The Matrix 7 Other Movies That Influenced The Franchise

The Matrix: 7 Other Movies That Influenced The Franchise

The Matrix is a movie like no other, but the Wachowskis created their 1999 sci-fi masterpiece by putting these existing classics in a blender.

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The Wachowskis’ 1999 sci-fi actioner The Matrix has been praised as one of the greatest movies ever made. Contemporary audiences were blown away by its spectacular set pieces and meditations on the nature of reality. What made the movie such a hit was its originality. Moviegoers had never seen anything quite like it. But it wasn’t 100% original. Like any groundbreaking movie, The Matrix was heavily influenced by a bunch of existing movies.

The best filmmakers (like the Wachowskis) don’t just shallowly rip off their influences; they put all those influences in a blender and mix them up into something that feels entirely new. In writing and directing their action-packed classic, the Wachowskis were inspired by these cinematic gems.

7 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The Wachowskis told The New York Times that one of the directors they studied in the lead up to shooting The Matrix was Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick’s most famous contribution to science fiction is, of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and this influence makes a lot of sense. Aside from broadly being a sci-fi masterpiece, 2001 has the quintessential portrayal of A.I. gone bad in its haunting portrayal of HAL 9000. In The Matrix, humanity has been enslaved by similarly duplicitous machines.

In a separate interview, the directors told The New Yorker that they first saw 2001 when they were ten and seven years old and it made a huge impression on their young minds. The movie is difficult enough for adult viewers to comprehend, let alone at such an early age.

6 Akira (1988)

One of the most iconic technical innovations from The Matrix trilogy is the “bullet time” visual effect, which separates the time and space used by the camera from the subject on-screen. This technique was pioneered specifically for The Matrix by John C. Gaeta.

In a 2006 feature published in Empire, Gaeta explained, “As for artistic inspiration for bullet time, I would credit Otomo Katsuhiro, who co-wrote and directed Akira, which definitely blew me away.” Akira has a few broad similarities with The Matrix, too – they’re both cyberpunk superhero stories about a seemingly regular person unexpectedly acquiring superhuman abilities.

5 Hard Boiled (1992)

Hong Kong action cinema in general was a big influence on The Matrix’s mind-blowing set pieces, but according to The Guardian, the Wachowskis were particularly inspired by Hard Boiled, which stars Chow Yun-fat as sharpshooting cop Tequila Yuen.

John Woo’s anarchic “gun fu” style can be seen all over The Matrix’s iconic lobby shootout, including such hallmarks as breathtaking slow-motion shots, ear-piercing sound design, and exaggerated muzzle flashes.

4 Blade Runner (1982)

The Wachowskis named Ridley Scott as an influence on The Matrix in a New York Times interview. Scott’s 1982 sci-fi cult classic Blade Runner offers the same kind of haunting vision of a dystopian future that can be found in The Matrix. Instead of messing with reality like The Matrix, Blade Runner tells a hard-boiled detective story in a futuristic, android-infested Los Angeles.

Lana Wachowski told the Times in a separate interview that Blade Runner is one of her favorite movies. While it bombed at the box office upon its initial release (due to being overshadowed by Steven Spielberg’s lighter sci-fi effort E.T.), Blade Runner has since amassed a cult following and has been acknowledged as a major influence by a bunch of iconic directors, Wachowski included.

3 Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang’s revolutionary 1927 masterpiece Metropolis has had a massive influence on just about every sci-fi movie from the past 100 years. Science fiction dates back to Mary Shelley’s 1818 literary masterwork Frankenstein, but Metropolis was one of the first feature-length movies to bring the genre to the big screen.

According to Syfy, Lang’s portrait of a futuristic dystopia full of enslaved drones serving their monolithic oppressors was one of the inspirations behind The Matrix’s villainous machines.

2 Star Wars (1977)

1977’s Star Wars inspired a generation of filmmakers to pick up a camera and let their imaginations run wild. Among those filmmakers were future Matrix creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski. The Wachowskis named George Lucas as a major influence on The Matrix in an interview with The New York Times.

Lucas’ script is noted for its roots in Joseph Campbell’s writings on comparative mythology. This “monomyth” structure has effectively become the go-to blueprint for Hollywood blockbusters. Just like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Neo follows a traditional “hero’s journey” in The Matrix.

1 Ghost In The Shell (1995)

Although the specifics of their plots are slightly different, The Matrix has been described as basically a live-action remake of the classic 1995 anime Ghost in the Shell. Mamoru Oshii’s tale of the search for a powerful hacker in a futuristic metropolis also toys with self-identity and the nature of reality and has wires going into the backs of people’s necks.

According to The Guardian, when the Wachowskis were pitching The Matrix to producer Joel Silver (who eventually picked up the project), they screened Ghost in the Shell for him and simply said, “We wanna do that for real.”

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/the-matrix-other-movies-influenced-franchise/

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