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The Matrix Had No Choice But To Fire This Character Immediately
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Apr 21, 2025
When The Matrix first debuted it instantly became one of the best movies of all time. The Matrix pushed the sci-fi genre in new directions with cutting edge technology and a story unlike any other. Though when it came time for the subsequent sequels, one Matrix star felt he was owed more than he deserved. Eventually being fired from The Matrix sequels, it seems he missed out on a major career move all because of greed.
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Morning
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Did you sleep? You're tonight. I guarantee it. You would think being cast in one of cinema's most celebrated sci-fi films
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and then being offered a chance to return for its two sequels
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would be any up-and-coming actor's dream. But for one actor, the ruin of that opportunity
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turned into the most famous thing about him. Actor Marcus Chong had a relatively uneventful career
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before what many would think to be his biggest break when he was cast in 1999's The Matrix
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Other than small guest appearances on television and a role in Panther, The Matrix was going to be Chong's feature debut
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a trippy cyberpunk kung fu movie backed by Warner Brothers and directed by two filmmakers hot off a small budget thriller
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The Matrix had everything in line to launch Chong's career. Chong played the role of Tank, the operator aboard the Nebuchadnezzar
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In the world of the film, whenever someone jacks into The Matrix, it's the operator who stays on the ship and monitors the vital signs of the crew
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while also reading the code of what's happening within the Matrix. Operators are generally natural-born humans without the jacks of red pills
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those freed from the Matrix. Me and my brother Dozer were both 100% pure old-fashioned
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homegrown human born free right here in the real world. While not a main character, they are, like every character in the movie
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essential to the plot. The world of The Matrix may seem ordinary now, but in 1999, the idea of a virtual world run by computers accessed by freed human batteries was odd
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Every character served to deliver exposition, whether plot or ideological, with Tank being no different
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When we first meet him, we quickly learn one of Tank's roles as operator is to upload any skill to the red pills jacked into The Matrix
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While Morpheus is responsible for explaining the philosophical ramifications of the Matrix
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characters like Tank serve to deliver the brass tacks of how the world works
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To his credit Chong does a good job When he talks about the human city of Zion where he was born there a genuine sense of awe and reverence Zion If the war was over tomorrow Zion where the party would be It a city The last human city
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Throughout the entire film, it's clear that Chong is giving his all to the performance
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Maybe it was something in the air on set, knowing that this film would sincerely be something special
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And he was right. When The Matrix was released, it took the world by storm
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It's hard to express now when everything is known or explained ad nauseum, but there was a genuine
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surprise in this film that resonated with the audience. His performance was good enough
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his character central enough, and it was initially planned for Tank to appear in both sequels
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Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions. But before production began, his middling role in a wildly
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successful film went directly to his head. It seemed that in Chong's mind, he was as high-ranking
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of a star as Keanu Reeves, Carrie Ann Moss, or Lawrence Fishburne. As Chong entered negotiations
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for the sequels, he demanded $1 million for both films while the studio was set on $400,000 for the
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two. But Chong's ego had inflated itself so much that he had begun to believe the Wachowskis and
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Warner Brothers would have no choice but to meet his demands. After talks fell through, Chong was
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written out by having Tank's death occur off-screen. His brother Link was then introduced to take over
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as operator aboard the Nebuchadnezzar for the sequels. And if we're being honest, it still works
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While it's clear that Chong had built up the idea that Tank, and therefore himself
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was irreplaceable, that just wasn't the case. We are not arguing that Tank was inconsequential to
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the first film. He does save our heroes from Cypher, but the important bit is that our heroes
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are saved, not who saved them. Tank works within the film in the same way all auxiliary characters
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worked within such a tight and precise script. They are there to usher
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Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, and Agent Smith. Tank uploading a helicopter pilot program
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is no more important than Mouse wondering if the robots got the taste of chicken cross in their brains Makes you wonder about a lot of things You take chicken for example maybe they couldn figure out what to make chicken taste like which is why chicken tastes like everything There are ideas the Wachowskis want our protagonists and us by proxy to consider
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With the introduction of Tank's brother Link, played wonderfully by Harold Perenow
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the same ideas of Zion, natural birth, and family are still laid out
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While it's impossible to know what the Wachowskis had in mind for Tank's arc
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it's safe to say they were able to manage the broad strokes with Link. To say Chong handled the letting go poorly would be a gross understatement
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Chong believed both the Wachowskis and Warner Brothers rallied together to have him blackballed
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in Hollywood. While the specifics of that are completely unknown, it is known that he was
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arrested in 2000 for making death threats against the Wachowskis. In regards to how that arrest came
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about, we are left with Chong's story. I'm not crazy. You'll see in my document, we'll see who's
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crazy when my documentary is finished. In 2018, Chong published the Marcus Chong story to YouTube
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with the hashtag Matrixgate. It's abundantly clear from watching the 45-minute video that Chong is
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at least during filming, unwell. It's easy, and maybe not wholly inaccurate, to infer a high level
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of narcissism from the video, but nobody outside the main players will ever know what really
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happened. Chung argues that even during filming of The Matrix, he was treated unfairly, left to
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pay for his own rent during filming in Australia and without a driver to take him to and from set
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He also states the guards on set often refused to let him on set without a production assistant
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coming to vouch for him. For their part, the Wachowskis have stayed relatively quiet. When
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reached for a statement by The Guardian in 2003 after the lawsuit was filed, the two refused to
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comment. Even in the original E! Online article, neither Warner Brothers nor the Wachowskis comment
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content to let the lawsuit play out. Even 20 years on, the answers are all still pretty murky
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What we can infer from the lawsuit dismissal and their silence is their feeling justice has been done and want to move on On the other hand Chong continuously brings the situation up refusing to let it go
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What Chong presents to us via his own story are a lot of moments that he feels are damning evidence
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All they really do is prove the Wachowskis were right in separating from Chong
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In the original article published by E!, he readily admits to crashing press junkets and stealing food
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It all reads as someone you just sincerely don't want to be around
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There's a sense of entitlement that he made the movie what it was single-handedly
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Throughout the Marcus Chong story, shot, written, edited, starring, and produced by Marcus Chong
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he continuously misgenders and dead names Lana and Lily Wachowski. Remember, this was published on YouTube in 2018
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with the sisters coming out as trans in 2008 and 2012, respectively
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There's often a misperception of the term blackballed. It infers some secret society working within the shadows to ruin lives and careers
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But more often than not, the perceived blackballing is really just a series of consequences in
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response to bad behavior. It's akin to a toddler saying their parents blackballed them from juice after throwing
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their sippy cup against the wall. That seems to be all that has happened to Chong, and deservedly so
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There's a common adage in freelance work. To be successful, you need to be talented, on time, and polite
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but you only have to be two of those. While the saying implies a level of forgiveness for
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unbridled talent, the other two demand a level of human decency. It's a story we've repeated
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again and again, a career cut short by arrogance and self-importance. A small bit of success can
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immediately, no pun intended, tank a career if you're not humble and ready to put in the work
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A big break is never the change our mind drifts to, some sudden new life where nothing is ever
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the same again. It's a catalyst that marks a beginning, one where you have to remember
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you're part of something bigger. And to continue being a piece of that bigger world
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you have to remain humble and respectful to those around you. Without that, everything falls apart
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