Digital rain
{{Short description|Computer code used in the Matrix film series}}
File:Digital rain animation medium letters shine.gif
Digital rain, or Matrix code, is the visual effect of vertically falling computer code popularised by the 1999 film The Matrix. The code is a way of representing the activity of the simulated reality environment of the Matrix on screen by kinetic typography. All four Matrix movies, as well as episodes of the spin-off The Animatrix, open with the code. It is a characteristic mark of the franchise, similar to the opening crawl featured in the Star Wars franchise.
Background
In the film, the code that comprises the Matrix itself is frequently represented as downward-flowing green characters. This code uses a custom typeface designed by Simon Whiteley,{{cite web |url=https://collection.powerhouse.com.au/object/422513 |title='The Matrix' film poster |author=Powerhouse Museum |accessdate=November 18, 2023 |publisher=Powerhouse Museum, Australia}} which includes mirror images of half-width kana characters and Western Latin letters and numerals.{{cite AV media |people=Oreck, Josh (Director); Wachowski, Larry; Matthies, Eric (Producers) |title=The Matrix Revisited |section=Look of the Matrix |medium=DVD |publisher=Warner Bros. Pictures |location=United States |date=November 20, 2001}} In a 2017 interview at CNET, he attributed the design to his wife, who comes from Japan, and added, "I like to tell everybody that The Matrix's code is made out of Japanese sushi recipes";{{cite news |last=Bisset |first=Jennifer |title=Creator of The Matrix code reveals its mysterious origins |url=https://www.cnet.com/news/lego-ninjago-movie-simon-whiteley-matrix-code-creator/ |publisher=CNET |date=October 19, 2017 |accessdate=November 5, 2018}} this has been debunked by several people including some well known Japanese influencers.{{cn|date=January 2025}}
The effect resembles that of older generation green screen displays of monochrome phosphorescent computer monitors.{{cite book |last=Clover |first=Joshua |title=The Matrix |url=https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov |url-access=registration |year=2004 |publisher=BFI Publishing |location=London |isbn=1-84457-045-2 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/matrix0000clov/page/8 8–9] |quote=In the denouement [of The Thirteenth Floor], Douglas Hall simply crests a hill to discover that what he had thought was the real world has, beyond this point, yet to be constructed. In lieu of landscape, only crude phosphor-green polygons, the basic units of video graphics rendering, in the primal monochrome of an old CRT. The raw material of the simulation is even more basic in The Matrix – machine language itself, in the same familiar green...}} One predecessor of the digital rain exists in a "code-scene" of the movie Meteo, a Hungarian experimental-pop culture movie from 1990. The 1995 cyberpunk film Ghost in the Shell, a strong influence on The Matrix,Joel Silver, interviewed in "Scrolls to Screen: A Brief History of Anime" featurette on The Animatrix DVD.Joel Silver, interviewed in "Making The Matrix" featurette on The Matrix DVD. features opening credits similar to the digital rain.
No official version of the code's typeface actually used in the Matrix trilogy and in the website for the game Path of Neo has been released. Several imitations have been made, mostly in the form of screensavers.
Cultural impact
File:XScreensaver GLMatrix.webm representing the digital rain]]
Dutch musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen named a track "Digital Rain", in honour of the movie, on his 2010 album Victims of the Modern Age by his band Star One.
The effect also inspired the creation of many unofficial Matrix screensavers, including the "GL Matrix" mode in XScreenSaver,{{cite magazine|title=Saver the Moment: movie inspired screen savers|url=http://ew.com/article/2001/03/02/saver-moment-movie-inspired-screen-savers/|last=Podolsky|first=Erin|date=March 2, 2001|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|accessdate=22 June 2017}}{{Cite web |title=XScreenSaver |url=https://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=www.jwz.org}} and in the cmatrix program for Unix-like systems.{{GitHub|abishekvashok/cmatrix}}
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See also
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- [https://github.com/kawogi/matrix-digital-rain Example implementation of the Matrix digital rain in Rust]
- [https://rosettacode.org/wiki/Matrix_digital_rain Examples of Matrix digital rain implementations on Rosetta Code]
- [https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/lego-ninjago-movie-simon-whiteley-matrix-code-creator/ Creator of The Matrix code reveals its mysterious origins]
{{The Matrix}}