A Detective Story

A Detective Story is an animated short film set in the universe of The Matrix. It is part of The Animatrix series. Traditional animation is blended with grainy photographic backgrounds to produce a very distinctive style.

Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.

A film noir style film in black and white, set in New York City during the early 20th century, it follows the story of a down-on-his-luck private detective who receives an anonymous phone call to search for a hacker that goes by the alias "Trinity". Oddly the story, while taking place during the early 20th century, also seems to take place during the late 20th century, with computers and the internet blended with typewriters to give it an old-fashioned yet modern feel (compare Terry Gilliam's Brazil). The private detective Ash traces down the hacker Trinity (they communicate through allusions to Lewis Carroll's Alice books) only to be followed every step of the way by agents of the Matrix. While Trinity escapes, she has to shoot Ash, who might turn into an agent. Ash dies coolly, as he has at least acquired a sense of the limits of the Matrix.

Cast & Crew

Directed by: Shinichiro Watanabe
Written by: Shinichiro Watanabe

The director and writer, Shinichiro Watanabe, is known for also writing and directing the Cowboy Bebop animated series and movie. He also directed the Animatrix short animated film Kid's Story.

External Link

The Matrix Trilogy The Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions
The Animatrix "Final Flight of the Osiris" | "The Second Renaissance" | "Kid's Story" | "Program" | "World Record" | "Beyond" | "A Detective Story" | "Matriculated"
Games Enter The Matrix | The Matrix Online | The Matrix: Path of Neo
Main characters Neo | Trinity | Morpheus | Agent Smith | The Agents | The Oracle
Secondary characters Apoc | The Architect | Cypher | Dozer | Ghost | The Keymaker |The Kid | The Merovingian | Mouse | Niobe | Persephone | Rama Kandra | Sati | Seraph | Sparks | Switch | Tank | The Trainman | The Twins
Cast and crew Wachowski brothers | Keanu Reeves | Laurence Fishburne | Carrie-Anne Moss | Hugo Weaving | Geof Darrow
Other topics The Matrix character names | Matrix (fictional universe) | Original Soundtrack | The Matrix Revisited | The Ultimate Matrix Collection
Related articles Bullet-time | Cyberpunk | Digitalism | Martial arts film | Messiahs in fiction and fantasy | Virtual reality

See also: A Detective Story, 20th century, Agent Smith, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Apoc, Architect (Matrix character), Beyond (The Animatrix), Black and white