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Enter The Matrix (2003) Is A Videogame
54 Plays6 months ago
THE major multimedia event of 2003, so massive in the making that not even the people funding it never saw it coming and didn't know what it was after it arrived.
Compilation of 35mm cutscenes
https://youtu.be/RNbYopzcRAA?si=1I0Jo9GY7HnzuvDY
Ghost Vs Trinity
https://youtu.be/HJ0E2gYKqM8?si=N37Oy9mqEcNTz7yi
"Movie" for Niobe
https://youtu.be/dNlv11vqJSA?si=5piqj0Yr8Q8WhvlK
"Movie" for Ghost
https://youtu.be/cnc5We3GR4I?si=7K6nm9ayBIIWOdmt
@MatrixQueerPod on IG/Twitter
Ella Cesari is
https://twitter.com/drawnwithoutref
https://instagram.com/drawnwithoutref
https://ellacesari.weebly.com
Hope Lichtner is
@HopeLichtner on IG/Tumblr/AO3. good luck!
The Matrix music, clips and dialogue are all copyright Warner Brothers and we own NONE of it.
contact us at [email protected]
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Transcript
Introduction and Characters
00:00:06
Speaker
I was hoping for. But perhaps you can help me find him. You're an agent? Oh, no, no, not anymore. Then what are you? Me? I suppose you could say I'm the alpha of your Omega. I am the beginning of your Omega.
Themes of Love and Fate
00:00:28
Speaker
I'd like to share a revelation.
00:00:38
Speaker
Let me tell you why you're here. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. 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, just you know it. Do it, do it. All's above. Hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability.
00:01:10
Speaker
My name is Trinity and you better take your hands off of me. Welcome. Hey Ella. Hey Hope, what's up? I was at a goth birthday party in Baltimore this weekend with a shitload of queers, the humblest of brags.
Cultural Impact of The Matrix
00:01:33
Speaker
But my love of The Matrix came up because I was desperately trying to not talk about Dune with another Hobbit that I met there that also loved Dune. And I'm like, I've done that too much to Bex. I cannot- And they're doing that. And I'll try not to Dune it again. So I desperately tried to swerve the conversation away from that and we got onto the subject of The Matrix.
00:02:01
Speaker
And one of the people there asked me, does.
00:02:06
Speaker
the phrase Wabash and Lake mean anything to you. And apparently he saw me enter my mind palace for a few seconds. And when I came back- Wabash and Lake. And when I came back, I said, yes, Wabash and Lake is the exit where Link is able to find the team to escape to during the freeway chase in the Matrix Reloaded 2003. Okay, there you go. So there we are.
00:02:35
Speaker
But, uh, I, I kind of hate that I had that knowledge just on tap, so to speak. I mean, you know, you know what I'm like. So, you know, that I'm the type to be impressed by that. Well, great. That's, that's why I'm coming here to brag about it. Again, the humblest of bread, the humblest of brags. This knowledge is so deeply, very eventful weekend.
00:03:02
Speaker
Uh, that we had brunch this morning and then we walked around a lovely park in the sunshine. It was a good day. Right. But before that, you got to identify the intersection from the matrix reloaded. So I did while I was cross faded out of my mind. It's probably the peak of the weekend. It was, it was terrific.
Video Game Discussions Begin
00:03:22
Speaker
Let me tell you, uh, and it's going to continue because today we're talking about a video game.
00:03:28
Speaker
A video game! A video game! Now, so yes, we're discussing... You'll never guess what year it came out in. Our 2003 miniseries continues. Yes, we're discussing the 2003 video game Enter the Matrix, which was done by Atari, right? It's actually developed by Shiny Entertainment.
00:03:54
Speaker
And I believe in the cut scenes. Yes, I believe it was Atari was the publisher. Shiny was the. No, I'm I'm looking at Wikipedia and it says the publisher is info games.
00:04:07
Speaker
Uh, which is the current name of Atari. So yes. Okay. So it was developed. It was the other one. Yeah. Developed by shiny published by Atari, which is now info games, which is a shit ass name. Go back to being Atari. Yeah. Uh, not to, uh, shame. Changed names or anything like that. Atari, come on.
00:04:29
Speaker
I have the logo. The second A in Atari is the logo, it's dope. I also just watched Tron Legacy again last weekend. Oh yeah, I'm sorry.
00:04:43
Speaker
I skipped all of the dialogue sequences. And let me tell you, when you do it like the way my friend showed me The Matrix in the year 2000, 10 out of 10 movie. The soundtrack is by Daft Punk and the visuals are magnificent.
00:04:59
Speaker
but the matrix enter the matrix yeah it was a video game from 2003 now hope what is your i guess overall relationship to the video games as the video games i've never played the path of neo and i'm very excited for that future episode of this podcast as a gamer do you consider yourself a gamer in general
00:05:19
Speaker
I really don't. I really don't. There was a period of my life where I got really into Bethesda games. But before that, all of my video gaming was actually now that I'm thinking about it, I'm having a psychological revelation in real time. All of my video gaming was essentially by peer pressure because all of the people I liked to hang out with played video games. So I got that. I definitely I was never much of a gamer myself. Like by by choice, it was more just
00:05:49
Speaker
My dad had a PlayStation that I got the Wii, you know, so it was a very like casual sort of style of gaming. But all my friends would talk about like, oh, man, are you playing like it was it was Super Smash Brothers Brawl was like the newest thing I was and I was like, yeah, I don't know what that is.
00:06:06
Speaker
And it's like, so it's still that sort of casual branch of the gaming, but I, yeah, I get that entirely. I finally deleted like the last real tie. I had a video games. I deleted a Pokemon go off of my phone about six months ago. And I'm like, okay, Pokemon go to the polls.
00:06:24
Speaker
Uh, well, I, I Pokemon fucking went to the polls. So yeah. Um, but the, but the matrix. Yeah. I mean, you would think Taylor made for a video game, right? Just given the. Yeah. My, uh, my experience with this video game in specific baby girl, don't walk on the keyboard, please. Um, with this,
Exploring Movie-Game Tie-ins
00:06:47
Speaker
I didn't have a PS two. Uh, so I think I.
00:06:53
Speaker
pulled an absolute like dick move entirely and bought the video game, enter the matrix for my friend, Sean, who had no interest, but I knew that I was- It's a gift for me, that's false. Yeah, I may have been house sitting for him like a little later that month and did almost nothing but play that game. That's why you give it to your like, here's a gift for you. Absolutely. That you're interested in. Incidentally, do you need someone to house sit in about a month?
00:07:23
Speaker
Absolute dick move. Yeah, just but yeah. So 21 years ago, I played through Enter the Matrix once as Naomi. And I was I yeah, I was very not good at it. I remember that much. Yeah, I've taken to a lot of, you know, older like consoles I didn't have and revisiting games on emulators.
00:07:50
Speaker
And, you know, with those, you can do like a save state. You can just kind of reload back to where you were. And yes, kind of the only way, like, I don't know how I would do them without that. I mean, I do understand the appeal for some bizarre reason, like video game playthroughs are extremely calming to me. So I'll just have one of those on in the background.
00:08:13
Speaker
But I think we're both taking the long way of saying neither of us downloaded an emulator for this episode of the podcast. Unless you did and did not tell me. Son of a bitch. Did we cut out? Yeah, you disappeared for a bit there. My fucking cat took the headphones off. Son of a bitch. All right.
00:08:40
Speaker
Good. All right. I'm going to mark that in the time for editing. Yeah. Christ. Yeah. And then I think as far as enter the matrix, I don't know if it was this or if it was path of Neo that I briefly played on an emulator. It might've been path of Neo. And it's definitely not the style of game that I'm like generally gravitate towards from what I recall.
00:09:07
Speaker
But I think that's not necessarily what we're here to talk about today since we are maybe gonna do like a stream of the game itself in time. I would love to do a stream of the game. I tell you what game I... More on the story and characters and that kind of aspect. Yes. I think that's important to our overall conversation a little more than video game mechanics are to our overall conversation about The Matrix.
00:09:33
Speaker
A spoiler alert, I'm terrible at video game mechanics. Yeah. I feel like that, that Conan O'Brien bit the clueless gamer or he just, they hook up like never new game. This like 60 year old man. Amazing. Um, I will say the one matrix video game that I did like thoroughly enjoy on like constantly on repeat. And this like goes to like the level of video game I enjoy.
00:10:02
Speaker
There was, if you bought the audio CD for the soundtrack to the Matrix Revolutions, if you put that disc in your computer, it was an enhanced disc, so it included an MP4 or a
00:10:18
Speaker
QuickTime, a file of the trailer, the minute and a half long trailer of the Matrix Revolutions. And it also included a little top down. I don't I don't even know what the hell you'd call it, like a bullet hell. Yeah, shooting game of
00:10:39
Speaker
Uh, it's called tunnel recon. You wait until I'm recording a podcast to try and eat my hand and I don't appreciate it. It's called tunnel. That's, that's Hope's cat. Not that's the cat. That's my hand eating days long behind me. Yeah. Let's look at looking up tunnel recon. It looks like Pac-Man.
00:11:01
Speaker
It does. It's like the Matrix Pac-Man. And you could choose to play as either this little like 8-bit, 16-bit, I guess it's 16-bit, Nebuchadnezzar or the Logos. I always chose the Logos because it was faster. And you just pile it around the tunnels, around Zion. And you get chased by squids, it looks like.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yes, you get chased by sentinels and eventually the little bomb throwing machines show up. And speaking to my bad at video games, I could never make it past like level seven or eight, but I just got endless enjoyment out of this little simplistic top down shooter.
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah. And the downside to that is it is a flash based video game. So now it is more or less completely inaccessible. But yeah, according to this, it is was also on the matrix website. Yes, it was originally designed for enter the matrix dot com. Bring it back. God damn it. God, I miss that game. But what is the matrix or enter the matrix? I think it's what is the matrix? Did I say enter the matrix? Yeah.
00:12:09
Speaker
The word Matrix has honestly God lost all meaning to me because I say it so freaking much. It's truly upsetting.
00:12:21
Speaker
So we both have, I have much more experience in this video game than you do. This particular one, yeah. Yeah, but like what was crazy about it at the time was just like video game tie-ins were way bigger back then than they are today. Most tie-in video games these days are like an app on your phone that you get for free or like a card
00:12:52
Speaker
game or something like that. I remember when every movie coming
Integration of Matrix Games and Movies
00:12:56
Speaker
out had like a usually shitty tie in game. Oh, my God. But it was like every movie. So you'd get like, do you want to play space chimps for the Wii? Like.
00:13:12
Speaker
I mean certainly with especially because that was like the days of the Star Wars sequels sequels prequels as well you got a shitload of massive video game tie ins. I mean like shit a year later I think Van Helsing had a huge video game tie in that also bombed.
00:13:32
Speaker
Uh, because the power of it being such a new at the time, like medium to really get that big and, and everybody kind of wanted a piece of the pie. And now it's been all, all eaten and no one, no one wants it anymore. Uh, yeah, it's a little sad, but at the same time, so many of those tie-ins were truly, um, terrible games.
00:13:56
Speaker
And yet, many hidden gems, I would say. I mean, the tie-in game they made for Toy Story 2 is one of my all-time favorites. I'm not even going to lie to you. Oh my God. I never played the Toy Story 2 one. I played the Toy Story one tie-in game. Yeah, for the- On my second Genesis. Yeah.
00:14:13
Speaker
It featured such realistic CG animation, way different than the pixels of Sonic the Hedgehog. Exactly. Just absolutely just monstrosities. I mean, they kind of, if you think about it, they did what Nintendon.
00:14:33
Speaker
Yeah. Is the cold open for this episode? Just going to be like Sega. Whatever, whatever Atari's jingle is. Yeah. Info games info. Yeah. Thank you. Not a good name. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's to the point, but oh well. Wait, I'm sorry. Info Graham's.
00:15:00
Speaker
Did I misread it? Is it info-grams? Info-grammies? Oh my God, you're right. I just edited the R out of that word every time I read it. Oh, okay. Huh. Okay. Ah, there we go. On October 11th, 2008, info-gramms completed its acquisition of Atari Inc.
00:15:29
Speaker
So there you go, I guess. Great. Good for them. Great. Well, it looks like they have since gone back to Atari, so... Yes. Well, in this specific case, it was shiny, released by Atari, Enter the Matrix, written and directed by the Wachowski brothers, as it says, right on the frickin' box.
00:15:50
Speaker
Which is, I mean, gender aside, while put on the box, like, like imagine like written and directed by Steven Spielberg, like on the box of a video. Right. Yeah. But it's just like, it just goes to show this was a tie-in unlike any other tie-in.
00:16:06
Speaker
Um, they got all of the actors to voice all of the relevant parts throughout the entire video game. And it really is an extension of the films themselves in every, every way. And I think it truly is being massive fucking nerds. Uh, you know, they, Oh my God, I love them so much. Yes. They're very deliberate. Um, you know, making it important, making it not just a throwaway sort of tie in for money.
00:16:32
Speaker
Um, and making it, you know, a part of the, well, I, I use the word story very loosely because we are talking about the matrix, reloaded and revolutions here. Well, I mean, I mean, it's, it's not that there isn't a story. It's that there's so much story.
00:16:50
Speaker
There's a little too much story to go around. There's a lot going on. So we're centering around. I pointed this out in my notes. This is an awful lot of interconnected storytelling.
00:17:03
Speaker
for all in service of the plots of Reloaded and Revolutions, because it's like this ties into Reloaded in the same way that the Animatrix ties into Reloaded, specifically regarding the Osiris and the transmissions sent by the crew of the Osiris when they discover, oh shit, the machines are going to drill right down into Zion and we're going to have a massive, like a massacre on our hands. We don't do something about it. And this is about
00:17:29
Speaker
the Logos, right, Niobe's ship, picking up that transmission and discovering it. And it's like, did we really need, it's, it's again, kind of the Rogue One problem of like, did we need every step of this?
Character Developments in Enter the Matrix
00:17:44
Speaker
Like, this is a very minor piece of the plot that you're expanding, like,
00:17:48
Speaker
Every detail of- Oh my god, yes. And I both love it and hate it for that exact reason. Yeah. I'm also actually seeing the discovery of the transmission and them seeing what the machines are planning and we get to see the reactions to learning this information.
00:18:07
Speaker
is way more effective than what we get in Reloaded proper, which is just them sort of talking about it. We don't get any visuals there as far as I recall. Well, I mean, it does unfortunately come back to one of my chief complaints about Reloaded and Revolutions. They're just in the sunglasses too much, and you cannot emotionally connect to them. True. I mean, we're going to talk about it a little bit later, but
00:18:31
Speaker
The cutscenes for this very video game suffer from that problem, I think even more than Reloaded does. Yeah. There's less of this. We haven't had time, unlike with say Neo and Trinity and Morpheus, we haven't had time to already know these characters before they're in sunglasses all the time. Exactly. Yeah. We get a little bit of them without the sunglasses up at the top and a little bit of them without the sunglasses sprinkled in and then they're in the sunglasses.
00:18:57
Speaker
Yeah. So it's a little frustrating.
00:19:03
Speaker
Like, so I want to read a quote. I found this amazing article like 15 minutes before we hit recording. I found an article, it's on Why Now Gaming by Owen Williams published June 27th, 2023. Enter the Matrix exploring a unique tie-in game at 20. And so there's this great paragraph I'm going to kick us off with.
00:19:30
Speaker
to just go into the depth of this. It's under the heading of the article, Blue Pill, The Vision. It began with a script, specifically an extra script that nobody was expecting. The Matrix Reloaded and the Matrix Revolutions were to shoot at the same time over a colossal 18-month schedule split between Los Angeles and Sydney. So when Nachowskis delivered three screenplays to the studio, they were met with a certain degree of perplexity.
00:19:58
Speaker
Makes sense. Yes, exactly. Hey, we can never notice there's an extra movie here. That's literally like almost word for word, more or less the next paragraph of this article. The Wachowskis explained it was a game and Warner Brothers didn't really know what to do with that.
00:20:19
Speaker
Wait, wait, I'm sorry. How did they script a medium to go? They put three scripts on the desk, and everyone goes, okay, so we wanted two movies. You have an extra movie here, and they go, no, that's a video game. That one's a video game. Yeah, that one's a video game. I respect their confidence. We wrote it in Final Cut Pro, yeah.
00:20:40
Speaker
But it's but yeah, confidence is one word. I really like the word that I describe used for like from the architect sequence forward, which is the audacity. Yeah, yes. I have no choice but to stand back and salute. It's yeah, truly amazing. Yeah. And then they hire shiny. Apparently the Wachowskis requested shiny.
00:21:07
Speaker
What have they made out of? Oh, no, my apologies. The studio via self-super producer Joel Silver brought in Shiny Entertainment. And among other things that I'm not familiar with, because I don't play video games, Shiny also created Earthworm Jim, speaking of My Young Days on the Sega Genesis.
00:21:27
Speaker
Right. Yeah. Earthworm Jim made by a noted pro lifer Doug Tenapple. I knew one of the creators was an asshole and I couldn't for the life of me remember which one. Yeah. But there you go. So yeah, Earthworm Jim. I'm sorry. I don't have any documentation on pro life. I do have documentation on transphobia. So. Oh, OK. There we well, there we go then. Yeah. So.
00:21:56
Speaker
So I can understand why like a video game developer like shiny would be excited to get this like license specifically. Right. Because they've had to deal with Doug 10 April for a few years. Yeah, clearly. But there's also this other great, great quote. And I'm going to quote, what's his frickin first name, David Perry, the owner of the company, shiny.
00:22:23
Speaker
I hope he's not an asshole, but here goes the quote anyway. Normally you get the license, then you find out all of the things the studio won't let you do. For example, Shiny got to make a Terminator 3 game, but the player couldn't beat the Terminator or Sarah Connor, and we weren't allowed to use their likenesses. Enter the Matrix was the exact opposite.
00:22:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And boy, fucking howdy. Imagine shooting yourself in the foot that bad of like, all right, we're making a Terminator game except without all of the things that people associate with the Terminator. Wouldn't you want to let the people be the.
00:23:00
Speaker
fucking Terminator or Sarah. I essentially dress like Sarah Connor in TF2 anymore. Like, come on. Maybe if you had been able to play as her in the game, you wouldn't have to feel, you know. Well, it's funny you say that.
Matrix Video Games and Storytelling Innovations
00:23:15
Speaker
Bex asked me just out of curiosity a few months ago, like, hey, how early did you start using female avatars in video games?
00:23:23
Speaker
Oh, well, you know, acting as early as Enter the Matrix a few months, a few months before I my egg cracks. Oh, wait, a few. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, on that on that note, Enter the Matrix allows you to choose between either Naomi, Jada Pinkett Smith's character or Ghost, who is in the movies. He's in the movie for about
00:23:52
Speaker
four seconds i want to say it's an insert shot during the freeway chase cool yeah yeah it's uh it's it's it's rough and i feel that makes me feel even worse for the character having now just rewatched all of these cutscenes for the first time in like 20 years oh boy but we'll get to him uh in in a in a bit properly so yeah it
00:24:18
Speaker
So what, so we should probably actually talk about what we watched for this episode of the podcast. I am going to put a link to it in the show notes. Um, but there is a YouTube video, uh, literally called enter the matrix cut scenes and it is literally.
00:24:40
Speaker
Uh, a rip from like the DVD or Blu-ray. Not sure which, uh, uh, DVD, probably of all of the cut scenes, uh, that were shot in 35 millimeters.
00:24:55
Speaker
for Enter the Matrix. The Wachowskis wrote and directed all of these sequences themselves. So I know they said, you know, they told the studio like, oh yeah, this is a video game, but functionally it's they made it as a movie. Functionally, yes, there are some scenes missing that take place in the
00:25:13
Speaker
PS2 era graphics, which are still voiced by the actors themselves and presumably written by the Wachowskis still. Presumably a degree of increased woodenness, I guess, as they're suddenly plucked behind a recording booth that they're not used to.
00:25:33
Speaker
I, after I watched all of the actual 35 millimeter footage, I did go back and rewatch like one or two sequences cut together as they would play in the game with the PS2 graphics and, and gameplay included. And boy, the jump from 35 millimeter, gorgeous footage of like Carrie Ann Moss to a PS2, three polygon. Oh man. It, uh.
00:26:08
Speaker
Oh, God. Yeah, God, it's actually hurting my brain kind of thinking about it. Yeah, you can you can jump on YouTube and watch all of these cut scenes back to back. They're they're very, very I don't know about good or fun, but man, I would argue that I honestly noticed some cinematography choices that I liked more than the bulk of Reloaded and Revolutions, particularly there's a scene where they're at
00:26:27
Speaker
Oh boy, it was jarring.
00:26:35
Speaker
they're at a payphone, you know getting getting a return to the real world and They don't remember if they do this in any of the other films but they do this thing where the light is sort of flickering they're in one of the subway stations and The light, you know that one person picks up the phone and the light flickers and when it turns back on they're gone Like they don't show the I love that I like that a lot and that might have been a budgetary thing, you know just to save on the effect but it was it was really effective and
00:27:03
Speaker
Either way, that's always my favorite way to do those things. So like, and then after that is after afterwards, the train man comes out and he just kind of. Yeah. Everybody's spectator enjoying the show. Everybody just pops up for, for a little tiddly bit. A lot of light on stuff. I would say surprising amount.
00:27:25
Speaker
It really does and what's frustrating is I'll say this if I was looking at the calendar Correctly this game dropped on the same day as the matrix reloaded so you would have had to play these things like and play this and watch the movie like a little back-to-back to really have full impact which is
00:27:49
Speaker
Such a very like ahead of its time level of convoluted because like we have that now with like, Oh, well, did you watch the Disney plus show before you saw this Marvel movie? Like we don't have out of Marvel. Yeah. And that's, and I think this is very, it's like a pre pre precursor to all of that.
00:28:07
Speaker
Um, I mean, I think I even say, I think I even said it back when we started talking about, um, reloaded for the first time, uh, on, on, on that specific episode. But like the Wachowskis are always like five or 10 years before their time. Um, I mean, if, if they tried this during like the peak of Marvel in like 2015, 16, it would have been huge. So. Yeah.
00:28:35
Speaker
It's yeah, I mean the this all happened and then iron man happened five years later. So And it and they beat the the Wachowskis lunch money out of them over speed racer Just upsetting shame. Yeah, it really is So Sorry, I was just gonna say we get like well even tidbits of information that I didn't even know I was curious about sort of like more detail on the
00:29:06
Speaker
I'm sorry, say that again. This came out, I'm just putting this together now. This came out on the same day as Reloaded or Revolutions? Reloaded. So the release date is May 15th, 2003.
00:29:18
Speaker
And let me double check that date on Reloaded, yeah. That's crazy, because it goes into stuff that happens in revolutions in a certain point. It does go a little bit into revolutions. And I'll say this, because I played the game 21 years ago and saw it firsthand for myself. But at the very end of all of these cut scenes, there's a little black
00:29:44
Speaker
gap for a few seconds between like a couple of lines of dialogue and they would have flashed through in the original game, not in these special features to quick fire.
00:29:57
Speaker
bits and screen caps and sequences from revolutions. So it's like this game ends on a trailer for essentially or teaser at least of revolutions. So the tie, the tie ins just absurd. You would get essentially little details inklings about a movie that was months away from this game.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Unlike, you know, the first LEGO Star Wars game released right before Revenge of the Sith, and you would get to see the plot of Revenge of the Sith done very roughly and comedically, but still you get to see that before the movie. I had no idea. That's incredible. Yeah. But no, the thing I was, the information I was referring to is that
00:30:44
Speaker
that the oracle, of course, you know, her actress passed away from the original film and then was a different actress in two and three. Right. So yes. No, she she was the same and reloaded. She's different for revolutions.
00:31:00
Speaker
I see. Well, then, hey, there you go. That's because she appears in this first as the new. Yeah, that's an excellent, excellent point. Oh, my God. And then but she also explains, I think, a little bit more as to why that change happened in universe, because I think from the films, we know that it was the Merovingian did that, right? Yes. And now it is a sacrifice for Sati. Right. And I don't think we knew that until this game, that it was specifically a sacrifice for Sati. Yes.
00:31:30
Speaker
unless I'm wrong. I want to do a whole episode. I honestly, before I do an episode, I want to do a whole research thesis into Sati. Yeah, and then there was discussion of her that stuck out to me too, especially now that we have resurrections that she says, oh, this child is going to be critically important.
00:31:52
Speaker
Because we don't really get to see her do much in revolutions. Right. Because she's essentially like a six-year-old girl. Right. A lot of untapped potential. But I think the fact that, you know, they knew to bring her back in the fourth film, which we'll obviously talk about down the line, makes us feel very organically interwoven. Yeah.
00:32:18
Speaker
And I mean, beyond the, I gotta be honest, I did lose the plot a little bit, not just because the cutscenes are a little scatter shot compared to the gameplay, but once they have received the transmission from the Osiris, it starts to kind of just go wherever. I don't know.
00:32:34
Speaker
There's not really a single through line or goal that they're doing. They're kind of just like, yeah, this is the plot of Reloaded, you know? Yeah, exactly. It's not even the B-plot of Reloaded. It's like the Q-plot of Reloaded. Yeah. Because there's so many fucking plots set up. A show will do an episode and then it'll do a second episode that is like, this was happening during that previous episode. Like, it feels like that.
00:32:59
Speaker
Uh, it's, it's such a surreal thing, especially if you're just watching the 35 million million crop scenes. I am very excited to eventually one day sit down and do like a play through, uh, and just show how desperately bad I am at video games. Um, but it focuses and it fades in on, uh, uh, the three characters getting ready to pick up a package.
00:33:24
Speaker
left in the Matrix by the crew of the recently destroyed rebel ship, the Osiris. Hey, we talked about that on a previous episode. We talked about their final flight and how sexy it was. It was certainly very, very sexy. Good job, the Osiris. Good job, Square.
00:33:44
Speaker
It starts off introducing us to who will be our three main characters for this video game, which is Captain Nyobi, who is, shit, what's her name? I've forgotten her name. Jada Pinkett Smith. Jada Pinkett Smith, thank you. We can keep her name in our fucking mouths.
00:34:08
Speaker
You like that? You like that topical reference? That's real in the, it's so close. You know, it's too soon. Yeah, you know what? That was a little too soon. It was a little too soon. You're pushing boundaries. And oh, gosh, yeah. Oh, yeah? Well, what are you going to do? Come out. I should edit in a rubber chicken noise at that point. In fact, I will, because we're at 33.33 of editing. Perfect.
00:34:39
Speaker
Please do that. Thank you. But it also follows the gunner, rubber... What? Chicken. The gunner, rubber chicken. Oh, yeah. I'm writing notes to myself. I'm going to remember to edit this out. But it also follows her ghost and second in command, ghost. Her ghost. Did I say her ghost? Right.
00:35:01
Speaker
That's her ghost. Wow. That's my ghost. That's my ghost. The new sitcom this Sunday on NBC. Her her co-pilot, second in command and gunner ghost played by Anthony Wong, who I'm now that you mention it, I don't recall ever having a goddamn line of dialogue. I was going to say, I was like, there's no way like that sucks. It's his name's got to be on the movies at least like he gets residuals. I'm sure he's a big credit. Yeah.
00:35:31
Speaker
Gotta be, gotta be. But it starts off with this gorgeously shot 35 millimeter footage of the three of them on the bridge. Sorry, who was the third one? The third!
00:35:44
Speaker
Your friend, your friend and mine. I am, I am having a time my friends, but it's sparks. The operator is so like, what were they thinking? Like he's like, he reminds me, he feels like a friend's character. You know, he feels like a friend friend's character is a very good comparison. I don't really watch friends at all. I struggle to not watch friends. I never thought I'd have to, I'd watch some matrix content and they would say bung hole in it. Yeah. I felt like.
00:36:13
Speaker
The description I came up with was, what if 1990s MTV became a person? Yes, yeah, he crawled out like the ring. But he is played by- He's more like snarks, am I right? Jesus.
00:36:30
Speaker
He's played by, he's the operator on the ship. He's also, and I'm glad I only watched the cut scenes because he's not in too many of the cut scenes. And I presume he's just in your ear, the entire time you're playing a game. Oh God, that would be so horrible. He's like the Na'vi of this game. Hey, look, listen, okay. Listen to me. Hello. Could I be any more of an operator? He's played by, I hope I'm pronouncing this name correctly, probably not.
00:36:58
Speaker
a actor named Lachi Holm, who I do not recognize from literally anything else. Yeah, he's definitely not in the movies, and thank goodness for that.
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, he gets one line in revolutions and it's of course snarky. What's the line in revolutions? It's in the early sequence before they depart. They're giving the logos a cold start, essentially. And he has a line about, yeah, that looks great. Could you also clean the windows while you're at it? It's like, bitch.
00:37:39
Speaker
You're all going to die. Stop. Yeah. He's very, you know, proto Marvel dialogue. Oh, God, you're right. He's standing right behind me, isn't he? Well, that just happened. Yeah. So we get the three main characters of the logos. Niobe, Ghost and Joss Whedon. Yeah. Oh, God. That's horrifying how accurate it is. I do love that we get more, you know, to really focus on Niobe because she is awesome.
00:38:10
Speaker
She is pretty awesome. Yeah, I remember playing her half of the video game was a lot of fucking fun because she was the driver. So you got to drive the car during the freeway chase, which I really enjoyed. And at the end of the game, you got to fly the fucking logos. Why just slight sidebar? Just make that video game. I want to play that video game.
00:38:39
Speaker
I don't wanna play as a human character in the Matrix. I wanna fly the bitchin' hovercraft around the tunnel. Right, I feel like if you're not Neo, playing as a human in the Matrix is pretty boring. Exactly. One of the main mechanics of the video game that they tried to use to emulate bullet time in the game is called focus. And you could use it to slow down time and move slightly faster than all of the NPCs. Right, but doesn't only Neo have bullet time?
00:39:09
Speaker
I.
00:39:13
Speaker
I think because the red pills are- I mean, rule of cool, granted, rule of cool, but- Yeah, yeah. I think anybody that is a red pill can access bullet time, but Neo is the one who just has god mode enabled, essentially. I see. I guess I just thought that- If we're talking in terms of video game mechanics. Yeah, I think back to Morpheus saying that no one's ever survived an encounter with an agent, and I assumed that that meant it was because no one could dodge bullets before. Yes. Or rather other than-
00:39:43
Speaker
And and or stop bullets yeah, yeah, I'm saying that when you're ready you won't have to I Remember the games and I'm setting myself up for it I remember the games AI on the NPCs being a little questionable too so that was that was rough on what else is new yeah
00:40:07
Speaker
uh god but yes okay so we start off them talking about how um uh it's dangerous to go in and get a drop box or something like that from uh the final flight of the osiris pick up a package left in a
00:40:24
Speaker
God, I remember that level. You literally play as Naomi calmly walking through a post office to get to a PO box. Yeah. It's just, it's welcome to the matrix. Okay. So their hours are between eight and four.
00:40:38
Speaker
And the final boss is an aggravated postal worker. But you get some great cut scenes of, as you said, the human characters without sunglasses reacting to this horrifying news in real time. Yeah, which is so much more effective than standing around in sunglasses saying, the sentinels and the digging and the Morpheus and the
00:41:08
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I mean, we do get to that scene, but luckily it's not included in this cut scene, but it's really interesting. You get the dynamic of the three characters playing off one another, and then you get to see Niobe having a conversation with Commander Locke. Her current doing thing. With a great,
00:41:37
Speaker
Super awkward love triangle set up a little later on in this game. Mm hmm. There are many love shapes in this, I would say. There are. Yeah. You see poor Naomi like switching back and forth between the two personalities of captain of the logos and girlfriend. So it's well, because that's and I like that they dive a little more into that, that balancing of
00:42:06
Speaker
Personal lives and the the life of a revolutionary because I think that's something that I really like about Reloaded and revolutions is that they show us like these people's home lives and their loved ones and you know in I guess They're in the the new Operators case right the his children right or his niece and nephew I think
00:42:28
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, uh, you mean, uh, you mean link? Yes, I link in line. Great, great, great, great idea naming them link and lock. Yeah. Uh, Christ. Well, at least we all know where his pussy is. Um, where is his pussy? You know what? I said we knew where it was. We knew where it was in 2003. We don't know where it's gotten to since that's what you, that's one of the quests in this game. That is what you have to find links pussy.
00:43:00
Speaker
Oh, it hurts. Oh, I have hilarious brand-spaking news about the Monster Mash that we'll get to a little bit later. Just a wet you'll whistle. Oh, yes. I am so excited because I love that we get more of that. In case you thought this was going to be a short episode. Yeah, or a boring one. Yeah, fuck it. Ain't nothing boring about Enter the Matrix copyright 2000. Yeah. I mean, I guess I feel like that's kind of the next phase of the story, right? Is going through the key maker stuff, right?
00:43:28
Speaker
Yes, so it has what is set up to be
00:43:33
Speaker
extremely contrived reasons to stay in the Matrix and have a bitchin' adventure before going back to Zion. Because they rescue the keymaker. Well, first they have the boring ass meeting. And they, Niobe and Ghost are tasked with calling the rest of the ships back to Zion to coordinate a defense from the encroaching sentinels.
00:44:03
Speaker
So agents attack the building, Naomi and ghost escape. They encounter the key maker. God, I love the key maker.
00:44:11
Speaker
He's a funny little guy. He's a funny little guy. He also shows up as the doctor in John Wick, played by, uh, Randall Duck Kim. Uh, he's absolutely lovely, but it's so contrived because he pulls out the special key that he gives to Neo later on and reloaded from around his neck and then waxes poetic about it for a few minutes when suddenly
00:44:39
Speaker
A couple of fucking monsters pop out of one of the back doors. I believe those are Cain and Abel. Cain and fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Come on. Subtlety. No. I know filmmakers who use subtlety and they're cowards.
00:44:56
Speaker
thing is like those dudes are kind of hot like that was my first thought well to be fair I because of the way everybody's dressed everybody is kind of hot in these movies right but I think there's something about the way they brandish the weapons and one of them says you move and your brains are a Jackson Pollock is like no one is for as many guns and weapons as there are in the matrix I feel like rarely do characters talk like that about their weapons you know
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, which is why I would love again like said it before like a blue collar Matrix story about just like the other guys Exactly fighting the revolution. I still like the idea that in the monster mash version of the matrix They had Jackson Pollock like they know that reference
00:45:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's, that's, you know what? Good, good for them for being cultured, you know? I guess since they are friends with the, the Merv, you know, he's, he's all about that. Yeah, speaking of the Merv does get a four second cameo in this game. Oh, but he eats the fuck out of that. Oh boy, howdy does he?
00:46:02
Speaker
He takes a big ol' rip roar and bite out of that ham. Big adventure level ensues trying to chase the thing. God, we should be going by like the order of the cutscenes, I guess. I'm going off a Wikipedia.
00:46:23
Speaker
basically are like there's I think there there's a lot of cutscenes that are very much just like a five second like character saying something that are really not of note at all so I think it's probably better that we just go through the story beats and we're coming up on my favorite and objectively the best pair of cutscenes
00:46:39
Speaker
Which is, so depending on whether you choose Niobe or Ghost to play as, you get a scene in which they encounter Persephone, right? The American's wife. And you know, if you're playing as Niobe, you get that scene. And if you're playing as Ghost, you get that scene. And they're fundamentally the same scene.
00:46:55
Speaker
except they reveal different insights about the character depending on who you're playing as because they walk in there, threaten Persephone to tell where they took the key maker. Persephone offers them the same deal that she offered Neo, which is to kiss her as though they were kissing the person they love. And I noticed in Naomi's clip, because that came first, that like,
00:47:19
Speaker
Oh, Persephone's using, like, they-them pronouns, referring to the person's love. I'm like, that's a very interesting choice on the part of the Wachowskis to be gender neutral like that. But then I realized it's so they can just use the same footage. Okay, well this is setting up an insane theory that I came up with while watching these cutscenes. Okay, what's that? But as you're saying,
00:47:42
Speaker
They only re-shot the insert footage of Niobe or Ghost. They use the exact same footage for Persephone. Right, when it's just a reverse shot of Persephone. Right, exactly. So it's literally like beat for beat, the same dialogue, the same motions, the same breathing, same exact footage in each case. The problem is...
00:48:05
Speaker
that they do that multiple times throughout the length of these 42 minutes of cut scenes, which led me to believe and concoct the theory that these programs, that all of these events, one, you have to accept that all of these events
00:48:24
Speaker
are canonical to the Matrix universe. Interesting paradox. Step one. So step two, you have to realize that the human characters are not repeating these things. Each of these characters, each of these human characters
00:48:42
Speaker
are only experiencing these events the once. Yeah. But you look at the programs like Persephone, like a couple of the monsters like Smith. He's different, but he's still, he's not human. Well, he's, he's still of program born all day, but
00:49:06
Speaker
That leads me to the insane theory that all of these programs are kind of in on the joke and they just want to experience the same cutscene in different ways. I mean that makes sense. And they are capable of doing that because they are programs. I think with Smith we'll get to him later but in Persephone's case it certainly makes sense if they both
00:49:29
Speaker
you know, come into the room at different times. And because I think Persephone is a great character. I mean, a really underrated character, I think, because she extremely yes, she has this inner longing of like wanting to experience genuine connection, but she is trapped in this world of like high society and fakeness and that she herself is a program, you know, she is literally not human.
00:49:50
Speaker
But that by kissing someone she has this like intuition as to their emotions like she is Right like the ultimate like coaches don't play like she's always giving this advice and this like insight into their romantic lives But she herself has a very unfulfilling marriage to the Merovingian and there's a real tragedy in that and also the fact that they you know
00:50:14
Speaker
they have the setup of like, oh, she's gonna kiss the player avatar character. And like, yeah, even when you're playing as the girl, there's still a kiss. And I think that's, oh, yeah, obviously, we take it for granted now knowing what we know about the Wachowskis. But I think like, you know, at in 2003, it's like, yeah, these are the people who made bound. So
00:50:34
Speaker
Yeah, this is a very high budget triple a movie tie-in video game that features a lesbian kiss in it. So, and I, there's something about the line that, uh, that stood out to me or it's, uh, for Stephanie says, Oh, you're afraid to kiss a woman. And I have, he goes, well, you're not a woman. I'm like, interesting, kind of like the robot in the animatrix, the, the, the android. It, it kind of.
00:51:02
Speaker
ears dangerously close to transphobia in a weird way. Not even like that it's necessarily transphobia, but that it's like a presentation of those sort of emotions that you might have as either like a pre transition or pre-realization trans woman, you know, hooking up with a woman and having it be a lesbian experience that might not be perceived as one because of how the other person perceives you.
00:51:30
Speaker
Yes. I mean, yeah, it's God almighty. I go through it every time we record, but like the week leading up to record, I'm like, do I have anything to say about this subject? And then as- Right, much less anything relating to our themes of queerness, you know. Right, exactly. But then as like the day arrives to record, I'm just like, oh no, I have
00:51:54
Speaker
a lot to fucking say about Enter the Matrix. And the insights that Persephone gives are maybe my favorite part of the whole game. I want her in the Oracle. I want her to get mentored by the Oracle. I feel like she would be a good Oracle because she has all this emotional perspective on where they're at romantically in their love lives.
00:52:18
Speaker
Because for Niobe, she kisses Persephone and Persephone detects, you know, oh, you're in love. And who what's what's their name? And she says Jason referring to Commander Locke. And Persephone says, no, no, that's not his name. But Jason knows Jason knows who he is. Oh, he's referring to Morpheus as the the true, true love, which on the other on the one hand, it's like,
00:52:45
Speaker
It could just be polyamorous. No, but you know, it's locked doesn't strike me as the poly type. No. And that's why that's the other hand. The other hand being, you know, Locke is clearly kind of not not the right fit for her. Right. Exactly. But it is extremely fascinating just to consider all of this stuff. Yeah. And it's like even getting into that, like the
00:53:12
Speaker
What you said there, the Merovingian so desperately wants to get revenge on the Oracle and in revolutions he wants the eyes of the Oracle. And you say now just like you want to get like Persephone and the Oracle in the same room together. It's like the Merovingian is literally married to someone like with the emotional intelligence.
00:53:32
Speaker
Right, but he's incredibly superficial. He misses the forest for the trees. If I take the oracle apart piece by piece, I will have that imperceptible quality that she contains when really all you're going to have are a bunch of pieces of something that no longer do the thing that it did as a whole. Right.
00:53:55
Speaker
Yes, and then after we get the niobie We get the ghost kiss yes, which is fascinating she goes considering she's hang she hangs out with the monster mash all the time
00:54:10
Speaker
Well, she's used to a very different set of ghosts. Right, with white dreads. Yes, it's just upsetting. I'm glad they're not in any of the cut scenes. I know they're in the actual game, but I'm glad we didn't have to look at them that much in the cut scenes.
00:54:28
Speaker
So cool in theory, so whack in execution, good Christ. Yeah, probably Lana's idea. Yeah, Lana. But what's interesting about all of a sudden, the character of Ghost with this specific scene becomes a lot more of an interesting character to me. Right. Well, yeah, because they invent the idea that he that he has this unrequited love.
00:54:55
Speaker
on deeply unrequited love that actually like sets Persephone off. She is she is she she like goes bananas for that. But it's unrequited love for Trinity. Yeah, I love it. I know he's technically in the movies, but I love the idea that they like this is my OC. He has a huge crush on the love interest of the of the movie, who is not like.
00:55:24
Speaker
Oh, God. Also, like, who wouldn't, right? She's Trinity. I mean, fucking A, she's Trinity. I mean, among other news that we can also discuss later, if you like. But they announced that Carrie Anne Moss is playing a Jedi in an upcoming Star Wars, Disney, whatever the fuck program. And like the quote literally from the creators are like, yes, it's Trinity as a Jedi. I'm like, can we can does she get to like act? Can she can can we allow her to act, please?
00:55:53
Speaker
Yeah. But like, yes. No, of course you're going to fucking fall in love with Trinity. Yeah. But I did want to ask some potentially uncomfortable questions about that. Sure. He seems to be taking a much more like monastic Zen approach to the whole thing.
00:56:14
Speaker
But he's a he's also not in cell. Yeah, that's exactly what I was going to ask. Like because he's like constantly quoting philosophers and very like proudly celibate.
00:56:30
Speaker
Um, it, it's, it, it, it just strikes weirdly close to in cell for me, but right. I mean, then they has a scene where Trinity goes, when are we going to get you a girlfriend? We're going to talk about that. That's one of the extracurricular sequences that I went back and watched. Yeah. Um, so fucking insane. I love the matrix. Yeah.
00:56:58
Speaker
uh, incredibly strange character for, especially for like this massive video game. Like your hero is a guy who very proudly does not have sex. Well, not only that, but I think the unrequited love aspect as well, that seemingly, you know, conflicts with his, with his ideals. And it makes me curious as to like, was the celibacy a reaction to that? Or is this unrequited love coming up after he decided, you know, to be celibate and it's, and it's sort of conflicting on that level.
00:57:27
Speaker
I'd love to know more about his, his life. Pre the matrix. Yeah. Um, I, and I love that this game just turns into a dating sim like genuinely that it makes so much sense when you consider the overall arc of the matrix movies that like the fourth movie is basically a rom-com like the resurrections is so love and love being the genesis of all things. And.
00:57:53
Speaker
something as insipid as love, et cetera, that it takes kind of the forefront here over them having to defend against the machines. There's a lot of sequences of cutscenes that elaborate on this critical moment with Persephone, which is why I agree with you. I think both of them happened canonically. I think both kisses.
00:58:16
Speaker
Yes, good, I'm glad I've converted you. No, I don't think I even needed converting. I think once you said it, I was like, yep, that makes sense. Sure, I'll incorporate that into my worldview. Exactly. Christ alive. So then the Logos finally returns to freaking Zion. Yes, we get to see the Zion Control mainframe place again, which is really cool.
00:58:42
Speaker
Yeah, I do like that. It looks so fucking like cool and futuristic. We do get a cutscene of Naomi getting back to her room where she is immediately. It's such a great little human moment. She literally opens the door.
00:59:02
Speaker
closes the door, puts down her bags, and then there's a knock at the door. Yeah, and she even says, I literally just got here. Just like, oh, I understand. I understand completely. And she and Locke have this conversation about Morpheus, where
00:59:19
Speaker
a lot kind of wonders like why is he doing this like because of us like because he he feels abandoned or jealous or what and and Niobe you know knows Morpheus knows who he is and knows that it's all about you know his faith that that's that's what drives Morpheus not any not anything like petty like that
00:59:38
Speaker
You do get even more of the idea. It's like, that's why Morpheus and I always stop being a thing because he was so focused on the mission. You're kissing your photo of Neo instead of me. Uh, no, you know what? I'm going to refrain from searching Neo slash Morpheus on AO three. Like she, like he's, he's lighting up like a cigarette in bed and she turns and she goes, so who's Neo?
01:00:13
Speaker
Oh, baby, he's nobody, baby. Uh, do you think the breakup happened after? I was, I was saying, I was saying me. I was saying Neo Bay, Neo Bay. I was saying Boo earns. But no, I think the breakup, I want to say the breakup happened before the first matrix, right? Because.
01:00:35
Speaker
I mean, these movies, the movie in the... Reloaded and this fucking game take place six months after the first The Matrix. But even in The Matrix 1, you know, Morpheus is all in on Neo even in the first movie. So I think the breakup was spurred by his sort of fanaticism that had to have happened before.
01:00:55
Speaker
That would make a lot of sense. Yeah. Um, good Christ. Uh, but yeah, they have this, uh, uh, look, you gotta have one extended boring conversation per matrix reload. And at least it's about, you know, the kind of themes of love, which I, which I appreciate more. And it's about more character stuff than philosophy. Um, or rather their personal philosophies. Um,
01:01:23
Speaker
And, you know, considering the fact that this game does basically become a dating sim, there's no orgy in this one. Uh, no, we don't get to see the big orgy sequence. There's no orgy or slash pink bar club scene like there is in every other Matrix movie. I mean, huh. Maybe there's a level where you do the orgy.
01:01:48
Speaker
If there is, I don't remember. It's a lot of quick time events and rapid button pressing. Yeah, press X to finish. Yes. Jesus Christ. So the next cut scene is actually the one that I went back and watched the full sequence for, which is Ghost and Trinity. Speaking of dating sims, side note, I would absolutely play a Matrix dating sim.
01:02:17
Speaker
Yo, that's... wait, we should make that. I'm filing that away. Alright, start scripting it. What is this? Is this like a college AU? I mean, I think it should just be in the world of the Matrix. Just the plot of the Matrix? Oh Christ. Yeah, I'm fully sold. Done. Done deal. But we get Ghost in Trinity, so...
01:02:43
Speaker
The 35 millimeter footage is of a door opening, and you see Ghost laying in his room in Zion, and his room is incredibly spare. It has a double wide mattress, a bunch of books stacked directly on the floor, and Ghost is laid out face up on his back,
01:03:08
Speaker
And it looks like he's plugged into via the neck port, some sort of contraption that is built for two people to lay side by side in. And then the camera cuts to the other side and we see Trinity and she moves in and then it switches to PS2 graphics. Yay. Oh boy. And you get a big sequence
01:03:35
Speaker
of Ghost, you, the player character, fighting Trinity, which is pretty fucking cool. Yeah, she's like a boss sequence in this game. I know, I didn't play the Ghost mission as a kid, so I didn't know that, that's amazing. I mean, I'd love to beat me up. I mean, the sequence that I watched, they did get a fair few hits in on Ghost.
01:04:02
Speaker
It was weird watching that number of polygons once again. But side note, as far as like the game mechanic goes, you can actually looks like it wrecks the the scenery, like it's part scenery. So you can actually break shit in the game. And I'm like, oh, yes, I love that shit. Yeah. Oh, my God.
01:04:29
Speaker
So you get this great sequence of Trinity and Ghost fighting. Ghost establishes that he's... What is the line that he has at the end of this sequence? It's, celibacy is a hands-on job.
01:04:49
Speaker
And he's a thousand percent making a masturbation joke. Yeah, god damn it So I do think you say there's no orgy sequence or like
01:05:00
Speaker
I guess, yeah, that makes up for it. That makes up for it. You're getting beat up by Trinity and you're making masturbation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's enough. That's enough of an orgy in itself. Pretty much. But it's. Yeah. Oh, did we skip something? Did we skip Smith or is that lighter? No, Smith is. I want to say a little later.
01:05:26
Speaker
Uh, because after all of this happens, baby girl, if you step on the keyboard, I'll end your life. Uh, as she steps on the keyboard. Uh, but, but, uh,
01:05:41
Speaker
So then I guess between this cutscene and the next cutscene, the movie, or at least part of the movie, The Matrix Reloaded happens, which is when Niobe volunteers to- There's a message flashes on the screen that says, insert Matrix Reloaded DVD.
01:06:01
Speaker
The rest of the game continues on disk, too. Yes. Yeah. But this is the part where Naomi volunteers the logos to go in along with the Mjolnir to rescue the Nebuchadnezzar from the surface from the matrix and bring the crew home. I do love whenever they're like, hey, everyone's reported in except the Nebuchadnezzar. Oh, typical Morpheus. Yeah, exactly.
01:06:34
Speaker
Uh, but as soon as they log back into the matrix, they get a call from Serif, who is, uh, already talking to, and we are introduced to, uh, the new iteration of the Oracle. To truly know someone, you gotta fight them. I mean, it is pretty bitchin'. We do get a great fight sequence between Serif and, what's his fuckin' name, Vector, I wanna say? Sure, why not?
01:07:04
Speaker
Know is these video game names. I love them so much It's it's God vector I played a Sega Genesis game called vector man. It was a lot of fun You were robot fighting bad robots. It was great, but we get a kick-ass fight sequence then we get I think finally
01:07:29
Speaker
Do we get to see a little bit of Agent Smith? No, we don't. Not yet. He's still a little later. We get them going into the freeway sequence.
01:07:43
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, and, and getting that summons, then it cuts to literally the final, like 15 seconds of the freeway chase, which is where Morpheus lands on the hood of, uh, Naomi's car and Morpheus kicks the shit out of the agent off of the roof of the.
01:08:03
Speaker
truck yeah oh christ is there anything we want to say about that we haven't already in our reloaded episode i have no idea it kind of glazed over me this time around honestly i there's
01:08:16
Speaker
We're talking about the Matrix sequels. There's going to be a lot of glaze, unfortunately. Yeah, we get a lot of terse tense sequences of like estimations as to how soon the machines will be in Xylon under Xylon under 72 hours. Yeah, it's been rough. God in heaven. Yeah. God, what the fuck's next?
01:08:45
Speaker
We get a lot of chat with fucking luck. We get a big argument. I feel like Smith is really the next like big moment. We do get I want to say we do get. Naibe talking to the Oracle and.
01:09:05
Speaker
We do get a great bit of dialogue from the Oracle in the sequence after we explain for what will be the second time, no, the first time, why she looks so different. I guess the third time we see it is finally in revolutions five months after this game comes out.
01:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, which is one of my favorite lines from the game. I actually texted it to you while I was watching it. The path of the one is made by the many. Yes, that is a great vote. Yes. It's absolutely fantastic. So we get some wise shit from the Oracle from both of these characters. Again, the same kind of like repeated footage of the
01:09:53
Speaker
of the program character, which I adore, which means that the Oracle is also in on that little joke. Yes.
01:10:09
Speaker
I also noticed that the characters take off their fucking sunglasses for the Oracle. Respect the Oracle, god damn it. Yeah, like taking your hat off at church. Yeah, you will have emotions in this house, god damn it. And then, Serif lets each respective character out into the hallway, and then you get to fight Agent fucking Smith.
01:10:31
Speaker
Smith is also just like, not who I was expecting, but I'm going to have a fight scene with you anyway. It's just, I'm so delighted that Smith gets to be in this fucking game. I also, again, so when he pops out there in that back room, sort of, you know, developer access hallway,
01:10:57
Speaker
And in both versions of the cutscene for both Ghost and Niobe, Smith comes out and goes, damn, not who I was expecting.
01:11:09
Speaker
are not what i was looking for or something yes yes uh... i'm i'm i i was honestly going to you probably use that quote as the cold open yeah and i love it because it's that's our boy and if we postulate that that both of these happened and that means that he opened two separate doors and went down not who i was looking for her like in the same exact kids both times right and then got all of his other selves in on the joke about i am the alpha and also the omega
01:11:37
Speaker
and also six other things hearing out of context smith just say i'm the alpha is was very good god the alpha to your omega is the complete quote but i like smith calling himself i am a stigma male
01:11:55
Speaker
absolute tripe, bullshit, codswallop, and other old-timey words for nonsense. Yeah, exactly. God damn it. So you get the bitch and fight sequence with Agent Smith, and then finally we get to what is essentially happening in the final few seconds of The Matrix Reloaded as well, like concurrently with the film,
01:12:24
Speaker
Uh, but you get the big final level where, uh, uh, Naomi has to fly the logos through the tunnels and ghost has to keep the sentinels off of the logos long enough. Yeah. Um, and then we finally get, uh, ghost talking to Naomi. It's like, what are the, what's the final dialogue of the fucking game? Uh, it's going to be like hell of a ride or something. Yes. Yeah.
01:12:52
Speaker
Just fantastic. And you should see The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions in theaters. Yeah, exactly. But the fact that they use footage from Revolutions five months before that movie comes out, just as this extra little preview. Can you imagine little 17-year-old me sitting on the floor of their friend's house?
01:13:18
Speaker
just getting freaked out of their mind for this movie. And I was the only person I knew who gave a shit. I mean, it's the most effective trailer I've ever, you know, seen. Oh, God. I love The Matrix, God damn it. Yeah. But it's it's.
01:13:39
Speaker
Yeah, make a fucking game where you're just flying like the Nebuchadnezzar or the Logos. No, this one's a video game. This one's not a movie. But just make that game. I want to fly Logos. It was so much fun. The level was too short. You only do it once. It sucks. Yeah. Oh, well. But so the game came out.
01:14:04
Speaker
certainly did it did in fact come out this is where I skip down to sales and reception yeah well within a week of release Atari announced the game had sold 1 million units for all four platforms
01:14:19
Speaker
Um, title sold 5 million units by March, 2004. Uh, so yeah, it, it, it earned 58 million in the United States. Do we have a listed budget for what it costs? Did anybody take a bath on this game or? I mean, it must have been pretty significant considering they had to produce, you know, a whole movie.
01:14:42
Speaker
yeah exactly uh with the cast and crew so let's take the budget of a movie take the budget of a movie and add it to the budget of a game and there's the bunch uh looks like the aggregate score on metacritic was um
01:14:58
Speaker
63 58 for PC 60. Oh, that GC is GameCube. My brain just could not parse what GC was. 63 on the gender critical. Oh, there you go. PC is a 58 out of 100. PS2 is 62. Xbox is 65. Not a particularly well received. Great. Yeah. Got middling reviews mixed or average.
01:15:28
Speaker
Electronic Gaming Monthly gave it bad scores. I remember the mechanics being a mess and the gameplay being confusing as hell. I think it was like the classic case of trying to do, you know, the classic Wachowski case of trying to do too much with technology that is not there yet.
01:15:49
Speaker
Yeah, and it definitely I mean for this this particular year of the Matrix franchise. And I'm very maybe it's just because I am so accustomed to the the aftertaste of the Matrix sequels and I've come to sort of like it. But the.
01:16:06
Speaker
um you know the cutscenes themselves i i do enjoy it i i like it as a sort of mini film um and i guess i it just didn't uh didn't translate to the actual game very well and i guess it remains to be
01:16:21
Speaker
really play it in a hands-on way by me personally, but... Now, I do want to give it a shot, but somebody on YouTube edited together, um, both the, uh, Niobe and the ghost sequences as their own separate hour-long movies with footage from the games themselves, so... Right, which I actually haven't gotten to check out. I haven't gotten to watch them myself either, but I'm definitely intrigued to, like, sit down and watch for an hour. Which is, like, those in the show notes.
01:16:46
Speaker
I most definitely will. It's probably going to be worth a shot. It might be a little more coherent than the stuff that we watched. But we might also get inkling as to or at least I might get some inkling as to why the gameplay didn't seem to work for people. It's it's well, it probably never helped that I'm just bad at video games. Sure. But I think a good game would hopefully still be enjoyable to someone who isn't necessarily skilled.
01:17:16
Speaker
I still had a lot of fun with games I was very bad at, so yes. Fair enough. Which is kind of why I liked Bethesda games so much, because they were so easy to modify and cheat at. There aren't any lightsabers in Skyrim. There are definitely lightsabers in my Skyrim. So, yeah. But did we have anything else that we wanted to talk about with Enter the Matrix?
01:17:42
Speaker
Oh, there was something that I forgot to mention as the Monster Mash.
01:17:51
Speaker
Yes. Two villains that you play against that we don't actually meet in these 35 millimeter cutscenes, two villains that you fight off against in the course of the game are the head of the vampires for the Merovingian, who is named Vlad. Gee, couldn't have predicted great. Yeah, great. You know what? Why not? You know, now I know how you feel when I make a pun.
01:18:19
Speaker
I didn't make this pun. I can't take the pun. I know. That's the thing. That's the crazy part. I had the exact reaction that you're having right now about an hour and 20 minutes ago when I came to discover this. Yeah. But you also fight against the leader of the werewolves for the Merovingian. Ella, I want you to guess the name of the leader of the werewolves. It's not Jacob.
01:18:42
Speaker
So unfortunately, I know this. Oh, okay. All right. It's Kujo. It's Kujo, named after the Stephen King book slash film. Which is great that, you know, again, that in this version of The Matrix, they retained Stephen King.
01:18:59
Speaker
It's like, hey, what cultural touchstones do we keep from human society in this simulated version? Definitely Jackson Pollock, definitely Stephen King. Definitely Jackson Pollock, Stephen King, Marilyn Manson, you know the important things, goddamn tick.
01:19:14
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. I want to know what Smith's interpretation of cultural importances of life. Oh, we're going to have that conversation when we get to resurrections because, man, we're going to have to do another episode on Agent Smith just in resurrections. I mean, yeah, that's true.
01:19:34
Speaker
And even the Merovingian in Resurrections kind of hints at this. Right, alive. Yeah, that boomer fuck. But yeah, I think as far as like our initial dive into all of our scene settings still, as it were, and our ongoing miniseries in 2003, the Gear of the Matrix. I can't wait for the year 2000. Yeah.
01:20:04
Speaker
uh far-flung distant future year um magnificent year of 2002 christ alive this yeah fucking franchise so that's yeah i mean that about covers the story and character stuff adventure the matrix um
01:20:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So that's Enter the Matrix, essentially, written and directed by Wachowskis. Mm hmm. Good Christ. In the meantime, I guess I have been if we're wrapping up, did you have anything else you wanted to? I think I think we are about wrapping up. I mean, you know, true to true to their trans girl selves. They've proven that they're big gamer nerds.
01:20:51
Speaker
Very truly. And actually, no, but the true. Yeah, you're right. The true proof in the pudding will come in a different game. Unfortunately for everyone. Yes, it will. I'm going to spend half that episode just talking about Godzilla because fuck it. As you know, in the meantime, I have been at Hope Lickner on a bunch of different social media sites. I'm growing increasingly frustrated with social media. So find me on AO3 or Tumblr.
01:21:19
Speaker
Instead, uh, I also do a podcast, uh, with my good, good friend, Bex, uh, called high on cartoons. We're currently plowing through DuckTales 2017. And, um, it.
01:21:32
Speaker
will not be out by the time this episode drops, which will be in a day or two. But next week, we're starting a new ongoing miniseries that will be dropping between episodes of DuckTakes, where we just have a friend on and talk about a movie that they want to talk about.
01:21:51
Speaker
And for that first episode, I'm super excited. I'm just going to spoil it right now. We get our buddy Max Grant on to talk about the Don Bluth, the year 2000 movie, Titan A.E. Oh, that's a good pick. Well, it's a good pick. It's a rough watch. So that's what I'm saying. It's a good, good podcast topic. Yeah, Max knows more about the lore of that movie than I ever dreamed of there being.
01:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, you can find me on the socials at Drawn Without Ref. You can listen to my previous podcast, Mystery Jack. Look back all about Gravity Falls. We actually have a few other Gravity Falls related things lined up for that podcast. So keep an eye on that feed in the next few months. As a fan, I am intrigued.
01:22:42
Speaker
Very, yeah. You'll actually get episodes, you know, new episodes. In real time. Yeah, in real time. Yes, I'm so excited. Nothing is more frustrating than listening to those all after the fact. Anyway, all right, yes. Anything else that we want to mention or are we good?
01:23:01
Speaker
Um, I think I've asked that four times. I think we're fine. I feel great. I feel great about that. Yeah. Find me at drama without ref or wherever else. Uh, I love to do art and write and act and sing and talk and eat and laugh and love. And love is the genesis of all things. And you are not alone. Goodbye.