Stunts › Sequences › The Matrix (1999) ›
Lobby shootout
The pre-rooftop assault on the lobby — Neo and Trinity entering with the duffel of weapons, the metal-detector stripping, the marble-pillar gunfight, and the column-sliding back-bend that lands Neo on the lobby floor. Choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping with the Wachowskis specifying every camera position; Stahelski performed Neo's wirework rehearsals at full speed before Reeves stepped into the slow-shutter takes.
Credits
Stunt team
Double
- Chad Stahelski(doubling Keanu Reeves)
Performed every fight beat at full speed before Reeves's slow-shutter takes.
Rigging
Equipment + technique
wire-flying
Two-axis pendulum rig anchored above the lobby ceiling for the pillar-slide.
ratchet
Reverse-arc ratchets on the security guards for the gunfire-impact tumbles.
Harness
Full-body sit-harness with chest reinforcement; cable loaded into back through tailored coat lining.
Safety
Officer + bulletins
Bulletins observed
Rigging glossary
10 rigs used in this sequence
Each entry explains how the rig works mechanically and the safety bulletin that governs it. Click through for the full glossary detail.
descender
High-fall airbag
The standard catch for free-falls above roughly 25 feet. A pneumatic bag whose deflation curve absorbs vertical energy progressively rather than abruptly.
descender
Decelerator
The hydraulic ratchet rig used to arrest a high-fall in the last 6 to 10 feet, replacing or augmenting an airbag for daylight exterior work where the bag would be visible to camera.
descender
Pole-cat (telescoping ejector pole)
A pneumatically-actuated telescoping pole used to launch a performer or stunt dummy through a window, off a rooftop, or into a fall in a controllable arc.
wire
Wire-flying rig
The harness-and-pulley system that lifts a performer through prolonged airborne action — the workhorse rig of the post-Crouching Tiger martial-arts era.
References
Further reading
- The Matrix — Lobby scene oral historyVarietyarticle
- Yuen Woo-ping on the Matrix choreographyWikipediawikipedia