Episode Details

Jamie, Graham and Chris get lost in the desert of the real for three and half hours. Join them as they discuss the several Matrices, velcro, dads, bad squids, comedy French Dracula bastards, whether Geoff Keighley is real, whether films themselves exist, the “vocabulary of power”, the emotional logistics of sofas, 5D aeroplanes – and more! For three and half hours! I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.

• Spoiler warning: the gang talk about the plot points of the first three films pretty liberally from the outset, but somehow don’t get into Matrix Resurrections until 1 hour, 8 minutes and 40 seconds in. The show-notes below also contain spoilers.
• Content warning: discussion of the films’ imagery relating to suicide
• The Matrices are, in order:
• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolutions
• The Matrix Resurrections
• Side projects of note:
• The videogames, Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo, The Matrix Online
• The animation, The Animatrix
• The Matrix films were conceived and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowskis, with the exception of the fourth film, for which Lilly did not return, and was co-written by David Mitchell and Aleksander Hemon. Screenwriter Zak Penn (mentioned on the podcast for producing the screenplay for Warner Bros that would eventually lead Lana Wachowski to grudgingly return to the franchise) is not credited as a writer on the final script.
• Important casting for the first three films:
• Keanu Reeves as Neo / Thomas Anderson
• Carrie-Ann Moss as Trinity
• Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus
• Jada Pinkett Smith as Niobe
• Joe Pantoliano as Cypher
• Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith
• Lambert Wilson as The Merovingian, aka “comedy French Dracula bastard”
• Monica Bellucci as Persephone
• Harry Lennix as Commander Lock, aka “Captain Grumpy”
• Important casting in The Matrix Resurrections that might count as SPOILERS:
• Jonathan Groff as Agent Smith
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Morpheus and sorta also Agent Smith
• Jessica Henwick as Bugs
• Neil Patrick Harris as The Analyst
• Priyanka Chopra Jonas as Sati
• Some other things that get namechecked:
• Skins – Jamie wrote it! It was very good
• Kiss Me First
• Last of the Summer Wine
• Definitely real human man Geoff Keighley
• Carrie-Ann Moss is great as a ruthless lawyer in Jessica Jones