Continuity mistake: In the beginning of the movie when Neo gets the FedEx envelope, he is shown at his desk opening the envelope and then pouring it out. As he is pouring the phone out, with the green packing label on the top, the shot cuts "seamlessly" to a close up of the phone being poured out the rest of the way. However, the envelope is now flipped over. The FedEx logo is now on top (the packing label is facing down). (00:12:50)
Continuity mistake: When Neo drops the FedEx envelope on his desk after he pulls out the cell phone from the delivered package, it lands right next to a keyboard on top of a cable/wire. When the phone immediately rings and he answers the call, in the wider shot showing the whole cubicle with Neo still in his seat, the envelope is now resting partway on top of the keyboard. Then when he stoops next to his desk after nervously crouching about in his own cubicle wondering to Morpheus what the unknown group of men who is coming to his office wants from him, the overhead shot shows the envelope now closer to the edge of the desk (bottom of the screen), well clear of the keyboard. Yet in another shot from outside the cubicle just a little later, as he makes a dash out of his office according to Morpheus' instructions, the envelope is back resting on the keyboard. Those FedEx packages must really move. Also, what's the deal with the cable that's unplugged on his desk? (00:13:27)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is on the ledge outside of the office trying to follow Morpheus's instructions, he wraps his hand around the pillar to attempt at making a pass. If you look, you can see multiple hand prints from where Reeves had repeated the shot over and over. (00:15:45)
Visible crew/equipment: When Neo is crawling round the side of the building after Morpheus's phone call, there are two shots from his point of view. In the second one, close to the black pipe, the square camera is seen in the reflection. (00:15:45)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is out on the scaffolding and loses his phone, the first shot down is of an empty street, in the shot of the phone falling the street is filled with people and a big parade, then it cuts to a wider shot and the people have vanished again. (00:15:55)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is brought out of the building, you clearly see the police officer push the car door open and turn his head to the rear of the car, yet in the next cut where we are viewing the scene from the reflection in Trinity's side view mirror his head is facing forward again. (00:16:00)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is about to be interrogated, Agent Smith throws Neo's file onto the table. In this shot, the piece of cord holding the file together points upwards, moments later it faces to the side. (00:16:35)
Continuity mistake: In the interrogation room. Mr. Smith has a green file with him with Neo data accumulated. Smith opens the file and lifts up some pages without turning them fully over. In the very next shot there are suddenly multiple pages to his left which have already been turned over. (00:16:50)
Continuity mistake: When Smith put his glasses on the table while he is talking with Neo, the glasses are near Smith. When Smith takes them back, they are further away. (00:18:00)
Continuity mistake: When Agent Smith is interrogating Neo, after Smith has sealed Neo's mouth shut and he is backed into the corner, when the camera cuts back to Smith you can clearly see a reflection in his glasses of Neo still sitting down in the chair. (00:19:50)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is being interogated by Agent Smith he says "How about I give you the finger and you give me my phone call?" Neo gives him the finger; in one shot the other fingers are bent all the way down. In another they are only half bent. (00:19:55)
Continuity mistake: When Neo is waiting under the bridge to go into the car with Trinity, Switch and Apoc, watch when the car pulls up, you see the back door open completely and then it cuts and then you see Trinity open it again. (00:21:45)
Continuity mistake: When Neo first meets Morpheus, Morpheus extends his right hand with his other hand behind his back. Next shot shows Morpheus with his left hand at his side, and when he withdraws his hand, it is back behind his back. Talk about fast hands! (00:24:55)
Continuity mistake: When Neo and Morpheus are inside the hotel room and Morpheus is giving the offer to Neo, the reflection in either part of his shades shows that he is holding his hands away from each other. Yet, when Neo goes to pick up the red pill, they are close together, then we see them further apart from the reflection inside the shades. (00:28:15)
Continuity mistake: As Neo awakens inside his "goo tube", a few from overheard shows him raising his arms against the covering of his tank. The shot changes to one from the front and suddenly Neo is in a sitting position and raising his arms up as he breaks the covering. When Neo was first raising his arms, he was laying on his back. (00:31:15)
Revealing mistake: When Neo breaks free from the goo-pod and slides down the tunnel into the sewer, he falls into the 'lake'. But if you look close you can see that when he falls he's wearing a nappy of sorts, covering his modesty. (00:33:00)
Other mistake: When Morpheus and his crew rescued Neo from the Matrix, how was it possible that Neo's real self had his ear pierced? (00:35:55)
Continuity mistake: When Neo first enters the construct, Morpehus and Tank plug him in. In the construct, Neo turns around a second after being plugged in, and Morpheus is now standing there. There's no way he could have loaded up that fast. (00:37:45)
Deliberate mistake: When Neo and Morpheus are in the construct place (where it is all white), you can see that Morpheus' glasses are a matte grey and then a second later they are totally reflective. [The shot where Morpheus has flat black glasses was shot with a steadycam. A cameraman using a special camera strapped to his body walks in a snaking path from behind Neo, to behind Morpheus. He passes in front of Morpheus at least once. His glasses were painted flat black to prevent the reflection of the steadycam operator showing up on film. At the end of the shot, you can see the back side of the lens. While doing this scene and saying his dialogue, Laurence Fishburne couldn't see anything.] (00:38:10)
Continuity mistake: When Morpheus first takes Neo into the Construct and is explaining it all to him, you can see Neo's reflection in his glasses, but when the camera shows Neo, he is wearing different clothes and standing in a different position and moving. (00:39:55)
Chosen answer: No, they don't address it, other than Morpheus' speech during the test. It's not something that they have any realistic choice about, so they just have to accept it and do what they need to do. Mouse, yes, he chooses to defend himself when cornered, but who wouldn't? These may be innocent victims of the Matrix he's shooting at, but they're still there to kill him - he's hardly going to stand there and accept his fate meekly. There's also no indication that the guards were "completely prepared" to let Neo and Trinity into what's clearly a high security building, undoubtedly they would have been asked for identification, what their purpose was there and so forth and turned away if, as seems likely, their answers weren't satisfactory. Shooting their way in from the start is likely their only option. Yes, it's absolutely ethically unfortunate, but if they're going to resist the machines successfully, it's not something they have any choice about. A necessary evil.
Tailkinker ★