The production of the second and third installments of the Matrix trilogy was filmed as a single film that would be presented in two parts.

The principal cast including Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving trained and rehearsed for five months prior to the production of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions with the trilogy’s fight choreographer, master artist/wire work specialist Yuen Wo Ping, and his Hong Kong Kung Fu team led by Dion Lam.

During intensive fight choreography training, Keanu Reeves was known to sit in a bathtub full of ice because of his muscle aches and pains.

John Gaeta, visual effects supervisor of the Matrix trilogy, supervised the creation of over 1,300 virtual effects shots for Reloaded and about 800 more for Revolutions compared to only 412 shots created for The Matrix.

In the final “Burly Brawl” between Neo and Smith, Neo had to be depicted flying at 2000 miles per hour over the Matrix cityscape and battling against 100 Agent Smiths.

The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, filmed simultaneously as one large film, were shot over a 270-day production schedule with principle photography beginning in Oakland, California, and finishing in Sydney, Australia.

Visual Effects Supervisor John Gaeta and conceptual artist Geof Darrow make cameo appearances as APU operators in the sequence where the machines are beginning to siege the entrance to Zion.

Costume designer Kym Barrett designed thousands of costumes for The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, evolving the trilogy’s wardrobe to suit the characters’ growth while maintaining continuity between the three films.

The IMAX theater presentation of The Matrix Revolutions brought the film to a screen three times larger than the average 35 mm screen, 4500 times larger than the average TV screen, and as wide as an NFL football field.

The Wachowski Brothers have been working together for more than 30 years, earlier work including writing and directing their first feature film, Bound.