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csilarry · 2 years

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Harry’s Promo x The Matrix

Following the thoughts of others connecting the As It Was music video to The Matrix, here are some hints Harry may have been making all along in previous promo materials.

Quick recap: relevance of The Matrix

The most striking connection to the Matrix is the use of red and blue costumes in the As It Was music video. In the Matrix, Neo is offered a choice between seeing things as the really are (red pill) and turning against his inner sense of knowing that he has been living in a false reality (blue pill).

“You take the blue pill—the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill—you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

If the red and blue characters in AIW represent the pills in the Matrix, we can see them as symbolic of a duality of self or dual realities, explained well by @genuinemusic in this in-depth AIW analysis:

The idea of two selves - one enlightened and one ignorant - is represented in the film by Neo’s reflection in Morpheus’ sunglasses. In this moment, he has two selves and two possible futures. Put together, we can begin to interpret Harry’s performance with his counterpart as a struggle between two selves.

The lyrics ask, “what kind of pills are you on?” Are you seeing the world through a controlled, forced perspective? Or are you seeing the world for what it really is? Do you listen to the media narrative about Harry, or do you acknowledge a different reality?

Harry, dressed in red, is real, while blue is matrix version of himself. Harry’s eyes edited blue mean that he is still under control of the Matrix and does not leap for joy and dance freely until the Matrix version of himself is gone.

Follow the white rabbit

In the Matrix, Neo is instructed to follow the white rabbit, meaning to follow the person with a white rabbit tattoo. This is also a reference to Alice in Wonderland, where Alice follows a white rabbit through down the rabbit hole to another reality (wonderland).

Harry began by luring us to follow him down the rabbit hole to join his game of secret clues. Also note how the white rabbit in Harry’s merch is labeled “love.” Perhaps love guided Harry to his true reality & his true self.

Alternate reality

Harry uses upside down imagery or otherwise reversed messages to symbolize a change in perspective or another reality. [more on Harry’s references alternate realities]

Doors generally symbolize the threshold between here and that other reality. In the Matrix, Morpheus says:

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who has to walk through it.”

Through the You Are Home campaign, Harry is letting us in to his internal reality through hints and clues behind the door. He is inviting us in, but it is up to us to walk through it.

Checkerboards

Harry used a checkerboard pattern on his Love on Tour merch and two of the You Are Home coordinates led to checkerboard patterns.

In The Matrix, we see the checkerboard tiled stairwell when Neo is first leaving the Matrix, signaling the entry/exit point to reality. The Matrix is borrowing from Lewis Carol’s Through The Looking Glass:

The entire story is developed just like a chess game. The adventures that Alice leads up to, are structured in the form of a chess game… The chess game offers a reflection to the different levels of adventures that Alice faces throughout her journey… Chess is a game of well planned moves. Our fate depends upon the moves we choose. Similarly, Alice’s moves choose her fate in the story. [x]

For Neo and others in The Matrix, their moves must be planned out carefully in order to succeed in breaking free to reality. Harry may be marking that we are getting close to entering the rabbit hole, that we are already in it, or that he too is stuck in a chess game in which he must plan his moves carefully.

Eggs

In The Matrix, when Neo awakes from his dream state, he finds himself in an egg like chamber. As he breaks free, he appears to be hatching. The Matrix is a trans allegory, and an egg is a term used to describe a person before they realize they are trans. [Additional analysis of the use of egg imagery in Harry’s work in relation to gender identity]

Distinct from previous symbolism which tells us that two versions of Harry exist and to look out for clues, Harry’s use of eggs symbolize him emerging as his true self, with the false self no longer existing.

To me, the broken egg on the plate (cooked sunny-side up, alluding to optimism?), Harry outside of the egglike white ball, Harry jumping for joy outside the gate at the end of the AIW music video, and Neo waking up/hatching all represent the same thing: seeing yourself as you really are, and allowing it to replace the version of yourself crafted by society/those in control.

#egg #the matrix #as it was #as it was mv #you are home #reverserry #Harry’s house #Larry #h gender #symbolism #white rabbit #Alice in wonderland #through the looking glass #checkerboard #alternate reality #pop culture #larry movie night #mine

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writerforfun · 3 years

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Examples of the Hero’s Journey In Film: Two Case Studies

Star Wars (1977)

1. The ordinary world. Luke lives with his aunt and uncle on a farm on Tatooine. He likes to stare at the sunset and dream of “teleporting off this rock”. 2. The call to adventure. R2-D2 plays Luke a message of distress from Princess Leia, who needs someone to transport the droid to Alderaan. 3. Refusal of the call. Luke isn’t thrilled about leaving his home planet and getting in trouble from his uncle to go on a wild goose chase. 4. The mentor. Obi-Wan Kenobi convinces Luke to follow his heart by showing him his father’s lightsaber. 5. Crossing the threshold. Luke and Obi-Wan leave Mos Eisley for Alderaan. 6. The ordeal. Leia’s rescue from the Death Star, and later, Luke using the Force to destroy the Death Star. 7. The return. Luke joins the rebels and decides to become a Jedi.

The Matrix (1999)

1. The ordinary world. Thomas Anderson is a bored computer programmer by day and the hacker “Neo” by night. 2. The call to adventure. Neo receives a message promising him that everything is not as it seems. He is told to “follow the white rabbit”. 3. Refusal of the call. Neo isn’t sure if Trinity is telling him the truth. He allows himself to be captured. 4. Mentor. Morpheus gives Neo a choice: the blue pill if he wants to return to his old life, or the red pill, if he wants to know the truth. 5. Crossing the threshold. Neo chooses the red pill and is shown what the Matrix is. 6. The ordeal. Neo struggles to accept his new role but ultimately learns to become who he was meant to be, defeating Agent Smith inside the Matrix and saving Morpheus. 7. The return. Neo tells the machines he will defeat them and save humanity.

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jadelotusflower · 3 years

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I posted 2,019 times in 2021

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#on a scale from neo to anakin skywalker how well did you handle prophetic dreams of your loved one’s death

My Top Posts in 2021

“the only thing that matters to you is still here”

Some minor thoughts...

The above quote really stood out to me - choice has always been such a big concept in this franchise - who has it, and what they do with it. What if the machines (or whoever is in control now) have learned from Neo’s choice at the end of Reloaded - Trinity over his role as the One, and is using it against him. We see Trinity in (presumably) the real world hooked up, but what if she can’t survive outside of the simulation? What if every time Neo remembers his true life he’s forced to choose whether to stay in the Matrix with her, or live outside without her?

Also, the lyric of “and the Red Queen’s off with her head” over three scenes of Trinity? Chef’s kiss.

I wonder, with all the emphasis on the pills, mirroring, code going backwards, etc, whether Lana is going to toy with the concept and meaning of red and blue. The known dichotomy is represented in Neil Patrick Harris (blue glasses) and Priyanka Chopra (red glasses), the former presumably prescribing the blue pills, while the latter is reading Alice in Wonderland.

But then it seems to switch - Yahya Abdul-Mateen wears red twice and offers Neo the red pill, so on the face we’re meant to associate him with Neo waking up/freeing his mind, but he also seems to be a construct - evoking Morpheus but not actually Morpheus, perhaps to make Neo think he’s on the right path/can rely on what he knows/remembers when it’s just another level of control to keep him bound.

Then we have Jessica Henwick with blue hair (I already adore her), a colour we associate with the system, and yet she also has a white rabbit tattoo and appears to be fighting agents. With all of the callbacks to scenes from the original but slightly altered, I think we’re meant to question whether anything is the same as we remember/expect right down to which pill means what - Lana is going to go meta with this.

Basically - we don’t know what we think we know.

26 notes • Posted 2021-09-10 12:36:51 GMT

10 favourite movies meme

@findswoman tagged me to post gifs from my ten favourite movies - thanks, this was fun! I have so many favourite movies and am sure I’m leaving some out, but all of these I have watched many, many times, so ten faves in no particular order:

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41 notes • Posted 2021-03-07 12:41:21 GMT

It’s Cold in that Fridge: The Case of Nakari Kelen

Since The Case of Mara Jade has been doing the rounds again, I’ve finally gone back to this post that has been sitting in my drafts for literally years. So let’s honour this absolute badass who deserved better:

Once upon a time, the Star Wars universe was but six films (and a tv series) in the story of the Skywalker family. But beyond George Lucas’ story was an absolute boatload of books, comics, games, and other materials that made up the Expanded Universe. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the rights to the Star Wars saga, everything in this universe was decanonised and deemed “Legends” - some aspects of this universe were retained or re-purposed, others sit in Disney’s figurative vault and will likely never see the light of day (and seeing how the ST turned out, maybe that’s for the best).

But this transition between Legends canon and Disney canon was not so simple, because the nature of publishing meant that there were novels approved during the time of Legends canon that would be released in the time of Disney canon. In particular, there had been the planned trilogy “Empire and Rebellion”, set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, with each novel from the perspective of one of The Big Three.

Razor’s Edge (Leia) and Honor Among Thieves (Han) were released prior to the Great Canon Split of 2014. But while the Luke-centric novel had been planned, it was not due to be released until well after the Split. So Heir to the Jedi (so called as an homage to the Legends progenitor Heir to the Empire) became one of the first books of the Disney canon.

What does this background have to do with Nakari Kelen? Perhaps nothing, but I do wonder how the writing process was affected by the shift from Legends to Disney - was the novel a relic of the old EU with any reference the LFL storygroup didn’t like excised during editing, or was it a trendsetter for the new EU, a Sign of Things to Come?

The most salient point being, of course, that Nakari Kelen - like so many love interests before her - was not allowed to go along her merry way at the conclusion of the novel, but was shoved into the fridge.

If there was one constant of the Legends EU, it was that Luke Skywalker’s love interests couldn’t catch a break. Mara Jade naturally lasted the longest relationship-wise, with almost twenty years of marriage to Luke before some bright spark decided she had to go (as per the aforementioned case study). But before Mara there was Jem, Shira Brie, and Gaeriel Captison (who came close to escaping the curse), and in the Legacy of the Force series they brought back sole survivors Akanah and Callista, only to kill them off for good too (and rather brutally, if I may add).

So perhaps when Kevin Hearne began writing HttJ within the confines of the Legends continuity, he was merely sticking to the status quo, or perhaps once subsumed by Disney they needed to make sure Luke's slate was clean (so to speak). And I can’t put all the blame on Hearne since I don’t know whether it was his idea, or LFL mandated - but regardless it was a poor decision.

The root cause of fridging, imo, is limited imagination. How best to cause your male protagonist pain if not kill off someone they love, or at least have strong feelings for? The answer is of course, easily. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Luke Skywalker of HttJ is fresh from his victory in ANH, a lieutenant in the Rebellion: young, not dumb, and full of...

Nakari Kalen is an absolute Queen a civilian volunteer and crack-shot sniper who loans her ship Desert Jewel to the Alliance. Luke is immediately attracted to her, they bond over a mutual love of fast ships and leaving behind desert home planets, and engage in the inexpert flirting of two nineteen year olds while also risking their lives several times over.

I want to make it clear: I actually really like this book. It's a breezy read, almost serialised as The Early Adventures of Luke Skywalker, and is ofttimes genuinely funny. And credit where it’s due to Hearne, many of of the supporting roles in the novel are female. Other than Nakari, there's Soonta, the Rodian who gives Luke her uncle’s lightsaber, Sakhet the Kupohan spy, and the Givin cryptographer/math genius Drusil Bephorin. In a genre where male characters are often the default for these kind of roles, it was nice to see, but makes the regressive fridging of Nakari even more egregious.

Luke and Nakari make a good team fighting brain-sucking monsters and Imperials, but more importantly they have fun together - she encourages him to work on his Force skills, and he successfully moves objects with his mind for the first time (leading to Nakari adorably dub him "a little noddle scooter"). It's a very sweet, if brief, relationship, and a respite from the danger of the mission. They spend the night together (leaving the reader to decide exactly what happened behind closed doors), and share a kiss before splitting up to try and escape bounty hunters. No prizes for guessing what happens to Nakari immediately after she received the Skywalker Kiss of Death.

I assume there were two motivating factors for why Hearne and/or LFL couldn't let Nakari live:

1. If she survived, fans would wonder why she doesn't appear in ESB/subsequent material.

I recall this bandied about on forums back at the time of the book's release, and to that I say - so what? Fans are always going to wonder, and try to paper over the gaps in canon, to make up their own headcanons to explain any any perceived inconsistencies. It's certainly no reason to kill someone off.

It is in fact possible for two young people to have a romance that just fizzles, or doesn’t work out for whatever reason - it should not require great maneuvering or explanation. If Nakari doesn’t show up in the next book in the timeline, what about it? The reader is smart enough to assume she and Luke broke up, decided to just remain friends, whatever. But it seems that the only way for a female character to exit stage left is for her to die, which is bullshit.

And actually, there's no reason why she couldn't have shown up again. ESB and RoTJ cover a month and a few days, respectively, of Luke's life - just because there was no mention of Nakari doesn't mean she didn't exist at that time, whether or not she and Luke were an item. She could have made an appearance in a subsequent novel, or Rebels, or the comics - she could have become a recurring character, showing up when the Rebellion needed her, or - heaven forbid - even have her own comic/book/show! Her existence in Star Wars canon didn't need to begin and end with Luke Skywalker, merely to service his plotline and backstory and abandoning the richness of her own.

No, the only reason Nakari had to die was to facilitate this:

It was a blow to the gut, realizing what that sudden absence meant. I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, but I had felt Nakari's life snuffed out through the Force, and into that void where she had shone anger rushed in - anger, and a cold sense of raw power and invincibility...I took a step to join in the hunt but stopped, breathing heavily, unaccountably sweating even though I felt so cold inside and the power of the Force roiled within me... I shook with emotion and power, and none of it felt the way the Force had before...I saw what kind of space it was , a black hole that would always be hungry no matter how much I fed it. I might never feel warm again if I didn't get myself under control.

Luke feels the dark side and is tempted by the boost of power it offers him, but immediately identifies it as dangerous and unnatural. I can understand why Hearne wanted to include this - it is a book of firsts after all: Luke's first solo mission, his first time using telekenisis, and ending with story with his first experience of the dark side makes sense. But it wasn't necessary, which leads to:

2. How to push Luke to touch the dark side without killing someone he has romantic feelings for?

Also, obviously, shite of the bull (or nerf, if you prefer). Even if this brush with the dark side was absolutely necessary for the novel's climax, there's any number of ways it could be achieved. At this point, Luke is fresh from losing important people in his life - Owen and Beru, Ben, and Biggs - lumping another death on top of that a narrative trick for Luke to react not only to losing Nakari, but the others as well. But it's cheap, the first card in the deck, and why not show a bit of imagination? Luke is young and inexperienced enough at this point that any number of things could be the catalyst - the whole book he's struggling with his growing powers, why not try and reach too far in the firefight with the bounty hunters, his anger and frustration with himself in not doing enough trigger the dark side temptation? It would work thematically and doesn't involve a fridging that ultimately has very little payoff.

Because Nakari is killed less than ten pages from the end of the book - afterwards Luke grieves, but ultimately chooses to honour her memory and be grateful for what he learned with her, recommitting to becoming a Jedi. It's all very surface level, and once again a female character's death facilitates a male character's development. Was it so imperative that Luke lost someone he cared about as part of this story? Sure, this was a time of galactic civil war, and it's far from unrealistic that these stories have a high body count, but who to make collateral damage remains an authorial choice, and in this case Nakari Kelen was (a) a female character of color, (b) a love interest of the protagonist - not just of this book, but the entire Original Trilogy.

I don't know to what extent (if any) race had to play in the decision. I'm sure there was a segment of the fandom absolutely livid that Luke Skywalker kissed (and maybe had sex with) a black woman. Was her death LFL hedging its bets, or demonstrative of the general lack of attention/respect they show their characters of colour?

In any case this was a chance to stand out from the old EU and it's fridge full of Luke's dead girlfriends, but instead they chose to introduce and kill off Nakari for the sole purpose of Luke's manpain and character development, and that's gross.

And then there's this:

A grisly yet reliable fact about custom bounty hunter ships is that you can always count on them to have body bags stashed somewhere for the easy transport of their kills. They often have built-in refrigerated storage, too.

NAKARI IS KILLED AND LITERALLY STORED IN THE FUCKING FRIDGE I COULDN'T BELIEVE WHAT I WAS READING.

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49 notes • Posted 2021-05-24 13:23:33 GMT

OMG!! I never noticed that about Lois being dressed in yellow on smallville before!! I picked up on the red and blue of course, since Clark almost always wore nothing but red and blue (until he switched to white, grey and black in season...9?) it was pretty obvious what they were implying with Lois also bring dressesed in those colours. But Lois being dressed in yellow to represent the missing piece...I love it! Now I want to rewatch Lois’ eps of smallville and note which eps they had her in yellow.

Thanks for the ask anon! I’m always up for Smallville talk. Lois’ costume journey is quite a thing! They really went hard on the red and blue - the yellow was not as frequent but definitely present, and there are a few episodes where I think it was absolutely deliberate.

One is 4x04 Devoted (”See you around, Smallville”):

Yellow tank top - blue t-shirt - red bag, foreshadowing the Superman legacy right here, even this early on when they’re still kind of annoyed with each other (but are also bantery-flirty at the same time).

Fast forward exactly six seasons and we have 10x04 Homecoming:

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49 notes • Posted 2021-02-02 03:42:54 GMT

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71 notes • Posted 2021-12-01 01:45:32 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#seems about right #my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #long post

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rotzaprachim · 3 years

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Ok so other tinhatting call Down the hawk/mister impossible thoughts And thank you to @seavoice for the og rabbit connection but. anyone noticed the references/similarities to the matrix? there’s bryde telling ronan he wants to chase after rabbits that lead to the same warren that sounds a lot like follow the white rabbit. (also worth mentioning how alice in wonderland was niall’s favourite film.) but in general the trying ronans conversations with bryde remind me the MOsT of is Morpheus speaking to neo- the idea of you are special your are specialist this world is not for you wake up and take control! there’s also the idea of the dream world/real world and how both neo and ronan are human bodies in one world but have unusual and godlike powers in a different world, and ronan actively thinks about controlling the other dream world while with bryde- I.e. the dolphins and adam’s bike. But neo’s powers also extend to the real world (i’m pretty sure/in later movies???) and in the very dreamlike fairy market, there’s the whole elevator scene where ronan seems to be able to will doors open. The initial intro of mor also reminds me a bit of trinity. also, one of hennessy’s copies is named trinity

#Mister impossible #Call down the hawk #call down the hawk reread #Food for thought!#Bryde #ronan lynch #the matrix

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fearsmagazine · 3 years

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VARÈSE SARABANDE RECORDS Announces RECORD STORE DAY 2021 Releases.

Varèse Sarabande Records will be releasing seven amazing soundtrack LPs on Record Store Day 2021’s newly announced release dates: The Matrix will be released as a deluxe 3-LP set, Village of the Damned will be released as a deluxe-edition double LP, The Iron Giant and The Goonies will get the picture disc treatment, and Shrek, Ghosts of Mars, and Aliens will be released as limited-edition color LPs. This annual celebration will be held through a series of Record Store Day drops, which will occur on June 12th and July 17th.

These seven Varèse Sarabande Records titles will be available on the dates listed below at thousands of independent record stores. For a list of participating stores and more information about these special LPs, visit RecordStoreDay.com.

*JUNE 12th: The Matrix, The Goonies, Village of the Damned, Shrek *JULY 17th: The Iron Giant, Ghosts of Mars, Aliens

THE MATRIX: The Complete Edition – Don Davis (3-LP Set) – *RELEASE DATE: JUNE 12th* The science-fiction masterpiece has captured the imagination of another generation with news of a new Matrix film in production. This deluxe 3-LP set is pressed on Glitter-Infused Green vinyl, expanded to 44 tracks, and housed in a stunning new art design. Also included are classic film stills and an exclusive new interview with composer Don Davis.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Logos / The Matrix Main Title” 2. “Trinity Infinity” 3. “Neo Con Brio” 4. “Follow The White Rabbit” 5. “Neo On The Edge” 6. “Through The Surveillance Monitor” 7. “Unable To Speak” 8. “Bait And Switch”

Side B 1. “Switched For Life” 2. “Switched At Birth” 3. “Switches Brew” 4. “Cold Hearted Switch” 5. “Nascent Nauseous Neo” 6. “A Morpheus Movement” 7. “Bow Whisk Orchestra”

Side C 1. “Domo Showdown” 2. “Switch Or Break Show” 3. “Shake, Borrow, Switch” 4. “Switch Works Her Boa” 5. “Bring Me Dinner” 6. “The System” 7. “Freeze Face” 8. “Switch Woks Her Boar” 9. “Cypher Cybernetic” 10. “Ignorance Is Bliss / Cyber Cyphernetic” 11. “See Who?” 12. “Switch Out”

Side D 1. “Boon Spy” 3. “Oracle Cookies” 4. “Threat Mix” 5. “Exit Mr. Hat” 6. “On Your Knees, Switch”

Side E 1. “Mix The Art” 2. “Whoa, Switch Brokers” 3. “The Cure” 4. “It’s The Smell” 5. “The Lobby” 6. “No More Spoons” 7. “Dodge This” 8. “Fast Learning” 9. “Ontological Shock”

Side F 1. “That’s Gotta Hurt” 2. “Surprise” 3. “He’s The One Alright”

THE GOONIES – David Grusin (Picture Disc) – *RELEASE DATE: JUNE 12TH* In celebration of the 35th anniversary of The Goonies, the beloved soundtrack by Dave Grusin will be released on an LP picture disc for the first time ever! The special release features the album cover on side A and the infamous One-Eyed Willie on side B. The track listing to this abbreviated single-disc version of the original score was personally selected and assembled by Grusin himself.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Fratelli Chase” 2. “Cellar And Sloth” 3. “The Goondocks (Goonies Theme)” 4. “The ‘It,’ Fifty Dollar Bills And A Stiff” 5. “Pee Break And Kissing Tunnel” 6. “Skull And Signature” 7. “Plumbing” 8. “Restaurant Trash” 9. “Boulders, Bats And A Blender”

Side B 1. “They’re Here And Skull Cave Chase” 2. “Playing The Bones” 3. “Mikey’s Vision” 4. “Triple Stones And A Ball” 5. “Wishing Well And The Fratellis Find Coin” 6. “Mama & Sloth” 7. “One Eyed Willie” 8. “No Firme And Pirate Ship”

VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED: The Deluxe Edition – John Carpenter & Dave Davies (2-LP Set) – *RELEASE DATE: JUNE 12TH* The Deluxe Edition for Village of the Damned presents the full score as heard in the film for the first time, a far more complete presentation than the 1995 Original Soundtrack which was not only truncated but made of an entirely separate mix that wasn’t featured in the film. The set does, however, include the track “Midwich Shuffle,” a fun number which was created specifically for the 1995 soundtrack, despite never actually appearing in the film. Interest in John Carpenter’s original film scores has never been higher, and his collaboration with Dave Davies of the Kinks is a one-of-a-kind moment in cinematic music history. The album includes all-new original art direction with new notes and classic film stills and comes pressed on Orange Haze vinyl.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Angel Of Death / Midwich Sleeps / Daybreak” 2. “The Fair (Extended Version)” 3. “Gas Station / Asleep” 4. “Awaken / The Funeral” 5. “Welcome Home, Ben (Extended Version)” 6. “Big Meeting / The Decision” 7. “The Same Dream”

Side B 1. “Baptism (Extended Version)” 2. “Baby Mara” 3. “Children’s Theme / Dilemma” 4. “The Parents Arrive” 5. “Children’s Carol (Instrumental)”

Side C 1. “Loss / Carol Of The Damned” 2. “Carlton” 3. “Ben’s Death / Ultimatum” 4. “Burning Desire (Extended Version)”

Side D 1. “Last Kiss / The Bomb” 2. “The Brick Wall (Extended Version)” 3. “March Of The Children (End Credits)” 4. “Midwich Shuffle”

SHREK – Harry Gregson-Williams & John Powell (Limited-Edition Color LP) – *RELEASE DATE: JUNE 12TH* Shrek is the second most successful animated franchise in history and celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021. Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell are two of the most prominent composers working on animated features today, and they joined forces to create a score that is still as fun and memorable as it was when it was first released. The LP will be released on Neon Green vinyl, making it a standout addition to any record lover’s collection.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Fairytale” 2. “Ogre Hunters / Fairytale Deathcamp” 3. “Donkey Meets Shrek” 4. “Eating Alone” 5. “Uninvited Guests” 6. “March Of Farquuad” 7. “The Perfect King” 8. “Welcome To Duloc” 9. “Tournament Speech” 10. “What Kind Of Quest” 11. “Dragon! / Fiona Awakens” 12. “One Of A Kind Knight” 13. “Saving Donkey’s Ass” 14. “Escape From The Dragon”

Side B 1. “Helmet Hair” 2. “Delivery Boy / Shrek / Making Camp” 3. “Friends Journey To Duloc” 4. “Starry Night” 5. “Singing Princess” 6. “Better Out Than In / Sunflower / I’ll Tell Him” 7. “Merry Men” 8. “Fiona Kicks Ass” 9. “Fiona’s Secret” 10. “Why Wait To Be Wed / You Thought Wrong” 11. “Ride The Dragon” 12. “I Object” 13. “Transformation / The End”

THE IRON GIANT – Michael Kamen (Picture Disc) – *RELEASE DATE: JULY 17TH* This first-ever picture disc of this heartwarming 1999 animated film celebrates The Robot, his best friend, Hogarth, and a cast of characters. The music is by Academy Award®-nominated composer Michael Kamen (Lethal Weapon, Die Hard), who was well-known for his work with Eric Clapton, Metallica and Pink Floyd, in addition to his brilliant theatrical scores.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “The Eye Of The Storm” 2. “Hogarth Hughes” 3. “Into The Forest” 4. “The Giant Wakes” 5. “Come And Get It” 6. “Cat And Mouse” 7. “Train Wreck” 8. “You Can Fix Yourself?” 9. “Hand Underfoot” 10. “Bedtime Stories” 11. “We Gotta Hide” 12. “His Name Is Dean” 13. “Eating Art” 14. “Space Car” 15. “Souls Don’t Die”

Side B 1. “Contest Of Wills” 2. “The Army Arrives” 3. “Annie And Dean” 4. “He’s A Weapon” 5. “The Giant Discovered” 6. “Trance-Former” 7. “No Following” 8. “The Last Giant Piece”

GHOSTS OF MARS – John Carpenter (Limited-Edition Color LP) – *RELEASE DATE: JULY 17TH* In celebration of Ghosts of Mars’ 20th anniversary, the epic soundtrack will be released on “Red Planet” vinyl. John Carpenter recruited an unbelievable cast of musicians to record the soundtrack to this sci-fi horror film, starring Ice Cube and Natasha Henstridge. Among the featured players are GRAMMY®-winning musician Steve Vai, most of the heavy metal band Anthrax (including Scott Ian), Elliot Eason of the rock band The Cars, Buckethead of Guns N’ Roses, and Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails and Guns N’ Roses. This soundtrack is apocalyptic and an important mark in John Carpenter’s unparalleled career as a director and composer.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Ghosts Of Mars” 2. “Love Siege” 3. “Fight Train” 4. “Visions Of Earth” 5. “Kick Ass”

Side B 1. “Slashing Void” 2. “Power Station” 3. “Can't Let You Go” 4. “Dismemberment Blues” 5. “Fightin’ Mad” 6. “Pam Grier’s Head” 7. “Ghost Poppin’”

ALIENS: 35th Anniversary Edition – James Horner (Limited-Edition Color LP) – *RELEASE DATE: JULY 17TH* Aliens is regarded as one of the greatest science fiction franchises of all-time. In honor of its 35th anniversary, the long out-of-print original soundtrack gets a fresh reboot on Acid-Blood Yellow-Green vinyl. The soundtrack is scored by the great Academy Award®-winning composer James Horner (Titanic, Avatar, Beautiful Mind). The LP features the original Sigourney Weaver key art and original film stills.

TRACK LISTINGS

Side A 1. “Main Title” 2. “Going After Newt” 3. “Sub-Level 3” 4. “Ripley’s Rescue” 5. “Atmosphere Station”

Side B 1. “Futile Escape” 2. “Dark Discovery” 3. “Bishop’s Countdown” 4. “Resolution And Hyperspace”

ABOUT VARÈSE SARABANDE RECORDS

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Listen: open.spotify.com/user/varesesarabanderecords

Like: facebook.com/varesesarabanderecords

Buy: varesesarabande.com

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douxreviews · 6 years

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The Matrix (1999) Review

[This review includes spoilers.]

"Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."

I saw this movie in the theater, with no idea what was coming. And it just blew me away.

Our hero is an everyday grunt, like most of us. Thomas A. Anderson (about as generic an American name as you can get) works in a cubicle during the day, and as a hacker who calls himself "Neo," he searches fruitlessly for the truth on his computer every night. When Neo jumps down the rabbit hole and finally "wakes up," he discovers that it is so much worse than he ever could have imagined: the real world is an environmental horror, humanity is enslaved and machines have taken over. (There are numerous clues in the opening scenes that Neo's world is unreal -- Switch even calls him "coppertop" -- but I still didn't see the reveal coming that first time.)

The existence of a savior who can work miracles and save the world injects religious mysticism into the story as a counterpoint to the all-powerful machines, who come off as demonic and evil and a lot more emotional than one might expect. (Near the end of the movie, Agent Smith acts very human with Morpheus, telling him that humans are a virus, talking about how they stink and how much he hates them.) As Neo fights the good fight and absorbs training that will allow him to manipulate reality within the Matrix, he eventually comes to believe what Morpheus tells him -- that he, Neo, is the chosen one who will free humanity. Neo's acceptance of his own reality and destiny is the key to his control of the Matrix in the final scenes on the subway platform.

Just the look of The Matrix is spectacular. Actually, of course, it's two distinct looks so that you always know where you are (a terrific visual device used recently in the series Awake). Every scene that takes place within the Matrix has a green cast with a background pattern of grids and vertical lines, accented with interesting pops of red that symbolize the imprisoned people. When we finally see the human "batteries," they are industrial towers of green with bits of red that represent the humans trapped in the pods. Some of the cinematography in this movie is just stunning -- the lines of green rain cascading down, the stream of bullet casings from the helicopter, the checkerboard floor in the stairwell, Neo and Trinity in the elevator shaft, the slomo "bullet time" scene on the roof. I have always particularly liked the sequence where our heroes are stuck inside the walls, which was filmed as if they were trapped between lines of computer code.

In contrast, when we finally see the real world, it is dominated by blues and browns, and even though there is a lot of machinery, the shapes are more organic. Morpheus and his crew wear ragged, stained clothing. It's not beautiful like the Matrix, but it's real. What fun that we get juicy red steak in the Matrix, and colorless cereal that looks like snot in the real world. Life is hard, man.

Keanu Reeves works quite well as Neo; the role is a good fit for his exceptional physical beauty and somewhat wooden acting style. Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne both do well as Trinity and Morpheus. For me, though, the standouts are definitely Joe Pantoliano as the despicable Cypher, Gloria Foster as the Oracle, and especially Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. Weaving's interpretation of his character is so memorable -- the controlled gestures and precise diction with extended consonants ("... and you help your landlady carry out her garbaggggge"). Love him.

If The Matrix has a weakness (for me, anyway), it's the overemphasis on superfighting and guns. Yes, they were Hollywood game-changers and they were impressive to watch the first time, but the battles -- especially the shoot-em-up in the building lobby -- get a bit old. I think the concentration on action sequences (even bigger! even longer!) instead of on the story were what made the sequels a failure. There were a couple of logic problems, too. If the machines kept humans alive by liquifying the dead for food, why was Neo flushed but not killed? How could Neo pour machine gun fire into the room where they were holding Morpheus, and not hit him?

And of course, there's the reverse feminist journey of Trinity, who starts out as Wonder Woman in the fabulous opening sequence and ends up as Superman's girlfriend, or possibly Mary Magdalene. She even brings Neo back to life with a fairytale kiss. Oh, well.

Bits:

-- The names of the characters are great fun and have meaning: Neo (Greek for "new"), Morpheus, Trinity, Cypher, Switch, Zion, and so on. Neo works at a software company called Metacortex. Morpheus's ship is called Nebuchadnezzar. Love that the two "real" brothers are called Tank and Dozer.

-- The story began and ended at "The Heart of the City" Motel. Most of the places in the movie don't have names.

-- Loved the chase through the cubicles, ending with Neo not quite able to throw himself out of a window. It's no coincidence that the agents look like FBI. Do we resent authority, perhaps?

-- I really liked that the connection to reality was an old land line telephone.

-- There are numerous references to Alice in Wonderland and the white rabbit. Neo even puts his fingers through the looking glass, and we see double reflections of Neo in Morpheus's dark glasses as well as in the spoon. In the Oracle's apartment, the movie on the TV was Night of the Lepus, the one with the killer bunnies.

-- The only colorful place in the Matrix is the Oracle's kitchen. It's still mostly green so it isn't jarring, but there is yellow and orange as well as the pops of red.

-- The guy who knocked on the door called Neo his "own personal Jesus Christ," in case we didn't realize Neo was a Christ figure.

-- It's just so much fun that deja vu is a glitch in the Matrix. What a great detail.

Quotes:

Neo: "You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?" Choi: "All the time. It's called mescaline. It's the only way to fly."

Morpheus: "The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to disrupt your input output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location." Neo: "What does that mean?" Cypher: "It means fasten your seat belt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye."

Cypher: "I know what you're thinking, because right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here. Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

Child: "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth." Neo: "What truth?" Child: "There is no spoon."

Agent Smith: "You hear that, Mister Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."

The Matrix effectively addressed that feeling we all have at times that life is unreal and meaningless, that we're all being controlled, cogs in a machine whose purpose we don't know. The sequels may have been ultimately unsatisfying (I'm not going to review the sequels), but The Matrix deserves its reputation as an exceptional science fiction movie.

Four out of four spoons.

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

#The Matrix #Neo #Morpheus #Trinity #Agent Smith #Doux Reviews #Movie Reviews #something from the archive

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writing-scraps · 2 years

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The Matrix Resurrections

I watched The Matrix Resurrections in what was probably the best possible conditions for watching The Matrix Resurrections, namely in the last hours of a 9-hour flight, tiny screen and cheap headphones, stopping at about the point where reality starts to blur, and Tom finds himself facing Bugs a second time, and going with her ... follow the white rabbit.

The matrix never had an everyday before, even when Neo started out in the original, vanilla Matrix, the world was just a backdrop for the Agents & Hackers drama that was going to happen. It never occurred to me that Neo's world had therapists and stupid co-workers who would make MILF comments about your secret crush, or that the Matrix admitted fiction about the Matrix.

Because any story that has the real world break open to reveal magic or science fiction becomes meta-fiction. Resurrections goes all out and represents a full-blown Matrix trilogy within itself.

Two texts for comparison -- both contemporary and shallow -- Black Mirror’s USS Callister and Rick and Morty's incessant thing-within-a-thing episodes (metatextual and self-referential to the point where, on iteration oughty-eleven, it reads more like a cheap cop-out than a clever trick).

In USS Callister a game developer uses the Star Trek franchise like Resurrections uses the Matrix franchise to do wish fulfillment and Mary Sue-ing. In USS Callister, Daly takes away the female protagonist’s pussy; Tom Anderson puts her on a cool motorcycle in a black catsuit. Daly creates sentient copies of people, forced to live out his fantasies on repeat, and apparently so does Tom, in the program version of Morpheus.

The confusion is dream-like, full of irony, repetition, unfamiliar faces on familiar bodies, sometimes for in-film reasons and sometimes not, and while it’s unexplained, quite brilliant.

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samenkomen · 6 years

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sunglasses are removed from the bridge of thomas’ nose & deposited in the pocket of his trench coat. leaning casually against the wall despite a wave of anxiety forcing his gaze towards the entrance. HE’D LURED HER HERE. in similar fashion to how he had been asked to ‘follow the white rabbit’. unable to afford being spotted by an agent while in the company of someone such as doctor bloom. unable to risk her life for the sake of convenience alone. they’d met before. or , spoken. sometimes in what she would perceive as a ‘dream’ ── & sometimes on the phone. though alana hadn’t run in the same circles that he had in this life. not a hacker. not aware of morpheus or a mysterious man who soars among the clouds. just a doctor. a psychiatrist with a brilliant mind. which meant that her questioning was deeper than most , with only a personal philosophy to guide her. until now. a flicker of brunette waves catch his eye. focusing intently on familiar features as they scan the crowd of strangers. unaware that she was looking for a man likely thought to be a figment of her imagination. ( surely there would be worse surprises yet to come ). approaching from the shadows to her left , neo reaches forth. barely touching an arm. “doctor bloom ?”

@the-alana-bloom ! / / PLOTTED STARTER

#the-alana-bloom #; ic #NEO TAGS TBA !

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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What The Matrix Resurrections Trailer Reveals About Neo and Trinity’s Return

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Back when most blockbuster movie franchises became standalone trilogies and not cinematic universes, The Matrix Revolutions seemed like a definitive end to Neo’s story. He’d struck a deal to save Zion from the Machines and deleted Hugo Weaving’s infinite Smiths once and for all. But what had it cost him? His sight, his life, and losing the woman he loved. It was a bittersweet end to The Wachowski’s magnum opus, but a conclusion nonetheless.

Until now. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss will reprise their respective roles as Neo and Trinity for The Matrix Resurrections, which is directed by Lana Wachowski, who wrote the script with novelists David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon. The unlikely sequel is billed as a revival, not a reboot, and will also bring back Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe, Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, and Daniel Bernhardt as Agent Johnson. Conspicuously absent from the list of returners is Laurence Fishburne, who also doesn’t know why he wasn’t asked to bring back Morpheus. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Toby Onwumere, Max Riemelt, Eréndira Ibarra, Priyanka Chopra, Andrew Caldwell, Brian J. Smith, Ellen Hollman, and Christina Ricci round out the movie’s sizable cast.

Even before Warner Bros. finally revealed the title of the movie at CinemaCon this week, “Resurrections” was long rumored to be the verb that would accompany “The Matrix” this time around. It makes sense: a new movie starring Neo and Trinity will have to explain how the hell they’re alive almost 20 years later when they very clearly died in Revolutions. You could maybe argue that Neo’s death in the original trilogy-closer isn’t quite so clear cut: at the end of the film, we watch as the Machines carry the One’s body away, presumably to be liquefied but maybe not. Perhaps the Machines really do have the ability to plug people back into the Matrix, even dead ones (Cypher seemed to believe this). But even this doesn’t explain what’s going on with Trinity, who was straight up impaled in the real world when she and Neo crash landed in the Machine City. Sure, Neo revived her once in Reloaded but even Trinity said “not this time” in her final scene in Revolutions.

Needless to say, “Resurrections” isn’t just a cute way to say “revival” or “we’re back.” It means that the mystery behind Neo and Trinity coming back from the dead is central to the new movie’s plot. Just like “Reloaded” was really nodding to that movie’s big third-act revelation that Neo’s journey is on an endless loop that reloads itself each time he completes his purpose, and “Revolutions” was referencing the fight to break from that cycle once and for all, “Resurrections” is a clue.

This seems especially true now that some members of the press have watched a trailer for the movie. Also screened at CinemaCon, the trailer gave the audience their first look at a surreal return to the Matrix where an older Thomas Anderson never became Neo or met Trinity. io9 posted a shot-for-shot trailer description that reveals a few other intriguing details about the new status quo: Thomas Anderson is going to therapy (his psychiatrist is played by Neil Patrick Harris) because he’s having dreams that almost feel real. He’s prescribed mysterious blue pills that may explain his current state of mind — ignorant to the truth about the Matrix and his role within it.

At one point in the trailer, he runs into Trinity at a coffee shop and she asks him, “Have we met?” Later, Thomas meets Abdul-Mateen’s character, “who looks just like Morpheus (shaved head, tiny sunglasses),” according to io9. He offers Thomas a red pill…and then all hell breaks loose. Thomas and Abdul-Mateen are fighting in a dojo, Thomas and a blue-haired woman with a tattoo of a rabbit (a recurring symbol in The Matrix trilogy) get shot at by a sniper from inside a train, and then Thomas goes Peak Neo, stopping bullets and missiles in mid-air while doing other cool Matrix stuff with Trinity, all accompanied by Jefferson Airplane’s trippy tune “White Rabbit.”

“You’re going back to where it all started,” a businessman played by Groff says to Thomas at the end of the trailer. “Back to the Matrix.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It sounds like 1999 all over again! But what else is the movie hiding behind the veil of nostalgia? The trailer makes a point to show that the things that happened in the first Matrix movie are happening again, but Neo isn’t in the same place. This could be a version of the story where Thomas chose the blue pill instead of the true understanding offered to him by Morpheus in 1999 and is still haunted by the choice he doesn’t remember making all these years later. But if Thomas’ purpose is to become Neo and resolve the anomaly within the Matrix, he can’t so easily escape his destiny.

Or perhaps the Neo we know has truly been “resurrected” inside the Matrix but doesn’t remember who he is. This could be a side effect of being plugged back into the simulation (again, Cypher hoped to forget all about humanity’s miserable reality) but he’s slowly starting to remember his past now.

Another possibility is that the Thomas in the trailer isn’t Neo the human at all but something else, perhaps a program created from the snippets of code left behind by the One’s residual self-image after his death, a new kind of anomaly that is becoming self-aware and must be corrected. The Matrix Reloaded introduced the idea of programs within the simulation that refused deletion, such as Smith or the Merovingian’s werewolf and vampire henchmen, so it’s possible that something similar has happened with Neo. Maybe the only way to correct this glitch is for the Machines to jump start the events of the first three movies.

The fact that Trinity is back too after dying in the real-world and not in the Matrix lends itself to the theory that Resurrections simply follows a new cycle of war between Zion and the Machines in a new version of the Matrix. Despite Neo’s victory at the end of Revolutions, the cycle is inevitable and events are simply repeating themselves anyway — it’s a bleak reading to be sure. But if it’s a new cycle, shouldn’t that mean that it should be a new group of humans fulfilling the roles played by Neo and Trinity in the last cycle since time continues to flow uninterrupted in the real world? Can Machines clone humans, too? Are these Neo and Trinity clones being grown in one of those fetus fields?!

One thing Resurrections could be setting up is a passing of the torch, with Neo and Trinity guiding a new generation of heroes (Jessica Henwick has long been rumored to play a pivotal role in this movie) who must fight for Zion. Perhaps Neo and Trinity have only returning long enough to show the new heroes the way as the Oracle once did for them.

I could be overthinking all this, but it’s hard to believe The Matrix Resurrections is simply peddling nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake as other revivals have, not with a storyteller as gifted as Lana Wachowski back at the helm. Ultimately, we’ll learn how deep the rabbit hole goes when the movie his theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.

The post What The Matrix Resurrections Trailer Reveals About Neo and Trinity’s Return appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2XXvLl4

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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csilarry · 2 years

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Harry’s Promo x The Matrix

We’ve been saying that the As It Was music video makes references to The Matrix, but I think Harry may have been making hints all along in previous promo materials:

Quick recap: relevance of The Matrix

Follow the white rabbit

Alternate reality

Harry uses upside down imagery or otherwise reversed messages to symbolize a change in perspective or another reality. [more on Harry’s references alternate realities]

Doors generally symbolize the threshold between here and that other reality. In the Matrix, Morpheus says:

“I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one who has to walk through it.”

Through the You Are Home campaign, Harry is letting us in to his internal reality through hints and clues behind the door. He is inviting us in, but it is up to us to walk through it.

Checkerboards

Harry used a checkerboard pattern on his Love on Tour merch and two of the You Are Home coordinates led to checkerboard patterns.

Eggs

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filmsdee · 3 years

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‘Matrix 4′ Trailer & Title Unveiled at CinemaCon by Warner Bros

Warner Bros. confirmed the title of the fourth film in The Matrix: Matrix: Resurrections. The movie even had a trailer released in a session for journalists at CinemaCon 2021. Check out the description of the video, according to Gizmodo: It begins with a very glossy looking city. A psychiatrist (Neil Patrick Harris) is sitting with a patient named Thomas. Thomas is Reeves and he’s having problems. He says he’s having dreams that aren’t quite dreams. We see him walking down the street with the green Matrix code. “Am I crazy?” he asks. “We don’t say that,” the doctor replies. Thomas is then sitting in a bathtub with a rubber duck on his head. He walks into a coffee shop and greets Trinity. “Have we met?” she asks as they shake hands. We see that Thomas is taking blue pills at home. He looks into the sky and watches a bunch of birds flying. He’s trying to analyze it. Next he’s in an elevator with a bunch of people on their phones and he looks up at the reflection of everyone looking at screens. About here is where the song “White Rabbit” begins playing. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II shows up as a character who looks just like Morpheus (shaved head, tiny sunglasses) and offers Thomas a red pill. He meets a person with blue hair who has a tattoo of a rabbit. This all feel very familiar to us, the audience, because this is kind of just... The Matrix again? Neo and the person with blue hair walk through a mirror. He’s in a café. Then he’s in a very serene dojo, which is on a lake, with Abdul-Mateen’s character. “The only thing that matters to you is still here,” he says. “You’ll never give up.” They begin to perform martial arts, and when Thomas hits Abdul-Mateen’s character hard in the chest and he flies out of the room. Thomas and the blue-haired person are on a train. A bullet from a sniper is shot from far away and it flies through the train toward them. Tons of action scenes now cut very quickly. We see the fields of people plugged into the matrix. Trinity being unplugged in the matrix. The blue haired person jumping over a car in slow motion. Thomas holds bullets in the air. A helicopter fires a missile at Thomas and Trinity, and Thomas changes its direction mid-air and shoots it into another helicopter. Then, Thomas is in an office with a man in a business suit played by Jonathan Groff. “You’re going back to where it all started,” he says. “Back to the Matrix.” Then the title: The Matrix, which fades away, and then Resurrections. You very much get the sense that everything that happened before with Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus is happening again, just with minor changes. Characters fated to live the same stories over and over again. Or... something like that. We don’t really know. But damned if it didn’t look as big and action-packed as we’ve come to expect. Co-starring Jada Pinkett Smith, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, and Jonathan Groff, The Matrix: Resurrections opens December 22.

#matrix revolutions #matrix4 #warnerbros #hbomax

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eng2100 · 6 years

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blog 06 - the matrix

If I sound a little low energy in this post, I have been VERY sick for awhile. Hopefully I can muster some more thoughtful thoughts at a later date, but for right now, I’m going to do a basic Hero’s Journey take on the Matrix.

ordinary world

Neo gets a pretty strong character introduction by way of mise en scene. If you don’t know what mise en scene is, it’s a term literally translated to “sense of the scene” and refers to details placed mindfully in shots in a movie to exposit certain information. A really good example of this is the classic Lynch movie Eraserhead, in which protagonist Harry’s room features a lot of weird stuff, such as a framed picture of a mushroom cloud that suggests why the world in Eraserhead is so terrible, and a withered plant sitting in a pile of dirt without a pot on his nightstand, suggesting that Henry is incapable of supporting other life. It’s a really broad term, but it’s something good to keep in your head when you’re trying to be attentive about your movie viewing.

Neo’s nodded off at his computer desk in a dim, messy room, and there are random news articles on his screen. We immediately establish this way that he is a reclusive computer nerd but also that he has some kind of intense drive that lead him to stay awake so long that he’d pass out on his keyboard.

call to adventure

Trinity baits him on the computer into following the white rabbit to a club where Trinity gives him exposition about Morpheus. It’s nearly as literal a call to adventure as we can get.

refusal of the call

Neo chickens out of the daring skyscraper walk ordered by Morpheus, so that counts as a refusal.

meeting the mentor

In one of the film’s most iconic bits, Neo meets Morpheus in a trippy all-white room with leather armchairs and the infamous blue and red pills. Cool shades, cool trenchcoat. The Matrix has possibly the singular most indulgent aesthetic I’ve ever seen when it comes to costuming, really.

crossing the threshold

Neo wakes up from The Matrix inside a giant pod full of hallucinatory goop.It’s certainly a pretty painful crossing of the threshold. He’s discarded by the alien machines that use humans for batteries, and rescued into a hovercraft.

road of trials

Neo goes through a series of, like, stuff, to test if he’s really The One described by the Oracle or not, and to help him understand the lengths of what he can do to bend reality in the Matrix. He hangs out with the crew on the ship whose name I can neither pronounce nor spell, and he learns more about the agents and red dresses.

innermost cave

I would argue that the innermost cave isn’t him dealing with the agents, but him confronting the Oracle, and by extension, his self-doubt and greatest fears. The Oracle tells him he’s not all he’s chalked up to be and he’s not the chosen one after all.

ordeal

This would be Neo heading back into the Matrix loaded with guns and with Trinity at his side to rescue Morpheus from the dastardly Hugo Weaving.

the reward (seizing the sword)

This would probably be him realizing his bullet time powers, but its followed super immediately by Cypher betraying them, so it’s a really short part of the journey.

the road back

Cypher kills Dozer and wounds Tank and starts unplugging all the fellas in the Matrix-- Tank doesn’t quite let him finish, but Neo’s left alone with all the Agents. Things don’t look good! Which leads into...

resurrection

This part is super literal. Neo tries to flee from the Agents, and they literally shoot him literally dead in an alley, which means he’s literally dead in literal life. It’s at this point that Trinity confesses her (destined?????) love to him and gives him a kissaroo and he comes back to life, proving that fairytales can indeed dream of cyberpunk sheep. He pops back up and pops right through Hugo Weaving.

return with elixir

The elixir could be argued to be Neo’s renewed sense of self confidence, and the proof that he is in fact The One that the Oracle foretold. With him comes a hope for ending the machine domination, and then there’s a bunch of more movies!

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