Minute 60: “EMP armed and ready.”

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 again to the Matrix Minute, a podcast where me and Jake and Tim discuss the Matrix. Welcome again, it's another wonderful Monday, and we're here to wake you up. Wake up on Monday, and guess what? This is my trivia today. My trivia is we're 60 minutes into the film, because this is episode 60, guys. Can you believe it? I can believe many things. Also, I have to say and apologize that we're still in a very bad situation as far as sound goes. I hate it, but... It's all right. Philip, just don't mention it. All right, well, without further ado... What about Awesome Blender with the 1996 script? How about that? That was a great blender. I hope we re-George Lucas-ed it.

0:41No. No, it's all blended. Okay, the mystery's revealed. The way we do it is we just put it in post. Like, who knew? We didn't have a live performance. Nope. Nope. It's blended. The jingle is not real. So are the sponges ordered? What? The wall sponges. Not yet. I didn't have time. I was in England this entire time. Oh, yes. Yes, you were far away. I was a father-way man. Hey, everybody. How's it going? How's it going? Okay, so, we're back, and it's a new week. Did you already mention your trivia, Philip? Yeah, and we have a great episode for you. Not only is it episode 60, but it's also the episode with Morpheus' best friend. Welcome back, everyone, to the Matrix Minute. We're glad to have you.

1:23Yeah, that was Jake and Phil and then Tim. Yes, that's correct. Oh, yeah, I forgot we do that. And we're again left without a guest. Yeah, we're alone. We're a bit rusty in this. Yeah, we gotta get some more guests. We gotta get some more guests, and I'm not in a position where I'm happy about sitting down and being comfortable. It's okay, Philip. Philip, you keep revealing these secrets. I have a tent over my head. One of the things that's a podcast where Phil complains about audio quality, not being situated, not being comfortable. Well, I'm sorry. I just have to tell everybody that... Meet me, meet me, a Prince Phil. I'm in my tent of amazingness. Yes. All right, all right. I'm the king of the tents. I feel a princely ways. All right, well, anyway, halfway... No, well... Seventy will be the half way.

2:03And I also can't talk well today, so you're having a great week. Again, we're back to princely Phil talking about... Yeah, I can't talk well. I can't do this. This tent is not royal enough for me. I want a golden blanket on my head. It's not about me. It's about the audience and quality assurance. Philip, how about we just do our best, and that's all we can do? No complaining. Okay, okay, okay. Okay, it's hard for my princely ways. I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth. Well, there is no silver spoon in my mouth. You probably have a golden spoon. Yes. No, it doesn't exist. I refuse. That's where we are in the Matrix. You get it? You get it? Yes, yes, I do. Okay, okay. Yes. Well, welcome... Tell us what we have for this minute. I'll tell you. I'll tell you.

2:43Any updates? With joy and glee, because today is a great, great episode. It changes a lot of things. As the Neb is shut down in preparation for the oncoming machine threat, Tank is ready to use the EMP if necessary. Morpheus puts on his beret. Trinity explains to Neo about the sewers and subway systems they're hiding in, and they wait for the sentinel. It shows up and looks directly at them, and that's how it stops. It's just this sentinel going whoosh, and it cuts. And that's our minute today. That's a crazy minute. This sentinel. Did you see that beret? What a beret. Alrighty, so, squid time. Squiddy, squiddy, squiddy. So everybody, I just wanted to mention that before we talk about this minute, we have

3:26to talk about a minute that happened maybe three episodes ago. No, last episode. In the 1998 shooting script, which I should be using as reference in case there's nothing in the 1996 script. Morpheus asks, you know, did another ship, you know, send warning? And then Dozer actually says Big Brother. Big Brother might have sent another ship, another warning. That's a big brother. Big Brother. Big Brother. Yeah, that's probably another, like, ship name. That's what I said. Nebuchadnezzar and Big Brother. So anyway, let's continue. The ship seems to be pretty unstable, in my opinion. Like, since, you know, they just kind of hit the floor and everything shakes. You know, the good old Star Trek shake.

4:08Like, you know, the Nebuchadnezzar just, you know, fell down. I don't know. I don't know. Just landed and everything kind of shakes in the air. I mean. I'm bad at talking. And this is sad because this is my favorite minute because we have Morpheus's beret. It's okay, Philip. All right. But it's a bit better than the Star Trek shake, which is just, you know, like shaking the camera and sparks flying. Speaking of which, have you seen, has anyone seen who's listening? You probably have. Oh, that scared me. Yes, you. So the Sentinel is coming. The awesome destabilized, no, the stabilized version of the Star Trek shake. So you can see all the actors pretending. Oh, that's amazing.

4:48There's an earthquake. It's the best. It's beautiful. One of my favorite videos ever. I play it every day. No, I'm kidding. When Morpheus says, how we doing, Tank? You know, how we doing, Tank? Tank shuts down the power, right? And this scene is also really important because it introduces, uh, a threat, uh, not just in the Matrix, but also in the real world. Right. As well. That's true. And it makes everything kind of more tense in, in the real world because otherwise if there wasn't anything, you know, the real world would just be a hub for exposition. The real world would be like some kind of weird, like, purgatory. Yeah. Where everyone's just like, it's fine. Yeah. It's great. Hey, we're safe here. And also, I think, I think it would have been just a little dull, um, in this kind of movie.

5:32Well, here's the thing that I like actually, which is a good formula for films and I've noticed it and I keep noticing it more and more, the more movies I watch is that, um, a great movie introduces, uh, tension and conflict when you are just getting comfortable, which is, which is always good. You know, like you're getting into scenes, like someone's talking, like this is the best, but why can't we have this forever? And then boom, new conflict. But that's important because otherwise if you didn't have that, the movie would stall and you would just be like watching a TV show for like the next half an hour. That's right. Yeah. So that's a good, uh, point in the Matrix is that we have more problems. Yeah, you're right. And I just wanted to reiterate what you said that, uh, it's not, you know, it's, this,

6:13this doesn't go for every movie, obviously like a movie like this. Yeah. It's perfect to have stuff like that, like the Sentinels in there. Otherwise it would be a little bit dull compared to other things that are happening in the tone, you know? Um, cause you can easily have a movie where things are pretty good most of the time and you know, you can still watch it and it would probably still be good because it's just a different type of film. Depends on the film. Man, I'm so quiet because I have to be... What do you mean? Just talk normally. But if I talk normally, you can hear the reverb. Who cares? It's, it's the cave special. Yeah. Well, we'll, we'll call it the cave special. Okay, fine. Since they're in the Nebuchadnezzar and you know, they're, they're hiding from Sentinels, I guess it's appropriate audibly.

6:54Um, uh, the, also, uh, let's, let's talk about the shot where, you know, the power fades out right before Tank talks about the EMP and, uh, the, there's that bridge with the ladder, you know, that shot where the, uh, you know, the lights are going down. I wanted to know what that is too. What's that? What's that reflective material? That weird... It sounds like a light turtle. It sounds, looks. What am I crazy? What am I... A light turtle? Oh, yeah. You mean... We see this, right? I see, yeah. They climb up, like, down there to the, to the cockpit, right? That's the ladder to the cockpit. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's some kind of weird radioactive craziness. That's the soul of Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah, probably.

7:34Because they live, because, because, because Philip said this is in Babylon, so they dig up Nebuchadnezzar and, like... Oh, yeah. That kind of... He's perpetually, like, powers the ship. So, Nebuchadnezzar literally powers the ship with his soul. Which is great, because there's other ships too, like, you know, Thor and stuff like that. Oh, yeah. Well, there is the, the Majolnir in the second and third one. Oh, is there? Yeah. Except... Majolnir? I thought it was Mjolnir. No, wait. Mjolnir. Mjolnir. There we go. Majolnir. That's what they call it in the Marvel movies, so I just... Do they? Yeah. I don't think they do. Mjolnir. Well, anyway... Mjolnir. There we go. Mjolnir. Well, anyway, they, um... That was the name of the, the big ship that one of the grumpy guys, I can't even describe

8:17him to you, from the second and third one, uh, pilots. And, uh, they changed it midway to Hammer. Oh. Oh, that's right. It wasn't the, it wasn't the name used in the film. That's why I was wondering. I didn't remember the character saying that. Yeah. Because they thought people wouldn't get it. But then again, now we have Marvel and everyone knows about Mjolnir. Hammer, hammer, strike hard. Hammer. Hammer. So, the wide shot with, with the monitors and tank and cipher and mouse in a blanket. Look at mouse's little blanket going on there. He's cold. It's a little bit darkened digitally, it looks like. But I love, I love those kinds of lights that are a little bit higher up, like, you know, the build pup set up up there. And it's just pointing downwards and it looks like a stage a little bit, but that kind of

8:59feeling, it's great. I love that kind of stuff. I wish I had that in my room, to be honest. It's great stuff. Just use up all the electricity, all the juice. Oh yeah, that's right. I always do that, don't I? The shot of the ship. The composite shot? Yes. Where it's like the, what is it called? The final supper? What's it called? The last supper? The last supper composite. The last supper going on inside the cockpit there. And then somebody's like, somebody takes like the, it's not even like darkness, it's like some kind of saturation or something like that. If you scroll, it's really weird how it darkens. The light is still there, it's just that the picture is darkening. Yeah, the picture is darker and there's like the little. It reminds me a little bit of Alien when they did those things.

9:42Oh yes. Photographically. Yeah. With miniatures. And they projected like plate photography inside the cockpit, like let's say of the Narcissus, the little, the little ship that Sigourney Andrew's character goes into. But I do like the atmosphere in this scene. Oh yeah. No, that's what I wanted to say. This, this shot is, is so cool and it makes it feel so tense and scary. We have to switch off the ship and hide in the hole because scary things are coming. And we must whisper. Oh man, yeah, they had to whisper and stuff like that. And then, uh. Trinity. Well, well, well. Neil looks really scared though. Like look, look, look at his face.

10:24There we go. He's really frightened. He's, he is. He's like mouth wide open, eyes wide open. I think we also have that feeling when we're watching the movie. Tank goes power offline. And then the red light. It's very, it's very Das Boot. Das Boot. Have you seen Das Boot? Das Boot, like when? No, the Boot? No, no. Have you seen, no, Boot. Oh. U-Boot. Das Boot. Have you seen that Wolfgang Peterson movie? No. Submarine. Very submarine looking. Oh, okay. Steven Spielberg calls it Das Boot. Yeah, he does. That's how it sounds like Das Boot. I haven't seen it. Well, anyway, Neil asks about the EMP, right? And we, you mentioned already that this happened in the 1996 script already.

11:05Like he already learned about it from, uh, from Tank. Yeah. He was reciting his, uh, his knowledge, his knowledge check. So let's, let's, let's talk about the important things. What are the important things? Oh, yeah. Oh, wait, wait, wait. The, the special tactical anti-Sentinel, uh, speciality hat. Yes. Yes, the hat. I like, I don't know what to say about this. Like. The hat's something. What does, like, what's, what Morpheus do with this beret? Is it cold because the heating is off? This is great because remember we have been learning about Morpheus's special items that he loves to smash. Yeah, this is one of his accessories. While he's chilling on the Nebuchadnezzar. We had a knife.

11:46Yeah. No, not a knife. Allegedly. Allegedly. It was a little baggy, right? Well, maybe the hat was in the baggy. Oh. That's his tactical hat. He had a, exactly, maybe, um, a necklace, right? With a nice little rock or stone. Uh, a rope that he carried. No. But he put his bag on. Yes. Yes. He also changed his shirts a lot, doesn't he? Yeah, he did. He does. Like, at the beginning he had that cool one with the nice sleeves and the, it looked more like a, like a samurai kind of thing with the shoulders. This is his casual sweater. And so, now we add to that his beret. Yeah, his beret. And his beret is like. It's a beret? I thought it was just like a hat. No, no, no.

12:26I think in the next minute you're going to see him turn his head and you can see it's a, it's a beret. Oh, I thought it was just like a regular old, you know, winter hat. Which brings us to another, uh, interesting topic. Where did he find such a perfectly made beret? Did someone actually make that for him? Because it seems like this is all handmade stuff. Well, in the sewers, yeah. That's him saying. There's a lot of things left over. I mean, if you just look at simply. Ah, from the machine human war. Yes. I mean, if you look at Tank, uh, army, the EMP, he opens, um, he unlocks that little cover, right, over the switch. I mean. Yeah. I think stuff like that is really leftover from like a submarine or something. You know, these are hard things to make with poor leftover technology.

13:07Well, maybe if, you know, Morpheus is unplugged and maybe he was unplugged when he was younger, you know, cause they unplug him younger. And back in the day when he was in Zion, before he had a ship of his own, you know, maybe berets were the thing in Zion. When he was a young cadet. Yeah. Oh, I thought you were going to go through like an Indiana Jones thing where there's an older guy. Oh, he's the beret, the Manifacanizer. And he actually, you know, he and his Matrix friends chased him in the, not in the Matrix, in the real world. And then when he, when they caught him and then he's about to leave, it's the same thing like in Last Crusade where the opening is. And he's like, you lost this time, kid, but you don't have to like it. Here's a damn hat. Yeah. So Morpheus, I think he's just one of his, one of the things he does, you know, it's

13:52fine quality. He has to, hats on for Morpheus, hats on for the Sentinels. You know, I could be, we can be meanies and say, you know, the sheen on his. Well, that's what I was going to say. Like when I was a kid, I kind of thought, is that why he put a hat on? So the Sentinel doesn't see the reflective. I have the reflective on myself. Hey, there's another Sentinel in here. Hello, another Sentinel. Or something like this. No, I don't think so. Why does he have it and he never see it again? That's the big mistake. That's amazing. I think it's just like a little habit thing. When you're in that kind of situation, you don't know what to do and he's just, got to put the hat on, makes him feel in control. Why doesn't he do this in the second and third? He could be wearing all kinds of hats. Here's my question. A tricorn?

14:32Imagine that. What's that? Yes. Those are the pirate hat. Oh, yeah. Jack Sparrow one. Captain Crunch is my favorite series. So Neo. By the way, I always had the dilemma from Legos, those hats. Oh, no. This is the tri, the triangle ones. Okay, never mind. You know the Captain Pirate hat? Are you supposed to wear that, like, you know, the one that looks like a cake? But like, it's like a hat. Like Cap'n Crunch. Yeah, like Cap'n Crunch. Are you supposed to wear that, like, up front? Because I've seen people wearing it, like, front, you know, the pointy bit. And I've seen people wear it on the side. On the side. On the side. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I also wondered that.

15:13Because you see, maybe it's like, at one point it was like, you know, that was the style. And then after a while, they switched it on the side. You know, like, like, hip hop, you know, made the hat go backwards, you know? Like, the baseball cap. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, baseball cap. So, maybe that's a thing. I think maybe you're right. Maybe just changes. Also, the triangle hats, they should come back in style, I think. The tricorn? Yeah. The cap net, yeah. Because you can have small ones, like the, like, some full of... The tricorn is like the Captain Jack Sparrow hat. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Oh, okay. Sorry, I'm mixing it with another hat. I'm mixing it with the cap net. No, no, no. Well, it's like a little, like a... Because you can make that out of a normal hat, actually. You just have to have longer brim, and you kind of, like, fold the one. Yeah, you kind of fold the two. It's a three different... Well, that's different, though. That's like a Muldoon, Jurassic Park, Safari, Adventure hat.

15:57Well, there's just one fold. But you can have three folds, and you just make a... What did you call it? A tricetta? What did you call it? A tricorn. A tricorn. Tricorn? Yeah, like a unicorn, but tri. Okay. Ah. Ah. Indeed. All right. So, we have a look at the Sentinels. Let me ask my question before we go. Yeah, go. What do you think the intention of the hat was? I'm guessing it's not supposed to be funny. Okay. What? There's just so many possibilities. It could be just Lawrence just doing his thing, like, and everyone's just like, let him do it. You know, he's like getting into a character. It could be the set people. It could be the Wachowski. It could be a joke. It could be serious.

16:37I have no idea. It could be anything. Also, he has a trinket on his necklace. Okay, so that pirate hat you're talking about, Luke. Luke. Luke. Luke has a little vial of souls around his neck. I was going to say, Tim. That's called a chapu. You mentioned that before. What? Did you? What? The necklace? No, no, no. I'm talking about the hat that Tim was talking about. Oh. The pirate-y one, you know, the capo's one. What's it called again? It's called a chapu. Chapu. Chapu hat. I'm not French. I don't know how to say it. Chapo hat? Chapu. There we go. I got it. Chapau. Chapau. No, this is just a normal hat. What do you mean?

17:19Oh. Really? What is it? Napoleon hat. Let's see. Napoleon. Napoleon hat. Yeah. Because that's how people search these days. Yeah, Napoleon hat is a bicorn. There you go. A bicorn. There we go. I'm an idiot. Oh, okay. And you can wear it on the side and you can wear it on the front. Like this guy. Yeah. Ah, okay. Okay. I see. It's excellent. Excellent. Excellent stuff there. So, before the hat, Trinity was talking a little about the sewers. We don't have to talk a lot about that, but just to mention that she said these sewers used to span cities as far as the eye can see,

17:59but now they're just sewers. Which is a weird statement. I'm not sure exactly how that happened. Oh, look, if you just like level the city. They destroyed most of the outside. Yeah. Right. But again, I like that because you're left to think about, ooh, what could this be? What giant sewers? Yeah, we're all bad at talking this week, guys. Have this been? What could have this been? Yes, there we go. What this could be? What could be good? So, yeah, that's all she says. And Nioh just asks questions. What? Again, yeah, with the questions. But how? Now, you know the shot where they're looking through the window and where it's just, you know, just the fog and, you know,

18:43the subway system, you know, whatever. It's great because it kind of ramps up the spookiness because like you're looking through and you're seeing, trying to find out when, and especially when someone's talking about something and you just see the thing they're talking about, like through a window and you don't see much. Yeah. To me, that's just, I love that kind of stuff because it's very creepy and it just does so much with just so little. However, you want to like, seriously, like, the environment is weird, isn't it? Don't you think like the compositing is... They're the clouds. It's a bit strange. Whoever did that... What did you say? They're the clouds from one of the Matrix posters. Yes, yes. They're like from the video co-pilot. Video co-pilot.

19:23Video co-pilot clouds. I think if this was a modern movie, I think there'll be a lot more water. I think there'll be like dripping water on the sides. There'll be like a rain sound. There'll be definitely some water sprinkled on the windshield as well. They would do more, definitely. I think that this movie was limited with their effects. But I like the simplicity of it. Yeah, well, that's great. And I think that there's something you can learn. It's a publicity stunt. It's a simplicity stunt. That's what I feel like... Tony. Something you could learn with modern effects today. I mean, I love how people put so many details on new compositions for movies. That sounded like music, right? Compositions.

20:03Yeah. New composites. When you're adding layers to a visual effects shot and it's great and everything, but sometimes you just don't have to do all that. But, you know, that's absolutely... Well, we get to meet our mascot. Yes. And we get to meet the color scheme of our website. Oh my goodness, you're right. Yeah, there we go. Blues and red highlights. So if you're wondering, everybody, this is it. This was it. This is so true. If you're wondering, why no green code? Where's green code? Yeah, green was taken... Well, and plus because the green color is more commonly associated with the second and third films. Right. Especially with the promotional material. Remember that? Yeah, that ramped out the green everywhere.

20:44It was just like... But the first film was quite blue. And that's why our logo is blue. Yes. And the VHS was all blue and purple. And the DVD. And the poster. And everything. And that's... There you go. Now the mystery is revealed. And so I wanted to tell you that when the Sentinel shows up from the corner, it's perfect. It's perfect. I love it. The music. You know, the bare bones shot of that thing. That creature in the distance just kind of circling around. It's super... Like, I think it's just scary when you just see it in that distance. Just with its... Yeah. With its weird tentacles and its glowing pink inside. And it's scary. It's like a reddish pink and everything. Yeah, that's right. Exactly the color is. But it's good.

21:25It's like little squids. A little like... Yeah. It's a good point. Floating in the back. And then you get the close-up of the guy. Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's good animation also. I love how it looks. Yeah, exactly. Like, from that distance. And it's just circling around. It's like if you actually saw a real animal. Yeah. In the... No, it's not making a dramatic entrance. Like, it doesn't do a jump scare. Yeah, it's not like behind. There's peeking. It's like there's more of them. And they're searching. It feels like an ocean. You know, you see creatures just swimming. Well, that's another thing. I like it. Well, you know what they could have done? Ready for how to make the matrix worse? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, so you know how you see the sentinels in the background? They might come. They might not. Close to the Nebuchadnezzar. That could be a distraction. And then all of a sudden, right in front of the camera.

22:08Jump scare. No, no, no. What's even worse? Like, you have the shot of them looking outside. First, you have a shot of them sitting. Then you have a shot of them outside. And then you do, you know, the shot back. And the squiddy's right next to them, behind them in the blackness. Yeah, that's even worse. And there's like a boom. That's even worse. I hate that. And he stabs one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I like how the squiddy is in the distance is moving like a ghost kind of. It looks crazy. Anyway, the closer up one isn't so great. That one returns to the PS3. Yeah, but it's okay. It's got the lights and the red lights.

22:48Well, that's the thing. That's nice because they hide it with the shadows. Yeah, but I like it when it goes across from right to left. And then it does a turn, a quick turn. A quick turn is pretty scary. I think. And then, but it also gets, you know, it sells. It's okay. It's sold. No, it's not sold. It's sold the idea. Yeah, yeah. The idea is sold to you because of the actor's reactions. And I think that's what makes it all work. You know? I totally agree. And I think that's pretty much it for episode 60. That's right. One hour in. Thanks, boys. The beret is going to be back tomorrow. I mean, on Wednesday.

23:28On Wednesday. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for listening to The Matrix Minute. That's right. Thank you. Even on episodes where we're not on the level, especially me. The prince. It's okay, Philip. Yeah. It's okay. I just wanted you to apologize to you. We all could have just called us The Cave Special. No one would have been wiser. But no. Philip has to. Yes. Has to go and say, I'm not doing good. Me, me, me, me. Me, me, me, me, me, me. These are the Batcave Specials. Find us. Just a quick plug. The Matrix Minute. One is the best place to find everything, I think. Yes. The Matrix Minute. One. Go there. And then you can find the Facebook there. Yeah. You can find the email there. It's all good. And then the survey. Oh, the survey. Oh, yeah. The survey. We should put some more stuff in there. Survey. Yeah, we should. We should update it. Maybe some extra questions.

24:08Questions. Yeah. Was Morpheus' beret necessary? Did you like the cave special? Yes. Do you like the cave special? I think that's it, guys. All right. Well, thank you so much, guys. And we'll see you on Wednesday. See you. Have a nice Monday. Bye.