Let's take a moment to appreciate The Matrix Reloaded's highway chase sequence
From building entire freeways to "camera auditions," the extended action scene took a lot of work
With a fourth Matrix on the horizon, people are eager to once again debate the merits of the two early ‘00s sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions. Between arguments about apocalyptic dance orgies, Biblical metaphors, and robot battles, we should all remember one aspect of these films that ought to unite everybody in mutual appreciation: That really long, really great chase sequence from Reloaded.
Thankfully, unfortunately named YouTube channel Nerdstalgic has decided to help refresh our memories of just how good this exercise in cinematic car murder really was by taking a look at how it was created.
The video makes a lot of bold claims that Reloaded’s chase sequence is “one of the most underrated action sequences of the early 2000s” and “one of the most underrated car chase sequences of all time,” but it doesn’t overstate how impressive the amount of work that went into pulling off the whole thing really was. Probably the most ridiculous example is the production’s building of a $2.5 million, 1.25 mile-long highway set on California’s Alameda Island, which was necessary since shooting on actual roads would require too much time spent resetting the vehicles for each take by driving them to existing off ramps.