Neo vs Merovingian | The Matrix Reloaded [IMAX]

Neo: blocks a whole ass sword bare handed and only bleeds a little Merovingian: "this dude weak as shit"

The music in this is one of the best parts of the whole trilogy.

Twenty years later, I’m still looking up and watching this scene on a regular basis. Brilliant.

This scene is amazing not only because of the fight itself, but also because of how much Matrix lore is explored here without telling the audience anything, perfectly implementing "show, don't tell". Merovingian is a program from an older version of the Matrix, who lives by collecting other outdated programs and giving them shelter from agents who look for abnormalities to delete. All of his "men" who are fighting here are actually programs, not people. They all exist in human folklore as legendary creatures, because some people actually have seen them, before agents got to them or they flet to Merovingian. We learn Merovingian collects them because "they are hard to kill". And we actually see this, visualized: 1. The twins are the "ghost" programs, the most powerful ones, because it's almost impossible to kill them due to their phasing ability. During the chase scene we see they are even more talented in chasing Zionians than agents. 2. In the 3rd film we learn Seraph, who is an angel program (very powerful programs, capable of beating agents 1 on 1), was also once a property of Merovingian. We see another angel program here, it's the asian guy in white clothes and black glasses - similar attire to that of Seraph. He also dies last, which proves he really is hardest to kill of all programs Neo fought. Neo can kill any agent with just a few hits, which he displayed before. 3. Next in the hierarchy of being "hard to kill" are vampires. There are 3 vampire programs in this fight. All are dressed the same, in black clothes, with black sunglasses. If you played the canon Matrix game, you'll know that the only way to kill them is to impale them, like the actual vampires from the folklore. This is why they get up no matter how many times Neo hits them. Eventually, Neo figures this out, or just impales them by accident and they all die. First guy is impaled with a sword. Next with a trident, and the last one is hit with a spike from the large morning star by the angel guy. 4. Least powerful are the werewolves programs. They have no sunglasses, and they're dressed kind of randomly, that's how you can tell them apart from the other programs. Perhaps they do not wear fancy clothes and glasses because they'd be destroyed when they change anyway? Regardless, they are supposed to be more durable than humans, but clearly aren't that tough. Persephone kills Kain, one of them with a silver bullet, which is probably a way to bypass their durability completely, the other two go down when Neo hits them a single time, (one is kicked thru a statue and never gets back up, the other is hit with a mace) indicating they are even less durable than the agents.

The choreography in this scene is INSANE.. I like how the people that aren't directly fighting Neo aren't just standing around or looking the fight.. the "engaging, falling back and re-engaging" sequence is so smoothly done considering that are a lot of people in the scene

Best part about this fight: decent length stable shots. Most modern movie fights would have 10,000 cuts. Here, you can actually see WTF is going on

I've always loved the subtle posture change by Merovingian @ 1:05 where he goes from a relaxed, hands behind his back to a more guarded posture with arms when he sees Neo styling on his henchmen.

The fact this has 39M views and was only uploaded 3 years ago shows how iconic this fight scene is

One thing I love the most about the Matrix movies is how stable the camera is during the fight scenes. Nowadays we get camera's shaking like the cameraman is having a seizure

Neo: "What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?" Morpheus: "No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to."

I want to give a shoutout to the music in this scene. I just love how it slowly builds up in intensity stronger and stronger as the fight progresses, and that sudden cutoff when Neo kills the last vampire is just perfect.

the clothes were so aggresively late 90s early 2000s, makes me nostalgic

I love how Neo doesnt sweat or look like he is even breathing, everything he does just looks effortless, really locks down the fantasy of the world they created.

Merovingian: "You see he's just a man". Neo: summons weapons with his thoughts.

20 years later and this whole scene is like a renaissance painting.

I know I'm like the millionth person to say this, but this whole scene is masterful in its direction. You can see EVERYTHING that's going on. You're never unsure where everyone is in the room. They just let the camera roll for 10-15 seconds before a cut. Even the few rapid fire cuts are steady shots with the camera. Kudos to the directors and cameramen for shooting this so well, and to the editor for making this incredibly easy to follow

Some Fun Facts: Keanu Reeves' stunt double here and the other Matrix movies, was Chad Stahelski. You may know him as one of the creators and the director of the John Wick franchise. Basically, John Wick & Matrix movies had the same stunt team. The Asian dude, with the cream coloured outfit, who gets killed last by Neo, is Tiger Chen. You may recognise him from John Wick 3, he's the guy who gets the knife in the eye. Keanu & Tiger are actually good friends and Keanu has directed a martial arts action movie, starring Tiger Chen, called ''Man of Tai Chi'', he also plays the villain in this and gets his ass kicked by Tiger for a change. Also, the fight choreography here was done by Yuen Woo-ping, legendary Hong Kong fight coordinator who has worked on tons of movies like the Ip Man series, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill, tons of Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies etc. The actor who plays the ''Keymaker'', is Randal Duk Kim, who also appears in the John Wick movies as the doctor of the Continental, that treats John Wick's wounds in the first & third movie.

It's insane how much better shot, edited, and choreographed this one sequence is than ANYTHING in The Matrix Resurrections. Look at how the action flows, the camera moves around with the actors. Cuts happen at a reasonable pace and match the action. Aside from the CG ghosts and stopped bullets, everything is practical effects and stuntwork. And this is just one scene, the trilogy is full of great action.

It’s crazy how None of them landed a SINGLE CLEAN HIT, but Agent Smith connected with his face numerous times. Clean power scaling

The Matrix was such a huge stepping stone for movies! The CGI and Choreography are incredible.