Introduction
Hee hee.... another one where not much introduction is needed. Just to say [OPINION] its very cyberpunk and one of the best films in recent history.[/OPINION] Themes of technology, reality and the limits of human ability/consciousness - to name a few and 'redolent' with spiritual metaphor.
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THE MATRIX
Written by
Larry and Andy Wachowski
April 8, 1996
(1)
A computer screen pulsates, So close that there is nothing else to be seen.
A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath the derma of black-neon glass.
In the distance a phone begins to ring, but this call is heard as if from the inside. The cursor continues to throb, relentlessly patient, until a man's voice:
'Operator'.
Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing faster than can be read. Call trans opt: received. 2-19-96 13:24:18 REC:Log>. Then a womans voice, cold, hard. 'I'm inside. Anything to report?'
The man's name is CYPHER. The woman's, TRINITY.
'Let's see. Target left work at 5:01 PM.', reports Cypher. 'Trace program: running.' flashes across the screen. The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers. Shimmering like green-electric rivets, they rush at a 10-digit phone number in the top corner. 'He caught the northbound Howard line. Got off at Sheridan. Stopped at 7-11. purchased six-pack of beer and a box of Captain Crunch. Returned home'. The area code is identified. The first three numbers suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns.
The screen begin to pulse, as if with frustration. Each digit is slowly matched, one by one, snapping into place like the wheels of a slot machine.
'All right, you're relieved. Use the usual exit.'
'Do you know when we're going to make contact?', questions Cypher, a hint of anxiety in the voice. 'Soon', comes Trinity's calculated response.
Only two thin digits left.
'Just between you and me, you don't believe it, do you? You don't believe this guy is the one do you, Trinity?'.
'I think Morpheus believes he is.' she replies, evasively. 'I know that Trinity, but what about you?'. 'I think Morpheus knows things that I don't.'. 'Yeah, but if he's wrong --'.
The final number pops into place -- 'Did you hear that?' snaps Trinity. 'Hear what?'.
The screen animates: 'Trace complete. Call origin:#312-555-0690'. 'Are you sure this line is clean Cypher?'. 'Yeah, course I'm sure.' The ELECTRIC HUM of the green numbers GROW INTO an OMINOUS ROAR. 'I better go'. 'Yeah. Right. See you on the other side, Trinity.'
The woman hangs up as the numbers grow into a mass of binary coding as far as can be seen - the netherworld behind a computer screen, where gradually the sound of a police radio grows. 'Attention all units. Attention all units.'
(2)
A flashlight cuts open the darkness of an old hotel abandoned after a fire licked its way across the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms as it spooled soot up the walls and ceiling leaving patterns of permanent shadow.
Four armed POLICE officers using flashlights creep down the blackened hall and ready themselves on either side of room 303. The biggest of them violently kicks in the door as the other cops pour in behind him, guns thrust before them. 'Police! Freeze!'.
The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-up table and chair with a phone, a modem, and a power book computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the computer screen. Sitting there, her hands still on the keyboard, is Trinity; a woman streamlined in black vinyl.
'Get your hands behind your head!'. Trinity rises. 'Hands behind your head! Now! Do it!'. She slowly puts her hands behind her head.
Outside the hotel a black sedan with tinted windows glides in through the police cruisers.
Two men get out of the car uniformed in predictable special agent's garb. They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. Both are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones in one ear, its cord coiling back into their shirt collars. AGENT SMITH: 'Lieutenant?'. 'Oh no.', mutters the uniformed cop whilst glancing down uncomfortably at his feet. 'Lieutenant, you were given specific orders --', 'I'm just doing my job. You gimme that Juris-my dick-tion crap and you can cran it up your ass'. 'The orders were for your protection, Lieutenant'. 'I think we can handle one little girl', snorts the Lieutenant. Agent Smith nods to Agent Brown as they start toward the hotel.
'I sent two units. They're bringing her down now', calls out the Lieutenant, attempting to recover his diminished authority. Immediately, the two agents freeze, Agent Smith slowly turns, 'No, Lieutenant, your men are already dead'.
(3)
The Big Cop flicks out his cuffs, the other cops holding position. They've done this a hundred times, they know they've got her, until the Big Cop reaches with the cuff and Trinity moves --
It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly fast. The eye blinks and Trinity's palm snaps up and the nose explodes, blood erupting. Time seems to distort. Suddenly the cops become like statues whilst Trinity continues to move but as if in slow motion.
She leaps to the air squaring up for a flying kick. At the point of impact time returns to normal, the cop takes the full force of the blow to the chest. But the force is unnatural, it propels him across the room and into another cop before they both are crushed right through into the wall cavity.
Another cop panicks and begins firing. Trinity moves to run. Time distorts. The cop's shots are slow and way behind. To further the cop's amazement, Trinity executes an inhuman manoeuvre running away up the back wall then banking to run around the corner of the room to the side wall and back to face the cop. The cop still fires wildly. She leaps to the floor and with alien speed, comes up underneath the cops aim. Seizing a wrist, misdirecting a gun, as a startled cop FIRES - A head explodes. In blind panic, another airs his gun, the barrel, a fixed black hole - And FIRES. Trinity twists out of the way, the bullet missing as she reverses into a roundhouse kick, knocking the gun away. The cop begins to scream when a jump kick crushes his windpipe, killing the scream as he falls to the ground. She looks at the four bodies. 'Damn'.
Agent Brown enters the hotel, while Agent Smith heads for the alley.
Trinity is again on the phone, pacing. The other end is answered by a man, 'Operator'. 'Morpheus! The link was traced! I don't know how'. 'I know. Stay calm', Morpheus's voice is low and smooth. 'Are there any agents?', 'Yes', comes the deep regretful answer. 'Damn!'. 'Trinity, you have to focus. There is a phone. Wells and Laxe. You can make it. You can MAKE it!'.
She takes a deep breath, centering herself, 'All right, I'm gone'. She drops the phone.
She bursts out of the room just as Agent Brown enters the hall, leading another unit of police. Trinity races to the opposite end, exiting through a broken window onto the fire escape. In the alley below, Trinity sees Agent Smith staring at her. She can only go up.
She reaches the roof running, as Agent Brown rises over the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit. She begins jumping from one roof to the next, her movements so clean, gliding in and out of each jump, contrasted to the wild jumps of the cops. Agent Brown, however, has the same unnatural grace.
The METAL SCREAM of an EL TRAIN is heard and she turns to it, racing for the back of the building. The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next building is over 40 feet away, but Trinity's face is perfectly calm, staring at some point beyond the other roof.
The cops slow, realising they are about to see something ugly as Trinity drives at the edge, launching herself into the air. From above, the ground seems to flow beneath her as she hangs in flight. She hits the floor on the other side, somersaulting up, still running hard.
The cop's stop and stare, slack-jawed, as Agent Brown duplicates the move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder, up onto one knee, 'Nooo, that's impossible...'
Just below the building are the rumbling tracks of riveted steel. The TRAIN SCREECHES beneath her, a rattling blur of grey metal. Trinity jumps, landing easily. She looks back just as Agent Brown hurls through the air barely reaching the last car. The Agent stands, yanking out a gun. She is already running hard as BULLETS WHISTLE past her head.
Ahead she sees her only chance, 50 feet beyond the point where the train has begun to turn, there is a window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick building.
Trinity zeroes in on it, running as hard as she can, her speed compounded by the train. The SCREAM of the STEEL rises as she nears the edge where the train rocks into the turn.
She hurtles into the empty night space, her body levelling into a dive. She falls, arms covering her head as the whole world seems to spin on its axis whilst she crashes with an EXPLOSION of GLASS and WOOD, then falls onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down
stairs bleeding, broken, but still alive.
Through the smashed window, she glimpses the Agent, still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the wind; stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train slides him past the window.
Trinity tries to move. Everything hurts. 'Get up, Trinity. You're fine. Get up, just get up!'. She stands and limps down the rest of the stairs.
(4)
She emerges from the shadows of an alley and, at the end of the block, in a pool of white street light, she sees it. The telephone booth.
Moving in pain, she starts down the concrete walk, focusing in completely, her pace quickening, as the PHONE begins to RING.
Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly u-turns, its TIRES SCREAMING as it turns.
Trinity sees the headlights on the truck arcing at the telephone booth as if taking aim.
Then gritting through the pain she runs towards the booth. At her first movement, the truck wheelspins into motion aimed at the booth. she races the truck. Reaching for the phone, she looks around. The headlights blindingly bright, bearing down on the box of Plexiglas just as she answers the phone.
There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking mass of dark metal lurches up onto the sidewalk, barrelling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick wall, smashing it to Plexiglas pulp.
After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of the garbage truck. Agent Smith inspects the wreckage. There is no body. Trinity is gone.
His jaw sets as he grinds his molars in frustration. AGENT JONES walks up behind him.
"Did you get anything from the room?", "Their next target. The name is Neo". The handset of the pay phone lays on the ground, separated in the crash like a severed limb. "We'll need a search running". "It's already begun".
(5)
Neo's apartment seems overgrown with technology. Weed-like cables coil everywhere, duct-taped into thickets that wind up and around the legs of several desks. Table tops are filled with cannibalised equipment that lay open like an autopsied corpse.
In the centre of this rat-nest of technology, slumped on a desk is a young man who knows more about living inside a computer than living outside one. He is deep in sleep whilst his computer glares flicking through information, searching. Abruptly, the screen goes black. "Wake up", is spelled out across the screen as if just typed. Neo's eyes flick open. He half stretches, dozily glancing at the screen. His eyes widen, he sits up. "What the.." He hits escape in an attempt to dispose of the text. "Do you want to know what the Matrix is, Neo?", a new line of text. Neo is frozen when he reads his name. "What the hell..." again he tries in vain to clear the screen. "follow the white rabbit", trickles the text. He stares, confused. The screen clears. He sits back. "Knock, knock, Neo", reads the text. A chill runs down his spine and when someone KNOCKS twice on his door he almost jumps out of his chair.
He looks at the door, then back at the computer but the message is gone. He shakes his head, not completely sure what happened. Again, someone knocks. Cautiously, Neo approaches the door. The chain is on, he opens it the door. A group who lives down the hall, is standing outside with a group of friends. "Did you get it?", the guy asks with a edge of excitment/anticipation in his trembley voice, "You got the money this time?". He holds up two hundred dollars. Neo opens the door and takes the money stopping to stare for a second then closes the door as a precaution whilst he swops the bundle for a disk taken from a hidden stash. He returns to the door and hands over the disk. "Thanks man, you're my own personal Jesus Christ", "Hey, just remember..", "yeah, yeah," interupts the guy, "I don't know you right?". Neo looks suddenly blank. "Hey you ok, Neo?", "uh, yeah, I just.., my computer it.. Do you ever get the feeling when you don't know if you're awake of asleep?". The guy smiles "Yeah man, s'called Mescaline, it's the only way to fly! Hey you need to get out more. Why don't you come down the club - loosen up?". He looks at his girlfriend "What do you reckon, Dujour? You think we can do something with him?". She looks him up and down provocatively, "Definitely!". "Er, I don't know. I have to work tomorrow", "Come on. It'll be fun. I promise", she adds. He looks up at her and suddenly notices on her shoulder blade a tattoo of a small white rabbit. The ROOM TILTS. "Yeah, yeah. Sure, I'll go."
In an old Chicago apartment, a series of halls connects a chain of small high-ceilinged rooms lined with heavy casements. Smoke hangs like a veil, blurring the few lights there are. Dressed predominantly in black, people are everywhere, gathered in cliques around pieces of furniture like jungle cats around a tree.
Neo stands against a wall, alone, sipping from a bottle of beer, feeling completely out of place, he is about to leave when he notices a woman staring at him. The woman is Trinity. She walks straight up to him. In the nearest room, shadow-like figures grind against each other to the pneumatic beat of INDUSTRIAL MUSIC.
"Hello, Neo".
"How do you know that name?", he tries to remain calm but responds too quick.
"I know a lot about you. I've been wanting to meet you for some time".
"Who are you?"
"My name is Trinity".
"Trinity? The Trinity?", he looks startled, suddenly interested. "The Trinity that cracked the I.R.S. Kansas City D-Base?"
"That was a long time ago, Neo".
"No way", he is impressed.
"What?"
"I just thought..."
She cuts him off, "...that I was a guy? Most guys do".
Neo is a little embarrassed.
"I don't have much time, Neo".
The MUSIC is so loud they must stand very close, talking directly into each other's ear.
"That was you on my computer, wasn't it?"
"I brought you here to warn you, Neo. You are in a lot of danger. They're watching you, Neo. Something happened and they found out about you".
"I don't understand -"
"You came here because you wanted an answer the the question".
He takes a sharp intake of breath, "The Matrix. What is the Matrix?"
Her body is against his; her lips very close to his ear.
There is a hypnotic quality to her voice and Neo feels the words like a drug, seeping into him.
"The truth is out there, Neo. It's looking for you and it will find you, if you want it to."
"That's all I can tell you right now. Good-bye, Neo.
Wait. Who was it? Who was the
man?
She leans close, her lips almost touching his ear as she
whispers.
TRINITY
You know who.
She turns and he watches her melt into the shifting wall
of bodies.
A SOUND RISES steadily, growing out of the music,
pressing in on Neo until it is all he can hear as we --
CUT TO:
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT
The sound is an ALARM CLOCK, slowly dragging Neo to
consciousness. He strains to read the clock face:
9:15 A.M.
NEO
Aww, no..no..no.
EXT. SKYSCRAPER
The downtown office of CorTechs, a software development
company.
INT. CORTECHS OFFICE
The main offices are along each wall, the windows
overlooking downtown Chicago.
RHINEHEART, the ultimate company man, lectures Neo
without looking at him, typing at his computer
continuously.
Neo stares at two window cleaners on a scaffolding
outside, dragging their rubber squeegees down across the
surface of the glass.
RHINEHEART
You have a problem, Mr. Anderson.
You think that you're special.
You believe that somehow the rules
do not apply to you.
He stops, glancing over his glasses at Neo, who turns in
time.
RHINEHEART
Obviously, you are mistaken.
His long, bony fingers resume clicking the keyboard.
RHINEHEART
This company is one of the top
software companies in the world
because every single employee
understands that they are a part
of a whole. Thus, if an employee
has a problem, the company has a
problem.
He turns again.
RHINEHEART
The time has come to make a
choice, Mr. Anderson. Either you
choose to be at your desk on time
from this day forth, or you choose
to find yourself another job. Do
I make myself clear?
NEO
Yes, Mr. Rhineheart. Perfectly
clear.
INT. NEO'S CUBICLE
The entire floor looks like a human honeycomb, with a
labyrinth of cubicles structured around a core of
elevators.
Neo slumps down into his chair.
Neo turns and finds a FEDERAL EXPRESS MAN at his cubicle
door.
Neo signs the pad and the Fedex guy hands him the softpak.
FEDEX
Have a nice day.
He opens the bag. Inside is a CELLULAR PHONE. It seems
the instant it is in his hand, it RINGS. Unnerved, he
flips it open.
NEO
Hello?
MORPHEUS
Hello, Neo.
Neo takes a quick breath
"Morpheus."
Neo's knees give and he falls into his chair.
MORPHEUS
I've been watching you, Neo, and I
want to meet you. I don't know if
you're ready to see what I want to
show you, but unfortunately, we
have run out of time. They're
coming for you, Neo. And I'm not
sure what they're going to do.
NEO
Who's coming for me?
MORPHEUS
Stand up and see for yourself.
NEO
Right now?
MORPHEUS
Yes. Now.
Neo starts to stand.
MORPHEUS
Do it slowly. Slowly. The elevator.
His head slowly peeks up over the partition.
At the elevator, he sees Agent Brown and Agent Jones
leading a group of cops. A female employee turns and
points out Neo's cubicle.
Neo ducks.
NEO
What the...! Damn it!
MORPHEUS
Yes!
One cop stays at the elevator, the others follow the
agents.
NEO
What do they want with me?!
MORPHEUS
I'm not sure. But, if you don't
want to find out, you better get
out of there.
NEO
How?!
MORPHEUS
I can guide you out, but you have
to do exactly what I say.
The agents are moving quickly towards the cubicle.
MORPHEUS
The cubicle across from you is
empty.
NEO
But what if...?
MORPHEUS
Go! Now!
Neo lunges across the hall, diving into the other cubicle
just as the agents turn into his row.
Neo crams himself into a dark corner, clutching the phone
tightly to him.
MORPHEUS
Stay here for a moment.
The agents enter Neo's empty cubicle. A cop is sent to
search the bathroom.
Morpheus' voice is a whisper in Neo's ear.
MORPHEUS
When I tell you, go to the end of
the row to the first office on the
left, stay as low as you can.
Sweat trickles down his forehead.
MORPHEUS
Now.
Neo rolls out of the cubicle, his eyes popping as he
freezes right behind a cop who has just turned around.
Staying crouched, he sneaks away, down the row, SHOOTING
across the opening to the first office on the left.
The room is empty.
MORPHEUS
Good. Now there is a window.
Open it.
NEO
How do you know all this?
MORPHEUS
The answer is coming, Neo.
He opens the window. The wind howls into the room.
MORPHEUS
Outside, there's a scaffold. You
can use it to get to the roof.
Leaning out the window, he sees that the scaffold is
several offices away.
NEO
No! It's too far away.
MORPHEUS
There's a small ledge. It's a
short climb. You can make it.
Neo looks down; the building's glass wall vertigos into a
concrete chasm.
NEO
No way, no way, this is crazy.
MORPHEUS
Don't be controlled by your fear,
Neo. There are only two ways out
of this building. One is that
scaffold. The other is in their
custody. You take a chance either
way. I leave it to you.
CLICK. He hangs up. Neo looks at the door, then back at
the scaffold.
NEO
This is insane! Why is this
happening to me? What did I do?
I'm nobody. I didn't do anything.
Damn!
He climbs up onto the window ledge. Hanging onto the
frame, he steps onto the small ledge.
The scaffold seems even farther away.
The WIND suddenly BLASTS up the face of the building,
knocking Neo off balance. Recoiling, he clings harder to
the frame, and the phone falls out of his hand.
He watches as it is swallowed by the distance beneath him.
A choice is suddenly made in Neo's mind.
EXT. SKYSCRAPER
The agents lead a handcuffed Neo out of the revolving
doors, forcing his head down as they push him into the
dark sedan.
Trinity watches in the rear view mirror of her
motorcycle.
TRINITY
Damn.
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - CLOSE ON CAMERA MONITOR
A wide angle view of a white room, where Neo is sitting at
a table alone.
We MOVE INTO the monitor, ENTERING the room as if the
monitor were a window.
At the same moment, the door opens and the agents enter.
Smith sits down across from Neo. A thick manila envelope
slaps down on the table between them.
Neo glances at the name on the file: 'Anderson, Thomas
A.'
AGENT SMITH
As you can see, we've had our eye
on you for some time now, Mr.
Anderson.
He opens the file. Paper rattle marks the silence as he
flips several pages. Neo cannot tell if he is looking at
the file or at him.
AGENT SMITH
It seems that you have been living
two lives. In one life, you are
Thomas A. Anderson, program writer
for a respectable software
company. You have a social
security number, you pay your
taxes and you help your land lady
carry out her garbage.
The pages continue to turn.
AGENT SMITH
The other life is lived in
computers where you go by the
hacker alias Neo, and are guilty
of virtually every computer crime
we have a law for, including the
unauthorised use of the D.M.V.
system for the removal of
automobile boots.
Neo feels himself sinking.
AGENT SMITH
One of these,lives has a future.
One of them does not.
He closes the file.
AGENT SMITH
I'm going to be as forthcoming as
I can be, Mr. Anderson. You are
here because we need your help.
He removes his sunglasses; his eyes are an unnatural ice-
blue.
AGENT SMITH
We know that you have been
contacted by a certain individual.
A man who calls himself Morpheus.
Whatever you think you know about
this man is irrelevant to the fact
that he is wanted for acts of
terrorism in more countries than
any other man in the world. He is
considered by many authorities to
be the most dangerous man alive.
He leans closer.
AGENT SMITH
My colleagues believe that I am
wasting my time with you, but I
believe you want to do the right
thing. It is obvious that you are
an intelligent man, Mr. Anderson,
and that you are interested in the
future. That is why I believe you
are ready to put your past
mistakes behind you and get on
with your life.
Neo tries to match his stare.
AGENT SMITH
We are willing to wipe the slate
clean, to give you a fresh start
and all we are asking in return is
your cooperation in bringing a
known terrorist to justice.
Neo nods to himself.
NEO
Yeah. Wow. That sounds like a
real good deal. But I think I
have a better one. How about I
give you the finger --
He does.
NEO
And you give me my phone call.
Agent Smith puts his glasses back on.
AGENT SMITH
You disappoint me, Mr. Anderson.
NEO
You can't scare me with this
gestapo crap. I know my rights.
I want my phone call.
Agent Smith smiles.
AGENT SMITH
And tell me, Mr. Anderson, what
good is a phone call if you are
unable to speak?
The question unnerves Neo and strangely, he begins to
feel the muscles in his jaw tighten.
The standing agents snicker, watching Neo's confusion
grow into panic.
Neo feels his lips grow soft and sticky as they slowly
seal shut, melding into each other until all trace of his
mouth is gone.
Wild with fear, he lunges for the door but the agents
restrain him holding him in the chair.
AGENT SMITH
You are going to help us, Mr.
Anderson, whether you want to or
not.
Smith nods and the other two rip open his shirt.
From a case taken out of his suit coat, Smith removes a
long, fiber-optic wire tap.
Neo struggles helplessly as Smith dangles the wire over
his exposed abdomen. Horrified, he watches as the
electronic device animates, become an organic creature
that resembles a hybrid of an insect and a fluke worm.
Thin, whisker-like tendrils reach out and probe into
Neo's navel. He bucks wildly as Smith drops the creature
which looks for a moment like an uncut umbilical cord --
Before it begins to burrow its, tail thrashing as it
worms its way inside.
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Screaming, Neo bolts upright in bed.
He realises that he is home. Was it a dream? His mouth
is normal. His stomach looks fine. He starts to take a
deep, everything-is-okay breath, when --
The PHONE RINGS.
It almost stops his heart. It CONTINUES RINGING,
building pressure in the room, forcing him up out of bed,
sucking him in with an almost gravitational force.
He answers it, saying nothing.
MORPHEUS .
This line is tapped, so I must be
brief.
NEO
The agents --
MORPHEUS
They got to you first, but they've
underestimated how important you
are. If they knew what I know,
you would probably be dead.
Neo feels sick.
MORPHEUS
I don't know what you are thinking
right now but I want you to
understand that I will not give up
on you until you give up on me.
Neo's throat cracks, dry as the Sahara.
MORPHEUS
Do you still want to meet?
NEO
... Yes.
MORPHEUS
Take the Howard line south.
CLICK. He closes his eyes, unsure of what he has done.
EXT. EL TRAIN
An EL TRAIN RAGES against its metal rails.
INT. TRAIN
It is three a.m., and the train carries the usual urban
night crawlers. Neo sits alone, eyes shifting, watching
everything nervously.
There is a METAL BANG and TRAIN CLATTER fills the car as
the door is opened.
Neo turns and sees a large man enter. He is wearing
sunglasses and a black leather jacket. His name is APOC
and he walks straight at Neo.
APOC
Come with me.
Neo stands just as the door at the opposite end opens and
two police officers rush in, drawing their guns.
Apoc grabs Neo, muscling him to the nearest exit. There
is no upcoming station.
Apoc yanks the emergency brake and the train buckles
against its own speed. The cops are thrown back. Neo
slams against the metal rail.
The doors open onto nothing and just when Neo regains his
balance, Apoc shoves him backwards --
He flies out from the train, arms wind-milling as he falls
from, the raised tracks --
Hurtling towards a busy city street when, out of nowhere,
a truck races under him and --
He crashes into a large dumpster-bed filled with empty
boxes.
INT. TRUCK BED
Still shaking his head, Neo realises he is not alone. A
man named Cabie is aiming a big gun at him. Trinity is
next to him, talking into a cellular phone.
TRINITY
We got him. Call the chop-shop.
She hangs up.
TRINITY
Listen to me, Neo. You have to,
trust us.
She tears off a long strip of black duct-tape and reaches
for his face.
NEO
What are you doing?
TRINITY
This has to be done for your
protection and ours.
She seals his eyes shut with the tape.
TRINITY
You can't understand right now,
but if you're not one of us,
you're one of them.
EXT. LOWER WACKER
A featureless black van glides up to a staircase that
curls down from the city's surface.
trinity guides the blind Neo down the steps. The back of
the van slaps open, revealing a young, skinny man who
looks to be still in his teens, wearing an outfit that is
a cross between a surgeon and a telephone repair man.
His name is GIZMO and he smiles lewdly at Trinity,
exposing his teeth that are wired with weird-looking
braces.
GIZMO
Va va va voom. Still the hottest
software around.
TRINITY
Hello, Gizmo.
Neo hears the voices around him.
GIZMO
This is really the guy? The guy
that Morpheus thinks --
TRINITY
Yeah.
GIZMO
But he's so old.
TRINITY
Are you going to help us or aren't
you?
GIZMO
Hacksaw. Load up the copper-top
and let's get the hell outta here.
Hacksaw is a huge man in a leather welder's apron. He
shoulders Neo and hauls him into the van.
A moment later the green lights of Lower Wacker curve
over the tinted windshield as the van rushes through the
underworld.
INT. VAN
The chop-shop is filled with electronic gadgets, wired to
meters and monitors. There are shelves lined with
medical supplies and rows of hanging tools, knives,
cleavers, and stainless steel clamps.
Neo is strapped down to an ambulance cart, listening
nervously as Gizmo gets to work.
GIZMO
Okay, first we take a little look
under the hood.
He pulls up the goggles hanging at his neck and they
blink to life with tiny halogen lights and lenses irising
to varying levels of magnification.
GIZMO
You're going to feel a little
prick.
He inserts acupuncture-like needles into Neo's lower
abdomen. The needles are wired to video monitors.
Hacksaw pilots the fiber-optic lens.
NEO
What are you doing?
TRINITY
We think you're bugged. We can't
take you to Morpheus until you're
clean.
GIZMO
There it is.
On a monitor, we see the bug nestled in among Neo's large
intestines.
GIZMO
Hit him with 10 ccs of local.
Hacksaw loads a hypodermic needle and pumps an anesthetic
around Neo's navel.
Using a device that looks like a miniature speculum,
Gizmo inserts a knuckled dental pick. Typing into a
calculator keypad wired to the pick, he automates the
tip.
On the monitor, we watch it telescope out and the end
separate into a tiny hooked, metal claw.
GIZMO
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.
The claw snags hold of the bug.
GIZMO
Gotcha!
But the bug reacts violently. Neo screams as it wraps
itself around the soft tissue web of intestine.
GIZMO
Damn.
TRINITY
What's happening?
GIZMO
I don't know. They've never done
that before.
Neo writhes in pain.
GIZMO
Hold him down.
NEO
Nooo! Ahhhhhh!
TRINITY
Do something!
GIZMO
I got it! Maybe we can stun it.
TRINITY
Are you crazy? That will kill
him.
We watch Neo, who can't see what they are talking about.
GIZMO
It'll work. Come on, do it or
Hacksaw will.
NEO
Do what?
The instant he hears the word, he knows.
TRINITY
Clear.
NEO
Oh, no --
The cry is frozen in his mouth as the paddles hit his
chest. Gizmo wrestles with the bug.
GIZMO
Hit him again!
Again, the electricity convulses through him as Gizmo
yanks the speculum out.
GIZMO
Got it!
Trinity touches Neo, who is just beginning to breathe.
She eases the tape off his eyes.
TRINITY
Neo, are you okay?
He nods.
TRINITY
It's over. We got it.
Hanging from the claw pick is the inanimate metal wire-
tap.
GIZMO
Nasty little bugger, ain't it?
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
The van stops in a deserted alley behind a forgotten
hotel. The doors open and Trinity helps Neo get out.
It is raining heavily.
It is a place of putrefying elegance, a rotting host of
urban maggotry.
Trinity leads Neo from the stairwell down the hall of the
thirteenth floor. They stop outside room 1313.
TRINITY
This is it.
Neo can hear his own heart pounding.
TRINITY
Let me give one piece of advice.
Be honest. He knows more than you
can possibly imagine.
INT. ROOM 1313
Across the room, a dark figure stares out the tall
windows veiled with decaying lace. He turns and his
smile lights up the room.
MORPHEUS
At last.
He wears a long black coat and his eyes are invisible
behind circular mirrored glasses.
He strides to Neo and they shake hands.
MORPHEUS
Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt
have guessed, I am Morpheus.
NEO
It's an honour.
MORPHEUS
No, the honour is mine. Please. Come. Sit.
He nods to Trinity.
She bows her head sharply and exits through a door to an
adjacent room.
They sit across from one another in cracked, burgundy-
leather chairs.
MORPHEUS
I imagine, right now, you must be
feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling
down the rabbit hole?
NEO
You could say that.
MORPHEUS
I can see it in your eyes. You
have the look of a man who accepts
what he sees because he is
expecting to wake up.
A smile, razor-thin, curls the corner of his lips.
MORPHEUS
Ironically, this is not far from
the truth. But I'm getting ahead
of myself. Can you tell me, Neo,
why are you here?
Do you believe in fate, Neo?
NEO
No.
MORPHEUS
Why not? Because you don't like the idea that
you're not in control of your life?
Neo shrugs.
MORPHEUS
I know exactly what you mean.
Again, that smile that could cut glass.
MORPHEUS
Let me tell you why you are here.
You are here because you have the
gift.
NEO
What gift?
MORPHEUS
I've watched you, Neo. You do not
use a computer like a tool. You
use it like it was part of
yourself. What you can do inside
a computer is not normal. I know.
I've seen it. What you do is
magic.
Neo shrugs.
NEO
It's not magic.
MORPHEUS
But it is, Neo. It is. How else
would you describe what has been
happening to you?
He leans forward.
MORPHEUS
We are trained in this world to
accept only what is rational and
logical. Have you ever wondered
why?
Neo shakes his head.
MORPHEUS
As children, we do not separate
the possible from the impossible
which is why the younger a mind is
the easier it is to free while a
mind like yours can be very
difficult.
NEO
Free from what?
MORPHEUS
From the Matrix.
Neo locks at his eyes but only sees a reflection of
himself.
MORPHEUS
Do you want to know what it is,
Neo?
Neo swallows and nods his head.
MORPHEUS
It's that feeling you have had all
your life. That feeling that
something was wrong with the
world. You don't know what it is
but it's there, like a splinter in
your mind, driving you mad,
driving you to me. But what is
it?
The LEATHER CREAKS as he leans back.
MORPHEUS
The Matrix is everywhere, it's all
around us, here even in this room.
You can see it out your window, or
on your television. You feel it
when you go to work, or go to
church or pay your taxes. It is
the world that has been pulled
over your eyes to blind you from
the truth.
NEO
What truth?
MORPHEUS
That you are a slave, Neo. That
you, like everyone else, was born
into bondage...
... kept inside a prison that you
cannot smell, taste, or touch. A
prison for your mind.
Outside, the WIND BATTERS a loose PANE of glass.
MORPHEUS
Unfortunately, no one can be told
what the Matrix is. You have to
see it for yourself.
Morpheus holds out a red pill in one hand and a blue in the other.
MORPHEUS
This is your last chance. After
this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill and the
story ends. You wake in your bed
and you believe whatever you want
to believe.
The pills in his open hands are reflected in the glasses.
MORPHEUS
You take the red pill and you stay
in Wonderland and I show you how
deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Neo reaches for a pill but stops as MORPHEUS breaks the silence.
MORPHEUS
Remember, all I am offering you is
the truth. Nothing more.
Neo opens his mouth and swallows the red pill.
MORPHEUS
Follow me.
He leads Neo into the other room, which is cramped with
high-tech equipment, glowing ash-bliie and electric green
from the racks of monitors.
Trinity, Apoc and Cypher look up as they enter.
In the centre of the room sits a chair. Near the chair
is an old oval dressing mirror that is cracked.
Neo sits and Trinity begins gently fixing white electrode
disks to his head, arms, and the back of his neck.
MORPHEUS
If the virtual reality apparatus,
as you called it, was wired to all
of your senses and controlled them
completely, would you be able to
tell the difference between the
virtual world and the real world?
Neo whispers to Trinity.
NEO
You did all this?
She nods, placing a set of headphones over his ears.
They are wired to an old hotel phone.
MORPHEUS
The pill you took is part of a
trace program. It will help us locate you.
Distantly, through the ear phones, he hears Apoc POUNDING
on a KEYBOARD. Sweat beads his face. His eyes blink and
twitch when he notices the mirror.
Wide-eyed he stares as it begins to heal itself, a
webwork of cracks that slowly run together as though the
mirror were becoming liquid.
NEO
No way...
Cypher works with Apoc checking reams of phosphorescent
data. Trinity monitors Neo's electric vital signs.
Neo reaches out to touch the mirror and his fingers
disappear beneath the rippling surface.
Quickly, he tries to pull his fingers out but the mirror
stretches in long rubbery strands like mirrored-taffy
stuck to his fingertips.
NEO
What is this? Mescaline?
MORPHEUS
Just relax, Neo.
The strands thin like rubber cement as he pulls away,
until the fragile wisps of mirror thread break.
With the TINKLING of GLASS, shimmering snowflakes
&n |
IronPython in Action
