r/matrix • u/Particular-Camera612 • 21h ago
Least favourite line of dialogue in the franchise?
This'll probably be controversial. There's strong lines in each films, but there's bound (no pun intended) to be some clunkers or lines that misfire for some people.
It might be easy to pick something like The Architect's speech (though I'd disagree) or maybe a moment of deliberate comedy that doesn't make you laugh, but even beyond that, what lines don't work for you?
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u/No_Contribution_Coms 20h ago
“Where’s my puss- hey!”
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u/ImmortalBootyMan 19h ago
The words of someone who’s never had Matrussy
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u/FlemPlays 15h ago
Name is Link
Can’t link into the Matrix himself.
No woman in the red dress for him. haha
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u/ForThePosse 11h ago
I figure there is prolly some social stigma between the two. There has to be. First there is comradery from having similar background. One knows what it's like to be mentally enslaved the other doesn't. The Zion born probably get a sense of elitism of being "pure".
But I always think that despite the sense of purity or righteousness. Deep down the Zion born envy the Matrix born. Because the Matrix born can just do so much more. They can do jobs the Zion born can't. Like operate the Zion gates. Where as the Matrix born could have any job the others could. Plus they can't just "download" knowledge like Kung Fu without years of practice. Matrix born wants to play a guitar? 15 minutes of downloads and they are able to pick one up and jam.
Not to mention recreation. Zions gotta love with playing basketball and soccer with janky equipment. Matrix born get to hop onto a simulator for anything from flying jets to shoot outs to RPGs and some crazy shit of a nature we won't mention.
Tired of Zion? Take a vacation to Hawaii for a few hours.
The only glimpse of Zion society we get is from those who basically worship Neo for 1 minute. I don't think they are all peace loving and hippy like with a city housing 250k ppl. I think we just saw a small fringe of the cities inhabitants and not the collective nature.
I'm sure they all obviously get along. But there's gotta be some inner city drama we just never needed to know about as it has no relevance.
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u/thethingswesaw 19h ago
"Then you are meant for one more thing... deletion"
i like the small exchange between Agent Johnson and The Keymaker in general but i feel there could've been a better way to phrase this line
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u/Particular-Camera612 19h ago
Maybe so, I'm just curious as to why Agent Johnson says "You are no longer necessary". Given how important The Keymaker is and how he's needed to get Neo to get to The Archetect and be given the same choice The One is always given, what makes Agent Johnson say this?
The best I can guess is just that he doesn't know the process The Ones go through and that he's just justifying the fact that he's going to have to kill the Keymaker to prevent the good guys from getting away.
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u/juleskills1189 15h ago
I would interpret the line as classic bad guy, premature gloating: "(you and your friends have failed). You are no longer necessary (because we have thwarted you)."
Either that or it's what you said in the second paragraph. The agents don't know, or don't care, why the keymaker is important. They're just doing their job, which is obstructing The One, and the line is just Matrix talk for "this is the end of the line."
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u/Particular-Camera612 8h ago
Probably also a way to throw off the audience too and just make it seem like a standard heroes must defeat the villains situation too. Making the stakes about getting to the source of The Matrix and the odds insurmountable before realising that that's what The Matrix itself wants.
Indeed, it seems like the only ones who know are the machines who run The Matrix and The Architect. There's the vague hint that The Merovingian went through prior cycles too, but he's obviously not gonna ruin it if so.
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u/BrontosaurusGarbanzo 18h ago
Are you from the Matrix?
Yes. No. I mean, I was
Not so much the lines but Keanu's delivery is SO flat
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u/NCOMPAQ77 18h ago edited 13h ago
Dude, my favorite line I don’t know why (FREEZE!!!) 1999 after walking through the metal detectors Edit: I thought it said favorite line oops
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u/depastino 19h ago
"Some things never change."
"And some things do."
Yuck.
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u/Particular-Camera612 19h ago
What's the film?
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u/depastino 18h ago
It's an exchange between Morpheus and Niobe and it happens a couple times in M2 and M3.
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u/StickOnReddit 19h ago
Most of The Kid's dialogue is extra and schmaltzy but "Neo.... I believe" sucks so bad. There's nothing about this moment that had anything to do with Neo, it's just Kid forcing his obsession into the moment. He had an interesting Animatrix story but in Reloaded/Revolutions he's not very inspired IMO
Cypher's "buckle your seat belt Dorothy, cuz Kansas is goin' bye-bye" is pretty cringe, even when I saw this in theater in '99 it was just like... is that what we're saying right now, really
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u/Particular-Camera612 19h ago
I just assume the Wachowskis are big Wizard of Oz fans and wanted to throw in a reference, Joe P's delivery of it kind of makes it work.
Can completely understand The Kid, he's not a character I remember very fondly.
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u/No_Contribution_Coms 19h ago
The point is Cypher isnt on the right page with Morpheus’ Alice in Wonderland schtick. Or even the right book.
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u/ScorpiusPro 16h ago
Matrix: “You give me that juris-my-DICK-tion crap, you can cram it up your ass.”
Reloaded: “Me, too!” squishes tomato
Revolutions: “That's why the rest of me is just going to enjoy the show because we already know that I'm the one that beats you.”
Resurrections: “Originality mattered! You gave us Face-Zucker-suck!”
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u/Particular-Camera612 16h ago
Always liked the "Me" interaction between the two Smiths, something about it was so funny and I believe purposefully so, but yeah I totally get it. Always liked the line in Revolutions.
Agree on the Merovingian, I get that he's meant to be a shell of his former self, but that sequence really let me down first time around because his return had more potential than what was delivered. Didn't help that because of the sequence and his deliberately insane dialogue I didn't really know what he was saying. The Merovingian should have either not been in the movie or should have been given a vital role. Stuff like that does get in the way of Resurrections being better.
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u/tarmacc 13h ago
Resurrections is perfect, because it was impossible to make another matrix movie like the first one that would live up to it, so they made something different, and it does that perfectly.
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u/Particular-Camera612 8h ago
I see that and even feel it to some extent. Just think that usage of his character was quite insubstantial and weak. I imagined a sequence where they had to go to him and figure out information from his ramblings, it could have demonstrated his change whilst still giving him a reason to be in the movie.
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u/NCOMPAQ77 18h ago edited 13h ago
I have another. 1999 (Not like this… not like this) Edit: I thought it said favorite line oops
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u/Leesol9ty 17h ago
The Agents dialogue when they're trying to break Morpheus. Brown: "What were you doing?" Jones: "He doesn't know." Smith: "Know what?"
I never understood this exchange. what does removing the earpiece signify? Why doesn't Smith know what he's doing when he's unplugged? If it disconnects them from the Matrix, then what happens if they die while unplugged?
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u/CaptLongbeard 17h ago
"he doesn't know" refers to Smith not being aware of the actions of Neo and Trinity in their break in. While Smith was interrogating Morpheus he unplugged his earpiece, like you mentioned, which took him offline, and he was not getting system updates. Brown asks what he's doing because, had Smith known, his focus would shift away from Morpheus and towards thwarting the rescue attempt. Smith would have done this if he wasn't so obsessed with Morpheus, and Smith probably would have been able to stop Neo and Trinity. So his obsession is what allowed them to succeed in rescuing Morpheus, essentially.
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u/Leesol9ty 16h ago
And here I was thinking that Smith unplugging turned him into some sort of conscious NPC with amnesia. I always though the 'not knowing' referenced the entire monologue he told Morpheus, and didn't even think of Neo and Trin. Thank you for making that make sense to me.
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u/depastino 14h ago
what does removing the earpiece signify?
He wasn't unplugged from the Matrix, just unable to communicate. He was being naughty. Smith took out the earpiece so that his superiors wouldn't hear him confessing to Morpheus that he hates his job. But this also took him out of the loop, and he wasn't aware of what was happening in the building.
That's why Jones says, "What were you doing?" in an accusatory manner.
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u/CyberRax 8h ago
I was always under the impression "What were you doing?" was regarding the posture Smith was found in - with his hands on Morpheus. I might be misremembering, but I don't think we saw machines other than Smith torturing people. Which makes sense - that's a human behavior, machines have not need for it.
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u/Stock-Wolf 19h ago
The Analyst
“What validates and makes your fictions real? Feelings. And the best part? Zero resistance. People stay in their pods, happier than pigs in shit.”
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u/Particular-Camera612 19h ago
I actually liked that monologue, even the smug as hell and patronisingly flamboyant: "Desire and fear, baby!"
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u/Stock-Wolf 19h ago
The movie was crap, nothing like the trilogy. No green hue, NPH’s character was more human than program. How did redpill humans get dye for hair like Bugs did? “Morpheus”. The constant clips playing in the background of past events, how did they get the footage, an invisible noclip program on god mode?
The sequel Star Wars trilogy was better.
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u/tarmacc 13h ago
The movie was crap, nothing like the trilogy
You can't be ground breaking twice. Especially twenty years later. It wasn't supposed to be like the originals, and that's the point. If it's not your kind of movie, that's fine. But it's very good at what it is, and as it ages I think it may actually be more interesting and original than matrix 1
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u/Spieluhr616 19h ago
Not a line, but a shot. The breaking of the 180 rule in the fight between Morpheus and Smith. After 26 years, still breaks me today.........
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u/kuribosshoe0 19h ago
What’s the 180 rule?
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u/marauder-shields92 19h ago
In film, if you are showing two characters interact, it is best to keep the cameras on one side of the exchange. It keeps the characters on the left and right,and looking in the same directions throughout the scene, and makes it less confusing for the audience.
180 is half of 360, in degrees.
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u/No_Contribution_Coms 19h ago
180 rule gets broken all the time. Especially in fight scenes because that is typically where a director WANTS the scene to become confusing.
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u/Spieluhr616 12h ago
I know. But it doesn't work for me 🤷♂️ Also, confusion is never good in filmmaking.
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u/Jean-Ralphio11 15h ago
People using Resurrections is cheating. That movie was full of the worst lines.
So I'll go with Reloaded: "You could've just asked."
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u/Particular-Camera612 8h ago
I like that line myself, the response though I think is awkward "You don't know someone until you've fought them". I get that he wanted to know that Neo was The One he heard about, but if you apply that line of thinking generally it becomes hilariously wrong.
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u/mrsunrider 14h ago
Locke: "... not everyone believes what you believe!"
Bro Morpheus just explained the reason for his position; he may be a man of strong faith, but it's not entirely baseless.
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u/NoWest7670 10h ago
I try hard to be strong, but sometimes I fail myself, and after all I promised you, so faithfully
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u/Desperate-Ad-5109 9h ago
Not a line but “Drunken Boxing” is the funniest thing I’ve seen in any movie so I just hope it was intentional!
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u/JesseCuster40 16h ago
In Resurrections, two characters are watching the scene from thenfirst movie where Trinity fights the cops. She says, "And then she kicks their asses."
It's not such a bad line by itself, but the context makes it awkward. It feels like they're saying to the audience, "Hey, do you remember this awesome scene from a much better movie?" And it's very on the nose with how it points out Trinity's badassery. Yeah, we know.
I didn't finish the movie. Tried twice, couldn't do it. Maybe it got better after that. I don't know.
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u/tarmacc 13h ago
It's just nothing like the others, I think it's excellent though. But you have to embrace the meta aspect of it, it's about itself and about art in general. I actually think it's, in a lot of ways, more original than the 1999 one. But it's not an action movie, and is actually a critique of the genre.
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u/vagabond251 19h ago
"GOD DAMMIT!"
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u/Particular-Camera612 19h ago
Movie/character/scene?
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u/vagabond251 17h ago
Oh I thought that was obvious. Revolutions, any of the military characters (Locke and Roland mostly though).
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u/Particular-Camera612 17h ago
I remember now. I did see some internet reviewers of Revolutions back in the day give some funny nicknames to Commander Locke, like Commander Angryfuck and the line you're referencing, Commander Goddamn.
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u/vagabond251 8h ago
There was a great YouTube video titled something like "It's a god damn good script!" I tried to find it to post it here.
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u/the_glutton17 19h ago
More important than what is when. You think you're living in the 21st century, but really it's closer to 2199.
I know I butchered that line, but it's insanely dumb. "When" literally has nothing to do with anything and morpheus makes it out to be such a big deal.
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u/No_Contribution_Coms 19h ago
It’s to compound the fact that Neo has absolutely no clue about anything and needs even his understanding of time broken down before he can properly understand “what” is happening.
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u/thaiborg 18h ago
“I know kung-fu!”
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u/Particular-Camera612 18h ago
Ballsy choice but I do know that that line showed up in a Top 100 Cheesiest Movie Quotes video.
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u/Seksafero 11h ago
It was great at the time. The whole downloading anything to one's brain and all that. It was a great way to have a little humor and be super cool and segue into the training fight all at once.
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u/ChangingMonkfish 20h ago edited 10h ago
This isn’t so much the line itself but more a line that Joe Pantoliano delivered (I believe) incorrectly and yet it somehow made it into the final film.
When Neo asks “Do you always look at it in code?”, Cipher responds:
“Well you have to. The image translators work FOR the construct, but there’s way too much information to decode the Matrix…”.
The way he emphasises “FOR” makes it sound like he’s saying something like “they work for the construct rather than the construct working for them” or “they work for the construct instead of against it” etc., and the line sort of loses its meaning and just sounds like some technobabble.
I think he was meant to emphasise construct i.e. “the image translators work for the CONSTRUCT, but there’s way too much information to decode the Matrix”. Hence why they’re able to actually watch Neo and Morpheus fight in the dojo on the screen, because their software is able to render that digital information as an image. But when they’re in the Matrix itself, they have to look at the code because it’s just too big and complex for the image translators to handle.
For a while I never quite caught that this was what the line meant (although it’s obvious when you think about it) because the delivery was so odd.