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Why was The Matrix rated R?

Cow Mengde

Cow Mengde

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,718
I'm only talking about the first movie.

I really can't wrap my mind around the rating. There was little to no blood. If there was blood, I sure as hell can't remember seeing it. I can remember seeing blood in Disney's Gargoyles, an after school cartoon, but I can't remember blood in the R rated The Matrix. Not a single fuck was uttered in the movie. I've seen PG movies that have said fuck (though to be fair, I don't remember the movie it was in). And as for sex... ummm... Trinity kisses Neo? Yay? I guess he was naked when he woke up from the pod... but I've seen more nudity in PG rated old school dinosaur movies like When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth. I mean... there Kung Fu action and guns, but it's some of the tamest shit I've ever seen. The Jacky Chan stunts look more violent than anything in The Matrix.

The movie came out in 1999, it might as well be rated G if it wasn't for them saying "shit" a few times.

How did this movie get an R rating?
 
HomerSimpson-Man

HomerSimpson-Man

Member
Oct 30, 2017
3,629
From what I understand, the directors weren't purposely going for an R-rating it just happened, but it was really the amount of gun violence in the film that got it the R-rating.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,098
IMDB lists the reasons why it was given an R rating:

Edit: Nevermind that was the parent's guide listing below the certification list.

Edit 2: I recall reading that the MPAA tends to rate movies more harshly that are unusual or push boundaries. I wonder if all the slow-mo kung-fu gunplay which hadn't been done in a live-action setting before, made the MPAA feel a stricter rating was warranted.
 
rpm

rpm

Into the Woods
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Parts Unknown
shaneo632

shaneo632

Weekend Planner
Member
Oct 29, 2017
29,008
Wrexham, Wales
There are some fairly brutal deaths even if there isn't a ton of blood, like a SWAT guy getting a knife thrown through his head by Trinity. I think the overall tone of the film just feels better suited to an R than PG-13, but with a few edits it probably could've been PG-13.

Knowing the moralistic nature of the MPAA they probably also factored in how many "innocent" (i.e. pawns of the Matrix corrupted by the agents) people the heroes kill.
 
darz1

darz1

Member
Dec 18, 2017
7,093
Colombine, Trenchcoats and gunplay.

I dont think it was rated R in Australia as I saw it while I was in high school
 
SpankyDoodle

SpankyDoodle

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,082
I've always wondered this. I've had the reasons explained to me (the violence, pht) but seriously even when I saw it in theaters with my dad we were both like "Why was that rated R?"
 
TAJ

TAJ

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
12,446
It seems designed for a PG-13.
It's your typical thing where a guy falling down is supposed to mean he was shot and killed.
 
WedgeX

WedgeX

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,199
The amount of gun violence - at the time - felt pretty rare outside of 80s action movies. Which themselves were rated R.

But gun violence has become pretty normalized in most media now. Not to mention, well, real life.
 
Lord Fagan

Lord Fagan

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,367
Kicks to the face, I think.

You gotta procure a gun to shoot someone to death. But kids can easily kill each other with a hard enough kick to the temple.
 

Deleted member 13798

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
It's fairly violent. Lots of innocent people get killed, in the sense that they were essentially just trying to stop some domestic terrorist hackers from their perspective.

Not bloody graphic violence but fairly explicit
 
Dalek

Dalek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,962
It was because of the lobby scene and all of the gun fighting. I remember at the time thinking that it was very violent but I re-watched it recently and it seems tame compared to modern fare.
 
jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,659
Compare the gun violence in The Matrix to the limp shit we get in PG-13 movies. The Matrix might not be overly gory, but the difference is stark.
 
Pikachu

Pikachu

Traded his Bone Marrow for Pizza
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,402
Deserves it just for the scene where he wakes up. I'm squeamish when it comes to bodily functions.
 

Deleted member 13798

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
Cow Mengde said:
www.youtube.com

Tanya Roberts - As Sheena - Beautiful Goddess Of Africa - Scenes From The 1984 Movie

Sheena's white parents are killed while on Safari. She is raised by a mystical witch woman of an African tribe. When her foster mother is framed for the murd...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

This is a PG movie. It's NSFW.
Click to expand...
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That was before ratings changed. If it wasn't R it was PG. There was no PG-13 and they seemed more concerned about violence than "tasteful" nudity at the time.

Airplane has an explicit topless scene even if briefly, and it was PG.


jett said:
Compare the gun violence in The Matrix to the limp shit we get in PG-13 movies. The Matrix might not be overly gory, but the difference is stark.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Very stark. It would still be rated R now because of how it's depicted.
 
jelly

jelly

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
33,841
Gun violence and action is very focused would be my guess, other films don't linger on it or in slow motion, cops, men in suits, authority getting killed at a glance isn't monsters or obvious bad guys. Explosives, dangerous stunt including guns.

Drugs, torture, choking when he wakes up is pretty explicit. Morpheus gets shot through the ankle.

Jumping off buildings, the whole real life versus the matrix, perhaps a suicide worry.

Not exactly grounds for teens.
 
Soj

Soj

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,707
Gun violence complete with blood bursts, I'd guess. You'd get something with the same frequency of violence rated lower today, but you still couldn't show the hits like that.

It wasn't some bloodless Nolan movie.
 
RedVejigante

RedVejigante

Member
Aug 18, 2018
5,646
Hollywood shamans determined that rating the movie R was the only way to protect it from Grant Morrison's collective masturbation hyper-sigil spirit-bomb attack.
 
VaporSnake

VaporSnake

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,603
The security guards in the lobby get really squibbed up, point blank shots to the head, inserting giant rods into peoples brains and a bug that burrowed into your bellybutton, it's definitely a soft R but I can see why.
 
OP
OP
Cow Mengde

Cow Mengde

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,718
Soj said:
Gun violence complete with blood bursts, I'd guess. You'd get something with the same frequency of violence rated lower today, but you still couldn't show the hits like that.

It wasn't some bloodless Nolan movie.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


Oh wow, there is some blood. I saw this movie again like 3 years ago and don't remember the blood.
 
Bonefish

Bonefish

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,698
Its fucking intense gun violence and wanton murder of people of authority. I never found the R rating surprising.
 
jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,659
ArjanN said:
This.

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A comparison with TDKR and Black Panther to drive the point home further





People drop like sacks of potatoes. No exit or entry wounds whatsoever, no pink mist, nothing. It's laughable every time I see this shit, looks ridiculous.

And of course this classic scene from TDK:

1492175009319.gif


He's getting shot here. Who knows with what, exactly. Certainly not bullets.
 
tokkun

tokkun

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,407
Is the red pill / blue pill not supposed to be a completely on-the-nose pro-drug reference?
 
Tanuki-Go

Tanuki-Go

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Jul 21, 2018
2,429
US
There's also the small bit where Neo coughs up blood (in and out of the Matrix) after getting punched in the chest by Smith during their subway fight.
 
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