Our two friends from yesterday's scoop, Xevioso and Waddles, return today with the world's first look at the set of Matrix 2. The pair of undercover spies also provided us with their comments about the significance of each photo and how it related to the filming happening right now in San Francisco. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...so let's turn it over to our cryptic duo and listen to their report:
IMAGE #1: "This is a picture of one of the licesne plates they were using on the cars during the chase scene. All of the cars (about 30) had these fake license plates on them. This raises an interesting question...what sort of permit would you get to be able to drive a car with a fake license plate for a movie? Anyway, many of these cars were used during the chase scene in downtown Oakland and I think also at the Alameda Naval base, where they had apparently set up a fake highway for more of the chase scene. After work, when they were shutting the filming down in downtown Oakland, I asked a cop what he saw. He told me there was a large chase scene with a number of explosions, some machine gun fire, and car accidents, some of which were *unplanned*. :-)"
 
  IMAGE #2: "This is a prop car. The near miss drawn on it indicates it was to be used during the chase scene. There were dozens of cars like this. I wish I had the picture of the two cars cut in half (obviously not a near miss) but they didn't turn out so well since we took them from far away."
 
 
 

  IMAGE #3: "Next to some buildings near Telegraph avenue they built these two fake billboards. Behind them was an area where all the camera crews were set up. The people on the left are crewmen. I think part of the chase went down this street."
 
 

IMAGE #4: "As we were walking not far the set on Monday we saw this Phone booth with a fire hydrant inside it. This is odd because Oakland doesnt have many phone booths. It just said 'Phone' on it. We thought it was a prop, and the dolly next to it was a good indication..."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

IMAGE #5: "Yesterday when we went back the word Phone had been lettered over with 'City' instead. The bench nearby had been painted to say 'Krispy Kiwis'. There was a mailbox that we forgot to get a picture of that had cameramen installing a camera underneath it for a shot, just to the right...

And then, in passing, we saw a crewman pushing a cart around the set that had about 30 identical brown briefcases packed on it and under it. Hmmm...curiouser and curiouser."

Click on the picture for a bigger look at it.

"We wanted to get some shots while they were filming, but it was not to be. It was a beautiful day in Oakland though so it should look good on screen!
[Our first scoop containing photographic evidence of the Matrix came courtesy from 'Xevioso' and 'Waddles', our two San Fran hovercraft captains.]

A great scoop, huh? We've got our first look at the "feel" for the city in the Matrix sequels, and judging from the photos, the Wachowskis are going for an even greater sense of the world of the Matrix being just around the corner but in a non-specific city. Take a look at photo five: "Watch TV". It's not an ad for a TV series, just a blanket statement. Creepy, eh?

And notice the color scheme for the ads, cars, license plate, phone booth and so on...green and black, just like the look of the digital world inside the Matrix from the first film. Small little touches like this give us an indication that we'll definitely be returning to the same environment, perhaps even the same city, as we saw in The Matrix.

Finally, not only do we get to see these strange Silvermen that we have been hearing about, but we now know who they are. Turns out that they are physical representations of computer viruses (virii) They looked magnificent in their flowing silver trench coats(which they are seen here not wearing).
It took 2 hours each day to get the virii into their makeup, and another two hours to get them out.
Check out Aint-It-Cool-News for a Fantastic Set Report!

This is a pic of a car that gets cut in half during a fight scene.  How it happens is unknown at this time.