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11. The Matrix - Morpheus/Neo Matchup

“Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place? You think that’s air you’re breathing now?”

It is the rare sequence that manages to combine exposition with action at all, much less do both well. But this scene from the Wachowski Bros. 1999 breakthrough meshes Hong Kong ethic with sci-fi-losophy to help explain the film’s premise. It also happens that another word for this mesh is gaming.

The timing of The Matrix could hardly have been more ideal. PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox were all within a year or two of release. Within three years, video game revenues would surpass those of theatrical release. Gaming was about to break. This is an action sequence for that generation.

Intellectually, the parallels are clear. Morpheus and Neo fight in a computer construct. Their agility and strength are based on mental, not physical parameters. Aurally, the techno in the sequence’s mid-section evokes fighting games. Visually the iconography is even more blatant. They are framed initially like they are in MortalVirtuaStreetKombat 3. All they’re missing are status bars above their heads.

(The rest of the photography goes light years beyond this device. Cinematographer Bill Pope combines gorgeous slo-mo shots with fluid Steadicam choreography, dancing with Morpeus and Neo as they spar.)

All this focus on video game imagery is not to say the filmmakers abandon that which makes a traditional action sequence great. You still have character revealed through combat. As they begin, the poses they strike tell you everything you need to know about their state of mind. Neo is cocky, full of excess motion. Morpheus is calm, stately.

The fight itself is unique in that, because of the context of the scene, few punches actually connect. Master Woo-ping Yuen manages to make choreography composed of blocks interesting. It doesn’t hurt that the context also allows him to make liberal use of wirework, with the Wachowskis providing license in the script, as gravity is a malleable concept in this universe.

In another nice character touch, Mouse manages to illicit the first moment of enthusiasm from the jaded crew by announcing who is fighting. This shows how you can enhance a sequence by giving it an audience especially when you show that audience, which has been phased by nothing else, is suddenly paying attention. It means we should be paying attention.

Again, we see the advantages of teaching your actors to fight, in this case, over 8 months of training. Keanu improvises a little nose rub move in the middle of the scene that just nails Neo’s attitude. This is what an actor can bring to a fight that a stuntman, because you really can’t see his face, cannot.

Of course, stuntmen would probably not bruise each other as much. Keanu and Laurence got pretty banged up.

See also: The rest of The Matrix, any fight in Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Rock bar fight in The Rundown.

Next: The final 10. Some are obvious. Others will probably piss you off.