Today I watched the first Matrix movie and analysed it with my students, twice. We looked at the way the movie follows the Hero’s Journey and the classic three act structure.
The Matrix hits so many of the steps of the Hero’s Journey it’s a good one to use. The call to adventure is actually a phone call, the Resurrection is actually a resurrection.
The first Matrix movie was made in 1999, 11 years ago and the students who were with me would have been kids at the time. They laughed at scenes that, when the movie came out, made us go ‘Wow, that is so cool’.
This made me realise how lines and images from the movie have become genre tropes, which I guess is a sign of a ground breaking genre movie. 
For instance, that image of Carrie-anne Moss leaping into the air, had become a cliche by the time the princess did it in the first Shrek movie.
And there’s the spoon boy. In my house we sometimes say ‘There is no spoon’ to close a philosophical discussion. Everyone gets the reference.
Wonder what they boy is doing now.
And then there’s bullet time. Even the phrase carries the connotations. It’s a short-hand way of describing action.
For those of you who are into these things here’s a site with memorable quotes from the movie.
I enjoyed revisiting the first Matrix movie and taking the time to analyse what the Wachowski brothers were doing.
It is not the sort of thing I’d choose to watch over and over, unlike Fire Fly for instance, which has layers upon layers. But I can still admire it for what it is.
I guess a writer or movie maker knows they have made an impression when things they’ve created become part of popular culture. When a new type of hominid gets named a ‘hobbit’ you know that the book where that invented word appeared has become mainstream.
What movies of books have made a lasting impression on you? What did you find yourself thinking about days afterwards?
