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The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

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Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#71

Post by globular-toast »

sokoloff wrote: post #25
to11mtm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh... I feel like they have aged better over time than a lot of 'trilogies'. They do not measure up to the original but they aren't truly terrible, at least if you're looking at them from a more philosophical standpoint.

Reloaded may have been passable as a standalone film (if not seen as a disappointing sequel by comparison to the original). Revolutions was (IMO) terrible standalone or as a sequel. It felt like more of a CGI-heavy cash-in on the series than anything else.

I thought Reloaded was amazing at the time (I was a teenager). I saw it three times in the cinema. I was so excited for Revolutions. Had all these theories about what the architect said, why did the kid give him a spoon etc, are they still in another level of the Matrix? Then when it came out I saw it once and pretty much never talked about the Matrix again. Massive let down.

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#73

Post by DidYaWipe »

DidYaWipe wrote: post #52
wkat4242 wrote: post #9

I'm surprised they used two real locations for the hotels. The "Heart O'The City" one at the very start, and the "Deja Vu" staircase. These hotels look really delapidated in the film. I thought they were studio sets. I wonder how they managed to make them look so bad, tbh with late 90s tech (green screen mostly and limited CGI) it sounds like it would have been simpler to just build a delapidated staircase in a studi…

The real Heart O' the City Hotel is in Chicago, like the rest of the place names in the movie (although the real name is Heart O' Chicago). The Wachowskis wanted to film there, but Major Daley (historic asshole and scumbag, in case you're not familiar) wouldn't let them. I can't remember what the rationale was, but then of course two Batman movies shot there. The hotel: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29…

That should be MAYOR Daley, of course. But major D-bag nonetheless. His illegal destruction of Meigs Field in the middle of the night ranks up there with some all-time thefts from the public, along with his sale of Chicago's parking meters to a scumbag outfit for 100 years.

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#74

Post by femto »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #2

Seeing the movie as a kid I totally expect it to be filmed in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, but Sydney never crossed my mind since the shots looks too "North America" to be anything else. Probably because in my mind Sydney is a beach with the opera house and an outback with kangaroos and giant spiders.

The giant spider is actually a thing. Earlier this year, the "Newcastle Funnel Web" was identified as a new species: bigger and deadlier than the Sydney Funnel Web Spider.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-14/researchers-prove-thr...

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#76

Post by femto »

imp0cat wrote: post #72

What's fascinating is that they still have phone booths in Syndey (re: the last shot). Do they actually still work?

Yes, and they provide free nationwide phone calls.

https://www.telstra.com.au/exchange/payphones-free-for-calls...

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#77

Post by keepamovin »

worthless-trash wrote: post #67
keepamovin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that subway was definitely real as well, on what used to be the city circular line. The guy missed a few of the locations such as the Oracle apartment, which is actually an apartment building in Redfern.

I thought that was a set, the green tiles in the kitchen and the green walls had made me think she was 'more machine' than the other characters. The room/lobby with the Aboriginal man at the bottom of the lift, was that the same location ? https://imgur.com/a/original-seraph-0igD2aP <-- this scene.

Yes, the lift lobby is an actual location. I’ve been there. It’s in Redfern if I recall correctly.

I can’t speak to what the apartment interior was who knows?

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#78

Post by wiether »

tim-- wrote: post #62
wkat4242 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why Sydney was so popular. The CBD has a really American feel but prices and wages are Australian. Fox studios had a huge campus there. Not sure if they still do.

It's now Disney Studios ( https://disneystudiosaustralia.com/ ) after Disney's acquisition of Fox. There's 9 large sound stages. A large amount of movies are filmed there. The lease of the land at the time was controversial. > The rental was $2 million, payable over 40 years. However, the payment date was not specified, and the deal proceeded with an initial $1 per annum peppercorn rental, in return for which the gov…

IIRC that topic was discussed in an episode of Utopia

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3163562/

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#79

Post by squigg »

fellatio wrote: post #40
ttmb wrote: post #28

I was working in Sydney and the instructions for dropping off the off-site backup tapes said "turn left at the Woman In Red fountain".

Ever see the military choppers doing their exercise? Amazing and scary.

Yes! We lived in a penthouse apartment in Surry Hills (the old hat factory) for 2 years from 2010 and the first time the choppers came in and dropped troops off on the rooftop opposite I was terrified! Became a regular source of entertainment, to sit on the terrace watching them be dropped off

Re: The Matrix (1999) Filming Locations – Shot-for-Shot – Sydney, Australia [video]

#80

Post by cjrp »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #2

Seeing the movie as a kid I totally expect it to be filmed in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, but Sydney never crossed my mind since the shots looks too "North America" to be anything else. Probably because in my mind Sydney is a beach with the opera house and an outback with kangaroos and giant spiders.

Didn't they have to reverse the footage of cars (like when Neo is climbing outside out of his office building) so they look like they're driving on the right-hand side?
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