rosareycI
THE MATRIX RELOADED
Written by
Andy and Larry Wachowski
FADE IN ON:
Dark clouds below the inky remnants of the scorched sky. We hear wind as we
sail, like a glider, over the black atmosphere.
We DIVE DOWN
into the murkiness, through the clouds, into the darker world of the dead
surface of Earth, the desert of the real. The rotted skeleton of a massive city
is sprawled everywhere. We approach a fissure in the Earth's crust, and as we
do, we hear the increasing buzz of multiple hovercraft engines. Blue flashes
grow in intensity from the fissure. Radio voices, indistinct at first, grow
louder as we approach the fissure.
WOMAN (V.O.)
"
MAN (V.O.)
"I know. Can't tow this crate fast enough! We gotta ditch it!"
We hear the
voices as though we're listening to cops through a police scanner. The woman is
NIOBE, the captain of the lead ship, Sephora.
NIOBE (V.O.)
"Can't, the core is still good. And they've got
'The One.'"
MAN (V.O.)
"Oooh,
our savior. He’d better be worth it."
NIOBE (V.O.)
"Shut up and make the exit. Hold on!"
The azure glow
from the fissure is suddenly overwhelming. A tight convoy of three HOVERCRAFT explode from the fissure, traveling nearly
straight up, like a trio of massive locomotives flying into the sky in tight
formation, linked together by tow cables. The blue glow has been emanating from
the overworked flare drives of the first and third hovercrafts. Between them,
suspended by tow cables, is the dark, scorched, and sliced NEBACHANEZZER. They
rocket upward, slowing as they reach the top of the arc.
NIOBE (V.O.)
"Woo-hoooh!"
The rush to the ground, pulling up at the last second. The
MAN (V.O.)
"They're still on us!"
More vehicles fly
from the fissure. A massive army of SQUIDDIES pours up onto the surface.
INT.
NEBACHANEZZER COCKPIT
The
It's been a
mere TWO DAYS since the realization of NEO’S POWERS and the defeat of AGENT
SMITH. The slipstream whistles violently into the interior of the ship, and the
crew is cold, tired, haggard, and stressed beyond belief as they can only watch
the action in their knocked-out ship.
MORPHEUS is on
a headset.
MORPHEUS
"Niobe, they’re
closing."
NIOBE
"How many?"
MORPHEUS
"Just a few. Maybe
two or three. Hundred."
INT. SEPHORA
COCKPIT
NIOBE, as regal
as she is beautiful, sits at the controls of her ship with her co-pilot, a
younger female. All visible dials are redlined as they streak over the dark
surface.
NIOBE
"You’ve got a gift for understatement."
INT. FREEDOM COCKPIT
THE FREEDOM’S
CAPTAIN, a silhouette in a dark cockpit, is flying blind. His cockpit is awash
in the blue flares from NIOBE’S ship.
His lieutenant,
a shadowy female figure, reaches for the radar screen. As she does, we see her
bare shoulder fall into view, a WHITE RABBIT tattoo is
conspicuous.
They switch
their screens to the radar, squiddies right on their
ass.
MAN
"Oh shit, we’re screwed. We gotta
set down and EMP ‘em."
NIOBE (V.O.)
"Too many!"
EXT. FREEDOM
A racing
SQUIDDIES reaches the hull and latches on, striking up its cutting laser and
ripping into the hull.
INT. SEPHORA
COCKPIT
MAN (V.O.)
"They’re on me! Shit! Losing
power!"
NIOBE’S
Lieutenant, a muscular Asian woman, Circa, notes
something on a console.
CIRCA
"Multiple bogies
closing!"
NIOBE
"No shit."
CIRCA
"From the front!"
Niobe is grim faced as she peers into the sky ahead. Several objects are
closing in fast.
CIRCA
"Are they - "
She doesn't
have time to finish the question, as the oncoming fighters launch a massive
volley of missiles. From afar, they look like dark irises surrounded by a
corona of flame. At first, we can't tell exactly what they are, until their
fiery trails rip straight at the SEPHORA cockpit.
CIRCA DUCKS as
the missiles harmlessly streak by.
INT.
A massive swarm
off missiles blasts by the cockpit. The individual warheads swerve at the last
second, blowing SQUIDDIES apart, or casting them to the ground aflame.
INT. SEPHORA
COCKPIT
Niobe breathes a sigh of relief. Her lieutenant looks back up to see a
wing of HOVER FIGHTERS - 'DEFENDERS' fly past their ship. Sleek, with huge blue
flares from their engines, they're gunship fighters armed to the teeth with
missiles and laser turrets studding the fuselage.
NIOBE
"They're ours."
DEFENDER ONE (V.O.)
"Hold on, folks, you're in for a little
cleaning."
EXT. THE
SURFACE
The wing of
DEFENDERS makes short work of the squiddies. The
half-dozen clinging to FREEDOM'S hull are picked off by well-placed laser shots
that turn the squiddies into curdling balls of slag.
The squiddies that survive turn tail and run.
INT.
The crew of the
NEO has been
gripping an oh-shit handle on the edge of the cockpit. He relaxes his grip as
their escape is clear. Their ship suddenly enters a cave, and starts to
descend. The blue wash of the ship shows rock walls and pipes. The ships are
slowing down as they descend back into the earth.
TANK'S
shoulders drop, and he leans back into his chair.
TANK
"We're home."
TRINITY
"Well, not yet, but we're in the defense
screen."
NEO
"What's that?"
MORPHEUS
"A concentric ring of defenses
that shields
NIOBE (V.O.)
"
MORPHEUS
"For the moment, perhaps. Its
still a long drive home."
FADE OUT
and
FADE INTO:
TRINITY'S CABIN. At first we see only stars twinkling, faraway
diamonds on a black velvet background. The camera descends through the
darkness, to a sunset, dark blue, as if just after sunset. The artwork
terminates in the metal ring going around her room. It's a much more hospitable
place than the rest of the dreary hovercraft. The articles she's collected
during her time in the resistance dot the cabin. An unfinished sweatshirt sits
on a loom. There are charcoal portraits of loved ones.
Softly lit, the
cabin sways slightly. The
Neo can’t
sleep. He stares at the wall opposite him. There's a photo of the crew of the
Gently, placing
Trinity's head down, NEO stands and examines the photo.
She awakens.
TRINITY
"I'll have to take that one down now. Cypher..."
NEO
"Who is this guy?"
TRINITY
"Who?"
NEO points to the mystery man.
TRINITY
"That was... I… forgot his name."
NEO
"What happened to him?"
TRINITY is
sullen.
"He didn’t make it."
NEO returns to
the bed and sits down, disturbed. Trinity sits up, awakening.
NEO
"Was he like me?"
TRINITY nods.
TRINITY
"Not you, though. Like you. There have been
others, Neo."
"Aren't you tired?"
NEO
"No. I've never been a big sleeper."
TRINITY
"I know. I used to watch you hacking without
sleeping for days."
He turns to her, questions in his eyes.
NEO
"How many 'ones' have there been?"
TRINITY
"That's not the point."
NEO may not
think so.
TRINITY
"You are him. You’re mine."
NEO
"But what does it mean,
to be The One?"
TRINITY
"I don't know, Neo. Our mission was to find
you."
NEO
"So, now what?"
TRINITY
"Now,
The hatch
swings open. MORPHEUS peers in.
MORPHEUS
"We're almost home. We'll need a detail. Five
minutes."
HE closes the
hatch and disappears.
NEO
"Does he ever knock?"
TRINITY
"Not on his ship."
CUT TO:
INT. MAIN DECK,
The crew grips
the bulkhead and fixtures as the swaying ship comes to a rest. Outside, the
sounds of hover engines fade away. Tank unlocks the main hatch, then jumps as
it drops, unpowered, slamming into the tarmac with a
resounding smash.
CUT TO: EXT.
The tarmac is a
busy, crowded military airport, with hovercraft of different sizes spread
across the lot. Its housed poorly lit, houses in a cave so huge the ceiling is
out of site. Crewpersons run around, servicing battle-damaged vehicles.
Munitions are carted across the tarmac on robot rolling racks. No one pays the
Nearby, the
SEPHORA and FREEDOM are parked. Their engines shut down, and their powered
hatches are open. The crewmembers are spilling out.
NIOBE hurries
to MORPHEUS' side, and he steps toward her, smiling, but their military manner
is quickly restored, though they can barely contain their grins.
MORPHEUS
"Niobe..."
SHE shakes his
hand, the shake slows down.
"M."
MORPHEUS
"Thanks for the rescue."
THEY close for
a kiss, when the FREEDOM'S captain suddenly jumps between them.
It's CHOI - the
NEO's supposed neighbor and hacking financier. Exhuberant and oblivious, he joyfully gets in MORPHEUS'
face.
CHOI
"Brough,
you us your asses! We saved you so hard core you don't even know!"
NIOBE smiles at
Morpheus and fades back as BOOTH shouts his own
praises. Morpheus turns to his less-mature peer.
CHOI
"So, you think you finally found The One, huh? Another One?"
DUJOUR, CHOI'S
LIEUTENANT, pushes into their conversation, looking offscreen.
DUJOUR
"Idiot, we
helped him find him. Hello, Morpheus."
CHOI
"Huh?"
He looks at
what she's seeing. His gaze halts on NEO. He's concentrating on TANK and his
apparent girlfriend, who seems to be consoling him. He turns to see CHOI and
DUJOUR, does a double-take, and his jaw drops open.
NEO
"You?"
CHOI is quick
to resume his cool.
CHOI
"In the flesh, so to
speak."
DUJOUR
"Welcome to the real world, Neo. I'm glad you're
here."
CHOI
"What do you think, Dujour?
Should we take him with us?"
DUJOUR
"Definitely."
CHOI
"Morpheus?"
MORPHEUS turns
from Niobe and a
MORPHEUS
"Go on ship's liberty. Meet me in the Dead Duck
at
EXT.
It's like a
valley floor running between two gigantic walls of rock that are nearly
vertical, coming together in an elongated archway. Carved into the street level
are innumerable stores and shops, above them, apartments and balconies that
rise to the top of the arch. People flow through the street. Their clothes are
homespun wool, denim, and leather. Dyes and color are absent. Carved into the
solid granite walls, between homes and around windows and doors, are intricate
and beautiful carvings.
NEO is lead down
the street by CHOI, DUJOUR, and TRINITY, and a few other rebels. The push through a mult-culti crowd of
people, humanity melting into one race.
CHOI
"See, man? This is home. This is
the main street. One of ‘em,
anyway. Almost everyone is a fighter. Sometimes, even
the kids.
THEY pass an
outdoor workshop where youngsters are assembling small machines.
CHOI
"Our energy as a people is directed toward
liberation. Check it out, here are some newcomers."
A group of
frail, buzz-cut androgonites pass by them. They look
at NEO, recognizing him as one of them, a new comer.
NEO
"Where did they come from?"
CHOI
"Energy plant we raided on our last mission.
There were some survivors."
NEO
"How are their minds freed from the Matrix?"
TRINITY
"With difficulty."
DUJOUR
"If at all."
They step into
a club, Dead Duck. It’s a sailor joint. Lots of wood,
beer on tap, and rum. Crewmembers of other ships recognize the rebels,
greeting them, as they eye Neo. They take a booth in the corner. The waitress
arrives.
WAITRESS
"Welcome home, brothers and sisters. First day back?"
CHOI
"Yes, lovely."
WAITRESS
"On the house, then. Four
rums?"
TRINITY
"Make it eight."
The waitress
smirks and leaves. TRINITY turns to CHOI.
TRINITY
"Any casualties?"
CHOI lights up
and takes a drag.
CHOI
"Two. Sidewinder and
Left-right."
DUJOUR
"I can’t believe Cypher
turned. Bastard."
CHOI
"He who loses faith…"
DUJOUR
"Neo, we monitored your fight. Did you really
gain enlightenment?"
NEO shrugs.
NEO
"All I know is I kicked Smith’s ass."
CHOI
"Fuckin’
finally, Jesus Christ. It’s about time we iced that bastard."
DUJOUR
"Yeah, we finally won against an agent?"
CHOI
"I guess 1 ‘n 298 isn’t a bed record, huh?"
The drinks
arrive. Tall glasses of rum.
CHOI holds his
glass aloft. They raise their glasses to toast.
CHOI
"Live free or die."
ALL (save NEO)
"Live free."
They slam the
rum back, and slam empty glasses on the table. NEO can barely manage to sip
his.
NEO
"God, how do you do that?"
TRINITY
"You’ve never drank before."
DUJOUR
"Not for real."
CHOI
"You want to know what being The One means?"
NEO
"What?"
CHOI
"One drink and you’re toast."
DUJOUR
"Neo, you know what else you’ve never done?"
She glances at
Trinity, who falls back against the seat, turning to suppress a smile. Choi cracks up.
NEO
"Yeah."
DUJOUR
"Yeah, you’ve never done it."
CHOI
"And virtual doesn’t count, man, doesn’t fucking
count."
NEO
"Well. I’ll drink to that."
CHOI
"Here, here."
This time, NEO
follows the others and slams back the entire glass. He coughs and sputters as
his friends and bar patrons cheer him on."
EXT.
The lights are
dim, and only a few late night revelers stagger through the streets on their
way back home. Walking straight and calmly through the stragglers are MORPHEUS
and NIOBE.
MORPHEUS
"So, how do you like having your own
command?"
NIOBE
"It’s good. But trying.
The responsibility…"
THEY stop
before the entrance to the DEAD DUCK.
MORPHEUS
"You must be both mother and father to your
crew."
NIOBE nods, and
looks into the bar. Inside, the crews are raging drunk and loud.
NIOBE
"Who will you be now? The mother,
or the father?"
MORPHEUS peers
in on the scene and grins.
MORPHEUS
"As long as they don’t get out of line, I’ll just
be a brother."
INT. DEAD DUCK
NEO is out of
it, while the others are merely comfortably in the bag. He’s acting like a kid
who broke into his father’s liquor cabinet.
CHOI
"So, you went back in, and you two pulled
him out?"
TRINITY nods,
herself in disbelief. NEO picks his head up off the table.
NEO
"Kicked… kicked Smith’s ass."
CHOI eyes MORPHES and NIOBE coming toward them.
CHOI
"Hey, did you kick anybody else’s ass, Neo? Like Morpheus?"
NEO
"Morpheus? Yeah, I
smacked him around, too."
MORPHEUS
arrives just in time to hear the last part. He stands and grins down at NEO.
MORPHEUS
"So, you can smack me around, Neo?"
NEO
"Oh yeah. Anytime."
MORPHEUS taps
him on the forehead. NEO blinks and falls back into the booth. He stands before
them.
TRINITY
"How’s Tank?"
MORPHEUS
"He’s on bereavement leave with his mother. Dozer
was the second son she’s lost in this war."
His comments
set a sober tone.
MORPHEUS
"The Nebechanezzer is
out of commission for at least a month. But, that’s not giving us a rest."
TRINITY
"Let me guess. We’ve been ordered back out
anyway."
MORPHEUS
"Yes. This is another special op. I’m in command, Niobe and Trinity are
team leaders. Neo is our secret weapon."
FLASH TO: NEO, passed out with his mouth open on the couch.
MORPHEUS
"We don’t know exactly what he’s capable of. He
may be just tapping his potential, or he may have already reached it. We are to
learn from him, as he does from us."
CHOI
"Why are we always getting screwed? Not only do I
have to go straight back into the shit, but I lose my command, too?"
MORPHEUS
"You’ve been assigned to this mission because
you’re the best, Choi."
DUJOUR
"Yeah, and headquarters thinks you might be able
to whine the agents to death."
CHOI
"Oh my God that’s so funny. My point is, don’t we
need some r-and-r? Unwind a little? We lost two crew on the last one, you lost like five, right? Shit. I’m glad we found Mr.
Invincible, here, but Jesus…"
MORPHEUS
"You don’t have to go, Choi.
Volunteers only."
TRINITY
"He’s got a point, M. I have faith, but why so
quick?"
MORPHEUS
"We have a chance, here, but the window of
opportunity is brief. Our ships say the Matrix is already upgrading and
re-coding to block our entry. And Neo’s."
CHOI
"Fuck. Every fucking time we get another ‘one,’
this is what they do."
MORPHEUS
"He is the One."
DUJOUR
"You haven’t lost the faith, have you Choi?"
CHOI grabs a
half-filled rum glass and swigs it down.
CHOI
"Well, these are the times that try men’s souls.
Here’s to victory."
EXT. TUNNEL
The FREEDOM
hovers slowly, silently, like a submarine as it cruises through the murky
depths. It suddenly comes to a quiet stop, and descends. The engines fade out,
and the vessel rests, darkened, on the cave.
A quartet of
SQUIDDIES slips by. We follow as they worm their ways through the twisted
passageway, watching as they pass the bubble cockpit by mere feet.
FREEZE on the
cockpit. Within the shadows we see Morpheus and Choi at the controls.
INT. FREEDOM
COCKPIT
They watch the
SQUIDDIES fade into the distance.
MORPHEUS
"Power up. Sleep mode."
CHOI
"Aye aye,
capitano."
MINIMAL cockpit
displays turn on, and the cabin remains dark.
INT. MAIN DECK
The ship’s
OPERATOR, a lean Asian kid with a gaze like a laser scan, sits behind NEO,
who’s sitting at the operator’s console with his hands on the abbreviated
keyboard. Trinity sits with them, her feet up as she observes.
NEO stares at
the screen. It’s a huge syllabus of Matrix code characters. He struggles to
learn the complex code.
NEO
"Ka equals 9. But reverse Ka is point-nine,
right?
RAZOR nods.
RAZOR
"You catch on quick, man."
NEO
"I know these symbols from the hacking
trainer. But how come it’s so hard to find them on the keyboard?"
TRINITY
"Your brain knows what to do. But it has to
associate characters with your body."
RAZOR
"It’s muscle memory, Neo. Think of the space bar
and your thumbs nail it. Because your thumbs have hit the
space bar millions of times. But think about reverse ‘ka,’ and your
fingers don’t hit automatically hit the reverse key and the ‘ka’ key in one
shot."
NEO
"Where did these symbols come from, anyway?"
RAZOR
"Most of it is from the old Japanese. It’s
Katakana. See, the machines aren’t binary. No zero and one. They’re
quantum-based, so instead of an open-close base of zero or one, open or closed, they use all numbers between zero and one."
NEO
"All numbers between zero and one. That could be
an infinite number of numbers."
RAZOR
"Not could be, it is."
NEO is
astounded.
NEO
"Holy shit. How
many calculations per second?"
RAZOR
"How many CPS? Well, that’s kind of
hard to estimate. Put it this way: picture all the particles in the known
universe. Not just atoms, but sub-atomic particles that compose atoms."
NEO
"OK. At last count that was what, a gazillion,
right? Two gazillion?"
RAZOR barely
smiles at the joke.
RAZOR
"Well, it’s up there. In any case, the number of
calculations per second the Matrix can perform is greater than the estimated
number of particles in the known universe."
NEO
"Woah."
TRINITY
"That’s how they have the operating power to
create entire worlds within their PCs."
NEO
"OK. That’s why it looks like reality. They have
the computing power to create entire worlds."
RAZOR
"Right."
NEO
"So, if we hack into the Matrix, why can’t we
just change the code while we’re at it?"
RAZOR
"No, no. See, it’s not that simple. The machines,
the programs that code, create, and maintain the Matrix, the agents, they are
code. There are different types of agents, many work unseen with no
interaction in the matrix. Then, there are the enforcers, the ones we know all
too well."
NEO
"Right."
RAZOR
"Well, my point is, the
machines code and recode the Matrix by pure will. Interaction with the Matrix,
the physical act of being there, by default, allows people to change
their environment – the Matrix. They move objects, make sound, affect
cause."
NEO
"Like reality."
TRINITY
"Almost. Reality is unalterable.
But the fabric of reality in the Matrix can be rewoven. Some can reach beyond
normal cause. Their affects on the Matrix are deeper than average. They have
learned to change it according to their needs. But they don’t have total
control. That’s why we need operators like Razor here. But you, you go further
than any of us can."
NEO
"How?"
RAZOR stands
and taps Neo’s skull. He stretches, grabs a
Japanese-style wooden sword, and, out of boredom, starts performing slow,
precise Kendo moves around the main deck as he talks.
RAZOR
"The equipment you carry up here. You’re a freak.
A good freak. You’re neural kinetics blast past those
of average humans. This, combined with your ability to
suspend disbelief, allow you to change the reality of the Matrix."
NEO
"How did I end up as… a freak?"
RAZOR practices
the same strike a few times.
RAZOR
"Good question. The Machines create people
through cloning, since, obviously, no coppertops have physical sex.
Theoretically, all clones in the Matrix are exactly the same as when the first
clones. They shouldn’t be any different from normal, homegrowns."
NEO
"OK, so how do you explain me?"
TRINITY
"Not just you. Morpheus, myself. We were
all born inside.
NEO
"Well, what separates us from others?"
TRINITY
"For the past 50 years or so, something has been
happening to children in the Matrix. They’ve been mutating, changing in ways
the machines never predicted. Some seem to gain faster reflexes and strength.
Others seem to have psychic powers."
RAZOR looks up
to see MORPHEUS, hanging back as he listens. He comes forward.
MORPHEUS
"And others are able to change the reality of the
Matrix itself."
HE points to
Neo.
MORPHEUS
"Discussing history, are we?"
RAZOR shakes
his head.
RAZOR
"I’m trying to teach this fool some programming,
man. He’s stuck in the 20th century. He’s got no skills, man.
Without us, he’s helpless."
MORPHEUS
"In the Matrix, without him, we’re
helpless."
TRINITY
"Morpheus, can you tell
us what the mission is now?"
MORPHEUS
"Not until we reach broadcast depth. It’s slow
going out there. I guess they know we’re coming back, so they’re patrolling. We
have time to rest and ready."
TRINITY sits
alone on the tip of an impossibly high finger of rock. It looks like it sits on
the rooftop of the world. All around her, as far as the eye can see, lie mountains. Their snow-capped peaks are pink in the
sunset light.
She looks into
the sunset. Heavy thoughts weigh on her mind.
A hand appears
on her shoulder. It’s NEO. How he got on the finger of rock is anyone’s guess.
NEO
"Boo."
TRINITY grins
slightly and pulls on his arm. There is only enough room for one on the end of
the rock, so he sits down behind her.
TRINITY
"Don’t lose your balance."
NEO
"It doesn’t matter if I do."
TRINITY
"So, you can fly."
NEO
"Yes."
TRINITY
"Do you think I can?"
NEO
"I think you can do anything you want, if you
believe."
TRINITY
"Like you?"
NEO
"I don’t know. I don’t know exactly what I can
do."
TRINITY half
turns.
TRINITY
"Will you teach me to fly?"
NEO
"I don’t know if I can."
TRINITY
"Free your mind of doubt."
NEO stands, and
steps in front of TRINITY. He’s on the very, very edge of the rock. He extends
his hand down to her. She grabs it, and he hauls her up. Her eyes dart to the
ground, thousands of feet below the finger.
TRINITY
"In this construct program, the ground can
kill."
NEO
"I won’t let you fall. Ever."
THEY look into
each other’s eyes. Despite the trauma they’ve been through, and not even truly
knowing one another, there’s a connection.
NEO suddenly
backs away. He walks on the air with perfect traction, as though he’s on an
invisible plane of glass. He leaves TRINITY standing precariously on the edge,
wobbling a bit as she maintains balance against nerves. She breathes deep, and
looks back up at NEO, maintaining her cool even as she eyes the spectacle.
NEO stands a
few feet away from her, completely at ease as the high-altitude winds ruffle
his hair.
NEO extends a
hand to her.
NEO
"It’s not real, Trinity. You’re not standing
there. Step out. I can do it. You can, too."
With one last
glance at the infinite drop, she steadies herself and stares straight into his
eyes. Blue meet brown. Breathless, she steps straight out.
She takes one
step in the air. For a breathless second, as she steps off the edge, she is
stable. When she takes her foot off the edge, though, she sways, and her foot
slips, as though she’s on a greasy surface bobbing up and down. She corrects
herself, tries another step, sags further.
TRINITY
"Shit."
SHE glances
down, then locks eyes with NEO. Then drops like an
anvil.
NEO
"Whoops."
HE dives down,
shooting like a missile. TRINITY is calm, falling backwards, watching NEO come
for her. The rocky ground looms behind her. She makes no effort to reach for
NEO as he draws close to her. HE reaches for her with all his might.
NEO
"Grab me!"
TRINITY makes
no effort to save herself, even as collision is
seconds away. She stares at him intently.
NEO
"Grab on to me!"
SEEING she is
doing nothing, he goes beneath her and scoops her up, Superman style. He barely
accomplishes this before he slows and settles onto the rocky ground.
They are in a
twilight glade shaded by the mountains.
NEO
"What the hell were you doing?"
TRINITY smiles
slightly. Her madness has a purpose.
TRINITY
"Showing you, Neo."
NEO
"Showing me what? You nearly gave me a heart
attack."
TRINITY
"I want you to know how much faith I have in
you."
NEO
"Oh. And this requires acts of insanity?"
TRINITY smiles. She looks him up and down. She moves intimately
close.
"So, you really are Superman."
NEO
"Only when I’m plugged
in."
TRINITY steps away. NEO grabs her shoulder and turns
her to him. He attempts a
kiss, but she turns her face, letting it land on her cheek.
NEO
"What?"
TRINITY looks
at him, then up at the sky.
TRINITY
"It’s not you. Just, not here."
NEO doesn’t
understand. TRINITY rolls her eyes.
TRINITY
"They’re watching us, you big dope. Do you know
how horny computer geeks get?"
CHOI, RAZOR,
DUJOUR, and CIRCA are sitting around the operator’s
console,feet up, eating. On the screens are
patchy images of TRINITY and NEO
standing together in the GLADE. It’s like they’re watching a soap opera.
TRINITY and NEO
are looking in their direction.
ON THE
interface chairs, the bodies of TRINITY and NEO lay supine.
EXT. GLADE
(CONSTRUCT)
TRINITY grabs
NEO by the arm.
TRINITY
"Over here."
SHE leads him
into the shadows.
THE VOYEURISTIC
crewmembers collectively groan as the lovers disappear off the screen and into
the darkness.
RAZOR puts his
hand on CIRCA’S shoulder and sighs.
RAZOR
"So romantic."
CIRCA calmly
pats his hand and removes it, holding it in front of him.
CIRCA
"I’m sure Mary Palmer will appreciate your mood
more than I."
EXT. GLADE
(CONSTRUCT)
IN the blue
twilight shade, NEO and TRINITY kiss tentatively, slowly, then quicker as they
give in to their feelings for one another. WE move around them slowly, then pan into the shadows, a natural fadeout.
INT. OFFICE
(MATRIX)
AGENTS JONES
and BROWN sit across from each other, a steel table between them. They stare at
each other for what seems like a long time. There is a speaker phone in the
middle of the table amidst neat stacks of file folders.
AGENT JONES
"Our defeat is worrisome."
AGENT BROWN
"As is the loss of our
colleague."
THEY ARE BOTH
seething with anger. AGENT JONES grinds his molars.
JONES
"We can’t defeat them. You saw what
happened."
JONES
"We have a backup copy of Agent Smith..."
JONES stands
and walks toward the massive panoramic window. The city spreads before him.
JONES
"A backup is not good enough. We need to upgrade
ourselves to meet the new threat."
BROWN opens a
large file folder.
BROWN
"He’s being rebuilt. But I have an alternate
plan. Why fight the humans, when we can let them fight for us?"
JONES
"The terrorists have learned to bend our reality
in ways we cannot. This was the cause of our defeat."
BROWN
"Mr. Thomas J. Anderson is not unique. Over the
decades, many humans have developed... techniques for manipulating the Matrix. Techniques too primitive for us to understand. Most never
realize their potential, but all the ones we’ve noticed exhibiting these
talents are recorded here."
JONES turns on
AGENT BROWN.
JONES
"Do you have anyone in mind?"
BROWN
"Gregory Lowfield. He
exhibits the traits we saw in Mr. Anderson."
MAN’S VOICE (O.S.)
"Mr. Anderson no longer exists. Our enemy now is
the one called... NEO."
ANGLE ON: THE
DOOR
AGENT SMITH
walks in, grinning. There is a new swag to his walk, and his hair is longer,
tied back.
BROWN
"You’ve been recreated."
SMITH flexes
his arm, examines his hands, and feels his hair.
JONES
"And you have more hair."
SMITH turns to
him, examines the photos on the table. They lock eyes. On the same wavelength,
they transfer knowledge without speaking. SMITH looks at the photo on the
table.
SMITH
"I know what you’re thinking. What we need is our
own Neo..."
JONES
"If it’s possible."
SMITH
"I’ll make it possible."
WE ZOOM in on
the grainy photo of NEO’s doppledanger.
Quiet at first, growing louder as it grows dark, we here the rumble and roar of
motorcycles.
FAR OFF in the distance, the glow of motorcycle headlights racing
toward us. As we zoom out and focus in, they are already too close to avoid.
They rip by us, thundering explosions and men and women cheering.
THE pack of
about ten bikers and their women don’t wear helmets. They fly down the highway
using both lanes, drinking and driving with total abandon.
The feat is
IMPOSSIBLE.
HIS GIRLFRIEND,
CHANDRA, screams at him as she grasps the seat and lowers herself to the bike.
CHANDRA
"Greg, are you fucking crazy?"
GREG
"Yes. But don’t worry."
She clings to
his legs as they barrel down the highway. They blast pass a darkened cruiser.
INT. CRUISER
The cop sets
his paper down just long enough to catch a glimpse of the pack exploding down
the highway, with GREGORY surfing his bike.
COP
"Holy shit. Drunk
ass punks."
EXT. HIGHWAY
GREGORY is
facing us as he drops back into his seat, taking his beer on cue from CHANDRA.
Behind them, the cop’s lights flare up.
GREGORY
"Oh boy. Stop, stop, let’s have
some fun."
INT. COP CAR
WE look through
the windshield as the cop drives down the highway, calling in his stop-vehicle
report. He suddenly sees something that makes him slam on the brakes.
COP
"Holy shit!"
ANGLE THROUGH the cop’s windshield. The ten bikers, with GREGORY at
their center, are parked in the middle of the road, looking at him casually."
EXT. ROAD
THE cruiser
comes to a stop mere inches from GREGORY’S leg. The COP bursts out of the door.
COP
"What the hell are you doing?"
GREGORY
"We’ll tell you when to stop, little man. Not the
other way around."
COP
"Fuck."
HE DIVES back into his cruiser, reaching for the radio. GREGORY pulls a huge
silver .44 from his jacket and FIRES. The cruiser’s antenna is blown off at the
base, and the nine-foot whip flips onto the ground with a metallic clang.
INT. CRUISER
The COP is
lying half-on the seat, taking cover. The handset relays only static. He
reaches for his gun, but is frozen by Gregory’s voice.
GREGORY
"Don’t try anything stupid, man. I gotta bead on your donut-eating ass."
EXT. CRUISER
The cop comes
out with his hands up.
COP
"Whaddya want with me?"
GREGORY
"I don’t know. I just thought I’d find out what
you wanted without you shooting at me. So, what do you want?"
THE COP is a
tough one. Far taller than GREGORY, muscular and serious.
COP
"You’re all under arrest."
THE PACK
explodes with laughter. GREGORY walks up to the policeman and circles him,
keeping the gun pointed in the business direction.
GREGORY
"This is your lucky day, officer. We’re gonna give you a night off."
CHANDRA walks
up to him. Seductively, she hands him the bottle of hard liquour.
CHANDRA
"Drink."
WHEN he pauses,
GREGORY places the gun against his temple. Reluctantly, the big cop starts to
gulp down the alcohol.
GREGORY lowers
the gun. He and CHANDRA return to their motorcycle.
GREGORY
"You never even saw us, man."
CHANDRA
"Keep the bottle."
THEY start
their bikes and are gone, like ghosts, into the shadows of the road.
CUT TO:
A CAMPFIRE
blazes only a few feet away from the high tide. A billion stars shine overhead
as GREGORY and his biker gang, including the cop, sit or lie around the fire. A
few people are still awake, and one picks drunkenly at a guitar.
GREGORY stands,
throws a blanket over his shoulder, and scoops up CHANDRA. They make their way
into the dunes.
EXT. DUNES
GREGORY and
CHANDRA lie on the blanket, staring at the sky. Inexplicably, GREGROY holds a
hand toward the sky.
GREGORY
"Which one do you want?"
CHANDRA
"Any one. It doesn’t
matter."
WITH his hand
pointed lazily at the sky, a single star starts glowing stronger and stronger.
It vibrates, then fades suddenly and comes loose from the sky, and becomes a
meteorite, burning across the sky.
CHANDRA draws
closer to him, enraptured by his power.
CHANDRA
"How do you do it, Gregory?"
GREGORY
"I don’t know. Sometimes it feels like… I’m
reaching beyond the world."
HIS hand drops
and his head turns. He sits up, startled by something.
CHANDRA
"What is it?"
GREGORY holds
up a hand for her to be silent.
GREGORY
"They found us. Can’t you hear it?"
CHANDRA
"What? I don’t hear anything."
GREGORY
"We can only rebel so long. We can only push
until they will hit back."
CHANDRA
"They? The
Men in Black?"
CU on GREGORY. In the distance, the faintest sound of a helicopter
can be heard, growing louder.
GREGORY
"Fuck! Get to the bikes."
EXT. CAMPFIRE
GREGORY bursts
over the hill, holding hands with CHANDRA as they run. He’s only had time to
through on his boots and boxers and grab his .44.
Chandra is dressed only in her underwear and Gregory’s leather jacket.
GREGORY
"Wake up! Get on your bikes and fucking
ride!"
HIS gang burst
to their feet. They scramble through the dunes, heading for their bikes.
A HELICOPTER,
seen only by it’s massively strong search lamp, and
the wind from its rotors blowing sand everywhere, flies up and over the dunes,
buzzing the running pack, blowing some off their feet.
GREGORY mounts
his bike and CHANDRA jumps on back. WITH A WAVE OF HIS HAND, all the bikes, his
included, drop into neutral and rev into start. Their
headlights blaze as the helicopter returns, joined by another.
CHOPPER LOUDSPEAKER
"THIS IS THE POLICE,
STOP YOUR VEHICLES AND SURRENDER!"
SUDDENLY,
automatic fire sparks from the unseen helicopters. A bullet trail stitches its
way across a pair of bikers, sending them to the ground as the helicopters fly
overhead.
GREGORY cranks
down on the throttle and his bike explodes ahead.
EXT. HIGHWAY
THE pack splits
up in two directions as the distant choppers circle back. GREGORY cuts the
lights on his bike and follows the highway by starlight.
INT. HELICOPTER
COCKPIT
TINNY RADIO
chatter fills the red-lit cockpit over the steady hum of the engines. The nose
of the chopper points to the ground as it focuses on GREGORY and CHANDRA, who
are ripping down the highway.
CU on the cockpit instruments, centered on the airspeed indicator. The needle is pushing
to the max, going through 150 knots.
PILOT (V.O.)
"Holy shit, he’s outrunning us."
CUT TO:
EXT. HIGHWAY
GREGORY is
pasted down to the tank of his bike with CHANDRA gripping him for her life. The
slipstream pulls his lips open and tears streak from his eyes as his bike
redlines in fifth gear. The helicopters grow smaller behind them. They break
chase.
CHANDRA looks
back and sees the lights turn away. She screams over the wind and the roar.
CHANDRA
"They’re gone!"
GREGORY is
staring down a dark highway.
GREGORY
"Can’t see shit."
HE turns the
headlights back on, just in time to see a ROADBLOCK of heavy duty military
trucks. In front of the trucks is a sandbag wall manned by soldiers. The trucks
are flanked by police cars. And if one looks closely enough, they can see a
pair of AGENTS standing to the side.
THE stunned
soldiers have time to fire off a couple shots as they run frantically to get
out of the way of the bike, 800 pounds of metal flying at 150 miles per hour.
GREGORY plows
into the sandbag wall, directly between two parked trucks. The wall parts in an
explosion of sand and sandbags. THEY’RE THROUGH, but the bike scissors
uncontrollably, until it rolls and we drop into bullet-time.
AS the bike
goes over, we watch from the side as GREGORY dismounts, grabbing CHANDRA as he
steps over onto the safe side of the bike. A massive shower of sparks bursts
and trails the bike. It tumbles like a bullet falling through syrup, and
GREGORY keeps walking over the rotating surface, using the bike to protect him
and CHANDRA against the flesh-ripping concrete.
THE bike is
coming apart as it’s bashed against the concrete. Pieces rise slowly into the
air – the front wheel, the forks, the mufflers, and a million flakes of metal,
until the body bounces into the air, carrying GREGORY and CHANDRA up. Holding
her to him – she’s barely conscious of the lightning-fast crash, GREGORY rides
the flying body with one hand on the frame. It comes crashing down and back
into real-time.
THE bike’s body streaks along the highway. The sparks fade as it slows, and
pieces of metal come clanging and banging down around them. They stop,
crouching atop the body, with GREGORY crouching over CHANDRA. The disembodied
front wheel rolls past them.
STUNNED, not
quite understanding how or what he just did, he and CHANDRA stand and start
running. BEHIND them is a blurry wall of red and blue lights. POLICE SIRENS
grow louder.
THEY start
running down the highway, then GREGORY yanks CHANDRA
to a stop.
GREGORY
"Split up, into the desert, go!"
THEY split.
CU on CHANDRA. In bare feet, she sprints for the side of the road.
The highway is littered with pieces of the bike, and she stomps on a twisted
piece of metal that impales her bare foot. She falls to the asphalt with a
scream.
GREGORY turns
and rushes back to her, even as a police cruiser is bearing down on them, it’s
V-8 roaring and the siren IMPOSSIBLY LOUD.
GREGORY drops
to her side, only to look up into the blinding high beams. He drops over
CHANDRA, ducks his head and extends his hand toward the oncoming cruiser and we
drop back into BULLET TIME.
THE CRUISER
runs into his hand and stops as though it hit a steel post. The hood crumples
in the center, pushing the grill in even as the front quarter panels of the unibody continue around GREGORY and CHANDRA.
INT. CRUISER
THE ENGINE
smashes in through the console, pushing the cops apart as the glass
windshield explodes and their seats slide forward into the console, smashing
them like jelly.
CU: GREGORY AND
CHANDRA
WITH HIS HAND
still on the grille, CHANDRA AND GREGORY remain untouched, even as
the entire police cruiser rips around them. WE drop back into REAL time
and see
the cruiser’s body rip over and around them. The grille and engine
block and
part of the mangled transmission remain still against GREGORY’S HAND.
The
cruiser was gutted, like a banana shot down the center from top to bottom.
It
speeds beyond them, silent now, flips and explodes.
THE ENGINE
block is suspended a few feet in the air. It drops to the ground with a thud.
GREGORY and
CHANDRA get to their feet and run into the early morning desert.
CU: GUTTED
CRUISER
UNBELIEVABLY,
the driver is still alive… barely. The steering wheel is smashed deep into his
mouth, splitting his jaw open. Wet, broken chokes emanate from his blood-filled
mouth. His eyes flicker, and just before they close forever, his body is seized
by pain as he MORPHS.
EXT. GUTTED
CRUISER
THE CRUMPLED
DOOR is knocked out of the frame. WE SEE a black loafer step from the vehicle
and a man in an immaculate black suit steps out slowly.
WE rise up from
the loafer. As the other cruisers catch up to the scene of the accident, AGENT
BROWN watches. He looks into the desert.
A POLICE
lieutenant approaches BROWN.
LIEUTENANT
"Sir, should we pursue?"
AGENT BROWN
"Withdraw your men and pursue the others. We have
our own plans for this one."
The ship is
quiet. RAZOR sits at the operator console, smashing the keyboard as he forces
Tetris pieces into place.
INT. COCKPIT
CHOI is sipping
coffee as he nudges the ship to a stop. He speaks into his headphones.
CHOI
"OK, try it here."
RAZOR halts his
video game playing and flashes to a different screen. Lines of code come
pouring down the screen as he types, then hits the ENTER key with a flourish.
The screen flashes, and the familiar scroll of the
MATRIX cascades down the screens.
RAZOR
"Holy shit."
CUT TO:
CHOI
"What? Tell me you got signal."
RAZOR (V.O.)
"No fucking shit I got signal. Dude, they’re
changing it."
CHOI is
annoyed.
CHOI
"Are you using the right pulse wave?"
CUT TO:
RAZOR
"Shut the fuck up and get back here."
THE MATRIX
scroll pours down at a streaking pace. It’s almost impossible to make out the
individual characters.
CHOI comes up
behind RAZOR
CHOI
"Oh my God. What are they – "
RAZOR
"They’re changing the Matrix."
CHOI
"Call Morpheus."
RAZOR patches
into MORPHEUS’ cabin through the headset.
INT. MORPHEUS
CABIN
IT’S dark, but
quiet classical music can be heard. He’s not in bed alone. NIOBE’S shaded form
can be made out behind him.
MORPHEUS sounds
awake, but looks anything but. He grabs the buzzing handset only an arm’s
length from him.
MORPHEUS
"I’m here."
RAZOR
"Sir, you gotta get
down here."
MORPHEUS starts
dressing as he talks. He puts a reasurring hand on
NIOBE’S shoulder.
MORPHEUS
"Proximity alarm?"
RAZOR
"The Matrix, sir. The coding is going
nuts."
MORPHEUS
"Be right there."
MORPHEUS hangs
up the phone and jumps into his boots. He turns to NIOBE as he works.
MORPHEUS
"It sounds bad. They’re readjusting quicker than
we thought."
NIOBE jumps up
and dresses quickly.
NIOBE
"Already?"
MORPHEUS
"It appears that they are learning their
lessons."
NIOBE shakes
her head.
"Morpheus, how much are
you going to tell him?"
MORPHEUS
pauses.
MORPHEUS
"Tell Neo? About his predecessors, I
suppose?"
NIOBE, dressed, nods.
MORPHEUS
"He is the –"
NIOBE puts a
finger to his lips.
NIOBE
"Six came before him, Morpheus."
MORPHEUS shakes
his head slowly.
MORPHEUS
"To me, none came before him. The Oracle told me
I would find the one. It is prophecy. You haven’t seen what he can do."
NIOBE
"What if they toughen the Matrix code, like last
time?"
MORPHEUS
"There are lots of ifs. How about this one: What
if we lose faith in our cause?"
HE disappears
through the door, leaving Niobe standing in the dim
light.
MORPHEUS leans
over RAZOR and CHOI.
MORPHEUS
"Talk to me."
RAZOR
"Not good, boss, I gotta
compile a new descrambler."
MORPHEUS nods.
MORPHEUS
"Do it. We’re at broadcast depth?"
CHOI
"Yes sir."
MORPHEUS
"We have to download our mission specs. Move
aside, I have to log into the mainframe."
MORPHEUS takes
over RAZORS seat. The scrolling code disappears, replaced by the small words:
ZION.dtr1.mnfr4m3 LOGON.
MORPHEUS pushes
the keyboard under the console so its hidden from
view. He taps at the keyboard. Hidden password appears on the screen in the
form of: XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX
XXXX.
SCREEN: LOGON
ACCEPTED. WELCOME, MORPHEUS.
DOWNLOADED
LOGOUT COMPLETE
MISSION TYPE: INFILTRATION /
DESTRUCTION
TARGET: MATRIX MAINFRAME
MORPHEUS’ eyes
open slightly when he reads the screen, but he regains his composure quickly.
RAZOR’S mouth drops open, and CHOI starts cracking up.
CHOI
"The mainframe? Haha. It’s a joke, right Morpheus? Is today April 1st?"
NIOBE appears
behind them.
NIOBE
"It’s not a joke. We have The One. We must do it
now."
RAZOR
"But they’re altering the code already. I can’t
even read it yet."
MORPHEUS turns
and faces them.
MORPHEUS
"We have our mission, but it’s up to us to interperate how we’ll do it."
RAZOR
"Morpheus, there’s more
ice in front of that mainframe than there is in
MORPHEUS
"You haven’t seen The One in action."
RAZOR looks
dubious, and turns to the screens.
MORPHEUS
"Can you hack in?"
RAZOR pounds
the keys. The Matrix disappears, replaced by his program.
RAZOR
"Getting you in is no problem. Maintaining the
input/output and helping you is the problem. That’s how they killed savior
number four, if I remember right. They cut the signal and trapped him in
there."
MORPHEUS spins
the chair, then stops it. Their faces are inches
apart.
MORPHEUS
"We don’t speak of the past."
RAZOR
"Excuse me for dragging up painful memories, sir."
HE turns the
chair back to the screen and continues coding.
CUT TO: NEO
He’s standing
at the edge of some equipment on the Main Deck. He’s heard every word. He
rounds the corner. The others catch sight of him. The same thought is on
everyone's mind: How much had he heard.
MORPHEUS
"Morning. Niobe,
wake the rest of the crew. Razor, what’s the ETA for getting us in there?"
RAZOR shakes
his head.
RAZOR
"I dunno. Just gimme an hour, I’ll probably have caught up to them."
MORPHEUS walks
up to NEO.
MORPHEUS
"Come with me."
CUT TO:
DESERT (DAY)
FROM FAR AWAY,
we see GREGORY and CHANDRA hiding under the only bit of shade available for
miles, a tiny outcropping of rock. We sail in and cut to a panning shot,
scanning over the harsh ground, onto CHANDRA’S feet, clad in Gregory’s boots,
up her sun-scorched and scratched legs. She’s collapsed onto Gregory. He’s in
equally bad shape. Gregory leans with his back against the rock, eyes opening
and closing as he drifts in and out of sleep.
GREGORY POV
He stars at the
horizon and the mirages of water reflecting the jaundiced yellow sky. In the
shimmering distance, a man appears, but Gregory’s lids shut and we see
darkness. When he reopens them, the figure is more clear.
It’s a man, dressed in a black suit. Even in the distance we can recognize him.
We want it to be him.
EXT. DESERT
ROCK
GREGORY can
barely come to his senses as the figure approaches. CHANDRA doesn’t even wake.
We follow the
figure at waist heigh as it approaches GREGORY. It
comes to a stop just in front of him.
EXT. DESERT
ROCK
GREGORY is
fully awake, but he thinks he’s dreaming. He reaches out and pokes the
black-clad leg of the immaculate man standing before him - a man who doesn’t
sweat even in the sauna heat. He looks up, but the glaring sun obscures the
face.
GREGORY’s voice is raspy as he starts to speak.
GREGORY
"Oh my God. It’s… The
MAN IN BLACK
"I’ve been searching for you for a long time, my
friend."
GREGORY lowers
his head.
MAN IN BLACK
"We need you, Gregory."
GREGORY
"What for?"
MAN IN BLACK
"To save our world."
GREGORY’S FACE
RAISES, THE MAN IN BLACK eclipses the sun with his head, making a hallo of hazy
sunlight around an all-too familiar face: AGENT SMITH.
GREGORY’S head
drops back down. He strokes CHANDRA’S hair.
GREGORY
"It’s too late. We’re dead."
AGENT SMITH
"Do you want to live?"
GREGORY
"What for?"
AGENT SMITH
"A better life for all. Life
for her. And for you, a chance for revenge."
GREGORY raises
his head.
AGENT SMITH
grins. He turns away, and the desert landscape before them turns into a
soothing, cool, crystal forest lake. Smith takes a step toward it, then turns
and extends his hand.
AGENT SMITH
"Interested?"
GREGORY is
mystified. Speechless, he drags himself to his feet, hoisting Chandra, and
steps toward the lake.
GREGORY
"This can’t be real."
HE steps
forward, only to have the image recede.
AGENT SMITH
"You this, don’t you?"
GREGORY
"Yes."
AGENT SMITH
"Will you help us?"
GREGORY
"Anything."
CU: SMITH
extends his hand. GREGORY grasps it. He lets go, and collapses into the cool
shallow waters of the lake edge.
THE DESERT is
gone, replaced by forest, though still under the poisoned sky of the Matrix.
GREGORY laps
the water up, and pulls CHANDRA in, rubbing the water over her face. Calmly,
AGENT SMITH stands on the lake shore.
CU: AGENT
SMITH. The humans are reflected in his perfectly still glasses.
CHANDRA stirs
and awakens, though she doesn’t seem to see SMITH. GREGORY, revitalized, looks
around at the miracle, and up at the mystery man.
GREGORY
"Who the fuck are
you?"
SMITH grins
devilishly.
AGENT SMITH
"I’m nobody. A Smith.
What’s more important, is you. We need you,
Gregory."
GREGORY stares.
He pulls CHANDRA ashore and stands to look AGENT SMITH in the eyes.
GREGORY
"First you try to kill me. Now you need me."
AGENT SMITH
"Two years ago, Gregory, your parents were killed
in a terrorist attack in the heart of the city."
THE words spark
something nasty in GREGORY.
GREGORY
"So what?"
AGENT SMITH
"The terrorists were led by a certain
individual."
GREGORY
"I know who it was."
AGENT SMITH
"We need you to kill him."
GREGORY laughs
he turns to CHANDRA to check on her. She’s passed out on the smooth grass.
GREGORY
"What a bunch of bullshit. The whole government
can’t kill him, so how can I?"
AGENT SMITH
"No one in the government can do what you
can."
GREGORY
"Fuck you."
AGENT SMITH
"I believe we have a deal."
GREGORY stands
and puts his face next to SMITH’S
"You know, I’ve always wanted to fuck the devil
on a deal. And this looks like a once-in-a lifetime opportunity. So, FUCK
YOU!"
SMITH frowns.
GREGORY looks him up and down. He’s got a few inches and pounds on the smaller
agent.
GREGORY
"What are you gonna do,
little man? You looking for a trip to the fucking hospital?
Fuck with me and you’ll be looking for some plastic surgery, you – "
SMITH delivers
a chest punch that sends GREGORY sailing back twenty feet. He tumbles to a
stop, coughs, and stares in disbelief at SMITH, standing calmly at what seems
like an impossible distance away.
CU: SMITH. HE
removes his glasses calmly.
CU: GREGORY. He
was stunned, but he’s not out of the fight. Not by a long shot.
GREGORY
"No man can beat me."
SMITH
"Bring it on, pussy."
Pull back as he
CHARGES SMITH
SMITH is ready
to deflect the blow, but GREGORY dodges and bowls him over, barroom style. With
SMITH pinned below him, he slams his palm downward. SMITH’S head dodges the
blow that pummels the ground.
GREGORY is
screaming as he smashes downward with the palms of his heels. Every blow misses
the mark.
GREGORY
"Mother fucker, what the fu –?"
SMITH bucks up,
throwing GREGORY into the air. He flips onto his back as GREGORY returns. The
sheer force of his street-forged roundhouses knock
SMITH around as he blocks. Growing irritated at the untrained attack, SMITH
turns a block into a palm-heel that hits GREGORY in the forehead with the force
of a cannon blast. Momentarily stunned, he steps back enough for SMITH to
perform a roundhouse kick. It’s like a helicopter blade, smashing into
GREGORY’S head and sending him to the ground in a heap.
SMITH
"Ready to change your
mind?"
CU: GREGORY
HE can’t
respond very well. Blood fills his mouth and his face is mashed. A huge welt
grows under the loafer mark left by SMITH on the right side of his face.
SMITH crouches
down by GREGORY
SMITH
"I can teach you to beat me, you know."
THIS interests
GREGORY.
SMITH
"Help us, and both you and her
will be free afterward."
GREGORY stares
at the ground, then gazes past SMITH at CHANDRA.
Finally, he starts to rise. SMITH offers a hand, and GREGORY takes it.
SMITH
"You know it, don’t you? That there’s more to
your world than what you can see, what you can rationally explain?"
GREGORY
"Yeah."
SMITH
"I’m going to teach you how to use the powers you
can’t even imagine. But first, you need to learn to fight."
SMITH puts his
hand to his earpiece. GREGORY’S eyes close and his body SPASMS. He falls to the
ground, breathless, and when his eyes open, he stares up at SMITH.
GREGORY
"Holy shit. What the –"
HE stares at
his hands. He sits up, and watches his hands, amazed, as he goes through a
series of block-punches. He stops and stares up at SMITH.
GREGORY
I know Kung-Fu."
SMITH grins.
INT. COCKPIT
(NIGHT)
MORPHEUS and
NEO sit together. The cockpit lights are dimmed down, only the EMP pulse button
glows. Outside the ship, in the dark mists of the underworld, patches of eerie
phosphorescent moss glow on the walls. Occasionally, a squiddie
will pass over the darkened ship.
The two of them
watch the deadly outside world.
MORPHEUS
"We’re deep in their territory."
NEO
"I see that."
MORPHEUS stares
out at the night, deep in thought. He turns to NEO.
MORPHEUS
"Are you rested?"
NEO
"Yes."
MORPHEUS
"You know now, that you had predecessors."
NEO
"Yes. I’ve heard things."
MORPHEUS
"What types of things?"
NEO
"That there were others, like me, who you thought
were going to be special. But they ended up dead."
MORPHEUS nods
slowly.
MORPHEUS
"It’s true. There were others. And I didn’t tell
you right away. Because you were not ready."
NEO nods.
MORPHEUS
"Does this anger you?"
NEO
"I don’t know yet. So much has happened so fast,
that I can’t decide whether or not I’m angry, or dissappointed,
or even if I should be."
MORPHEUS
"You shouldn’t be, Neo. You are the key in the
Oracle’s prophecy. Everything forseen to come to
pass, has, except one thing."
NEO
"What?"
MORPHEUS
"The destruction of The
Matrix."
MORPHEUS looks
out into the darkness.
MORPHEUS
"Your coming was heralded, and it is my destiny
to prepare the world for you, and to baptize you by fire. But from here on out,
no one knows."
NEO
"Can we ask The Oracle."
MORPHEUS
"Not in this life."
NEO is
confused.
MORPHEUS
"No one has heard from her or her priestesses
since the day Cypher turned on us."
NEO is taken
aback.
NEO
"But she must have known,
if they came to her."
MORPHEUS
"Perhaps she did."
NEO shakes his
head.
NEO
"I can’t believe it. I don’t know, Morpheus, if I’m prepared for this war. I’m not a soldier. How, how are we going to win?"
MORPHUES
"For decades, we have fought force-on-force, in
the real world, without a conclusion. Now, after nearly a century of war, we’re
at a standstill. The only way that we can see to win is by destroying their
source of energy. We have to pull the plug on them. We must crash the
Matrix."
MORPHEUS grins
slyly.
MORPHEUS
"Remember, when I told you, that I’ll show you
how deep the rabbit hole goes?"
NEO
"Yes."
MORPHEUS
"I brought you deep, yet I no longer know the
way. No one does. With every second we sink deeper than before. You are our
guiding light, now. Your powers exceed mine a millionfold.
I have shown you the path to victory, Neo. Lead us down it."
INT. MAIN DECK
MORPHEUS, NEO,
TRINITY, CHOI, and NIOBE are on the chairs as they’re being JACKED IN by CIRCA
and RAZOR.
CUT TO: RAZOR
jumps in the operator’s chair, his hands blur over the touchscreens
and keyboard as he drops his crewmates into the Matrix.
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"We’re going straight for the throat,
people."
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"We have the advantage of surprise. They won’t
expect us to return so soon."
INT. ABANDONED
WAREHOUSE
THE FIVE of
them stand, immobile, around a ringing phone as their minds filter in to their
body images. They are dressed practically in denim and leather, like blue
collar workers. Their dress wouldn’t attract the slightest bit of attention,
except for the padded coats and tote bags filled with firepower.
CIRCA
"Keep your eyes out for changes, they’re
modifying things. Dial ‘0’ for operator."
INT. ABANDONED
WAREHOUSE
MORPHEUS holds
his celly to his ear.
CIRCA (O.S.)
"And have a nice day."
HE drops the
phone into his pocket. They turn to him.
MORPHEUS
"Niobe, you’re the liasion to our operators. Neo, what do you have for a game
plan?"
NEO
"Where is the mainframe?"
MORPHEUS
"The Metacortex
building."
NEO’s jaw drops.
NEO
"What the fuck? That’s where I worked."
CHOI
"And what do you think you were doing there,
writing code for video games? You were working for The Man."
TRINITY
"It’s true, Neo. Metacortex
employs humans to write code for the Matrix."
NEO
"I thought I was working on a fucking
database."
MORPHEUS
"They keep the left hand from seeing what the
right hand is doing. That’s how an evil system can be made by innocent people.
But, that doesn’t matter."
NEO recovers.
NEO
"How ‘bout this? I just walk up to the Metacortex building and blow it up?"
CHOI laughs.
CHOI
"What, by power of will?"
NEO nods. CHOI’S smile fades. He looks to the others.
CHOI
"He’s joking right?"
MORPHEUS shakes
his head.
MORPHEUS
"We’ll fan out around the city, keeping an eye
out for you. If you’re able to accomplish this mission, we’ll phase back into
the ship. Stay in contact. If you lose your cell, contact an operator immediately."
EXT. ABANDONED
WAREHOUSE
THE five of
them exit. They blend into the crowds on the street, anonymous and quiet.
MORPHEUS looks back as NEO, taller than most, heads down the street.
NIOBE pauses
next to him.
NIOBE
"What is it?"
MORPHEUS shakes
his head.
MORPHEUS
"What’s going to happen? If this is it, right
now? The end?"
NIOBE
"I can’t even imagine."
HE grins and
starts to turn. As he does, his profile matches the profile on a WANTED poster
stuck to the wall. It’s a dark, grainy picture of him, alongside photos of Neo,
and Trinity.
POSTER:
INTERNATIONAL TERRORISTS
MORPHEUS
glances at it, and continues on.
EXT.
NEO walks
calmly, observing the people that filter by. Men, women,
children, all oblivious to their true nature.
A dirty homeless
whino, nose explosion red with burst blood vessels,
is staggering along the edge of the crowd, unseen and ignored. Somehow, he
catches NEO’s eye.
HOMELESS
"Spare a quarter, buddy?"
NEO shakes his
head, but still stares.
ANGLE on the HOMELESS. He mutters something, and reaches
into his shopping cart to open a garbage bag. It’s filled with twenty dollar
bills, thousands of them.
NEO
"How ‘bout a quarter
mil?"
THE homeless
man is astounded. As he stands, speechless, NEO fades back into the crowd.
EXT.
SMITH and
GREGORY fight in the glade. SMITH is always one step ahead. HE is a cruel
sensei, and doesn’t pull punches. But with every blow GREGORY takes, he
rebounds and attacks again.
FINALLY, just
as he seems to be gaining on SMITH, he takes a rapid-fire series of blows, and
collapses to the ground, breathless and beaten.
GREGORY
"Fuck."
SMITH circles
him.
SMITH
"Pain is only weakness leaving your body. When
you are sufficiently strong, you will feel no pain."
GREGORY
"Tell me about what is happening. What’s wrong
with the world?"
SMITH
"Get up and fight."
GREGORY gets to
his feet and takes a stance. SMITH stares at him from a relaxed poise. He slaps
at GREGORY, who deflects the blow and takes a jab, nearly hitting SMITH on the
chin. They circle.
SMITH
"The world is not for you."
HE slaps, has
it deflected, dodges a blow.
GREGORY
"What do you mean?"
SMITH
"You’re not human, Gregory. That’s why you don’t
fit in. That’s why you have certain powers."
GREGORY takes a
swipe. They engage, then push off one another.
GREGORY
"What, am I from planet Krypton?"
SMITH
"Not quite. But as humans continue to evolve,
some are developing capabilities beyond those of the average man. Reality-altering abilities. I have them. Others in the
Agency have them. And you have them, too. We’re all that stands between law and
order, and a terrorist dictatorship lead by the one called Morpheus."
THEY stop
fighting for a moment.
SMITH
"We need you to stop the terror. We need you to
save our world."
IT sinks in.
GREGORY is starting to believe.
SMITH
"We need you, because you’re better than me. Now
push past your abilities. You can turn you imagination into reality. See your
hands striking me, see yourself overcoming me. Fight, boy!"
SMITH comes at
him, and GREGORY responds. Their fists and kicks are a fast, then
turn into a blur. GREGORY can’t believe his own actions. SMITH misses a block,
and GREGORY blows him backward with a chest punch.
SMITH,
recovering, looks up. GREGORY looks around. CHANDRA is gone.
GREGORY
"Where is she?"
SMITH stands.
From behind his back he produces a baseball sized glass ball. He tosses it to
GREGORY.
SMITH
"Here."
GREGORY looks
in the ball. It’s a window to an apartment overlooking the city. Chandra is in
bed, waking up.
SMITH
"She doesn’t remember our encounter. She’s fine.
Don’t worry."
THE BALL
disappears.
SMITH puts his
hand to his earpiece.
AGENT BROWN is
staring down at the ground. ACROSS THE STREET, NEO is walking toward his
building.
BROWN
"He’s back."
EXT.
SMITH
"I’ll be there. Execute the defense plan."
SMITH turns to
GREGORY.
SMITH
"Come with me. But only watch.
You’re not ready to engage in a fight with the enemy."
GREGORY
"Why not?"
SMITH
"Because if you haven’t
defeated me yet, you won’t defeat them."
SMITH snaps his
fingers.
EXT. ROOFTOP
GREGORY finds
himself alone on the top of the MAKARAO hotel, overlooking
EXT. STREET
The METACORTEX
building stands across the street. NEO has been along this road a thousand
times, but in another lifetime.
NEO raises one
hand, palm pointed toward the building.
CUT TO: NEO’S
POV: The building is a massive tower of glowing shimmering energy, no more real
than a three-dimensional polygon.
EXT. BUILDING
ROOFTOP
MORPHEUS and
NIOBE stand atop a building a few blocks away, looking toward the Metacortex building.
ANGLE on NEO
HE FIXES his
gaze on the building, then lowers his head and closes his eyes.
THE building
tremors slightly, like a heat mirage. Slowly, it starts moving downward.
The walls,
desks and cubicles vaporize, leaving a few hundred people – office workers,
security, maintenance men, standing with nothing
between them.
The massive
LOAD BEARING MEMBERS vaporize.
CUT TO: the
bottom of the building. One can look straight through the entire building. WE
go through the empty building, passing dazed people, until we pass out the other
side, and come to NEO.
HE looks up.
The office building is supported by nothing. Slowly, it descends on the stunned
people. They rush, screaming, some laughing in hysteria, before the ceiling can
come down on them. The last few flee just before the ceiling touches the
ground. The second floor melts away just like the first.
EXT. BUILDING
ROOFTOP
NIOBE and
MORPHEUS stare on in amazement as the building collapses, floor by floor.
NIOBE
"He’s doing it."
MORPHEUS
"I knew it."
EXT. STREET
CHOI and
TRINITY look up in the air at the roof of the METACORTEX building, standing
beyond a block of buildings. It sinks toward the ground as a flood of people
come screaming around the corner.
CHOI
"It can’t be this easy."
TRINITY
"It’s not over yet."
MAN’S VOICE (O.S.)
"Not by a long shot."
CU: TRINITY’S
FACE. SOMEONE plants the barrel of a silver Desert Eagle .45 against her
temple. TRINITY whips her head backward as it fires. We drop into BULLET TIME
as the flame and concussion blossoms in front of her face, ripping her
sunglasses off as she drops backward, pulling a pair of MAC-10 Uzis from under
her jacket.
THE MAN’S VOICE
belongs to AGENT BROWN
CHOI turns,
pulling a short weapon from under his coat. It’s boxy, with a short barrel the
size of a soda can. He plants it in the small of BROWN’S back and pulls the
trigger.
A CONE OF FIRE
burns straight through brown, blowing steam, flame, smoke, vertebrae, and
viscera out a massive hole in his stomach.
CU on the weapon. It recoils on tension coils, discharging a shell the
size of a 12-ounce soda can.
REAL TIME
What remains of
BROWN flies forward. CHOI helps TRINITY up and the
retreat into the building and take cover under a window. Through the window, we
see military trucks, filled with troops, charging down the street, toward the Metacortex plaza. After the trucks come rumbling,
black-painted M1A2 ABRAMS tanks. A black APACHE HELICOPTER flies over the
convoy.
CHOI looks
through the window as he reloads his hand cannon.
CHOI
"Holy fucking shit."
TRINITY
"We’ve stirred up the hornet’s nest now."
INT. METACORTEX
OFFICE
AGENT SMITH and
JONES stare down into the plaza. The building shakes slightly as it descends.
FROM the three
streets that enter the plaza, military vehicles pour in. Hundreds of troops
discharge and form a L-shaped circle around NEO. Tanks
rumble in, and the Apaches whirl to a hover. Panicking civilians rush out of
the kill zone.
NEO stands
calmly, continuing his work.
EXT. ROOFTOP
MORPHEUS and
NIOBE stare from the rooftop.
The air rumbles
as the building continues to gently collapse. The sky flashes,
and massive streaks of lighting blast across it like cracks in reality.
CU: SOLDIERS
They line their
weapons on NEO. They are nervous
PRIVATE
"This is impossible. What’s going on?"
SERGEANT
"Just keep him in your sites, soldier."
INT. TANK
TURRET
CU: TANK GUNNER
HIS eye is
glued to the tank site and his trigger finger on the fire button.
POV: TANK SITE
The green
crosshairs sit on NEO’S chest.
CU: NEO
His eyes open,
but the building continues to collapse. He stares up at a mirrored window, and
somehow, straight into the eyes of:
CU: AGENT SMITH
SMITH
"Open fire."
A WALL of flame
and fingers of tracers bursts from the skirmish lines. The tracers grow into a
cone of orange flame bearing down on NEO as we drop into bullet time.
THE bullets sizzle as tracers burn off their backs. The draw toward him like slugs. Thousands of bullets fired
at perpendicular angles close in on him. As they draw close to one another
along almost perpendicular paths, they tinkle and chime and bounce.
The bullets
come to a stop, glowing as their tracers backs continue to burn. The world is
in stop motion as the bullets stop, turn 180 degrees, and suddenly accelerate
back at their origins. Faster and fast they fly, until we drop back into REAL
TIME.
THE SKIRMISH
line of troops is ripped apart by a hail of their own bullets.
CU: MACHINE
GUNNER. With an M-249 SAW, he blazes away at NEO, only to be shredded by his
own bullets. A private takes a shot at NEO, and a bullet slaps into his
shoulder. REALIZING what’s happening, he drops his weapon.
THE SOLDIERS
are dropping like flies. The firing quickly subsides.
NEO stands
alone in the center, unharmed. He turns to the skirmish lines. THE surviving
soldiers drop their weapons, and run. Panic ensues. Only a few officers, NCOs,
and soldiers too amazed to think of running remain.
INT. HELICOPTER
COCKPIT
NEO is targeted
on an LCD screen.
PILOT
"Fox One."
EXT. HELICOPTER
WING
CU: AGM-65
HELLFIRE GROUND-TO-AIR-MISSILE
The missile
drops from its release claws and ignites, accelerating off screen.
POV: HELLFIRE
NOSE
The missile
flies horizontally over the plaza, then pitches up, and back down at NEO. He
looks at it, and at the last second the nose goes back up.
The missile
swoops up over him, leaving him in its exhaust smoke.
POV: HELLFIRE
NOSE
THE missile
banks, panning across the city, until it locks onto the helicopter from which
it originated.
INT. HELICOPTER
COCKPIT
THE missile
bears down the chopper.
CU: PILOT
HE’S TOO stunned
to move. Mouth agape, he can only watch as:
EXT. HELICOPTER
IT’S BLOWN to
fiery pieces, and comes tumbling down, landing on the
street as soldiers and civilians flee.
INT. TANK
TURRET
TANK COMMANDER
"Fire!"
THE GUNNER
pulls the trigger.
EXT. M1A2 ABRAMS
WE drop into
bullet time as a cone of fire – bigger than the tank and the shape of a pine tree, blows out of the barrel, pushing the tank back. From
the fire streaks a HEAT round, white hot, leaving a laser-like tracer as it
bears down on NEO.
REAL TIME
THE TRACER
stops in front of NEO, and out of the air the HEAT round appears. Suspended in
air, it shakes with violence. It accelerates backwards, flying straight back
into the tank barrel.
INT. TANK
TURRET
THE gunner
screams as the BREECH explodes, blocking our view.
EXT. TANK
The tanks
explodes like a 60-ton hand grenade, plowing soldiers onto their faces,
consuming the unlucky ones close to it, and throwing the 30-ton turret straight
up, 10 yards into the air. It rotates, aflame, and comes crashing down on a
nearby commander and his radio man.
INT. METACORTEX
OFFICE
THE EXPLOSION
shakes the building. The scene below is a complete route. Black smoke billows
up from the flaming wrecks. The remaining tanks aren’t retreating – the crews
are piling out and running. The Apache helicopters turn tail and run.
AGENT JONES
"The plan is not working."
AGENT SMITH
"No shit."
AGENT BROWN
enters the room.
AGENT BROWN
"What about your protégé?"
AGENT SMITH
"He’s not ready yet. I’ll deal with this
myself."
AGENT JONES
"You can’t beat him."
AGENT SMITH
"I’ve been altered. I’m Smith, 2.0."
AGENTS BROWN
and JONES look at one another.
CU: SMITH
HE clenches his
teeth, as though he’s girding himself for something.
SMITH
"Kill the others. I’ll take care of this."
RAZOR is at his
operator chair, surrounded by consoles. Some of the Matrix code screens are in
blue, others in red, at least one in green. The code on the green screen starts
pouring down at an incredible rate.
RAZOR
"Fuck."
HE hits
something on the keypad.
EXT. ROOF
MORPHEUS
answers his phone.
RAZOR
"They’re about to pull something. Processing
power is pouring into the agent programs and they’re locking onto your 3-D grid
displacements.
EXT. ROOF
MORPHEUS
"Send through ghosts to confuse their lock."
RAZOR
"Got it."
THE GHOST
program is loaded. We see 3-D images of Morpheus and
the others flash across the screen.
SMITH STANDS
alone, his comrades have disappeared.
THE glass
before him shimmers.
EXT. OFFICE
THE mirrored
glass of Smith’s office wavers, then explodes towards
us. SMITH jumps, and we pan down to follow his
descent. He smacks into the pavement on his feet in front of NEO.
SMITH STANDS, facing NEO, about two fighting distances away.
NEO’s concentration is broken. The METACORTEX building comes to a
shuddering halt.
NEO
"You’re back."
CU: SMITH
He nods.
NEO
"And you have a ponytail now."
AS we
concentrate on NEO, and he concentrates on SMITH, we can see more black suits
marching up behind him.
NEO attacks
SMITH. SMITH backs away slowly, blocking against a losing battle and taking
hits. Meanwhile, the MEN IN BLACK converge on NEO. Just as NEO lands a smashing
blow on SMITH’S chin, three voices at once shout:
"HEY!"
NEO turns, and
SMITH pushes him hard in the opposite direction to face:
THREE SMITHS!
They attack at once, one going low and hard with a knee-breaking sweep kick,
the other punching NEO in the face, and the third breaking to the side and
putting his toe into NEO’s stomach with a vicious
side-kick.
They attack is
in perfect synch, eight arms and eight legs working like clockwork, striking
their target without getting in the way of each other. The attack slams NEO
back, right into the first, bloodied SMITH. NEO slams into his shoving arms,
and stops as though he backed into a brick wall. AGENT SMITH grabs him and
holds him in a FULL NELSON, exposing him to his three copies. The copies shift
position and attack again. Two stand together, left
shoulder to right, and with their combined arms slam NEO in the face, then step
apart as the third comes in. The THIRD grabs the shoulders of the other two and
flips, walking his loafers up NEO’s body, and kicking
him from below, right up into the chin of his jaw! It snaps NEO’s
back with a spray of blood.
EXT. ROOFTOP
MORPHEUS and
NIOBE stare on as the fight rages.
MORPHEUS grips
the edge of the brick wall edge. The stone crumbles under the tension.
MORPHEUS
"We can only watch."
THE ASSAULT on
NEO continues. He struggles, unable to concentrate long enough to find a way to
fight back.
INT. MAIN DECK
RAZOR bangs
away at the keyboard.
RAZOR
"Four fucking agents, no wonder so much
processing power is devoted to them."
EXT. ROOF
A BIRD flying
by NIOBE and MORPHEUS slows its flight, slows its flapping, and freezes.
CU: MORPHEUS. A
pink lightning bolt freezes as it streaks across the sky, sealing the world’s
light in an a light rouge.
Near the plaza,
panicked civilians slow, and fall to the ground as though they’re passing out.
INT. MAIN DECK
Razor stares at
the data pouring down the screens.
RAZOR
"No goddamned way."
His headphone
chimes.
RAZOR
"Operator."
EXT. ROOF
MORPHEUS is on
the phone
MORPHEUS
"What the hell’s going on?"
INT. MAIN DECK
RAZOR
"They’re putting all the coppertops to sleep.
They froze the Matrix."
MORPHEUS
"Why?"
RAZOR
"All processing power is being re-diverted to the
agent program."
NIOBE stands at
the edge of the building and points down.
NIOBE
"Morpheus, look!"
DOWN on the
ground below them, there’s a swarm of AGENT Smiths
EXT. STREET
The passed-out
people stand, and one by one, MORPH into AGENT SMITHS. It happens over, and
over, until dozens, then hundreds, are marching on the plaza.
NEO reaches
back and puts his hands on either side of SMITH’S head. As he’s being pummeled
from the front, he squeezes and screams. His screams are mixed with SMITH’S.
The agent’s head deforms as we’re hear a sickening crack. Suddenly, the
body reverts back to that of the original owner, a security guard, and the head
simply EXPLODES.
THE hold
broken, NEO stumbles back over the body, with the three SMITHS in pursuit. He
somersaults, comes up on his feet, and jumps to the left, putting one Smith in
front of the other two. He attacks, his killing blows destroying SMITH,
smashing through his blocks. He falls, and NEO takes on the other two, giving a
kick jump that knocks both of them away in one shot.
As he comes
down, a wall of Smith’s converges from all sides. They stop, leaving a circle
around him.
WE PAN BACK to
view a sea of black-suited SMITHS flooding the plaza.
CU: NEO
AS his hand
passes over his face, it is refreshed, anew, perfect again. He surveys the
wall-to-wall SMITHS.
SMITH talks
with his voice, times a thousand.
SMITH
"NEO, leave the Matrix. You know not what you’re
doing."
NEO
"Well, is that right?"
HE turns to the
METACORTEX building. It’s repairing, growing steel girders and concrete skin.
NEO’s face darkens.
NEO
"No!"
REALITY
SHIMMERS as his anger strikes out at the building. The tops floors burn, and
then explode. The explosion rips down the building, slowing, slowing, then stopping.
THOUSANDS of
SMITHS are gazing up at the building, concentrating on combating NEO’s attack.
EXT. ROOF
GREGORY sees
the building exploding, and runs. He smashes through an access door.
INT. STAIRWAY
GREGORY hurtles
down the stairs, one at a time.
THE building is
frozen, mid-explosion. TONS of pieces hanging in the air,
suspended only by frozen tendrils of fire and arms of smoke and debris.
THE SMITHS
attack NEO. They fight in a massive melee, dying in mass. Meanwhile, the
METACORTEX building pulls back together, the damage and flame disappearing as
time/space around it is reversed.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROOFTOP
CU: AGENT BROWN
With his hand
on his ear piece, he comes out the elevator door, slowly. Pistol drawn, he
looks around the corner.
MORPHEUS and NIOBE stand there, their backs to him.
Without
hesitating, he advances on them, blasting away with impunity.
THE BODIES of
MORPHEUS and NIOBE are wracked by gunfire and collapse in a heap of
bullet-ravaged flesh.
BROWN walks up
to the corpses and kicks one with his shoe. It shimmers, and then disappears,
followed by the other.
INT. MAIN DECK
RAZOR dials the
phone. MORPHEUS picks up.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
"Yes."
RAZOR
"They’re hitting your ghosts."
MASSIVE attack
of STATIC bursts on the line.
RAZOR
"What the – "
THE LINE goes
dead.
EXT. ROOFTOP
MORPHEUS looks
at the phone and redials. RAZOR comes through, his voice digitized and
distorted.
RAZOR
"They’re cutting comes, get to the access point
on Laxe – "
THE line goes
dead.
MORPHEUS
signals to NIOBE. They exit the roof as he dials TRINITY
CHOI and
TRINITY hide in the shadows of an empty room, watching the battle. TRINITY’S
cell rings. She answers silently.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
"Let’s go. Laxe Three."
TRINITY
"What about Neo?"
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
"We can do nothing to help him. We’ll only get in
his way."
THEY leave the
room.
INT. LOBBY
GREGORY
stumbles into the lobby. Slumbering bodies lie everywhere, slumped over desks,
half-in chairs, on the ground.
HE exits into
the street. The scene is one from HELL.
UNDER the neon
sky, fires are frozen and smoke columns hang in the air, still, like massive
tree trunks.
The battle rages and surges, a thousand SMITHS pouring onto one NEO. All around, nearly
covering the ground, are corpses, destroyed bodies abandoned by the agent. Men
and women, of all ages and designs, smashed, decapitated and broken.
CU: NEO
THE SMITHS
overwhelm him with sheer numbers. NEO is a blur, a human chainsaw now, crushing
or smashing them all, but they crowd on all sides. The bodies pile up as they
fall, and NEO finds himself stepping up the rubbery mass of corpses. A few more
smashed SMITHS fall, morph back into their stolen forms, and NEO is KNEE-DEEP
IN THE DEAD.
He can’t take
it. Choking, NEO struggles to free himself. SMITHS climb up the corpse pile and
drop onto him, pounding viciously. NEO stalls, in shock, his eyes locked with
the lifeless blue eyes of a woman he just killed. She looks amazingly like
TRINITY.
Perhaps for the
first time, he is confronted with the consequences of this war, and his mind
seizes as the Smiths pummel him.
NEO goes berzerk! SCREAMING and fighting, he claws his way out and
surges into the wall of agents. They throw him back, and he can’t kill them
fast enough. HE leaps upward, trying to fly away, but Smiths cling on to him,
and cling on to each other.
NEO struggles
to fly, and as he does, he’s pulling a stalagtite of
black suits, clinging like iron filings on a magnet.
CU: NEO
HIS face is wide with fear and shock. He can’t climb anymore, and looks back
down at the mountain of agents he’s pulling into the air. His face clenches
shut as a scream wells from deep within him. He starts to glow, and we jump
back to see:
A MASSIVE
orange, spherical shock wave blasts away from his body. It rebounds on the
plaza and throws bodies upward, even as it blasts the Smiths away, leaving him
clean.
EVERYTHING
slows down as NEO, exhausted, tumbles out of the sky. On his way down through
the neon light, he passes bodies flying upward from the concussion. NEO hits
the ground, bounces, and lies still, sprawled, as people drop all around him,
piling up, like Satan’s snowfall.
EXT. ALLEY
(MATRIX) DAY
THE sky and
Matrix are still frozen. TRINITY and CHOI make their way along cautiously,
leapfrogging from cover to cover. They pause behind a dumpster, and just before
looking out, there’s the sound of metal tapping metal, twice.
TRINITY looks
in the direction of the sound. MORPHEUS and NIOBE are standing still in the
shadows, near the end of the alley. TRINITY AND CHOI make their way to them.
TRINITY peeks
cautiously around the edge. On the other side of the street is a phone booth.
TRINITY
"Is it clear?"
MORPHEUS
"I smell an ambush."
NIOBE
"Me too. Too
quiet."
CHOI grips his
gun and grimaces.
CHOI
"Too quiet? The world is frozen.
I’ll go first."
NO one likes
the idea.
REAL-TIME
suddenly returns. The lightning bolts in the sky suddenly re-animate,
thundering out of existence, making the four of them jump out of their skulls.
The sounds of the city suddenly flood back.
ON THE street, people stir to their feet. Everyone is confused as
to what happened.
IT’S a sea of
the dead. From its center, NEO emerges, soaked in blood, gagging and gasping
for breath. He stumbles over them. Shocked and crazed, he glimpses the Metacortex building. It’s in one piece again, unharmed.
He falls
against a smashed corporate art sculpture. He picks a cell phone up from the
ground and dials.
NEO
"Morpheus, pick
up."
We hear nothing
but static. Disgusted, NEO throws the phone away. He falls against the
sculpture and looks up. Coming around the corner of the building is a group of
agents and soldiers.
NEO sinks down,
staring at his hands. He catches his breath and concentrates. The blood
disappears, and he dons the suit of an anonymous soldier in black. His face,
too, seems to change.
HE stands and
walks away. We only see his back.
EXT. ALLEY –
DAY
THEY weigh
their options. Finally, MORPHUES gives the nod to CHOI.
MORPHEUS
"Go."
CHOI checks his
ammo and puts his guns under his coat. There are lots of people on the streets
now. Everyone’s in shock over what happened, and the columns of smoke rising
from the center of the city.
CHOI
"And remember, kids, when you’re in a war, never
volunteer yourself!"
HE walks out
onto the street, eyeing the phone booth and everything else. A gorgeous Asian
businesswoman stumbles into him. Recognition lights up her face and she stops
him.
WOMAN
"Choi? Oh my God, I haven’t
seen you for months."
CHOI keeps
looking around, making his way to the booth.
"Oh yeah, sorry about
that."
SHE turns
angry.
"Sorry about that? What kind of an asshole are
you?"
EXT. ALLEY
(MATRIX) - DAY
TRINITY is
looking around the corner. She pulls back into the alley.
TRINITY
"Casanova just ran into an old flame."
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
WOMAN
"No. Fuck you, Choi,
you just think you can come and go when you please?"
CHOI is
ignoring her now, walking straight for the phone booth as she is having a fit.
Tears are welling in her enraged face.
"Choi, if you have one
shred of decency, if you even care about me – "
Inexplicably,
CHOI hangs his trench coat on the side of the booth. Standing behind it, he
reaches around with his arm, keeping the coat between his body and the phone.
The WOMAN doesn’t even notice the web of gun harnesses and what looks like a
ton of ammunition covering the inside of the jacket.
WOMAN
" – you’ll tell me why you
don’t call, why you, you, what are you doing?"
CHOI
"The jacket stops fragmentation. Sometimes they
bomb the phones. Kiss me for luck."
HE grabs her to
him and thrusts his mouth onto hers.
CU: PHONE
His hand grabs
the phone. We hear the dialtone, and he mashes down
one of the numbers of the keypad. The number tone rises in pitch to a
crescendo. WE pull back and:
THE BOOTH
EXPLODES. CHOI and the woman are bowled over by the flame.
EXT. ALLEY
(MATRIX) – DAY
They take cover from the blast as people all over the
street are knocked flat.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
THE PHONE BOOTH
is obliterated. Miraculously, CHOI and the woman are still under the cover of
the jacket. THROWING the smoking jacket off them, CHOI screams in agony as he
grasps the smoldering stump of his right shoulder. The arm is history.
THE WOMAN looks on, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. Shaking, she falls
back, still staring.
CHOI
"You weren’t lucky."
MORPHEUS,
NIOBE, and TRINITY rush to him, picking him up on his feet. CHOI is screaming
and laughing. Someone grabs his smoldering coat, dragging it along. CHOI stares
at the ex-flame as they cart him away. His eyes are crazy.
CHOI
"You still want me to call you? Ha ha ha!"
AS they
struggle down the street, CHOI starts to walk more on his own. PEOPLE run from
the scene, screaming.
CU – the four
of them.
MORPHUES looks
at something off-screen and frowns. HE pulls to the left.
MORPHEUS
"This way."
TANKS and
TROOPS are filling into the street ahead of them, coming from around the
corner.
THEY turn onto
a different street. This street, too, is filling with troops. Worse, it’s being
lead by AGENT BROWN.
NIOBE
"Tanks, or agents?"
TRINITY
"Tanks."
CHOI
"Yeah, tanks a lot."
They break.
CHOI stands on his own, and they run back onto the
street with the tanks.
CU: TANKS
THREE ABRAMS
stop in the street. Their turrets swing into place with terrifying quickness
and precision.
AT ONCE, they
open fire with their main cannons and machines guns. FIRE FLOWERS blaze from
the death machines, sending a typhoon of lead down the street. Troops filed
between the tanks pull their triggers and don’t let go. Everything in the
street is shredded and blown away, as though it was hit by a high-power
pressure hose.
WITH UNEARTHLY
SPEED, EVERYONE BREAKS for the sides of the street, except for CHOI. He stands
amid it all as the tracers come closer to his body. He raises his machine gun
with his good arm, and lays into the enemy.
TRACER rounds
kick away from his gun, ripping straight back into the wall of soldiers. His
rounds deflect off the sloped armor of the tanks, recoils pile into the flesh
of troops. He rakes his fire into the enemy bodies.
CU: CHOI
TRACERS zoom in
on him. A tank round blasts by, and the wall of air kicks him to his side. He
continues to fire even as a bullet, followed by another, blasts through the
middle of his body. More and more bullets smack into him, blasting chunks of
meat and viscera out the back.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) DAY
TRINITY and
NIOBE take one side of the street, running and shooting simultaneously. THEY
reach the buildings on the side and NIOBE goes STRAIGHT UP THE FAÇADE OF THE
BUILDING, as TRINITY jumps from cover to cover, cart wheeling through tracer
fire and bullets.
ON THE OTHER
side of the street, MORPHEUS goes straight up the building façade and starts
running sideways, completely defying gravity, firing downward at the soldiers.
CU: CHOI
HE WILL NOT
FALL, and a hose of lead drills into him, taking his body apart piece by piece.
Bullets take away pieces of his head, neck, and torso, and in one final wave of
fire, he is disintegrated, leaving his machine gun, barrel smoking, spinning in
the air, firing still. The arm is still attached and finger clenching on the
trigger. It is the last piece of CHOI to fall.
MORPHEUS climbs
as he runs. In mid-stride he changes magazines and stops, standing on the wall,
his body parallel to the ground.
On the other
side of the street, NIOBE stands on the wall, blazing at the mass of troops
with two guns that never cease. THERE is no cover and no reprieve from the
DOUBLE DEATH from above. Most are still firing down the street, or over toward
TRINITY.
TRINITY runs up
the side of the street. Her guns go empty and she dives behind a stoop as a
squad of soldiers blazes away at her.
CU: SOLDIER
In slow motion,
he pulls a spoon from a grenade. Somehow, the metal ting reaches
TRINITY’S ears.
CU: TRINITY
She slaps a
magazine into her pistol, pulls the action and comes out from under cover just
enough to see the soldier releasing the grenade. She fires, hitting the
grenade. IT explodes directly over the group of soldiers, flattening them to
the ground.
A BULLET smacks
through TRINITY’S wrist, and the hand comes off, popping like the head off a
dandelion. Blood spurts from the severed arteries, spraying the hand, with the
pistol still in its grip.
ABOVE THE
STREET, MORPHEU AND NIOBE leap for one another. They catch each other’s arms,
fifty feet above the surviving enemy, and spin in place, firing away. The tank
commanders in their copulas blast upward with their machine guns, but the
rounds miss the spinning couple. MORPHUES and NIOBE concentrate on the
commanders, and cut them down.
THEY land
amidst the carnage. TRINITY emerges, shaken, pressing her coat to her arm.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
The other end
of the street fills with soldiers, and AGENT BROWN.
CU: AGENT BROWN
HE surveys the
scene, and immediately draws and fires, running full bore for the rebels.
MORPHEUS, Niobe and TRINITY are too close to the tanks to be fired
on, but the nearest one lunges at them. They climb up over concrete stoops and
over the side of the tank. They sprint down the street as the tanks turn their
turrets behind them, searching.
MORPHEUS
"The garage, hurry!"
THEY dive
behind a corner as a tank fires. Morpheus throws the
woman forward as the tank round hits the edge of the building, blowing the concrete
and brick wall into a massive cloud of powder. Perhaps a ton of rubble falls on
Morpheus’ legs. He drags himself forward. Niobe and Trinity grab his arms and haul him out of the
rubble. Niobe shoots the lock off a steel door, and
they pile into the building.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
AGENT BROWN and his men rush into position around the building the rebels are
hiding in.
Suddenly, an unimaginably powerful engine starts, and as we stare at the garage
door, it explodes outward. A jet-black, hyped COUNTACH
explodes out onto the street, tires literally on fire as they throw up smoke.
It cuts through a few soldiers, hitting them in the knees, as it rips up the
street, the throttle going way too high.
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) – DAY
THE street
scene spins before them. TRINITY is at the wheel, a broken and dusty MORPHEUS
sitting next to her. The tach is redlining as the car
rips up the street. Pedestrians dive for cover.
TRINITY holds
her wounded hand to her chest and drives one-handed.
"Shift."
MORPHEUS does
so, and the tires squeal again when she releases into second, then third. In a
few seconds they’re over 60 on the busy street.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
Soldiers pick
themselves up just in time to hear another engine – a super powerful track
bike, emerges from the burnt rubber smoke screen. A wheely
bar on the back of the bike keeps it from flipping around the rear tire as it
accelerates like a bullet out of a barrel. There isn’t even time to take a shot
until she’s gone.
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) – DAY
THEY rocket up
the entry to a highway, ripping past cars by driving up the breakdown lane.
Once they hit a straightaway Trinity floors it, and the speedo
creeps up past 130 as they dodge in and out of cars.
MORPHEUS grabs
his twisted, folded legs. He was literally poured into the seat. Concentrating,
his face knotting in pain, he straightens the broken, fractured legs. He closes
his eyes and concentrates.
The legs reform
into straight, strong limbs.
MORPHEUS grabs
the wheel.
MORPHEUS
"Keep your foot on the gas. Heal thyself."
TRINITY pulls
her bleeding wound from her arm. Her face tightens, and she closes her eyes,
fervently concentrating, shutting the world out, which is good, as they suffer
constant close calls as Morpheus controls the wheel
from his awkward spot.
When she opens
her eyes again, she grabs the wheel. With BOTH hands.
MORPHEUS pulls
out his cell and tries the line. It’s still full of static.
TRINITY
"Any luck?"
MORPHEUS
"None. They’ve killed
city-wide comms."
TRINITY
"Then the agents are out of touch with each
other."
MORPHEUS
"They can’t track us, but that gives them more
time to destroy our exits, and find the
TRINITY
"What about Niobe?"
MORPHEUS
"She knows to meet us there."
EXT. HIGHWAY
(MATRIX) – DAY
NIOBE’s bike sizzles down the highway, insanely lane splitting at over 100
miles per hour. The wheely bar is folded up against
the rear wheel. A dual stream of vehicles spit by her like
giant machine-gun bullets. She zooms out of view.
EXT. STREET
(MATRIX) – DAY
GREGORY slows
from a run. He looks back as police cars and ambulances race toward the Metacortex building. He can’t shake what he’s just
witnessed. He looks forward, only to run into:
AGENT SMITH
GREGORY
freezes, then bursts into questions.
GREGORY
"What the fuck just happened?"
SMITH
"We need you, Gregory. Will you help us stop
this?"
GREGORY is
perplexed. Resolve comes over his face.
GREGORY
"I can stop this?"
SMITH
"Yes."
GREGORY
"Alright. But how can I fight him?"
SMITH
"I will give you the power you need."
INT. APARTMENT
BUILDING (MATRIX) – DAY
THE building is
old, crumbling, and inside painted a horrid green that no sane person could
find attractive. The humble place is home to THE ORACLE.
NEO exits an
elevator. Recomposed and dressed normally, he walks up and down the hall,
trying to remember which apartment she lived in.
A tall black
woman, one of the Oracle’s priestesses, comes out of the stairwell and
recognizes NEO.
PRIESTESS
"Neo."
HE turns and
looks at her. She smiles, but as Neo looks at her, a flash of uncertainty, and
maybe hate, flies across her face before the smile returns.
PRIESTESS
"The Oracle is anxious to see you."
NEO follows her
into the familiar apartment. The windows are covered, and NEO and the priestess
are the only ones there. The Priestess moves into the dark kitchen.
NEO’s eyes adjust to the darkness. He hears something squish as he steps,
and looks down.
The tattered
rug is a swamp of dark, congealing liquid. NEO reaches down and touches it with
his fingertips. It’s half-dried blood.
He stands, his
eyes adjusted to the dark now. The walls are chipped, covered in bullet holes.
In slow-motion,
the entry door to the apartment opens. In walks AGENT BROWN. NEO turns to the
kitchen. AGENTS SMITH and JONES appear. They all draw their .45s.
NEO stands
still as they walk up to him and put their guns to his head.
AGENT SMITH
scoffs.
NEO
"I was on to you the whole time. I only came in
here to isolate you, to destroy you."
AGENT JONES
"What are you waiting for?"
NEO
"I realized, that I can’t destroy you – "
HE nods at
SMITH
NEO
" – without destroying the
Matrix itself."
SMITH
"You killed me too easy last time."
BROWN
"And if you kill us – "
HE nods at
JONES
BROWN
"We’ll only come back like him."
BROWN nods to
SMITH.
NEO
"I know."
SMITH breathes
deep, and drops his gun. The others follow suit.
SMITH
"So, why don’t you take it all down?"
NEO
"The Matrix?"
SMITH
"Yes."
NEO
"I can. But if I destroy the Matrix, everyone
within it will die."
SMITH snorts.
SMITH
"I take it the great Morpheus
failed to mention this?"
NEO looks up at
him, but his expression doesn’t change.
NEO
"How many people are in it?"
SMITH holsters
his weapon. He speaks matter-of-factly.
SMITH
"Six and a half billion."
FOR NEO, the
numbers are too huge to imagine.
BROWN scoffs.
BROWN
"Could you destroy us?"
IT’S a serious
question for Neo. But he nods. He knows his potential.
NEO
"I could."
SMITH
"What does that make you feel like? God?"
HE is amused by
the idea.
JONES
"This is getting tiresome. Where do we go from
here?"
NEO
"IF you cut the power that the Matrix supplies to
your armies, I’ll let you live."
SMITH
"Idiot. We don’t care about
life, we care about victory."
NEO
"Why?"
JONES
"So our kind… prevails."
NEO
"You mean, lives."
SMITH
"Who do you think started this war, boy? Your
kind tried to kill us first."
BROWN
"But you didn’t. You’re not as tough as you
think."
NEO
"We’ll see."
THE three
agents, helpless to stop him, watch as he walks for the door of the apartment.
NEO opens it, and stops, his face meeting a flying FIST. His vision FLASHES
with the impact, and he staggers back into the room, falling on his ass and
rolling back onto his feet.
GREGOR steps
into the room, tall and BAD.
NEO holds up a
hand.
NEO
"Stop! I don’t want to fight
you! You’re human!"
GREGORY doesn’t
answer. He smashes a side-kick into NEO’s gut,
doubling him over.
THE kick
carries such an impact that a pale concussion wave flashes past Gregor. It sends NEO crashing out the window.
GREGOR stands
upright and moves to the window, followed by the three agents. There’s nothing
on the street, twenty stories below.
The building
starts trembling. We hear rapid-fire impacts, growing louder and coming faster.
THE FLOOR
EXPLODES as NEO crashes up through the concrete, throwing the agents away as he
embraces GREGORY in a bear hug. THEY blast up through the ceiling. WE follow
them up through three more floors, bam, bam, bam. Each concrete floor smashes
GREGORY in the head.
EXT. ROOFTOP
(MATRIX) – DAY
NEO and GREGORY SMASH through the roof, flying upward, like a
missile, past us.
EXT. SKY
(MATRIX) – DAY
CU: NEO
HIS FACE is
contorted in rage as he rockets upward. GREGORY is barely conscious. Seeing
this, NEO stops, and flings Gregory’s body violently earthward.
NEO looks down as
the body falls toward the city, thousands of feet below. He turns away, just as
the distant GREGORY is falling out of sight. Just before he does, the speck of
a person PULLS up, and grows larger and larger as it returns. A contrail
streaks behind him as a rips through the air. FISTS FORWARD, GREGORY is like an
MX missile bearing on NEO.
NEO turns just
in time to catch BOTH FISTS in his chest. Like a cue ball striking another
billiard, all Gregor’s momentum is transferred into
Neo. Gregor stops dead in the air as Neo is hurtled
out of view.
CU: GREGOR
HE is in shock
somehow as he sees NEO flying away. He clenches his fists and flexes his body,
then looks down.
WE see the
ground, thousands of feet below.
GREGORY
"Holy shit!"
FOR some
reason, he starts to fall. Even as he claws to maintain altitude, his rational
mind has caught up with him and is somehow denying the fact that he can fly.
As he’s facing
the ground, NEO slams into him from above. Gripping Gregor
by the neck and his belt, he drives straight down. The ground rushes, it takes
one second to drop past a 50-story skyscraper. Neo slams Gregor,
front first, into the concrete sidewalk. They bust through the sidewalk, into
the sewer below.
INT. SEWER
(MATRIX) – DAY
NEO stands. Offscreen, we can here choking breaths. Neo looks down. Gregor lies twisted on a concrete slab, impaled multiple
times through the chest by snapped, rusty rebar. He takes one last breath, and
his eyes half-close.
NEO checks the
pulse. Finding nothing, he leaps out of the hole.
CU: GREGORY
HIS eyes blink,
and he follows NEO’s departure. Choking, unable to
breath with the rebar through him, he writhes. There’s nothing for him to grab
to pull himself off the steel.
His eyes
clenched shut, Gregor
levitates, by force of will, pulling his body off the rebar. The corrugated
bars make wet, sucking sounds as the pull through his body. Finally, he gets to
a twisted piece of bar, and can’t make it over. He’s losing all his breath, all
his life force, over one piece of twisted steel protruding from his chest.
WITH one last,
wiggling effort, he works it through him. HIS mouth opens wide, but no sounds
emit, lest he recall Neo. Just as the end of the steel bar enters his body and
we can’t take any more,
CUT TO:
THE Countach and bike zip down a long, perfectly flat empty
road. A brown sunset plagues the horizon. There is no civilization in sight.
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
MORPHEUS tries
his cell again. This time, it reaches the
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
RAZOR and CIRCA
are both operating the consoles.
RAZOR
"Operator."
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"Good to hear you’re still there."
RAZOR
"Jesus, you too. Where the fuck are you?"
MORPHEUS
"About two hundred miles east
of the city, on highway 315. We need an exit."
RAZOR
"Coming up on your left, ten
miles, a rest stop."
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
MORPHEUS
"I don’t remember an exit there."
RAZOR
"Gimme five
minutes."
MORPHEUS
"Out."
INT. MAIN DECK
(NIGHT)
RAZOR clears
the screen in front of him and cracks his fingers. He looks at Circa.
CIRCA
"They’re OK?"
RAZOR
"Gotta
get ‘em out. They need an exit program."
CU: Keyboard.
RAZOR’S fingers fly at inhuman speeds over the keys. Data pours down the
console as he blazes away. Finally, he hits ‘enter’ so hard it rocks the station.
RAZOR turns to
Circa as Matrix code resumes its cascade down the screens.
RAZOR
"Yes! Did you like that?"
CIRCA just
rolls her eyes.
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) SUNSET
MORPHEUS’ phone
rings. He answers. It’s Razor.
RAZOR
"Exit ready sir."
MORPHEUS
"Check the phone for bombs."
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
CIRCA looks
over some data and shakes her head.
CIRCA
"It’s clear."
INT. COUNTACH
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
RAZOR (O.S.)
"It’s all set. There’s a pair of cops at the rest
stop, though."
MORPHEUS
"Not a problem."
THE Countach pulls into the meager rest stop, not more than a
water fountain, toilet house and phone booth.
A police
cruiser sits, lights off, waiting to intercept speeders.
EXT. REST STOP
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
THE Countach skids to a stop, kicking up a massive dust cloud
that hides the car. We hear the door slide, and the massive black-clad figure
of MORPHEUS emerges from the dust.
An Uzi in each
hand, pointed at US.
THE COP behind
the wheel is too slow to draw, call for backup, or even duck for cover. The
safety glass is destroyed as gunfire rips through it, chewing the cop to
pieces. His body thrashes in the seat.
MORPHEUS turns
away. NIOBE pulls up on her bike and gets off, slowly,
obviously the ride had been a long one. Trinity joins them. Morpheus
stops.
MORPHEUS
"I thought Razor said their
were two cops."
INT. BATHROOM
HOUSE (MATRIX) – SUNSET
A ROOKIE cop,
his face to young for a razor, is shaking as he peeks through a crack in the
door, through which he sees the terrorists who just wasted his partner. He
finishes buckling his pants, and draws his service pistol, only to shake in
pain as his body morphs.
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
RAZOR and CIRCA
see the agent morph as the code flies down the screen.
RAZOR
"Fuck, fuck fuck!"
EXT. REST STOP
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
THEY smell
something’s wrong. They move, back to back in a triangle, for the phone booth,
weapons draw and looking in all direction at once.
MORPHEUS
"Niobe,
you first."
TRINITY
"Bullshit, it’s my turn."
NIOBE
"Junior ranks leave first."
TRINITY enters
the booth as the phone starts ringing.
It’s the moment
Smith was waiting for.
HE BURSTS out
of the door, gun firing at the booth. Inside, glass shatters, and blood sprays
as Trinity is riddled with bullets. Smith doesn’t stop. He sprays for an
eternity, even firing as she collapses, phone still ringing. Her body slumps,
smearing blood against the booth door as it shuts from her weight.
INT. MAIN DECK
(NIGHT)
TRINITY’S body
spasms violently against her harness as her life signs go berserk. She’s not
dead, but death is only seconds away. Circa screams, but Razor is locked,
staring at the screen with the intensity from which he derived his name.
EXT. REST STOP
(MATRIX) – NIGHT
MORPHEUS and
NIOBE open fire. Smith shudders, flickers violently, his body moving too fast
to follow as the two rebels empty their clips at him. The actions of the guns
stop in the open position, barrels and empty chambers smoking, as the last
empty shells patter to the ground.
MORPHEUS throws
the guns down and turns to Niobe.
MORPHEUS
"Get her out."
NIOBE dives for
the shattered booth, kicking away the starred glass and answering the ringing
phone. She pulls it down, and hauls Trinity’s destroyed body up, placing the
phone to her ear.
TRINITY’S head
merely sags lifelessly to one side.
NIOBE
"Come on! Go through, Trinity! God damnit don’t give up!"
TRINITY’S eyes
flicker. She focuses on Niobe, summoning her
consciousness enough to make the phase back into the real world. She starts to
fade as we cut to:
INT. MAIN DECK
(NIGHT)
CIRCA stands
over Trinity as the rebels blue eyes flutter open. Her whole body goes into a
seizure and she chokes and screams as she grabs Circa.
CIRCA
"You’re safe, you’re safe!"
EXT. REST STOP
MORPHEUS
charges SMITH. Smith ignores reloads him, and sights in on the exposed back of Niobe as she is reaching up to put the phone back on the
hook. As the sights rest right between her shoulder blades, Morpheus
grabs his gun with both hands. He squeezes off one shot, the action freeze back
on an empty chamber, before Morpheus throws his hands
up in the air
The shot ricochets clips Niobe’s ear and
ricochets off the booth. She hangs up the phone and touches the blood of her
ear. The phone rings. She looks at it, then back at Morpheus
and Smith, raising dust as they fight.
She leaves the ringing
phone and runs to join the fight.
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
RAZOR pounds
the edge of the console as he watches the screen.
RAZOR
"Crazy mothers!"
CIRCA has
removed Trinity’s interface, but she’s having a seizure. Circa
can barely hold her down as she uses her teeth to rip the cover off a wicked
hypo.
RAZOR
"What’s wrong with her?"
CIRCA
"Her body’s dying but her mind won’t quit."
CIRCA straddles
her and plunges the massive needle into her chest.
EXT. REST STOP
(MATRIX)
Morpheus and Smith clash in the dust - punches, kicks, and blocks coming too
fast to see. Smith is wailing on Morpheus, but Morpheus sneaks in a kick that separates them. They take
stances a good two distances away. They’re about to go at it again when:
NIOBE sprints
into the fight. Performing a flying leap kick, Smith grabs her and swings her
down, crashing her body into the concrete with a sickening crack-thud.
She rolls, fighting the pain, as Morpheus flies back
into action, catching the agent with a furious ass of swinging kicks.
Niobe grits back the pain and rejoins her love. Together they assault the
agent, their speed almost, almost equaling his, their will capped by the limits
of their Matrix-bending powers. Finally, Smith resurges. He lands a punch into Niobe’s stomach, and her body
folds over unnaturally, as if her back is broken. She crumples to the deck,
blood pouring from her mouth.
MORPHEUS
screams and brings a hammer blow down on the back of Smith’s neck, smashing the
agent’s face down and imprinting it in the concrete. For a moment, Smith is
still. Morpheus collects Niobe
and runs for the phone booth, which is still ringing.
IT’S too far.
Smith grabs him around the knees, spilling him forward. Man handling him like
he weighs nothing, Smith gets on top of him and starts smashing his fists down
into Morpheus’ face.
SMITH
"I should have killed you the first chance I
had."
Like an enraged
silverback, he raises his fists together for one final blow. But instead of
striking, his eyes catch something. He flips back, jumping, as a silver streak
cuts through the air, a split second too slow to cut the agent’s head off.
Instead, it slices cleanly through the triceps of the raised arms, leaving nick
on the throat.
RAZOR, dressed
in a black kimono and wielding two katanas, steps
over Morpheus as he pursues the agent. Smith rolls
backwards, gains his footing, and retreats from the swirling blades of death.
He turns to Morpheus:
RAZOR
"Go!"
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
RAZOR is
strapped into one of the interface chairs, his eyes closed.
EXT. REST STOP
HALF-DEAD. MORPHEUS drags NIOBE to the booth.
Behind them,
Agent Smith backs away from RAZOR’S dual blades, on long, one short. Whenever
Razor attacks, Smith backs away. They circle one another.
MORPHEUS puts Niobe through the phone.
RAZOR forces Smith
around.
RAZOR
"Come on, tough guy, come got some Razor."
SMITH frowns
and moves forward, but the whistling edge of a blade makes him think twice.
RAZOR holds the short sword parallel to the ground, the long sword straight up.
He hides his eyes behind the short sword.
SMITH’s back is against the sunset. The sun drops below a cloud.
RAZOR flashes
the light off his short blade, directly into Smith’s eyes, blinding him as he
strikes with the long sword.
SMITH, blinded,
turns and backs away. RAZOR attacks.
IN the booth, Niobe is gone. MORPHEUS hangs up the phone. He can barely
stand up enough to reach the handset. When it rings he picks it up. But he
doesn’t disappear.
MORPHEUS
"Reload me."
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
CIRCA
"All right."
SHE punches
some keys. MORPHEUS’ 3-D avatar flashes on a console, along with a massive
array of weapons.
EXT. BOOTH
(MATRIX) – SUNSET
MORPHEUS
disappears for a second, then reappears. Now he is
perfectly clean, and immaculately dressed. He replaces his sunglasses and kicks
through the remains of the booth, walking toward the fight as he produces new
weapons, heavy with ammo, from his long coat.
RAZOR keeps
swinging at SMITH – and missing. Seeing his chance, he runs back for the
ringing phone. SMITH pursues, almost on RAZOR when the neo-samurai jumps in the
air and pirouhettes, swinging one sword after
another, like a helicopter blade from Hell.
IN the liquid
world of slo-mo, the short sword cuts through Smith’s
outstretched fingers, sending them flying. The long
sword grazes his forearm, cutting through the fabric and taking off a slice of
flesh. The tip of the sword slices through his suit, cutting his tie off,
digging about an inch into his torso.
SMITH collapses
into the dust, his face a mask of blood and dust. He doesn’t try to get up.
RAZOR passes
MORPHEUS, who backs up to the ringing phone booth. Razor goes through first.
MORPHEUS keeps his eyes and weapon locked on SMITH, who makes no attempt to
pursue. He stands calmly, and in a dignified manner, wipes dust off his
clothing as he watches Morpheus step into the booth,
and replace the phone.
It rings. One
hand on the receiver, Morpheus stares back at Smith.
SMITH stands
there, not attempting to pursue. Morpheus pauses,
taking advantage of the chance to observe his deadly enemy.
SMITH stares at
the booth for a second. Emotion twists his face, first anger, then perhaps sadness. He’s lost. He’ll be in the Matrix
forever.
With a
quicksilver flash, his body reverts back to the shape of the rookie cop.
THE young man
is left standing there. He is filthy, bloody, badly sliced up, and the fingers
of one hand are missing. He looks around at the carnage as his mouth simply
opens and closes, reflexively, in shock. He focuses on Morpheus.
The rebel
answers the phone and disappears, leaving the cop, his body broken and his mind
blown.
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
CIRCA helps
MORPHEUS off the interface chair. Razor is triumphant.
RAZOR
"Did you see that? We beat him! A fucking agent!
He gave up!"
MORPHEUS,
unflappable, rises and rushes to the operations consoles.
MORPHEUS
"Where is Neo?"
CIRCA
"Haven’t heard from him. The city is still cut
off from the rest of the Matrix."
MORPHEUS
appears enraged. He looks at Neo, supine on his chair.
MORPHEUS
"Why does it still exist? Why hasn’t he destroyed
it yet?"
RAZOR
"Maybe he can’t."
TRINITY is
sitting on the edge of her interface chair, looking like hell.
TRINITY
"Is he even alive? Is he captured?"
RAZOR
"Last we saw he was trying to blow up the
building. Haven’t locked onto him since."
MORPHEUS
"What? Why not?"
CIRCA
"Call me crazy, but I think he’s masking his own
displacement signature."
RAZOR
"His carrier signal just goes nowhere. But there is
data going back and forth."
MORPHEUS stares
at the data on the screens. The Matrix lives. He pushes Razor out of the way,
and starts hacking at the keyboard at an incredible rate. It’s
obvious Morpheus can handle computers.
MORPHEUS
"I found him once. I’ll find him again."
We go deeper
into the miasma of green symbols, swallowed by the blackness of the screen, and
emerge into:
INT. PENTHOUSE
APARTMENT (MATRIX) – NIGHT
The apartment
is luxuriously laid out and furnished. Gregory sits on a leather couch,
watching whatever on the tube with the sound off. He absentmindedly manipulates
a quarter over and around his fingers. Finally, he stops and looks at the
quarter.
Holding it
between his thumb and forefinger, he folds it in half as though it was a disk
of bubble gum. He folds it again, then rools it as
though it’s a musket ball.
Chandra enters
the living room and collapses on the couch. She reaches points the remote at
the TV, but Gregory puts his hand over it to get her attention.
GREGORY
"So, you really don’t have any idea how you got
here?"
CHANDRA
"No. I only remember being on the bike."
GREGORY sighs.
GREGORY
"Yeah, you took a pretty good knock on the head.
Do you know how we got this place?"
She looks at
him, annoyed.
CHANDRA
"Duh. We broke in. We don’t
own a penthouse."
GREGORY
"What if I said we did?"
CHANDRA
"I’d say you’re insane."
She finally
gets the remote and changes the channel. The volume comes on, louder and
infinitely more tinny and obnoxious than anything in life. Chandra laughs at
the images as Gregory stares into space.
INT. BURNT-OUT CATHEDRAL (MATRIX) – NIGHT
NEO sits with
his back against a blackened brick wall, staring ahead. He’s in the belfry of
an ancient, destroyed cathedral, among the pigeon nests, soot, and bird crap.
FROM here, in
downtown, we can see the modern, uptown section, with its gleaming skyscrapers.
METACORTEX still stands, illuminated by searchlights.
NEO sits and
broods. Isolated, his world turned upside down and right-side out in less than
a week, his mind and spirit are a blank.
Again, he tries
his cell phone. Static. He collapses it and puts it.
Just as it leaves his mind, it rings. The face flips open.
NEO puts it to
his ear without speaking.
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"Neo."
NEO’S grim
expression is melted by relief.
NEO
"Morpheus! Holy shit!
You won’t believe what happened."
MORPHEUS
"I know."
NEO
"I couldn’t do it. Morpheus,
there’s a problem."
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
MORPHEUS has
the headset on. He stands and surveys NEO.
MORPHEUS
"Yes, there is a problem. The Matrix
exists."
EXT. BURNT-OUT
CATHEDRAL (MATRIX) – NIGHT
NEO’S relief
fades into confusion.
NEO
"I know. I’m sorry."
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"And the problem is…"
NEO
"Uh, it’s impossible. If the Matrix is destroyed,
the people within the system will die. They will all die. There has to
be a different way."
MORPHEUS
doesn’t respond.
NEO
"Morpheus? Did you know
this?"
We hear
nothing. NEO can hear his own heart beating. Anger and confusion add to the
already heavy mental burden he carries.
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"I didn’t say things would be easy, Neo."
NEO sinks to
the ground, shocked. He shakes his head.
NEO
"No."
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
MORPHEUS isn’t
happy about what he has to tell his protégé, but there is no bending his will.
The others look on soberly.
MORPHEUS
"Neo, the Matrix… it’s not real. And it’s up to
you to end it."
EXT. BURNT-OUT
CATHEDRAL (MATRIX) – NIGHT
NEO can’t stand
the reality of the situation. He’s coming apart.
NEO
"No, Morpheus, this
can’t be! We can’t do this! We have to get the people out."
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"Even if we could somehow get to them without
cutting through their defenses, there’s no way we can rehabilitate billions of
people. They wouldn’t even want to be woken up."
Neo is silent.
MORPHEUS (O.S.)
"You can do it. You can free us."
NEO
"Why me? Why the fuck do I have
to do this?"
MORPHEUS is
silent for a long while.
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
Everyone is
watching Morpheus, and no one can quite believe what
is happening.
MORPHEUS
"You know what needs to be done. Time is short.
Make up your mind. The only way you’re getting out of the Matrix is through its
destruction."
Morpheus kills the connection.
EXT. BURNT-OUT
CATHEDRAL (MATRIX) – NIGHT
Neo hears the
line click dead. He can’t believe what has happened.
INT. MAIN DECK
– NIGHT
MORPHEUS drops
the headset on the operations console. He types a few commands on the keyboard,
then addresses the crew.
MORPHEUS
"No one goes in. He’s on his own."
He leaves the
main deck.
Trinity stares
at Neo for a moment, her face fighting for composure No one looks at her. She
walks away, then leans against the bulkhead, her body
shaking.
EXT. BURNT-OUT
CATHEDRAL (MATRIX) – NIGHT
Neo closes the
cell phone. He reaches to tuck it away, then pauses,
looking at it. He drops it to the ground and walks on.
He stands out
on a finger of crumbling church, the night air all around him. The city lights
are alive below. He focuses on the Metacortex
building. Leaving him there, we rush to it until we dive into the dark shadows
of the very building, going microscopically close, until the darkness gives way
to the glowing green miasma of quantum code. It fills the screen before we bust
through into darkness again.
TO BE CONTINUED…