The year 1999 changed the perception of the whole world and led us to question our own existence. The reason behind this change was a mind-bending movie, The Matrix. It has been more than 15 years since the movie was released, yet we discover new facts about it that we have not heard of before. We have put together 24 amazing facts about this movie which will definitely blow your mind away.

1 When Wachowski brothers presented their idea for The Matrix and quoted a budget of more than $80 million to Warner Bros., they were refused. Instead, they were offered $10 million. Later when they created the opening scene and showed it to the executives, they were given the green signal and the entire original budget.

The Wachowski brothers estimated the budget for filming the entire movie to be more than 80 million dollars. When they presented this budget to Warner Bros., they were refused and instead the Wachowskis were offered only 10 million dollars.

Wachowskis accepted the money and used the entire amount to film the first ten minutes of the movie. They then showed the opening scene to the executives at Warner Bros. The executives were so impressed that the entire original budget was allotted to the Wachowskis. (source)

2 For the character of Neo, Wachowskis’s first choice was Johnny Depp. But the studio wanted Keanu Reeves for the role and finally, he won the role.

The directors, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, wanted to cast Johnny Depp in the role of Neo in the beginning. Will Smith, Nicholas Cage, Val Kilmer and Bradd Pitt were also offered the role of Neo. But they all turned it down. Will Smith opted for the movie Wild Wild West instead. Nicholas Cage cited “family obligations” as the reason. Finally, Keanu Reeves was chosen by the studio over the directors’ choice (Johnny Depp) because he was well-tuned into the movie’s concept which made a lot of difference during casting. (source)

3 In the movie, Neo works for the company, Metacortex. The name is coined from two root words, meta meaning “going beyond or higher, transcending” and cortex “the outer layer (boundary) of gray matter surrounding the brain”, according to Webster. Together it means “transcending the boundaries of the brain”. 

Neo does the same thing in the movie. (source)

4 According to Greek mythology, Morpheus is the God of dreams and in the movie, the job of Morpheus is to awaken the humans from virtual world to reality.

In the movie, Morpheus is the name of the leader of rebel force fighting against the machines. Morpheus, according to Greek mythology is the God of dreams. However, in the movie the character Morpheus does the opposite. He fights to wake the humans up from the Matrix, the virtual reality created by the machines to use humans as a source of energy.(source)

5 More than half the dialogues by Neo in the movie are made up of questions.

Neo has 88 lines in the first 45 minutes of the movie. Out of these, 44 lines are questions. It also goes with the theme of the movie, to be able to question what is happening around and to want to really see the “world” the characters live in. It also resembles another theme of the movie – the book Alice in Wonderland, and how Alice is full of curiosity and constantly asking questions. Neo is the Alice of the Matrix and so 56% of all his dialogues are questions including: “What is Matrix?”(source)

6 When Neo wakes up in the pod he has an emaciated look. Keanu Reeves achieved this by losing 15 pounds and shaving his whole body.

7 All main characters in the movie wear sunglasses which were custom designed for each one of them. The shape of the lens is different for the agents and the renegade group. Every bad guy (agents) wears rectangular lens while the rounded lens is sported only by the good ones (renegade group).

Sunglasses are an integral part of the movie’s costumes and have either rounded or rectangular lenses. The agents, who are sentient programs, wear the rectangular sunglasses while the renegade group wears the rounded ones. The round shape of the lens suggests that the renegade group are the real ones while the agents are with the machines. Even taking off the sunglasses was used to symbolically represent taking off a mask and expressing vulnerability as in the Morpheus’ torture scene where he is without his glasses, or being forthcoming as Agent Smith tries to be while interrogating Neo. (source)

8 The Desert Eagle pistol used by agents in the film was actually dismissed by the armorer, John Bowring, who referred to them as “wanker” pistols.

The Wachowski brothers specifically chose IMI Desert Eagle Mark XIX pistol to be carried by the agents in the movie. But the armorer advised against using them who dismissed them as “wanker” pistols. However, they were used in the movie despite that. (source)

9 A few months before the beginning of the shoot Keanu Reeves had undergone a neck surgery for two-level fusion of his cervical spine, which was slowly paralyzing his legs. He was still recovering during the filming, which was why his character Neo doesn’t kick much in the movie.

10 The first time Neo gets in the car with Trinity, Switch calls Neo “Coppertop”, which is a slang for Duracell Battery.

Duracell batteries are also referred to as copper tops. The same battery is shown by Morpheus when he explains Neo how the human race has become a source of energy for the machines. (source)

11 In the movie, there are five significant colors, blue, green, red, yellow (gold) and white. Each color has a unique meaning.

In the movie, everything happening inside the Matrix has a green tint which represents the mind and its endless possibilities.

The real world has blue tint with reds in specific points. Blue represents the body where survival is the main concern.

The machine city is yellow (gold) and signifies the realm of spirit or heaven.

The red signifies danger, evil and the painful truth of reality. The color white appears at certain points in the movie such as the scenes when the characters enter the Construct, their loading program. So, white symbolizes growth. Black is also a dominant color as the majority of clothing and all the sunglasses are black. It depicts something that is impenetrable or unyielding. (source)