Minute 63: “What a mind job.”

Transcript

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

0:00Welcome to the Matrix Minute, a podcast where we discuss the first film one minute at a time because we just love this movie. It's been a long time since I've actually said it normally in the vanilla flavor, but hello, welcome back. I have a cold, that's why I sound really awesome right now. With me is Tim. I am Tim, and yesterday was the first time I had a deer in my headlights. And it was stuck there, looking at me. Because their eyes... Did you crash into it? No, I broke. Broke. You broke it. I broke. I think it's... I would just avoid it and say I applied the brakes. Yeah. I applied the brakes, but the thing is the deer, they have eyes on the side, so once they turn to you, they cannot see you. You disappear for them. Oh, that's right.

0:41Yeah. So you just stopped, and then you took photos of it. No, sadly I did a little honky. You were like, look, look at the deer. And the deer came over and went into your car, and you're like, do you need a lift? To the other part of the forest. And he's like, no, guys, no, guys, no, I can't. I can't have to go to the deer. They are my other deers. And he's like, my mom told me not to talk to strangers. And you're like, well... God, I'm so sorry. I would love to, guys. You're like, okay. And then he left. Well, I'm drinking tea. That's an interesting story, Tim. I don't have any cool stories today. I think you're drinking tea too, Jake. Well, I finished mine.

1:21Oh. I'm finishing my tea right now as well. We're at a tea party. Well, I discovered something great in the world of tea. You see, you do have a story. Oh, yes, I do. Black tea is now... I'm not a tea guy. I never liked tea. It's a boring drink. But black tea is great. Do you know why? Because you can make it milky milky when you put in some milk. Right, you put the milk in there. And I love dairy stuff like that. So that's a good drink. And when you pair that with biscuits, oh my goodness. Someone's been in the UK. Someone's been in the UK. I learned the UK ways, the British ways. And hello, listener. We don't have a guest this time because we totally screwed up.

2:04No one likes us. No, we just screwed up with our scheduling. We sent like a thousand emails. And now we're kind of making up for it by, hey, we're going to reset just like we did last time. You know, the first half, the first half was pretty much us for 20 episodes. This one will probably be us for another 10 episodes. Was it 20 or was it 30? It's 30. And this will be just us again for another 10 episodes, hopefully. And then we'll go back with guests and we'll, you know, finish it off with a bang. Well, I hope so. I want to join you. But this is the middle section where it's a little, you know, a little mellow. It's a little sad because I'm kind of sick. Mid-season, you know. Some bottle episodes. Got to save the budget. You know, this is the, in my opinion, the toughest point of the whole project.

2:46Yeah. Here's why. Because when we started, it's like, yeah, we're all pumped. We know what to do. We know what our goals are in the Matrix Minute. It's just us three. We were testing, you know. But we did a good job. Allegedly. I think that we did as best as we could, I would say. And we were excited and we were doing well. And then we were like, oh, let's get guests, you know. And that's like the next level. Get the guests on. And we had some wonderful guests. That was working well. That was actually a lot more work, interesting enough, than the other stuff because you had to organize all these things. But now we're sort of in that, you know, third phase where it's make or break. Right. Where it's like we have to still press on.

3:29But I think that it's a little bit hard sometimes to find the willpower. Yeah. But we did shoot ourselves in the foot because we were negligent of the schedule. And so now we have to make up for it by making a new buffer. That is very true as well. Which no one will know about because this thing just keeps going on and on and on every week, you know. So far we haven't failed yet, which is surprising. The good thing is, no, that's very good. We must not fail. We must not fail. We must succeed. Yes. I want to say that we, I think we revealed all our secrets, didn't we? We did. Oh, we're quite transparent, I think, with this podcast. There's no crowd of mystery. And someday we'll have better acoustics. Phil, we talked about this last time, no more.

4:10Okay. Okay. I'm setting up. I can shush you now. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Shush, shush, shush, shush, shush, shush. Okay. I'm sick of looking Cypher's ear. Okay, let's go. Tell me what happens. So, welcome to Minute 63. And this is what happens in Minute 63. What a mind job. So you're here to save the world. What do you say to something like that? Neo and Cypher continue their conversation. But Neo leaves and thanks Cypher for the drink. We are at a restaurant. And there's a juicy steak. Cypher is talking to someone across the table. And talks about steak. Trivia time, real quick, before we talk about this.

4:53The password for the Matrix website. I don't know what that was all about. But in the credits of the original Matrix, you can see it says, log on to whatisthematrix.com. And it says, password is steak. No way. Yes. Oh, really? Huh. So that's my trivia. What do you get when you type it in? I don't know. It's over. We don't have that Matrix website anymore. It's sad. Where's your good website? It must go back. Is it maybe on the Wayback Machine? Oh, probably. You can try it. The pieces are there. Okay. Wayback Machine. It's very, it's the height of HTML. It's the height of Web 1.0. It's great. Yes, yes, yes. Bunch of images, a lot of GIFs, good stuff.

5:36All right. So this is where Cypher obviously talks about steak and how juicy and delicious it is. The Matrix is telling him these things, by the way. But at the beginning of this minute, he's like, what a mind job. So you're here to save the world. What do you think about that? So this is another moment of the film being very down to earth, I think. Like the character Cypher, he's like super normal. We talked about that last time. And he's just talking to Neo and he was kind of silent the entire time. I just want to say that this is one of those things that, yeah, I saw the movie a hundred times and I misheard something at the beginning. And I had it in my mind for years like that until we watch it now.

6:18Oh, what is it? What a mind job was, what a mind chap. What a mind chap? Like a chap. Like the chap over there? Yeah. Like he was calling Morpheus a chap. Oh, okay. Well, funny enough, I also had one mishearing of this. But mine were more abstract and weird. Because whenever I used to watch movies and I didn't understand something, I always figured like maybe this is like grown up talk, like stuff. I don't know. Maybe like there's multiple meanings for these phrases. So like here, he goes, what a mind job. And I thought maybe he was saying like, you know, like what are my jobs? What are my jobs? Or like, or like, like, like something like, is that my job?

7:02Or something like, I don't know. See, see. What a mind, what a mind job? Like a mine? I don't know. Like some kind of either explosive or like mining. A miner job. Mine job. Like, let's clear it up. We're just saying mine job. Like it's like, like, it's like, oh, it's heavy. Like a, like, that's a, you know, brain screw up, whatever. Yeah. Like that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Like a nut, like a nut job, but, but a mind job, right? Yeah. Messing with your mind. Yeah. Yeah. Is that what it is? What did you think? Well, I thought that he meant like, like, like, like, like what a strain of, on the mind.

7:42Oh, really? Yeah. Like, this is so deep, man. I mean, no. So, now neither of three of us got the, yeah, Cypher is a, you know, special guy. He's a, he's a, he's a very special guy. Cypher. Special man. Um, so, um, here comes the, the part where, you know, Cypher is telling him like, okay, here's, here's a piece of advice. You know? You see an agent? Yeah. You run. You run your ass off. Now, the funny thing is the TV version. Yes, I want to talk about this. Let's talk about this. The TV censored version. The TV. I remember watching this. You watched it. You saw it. I watched this a long time ago. And this could be some phantom visions.

8:22I don't know. But, I remember a long time ago watching The Matrix on television in the States. Mm-hmm. And when this scene came up, he went, you run. You run your head off. Makes perfect sense. Run your head off. Makes total sense. It was great because his lips weren't matching at all. Yeah. And I was like, huh. Well, after that, he gives Neo a piece of advice. I wanted to ask you guys, you know, you said ran your ass off. You're talking about the agents now. We're talking about the agents. They're building up the agents' threat in this scene. But it's very different in the drafts. In the script drafts.

9:03But we're going to talk about that soon. Before we get to that, yeah. I want to ask you. So, is... Does... My words. Cipher. Cipher. Does he believe that Neo is the one and he's saying this to get him not to fight the agents because it will mess with his plans? Or is he really being friendly? He just doesn't really care about Neo. It's more like, eh. I'm just... Neo's just a new guy. Oh, yeah. That's what I feel. I feel like Neo's a new guy and he's probably not the one. So, don't try to fight the agents. Just run. Yeah. Well, he's giving me the real advice that has worked. Which is... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't mess around with this stuff. You do what we do. Yeah. Yeah. Just another dude to him, probably.

9:44Right? Yeah. I would say. Yeah, I don't think he's... And plus, I think on the other side, if... Obviously, he has a plan that he has to execute. But I think that he knows that Neo is susceptible. Yeah, yeah. Going along with it. So, I think that whatever he says doesn't matter. Because Neo is not going to be like, oh, yeah, but Cypher said... I don't think Neo is going to do that. Cypher said, Cypher said, but Morpheus Cypher, Cypher said... No, I think Neo is going to listen to Morpheus before he's going to listen to Cypher. Excuse me. Yeah. There's a nice shot of Neo's reflection on the video monitor there. It's really nice. And he takes another drink. Innocent, babby face.

10:25So, yeah, he's staring at Cypher and it's scary. Like, there's the Matrix. You know, the agents are in there. You run away. All right, Neo? And Neo's like, oh. And Neo's just like, thanks for the drink. And he's going to leave now. Crazy. He's scared. He's like, thanks for the drink. And then Cypher's just, you know, waiting until he leaves. And he goes, sweet dreams. And then we pan into the Matrix codes. Yeah, that's another form of the transitions that we talk about. Yeah, no more fade ins and fades outs. With the sound effects. And then finally, we are presented with the most beautiful steak ever to put on celluloid

11:06in the history of cinema. Here we are. That is an amazing looking steak. I've never had steak before this. So, to me, this is the first exposition to a steak. I was always so confused. I didn't know what the hell it was. I mean, now that I have had steaks. No, clearly. I'm looking at it and I know what it is. You're a fine schmooker. But looking at it red, I always thought it was salmon for some reason. I'm so confused by the redness. What? And then he takes out this weird chunk and I'm like, what is this? Beautiful chunk. You mean luscious, juicy. Story time. But I can't. We, when we were filming the end of the Matrix, I was visiting you guys. That's our fan films that we'll show you eventually if someone's interested.

11:46No. And we went to a restaurant and I remember I ordered, I don't know, something. I think it was our parents. Chicken. And then you, whatever. You ordered chicken. Oh, you did? I ordered steak. We have this video footage. Yes. Yes. That's what I'm talking about. I remember Jake. I'm like, what? He's ordering steak. Those are expensive. Like, those are for grown up food. Oh, those are grown up food. I saw it in the Matrix. But I think I remember looking at your steak and thinking like, oh, I have to, I have to look at this. What is this steak business? Really? Wow. And it didn't look nothing like a... No, it just looked like a slab of meat. Well, plus because I think like... And there was bread underneath. Well, that was weird. I remember. There was a slice of bread underneath. There was a slice of bread. It was like toasted and the steak was on the bread and it's nothing.

12:27I've never seen it in my life since or after. Yeah. If you know what that is about, dear listener, tell us why. Why was the steak on the bread? Yeah. Well, let's just soak up the juices so it doesn't... But I want the juices. Yeah. The juices. Well, that's the thing. I don't understand what their problem is. Me neither. Another... But I remember, Tim, you got this chicken. But we have this video, by the way. This is all in video. Yeah. So we can actually upload it. We reenacted this scene, right? We did reenact the scene. But Tim, I remember there was a famous moment where you ordered the chicken. And it was like, basically, it was like nothing special. So it was like just seared chicken, essentially. It wasn't even like grilled, just like seared. And it was like so plain. And you were like, where's the green stuff?

13:09Because you're expecting some, you know, like flourishes. Okay. Okay. Some like parsley and stuff. And they didn't put anything. It was just plain old chicken. Just a slab of chicken. Yeah. I remember Tim saying like, oh, there should be green stuff on this. There wasn't. Too fancy. What did you get? And I got spaghetti. Italian stallion. We need to go to that restaurant again. We should. And just order the same things. And order the same things. And see what's changed. I would love that it was exactly the same. Yeah. Just identical. Yeah. So you thought this was salmon. That's crazy. I thought it was fish. But then again, there are salmon steaks. I didn't know what steak is, you know. I knew it was meat, but I was confused.

13:49Why was it so red and like wiggly and juicy? Didn't you ever see like back then when you were younger, like, I don't know, other movies or cartoons where people eat steak and it's like pink in the center? No. Like, no, not really. I mean like the slab of meat in cartoons, but no one ever called that steak. Right. I didn't put two, two together. That was just like cartoon meat, you know? Yeah. Well, you know what's amazing? I just learned something right now. That when Cypher uses his fork to pick out a piece of steak, while he's lifting it up, I never noticed there is some green stuff on his piece of steak. There you go. Because I thought it was just a clean, lean piece of steak, but no. It's got some green stuff. Oh, by the way, do you guys just order steak by itself like Cypher here or do you get like

14:33sides with it as well? Oh, I don't know. I get a side usually. Yeah. Here's the weird thing. It's like, I still haven't figured out the mystery between like European steaks and American steaks. Right. Because I like, like I was used to like the different cuts they have in the States, you know, like sirloin and tebow and all these different things. But in Europe, it's like different. I don't know. Is it different cows or something? No, it's just different cuts. It's just differently cut. Yeah. So here, whenever like I go to a restaurant, they usually have one steak. Yeah. And it's just like, it's just the, it's like, I think it's a tenderloin, I think. Which is like, what is it? Bif, like minion, whatever is what it's called. That's like a big, like fat one, right? Like it's called like biftec, which is basically just like the tenderloin piece, which is like

15:16this sort of more expensive strip. It's like a very tender part. Yeah. So I don't know. I haven't eaten steak in a long time. Go to like a, there's like, here's like a Texas. But hey guys, here's, what's your preference, guys? We have to know. What? What's your preference of like the seared? Oh, like doneness? Yeah. The doneness. What is your preference, Tim? I like it, just like bog standard medium, you know, medium rare. That's it. You know, I want the blood to come out. I want it to be red, but I also liked, I liked, I liked the duality of it. You know, I like it being super crispy and burnt on the outside, but super fleshy and like raw on the inside. I don't like it blue. I would say, I would say medium, maybe medium rare, but it depends because sometimes they

16:00can do medium rare too much and it becomes too rare. So maybe medium is the best. Well, uh, I have to say I was always a medium guy, uh, but, uh, a friend of mine actually ordered medium rare and then she couldn't eat it. So I had the rest of it as I usually do. I just vacuum things from every time we have, every time everybody goes out for lunch and I just eat everyone's food if they can't eat it. Um, and, uh, she had medium rare and I tried it and I'm thinking I'm going to try medium rare next time I order a steak because that was pretty good. Well, Phil, it depends where you are, what kind of meat you're getting. Exactly. That's very true. It all depends on that. When Phil gets like a big portion and you get like a smaller portion, Phil will still try yours.

16:40Yes. Well, you never asked. Let me just have half of this. Well, if you asked, I would share mine. I would share mine if you asked. You should by default go. It would probably stab you if you took a seat. These are mine. No, I'm joking. I'm joking. Anyway, this steak is juicy and delicious. Oh man, it's just so good. And Seifert picks it up and he's like talking about how juicy and delicious it is. Look at that piece when he's holding it up. And then he eats it and he says, does he say it? Well, he doesn't eat it yet. Oh, he doesn't. No, he just holds it in his hand. He just says it's juicy and delicious. The Matrix is telling him. There's impulses. Now let's talk about how does Seifert even get here? I would like to know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. From, from. Well, here's my theory. Really quick. My little two second story is he, when Neil leaves, Seifert's blah, blah, blah, blah.

17:23He makes an automated code thing to make him like where it's timed or whatever. You know, automated. Presses a button, sits in the chair, plugs himself in, which is weird. I don't know how that works, but maybe that's also automated or something. He built some crazy rig. Well, if he puts the thing in there and just lays on it precisely, he could, no, but there's a twist in the end. Well, that's what I'm saying. He built some kind of weird rig. I think he twists it himself and then he makes the thing turn on a couple of seconds or a minute later. Oh, maybe, yeah, maybe. Or he helps, he has, no, you know who it is? Who? It's Switch. Why? She, because she says, not like this, not like this. So she was in on it and she didn't anticipate for Seifert to kill her.

18:07Making more stories. No, no, no, no, no. But that makes sense. See, there's no way he could connect, he could connect himself to the Matrix by himself and unplug him. So there was help. Remember Switch? Okay, so this is assuming that there is no way. You're saying Switch helped him. Yeah, Switch is the one. But why? Why would Switch help him? Because she said not like this. Switch is with Apoc. Um, she, maybe she bargained. She found out about his plans and she's like, I'll help you do this, but you, you, you know, you know, you leave Apoc alive. Right. I like him. He's gorgeous. Okay. I see. We do the business together. I never thought about that. We do the business together. That is an option. We're business partners. So Switch is like hiding in the corner, waiting. Or he calls Switch up. Behind the monitors.

18:47Oh, he calls like, it's okay. The new guy's gone. Wow. Let's do this. I don't know about this. This theory is kind of strange, but, uh. Elaborate. But then again. So, so, yeah. So then what? He gets in and he just calls agents. Let's go back to the other theory. Yeah, yeah. Back to back to hijack chicks thing. Yeah. And it's automated. And it's timed. And he's there. But the thing is like, what in the world would happen? Isn't Cypher a little bit worried? Like, I mean, shouldn't this be a little more. Somebody just comes in? Yeah. Shouldn't this be a little more urgent? Like, shouldn't they meet like at the docks at midnight? It doesn't really matter. Yes, it does matter. If you're in the Matrix. No, I don't. In the Matrix, it doesn't matter. This is a relaxed environment where you eat steak and discuss for hours. But Cypher could be caught at any moment at the Nebuchadnezzar.

19:30Yeah. Yes. And Cypher would be like, runs over. Hey, Smith. I got the ghost. I know the man who does. I have to go. Right. Yeah. Yes. Yes, exactly. Because this is ridiculous. Imagine if they're here for two hours talking about the meaning behind the war between man and machine. He's like, I hate this crap and all this stuff. Right. And imagine if Morpheus walks in. Yeah. And Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. Cypher! Cypher! What have you been doing? Starts punching him in the belly. And he's eating steak and starts puking out in the Matrix. What's happening? Or no, do you know what Morpheus would do? He would wait until he comes back. And then, Cypher, let me talk to you. Come to my office.

20:10Like a dad. Yeah. Yeah. I'm disappointed. Eating steak with an agent. I thought highly of you. He doesn't even like it. He's like, don't do it again. There you go. I thought you would like Trinity. Let me see your hand. But we actually don't even see... The funny thing is, we don't even see Agent Smith. This is like built up so you don't know who he's talking to. Because this is the reveal. Yes. You don't know who he's talking to. All of a sudden, he's just eating steak. We don't know. And I think that's what... Sorry, I started yelling all of a sudden. That's what... Sorry, I should... Quiet down here. A little bit here. Down here.

20:50Over here. Over here. I think, you know, the importance of this scene is that it is juicy and delicious. And that makes it sell it. You know, sell it. So it's more reasonable to the viewers. And it gives him more character. And that's all revealing. Like you couldn't... You know, if we see him plugging himself into the Matrix and all this stuff. These little ways of doing that. You know, it wouldn't be such a dramatic reveal. That's true. That's true. Even though I'm pretty sure everyone kind of figured it out by now. And, you know, if anybody was curious that, according to Phil Osterhaus, the steak scene was alternated between being cut and moved around. So it would have been moved somewhere at the beginning more, maybe somewhere later on.

21:33The opening scene. The opening scene. But in the end, it was put back to its original place as it was written. So the steak survived. So the steak survived. Experiment to be at. Well, it could have been, let's say, before some of the training sequences. Because there's a lot of those. It could have been... It couldn't be when they finally go into the Matrix again. No. But... Guys, guys, hold on a second. I'm just going to get some steak. Really? Though, like, it is... Like, he could have just met the agents then. He's just like, I gotta go piss. And then he... He could. He could. That would make more sense, actually. Because then they'd be like, where did he go? Yeah. But I guess, like, they look at them when they're tracking them.

22:15You know, like, Dozer or Tank would be looking at them. And it's like, what is this? But the thing is, though, I don't think that they have pinpoint GPS accuracy. I don't think so. Okay, no. Because they ask, where are you? And he says, I'm over blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So they wouldn't know. Yeah. He could have just done that. Oh. Okay. Anyway. Because I'm serious, man. Like, this seems like such a... I don't know how he... Like, dude, it could be any second. Like, is he that? Sure, everyone's sleeping. Like... Yeah. Deep sleep. Deep sleep. Yeah, Morpheus gives them deep sleep pills. Maybe he locked all their doors. Yeah. Morpheus has the keys. Oh, so Morpheus... Like, you know, like a little tiptoe scene to get to Morpheus's cabin. Yeah, yeah. You know, taking the keys.

22:56Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Oh, so we get to see another character's residual self-image. Okay. Okay. So let's see what's upgraded on Cypher. I think his soul patch is a little bit more... Solely. Has more soul. And it's like a little bit more, you know, like straight. Here, if you look at him in the Matrix, it's a bit scruffy, his soul patch. Yeah, let me see. Scruffy little... Yeah, in the real world, it's a scrappy patch. And then in the Matrix, it's a nice... Yeah. It's a nice... Different lighting also, so that could do it, but it definitely looks, you know. Does he have earrings? I love that attention to detail. I love that sort of stuff. So in the Matrix, he has earrings, which is like cool. And he's also bald in the Matrix as well. It'd be hilarious if you cut to this and it's him with hair.

23:37Well, it's the same thing with Switch, right? Switch was supposed to be... That's why her name is Switch. It's because she was actually... She's naturally a man. But in the Matrix, she's actually a woman. Or her name is Switch because she's a traitor. She switches something. I want a new name. Okay. Sure, sure. Yeah. Don't trick us. Yeah. So what do you guys think? Anyway, I wanted to tell you the location that they filmed this place in. And it's a real restaurant called 41. It's a level 41 in downtown Sydney. And those are the steaks that they made at the restaurant. Do we shall go? Yes. And you know what?

24:18Help kickstart our trip to Australia to try the steak. Every time they would film a take of Cypher eating the steak, they had to replace it with a new steak. Oh, man. So every time they had to do a new take, the rest of the crew got to eat the steak. Super delicious. Yes. Yes. And I found a great advertisement. No, just a little video. I found a great video about Restaurant 41, which I will share in the section. No, please do. In the section. It looks exactly the same. Let's see how much a steak costs at Restaurant 41. 41. Yeah. How much for the steaks? Yeah. I'm curious to see. They probably won't put it because, you know, restaurants, they hate. Those fancy restaurants don't. You don't have menus with prices because you expect you have money.

24:59TripAdvisor. Maybe someone will spill the beans. Well, anyway, we have a really big section today about... Not today. Next week. Oh, really? You want to go next week, then? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. We'll plop it next week, I think. We'll talk about that script next week, then. Yes. Let's, you know, save it. What do you mean? 1996 time. 1996. 1996 and 1997. And we were going to leave it for next week. Not next week, damn it. Oh, okay. Sorry. Wednesday. Wednesday. Right. Yes, Wednesday. Don't worry, guys. I scared you. No, not next week. On Wednesday. On Wednesday, I might be back to give you the price update on that steak.

25:40Oh, there we go. Look, two cliffhangers. And we also get to find out who Cypher is talking to. And will he bite the juicy steak? Will he bite? Oh, no. Will he throw it to the dogs? Tune in on Wednesday. On Wednesday. On the Matrix Minute.