Matrix Rooftop Recreation

The Matrix rooftop rig rebuilt to within inches, with the same 99 cameras, twenty years to the day after the film's European release.

What Did We Do?

On Sky’s There’s Something About Movies, with Alan Carr, Tom Allen and Guz Khan, the show’s team leaders recreate famous movie scenes. This episode was the Matrix rooftop scene, Neo dodging bullets, the most iconic bullet time shot ever filmed.

We rebuilt the rig as accurately as we possibly could. Working from software that produced a 3D model of the original rig from the scene itself, we matched the layout to within a few inches and used the same count of 99 cameras as the original Sydney set. The whole system ran from one standard 13 amp household socket, drawing about 100 watts, inside a 13 by 22 metre green screen studio at Malcolm Ryan Studios in Wimbledon.

Two details we enjoy. We filmed on the exact day The Matrix had been released across much of Europe twenty years earlier, which was pure coincidence. And back in 2012, while building a rig in Sydney, we had worked with the scaffolding company that helped create the original bullet time shots for the films.

Common Recreation FAQs

Can you recreate a specific film shot?

Yes. For this one we rebuilt the Matrix rooftop rig to within a few inches of the original layout, with the same 99 camera count.

How much power does a bullet time rig need?

Less than a toaster. This entire 99 camera system drew about 100 watts from one household socket.