The Matrix/Awesome

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• This Troper believes that the whole trilogy jumped from one Moment of Awesome to the next every few minutes.
  • For those of who actually enjoyed the sequels (we exist, believe it or not,) this statement is perfectly valid.

The Matrix

• The prologue sequence with Trinity's escape. Absolutely the greatest introduction of a character ever.
• Neo's escape from the cubicle room, with Morpheus almost omnisciently telling Neo the exact instant in which to perform an action.
• Each instance where Bullet Time is used in the first movie, in particular the scene where Neo dodges the bullets on the rooftop.
• Neo and Trinity shooting up the lobby.

Neo walks through the metal detector and it goes off. Guard: Sir, could you please remove any metallic items you are carrying... keys, loose change... Neo opens his trenchcoat to reveal enough guns to kill a small city. Guard: Holy shit!

• • This doubles as a Crowning Moment of Funny.
• This Troper would argue that "Dodge this" was Trinity's true Crowning Moment. The character could not possibly do anything to come even remotely close to topping that...
  • ...until she stole the Ducati in Reloaded.
• I've just got to give a shout out to my all time favorite character in all three Matrix films. That is Cypher, or Mr. Reagan. Especially in his speech, "Ignorance is Bliss". He just perfectly illustrates the reason for the red pill/blue pill decision. Some people just aren't ready for the Matrix, and if you act without thinking, it's hella hard to get back in. Just awesome.
• No list of awesome moments from this film is complete without mentioning the sparring match between Morpheus and Neo in the dojo. "You think that's air you're breathing now?"
  • Even after downloading combat skills for ten hours, Neo still gets a Let's Get Dangerous moment on top of that: compare his hey-this-is-fun expression early in the first round to his fatigue at the end, then his calm focus when they cut back for the rematch.
• The scene in the subway station where Neo decides not to run from Smith, turning and fighting him instead. And proceeds to take him down after a very nail biting fight.
• Even Mouse gets his moment when he realizes his escape is cut off and he's doomed. What does he do? He decides to go out like a Badass. He waits until the entire SWAT team is there, hefts some heavily modified automatic shotguns, and unleashes MORE DAKKA, GUNS AKIMBO.
  • He also notably throws in a final scream for good measure.
• No love for Tank?

"Believe it or not, you piece of shit, you're still gonna burn!"

• For this troper, Neo's Crowning Moment came after his resurrection, when he single-handedly fought off Agent Smith, with a look on his face suggesting he was even more bored than usual.
  • To this troper his Dull Surprise actually helped the scene. It marked how Neo was now operating on a level so far above the Agents, he didn't even have to try.
• "My name... is NEO!" was the most awesome part of the first film for this troper.
• Trinity's helicopter is stricken. Neo picks up a rope. A rope? Is he mad -- expecting to somehow stop a falling chopper? We soon realize that Neo, in a split second, has formulated the only plan that could possibly work, counts on Trinity to come up with the same plan, and successfully executes it. He not only acts faster than us, he thinks faster than us. This is Neo's Moment of Awesome. There can be no doubt: he is The One.
  • ....This troper always just figured he actually was going to try and stop the falling chopper, I mean, hell, it's the Matrix, why not?
• Morpheus snapping his handcuffs to majorly heroic Crowning Music of Awesome.

The Matrix Reloaded

• "WE ARE STILL HERE!"
• The Burly Brawl.
• The fight in the Merovingian's chateau between Neo and the Merovingian's goons.
  • Neo stopping a sword on the edge of his hand just to show off nearly matches Trinity's "Dodge this" moment from the first movie. That he bled a single drop of blood somehow made that moment even more awesome.
    • Especially that it makes the Merovingian raise an eyebrow, which doesn't sound like much, but it really completes the scene. Also, the bassline kicking in right after that.
• Morpheus fighting Agent Johnson on a moving semi. At first, he's only managing to hold his own with difficulty, at one point resorting to grabbing the Agent's tie to stay on the truck. He eventually gets knocked across the back of the truck, flat on his stomach, only to see his katana still stuck in the side after his Stepping Stone Sword earlier. Johnson fastidiously tucks his tie back in, with the most contemptuous look on his face, before moving in for the kill...at which point Morpheus leaps up, sword in hand. Johnson stumbles back, his tie cut neatly in two, while Morpheus performs his classic Bring It stance. The grin is what sells it.
  • And that was after taking out the Twins (who were driving an Escalade SUV) with a katana and a Glock 18 in a slow motion maneuver that has to be seen to be believed.
  • That entire gloriously OTT sequence was a Crowning Car Chase of Awesome.
• Reloaded is arguably a long string of Crowning Moments...until it slammed to a screeching halt when Neo met the Architect. But then you've got Neo saving Trinity, Morpheus' line after the Nebucchadnezer is destroyed, Neo stopping the Sentinels...
• Neo "doing his Superman thing" so fast that everything he passes is either shattered or sucked down the street after him while flying to rescue Trinity.
• How this didn't make it here already I don't know, especially considering Morpheus is The Comically Serious.

Smith: I want what you want. I want everything. Morpheus: *instantly snaps his pistol to Smith's head* Would that include a bullet from this gun?

• Ah, but the most awesome moment of all is the most subtle. It goes to the unlikeliest of characters-- the nerdy Keymaker. Trinity's guarding him, and she needs to steal a ride...

Trinity: I need a download to hotwire a motorcycle. Link: Not a problem, one crash course in motorcycle... Keymaker: *gives her exactly the key she needs* Trinity: Wait. Cancel that.

• The Twins were underused in this troper's opinion. Effortlessly avoiding almost every attack thrown at them and barely reacting when actually hit. The deadpan sells it. Shot many times in the arm? "Can we move this along?" Forced out of a moving vehicle on the freeway? "We are becoming aggravated." "Yes, we are."

The Matrix Revolutions

• The Club Hell sequence.
• Revolutions has the battle This Troper (and many others) had been waiting for since the beginning of Reloaded: the soldiers of Zion (in Mini Mechas, no less) fighting thousands of Sentinels.
  • The Sentinels forming into a massive tentacle to smash Zion's fortifications.
  • Mifune facing the massive Sentinel tentacle and not only standing his ground but defiantly screaming at them even while they tore at his flesh, mortally wounding him.
  • And speaking of Mifune, his speech before the Sentinels break through to Zion should count:

"All right! This is it! Now you all know me, so I'm gonna say this as simply as I can. If it's our time to die, it's our time. All I ask is, if we have to give these bastards our lives...we give 'em hell before we do!"

• Niobe can freaking drive.

"Holy Christ I didn't know the ship could do that."

• Trinity and Neo fly above the clouds, and Trinity becomes the first human to get a fleeting glimpse of sunlight in ages.
• The final battle. After a long rant about human futility by Smith, Neo responds and tells the rogue Agent why he still persists: "Because I choose to".
  • This troper gets chills just from reading that line. It is the ultimate comeback to Smith's endless nihilistic tirades, short, succinct and perfectly delivered. This is Neo's true victory - to keep fighting, no matter what, even if it kills him, simultaneously proving the architect wrong by using free will to break the cycle of violence.

The Animatrix

• The dojo sequence in Final Flight of the Osiris; for This Troper, it's one of the most erotic scenes of all times, period.
  • Seconded~!
• For This Troper, Beyond is one of the most stunning animated shorts of all time. The soundtrack alone is incredible in its own right.
  • Don't forget the gorgeous animation, which is both extremely unusual and very natural feeling when the characters are in motion.
• A Detective Story should go here for combining two radically different genres, Film Noir and Cyberpunk, smoothly and beautifully. The ending where the detective has his gun pointed at the Agents in pure defiance of their mind control/body hopping abilities counts too.
• Program contains one of the most sumptuously animated duels this troper has ever seen.
• Although horrifying for some, both parts of The Second Renaissance are filled with this, but most noteworthy is the Epic Battle sequence. Rare to see that in animation nowadays.
• World Record Begins with a narration that basically says that some people find out about the Matrix without any help due to having key senses of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature, and a rare few find out through "Wholly different means." The story is about a runner who breaks the titular record for the 100 meter dash. His medal is revoked however, due to him testing positive for drugs. Undeterred, he runs another race, and, despite at one point being chased by Agents and muscles in his legs blowing out he is literally undeterred, and keeps running and beating his previous record. The biggest CMOA here is that he managed to break out of The Matrix for a few seconds, only to be plugged back in by the machines.
  • The ending might be an even bigger Moment then that. Since his muscles blew out, the final scene is of him being pushed in a wheelchair by a chatty nurse, not just paraplegic but in some kind of catatonic state, and is being monitered by one of the Agents who were watching and chasing him earlier. The Agent also mentions how his memory of the race was wiped and how "He will never run again. He will never even walk again for that matter." He all of a sudden mutters the word "Free." before getting up, walking a few steps, much to the shock of the nurse and especially the Agent. He falls back down just before it looks like he's about to leave the ground flying. This becomes even more Awesome when you remember that no other character except Neo could possibly fly (We're not counting Smith), and this guy nearly does it after getting crippled.

Other

• The videogame Path of Neo was hyped as a playable version of the film trilogy in which certain scenes and plot points were altered for a better videogame experience; the actual plot alterations suit this concept well, even if the actual game design fell rather flat. But the Crowning Moment comes at the end, when the Wachowskis - as little 1-bit sprites in a Construct program (Larry as the pink one, naturally) - interrupt the final fight to explain that Neo's sacrifice would make for a terrible ending to a videogame, because gamers want a final boss fight, and they will therefore get one as Neo takes on "Mega Smith". The whole thing is a very thinly veiled Take That at everyone who started professing hatred for the movies as they started losing the pretense of being action flicks and became more openly cerebral, with thicker symbolism instead of direct dialogue.