Next week will be crucial for 'Reloaded'

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

The Matrix movies love rhetorical questions, so here is one for Reloaded:

You lived up to the box office hype. Now what?

Despite lukewarm reviews and mixed reactions from fans who were among the first to see the movie, Reloaded still managed the second-best debut ever and a record for four-day ticket sales.

Had it opened on a Friday instead of Thursday, some analysts say, it may have beaten last year's Spider-Man for best opening. (Spidey debuted at $114.8 million.)

The challenge now for Reloaded is to maintain that momentum if it hopes to catch Spider-Man's overall ticket sales mark of $403.7 million, which ranks as the fifth-biggest film ever.

Reloaded will likely know its fate this Memorial Day weekend, when word of mouth becomes more important than buzz and advertisements. If Reloaded drops more than 20% from its debut over the three-day weekend, it's unlikely to catch the web slinger.

"I think it has a chance to pass Spider-Man," says Gitesh Pandya of boxofficeguru.com. His site conducted a survey asking fans if Reloaded met their expectations. About 86% of the 2,968 respondents said it did.

"If the people who saw it this weekend are raving about it at work this week, it will give it the momentum to keep going," Pandya says.

But other surveys aren't so decisive. According to audience pollsters CinemaScore.com, Reloaded scored an overall B+ — not bad, but short of the solid A's scored by other blockbusters, including Spider-Man and X2: X-Men United.

"Matrix fans, of which there are many, are very pleased," says Brad Peppard, president of CinemaScore.com. "It's also appreciated by any young male attracted to this genre."

Females, however, are another matter. "It's not in the league of Spidey, which showed exceptionally high female strength," Peppard says. "Spidey was a great date flick. For Reloaded, you can bring your girlfriend if she's soft on Keanu" Reeves, who anchors the movie.

Short of that, he says, males will be tempted to "grab a beer and go with the boys," which would limit the film's box office potential.

According to figures from Warner Bros., which distributes Reloaded, about 60% of Reloaded's audience was male. Spider-Man's audience was roughly 47% female.

"I liked it, but I didn't love it," says Anna Stewart, 26, of Tampa. Stewart waited for more than two hours with boyfriend Kevin Brady to see the film on Saturday. "I think expectations were too high for this one since the first was so revolutionary. If this had been the first Matrix movie, I think we'd be saying how incredible it is."

Reloaded producer Joel Silver says that comparisons with Spider-Man are unfair because of his film's R rating.

"This blew away every R movie ever made," Silver says. "We could have lost a huge chunk of audiences because the (Motion Picture Association of America) decided that some kung fu violence and adult themes were worth an R."

But parents brought their children anyway, he says. "The public made this into a huge movie, despite the rating," he says. "We're not concerned with records, just whether people loved the movie."

Still, Reloaded could have owned the bragging rights for biggest debut had it gone with a traditional release, some analysts say. The studio was hoping to eclipse last year's Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. That movie, which also opened on a Thursday, took in $80 million for the weekend.

Had Reloaded opened on a Friday, when more fans are likely to take the day off, "It could have had a $120 million debut," Pandya says. "But I doubt they're disappointed with what they've done so far."

'Matrix' makes its way into courtrooms as defense strategy

By Matt Bean
Court TV.com
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 1:01 PM EDT (1701 GMT)

Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix Reloaded."

(Court TV) -- "The Matrix Reloaded," a futuristic action�movie�about a band of hackers rebelling against their mechanized overlords, has already taken over the nation's movie screens.� Now it's threatening to take over courtrooms, as well.

But while moviegoers have been entranced by the Keanu Reeves vehicle,�coughing up�more than $90 million in�the sequel's�opening weekend alone, it remains to be seen whether jurors will buy the "Matrix"-based insanity defenses that have cropped up lately.

So far, they have.

Just last week,�Hamilton, Ohio, resident Tonda Lynn Ansley�was�found not guilty by reason of insanity�after claiming she thought her�landlord was�part of a conspiracy to brainwash and kill her.�Ansley shot the woman several times in the head in July 2002.

"They commit a lot of crimes in 'The Matrix,'" Ansley allegedly told police.� "That's where you go to sleep at night and they drug you and take you somewhere else and then they bring you back and put you in bed and, when you wake up, you think that it's a bad dream"

Last September, a San Francisco man, Vadim Mieseges, made a successful insanity bid�after claiming�he had been "sucked into 'The Matrix'" when he chopped up his landlady.

And�Joshua Cooke, an Oakton, Virginia, man charged with murdering his parents this February, "harbored a bona fide belief that he was living in the virtual reality of 'The Matrix,' claimed�his defense attorney.�Cooke is scheduled to stand trial at the end of June.

Even Lee Boyd Malvo, accused in the series of deadly sniper shootings in the Washington, D.C.-area last fall, reportedly�wrote the words,�"Free yourself of the Matrix," in seized jailhouse sketches.

Though insanity defenses based on "The Matrix" may grab headlines, experts contacted by Courttv.com agreed�defense lawyers shouldn't dash to the cineplex, legal pads in hand, just yet:� While�these excuses�may work for a few defendants, most "copycat" insanity defenses will ultimately fall flat with jurors.�

"It's very hard to prove an insanity defense, even when you got all kinds of shrinks coming forward," said Robert Bloom, a�law professor at Boston College.� "Given how hard it is to prove it, the ['Matrix' defense] would seem to me to be a loser."

'Taxi Driver' starts a genre

The mother of all Hollywood insanity pleas, says David Siegel, a professor at the New England School of Law, was John Hinckley's successful�"Taxi Driver" defense for his�failed 1981 assassination attempt on then-president Ronald Reagan.

"That was seen as, if not revolutionary, then certainly extraordinarily creative," says Siegel.� "It made sense, his stalking Jodie Foster, even though there was very little tangible evidence connecting the two of them."

Hinckley claimed that, like Robert DeNiro, the Mohawk-coiffed antihero at the center of Martin Scorsese's film, he was so taken by Foster (who played an underage prostitute) that his concept of reality and fantasy blurred.� To get the attention of the actress, then a student at Yale University, Hinckley wanted to kill the president.

After a made-for-the-movies trial�that featured Hinckley lashing out at Foster�when she denied the two had any relationship,�the would-be assassin was�found not guilty by reason of insanity.� According to Siegel, "Taxi Driver" had provided his attorneys with a perfect "shorthand" for�Hinckley's condition.�

In "Taxi Driver," DeNiro's character, Travis Bickle, is spurned by a vixen played by Cybil Shepard before he turns his affections on Jodie Foster's character.� To protect the ingenue, he guns down�her pimp, a hotel manager and one of�her customers in the film's bloody finale.�

"It was easy for him to use the vehicle of the movie and all the associated connections the movie had in people's minds to, in a shorthand way, explain his defense," said Siegel.� "He was able to, by putting himself in his fantasy world, explain relatively effectively his delusion.�That resonated with a lot of people. They immediately understood what he was talking about, and obviously the jury believed him."

Outcry over Hinckley's case ushered in sweeping changes to the basis of the�insanity defense --��from whether�a defendant could distinguish between reality and fantasy to whether�a defendant could distinguish between right and wrong.

"Now, Hinckley wouldn't be determined insane with the changes in the law," said Jacqueline Helfgott,�an associate professor at Seattle University who specializes in "the criminogenic effects of pop culture."

Enter 'The Matrix'

Travis Bickle and "Taxi Driver" have long since been relegated to the classics section of the video rental store.�Today, it's Neo, the "chosen one" at the center of "The Matrix," that has inspired devotion, sometimes too much,�in his fans.

That's what happened to 19-year-old Joshua Cooke,�according to his attorneys.� Cooke, whose bedroom housed a�giant�"Matrix" poster of the star and who favored the character's long, black trench coats,�claimed he�thought he was�in the Matrix when be brutally murdered his two parents with a shotgun this February.

Cooke's trial isn't scheduled until late June, but�copycat crimes have already turned a corner, says Helfgott.

Some movies, such as the�Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis road-trip bloodbath,�"Natural Born Killers,"�are particularly�fertile ground for�copycat crimes, said the professor, who teaches a class entitled "Murder, Movies and Copycat Crimes."� "Natural Born Killers" alone� was referenced in almost 10 copycat crimes, she says.

According to the New England School of Law's Siegel, "The Matrix" -- which features�a "real world" of sentient computers and their subverted human slaves, and a "virtual world" that is spoon-fed via futuristic brain modems to the cocooned humans -- takes that a step further.

"I think any artistic device that includes different views of reality provides a way to illustrate someone whose views of reality may be affected by a mental disorder," he said.

Helfgott agrees.

"It's taking people a little further into the future.� For people who are already confused between fantasy and reality, it gives them a framework to articulate it," she said.� "People who are already on the edge, it can be argued, can be set off by these types of movies."

But Siegel and other experts on the insanity defense insist that, "Matrix"-influenced or not, insanity claims are simply losers in the courtroom.� Fewer than one percent of cases that are argued in court (many are not contested by prosecutors) succeed.

"Insanity is so very rarely successful," says Byron Warnken, a professor at the University of Baltimore law school.� "But it fascinates us all, it's the kind of thing that is disproportionately reported.� The correlation between the real world and the movies tends to be misrepresented.� It doesn't surprise me that more and more of these are coming up."

'MATRIX CRITICS? **** 'EM'

Matrix Reloaded star Laurence Fishburne turned the air blue live on Sky News when he was interviewed at the UK premiere of the blockbuster film.

Fishburne, who plays the mack-clad Morpheus, was asked by Sky's Matt Smith what he thought about the critical response to the sci-fi thriller.

The star raised his middle finger and launched into a four-letter tirade before walking away with security staff.

Although the film, which stars Keanu Reeves, has been hailed as the film of the year, some critics say the movie does not match the original, which has become a worldwide phenomenon.

'Pretty extraordinary'

Hundreds of fans braved pouring rain to catch a glimpse of the film's stars in Leicester Square.

Reeves was joined on the red carpet by co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett-Smith and twins Neil and Adrian Rayment, the film's most unlikely stars.

He was more polite when asked about how the film's frenzied reception.

"It is pretty extraordinary," he told Sky News.

"It's great to be part of it. It does not happen very often."

He kept screaming fans happy by signing autographs and posing for pictures.

Cannes

Last week the most hyped movie release of the year dazzled crowds at Cannes with its European premiere.

The Matrix party was one of the hottest tickets of the festival, with a lavish £2m bash laid on for the stars.

Matrix Reloaded took a record $93m in its first weekend at US cinemas, the second-biggest opening of all time behind Spider-Man.

Warner Bros is reported to have spent $300m (£187m) on making the two follow-ups.

The Matrix Reloaded is here - 45 mistakes so far...

Just been to see it (finally out here in the UK), and ohohoho... Never have I come so close to standing up and applauding during a film. A perfect combination of live action and CGI, great background info about the Matrix's history... I can't find the right words. Suffice to say, go and see it now. Right now. I mean actually right now - close the browser and get to a cinema. Ignore any negative reviews (although the negative ones are getting more attention than the positive ones, which are vastly in the majority) - it's on a different plane to the original, so you can't compare accurately. The first one was a landmark, so of course Reloaded won't be covering entirely new territory, because, well, it's not new territory, and it's stupid to expect it to.

What Reloaded does is exactly what a sequel/continuation should do, which is add to the story, open new paths, and yes, blow away previous effects completely, and it manages this perfectly. One critic wrote something along the lines of "the action bogs down horribly between set-pieces", which to me just shows that they were being very narrow-minded in their expectations. Nothing gets bogged down - there's just a lot of this lost art called "plot", which too many action films have forgotten about, and have suffered because of it. Likewise the philosophising - a few people have said that there's far too much intellectual posturing, which is just blatantly untrue. Aside from the meeting with the Frenchman, which concentrates a lot on the significance of choice (and which proves entirely relevant later on), there's nothing remotely mood-killing about the dialogue.

Sorry - this semi-rant was prompted by reading about Laurence Fishburne's negative reaction when asked his opinion of the negative reviews. Mr. Fishburne, I entirely agree. Anything people don't like about this film seems to be largely based on their expectations or lack of understanding, rather than the film's own merits. Expecting more action or less plot, and disappointed? That's your problem, not the film's. Complaining that it starts too slowly? Again, adjust your expectations. It does start relatively slowly, but that's the nature of the plot - writing in a big action scene before we really know what's going on would be far too forced. Likewise the ending - it's been made very clear that the Matrix "trilogy" is more one normal length film and one very long film in two parts than a traditional trilogy, but still some people seem to think that the way it ends is somehow "wrong".

I'm stupidly concentrating on countering the negatives, rather than praising the positives, of which there are many (many, many, many). Even aside from the fight sequences, the visuals are stunning - CGI done properly, rather than looking like a cartoon. All the actors are, of course, top notch, and it's surprisingly funny in places, which the original wasn't, really. All the other amazing achievements, though, pale into insignificance compared to the ridiculous complexity of the fight/action scenes. I sincerely hope no-one even attempts to mimic them, because they're going to fail miserably, and embarrass themselves in the process. The thing which really stood out was that either due to the training, the budget, the CGI, or all four, there was a blessed lack of frequent cutting during the fights - a mark of great direction, but also of putting enough effort into them so that complicated moves could be executed within one shot.

One which sticks in my mind is the fight in the chateau entrance hall - four people cartwheeling/somersaulting/jumping across and around the room, in one wide shot. CGI or real life? Doesn't matter, because it was absolutely stunning regardless. If it was CGI, it was so well done that you couldn't tell, and if it was live action, the co-ordination needed to get four actors positioned properly on wires deserves some kind of special award. The car chase again shows just how much effort went in to making it look right. As far as I could tell, the vast majority, if not all, of the car crashes were real cars really crashing, and they looked GREAT. And as for the "Burly Brawl" - words can't begin to do it justice.

Right, I'm going to try and calm down now. Suffice to say that negative reviewers don't know what they're talking about - it's deep without being impenetrable, perfectly paced, takes the original and expands on it in every conceivable direction (and even a few inconceivable ones), and takes your eyes through such a visual

Action hero Reeves sings film's praises in the rain

Hollywood heart-throb Keanu Reeves braved the elements last night to treat thousands of fans to a mammoth walkabout at the UK premiere of his latest blockbuster, The Matrix: Reloaded.

The movie sequel, which has grossed £100m in its opening week in the United States, lived up to its billing as one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the year. Fans queued for hours just to get a glimpse of their screen idol. And he didn't disappoint.Wearing a black suit and white shirt he withstood the pouring rain, fleeting from fan to fan to sign autographs and pose for photographs.The star, who ploughed a lot of his own money into the film, spent 30 minutes rewarding those who had waited so long, and later said: "I wish I could have stayed out longer.""Some people have been really anxious for this film to come out and I just hope it lives up to their expectations.But co-star Laurence Fishburne was less appreciative of the premiere greeting, and rating it from one and five, he could only give it a two.Also splashing their way through the red carpet at the Odeon in Leicester Square, central London, were twins Neil and Adrian Raymont, the film's most unlikely stars.The pair, who were better known as the handymen from the Carol Vorderman DIY show Better Homes, wowed fans as they arrived wearing matching purple suits, orange shirts and orange ties.Adrian said: "What typical British weather – it's pouring down with rain and everyone is still out there."The crowds go way back. What a fantastic sight."Last week, the most hyped movie release of the year dazzled at the Cannes Film Festival were it received its European premiere.The Matrix party was one of the hottest tickets of the festival, with a lavish £2m bash laid on for the stars.The £84m movie promises even more groundbreaking special effects and spectacular fight scenes than in the 1999 original.The third film in the trilogy, Revolution, is released in just six months' time.

Matrix stars at UK première

The films stars Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith and Keanu Reeves

The stars of The Matrix Reloaded, including leading man Keanu Reeves, will unveil the film to British fans at a London première on Wednesday night.

Reeves, who plays the futuristic hero Neo in the sci-fi thriller, will be joined by co-stars Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Carrie-Anne Moss, the pregnant actress who plays heroine Trinity, is also expected to make an appearance, as are twins Neil and Adrian Rayment, the British actors who play two teleporting Matrix warriors.

The première will take place at the Odeon Leicester Square ahead of the movie's release on Friday. The London screening comes days after the film was unveiled in the US and at the Cannes film festival.

At Cannes it was accompanied by a £2m party. Workers spent two weeks making a waterfront venue for the party.

Initial reviews in UK papers have been muted, with most praising the film's epic action sequences, but less impressed with its plot and dialogue. Massive takings The futuristic thriller recounts Neo and a band of freedom fighters' struggle against the Matrix computer system enslaving mankind, and its army of robot machines aiming to destroy the humans' city of Zion. The sequel to 1999's Matrix took a near-record $93.3m (£58.2m) during its first weekend at US cinemas, the second-biggest opening of all time behind Spider-Man. The Matrix Reloaded debuted in more than 20 countries It opened its run in more than 20 countries last week and by the end of its third week it will be showing in more than 100 countries. It will be followed in November by a third movie, The Matrix Revolutions. All three films are written and directed by brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski. Warner Bros is reported to have spent $300m (£187m) on making the two follow-ups.

Keanu bathes in tubs of ice

Keanu bathes in tubs of ice Keanu Reeves says part of his preparation for the Matrix sequel included reading philosophy books and bathing in a pool of ice.He underwent Kung Fu training for at least seven hours a day with specialist Yuen Wo Ping.His character Neo's moves are more sophisticated in Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions than the first film."Training for these two films was probably three times harder than preparing for the first," says Keanu."Neo's Kung Fu elements and wire work are more sophisticated - there are movements in one particular fight in Reloaded that there are in the whole of the first Matrix."

"It was all very good fun, but very hard work as well. And painful - ice is your friend."

Speaking about Matrix creators the Wachowski brothers, he added: "They wanted to the fights to be a spectacular as possible. They love spectacle and they want to entertain.

"They're interested in physical contact in both its positive and negative light, in the same way that fire can be destructive and it can also give warmth - that's what they wanted from an action sequence."

Story filed: 09:45 Wednesday 21st May 2003

Keanu's Banned Band

Matrix star Keanu Reeves has put his music career on the back burner - they're officially "hibernating."

The Hollywood star has been singing and playing guitar in the band Dogstar for some years, and even contemplated going into the musical business full time.

However, when asked how the band was doing recently he answered, "The band is...I guess you could say they're hibernating."

Photo Copyright Chris Weeks / Getty Images

Tank vs. "Matrix" Machine

At least that's the message delivered in a lawsuit filed by the actor who helped save Keanu Reeves' holy butt in the first Matrix movie.

In the suit, Marcus Chong, best known to sci-fi fans as the driving force that was Tank, claims he was "blackball[ed]" and branded a "terrorist" by producers after his character was derailed from the sequels, according Los Angeles' City News Service.

Warner Bros. and the writing-directing Wachowski Brothers' Eon Productions are among the named defendants, per the wire service.

Chong's lawsuit, alleging breach of contract, slander and fraud, seeks the six figures he says he would have banked from the two new flicks, plus interest and other unspecified damages.

The Tank-less Matrix Reloaded drove home with $91.8 million last weekend, the second biggest three-day opening ever. The Matrix Revolutions, the trilogy's concluding chapter, is scheduled to start turning in November. Like its predecessor, Revolutions will not feature Tank, or Chong.

In Reloaded, newbie Zee (Nona Gay), Tank's sister, explains Tank's absence by saying he died during a mission on the Nebuchadnezzar. Link (Harold Perrineau), intro'd as Zee's hubby/Tank's brother-in-law, is at the controls of Morpheus' ship for the sequels.

In the original 1999 flick, Tank's Chong stood alongside Reeves' Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss (news)' Trinity and Morpheus' Laurence Fishburne (news) as the only humans to outlast, outplay and outwit their machine nemeses.

It's not clear why the actor, the 35-year-old adopted son of recently smoked-out comedian Tommy Chong (news), did not return for the sequels. In previous reports about the Link-for-Tank move, neither Warners nor Chong commented on his absence.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Chong copped to crashing a press junket, snatching food from production offices and crank-yanking the Wachowskis. All of this bad behavior, though, came after Chong had already been unloaded from Reloaded.

As to what got him unloaded in the first place? Warners isn't commenting on the lawsuit. Calls to Chong's attorney and the Wachowskis' Eon Entertainment were not immediately returned Monday.

In documents posted on the fan site, the Marcus Chong (news) as Tank Coalition (boycottthematrix.com), a grassroots Web campaign protesting the actor's franchise freeze out, the dispute is shown to have centered on money. The site credits yet another pro-Chong site, the We Want Tank Coalition (www.geocities.com/wwtcoalition), with originally obtaining the material.

In an undated letter reputedly from Chong to Andy and Larry Wachowski (news), a string of deep-sounding, but vague thoughts ("Why suggest that either my faiths of anarchy must be chosen or my goals for profit."), give way to a bottom line: An offer of $250,000 for the two sequels is unacceptable. Either the studio will meet his price ($500,000, plus bonuses and guarantees he'll be invited to press junkets and premieres)...or he'll do the movies for free.

"I will do it for free because I love our project and want to protect the role and the integrity of the brothers' vision," Chong reputedly wrote.

In an October 2000 letter reputedly from the Wachowskis to Chong, the siblings, hailed as "mighty knights [who] shall truly break into Valhalla," in the Chong missive, say they understand the actor's stance, but think "it is in the best interest of all parties to move on."

In the aftermath, Chong's lawsuit claims producers "conspired to blackball [Chong] from further professional acting work in Hollywood and took efforts to defame [him]," City News Service reported.

An actor since childhood, Chong recently began work on his first post-Matrix flick, The Crow: Wicked Prayer.

Keanu's Mad As Hellblazer In Upcoming Comic Book Film

Keanu Reeves' next action hero won't have Neo's steady Zen-like calm, but it was the fiery passion that made the role of Hellblazer so attractive, according to the "Matrix" star.

"[It's] his anger. He's angry, but he's got a good heart," Reeves said recently of the comic book badass, whose real name is John Constantine.

In the "Hellblazer" comic, which is aimed at a savvy adult audience, Constantine is an Englishman with occult powers who is both a liar and a cheat and yet nevertheless often prone to doing the right thing.

Reeves said he hopes to get moving on the big-screen adaptation, which will be called simply "Constantine," as soon as September. Warner Bros. has long labored to get the DC/Vertigo comic into theaters, with Nicolas Cage at one time attached to the role before Reeves landed the job. The film will mark the feature film debut of video director Francis Lawrence, whose résumé includes clips for Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and P.O.D. (see "VMA Lens Recap: The Story Behind P.O.D.'s 'Alive'").

Constantine was created in the pages of "Swamp Thing" by comic book visionary Alan Moore, whose "From Hell" was the basis for a 2001 thriller starring Johnny Depp and Heather Graham. Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is also getting the big-screen treatment, with a film version starring Sean Connery due later this summer.

Before he slips into Hellblazer's trench coat, Reeves will finish work on a currently untitled project with writer/director Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want"), co-starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and Jon Favreau ("Swingers"). Production started on the film in February, with the film's producers eyeing a December 2003 release.

"Constantine" is tentatively scheduled for summer 2004.

For more Hollywood happenings, check out MTV's Movie House.

—Ryan J. Downey

REEVES JOINS $25-MILLION-A-MOVIE CLUB

Warner Bros. has offered Keanu Reeves $75 million to appear in three films, the London Sunday Times reported, citing an unnamed industry insider. The newspaper said that one of the films may be a remake of the 1954 drama Salt of the Earth, originally produced by a group formed of blacklisted figures in Hollywood. (The Hollywood Reporter charged at the time that it was made "under direct orders of the Kremlin.") For an emotional film about labor unrest during the 1930s, Reeves would appear to be an odd choice. One reviewer called his performance in The Matrix Reloaded "vapid:" another referred to him as this "beloved block of wood."

'Matrix' Producer Dismisses Violent Links

Mon May 19, 2003 11:55 AM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - The producer of the "Matrix" films reminded fans on Monday that the movies were just fantasy, following a spate of stories in the United States linking it with violent behavior.

"I only can comment that 15 million people have seen the movie and I don't know what the links are," producer Joel Silver told a news conference in London alongside its lead actors Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne.

"The Matrix Reloaded," one of the most-anticipated sequels in film history, opened to record numbers in North America over the weekend and is expected to whip up equal excitement when it his British screens nationwide on Friday.

But a handful of fans in the United States have apparently taken their fascination with the sci-fi smash a step too far by acting out real-life crimes to escape the Matrix -- a computer-generated world controlled by machines.

"It's a wonderful fantasy story that doesn't take place in the real world, so I can't comment on what makes people do what they do," he said.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that the movie was recently invoked by an Ohio woman and a man in San Francisco who each killed their landlord but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

It quoted producers Warner Bros. as saying in a statement: "Any attempt to link these crimes with a motion picture or any other art form is disturbing and irresponsible."

The first "Matrix" became a cult classic in 1999, grossing almost $460 million worldwide and winning four Oscars.

The sequel continues the kung-fu battle against machines that have taken over a post-apocalyptic earth and harvest humans in a computer-generated world known as "The Matrix."

Beyond its wild action scenes and dazzling special effects, the movies have captivated fans by twisting reality in circles until it disappears altogether.

But Fishburne, who plays sunglasses-wearing Morpheus, one of the film's heroes, told fans to make the ultimate distinction:

"There is no matrix, there is only what is real," he said.

Matrix star 'swiped specs for souvenir'

May 19 2003

A British DIY presenter-turned-Hollywood star told today how he swiped a prop from the set of The Matrix Reloaded - to recreate his starring role at home.

Neil Rayment, previously a handyman on ITV1's Better Homes, admitted he took a pair of dark glasses from his appearance in the movie.

He and the rest of the cast - including Keanu Reeves - are in the UK in preparation for the money-spinning fantasy film's premiere in London on Wednesday.

Rayment, together with his brother Adrian, plays dreadlocked albino twins in the film, admitted he now dresses up at home following his appearance.

"I did actually take one set of the action specs," he confessed today.

"I take them out, tie a cloth to my head and run around the room."

The film has taken in excess of ｣100 million in a matter of days and is due to be released in the UK this week.

The sequel to the hugely successful The Matrix again creates a dizzying spectacle and almost baffling plot, but star Laurence Fishburne today distilled the essence of its themes for anyone who was still scratching their heads at the end.

"Who am I, why am I here and what is my purpose? it's up to you to go and see the film again and go figure all that s*** out."

The Rayment twins made their movie debut in The Matrix Reloaded. It was their skills as martial arts instructors which won them the role in the film and took them away from their roles as TV DIY experts.

Keanu Reeves Speaks Out About Tragic Years

Keanu Reeves has said he left his days of excess behind him after a series of tragedies.

The star of the Matrix Reloaded suffered a stillborn baby, Ava, with his girlfriend Jennifer - who later died herself in a car crash.

Reeves says, "The last few years have been tough for me.

"I guess the first blow came when my sister Kim told me she had leukemia. I made sure I was there to take care of her because we've always been close, but it was rough.

"In the middle of all this came some good news when my girlfriend told me we were going to have a baby. Then it stopped moving.

"She went in for an ultrasound scan and found out our little girl had died in the womb."

Keanu: "I'm no Indiana Jones"

Maybe it's the dark glasses. Keanu Reeves, who plays the superpowered character Neo hiding behind his cool black shades and long trench coat in The Matrix Reloaded, said he is certain he can avoid being typecast in similar superhero roles in the future.

"I don't think, as an actor, that is going to be a concern, in terms of being pigeonholed. 'Well, just go be that Neo guy,"' he quipped, mimicking the voice of a casting director.

The Matrix movies have created a cult-like following with their story about humans -- Neo among them -- battling machines that enslaved them in a computer-simulated world.

The Matrix in 1999 raked in $456 million worldwide, and by Thursday Reloaded was being shown on over 8500 American movie screens, or roughly one-quarter of those in the U.S.

As Neo, Reeves risks a fate suffered by many actors in widely hyped, plum roles: repeat the part and become not an actor of many faces, but an actor of only one.

Harrison Ford is still seen by many fans as Indiana Jones of the Raiders of the Lost Ark series.

"Harrison Ford is that character. He's such a central figure in that piece. Neo is much more a part of a whole," Reeves told Reuters, alluding to the film's ensemble cast.

That's somewhat true. His team's Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity are cool and sexy killing machines.

The Matrix Reloaded picks up where The Matrix ended. The machines are hellbent on human genocide and Neo, or "The One," must stop them. The story was dreamed up by writer/director brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski.

IDEAS, AND FUN TOO

A sci-fi fan, Reeves likes the humans' determination against adversity and their sense of right and wrong. But best of all, he said, the Matrix movies are just plain fun.

"It has ideas you can take with you, but it is a film you can also be entertained by," he said.

Neo, of course, flies. He sees speeding bullets in slow motion. He walks on air, flips, twirls, then punches his rivals with deadly force, although Agent Smith just won't die.

With his slick black hair and chiseled jaw, Neo looks nothing like the tousled and slightly rumpled Reeves.

Reeves, 38, has faced this typecasting issue before.

His role as doofus Ted, in 1989's Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure ,left Hollywood thinking he could only play a dim-witted dude. After 1991's Point Break he was dubbed a pretty boy, and 1994's Speed made him an action hero.

Each time, Reeves broke the stereotypes by taking diverse parts -- a street hustler in My Own Private Idaho ,or Don John in Kenneth Branagh's version of Much Ado About Nothing .

He said he tries not to think about nearing 40, and what that means in terms of his career and new roles.

"I don't think I can be a virgin in high school again," he joked.

He has one more shot at Neo, in The Matrix Revolutions which hits movie screens in November and is the final chapter in the trilogy of films.

Reeves said he doesn't know whether there will be other Matrix movies, and he did not say if he would return as Neo.

"If there is, it might be an incarnation that is something else. The story they (the Wachowskis) wanted to tell, is told."

KEANU BRINGS MATRIX TO UK

Actor Keanu Reeves has revealed he did not read the script before making his new film The Matrix Reloaded because he trusted so much in the makers.

Keanu and his fellow stars held a news conference in London before Wednesday's UK opening. It followed a lavish £2m party to promote the film at the Cannes film festival.

All the stars had to undergo intensive martial arts training for the movie's fight scenes, and producer Joel Silver told how actress Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg in the first week of filming.

Keanu admitted he has not continued with his Kung Fu training.

The film's most unlikely stars were also present - Neil and Adrian Rayment, more familiar to British TV viewers as the handymen from DIY show Better Homes with Carol Vorderman.

They also happen to be black belts in karate and joined the Matrix cast after producers spotted their potential.

Co-star Laurence Fishburne told movie critics why he liked being in the film: "We get to be super heroes in these films and the child in us all is excited by that - because it's cool."

Keanu added: "I just hope that people get something out of the film. It has a lot to offer and it's full of hope."

Neo classic: Keanu manages a high-wire role with a low-key demeanor

Colin Covert, Star Tribune

Published May 16, 2003 MAT16

BURBANK, CALIF. -- "Cool breeze off the mountain." Could there possibly be a better description of Keanu Charles Reeves' demeanor than the translation of his Hawaiian first name?

Uncorrupted by his massive renown, he keeps the world at arm's length, unlike megaphone-addicted stars who gratuitously expose us to their nightly club-hopping, their affairs, their trips to rehab.

Reeves' inner core is composed of a highly reflective alloy. He maintains a perimeter of privacy -- almost reclusiveness -- sharply at odds with the current model of movie-star ambition, which uses relentless self-disclosure as the currency of nonstop publicity.

Reeves genuinely seems to be a decent, not very self-involved guy striving to keep it relatively real despite being monstrously famous. The single most interesting thing about him is that he's so quiet and -- well, cool.

Despite playing Buddha for Bernardo Bertolucci and Shakespeare for Kenneth Branagh, Reeves has never demonstrated vast versatility as an actor. His less-is-more approach is ideally suited to his role in the "Matrix" films. He plays Neo, humanity's reluctant super-savior, without a trace of camp or self-consciousness. His reticence makes Reeves something of a mystery even to colleagues.

His costar Laurence Fishburne concedes that he "can't tell you a [obscenity] thing about Keanu. I've been working with him for five years. I don't know a [obscenity] thing about him. All I can tell you about Keanu is that after I've spent that much time with him, I love the [real big obscenity], but I can't tell you a [obscenity] thing about him. I'm telling you the truth."

Carrie-Anne Moss, who spent three days cuddling up to Reeves in the buff for an R-rated sex scene, can't provide much more detail. "He's so low-key, so not a movie star," she said. "He gives very little away about private stuff, but why give that private stuff away?"

He gives away plenty of other stuff. A huge motorcycle fan, he surprised the 12 stuntmen who fought him in a key scene of "Reloaded" by giving each one a new Harley. And he diverted a significant chunk of his salary for the "Matrix" sequels to lower-echelon people in the productions. He even spared audiences by turning down $26 million to star in "Speed 2." In an industry famous for rapacious greed, he's not all about the money.

With information, though, he's miserly, in a good-humored way. Asked to drop the enigmatic posture for a few minutes and open up, he guffaws heartily. "Oh, yeah, you'll get that. I want to sit here and cry and reveal myself to you!"

OK, then, how has he changed since "The Matrix" revived his career?

"Oh my God, man, in so many ways," he said, affecting a mischievous highbrow accent. "But really, have I? Haven't I? I haven't reflected specifically about that. I'll just say I'm older, and older."

He's more forthcoming about his attraction to the moral and philosophical themes the "Matrix" films explore.

"That's part of the fun of it for me and the audience," he said. "Those questions you have are also strongly Neo's questions, such as: 'Do you believe in fate?' That whole thing of asking those questions I think is Neo's journey and it was fun to ask them.

"What are you? What is fate? What are you compelled to do? His ethics and his search for his authentic life and how he deals with people and himself, I admire. It's like, can you live up to that? Can you live up to the best part of yourself every day? We see his fears, his personal kind of hopes and his vulnerabilities."

Tough stunts & ice baths

Reeves ignored his physical vulnerabilities in performing the film's epic fight scenes. Aside from a few effects that relied on doubles or CGI replicas for especially dangerous moves, he performed his own stunts, asking for 20 or 30 agonizing takes until he felt he had executed each move perfectly.

Fishburne said he found it hard to watch Reeves' fight scenes because he pushed himself so hard.

"Because of the experience of the first ['Matrix' movie], I had some body memory," Reeves said, with an all-in-a-day's-work shrug. "I could pick up choreography quicker, and I knew where I was with the wire work. But once I said, 'OK, I know how to do this,' [Hong Kong fight choreographer Yuen] Wo Ping would go, 'Well, how about this?' and the [Wachowski] brothers were like, 'And how about this?' " with ever-more elaborate back flips and cartwheels.

To ease the pain and inflammation from muscle tears, Reeves spent a lot of time in ice baths. "I'm 38 years old, man," he said.

Given that he's just gone through a great action-film boot camp and that Warner Bros. is still searching for someone to play Superman, he might be a perfect fit for the role: first George Reeves, then Christopher Reeve, then Keanu Reeves. He waves the idea away, however.

"They've all died" or been injured, he said. "It's all come to a not-so-good end, like films that have 'Johnny' in it," he grinned, referring to his 1995 sci-fi cringe-fest "Johnny Mnemonic." "I made that mistake."

Reeves is working on a more down-to-earth project, an untitled romantic comedy from Nancy Meyers. "It's great to work with her and Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton," he said. Will we see a new comedic side to him?

"I hope so," he said. "I think they're all hoping."

So, Keanu, what exactly is 'The Matrix'?

BY BILL MULLER
Gannett News Service

HOLLYWOOD -- Keanu Reeves wants to understand The Matrix. More importantly, he wants you to understand.

Some of it, anyway. He can't give away too much. "It's kind of cool what happens later on," says the star of The Matrix Reloaded, rubbing his hands together with a mischievous grin. Come on, Keanu, let us in on the secret.

"It sounds really goofy," he says, "but it's about love." OK, but what about all the heavy German philosophy, the religious allegory, the chitchat about cause and effect, fate and choices? "That's the question," he says. "I think that's one of those, 'Is it a wave, is it a particle?' It's hard to know. It's like the Mobius strip."

Whoa.

If anybody has the answers, it's Reeves, who spent nine months in California and Australia making the latest two chapters in The Matrix trilogy -- Reloaded, which opened yesterday, and The Matrix Revolutions, which comes out in November. Both are about a dystopian Earth where people live in a computer-generated dream world.

The slick, special-effects-laden sci-fi movies, known for hidden meanings and futuristic kung fu, are the handiwork of brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski, reclusive filmmakers who rarely give interviews. Explanations are left to actors such as Reeves, who's having fun playfully dodging the questions.

Sitting in a mock-up Matrix set on the Warner Bros. lot, Reeves looks relaxed in slightly tattered jeans, a maroon T-shirt and a blue sports jacket. He is loose-limbed, quiet. When faced with a perplexing question, he squeezes his eyes shut, ducks his head and runs his hands through his hair, a scrunched up, surfer-dude version of Rodin's The Thinker. He apparently spent a lot of time thinking about The Matrix.

"It's about the search for identity, the struggle of life, trying to find out the mythical themes of the messiah, of the lovers, of the teacher, of the shaman," Reeves says. "It's such a great platform for how we can sometimes think about our own lives.

"I tried to understand the whole tapestry of this piece. I felt it was important so I could do my role."

To accomplish that, Reeves dipped into the philosophy embraced by the Wachowskis -- universally referred to as "The Brothers" by the cast -- but he admits he didn't get too far.

"I got a little bit into Schopenhauer, but with Schopenhauer, you have to just keep going backwards," Reeves says wearily. "Then I've got to go back to Wagner, and who does he kill? He hates Hegel. So then he goes into Kant, so then you've got to start reading Kant. (I'm like), 'OK, I've got to do some stretching and some kicking.'" Along with the deep thinking, the physical load was heavier this time around for Reeves, who plays Neo, the world's would-be savior, who's ably assisted by true believer Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and love interest Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).

In Reloaded, Neo and his compatriots struggle to defend the human stronghold of Zion against the burrowing machines that run the planet. Meanwhile, his relationship with Trinity has deepened, and more clues are revealed about his true nature.

"Recovering and stuff was a little harder," Reeves says of the martial arts work. "And this one was over a much longer time. So I had fights interspersed over a long time. So it was always, in my time off, it was oftentimes training and learning another fight.

"I've got five fights in the second one, and I have more moves in the fight with the Smiths (in the "Burly Brawl"-- see story at right) than I did in the whole first movie."

After some 40 Hollywood films, Reeves is definitely formidable on and off screen. After first gaining attention as a dopey high school student in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, he's atop the Hollywood hierarchy, playing small, well-received parts (The Gift) as well as anchoring big projects (The Replacements).

"I didn't really have a destination except that I wanted to work in Hollywood," Reeves says of his early career goals. "And I was hoping as a young actor to work here. And I feel grateful for the experiences that I've had. But also, it's something that you have to keep working at to get great roles, hopefully to make worthwhile films."

It's hard to tell if Reeves is comfortable with his fame. At times, he seems just as surprised as everyone else.

"When it first started to happen, I wasn't used to it. I wasn't used to people coming up to me on the street, saying my name, who I didn't know."

He is somehow both earnest and swaggering, as he admits he doesn't quite buy the predestination subtext of the Matrix movies.

"What's that sentence? There's a reason for everything? I tend to go toward you can get a reason out of anything happening." Perhaps, as with The Matrix, finding the final answer isn't the point.

"Will it (the third film) answer all the questions? No," Reeves says. "Will it ask more? Yeah."

The Pink and the Black

As the Zen denizens of "The Matrix Reloaded" like to say, "Some things never change, and some things do."

One thing that never changes, decade in and century out, is Hollywood's dishing up gender-specific dreamscapes — .

At multiplexes this weekend, Keanu Reeves is on a quest to find out if he is The One. And Renée Zellweger is on a quest to find The One.

Mr. Reeves, as Neo, goes on a dark, violent odyssey where his strength and character are tested. Ms. Zellweger, as a cute blonde chasing a suave writer at Know, the magazine for men in the know, goes on a pink, fluffy odyssey where her wiles and allure are tested.

Mr. Reeves must be made over into a hero, wearing cool black shades and a long black cassock, so he can snare the bad guys. Ms. Zellweger must be made over into a fox, wearing false eyelashes and red-and-white gingham short-shorts, so she can snare a good guy.

The "Matrix" sequel is a fantasy set in the frightening future, a land of virtual martial arts, apocalyptic battles, motorcycle stunts and black vinyl cat suits. "Down With Love" is a fantasy set in the fun past, a land of martinis and cigarettes, bachelor pads with pop-out beds and bachelorettes with maribou slippers.

In one, machines feed off humans; in the other, humans feed off TV dinners. Neo flies, while Frank Sinatra sings "Fly Me to the Moon."

One has joie de mort, the romance of force, a ballet of slow-motion bullets and fast-slicing swords inspired by Homer's "Odyssey" and Joseph Campbell's hero myths. The other struggles to have joie de vivre, the romance of seduction, a ballet of the chaste and the chased, the cad and the spinster, inspired by Doris Day-Rock Hudson pillow-talk and pillbox-hat comedies. (Tony Randall even has a cameo.)

In the male formula, there is death, rebirth, wisdom and video game graphics. In the female formula, there is sparring, love, marriage and a fashion show. Our hero aspires to discover the Sight, the Source, the Force. Our heroine aspires to Be Cute.

In the myth of masculinity, Neo barely speaks. In the myth of femininity, Renée showers us with words.

(One male movie reviewer on CNN said "Down With Love" nearly drove him to pluck out his eyeballs.)

The chick flick spoof is flighty. There are dizzy pronouncements: "I wouldn't get to know you all the way better 'til I got to know you much, much better." There are loads of accessories: gloves, hats, even a lining of Renée's coat that matches her girlfriend's dress.

The guy movie is heavy. There are potent simplistic pronouncements: "What do all men with power want?" the Oracle says to Neo. "More power." And, "You do not truly know someone until you fight them." The major accessory is testosterone.

Watching "The Matrix Reloaded" can only refresh your appreciation of Karl Rove, who understands the power of archetypal myths.

As Elisabeth Bumiller wrote in Friday's Times, President Bush's audacious landing on the aircraft carrier was only the tip of the "Top Gun" imagery. This White House has gone far beyond Ronald Reagan's in hiring former TV producers and lighting experts and "using the powers of television and technology to promote a presidency."

His TV wizards lined up the Bush profile perfectly with the presidents on Mount Rushmore to make him the fifth head; they trained giant sports stadium lights on the Statue of Liberty when Mr. Bush spoke on Ellis Island; and they make sure the message of the day — "Helping Small Business" or "Mission Accomplished" — blares behind his head. (Imagine Abe Lincoln with a backdrop endlessly repeating: "End Slavery Now.")

Mr. Rove has cast Mr. Bush, who officially declared his re-election bid on Friday, as a G.O.P. Neo: a reluctant hero, a man of few words and one true-blue woman, who must battle enemies and forge alliances in a strange world, building strength and character as he rescues humanity.

The master strategist could easily adapt a few "Matrix" lines for campaign slogans: "There is only one way to save our world: Bush." Or "We're all here to do what we're all here to do." Or "I protect that which matters most."

Testosterone as a campaign accessory. Because some things never change.

Interview: Keanu Reeves

BY ANTONY TEOFILO | They say The Hero has a thousand faces.

First there was Gilgamesh. Then Ulysses underwent his Odyssey, then a spoiled rich kid named Siddhartha Gotama gave it all up to become the Buddha. A little while later, the Bible tells us about a poor carpenter who left the farm and found out he was Jesus Christ.

The Matrix has Keanu Reeves.

Or more succinctly, Neo In the world of The Matrix: Reloaded, Reeves finds himself as the savior with the plan, The One poised to set an entire world on its ear simply by following his heart.

It's the dream of many storytellers to create a myth that brings a twist to that most classic of stories: underdog saves the world. In their ever-expanding trilogy, Larry and Andy Wachowski aim to create just such a new myth for our times, with Keanu Reeves at its messianic epicenter.

Like the savior he portrays, Reeves has paid a dear price to follow his journey through the Matrix to its conclusion, especially physically. Neo is now a master of the Matrix; his ability to fight is amplified almost infinitely. As a result, Reeves learned more movies for one large scale fight scene (in which he takes on a legion of Agent Smith clones) than he was required to perform in the entirety of the first movie. Handling fight duties normally prescribed only to professional stuntmen, Reeves was known to spend hours in a tub of ice after a day's shoot had finished. He also took a lot more hits this time around, but the work and the bruises pay off. The frenetic, pulse-pounding battles are like nothing that has ever been seen on the silver screen.

Notoriously protective of his privacy, Keanu Reeves seems to take a certain amount of pleasure in remaining an enigma to those he meets. When he sits down to talk, he is evasive and reserved, tossing out one-word answers to many questions. If you can get him talking about the world he's helping the Wachowski Brothers create, however, you'll find he's just as excited as most of the folks eagerly anticipating The Matrix: Reloaded.

Q: How do you feel about all the rabid fan debates and discussions that revolve around the world of the Matrix?

A: It's great. That's one of the great things about film. It's a public medium. The sharing of ideas and points of view are one of the things that I love about film. The project itself is about [discussion and debate] so thank God there is something to talk about. Most other films don't have that ambition. With lines like "What truth?", and "Do you believe in fate?", this movie is about speaking about ideas.

Q: Do you feel any pressure from fans, who have such high expectations for The Matrix: Reloaded?

A: I'm just trying to live up to what [writers and directors] Andrew and Larry Wachowski, want. I'm trying to realize their dream. The only pressure I felt was to be able to do what they wanted me to do.

Q: For the first movie, the Wachowskis gave you a stack of philosophical books to consult. Did you have a reading list for this movie?

A: I didn't get any books this time, but they said if I wanted to look at what they were doing, I should look at some Schopenhauer, and some Hume, and their old pal Neitzche.

Q: Your character's costume is similar to a monk's. Is that an overt effort to portray you as a holy man?

A: The film itself and what the Wachowskis do is such a synthesis of different perspectives and philosophies, I suppose you could read it like that, but there is not one specific perspective. The brothers do have their points of view on it, but I don't think that scene is like a battle between a Jehovah's Witness and a heathen [Laughs], though you could riff on that. That's part of the fun of it.

Q: How rough was this movie for you physically?

A: Recovering was much harder. This movie took place over a much longer time. In my time off, I was often times training and learning another fight. I have five fights in the second one, and I have more kung fu movements in the fight with the Smiths than I do in the whole first movie.

Q: How would you describe Neo's growth in this film?

A: It's the development of a messiah, who's trying to find his identity as a man.

Q: What do you think Neo feels about who and what he is?

A: Neo is full of a lot of fear about what he has to do, and the responsibilities that the community is asking of him.

Q: Has Neo accepted the fact that he's The One?

A: I think he's accepted it, but I don't think he's accepted it without question. Neo is still trying to find out what his life is. He asks The Oracle, "What if I fail?", and it's kind of cool what happens later on. What Neo finds out about being The One, I love that.

Q: Like the first movie, there's a lot of biblical symbolism in this movie.

A: There's also Apollo, and Dionysius, and Nature, something man made, something from the psyche, and the relationship between the two [we examine] why your life is the sum an unequal equation.

Q: Do you think the meaning behind these movies is important?

A: The brothers don't propose finality, they don't say, "Here's the answer." This will be revealed more in Revolutions. The answers do come to something. It sounds really goofy, but it's about love.

Q: We get to see Neo and Trinity and their relationship. Was that important?

A: It's one of my favorite aspects of the piece. I get to love someone, and get to be loved by someone. The relationship between Neo and Trinity are some of my favorite days. To work with Carrie Anne [Moss] is great because we love and trust each other and enjoy working together.

Q: And there's a whole new thematic journey that opens up in Reloaded in examining the sensuality of that world it's a very sexy movie.

A: The directors would love to hear that. It's not salacious, but I think the Wachowskis are interested in flesh and blood. They're interested in emotion, and they exult in it. They love to show the beauty and power of union, and the strength of that union, whether it's individuals or individuals coming into a community.

Q: In Zion, there's a huge scene involving hundreds of people in a very passionate, rhythm driven expression of courage and sensual joy.

A: The kids who came out, some days there were like seven hundred, but there was one day where it was closer to a thousand. These kids just came out with so much affection. They had a male tent and a female tent that went right out the window. There were drum circles. There were people banging on drums, hanging out everywhere. They'd put the music on and then when they would shoot those scenes, it was insane. Lawrence came out to start his speech as Morpheus [where he addresses the throng], and he didn't even start speaking. He just stood there, and the kids just screamed for three minutes. There was a really good primal energy.

Q: In the first movie, the Oracle tells Neo that he's not The One, which brings about a crisis of faith for the character. Is that crisis of faith important in unwinding the character for you now?

A: I don't believe the character Thomas Anderson had a specific religious belief...

Q: I mean, he's having a crisis of faith in himself.

A: He even brings that up when he says, "I'm not the One." And the Oracle says, "Well kiddo, it looks like you've got the gift, but you gotta die first." And that's what happens. I think that Neo doesn't want something else to be controlling him. Morpheus asks him whether he believes in fate, and I think Neo relates being The One to something outside of him that he doesn't want, and yet responds to. He takes it on, but for himself, and to find out what's happening in his own life.

KEANU'S UNKNOWN SIS IN PLEA TO SEE HIM

KEANU'S UNKNOWN SIS IN PLEA TO SEE HIM

May 18 2003

Matrix star's rift with 'strange' family exposed

Exclusive By Louise Hancock and Dave Gardner

SHE shares the same surname, almond-shaped eyes and laid-back manner as one of the world's biggest stars.Yet even Emma Rose Reeves' closest friends and colleagues will be amazed to know she is the secret sister of Matrix star Keanu Reeves.

Their lifestyles could hardly be more different. While multi-millionaire Keanu will in the next few weeks jet around the world promoting his new film The Matrix: Reloaded, which is set to break all box office records when it opens in Britain next week, Emma Rose will carry on as usual working eight-hour shifts as a ｣12,000-a-year hospital lab technician.

And while he enjoys the best hotels she will return each night to the modest two-bedroom apartment she shares with a friend in a small Californian town. "I would love to have a relationship with Keanu," says Emma Rose, 23. "I don't want anything from him - not money, not fame by association - just to get to know my big brother. I see all his films and read all the articles about him, but it's not the same as being part of his life."

Emma Rose is 38-year-old Keanu's half-sister from his father Samuel's marriage to his second wife Marita. But she has only met him twice despite growing up only about 10 hours' drive from LA where he is based.

She says: "I always felt there was a part of my life that was missing because I didn't know Keanu and his sister Kim. I was a little hurt that he didn't get in touch with me when we were younger but, to be honest, I can understand why he didn't.

"We have a strange family with a lot of difficult dynamics. And after he became well-known, I was afraid he would think I only wanted to meet him because of who he was."

Emma Rose was 12 when she met her famous brother for the first time. But she'd seen him weeks earlier on the big screen in his hit film Speed. She says: "I could barely get over his resemblance to our father - especially around the eyes and the nose. It was just incredible.

"I left the cinema on a high. I was just so proud that my secret half-brother was a Hollywood superstar. Part of me was desperate to tell the whole world. But I knew I had to keep quiet as I didn't want to jeopardise any future relationship.

"The first time I actually met him was at a family wedding a few weeks later. But although he was very laid-back, I was quite young and shy - I don't think we exchanged more than a couple of words all day."

As Keanu became more famous, Emma Rose decided it would be too awkward to get in touch again. "I told my closest friends that I was related to him, but nobody else," she says.

"That was partly because I didn't think other people would believe me - but also because I didn't want to jeopardise my chances of one day having a friendship with him. And I liked it being my little secret. I'd see people reading about him and think to myself, 'If only they knew'.

After high school, Emma Rose went to college with the idea of becoming a fashion buyer. But her big brother's example inspired her to try to break into acting and she began going to auditions for commercials and small movie roles - but with no success. Then 18 months ago, Keanu's band Dogstar played in a town called Petaluma in northern California, close to Emma Rose's home. "I thought it would be cool to see him. Plus, I was thinking about taking acting more seriously," she says. "I didn't expect him to invite me to stay or get me jobs, but I thought it would be useful to get his advice. I was nervous and I took a friend and my stepdad with me for support.

While she watched the band perform, her stepdad secretly went to talk to a security guard about getting Emma Rose backstage. "At first the guard didn't believe I was Keanu's sister so my stepdad called me over so he could see the resemblance," says Emma Rose. "I asked him to tell Keanu that Emma Rose was here and would like to see him. He came rushing back with backstage passes.

"Walking into the room to meet Keanu was really strange. I had wanted to meet him again for so long that when I actually did it didn't feel quite real. I didn't know whether to shake his hand or give him a big hug. In the end I went with instinct, and pulled him into a hug. It felt so good to finally be close to my big brother."

At first, conversation was strained - but a simple T-shirt logo helped break the ice. "I happened to be wearing a Harley T-shirt. Keanu loves motorbikes. I used to work in a motorbike shop so at least we had a mutual interest to start the ball rolling. After that, it was much easier. He is just like he comes across in his films -- very laid-back and friendly. "I filled him in on what everyone in the family was doing, especially our grandmother who still lives in Hawaii. He is concerned about her, but I don't think he wants to get attached. That is his decision and I totally respect it.

"There's one cousin who he does keep in touch with so he did have an idea of what was going on with people, but it was good to tell him a bit more. He said he was going to Australia soon to film the Matrix sequels. He seemed to be looking forward to it but said it was going to be a gruelling time." With the pleasantries over and done with, there were things Emma Rose was determined to say.

Taking a deep breath, she told him how sorry she was to hear about his stillborn daughter Ava and the tragic death of his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Syme in a car accident in 2001.

"He is obviously still so cut-up about it," says Emma Rose quietly. "Because of who he is, he has had to develop a thick skin, but I don't think he's ever gotten over those deaths. But I needed to say it. It had been so hard to read about those tragedies and not be able to say how sorry I was because I didn't know how to reach him. I think he was pleased that I cared."

But after 45 minutes of catching up, Keanu had to talk to other guests. Emma Rose hasn't heard from him since. "He said we should get in touch when he came back from Australia, but he didn't give me his number. I got a bit flustered and forgot to ask. I don't feel bitter towards him and the fact that he's not made any effort to contact me. I know he's busy - I'm happy to wait for him to get in touch. Anyway I know all I need to do is pick up a magazine or newspaper to get an update on what he's up to.

"Some of my friends think I'm mad not to have asked him for money. But I never wanted anything from him. I feel good about making the first contact. I've done my bit to let him know I still care - now it's Keanu's turn."

KEANU'S father has also appealed to his son to get in touch ...before it's too late. Samuel Reeves, 61 - who has just served two years for drug dealing - hasn't seen his son for 25 years.

Keanu stayed with British-born mum Patricia after her marriage to Samuel broke up when he was four. Speaking from his home in Hawaii, Samuel last night claimed to have diabetes and Grave's disease, an immune disorder which can cause heart failure. And he said: "I know I've done wrong, but I just wish Keanu would forgive me as I could die any day."

Keanu, is that you?

Katrina Onstad
National Post

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National Post film columnist Katrina Onstad is attending the 56th Cannes International Film Festival, the world's most famous filmfest. Today, the cast and crew of The Matrix Reloaded meet the press.

Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss share the same dark androgyny; he's pretty, she's handsome. Bonded by good looks and a drive to free humans from machine bondage, their love story drives The Matrix Reloaded, the sequel that greeted journalists with streaming, screaming code and an exploding freeway at the ungodly hour of 8:30 a.m. on the second day of the Cannes film festival.

When the pair took the stage for a press conference, along with other cast and some crew, they were easy to tell apart because Moss is the pregnant one, and Reeves has a smudge of beard.

The first question was uncharacteristically blunt for this celebrity-loving festival: What to make of many less than stellar reviews? Producer Joel Silver got a little huffy: "I've obviously read more reviews than you have because many have been very good," he said, before offering the classic I'm-smarter-than-you-are defence. "It's the shock of the new. People are troubled by something that's fresh and new."

The question's implication is that perhaps the Matrix brand is review-proof, its cult following so dedicated that no whining critics will affect the movie's box office. The film is not in competition at Cannes, but it still seemed odd that the panel didn't include the Wachowski brothers, Andy and Larry, who wrote and directed the trilogy. Their reputation as reclusive eccentrics was tempered by Silver's less intriguing excuse for their absence: They're rushing to finish the third instalment, The Matrix Revolutions, in time for a Nov. 15 release date. The two films were made at the same time over 270 days in 2001 and 2002 for a mere US$300-million. Like the second Lord of the Rings, Matrix Reloaded suffers from cinema interruptus, an abrupt, unsatisfying ending designed to leave an audience pining for the next time. Silver promises that the third film will resolve the many unanswered questions, though he was cryptic enough not to rule out the possibility of a sequel to the sequels: "The story the boys have told will end in the next movie."

Everyone refers to the Wachowskis as the brothers, or the boys. Only once were they identified separately when Laurence Fishburne, who plays Morpheus, a revolutionary with great enunciation, boomed: "Larry Wachowski said to me at one point that the whole idea of the way we look and dress inside the Matrix -- the coats, the leather -- is about armour." Asked if any American actors had qualms about coming to France, birthplace of the freedom fry, the cast shook their heads and made like happy tourists. Reeves, who seems to have internalized the Zen master reticence of his character, the saviour Neo, answered the question of whether he's been treated badly as an American ("Canadian," my internal nationalist corrected) with a joke: "I just got here." People laughed -- Keanu Reeves made a joke! -- and he added, "I hope there isn't [tension] ... Festivals and cinema should be a moment to come together to celebrate art and humanity and stuff." A smattering of applause.

As a rule, sequels mean more: more characters, more story (the last human settlement, Zion, is under siege by octopus machines called Sentinels while Neo and his crew battle virtual tyranny), more fight scenes, more Agent Smiths (Neo's nemesis multiplies by 100), more special effects. The Wachowskis, who love architecture, built elaborate sets -- 150 in total -- so that even when the actors needed to perform against blue screens (the space where the effects later appear), they were in a creative environment, the opposite of the legendarily gruelling methods of George Lucas. Talk of CGI made actress Monica Bellucci irate: "All these actors, they worked so hard. It wasn't about blue screens and special effects -- this is acting! This is acting!" Oddly, Bellucci performs entirely without special effects in her small part as the temptress Persephone.

The Matrix reworks philosophy and mythology for the comic-book set, and as such, it brings the nerdy insiders out of their basements. A nervous Argentine journalist, clearly needing content for his Matrix fan site, asked this question: In the first film, Reeves' Neo takes the red pill (it frees his mind, man, because he's made a choice). In Reloaded, the Oracle offers him a piece of red candy but he doesn't eat it. Why not?

Reeves' answer: "Once you eat a red pill, you don't eat another red pill." Another laugh from an easy crowd. "And I'm saving it for later."

The first disappointment of the festival was a rare misstep from German director Wim Wenders. The Soul of a Man is a grindingly slow, impressionistic semi-documentary about three blues legends: Skip James, J.B. Lenoir and Blind Willie Johnson. Wenders' films have always indulged his fetish for American music, and this one only comes alive when he pops up as a goofy young obsessive fan. Otherwise, re-enactments of old recording sessions alternate at a snail's pace with clips of worthy modern-day musicians such as Beck, Lucinda Williams and Nick Cave reinterpreting songs we just heard; comparisons can only be unflattering. Wenders' is the first release in a seven-part film series called The Blues, produced by Martin Scorsese. Perhaps the next instalments, by Clint Eastwood and Mike Figgis, among others, will do their subjects more justice by telling us their stories, instead of merely representing them as relics. Until then, find the soundtrack, because the music is phenomenal.

konstad@nationalpost.com

© Copyright 2003 National Post

They don't call him 'The One' for nothing:

The first Matrix movie is seen by many Christians as a retelling of the story of Jesus. Whether the sequels will fit that theory remains to be seen

Siri Agrell
National Post

Thursday, May 15, 2003

CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures

Hugo Weaving and Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Reloaded. Reeves' character, Neo, is often described as an allegory of Christ.

In the beginning, he was reborn. Murdered, he rose from the dead, ascending to the heavens to teach us a lesson. And he will walk the Earth again.

Today, his worshippers call him Neo, but his mortal name is Keanu Reeves.

Since the leather-clad blend of kung-fu action and metaphysical musings fuelled box-office sales of The Matrix to more than US$450-million in 1999, the film has become a paragon of cinematic sci-fi. But its success has also brought life to The Church of Matrix, with a growing number of followers interpreting the film's meaning as modern-day Christian parable. And with The Matrix Reloaded opening wide today, debate over the trilogy's religious interpretations will likely intensify.

"There are hundreds of Matrix Web sites, and they're not about how cute Keanu Reeves looks," says Glenn Yeffeth, editor of the book Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix. "People see this movie as a retelling of the story of Christ."

A Google search turns up a list of almost 50,000 Web sites dedicated to discussing The Matrix and religion, analyzing Reeves' role as a modern-day messiah.

In the first film, Thomas Anderson (Reeves) is a cubicle-bound software programmer by day and a computer hacker known as Neo by night. A rebel group led by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) recruits Neo and offers him a chance to discover the truth about the matrix, a mysterious force that is manipulating human reality.

But while most viewers concentrated on revolutionary special effects spliced with philosophical debate, some Christians saw God in the details.

Kristenea LaVelle, author of The Reality Within the Matrix, says the film expresses the basic idea of Christian salvation. She remembers being "astounded" by the Biblical references, which she says touch every aspect of The Matrix narrative.

In the film, Reeves' character is called Thomas Anderson. LaVelle says the Apostle Thomas was also called Didymus, which in Greek means "twin" or "double." Anderson means "son of man," one of the titles Jesus uses for himself. The twin names, she says, suggest the dual nature of Reeves' character.

She points out that when Neo is "unplugged" from the matrix, he falls down a long tube and into a pool of water. She calls this his baptism or rebirth, and it's just the beginning of her comprehensive -- if controversial -- Christian interpretation.

The Matrix character Cypher, who betrays Neo in the battle against the matrix, represents Judas. Neo's mentor, Morpheus, is John the Baptist, since both men were appointed to prepare the way for a chosen one, or messiah.

When Neo is shot, he rises again. LaVelle, who has seen the film "at least 10 times," says he is resurrected after 72 seconds (72 hours = 3 days).

She does admit some parallels are a stretch, pointing out that Neo is called to fight against the matrix not by a burning bush but by a FedEx delivery. And Neo's relationship with Trinity -- Carrie-Anne Moss's ass-kicking character -- LaVelle finds "troubling" because of its obvious sexual undertones, which are consummated in the sequel.

"The R rating is a bit of an issue for the Christian community," she says. "But the message is not for the Christian community -- it's for everyone else."

And some people have used her interpretation, and their own, as a way to bring "unbelievers" into God's fold. Rob MacRury, a minister with the Church of Christ in Ottawa, uses The Matrix as a way to reach young members of his congregation as well as those "who did not realize God's message was in the film."

"I'm almost 50 and I can talk to an 18-year-old about The Matrix," he says. "Lo and behold, they're in a spiritual conversation."

He says that today, while many people haven't read the Bible, almost everyone has seen the sci-fi blockbuster. "They don't want to sit down and talk about the Book of John, but they love talking about The Matrix."

He refers to the movie as "cyberpunk parable" and says the film's pop culture impact has given the Christian message renewed attention, something impossible through regular religious channels. "This is the last big pulpit in town, the movie theatre."

But while MacRury will continue preaching the Church of Matrix, he doesn't hold out much hope for the second instalment of the trilogy, which he plans to see tonight. "In the first Matrix, they told the whole story," he says. "Jesus ascended and has not returned, so there is no more to tell."

But LaVelle disagrees. She believes the Matrix trilogy is a three-part message from God, warning of impending armageddon. "Did the directors intend to make it that way? I don't think so," she says. "But God's hand was in it -- it was a revelation."

After seeing The Matrix Reloaded, she will write a sequel to her book, which has sold 300 copies. She admits that not all Christians agree with her interpretation of the film, but says the message of salvation through spiritual awakening is "undeniable."

"As we get closer to the second coming of Jesus, God is trying to wake us up to reality," she says. "I do think think The Matrix is a warning."

And on the seventh day, God said "Whoa."

sagrell@nationalpost.com

Weaving his way to stardom

Hugo Weaving's face is far better known than his name, but that's all about to change with roles in two of the most successful movie franchises in history.

In The Matrix Reloaded, our hero Neo receives several gifts, including an earpiece attached to a coiled wire. This telex was the piece of equipment that connected Neo's arch-nemesis to the Matrix - a computer-generated synthetic world - and its arrival can mean just one thing: Agent Smith unplugged!

Smith is played by Australian actor Hugo Weaving, who also plays Elrond in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Weaving's face is far better known than his name, but that may be changing.

By early next year, after the release of The Matrix Revolutions in November and the Ring's epic finale, Return of the King in December, the combined box office grosses of Weaving's movies could challenge Harrison Ford's.

In The Matrix, Agent Smith was the embodiment of the machines' determination to control their vast operating system. As the movie's hero, Keanu Reeves wore Neo's rectitude bolt-upright, as if his cassock had come back from the cleaners too heavily starched. As created by writer-directors Larry and Andy Wachowski, Agent Smith was the perfect foil for an actor who was a bit of a stiff.

Smith is a piece of software who has become liberated from the Matrix. He is a program so far past his use-by date that new agents - Neo calls them "upgrades" - have been dispatched from the Mainframe to take over for him. In Reloaded, Agent Smith has even begun to have human feelings such as anger and ego.

"He's changing quite a lot," Weaving says. "His ego grew to such an extent that he couldn't bear not to hide out in the Matrix and kill Neo."

And he's not particularly fussy how he does it. For reasons that aren't completely clear, in Reloaded Smith has developed the nasty habit of sticking his hand into people's chest cavities. This turns out to be far more annoying than having a finger repeatedly poked in your chest, and leaves his victims - among them Neo - looking like hot fudge sundaes.

"I don't know, technically, quite how that happens," Weaving says. "To me, he's become like a computer virus. And I think that's actually what's happening. He's taking over other programs."

Before taking over the character, Weaving had to come up with just the right user interface. He spent a lot of time getting Smith's voice just right. "I wanted him to sound kind of human, but not really," he says, "like a news-reader." Weaving says he borrowed bits of Spock from the Star Trek Vulcan, and HAL from the artificial intelligence voice of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But when it came to finding a model for the character's distinctive way of verbally burrowing into other people's heads, Weaving looked no further than Larry and Andy Wachowski, the films' writer-directors. "They wrote the character, so I figured there's a lot of them in him," Weaving says. "I think quite a lot of their vocal qualities injected themselves into Smith."

Weaving was not well-known outside Australia before The Matrix was released. He had received good notices five years earlier for his performance as Mitzi Del Bra in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and parlayed that into a voice role as Rex the Male Sheepdog in Babe.

But his life changed when Matrix producer Barrie Osborne signed on to produce the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and asked Weaving to play Elrond. Suddenly Weaving found himself with significant roles in two of the most successful movie franchises in history.

Because of the martial arts training required for The Matrix movies, Weaving spent three years working on that trilogy and a bit less than that on Lord of the Rings, in which he has a relatively smaller role.

Remarkably, the production schedules of this sprawling sextet of films rarely overlapped, with a lengthy location shoot in Sydney - where Weaving lives with his family - for The Matrix, Reloaded and Revolutions.

After filming the fight scene in which 100 Agent Smiths fight with Neo in Reloaded, he raced off to New Zealand to do re-shoots for The Two Towers, the second instalment of The Lord of the Rings triptych.

"They were very time-consuming projects, particularly as I wasn't involved in the shooting every day," he says. "I couldn't really go off and do anything else."

So he sat around and just waited for stardom to arrive.

- KRT

Interview with Keanu Reeves

Neo chats about the end of the Matrix world, the coat, and getting ready for the film.

May 15, 2003 - Despite his previous career successes in the action genre (Speed and Point Break), Keanu Reeves will go down in the history books as Neo, the hero of the Matrix trilogy. On the eve of what will likely be the largest film of his career, Reeves spent some time discussing his character and role in The Matrix Reloaded.

One of the first questions asked of Keanu was his approach to fame as well as the huge fan support for the films."I don't seek it out really. The Brothers will talk about it sometimes, they're really appreciative of it. They really enjoy the excitement, everyone enjoys the excitement. We all really enjoy the project and so it's great when other people dig it as well."

Reeves has transformed himself physically over the past several years and has become adept at the wire work necessary to be Neo. He discussed what it took to get ready for the next Matrix. "It took a lot of training, the usual four or five months before and then the usual training while shooting. I would have a fight, do some acting, and then choreography would come in and then train with the actors. It's demanding, but it's also one of my favorite parts of the piece. I would more proficient with the wire work. I was able to catch on to choreography much quicker. When they would come in with the choreography with the fights, I would just pick it up. I guess just because my body had the memory of those kinds of movements and knew how to absorb them.

"The fight that was all of the Smiths was a lot of moves. I got to work with twelve of the stuntmen and so for three weeks we just did that fight. And the other thing was just trying to learn the weapons, there was a lot of different weapons, the sais, the swords, the sticks."

Why is The Matrix Reloaded coming out now, 4 years after the first film? "They had to write it, they had a little bit of pre-production to do (laughs) and I think it took some time after the first one, especially for the Brothers, to come back and be able to write it. It was a hard endeavor."

Keanu realized what he was getting in to from the beginning. "I knew it was a trilogy making the first one. I recall at the end of the first Matrix, the Brothers talking about some of the images they were thinking about for the second one. The machines that the Zion fighters have, the robots. I knew that it was alive and then when the first one came out and was received so well, I guess that's when people started to go, 'Okay, let's see what we can do now.' I think that was late 2001. I started training November 2001. It was 270 days, 14 months. I didn't work everyday. The Brothers, what they've done is extraordinary in terms of the effort and focus in getting this on the screen."

One of Neo's hallmark is his fantastic and black wardrobe. "When you first put it on, it's very exciting and it really does inform a lot of your character. It's so iconoclastic. I have 23 different versions of that costume depending on the lighting, the fighting, acting, rain or no rain. They wanted different ones because they catch different things. It has monastic, clerical, priestly overtones but what kind. It's an individual priest, the archetypal cape, it's the overcoat, it's Superman. In the odd way, it's the lone wolf, it kind of has the man apart aspect. It's evocative of many things."

Can he top Neo? "Hopefully I'll get to work with some artists who have another vision. In terms of topping it, I don't know. I don't think like that. I'm really grateful to be a part of this experience and work with the artists I worked with, to have such a great role, to be a part of something that people are so excited to see."

Reeves talked a bit about the philosophy of the Matrix. "What is reality, what is truth, what is fate, dealing with man and technology. What is AI? What is the real? And if real is just sensory perceptions why can't the matrix be as real and the whole aspect of finding authentic life. I don't believe that the Brothers, in terms of the first one, there are elements of the first one that were kind of pulled back in terms of trying to tell the story. In terms of the characters who were in the Nebuchanezzer, like Switch, they had the same physical incarnation in their matrix selves. Way back when, when they were in the matrix, they looked completely different."

Reeves has trouble picking his favorite scene in the film. "I really enjoy so many of them. I really dig the scene with the Merovingian. It's wonderfully performed, wonderfully written. The scene with the architect is really awesome, well-written, well acted. The things that come out of that scene are pretty interesting to think about. I like the tea house fight and the ones with the Smiths. I like the scenes with Trinity and Neo, some of the more emotional scenes. I love the new characters, I think Jada is kicking some ass. Morpheus is wonderful. I love the look of it, the cinema of it, I didn't find myself when I saw it going, 'Oh yeah, The Matrix. It's very unique and exciting to watch. I loved how much movie is on the screen. I loved the world that they created. You just go right into it."

Is it really over? "We're done. The actors are done. The last scene was a shot in Revolutions. It's a scene with Neo in the machine city. I guess there we're about 250-300 people in the sound stage. It was a close-up and there were a lot of takes. It was a very unique feeling to come to the completion of the project. I was feeling sad, affected emotionally by having all these people, all these craftspeople, people who participated in the film. Our lunch was 1,000 people. We were in 26 or 27 soundstages in Australia. We would be in, say, soundstage one and there would be people hanging lights in another soundstage who did that for 6 months. They literally were working nights for 6 months. There were cats working on the movie that you didn't see. It's like coming in at the end of a long voyage I think. It's like getting off the boat and stepping onshore after crossing an ocean."

A man of many faces

And he's not just a pretty face. Keanu Reeves has taken bold chances on unproven new directors and selected projects which strike his heart

By Ong Soh Chin

ONE of the wonders of the modern world, a friend once quipped, is that Keanu Reeves has a career.

BEYOND THE PACKAGING: Reeves has gone beyond the boundaries people place around him, into territory like The Matrix series. -- REUTERS To be sure, the poster boy of bad acting and vacuity is the favourite punching bag of the celluloid intelligentsia.

But, like an X-Man, he has not only emerged unscathed, but become stronger over the years, too.

Despite his obvious failings as an actor, the 38-year-old has managed to appear in some of the most iconic movies of the last 20 years.

His latest incarnation, as Neo in The Matrix series, is one of them.

His character, super-cool in black shades and a long black jacket, is the human saviour in a world of machines.

The Matrix franchise - which includes The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded, The Animatrix, the upcoming Matrix Revolutions and the video game Enter The Matrix - is nothing short of a filmic zeitgeist, capturing the spirit of a post-millennial universe where everything is sinister and everybody looks like he stepped off a Prada runway.

While Reeves does spend a good part of the movies looking broodily handsome, his physicality as an actor, juxtaposed with his vulnerability, gives Neo dramatic ballast.

Just as the film's unique vision and cinematic landscape belong to the genius brains of the Wachowski brothers, it is hard to imagine any other actor playing Neo.

Like most things in the movie (and in life), there's more to Reeves than meets the eye, even if people tend not to see beyond the very fine packaging.

It's too simplistic to pin his success down to his good looks: Hollywood has more handsome leading men than you can shake a jockstrap at - some even more stunning than Reeves. Take a look at Brad Pitt.

And it's too complicated to figure out why an actor with his (much-derided) wooden range has managed to sustain such an enviable and diverse career.

But I will try.

CAREER HARI-KIRI

OKAY, maybe Keanu Reeves can't act. But neither could John Wayne, and no one ever dissed The Duke the same way they have The Dude.

Considering that people actually sniggered audibly when Reeves mouthed his English-accented lines as Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula in 1992 ('I caught a train to Beeyoodahpest') and laughed out loud when he channelled Siddhartha Gautama in Little Buddha (1993), it is amazing that his career has not been reduced to that of - oh - Don Johnson's? Mark Hamill's?

Instead, almost impervious to slings and arrows, he has deliberately committed career hari-kiri countless times, metaphorically flinging himself off a plane like his character, Johnny Utah, did in Point Break (1991).

That role, incidentally, was another iconic incarnation for Reeves: He played an FBI agent sent to nab a group of surfing bank robbers led by Patrick Swayze, whose character is called - get this - Bodhi.

There is something pure and instinctual about him: he picks roles for what they mean to him, not for fame or fortune. And the gods have rewarded him for his truthfulness. As ludicrous as it sounds, Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, was a huge success, and has attained cult status among its devoted followers.

The movie is seductive because it clashes the alt-cool truth-seeking mythology of surfing with the shallow values of the 'real' world.

You could say it is the same spirit that permeates the two dimensions of the universe in The Matrix.

In both movies, Reeves is the link between the alternate existences: The One who bears the burden of knowledge and has to live with it.

NOT SO DUMB

REEVES really didn't have to think that hard - he could have easily gone down the action hero path paved for him after the huge success of Speed (1994).

Instead, he did the unthinkable by turning down the sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control. Another broody pretty boy, Jason Patric, took the role in that disastrous movie.

Reeves wasn't so dumb after all.

Indeed, there is something pure and instinctual about him which cannot be found in any A-list star in Hollywood: He picks roles for what they mean to him, not for fame or fortune. And the gods have rewarded him kindly for his truthfulness.

His Matrix co-star, Carrie Anne Moss, backs this up. In an interview in the May issue of GQ, she says: 'He's not about fame at all. And his choices are never about the box office - it's about what strikes his heart.'

He does not care about risks or sacrifices which, by the way, go way beyond the favourite Hollywood circus show of putting on a few pounds to play a fat person.

It is this noble intent that has seen him take bold chances on many unproven new directors - the Wachowski brothers, for example, but also Jan De Bont whose first film was Speed.

With The Matrix (1999), Reeves signed on the minute he read the script, unlike Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Brad Pitt who pondered the project and eventually passed on it.

'He never wavered, and he fought for the movie in every way,' says Warner Bros' president of worldwide production Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

Of course, Reeves has also graced less successful projects by directors who have rightly remained unknown - The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997) by Stephen T. Kay, Feeling Minnesota (1996) by Steven Baigalman II, The Watcher (2000) by Joe Charbanic, just to name a few.

But it is his unstinting commitment to projects that has endeared him in the business.

He took a pay cut for his role in The Replacements (2000) so there would be enough money to hire Gene Hackman, having done the same thing previously for The Devil's Advocate (1997) so Al Pacino could come on board.

HERE COMES THE HERO: Reeves in Speed.

And, despite his limited acting abilities, he has stretched himself further than most actors, going beyond the boundaries people place around him, almost as if he can't fly near enough to the sun.

He has fallen several times, but each time he has picked himself up, mended the singed wings and pitched himself off the cliff again.

He has even had the gumption to attempt the Holy Grail of acting - William Shakespeare, whom he is said to respect and admire.

In Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993), he played Don John, the brother of Denzel Washington's Don Pedro.

He also spouted lines from Henry IV as a high-born rent boy in Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991), a performance that is as strangely poignant as the picture itself.

In 1995, he played Hamlet onstage in a sold-out 29-day run in a small theatre in Winnipeg, Canada. The event saw fans and press from Japan to Argentina stampeding the floorboards to catch The Dude as The Dane.

This is what Britain's The Guardian said of that Bardic adventure:

'He's no Daniel Day Lewis, judged one amateur critic, while the professionals conjured other comparisons. The name which came to mind most, however, was Marilyn Monroe. Like her, Keanu Reeves' image is that of the dumb-dumb.'

PLAYING TED

WHEN Keanu Reeves first caught the public's imagination, it was, indeed, by playing dumb-dumb, specifically, dim-witted teenagers.

His most notable role then was Ted Logan in the hugely successful Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989) and its sequel, Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey (1991).

The Bill And Ted movies pre-dated Wayne's World and introduced a whole lexicon of Dudespeak that appealed to the prime target audience of white American high-school males. ('No waaaay!' 'Yes waaaay!')

The impression he made in those two movies was so indelible, Reeves once said: 'I used to have nightmares that they would put 'He played Ted' on my tombstone'.

But even before Bill And Ted, he was already being typecast as a none-too-bright teen in movies like Permanent Record (1988), The Night Before (1988) and The Prince Of Pennsylvania (1988).

Permanent Record, especially, stands out as a particularly fine gem with Reeves playing a character who has to deal with the emotional aftermath of his best buddy's unexpected suicide.

An earlier role, in River's Edge (1986), also saw his character dealing with a teen death; this time, a murder committed by a fellow teen.

The dark subject matter of these two films would somehow foreshadow his life.

While the world would soon conveniently pack him into a shiny happy box marked 'eye candy - not brain food', Reeves was actually experiencing many deep tragedies in his personal life.

In October 1993, one of his closest friends, River Phoenix, whom he acted with in My Own Private Idaho and I Love You To Death (1990), died suddenly of a drug overdose.

Then, around Christmas 1999, his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, miscarried their baby girl just a few weeks shy of the delivery date. She was to have been named Eva Archer Syme Reeves.

On April 2, 2001, Syme - by then his ex - was killed when her Jeep Cherokee skidded onto the wrong side of a Los Angeles road near Highway 101, smashing into three parked cars.

The force of the crash flipped the car over and she was thrown through the windshield. She was killed instantly.

One of Reeves' two sisters, Kim, 36, is reportedly losing her life-long battle with leukaemia and is apparently so weak now she cannot walk without a cane.

Underlying all this is a troubled childhood marked by an early estrangement from his father, Sam, that has continued to this day.

The senior Reeves, 60, a Hawaiian-Chinese geologist, served two years of a 10-year sentence in jail in 1992 for peddling heroin before being released on parole. He was allegedly abusing drugs even when Reeves and his sisters were kids.

After he left Reeves' English mother, Patricia - a showgirl and costume designer for rock stars like Alice Cooper - she would remarry three times, giving Reeves a succession of stepfathers, an itinerant childhood and not much else.

He was born in 1964 in Lebanon, Beirut, but would move with his mother to New York City and then Toronto in Canada before he decamped to Los Angeles to pursue acting.

COPING WITH PAIN

WHILE it is easy to deduce that these dark demons must have some outlet, that Reeves must have a dark side, perhaps even a secret life - remember those gay rumours about him and record industry mogul David Geffen? - it is just as probable that he has sublimated the pain by throwing himself into his acting.

In the August 1995 issue of Vanity Fair, he said: 'I'm Mickey Mouse. They don't know who's inside the suit.'

Whatever it is, he likes to keep his private life private - no swanning around at premieres with scantily-clad starlets or supermodels, no night-till-dawn partying, no embarrassing arrests on Sunset Boulevard with a hooker in his back seat.

He remains almost monastically single, spending most of his time between Los Angeles and New York.

And, to top it all off, he's a nice guy. There have been no reports in the tabloids about temper tantrums and diva behaviour.

He is the model employee. Average Joe. A bit like you and me, but with better genes.

Says The Matrix's Laurence Fishburne: 'I don't think Keanu sees himself as being heroic in any way.

'If there's anything about his characters he relates to, it's their ordinariness - the stuff that makes them human, not the stuff that makes them superhuman.'

Neo, Siddhartha, Johnny Utah and many other Reeves characters, they all attained enlightenment by being painfully mortal.

Likewise, in a world devoid of heroes, marked by artifice and lies, Keanu Reeves, with all his pure imperfections, is The One.

And that's The Truth... dude.

Send your comments to stlife@sph.com.sg

Faith saves the day

THE MATRIX RELOADED (PG)
140 minutes
Opens tomorrow
****

CLARISSA OON

MORE than just a head-spinning cocktail of martial arts and special effects, the first Matrix movie introduced a whole new world thick with allusions to Christianity, cyberpunk fiction and Alice In Wonderland.

Having set up the basic premise of a future humanity enslaved by machines and plugged into a deceptive virtual reality, the sequel goes easy on the brainiac references and steps up the accelerator.

FRENETIC ACTION: Reloaded, which stars Hugo Weaving (left) and Laurence Fishburne, is a reinvention of the action genre. -- REUTERS The result is a non-stop action ballet, shot through with the hyperreal energy of the Japanese anime and video games beloved by directors Larry and Andy Wachowski.

But even while Reloaded contains twice the firepower of the original, it retains its heart.

Its achievement lies in the way it uses faith - between lovers, among friends and in the impossible - to humanise what would otherwise be just wham-bam effects.

More epic in scope than the original movie, which basically followed Neo's (Keanu Reeves) journey from a member of a deluded human race to its prophesied saviour, the sequel takes a while to warm up.

The drama now turns on saving the last human city of Zion from the invading machines. Zion was only mentioned but never shown in the first movie.

Barely skimming the surface of several new characters, such as human captain Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), the first 30 minutes feel like a dispassionate walk through the world of Zion, an undistinguished cave-like fortress.

This is not helped by the heinous cuts made by the censorship board here to the love-making scene between Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), which are jarringly obvious because of the little skips in the techno soundtrack.

Perhaps because of the cuts, the scene is over before you know it, which is unfortunate because the sensuality of Zion is a key counterpoint to the dehumanised, power-crazed surround known as the Matrix.

Reloaded hits its stride, however, when the human characters hack back into the Matrix's funky cyberpunk universe.

Here, the Wachowski brothers are full of surprises, thanks to a combination of quirky, distinctive characters, fabulous production design and frenetic action set-pieces.

Scene-stealers include the delicious Gallic villain Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) and his wife Persephone, played to sensuous, vampiristic perfection by Italian actress Monica Bellucci.

At the end of a 15-minute freeway chase scene where villains whiz laser-like through the air, take over the bodies of human drivers and do gongfu battles with Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) atop a moving truck, you will be picking your jaw up off the floor.

These and other inspired touches in Reloaded will cement the Wachowskis' reputation as reinventors of the action genre. Highly recommended.

CLARISSA OON tells you everything you want to know about The Matrix

The story is set in the future, when human beings are nothing more than enslaved energy sources for a race of machines.

To keep men happy and productive, everyone is plugged into the Matrix, an artificial reality that looks just like the present day.

Fortunately, a few humans - Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and his team - have escaped. They launch attacks against the machines by hacking into the Matrix.

In the first movie, Morpheus found mankind's prophesied saviour in Neo (Keanu Reeves), a computer geek whom he brings out of the Matrix and onto his rebel ship, Nebuchadnezzar.

In Reloaded, Neo's abilities have evolved to superhuman perfection: He can fly a la Superman, stop bullets and defeat scores of bad guys on his own.

This is great news because he must save the last human city of Zion from an army of Squiddies. These are mechanical beasts that savaged Morpheus' ship at the end of the first movie.

Morpheus' right-hand woman, Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), declared her love for Neo in the first movie, resurrecting him from death with a kiss. They are now officially a couple.

Because of the traitorous Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) who struck a deal with the machines, Morpheus' crew members Apoc, Switch, Mouse and Dozer all died in the first movie.

New good guys in Reloaded include the butt-kicking Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), an ex-lover of Morpheus and captain of another human ship; and the elusive Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim), who holds the system passwords.

Arch-villain Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) is back in Reloaded. In one of the sequel's showpieces, Neo has to fight a hundred CGI clones of Agent Smith who keep multiplying.

New baddies include a silver-clad, white-dreadlocked duo known as Twin One and Twin Two (played by British brothers Neil and Adrian Rayment) and the temptress Persephone (Monica Bellucci).

In order to do battle in the Matrix, you must believe anything is possible. Hence the use of gravity-defying martial arts stunts in both movies, inspired by Hongkong actioners.

Reeves, Fishburne and Moss spent months training to do their own stunts under the tutelage of top Hongkong fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping, who also did the martial arts choreography for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The one Matrix special effects sequence that has been copied in many action movies since (for example, Charlie's Angels) is 'bullet time', where the camera appears to whiz 360 degrees around a fixed image.

Look out for dazzling action sequences in Reloaded, such as a 15-minute freeway chase sequence at the climax involving several hundred cars, trucks, agents and gongfu on top of moving vehicles.

The term 'hack into the Matrix' has echoes of cyberpunk fiction (for example, William Gibson's Neuromancer). What it means in the movie is this: Humans hook up to a computer mainframe, leaving their bodies behind on the ship while their minds travel in the Matrix.

Telephones are key gadgets here. The roving humans communicate with the ship's operator through their mobile phones, and get out of the Matrix through a land line.

What happens if a character dies in the Matrix? His body on the ship also goes kaput. As Morpheus says famously in the first movie: 'The body cannot live without the mind.'

Courtesy of the show's costume designer Kym Barrett, the humans wear loose, deconstructed, grey tops and trousers on the ship. In the Matrix, the look is sleek and Zen monk-ish, with lots of black, PVC and leather, topped by sunglasses.

Does the philosophy behind the Matrix soundoddly familiar? The uncertainty over whether the material world around you is the real world is as old as the Ancient Greek philosopher Plato.

The idea of Neo as The One is straight out of Christianity - he dies and is resurrected, like Jesus.

The first Matrix movie borrowed from the children's classic Alice In Wonderland. The opening invitation on Neo's computer screen to 'follow the white rabbit' mirrors Alice's introduction to Wonderland. Incidentally, Lewis Carroll's classic tale has long been co-opted into counter-culture terminology, referring to a trip into an alternate drug-induced universe.

Japanese anime films like Ghost In The Shell and Akira, with their themes of technological alienation and the apocalypse, were another inspiration for The Matrix.

The film-makers behind The Matrix are media-shy brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, aged 37 and 35 respectively. Both are anime and video game geeks and avid readers: Larry prefers philosophy while Andy likes science fiction.

Do not be in a hurry to leave the cinema after watching The Matrix Reloaded. At the end of the credits, there will be a two-minute trailer for the third movie in the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix Revolutions. Revolutions will be released worldwide in November.

FOR Life! readers who cannot get enough of The Matrix franchise, film distributor Golden Village is giving away 30 copies of a special World Of The Matrix CD-ROM.

It includes the Matrix Reloaded Superbowl trailer, Animatrix 4.5-minute trailer and Enter The Matrix game trailer.

Just answer the following question and e-mail your particulars to gvcontest@hotmail.com:

Which sibling duo directed The Matrix film trilogy, including The Matrix Reloaded?

1. The Coen brothers

2. The Weitz brothers

3. The Wachowski brothers

4. The Farrelly brothers

The closing date for entries is next Thursday. Only one entry per person is allowed.

Matrix Sequel/It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Neo

Matrix Sequel: Wyclef, the Fonz and Philosophy

It's hard to say what was more in effect at the Warner Bros. New York premiere of The Matrix Reloaded Tuesday night.

In 20 years of attending similar events at this venue, I have not seen such heavy security or such a high level of disorganization. You could waltz through JFK Airport with more ease than it took to enter this evening of entertainment: Metal detectors, metal scanners, and many dozens of private guards were the reward once you made it through the maze of gates set up along the sidewalk.

Of course, the funniest part was seeing all the celebrities with their own bodyguards. These gentlemen, whose heads and necks are as wide as doorways, don't receive hard tickets for seats in the theatre.

Once their clients are seated, they are stowed along the top of the orchestra section stairs like baby strollers or walkers. And there they glare through squinty eyes and breathe open-mouthed as their clients courageously greet well-wishers. It's too much.

At a time when the company is in turmoil, it was kind of touching to see CEO Richard Parsons, HBO chief Jeff Bewkes, and even former Warner Bros. co-chair Bob Daley (with wife, famed songwriter Carole Bayer Sager) settling into velvet seats.

Warner is now a corporation of sequels — Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings and Matrix constitute these high-risk gambles in place of making small, interesting movies. Luckily, the bet is covered.

Reloaded attracted an eclectic crowd: modern R&B genius Wyclef Jean — who just decamped from Sony Music to J Records after years of forced captivity — nearly dropped his dreadlocks when he set eyes on Henry "The Fonz" Winkler.

"I grew up with you!" Wyclef exclaimed. The two embraced.

Winkler, now producing Hollywood Squares and a series of kids' books, was overwhelmed.

"My 19 year old is going to kill me," he said.

Chevy Chase was spotted in the audience, as was Tim Robbins (sans Susan Sarandon) with some of his own kids. Hot-as-a pistol young actor Sam Rockwell (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) came with three pals and tried like crazy to analyze Reloaded later over a mile-high Dagwood sandwich at the Carnegie Deli.

Also floating about were Reloaded and Oz actor Harold Perrineau Jr., soap star Jensen Buchanan, and one of the Beastie Boys incognito.

Reloaded stars Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss popped in right before the lights went down, stayed about 20 minutes, then split for a rumored private party at the Hudson Hotel.

Nowhere to be seen all night were the purposely enigmatic co-director/writer/brothers, Andy and Larry Wachowski of Chicago, Illinois. The story is that they refuse to do publicity of any kind.

Aside from The Matrix sequel, their only other motion-picture credit is a hip 1996 movie called Bound, starring Gina Gershon, Jennifer Tilly and Joe Pantoliano. Bound is a thriller with hot lesbian sex and as far removed from The Matrix as it could be.

But I did run into the very important and serious writer/philosopher Cornel West, who has a small role in Reloaded.

Dr. West, now at Princeton University, is renowned for his 30-year-old book called Race Matters, as well as many other books on race, religion and philosophy. So how did he get involved in a sci-fi movie about machines and humans fighting each other in the galaxies?

"They [the Wachowskis] called me up and told me the first Matrix was inspired by my writing. They'd read Race Matters. They're intellectuals," he said. "You can talk Schopenhauer with them for hours."

Dr. West was surprised by all this; he didn't even know about the first Matrix. But that's how stars are born, isn't it? A whole lifetime of important writings and teachings, eclipsed by 30 seconds in a Warner Bros. film. If only Schopenhauer had known.

So what is The Matrix Reloaded like? It's like a lot of things: the Superman movies, Star Wars, and the old Flash Gordon films. What's it not like so much? The first Matrix episode.

But that's OK. The novelty of that introductory film is gone, and in its place the Wachowski brothers have made a blockbuster of a movie. It may not have the heart of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, but as a "bridge" movie Reloaded gets the job done.

From the beginning, Reloaded makes reference to Superman, and it's intentional. Not only does Keanu Reeves' character Neo now fly like the Man of Steel, but Reeves himself was offered the part of Superman last year by director Brett Ratner. One whole sequence toward the end of Reloaded pitches Reeves as Superman and Carrie-Anne Moss as Lois Lane.

It's an inside-outside joke. I don't know how well it works.

A lot of the mystical quality of the first Matrix is missing in the sequel, replaced by a conventional kind of storytelling. Reeves is Flash Gordon, Moss is Dale Arden, and Laurence Fishburne is their pal and adviser Dr. Zarkoff.

At one point, the drop-dead gorgeous Monica Bellucci turns up as the equivalent of Princess Aura, who wants to woo Flash/Neo away from Dale/Trinity (Moss). But of course the theory here is that the audience is too young to know any of these references, so Reloaded will seem fresh and new.

That's not to say that a lot of the movie is exactly that. It's quite enjoyable and often a rocking good time. The explosions are wonderful, and a long car chase — replete with product-placed new Cadillacs and other General Motors vehicles — is hot stuff.

Reeves is a little stiff and doesn't have much to say, but Fishburne and about three other actors are accorded long declaiming speeches that try to explain what the heck is going on.

There's also a neat turn by Randall Duk Kim as a 20th-century locksmith caught in a futuristic world. Hugo Weaving makes Agent Smith a great bad guy.

The Matrix Reloaded is going to open wide and strong on Thursday.

Warner Bros. is looking for a box-office gross to beat X2 and Spider-Man, breaking records and earning their money back quickly. It seems inevitable they will get their way.

Kids are going to see Reloaded at least twice, but everyone should be warned: Don't leave the theatre when the end credits roll. There's a coming-attractions trailer that doesn't give away much about Revolutions, but is cool to see anyway.

Re-enter the reloaded 'Matrix' (Spoilers)

Reviews have been mixed, but Reloaded is virtually guaranteed to capture the biggest debut for an R-rated film, exceeding Hannibal's $58 million in 2001. Though it's unlikely to dethrone Spider-Man's three-day debut of $114.7 million, it has a good shot at beating the five-day, $110.1 million mark set by Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones. "Right now, I'd take the biggest R-rated film and see where it goes from there," says Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman.

In this section, USA TODAY's Scott Bowles chronicles the characters and world of The Matrix Reloaded. For those who never saw The Matrix or for whom it's been a while, USA TODAY catches you up on frequently asked questions and key characters.

Old hands

Many original characters in The Matrix died in the line of duty in the war against The Machines. But these key players are back for more in Reloaded:

Thomas A. Anderson/Neo (Keanu Reeves)

Last time: Neo was taken from his job with a software giant when Morpheus discovered him and realized he could be his people's savior.

This time: Plucked from The Matrix world, Neo is leading the battle against The Machines. He increasingly struggles with his purpose and with being seen by the others as a messiah, particularly when he has other agendas in mind — namely his love for Trinity. Still, it's hard to doubt his No. 1 status as his powers grow exponentially, including some Superman-like abilities.

Real story: Reeves, like his character, seems to understand the bizarre world created by the Wachowski brothers as well as anyone, and he says it isn't that complicated. "The first film was about the birth of a hero," he says. "The next two tell the story of his life. You can read as much as you want into the stories, but that's what's really at the heart of it."

Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne)

Last time: Morpheus was a teacher and mentor to Neo, helping him hone his powers.

This time: As captain of the Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus is both an army leader and a spiritual one. He believes that Neo is the lone weapon in the battle against The Machines and is willing to disobey orders to prove it. He also is a past love of Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith), captain of the ship Logos, which gets him in hot water with Zion military brass.

Real story: Fishburne insisted that Reloaded's 14-minute highway chase scene not die on the editing room floor. "We spent so many days filming that I wanted something to show for it," he says. Filmmakers spent 45 days shooting the sequence and built a set a quarter-mile long to replicate California's Highway 101.

Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)

Last time: Trinity was a rebel without a hunk ... until she met Neo.

This time: As Neo's true love and one of the hottest soldiers of Zion, Trinity is never far from the action. She senses that Neo is worried about her fate but can't get him to open up. She displays a bit of a jealous streak when the crew comes upon the beautiful Persephone (Monica Bellucci).

Real story: Moss wasn't as gung-ho as Fishburne about the freeway chase. Though much of it was handled with computer-generated effects, Moss was called on to commandeer a motorcycle at 45 miles an hour without a helmet. "I had a few concerns with that scene," she says. "Mainly, that I might get killed." Moss says she stopped trying to grasp all the layered references of the franchise years ago. "I told the (Wachowski) brothers to give me the script and a sense of the scene. I don't need all the religious and literary references."

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving)

Last time: Smith was the primary anti-virus of The Matrix, leading the chase of Neo and the rebels

This time: Now Smith is a rogue program. After losing his last fight with Neo, Smith brings new powers — and a new attitude — in his hunt for humans.

Real story: Weaving initially was hesitant to take the role "because I didn't want to just be known as Agent Smith. He's a villain, and he's a bit strange." Now he accepts his fate. "There are a lot worse things you can be recognized for. This is an important movie to a lot of people, and actors are in the business to make those kinds of films."

The Oracle (Gloria Foster)

Last time: The Oracle surprised Neo by telling him he wasn't The One — for now.

This time: The Oracle continues to give Neo distressing news, and she's as elliptical as ever. She does reveal a bit of her true nature, however, and still gets the funniest lines.

Real story: Foster, 64, died from complications of diabetes as filming wrapped on Reloaded. The Matrix and the real world won't seem the same without her.

Want to learn about the new faces in The Matrix Reloaded? Click here.

New faces

The Matrix may feature an illusionary world, but it did wonders for its stars. Keanu Reeves became huge, Carrie-Anne Moss became an A-list star, and Hugo Weaving was the new face of evil. USA TODAY's Scott Bowles presents a few actors who may reap the rewards of the sequel.

Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith)

Smith auditioned to play Trinity in the first movie but didn't get it. In Reloaded, she plays the captain of the ship Logos. Niobe was once Morpheus' lover, but they split up after Morpheus received some troubling — and undisclosed — words from The Oracle. She has since taken up with Commander Lock, head of Zion's defense forces. But she still has feelings for Morpheus, which causes bad blood between the men.

The Keymaker (Randall Duk Kim)

Who would have thought that the one who held the secrets to the twisted world of The Machines ran a little key shop downtown? He's small but fearless, and his rescue triggers one of the movie's biggest action sequences. He also gets the most obvious line in the film. When rebels spring him from his cell, which holds roughly 1 trillion keys, he says with a straight face, "I am The Keymaker."

The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson)

As if Americans needed another reason to root against the French, we now have The Merovingian. He loves his wine, his women and cursing in French. He also holds The Keymaker hostage. For those who want to look more deeply into the movie's meanings, start here: The Merovingians were a dynasty that ruled France from the fifth to the eighth centuries.

Persephone (Monica Bellucci)

Beautiful, headstrong and not a bad shot, Persephone is The Merovingian's wife. She is intrigued by Neo and fed up with her husband's philandering. Decked out in white latex, Persephone can tell a lot about someone's honesty with little more than a kiss. "She's a vampire of emotions," Bellucci says. "She has none of her own left, so she needs to experience the feelings of others." She also needs silver bullets for her pistol, but that's all we're going to say.

The Twins (Neil and Adrian Rayment)

The hippest villains this side of Agent Smith, The Twins are killing machines who can vaporize and move through walls and floors. They work for The Merovingian and effect ghoulish faces when they're on the prowl. To squelch an Internet rumor: Though pale and white-haired, the actors are not albinos. They are, however, twins, black belts and martial-arts instructors in their native London.

The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis)

The most intriguing character since The Oracle. The Architect seems to know what is going on in Neo's world, and it doesn't look good. But what if The Architect's words are the greatest illusion of The Matrix?

People to watch

The Matrix Reloaded includes several bit players who might become more prominent in The Matrix Revolutions. A few of the characters to watch:

Commander Lock (Harry Lennix). As commander of Zion's defense forces, he has the least enviable job in the movie: a good guy you don't care for. He barks orders, doesn't like Morpheus and doesn't believe in Neo. What does Niobe see in him, anyway?

The Kid (Clayton Watson). Reloaded reveals only that Neo saved The Kid, who is now forever his lap dog. Wide-eyed and a bit goofy, The Kid comes from The Animatrix online series.

Cain (David No). He is just like any other loyal rebel soldier until he tries to leave The Matrix a little too late. Now he's enamored with the sight of his own blood and thrilled to see Neo in person. We won't give too much away, but his name has got to be a clue.

Councillor Hamann (Anthony Zerbe). He seems to have the best interests of Zion in mind and seems to have faith in Neo's growing powers. But he sure does tout the benefit of machines a lot for a guy whose city is battling them to the death.