Question: "There are quite a few hidden messages in the movie that I notice the more I watch it." Can you tell me about how many there are?"
Wachowski brothers: "There are more than you'll ever know."
Question: "Your movie has many and varied connections to myths and philosophies, Judeo-Christian, Egyptian, Arthurian, and Platonic, just to name those I've noticed. How much of that was intentional?"
Wachowski brothers: "All of it."
Question: "Are all the religious symbolism and doctrine throughout this movie intentional, or not?"
Wachowski brothers: "Most of it is intentional."
Question: "How long did it take to come up with the script?"
Wachowski brothers: "We wrote the script before we had even directed Bound [1996]. And had been working on it up until the time of production [1999]."
Question: "Do you guys hold to any religious beliefs?
Wachowski brothers: "Non-denominational"
Question: "Did ideas from Buddhism influence you in making the film?
Wachowski brothers: "Yes. There's something uniquely interesting about Buddhism and mathematics, particularly about quantum physics, and where they meet. That has fascinated us for a long time."
Question: "Is the title 'The Matrix' related to the mitochondrial matrix located in cells; the site of cell respiration, the creation of energy in humans?"
Wachowski brothers: "Like the movie itself, there is a lot of word play, a lot of hidden other meanings, a lot of multiple meanings. Besides that, we also like the definition, the mathematical definition of the use of matrix, or the use of it in terms of a woman's womb."
Question: "What was the thinking behind the use of numbers that can be read both ways like 303 on the hotel door where Neo meets his destiny?"
Wachowski brothers: "Like the wordplay, there's a lot of numbers play in the movie as well."
Question: "How did you finally chose the names of the characters?
Wachowski brothers: "They were all chosen carefully, and all of them have multiple meanings."
Question: "Have you ever been told that the Matrix has Gnostic overtones?"
Wachowski brothers: "Do you consider that to be a good thing?"
Question: "Do you believe that our world is in some way similar to 'The Matrix', that there is a larger world outside of this existence?"
Wachowski brothers: "That is a larger question than you actually might think. We think the most important sort of fiction attempts to answer some of the big questions. One of the things that we had talked about when we first had the idea of The Matrix was an idea that I believe philosophy and religion and mathematics all try to answer. Which is, a reconciling between a natural world and another world that is perceived by our intellect."
Question: "What is the symbolism of all the analog rotary phones?
Wachowski brothers: "There's a couple of meanings. We liked the analog nature of older technology. We liked the suggestion of old original phone hackers. It sort of suggested the big Rube Goldberg device that's in the mirror scene."
Question: "Was the Alice in Wonderland theme just a whim, or do you guys have a big love of it?
Wachowski brothers: "Big fan! It is a brilliant book. Many of the themes we tried to echo in The Matrix."
Question: "Do all of the things that happen in the Matrix have some computer-based analogy...or did you just do some of it because it was cool?"
Wachowski brothers: "Yes. We like to try and pack as much stuff as we can in when we do a movie. So some of the stuff we do relates to the narrative, and some of the stuff we do because we like."
Wachowski brothers: "Somebody asked us about the street names in the movie and all of them are significant. They are all based on places in Chicago."
Question: "Did you know right away that it would be a trilogy?
Wachowski brothers: "We knew we had too much material for one movie."
Question: "Do you appreciate people dissecting your movie? Do you find it a bit of an honor or does it annoy you a little, especially when the person may have it all wrong?
Wachowski brothers: "There's not necessarily ever an 'all wrong'. Because it's about what a person gets out of the movie, what an individual gets out of the movie."