Yuen: The Wachowskis wanted fighting that was very stylized. That we were being taken in a different direction from what had ever been done, and that the final product was going to be something to the left or right of what everyone else was doing. Nothing like it had been made in Hong Kong or America.Ĭhad Stahelski: We knew when we were making it that it was something special. I had so many questions, because at that time no one had seen a film like The Matrix. Eventually, they were able to find a Hong Kong producer who found me and told me about the project.

Yuen Woo-ping: The Wachowskis had been trying to get in touch with me for a while. SYFY WIRE talked to Yuen, Stahelski, and the movie's Australian stunt coordinator, Glenn Boswell, about how this action classic came together. Keanu Reeves had some physical limitations after having neck surgery to separate two fused vertebrae fortunately, he had an excellent stunt double: Chad Stahelski, who went on to direct the very Matrix-like John Wick movies.) The fight scenes were like nothing most audiences had ever seen before, but making all that action happen wasn't as simple as just hitting a button and downloading all those slick kung fu skills.īeing major fans of Hong Kong martial-arts cinema, the Wachowskis went straight to the source and hired the legendary action choreographer Yuen Woo-ping to help them shape the fight scenes and turn the actors into actual fighters who could be seen to be doing their own stunt work.

It's been 20 years since The Matrix first stunned the world with its game-changing action style, a brilliant blend of balletic martial arts moves and groundbreaking visual effects.

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