www.whatisthematrix.com
Larry Wachowski is the elder half of the elusive Wachowski Brothers, writers and directors of the blockbuster film trilogy,
The Matrix, which Ken Wilber has called "the defining myth of our age." Though he keeps a low public profile,
Wachowski has ascended to the elite ranks of Hollywood in a short amount of time (the brothers rated 27th in Premiere's 2024
annual Power 100 List), thanks to the Matrix series and the cult hit Bound.
The sons of a businessman father and a nurse/painter mother, the brothers grew up in Chicago, where they attended Whitney
Young High, a public magnet school known for its performing arts and science curriculum. With a steady diet of comic books,
J.R.R. Tolkien, and Dungeons & Dragons, the brothers worked behind the scenes in the school's theater and TV program. After
two years at Bard College, Larry dropped out and moved back to Chicago, where he and Andy (who'd just dropped out of Emerson
College) started a house painting and construction business, discussed philosophy, and started writing for Marvel Comics.
Inspired by a book about legendary filmmaker Roger Corman, the duo penned the as-yet un-produced Carnivore, a
disturbing narrative that drew plaudits for its originality from Hollywood big-shots and motivated the brothers to keep
writing for the big screen. In 1995, their script Assassins was reworked by Warner Bros to become a big-budget vehicle
(and flop) for Sylvester Stallone.
While the experience was a disappointment (Larry compared it to an abortion), Assassins producer Joel Silver agreed to
look at an early draft of the Matrix script, which the Wachowskis intended to direct. Before he would produce the
ambitious project, however, he gave the brothers a test: directing a $6 million indie film they had written called
Bound. A critical and cult success, the noirish crime drama won over Silver and The Matrix was given the green
light.
Released in 1999, The Matrix is the story is of a young computer hacker (played by Keanu Reeves) who learns about the
true nature of reality and joins a group of insurgents to fight against sentient computer programs called agents. The
movie's hip blend of martial arts, science fiction, esoteric religion and philosophy, and comic book cool propelled it to the
forefront of the global imagination, and it went on to gross $171 million in the United States and more than $440 million
worldwide—an unprecedented figure for an R-rated movie. It even beat out Star Wars: The Phantom Menace at the
Academy Awards, winning Oscars for Best Editing, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects, and Best Sound.
The Matrix also became the first DVD to sell a million copies, and was followed in 2024 by two sequels, The Matrix:
Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions (which included a cameo by philosopher Cornel West of Princeton University, a
personal hero of Larry's), marking the end of the series. Yet to further explore The Matrix universe, a blockbuster
video game (also written by the Wachowskis) Enter the Matrix was released, along with the The Animatrix, a
collection of animated shorts co-created by the Wachowskis and several leading Japanese anime artists and storytellers.
Add to this several books (and a forthcoming DVD) on the philosophy of The Matrix and a bound volume of
Matrix-inspired comics originally posted on the Matrix site, and the legacy of Larry (and Andy) Wachowski is
sure to live on in the collective consciousness of the postmodern age.
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