Minute 58: “But where they have failed, you will succeed.”

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. I am Vil, and this is a minute podcast where we talk about the Matrix one minute at a time. Because we love this film. Hello, it's Wednesday. Spooky, spooky Wednesday. Oh, it's the end of the month. What's up, Jacob? I'm just seeing when this comes out. Spooky, scary skeleton. Welcome. We already discussed the Matrix. So this is, guys, yesterday was Halloween. This is post-Halloween. Oh, poop. Poop? Really? Yep, we missed our chance last week, last Monday.

0:42Not this Monday. Well, no, it's Monday isn't Halloween. No, Tuesday is Halloween, which was yesterday. Today, Wednesday, November 1st. Yeah. When this is airing. This is the ghost day, isn't it? Sure, it's the ghost day. Welcome to the spooky post-November 1st. I don't know. You mean, oh, you mean, yeah, it's All Hallows Day. Hallows Eve? No, Hallows Eve is Halloween. Halloween, yeah. Yeah, Hallows Day. When the Catholics bring little lights to the... Yeah, All Saints Day. All Saints Day, there you go. Yeah, it's wonderfully illustrated in the Fantasia film. Oh, yeah. Oh, really? That's a good piece. I love it, Asia. There you go. It was really amazing watching it, like...

1:22I'll call it Ghost Day. On a big screen and everything. Ghost Day. We'll call it Dushy, which is like, you know, a smaller... What is it? Dushy. It's translated. Because Dusha is Soul. So, Soul-y Day. But Little Soul. Oh. Little Soul-ite. Soul-ite. Little Soul-ites Day. Soul Zero. Soul-ite. Soul-stice. No, that's something else. Welcome, everyone, to the Soul-ite Day on the Matrix Minute. My name is Jake. That was Phil. That was me. And this is... Speaking now. Oh, this is Jacob speaking. Well, David. But now it is Tim. Speak now. There we go. And our special guest. A ghost. A ghost. There are many ghosts. Welcome back. So, let's go back to see what's going on in this minute.

2:06And that's minute 58. Of the Matrix. So, you want to know what happens? This is what happens. Oh, absolutely. Tell us, Phil. Morpheus continues talking about agents. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone and they are no one. Neo is told that Morpheus believes he will be faster and stronger than these agents. Neo retorts, what are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge blitz? Morpheus grins. No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to. I just wanted to go on record by saying that I had trivia today. And this trivia was that the whole training program scene, this whole scene, wasn't storyboarded at all. Boo. Oh. Just freehand? Yeah. They did all the storyboards just to show how much they would have to pay for the visual

2:48effects budget and stunt work and stuff. All that stuff. So stuff like this, they didn't have to board. That's actually really interesting because how did they plan it out? They just kind of get coverage? Yeah. Just do some... Just do it on the day. Seriously. Like, just do it on the day. Because usually what happens is even if you have storyboards, people have a general idea of what to do, but you still have to direct and people still have to put stuff on and set stuff up and you can always change it while you're there. Yeah. A lot of times storyboards don't even work. You know, you kind of have a specific mind and you just can't pull off whatever was drawn in that, you know, reality on the paper. It's just not possible to do it. The reality of the boards do not reflect the reality of the Matrix. So in this minute, Morpheus is telling Neo even more things about the abilities of the

3:31One and he's just telling Neo that he will have the abilities of the One. Right. But it's so funny how Morpheus said sooner or later, someone's going to have to fight them. Like, Morpheus. He's not... You manipulator. Yeah. He doesn't say you have to fight him. He just says someone and, you know, obviously Neo... Not just that, but have to fight them. Why? Yeah. Hmm. That is a good question. Why? Well, he's talking about some gatekeepers and some access codes to Matrix. And they're holding all the doors. Which isn't necessarily truth because I don't think they're guarding anything. I mean, what would you... I guess... That's what I always wanted to know.

4:12When I was a kid and watching this, I was thinking like, what... What are they hiding? What are you hiding? What do you mean? What would you got in those pockets, Agent Smith? Yeah. Like, it sounds interesting. Like, something interesting is happening there. I don't know. In the sequels, there's like a key maker and a gate. But that's different. That's completely different. I wouldn't want to go into that now. But I think... But if we think about that, maybe that's how... If you... Like, what is he talking about? Is he talking metaphorically? You have to like get through them to have both. I think freedom. Or is he just talking... They're guarding the doors. I think that all he's alluding to is that they are... We have to keep those doors open, Neo. They are, you know, the secret police.

4:53The church of the open door cannot have these locked doors. Because they are the systems of control in place of the matrix to keep things in order. That's what I think he's saying. And he's saying that you're limited in the matrix because these agents are going to get you. And they're going to keep everything tight. And you... Basically, he's saying that there's not much freedom in the matrix if you're trying to go against the system. That's my reading of what he's talking about. So maybe metaphorical, maybe not. But either way, these agents are clearly a force that's keeping everything in check. Ooh, scary, scary. We kind of got to know who Morpheus is, you know. Right.

5:33Watching this minute by minute. So I think in his specific situation, he has a task. He wants to free people of the matrix. I prefer his Atlantic situation. Yeah, exactly. His Pacific. He wants to free everyone. But he's very limited to what he can do in the matrix. Because every time he does something, he's discovered by the agents. And, you know, he doesn't get away with it. It's been... Whatever he's building, it's destroyed by the agents. And he doesn't know how to solve it. Like Tim in Minecraft, whenever I start building. Exactly. Tim hunts me down. I just come and ruin it. Shoots me down like a dog. So I think in his sort of... I don't want to say narrow kind of mind. But he wants to do something. But he doesn't even know how to get there.

6:14Because agents are destroyed. And so I think to him, what the one means is the one who can defeat the agents. Ah, it's a great freedom. And then afterwards, he doesn't know what to do. How does he free all the matrix people? But he doesn't even get to that point because of the agents. So here... Right. Ah, man. Yeah. That's why maybe he's so... He's so... Not desperate, but he's very determined in finding the one. And in preparing the one. Because he will defeat the agents. And then he can do whatever needs to be done. Yeah, absolutely. That's a really good, well-explained thing. I actually didn't think of that. That's pretty cool. I like how quiet this scene is, by the way. It's really nice. It's like... Oh, yeah. That construct sound again. It's like...

6:54But there's no moving camera. It's all stationary. And there's another thing about this. Like those backgrounds. Like the zoom shots of the close-ups of Neo and Morpheus. Especially like when you see the cutaway of Morpheus in two different takes. Did you see that? Did you guys notice that? Yep. But yeah, we did the cuts to a different... Like a different angle on Morpheus. And it's a bit more greener as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what that is. It could be a reshoot or it could be... Yeah. Something else. And we noticed... We didn't talk about this, but I wanted to talk about this. Another specific Morpheus shot when he's way back in the red pill, blue pill scene. He's talking about... I can't remember what he's talking about.

7:35But there's like a cutaway with Neo. And then it cuts back to Morpheus and it's a completely different like pose. But you never notice those things. But then you do. I'll link that to you. Yeah. I love that one. And there's a really good one that once you see it, you'll never unsee it. And it's again in Lord of the Rings. We're making Lord of the Rings sidetracks here. But when Gandalf goes to Denethor and he's talking about where are gone those armies and stuff like that. It cuts from really good looking Gandalf back to Denethor. And Denethor looks up at Gandalf and then it's completely different. Gandalf looks terrible. But you never notice it until you notice it. And then it's never going to leave.

8:17It's like one of those was a reshoot. One of them was in production. And one of them was horrible. I think you can get away with that with good sound editing. That's like the key. If, you know, if like you have to have good continuity of like movement of editing. Definitely if it doesn't like become too jarring. But a lot of times that gets really noticeable with like amateur kind of video where the sound is like completely off. And you can actually hear the sound of the cut. You know, different noise. Or, you know, when they cut on the sentences, which is like the worst kind of scenario that amateur film may be making. I hate this. And you know what? I have vowed now in the future we will make a completely good sound track because I've learned my lesson.

9:04But it's funny that cutting not on the end of sentences makes so much different. Like remember that little short movie I did with my nieces and my nephew? Which one? Oh, the dragon one. Right. And that's shot. Things that our audience will not know. No, yeah, you won't see that. But I mean, just to give you details, it's shot on an iPod touch. The sound is just from the iPod touch. I mean, it looks terrible. You know, they're kids. They're not acting the best. They're acting pretty good. But, you know, it's still. And all I had, I edited it. Do you hear that, Stan? Your kids aren't acting well. That's not what I meant. They're not born actors.

9:44Just let them quit. Quit them now. Quit them. There were seven. But anyway, it's their movie. But I recut it. So every, like I would always just cut between like, you know, sentences. So it kind of like they finish off the sentence off the camera. It makes so much more difference for the continuity and of the flow of the shot. It's hilarious. Like you can get away with anything. That's awesome. That's a classic movie. It's just like the human's brain just like. Yeah. Just like sucks it in and just takes it as reality. As long as the shots are somehow like. For some rights. Connected with the sound. Stupid reason. Because I was going to say earlier. I used to, when we used to edit stuff when we were kids, I used to think, no, it's the authentic sound from the microphone.

10:24Why would you want to change that? The authentic sound. No. The authentic noise and the little action at the beginning. Shen. Shen. That's what we hear all the time. Shen and O. O. Which is supposed to be go. So, no one say was that what I always think is as well that when the story is compelling enough and captivating, I think that's also one of the main aspects. It makes you glued to the screen. Even if there are discrepancies, I think you're not going to notice them as much if you're paying attention to the story, which typically I would put like on the pyramid. That's like the top. That's the top. But like you said, Tim. Or in the bottom, if you're talking about a food pyramid. Right. At least the old one. Yeah. That is true. That's true. Yeah. That's true. The bread and the wheat. That's been labeled as false.

11:07Oh, yeah. It's been labeled. False. Yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah. That's right. The food pyramid is actually vertical. Yeah, now it's vertical. I remember learning. Yeah. Whatever that means. But like it's the funny, if you see, you know, a movie being nitpicked, it usually gets bad. Like I find myself nitpicking a movie if I didn't enjoy it, you know. If I enjoy the movie, I don't even think about the mistakes. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. It's like if you get, you know, in it, then it doesn't matter. Whatever. Whatever. So Neo's hair in this scene is a little more casual, wavy. I think some wind got in his hair and his gel kind of gave it a little more poof. And not only that, but Neo's... He's got a general, yeah, attitude is sort of playful again, isn't it? He's being a little skeptical here.

11:49He's like... That's true. Again, it's another nice thing in the first Matrix is that we were talking about last week, we were talking about how Neo, like you said, Tim, is a little more loose. Yeah. And he's, again, in this sequence, he's not being this stoic, serious questioner of things. He's kind of looking, kind of, you know... Yeah, but he does go like... Seeing what the situation is. What are you saying? Why? Yeah, I know. He still does that. What are you saying? I can dodge. The way he does it is not so, you know, boring. Yeah. There's definitely a sort of hint of a character showing up finally that was maybe there, you know, at the beginning when he's like... Giving him the finger.

12:30Giving him the finger. This is sort of playful character. That's the thing we're seeing here. And I guess every time, you know, he has something to... I think every time he understands and has something to fight for, I think, not to fight against, I think his instincts are to kind of rebel. I think he's a natural rebel. Even now to Morpheus, he's like, okay, I understand what you're saying. And you're kind of hinting at me being this great, irresponsible, you know, important person. And he's already, he's got that, you know, sort of a little bit of fuck you vibe. Yeah. Right. But the funny thing is... Favorite album is Richness Machine. Oh, that's right. Yeah. He's listening to Killing in the Name, which is in the background. Though I still think that with Neo, there's definitely this innocence in his character,

13:10which is, I would not necessarily equate to being that big of a rebel in the sense that he, you know, you can tell these kind of, a lot of the time in the movie, he's sort of lost. You know, he's not really sure exactly what to do. That's my take, at least. I have to say, Keanu is acting in this scene where he's like, what are you saying that I can dodge? Blitz. I love how he says, Blitz. Blitz. Blitz. His acting is pretty good. I have to say, like, everything that he's reacting to and acting to is great. And we have Morpheus' close-up. Do you want to mention how this is the shot that became the meme, the what if I told you... Oh, yeah. That's wrong.

13:51The quote is wrong, right? Yes. It doesn't match the image. I'm totally wrong. This is not, obviously, what it's supposed to be. The what if I told you meme picture, the accurate one is the one in Matrix Reloaded, where he's talking about, what if I told you the war could be over? And stuff like that. I'm not familiar with this meme. I'm looking it up right now. I've seen it. I've seen it a hundred times. Oh, okay. I see. I see. It's the picture. Okay. In fact, I actually went on Reddit and put the accurate picture. What if I told you this is the accurate picture? No one cared. It's Reddit. No one cares, Philip. Yeah, I know. No one cares about the Matrix theme. You showed them the war, but they are not worthy. My church is very empty. You invited them to church and they're like, no.

14:33Morpheus' glasses. You see the reflection there with Neo standing there and then Neo with a gun flying in his head. I love that they continued the reflective character of his glasses that we were familiarized. Oh my goodness. Familiarized. I edited it. Familiarized. It's not even a word. Familiarized. Familiarized with during the red pill, blue pill scene. Yeah. Notice how there's no background though. That's what's always confusing me. Why is it confusing? I like it. It's black. There's no background. It's okay. It's dark. It's dark. The adjustment on the camera. Oh yeah. Yeah. I guess it's, it is.

15:13You see, light comes from outside and it gets reflected, but his glasses are only near light reflections. You know? Anything that's further than three meters away doesn't get reflected. It just, you know, kind of consumes the light and only affects near light. But here's the funny thing. Tim, you talked about wide angle lenses and, you know, short lenses being used. Yeah, it's completely opposite. Right now it is. But I guess it's just a general consensus. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I read it on internet. It could be bullshit. I read it and I thought, oh, this makes sense. Well, no, I, I. Because I always just imagine, you know, like the shots when they're coming out of the car or where, you know, they're waiting for, uh, from the guys to come back from the article.

15:56That's like a, or they're fighting as well. So it's a white, but honestly thinking about now, yeah, I don't think that makes sense. So I just want to scratch that trivia. No, but it's, but it's probably like generally, like on average, most of the real world stuff has long lenses. Yeah. Because I, I can, I can think of a lot of closeups in the real world where, and when it cuts back and forth, it cuts back and forth to closeup shots and zoomed in shots more than it does in the matrix. Yeah. Um, yeah. So you don't want to talk about that black background? Do you have anything to say about it? It is a bit strange to, to, to, I mean, I guess it would be, no, but the thing is that blurred background. So maybe they tried with the blurred background. Now. Background. It looked weird. I have another question.

16:37Do you think they filmed this on the, um, on the day or do you think they just green screened it? I don't know. No, this is, this is later. I mean, how could it get the black? I guess they could bring the black flag or whatever they're called. The black, the black, the black flag. The black, black, argh, argh, you pirate. What is that called? The black flag. Flag. It's a flag. The black thing. Is it a flag? I call it a flag. I think it's a flag. Flags and silks. Silks are the softies and the flags are the black flag. Also, if you look at the first black flag shot, there's some kind of broom or stick next to the gun and kneel. What is that? Something holding the flag.

17:17You see? Like, like, okay. So, so later on, there's, there's no, what is that? There's a gun, a stick and then Neo in the reflection. If you look at the first one. Well, that's talking about that. That's a symbolic, uh, element. That's a symbolic stick. Do you guys see it? Yeah, I see it. What is that? Probably just something on the set. It's probably our good friend, the C stand. Probably. The C stand, but he goes away. Look, you see the second shot? It's a different shot of Morpheus. Yeah. Then they realize we have a stick. Get rid of the stick. Get rid of the stick. And it was gone. Our good friend, the stick. I bet his best friend was the old man from the... Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, and introducing the stick.

18:00Okay. So Morpheus starts talking about, I've seen men punched through a concrete wall. Yes. Wall. Mall. Concrete mall. I said mall again. Men have emptied entire clips of them. Nothing but... Entire? Oh, shut up. So, Phil, tell us about the clips, because this is something that confused me and you and you and your kids. As a kid, I was confused. I thought when he said clips, I thought he meant punching them, right? Oh, no. I always thought it was a gun. No, it's guns. Yeah. It was the... What does clip emptying entire clips got to do with punching? I don't know. What's another word? His energy is boosted and he's clipping them. He's clipping them with his... If anyone is an expert in guns, I would love if you wouldn't mind writing in to explain

18:43what the difference between a clip and a magazine is, because I think they're synonymous, but I'm not sure. Okay, so I remember watching a video about this. Mm-hmm. But I think a clip... So, magazine is the right word to say it, right? That's the container that holds a bullet. Imagine a pistol. Yes, that's the container that holds... In the grip of the pistol, you load in the cartridge, basically, with the bullets. And that's what usually, in Army and anywhere in real life, it's what you kind of associate, right? Now, they use clip in movies, but that's inaccurate.

19:25The clip is basically, you know, like a bolt-action rifle from World War II? Okay. You don't have a magazine. You have this little hole, like, it usually fires like five bullets at a time. Oh. Oh, I see. Not bullets, five, yeah. Yeah, five. And so you don't load them all in manually, five of them, so it's held by a clip. I see, okay. And then you put that in, and you remember, I think it was like, it was specific in like, what was that movie called? Handing Me at the Gates, you know, the snipers? No. I did, you know, this, this, the enemy at the gates, the two snipers, the one Russian and one, uh, and Hellboy's in it and he's jumping and he dies.

20:05Hellboy? Ron Perlman. Oh, oh. Ron Perlman. I was like, when did they make this? This is like a cameo appearance? And this is, this is like a urban legend, but it was in the movie as well because, you know, movies love that. But it made a specific sound when you came to the clip, it kind of fired it out. It goes, you go, do, do, do, do, ping, and the clip would fly out. But the clip is outside. And the sniper is looking for the, listening to the clip and when the clip fired out, you know, they know it's like, it's safe to pull out their heads and shoot. I just think of clips as videos. So they're emptying entire clips when they're, when they're photographing him on an iPhone. So there's any pictures. But that's a clip. It just holds the bullet together. It's not an actual magazine. Isn't it also a clip like, um, could be like, you know, a Colt pistol?

20:47Couldn't there be a clip that holds? Oh yes, like a six. Six reloader where you just go, and you slide it on the bullets. Yes, that's a clip too. There's, they just hold them together. You just block them in there. So why is Marcus saying clips? He's saying magazines. Because it's movies. Come on. There's so many. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Imagine that. Man of empty an entire magazine. It's magazines. What does that mean? That makes you, like, if I watched this as a kid, I would think he's thinking about reading material. Yeah, like Playboy. But yeah, this is what Rob, um, no, what's his name? Rob, Rob Cohen, the director of- Schneider. The director of Fast and the Furious, Dragonheart, Mummy 3. Triple X. Wow. Dragon, the Bruce Lee story, Daylight. He directed- Dragonheart was pretty good though. Yeah.

21:27Dragonheart was not neat. Well, he also did Daylight. And it was filmed in Slovakia. That's right. It's species. We should do Dragonheart Minute after this. There you go. Yes. Oh, definitely. Tune in for Dragonheart Minute. Well, what I wanted to say is Rob Cohen said that always, uh, portray the legend, not the fact. Mm-hmm. When you're doing a movie. What do you think about that? It depends on the movie. I was going to say that too. You know, sometimes it's do, do, do the opposite is what makes the movie. Because this was, I remember saying this during the commentary with me and Jake, we watched the commentary from Mummy 3. And I'm not talking about that film. But, uh, the Great Wall, it was there. And, uh, the, the, the time, you know, BC, uh, was wrong.

22:07It, it, you know, like the Great Wall wasn't built in the form that we know it back then yet. But he said, we knew that was the case, but portray the legend, not the fact. I mean, here's just like, it depends. And I don't want to sound like a dick, but you know, a lot of filmmakers who are, I hate to say the word like mediocre, they always sort of like stick to these kind of boundaries and rules because it's familiar, you know, how to make a movie like that. And the audience is familiar with that kind of, you know, movie vibe of that sort of, you know, like these kind of rules. And anytime somebody kind of steps out and take, and, you know, tries to cleverly use

22:48reality into a movie, it kind of feels like fresh, you know, breath of fresh air. And I don't know. It's like, to me, it's funny. You hear that, Rob, if you're listening. Yeah. I mean, I just, I didn't want to poop on you, Rob. I mean, you're a great filmmaker. I love Dragonheart. And there's obvious. 20 years ago. Yeah. But it's, it's that, it's that post-Spilbergian, like, I don't know. Like, I remember watching an interview with our good friend, Moho. Oh, um, Orson. George Orwell. Orson Orwell. George Orson. Orson Welles. Yeah. And I remember an interview with him with, we'd kind of like that, you know, people always say that Hollywood and Hollywood producers are crazy about money. And that's why a lot of movies are shit because these people are really, um,

23:33you know, just may want to make sure that the movie makes money and everything. And him, you know, to ask that question, if that's the case. And he said, no, that's like, that's actually fine. Those people he can deal with. But what modern producers up until from like 70s and everything of these movies, they're obsessed with having these, this grandeur, this of like, no, we, we are here. We're important. We are movie makers of Hollywood because we give people hope. And we be, and we bring goodness in life. And, and we, we value love above all. And, and that's why big Hollywood movies are not realistic. They're not, you know, you know what I mean? I get it. But they're very noble in that term. And that's why they're, they're annoying because they always try to like change whatever

24:14your point of view is or change your idea of movie to make it whatever there is because they find it important. And they're like, that's their, that's your call. Like just specific, a movie should about be about this, this whatever, you know, they're there. And that, that's, that's, that's the worst ones because you don't have really creative freedom to go with your movie. I've gone into a completely crazy tangent right here. This is not just the Matrix. I'm sorry. I apologize. I'll shut up. I have one more thing to say. It's okay. So, so Morpheus says, yet their strength and their speed are all based on a world that has been built on rules. And because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be. And then Neo goes, why? But Morpheus never answers. Ah, that is true. He doesn't answer. What does he say? He just goes, I've seen men punch poop.

24:57Sure. But then he says, what are you saying? That I can dodge bullets? And then he says, no, you know, when you're ready, you won't have to. And I have to say, I remember watching that for the first time and my dad was like, wow. Really? Wow. When he said, you won't have to. It is a pretty cool line. And the way he says it shakes his head. But still, he's never answered that. It's Morpheus secretly manipulating him to do these things. Just to show you, he has no idea. He has no idea what is behind the door. He never walked through it. That is true. He has not. Himself. And then we do go behind the door and Matrix Reloaded and it becomes a huge disappointment on purpose. Yes, it does. It's just like. Man, we'll have a great podcast for that one.

25:38That'll be fun. Yeah. We'll do a special. And that's it. We'll do a special. That's our minute today. I think that covers it for today. Awesome. I'm glad to see Neo's cheeky Neo aspect come out. It's good. Cheeky Neo is the best Neo. Thank you for listening. Why are you so sad? Thank you for listening. Hear the word he said. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you for listening. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I think it's my position I'm sitting in. Thanks, everyone, for listening. And do you guys have any final words? Send us an email and questions and comments and we'll read them. You know? Yes. My rants made Jacob sad. I'm sorry, Jacob.

26:18It didn't make me sad. I don't know. What are you talking about? Okay. Your rant was a good rant. I liked your rant. I loved your rant. It was great. I liked it because it's something I didn't know before. Do you rant rant before? And you taught me something new. I know. Me too. I didn't know this. So thank you for that. Also, you guys noticed that I did not talk about the 1996 script. Philip, what's going on? Nothing? Is there nothing? This scene is completely not in the 1996 script. What? Yeah, it's not. What is in like, how did you explain the handsome Agent Smith? It's later. Are we going to get to the next episode? No, not the next episode. It's going to be like in December. Quick, just a little juicy preview. Do we have anything for Friday? Come on, something, something.

26:59Okay. Give me a second. Do you think we'll have something for Friday? Yes, we will. Okay, perfect. I'm ready. Wednesday, people are dying. They need to look forward. So everyone, Friday, Phil has promised us 96 goodness. Okay. Yes. Get ready for the theme song. Cool. Well, I'll see you later then. See you Friday, everyone. Bye. Have a nice, all-sainty day, or whatever it's called. Bye. Bye. Thank you.