Bullet Time: Slowness in The Matrix (1999)
Arguably, the concept of bullet time derives from the original works of Harold Edgerton — ‘The Man Who Made Time Stand Still’. Edgerton’s ability to isolate temporality in his work like Bullet Through Apple (1964) possessed an ultra-realism where for “the first time [humans] were able to see what the unaided eye [could not]” (Michael Hoppen Gallery).
Cinematic bullet time in the late 1990s served to emphasize the media’s temporal transformation in an increasingly digitalized world. As an aesthetic agent to dramatize and disrupt the tempo of filmic action, bullet time aims to visually demonstrate an alternative configuration of human perception. The special effect is achieved with using a fast-moving, revolving camera around an inanimate object, for example, a bullet or human actor(s) as they move in slow-motion. Cinema had finally reached its goal of photorealism where the imaginable is now visible.
Bullet time in The Matrix (1999) also recalls the aesthetics of slow-motion violence, “the ballet of the bullet” (Leyda). One of the most iconic and performable bullet time sequences of the movie occurs when Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) are on their way to rescue Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who is held hostage by The Agents inside a heavily guarded building. Agent Brown (Paul Goddard) aims his gun at Neo as they duel on the building’s rooftop helipad. The camera closes in on the gun, with a close-up shot, up until Agent Brown fires it. Next, we are met with a change in perspective as the style of the shot expands into a medium-long shot. Neo’s back is faced to us as he remains centred in the foreground whilst Agent Brown remains in the distance, in the background. With the addition of exaggerative slow motion, The Wachowski’s pay homage to Edgerton’s bullet-inspired photorealism by focusing on the trajectory of the bullet as it speeds towards Neo. Due to Neo’s movement, also, being in slow motion, the protagonist is able to smoothly dodge the first bullet in time and the rest that follow soon after.
Bullet time marks a monumental moment in film history, audiences had only witnessed “static points”, no real motion: “[Now] with bullet time, viewers see the trajectory, the movement of the bullet, slowed down, intensified, so they can get a sense of that movement which is a primary form of reality beyond static points of visual perception” (Hawk 118).
The Matrix 4 is scheduled for release on December 22, 2021.
References:
“Harold Edgerton.” Michael Hoppen Gallery, https://michaelhoppengallery/artists/54-dr-harold-edgerton/overview/.
Hawk, B. A Counter-History of Composition: Toward Methodologies of Complexity, University Press, 2007.
Leyda, J. “3.2 Bullet Time and the Mediation of Post-Cinematic Temporality.” Post-Cinema Theorizing 21st-Century Film, https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/post-cinema/3-2-sudmann/
The Matrix. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lily Wachowski, Warner Bros, 31 Mar. 1999.
