and yeah the moment then later he's not quite there yet in terms of being fully that's the feel yeah the funny thing that we discovered stan is watching this minute by minute and sort of analyzing it to hell is that neil the way he sees the world and the way he takes his actions is completely rudimentary he does not think about anything philosophically it's basically yes or no i'll do it or i won't do it you see this man he sees a needle he pulls it out yeah that's who he is there's something on the back of his head he touches it and you think like oh he's probably thinking about oh what does this mean how is reality connected how

4:23do those machines work i'm pretty sure he's not thinking about anything he's like what is it's funny tim you know i must take it out that's kind of what i mentioned that because i remember earlier in during the scene with Morpheus and Neo at the sofas remember Neo said he doesn't like the feeling of not being control having control in his life right and so i think you know that's that's Neo's whole problem in life he's just not satisfied with the fact that he doesn't know what to do essentially yeah every time you hear any sort of philosophical or kind of a higher thought it's always coming from Morpheus never coming from Neo which kind of parallels with you know if you think about revolutions and revolutionaries you always have the smart figure the one who's you know

5:03the pull the strings yeah which could be Morpheus and yeah the the the zeal kind of guy and then you have the person who actually does things you know you're you're stalin you're whoever a revolutionary is who's a man of action who sees the world in black and white and that's pretty much Neo he just he just goes with it you know yeah that doesn't really think about it it's it's really it's i you were asking like how do you feel and i'm just thinking like how does Neo feel and he just looks at him he's just like yep let's deal with this that's Neo's character but it's also on a filmmaking standpoint he is the cipher of the audience again as i will probably say many many hundreds of times throughout this entire show but yeah it's true like like this movie is driven by the it's weird to say

5:46but like the exposition in the world that you're discovering with the main character and so it's great that Neo is a blank slate in a way that you can uh imprint your own um uh your own thoughts onto it right yeah uh we can look at the at the room here and uh that wonderful little pillow pattern it's very cute it's got a nice little it's like a little sailor yeah yeah vibe i mean everything looks like a like inside a submarine obviously and then what i wanted to mention is if you're looking at the uh at the wide shot when Neo gets up out of uh like he just sits up is that a phone there right on the right there what is that it is a phone it's a phone what's he doing gonna order pizza probably yeah that's how they connect to the matrix just hello the matrix yeah i think it's like well i guess

6:31the original room wasn't maybe a bedroom or something if it was like on a ship you have to have you know connection with the control room yeah indeed good point that is so good um here's an interesting thought it might be it could be a reuse of a submarine uh set you know and those phones were in like oh commander lower the torpedoes actually if the commander is sleeping in this room they would wake him up if oh that light next to him turning red you're the king of dreams Morpheus Morpheus i've been dreaming i've dreamed i woke up from the matrix but on the left side

7:12there's a dvd player i think yeah yeah let me see this i did not see this let me see the dvd player it is a dvd but you watch i don't know if it's a dvd it's a small screen probably running analytics of his you know well you know in in one of the matrix comics they talk about um there's a story where one of the uh people who are in Zion and they were uh scouring through like old places in in the real world that human beings used to live in and they discovered a lot of dvds oh yeah so that's part some saucy dvds when they had crazy island parties they're like they did it on the dvds we must dance like those 90s rap videos wouldn't that be sad do you have anything to add um in this moment i would

7:56ask everyone if there's any significance of Neo touching the plug behind his head because i think it's just he touched his plug while he was in the pod and he touches it again in this scene is that simply just a bit of a um visual parallel or is there something more to say by that definitely spooky you know like for the audience especially with the water phone coming in again our good friend i'm saying apart from that is there some significance to that because the Neo does that and there's quite a bit of emphasis on that for it's a great closer shot very underrated too last time he was sort of uh awake and coherent was in that pod and then when he touched in the back

8:36and there was like a giant tube that's what i'm saying so i guess with natural reaction would be oh is it still there yeah it's also yeah it's like a reassurance of is this the same place yeah the same oh that's what it is he's just checking to see if it's oh and also like was that a dream or is the the weird shit i saw real yeah you could be like oh no but then again he saw the plug in his arm so i know but it's just one of those things you know yeah it's a small it's a great hitchcock moment as well i mean the music scares you you know the moment because the the door opens exactly the moment when he touches it yes it has that kind of you know nothing's going on but you could just get scared because you don't know what's going to happen exactly there's a great scene in this movie

9:18called castle the baron's apsum where we basically completely ripped that scene off did we now like when i touch the scar and it's like oh yeah wow i didn't even think and there's a water phone there as well it goes uh for anyone who doesn't know that's one of our movies that we made in 2007 uh it's a sequel to one of our wonderful uh series is that uh we made when we were kids and it's a horror comedy kind of thing so there you go and it sucks but anyway well no one's going to watch it no one will watch it um uh then uh so Morpheus comes in and there's this uh shot bit of a wide shot where you can see Morpheus and you can see i just wanted to mention more things in Neo's room and i was just noticing that there was um uh a little desk a little teapot you can have a little bit of tea

10:01there and there's a blue towel and a wonderful blue flask there's a there's a my goodness you're right there's a flask there's an airbnb yeah the nebican is full of surprises yeah now i just wanted to say when Morpheus comes in what is he wearing first of all he was wearing a tank top with the with long suit shirt he wants to feel adventurous he looks like a jedi now he's has that wonderful samurai like robinson crusoe yeah etc etc what is in that but what is that thing on his belt that's what i want to know pouch for what it never comes back it's just there it looks like it's a pouch for a knife you would expect like a robin hoodie uh thing and i noticed that yesterday when

10:42i was watching i was wondering like what's going on there is it like a money pouch does he did he went to the shop yes there's currency in the real world he went to the cobblers to fix is it like a pipe does he have a pipe and some tobacco in there he's like gandalf oh that'd be cool oh man Morpheus with a pipe that'd be cool i'd like to see that dude i'm gonna look up Morpheus i'm gonna put this in google Morpheus's red pouch someone's gonna talk about that and then there's one little detail uh on the top uh left uh left of Morpheus um there's this little uh washed out red flap of some

11:22kind of uh kind and it looks like there's two white eyes on it and to me just looks like spider-man spider-man shout out to spider-man minute that's all i wanted to say nice nice okay the last thing i would add i want to say one other thing is Morpheus is explaining with two fingers up i don't know why well what is that a thing is that well i don't know you know in disney orthodox serbian like i don't know it's a thing in our family and it's a very funny story so my youngest one right when he was a really little boy we told him don't point your finger when you want to show to something you know it's it's rude that's what they do in uh walt disney world as well you

12:03know like don't point your finger so you know what he did it started pointing with two fingers it's just like it's not one finger and still doesn't it is like amazing so are you the father of Morpheus yeah yeah yeah he taught him the same way that's amazing well yeah Morpheus's dad probably told him don't don't point it's rude yeah can't find anything on Morpheus's red car chair and so the only thing that happens at the end of this minute pretty much is him delivering the the bomb of uh you think it's 1999 but it's closer to 2199 that always especially when Neo says um you know what is this place what's happening to me yeah and so when my favorite uh when i first saw this um when he first

12:49said that the uh 2199 that was pretty shocking yeah yeah i remember when uh stan was with us and we're watching and he's like oh do you hear that 2199 it's so far away yeah really i said that yeah i think i'm more impressed now with the with the way how he delivers more important where is when yes again another philosophical thing like of time space continuum you know yeah is it what's more important you know like even in your life right oh there we go time is of the essence it's a really nice opener you know like a feels a good question to put yourself as well you know but i think that's

13:29that's what's great about this first matrix movie compared to the other ones is phil mentioned that you know it was like their dream project they worked on in 10 years and they worked on these lines for years and years and always just making them you know more compact more better it's just so powerful because i remember when we watched it like you and i would walk down the street and just like recite all these lines which is funny because it because you know all these philosophical hints and stuff like that but i think for general audience like it might seem strange how Morpheus is talking because it's really weird because he's like every sentence he tries to put some kind of depth into it it's like it's like if you watch like you don't know like like when when they talk in uh like high science

14:11fiction it's really strange like this character just speaks in prophecies oh man that's all Morpheus does he's the exposition man yeah does he say anything like out of the character expo yeah and then that's where our minute ends i think and Neo's just flabbergasted throughout all this now the only thing we have left to do is play the jiggle jake oh is it back to 1996 going back to 1996 and in the 1996 draft um i have to say that um i can actually read it to you it's actually not too please indulge us so interior Neo's room Neo wakes up from a deep sleep feeling better he's wearing a

14:53black tank top and shorts black tank top and shorts he's ready to play with a sailor Morpheus's glasses on oh man i forgot about that yeah he he begins to examine himself there is a futuristic iv plugged into the jack of his forearm he pulls it out staring at the grafted outlet he feels his bald head his fingers find and explore the large outlet in the base of his skull just as he starts to come unglued Morpheus opens the door Morpheus what's what's happened to me what is this place more important than what is when and he goes when you believe it's the year 1997 when in fact it is much closer to 21 97 i can't say for certain what year it is because we honestly don't know and the wind is

15:38not from Neo's chest and he goes that's not possible and Morpheus says i promised you the truth Neo and the truth is that the world you are living in was a lie and he goes how and Morpheus says i'll show you yeah see Morpheus is more direct here he kind of yeah extends you can tell like you can tell with the development of yeah with the development of the dialogue that they were it was less is more later yes but before it's like explain everything that's that's that's how it feels like when you are writing something and you notice a lot of things that don't have to even be explained exactly but this is what's what's funny about it but like it's interesting to know that this is a 1996 script and it says 1997 so they were expecting it maybe to be done by then but uh there is there was a point

16:19in the production where uh when they were developing it and they were doing the storyboards uh warner brothers was not into it and they kind of stopped the development of the movie for a couple of months that's kind of scary yeah and everybody thought it was good they're not going to do it it's not going to happen until they came back with um either i can't remember if it was either just showing more storyboards and you know doing that or uh maybe filming that one thing i'm not sure no i think it's just the opening the concept art yeah so that's cool stuff so sweet there you go so was joe silver the producer from stuff from the start or just later yes yes he he was because um that joe silver was one of the first people they actually showed the script to way back when they were doing when

17:00they were doing assassins which was the antonio banderas movie i think it was they wrote that they wrote that yeah they wrote the script for that and they got they got it sold off and then they had communication with like joe silver was producing that and then they were able to show it to him and he was okay he actually helped that a lot so i was just wondering yeah how much influence he had on the final product as far as getting it tight and making it kind of accessible to me it seems like he was there all the way through wonderful man cool all praises to joe silver and his great logo by the way i have to say silver pictures logo top notch creamy silver yes beautiful no it's a senator i have not seen it what i would like to add something okay that uh we've spoken on an early episode when uh

17:46Neo gets unplugged we're wondering what the little many plugs on his body are used for now they may be used for other things but definitely the one with his arms is used like a traditional um what is that word in english you know when you're sick and they give you those foods to your blood intravenous yeah so that's basically they were pumping the food into his blood but i don't know why you need many of them around his body though well i mean like the whole point in the final movie they the humans are supposed to be batteries there's be power they're take they're just taking oh i guess so they suck the power excellent well thank you for listening to episode 38 was it yeah this is 36 i'm an idiot no it's 37 man we get these things wrong everybody who's actually listening to this

18:30probably is looking at the at the title and going oh it's 37 these guys don't know anything um but yeah professionals i mean that that's what happens when you're stuck in a matrix of your own podcast you can't see outside the good news is stan is here still all week stan is here amazing thank you very much sir uh in a couple of days we can still uh kick it them yeah yeah we'll catch you on the flip side thank you for listening so much and uh oh yeah stan we stole your show what what hold on we got it we got a beg okay oh we got a little bit of begging the matrix minute dot one uh facebook let me double check yes uh twitter at the matrix minute correct all one word um what

19:11was it facebook the matrix minute it's all the matrix minute just matrix ask at the matrix minute dot one yeah that's right we haven't had well had one email so far thankfully and we have some new reviews on itunes so happy yes thank you so much for the itunes review those are awesome to read and of course last but not least go to stan's podcast which is the podcast and it's all about craft beers and i'm making this giant list of all the beers they recommend with with uh co-hosts ben and ian ian that's right that's who he was no but it goes ben and ian both very charming to listen to and so is stan obviously because you're listening to him right now there we go they're equally good voices

19:53unless you take that survey to answer the stupid question oh yeah by the way we stole the survey thing we have a survey of our own we did ask mean questions actually we're on type form you can go and find us on twitter or we can put the feedback link in this episode again but yes yes but yeah go to the podcast exactly please go to that oh yeah by the way if you love beer that's true even if you don't oh yeah whatever i don't know yeah shut up tim we're done it's okay we have a bank the begging is over goodbye and have a great day see ya week etc bye bye bye you