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The Animatrix (2003) is Very Hopeful (Part Two)
48 Plays7 months ago
Happy Trans Day of Visibility, AND Happy 25th Anniversary to a little movie called THE MATRIX! It's a big episode for a big day, talking about the second half of The Animatrix, as we continue our tour through 2003. This time out, we talk about The Animatrix shorts Program, World Record, Beyond, Detective Story and Matriculated.
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Transcript
Revelations on Love and Purpose
00:00:16
Speaker
I'd like to share a revelation with our family. Let me tell you why you're here. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
00:00:30
Speaker
You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. How do you feel it? Being the one is just like being in love. All I'm offering is the truth. Nothing. No one can tell you you're in love. You just know it. Do it, do it. All's above. Hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.
The Matrix and Transgender Visibility
00:01:05
Speaker
Well, welcome on back to The Matrix Reclamations, a podcast all about The Matrix and the reclaiming of it by two trans women.
00:01:17
Speaker
Yes, yes, which is especially important today because of the other tab that I have open in Wikipedia. Gosh, well, golly gee. Well, first off for some context.
00:01:31
Speaker
I tend to upload these episodes the last day of the month because I'm fundamentally lazy. What would the last day of this month happen to be? That would be March, and that would be March 31st. Well, that sounds familiar. It is familiar for several reasons that are super relevant to our very specific interest. That's true. There are multiple reasons.
00:01:53
Speaker
very specific to this podcast specifically.
Easter Plans and Quaker Upbringing
00:01:58
Speaker
March 31st, 1999 was the release date of the original The Matrix, making this the 25th anniversary of The Matrix. It's now old enough to rent a car. That's exciting. And it is also the 15th International Transgender Day of Visibility.
00:02:20
Speaker
How's that for coincidence it works out don't it? It sure does How will you be spending your I think it's unfortunately Easter here in the States yes That I will be spending it watching Jesus Christ Superstar. Oh my god. I'm so jealous I have to see my family
00:02:43
Speaker
I know just what every trans girl wants. To see their family. I'm sure that's what it's probably not what Jesus was really excited about on Easter either. I go see my dad. He's going to be all bent out of shape. You did what? Look, in my defense, you did this.
00:03:11
Speaker
Oh God. Uh, as I was raised Quaker, which was a super specific flavor of Christianity. So it's just like oatmeal. Congratulations. You're one of the first people to drop that joke on me since the.
00:03:31
Speaker
Seventh or eighth grade, I want to say. Congratulations. But I can't, I can't take all the credit. You know, I really have to thank all the smart asses that came before me in this case. Terrible, terrible, terrible, terrible. And I love it. Never stop doing it.
00:03:48
Speaker
Um, so God, I'm super jealous. That's almost as good as the, the super bowl. I just said, fuck it and watch Dune. She's mentioned Dune kids drink. Um, yeah, exactly.
Deep Dive into The Animatrix
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah. So we are here oddly enough to not talk about Dune, um, but rather the second half of the animatrix, the, uh, animated anthology film of a bunch of short films by various.
00:04:14
Speaker
Japanese animation studios, all based around the world and lore of The Matrix. And I have to say, this second half rewatch, shit, which episodes did we cover? Okay, last episode we covered the Second Renaissance, yeah, Final Flight of the Osiris, Second Renaissance parts one and two, and kids' story.
00:04:39
Speaker
OK, so we just did those four last time, technically three, I guess. So this time around, we had a program world record beyond a detective story and matriculated.
00:04:55
Speaker
Yep. So more in quantity, but they are probably shorter. I think we probably got about equal length between all of their thereabouts. I want to say, yeah, but certainly there was, you know, second second Renaissance alone.
00:05:10
Speaker
had a lot of weight to talk about. Oh, boy. I don't think we have to do a trigger warning or anything for this episode, which is which is leads me to my first point. Just sitting down and watch these the other night. Much easier watch. Oh, my God. Absolutely. And like consistently happier ending is not necessarily happy endings per se, but
00:05:36
Speaker
Oh no, there's still some whack shit going on in these things. But it leaves you with a sense of accomplishment as opposed to why they closed out with a lot of the ones that they could, you know? I mean, I personally still hold they probably should have ended on kids story.
00:05:56
Speaker
Um, but that was, that was definitely in the right place. You could make the argument that they should have ended on final flight of the Osiris. If it really is meant to, you're meant to watch the sequels after this, right? Yeah, that's a really solid argument.
00:06:09
Speaker
But Final Flight of the Osiris is far from the strongest. So I don't think they should have started, but I think as we discussed in the first episode, the fact that it just starts with this hyper-realistic, quote unquote, CGI, like sexy sword fight, I get why they put it right at the front. It speaks.
00:06:27
Speaker
to the tone of the piece very, very quickly. This ain't your granny's, this ain't your little cousin's animated movie, you know? Right, right, right. It's a tech demo. It also fits the tech demo is dead on. I'm sure like they were just borrowing sentinels from the revolutions. But.
00:06:53
Speaker
A hell of a downer for like most of those, though. Yeah. Well, then, I mean, why don't we dive into the program, then? I mean, talking to sexy sword fighting. Yeah. I mean, also, like, let's be real, Osiris is definitely like the Wachowskis obligatory. We're suddenly super horny right now moment. Yeah. Oh, sudden. Yeah. That came out of nowhere, really. This is whoa. Where'd that come from? I didn't watch Bound or the other Matrix movies.
00:07:23
Speaker
Oh, speaking of news before we get into program, my apologies. You texted me a week or two back a link. And I don't think I've ever clicked on something and had my credit card out in my hand that quickly before. It appeared as soon as you clicked it. I mean, kind of, because like before I even clicked the link, I saw it was a link to Criterion,
00:07:47
Speaker
Bound, that's right. Bound, the Wachowski's first ever film from I believe 1996 off the top of my head. I haven't seen it. I've been saving myself for this specific experience because Criterion is releasing it in 4K and also on regular Blu-ray. And do yourself a favor and just look up Criterion Collection.
00:08:11
Speaker
They know how to do film and film preservation and the art of cinema and preserving a director. The high on cartoons, WALL-E episode, right? Yes. Yes. I do a whole angry spiel on that episode. It's and it's.
00:08:29
Speaker
Gosh, Wally looks fantastic in the 4K. As does, I will say Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio. Ah, stunning in 4K physical. Anyway, sorry.
Exploring Reality and Identity in The Matrix
00:08:40
Speaker
Wachowski's Bound Program.
00:08:43
Speaker
Well, yeah, I guess we don't have to. We don't really have to do the usual. How did you discover, you know, what's your history with this? Because this is just part two of the same movie. So I mean, yeah, exactly. We did all of our 2003 context, which there will be more of making. There will be so much more close to being done with 2003. So much more safe to get out of 2003. It pulls you right back in.
00:09:06
Speaker
I mean, I still keep getting sucked back to 99, what with like the rise of Brendan Fraser and the newfound appreciation again for the mummy. But, uh, that's a different thing. Uh, I could talk about how Phantom Menace is coming back into theaters, but then we'd all have to take another drink. So, uh, hang on, hang on, hang on.
00:09:30
Speaker
It's that kind of evening for me. Take another drink. You say, oh my gosh, I'm a wizard. I cast- Oh, this is a guided ASMR video. Yeah, this is a guided. I'm a wizard. I cast Fireball. Oh, very good. There we go. Stay hydrated, kids. Oh, gosh.
00:09:46
Speaker
Only a Fremen leaves a seat. A Fremen always leaves a seat with water. Anyway, program. What'd you think of program? Good, I would say. Like middle of the pack overall, but raises a lot of interesting points. Basically, you know, we're following, like you said, another sexy sword fight between a character named Duo.
00:10:06
Speaker
and a character who I shit you not is named Sis, which is so funny, especially given what she thinks about over the course of this thing.
00:10:18
Speaker
It's I would say what she does, but it's really it deals with the concept that is explored in the first movie about returning to being a blue pill, returning to The Matrix and forgetting about reality and accepting the blissful ignorance. And I'm glad it gets explored more, even though it is essentially this this film is just a long conversation between these two characters punctuated with the action. I mean, that's most.
00:10:45
Speaker
Matrix movies. Okay, you're not you're not wrong. You're not wrong. We've had several very long conversations about these several very long conversations in just one of these movies. You're not incorrect. And this all takes place within the construct, which is another interesting idea that exploring that more, the training programs of every ship. I do wish we got more of the training programs, just like for funsies, you know?
00:11:12
Speaker
And that's why I liked that this explores that, especially the idea that like, like, I think one of the first lines is duo remarking that this is, uh, this is like favorite, uh, simulation, this, this sort of like samurai simulation. It's a pretty bitchin simulation. Yeah. And the art style perfectly suits it. Uh, and, and when the bodies get sliced in half, they explode in a green code, which is just like, that's how you know, you're in the matrix.
00:11:40
Speaker
and that it's said that the idea of returning to the Matrix crosses everyone's mind at least once, which is sort of, I guess, a kind of shout to Cypher, of course, you know, betraying the group. There's a question. As like a Matrix aficionado, do you think that this training program was implemented before or after Cypher? Because... Well, I mean, I guess that gets a little bit ahead of ourselves because
00:12:08
Speaker
The reveal, of course, is that Duo is not real and that
00:12:16
Speaker
that this was a training like, you know, this is brought out of the simulation after, after killing duo and the, the operator saying like, Oh, you did great. It was just a test, you know, don't worry. And, and she's freaked the fuck out. You know, she slaps them and just walks away. Um, which is, it's a pretty fucked up training program, but to your point, the fact that it was created. Yeah. I mean, I have to wonder, I feel like it could be both. I think, uh,
00:12:47
Speaker
There is something to be said about the fact that like it mirrors the circumstances of Cypher's portrayal very exactly in that. Yeah. In that duo has found a way to return to the matrix that specifically involves making a deal with agents and selling out the rest of the group. Selling out the rest of the rebels rather. So I think there's a case to be made that it was built as a response, especially given how like manipulative it is that that somehow they have
00:13:17
Speaker
this has so deeply implanted itself into Sis's mind that Sis like somehow does not even realize that duo isn't real. Like somehow, like I don't, maybe this was like a weeks long like simulation or something, you know? Yeah, it's, which is wild to me, I think.
00:13:36
Speaker
I do think that's a reasonable explanation for why this is so unethical of a simulation. Because why? Because if they are using it as a response, if it is a response to the Cypher sort of crisis, it would make sense why they would maybe accidentally go overboard.
00:13:56
Speaker
Because the fact that she's saying like, no duo, you know, I don't want to return to the matrix. I only want what's real. It's like, babe, you're being manipulated in a simulation right now. Like, I understand. It's also like the limitations of the medium. You only have like less than 10 minutes to tell this complete story. Sure. And I think it is, it is very much a complete story.
00:14:16
Speaker
in itself, because I think in trying to train her to only accept what is reality, these other humans have created arguably an even more convincing and manipulative simulation in the matrix itself.
00:14:31
Speaker
bonkers to think about. And kind of kind of shouts forward to the resurrections in a sense, which, you know, I guess I, you know, just in the sense of like, how can a simulation hone its tactics and become more convincing and more sinister?
Breaking Boundaries in the Matrix
00:14:49
Speaker
Gosh, ain't that just a commentary on quote unquote, AI art these days? Look at my hands, Neo, you notice I don't have the correct amount of fingers.
00:15:01
Speaker
I want to see a cut of the matrix residual self image. Oh, God. Ah, why do you have to put the image of Hugo even with jacked up hands? Yeah, I was thinking I was thinking Lawrence Fishburne with jacked up hands, but they can. Oh, OK. All right. Fair enough. Holding out his hands with the with them pills in them and they've got like six and seven fingers each Christ alive. That's the journals.
00:15:27
Speaker
Um, that little piece, you know, it's, it's a kind of, it's a very twilight zone sort of episode of sort of segment, you know, it is, it's very like, you know, it's strange to consider sort of thing. Um, yeah. Food for thought.
00:15:44
Speaker
I feel like I had a point and then I lost the point. Because you were saying that there was only so much they could squeeze in. Yes. So it's it feels like this kind of conversation, if you were truly hell bent on getting out, getting blue pilled again, you'd think that you would be like a little more subtle with it over a longer period of time, not just like, hey, let's get the fuck out of here, sort of. And say, hey, it's it's yeah.
00:16:12
Speaker
Like, I understand it's a limitations of the medium and they wanted to show a sexy samurai fight instead of like a montage of a month's long conversational thread, slowly radicalized, trying to radicalize the other person. I understand.
00:16:30
Speaker
I would also prefer to see sexy samurai fighting instead of the montage thing. I also think it's one that definitely requires you to have, I think some of these films really don't necessarily require you to have seen the other films. I think this one very much does because you have to understand what life in the real world is like.
00:16:52
Speaker
and why people like Cypher are so, you know, want to go back so bad. Yeah, because we don't see the real world in this until the end. Until the very end. Yeah, it's it's and let's be real. If I was presented with this hot, sexy samurai like reality, I'm like, yeah, no, I. OK, sure, this is great. But that's not what the matrix is like, though. Exactly. Like the thing about the construct is that you can bend that to your will. But the matrix is like.
00:17:21
Speaker
unless you're aware of the fact that it's a simulation, which you wouldn't be, you're at its will, at its mercy. I think the best use of the program, the construct, is Resurrections Morpheus' Endless Supply of Martinis. I think that's my favorite use of the construct. Finally, some of us have a- Bottomless mimosas, Neo? Yeah.
00:17:47
Speaker
But it's just like finally somebody's having fun. Do you remember fun? Why is Morpheus the one having fun? Yeah. Anyway. Mountainless mimosas and juicy steaks. So you said middle of the pack. Jesus Christ. Yeah. I mean, in the grand scheme, maybe. I don't know if I would rank it high and not particularly low either. I also had a thought that
00:18:10
Speaker
You know, she is so clearly upset by all of this and who wouldn't be because she has apparently been manipulated into believing that there was a per there was a lover, you know, she was in love with this person in this in this construct. Yeah, that caught me off guard. What? OK, I guess there's two interpretations. One is that duo is a completely fake character that they made up for the construct. And another is that duo is
00:18:36
Speaker
Like a real person somewhere on the ship, you know someone that she has a real relationship with yeah Which I don't know what's worse, you know Yeah, like were they using a generated image of duo or was he just a wholesale construct? It's just
00:18:52
Speaker
I mean, the fact that the woman in the red dress was able to be created whole cloth by a mouse kind of shows that you could create wholly a person, a program in the construct. Yeah. Do you think it would be more confusing or less confusing if a real world duo was sitting in that control room at the end of the episode? I think
00:19:20
Speaker
You mean to sis the character or to us the viewer? To us. I was honestly thinking, yeah. Probably more confusing if there was a real duo. Cause then you have to think like, did the real duo like agree to this? Like, is that like... Yeah. Yeah. What's the point of having your likeness recreated by AI?
00:19:40
Speaker
This is my permission slip. It's signed by me and my mom. Christ. Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the episode, the fact that she was so devastated clearly and that all that that doctor dude could say was like, well, except for her slapping me, she passed the test pretty well. I was like,
00:19:59
Speaker
What a dickhead. What a dick. But the fact that she was so upset led me to speculate maybe this whole experience will drive her to want to return to living in the Matrix after all, even though this whole experience was supposed to drive her away from that desire, I think. Yeah, it's hard to get up like rebelling against that again. It's like, well, how dare you? Like, tell me what I want, you know?
00:20:22
Speaker
It's a way I'm so excited. A trans girl gets to say the sentence. It's hard to get a read on sis. Yeah, it's hard to be a plausible. I would say it's hard to be sis because like the very final shot of the episode is her in the elevator and the lights are like flashing up past her. And she's got this big, this big, big hair that kind of obscures her eyes sometimes. Right.
00:20:49
Speaker
It is enormous hair. Yeah. But her eyes are fairly visible. I kept waiting to see like a tear or like some sort of flash of anger. But no, it just fades out on her in the elevator completely still.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah. So, well, any any other thoughts on program? Not particularly. And I can think of that. I think it's time for me to finally turn you over into a world record lover because we're about to talk about world record. I am very excited for this. It's it proves.
00:21:32
Speaker
Right off the bat, I found something to enjoy because one of the first lines in the episode is a narrator explaining that only, I'm going to just read it off the Wikipedia here, only exceptional humans tend to become aware of the matrix. Those who have, quote, a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature.
00:21:54
Speaker
Uh, but there are, uh, exceptions given that quote, some attain this wisdom through wholly different means. Yeah. Which means sometimes the jocks can see the matrix. That's all there is to it. Sometimes.
00:22:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think that one of those few things like it really underestimates how many people eventually like how many people there are in Zion, you know, like how many? Yeah, like, I think I suspect and this is pure fan spleeny fan theory headcanon, whatever hit me, hit me. I love fan and spleeny because we don't a lot of these don't really have narration or begin with narration.
00:22:35
Speaker
unless it's like the second Renaissance. So I'm thinking that might be a machine saying that this might be sort of machine influenced propaganda through the narrator of saying like, oh, well, because that's a very machine way of thinking of like, well, only only these these statistical anomalies can can escape the matrix. You know, we're right. Yeah, we have this online. It's just the it's just flukes. It's just, you know, that's like a machine rationalizing to itself.
00:23:03
Speaker
how people have broken out of the system. Yeah, I do like the idea that even jocks, even jocks or even even kid can break out of the major, you know?
00:23:14
Speaker
I mean, kid, kid, I don't want to. I feel bad after having rewatched and loved a kid's story, just kind of bullying the character kid because suddenly it looks like, Oh no, I like kid now. What the fuck's wrong with me? I should rewatch reloaded and be like, Oh, that's why. Yeah. Yeah. That it'll, it'll break it, break it right back up, make it right back up.
00:23:37
Speaker
I think this ties into kids story with portraying an unconventional method of waking up, right? Not taking the pills, but some other means. And right off the bat, I love the way that this visual style, because this is about, it's about a track star, is the subject this time. And I love the way that this art style captures the viscera of the musculature of the body and the human body as a machine, you know, working like any other, pushing itself.
00:24:06
Speaker
Oh my god. You're already turning me around son of a bitch. Right? Right? Yeah. No. Yeah. No. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Of the main character Dan. We see all these shot Dan, right? I think was his name. I'm pretty sure it's Dan. I just think of him in my head. Dan Davis.
00:24:24
Speaker
Well, you know what? That's not that's his matrix name. So that's not it doesn't even matter, really, does it? You that's fair. That's fair. His dead name anyway. But we see all these shots of just the muscles pumping like in the arms and the legs, just kind of like, you know, like the inner workings of a machine. And I think there's a lot of there's like a conversation that he has with like the chancellor or council, whatever in in that Neo has in reloaded of of how different are we, you know, the humans and the machines?
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's that's very good. I like that take. I was just overwhelmed on first blush by just like the sheer amount of slow motion animated sweat. Right. But I mean, that's all that visceral aspect. I think it's yeah, I mean, it matters of taste, but I think it is important narratively to to show how physically strenuous all of this is.
00:25:18
Speaker
Oh, no, I'm agreeing with you now. That was just my POV of the last time I watched this, which was about 20 years ago. Yeah. I love the character. I'm not sure. I guess he's just like he's Dan's friend or like a coach or something. I guess he gives advice. I think it's his trainer. Yeah, his trainer. Yeah. And his name is also Tom, which is like, what is it with guys in the matrix named Tom?
00:25:46
Speaker
But there's this shot that I love of character animation where he's just aggressively talking with his hands like that no one has ever done, ever.
00:25:57
Speaker
Okay, I was going to call out that same shot for like kind of overwhelming me because, you know, hey, kids, you might not know this by this point. I'm a bit of a stoner. I like to get high while I watch The Matrix. And let me tell you that shot of him like towering over me on my giant projector screen, things just like, oh, it's in 3D suddenly.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, why is everything? Yeah, everything is attacking you all of a sudden. No, it is fantastic animation. Yeah. I'm not disagreeing with you. We get establishment that Dan was involved in in like a doping scandal that he was caught with performance enhancements of some kind. And then we see him about to, you know, poised to break his world record, the title implies.
00:26:48
Speaker
as well as him being the American runner, which implies that there are like national borders and countries in The Matrix, which I don't know if we ever got before, because like in the film themselves, The Matrix is only like ever like one city and I guess like the mountains. Yeah, they're at the very least in like an Olympic stadium. Right, which is fascinating in the sense that like there are
00:27:16
Speaker
There's like an entire simulated globe. It's not just like one giant, giant, giant city, you know? Which, I mean, we can get into oddball questions just about like, we almost did basically the last, every time we've talked about the timeline of the matrix. It's like, do they simulate like,
00:27:35
Speaker
World's Wars 1 and 2. Right, like did Jesse Owens also exist? Does that history only apply to this iteration of the Matrix? Or did we have completely different geopolitics in the previous five iterations? Like, what's up? Like the Monster Mash Matrix? Or like...
00:27:53
Speaker
Oh, God. I take me down to Monster Mash City. So he's he's currently sitting like at the beginning of the episode, he's currently sitting at a world record of eight point nine nine seconds.
00:28:08
Speaker
Right. And apparently his gold medal was revoked due to the alleged drug use. I do want to point out eight point nine nine seconds for the I'm assuming hundred meter dash because that's like the only thing where this makes sense. The Karen actual world record holder is Usain Bolt at nine point five eight seconds. OK. And when was that set?
00:28:32
Speaker
He did that in 2009, August 16th. The second closest to that was actually September 2009, and that is Tyson Gay with 9.69. I wonder what the world record was at the time that this was made. I would love to know that myself. It's probably maybe somewhere between 9 and 10, I guess. Oh, man, it is. Can I sort this list by...
00:28:59
Speaker
date. I cannot sort this list by date. So all of these results were from well after 2003. So that's confirmation not only of national borders in the matrix, but also that Broadway exists in the matrix.
Cultural Reflections and Matrix Anomalies
00:29:12
Speaker
And this is where I was like, maybe I do need to take the blue pill again. Maybe I should go back.
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, I got better. I don't know, but fan, I'm still running in the matrix on Broadway. Oh, gosh. Why does Spamalot get a re-release, but producers doesn't come on in the matrix? It does in the matrix. Oh, no, give me the pills. I regret everything. Matrix, the producers is back on Broadway. It's all right. Here's how to get into Zion.
00:29:51
Speaker
I don't, I like to think that wouldn't work on me, but who actually knows? Sorry. Yeah, no, I like the kind of subtle creep of setting up that there are agents, you know, kind of dispersed throughout this event, right? Like throughout the stadium. Oh my gosh, yes. Okay, so like the Matrix knows what's up and thinks that this guy, Dan, is going to somehow physically escape the Matrix just by running
00:30:19
Speaker
And I like that we don't know that yet. We don't know that's why they're there, which is what I love. We just know that they're kind of monitoring and wondering if he's going to wake up. And I love that it all culminates in this shot of the agents taking over the other runners, right? Oh my God, that ruled. Yes. That shot of all of them reaching out to grab him just before he's like running out of their reach and they all fail to grab him.
00:30:42
Speaker
It's so good. It's so friggin incredible. Side note, the agents are dressed awesome in this. Yeah. They're not exactly suits like, but wow, it is a killer. I got to be breathable for the running.
00:30:59
Speaker
Right. This is my idea. It takes over concessions and you hear an agent like popcorn, soda, hot dogs. Oh, Christ. They're all violently overpriced. Then we get to the crux of the piece, which is
00:31:23
Speaker
How fucking horrifying is that image of just one minute you're, you're just running, you're just running real fast. And then suddenly, boom, you're naked in a pod filled with goo with a terrifying robot staring at you with a million eyes and electrocuting you back into submission. Fucked up.
00:31:41
Speaker
It, it can't have lasted for more than a second or so, just based on like the whole, like all of this takes place in 8.56 or whatever the fuck seconds. So he can't have seen the real world for that long, but it's, it's still enough. Did we mention that like.
00:32:03
Speaker
The reason he escapes the matrix is his knee basically explodes. Like he pushes his own body like so quickly. Yeah. And I love that shot to all the shots of the muscles, like just popping, like, like uses blowing inside them.
00:32:19
Speaker
I have been a weightlifter, a hobbyist weightlifter for a very long time now. I have seen the results of those kinds of injuries where like a muscle will just detach. And it is truly some of the most horrifying stuff you'll ever see because suddenly like your arm or whatever it is, is not in the right shape. And there's the craziest zebra striped bruising going on. Yeah.
00:32:49
Speaker
Bug nuts and the shot of this dude's like exploding him stumbling back through the other runners into last place and then recovering and Accelerating beyond them. Yeah, and then they all turn into agents and he still outruns all of the agents and
00:33:11
Speaker
the agents who have taken over olympic runners and the agents who are who who even morpheus is like no one's fought one and survived
00:33:23
Speaker
How fucking bookin' it do you have to be? This one motherfucker outran agents and it ended with him just basically flying in a heap for 20 yards. When we see him later in rehab, I just want to point out like, did you understand what the thing with the nuts was? Because I feel like that was symbolic and I don't, because he's clutching these two nuts.
00:33:52
Speaker
Okay, yeah, to get your giggles in these two walnuts. And I don't really understand what the symbolism is. I'm I'm like 40% sure just off the top of my head. Having been Jim adjacent for a very long time. I'm pretty sure it's like a
00:34:10
Speaker
a focus for like rehab for like muscle control. That's the fucking word. Thank you. I thought it's just going to be one of them is the red night and one of them is the blue night. Crack the blue night and crack the red night. All right. I'm doing a risky Google right now. A super risky Google. Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that. But too late. You're too late. Too late. I've already googled physical therapy handballs.
00:34:41
Speaker
And I thought you're gonna Google red nut and blue nut. I mean I can Google that web and certainly Hand therapy balls Let's see hand therapy Yeah, hey there you go contact juggling hand therapy balls help to increase the range of motion in the upper body All they had were nuts
00:35:04
Speaker
Were they severely underfunded hospital? I. Oh gosh. I don't know. And it disturbs me. And now that's in my Google search history forever. I am on a list. But anyway, this is like.
00:35:20
Speaker
To further try to sell you on this because I know previously you said, you know You kind of forgot about it on this rewatch you texted me that you liked it more But I think you were still waiting to really get sold So on top of the visual aspect I think I just love the idea that this sells you as a viewer, which is that I
00:35:38
Speaker
The matrix, yeah, the core, what I love about the matrix at its core is that the matrix is a computer, a computer is a set of rules, and life and society is a set of rules, and both of those can be hacked and broken, and you're combining those into sort of one analogy. And that the matrix can be broken not just via the pill extraction, but by physically breaking the parameters that the matrix has set for you. And I think there's a recurring theme throughout
00:36:05
Speaker
all of the franchise, but specifically the animatrix, which is the matrix underestimating what humanity is capable of. That's true. I imagine that the matrix, when it's plugging in a human, when it's plugging in a brain, it has these essentially numerical values set for what a human can do. This is gravity. This is your
00:36:30
Speaker
your circulatory system this is like how everything works is like set by a number and limited by a number. Which of course you break when you like fly in the matrix and stuff you know you turn on the developer console commands. It's like they set a numerical value for this is how fast a human can go.
00:36:50
Speaker
And then it gets broken and the system doesn't know what to do with it. And it literally just overpowers the processors and suddenly, boom, you have woken yourself up. You've broken the connection.
00:37:02
Speaker
of the pod into the, you can kind of tell, you can kind of tell that the matrix was programmed before the age of like video games, speed runners, where there are people completing super Mario brothers in like 10 minutes. Yeah, but that's exactly it though. Yeah. Yeah. The, the human compulsion to go harder, faster, hubris of the machines too, because they, they could have accounted for it, but they know they didn't. And so that's why the agents are like, okay, we need to let this not happen.
00:37:31
Speaker
That's really interesting. I guess they'd have to like, they'd have to reboot the whole thing from the ground up to account for it, right? They couldn't just. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think there would be like worldwide deja vu when they like set reset speed limits to this?
00:37:49
Speaker
I don't know what would happen. I mean, I guess this it's but I guess, you know, people like the architect probably really see it as a waste of resources to to reboot the entire matrix just to fix one. Yeah. One little bug. Easier to just have a shitload of agents try to catch a guy. Right. Which they failed to do.
00:38:08
Speaker
Yeah, fucking incredible. And that makes me think about the doping scandal. Like maybe that was just a cover up to the fact that he broke through before and he saw reality before.
00:38:21
Speaker
God was covered by like, oh, you were taking PDS, you know, you don't remember, right? You know, I like the agent would just take over the doctor and say, well, we found traces of dope in your system. Like, you know, I hate how much you've turned me around basically gaslight him and and cause him to lose his credibility if he ever decided to tell people about what he saw. That's fucking amazing.
00:38:44
Speaker
And I love it. And I love just how it ties into the overall matrix and how, again, yeah, it's a jock can see the matrix, too, that it is a great equalizer of like it isn't just for like eggheads, you know, that they can see, which I think is a big kind of like fuck you to like the right wingers who are like, well, I'm I'm smarter than all the sheeple. It's like, well, no, the the sheeple are also like people like, you know, yeah.
00:39:10
Speaker
And it's like what Morpheus says in the first one. It's like, well, we want to save them all, but we can't right now. But they're all like, you know, they're all suffering under the system too. They're being used as tools of the system. Even if they can't see it. Yeah. God, that's fascinating. I also love the implication that like.
00:39:29
Speaker
Most pod-borne humans are just like that exist in Zion are just fucking nerds Just fucking nerds, right? Yeah Look at how they name themselves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think you think there's like a single guy named like a
00:39:46
Speaker
check or something. Oh, yeah. You're saying like a job. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a proper jock. It's like that gives like noogies to more. Well, I guess that's the you know, like the military commanders like lock and all them kind of kind of give that vibe.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's that's fair. I just. I'm just suddenly enamored by the idea of like in our in our headcanon, our ongoing headcanon of there being like dedicated cosplay themed hovercrafts. I like the idea of there being just like a frat hovercraft. Yeah, the Letterman jackets and all that. Yeah, right. Right. This is the Nebuchadnezzar to the Alpha Theta Chi.
00:40:32
Speaker
fucking incredible. What's up nerds? Well, it's also telling, I think that like the Zion born humans as opposed to the pod born humans that we know, you know, they're, they're a lot more like kind of fun loving. They're, they're, they're sillier, goofier guys, right? Like, uh, like tank, right? Um, yeah.
00:40:52
Speaker
Because Tank never struck me as particularly nerdy in the way that Neo and Morpheus and Trinity are, you know? Yeah, I mean, that's fair. He's definitely not as introverted as Neo and Trinity. Right, because he has no reason to be, because he wasn't like...
00:41:08
Speaker
He has no gender dysphoria, you know? He was born trans. God damn it. And again, even when the agents are overseeing him post physical therapy, they're saying, well, he'll never run again. He will never walk again. And then again, he defies their expectations by standing up as they're saying, like, do not get up. Like, sit down.
00:41:34
Speaker
As, as he says, free. Yes. And was I, I might've been hearing things, but I swear on the credits, there was also an echoing of the word free, but maybe that was just kind of the instrumentation sounding weird. You know what? For like the first time ever, I just kind of let the credits of the whole thing play. Um, cause I just watched it just like it's presented on the Blu-ray disc is just one straight forward.
00:41:58
Speaker
thing, all of the credits at the very end. Yeah. And the the closing credits music is just kind of gorgeous. Yeah, because it's it's it's like lo fi matrix hip hop to study slash relaxed. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's got like quotes from the animatrix and everything in it. Oh, OK. So that's so maybe I did hear free. Maybe that really was quite possibly. They seem to be big on sampling quotes. Yeah. Just like our intro.
00:42:25
Speaker
Very much so. Partially because it was cheap and I like. And it sounds fucking cool. I appreciate that. Do they have any more comments on world record? Have I sold you on world record? You have. You have. In the grand scheme of the animatrix, I do think it is like not like necessarily a like front runner and no pun intended or pun intended. But no, it's I do love it. I love what it says about the franchise. I think it's I think maybe the confusion between us is that
00:42:54
Speaker
I like what it represents more than like what's actually in it. I think you you were kind of thinking about like the content of the piece itself. And I was like, well, yeah, yeah, you cottoned on to the actual like allegorical implications better than I did in this case.
Ranking The Animatrix Segments
00:43:10
Speaker
I have to say that the meat of it isn't like interesting, but it's not. Oh, no, it's it's fascinating. It's definitely moved up a ranking or two. Yeah. In the in the 21 years since this came out. It'll be interesting to wrap this up with ranking them. We should we should do. I probably should have assembled a rank, huh? We can do it. We can do it spur of the moment. We can figure it out.
00:43:31
Speaker
Fair, fair. So what's up next? Beyond. Beyond. Beyond exploring the further exploring the idea of a glitch in the Matrix and how the people inside the Matrix react to that. I fucking love this episode. I do fucking love it because immediately we're introduced to the most trans femme character design of all time. Like the star makeup and the star shirt.
00:43:57
Speaker
Who has a cat? Who lives in a tiny little apartment? Who's cooking ramen?
00:44:05
Speaker
Um, for her cat Yuki, uh, which is a crucial plot point because Yuki, uh, that rascally little kitty cat runs away and she, she can't find Yuki and that's kind of what sets this off. And I realized something very sad, which is that like, Yuki's not real, right? Like there's no cat plugged into the matrix out there, right? Like the cat is an invention of the matrix. All the animals are inventions of the matrix, right?
00:44:30
Speaker
OK, OK, on a like nerd, lower level. No, the cat is not real. The cat is a program operating on cat parameters. All of the animals are probably very, very easy to program.
00:44:48
Speaker
probably just hey if human exist then be a little asshole and I'm saying this yeah we're having this conversation as I am looking at my cat and she is being a little asshole yeah so like nerd lore no the cat is not real
00:45:08
Speaker
If that cat is not real to me personally, I will be a John Wick, John Wick. It's just going to be a John Wick. I really, this kind of made me want a story about this girl getting, you know, waking up and missing her cat and then being told like, well, yeah, your cat's in the matrix. And then again, flash forward to resurrections, we can sort of create these living programs. I think that would be, that would be a good story of like how they first started doing that was because of this girl's like love for her cat, you know?
00:45:38
Speaker
Baby girl, I would rescue you from the matrix and stick you in the biggest, most beautiful construct ever, where there's lots of giant fat mice. Well, not even just the construct, but those like, those weird, like, I don't know how to describe it. The, the ball things. Yeah. Yes. Uh, pixelated Morpheus. Yeah. Um, cattle mighty. A lot of implications to think about there, certainly. Oh, and we get, uh, we got Bobby Hill, right?
00:46:04
Speaker
Bobby. Oh, gosh. Bobby Hill is. Again, again, because we had we had that voice actress Pamela Adlin in I think Osiris as well. We also get Kate Succi, I think that I'm pronouncing it right, who is the voice of Phil and Lil in the Rugrats. Oh, God, that's crazy. This gaggle of little kids that that we that this girl meets and leads her to a quote unquote haunted house.
00:46:32
Speaker
Which is so cool. Yes. Such a cool. Oh my God. People would interpret glitches in the matrix as a haunted house. It also brings to mind, uh, you know, matrix V version two, right? The monster mash version, right? Yes. Yes. This definitely, this definitely feels like if, uh, Guillermo del Toro, uh, built his own house in the matrix, this would be, um, I absolutely adore this episode and how they just like it.
00:47:02
Speaker
It turns what is essentially in every other instance that we're presented with in the Matrix franchise, a glitch, deja vu. It is something to be intrinsically horrified at. But these kids are just playing. It's a very childlike wonder kind of thing. Yeah.
00:47:29
Speaker
Oh, we're talking over one another. Sorry, you go. I think it turns from it's a story about, you know, because she clearly this girl leads this very kind of isolated, kind of dull lifestyle, but it's a story about appreciating like the magic that is around you.
00:47:44
Speaker
and then turns into a story about the magic of the world disappearing because we see these agents and these sort of like pest control looking guys like these hazmat suits kind of show up and they contain the place and I was like a place got gentrified well they turn it into very specifically a parking lot
00:48:06
Speaker
Which I can't think of. I can't think of. I mean, just think of all of the fucking parking lots in Philadelphia alone. I was thinking about all the nineties and they're like, we got to save the rec center, guys. Oh, Christ. I mean, OK. Can I confess something to you real quick as like one queer to another? Yes. Like I'm a millennial. OK, fine. It was made by Gen Xers and I've never liked it. I don't like rent.
00:48:35
Speaker
The broad, I've never, never seen it. No opinion. Okay. Great. Great. Great. I'm safe. It just was never my thing. It's like, I think the music, yeah, musically, it's not really my style.
00:48:48
Speaker
It isn't for me. It's God. I've seen it twice. So I don't want it. Like, don't at me. I know. Yeah, I know. I see it twice. They were both. I heard fans who are definitely listening to a Matrix podcast must be astronomical. So we apologize. Yeah, let's let's try and get the Hamilton crew in on this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. They're still rabid on Tumblr. Right. Yeah.
00:49:16
Speaker
God almighty. I fucking love this. Thomas A. Anderson. My name was Thomas A. Anderson. Baby girl, did you just... Oh my God. I'm talking to the cat. My cat just threw my watch across the room. I'm sorry I'm not entertaining you. Yep. Cats, yeah. Stop it, asshole.
00:49:41
Speaker
Yeah, we get to see things that they do like the sort of zero G playing with and yeah, you're right It takes I didn't think about that. It takes something that is so like suspenseful and horrifying in the movies the mainline movies and and
00:49:54
Speaker
puts this whole other innocent spin on it. And I like that all of these animatrix segments are sort of exploring a different aspect, like the idea of going back into the matrix or the unconventional ways of waking up from the matrix and kind of taking these little lore concepts and exploring them from a different perspective, from like a on the ground perspective.
00:50:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's like none of these characters are at any point in the story, everywhere of The Matrix, or any kind of programmed reality. They are just going about their lives like kids do. And because it's a completely, it's a point of view completely removed from the context of The Matrix.
00:50:36
Speaker
And then by that logic, it can be whatever genre it wants. It doesn't have to be like a cyberpunk horror action thing, you know, it can just be. It's like, you know, like you said, it's this very Guillermo del Toro, like kind of dark fantasy. Yeah, it's kind of it's very Coraline esque, you know, like these kids kind of discovering a new like weird thing.
00:51:00
Speaker
They're exploiting the weird gravitational anomalies by just jumping off of like the third story and coming inches, but stopping short of actually hitting the ground. Well, it's got that one kiss. Well, they drop after a minute or two, but yeah. And then we get to really the part that was very upsetting, which is that
00:51:23
Speaker
The girl and Yuki the cat are reunited. They come to this strange door that just seems to have echoes of things that she's said in the past. Yeah. Which is mostly, Yuki, come here. Which cat owner, if you're a cat owner, that is probably the majority of the words that you say in a daily life. Oh, absolutely. Isn't that right, baby girl?
00:51:47
Speaker
Yep, well her name's Mando, I just, you know. Oh, she responds to that, asshole. All right. And I love, you know, there's this very subtle line, I guess, of where she's being led away by the pest control guys toward the agents, and she says, there's no bugs in there.
00:52:05
Speaker
um which I guess surface level is she sees these guys that are like exterminators or whatever and thinks that that's what they're there for but she my thinking is that she overheard them talking about like bugs as in glitches and she that's what they're there for yes um yeah that's fair but she doesn't understand that they obviously mean glitches and thinks they mean like literal like infestations
00:52:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we get that this empty door is just like seems to be reflecting back just echoes of her own life at her audio. Anyway, but like that's the most haunted house it truly gets. That is the most truly. Yeah, the most directly haunting is that like she it's like her realizing how mundane her life has been up until this point, I guess, you know, all these all these little moments and it's just a void.
00:52:56
Speaker
Yeah, you discover something truly magical and then you go back to go back. Yeah, exactly. Grind. And it reminded me a lot of the film House from 70. I want to say 77, but it's basically a horror movie about all these these schoolgirls who discover a haunted house and kind of get picked off one by one. It's a very like YouTube-esque movie. Yeah, I highly recommend it. It's a wild, wild film.
00:53:26
Speaker
Fair enough. I was so ready for you to say house, the medical doctor. No, no different house. Different house. Got it. But the most upsetting thing to me is that, yeah, we see the ending where it's just a normal like parking lot and there's nothing really like the the can that was floating previously is just a regular can now, though it does seem to be attracted to the place that it was before. Just kind of roll in that direction.
00:53:52
Speaker
Um, but we don't, uh, after the sequence at the door, we don't see Yuki. What the fuck happened to Yuki? Do we not see you? I replayed the scene where she gets dragged away by the guards. We don't see the cat. Oh, the cat. Okay. Oh my God. Sorry. And I want to believe the character's name is the human character's name is Yoko. So that's always, I didn't even know that then that she was given a name.
00:54:21
Speaker
I only know it because of Wikipedia. So, yeah. So I'm looking at the word Yoko and you're saying, yeah, no, I'm like, what happened to the cat? We didn't see the cat. We didn't see the cat. I want to assume that the cat is now back at the apartment. Yeah, I feel like the cat was maybe just extracted by a separate guard or something. But or the the upsetting, but hilarious, admittedly, scenario where Yuki was taken over by an agent and just meow, meow, meow, meow.
00:54:51
Speaker
Oh, please don't invoke a cat with a human face. Yeah. Jellicles can and Jellicles do. Anyway, we're going to have to watch cats one of these days. I hate that.
00:55:09
Speaker
I don't think we do. I mean, I wish I saw cats instead of Rise of Skywalker. Hey, she insulted Star Wars again. Take a drink. Take a drink. Fireball. Yeah, I think it's it's aside from me worrying about the cat, which is valid of me. It's a really poignant ending of, yeah, like that childlike magic of the world just going away. And right as you had discovered it, too, like she really only got to enjoy it for a very brief time.
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah, the kids had it for a mysterious amount of time. Yeah, because they know everything about it. Yeah. God almighty, what a what a great little weird thing. Yeah, I was great. Yeah. And then we get to a detective story. Oh, fuck. Yeah. Fucking great. Fucking great. Fuck. Yeah. Speaking of great fucking cats. Yeah. Oh, my God.
00:56:04
Speaker
This cat fucking rules. Yeah. Let's spend our entire detective story segment talking about that cat. No. Well, first off, I want to shout out James Arnold fucking Taylor, rather James fucking Arnold fucking Taylor, the voice of this detective, also known as the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi on the Clone Wars. A lot, but a bunch of other voices. He's a great, very, very talented voice actor. Definitely look into his other work because he's
00:56:31
Speaker
Definitely been in stuff you've seen. Um, I just love this fucking hard boiled aesthetic. Like when he's like, Oh, you know, I always thought it would be like Sam Spade. I'm like, dude, it is like, you're literally like, it's, it's, it's hard boiled, but with like an
00:56:48
Speaker
I can't tell if it's like, noir with an overlay of cyberpunk, or cyberpunk with an overlay of noir. I think it's noir with a cyberpunk overlay. I think at its core, this is a really noir story. I mean, his fucking keyboard is a typewriter! It looks so bitchin'! I want that computer! It's ridiculous! It's so fucking cool!
00:57:07
Speaker
But yes, Cats are Awesome is really the overarching list of the animatrix. Because Dinah, the cat, who was the first of the many, many Alice in Wonderland references that pepper this thing. Dinah hands him his hat at one point, and I'm just like, oh, maybe. He's like out the door, on his way to try and meet Trinity.
00:57:31
Speaker
And the cat is out the window and throws him the hat, which he catches and says thanks. It's a level of anthropomorphism that Yuki really didn't demonstrate. So it's just so cute and it's very like grommet-like, you know? Grommet's a good pull. Yeah.
00:57:51
Speaker
Obviously, she doesn't talk, but she is so attentive and helpful. This cat fucking rules. The plot kicks off when this detective gets... His name is Ash, right?
00:58:04
Speaker
I believe it is, yes. He gets an anonymous call that they're looking for a hacker named Trinity, and I had already seen this, but if I hadn't, the way that the person pronounced Trinity would have immediately tipped me off that it was an agent, because he said, like, Trinity.
00:58:23
Speaker
Um, and of course, uh, shaking my head, got to dock points for misgendering Trinity. Um, cause I go, Oh, Oh, where is this guy? Who is he? You know, it's, it's calling back to the, I thought you'd be a guy thing from the first movie, but come on, man. Come on. Yep. Times it's computer. 1999.
00:58:45
Speaker
The far distant future year of 2003. Uh, but yeah, we're, we're given a, just a buttload of Alice in Wonderland references with finding the red queen. Uh, they calling her a Jabberwocky like, Oh, is this, is this just a wild goose chase? Um, and it culminates in finding the red queen and the red queen, of course is Trinity and her username in the chat log being red queen is so fucking metal icon.
00:59:17
Speaker
We stand Trinity forever. Yeah, easily. And it's Carrie and Moss back, of course. Of course, of course. This is the second one of two she's in besides kids story. And she actually gets stuff to do in this one, which is insane. Yeah, it's so good. I thought when he when he gets on the train where Trinity is and he goes, I knew this was some kind of trap. I'm like, hey,
00:59:45
Speaker
I resemble that remark. Oh shit, I didn't catch that. I don't think it was intentional, but it is very funny to me.
00:59:52
Speaker
Fuck, that's good. Ah, that's good shit. That's amazing. How did you, yes, I mean, what did you think about sort of the journey that he goes on? Because I liked that we have to kind of make different stops along the way to these other detectives who have, well, one of them just straight up lost his mind and the other disappeared. So he starts looking for a Trinity, learns that there are other detectives who have failed in the same task before him. One committed suicide, one went missing, and one went insane.
01:00:21
Speaker
Uh, I'd like to think that the one that went missing got out of the matrix. Yeah. Okay. That stands to reason. Yeah. Yeah. I really, I just like the idea that there is like escaped with Trinity. Yeah. Wouldn't it be cool if there was just, again, he's on like the, the, the hard boiled noir ship out there somewhere.
01:00:42
Speaker
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, see? You know what I mean? Yeah, see? We got something else on our tail, see? One of them gets out the back of the ship with a Tommy gun and just... They've all woven fedoras for while they're on the ship.
01:01:00
Speaker
Um, what'd you think of the eye horror? I loved that. Oh, we get like right out of the, right out of the, yeah, but this one's worse. This one is worse than sucking it out of Neo's tummy. The, the, the one in the movie is presented as like, you know, photo realistic. This one is clearly animated and it's still worse because she's got that little.
01:01:23
Speaker
dome thing, end of the, the suction cup, end of the gun around his eyeball. And you see the whole thing moving and shifting as this like leech is being pulled out. I hate that. I do really like this one. I think the arc in it is very sweet where he begins kind of like doubting that he even got into this field to begin with, which is, I do think it's funny. I'm just like.
01:01:48
Speaker
Why did I, you know, ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of being a 1940s style detective. He's like, Hey, bitches, I'm a 1940s style detective. And now he's doing it. And it's the fact that he was doubting his, his skills and his position as a detective at first, but he is a legitimately great detective and the agents needed someone who could actually find Trinity. But the fact that he's such a good detective loops back around to being a problem for the agents, because if he was smart enough to find Trinity, he's smart enough to realize that he's being set up.
01:02:17
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's all done again. It's just limitations of the short frame structure of these things. It relies on a lot of tropes and called out Sam Spade and Philip Marlow by name. I love the soundtrack for this one. There's a lot of like,
01:02:33
Speaker
Jazzy sacks and everything. And yeah, that's the fact that again, we get the theme of the agents and the matrix underestimating the capabilities of humans because they want someone right there. They're like, oh, we need someone who's a really great detective in this world to help us find this hacker. And then they realize, oh, shit, now he's on to us, you know.
01:02:54
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But it doesn't work out in anybody's favor, unfortunately. I do love the image of the 1940s ass detective and the leather clad cyberpunk bitch working together. Like that's such a cool image of just that running around the train together. So cool. Give me more of that. I want to see intermixed aesthetics in my matrix, please. Give me like a cowboy with somebody covered in LEDs.
01:03:22
Speaker
In The Matrix, Morpheus was cowboy Curtis. That was his dead name. Christ alive. And we also get the horrifying image of witnessing someone directly, someone that we have followed to this point forward, someone get overtaken by an agent and it is horrifying. Oh my God, it sucks. It sucks. I really wanted Ash to escape. And you kind of like feel it coming before it happens, you know, in that I don't feel so good sort of way.
01:03:51
Speaker
Yeah. So Trinity's solution is to shoot him. Yeah, which sucks, but you know, it's had to happen. Um, yeah. I mean, it stops the agents from taking over and they ultimately respect each other. You know, they don't, it's not a sour relationship. Yeah. And he does get a final moment of being bad-ass with holding those agents at gunpoint. It is probably futile, but I do like that that one agent kind of motions to the other one and be like, you know, just let him have his moment. He's, he's already lost, you know,
01:04:21
Speaker
Yeah, the agents are just like, wait, hang on. He's doing something really bitchin'. Yeah, yeah. Give him five seconds for the lighter to flicker Inception style and then cut to black. Right, right.
01:04:37
Speaker
A full seven years before inception. I know it's not a top. I know it's just a flickering lighter, but still. Like you do see it go out and that is in sort of an illusion, uh, you know, simulation space. Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. Which, uh, which he never realizes, but he does probably get closer than anyone in, you know, beyond or, or any of these, most of these other films. Oh yeah. Which makes sense. Cause the, you know, it's, he, that's his job.
01:05:07
Speaker
Man, you gotta wonder like out of all of the blue pills that the red pills try and free, how many of them are just such close near misses?
01:05:19
Speaker
Yeah. Like what's their, what's their success? What's their success rate within universe conspiracy nuts? Like in the matrix. Like imagine Morphy is going up to somebody is like, I got it all figured out and Morphy says like, okay, not quite actually. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're giving me freaky. You're actually really close, but you're giving me really freak out vibes, man. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know if you pass the vibe check.
01:05:45
Speaker
Like, you know, like Zion, we just we try to curate the vibes in Zion and I don't know if like, you know. Who if like they just look, we have a lot of orgies there and like, I don't know if like you're really like. We need a lot of like we need more sad sacks who need liberating like sexually. Like can you get us some more of those? More of that, please. Do you have anything else to say about a detective story?
01:06:08
Speaker
I don't think so besides the fact that I just kind of want to live in that cyberpunk noir world. That seems dope as shit. Yeah. Which I think that takes us to our final short. Yeah. Yeah. I'm matriculated, which matrix elated more like, right?
01:06:35
Speaker
This one, this one always kind of weirds me out. I mean- In context, the word matriculated refers to being enrolled at a school, at a college or university, which makes sense given the plot. It's sort of about this group that rehabilitates machines, like Sentinels and so forth. In this case, we follow a runner robot, right? Through this robot redemption program, which I love the idea of off the bat. And we get another cute animal friend
01:07:05
Speaker
In the form of we do lemur looking thing, right? Uh, I have no idea what the fuck it is, but lemur seems the best word for it. Like it might be just a genetically engineered thing. Like, you know, which I mean, going back to the idea of like animals, real animals existing in the matrix, there are still real animals.
01:07:26
Speaker
Well, there's the existence. This one might. Yeah, it might be genetically engineered, though. It might have been grown just because I mean, that's that's still I don't think any capabilities of life like on most of the surface of the world in the real world. Right. Like I like to think that, look, if
01:07:45
Speaker
Hmm. You know what? I was going to make a joke about how like, you know what? If if Zion and IO are just loaded with fucking lesbians, they'd have put some effort into making cats. Let's be real. Well, I mean, following Wally logic, there are cockroaches, of course, but I mean, there are always cockroaches. Yeah.
01:08:03
Speaker
I just slapped the microphone with my boob. I apologize. I apologize. I was trying to sit up straight. But then I'm thinking, I know there are species of primate that are like very, very close to human beings like genetic matchwater. So if you've got access to like human cloning technology, I guess it's a short walk comparatively. It is. Cats though.
01:08:32
Speaker
Cats, yeah, important. Cats, yeah. As demonstrated by the previous two films. Yes. I think this is the perfect one to end on. I do really like this is the final one in the film because it's the perfect like answer to the second Renaissance because second Renaissance one and two are all about setting up this really sharp, violent division between humans and machines. And this is about kind of proving that wrong and like bucking that trend and showing them coming together and tying directly into resurrections, of course.
01:09:02
Speaker
But I love this conversation that the main character or the main human, I guess, has with this doctor or scientist character talking about how, you know, why don't we just reprogram? Why go through all this effort to have them make the choice to join us? And he says, well, we can't make slaves of them. Like, they're tools, but we can't, you know, we can't do this to them. It's like, yeah, well,
01:09:25
Speaker
Allegedly, that's how you got into this mess in the first place. I know. Yeah, it's it's very echoey of conversations we've heard lots of times beforehand. Yeah. And it is, again, echoing that conversation that Neo has about, well, we have the power to destroy these machines. So, well, yes, but we also rely on them. You know, it's a symbiotic relationship.
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. Um, it is also like, to my point in which is why I love like Ramakandra in revolutions so much. Um, but it's also just like, yeah, these machines, as we know them are just people with a job to do. And they can learn that there are other better things out there. Exactly.
01:10:11
Speaker
And I there's this moment where the little I think his name is baby like the little lemur thing. Yes He's being like held and cuddled by this woman who has this like like kind of British accent and I'm like I want to be held like that by a woman like that and
01:10:29
Speaker
I'll be nice. Then we get to, I guess, the actual like rehabilitation of the robot. Right. I mean, that's the best. Yes. And which is like they plug the robot in to their little cloistered version of the matrix or. Well, it's the construct of the construct. Yeah.
01:10:46
Speaker
And it's essentially their version of it is, bro, take some shrooms with us. You'll chill out. You know, it's a windows. It's a windows 1998 screensaver. I'm less like a burning man, a spiritual journey on psychedelics, you know.
01:11:03
Speaker
Yeah, with a fun reference to Looney Tunes thrown in. I loved, I wanted to high-mute. Keep you off balance. I loved that. This franchise reminds us that it's owned by Warner Brothers at the fucking weirdest times. They could have really leaned into it, though, since they are owned by Warner Brothers. I admire their restraints. The Merry Melodies theme, yeah. This day and age, you know they would have cranked that. They would have cranked that.
01:11:33
Speaker
I admire their- And three lanterns in this movie. Yeah, and LeBron. I also like the symbolism too. Everybody get up, it's time to slam now. I like the symbolism too of the machine kind of popping its head out of those Looney Tunes circles and seeing on display in this movie theater stage place.
01:11:55
Speaker
I'm not sure quite what it means, but I like the imagery of just like all, every, you know, feeling like humiliated, feeling all the eyes are on you, feeling like you're on display. I'm not sure how it plays into that. Hey, that's exactly my, that's more exactly my relationship to The Matrix in 2003. I don't know what this means, but I'm fascinated by it. But it could tie into certainly trans-ness in the sense of like, you feel like you're a spectacle, you feel like,
01:12:22
Speaker
Absolutely. You are there for other people. That's a good point. I think, okay, I think I'm starting to get an inkling of like, they are showing the machine that like you previously, you have only been made for the whims of others, you know, you're just like a thing to them, but we can show you how you can do something for yourself. And what that thing- You can make your own choices, yeah. And specifically choose to become a hot girl, which it does.
01:12:46
Speaker
I mean that it do that it do. It's it's it's face shape like the the the orientation of its eyes remains the same between its physical machine form and its hot gold girl window to the soul and all that. Yeah. But the the eyes also change from red to green, which is fun. Green being more of an organic color.
01:13:14
Speaker
Yeah. If they were going for like a Nausicaa Valley of the Wind reference, it would have been blue, but you've already got a red and blue coat of things in the matrix. Yeah, exactly. We get a big, nice reminder of how powerful hand holding is in this universe. Mm hmm. Yeah. Oh, beautiful.
01:13:35
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, anything else to say about this whole sequence, I guess there's a lot to, I mean, it's, again, it plays out like a perfect, like matrix twilight zone episode, like just to consider. And, uh, we have to work together or we'll all be killed. And it's because they are, unfortunately, anyway, exactly. Yeah. And it's because this, this, uh, runner took so long to make up their mind, their mind.
01:14:02
Speaker
that all of the humans and the other robots and the monkey are dead. I know, I was so sad that the little baby died. I know, I know. But the tone of it is definitely broken up a little by the Wilhelm scream being so obvious. Ah, Christ. Is that gonna be my cold open? I've been going back and forth as to what the fuck the cold open to this episode is. Oh man, I don't even know. But just a Wilhelm scream, it's like, welcome to the matrix. Yeah.
01:14:30
Speaker
Sums it up. I'll figure something out. But I do like the ending where, you know, it's sort of a.
01:14:37
Speaker
like kind of a out of guilt almost. You know, this this robot has taken up the mantle of what these humans were doing before, just monitoring this beach. And by the way, I love the beach as a study. Like we haven't really seen like the water, you know, like, yeah, in the real world. Yeah. We see very, very briefly as the woman, I forget her name, Alexa, I think maybe is running the ironic day and age.
01:15:05
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, God. But somebody in that in Zion is named Siri. Hey, somebody's name's Sis, like. Yeah, exactly. All bets are off across the board. We don't fucking know somebody just given that information. Somebody in Zion is named Turf. I know, right. Sucks. Somebody's got Bitcoin. Somebody's definitely named Elon.
01:15:37
Speaker
But anyway, briefly, as the runners, because there's two initially are chasing the woman back to the base, you get a very brief glimpse of like a crashed hovercraft, which I thought was pretty cool. These humans are like marooned on the surface of the earth, essentially exposed. And I think about that, that they are stuck there. I was like, I thought they were just kind of choosing to be there as setting up shop there, but I guess, yeah.
01:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, so it's them just kind of marooned on the surface. Now I will say their alarm system is a great big red flashing light and they do all of their matrix construct shit plugged in in front of a great big bay window that opens up to a full view of the beach. Maybe subtler is a better idea in this case.
01:16:34
Speaker
Uh, because the sentinels do find them very quickly. Hindsight is 20, 20. Yeah. Well, better luck next time kids. Yeah. Or, or whatever number it would be if you have like four eyes as a robot or six eyes or whatever. Um, but I do like, I just love that image. I think that's a great thing to end on of just the robot sitting alone on the beach monitoring for, for other robots that haven't, uh, you're not wrong.
01:16:59
Speaker
And again, ties into resurrections with the kind of union of machine and humans. Yeah, the coexistence. Oh God. And adding more nuance to the films themselves, to the live action films.
01:17:14
Speaker
I mean, that is something I tend to rally against in terms of like, in order to enjoy this movie, you have to watch 17 hours of bonus content. No, I don't think that's true. I don't think it's necessary, but I think any good like sequel, prequel, anything should do, which is enhance what's already there. Exactly. Yeah. So it deepens the experience at the very least. Well, yeah, I guess. Anything else we want to talk about with matriculated?
01:17:41
Speaker
Not necessarily with matriculated specifically. Do you want to move on to try to rank these? Yeah. Let's give that a go. Cause I definitely have my favorite and. Oh shit. Do I have my least favorite anymore? Oh no. Well, why don't we just take a second, pause the recording, make some notes. And we're back. All right. So we have ranked. Uh, we have each made a list of our personal rankings of these segments of the animatrix. Do you want to compare going from our last place to our first place?
01:18:11
Speaker
Yes, let's go last to first. I think that's the most interesting. We want to do. I say when you say one or do you want to say our whole list? Let's yeah, let's go. You say, I say so. So coming in at number eight. My last place is the final flight of the Osiris. Hey, yes. Yeah, because it's I mean, yeah, all like I said, it's it's giving tech demo, you know, it's literally.
01:18:36
Speaker
We spend hours talking about the matrix every month. We're very specifically doing the animatrix. I was staring at the list on Wikipedia for like a good minute. Like I'm missing one of them. I think it was that one. I had forgotten. Yeah, it existed. I like earlier this episode. I like I like your lady, but there's not much, you know, not much else. It's really not. Yeah, it's.
01:19:05
Speaker
Yeah, after that. So what seven? Yeah. Number seven. What's yours? What's your number seven? I've got matriculated at seven. I've got programmed down there. Oh, interesting. I think I get I see why you put it there. I see why you put it there. It's it's dealing with a lot of stuff that I enjoy, like concepts. I just like, dude, I lived through the night. The Windows 98 screensaver. Yeah. I have no real need to go back to that.
01:19:34
Speaker
Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. For me, I mean, program is not bad by any stretch. It's just very simple, you know? Yeah. It's a very straightforward story. Number six. Number six. What do you got? I got kid's story at number six. Really interesting. Okay. I've got second Renaissance as my number six, which is again, I know it's supposed to be a huge proponent of second Renaissance. You know what? We, we, we did talk about it at length last episode.
01:20:03
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, uh, second Renaissance is one of those things that I've always loved because it is so much more all at once. But this time around with the added context of everything that's happening in the world, it felt a post resurrections as well. I suppose. Exactly. Yeah. Had you, had you watched it before seeing previously before resurrections or had you watched it since resurrection rather?
01:20:32
Speaker
Have I watched, I don't think I have. No, I think the last time I watched it was a month or two before resurrections came out. So, um, very, very interesting. Uh, especially because, yeah, I had, my egg had cracked by that point, but I was not like fully publicly out. Yeah. So this is definitely an interesting time to rewatch it then.
01:20:57
Speaker
Very much so, yeah. What was your number six one more time? You said kids story. Yeah, kids story. Interesting. I'm sorry. Did you have more to say on that or did you want to? No, I think I like bitched about it enough last time. No, I mean, on second Renaissance. Oh, no, I. Yeah, it was a it was a tough watch. Really tough watch for me this time around. Yeah. And in some ways, I think it was a tough watch in a good way. And in other ways, it was just a tough watch.
01:21:27
Speaker
I will always love it for the sheer amount of world building info dumping. Yeah. And the car commercial, the entire car commercial, the car commercial. There's no other choice or the only choice. I think it's the line. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Um, number five. Number five. What do you get? You first.
01:21:49
Speaker
Oh, uh, world record. I've got it. Number five. Okay. Fair enough. I, I, I, I told you, I realized that only went so far, but my number five is, you know what? Okay. Any of the same reasons you said. Well, now I will also say this, uh, to your credit world record was my least favorite for the past 21 years.
01:22:16
Speaker
I mean, I have the experience of seeing the Osiris in theaters, which did lend it a bit of like, I mean, the sweating and the sweat and world record is considerably less sexy than the sweat in Final Flight of the Osiris. Yeah, exactly. Depending on your definition, I guess, you know, everybody's got some. Everybody got some.
01:22:40
Speaker
Well, so no, you moved it up a full, like four spaces. So well done. I am very glad to hear that. I feel, I feel accomplished in that way. What? Um, it's a number four. Oh, sorry. Okay.
01:22:53
Speaker
Oh no, I'm good. You're number four. Okay. My number four, uh, matriculated. I think I just love the concept. Um, even if the execution is very, even if the execution is so bizarre, but I almost, I love how bizarre it is. I love how just interpretive everything is. Like, it's just like, Oh, you're,
01:23:11
Speaker
running down a hallway and now there's like a ball spinning and now you catch the ball and I'm like, I love it. It's like, I don't even know if they knew what they meant by any of it. And I kind of, I kind of dig it, you know? Yeah, it's a metaphor for something. I do love just the empathetic nature of the story and how it ties into everything else.
01:23:30
Speaker
I mean, that's very fair. Uh, my number four, like using almost your exact same, like, I love the concept and the, and the, the, the, I know what it's going to be. Oh, you tell me what my number four is. Is your number four beyond? No, it's actually program.
01:23:46
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. I, I, I really enjoyed program this time around. Um, because I'm like, yeah, if I had unfettered access to the construct, I would make fucking bitch and Sam. I respect that. That's what catapulted it up for you. I love that.
01:24:07
Speaker
It's, it was, it was, I thought it was so beautifully animated and shit. That's right. Hang on. I think I had something to say about program that I absolutely spaced on. Um, uh, you talk about your number three real fast while I dig up like the cast and credits.
01:24:25
Speaker
Yeah, my number three. Well, my number three is world record. I think I don't think I really need to say more about why I like that so much, but it does speak that I talked it up, but there are two that I liked more this rewatch, you know? So we'll see what. Yes. We're going to have to hold my big revelation about fucking program till the end because I cannot pull this shit up unless my vamping saves my ass in the next 20 seconds. You can also insert it later.
01:24:53
Speaker
I could do that, but as stated earlier, I'm fundamentally lazy and I've almost got the thing up. OK, son of a bitch. This is just the cast list. I need the fucking.
01:25:06
Speaker
What did you need? Nevermind. I needed something completely different. Okay. So your number three was, what was it again? Sorry. Oh, world record for world record. Mine is detective story. Okay. Yep. Yep. Which again, I just want to fucking live in that noir cyberpunk reality. That just looks so cool to me.
01:25:27
Speaker
I didn't like it nearly as much as I liked it on this rewatch. I will say that for that one. Number two, what's your number two? My number two is Kid Story. Oh, wow, okay. Yeah, really fucking high. I know, at this point we should just be using Process of Elimination, but I'm not smart enough. Yeah, try to keep up with it in real time. Yeah, Kid Story, no one is more surprised than me as we established Lattice episodes. Yes, Kid Story could have...
01:25:58
Speaker
I just want to give Kid a fucking swirly. Did they have toilets in the Matrix? Because I want to give them a fucking swirly. Or did they have toilets in Zion rather? Indoor plumbing in Zion. Kid within the context of the Matrix, the movies.
01:26:20
Speaker
It's a lot to the strength of that segment that it's able to really make you like that character. Yeah, it's it's so beautifully well done. And I love the the the ending of it all as well. Much more hopeful than most things we've seen. Very true. Matrix. Very true. And it does explain at least it explains why he's so annoying, you know.
01:26:50
Speaker
Oh, certainly. Absolutely. Partly. It partly explains it. Here we go. I finally found my bullshit that I was going to talk about. About program. Yes. About play on me. So it's made by the studio. We forgot to list the studios this time. We did. We did. We did. We should rattle those off real quick. But it's made for the studio Madhouse, which was established in 1973. So this is like a established.
01:27:14
Speaker
a anime company and they have done things such as Vampire Hunter D, Bloodlust, Trigun, Death Note, One Punch Man. I've only ever seen the first season and the animation in that is bug nuts, to say the least. We want to rattle off the, before we get to our, well, I'll say my number two, which was Beyond.
01:27:37
Speaker
Okay. All right. Respectable. I like that. Great. Like little exploration of the innocence and magical world and how it, how it can disappear, um, without us knowing. And it's got a great cat, got a great cat, but let's rattle off those studios real quick. Okay. So second Renaissance is studio.
01:27:56
Speaker
four degrees Celsius, which I'm pretty sure is the studio established for this project, if I'm remembering correctly. Oh, cool. Program made by Madhouse. Also world record, also made by Madhouse. So hey, look at that. Kids Story. Oh, it looks like Studio Four Degrees Celsius was founded in 1986. Oh, well, son of a bitch. I am not doing enough research. That's okay.
01:28:25
Speaker
for my Matrix Research Podcast. It's not really a research podcast. I mean, it really isn't. Beyond a kid's story, both studio and a detective story, also studio four degrees Celsius.
01:28:40
Speaker
Uh, as I trip over my own language matriculated is DNA productions and final flight of the Osiris square square USA. Yay. Yeah. Oh, I want to say our number ones. I think by now we figured it out via process of elimination, but.
01:29:00
Speaker
Probably. What's your number one? My number one is beyond. It just hit me this time. Yeah. Yeah. For all the reasons you just listed for it being your number two. That's why it's my number one. My number one, again, for similar reasons, I can't. I didn't really believe it at first. I was like, shit, a detective story is kind of the best one of all. Hell yeah. There you go. So badass and like, you know, incorporating Trinity in a really cool way that doesn't feel like fanservice. It just feels like she's part of that story.
01:29:28
Speaker
And it had such a cool blending of genres and the cat, even better cat, even better cat than usually somehow is Dinah. Yeah, no, it's fantastic. Yeah, it's it's beautiful. And this whole thing I have really, there's none in here that I dislike. Osiris is fine. You know, I'll watch. Yeah, it's not. Yeah.
01:29:50
Speaker
It goes from like, this is something I love to this is a fascinating concept to Osiris. So yeah, it's, uh, yeah. Yeah. Which is, but that's yeah. I mean, Feel free to let us know what your favorite one was by all means. Uh, what are we matrix reclamation at Gmail? Uh, I forget what our Gmail account is my friend, uh, because I am so horrible at social media. I forget it once an episode. Let me look.
Engagement and Social Media
01:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's Matrix Recolamations at gmail.com. Dope. And Matrix Queer Pod on the social medias. And well, that leads us into our plugs, I guess, right? I guess it does. I am at Hope Lickner on multiple forms of social media. I have
01:30:38
Speaker
become very distasteful towards social media in general. So find me on there on AO3. Just fuck it. Just find me on AO3. We can chat. Yeah. What are your favorite shapes? Why put up a pretense at this point? Yeah. Who gives a shit? Just give me the, the, the lesbians, soft, sapphic, plotless, uh, go. All right. And, uh, and where can people find you?
01:31:01
Speaker
A lot of people can find me at Drama Without Ref on the social medias. You can find my previous podcast, Mystery Shack Lookback, anywhere you find your podcasts. Don't forget your podcast, of course, High On Cartoons, right? Oh, shit, I should mention those, yes. High On Cartoons presents DuckTakes. We're trucking through season two at DuckTales right now. With cover art by myself.
01:31:23
Speaker
Yes, absolutely beautiful stuff. I may have another commission for you in the short future for a different project, which is all I'm going to say about it right now on Mike. If you want to check out all that art stuff, yeah, that's at Draw Without Ref to find me. It's very good. I'm also working on a big collaborative zine celebrating the film Phantom of the Paradise, which is a great movie. Watch it. That's your homework.
01:31:47
Speaker
Uh, yeah, you have to get me drunk and have me watch that movie because I've never seen it and I will watch it. We'll screen it on one of your big screens. Uh, yeah. So that's at P O T P zine on the social medias. Um, and yeah, that's, uh, it's about it for us. So.
01:32:04
Speaker
Can't wait for the next one. We'll figure out what that's going to be. Figure out what that's going to be. We're going to truck our way through all the rest of the media that came out in 2003. So that'll be the video games and then the parody material. As you say, a good 75% of the franchise came out in 2003, which is bonkers. Now, I guess, uh, love and animation of the Genesis of all things, right?
01:32:30
Speaker
Yes, and especially on today of all days, the day this is being posted anyway, you are not alone.