The Matrix is ​​20 years old: how Wachowski made cyberpunk, which determined the agenda for a whole generation

The other day the film "Matrix" turned 20 years old. To go nuts, isn't it?

On this occasion, WIRED made a longride based on a book about Wachowski's sisters (then brothers), from which you can learn a lot about the career of scriptwriters before and during the creation of the cult film.

• As Lana and Lilly from childhood dreamed of making their own bi-movie, and many, many times unsuccessfully tried to feed completely incredible stories to Hollywood agents and studios.
• How the sisters did carpentry and repairs in Chicago when they got a call from Hollywood and really offered to make a movie (at first, not very successful).
• How the opportunity for the sisters arose because the industry was looking for cheaper ways to make films, and Lana and Lilly came up with scripts so that they did not cost like launching a rocket into space.
• How the versatile interests and nerd nature of Lana and Lilly allowed them to mix the mythology of Homer's Odyssey with films by Stanley Kubrick, the principles of Zen Buddhism and the philosophy of Rene Descartes. Prove there Baudrillard, Japanese cyber punk from the 80s, Plato and Socrates. Shake but do not mix. From this cocktail, the “Matrix” script was created.

• How, in order to convince the management of Warner Brothers, the sisters had to hire comic book artist Jeff Darrow to paint key episodes in the form of a manga.
• As presenting the concept of a movie with pictures to big bosses, Lana told a story, and Lilly made sounds of special effects.
• Having received 60 million money, the sisters still had to make films in Australia, where everything was much cheaper than California.

• Sandra Bullock was offered the role of Neo (it was not a problem for Wachowski to change the gender of the hero), but she refused, and how the sisters found Keanu Reeves, the soul of an intellectual and philosopher by nature, who is in an existential search.

I’m not going to tell you everything about kungfu - you will recognize him already if you read the article . I just want to note that the history of the creation of great cinema is sometimes no less fascinating than the cinema itself.

The interesting thing is how much the Matrix influenced the generation, from expanding the boundaries of what is possible in the cinema, to manifesting issues on the scale of millions of viewers, which are becoming increasingly relevant every day.

In this regard, the Oracle and the spoon do not just intersect with the shamanistic ceremonies that suddenly became so widely available. The choice of the blue pill is also not much different from the choice of the blue antidepressant (or something else serotonin) in modern pharmacy.

Lana Wachowski said so about the philosophical legacy of The Matrix: “The Matrix is ​​everywhere in our world. People accept the ways of thinking that they impose on them, instead of working out their own. Free-thinking people are those who question any kind of Matrix, any system of thought or belief, be it religion, politics or philosophy. ”

Lorn - Anvil : One of many examples of how The Matrix influenced the aesthetics of films and videos about the technocratic future