Seth's List for 06/07/02
Today's Joke:
Hey It's Matrix Day at Center of the Storm!!! Here are some
interesting facts you may not have known about the movie...
Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) played Liz Teel in the TV series "Matrix"
(1993).
When the martial arts programming menu flashes across
the computer screen, "drunken boxing" is one of the skills
listed.
The glyphs on the computer screens, with the exception
of the call traces, consists of reversed letters, numbers, and Japanese
katakana characters.
All of the references to street corners (i.e. Wells
and Lake) are real intersections in Chicago, USA, the Wachowski
brothers' hometown. The subway train has signs for "Loop,"
another Chicago reference. The film however is quite obviously not
set in Chicago.
As Neo runs through the old lady's apartment near
the end of the film, we see an image on the TV of a menacing man
in a black suit coat. The image is that of one of the Number 2's
from the TV show "The Prisoner" (1967).
When Neo is calling to get extracted from the Matrix,
he says, "Mr. Wizard get me the hell out of here," a reference
to the 1960's cartoon Tooter Turtle. Each episode, Tooter would
yearn to be something he wasn't and have his friend Mr. Wizard (a
lizard) wave his magic wand and make him an astronaut or a scientist
or whatever. Inevitably, Tooter would quickly get himself into trouble
and call out "Help Mr.Wizard," and the lizard would intone
"Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome, time for this one to come
home." Tooter would be transported back to his old self and
be chided by Mr. Wizard to "be happy with what you are."
Neo hides his money in a book titled "Simulacra
and Simulation," an actual work of critical theory that deals
with issues of what is "real" and what is "simulation
or simulacra." When Neo opens the book, he opens to the chapter,
"On Nihilism."
Check out the room numbers for Trinity and Neo. When
the cops bust in on Trinity in the opening scene the number is 303
("trinity," 3) and since Neo is The One the number of
his apartment is 101. Also, the room with Trinity and the cops in
the beginning of the movie, is also the same room, in the same hotel,
where Neo confronts Agent Smith at the end of the movie.
Coincidentally (or not), M
atrix, Trinity, Morpheus, 303 and 101 are all makes and/or models
of music synthesizer.
Almost every line spoken by Neo's "customer"
in the beginning of the film ("You're my savior," "You
don't exist," etc.) is foreshadowing.
When Neo is meeting with the Oracle, the music playing
in the background in her apartment is Duke Ellington's "I'm
Beginning to See the Light," a reference to Neo's continued
awakening.
In the Oracle's waiting room, the television is showing
Night of the Lepus (1972).
Names of people and objects have historical significance,
all related to dreams and illusions. For example, "Morpheus"
(film character) was named for the Greek god of sleep and dreams;
and "Nebuchadnezzar" (hovercraft in film) was a biblical
king who was visited by troubling dreams.
Neo is an anagram for One.
Anderson means "Son of Man," as Jesus is
often called.
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