Office Ladies - Office Ladies Do The Matrix

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

This week on Office Ladies 6.0 the ladies break down one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, The Matrix. In a dystopian future, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the chosen one and explores what the Matrix, a simulated reality created by machines that has trapped humanity, is and how to fight against it with the help of Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). Jenna talks about potential alternate casting of the movie, Angela shares an Office crossover with “The Matrix” and of course there’s some great moments celebrating Keanu. So do not try to bend the spoon, just enjoy “Office Ladies”!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTube Follow Us on TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, I'm inside. Hello? I'm inside. Anything to report? Let's see. The two hosts left home at 9 a.m. One forgot a jacket, the other forgot lunch. You're relieved. Just between you and me. You don't believe it, do you? You don't believe that these two are the ones. I think Morpheus believes they are.

I know, but what about you? Did you hear that? Hear what? Are you sure this line is clean? Of course I'm sure. I better go. Yeah, right. See on the other side, lady.

I'm Jenna Fisher and I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on the office together and we're best friends. And now we're doing the ultimate office lovers podcast just for you. Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews behind the scenes details and lots of BFF stories. We're the Office Lady 6.0. Hello, welcome to Office Lady 6.0, Angela, you are very excited about it. today because we re-watched one of your very most favorite movies. We did. And if I owned a pair of

black leather pants, I'd be wearing them. Well, I've got an interesting tidbit for you. Okay, good. I'll save it. Well, you guys, today we are discussing the Matrix, the first one in the series. The opening to this movie is so cool. I mean, it is just amazing. Remember, it's a screen full of green numbers, and they're scrolling, and they're beginning to form a pattern. And then we hear a conversation between two people. This movie had me from the get-go. Lady, do you know what I wrote down? As this movie came up on my screen, I wrote, I'm already excited just when I see the green Warner Brothers logo. Yes. And the Village Road Show logo, because they're all green and glitchy. Yes, that was a big deal. I saw this in the theaters. I'll get to that story. But the minute that

green WB logo came up, we're like, what? Well, what? It was already fun. I'm in. I'm in. Okay. Well, Angela, let's do. Let's jump in. I'm going to tell you some stuff about this movie. The Matrix was released in 1999. It won four Academy Awards. It is on all of the lists for greatest science fiction films of all time. In 2012, the Matrix was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry Archives. It is considered culturally, historically, historically, or aesthetically significant. Agree. Yeah. The Matrix was the highest grossing R-rated film in history, a title that it held for 13 years until Deadpool happened.

And for a movie that is rated R, The Matrix does not contain a single F-bomb. Or any nudity. Yeah. I mean, there's the thing in the pod, but you don't see anything. Correct. Now, normally I would give a summary here, but rather than listen to me, like, give you the plot of the matrix in seven sentences, I thought we should hear from Keanu. because Keanu spoke about what drew him into this movie and the themes of the movie so perfectly at an event. And here's what he had to say.

Okay. They had written something that I had never seen, but in a way, something that I'd always hoped for as an actor, as a fan of science fiction. The script that they wrote, synthesized to me, I'm going to be a little inside baseball here, as they say. But, I mean, it had Gibson. It had Vern. It had K. Dick, Frank Miller, anime, Kurosawa, Peckinpaw, it was Nietzsche. It was Buddha. It was Christ. It was themes and levels. It was dualities, modalities, realities, dreams, will, destiny, freedom, slavery, of the mind, of the body, the construct, who lives, who dies, identities, sexuality, viruses, and love. It was mythology, philosophy, technology, technology. and truth. What truth? I'm so turned on right now. I'm sorry. Did he just come up with that off the cuff? Yeah, he's not reading from anything. He's just talking. Hello. I'm sorry, I love a smart man.

I mean, that is a real high, how are you? Woo! Someone's getting a hot flash over here. Hello. And it's not the menopausal one. Hello. Okay. If you're wondering how Keanu could describe the themes of the movies so well, he said that before he was even a allowed to open the script, the Wachowski's had him read Simulacra and Simulation, out of control by Kevin Kelly, and introducing evolutionary psychology by Dylan Evans. I also read that they had the whole cast and crew read Simulacra and Simulation. Yeah, Carrie Ann Moss said that she had a hard time with it. Huh. Well, it feels a little dense. And I also think we might need to do some old school fast facts. Well, I've got a couple for you, and I know you have one. Should I kick us off? Yep. All right. Well, I'm calling fast fact number one casting trivia. Okay. We all know this movie stars Keanu Reeves as Neo,

Carrie Ann Moss's Trinity, and Lawrence Fishburn as Morpheus. There were other Neo's considered, if you can believe it. I can't. Go on. Will Smith was approached to play Neo, but he turned it down to star in Wild Wild West. And he has later, like famously talked about this choice, but he said, quote, I was not mature enough as an actor to do the role. Huh. And he said, if he would have gotten it, he would have messed it up. He said he has no regrets, and he thinks Keanu was brilliant as Neo. It's hard to picture anyone else being Neo.

Well, can you picture Johnny Depp? Because he was considered. How about Leonardo DiCaprio? No. Brad Pitt? No, Ewan McGregor? No. Mark Wahlberg.

No. Nicholas Cage. No. Lou Diamond Phillips was sent the script, but his agent told him the movie. would probably flop. Oh, no. Yeah. Also, John Cusack. Oh, no. This would be such a different movie. Yeah, I did see on Drew Barrymore that Madonna said she was offered the role of Trinity and passed. Oh, you know who else passed? Who? Sandra Bullock. No. Yes, so when Will Smith was offered Neo, she was offered Trinity. So she turned it down, and after she turned it down, Jada Pinkett Smith auditioned for Trinity.

So by this time, Keanu was cast as Neo. Got it. Jada Pinkett Smith and Keanu Reeves did a chemistry read, and she said they did not have the right chemistry. Here's what she said. Quote, Keanu and I did not click. We just didn't have any chemistry. But you know, she would later go on to star as Niobe and the Matrix Reloaded.

Yeah. I like that they kept her in the universe. They clearly liked her. Right. Yeah. Now, you mentioned Madonna. Very famously, Janet Jackson was approached for the role of Trinity. Wow.

And she wanted to do it, like really badly, but she had all these scheduling conflicts. In an interview, she said that turning down the role of Trinity was so difficult for her, and she later referenced the film in the intro and outro interludes on her 10th studio album, Discipline. Here's some other choices for Morpheus. Val Kilmer. Huh. Gary Oldman. Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Robert De Niro.

Huh. That's your casting trivia. I just can't imagine anyone else, but Keanu and Carrie Ann. For so many reasons. For so many reasons. That I'm going to talk about. Okay. Fastback number two.

This film is credited as being written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. However, in the year since the movie franchise came out, both have come out as trans women. They are Lana Wachowski and Lily Wachowski. And in 2020, Lily Wachowski did an interview with Netflix Film Club, and she said that The Matrix Films were an allegory for the transgender narrative. Here's a clip. We had, you know, the Matrix stuff was all like about the desire for transformation, but it was all coming from a closeted point of view. And so we had the character of Switch, who was like a character who would be, you know, a man in the real world or, and then

a woman in the Matrix, and, you know, that's both where our headspaces were. So, you know, ultimately, the character switch does not change from male to female. I guess the studio wasn't into that idea. But Lily said, quote, I'm glad that it has gotten out that this was the original intention. And I love how meaningful those films are to trans people and the way they come up to me and say, these movies changed my life. And lady, I was deep diving this, and there is a great article from NPR that goes deeper into the significance of the Matrix movies for people in the transgender community.

I found it to be really educational. We can link to it in our stories. And I just already love this movie so much. But then to hear the ways that it has comforted a marginalized community of people was really, really moving to me. I know I'm doing Fast Fact 3, and I had a clip that I was going to play at the end, but I kind of feel like I want to play it now. It's Keanu Reeves.

It was the 25th anniversary of The Matrix, and he's on Stephen Colbert. And Stephen Colbert is listing all of his movies, and he's like, we're going to do a rapid fire where I'm just going to say one of your movies and you tell me your favorite moment, like a meaningful moment from the movie, but rapid fire. So they do like point break, speed. And Keanu's giving just like, quick answer, quick answer. And then he goes, The Matrix. And it stops him.

And you have to hear this. The Matrix. Ah. We'll be right back after this. And we're back. The Matrix changed my life. And then over these years, it's changed so many other people's lives. in really positive in great ways.

And so as an artist to be, you hope for that when you get to do a film or tell a story. And so when you say these years and the amount of people that I've met who have said to me and been touched by The Matrix in such a positive way, it's the best. He was very.

visibly moved. And he couldn't rapid fire answer the Matrix. It literally took the wind out of him when Stephen Colbert said it. And I just thought that was really beautiful. And, you know, touches on what you were talking about, about how much it's meant to so many people. Yeah. It's like this blockbuster popcorn sci-fi movie, but it goes so much deeper than that for so many. It's really special. Really special. Well, now is my fastback three. You can't talk about The Matrix without discussing one of its sources of inspiration, and that is the 1995 Japanese anime movie Ghost in the Shell. There are many, many articles online about this,

and here's sort of an overview of what I found. According to The Guardian, when the Wachowski's were pitching the Matrix to their producers, they played them a DVD of an 82-minute Japanese cartoon and said, We want to do this, but for real. The film was Ghost in the Shell. It defined a visual identity for cyberpunk cinema. And there are big fans of this movie, James Cameron, Stephen Spielberg. Other articles said Ghost in the Shell influenced many of the movies you watch

and how we think about the future of technology and humanity for decades. The Wachowski's openly cited this movie as an inspiration for The Matrix. And there are several examples like the digital rain, those green numbers, that scroll in the sequence, that was in Ghost in the Shell. And according to this article, when you watch the Matrix version, there are reversed Japanese characters a shout out to the Ghost in the Shell. Oh, I love that lady. Yeah, and there's other things, too.

There are many similarities of the plug-in in the back of the neck, that famous Matrix lobby scene, and also the question of what is real and what is virtual and whether the difference even matters. Those themes are at the heart of both of these movies. Well, I love that. Well, you know, lady, there are four commentary tracks for this movie. There is a Philosopher's Commentary, a Critics Commentary, a cast and crew commentary with Carrie Ann Moss, Zach Steinberg, the editor, and John Getta, I don't know if I'm saying their names right, the visual effects artist. And there is also a composer commentary. And I watched

none of them. I watched none of them, lady, because I just wanted to watch the the movie, you know? I just wanted to enjoy it. And here's the thing, we are not the experts of this movie, and there are many people who know this movie backwards and forwards and every nuance of it. We are just your two favorite aunts who really wanted to watch The Matrix. There you go. And that's going to be our come from through this. We're going to have little things that we highlight here and there. And, you know, like you, Jenna, I saw some of these extras too. I was fascinated. There are many, many extras that are just all the action sequences. Yeah. I have. I I only had one that I really wanted to share about, and that's the pod.

We'll get to that. Lady, are you kidding me? That's the one I watched. I bet we watched the same one. Oh, I bet we did. Well, you know, when we decided to re-watch this for the podcast, my kids wanted to watch it with me. They're teenagers, you know? And it was so fun to watch this with Isbel and Jack.

They're 17, and this was just such a fun family watch. But that pod scene, they were both like, wait, what is happening? Yeah. Well, why don't we take a break and then we come back? We will start breaking down The Matrix. Yes, and you guys, I have a really fun The Office crossover to The Matrix, thanks to some deleted scenes from the finale that Dave Rogers helped me find. We'll be back. Hi, I'm Dr. Mary Claire Haver, a board certified OBGYN and menopause specialist. My new podcast, Un paused, is the place for bold, unfiltered conversations about what it really takes for women to thrive in the second half of life. Every week, I sit down with medical experts, cultural icons,

and powerhouse women to talk about what really matters, your health, your power, and your future. We're covering hormones, identity, finances, relationships, and so much more. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Unpaused with me, Dr. Mary Claire Haver, available now wherever you get your podcasts. All right, we are back. As you guys know, the Matrix came out in 1999. I wanted to share with you that I saw this movie opening weekend. I went with a huge group of friends, both from my improv and sketch comedy classes.

We all went as a group. We saw it at Man's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. And at Man's Chinese Theater at this time, you didn't get assigned seats with your ticket. You know, you had to line up outside. And the line went outside and around the front. corner. And we went early to stand in line. And there was just such this buzz. And our tickets were like for like the 11 o'clock screening. It was like the late screening. It was totally sold out. And I'll just never forget the moment. And there's one thing I'm going to share later when we get to

like something that happened in the theater when something happened on screen. But just the buzz, like you said, Jenna, like seeing the green Warner Brothers logo, being in that full crowd, we had no idea what to expect. No one had seen this kind of movie making or technology. And I think about that. We all have movies that we went and saw at the theater that you will never forget. And that was this one for me. Yeah, you know, for me, that movie is Jurassic Park. Oh, yeah. I saw it by myself in a theater. I was doing summer stock theater in Kansas. And I had a day off. And I was like, I want to see this movie everyone's talking about. Oh, my God. It scared the bejesus on me. And the effects were so cool.

But yes, I love that this was one of those movies for you. Yeah. Well, listen, Angie, you played the beginning of this movie in our top of show. Here's what's going to happen. After you hear that little conversation, we see armed men who are going to, like, start flooding a dark hallway. They're after someone. They bust open the store, and we see this woman. From the back, sitting at a chair.

Yes, facing the wall, dressed in. head to toe leather. They tell her to put her hands up, and she does. She's about to open a can of whoop ass. She is. Well, this is one of my favorite moments. When we go outside and there's all these special agents who have arrived and they're talking to cops, we don't know who anybody is. We don't know if she's good. We don't know if she's bad. Jurisdiction, my ass. He said something like that. The old cop, the agent's like, um. Yeah, he's like, I think we can handle one little girl. And the special agents are like, no, lieutenant, your men are already dead. And then it cuts to her.

And she is kicking everyone's ass. I need to point out three minutes, 21 seconds. Her high kick that knocks the man out behind her? Yeah, she kicks to the front, but it's like she kicks over her shoulder into his face. And hits his head. Yeah. He's behind her. It's pretty amazing.

It's amazing. I guess this opening action sequence took six months of training. and it took four days to shoot six months man have you ever had to train to do a movie have you trained for something look at me but i mean anything look at me anything five one i don't know i had to learn how to ice skate for blades of glory that's a kind of training i learned guitar for walk hard even though i never played in the movie yeah have you ever learned a skill or trained i had to make a lot of ham sandwiches um for what project my homework Christmas movie. We had like a sandwich line, like an assembly line. So do you make a great ham

sandwich now? I mean, better than in the movie. Is your ham sandwich as good as Carrie Ann Moss's kick to the guy in the head? Like, is it comparable? I could kick my ham sandwich. Like, she'd kick that chair and take out three people. Amazing. Amazing. Well, in the scene, Trinity is going to call Morpheus. And she's going to say, listen, the line was tapped, you know, and they're coming for me. and he tells her a phone that she's got to get to, right? Yeah, this phone booth. This phone booth. And they are coming for her, and the agents are there, and they're running after her,

and she goes flying down the stairway, she lands on her back, and she looks up at the door, just like waiting, are they there? Are they about to get me? And she lays there for a minute, and Carrie Ann Moss, in one moment, is so powerful and vulnerable. Mm-hmm. I know the moment you're talking about. Yeah. I think about it.

when she goes, get up, Trinity. Get up. Well, listen, she's going to get to this phone booth on the street, but the agents are going to ram it with a truck. But guess what? She disappeared. She got out. We don't know what that means yet.

But I remember this opening sequence. And I was like, what the fuck is this movie? What is happening? I am so in. Right? First of all, it opened with an ass-kicking woman. Yeah. And some badass-looking pants.

Yeah. And then all of this and that she disappeared. Here's amazing. Amazing. Well, now we're going to see more green code. Mm-hmm. And we're going to go to the small cluttered apartment of Thomas Anderson, aka Neo. Yeah.

Lady, here's what I wrote in my document. What? Good Lord, Keanu is beautiful. Yeah, he's beautiful. Beautiful. He's beautiful. You know what I wrote? What?

Neo, clean up your apartment. It's kind of messy. You know what? I don't care about your mess, Neo. I know. I say that, but I actually do. You do care about the mess. I wouldn't be able to date Neo in his current apartment.

Not right there. No. Too cluttered. Well, beautiful sleeping Neo next to him is a computer screen. And we're going to hear a ping. And there's a message that says, wake up Neo on his computer. Yeah. Yeah.

And then it says, The Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit. He's like, what? And it says, knock, knock, Neo. And there's a knock at the door. And then he looks at the door, and he looks back at his computer screen, and now it's blank. Well, it's this guy at the door, and I guess he gives Neo a bunch of cash for some kind of disc. I'm assuming this is like a hacker thing.

Yeah, this is like Neo's side hustle, right? Right. And he goes to get the disc out of a book, and guess what the book is? What? Some Alarka. Oh! And simulation. It's all hollowed out, though.

It's hollowed out. And the chapter that's hollowed out says, on nihilism. Oh. Yeah. I bet that means something. It's an Easter egg. Not smart enough to know. Well, these guys are going to invite Neo to come out with them because they say, you don't look great, buddy. You need to unplug, you know, get some R&R. He's like, no. But then this awesome punk rock looking chick is like, come on. You should go. She's all pouty. Yeah. And she puts her arm up and she's got a white rabbit tattoo on her shoulder. Follow the white rabbit. So Neil's like, okay, I'm in. Would you go? Yeah, I would. You would if you saw the tattoo? Yeah, I would.

I think I would, too. Yeah. Okay. Well, where they go is like a really loud club. There's music thumping. It's like heavy metal. There's cages, like strobe lights, lots of leather. Maybe some S&M.

Lady, can I tell you? What are you going to say? My son turned to me and said, this is how he unplugs. It does not look relaxing. I was going to ask you if this place reminded you of, anything because I saw the scene and my first thought was Keanu is in a lot of movies that have scenes and rave bars. Oh yeah. I mean all of John Wick. But I have personally never been to a bar like this in my life. Have you? Well, yeah, maybe one time. I wonder if it's the same time because...

Let's say it at the same time. Okay. One, two, three. My bachelorette. But we hadn't planned on going there. Remember, we went out to dinner and then you're like, let's go dancing. And then I called a friend who was like, oh, I can get you into a club. Yeah. We didn't know anything about this club. Well, and it wasn't like a punk rock underground dance club. It was more of a, I don't know what you call it. Viby.

It was lots of like. It was vibier. Yeah. And we were not dressed for it. We were dressed for like a ladies dinner. And then we saw that like really big actor who shall go unnamed, who was kind of a creep. And he had a ridiculous hat on.

I remember I was like, your hat's ridiculous. And I swear to God he was there alone. He was. He was there alone, and he was just dancing up on women. Yes. Yes. And I stood up. This is my memory.

I stood up on the back. We were in, like, a booth that had, like, no back. You know what I mean? I do, because at one point, someone sat on the back of it and fell off. No, no, no. I stood on top of it to dance. Oh. And I fell off.

And I jumped right back up. And then people cheered. Well. Neo is like off to the side wondering why he was supposed to come here and he is approached by Trinity. He's like, you're the Z Trinity, the one that cracked the IRS D base. She's like, that was a long time ago. He's like, I thought you were a man. She's like, most guys do.

He realizes now it was her communicating through the computer. He's like, how did you do that? This is what I call sexy whisper time. Oh, yeah. She gets right up in his ear. Uh-huh. And she's like, hey, she needs. knows that he's been looking for Morpheus because she was once in the same position because he

wants the answer to the question, what is the matrix? It's just like two gorgeous people whispering to each other. Yeah, two gorgeous people in a rave. Whispering. Well, now it cuts to the next morning. Neo has overslept his alarm. He's late for work. Yep. And then he's at work and he's just got this really boring boss, like telling him that he needs to do better. The whole time there's these window washers. It really stressed me out. Yeah, because they're like screechies, creed. Yeah. Well, she sort of said something that has gotten him on high alert. What did Trinity say to him in the club? She says they're watching you. She says, I've been brought here to warn you. Yeah. So he's in his head. He is. His boss is going to be like, you have a choice, be on time for work or find another job. And I noticed

the language in the scene is about Neo having a choice. And he's going to have another choice soon. And I just found that very interesting, these choices of like, toe the line or this. Yeah. Mm-hmm. He ends up at his tiny depressing cubicle and a FedEx delivery guy comes. I want to give him a shout out. He was played by David O'Connor, and I just wanted to say that because we never see the guy's face.

Yeah, he's just business. Although he does tell Neo to have a nice. day and that like freaks out Neo. Do you see his face? He's like, why is he telling me to have a nice day? I know. In the package is a Nokia cell phone. It rings and then he clicks it open and it makes such a satisfying click. It really made me miss my old flip phone. I have a fun fact about that phone, lady. Okay. Okay. So that is a Nokia 8110 cell phone. And at that time, it had no spring mechanism on the little receiver part that was added for the movie. And that feature became so popular from people who were watching the movie that Nokia added it. Well, I'm here for it. I liked the

click. I missed those kind of phones. Guess who's on the phone? Morpheus. Yep. I looked up what Morpheus means. What's it mean? Greek god of dreams. Oh. Are you in a dream state? Are you awake, Neo. Right now, he's sort of has one foot in each place. Morpheus is really calm, but he says, listen, they're coming for you, stand up slowly. Yeah, you're going to see some agents. Yeah. And listen to me, I'm going to get you out of here, but you got to get down low and I'm going to guide you out to this balcony and then you're going to have to shimmy like on the side of a building and then get on, what is that, the windshield, washer thing.

Yeah. And he's like, what? Lady, I read that Keanu Reeves actually climbed out of a real window that was 34 floors up without a stunt man. Keanu, stop it. That was just a building in Australia. They shot this in Australia. I don't know.

Well. Well, he's like, F this. He goes back in the window and now you see him being escorted out of the building in handcuffs. They got them. They got them. Trinity is watching. She's on her motorcycle.

Yeah. She sees it all. Damn it. Yeah, shit. Mm-hmm. Now, Neo is in a cold, sterile room. He's being interrogated. Yeah, this agent drops a big folder on him on the desk and slowly opens it.

I have to give a shout out to Hugo Weaving, who plays Agent Smith. He is one of my favorite characters, and I feel like watching this performance is like taking a master class in acting, everything he does with his face, and in particular the cadence in which he speaks. It is such a discipline, nuanced performance. And I just want to play, like, a minute of him talking so you can just hear how thoughtful he is as a performer and how he's created how Agent Smith speaks. Okay. As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're Thomas A. Anderson.

program writer for a respectable software company. You have a social security number, you pay your taxes, and you help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and a lot of them does not.

Okay, I'm so glad you played that clip because also that's another example of you have a choice between two lives. And I'm really seeing the allegory here. Yeah. Because it's either like a life within the expected boundaries or you will suffer. Yeah. But he wants to live the other life. He does. He wants the truthful life.

It is not his truth to be at this stupid job. No. It's his truth to be a computer hacker, to be real, to be authentic. And he's a creative person. He's looking for that outlet. But come on, Hugo Weaving. Come on. So good.

So good. Neo is going to give him the finger. Yeah. And then they're going to just really freak him out because they seal his mouth shut. They do. With his own skin. Yeah. That was so freaky when I saw that the first time.

And then they were just. restrain him, and they open up his shirt, and they get out like this mechanical bug. It's so disgusting. It looks like a part spider, part scorpion kind of thing, and it goes into his belly button. You never want anything to go into your belly button. And it disappears. It's so gross. And I titled that scene, hell no.

Yeah. Well, here's the thing. They want Neo to help them find Morpheus. That's right. And since he won't do it, now they're going to track him. Mm-hmm. All right. Well, Neo is going to wake up in bed. It was all a dream. That's what he thinks. Yeah, a horrible dream. Oh, God. Yes. And it's raining outside. His phone rings. It's Morpheus. It wasn't a dream. Morpheus just flat out says, Neo, you're the one on the phone call. I've been looking for you my whole life.

And if they knew how important you were, you'd be dead. Yeah. You know, Neo is an anagram for one. Yeah. And his apartment number is number 101, which can also be seen as a binary number, because the O's and the ones are used by computers to store information. 101 is also the binary representation of the number five, which in computing is the sixth number as counting begins from zero. And some people see symbolism in this as the three films are set in the six iteration of the matrix, and Neo is the sixth person to be the quote one, because Zion has been destroyed five times before.

Wow. Yeah. These are things we found online. Well, Morpheus tells Neo to go meet him at the Adam Street Bridge. Didn't you love this opening shot of just that rain pouring over the bridge and him standing under it? A car is going to pull up. Trinity is inside and there's also two other people in the car in the front seat. It's Apoc and Switch. They want him to take a shirt off because they think he's bugged. I mean, she pulls out a gun. Switch pulls out a gun and says take your shirt off

because they have to make sure he's not bugged. Yeah. And she's like, look, there's only one rule right now. Our way or the highway. Neil was like, fine. And he's like, fine. And he's, He starts to get out of the car. One of my favorite Trinity quotes right here. What is it? She says, please, Neo, you have to trust me. Because you've been down there, Neo. You know that road.

You know exactly where it ends. And I know that's not where you want to be. I like the metaphor. He stays in the car. He does. At 23 minutes and 46 seconds, when Neo looks out the window to look down the road, you can see Keanu has two ear piercings in his left ear. Oh.

I looked it up. There are many pictures of him in the 80s with two earrings in his left ear. I did the same thing. Did you do that, lady? I did not. I just have a single piercing in both ears. I have two piercings in both ears, and I never put anything in the second one. Does it still work?

Or has it closed up? I think it's half. I'm not going to try it. Yeah, you'd have to poke through that. Yeah. You don't want to do that. Not interested. Well, here's what I noticed in the backseat of this car.

We're really seeing Trinity and Neo side by side here. Yeah. And because it's been raining, Neo's hair is kind of wet and slick, which is very similar to Trinity. And I was like, Neo and Trinity look very similar. And I wondered if this was intentional. I think so. It was.

Yeah. I guess it is supposed to symbolize their interconnectedness and the idea that they are two halves of a whole. Mm-hmm. It's also supposed to show that they become stronger together. And some say, though, that all of the characters in the movie are actually part of Neo. So they say Cypher, who we haven't met yet, but who's like the back. guy is Neo's id and his doubt. A cipher is literally a secret. That's what that means.

Morpheus represents his super ego. And Trinity is Neo's self-actualization. Trinity is the person that Neo wishes to be. So, which makes sense to me because when I was looking at them side by side in the car, I was like, oh, she is a little bit like Neo 2.0. Like he's in cotton. She's Leather. You know, his hair is sort of messy wet. Hers is like slick wet. Right? Like she's like the polished version. Yeah. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of theories. A lot of symbolism. I do like this idea of like, you know, those couples that are so happy and they're old and they just start to dress alike. That's me and Lee. Are you starting to dress alike? Oh, lady. We have very often like gotten dressed separately and then we meet downstairs and we're in like the

same color tones, same general idea, we're very matchy. That is so cute. You and Josh or no? No, because Josh is too. He's sporty. He's so sporty. Yeah. Well, I guess Lee and I are our own version of Neo and Trinity.

There you go. I'll take it. There you go. Well, guess what? Trinity finds the bug. She really grossly, this thing gets sucked out of his belly. button, and then they toss it on the street, and the little red eye on it slowly goes out. So now they're going to take Neo to this broken down sort of house place thing.

Nice description. You know what? I was like, I guess they have to always hide out, but like everywhere they are, it's falling apart. To me, it looks like an abandoned building. Sure. Okay. Right before they walk in the door, she says, listen, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. be honest. He knows more than you can imagine. And then Neo opens the door and there's this dimly lit room.

It looks like a living room. There's these like old weathered leather chairs with a coffee table in the middle. Yeah, but like the plaster's coming off the wall. It's like it's, it's busting. Shabby. It's a little busted. But there is Morpheus and he says, at last, welcome Neo. As you no doubt, have guessed, I am Morpheus. Neo shakes his hand. He says it's an honor to meet you. Yeah, he asks Neo if he believes in fate. And Neo says, no, because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life. Uh-oh, Neo. And then he says, do you want me to tell you what The Matrix is?

And I got an audio clip. I thought we should hear it. The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room, you can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work. When you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. What truth? That you are a slave, Neo.

Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison. into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if someone said that to you, I don't even know what to do with that information, I'd be like, what? What? Yeah.

And then he says, but no one can really be told what the Matrix is, you have to see it for yourself. Yeah. So he presents Neo with two pills, one red and one blue. He can either take the red pill to learn the truth or take the blue pill and just return to his old life. He will have forgotten everything. Yeah. Yeah. Which one do you take?

Well, listen, if I had just had a robotic scorpion sucked out of my belly button, I'd take the pill. You would. You would learn the truth. You take the red pill. I would. Sam, Cassie, which pill are you taking? I agree with Angela. I'd want to know what's going on after that traumatic experience.

Yeah, I'd take the red. Jenna? I was going to say blue. But now that you put it into that context, and I'm realizing my moment before, I think maybe I would probably want to take the red. But in general, I don't want to take either pill. Right. I don't want to take any pills from anyone.

I only want to take pills that were prescribed by my doctor. doctor. Now, listen, you know what I'm saying? You're stepping out of the movie now. But I'm suspicious. I know, but you're stepping into like mom out of the movie. Like, don't take something anyone hands you. I get that. We're in the matrix. A robot scorpion just came out of your belly button. You got a table the mom thought for a moment. Well, Jenna, is this because he doesn't offer him a glass of water? There's water on the table next to him. There's a full glass of water. Well, I know what pill Dwight would take. You do? I do. Here is what I teased at the top of our breakdown. When we were revisiting the finale

for our rewatch, I found a few pictures of a warehouse set up to look like this very scene with the leather, distressed chairs on the coffee table, and there sitting in the room were Hank and Dwight. They were photographed. There was an on-set photographer. These pictures I found on the NBC website. Did they immediately look like the Matrix? Were you like, what's going on? The looks like the Matrix? Oh, it's 100% the Matrix. So I remember going to the deleted scenes for the finale, and they weren't in there. And I saved these pictures. And when we decided to rewatch the Matrix, I reached out to Dave Rogers, and I sent him one of the pictures. And I was like, what is this about? Like, they're not in deleted scenes. I'm trying to find it in a shooting draft. And he said,

actually, this was a cold open that we shot. And then I found it in the very first table draft script, lady, and I read it. And not only am I going to read you the setup for the scene, I'm also going to play part of it for you. I love this. Interior Dwight's office morning. Dwight works all business. He glances out to the bullpen and sees a black cat run by his door. Dwight registers this as odd, but lets it go. A beat later, the same cat crosses the same exact way. Dwight leans back. He seems shaken. Jim and Pam joint talking head. Jim. What's the cat about? Fair question. The last few months, Dwight's been running things well. Business is booming. All is good. Then a little voice inside me said, Jim, what about the pranks? And then Jim goes on to share maybe one last big one.

And Pam says that's when we knew somehow he had to get Dwight into the Matrix. Oh my gosh, this is a huge gym prank. Huge gym prank that Pam is in on. Pam, we find out, learns to train the cats to do this move. Jim does a whole bunch of stuff on Dwight's computer, kind of like the way Trinity reached out to him. This is a very long cold open. It's like five minutes long. Dave Rogers said he's actually going to put it back in. It's going to be in the super fan version of the finale.

Oh, that's so fun. I know. But for now, part of it does live online. I found it on YouTube. And I just want you to hear the moment. they have convinced Dwight that the Matrix is real and he's gone to meet Hank

who's playing, well, you'll hear. Hello? Meet me in the warehouse. But watch out for the men in reception. There's no men. It was... Meet me in the warehouse. Hank?

That is the name I allowed you to know me by, while I watched over you, waiting for the time to approach. That time has come. And now, you may know my real name, Dorpheus. Dorpheus? I'm Morpheus's brother. But the Matrix isn't real. It's a trilogy of flawless, life-changing films, and an online game. The first Matrix movie was a program written by my team to prepare people for the truth.

But then the machines countered with their own program to make it seem as if a peace was achieved. So there is no peace? There is not. Oh, that is terrible news. Dwight, we need your help. I would like you to join my underground army and help us wage war for the freedom of all humankind. Hank is good on his feet.

Right? I told you he'd nail it. If you take the blue pill, you will stay in the Matrix. You will remember none of this. Life will go on as it is for you. If you take the red pill, I will open your eyes and you will see just how deep the rabbit hole goes I'll take the blue pill

wait now the blue will keep you in the program the red's the cool one I understand I'd like the blue pill please well maybe I didn't explain myself clearly if you were very clear it's just you know I really appreciate the work that you and your brother are doing appreciates too small a word, but the timing is terrible right now. They just promoted me to manager. Plus, I own this building, I run a very substantial farm, and I'm getting married soon to a woman I love.

And okay, yeah, maybe that love is just zeros and ones, but I don't want to lose it. No one hates machines more than me. But I'm happy. I'm truly happy. Are you kidding me? I hired 30 people. The blue pill?

I did not see that coming. I know. Dwight takes the blue pill because he wants to stay happy. He loves his life. And you know, you can hear Jim and Pam because they're watching it like on a monitor. Yeah. But yeah. It was an elaborate prank.

I mean, I don't know how much money Jim spent on that one. Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. He hired 30 people. 30 people. So there you go. A little The Office, the Matrix crossover. Well, I love that lady. Why don't we take a break? And when we come back, we'll talk about which pill Neo chose. Yeah. All right, everyone, we are back. And guess what? Neo takes the red pill.

Yeah. And then Morpheus takes them into this sort of back. Macroom that's got a lot of computers and gadgets and stuff. Yeah, they hook them up to, like, it seems like, an EKG kind of a machine. They're going to have to keep an eye on his vital signs because as this virtual world starts to break down in front of his eyes, like literally, like the mirror becomes all gummy that he's looking at, they need to make sure that he doesn't, like, freak himself out so much that he, like. Goes into shock or something. Yeah, exactly.

heart stops. Well, Morpheus says, look, the pill you took as part of a tracing program. It's designed to disrupt your input, output carrier signals so they can pinpoint his location in the pod field. The pod field. Yeah, because that's where he really is. And we're going to see him wake up in this pod of goo. Of goo with all these tubes and... He's naked? He's naked. This scene is so amazing. It's something I still think about. like this scene? Yeah, I mean, this big mechanical bug comes over and it starts to like choke him, but then it starts, all the tubes that are attached him start popping off.

Oh, lady. And listen, I know that I said I wasn't going to look stuff up, but I looked this up. Me too, because the scene is just bonkers. It's so cool. Did you watch the YouTube video about how they did this scene? Did we watch the same thing? I think we did. With the water slide?

They built a slide. I just want to share what a phenomenal physical actor, Keanu is. Oh, yeah, that's him in the pod. That's him in the pod. That spider thing that detaches him didn't exist. There wasn't even like a thing with tennis balls on it. Yeah. There was nothing grabbing his neck at all.

He just is reacting, like they're calling out different things for him. He's reacting to nothing. Yeah. Even so much so, like when he grabs like around his neck, when it claws around his neck. Yeah, that's what I was saying. grabbing nothing. And the whole time he's in this pod and they're doing different takes. There's someone with a bucket, a literal bucket of clear goo that they're dumping on him. Yeah, they're just slopping the goo back on. Did you read that Keanu shaved his entire body,

including his eyebrows and lost 15 pounds for this part of the movie? Yes, I did. That's crazy. And that this scene concluded principal photography for the movie. Well, that makes sense. Yeah, because he had to shave his body. Yeah. And he really went down the tube into the water. They made this whole water slide. And when I was watching it, I was like, wait, two people come out the bottom, Keanu and then a guy with a camera, I think. Like there was a cameraman who went down the slide with him, which is crazy. Amazing. I mean, how was your day at work, babe? I went down a goose slide. So here's the thing. There's all this physicality happening. But at the same time, there's also this. real realization is he looks over the edge and he sees pod after pod after pod and these machines

kind of tending to them there's little tiny spider ones there's the big ones yeah it's like a whole system of machines harvesting humans and i found this really great account called the art of storytelling and he sums up this moment and i want to share it with you okay quote so in the span of two and a half minutes, we've witnessed the birth of a prophet, a nightmarish vision of man's self-destruction, and a fragile hope for the salvation of humanity, all without a single word of dialogue, relying only on the artistry and ingenuity of production designers, VFX artists, musicians, sound designers, editors, and of course the incredible dedication of Keanu Reeves. If this scene isn't a master class in how to affect an audience using the medium of

of cinema. I don't know what is. Mike drop. Great YouTube summary of the scene. I'll share in our stories. Well, now Neo is brought aboard a ship. This is the real world. He's greeted by Morpheus and Trinity. And, you know, he's like, am I dead? And they're like, you're not dead. Yeah. The ship is the Nebuchadnezzar, which means protect my air. Okay. How about that? He has to get strong. He's going to get so much acupuncture. You've never seen someone with so much acupuncture in your life. They're rebuilding his muscles. They've atrophied. I've been getting acupuncture lady. You've really loved it. For my hot flashes. Okay, because I'm taking tamoxifen for my breast cancer treatment and a big side effect is hot flashes and I can't take anything for them. When you go

into menopause, you can do like hormone replacement therapy. I can't. The whole point of the medicine I'm taking is to unreplace my hormones, right, to suppress my estrogen. So I am white knuckle my way through this, and the hot flashes are so bad. And I started going to acupuncture, and I love it. You said they've, like, stopped. They have stopped. Stop. That's crazy. I used to wake up four to five times a night, completely drenched. So I'm sitting there. I'm watching Neo with his 25,000 acupuncture needles, and I'm thinking, Neo, you're going to be great. This is going to work out for you. Trust me. Trust me. And you're not going to have hot flashes. He's not going to have any.

He does say, why do my eyes hurt? Because they've never seen anything before. Morpheus says you've never used them before. Yeah. How crazy is that? I know. So now some time has passed and Neo is going to wake up. He's dressed.

He's on a cot of some sort. And I have to say something here. Okay. So they can create so many things in this world. Is it about his wardrobe? Why can't they make a sweater without a hole in it? I think. Why? I said, I said, why does everyone have like an old pair of long johns, like kind of waffoly, long sleeve, and they all have holes?

This was my big complaint about The Last of Us. This was very hard for me on The Last of Us. I understand that the virus, you know, took over and we've had to sort of like live behind walls in these little makeshift communities. But did we lose our ability to sweep a floor or dust a shelf? But by the way, we have made matching outfits for people in the government and our new government, and we've made new currency. Okay, okay. And all kinds of badges and things. Where? Where are we making those? And yet, in the place that we're living all the time, no one swept a floor.

I didn't get it. Like, why? Everything was, it was so dirty. No, I know. You know what I'm saying? And by the way, we're going to get to the food. I have the same complaint about the food. There's no sun.

Okay. They don't have access, I think, to animals, right? Okay, maybe. We don't know because we haven't seen Zion. Right. We don't know what's there. Zion's in the middle of the earth where it's still warm, a little bit warm. Yeah.

So maybe they do have to recycle their clothes. From back in yield in times. Maybe so. But still. Well, we can't darn a hole in a sweater. Maybe we could sew. That's what I mean. We can't take our patches of fabric that we have left.

and turn it into something better, we've lost our ability to sew. We do learn from Morpheus that this real world, they're sort of in the desert of what's left. It's very drab. It's dark. It's dreary. They only have bits and pieces of information. But from what they can tell, it looks like they gave birth to AI. Neo's like AI. You mean artificial intelligence. Lady, this movie came out 26 years ago. Lady, I wrote, holy shitballs, this AI storyline is even more frightening. Yeah. When I listened to this speech.

Because here we are, and it's just the topic of everything. Like, AI is everywhere now. Yes, Morpheus explains that we created AI, and then AI got so smart, it took over. There was a big battle between humans and machines. Yeah. And at the time, humans thought the AI was dependent on solar power, so they scorched the sun. Basically. Basically.

But as it turns out, fate, he says, is not without a sense of irony. because they figured out how to have energy by using humans, like human batteries. Yeah, human beings are the batteries that now keep the machines alive. I thought this was ironic because our AI actually needs to be cooled down. With a lot of water. Yeah. So, like, how do we power it? I don't know.

I don't know. We have to cool it down. We have to cool it down and in the process our planet's warming up. Yeah, and we're wasting our water on it. There's a lot we don't know. We don't know. I don't need my phone to summarize my text messages. Is that AI?

Stop it. Yeah. Every time I go to write a word document now, it like begins with like an, if I'm asking me if I want AI to help me. But lady, I just saw this thing. I'm going to read it since we're on the subject because I screen grabbed it because it like haunted me so. And it's about AI. Okay, they did a study of people who were using chat. GPT. And they found that 83.3% of people using chat GPT couldn't remember what they wrote minutes

after they finished writing it. Of course not. Yeah. Also, when researchers asked chat GPT users to write without any AI help, they did worse than people who had never used AI before. So in this control group, the people who use chat GPT longer, it created a type of, like, dependency and cognitive atrophy. Yeah, what does that look like for the long term of your brain? Your brain is like, literally like, oh, you don't need me? I'm going to piece out. Yeah, basically. Well, anyway, in this world, AI has like taken humans captive and are using us as batteries. This is how bad it can get. Neo doesn't want to believe it. He's like, it's not possible. Morpheus is like, look, I didn't say it would be easy. I just said it would be the truth. And then he sort of apologizes to

Neo. He's like, we never free a mind once it's reached a certain age. It's dangerous. The mind has trouble letting go. But I had to do it. I had to because you are the one. Yeah. And we find out that there has been other quote unquote ones. There was a man born inside the matrix and he could change and remake the matrix however he wanted. And that man died. Because it was prophesized when that man died that he would return. And Morpheus has spent his whole life looking for Neo. Yeah, because it is prophesized that Neo would bring on the destruction of the matrix. So that's a lot for him to absorb and he goes to bed. The next day we wake up, tanks in his room. I love Tank. I love Tank. I love Tank. He just likes it.

lights up the screen. Marcus Chong plays Tank. He just owns the scene. He's so excited to help Neo-Train. He's going to be his operator. We learned that Tank and his brother Dozer, they're 100% homegrown. Yeah, they don't have any, like, little spickets on them. They have no spikets.

They're never been in a pod. They are children of Zion. I have a question. Do we ever see Zion in any of the sequels? Yes, we do. I can't remember. We do. And people are happy and dancing, and they get it on.

Are there animals there? I don't remember. How are they dressed in Zion? Like this. It's all like shades of beige. Okay. Some not wearing a lot. There is sort of like a rave at Zion and dance.

It is like. What movie is this? Things are bumping. I have no doubt that Tank and Dozer are homegrown because I think people in Zion are, they're happy. Okay. They get it on, is all I'm going to say. Well, now Neo's training is going to begin, and this is the awesome part of this movie where they can just upload knowledge right into his head.

He downloads stuff for 10 hours straight. Yeah. That's a long time. There are many famous lines in this training scene. Number one, I know Kung Fu. Yes. Next one. Oh, this one's so good.

When they're in the simulation, him and Morpheus are fighting in the dojo. Oh, yeah. And he's kind of getting winded, Neo's winded. And Morpheus goes, do you think that is air you're breathing? I thought that was so good. Yeah. And then, of course, don't think you are, know you are. you have to let it all go, fear, doubt, and disbelief, free your mind.

This sort of sequence between Morpheus and Neo is so freaking cool. It's really cool. I have to ask you if you could have stuff just like uploaded into your brain. I have that in my thing to ask you. Okay. Do you have an answer? I was going to ask you when Trinity learns to fly the helicopter. Because when that happened, my daughter turned to me and goes, oh, that, now that is cool.

Like, just like that, you can fly a helicopter. All right. I do, I mean, I think there'd be so many things. But one of the things I would love is be able to speak any language anywhere, instantaneously. That was my first thought. It was either language or musical instruments. Oh, yeah. That's interesting.

We both had language. Sam, do you have anything you would want to upload immediately? Probably just learning other languages. Oh, that's what we said. Yeah, that's it. Cassie? I mean, that's, I feel like that's a great superpowers. Oh, I like this for us, you guys.

We would all be able to talk. We could all travel. Yes. Well, Word gets out pretty quick on the ship that Morpheus and Neo are in this simulation fighting and they all want to come watch. They can't believe how fast like Neos like brainwaves and stuff are moving. And Morphe's like, okay, it's time for the jump. Yeah, this is the simulation where Neo is going to have to jump from one building to another building.

Seems very quick in his training that they've already gone to the jump. And they're all like, no one ever makes the jump on the first time. No one makes it. Yeah. And Neo does not make it. He doesn't. And in fact, when they come back to the real world, he has like a little bit of blood on his lip. And he's confused by that. He's like, I thought you said the simulation isn't real. And Morpheus says your mind makes it real. So if you die in the matrix, you die in real life because the body cannot live without the mind. unless you see through the matrix. Well, don't give away the end. Pretend like you didn't hear that, everybody. All right, so Trinity is going to bring dinner to a sleeping Neo.

And as she's exiting the room, Cipher is waiting outside. You mean creepy, Cipher? Yeah, so creepy. He's like, you never brought me dinner. Me. Yeah. And then, you know. Cipher is like, why isn't he taking him to meet the Oracle?

All right, Cipher. me think thou does protest too much. Why do you want them back out in the world so quick? Oh, yeah. I know. Exactly. Well, listen, the training isn't done yet. They're not ready to go back into the Matrix and meet the Oracle because Neo has more to learn. He has to learn that anybody can be an agent. Yeah, they're all connected. Yeah. And so many people have been in the Matrix for so long. Either they're not ready to know the truth or they don't want to know the truth and then they fight against it, and that means they fight against you. This is proven to Neo because there's like all of these dudes walking around. Everyone's wearing drab clothes in the simulation, and then this

gorgeous gal and a red dress walks by, and he turns his head and boom like that, she's an agent. Yeah, with a gun in his face. Yeah. Morphus is like, freeze. And everybody freezes except for the two of them. But Tank is like, guys, we got to get you out. We're in trouble. A squitty is coming. In the real world, they got to get them out of the simulation because in the real world, there's this killing machine, it's a sentinel, and it's in hot pursuit of their ship, and they have to hide from it. They're like in the sewer system of the old cities. Yeah.

And they have this one defense against the Squitties, which is an electromagnetic pulse. Yeah. Because they will disable all electric systems in the blast radius of this thing. But like you can't, you don't want to use it. It's last case scenario. It's like the red switch. You don't, you know, want to do it. You don't.

Mm-mm. Well, it's nighttime on the ship, and Neo is going to enter the room where Cipher is coding. And they're having a little, I guess, chit-chat. Cypher's like, oh, why didn't we take the blue pill? And he's like drinking some homegrown booze. And you can just tell he's not happy. He wants out. Yeah.

Now we're going to cut to Cipher, like sitting at a very nice dining table with some steak. It's a steakhouse. It's clearly a flashback to what he was up to. Yeah. Guess what he's up to? He's a mole. He's an inside man. He's a double agent.

He has made a deal to deliver Morpheus. They're like agents want him to give the location of Zion so they can like destroy it. Yeah. So they can get in it. And he's like, I don't have that, but I'll give you Morpheus. Morpheus has it. So he's agreed to deliver Morpheus to these guys. And then in exchange, they're going to, like, re-insert him into the Matrix.

How? He's not thinking this through. Well, he said, I don't want to remember anything. And I want to be someone important, someone rich, like an actor. But he's eating the steak. I'm just curious how they re-insert him in a pot. How do they plug him back in? All the holes in his arms?

How do they do all that again? I mean, I don't know. Cypher, I don't think it's possible. And I think you're an idiot. Yeah. Do you think they're just going to kill them after they get the information they want? 100%. Okay, you're right.

Now we go from this beautiful steak to this disgusting ship slop. It's like white, gooey, gummy. It looks like a bunch of glue and some, like, shredded paper and water, maybe. I ask again, why? Why is the food so crappy? I mean, okay, let's say they can't make better food. We know they can make pills. Can they not just get the nutrients they need?

Also, why is everything beige? They have dye for the pills. Can't you have like a blue blouse? So you're back on the clothes. Sorry. I'm like, why does the food look like vomit? I don't know. Well, Morpheus is going to say it's time to bring Neo to meet the Oracle.

Here's the thing I was surprised about. What? The entire crew goes. Everyone goes except for tank and dozer. Everyone. I think backup. I mean, that shot of all of them like in that room. It's cool.

It's very cool. It is such a beautiful tableau. It really is. And they're all in their, like, cool, slick outfits, their kick-ass outfits. Yep. As everyone sort of leaves the hotel building that they've arrived in, Cipher tosses his phone, his, like, cell phone into a trash can. And he, like, has made an outgoing call.

So it's, like, active. Yeah, I guess that's how they're going to trace them. Yeah. Morifius and Neo, they're there. They're standing at the door where the Oracle lives. I loved everything about the scene. I loved her so much. Well, of course.

We'll get to it. Yes. So Morpheus says, Neo, you have to enter the door. I can't. I can take you to the door, but I can't walk you through it. Yes. And a woman answers the door. She takes him to kind of a waiting room of other potential the ones.

There's a lot of children with very special powers. Which makes sense because Morphi, has told us they usually don't take a mind so late in life. Yes. Right? Well, I think that children's minds are more open. So Neo's going to have a conversation with one of these kids. This kid has a spoon and he's like bending it with his mind.

And he's going to offer the spoon to Neo and say, why don't you bend it? Mm-hmm. I think we should hear it. Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. What truth? There is no spoon.

There is no spoon? Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends. It is only yourself. This is so profound. The truth is there is no spoon. Just like you're not breathing this air. None of this exists. All right.

Neo is going to meet the Oracle, Gloria Foster. Gloria Foster. Shout out to Gloria Foster. She plays the Oracle in this matrix, and she is amazing. Amazing. I have my favorite line from her. Oh, what is it? You're cuter than I thought. I can see why she likes you. Neo says who. And then she says, Not too bright, though. I know. I love that. So she's making some cookies when he walks in. It's so homey and like, Grandma like, she says, I know why you're here. You want to know if you're the one. Yeah.

And then she says, you know, being the one is kind of like being in love. No one can tell you, you just know it. But lady, I grabbed an audio clip because I want to hear Gloria Foster say it. Okay. I'm going to let you in a little secret. Being the one is just like being in love. No one can tell you you're in love. You just know it through and through.

Balls to bones. Balls to bones. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. She sort of kind of goes through the motions of looking at his hands and his face, like none of this stuff she needs to do, right? Yeah. And she said, look, you've got the gift, but you're not the one.

Maybe in your next life. But she does say that Morpheus is going to sacrifice his own life to save Neos because Morpheus so fully believes that Neo is the one. And Neo will have to choose between his life, And Morpheus's life. Yes, but one of them will die. And she said, look, you've got a good heart, and I hate giving bad news to good people. But just, you know, eat your cookie, and as soon as you get outside, you're going to feel right as rain.

Every time I watch this movie, those cookies look so good to me. They look like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. Is that why you brought cookies today? Oh, my God, I brought cookies today. I know. You normally don't bring cookies. I made cookies. Wow.

Was that subconscious? It must have been because the cookies looked so good in the movie when I watched it. We also did not plan this or discuss this, but we both were black. It's so funny. Oh, my goodness. Neo walks out into the hallway, Morpheus is there, and Neo says, listen, like he doesn't want Neo to tell him. He's like, whatever the Oracle told him is for him alone.

Yeah. Well, they're all like getting ready to go back to the phone. They're going to get their phone call. They're going to get out of the building. They're walking up this stairwell. It's a really cool looking stairwell in one of those busted buildings like they go into. Yep. And Neo sees a black cat cross and then stutter and cross again.

And he goes, oh, deja vu. Everyone stops. Yeah, everyone's like, deja vu. What it normally signifies is a glitch in the matrix. Usually they have changed something. This is when they realize they're in a trap. Yes. They have cut off all of the, like,

access to the building. When they open up the curtains, there's no window. It's just a brick wall. Yeah, they've changed the code of the room. And they can't get phone calls. They can't get out. By the way, to this day, if me or any of my friends say deja vu, like one of us say, it's a glitch in the Matrix. Oh, really? My old group that we like hang out sometimes, my improv crowd, glitch in the matrix. Do you say that? I don't. I don't even think I say deja vu very much. I sometimes say deja vu. Well, a big action sequence is coming up. Oh, this scene is so hard for me to watch because Morpheus' team is just getting surrounded. They go and they hide.

Tank helps them find this hole inside the building. Like, they're in the walls where the plumbing is, right? Yeah. And they're scooching down quietly. And the agents are like looking for them. And then cipher coughs in the wall. Yeah. Did he mean to do it or did he just really have a lot of drywall all over him?

I mean, to be fair, I wondered the same thing. He does get a face full of vail. like dust in his face. He does. But come on, Seyfer. Well, the agents now know where they are and they just start firing into the wall and Morpheus is determined to protect his team. So he throws himself through this hole in the wall on top of one of the agents and begins to fight him. Yeah. In the midst of all this chaos, Cypher has gotten out and called Tank and said, I need to come in. And as soon as he gets in there, he then kills

dozer and fires it tank, and now Cipher in the real world is in control and can just pull people's plugs and they'll die. Yes, exactly. And he walks around. He's talking to Trinity and he's like, say goodbye to Apoc. And then he says, do you have anything you want to say to Switch? And this part just breaks me every time I watch it. Trinity looks at Switch and she says, not like this as she's holding Apoc in her arms. Yeah. Oh. And then creepy Cypher is like sniffing Trinity in the real world.

So really gross. He's like, I used to be in love with you and he's just like being creepy. Then he jumps on top of Morpheus. And Cypher's like, listen, if Neo is the one, only a miracle would stop me from pulling Morpheus's plug. Yeah. The miracle happens. It sure does.

It's tank. He pops up and he's got that like electro gun and he's zapped. Cap's cipher. Yeah. And then he brings everybody back. He brings, well, let's see, but he doesn't bring Morpheus back, though. No. And he brings back Trinity and Neo.

They're all that's left. I know. Morpheus is alive, but now the agents have him. Mm-hmm. This is not going to be good. You know they're going to, like, try to get those codes out of him, and it's bad. Morpheus. He's been taken hostage.

Yeah. And they kind of have them hooked up to some stuff. looks like they're trying to literally open up his mind so they can get these codes to Zion. Yeah, he's being interrogated by Agent Smith. And this is when Agent Smith says this very interesting thing, because I'd been wondering this, actually. And he says, have you ever wondered why the Matrix, this totally fake world, it's just a construct, have you wondered why it has suffering and misery in it? And I'd been thinking the same thing. I had been thinking, like, if this whole thing is just an elaborate video game,

why does it include wars and people being hungry and people being murdered? Like, why is that in this program? I grabbed an audio clip because I'm going to let Agent Smith tell you why. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language

to describe your perfect world, but I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world would dream. that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from, which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. Yeah, people couldn't accept it.

Well, don't the Buddhists say life is suffering? Isn't that a Buddhist thing? Sam, anyone? Existence is suffering, yeah. Existence. Core tenet of Buddhism. Existence is suffering, thank you. Back in the real world, Tank is like, look, if they have Morpheus, Zion is now at risk

because every captain of our ships has the mainframe codes to get into Zion, and we can't let them get that. Tank is like, basically, we should say our goodbyes to Morpheus, and we should pull the plug. Yes, that's the only answer is that they have to kill Morpheus from the ship. To save Zion. And Neo's like, no, no. And this is when Neo really starts to believe in something. He says, look, I can't explain it, but I understand now why Morpheus was willing to die for his beliefs, because now I believe something, and that is that I can bring Morpheus back.

I can't explain it. I just know that I can bring him back. And Trinity's like, well, I'm coming with you. And this is what I call another Trinity badass moment. What are you doing? I'm going with you. No, you're not. No?

Let me tell you what I believe. I believe Morpheus means more to me than he does to you. I believe if you are really serious about saving him, you are going to need my help. And since I am the ranking officer on this ship, if you don't like it, I believe you can go to hell. Because you aren't going anywhere else. Tank? Load us up. Well, okay, Trinity.

I know. Meanwhile, Agent Smith, he has just had it. He sends the other two agents out. He takes out his earpiece. And now he's just like, look, Morpheus, you guys are like a virus, and I can't get rid of you. But if I can, then I can get out of this place. He's sick of their smell. He's sick of everything about them.

And he's just kind of going on and on. Yeah, he's really trying to get into Morpheus's head. He's really trying to break him. Mm-hmm. I have just one bullshit card. What is it? And it wasn't even about their clothes, okay? I found a way to wrap my head around there.

beige clothes that have a bunch of tears in them. And their food. Here's my one bullshit card. And you know I love this movie. Okay. The agents are like these sophisticated bots, right? Yeah. Within the simulation.

Yeah, they are the machine. They can become other beings within the Matrix. The Matrix. Correct. But they need a little earpiece to be tapped in. Aren't they already just by the nature? tapped in? I have a bullshit card that's similar for later.

I do. Okay, that's my only one is the earpiece thingy. Okay, here's my bullshit card. If the machines control the matrix, why don't they control all the vehicles in the matrix? Like when someone's driving a car, why can't they just make the car stop? Or like, why can't they just make the helicopter

fall out of the sky? Why don't they have control of that? Because they can put agents into human simulations, but an agent can't become a car and then suddenly drive it wherever they want it to be. They can only insert themselves into, do you know what I'm saying? Yeah. We don't know the answer to these questions. We don't know the answer to these questions.

But we can tell you, a big can of whoop ass is about to happen. It's this famous lobby scene. Oh, the lobby scene. The lobby scene, which is also a nod to Ghost in the Shell. I mean, literally down to like the columns and columns and like them hiding behind it and all of the explosives. And the cartwheels up the wall and everything. Lady, do you know that there's a blooper reel for The Matrix and this scene is in it? No way.

Yeah. Okay, so you know this moment when Neo and Trinity, they walk into the lobby and they both whip out their guns and then they look at each other and then they look forward and then they start their like duo kickass? Okay, I guess this moment. when they whip up their guns and then they turn and they whip their heads to each other, that kept making Keanu break. No way. It's on the blueprint of him. Just like every time they looked at each other, he lost it.

That is so random. That's so random. Yeah. I know. And adorable. I mean, I don't know why. It's just adorable. Yeah.

I had another thought here, which was I'm noticing their outfits. Once again, Trinity is in all leather. And I don't know why it took me. long to wonder. But I was like, is leather the outfit you want when you're going to kick ass? I think maybe because she's now like cartwheeling off the wall. Does it bend? Well, here's the thing. I feel like it's a combo of leather and vinyl, both of which don't have a lot of give. I know. Yeah. Well, according to costume designer Kim Barrett, guess what? It wasn't even made out of leather, which now I'm like, how did Carrie Ann Moss? Because leather does give. How did

Carrie Ann Moss do these stunts. Her costume was made out of cheap PVC because they had such a tight budget. And then Neo's coat was a wool blend that only costs $3 a yard. Can you believe how amazing that costume designer made that shit look? I mean, amazing. I mean, I can't believe it. She had no budget and look what she made them look like. We all want that as our Halloween costume. We do. Even though I'm not sure how you go pee in it, which is what I always ask myself before I get a Halloween costume. That's the question you ask yourself. How am I going to pee? How am I

going to pee? It's a smart question. It's a good question. All right. We have this moment now. They've taken out the lobby. They get in the elevator. They climb up like on top of the elevator. They're like within the elevator shaft. Is it the hugging thing where they ride up the cable? He puts his arm around her and right before he like shoots the cable to make them go up in the air. He goes, there is

no spoon. Yeah. I loved that callback. I also loved the snuggle and the elevator shaft. This is Keanu's second movie where this plummeting elevator is a plotline. Yeah. Hello speed. Elevators and raves. The Keanu Reeves biography. Okay. Let's see. Cut to Agent Smith just like continuing to drone on. I wrote, did Lawrence Fishburn have a headache after shooting these interrogation scenes, he's like rolling his eyes up inside his head. He's like shaking and emulsing out. Like he's tensing so much. So much. God. I mean, brilliant acting. Yeah. The other two agents come and they're like, hey, what's up? You haven't heard? They're here. And he's like, uh-huh. Okay, find them, destroy them. It's go time. Yeah. Neo and Trinity, though, they're up on the roof. They're kicking some ass. This is the famous scene

where the bullets kind of are suspended and then he's able to do like this total bend move like back. Oh yeah. I have an interesting fact. Oh yeah, let's hear it. Only 20% of this movie is visual effects. Does that surprise you? It does. Yeah. A lot of practical,

a lot of hand-to-hand combat, but then famous slow motion bullet scene. I did read that this quote unquote bullet time has its roots in 19th century photography and was developed further in 2D animation, but it really came to the limelight in the Matrix. Yeah, it's pretty freaking cool. Pretty freaking cool.

Well, this is that famous moment when Neo says to Trinity, do you know how to fly a helicopter? And she's like, not yet. So cool. And then Tank just uploads helicopter pilot into her head. And she's good to go. And they're going to, the helicopter's now going to like come up and it's going to stop on the floor where Morpheus is being interrogated.

And they have got... It's like a Gatlin gun. It's like a... One of those... circular machine guns, spraying bullets. How they don't hit Morpheus. Is there a Reddit thread about this? I don't know.

I wrote, how is he not hitting Morpheus? How? This is what everyone in my house said. But he doesn't. And then Morpheus breaks free and runs towards the helicopter. And then Neo's like, he's not going to make it. And he jumps out. I'm glad he was like fastened in.

He jumps out. He grabs Morpheus mid-air. Trinity's flying off, but one of the agents has shot, like, the fuel. Yeah. Because this helicopter within the simulation has fuel. Yep. Go on. And she's trying to figure out what to do because they're not going to make it.

She grabs the other side of this, like, cable thing that Neo has, and she jumps out of the helicopter as it hits this building, and then this is very cool. There's like a ripple in the matrix when the helicopter hits the building. But Neo pulls her up. He's got her lady. He's the one. Morpheus is literally back there like biting his tongue like, I know it. All right.

They've got to get out, though, of the Matrix. They've got Morpheus. They got to get them out. So they get to this subway station. There's a pay phone there. Morpheus goes first. Yes. You need a hard line, I guess.

You can't get out through a cell phone. Look at what I have in all big caps and red. Because then the phone rings again. And it's ringing and ringing and Trinity's like, well, I want to tell you something, but I'm afraid of the repercussions, and it's something the Oracle told me. And I'm like, Trinity, tell him later. Read the room. Now is not the time.

Tell him in the real world. Get out. You're going to see him in 45 seconds. Yes, because there's a homeless guy in the corner that has turned into Agent Smith. And Agent Smith, just as Trinity is answering the phone and gets back into the real world, he destroys the phone. And now Neo is stuck in this subway with Agent Smith. And you know what?

He doesn't run. Yeah. He's starting to believe, I have to share this thing. Remember when I said there was a thing that happened in the theater? Yeah. When I saw this. What happened? So Neo and Agent Smith are starting to have this epic hand-to-hand battle, right?

But Neo's starting to move faster and faster. And then all of a sudden, once he kicks the agent really far, he turns to him. He does this like hand movement. And then he extends his one hand and he does that like come here, little move. Mm-hmm. One of the guys in our group of improv and sketch comedians that we all went to, Jordan Black was his name. He's a very, very funny sketch comedy comedian. We knew him from the groundlings.

You could have heard a pin drop in this completely sold out huge man's Chinese theater at this moment. Okay. And right as Neo does the little hand movement, Jordan, into the quietness yells, bring it! And the place went nuts. Everyone started, like, yelling and cheering, like, yeah. It was crazy. It was like such an epic moment. We still talk about it.

I texted Warren because we were in this group that went together. And I go, do you remember? He goes, when Jordan yelled, bring it in the subway fight scene? I'm like, yes. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my gosh. When I tell you that place went nuts throughout all of these next few sequences, it was so electric. Well, this battle is insane.

And I wrote, did Hugo Weaving ever? think he was going to be cast in a role that required an epic hand-to-hand battle scene. I mean, as the type of actor that he is, you know, the two of them are so good. So good. This subway fight sort of ends with it. They end up down on the tracks. Agent Smith has Neo. When I watched this with my kids, I couldn't, you know, like when a line comes to you

and you forgot to even knew it? Yeah. Before Agent Smith says this, I said, do you hear that? Anderson, that is the sound of inevitability. And my kids went, what? And then, like, then he said it. I was like, I can't believe I remembered that. But Neo manages to get enough air to speak and he says, my name is Neo. And then he, like, overcomes and hops out of the way. And we think, okay. Agent Smith gets hit by the train. Yeah. We're like, okay, Neo's good. He's going to get out now. No. No. The train arrives in the station. And Agent Smith just like walks out of the door.

source. Now the chase is on again. But in the meantime, in the real world, they have sent the sentinels out looking for them and they have found them. And now the sentinels, they're like breaching the ship. They're like, they have these little laser beams and they're opening up the hull of the ship. And they can't use the electromagnetic pulsar thing because that'll somehow like, I guess, dismantle their ability to bring Neo home. Sure, they'll lose all of their signal probably. Yeah. I don't know. That's my guess. So during all of this, Neo is like, trying to run to the phone so he can get out. They're trying to, like, keep the squitty things from whatever, destroying the whole ship.

And Neo is going to get to the door where the phone is. And you think, like, oh, my God, he's going to make it. He's going to make it. And he opens the door. And Agent Smith is there. And he shoots him multiple times. And we're like, oh, no. And he dies.

He lays on the ground. They check his pulse. He says, it's done. And in the real world, Trinity leans down and whispers to him and says, I'm not afraid anymore. The oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man, that man that I loved would be the one. So you see, you can't be dead. You can't be because I love you. And she kisses him and his heart restarts in the Matrix.

And then Trinity's like, get up. And he gets up and let me tell you, game changer, it is on. Oh my gosh. The agents can't believe it. They've never seen anything like this. They shoot a whole bunch of bullets at him, but Neo just puts his hand up. Yeah. And they all freeze in front of him. He puts his hand up and he says, no. I mean, I wish when I just have like too much shit coming at me, I could just put my hand up and be like, no. And it would all just freeze in front of me. Maybe we should start doing that. Even if it doesn't freeze, we should just put our hand up and say, no. Well, thank you, Neo. Because now, like, when people ask us, like, to volunteer too many times at school, I'm going to hold up my hand and I'm going to say, no. No. But it's

different. It's more, like, wise and calm. It's peaceful. Yeah. No. Well, all the bullets have frozen in this, like, like, gelatinous kind of, like, shield. And he picks one up and they all fall to the ground. And then he looks at them. And then Agent Smith comes up to him. And this is such a badass moment. Neo fights him in hand-to-hand combat with one hand behind his back, not even looking at him. I know. It's so amazing. He's so fast. He kicks him down the hallway. And then this next move, everyone in the theater lost it. It's that slow leg, like lift slash turn. Yeah. We all went home and tried to do it. It's so hard to do. Of course it's hard to do. It's like, he holds it. Like, Keanu must have been in such kick-ass shape. I mean, we know he was.

But it's like, it's like, he's like... That looks just like it. That looks just like it, lady. As I feel, it's really hard to do. Yeah. There's a TikTok trend. Everyone tried to do the leg move. I don't know.

TikTok trends clitly. I don't think you just declare them. But maybe we could. Maybe we'll try one. Well, now, in order to destroy the Matrix, Neo is going to dive into Agent Smith. I don't think he's trying to destroy the Matrix here. Destroy him from within.

But that's how he breaks Agent Smith. I know, but I don't think he's trying to destroy all of the Matrix. I just think all of a sudden he's like, oh my gosh, I so own you. Yeah. What I love is after Neo kind of just like breaks him apart and comes out of him, the other two agents are like, bu-bye. Yeah, they just leave. And we've never seen that before.

We've never seen agents run away. Well, they're going to get Neo back on the ship. Because it's coming apart. Trinity's like, get here. Yeah. They do that electromagnetic pulse thing. Yep. And Neo and Trinity, they're going to have a moment.

She's so glad he's back. Mm-hmm. And then... They have a little smoochie. They do. Mm-hmm. And that's the end of the movie. We're going to see that same green code coming down.

And then we hear this speech from Neo. I think we should hear it. Yeah. I know you're out there I can feel you now I know that you're afraid you're afraid of us you're afraid of change

I don't know the future I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end I came here to tell you how it's going to begin I'm going to hang up this phone and then I'm going to show these people which you don't want them to see I'm going to show them a world without you

a world without rules and controls without borders or boundaries a world where anything is possible where we go from there is a choice i leave to you and then he flies away right the words say system failure across the coded screen he like sky rockets into the sky and then how perfect is the music It's Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine. What a perfect end. Just before we say goodbye to this, I do want you guys to know that I read, because this movie was such a success, Keanu was in line to make a bunch of money on the sequels. And he gave millions of that money to the crew, to the special effects, costume team, stunt teams.

He said, look, these guys made the movie. They made it come to life. He also got the stunt team, each accustomed. and made Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Wow. I know. Oh, my goodness. I know.

There you have it, you guys. That was the Matrix. There is no spoon. We took the red pill today, everybody. We sure did. We learned the truth. And we want to give a little shout out to Sam, who wrote the little opening number we did.

And sound designed it. And sound designed it. That was really fun. We'll see you next week. See you then. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey. Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbicoe. Odyssey's executive producer is Leah Reese Dennis. Office Ladies was mixed and mastered by Bill Shultz. Our theme song is Rupertree by Creed Bratton. We want to talk to you guys a little bit about new ego protein waffles. It's really good, tastes great, plus it's going to give you 20% of your daily protein. Yes, eggo protein plus waffles provide the same great taste of ego that you know and love, plus 10 grams of protein per serving. I made the new ego protein waffles for my kids the other day.

They didn't even know that they were protein waffles. They're just the ego waffles that you know and love. I know they have protein. They're just yummy waffles. Yes. I mean, listen, I know we're talking about breakfast, but I have shared this before. I like them as an afternoon treat. And when your teenagers come home hungry, guess what's real easy to give them?

A little protein waffle. They say you can fuel your morning, but you can also fuel your afternoon. Sure can. Head to your local grocery store to fuel your morning with ego protein waffles and pancakes available at retailers nationwide.