Neo & Trinity

The fights in The Matrix owed a lot to the Hong Kong film industry. Choreographer Yuen Woo-ping previously worked on films with such intriguing titles as Dance of the Drunk Mantis, Shaolin Drunkard, and Iron Monkey. After The Matrix, however, his credits got a lot more well-known as directors and film-goers alike craved more of the energetic action sequences. Since 1999, the year of the film’s release, he has worked on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Hustle. His brother, also a choreographer, worked on the 2003 film Daredevil.The Matrix popularized slow-motion gunfights, spinning perspectives, and of course the unique “bullet time” effect. For example, the shoot-out in the lobby made numerous lists of the greatest action scenes in recent memory. These motifs became so popular that they even entered into the world of video games, most notably in the shooter Max Payne and the raunchy adventure game Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Other films satirized the heavy use of these techniques and drew comedy from them. Some examples include Scary Movie, Shrek, and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.The Matrix films (and fights) also borrowed much of their visual look from Japanese animated films like Ghost in the Shell. This came full circle when The Animatrix was released. A compendium of 9 short animated films, these stories filled in corners of the Matrix universe and were directed by legendary anime directors like Shinichiro Watanabe and Peter Chung. Other non-related anime films also had action sequences inspired by the film, like the series FLCL.