Six months after escaping the Matrix,[b]Neo andTrinity are now romantically involved.Morpheus receives a message from CaptainNiobe of theLogos calling an emergency meeting of all ships ofZion. An army of Sentinels is tunneling towards Zion and will reach it within 72 hours.Commander Lock orders all ships to return to Zion to prepare, but Morpheus asks one ship to remain to contact theOracle. But within the Matrix, Bane, a member of the crew, encounters the formerAgentSmith. Smith forcibly overwrites his mind, effectively killing him and possessing his body. Thus able to enter the real world, he exits the Matrix.
In Zion, Morpheus announces the news of the advancing machines. TheNebuchadnezzar leaves Zion and enters the Matrix, where Neo meets the Oracle's bodyguardSeraph, who leads him to her. The Oracle reveals that she is part of the Matrix and instructs Neo to reach its Source with the help of theKeymaker. As the Oracle departs, Smith appears, telling Neo that he became arogue program after being defeated by him. He demonstrates his ability to clone himself over other inhabitants of the Matrix, including the new upgraded Agents. He tries to take over Neo's body but fails, prompting a battle between Neo and many copies of Smith. Neo defends himself, but is forced to retreat.
Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity visit theMerovingian, who is imprisoning the Keymaker. The Merovingian, a rogue program with his own agenda, refuses to let him go. His wifePersephone, seeking revenge on her husband for his infidelity, leads the trio to the Keymaker. Morpheus, Trinity, and the Keymaker flee while Neo holds off the Merovingian's henchmen. Morpheus and Trinity try to escape with the Keymaker, pursued by several Agents and the Merovingian's chief henchmen,the Twins. After a long chase, Trinity escapes, Morpheus defeats the Twins, and Neo saves Morpheus and the Keymaker from Agent Johnson.
The crews of theNebuchadnezzar,Vigilant, andLogos help the Keymaker and Neo reach the Source. TheLogos crew must destroy a power plant and theVigilant crew must disable a back-up power station to bypass a security system, allowing Neo to enter the Source. Haunted by a vision of Trinity's death, he asks her to remain on theNebuchadnezzar. TheLogos is successful, but theVigilant is destroyed by a Sentinel. Trinity replaces theVigilant crew and completes their mission. Agent Thompson corners her and they fight. As Neo, Morpheus, and the Keymaker try to reach the Source, the Smiths ambush them. The Keymaker is killed after unlocking the door to the Source for Neo.
Neo meets a program called theArchitect, the creator of the Matrix, who explains that, as the One, Neo is an intentional part of the design of the Matrix, which is now in its sixth iteration. Neo is meant to stop the Matrix's fatal system crash that naturally recurs due to humans' free will, leading to dozens of humans gradually refusing to accept the simulation. As with the five previous Ones, Neo has a choice: either reboot the Matrix from the Source and pick a handful of survivors to repopulate the soon-to-be-destroyed Zion, as his predecessors all did, or go to save the imperiled Trinity, causing the Matrix to crash and killing everyone in it. Neo chooses the latter, prompting a dismissive response from the Architect.
Neo's vision of Trinity comes true as she is shot by Agent Thompson while falling off a building. Before she hits the ground, Neo arrives and catches her. He then removes the bullet from her chest and restarts her heart. They return to the real world, where Sentinels attack them. TheNebuchadnezzar is destroyed, but the crew escapes. As the Sentinels catch up to them, Neo realizes he can sense the machines in the real world, and telepathically destroys them but falls into a coma. The crew are picked up by another ship, theMjolnir. TheMjolnir's captain reveals that the machines wiped other ships defending Zion after someone prematurely activated anEMP. Only one survivor was found: the Smith-possessed Bane, who lies beside Neo in the medical bay, also unconscious.
Zee was originally played byAaliyah, who died in a plane crash on August 25, 2001, before filming was complete, requiring her scenes to be reshot with Nona Gaye.[8][9] Pinkett Smith declined her role inNutty Professor II: The Klumps in order to star inThe Matrix Reloaded.[10]Jet Li was offered the role of Seraph, but turned it down as he did not want his martial arts moves digitally recorded.[11]
The Matrix Reloaded was mostly filmed atFox Studios inAustralia. Filming began on March 1, 2001, and ended on August 21, 2002, concurrently with the filming of the second sequel,Revolutions and the live-action footage for theEnter the Matrix video game. Thefreeway chase and "Burly Brawl" scenes were filmed at the decommissionedNaval Air Station Alameda inAlameda, California. The producers constructed a 1.5-mile freeway on the old runways specifically for the film. Some portions of the chase were also filmed inOakland, California, and the tunnel shown briefly is theWebster Tube, which connects Oakland and Alameda. Some post-production editing was also done in old aircraft hangars on the base. The city ofAkron, Ohio was willing to give full access toRoute 59, the stretch of freeway known as the "Innerbelt", for filming of the freeway chase when it was under consideration. However, producers decided against this as "the time to reset all the cars in their start position would take too long".[12]General Motors was hired to donate over 300 cars to be used during production, destroying them for the sake of creating art.[13]MythBusters would later reuse the Alameda location in order to explore the effects of a head-on collision between two semi trucks, and to perform various other experiments. It took 27 days to film the Burly Brawl sequence, which was combined withmotion capture andCGI.[14] This would become one of the most expensive action scenes, costing $40 million to make.[15] Around 97% of the materials from the sets of the film wererecycled after production was completed; for example, tons of wood were sent toMexico to buildlow-income housing.[16]
Following the success of the previous film, the Wachowskis came up with extremely difficult action sequences, such as the Burly Brawl, a scene in which Neo had to fight 100 Agent Smiths. To develop technologies for the film, Warner Bros. launched ESC Entertainment.[17] The ESC team tried to figure out how to bring the Wachowskis' vision to the screen, but because bullet time required arrays of carefully aligned cameras and months of planning, even for a brief scene featuring two or three actors, a scene like the Burly Brawl seemed almost impossible as envisioned and could take years to composite. Eventually,John Gaeta realized that the technology he and his crew had developed forThe Matrix'sbullet time was no longer sufficient and concluded they needed avirtualcamera (in other words, asimulation of a camera). Having before used real photographs of buildings as texture for 3D models inThe Matrix, the team started digitizing all data, such as scenes, characters' motions, or even the reflectivity of Neo'scassock. Thereflectivity of objects needs to becaptured and simulated adequately andPaul Debevec et al. captured the reflectance of thehuman face and Borshukov's work was strongly based on the findings of Debevec et al. They developed "Universal Capture", a process which samples and stores facial details and expressions at high resolution, then capture expressions from Reeves and Weaving usingdense capture andmulti-camera setup (similar to the bullet time rig)photogrammetric capturetechnique calledoptical flow.[18] The algorithm for Universal Capture was written by George Borshukov, visual effects lead at ESC, who had also created the photo-realistic buildings for the visual effects inThe Matrix. With this collected wealth of data and the right algorithms, they finally were able to createvirtual cinematography in which characters, locations, and events can all be created digitally and viewed through virtual cameras, eliminating the restrictions of real cameras, years of compositing data, and replacing the use of still camera arrays or, in some scenes, cameras altogether. The ESC team rendered the final effects using the programMental Ray.[17]
Don Davis, who composed forThe Matrix, returned to scoreReloaded. For many of the pivotal action sequences, such as the "Burly Brawl", he collaborated withJuno Reactor. Some of the collaborative cues by Davis and Juno Reactor are extensions of material by Juno Reactor; for example, a version of "Komit" featuring Davis' strings is used during a flying sequence, and "Burly Brawl" is essentially a combination of Davis' unused "Multiple Replication" and a piece similar to Juno Reactor's "Masters of the Universe". One of the collaborations, "Mona Lisa Overdrive", is titled in reference to thecyberpunknovel of the same name byWilliam Gibson, a major influence on the directors.
Leitmotifs established inThe Matrix return — such as the Matrix main theme, Neo and Trinity's love theme, the Sentinel's theme, Neo's flying theme, and a more frequent use of the four-note Agent Smith theme — and others used inRevolutions are established.
As with its predecessor, many tracks by external musicians are featured in the movie, its closing credits, and the soundtrack album, some of which were written for the film. Many of the musicians featured, for exampleRob Zombie,Rage Against the Machine andMarilyn Manson, had also appeared on the soundtrack forThe Matrix.Rob Dougan also re-contributed, licensing the instrumental version of "Furious Angels", as well as being commissioned to provide an original track, ultimately scoring the battle in the Merovingian's chateau. A remixed version of "Slap It" by electronic artistFluke — listed on the soundtrack as "Zion" — was used during the rave scene.
Linkin Park contributed their instrumental song "Session" to the film as well, although it did not appear during the course of the film.P.O.D. composed a song called "Sleeping Awake", with amusic video which focused heavily on Neo, as well as many images that were part of the film. Both songs played during the film's credits.
It was originally planned for the electronic bandRöyksopp to create the soundtrack, but this offer was turned down.[19]
The Matrix Reloaded earned an estimated $5 million during Wednesday night previews in the United States and Canada. It grossed $37.5 million on its Thursday opening day from 3,603 theaters, which was the second-highest opening day afterSpider-Man's $39.4 million.[20] The film earned $91.7 million during its opening weekend and $134.3 million in its first four days, including the previews.[21] This made it not only the second-highest opening weekend of all time, but also the biggest opening weekend for anyWarner Bros. film, beatingHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.[22] For six years, the film would hold the record for having the largest number of screenings for an R-rated film until the opening ofWatchmen in March 2009.[23]The Matrix Reloaded also surpassedStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones to have the highest Thursday opening.[24][25] It would hold this record for two years until it was taken byStar Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005.[26] Additionally, the film had the highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, overturning the previous record held byHannibal.[27][25] With a total gross of $146.9 million,The Matrix Reloaded held the record for having the biggest six-day opening until 2004, when it was surpassed bySpider-Man 2.[28]
In its second weekend, it would be overtaken byBruce Almighty, earning a 4-dayMemorial Day weekend gross of $45.6 million.[29] Then,The Matrix Reloaded collected $15.6 million for its third weekend, ranking fourth behind the latter film,Finding Nemo andThe Italian Job.[30] The opening weekend represented roughly 60% of that weekend's box-office tally, but some box-office prognosticators noted it fell short of lofty expectations set by some in the industry.[31] Overall, the film would maintain the highest May opening weekend for Warner Bros. until it was beaten byGodzilla a decade later in 2014.[32]The Matrix Reloaded andFinding Nemo both teamed up withBruce Almighty,X2 andPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl to become the first five films to make $200 million at the box office in a single summer season.[33] This was also the fourth R-rated film to cross that mark, just afterBeverly Hills Cop,Terminator 2: Judgment Day andSaving Private Ryan.[34] It would remain as the year's top-grossing film untilFinding Nemo overtook it in July.[35]
Internationally,The Matrix Reloaded opened in 13 territories, including Australia and France, and grossed $37.5 million in its first week.[36] It expanded to most international territories (62) the following weekend, except Japan and India, and became the first movie to earn more than $100 million outside the U.S. in one weekend, taking its overseas total to $176 million and worldwide total to $385 million.[36][37] Grossing over $113.2 million, the film scored the highest international opening weekend, breaking the previous record held byThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.[38] In Japan, it had the biggest opening of any film in the country, earning $18 million and smashing the previous record held byHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[39] It was also the country's highest-grossing R-rated film untilThe Last Samurai surpassed it in early 2004.[40] There were other opening records in Russia and South Korea.[41] The Japan and South Korea opening records were both given toSpider-Man 3 in 2007.[42] In the United Kingdom, the film topped the box office for four weeks until it was overtaken by2 Fast 2 Furious.[43]
The film ultimately grossed $281.6 million in the US, and $739.4 million worldwide, becoming thethird-highest-grossing film of 2003, afterFinding Nemo andThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.[7] It would have the highest domestic gross for an R-rated film until it was taken byThe Passion of the Christ the next year.[44] For over a decade,The Matrix Reloaded held the record for being the highest-grossing R-rated film worldwide beforeDeadpool took it 13 years later.[45] The film sold an estimated 46,695,900 tickets in North America.[46] Following re-releases, the worldwide gross of the film is $741.8 million.[5]
OnRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 74% based on 246 reviews, and an average score of 6.80/10. The site's critical consensus states: "Though its heady themes are a departure from its predecessor,The Matrix Reloaded is a worthy sequel packed with popcorn-friendly thrills."[47] OnMetacritic, the film has aweighted average score 62 out of 100 based on 40 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[48] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, a grade down from the "A−" earned by the previous film.[49]
Positive comments from critics included commendation for the quality and intensity of its action sequences,[50] and its intelligence.[51] Tony Toscano of Talking Pictures had high praise for the film, saying that "its character development and writing...is so crisp it crackles on the screen" and that "Matrix Reloaded re-establishes the genre and even raises the bar a notch or two" above the first film,The Matrix.[52]Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times also commended the film, giving it three and a half stars out of four. He described it as "an immensely skillful sci-fi adventure, combining the usual elements: heroes and villains, special effects and stunts, chases and explosions, romance and oratory" and praised the fact that "it develops its world with more detail than the first movie was able to afford, gives us our first glimpse of the underground human city of Zion, burrows closer to the heart of the secret of the Matrix, and promotes its hero, Neo, from confused draftee to a Christ figure in training." He also compared the choreography of the "Burly Brawl" fight to that ofYuen Woo-ping in the 2000 filmCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and called the scene "one of the three great set pieces in the movie" (along with Morpheus' announcement to the people of Zion and the freeway chase).[53]
Negative comments included the sentiment that the plot was alienating,[54][55] with some critics regarding the focus on the action as a detriment to the film's human elements.[56][57] Some critics thought that the number of scenes withexpository dialogue worked against the film,[58][59] and the many unresolved subplots, as well as thecliffhanger ending, were also criticized.[60] Other criticisms included the film's perceived lack of pacing.[61]Entertainment Weekly named it as one of "The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made".[62]
Marc Salov ofThe Austin Chronicle gave it a two-and-a-half out of five rating, saying, "There's only so muchRubik's Cubism a film can handle, andReloaded is awash in sci-fi and religious overtones that continually bog down the film's forward motion."[63] Mike Clark ofUSA Today gave the film three and a four stars and said, "Salvaged by its rally,Reloaded seems less tired thanX2, its current sequel rival."[64]A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times wrote, "Relax, the staging of the action sequences is as viciously elegant as you've been primed to expect, though there is a dispiriting more-of-the-same aspect to the picture."[65] In a mixed review,Joe Morgenstern ofThe Wall Street Journal said, "In this second installment of the trilogy, lithe bodies endowed with superior brains do all sorts of spectacular things, but the movie has the dead soul of a video game."[66]
The film was initially banned inEgypt because of the violent content and because it put into question issues about human creation, "which are related to the three divine religions."[67]
The Matrix Reloaded was released onVHS andDVD on October 14, 2003.[68] On the first day release, the DVD release sold over 4 million units.[69] ABlu-ray release followed on September 7, 2010.[70]The Matrix Reloaded was released as a part ofThe Matrix Trilogy on4KUHD Blu-ray on October 30, 2018.[71]
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