Minute 67: “We’re in.”

Transcript

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

0:00Hello and welcome to the Matrix Minute. Oh god, I pressed the play. Sorry. A podcast, thank you for interrupting the intro. Sorry. A podcast. What amazing intro. What is this? Let me finish a podcast where we discuss the Matrix one minute at a time. Because we just want to talk about aminos. Aminos is all your body needs. Yes, welcome to the Matrix. Aminos have run their course. Yeah. Let us change the topic to Minute 67. Minute 67 awaits an amazing montage that I love.

0:41It's like an MTV music video. You got 360 freaking, what's his name? The director. Not Zack Snyder, the other one. Christopher Nolan? No, the big 360 guys. Uwe Boll. Uwe Boll. Yeah, he did 360 once. David Fincher. David Fincher. Transformers. Michael Bay. Michael Bay. We got an amazing Michael Bay shot. Yeah. Really? Yeah. He likes moving the camera a lot. And he likes... Some of these shots are pretty impressive, to be honest. I was just watching a review of Transformers The Last Night. Didn't watch the film, but there was this really cool shot. The Last Night. Yeah, the newest one. Five. Number five.

1:22Transformers. Not like Last Night. Like, oh, last night we hung out. The Last Night. But it's the last night. The last K'nigat. K'nigat. And there was a shot of Megatron talking to some military guys, and he's out in the desert, and there's this camera that's like a helicopter shot of the... They're just like doing a big 360 around them, and it was pretty cool, to be honest. I think every frame of painting, or someone else, one of those video essay guys, did a comparison of when people try to do the Michael Bay 360 shot, and they can fail miserably. And the key is... It's a simple key. You use a zoom lens, because what you need, you need some parallaxing. You need items to, you know, be frame of reference, so it moves really quickly.

2:03You need stuff like super, like, motion... What was that? The words are missing me. No, no, no. Like, motion blurring in the background. And then you need stuff in front of your subject to, like, whiz by, so you have that feeling of, like, things are moving really fast. If you just have, like, put a, you know, like a 35mm in front of them and move it around, it just looks hilarious. Yeah, it looks silly. Yeah. So that's the trick, kids. You want to make a big shot? That's the trick, kids. That sounds like a really good trick. Zoom in. 150mm or 200mm. Yep. And then just fly it out there. Transform and roll out. I bet you could do, like, if you had, like, a drone, and you just got a really long zoom lens

2:45on it, and just fly it around. That's right. Cybertron. Philip, read the script. Lettuce. Read the script. Lettuce and tomatoes. Lettuce. Yeah, I was going to say the same thing. Minute 67. Cool music starts as Tank jumps into the operator's seat, and all the good guys sit into their chairs as they're transported into the Matrix. An awesome camera move later, Morpheus picks up the phone in the Matrix and tells Tank that they're all in. Apox, Witch, Cypher, and Mouse stay behind as Morpheus and Trinity take Neo with their superfly Lincoln down the street. Walking down the street.

3:26In this case, driving down the street to the Oracle. But Cypher throws a Nokia phone in the trash. That is our minute. And so begins the Oracle saga. Alrighty, so this sequence of events. It's cool, man. You got the song. The definition of coolness. It's the music video of 1998. It's every techno music video you ever saw came out that year. It's amazing. Yeah. There were so many music videos after the Matrix inspired by that. Just like people with glasses running places. Oh, it's amazing. Especially these German videos. They love this stuff. Prime audio soup. Mmm. Oh, yeah, the song. Anyway, it's a really cool sequence. Yeah, it is, man. It's like so awesome.

4:07It's like so awesome. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. The music is sort of in between, like, industrial, but chill down. Great. And I love, here's a lesson in composition editing. You know, the flow is same because we have a couple of shots here. We have the sort of tilting shot, not tilting, like panning shot of them from above as you're sitting combined with the phone. And it's spinning at the same speed. And it gives you the illusion that everything is moving, you know. And then your attention is moving. And then you end with them standing there, like, you know, like a group shot of a heavy metal band. But it's awesome.

4:48It looks so cool. And like, yeah, like, they look so cool, man. They look so cool standing there. Now, look, Cypher is just sitting on the crate. Just adds to that. It's just sitting on that crate. And Mouse. Look at Mouse in the background. He's got his cool vibes. Yeah, he's got cool vibes. Switch in white. Yeah. Lovely. I think that's one of the greatest contrasts is that you have all these guys wearing leather, black leather, and then Switch has, you know, white. Yes. I think that's great. I think that adds variety. Variety. Variety. Trinity looks great. Trinity has a dress. Let's talk about this.

5:28That's nice. Let's talk about this non-dress thing. What is this? I like the dress. It's great. Because this is, okay, this is my theory, what they're wearing here. You might ask yourself, why are they wearing these variations of their normal clothes? The reason is, this is a chilled out version of everyone's outfit. Because they are expecting just to go to the Oracle. Exactly. They're not expecting to battle or fight. This is just walking the park. Right. Why are they wearing all this black latix? Besides it being cool. Okay. Let's get that on the side. Right. You want to do the logical thing? Like, why would they wear it in the Matrix? Yeah. Not logical, but like, do they all share the same sort of, you know, idea of fashion? Was it, it's like, I don't know.

6:10Like, because they. I don't know. I think there's nothing to say on that, to be honest. I think we'll go back to that some other time. Well, to be honest, it's actually not late. Trinity's the only one wearing latix. Okay. So, so, so, okay. Cypher comes out. He's a bit, he's a bit leathery. Right. But he's that kind of guy. He's slimy. He likes that stuff. Right. He's all crocodiles. You know, Switch. It's just, just a white suit. Apoc. Just a black suit. Morpheus got his crocodile stuff going, but Morpheus is a classy kind of guy. So it's okay. He has that green tie. Yeah. He's, he's like, oh, you know, I'm a master. But Trinity's the one. Like, he just constantly wears PVC. Now, what's going on here? Trinity, are you? Trinity likes that sort of stuff.

6:50I guess she does. I guess she does. I think she does. I have to say, Neo's suit is great. I think it's just a really classic, simple, elegant look. Yeah, he looks like a country singer. It's great. He looks like a bachelor number two. He looks like he can take in a, you know, just get an acoustic guitar and start singing some old country tunes. Also, what an improvement. Oh, guitar. From Neo's regular clothes. His work suit. Not only his work suit, but even his like jacket, remember, was just like very. Yeah. Just very normal. Yeah. That was all supposed to look like it's not very fitting and it's just loose. But this one is, it's getting there. It's getting slick. Do you think they have like a program and a construct, which is like, you know, like a

7:30character creator in video games where you could like choose like in Sims your outfits? And they chose this one for Neo or did Neo choose this one for us? I think they chose it for Neo. Yeah. They chose it for Neo. But I think everything they do when they type it in, is it all in code? So they're looking at lists from clothing items in the matrix and they really know what you're getting. So it's like, John Hancock blazer 24. And they're like, oh, and they're going and typing it in, enter. And they have to wait to render it. They get to the construct. They're like, oh, this is the wrong one. He's just wearing a black speedo. I like the cut, but the material is going to be a little too. And so that's why you come because there's too much information to decode the matrix. I thought that stuff like that because you can decode the construct.

8:11True. So you import it, decode it, look at it through the screen. You're like, that's close. Yes. I thought that was true. Oh, by the way, before we get to, well, actually we already got to all of this, but let's go a little bit back. At the beginning, we have, damn it, not Tank. Is it Tank? Apoch. No, it's Tank. Apoch's the other guy. Brother. Okay. No, no. Dozer's the other guy. Dozer's the other guy. Okay. Daisy's the other guy. Daisy. So we've got Tank. And he sits down. Got a nice shot here. And then he does a bunch of pilot references. Like, you know. Yeah, like everyone pleases a chair. Yeah. So we were wondering, how does he know that? He does not know that. When did he fly a plane?

8:52That's what I also asked. He watches TV shows. Okay, yeah. And he can look at all kinds of information from the Matrix. That's how he learns of life. That's how he gets all that stuff going. So he knows about it. He just hasn't experienced it. That's why he keeps saying all these quips, because he wants to be relatable to the other guys. So he just like goes on Wikipedia and reads everything. There you go. What if Tank knows someone in the Matrix? He knows everybody in the Matrix. Yeah. You know, like personally. Chats to people. I think he... Chats to them in the Matrix. Or calls them. I think every night he just goes to like... There's another... There's a very sad love story. There's another sad love story you can have for a Matrix story. And she's like, I want to meet you. I can't. I just can't. I have to drill holes in my body.

9:33It's like, what do you mean you can't? Tank, you have to be honest with me. I just can't. Yeah. What's that story? There you go. Yeah. Because he literally can't. Ever. That's the movie title. Unless she gets unplugged. I can't. Unless she gets unplugged. So there's a solution. There is a way. There is a way. Yeah. And then she says... Look for Morpheus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Start typing Morpheus into Google. He'll find you. There isn't a Google back then. Oh, there is. 1998. There you go. Okay. Do Alta Vista or whatever. Yahoo. Netscape. Was Netscape a search engine? No, it was a browser. Okay, so the awesome circling shot that's going on where you can see all the people in the

10:15seats and then the phone ringing in the warehouse in the matrix and how the phone, as the camera is moving with the phone, it's going on the opposite and it's going counterclockwise. Or is it going clockwise? Let me see. Let me see. I'll do the clockwise work for you. So the shot of them in the seats is clockwise. And the shot of the phone is... Phone is clockwise. It is clockwise. It's counterclockwise. The phone is counterclockwise. No, it's not. Yes, it is, my friend. Why would it be? Oh, sure. If you look at... If the face... The camera is... If the face of the phone is... Yeah, I guess you mean... No. Okay, the camera movement is going... Is this one of those tricks where that ballerina is dancing and I can't see?

10:58Yeah. Yeah, the... The cameras are both technically doing clockwise. Yes. Technically they are. Also, what good is this to you listening if you can't see the visuals? We're just talking about clockwise and counterclockwise. It's ridiculous. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that this is why they built this set a long time ago and Cy was still around. I was mentioning how they built the Nebuchadnezzar with the removable walls and ceilings because that's how they can hook up the camera gear to be up there on the top and record that because they can take that... Oh, that's true. There's no... Yeah, like the old Hollywood studios. There were no tops ever because you have all the lights there. Remember? The good old days. The good old... I remember that was there.

11:38I remember I was there too. Really? I shot some movies there. Oh. Or sitcoms nowadays. It's all just fake. Oh, yeah, yeah. Fakeery. That's a great episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air where he's like, if we're so rich, how come we can't afford a roof? And then he points up and then the camera looks up and sees all the lights. Amazing. The fourth wall... I mean, the fourth roof has been broken. So Prime Audio Soup, Meat Beat Manifesto, that is the song that's being played. It came out in 1998 and the band is from Swindon and... Okay. Yeah. Post-industrial electronic music. Obviously. All breakbeat stuff is from the UK. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Well, there we go. And that's how it is.

12:19And as you mentioned, Tim, that piano thing that happens after Morpheus goes, we're in. Yes. Um, wonderful. Little, little, little, little, little, little, little. It's a good scene. I love... Yeah, dude. Oh, this is a good scene. Especially when they come out and they breathe the fake air. I love that shot. Yeah. It's a little slow-mo. Camera movement. Little dolly. And goes on to Neo. He's back. He's back. Sorry. He is. He's back. He's a new man, in a way. One thing I love about cool and good films, you can quote me on that. Cool and good films. Did you notice how it's regular? My cool and good film speech is ongoing. You interrupted.

13:00Shush, Phil. Shush. No noticing. Anyway, um, I really enjoy when movies change, uh, scenery fairly often. Mm-hmm. Because you get that breath of fresh air. Like, there are movies that tend to... There's movies that have a lot of the same kinds of environments. Like, imagine, like, a movie that takes place mostly at night. I hate this kind of film. I don't like that. Are we back to Zack Snyder movies again? Yes. There you go. Perfect example. Just, just night and dark and boring. Yes. You can't even place anything geographically. Great films, for me, tend to show you a variety of areas and locations. That's great. Sometimes it can be just one location, but, you know, you can be very creative of, like,

13:41sprucing up the visuals so it doesn't look like you're stuck in... It's just nice when you get a different feel for different scenes. Yeah, like... Because otherwise, you're just bland and you're bored. And you also can't pace yourself either when watching the film. There's no distinction. Yeah, different light makes so much difference. Matrix does this great. There's so much stuff. Especially when we connect, contrast the real world and the Matrix. Usually, the Matrix is during the day. Think about it. Yeah. The Matrix in this film is never at night except for the beginning of the film. It's great. And you get the natural light. And the little meeting with Cypher. Yes. And it's great because what? What? What'd you say? You said great because light? Oh, me? Oh, so Cypher. No, it's just the light, you know, natural light. Because we haven't been natural light since training.

14:22Exactly. It's great. And that really adds to the journey. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then Cypher doesn't like his film anymore. He's like, this is an old model. I was talking. Sorry. I apologize. I apologize. Philip. Like, did you notice that the scene where they all come down from the stairs, not just that, but it's the hotel from the beginning of the film. We're back in the heart of the city hotel. This is the same place. Does it say that hotel? Because it says hotel delivery. Yeah. Hotel delivery. It's the same place because they get back there when they come back from the Oracle. Oh, that is true. That is. Yes. That's right. Because they have the boxes. Yes. So we've been to this hotel so many times. Wait, are you telling me the hotel is also the...

15:04No. That is the same hotel, isn't it? When they bring him, that's their hotel. That's their safe hotel. That's their safe hotel. It's their safe abandoned hotel. The same place where they met Morpheus. Yes. That's cool. The agents should pick up already. They'll be in the same room soon. Yeah, that's the funny thing. Wouldn't the agents pick up on this? Like when we've been... Oh, it's a hotel. It's a hotel. Maybe it's not the heart of the city hotel. Maybe it's a different hotel. Maybe. Because the agents already cleared that place out. That is true. This... Yeah. Who knows? No, but this is... No, this is the hotel where they unplug him. Yes, that is the hotel where they unplug him. Where Neo meets Morpheus and the blue pill, red pill scene shows up. And I wanted to mention when they get out of the hotel, you see Cypher and you see other

15:45people coming down, it's normal speed until he gets to Neo and then he gets a little bit slow-mo. Yes. It's the prom queen moment. You gotta walk down a street in slow motion. And he's looking at the sun. He's like, oh, the sunshine. And now he feels disappointed because it's more fake. But also, I wanted to mention that, did you know that I thought that... You know, like when I was a kid, I really couldn't discern if Smitch... If Smitch was a girl or a boy. Really? Really? Kind of... Sometimes I was like, is she a girl or boy? I can't... I'm prodigy in this nature. No way.

16:26So yeah, so he's back in the Matrix and Morpheus says... We'll be back in an hour. Love. I just want to add something to what Phil was saying. That he says, you know, Neo sees it as fake now. But I think to Neo, this is more real now. Because he has been gone on this crazy adventure that has nothing like his life before. So I think to him, it would be like waking up from a dream again. Because you're back to something familiar that you were living for 20 years. So I think it would be like a nostalgic... I think for a second, your brain might go like, oh, was it all real? Even though he's only been gone for so little, for him it feels like a lifetime.

17:09Yes, yes. But it feels like you're back in reality to him probably for that moment. Probably, I think, yeah. Until stuff gets freaky. Absolutely. And so as you said, Tim, Cypher throws in the cell phone into his flash can. He doesn't like it. He wants a new iPhone. I hate this. It's so great. He just walks in, throws it on. That confused me when I was a kid. I didn't know if I was doing that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wanted to say that. Did he dial a number or did he just leave it like open line? No, no, no. That's a good question. It says connecting. So he did like dial a number. And then when the minute ends, you can hear a phone. Someone.

17:50Hello? Hello? What is this? You can hear someone, you know. Mr. Reagan. Mr. Reagan. Anything you want. Anything you want, Mr. Reagan. Anything. Whatever you want. No, no, no. How to make the Matrix worse. He goes, remember, we need them live. No, no, no. How about this one? Access codes. Access codes. Mr. Reagan. Mr. Reagan. Did you get them? I have the paper here. He's being picked up, but you do hear a phone being picked up. Okay. Yeah. So he's calling. Yeah. So that's Aja Smith sitting next to the phone. Okay. So let's do some investigation, right? There's trash. Yeah. And trash is words. So the trash, the newspaper says, move your is come brief esto.

18:37What does that mean? The newspaper in the trash, as he throws the phone number on it, has something. Mine says all across USA. What? No. Impossible. It is USA. USA. Yeah. And the newspaper is in the trash. Yeah. That's right. It's all across USA, something, something. What? Making music for me and you. Where are you reading this? As the phone is falling. As the phone is falling. Before it falls. Oh. Before it falls. You can read the newspaper before the phone falls on it. Move your is home, pride of estate. Let's see. And there's a bunch of Chinese takeaway boxes.

19:18Yeah. Move your something. I guess no hidden message, unfortunately. Hot food to go. It's Chinese? It would be funny if it just says, the man who throws the phone is the traitor. Well, I mean, they're really close to a Chinese place, a noodle place, so. Yeah. Anyway, is that it for this minute? No, no, no. No more. I just wanted to say that when Cypher does that cool thing with the shot that's coming from the trash. I was confused as a kid watching this because I thought it was something that Cypher does for the good guys as a procedure because, you know, of how it was shot. It was shot like super cool. Like it was part of the cool guys doing cool things.

19:59Something that is cool cannot be evil. Because it's part of the, like, you think about it, as it's part of the flow of the whole scene, it feels like this is something that Cypher is doing as a procedure for the good guys. He's doing something. It didn't feel like it was the bad guy thing. Maybe if he, you know, if they had a close-up of him looking sneaky and going, is anyone watching? No, I totally agree with you, Phil. I thought the same thing. I didn't understand the significance of that phone dropping there. I always, like, bought him. I couldn't figure out what it meant. You know, I couldn't put two together. It's just a tracing or something like that. It was like, what is it with the phone? What does he do? You know? Exactly. Can't call him?

20:40What? You know? He's unreachable. What's going on? Exactly. Anyway, there's something in the 1996 draft, but that is a huge scene. So maybe we want to wait until we get a little bit further because it is something. What is it about? What's the scene? It combines. The scene where they get into the Matrix for the first time again, you know, with Neo. And because there's no agent training program, it's like in that scene. Okay, let's, let's, let's, I think we should, it's time to hear it. Time to hear it? Are you ready? It is time to hear it. Give it a jingle. Well then. Jingle. Jingle. Oh, what a jingle that was. Oh, so jingly and lovely.

21:21Well, uh, here, you're ready for a, for a, for a massive treat because dude, the Matrix. Hey, do you think we should make, we should remake our jingle to tell more Christmas for Christmas? Oh, yes, the Christmas. Oh, that's the worst song in the universe. It is. It's evil. I went for Christmas, the red dress. Personalized milieu. For you. All right, man. All on disc. Okay. So if you want, okay. So are you ready guys? Ready. This is, this is going to be something. Okay. Just bear with me. This is the whole thing where more of the, all the good guys come in from the, from the

22:06real world to the Matrix. We're going to see the Oracle. By the way, guys, I'm going to deal. And this is different. I'm going to tell you. I love how I'm trying to build this up for the audience. One more time. And then you go, guys, I have an idea for the podcast. You can do it all the time, by the way. I. Let me, let me stop myself. And so this is why I act panicked and I go fast because I know one of you guys are going to start steering the conversation away. I will not. I apologize. The floor is yours. The floor. Stop. I'll stop. Is Phil's. Let us. Okay. So as the heroes get into the Matrix again, and they're going to meet the Oracle, Neo is there for the first time. And when we left Neo in chronological order in the 1996 script, Tank was teaching him about

22:51what everything meant. Remember that? Yes. The little checkup. The little. Yes. Teacher's pet talk. Yeah. And then Morpheus goes, how's he doing? And then Tank says, we just finished the operation programs and he's showing great retention. You know? And Morpheus says, good. I want everyone alerted to 12 hours standby. We're going in. Neo, it's time for you to know why you're here. Morpheus walks away. And then Neo goes, what's he talking about? And Tank says, he's taking you into the Matrix to see her. See who? The Oracle. And then, here we go. Neo looks down at the monitor. Neo looks down at the monitor, teeming with the Matrix data that seems to coalesce.

23:32Equations giving away to images as a metal scream rises, becoming exterior Chicago Matrix day. An L train. Again. Interior Hotel Lafayette Matrix day. The room is empty. Heavy curtains covering windows. It looks as if it hasn't been touched in years. In the bedroom, with the cracked oval mirror, an old black phone begins to ring. In the mirror, we first glimpse them. And as we keep turning, the room fills with equipment and the team. Morpheus answers the phone. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. We're in. He hangs up.

24:14Yep. And then Morpheus says, mouse and cable, hold the exit. Let's go. And also, it's really confusing how many people he actually has with him. A hundred. There's cable. There's jazz. There's buzz. This is the first time I've heard of cable. Never heard of him. I know. He hardly talks and there was no introduction of him. So Morpheus's crew are like 28 people. I don't know. Expendable people. So they can die. Hey, you in the back. Jazzy McFace. So there we go. So they come in, right? They're in. Mouse and cable, hold the exit. Let's go. Interior stairwell. Neo follows the others down the stairwell that winds around an antique elevator shaft. And Neo goes, did you have to do this? Trinity goes, yeah.

24:54What did she tell you? Lots of things. Any of them true? And Trinity looks at him, then looks away. Some of them. Then Gizmo. I'm a nutter person. Gizmo. Were they good or bad? And then Trinity says, there's no point in worrying. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. They cross the old lobby. Switch and Apoc stop at the doors. And Morpheus says, we should be back in an hour. You guys remember that? So exterior Hotel Lafayette. Neo squints into the sun that seems unnaturally bright. Hey, that's in the movie. He's the only one without sunglasses. That's why they wear sunglasses.

25:35Yeah, because it's so bright. Because they're not used to it in the darkness of the real world. Riding like the shy rats. So Morpheus says, do you now understand what it means when we say, if you're not one of us, you're one of them? Why do my eyes hurt? And Neo goes, the agents. They're sentient programs. They can calendar any software or hardware into the mainframe. And then Morpheus goes, anyone that is still in a power plant. That is why we try to be invisible in the Matrix. And Neo says, the best hacking is always traceless. Cypher and Trinity move away from them, securing the perimeter.

26:16As Cypher passes a garbage can, he surreptitiously drops something inside. It is a cellular phone. And we watch the blue display as the line connects. Do you want me to continue or should we wait until next episode? Let's wait. Yeah, let's leave it a clip. Well, there you go. Yeah. Hmm. Hmm. The best hacking is always traceless. Yeah. Definitely. That's a quote in the back of the DVD. But you see how Morpheus is telling him about agents here. Yes. He's just... They also Trinity. Oracle. As they go down the stairs. Yeah. With Gizmo. I just imagine these people look like Star Wars characters for some reason. Gizmo. I imagine like steampunk people. Like I imagine Gizmo like, you know, he has...

26:58He's like, you know, he came out of a coal mine or something. Well, he's played by... We all saw the photo I brought and he's played by Matthew Lillard. So, you know, plays Shaggy in the DVD. Oh. Really? Oh, really? I'm making this up. This is my fan casting, as they would say. Yeah, sure. Oh, Gizmo. And you know, he has like a monocle. Yeah. It makes his eye really big. Yes, yes. He has a sunglasses monocle. It extends. You know, it extends. Yep. Imagine one of the characters having a sunglass monocle. And Matthew Lillard would totally be in the movie because Scream was popular. It just came out there. So... He was in Hackers as well. There you go. He'll be there. He'll be there. Hack the world. He'll be there as well, Scoob. Anyway, thank you for listening to this episode of The Matrix.

27:39Yes. Thanks so much for listening. I think we're done with that. We'll see you on Friday. See you next time in The Matrix. See you next time. See you next time. I want to do one.