10 Behind-The-Scenes Screw-Ups That Created Iconic Movie Moments
4. The Matrix Unplugged Neo Throws Up Because Keanu Reeves Had Food Poisioning
The original Matrix was an era-defining film that effectively caught the whole sci-fi genre with its pants down. It offered a bold, unique premise of people plugged into a giant illusory world by machines, completely at odds with the trade embargo-centred plotline of its main rival that year (you know what that was, don't play that game).
The big point of the film was that a group of freedom fighters could free themselves from the Matrix and live in the real, apocalyptic world. Of course, unplugging someone from their fake universe for a life in a perpetual hellhole was a traumatic, complex affair, with many subjects suffering violent after-effects, and nowhere was this more apparent than when Neo throws up shortly after being unplugged.
You mightve thought that was an incredibly realistic fake throw-up scene, and youd be half right, because it wasnt fake at all. Keanu Reeves had come onto the set after eating some dodgy food the day before, resulting in the not-unexpected spectacle of him chucking his guts up. However, this didnt happen off-screen, it happened on camera, just as Neo was waking up, and the Wachowskis liked it so much they kept it in the final film, resulting in possibly the only time salmonella has actually added to the drama of a movie.