The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Although the story of most movies are propelled by realism and observation of realistic events, being able to push and break the boundaries of realism can propel a story even further. Being able to take physics at its core and exaggerate it often adds an interesting effect even if the audience can or can’t tell if the physics are off. In the movie The Matrix, physics are intentionally broken in order to support and propel the story line that anything can happen in a computer generated world, and that the laws of physics don’t apply. The main character Neo, must learn how to break and manipulate the physics of the Matrix world, in order to defeat the evil Agent Smith. This is a case where a movie embraces exaggerated and uses it to its advantage.

The movie The Matrix embraces the exaggerated physics from the beginning until the end. One such exaggeration of physics is when Trinity, one of the main heros, is being arrested. While police attempt to apprehend her, she jump kicks one of the police so hard, that he end up launching backwards and into another policeman. The impact was so strong, that both of the policemen end up crashing through the wall and create a large dent within it, while trinity is unaffected from the kick and lands in the spot she jumped from. This is an example of when physics is exaggerated and broken. According to Newton’s third law of motion, Whenever a force exhibits a force, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Because of this, when Trinity kicked the police with the jump kick, Trinity should have been affected by the kick as well. Because Trinity was in the air when kicked, she had no means of bracing herself when she kicked the man, meaning that the force would have to have launched her backwards as well. The breaking of physics was used well for this scene, as it was the first introduction of supernatural strength and paranormal abilities in the movie, which left the audience curious about what was going on.

Trinity getting arrested for breaking the law..... of physics!

Not only does The Matrix break Newtons third law, it also break Newton’s First Law. When Neo is battling the Agent Smith, the agent smith begins shooting at Neo. Neo then proceeds to stop the bullets by holding out his hand. This, of course, is another example of exaggerated physics. According to Newtons First Law, Objects in motion stay in motion unless they are affected by another force. Because of this, the bullets could not have been stopped by nothing. Not only does do the bullets proceed to stop, they float in the air as if they were in outer space. This would also not work because gravity affects the bullets, thus the bullets would have immediately fallen to the ground. Physics was also broken in this scene in order to build up to the climax of the movie. Neo’s character progression was based on how well he could break physics and perform the supernatural within the matrix. Neo stopping the bullets with nothing was an excellent way to show that he had mastered breaking physics.

"No" - Neo

Aside from the breaking of Newtons Laws, the matrix also breaks other laws of physics, such as exaggerated arcs. When Neo attempts to jump from one building to another, he ends up falling and hitting the pavement hard. The pavement turns into a rubber like substance and propelling Neo back up into the air. When neo hits the ground again, the Pavement returns to being a hard pavement like substance. Despite the change back to hard pavement, Neo still bounces into the air a fair distance. This scene looked similar to that of a rubber ball bounce, though, it should look more like a water balloon drop. Because humans are made up of 70% water, Neo should not have been rebounded so high into the air because water is a non-compressible substance. The settle in which neo hits the hard pavement was also wrong, as he shouldnt have bounced up into the air so high the second time. What should have happened is that when Neo hits the ground, he should have splattered, just like a water balloon falling off a building. This exaggeration of physics was used correctly, as if Neo had splattered onto the ground, the movie would not have been interesting. Despite Neo being bounced on the first bounce, the second bounce was an error of physics, although mostly unnoticeable.

Pavement doesn't always save you from a deathly fall, unless it can turn into rubber

Another example of exaggerated arcs is when Neo gets himself off the ground by hitting it with his fist. When Neo is knocked to the ground, he decides to slam his arm on the ground in an arc in order to lift his whole body up off the ground and land on his feet. This is another example of exaggerated arcs. Lets say that Neo’s punch to the ground is a force moving on the X axis. When Neo begins to rise into the Air, he ends up rotating on the Y and Z axis. There were no forces causing the Y and Z rotations, as the only propelling force was his punch to the ground on the X axis. The breaking of physics in this scene wasn't as great as other scenes. Although Neo getting up off the ground looked interesting, the breaking of physics looked more like an accident than being used purposefully to help the character progression.

A cat will always land on its feet, but will Neo?

Despite The Matrix breaking physics many times during the film, the directors did this intentionally. The exaggeration of physics add to the entertainment of the movie, and also propel the plot line. The exaggeration and breaking of physics is also justified as Morpheus, The advisor to Neo, explains that anything can happen in the matrix, and that everything he knew about physics meant nothing in the matrix. Because of this, Newton’s first law and third law are broken on many occasions, and many of the arcs are exaggerated throughout the movie. Because physics were broken and pushed, the movie became more interesting and was more entertaining than if it hadn't broken physics