The Matrix
The Matrix mistake picture

Deliberate mistake: When Neo and Morpheus are in the construct place (where it is all white), you can see that Morpheus' glasses are a matte grey and then a second later they are totally reflective. [The shot where Morpheus has flat black glasses was shot with a steadycam. A cameraman using a special camera strapped to his body walks in a snaking path from behind Neo, to behind Morpheus. He passes in front of Morpheus at least once. His glasses were painted flat black to prevent the reflection of the steadycam operator showing up on film. At the end of the shot, you can see the back side of the lens. While doing this scene and saying his dialogue, Laurence Fishburne couldn't see anything.] (00:38:10)

Deliberate mistake: In the rooftop fight scene where Neo unloads 2 pistols at an agent and misses, you can hear the guns firing from behind, followed by 2 clicks suggesting that the clips are empty. Neo's guns are both semi-automatics and would therefore not click when empty as the slides would be locked back after the final shot. The click sounds were obviously added later to indicate to viewers that his clips were empty. (01:46:15)

Deliberate mistake: When Neo is in the helicopter shooting the agents through the window, watch as one of the agents shoots. He obviously doesn't pull the trigger, because he doesn't move his finger, and there is no recoil, nor a shell ejected. But yet there is a muzzle flash.

Sir William

The Matrix mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Agent Smith is interrogating Neo, after Smith has sealed Neo's mouth shut and he is backed into the corner, when the camera cuts back to Smith you can clearly see a reflection in his glasses of Neo still sitting down in the chair. (00:19:50)

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Morpheus: Stop trying to hit me and hit me!

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Trivia: It's been said that Neo is an anagram for "one". I think it's more important to realise that Neo means "new". His real name is Thomas Anderson. He is called Thomas at the beginning of the movie, when he doubts the truth -- that the world as he knows it is not real. Thomas is the "doubting" disciple in the Bible. Moreover, Anderson means "son of man". Hence, Neo Anderson is the New Son of Man. The biblical references go on and on... Trinity, Nebucadnezzar (the name of the ship -- in fact, the name plate on the ship makes reference to a verse in Mark chapter 3), Zion... So not only is Neo "the One", he has gone from being the doubter to the new son of man.

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Question: I get that people in the matrix, who have not been freed, are not ready to be freed, and I know at one point when Morpheus is explaining the matrix to Neo (I believe during the woman in the red dress test) he says something along the lines of: The matrix is a system, that system is our enemy. The matrix is filled with minds we are trying to save, but until we do they are still part of that system and that makes them our enemies. Many of them are so dependent on that system they will fight to defend it.- I am paraphrasing, but it is something like that. As I'm sure everyone knows he also says "The body cannot live without the mind." And therefore if you die in the matrix you die in the 'real' world. My question is, do they ever address the ethical questions that could arise from the fact that they kill mind after mind of police officers, SWAT teams, security guards, innocent humans just doing their jobs? I understand that sometimes it may be necessary, and that Neo doesn't have much choice but to fight agents and kill their hosts at times. But things like Mouse, knowing he is going to die so he grabs machine guns and takes out as many people as he can. Or when Neo and Trinity, on their way to save Morpheus, cover them selves in guns and take out that whole building of guards and pretty much end up with one gun each. The guards were completely prepared to let them enter the building freely if they passed the metal detector, could they not have went empty handed and just taken out two guards later, and used their weapons? It just seems like a pretty bad way to go about a mission to save people. Unless perhaps I missed a speech about sacrificing some minds for the cause or the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few type deal. Just wondering if that is ever addressed.

six56

Chosen answer: No, they don't address it, other than Morpheus' speech during the test. It's not something that they have any realistic choice about, so they just have to accept it and do what they need to do. Mouse, yes, he chooses to defend himself when cornered, but who wouldn't? These may be innocent victims of the Matrix he's shooting at, but they're still there to kill him - he's hardly going to stand there and accept his fate meekly. There's also no indication that the guards were "completely prepared" to let Neo and Trinity into what's clearly a high security building, undoubtedly they would have been asked for identification, what their purpose was there and so forth and turned away if, as seems likely, their answers weren't satisfactory. Shooting their way in from the start is likely their only option. Yes, it's absolutely ethically unfortunate, but if they're going to resist the machines successfully, it's not something they have any choice about. A necessary evil.

Tailkinker

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