“The truth is often terrifying, which I think is one of the motifs of Larry and Andrew’s cinema,” Keanu Reeves notes of the Wachowski brothers continued explorations of The Matrix's beguiling universe. “The cost of knowledge is an important theme. In the second and third films, they explore the consequences of Neo’s choice to know the truth. They’ve made Reloaded and Revolutions even more dense and provocative and entertaining than the first film. It’s a beautiful, beautiful story.” The story, it’s ultimately what makes science fiction literature so mind expanding and what so often disappoints on the silver screen. Where FX gurus often are more leaden storytellers than the lead in their pencils. (I know it’s graphite, work with me.) Not this time, because at the heart of Reloaded is a continuation of The Matrix’s pastiche of philosophy, which mixes elements of Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and assorted western and eastern thought with the anything is possible, looking glass world, of Alice in Wonderland. It’s an Alice where Hong Kong action-style Kung Fu is the currency. “What Larry and Andrew are trying to achieve in their storytelling, the physical action they present, the elements of new cinema and technology they have invented to create images, is unparalleled,” says Reeves, who prepped for the film by reading Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation and Kevin Kelly’s Out of Control. Keanu Reeves is back as Neo, the computer hacker drafted into messiahhood, in the gravity-defying world of the Matrix. Unlike some actors, who have to be dragged, cajoled and practically coerced to do sequels, he looked forward to the further development of the The Matrix’s dream-like world. “I didn’t really have any reservations. I really just had hope, and curiosity. Just what are they going to cook up these crazy cats!” Speaking of crazy cats, Reloaded is a world where even in the darkest corridors sunglasses reign supreme. Check out Neo, Morpheus and Trinity --it hasn’t been that cool to wear shades since the Beatnik era. Even the new to Reloaded, dreadlocked duo known as “The Twins” (Adrian Rayment and Neil Rayment), have their shades on. Dressed in a black sport coat, with a black t-shirt and faded blue jeans, Reeves is relaxed in comparison to his needle-edged Neo persona. Sitting just off the set, he is relaxed, but also proud and excited. “How can you not be excited by getting to hopefully do the best work on this project that you might ever get the chance to do in your creative life?" The Matrix Reloaded is easily the most highly anticipated sequel since The Empire Strikes Back hit screens a little over two decades ago, and the Wachowski brothers face the duel task of turning a landmark sci-fi film into a trilogy, and all the while not destroying both the freshness and uniqueness that was the essence of The Matrix “The second film is really a personal quest for Neo,” says Reeves of Neo’s ultimate mission. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo has accepted his role as the One, and the awesome obligation that implies. All of humankind’s fate rest in the hope that he can end the War with the Machines. It is a war that continues to go badly for humankind, and the last free rebels bravely hold out in the cavern city of Zion as the Machine Army approaches to bring their extinction. “The stuff I had the opportunity to participate in, again, is just so ambitious,” says Reeves. “He’s going through a process of trying to come to terms with what he’s been asked to do. He’s on a further quest for the truth, and this means he has to fight harder than before and confront visions of the future.” Back again is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), but this time he is back a hundred-fold, and with his own autonomous agenda. Neo takes on an army of Agent Smiths in a battle designed to once again smash FX barriers. This time, instead of the pioneering “bullet-time” imagery from The Matrix, Reloaded features an onslaught of computer generated Agent Smiths, all totally photo-realistic in every way due to a new technology known as Universal Capture. “We wanted to be able to achieve the extraordinary,” says Reeves. “We were doing 18-second takes with a 180-degree Steadicam, where I have over twenty-five moves,” says Reeves of the painstaking work that went into perfecting the brutal ballet. “I worked every day for six weeks with twelve incredible stunt men.” Clearly, even the “extraordinary” has been exceeded. From Agent Smith’s voracious, sardine can ripping open of the roof of a speeding Cadillac (in possibly the most breathtaking high-speed chase ever filmed) to fight scenes that ramp up the action exponentially from those in The Matrix -- this is a fever-pitch thrill ride. Providing that thrill ride placed even more pressure on the cast as a whole and Reeves in particular. “Training for these two films was probably three times harder than preparing for the first,” Reeves explains of his continuing student/teacher relationship with renowned master martial artist and wirework specialist Yuen Wo Ping. “Neo’s Kung Fu elements and wire work are more sophisticated -- there are more movements in one particular fight in Reloaded than there are in the whole of the first Matrix.” It took Reeves nine weeks working with twelve stunt men just to complete a five-and-a-half-minute, intricate, violent, fighting ballet of over 500 moves. “Wo Ping, Larry and Andy want the fights to be as spectacular as possible,” he says. “They love spectacle and they want to entertain. They’re interested in physical contact in both its positive and negative light, in the same way that fire can be destructive and it can also give warmth -- that’s what they want from an action sequence.” Just as Neo is learning on screen, Reeves was learning off screen. It occasionally turned his relationship with Wo Ping into a two-way street, as Reeves offered his own insights into possible fight choreography. “Wo Ping was amenable to me making some in-the-moment floor choices,” Reeves says. “Which isn’t at all to say that I disagreed with the choreography, but just in terms of having the flexibility to express my own style.” Ah, grasshopper, you are learning, but sometimes the lesson ends up with the student retiring to a bathtub full of ice. “The more I could do, the more they pushed me,” he explains. “So when I could do one thing well, that was the day they’d ask me if I could do two things. Then when we were shooting, the brothers would ask me if I could do seven things! It was all very good fun, but very hard work as well. And painful -- ice is your friend.” Reloaded’s battle between the artificial intelligence of the Machines and the human spirit will ultimately conclude this November with The Matrix Revolutions, but Reloaded is in no way filler merely baiting us before the release of the climactic conclusion. It is as thought provoking as it is thrilling, and it takes sci-fi cinema into the land of sci-fi literature. “Well, I know personally that we have done things, that I don’t believe, have never been attempted in western action cinema before.” --Mark Raddle © 2003 PREVUE Magazine. All rights reserved. Photos: © 2003 Warner Bros. Pictures. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.