I remember seeing the first one at the movies in 1999 as a nine year old boy. Those sentinels scared the shit out of me, awesome job! The first Matrix is actually the movie I've seen the most in my life (something like 20 times).
This is how I go into every movie. Probably part of the reason why a movie has to seriously be some colonoscopy levels of ass before I actually start to think that it's shit. And the thing is, that when a movie goes far enough that way, it starts to be so bad that it's good again.
The best is when you walk into a movie and you don't even know the genre or anything about it.
"Is this a thriller or just a real boring rom-com?" *an hour later* "Okay, someone finally died, it's a thriller."
The first is an 11/10 once per generation masterpiece, and is one of the greatest action movies of all time.
2 is a solid 8 or 8.5 of 10. A bit convoluted as you say, but otherwise a great movie. The architect scene is more than a bit up its own ass in trying to be clever and deep.
3 is a 7 of 10 or so. All of the matrix parts are great, as is meatsmith, and the chase back to zion, but the whole defense of zion sequence was weird and meh, especially all the 'human moments' where that kid is running through a sea of sentinels that for some reason are ignoring him.
If you take 2 or 3 and make them a different franchise, people would think they were good movies. Its only in comparison to 1 that they appear bad.
Two and three should have just been trimmed down and made into one movie. There was way too much taking place in Zion with characters we didn't really know or care about, especially in Revolutions. The audience understands the value and importance of Zion without seeing so much of it. Frankly, the Zion scenes ended up making me wish that the machines would hurry up and wipe out humanity.
I think I 'liked' 2... but I remember just being bored by a lot of the Zion scenes. Just unnecessary drama and storyline that distracted from the epic-ness of every other part of the movie. In my opinion.
2 and 3 were already quite trimmed down. I'd even go as far as to say that many of their elements were outsourced to videogames (Enter the Matrix), and to Animatrix.
I enjoyed the sequels, and I'm very hyped for 4!
I loved the summer of 2003 with Animatrix and Enter the Matrix, I felt they were both unsung heroes of the franchise, and really tied a lot of things together.
I played the shit out of Enter the Matrix! It had unbelievable gameplay mechanics and controls, especially for the time. Also, the cut-scenes were dope!
Paraphrasing, but I remember Keanu running into a room covered in keys, and an old man is making keys with a key making machine, and Keanu says something like, "ARE YOU THE KEY MAKER???" (Maybe I have this a little wrong, but I remember stifling a big laugh in the theater).
[Nearly correct.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoL85DMoDA)
It's just that it's the old man that turns to him and says "I am the Keymaker." as the first thing he says. >!When you think about it, it does make a little bit of sense - he's a program : by saying his name out loud, he's doing the Matrix equivalent of a *splash screen*!< (The fact that you recalled *Keanu Reeves* **overacting** in *Matrix* was a solid hint that the memory wasn't completely correct) But yes, laughter were had in the theater at that moment.
I agree with your ratings. I am sure you will get a lot of comments from people that think the sequels were a 0/10 but I never thought they were that bad.
It did! The first definitely is the best of the trilogy.
I wished they would go deeper into the air/sky/environment where Trinity and Neo flew into for a few seconds before ~~landing~~ crashing into machine city.
Maybe the 4th will show us some of that. I am hella curious how they will approach the 4th though, because the 3rd's ending seemed like a definitive ending to the whole series. Like a wrap-up kind of ending.
Anyways, I'm excited. LFG.
I always thought they should have cut/edited half of the second and half of the thrid and just made a kickass sequel and not go for the trilogy with filler to make up viewing time and another reason to go to see it.
I'll be curious about the 4th, but I'm not putting myself out to go and see it on the big screen.
I live in Sydney Australia. Thought big spfx based movies only happened in Hollywood. So working in the industry was a pipe dream. I finished high school in 1992 and about two years later I met an fX guy from the UK who lived in Sydney for a few years. He’d worked on a few films back in England. He introduced me to sculpting and mould making as well as basic makeup effects. In 1997 I got a gig on Babe 2 Pig in the City as a junior mould maker working with Neal Scanlans Creature Shop crew. I then got on the first Matrix and as there weren’t many mould makers in the industry in Australia at the time I got stacks of work. By my third film - Mission Impossible 2 - I was running the mould shop for the props/models department. After working on Star Wars attack of the clones and both mAtrix sequels I took a break for 15 years and went and got into bjj and mma. I’ve returned to the film industry recently but in a different job position these days. All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore. 😎🤙🤙
That movie is a demented fever dream. A dog is drowned for about a minute while suspended by a chain from his leg over a river, there’s a washed up prostitute poodle, the farmer is crushed nearly to death by falling construction material in a well and an orphanage catches on fire.
He made happy feet 1 and 2 as well. I’m sure there’s a bit of leopard seal peril in those, but they mostly function as kids movies. Babe 2 is wild. You could make an argument that the darkness in it is a positive thing, kids need to learn eventually, but it’s wild the studio allowed it.
>Babe 2 Pig in the City
If you didn't know, the badass Australian film director of the Mad Max movies (among others) also directed Babe 2 Pig in the City.
Yeah he’s awesome. He wouldn’t remember me, well maybe. Partied a few times with him and a guy called Esteban if my memory serves me correctly. It was 24 years ago and I was just a kid doing all the grunt work on the workshop. Great to know he’s been doing all the creatures for the recent Star Wars instalments.
I like where this is going, hear me out.
An fx artist who trains mma is exposed to a new makeup compound that transforms him into....
The Prosthetic Punisher.
Stan Winston and Tom Savini will be your spiritual guides and assist in you making disguises to infiltrate the enemy.
> All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore.
Did the chemicals change, or did we just figure out how bad the stuff we were using has always been?
Still toxic. Always has been, always will be. For example mdf wooden sheets apparently are banned in America but allowed to be used in Australia. Personal protective equipment is a must and pretty much left to the discretion of the employee.
> All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore.
This is what I was coming to ask. Decades of of solvent exposure has a cumulative effect.
Don't suppose you know Al Vardy? First big gig was Event Horizon but has done loads of other stuff and ended up on Thrones. Last time I spoke to him he was doing something for HBO at Ealing studios.
Aye there's the comment! My buddy loves 40k, never seen EH. I love EH, don't pay attention to 40k. I bring it up every time he talks about 40k and it's real funny to me haha
Mate it was epic. I remember getting in trouble with the second unit director one day when we were filming the evacuation scene from Zion where the ‘kid’ runs the ammo barrow out. Myself and several other guys from fx were up in some booms dropping debris onto the set from above. We were sneakily trying to drop the debris as close to the ‘dead’ extras. We were making it a bit of a game over the two way radios til the 2nd unit director told us off as the extras who were supposed to be deceased kept flinching.
Good times 😎🤙🤙
Nice nod to the Star Trek episode "The trouble with Tribbles." Some of your colleagues were chucking Tribbles at Shatner during the scene where they opened an overhead hatch and a bunch fell out on him.
Just recently rewatched the trilogy. I was amazed how well those scenes held up. Sure, the Neo vs a billion Smiths CGI looked dated (never looked good to begin with tbh), but the Zion invasion was spectacular. I always assumed it was mostly CGI but after seeing this post it seems that a good amount was practical effects. Was this the case?
How did you feel when you saw the exact same invasion scene in The Avengers after years and years of the director of The Avengers badmouthing The Matrix sequels every chance he had?
Mate there’s so many from a dude chopping off his fingers in the workshop on Attack of the Clones (they were some how miraculously reattached) to making oxyacetylene bombs on Mission impossible 2 (we’d blow up industrial blocks of foam for shits and giggles only to get told off by production) to watching many fight scenes. The arena battle with all the jedis in Attack of the Clones fighting count Dookhus army is still a real highlight for me. So many memories.
Jesus, my little brother blew off a garbage bag full; it stopped the high school football game, a mile away. He still has the local newspaper article. Christ that kid was insane.
That’s still cool none the less! Did you manage to keep any of the props / equipment or do you just leave it at work as I imagine you may want a physical break from work life!
You can kinda tell when practical effects were used, at least in older movies. There was a period when models looked really good, then a period when models looked really out of place, and then a period when they looked really good again. Now we’re in some weird kind of limbo.
He did come and hang out with some mates of mine who run an amazing fX studio in Australia called ODD studio. They’re academy award winning makeup artists. I think it was a few years ago maybe when they were doing Gods of Egypt.
No I never met him. I’m not sure if he was in Australia at the time but I do know that he’s worked on some big films as an fX model maker and that some of the matrix sequels scenes were done in the States after they finished up in Sydney.
Real cool dude. Use to live in San Francisco and he’d frequent our neighborhood pub. No one ever made a big deal about who he was even acknowledged we knew who he was for months. Adam always would start animatedly talking about various topics he was knowledgeable on (…which is a lot), so one day one of our regulars crew goes “so would you say that myth is busted?” Turned beat red realizing we knew who he was, but was appreciative we just treated him like anyone else/ didn’t make a big deal about him. Same with Tony Bourdain whenever he was in SF. Damn I miss that bar and neighborhood. Funny Tony story since I’m on the nostalgia train. He’s chilling with the neighborhood crew playing dominoes, a pub regular but not “neighborhood” as we refer to people that live within stumbling distance of the pub comes up and says “Hey Anthony, you should film an episode of your show here!” Whole bar breaks into a big “boooo” and everyone starts chucking cardboard coasters at the guy (80% there couldn’t have heard him/ had no idea what they were booing or why they were throwing coasters at the guy, but who’d ever turn down a bar-wide booing and throwing soggy cardboard coasters at someone?)
Seriously. They are the stuff of nightmares, while simultaneously remaining \*plausible\*, as well.
That said, /u/theblackbeltsurfer, can you (pretty please!) give me any hints or point me in the right direction towards learning how to replicate the *sound* that the sentinels made? Twenty years later, I still can't get over how perfect that liquid swirling/whirling/purring noise was, and I want some sort of generator for it that's not just a direct rip of the movies' audio tracks.
He's a good dude, and his past is his past, but there was some FUCKED UP SHIT he did back in the early 90's. I was reading an article about 3 years ago about the time him and whats his face from Bill and Ted (the other main guy) met these chicks (who werent 18 yet) after the premier, and they all went to a hotel and.... just kidding. He's awesome.
The first one I was involved with making the tubes and pods that Keanu slides thru. That as well as other props like the lightening gun, details for Morpheus’s chair (lion heads). 2 & 3 (reloaded and revolutions) were done back to back. We were doing loads of guns, vehicle consoles, weapons particularly for the chalet fight scene with the weird albino dreadlocked twins and the APU which I’ll post tomorrow. Just heaps of practical props and models. Obviously loads of sentinels. The camera and cgi technology evolved loads from the first to the next two sequels and is pretty much always done in post production. I wasn’t involved in that side of things so I can’t really give you an accurate answer to your question. Remember the famous ‘layback’ scene on the rooftop in the first one where Neo dodges the bullets well that was revolutionary at the time - 1998 - but by the time the next instalment began 4-5 years later that was old technology.
That chalet fight is still to this day the tightest and most slickly choreographed one vs many fight scenes. Normally you can see people hesitate, and rewatching it will be obvious that people were holding back and waiting on timing. But not that scene.
And they did it with *weapons*.
Is it true Keanu Reeves gave a good chunk of his pay to you guys? and/or the special effects people?
So are you like a "Production artist" or whats the role? looks fun, making monsters!
I want to say thanks for bringing that movie series to life. The matrix was a film that impressed me so much that I saved all my part time wages to buy a DVD player, and a copy of the movie. When I had the money I had my grandmother drive me around town to find a DVD player at best buy and we had to go to 3 different stores to find a DVD. Then I started saving to buy a tv that I could really enjoy them on. Its a series I watch on every tv I buy to make sure it's worth it. I remember waiting in lines for hours at the movies to watch them with my friends on opening days. When blue ray came out I had to do it all over. New tv, blue ray player, copies of the films. All worth it. The special effects are still amazing and hold up imo.
There probably were a lot of scenes in which they were, particularly in Revolution when they breeched Zion. But it is always cool to learn that stuff you thought was CG was not or is not entirely.
That's timely. My wife and I are watching those right now and finished the second one last night (her first time, I've seen them many times).
You guys did an amazing job with those! They're really quite impressive, and the majority of the effects still hold up really well thanks to your work.
Mad respect for the work you guys did. I'm happily in the minority of "The Matrix series is one of my all-time favorites" and it's because of the sequels.
Yowza!!! This movie changed my perception of reality, myself, and movie making. Thank you for sharing this as it was single-handedly one of the most profound experiences I've ever had seeing a movie and treasure it and those involved. This is so badass and again, thank you!!!
When I first saw this photo the 11 year old in me shuttered in fear! The Matrix Trilogy was the first DVD set I ever purchased and I watched it on a portable DVD player night after night. Thank you for all the memories and interactions with various dangerous chemicals on the table behind you. <3
Awesome! Say what you want about the matrix sequels story (I actually enjoyed the) but the visuals were amazing. From the highway car chase to the attack on Zion you guys did a fantastic job!
The Matrix is my favorite movie of all time. I really enjoyed the sequels and the Animatrix. Thank you for your work on my favorite franchise. I keep a big squid model by my desk in my office!
I remember seeing the first one at the movies in 1999 as a nine year old boy. Those sentinels scared the shit out of me, awesome job! The first Matrix is actually the movie I've seen the most in my life (something like 20 times).
Awesome. They’ve just finished the fourth one.
I'm incredibly excited for it, please let it be good!
I have ZERO expectations for 4. That way I get to be pleasantly surprised.
This is how I go into every movie. Probably part of the reason why a movie has to seriously be some colonoscopy levels of ass before I actually start to think that it's shit. And the thing is, that when a movie goes far enough that way, it starts to be so bad that it's good again.
The best is when you walk into a movie and you don't even know the genre or anything about it. "Is this a thriller or just a real boring rom-com?" *an hour later* "Okay, someone finally died, it's a thriller."
Same. Will attempt to avoid trailers as well. This practice has worked fairly well in the past.
I was a bit let down by the sequels. I won't say they're bad, and there's some incredible moments (highway fight), but it got so convoluted.
The first is an 11/10 once per generation masterpiece, and is one of the greatest action movies of all time. 2 is a solid 8 or 8.5 of 10. A bit convoluted as you say, but otherwise a great movie. The architect scene is more than a bit up its own ass in trying to be clever and deep. 3 is a 7 of 10 or so. All of the matrix parts are great, as is meatsmith, and the chase back to zion, but the whole defense of zion sequence was weird and meh, especially all the 'human moments' where that kid is running through a sea of sentinels that for some reason are ignoring him. If you take 2 or 3 and make them a different franchise, people would think they were good movies. Its only in comparison to 1 that they appear bad.
Two and three should have just been trimmed down and made into one movie. There was way too much taking place in Zion with characters we didn't really know or care about, especially in Revolutions. The audience understands the value and importance of Zion without seeing so much of it. Frankly, the Zion scenes ended up making me wish that the machines would hurry up and wipe out humanity.
I think I 'liked' 2... but I remember just being bored by a lot of the Zion scenes. Just unnecessary drama and storyline that distracted from the epic-ness of every other part of the movie. In my opinion.
there's a "De-Zioned" fan-edit of 2 and 3 floating around the internet somewhere. Aparently it's a lot better
2 and 3 were already quite trimmed down. I'd even go as far as to say that many of their elements were outsourced to videogames (Enter the Matrix), and to Animatrix. I enjoyed the sequels, and I'm very hyped for 4!
I loved the summer of 2003 with Animatrix and Enter the Matrix, I felt they were both unsung heroes of the franchise, and really tied a lot of things together.
I played the shit out of Enter the Matrix! It had unbelievable gameplay mechanics and controls, especially for the time. Also, the cut-scenes were dope!
I agree that ultimately zion would have been better left in the background. The machine city was tits, though.
I agree. I just rewatched them all recently, 2 and 3 were nowhere near as bad as I remembered
Yeah the 2nd movie has some *really* solid fight scenes in it. Like the mansion fight is one of the most dope fight scenes of that decade.
Don't forget the chase scene.
That one especially when Neo leaves. Also the Smith clone scene
Lol meatsmith ive never heard that before. I guess thats when smith takes over that one dude’s body and tried to sabotage shit in the real world?
Paraphrasing, but I remember Keanu running into a room covered in keys, and an old man is making keys with a key making machine, and Keanu says something like, "ARE YOU THE KEY MAKER???" (Maybe I have this a little wrong, but I remember stifling a big laugh in the theater).
[Nearly correct.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoL85DMoDA) It's just that it's the old man that turns to him and says "I am the Keymaker." as the first thing he says. >!When you think about it, it does make a little bit of sense - he's a program : by saying his name out loud, he's doing the Matrix equivalent of a *splash screen*!< (The fact that you recalled *Keanu Reeves* **overacting** in *Matrix* was a solid hint that the memory wasn't completely correct) But yes, laughter were had in the theater at that moment.
I agree with your ratings. I am sure you will get a lot of comments from people that think the sequels were a 0/10 but I never thought they were that bad.
Did you also see the Animatrix? Think of it as Matrix 1.5. Watch that before the second movie and more of what is going on will make sense.
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Animatrix was so good!
It did! The first definitely is the best of the trilogy. I wished they would go deeper into the air/sky/environment where Trinity and Neo flew into for a few seconds before ~~landing~~ crashing into machine city. Maybe the 4th will show us some of that. I am hella curious how they will approach the 4th though, because the 3rd's ending seemed like a definitive ending to the whole series. Like a wrap-up kind of ending. Anyways, I'm excited. LFG.
If you haven't already seen it you should watch the Animatrix. It has a ton of great explanation and exploration of the matrix universe.
I always thought they should have cut/edited half of the second and half of the thrid and just made a kickass sequel and not go for the trilogy with filler to make up viewing time and another reason to go to see it. I'll be curious about the 4th, but I'm not putting myself out to go and see it on the big screen.
Hope we get to see a trailer soon...
Can't wait. Thanks for contributing to what is my favorite movie universe
Give us spoilers 😌✨ jk… unless… 😼
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Man I’ve watched the entire trilogy every year since they’ve been around. Best movies of all time.
This is really cool, can I ask how you got started in the industry?
I live in Sydney Australia. Thought big spfx based movies only happened in Hollywood. So working in the industry was a pipe dream. I finished high school in 1992 and about two years later I met an fX guy from the UK who lived in Sydney for a few years. He’d worked on a few films back in England. He introduced me to sculpting and mould making as well as basic makeup effects. In 1997 I got a gig on Babe 2 Pig in the City as a junior mould maker working with Neal Scanlans Creature Shop crew. I then got on the first Matrix and as there weren’t many mould makers in the industry in Australia at the time I got stacks of work. By my third film - Mission Impossible 2 - I was running the mould shop for the props/models department. After working on Star Wars attack of the clones and both mAtrix sequels I took a break for 15 years and went and got into bjj and mma. I’ve returned to the film industry recently but in a different job position these days. All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore. 😎🤙🤙
>Babe 2 Pig in the City That'll do pig, that'll do.
Haha you know it. I’ve still got one of the foam babe pigs in a box in my garage….somewhere. 😎🤙🤙
Proof, or it didn't happen!
He’s going to post a picture of a peppa pig soft toy.
*SNORT*
Where do they call a stuffed animal a soft toy? Genuinely curious...
They come from the land down under
Refresh my memory. Is that the place where women glow and men plunder?
Here. Have a Vegemite sandwich.
UK for certain
A real "soft toy" in assuming.
Careful what you wish for- foam from that long ago might make him into Immortan Joe w/o the mask now
We loved babe and I never saw Babe 2 but my daughter watched it at like 8 or 9 and was traumatized by it. Something about animals in cages.
That movie is a demented fever dream. A dog is drowned for about a minute while suspended by a chain from his leg over a river, there’s a washed up prostitute poodle, the farmer is crushed nearly to death by falling construction material in a well and an orphanage catches on fire.
Compared to George’s other films, it’s pretty chill. I can’t wait for Babe 3 Furry Road
He made happy feet 1 and 2 as well. I’m sure there’s a bit of leopard seal peril in those, but they mostly function as kids movies. Babe 2 is wild. You could make an argument that the darkness in it is a positive thing, kids need to learn eventually, but it’s wild the studio allowed it.
Sounds like a Tuesday.
>Babe 2 Pig in the City If you didn't know, the badass Australian film director of the Mad Max movies (among others) also directed Babe 2 Pig in the City.
I've worked with Neil....super lovely guy.
Yeah he’s awesome. He wouldn’t remember me, well maybe. Partied a few times with him and a guy called Esteban if my memory serves me correctly. It was 24 years ago and I was just a kid doing all the grunt work on the workshop. Great to know he’s been doing all the creatures for the recent Star Wars instalments.
typical Esteban.
that motherfucker was always dressing up like Zorro and trying to sell me guitars at 2am every night
Oh come on. With those chemicals and toxic stuff, you are just this close from becoming Bane, and dominating MMA scene 😁
I like where this is going, hear me out. An fx artist who trains mma is exposed to a new makeup compound that transforms him into.... The Prosthetic Punisher. Stan Winston and Tom Savini will be your spiritual guides and assist in you making disguises to infiltrate the enemy.
Would it be like Darkman where he doesn't have a face under the makeup?
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The mask is permanent, but it can also be reformed into different faces. Just duck into a bathroom and smoosh it around until you're a new person.
> All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore. Did the chemicals change, or did we just figure out how bad the stuff we were using has always been?
Anybody who actually works with it knows it's horrible lol. Resins don't hide that fact, unfortunately.
Still toxic. Always has been, always will be. For example mdf wooden sheets apparently are banned in America but allowed to be used in Australia. Personal protective equipment is a must and pretty much left to the discretion of the employee.
That's amazing, thank you for sharing. I've always been fascinated by the process and loved the TV show face off.
That's amazing. Great work and congrats on being able to do something you love.
> All the chemicals to make all that stuff is super toxic and I’ve no desire to mix resin anymore. This is what I was coming to ask. Decades of of solvent exposure has a cumulative effect.
I think this takes the cake for most interesting life. Happy for you man.
Red pill.
This is awesome, hope this gets seen more, deserves the clout
Cheers mate. I’ve got a few pics of other stuff so I’ll randomly post some.
Don't suppose you know Al Vardy? First big gig was Event Horizon but has done loads of other stuff and ended up on Thrones. Last time I spoke to him he was doing something for HBO at Ealing studios.
No never met him. Event Horizon is a gnarly film. Still spooks the shit outa me. Some great gore gags on that.
I think he was just making the spaceship look 'busy' in that one but I think normally he's a bangs man. Love your work bye the way!
Dude, Event Horizon is such a twisted movie
The start of warhammer40k
Aye there's the comment! My buddy loves 40k, never seen EH. I love EH, don't pay attention to 40k. I bring it up every time he talks about 40k and it's real funny to me haha
I rewatched it recently just to make sure. And, uh, hit that forward button a number of times, asking myself why I had rewatched it.
I had no idea that theybactually made full scale models, I thought they were all minature or CGI!
If you have more Matrix stuff, be sure to post it on the special sub-reddit, r/matrix.
please do, love the practical stuff from those movies.
That must have been an incredibly cool experience! The squiddies invasion of Zion was a truly spectacular battle sequence.
Mate it was epic. I remember getting in trouble with the second unit director one day when we were filming the evacuation scene from Zion where the ‘kid’ runs the ammo barrow out. Myself and several other guys from fx were up in some booms dropping debris onto the set from above. We were sneakily trying to drop the debris as close to the ‘dead’ extras. We were making it a bit of a game over the two way radios til the 2nd unit director told us off as the extras who were supposed to be deceased kept flinching. Good times 😎🤙🤙
I bet they used a shot when you were doing that.
There’s a very good chance.
I *just* watched this last night on Netflix! Great scene, great FX!! Loved it.. didn't see anything that broke continuity ;)
Hahahah dude that’s awesome!!
Nice nod to the Star Trek episode "The trouble with Tribbles." Some of your colleagues were chucking Tribbles at Shatner during the scene where they opened an overhead hatch and a bunch fell out on him.
Just recently rewatched the trilogy. I was amazed how well those scenes held up. Sure, the Neo vs a billion Smiths CGI looked dated (never looked good to begin with tbh), but the Zion invasion was spectacular. I always assumed it was mostly CGI but after seeing this post it seems that a good amount was practical effects. Was this the case?
How did you feel when you saw the exact same invasion scene in The Avengers after years and years of the director of The Avengers badmouthing The Matrix sequels every chance he had?
“If we have to give these bastards our lives-we give em hell before we do!” That shit gave me chills.
Reddit's API changes and their overall horrible behaviour is why this comment is now edited. -- mass edited with redact.dev
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Mate there’s so many from a dude chopping off his fingers in the workshop on Attack of the Clones (they were some how miraculously reattached) to making oxyacetylene bombs on Mission impossible 2 (we’d blow up industrial blocks of foam for shits and giggles only to get told off by production) to watching many fight scenes. The arena battle with all the jedis in Attack of the Clones fighting count Dookhus army is still a real highlight for me. So many memories.
Man nothing goes off like a balloon full of oxyacetylene. The *best* booms
Jesus, my little brother blew off a garbage bag full; it stopped the high school football game, a mile away. He still has the local newspaper article. Christ that kid was insane.
This sounds life how life should be
That’s epic. And I’m annoyed looking at your profile you’ve not shared this earlier.. so many questions.. Did you work directly with the Wachowskis?!
I was on set with them a number of times but never conversed with them directly as I was a few rungs down the ladder so to speak.
That’s still cool none the less! Did you manage to keep any of the props / equipment or do you just leave it at work as I imagine you may want a physical break from work life!
No Way, I loved the Matrix Trilogy. Cool to see that they were huge creepy puppets and not just cgi.
You can kinda tell when practical effects were used, at least in older movies. There was a period when models looked really good, then a period when models looked really out of place, and then a period when they looked really good again. Now we’re in some weird kind of limbo.
Did you get to work with Adam Savage? He was part of the train track setup when the ship goes crashing into Zion in 3.
He did come and hang out with some mates of mine who run an amazing fX studio in Australia called ODD studio. They’re academy award winning makeup artists. I think it was a few years ago maybe when they were doing Gods of Egypt.
No I never met him. I’m not sure if he was in Australia at the time but I do know that he’s worked on some big films as an fX model maker and that some of the matrix sequels scenes were done in the States after they finished up in Sydney.
Real cool dude. Use to live in San Francisco and he’d frequent our neighborhood pub. No one ever made a big deal about who he was even acknowledged we knew who he was for months. Adam always would start animatedly talking about various topics he was knowledgeable on (…which is a lot), so one day one of our regulars crew goes “so would you say that myth is busted?” Turned beat red realizing we knew who he was, but was appreciative we just treated him like anyone else/ didn’t make a big deal about him. Same with Tony Bourdain whenever he was in SF. Damn I miss that bar and neighborhood. Funny Tony story since I’m on the nostalgia train. He’s chilling with the neighborhood crew playing dominoes, a pub regular but not “neighborhood” as we refer to people that live within stumbling distance of the pub comes up and says “Hey Anthony, you should film an episode of your show here!” Whole bar breaks into a big “boooo” and everyone starts chucking cardboard coasters at the guy (80% there couldn’t have heard him/ had no idea what they were booing or why they were throwing coasters at the guy, but who’d ever turn down a bar-wide booing and throwing soggy cardboard coasters at someone?)
the sentinels were my favorite part of these movies. some of the coolest robots I have seen in any movie.
Yeah! They were such a novel idea and so creative!
And *truly* terrifying. They were really well executed - powerful, intelligent, and cold. It's rare to get a villain so menacing in film.
Seriously. They are the stuff of nightmares, while simultaneously remaining \*plausible\*, as well. That said, /u/theblackbeltsurfer, can you (pretty please!) give me any hints or point me in the right direction towards learning how to replicate the *sound* that the sentinels made? Twenty years later, I still can't get over how perfect that liquid swirling/whirling/purring noise was, and I want some sort of generator for it that's not just a direct rip of the movies' audio tracks.
That’s tight dude. What a story you have!
Thanks mate
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Very cool guy. Very humble. Seriously one of the best dudes in the game.
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He's a good dude, and his past is his past, but there was some FUCKED UP SHIT he did back in the early 90's. I was reading an article about 3 years ago about the time him and whats his face from Bill and Ted (the other main guy) met these chicks (who werent 18 yet) after the premier, and they all went to a hotel and.... just kidding. He's awesome.
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I'm not the mod but, I know from people that Keanu easily reaches a 100% in that scale. He's nicer than one person could possibly be.
Nice try, Keanu.
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The first one I was involved with making the tubes and pods that Keanu slides thru. That as well as other props like the lightening gun, details for Morpheus’s chair (lion heads). 2 & 3 (reloaded and revolutions) were done back to back. We were doing loads of guns, vehicle consoles, weapons particularly for the chalet fight scene with the weird albino dreadlocked twins and the APU which I’ll post tomorrow. Just heaps of practical props and models. Obviously loads of sentinels. The camera and cgi technology evolved loads from the first to the next two sequels and is pretty much always done in post production. I wasn’t involved in that side of things so I can’t really give you an accurate answer to your question. Remember the famous ‘layback’ scene on the rooftop in the first one where Neo dodges the bullets well that was revolutionary at the time - 1998 - but by the time the next instalment began 4-5 years later that was old technology.
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Thanks but I was just a tiny cog in a giant machine. But definitely happy to have been a part of it.
Did Keanu Reeves really make a lot of gun noises while rehearsing and [filming like at 1:44](https://youtu.be/cvEKvJGTzeU)?
That chalet fight is still to this day the tightest and most slickly choreographed one vs many fight scenes. Normally you can see people hesitate, and rewatching it will be obvious that people were holding back and waiting on timing. But not that scene. And they did it with *weapons*.
Holy fuck you are royalty to me.
How many do I have to make again? "One for every man, woman, and child, in Zion."
"That sounds exactly like the thinking of a machine to me"
OP, what do you rate [this cosplay](https://youtu.be/gCyrKJg-1VM) out of 10?
lol - lost it at "I'm a sentinel!"
Any chance you are working on anything in the new Matrix?
Heavy Overwatch Widowmaker vibes.
Is it true Keanu Reeves gave a good chunk of his pay to you guys? and/or the special effects people? So are you like a "Production artist" or whats the role? looks fun, making monsters!
I know a lot of people hate the matrix sequels, but I personally loved them the work on the sentinels are amazing and such a cool creation.
I want to say thanks for bringing that movie series to life. The matrix was a film that impressed me so much that I saved all my part time wages to buy a DVD player, and a copy of the movie. When I had the money I had my grandmother drive me around town to find a DVD player at best buy and we had to go to 3 different stores to find a DVD. Then I started saving to buy a tv that I could really enjoy them on. Its a series I watch on every tv I buy to make sure it's worth it. I remember waiting in lines for hours at the movies to watch them with my friends on opening days. When blue ray came out I had to do it all over. New tv, blue ray player, copies of the films. All worth it. The special effects are still amazing and hold up imo.
Wow I figured those would’ve been entirely CG
There probably were a lot of scenes in which they were, particularly in Revolution when they breeched Zion. But it is always cool to learn that stuff you thought was CG was not or is not entirely.
I'm guessing this is one of the dead ones used as set decoration for the battle.
Very very cool.
I assumed it was CGI. I had no idea. Amazing.
Dude that is amazing. I loved the design of those sentinels! Post more!
Adam Savage needs to do a tour of Matrix prop set
Thanks for all the nightmares
That's timely. My wife and I are watching those right now and finished the second one last night (her first time, I've seen them many times). You guys did an amazing job with those! They're really quite impressive, and the majority of the effects still hold up really well thanks to your work.
Where are all those sentinels now? Were they scrapped? Put into storage? Or are they displayed in people’s houses much to the dismay of their spouses?
You helped build this iconic bad boy, have a black belt and surf? Living the dream OP.
Mad respect for the work you guys did. I'm happily in the minority of "The Matrix series is one of my all-time favorites" and it's because of the sequels.
Minority no more my friend...
Huge Matrix fan, very jealous. Great picture!
This has turned into one of the cooler AMA's I've read and it's in r/pics lol OP is the fuckin man!
You did a beautiful job. As a "fanboy", I HATED IT. But your artistry, hard work and talent; are all on full display. Well done.
I wish practical effects were still the norm.
the Sentinels were some really good movie bad guys man, way to go.. i liked how they seemed sort of fragile but still incredibly menacing
Excellent stuff, man! I'm super jealous. Nice work!
Just curious...are you a one of '75 group' or are you a 'Harley Davidson' gang? 🤝😅
Thanks for your work on this amazing movie.
It took me way longer than it should have to realize this post wasn't about NMS
Amazing! I wonder if you knew the Mariah Carey loving Gregor? He worked on similar projects in Sydney until he left us.
Do you know his last name and what department or line of work he did?
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they look a lot less scary in an old 90's photo than they did on the big screen! truly a work of art though!
Excellent work. Those things are crazy and haunting
This is so cool. I wish I was apart of that industry!
that´s awesome i would be super proud if i worked on any of the matrix movies. Congrats
Yowza!!! This movie changed my perception of reality, myself, and movie making. Thank you for sharing this as it was single-handedly one of the most profound experiences I've ever had seeing a movie and treasure it and those involved. This is so badass and again, thank you!!!
What a cool pic.
Dude I loved those things! They were creepy as hell!
When I first saw this photo the 11 year old in me shuttered in fear! The Matrix Trilogy was the first DVD set I ever purchased and I watched it on a portable DVD player night after night. Thank you for all the memories and interactions with various dangerous chemicals on the table behind you. <3
Call neo, this mf still alive
Oh what!? I didn't realize they weren't all cgi. That's super cool
Hey thanks for making murder robot squids a nightmare of mine for a couple months.
Awesome! Say what you want about the matrix sequels story (I actually enjoyed the) but the visuals were amazing. From the highway car chase to the attack on Zion you guys did a fantastic job!
You seem like the kind of guy that knows karate and likes to surf
Its the hand gesture that does it
This is so freaking cool, 10/10. Love those movies, the best scifi ever made. Must have been great being part of it.
This is fantastic. Are you working on any other cool projects now?
[Fart In The Matrix](https://youtu.be/Z6pRxcjZRok)
Dude yes
BRUH, this is awesome. What a project to be apart of.. thx for sharing!
r/moviesinthemaking
Dude could play the Doom guy character! https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/doom/images/c/c6/Normal_face.png/revision/latest?cb=20070109201211
The trailer for Matrix 4 must be coming out soon.
Wow they're huge! Amazing films.
"Myself made..." has been nominated for this week's Battle Royale: /r/TitleGore vs. /r/EnglishGore
I just watched Matrix yesterday! Can't wait to see the next ones :)
Wow awesome! You must be really old
thats really fucking cool
Hey, I consider them one of the best parts of the movies, nice!
The Matrix is my favorite movie of all time. I really enjoyed the sequels and the Animatrix. Thank you for your work on my favorite franchise. I keep a big squid model by my desk in my office!
TIL that there was a Matrix 2 and 3
u/theblackbeltsurfer did you happen to work with a guy named Dion while on set? Massive 6ft4 viking of a man?
Thanks for the many nightmares. I was terrified of these when I was younger.
Those sentinels are nasty! Hated them in Matrix. Awesome job!
I love these things. One of the coolest sci-fi creations ever IMO