Chapter 293: Three-Way Melee

Bullets erupted from the Agent's gun. Neo leaned back to dodge, and the scene instantly shifted into slow motion—yet somehow still felt incredibly fast. The bullets' flight paths were clearly visible as the camera rotated 360 degrees around Neo, showcasing every detail.

Even though most of the audience had seen this scene in the trailers, they still watched in stunned silence. While this wasn't Bullet Time's first appearance on the big screen, no film had ever executed it so brilliantly!

"This is Bullet Time!"

Quite a few audience members murmured the phrase. Shortly after the trailers for The Matrix dropped, the media had given the visual effect its name.

"I don't even know what to say."

Miley weakly shook Amanda's arm, looking too shocked for words. "My orgasms for the next month have all been used up on this movie!"

Amanda didn't refute her friend's crazy talk. Instead, she nodded in agreement. "Just watching The Matrix is enough for this entire summer. We're going to see it again and again!"

In the final act, the film had no intention of letting the audience catch their breath. When Trinity piloted the helicopter and Neo unleashed a storm of bullets at the Agents with the Six-Barrel Vulcan Cannon, the crowd's slightly settled emotions were instantly pushed back to a fever pitch.

The flames spewing from the Six-Barrel Vulcan Cannon and the spent casings raining down like a torrential downpour continually fueled the audience's adrenaline.

As for who they were rescuing, or whether the rescue would even succeed? Amidst such a cool scene, those questions hardly mattered.

Trinity in her black leather, Neo in his black trench coat, and even Morpheus—who looked remarkably eccentric with his eyes rolled back—were all fully defining the meaning of cool!

Morpheus broke free from his bonds and sprinted toward the helicopter, only for Agent Smith to shoot him in the leg. At the critical moment, Neo soared through the air to catch Morpheus, leaving the helicopter to become the next victim of Agent Smith's gunfire...

Beginning to display the traits of a savior, Neo managed to rescue Trinity as well. The out-of-control helicopter crashed into the building, triggering a massive explosion of shattered glass and roaring flames. But before the audience could even process their awe, another mind-blowingly cool explosion took place!

Morpheus and the other two descended the building and sprinted toward the subway station phone booth Tank had directed them to. But just as they reached an intersection, several police cars arrived at the same time, braking hard nearby. Over a dozen police officers drew their pistols, using their cruisers as cover, ready to take aim and fire in the next second...

These cops weren't Agents, though, and their reaction speed couldn't compare to Neo's.

Neo whipped off his black trench coat to reveal a full row of grenades suspended inside. He pulled the pins and hurled the coat, grenades and all, straight at the cluster of police cars.

"Run!"

With that sharp shout, the three of them sprinted into the distance as fast as they could. The footage slowed down once more, and the camera sharply cut from their retreating backs to the trench coat falling through the air.

Under the watchful eyes of all the officers, the trench coat sailed in front of the police cruisers. Before it even hit the ground, it detonated with a deafening blast!

The grenades erupted, sending flames and shockwaves sweeping outward. The blast flipped the police cars, shattered glass, and even hurled the officers into the air.

At the same time, the camera guided the audience's eyes in a massive sweeping circle around the explosion. Just like the Bullet Time sequence on the rooftop, viewers could clearly track the flight paths of the shattered glass and metal shrapnel. They watched as the debris, mixed with roaring flames and shockwaves, smashed into the surrounding buildings, obliterated roadside storefront windows, and pierced through the bodies of the police officers.

It was a spectacular sight of police cars and officers flying through the air.

This 360-degree pan laid bare the details of the explosion like a sequence of ballet frames. The violent motion was "frozen" by time, yet there was still a fluid dynamism within that "frozen" state. The audience in the theater sat absolutely paralyzed by the sheer visual impact.

"This is just... this is just..."

Anthony couldn't even find the right words to describe it. The theater, which had gradually quieted down, descended into chaos once more. Some people couldn't contain their excitement and were screaming out loud. The audience desperately needed an outlet for their peak adrenaline.

Applause broke out from an unknown corner of the room, instantly swelling into a tidal wave. It seemed like clapping was the only way they could vent the tension they had been building up for nearly two hours without disrupting the rest of the movie.

"I'm completely done for!" Miley's face was flushed, her eyes dazed. "That was just too fucking awesome!"

It wasn't just the ordinary moviegoers; even Spielberg felt a wave of dizzying awe. The visual impact of The Matrix was overwhelmingly intense. Gun Kata, cyberpunk, Bullet Time... and especially that last explosion. Duke had pushed special effects to a completely unprecedented level of visual experience!

Huggins was still savoring the 360-degree pan of the blast. "Good Lord, is that a shot you can only film in heaven? If Neo's scene was called Bullet Time, shouldn't this be called Explosion Time?"

This was a surprise Duke had prepared specifically for this moment. Since the movie's main selling point was being cool, he decided to give them a sequence that was boundlessly cool!

This sequence hadn't existed during the initial shoot. When Duke later came up with the idea for this explosion, he specifically reassembled Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Laurence Fishburne, and the rest of the cast, along with John Schwartzman and the Industrial Light and Magic visual effects crew, spending another two weeks on reshoots.

"Darling," Aerin Lauder said, rubbing her eyes, which were strained from staring so wide. "I thought you had taken explosions to their absolute peak in Independence Day. I never expected you to push the limits even further..."

She took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. "You've actually elevated explosions to an entirely new realm!"

"Thank you!" Duke replied, patting her hand with a smile.

Even during the climactic final battle, a film couldn't keep its audience in a constant state of pure adrenaline. Everyone had their emotional limits. A natural ebb and flow of tension was necessary for the movie to properly unfold.

The tension on screen eased slightly. Using the explosion as cover, Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus temporarily shook off the pursuing Agents and police. A phone rang, and Morpheus was the first to exit the Matrix. Then, the film briefly shifted back into a dialogue-heavy phase.

Whether hero or villain, characters were often killed off because they talked too much.

Trinity tried to confess her feelings to Neo, but a passing subway train drowned out her words. Right after she successfully teleported back to the real world, Agent Smith exploited the unique nature of his programming to track them down, firing a shot that shattered Neo's phone.

Having successfully rescued Morpheus and Trinity, Neo's confidence surged. This time, he didn't run. Instead, he stood bravely to face Agent Smith!

The ultimate showdown between good and evil had finally arrived.

Miley blinked. "Neo seems to believe he's the One now."

"Yeah," Amanda agreed. "I think so too."

Neo and Smith charged at each other. The film delivered another 360-degree freeze-frame before both fighters engaged in Gun Kata. But this was different from the earlier shootouts; their combat was almost entirely face-to-face. They dodged incoming fire by mere millimeters. The heavy use of high-speed slow motion clearly mapped out the bullet trajectories once again, letting the audience fully experience the sheer, hair-raising thrill of the duel.

When their guns clicked empty, Neo and Smith transitioned into brutal hand-to-hand combat. The two of them unleashed a variety of martial arts techniques. Neo, in particular, even broke out a sequence of Tai Chi when he was backed into a corner...

Of course, with Keanu Reeves' martial arts foundation, his Tai Chi was only really good enough to fool Western audiences.

"He still can't beat the Agent, huh."

Watching Keanu Reeves get miserably pummeled on screen, Miley sighed. "Is Neo really the One?"

"Neo will turn it around!"

Just as Amanda said that, the tide of the battle suddenly turned. Using an oncoming train, Neo narrowly managed to hurl Smith directly under the subway's grinding wheels.

Was it over?

Many in the audience frowned. If the movie ended right there, it would feel like something was missing.

Right as Neo turned to leave the station, the train screeched to a halt, and Smith calmly stepped out from one of the carriages. As a specialized program, it seemed he was truly unkillable.

What followed was a frantic chase. Neo fled, with Smith and the two newly arrived Agents hot on his heels. Snatching a mobile phone, Neo managed to contact the hovercraft and finally received the location of the landline needed to exit the Matrix. He shook off the two Agents and scrambled toward the designated hotel room. But just as the life-saving ring of the telephone echoed through the door, Neo threw it open—only to be greeted by the muzzle of Agent Smith's gun.

"Bang—"

The gun fired, and Neo took the bullet!

"What?"

The audience couldn't believe their eyes. Did the male lead really just die like that? Was this going to be a tragedy?

Gunshots rang out one after another as Agent Smith pumped lead into Neo, turning him into a sieve until he was absolutely certain he was dead.

After waiting so anxiously, was this really the ending?

Of course not!

In Hollywood movies, true love could save the world. It could save absolutely anything. For Neo to truly become the One, he naturally had to walk an extraordinary path.

And so, as the hovercraft faced its own mortal crisis, Trinity whispered, "I love you," and kissed the real-world Neo.

Once again on the silver screen, true love saved the world. Neo resurrected! The One had truly descended!

"He is 'The One'!"

Exclamations rang out from quite a few viewers across the theater.

Rising to his feet, Neo fully unlocked his powers as the One. He effortlessly froze the bullets fired by the three Agents mid-air. When Smith rushed in for close combat, he was laughably outmatched. Compared to Neo's speed, his movements were as slow as a snail.

Finally, Neo leaped into Smith and shattered his code into fragments. The remaining two Agents fled in panic, and Neo returned to the real world in the absolute nick of time.

"I know where you are. I can feel you. You're afraid. You're afraid of me, you're afraid of change... I'm going to let everyone witness the real world!"

The film had reached its conclusion. After a direct conversation with the Matrix, Neo shot straight into the sky. Inside the Matrix, he possessed unparalleled power!

The credits rolled and applause erupted. Right as the clapping began, someone in the crowd shouted a phrase, and soon the entire theater was chanting the same name.

"Explosion Maniac! Explosion Maniac! Explosion Maniac!"

Amidst the deafening cheers and applause, Duke and Robin Grande led the cast onto the stage for a curtain call.