Minute 9: “My own personal Jesus Christ.”

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. Hi, I'm Phil, and I want a MIDI disc. You already had one. Well, I had a MIDI disc player. And I'm Tim, and did you guys know that Carrie Ann Moss in 1993 was in a TV show called Matrix? Oh! An actual piece of trivia. Wow! Oh, man. Well, we're getting here to a hot start, right? Welcome to episode 9, which is Minute 9. And Minute 9 has certain things happening, especially concerning Neo and some new characters which will never be shown ever again.

0:49So we left off, right, he was getting shocked by some messages, and then somebody knocks on the door, and it's a man with a beard and some hair. Yeah, in the script, it's... Give us a lowdown. Well, in the script, it's, uh... It's Anthony. Anthony. But here, it's Choi. And this is what happens in this minute. Neo opens the door of his room 101. It's Choi. Neo tells him that he's late. Choi knows, and says that it's his girlfriend's fault. He hands Neo two grand in cash. And Neo gives Choi a mini-disc. And Choi makes an obvious reference to allegory. The minute ends when Neo asks if he ever had a feeling if he was awake or still dreaming.

1:30And thus ends Minute 9 of The Matrix. Two grand confirmed. I laughed and rum went into my eye. In your eye? Yeah. It's dangerous. It stings. Quiet. So, what are we talking about first? Well, the first thing that happens is Neo opens the door, and the room is room 101. Classic. The illusions. So many illusions to 101. I just have two. Yeah, I mean, it's the 101 Dalmatians reference, obviously. The first thing that comes to our mind. Yeah, you're right. I think that's all I got. No. Oh, yeah, no, no, no. There's two illusions. There's the most obvious one. There's the one. Correct. Also, 101 in a world of zeros and ones. Are you a zero? Or are you the one? Are you a one? Which is so good. Which is, you know, the codes for computers.

2:18What is 101 in binary? Oh, nice catch. Let me check what 101 is in binary. Check it out. That's what it is. And while you check that, the third meaning of the room, possibly, refers to the room 101 in George Orwell's novel 1984, which is a room in which your worst nightmares come true. Yeah, where a prisoner is taken in and then gets tortured. So, I'm not sure why that would be connected to the Matrix. Maybe because Neo's trapped still sort of in the Matrix, maybe. Something like that. But his worst nightmares, huh? Well, he's talking about dreaming. Ah. Something like that. Something like that. Because it could connect to the Smith episodes.

2:58Remember, he keeps waking up. Oh, yeah, that's right. 101 is five. So, that could mean five things will happen to Neo. So, that means that when Neo is five... Well, look, there have been five ones before. And he is the sixth. There you go. Nice. And this is Matrix Reloaded stuff. That's a good catch. What else could happen is 101 is also where they're going to meet the Merovingian in the lobby. When they're going down the elevator and they walk out, it says 101. It's also 101. Or 101. Also, it's a cool number. So, there's a lot of 101s. I like those things. I love those things. And Trinity's is, of course, 303. So, we got that going. Also, I don't know if you can notice, but actually, I think you can notice, Neo has some

3:43pretty bad white makeup on his face. Oh, yeah. You can really tell some of the makeup. Yeah. Lit on pretty thick. They make it look pale. Another thing. This is from the Matrix Wikia. So, take that with a grain of salt, if you will, maybe. Mm-hmm. 101 is also the customary Masonic Lodge number. Okay. So, he's a Freemason as well now. Represents the Temple of Solomon's Two Pillars, Baos and Yashin. And in the middle is the Brazen Sea, making 101, symbolizing the entrance to the Holy of Holies. Interesting. That's very interesting. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Oh, yeah? Cool. I mean, here's a funny thing that I noticed is that when I was younger, there was all these

4:24references, sort of like some biblical, some philosophical, some kind of classical, mythological stuff. Yes. And it was very interesting, but I have to say that it's funny watching this as an adult. You realize they're all there, but they kind of don't really actually, like, they don't mean anything. They're not, like, working for the plot. They're just, like, there for the extra flavor, which is cool. Well, I never noticed that as a... Because, like what? I always looked at the Matrix as sort of, it's an amalgam of a lot of different traditions we have in the history of the world. And so you have a lot of these different ideas in the background.

5:05Like I said, maybe they don't necessarily have a mean at its surface level, but underneath there's something that's alluding to various, you know, either... And that's very good. It shows the dedication that they've had to putting all that stuff in. Now, Neo is randomly visited by not just Choi, but also his girlfriend and his cronies, who are these guys in the background. He shares an awesome neck brace. The guy in the background with sunglasses, he looks like one of Hans Gruber's men in Die Hard. He does. That hair, beach blonde. He's loving it. Wait, wait, how many are there? Five of them or four? No, there's Hans Gruber's friend on the right. No, but there's five of them again. The number five returns. Oh, look at that symbolism.

5:48And also, why is Choi two hours late? Well... Oh, is there an explanation? I don't know. Oh. Well, my theory is that Choi is just... It's her fault. He's not punctual. And it's her fault. My theory is Choi's working with the Matrix men. He's unplugged, man. You think so? That's what I thought too. That's what I thought too. That's going to be our little bit of a topic here as well. Yeah. Oh, yeah? So, what do you want to say about that? Yeah. I think I agree with Tim that I also, at one point, thought that probably Choi... Because that only makes sense. Why wouldn't he be working with, like, you know, part in the real world, working with Morpheus? That's option A. Why wouldn't they meet up in the Matrix? Uh, maybe he died. The agents found him. Who wouldn't meet up?

6:28They found them in the disc. Choi and DuJour. Why wouldn't they be in the Matrix meeting up with them later on when they go? I mean, he's saying it's supposed to be some pirated music, right? It's for the party? Is that... That's what he needs, the music? But what if it's, like, secret code for Morpheus? Because it's definitely... Music for the party? Some Morpheus data. That's what I thought it was. Well, no, actually... I thought it was a code that he was giving him. Guys, guys... Zion. Access code to Zion. Okay. The script will reveal all... Let's go to the script. The 1996 draft will reveal what it means. What does it mean? There's some really weird stuff going on on Neo's computer. Just, like, loading some kind of... Dude, he's bitcoining. He's bitlining. Before we get to Choi and his meeting, it's funny that this piece of dialogue,

7:11I kind of watched it a few times because we saw this minute. But it does feel a little bit, like, not the highest grade. It's like, you're like... You know, like, the lines are a little bit, like, line-ish. It reminds me of our old movies. Oh, good. Like, how we just, like, point here and say, like... You remember when we did, like, the movies where I'm at the door and I just say my lines? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's Neo's delivery right now. You didn't infuse it into your character. You just spoke things that you remembered. In the movie, though, this is... We are noticing the things after multiple viewings. Multiple viewings, definitely. And so I do think that these effects are much less pronounced when you watch it. But you can also argue that this kind of delivery is meant to seem a little bit more robotic.

7:54Unnatural? But then our theory falls... I'm picking at Strauss. Our theory falls apart. The Choi is part of the good guys. And this is his natural stage. I thought Keanu did great here. I don't know. What's wrong with Keanu? I'm not saying great. Like, if you listen to the audio, there are a couple lines when he says, you're late. It does sound a bit, you know, like, kind of shooting on the day. We're just standing there and you say that line like 30 times. You're late. You're late. And there's just like, no one's at the other side. It's just the crew with a camera. And you're like, oh, I just can't wait to go home. Have that nice pizza. Anyway. Anyway, you want to hear the draft of 1996? Absolutely. Where Choi, a.k.a.

8:36Anthony, as he was previously called, is at the door. So, Neo opens the door. Recognizing the voice, he relaxes and opens the door. Anthony, who lives down the hall, is standing outside with a group of friends. Oh. Neo. What do you want, Anthony? Anthony. I need your help, man. Desperate. They got me, man. The shackles of fascism. He holds up the red notice that accompanies the Denver boot. Wait. You'll see it. What? Neo goes, like a bulletin? Like a newspaper? You got the money this time? He holds up $200. It changed. It changed a bit. Inflation, man. Inflation happened. And Neo opens the door. Anthony's girlfriend, DuJour, still the same name, stops in front of Neo.

9:19DuJour mustard? Yeah. DuJour says, you can really get that thing off right now? And then Anthony says, I told you, honey, he may look like just another geek, but this is where, but this here is all we got left standing between Big Brother and the New World Order. Oh, wow. Exterior street. It cuts away. Exterior street. Okay. A police officer unlocks a yellow metal boot from the wheel of an enormous Oldsmobile. That's Anthony's car. Oh. That's it? That's it? He... Interior, Neo's apartment. They watch from the window as the cops silently, robotically climb into their van. Anthony goes, look at them. Automatons.

9:59Don't think about what they're doing or why. Computer tells them what to do and they do it. Oh. And friend... Oh, okay. Sorry. And friend number one says, the banality of evil. He slaps the money in Neo's hand. A whole $200. Thanks, neighbor. $200 buggeroo. Thanks, neighbor. And then DuJour says, why don't you come with us to the party? And Neo says, I don't know. I have to work tomorrow. And then DuJour says, come on. It'll be fun. And then we know how the... I actually don't think that's horrible. So it's a parking ticket. It's not bad. I actually kind of like that. So it's actually something that he can do to hack the parking ticket. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think I like the little sort of... I like the cut. Tongue in cheek. Look at them, man. Automatons.

10:39I don't know. No, no. It's a bit on the nose. It's a bit on the nose. But I think that part of it could work. I think I like the bit when he says, you know, they're doing just what the... Computer. Computer's telling him to do, which is kind of like... Very direct. Hinting. Hinting on the... Yeah. Yeah. So that's a good line. But like, I don't know. Just... But then again, in the end, it wasn't necessary because this was all just moving forward at a pretty good pace. We would have lost a bit of time going outside and then talking. Yeah. Blah. But I think what is funny that I'd never realized... I mean, you always talk about Neo being this amazing hacker, but we never see him hack anything. Why do we have to? That's not necessary. Well, I'm just saying like, you know, it's one of those like...

11:21In the script, they show him. In the script. In the script, yes. He's on AIM, man. He's talking, chatting away to his buds. Chatting away. Yeah. He's chatting away. Hacker 101. He's letting go of car boots. He was just like, oh, he just has some code running on his computer. We don't know if Neo is a hacker. Yeah. You're right. You're right. I think it doesn't matter. They mention it. Like a few authority figures. It's not real, man. Such as Agent Smith and his boss mentioned that he is one of the... Well, maybe not his boss, but... Agent Smith. Agent Smith at least mentions the hacking thing. Yeah. Okay. So what's why he gets... One last thing was... There's a lot more things I want to talk about. There's a poster on the left-hand side... Many last things. ...at 916-ish, sort of. Look what it says. Do you see the little poster? Wait, wait, wait. 916. This is just a small thing that I found that I thought was just kind of fun.

12:05The wide shot where Neo is... You can't find 916 because we only have one minute. We have one minute. Well, it's 116 then. Ish. And it's a small thing. It's just a personal thing that I found. And there's a little poster on the left. And it kind of says, Rack. Yeah, I was going to say. Oh, nice. And it could be back. But I'm pretending that it's Rack because, you know, we're making our own allusions to... Yeah, that's called Connected. ...our own no-budget fan-made Matrix spinoff, which we'll talk about at some point. Because Tim's character was called Rack in those movies. He's one of the two protagonists in that spinoff. My name was Trigger, by the way. Yeah, it's really cool, man. It's really cool. It's just epic. It's from 2003, by the way. And then we were 12. You don't want to watch it. Anyway, look at his one-room apartment.

12:47What do you think? Nasty crap. But look at the computer. How do you feel he lives? Poorly. In a box. Inside. It's funny. I never... This is the whole thing. It's showing how Neo... This is a metaphor, Phil. Yeah. It's a metaphor for Neo being trapped. Prison of his mind. And that's pretty much it. I was trapped in this one minute. It makes you think about it. Because I never thought about his apartment or his life. Just like, again, we never saw him hacking or anything. It's like the beginning of the movie. So you're just like... You don't know Neo the character before you know Neo the hero. Kind of. And I think one thing, at least for me, that's relatable is that it's showing how Neo is actually... You can tell that he doesn't find any meaning so far in his life.

13:27He's doing hacking. So obviously there is a parallel life going on here. He's searching for some kind of truth, right? He's searching for something while he's hacking. Searching for better makeup for his face. But his official life is very mundane. He's a cog in the system. He works at this software company. And look, his apartment is sad. And he probably... But he does have cool friends. We can assume that he probably doesn't have any friends. I don't know. But let's just assume... No, look at these friends. Look at these guys. They have like neck braces and nose braces. I'm pretty sure that he like, you know... He probably knows them from doing, you know, odds and ends with jobs and stuff like that. Yeah. And so that's kind of my opinion of what picture they're painting. Wouldn't you say they like... They sport the gear of the unplugged? You know what I mean? I mean, I never saw them.

14:08I know. It's a valid... But I've never thought of them as people from another ship. Neither did I. I'm just making it up right now. What I love about talking about this is that you can take it either or. I love that stuff, man. It does not matter. It doesn't affect the story at all or the film. If they're unplugged, it's cool. You know? But we never see them again. We don't even see them in Reloaded. Or they're just people... Another theory is that, obviously, Morpheus and the guys... I don't know how they would program for that girl to have the tattoo. I don't know how they would have done that. We'll talk about that in the next minute. Okay. Yeah. Because that's weird. Because they obviously can't just like willy-nilly program stuff. The story continues. Now, the book. The book. Secret book with the mini-discs inside. The magical mini-discs.

14:49It's called Simulacra and Simulation. What's his author's name? One of the Wachowski's inspirations on making up the world of the Matrix. You know? It's a book by French author Jean Baudrillard. Yeah. Baudrillard. He's also a photographer, by the way. No way. Yeah. He also takes photos. It's about post-modernism and how society replaced real concepts with symbols with concepts instead. Objects and symbols. Yeah. It's about that kind of thing, which has a lot to do. You can watch Keanu Reeves talking about it. Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly what he was referencing. Yeah. The symbol becomes the reference to the thing. Yeah. It has a lot to do about perception in modern society. I'm just afraid. He has his discs hid right under the chapter on nihilism. What does that tell us? Is Neo believing he's in control of his own life?

15:30Is Neo nihilist? Well, that could be it. See? Because Neo is finding himself in the situation. Yeah. He believes he's in control of his own life. I don't believe in destiny. Will the nihilist from Big Lebowski return to this movie? Well, I would argue that Neo is in between two roads. Ah. We'll get to roads later. Oh. So, mini discs. Yes. I own the mini discs. Talk about the mini discs. I was a proud owner of a mini disc player when I was 10 years old. Yeah. That's pretty much my story. But can they store data like that? Oh. Yeah. Really? I only saw them as using for audio. I think they can, Phil. Because, remember, they're digital. What are the titles on those mini discs? Are there any clues?

16:10Any trivia? No. I was trying to read them and I just couldn't. You can try yourself. I was trying to read something. There's nothing very... When I watched this when I was a kid, I just loved the look of those mini discs, especially in this shot. Yeah. It was just like, dude, Neo. Sleek and cool. Yeah. Sleek and cool. Those are packed with codes that will bust the government's... It's the future. Banks. And cobs. Oh, yeah. That's what I want to say really quick. I think that Neo... I always thought that Neo is giving Choi sort of some kind of clean slate-ish program. Oh, yeah, yeah. Me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something to get him away from, you know, I don't know, taxes or something like that. Now, bear in mind, Choi actually gives him US dollars.

16:50Okay. Oh, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Is that any kind of... It's a movie thing, I think. It's a movie thing. Maybe they don't have... I think... You know why? Because if they didn't put US dollars, people would go, what kind of money is that? You're right. You're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're absolutely right. What was I thinking of? You know what's funny? Esperanto. Dinard. The funny thing is that I can't believe that up until this day, I always thought it was just pirated music for the party. Look at me. Why wouldn't it? It's like a new release that he needs to play. But you can interpret it that. $2,000. And for $2,000 though, yeah. Choi's a serious fan of these bands. Yeah, like bootleg, man. It's like JCG, right? It's hot for the press. It's hot for the concert. There's another random fact for you. If you say choi du jour in French, it means choice of the day.

17:34Magical. And I'll take the bullet. I'll bite the bullet. And when he says, you're my own personal Jesus Christ, that's a reference to a song by Depeche Mode. What? Yeah. Oh, wow. I thought it was a reference to the metaphor of Neo being a Jesus Christ figure. Sure. Yeah, but that's like the most... I didn't like it because it was too obvious. But he's just quoting the song. I don't mind though because I remember I was reading this book. Well, you guys didn't know that. I thought I'm going to be like the idiot bringing that up. No, I never know. No, you're not the idiot. They actually have a lot of mentions of Jesus and Neo. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. He's the Messiah. I think he's kind of cool. There's a lot of them. Yep. You don't notice them until you think about it.

18:15There's another some, you know, there's some more stuff. We can talk about the actor who plays Choi. Okay. Did some research on that guy. Let's do a bio. Well, his name is Mark Aiden Gray. He's Australian. Oh. And he does a great American accent. He said he did this just to practice his American accent. Well, he did an excellent job. Both type subject. He moved to the U.S. years after The Matrix and did theater and currently hangs out in Los Angeles, of course. So he seems like a down to earth kind of guy. And pretty active in movie roles on shows and stuff like that. Mostly TV. So he's been in some stuff like a TV show called Why We Fight, which was 2013. He also directed a few episodes.

18:56So he's moving on to that. He was in Bones. He was in American Horror Story and Law and Order. So if you find him out. Now, the funniest thing is I checked out his personal website and you can actually email him if you want. You can just ask him. You can add him on Facebook. I can add him on Facebook. What's on the Minidisc, Choi? Yeah, what's on the Minidisc? Tell me. And you know what? You should see his pictures today. He looks nothing like Choi. No? Like if he was walking around the street, I wouldn't be able to spot him. Well, now you know. Now we can go and spot him. And Du Jour is played by a Greek Aussie actress called Ada Nikdemo. And she's had roles in soap opera called Home and Away, which is an Australian production.

19:38And of course, the host of an Australian reality show called Please Marry My Boy, which is about having moms find their sons a proper date. Game show. Magic. She's a host? She's a host of that. Yeah. Still? She also has an Instagram, so you can stalk her there. Okay. Also pretty good American absent. Yeah. Dijon Mustard. Her name is Ada Nikdemo. Or Neidemou. I don't know how they say it. Me neither. In the Australian language. I apologize for me. So yeah, there we go. I just love how, also when you're looking at Du Jour, you know, in the wide shots with the entire group. And when Choi's talking, she looks really coked out and is like standing like she has nothing to do. And I thought that was funny. They're all pretty high.

20:19Well, let's talk about her neck brace. The neck brace was always fascinating. Yeah. You know, I don't have any notes about that, but you know, the indigenous tribes of the certain subtropical. I just thought it was cool. In countries, they have that kind of thing that's going on for fashion. And I always liked her hair. Yeah. She doesn't have the haircut anymore. She got married, I think. I feel weird looking at the hair Instagram now. There you go. Of course. I mean, this was a long time ago. All right. So basically, to play us out. To play us out. They're like, Neo, come to the party. And Neo's reluctant. Again, I think this is one of those classic movie, Journey, Hero's Journey moments. Well, she didn't ask him yet. It is quite Journey's Heroes. Oh, we didn't ask him yet. Okay, next episode then. Okay. Okay.

20:59Well, no, no, no. He does say here, you look like... You look like poo. Right? No, he just says you look white. Like, you need to unplug me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your makeup's wider than usual. Yeah, yeah. I heard this guy Tim is talking about your makeup. Look at my Oompa Loompa on the back. Look at his orange makeup. You gotta get some of that. All right. Well, that about covers everything I have for Minute 9 of The Matrix. It was a good minute. Oh, we forgot to put the titles. Okay. Well, we'll see you next time. What titles? Instead of saying Minute 9, we say the title of the episode. No, we don't say the title of the episode. We don't say no titles of the episode. We keep it loose. Fine. We keep it hanging down. Loose. Your pants are loose. They're going to fall. Your pants are loose. The ball side. Thank you, everybody.

21:39Please see me on Twitter, I guess. Phil Dragos. Or just, you know, check out the website or something. Follow me on Twitter at Jake Dragos. And follow me, if you please. If you can. If you may. At Timo Meyersky at Twitter. I program my if it to post my Instagrams to Twitter. So I can say my Twitter now instead of... Oh, perfection. Just going. All right, guys. We'll see you in the next episode. Perfection. Thanks. Thank you very much. We'll see you later. I apologize for my... British accent. That was terrible. I don't remember it. So I don't remember it.