Trivia: The scene in which Cypher breaks the window and jacks out of the Matrix, was shot in Australia. The room where the phone was set was supposedly the room where a man hung himself years before. This was never confirmed, but in a shot of the room, a ghostly outline of a man can be seen behind Cypher. This is indicated by the directors in The Art of The Matrix.
Trivia: When Neo is in the office on the phone with Morpheus trying to escape, look at the pictures on the wall to the right of Neo's head, they look like they're objects covered with the Matrix Code, much like when Neo comes back to life and he looks at the agents, and we see the Matrix code. (00:15:27)
Trivia: The scene showing the sentinels coming for the first time is a large allusion to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It's a combination of the scenes where Lando and Chewie fly the Falcon after getting Luke's hand fixed, and the asteroid field scene. Luke, having just gotten a new hand, sort of limps in the cockpit with Leia; in the Matrix, Neo just woke up and hobbles in with Trinity. The cockpit is almost identical, and Morpheus says Star Wars lines from the asteroid field scene, "Set her down there" and "Here they come."
Trivia: In the scene where Neo and Morpheus go to see the Oracle, there is a blind man sitting across from the elevator who acknowledges them despite being blind. In Greek mythology, characters associated with prophesies tend to be blind, such as the blind prophet Tiresias from "The Odyssey", "Oedipus the King", and "Antigone." Considering how Neo is about to meet with the Oracle for the first time, this may be a nod to that common occurrence in Greek literature. (01:09:15)
Trivia: When the agents corner Neo in an alleyway, he doesn't see the door until Tank tells him it's there. In the building, Tank tells Neo to go to the door on his left but Neo goes right and Tank says "Your other left!" Both these events foreshadow the choice of The One in "The Matrix Reloaded" - that Neo is subconsciously programmed to choose the door on his right. (01:55:10)
Trivia: All of the main action inside the Matrix takes place at The Heart of the City Hotel. This is a metaphor on a couple of levels: Using the heart in the world of the mind (the Matrix) entails being in love (Trinity and Neo), which is what ultimately saves them. The second metaphor is tied to the first: The hotel is in the heart/center of the city (inside the Matrix), but the heart (the organ) is at the center of the story; love is needed to conquer the Matrix.
Trivia: The cutting-edge "bullet time" effect was achieved by arranging 120 still cameras around the subject on a green-screen stage. Every camera would take a photo in sequence over a (very) short span of time, and the photos were then arranged, creating the illusion that time was slowed down and the camera was moving inhumanly fast. Early frame-interpolation software was also used to smooth the shot, since gaps between the cameras made the movement a bit jittery. A CGI background was then added.
Trivia: In an interview, Lily and Lana Wachowski both stated that if they had to choose between the red pill or the blue pill, they both would have taken the blue pill.
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 ★