> Sydney, 1998 · a city with no name
Four faces, still in the code. Decode them.
Morpheus’s offer, turned round
The blue pill keeps you in the story: the street as the film’s nameless city, tinted green, the sky gone white. The red pill shows you the same Sydney street as it is, and how to get there.
Blue pill: Metacortex, somewhere in a city with no name.
In the film
Thomas Anderson works at Metacortex, where the Agents first arrest him; the building is the Metcentre.
All but a few scenes were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney and in the city itself. Recognisable landmarks were mostly kept out, so the city would read as anywhere. Inside the Matrix the design leans to green; in the real world it leans to blue. Bill Pope used green filters and green in the colour timing for the Matrix, and made its skies white.
1 Martin Place, Sydney
A hotel in the old General Post Office at 1 Martin Place, which FilmInk lists among the film’s locations. The fountain of the woman in the red dress is a few steps away, and the hotel offers free heritage tours.
Check roomsSeven streams, seven streets
Every column of rain is a real Sydney address. Tap one to stop it and it decodes.
Decoded: The Metcentre (Metacortex).
Margaret and Carrington Streets, Wynyard
The Metacortex building, where Neo works, is the Metcentre seen from Margaret Street and Carrington Street.
An office tower with a shopping arcade at its foot, linked to Wynyard station. The face in the film is the one you see from Carrington and Margaret Streets.
Starts at Barangaroo Metro, ends near Central · Adults A$55, students A$44 · Sundays, about 3 hours
A three-hour Sunday walk to the Sydney streets of the first film: the opening escape, Thomas Anderson’s office, the Lloyd Rees fountain, the corner of the last call and the Adam Street bridge, where it finishes.
Pick a SundayA frozen street
For bullet time, an array of still cameras around the actors was fired fractions of a second apart against a chroma-key screen. Put together, the frames reach 12,000 per second, against film’s usual 24.
Camera 1 of 12 on The Campbell Street railway bridge (the Adam Street bridge).
The Campbell Street railway bridge (the Adam Street bridge): The Adam Street bridge scene was filmed at Campbell Street and Elizabeth Street.
A working road under a railway. See the arch from the Elizabeth Street crossing; there is no pavement worth walking inside.
Pitt Street at Hunter Street
Ringing, on a corner of the business district.
Corgi Tours stops at the street corner where Neo challenges the machines at the end of the first film. His battle with Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions ends at the same corner.
A busy business-district corner, open at all hours. A payphone still stands on it.
Sydney
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Compare toursLoading program
A white room, and everything you need loaded into it: how a city with no name was built in Sydney in 1998.
Loaded: the studio.
Fox Studios Australia was created in May 1998 on the site of the old Sydney Showground at Moore Park. It is now Disney Studios Australia.
FilmInk says the new studios were finished just in time for The Matrix to be built and filmed there.
All but a few scenes were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney and in the city itself. Recognisable landmarks were mostly kept out, so the city would read as anywhere.
Fox Studios (now Disney Studios Australia). A working studio, closed to visitors. You see the old showground buildings from the streets of Moore Park.
Reeves · Moss · Fishburne · Weaving · the Wachowskis
Keanu ReevesNeo
Carrie-Anne MossTrinity
Laurence FishburneMorpheus
Hugo WeavingAgent Smith
Keanu Reeves played Neo with a neck injury, so the shoot began with the quiet scenes. Carrie-Anne Moss did Trinity’s wire work herself. Hugo Weaving hurt his hip in training and needed surgery. Four of the actors trained in kung fu for four months before the cameras rolled.
Reeves’s neck injury moved the action scenes later; Moss performed all her wire stunts; Weaving had hip surgery after a training injury; Laurence Fishburne plays Morpheus and Hugo Weaving Agent Smith.
The Wachowskis hired Yuen Wo Ping to choreograph the fights and had four actors trained in kung fu for four months; Geof Darrow drew the film as a storyboard bible.
American Cinematographer: The Matrix — Welcome to the Machine (Christopher Probst, April 1999)
Writers and directors
They had Geof Darrow draw the whole film as a storyboard bible, brought in Yuen Wo Ping for the fights, and chose wire work for the way it moves.
Darrow’s storyboard bible, Yuen Wo Ping’s choreography and the choice of wire work for its fluid, surreal movement.
American Cinematographer: The Matrix — Welcome to the Machine (Christopher Probst, April 1999)
26 March 2000
The 72nd Academy Awards were held at the Shrine Auditorium on 26 March 2000. The Matrix won all four Oscars it was nominated for: film editing (Zach Staenberg), sound, sound effects editing (Dane A. Davis) and visual effects (John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley and Jon Thum).
The Shrine opened on 23 January 1926. It seats about 6,300.
A working concert and events hall. The domes are easy to see from Jefferson Boulevard and the USC campus.
10 places you can visit, most of them a walk apart in the centre of Sydney. The studios are working lots: you see them from the street.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A public square, open at all hours. The fountain is on the east side of Pitt Street, with the crossing from the training program in front of it.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Office towers on a public corner. Stand at the top of Martin Place and look up; the offices are for tenants only.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A busy business-district corner, open at all hours. A payphone still stands on it.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. An office tower with a shopping arcade at its foot, linked to Wynyard station. The face in the film is the one you see from Carrington and Margaret Streets.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A hotel now, with its driveway on Pitt Street, a few steps from the fountain. The hotel offers free heritage tours.
Martin Place at Pitt Street (155 Pitt Street)
The Lloyd Rees fountain near Martin Place and Pitt Street is where Neo is distracted by the Woman in the Red Dress.
A public square, open at all hours. The fountain is on the east side of Pitt Street, with the crossing from the training program in front of it.
Martin Place at Phillip Street
The military-controlled building where Morpheus is held is the Colonial State Bank Centre, on Phillip Street and Martin Place.
Office towers on a public corner. Stand at the top of Martin Place and look up; the offices are for tenants only.
Corner of Pitt Street and Hunter Street
The phone booth Neo walks out of at the end of the film stood on the corner of Hunter Street and Pitt Street, across from a Dymocks bookshop.
A busy business-district corner, open at all hours. A payphone still stands on it.
Margaret and Carrington Streets, Wynyard
The Metacortex building, where Neo works, is the Metcentre seen from Margaret Street and Carrington Street.
An office tower with a shopping arcade at its foot, linked to Wynyard station. The face in the film is the one you see from Carrington and Margaret Streets.
1 Martin Place, at George Street
FilmInk lists the Westin hotel, now The Fullerton Hotel, among the film’s Sydney locations.
A hotel now, with its driveway on Pitt Street, a few steps from the fountain. The hotel offers free heritage tours.
Stay
A hotel in the old General Post Office, a few steps from the fountain.
1 Martin Place, Sydney
A hotel in the old General Post Office at 1 Martin Place, which FilmInk lists among the film’s locations. The fountain of the woman in the red dress is a few steps away, and the hotel offers free heritage tours.
Check roomsGo there
A Sunday walk to the first film’s streets, and marketplace tours of central Sydney.
Starts at Barangaroo Metro, ends near Central · Adults A$55, students A$44 · Sundays, about 3 hours
A three-hour Sunday walk to the Sydney streets of the first film: the opening escape, Thomas Anderson’s office, the Lloyd Rees fountain, the corner of the last call and the Adam Street bridge, where it finishes.
Pick a SundaySydney
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No screening of this film is announced for the coming months.
No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.
Take it home
The original 1999 one-sheet from our store, the art book, the score and the soundtrack.
The final US one-sheet: Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and Cypher in front of falling code. 27 × 40 inches, rolled, mint.
In stock
View posterThe Wachowskis, Geof Darrow, Steve Skroce and others · Titan Books
The film’s art book (Titan, 2000). Geof Darrow, who drew the storyboard bible the film was planned from, is among its authors.
Find the bookDon Davis · CD, Varèse Sarabande, 1999
Don Davis’s score, released by Varèse Sarabande in May 1999.
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Find a copyVarious artists · CD, Maverick (Australia), 1999
The song soundtrack in its Australian pressing, out in April 1999.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
10 of 10 places · 13 of 13 Moments
Martin Place at Pitt Street (155 Pitt Street)
In the training program, Neo is distracted by the woman in the red dress at the Martin Place fountain.
Martin Place at Phillip Street
Morpheus is held in a military-controlled building; its outside is the Colonial State Bank Centre on Martin Place.
Corner of Pitt Street and Hunter Street
At the end of the film Neo comes out of a phone booth on the corner of Pitt and Hunter Streets.
Margaret and Carrington Streets, Wynyard
Thomas Anderson works at Metacortex, where the Agents first arrest him; the building is the Metcentre.
1 Martin Place, at George Street
FilmInk lists the Westin, now The Fullerton Hotel in the old General Post Office, among the Sydney locations.
4–14 Foster Street, Surry Hills
The film opens at the Heart O’ the City hotel, a Foster Street building in Surry Hills.
Campbell Street at Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills
Neo meets the resistance at the Adam Street bridge, filmed under the Campbell Street railway bridge.
Moore Park, about 15 minutes from the city centre
The Matrix is built and filmed at the brand-new Fox Studios in Moore Park.
A full-scale helicopter mock-up hangs from the roof beams in front of a TransLight of altered Sydney photographs.
An array of still cameras fired fractions of a second apart turns a moment into 12,000 frames a second.
The subway fight is shot on a set built around a real train storage facility.
9336 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, Los Angeles
Some filming also takes place at Culver Studios in Culver City.
665 West Jefferson Boulevard, Los Angeles
The Matrix wins all four Oscars it is nominated for, at the Shrine Auditorium.
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