TMT: What is the Matrix? (or How to Break a Streak)
This is the next entry in a Theatre… a Movie… and a Time, a series that was begun here. insert text here. Since I am continuing my Versus AFI: 10 Top 10 arc, this time looking at the Sci-Fi genre, it was only fitting I’d chronicle another of them in this series. As mentioned in my previous post, this genre has been a big favorite since childhood. Plus, the timeliness of this film in particular, in my work and personal life, made it one that I had to covered in one form or another.
“A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.”
Theatre
The Beverly Connection 6:
Movie
Time
April 2, 1999: All bets were off for this distinct year. So were planned vacations or time off as those in IT found out as we got closer to the end of the year. Why, you ask? It distilled down, as they usually do for those in tech (or the military), to a simple acronym: Y2K. As I mentioned last November,
“Many feared widespread, doomsday disruption to critical services as the year 1999 ticked over to 2000.”
What had begun the previous year for remedying the legacy code issue in systems at the job, only picked up steam in this one. Yet, as much as I vividly recall those events of Millennium Bug remediation at work, I’ve found it paled to what was happening on the personal front.
The same month the Wachowski Siblings blew the doors off of the science-fiction (and action) genre with the late-March release of The Matrix, she-who-must-be-obeyed and I conceived a daughter (we’d only confirm this come April). A female child? Big deal, right? People give birth to these everyday, yes? Not on my side. I came from a line that had a Y-chromosome winning streak going.
Note the stretch of so-called luck: paternal grandfather — two sons (one my dad); father — two marriages (though, three in all), two sons for each of them (three, in fact, with my mother in that second union, but the first was stillborn); brother — two sons (one before I even married and purposely attempted to have children). My first-born? A son, natch.
Like this seminal sci-fi film, my daughter was the proverbial lightning in a bottle (only we didn’t know it, in more ways than one, as yet). And gestating my fierce one was while her future father went on this particular Friday to the nearby Beverly Connection 6 to take it all in. After-work, mind you. Come Monday next, I’d be attempting to explain the film’s intricacies of plot to my cohort (my long-time friend and golf partner) over lunch. Only years later did I, and my wife, realize our second child was Trinity herself.
The entire TMT series can be found here. If you’re interested how it’s put together, click here.
It Rains... You Get Wet 
22 Responses to “TMT: What is the Matrix? (or How to Break a Streak)”
I wish this movie would get a re-release, it’d be cool to watch this again on the big screen and re-live the ‘whoa’ factor again 🙂
What do you mean by this: “Only years later did I, and my wife, realize our second child was Trinity herself.” Did you name your kid Trinity??
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I’m certainly with you there, Ruth. I’d love to see this one again on the big screen. Regarding that last sentence, I’m simply referring to the nature of my daughter. She’s rather smart and relentless, that one, like the character of Trinity in the film. It’s why I’ve mentioned her as my ‘fierce one’ in past posts ;-). Thanks, my friend.
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Ah I see, though I could see some people naming their girls Trinity, it’s a cool name 🙂
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Agreed. That is a very cool name.
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I am with you on this Ruth!! I want to see it again in cinema
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Oh, yes!
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Gosh I remember the millennium bug… oh how I hoped it would re-set my debts to zero…. alas I am still in the red!!
Nice feature matey
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Thank you very kindly, Scott.
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Sadly, I never got to see this one on the big screen.I guess I can only join rtm in wishing for a theatrical re-release. Either that, or I’ll need to buy a really big TV and a killer home theater system. 😀
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Here’s hoping that you do get that chance, John. This one is well worth it. Of course, a hugh flat panel monitor and killer HTS wouldn’t be a bad compromise ;-). Thanks.
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Ah, the Y2K fix… ha remember it well. It was like the doomsday call for tech geeks everywhere, but was the consummate bust like so many calls for the end of the world are. : )
Anyway, a clever weave of that moment, The Matrix and your personal life into one post. VEry well done and an enjoyable read. Cheers pal. sff.
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Remember the watch across the TV/cable networks promising to cover “whatever happens” as we rolled over back then? Yes, the doomsday calls did turn out to be pretty much just hype. Thank you for the kind words, my friend.
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Ah, The Matrix! Thanks for sharing this TMT! I loved the mention of “she who must be obeyed!”
it’s too bad the sequels to this film were bad. I trust the sequels to your child were far better! 😉
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Such a break-through occurred with this Wachowski Bros. film. I’m glad you enjoyed this TMT. It was great to reminisce about that time. Thank you very much, T.
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I remember not only my first time seeing it (I actually was at my friend’s house playing hooky from class) haha. But I also remember seeing the trailer for it during the superbowl before and was completely blown away by not understanding exactly what I saw. Man! I love The Matrix!
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I remember that trailer in the Super Bowl broadcast! That was somethin’. Thanks, T.
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I do love this series as you know. Its great seeing these smaller theaters as they have almost completely died away here in the UK. I remember seeing The Matrix in 1999 also and being oddly less-than-impressed with it. But I was a teenager at the time and perhaps wasn’t expecting such an intricately detailed action film. I have come to love it but would really enjoy seeing it in the cinema once again.
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Yeah, this one was an interesting movie complex. Situated on the second floor of this mall, half of its theaters were below the main level (even below ground level, with a long escalator to get up or down). It’s gone now, though the mall continues to exists. Too bad.
I, too, would love to see ‘The Matix’ return the big screen in a revival run. Many thanks, Dan.
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I have the best memories of seeing this one opening night! I had been looking forward to it for a long time and it completely exceeded my expectations.
btw, I know someone whose daughter is named Trinity. The name is all they have in common but she’s still a dear. 🙂
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It surely did! Totally unexpected, thought-provoking, and entertaining. Thanks so much, Rachel.
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[…] variety, insisted my missus. Loaded up on VHS & DVDs, too. When my daughter landed, right before Y2K, thought it’d be more of the same. Famous last words. Divergent she was in that way children […]
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[…] All care of our fierce one. […]
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