Yep, it’s another Matrix thread. There are spoilers for both parts, so stop here if you haven’t seen them.
I’ve always assumed that the Matrix simulated the entire planet. However, some evidence points in another direction.
In Matrix, the Oracle just happens to be in the same city that Neo lived in (“I used to eat there. Good noodles”).
An IMDb goofs entry for Matrix reads “The matrix is apparently simulating some unknown American city (the accents of the characters, references to one phone call, IRS, and Social Security number). However, the sign near the elevator button refers to a “lift,” a rooftop sign says “authorised,” an ATM has a sign for an Australian bank, and cars are seen driving on the left (or, when Neo drops the phone, on the right against the road markings). In the very final scene where Neo makes the phone call, after he hangs up there is a clear shot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background. Arguments for these inconsistencies being part of the matrix and hence not problems don’t wash, since the matrix is trying to be accurate (else why make it so much like the “real” world).”
In general, the characters seem very acquainted with the particular nameless city that Neo lived in. They are never given directions to, for example, Wells and Lake; they just know how to get there.
In Matrix Reloaded, Trinity says that Morpheus always told them to stay off the freeway. It seems like they always hang around that particular freeway.
In Matrix Reloaded, Neo walks through a “back door” and finds himself in what I first thought was Japan. Link tells him he’s “up in the mountains” and that Trinity and Morpheus are “in the city”. No mention of what mountains or what city.
On the other hand:
Agent Smith says “Have you ever stood and stared at it, Morpheus? Marveled at its beauty. Its genius. Billions of people just living out their lives… oblivious” at one point in The Matrix. Billions of people are way too many to fit into one city.
Don’t you think they would have told Neo if most of the planet he knew actually never existed? “Your life is a dream, and by the way that city is the only place there is, and even that doesn’t exist.”
“However, the sign near the elevator button refers to a “lift,” a rooftop sign says “authorised,” an ATM has a sign for an Australian bank, and cars are seen driving on the left (or, when Neo drops the phone, on the right against the road markings). In the very final scene where Neo makes the phone call, after he hangs up there is a clear shot of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the background.”
Parts of the movie were filmed in Sydney,Australia.
Which accounts for all these things.
Presumably not. Its likely that Morpheus is responsible for operating in that particular section of the Matrix. Regardless, I fail to see how carrying out the action in one city negates the potential global totality of the Matrix. presumably, the Oracle knew where she needed to be in order to help out the One.
I thought it looked like a Shintoist temple, not a European castle. One of us is obviously either blind, mad, stupid or lying. Can anyone else back either of us up?
It’s not a goof unless they claimed they were in a specific city. If they said “We’re in New York” while they showed the Golden Gate & Bay Bridge in the background, then that would be a goof.
Why not? They could purposely screw things up if they wanted. Who said the matrix was trying to be accurate in every detail? The cities are long gone, anyway. They are no longer physical places.
At the beginning of the first film, one of the headlines scrolling across Neo’s computer screen refers to morpheus evading authorities at Heathrow airport (which is near London, here in the UK. I think we can assume from that that it’s more than just one city being simulated.
It seems to me that the first one had a Chicago feel about it, with the intersection names and whatnot, and the second one had an L.A. feel (with the freeway). Maybe the third one will have a “New York feel”?
I remember some scenes in matrix 1 with fire escape stairs. They are very often seen in the states but nowhere else.
The mountains shown in matrix reloaded aren’t similar to the Alps at all. They are way too ‘smooth’, no wood, no rocks.
And there are no castles up in the Alps (IIRC), which makes sense, if you consider the effort needed to build a castle in 15k feet mountans. And as priceguy said, that doesn’t look like a european castle.
I probably won’t see the movie again, but I thought the castle was European. Probably not in the Alps, maybe the Pyrenees, but the mountains could have been mixed in from anywhere.
The strongest evidence for it being in Europe is simply that it’s the castle of the Merovingian, suggesting that it’s in France somewhere.
I don’t know exactly how long it takes Neo to fly there, but it seems to be at least several minutes at super-speed, suggesting a long distance.
Another thing about the city & freeway, just something I noticed :
The sign they enter the freeway indicates ‘101’, though 101 is marked using red-white-blue US Interstate symbols. This sign is actually located in Alameda, to enter the 880-Bay Bridge connection, which is the side of the freeway where the heroes et al. are on. You can see a modified Oakland in those scenes.
The other side (opposite flow of traffic in the movie), though, is the ‘real’ (Federal Highway) 101. At one point you can see exit signs that are on the southbound section of 101 in the Bay Area (near San Carlos/Belmont).
As to the Matrix, I think it’s worldwide, but the Zion people (Zionists?) tend to work in specific areas that they know (possibly those in which they grew up).
Also, the tunnel that they drive through briefly before getting on the freeway is one of the tunnels connecting Alameda to Oakland, and you can see the Bay Bridge in a few shots.
Most everybody is right, I think. The street names are borrowed from Chicago, while the movies were shot in Australia, and occasionally that ‘leaks’ through. Since the story isn’t supposed to take place in a specific city, they can just throw in a giant freeway (in fact, they had to build the thing) or whatever other features they want.
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