Bending the Spoon: An Essential Anthology of Matrix Trivia

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"Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth . . . There is no spoon . . . Then you will see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself." --Spoon Boy, The Matrix

• All of the street names in the Matrix are taken from actual streets in Chicago, hometown of the Wachowski brothers. The Matrix was actually filmed in Sydney, Australia.

• Can you imagine a young Obi Wan Kenobi in the role of Neo? Fortunately, Ewan McGregor turned down the role. Will Smith also claimed that he turned down the role of Neo in order to star in the megaflop Wild Wild West.

• Believe it or not, Val Kilmer was once considered for the role of Morpheus.

• According to Agent Smith's file, Thomas Anderson was born on March 11, 1962, in "Lower Downtown Capitol City."

• Morpheus was named for the Greek god of dreams.

• Two of the Matrix cast members, Carrie-Anne Moss ("Trinity") and Joe Pantoliano ("Cypher"), appeared in another cult movie, Memento.

• Neo's apartment at the beginning of the film is 101 ("the one"). Room 101 is also memorable as the torture room in Orwell's 1984. Trinity's room number is 303 ("trinity" = 3).

• Does the scene with the Spoon Boy and the other prodigies in the Oracle's apartment look familiar to you? You may be remembering a similar scene from the Japanese animated classic Akira (1988).

• Sets from the mediocre sci-fi "thriller" Dark City, which was also filmed in Australia, were used in The Matrix.

• Although Neo believes that it's the year 1999, Morpheus tells him that it is closer to the year 2199.

• The name "Cypher" ("cipher") is defined in Webster's as "a 0, zero, naught . . . a person or thing of no importance . . . a method of transforming a text to conceal its meaning by systematic substitution or transformation of its letters . . ." The name also suggests Lucifer (remember Robert DeNiro's character in Angel Heart?). Cypher also serves as the Judas character.

• During the classic betrayal dinner, Agent Smith calls Cypher "Mr. Reagan." Cypher tells Smith he wants to be an actor.

• In addition to being Greek for "new," Neo is an anagram for "one." Anderson means "son of man." Thomas suggests Jesus' doubting disciple.

• The Matrix contains a number of references to The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass . . . "You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."

• Morpheus is captain of the "Nebuchadnezzar," named for the king of Babylonia (605-562 B.C.), who destroyed Jerusalem and built the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was also obsessed with finding the meaning in his dreams.

• Carrie-Anne Moss starred in the short-lived and completely unrelated TV series "Matrix" in 1993.

• The television in the Oracle's apartment is playing Night of the Lepus (1972), a hilariously bad horror flick about giant killer rabbits (another reference to Alice in Wonderland?).

• Neo hides computer disks in a book, Simulcra and Simulation, a classic philosophic work written by French theorist Jean Baudrillard.

• Neo works as a program writer for Metacortex, "a respectable software company," according to Agent Smith.

• The Wachowski brothers are both college dropouts.

• The Nebuchadnezzar contains a plaque that includes the ship's name as well as "Mark 3 no. 11." Mark 3:11 reads, "And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out saying, 'You are the Son of God.'"

• The main stars of The Matrix spent four months before filming in an effort to learn the martial arts.

• Morpheus and the gang drive around in a black 1964 Lincoln Continental while in the Matrix.

• Laurence Fishburne also played the captain of a ship in the mediocre sci-fi flick Event Horizon (1997).

Morpheus vs. Agent Smith

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