When Neo first meets the Agents, he says “Hiya Fellas” just like Mickey Mouse does! – TrinityInfinity

Actress/Singer Aaliyah was originally cast in the role of Zee but was killed in a plane crash on 25 August 2001.

Gloria Foster also died before the end of shooting the second Matrix film. She had done most of her scenes for Reloaded but had not done any for the third film.

A 17-minute battle sequence alone cost over $40 million.

The 1.4-mile, three-lane loop highway was built specifically for the chase scene on the decommissioned Alameda Point Navy Base. It was destroyed when filming was complete.

It was reported that Keanu Reeves volunteered to give up a claim to a share of ticket sales amounting to around $38 million when producers feared that the film would never recoup the cost of the special effects.

The special effects cost $100 million U.S.

The script for the movie (while in production) was code-named “The Burly Man”. “The Burly Man” is the title of the script Barton Fink is working on in the film Barton Fink.

GM donated 300 cars for use in the production of the movie. All 300 were wrecked by the end.

There were several injuries on the set: Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg training for a wire stunt, Laurence Fishburne fractured an arm in another training incident and Hugo Weaving put out a disc in his neck while being pulled back on a wire.

The film’s highway chase sequence took almost three months to shoot (longer than many films’ entire shooting schedule).

When Trinity hacks the Power Station’s computer, the password she uses is “Z1ON0101”.

Trinity uses a genuine hack to get into the Matrix. She uses Nmap version 2.54BETA25 (an actual port scanning tool) to find a vulnerable SSH server, and then proceeds to exploit it using the SSH1 CRC32 exploit from 2001.

Cameo: [Bill Pope] The director of photography makes an appearance as a security guard “who gets paid to count sheep”.

Matrix Reloaded promotional material was in such high demand, that distributors were extremely worried about it being stolen. To combat this, standees and banners were sent out with the code names of “Caddyshack 2” and “The Replacements”. Several cinemas thought they had not received the materials due to these names, and as such, did not display them until the last minute.

The Wachowski brothers’ contract for doing the Matrix Reloaded, and Matrix Revolutions, included a stipulation that would not have to do any media interviews.

Only a few of the Agent Smith clones were actually played by Hugo Weaving. Open casting calls for males with similar body shapes and structures took place, and Weaving’s head was superimposed on them later.

Professional Taekwondo instructors were used for some of the stunts, including WTF silver medalist Master Timothy Connelly.

The red chair Morpheus is sitting in when he is expounding his plan to access the source is the same red chair he was sitting in when he offered Neo the red and blue pills in Matrix, The (1999) and when he explained to Neo what the Matrix was.

The two freeways referenced in the movie were the “101” and the “303”

The tractor-trailer used in the freeway chase scene has “Big Endian Eggs” written on it’s side. This is a reference to Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels: “The Lilliputians, being very small, had correspondingly small political problems. The Big-Endian and Little-Endian parties debated over whether soft-boiled eggs should be opened at the big end or the little end,” (“Big-endian” has also been adopted as computer terminology.)

There are 1,943 names in the credits.

Historical reference: the Merovingians were the ruling class of France in the 7th Century A.D. It is also the name of a type of Gnostic Church (many elements of Gnosticism appear in the Matrix films).

Because the twins’ Cadillac Escalade EXT was not in production at the time of the movie’s filming, General Motors had to graft together fiberglass Cadillac parts with prototype Chevrolet Avalanche pickup trucks, to create the black truck seen in the freeway chase. The Lincoln Continental from Matrix, The (1999) makes a brief cameo appearance toward the beginning of the film. The underground garage where the characters select a car is populated with all Cadillacs, including a classic 1950s El Dorado and prototype of the 2004 XLR.

There are many references to number 101.

When Agent Smith pulls up in an Audi at the beginning of the film, his license plate is “IS 5416”. In the King James Bible, Isaiah 54:16 says, “Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.”

One of the freeway signs during the freeway says “Whipple Ave, Woodside Rd, Marsh Rd” – which are three real consecutive freeway exits on the 101 freeway south of San Francisco.

According to Oakland city officials who worked with the filmmakers on the downtown Oakland shots, all red and blue colors had to be removed, so sidewalk curbs were painted over. Also, there could be no greenery or other plant life, so filming was done over the winter before tree leaves sprouted in the spring.

Carrie-Ann Moss did some of her own driving on the motorcycle in the highway scene.

This is the highest grossing R-rated movie.

The role of “Seraph” was originally written specifically for Jet Li. When Li declined, the role was then changed to a female and offered to Michelle Yeoh, who turned it down due to scheduling conflicts.

It took Carrie Anne Moss 6 months just to get the “Scorpion Kick” in the beginning of scene correctly.

The Merovingian’s restaurant is named “Le Vrai.” This is French for “The Real.” (thanks to Mr. Weimerskirch)

Lambert Wilson’s French accent as The Merovingian is intentionally exaggerated at the directors’ demand. Wilson speaks English very well and said it was his only deception towards the movie.

The fight sequence of Neo versus Agent Smith and his clones (a.k.a. The Burly Brawl) took 27 days to shoot.