The Matrix

Factual error: When Trinity is being arrested, you hear the cops all burst into the room and cock the hammers on their Glocks. The Glock doesn't have an external hammer. To load the weapon, you have to pull the slide back and release it. (00:01:50)

Factual error: During the lobby shootout, Neo pulls out a pair of VZ-61 Skorpion machine pistols and runs down the lobby blowing away the guards. While he is running, we see the blank shells falling to the ground beneath him. However, the shells are 5.56mm NATO, which is a cartridge that is too long to fit in this gun. (01:42:45)

Factual error: When Neo is shooting thousands of bullets out of the Gatling Minigun from the helicopter, there is a shot of "cases" and links falling from the machine gun onto the helicopter floor. Only those "cases" are complete rounds, bullet and all (or possibly blanks) instead of just empty, spent cases. (01:43:45)

Factual error: When Agent Brown shoots at Neo on the skyscraper, the last shot scrapes Neo in the knee and on his shoulder. This would cause both shots to be vertical when standing up. However, when Neo stands up and indicates to the scrape, the shoulder scrape is horizontal - not possible given the trajectory Agent Brown is firing from. (01:46:30)

Factual error: After securing the rooftop with the helicopter, Trinity calls Tank and says, "I need a pilot program for a B212 helicopter." Tank's screen shows the silhouette of a Bell 206 helicopter. (01:47:25)

Factual error: In the subway scene, Trinity answers the phone, and the hobo becomes agent Smith. Smith shoots at Trinity, but the bullet hits the phone, which explodes to the right. Considering the bullets direction, the phone should explode to the left. (01:54:05)

Factual error: When Neo was getting shot outside room 303, Smith fires 10 rounds into him. More if you count every time Neo is shaking in the seat as additional shots. The Desert Eagles in the movie are chambered for .50 AE. You can tell this because the barrel isn't fluted. This means it has a 7 round magazine. Agent Smith runs out of ammo in the subway, so it's not like he can hack his gun because of his software.

Factual error: In the "Deja Vu" sequence, when Mouse opens the box containing his Auto Shotguns, they are stored with a few belts of .50-caliber BMG ammunition, which would be useless in a shotgun. Also, despite firing about 20 or more 12-gauge shotgun blasts at the SWATs, he fails to hit anyone, even though that equates to about 240 flying lead pellets.

The Matrix mistake picture

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)

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Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species, and I realised that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment; but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer on this planet, you are a plague, and we...are the cure. (01:02:20)

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Trivia: It's been said that Neo is an anagram for "one". I think it's more important to realise that Neo means "new". His real name is Thomas Anderson. He is called Thomas at the beginning of the movie, when he doubts the truth -- that the world as he knows it is not real. Thomas is the "doubting" disciple in the Bible. Moreover, Anderson means "son of man". Hence, Neo Anderson is the New Son of Man. The biblical references go on and on... Trinity, Nebucadnezzar (the name of the ship -- in fact, the name plate on the ship makes reference to a verse in Mark chapter 3), Zion... So not only is Neo "the One", he has gone from being the doubter to the new son of man.

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Question: How did Neo know about the existence of the Matrix if he was stuck in the Matrix for most of his life?

Answer: He doesn't know that he's plugged into a giant computer and that most of humanity is a power source for robots. He's merely aware that there is something wrong with life in general, something odd that he can't quite explain.

Gary O'Reilly

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