Chapter 292: Freeman's Incest

Some people wanted to pursue the truth and stay in the real world, while others tired of its cruelty and longed to return to the virtual one. Everyone had the freedom and right to choose. But becoming a traitor just to return to a fantasy was wrong. Across mainstream Hollywood cinema, whether a traitor defected to the side of evil or abandoned the side of justice, they rarely met a good end.

From the moment he revealed himself as a traitor, Cypher's fate was sealed.

But what about Neo's fate?

The audience stared at the screen with furrowed brows. The Oracle, that great charlatan, had made her meaning perfectly clear: Neo was not "The One"!

Was Neo the Savior or not?

Carrying that doubt, the film continued. With betrayal came inevitable sacrifice. Agent Smith led a massive police force to surround the building housing Neo, Morpheus, and the rest of the crew, sparking a massive battle.

Forced into a direct confrontation with Smith to save Neo, Morpheus was completely outmatched. Under his cover, the rest of the group broke through the siege. Cypher, having slipped away mid-fight, was the first to return to the real world. The inevitable betrayal played out.

Trinity, Neo, and the others were trapped in a room in an abandoned hotel. Cypher, thinking he had killed Tank and his brother, launched into the typical villainous monologue and verbal taunting seen in every Hollywood movie. He dealt with his two captives one after another, but the consequences of his grandstanding were severe.

Gangsters had the tables turned on them by the police because of monologuing, robots were dismantled because of monologuing, evil creatures were purified because of monologuing, fire dragons were shot dead by mortals because of monologuing...

The villain's monologue was the true cheat code for any film's protagonist, an existence absolutely on par with plot armor!

Of course, the monologuing also built atmosphere. An audience's emotions were easiest to stir when a protagonist faced a life-and-death crisis.

Thus, at the most critical moment, Tank stood back up and killed Cypher. Neo and Trinity escaped back from The Matrix, but Morpheus was taken by the agents.

Neo, Trinity, and Tank disagreed over how to handle Morpheus. He held the login codes to the mainframe of Zion, humanity's last stronghold. If the codes leaked, the Matrix could pose a fatal threat to the city. Therefore, Tank advocated pulling the plug connecting Morpheus to the Matrix, ensuring Zion's safety through his death.

Neo, however, insisted on rescuing Morpheus. He had to make a choice, and Trinity went with him.

"The final battle is about to begin!"

Anthony glanced at his watch. Before he knew it, the film had been running for nearly an hour and a half. It was time for the climactic battle, and he was filled with anticipation. In the opening scene, Duke, the director, had used Trinity to show them an incredible fight. Would there be an even bigger surprise next? He remembered a badass shot of Neo from the trailer that hadn't appeared yet.

There were countless audience members like Anthony, all waiting eagerly.

Neo and Trinity readied their firearms, while Agent Smith interrogated Morpheus.

While the audience waited for the final battle, film critic Kenneth Turan found his sweet spot hit by a monologue Smith delivered to Morpheus.

"When I was trying to classify your species, a revelation came to me. I realized you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. A plague."

In an instant, this film, which already carried a certain level of philosophical reflection, became profoundly elevated in Kenneth Turan's mind. In his view, its discussion of reality versus illusion and its revelation of humanity's darkest aspects would forge The Matrix into a classic.

The Matrix would be a classic sci-fi film. The vast majority of the audience sitting there watching it shared Kenneth Turan's view, but why did they think the film would be a classic?

"The fights are cool, the visuals are flashy, and the style is badass!"

This sentence, spoken by Huggins to Hiller, perfectly represented the audience's viewpoint.

Since previous films had succeeded by being flashy, cool, and badass, Duke naturally doubled down on those elements to make The Matrix even flashier, cooler, and more badass!

Neo and Trinity fought their way into the lobby, engaging in a fierce firefight with over a hundred guards. The two sides exchanged heavy fire from a distance. Bullets flew as densely as the air itself, and shell casings rained down like a downpour. The building's pillars were shot into honeycombs before crumbling into pieces. Shards of marble and concrete sprayed in all directions, seemingly flying right past the eyes of every audience member.

In the virtual world of the Matrix, all laws of physics could be discarded. The visual effects of the gunplay were designed for one purpose: to thrill the audience!

Was the actual effect thrilling?

Just listening to the constant gasps and excited shouts from the audience, who had completely abandoned their theater etiquette, was proof enough.

"Amanda..."

Even though she wasn't an action movie fan, Miley felt completely thrilled by the badass sequence. Squeezing her legs tightly together, she grabbed her companion's arm. "I think... I think I'm going to climax!"

"You're going to climax right now?"

Amanda's face was similarly flushed with excitement. "There's even cooler and flashier stuff coming up!"

The audience seemed to be climbing toward a climax, but Kenneth Turan didn't see it that way. This scene was pure showing off for the sake of showing off. It had no reason to exist. It would have been enough for Neo and Trinity to take out a few guards quickly. Dragging out the sequence completely ruined the philosophical depth established just moments ago!

However, this gunfight was only the beginning of the climax. Neo and Trinity charged the guards, tearing into their ranks like lightning.

Neo, in his black sunglasses and black trench coat, moved with flashy, swift motions.

Trinity, in her black sunglasses and tight black leather outfit, struck with rapid, fierce precision.

The two combined firearms with close-quarters combat, completely subverting the traditional Hollywood action model and pushing the stylish, badass, and beautifully sexy elements to the absolute limit.

If the opening Gun Kata merely demonstrated a concept, then Neo and Trinity in a two-versus-a-hundred scenario brought it to full display. Duke portrayed it thoroughly through a variety of techniques like high-speed slow motion and rapid jump cuts.

Crisscrossing drawn guns, inverted cross poses, continuous flying kicks...

A series of moves combining martial arts and gunplay pushed the atmosphere in the theater straight to its peak!

"God, I swear!"

Miley's hand gripping Amanda's trembled constantly. "I'm definitely going to watch this movie again. It's better than sex and drugs!"

The atmosphere in the theater was somewhat chaotic, but it was a chaos brought on by sheer excitement.

"They're so badass!"

"Neo, I love you!"

"Trinity, your long legs are so badass!"

Spielberg turned his head slightly. The messy sounds of excitement from behind rang out constantly. Even though the audience knew this was a premiere and they should observe basic theater etiquette, every one of them was acting like they were high on drugs, completely unable to control themselves!

"Hollywood's action movie revolution is about to begin!"

Watching the male and female leads on the screen still combining martial arts and gunplay to slaughter their enemies, Spielberg said to Lucas, "Duke is going to lead a new trend again. I believe in subsequent movies, this kind of..."

"Gun Kata!" Lucas reminded him.

"This kind of Gun Kata will definitely be imitated, even to the point of oversaturation."

Hearing Spielberg's words, George Lucas suddenly stroked his beard. "It seems like this could be applied to Star Wars, couldn't it?"

In the row right in front of them, Aerin Lauder was also whispering to Duke. "It looks like you're about to create a trend."

As she spoke, she withdrew her gaze from the back of the theater. Having watched so many movies, aside from the frenzy of tears caused by Titanic, this was the first time Aerin had seen such a fierce audience reaction.

"It's a pity it's an R-Rated Film."

Turning her eyes to Duke, Aerin Lauder couldn't help but feel sorry for her friend. "If it were rated PG-13, I think it would likely sweep the globe."

"Since when do things in this world develop entirely according to our will?" Duke was quite open-minded about it.

However, Aerin Lauder's words made a lot of sense. With the audience's reaction in the theater being so enthusiastic, the number of copycat films following The Matrix would certainly be countless. Hollywood's trend-chasing was actually no different from other film markets around the world—it was perhaps even crazier. Its finely crafted blockbuster productions were all built on the foundation of hundreds of terrible movies every year.

After the pure gunfight and the Gun Kata that combined martial arts and firearms, Neo and Trinity fought their way into the lobby and took the elevator toward the top floor, planting a bomb along the way. An earth-shattering explosion nearly destroyed the lower levels of the building. Just as Duke had said during post-production, this was an explosion completely different from those in previous films.

"I told you, how could there not be an explosion in a Duke sci-fi movie?"

Anthony swung his arm forcefully. The fiery light of the explosion flowed like liquid, but he didn't find it out of place. After all, this was the world of the Matrix.

"Sigh, back to the old path again!" Kenneth Turan let out a sigh of regret. "They clearly could have explored the philosophy and worldview much deeper, but they pivoted back. Explosions, gunfights, and brawls—is a sci-fi film not a sci-fi film without these?"

However, the surrounding audience couldn't care less about these thought-provoking questions. Based on their intuition, the film still had quite a long time before it ended. Following Duke's usual style, there were bound to be even more surprises coming up!

The images on the big screen didn't make them wait. The climactic scenes came one after another. Neo and Trinity ascended to the roof and encountered the agents blocking their path in front of the helicopter.

"Trinity, help me!"

Through the previous buildup, everyone knew that in the Matrix, Neo was no match for the agents, and the agent's gun was already aimed at him!