The absolute worst thing about group fight scenes is when all of the baddies stand around and decide to attack the hero one at a time, giving them more of a chance. I love Harley Quinn in The Suicide Squad, but her Lollipop Chainsaw-inspired escape from the governor’s mansion suffers from this issue in parts. In some ways, it’s natural - the hero needs to win, and if the bad guys all attacked at once, the hero would lose. Thankfully, Agent Smiths vs Neo in The Matrix Reloaded - better known as The Burly Brawl - does not fall victim to this tried-and-true cliche.

The Matrix Reloaded is a strange movie. All three films in The Matrix series are, and no doubt the fourth will be as well. It’s this upcoming fourth flick that prompted a recent rewatch of the trilogy, and I came to realise that The Matrix Reloaded is essentially an hour and 45 minutes of action scenes followed by 20 minutes of plot. Since these action scenes are easily the best in the trilogy, it makes for a very enjoyable time if you can switch your brain off and ignore all the nonsensical plot developments. Whether you’re expecting a non-stop action slugfest or a more cerebral experience akin to the first movie, the Burly Brawl comes early enough that the thrill of punching, punching, and more punching hasn’t worn off yet, and has a deeper meaning to it than the aforementioned fisticuffs. The violence as ballet idea is also wonderfully choreographed and inventive, with Neo taking on multiple agents at once.

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Agent Smith is at the heart of what makes The Matrix so great. A computer program designed to maintain order within The Matrix, he begins the trilogy as a fairly typical suit - tightly wound, buttoned up, and logically following the rules. His experience with those who challenge this order is universal - they see him, they run. It's only when he comes up against Neo, who instead holds his ground, that Smith starts to change. He grows into something far more powerful, far more ambitious - but he remains this suit, the buttoned up, highly logical, authoritarian personality. He is given a glimpse of freedom, of humanity, only to absorb it, grow from it, learn from it, and come out the other side less human than ever. No longer a cog in the machine, he is the machine.

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After his destruction in the first movie, Smith admits when he encounters Neo ahead of the Burly Brawl that he knew what he was supposed to do upon his return to The Matrix but he didn't. He couldn't. He was compelled to stay, to disobey. His connection to Neo is the reason he is free - but it is also the reason he will never be free.

As he continues this monologue about purpose, more Smiths appear and surround Neo. The main Smith then tries to assimilate Neo - no cool lines like "Oh God", "Smith will suffice," this time - before Neo uses the Force or whatever to stop him. The Smiths surrounding Neo then attack at once, with Neo ducking, countering, and weaving, every single move he makes designed to hurt or impair at least two of his attackers. The sheer amount of fight scenes in The Matrix can grow tiring, but the Burly Brawl is so fast and intimate that it never feels drawn out or repetitive.

As things get more dramatic, with bodies being hurled through park benches instead of just thrown aside with kung-fu blocks and chops, more Smiths start to pour in from the sidelines. This calls for more drastic action, with Neo jumping off walls and front flipping over the crowd to get himself some breathing room. More Smiths means more carnage, but it also means the attacks against Neo become wayward scrambles rather than deliberate moves to make the most of their numerical advantage. Smith has strength in numbers, but as a creature of pure ego - "me, me, me," - he overplays his hand.

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Smith only ever stands a chance at beating Neo when they are one on one, with Smith at his most powerful, not fighting amongst himself like he is here. He later realises this in Revolutions, but here, he continues to swarm Neo, giving him the upper hand. When Neo yanks a street pole out of the ground, the violent ballet gains an extra layer of aesthetic beauty, and Neo cracks skulls twice as fast.

The pole becomes a pugil stick to force Smiths away, a bat to send them crashing through windows, a shinai to break defences, a lance to lunge with, and a handy sweeper to knock them groundwards. Most impressively though is when it is simply used as a pole. Surrounded - but what else is new? - Neo plants the pole back into the concrete and grips it tightly, running around it in midair, every kick of a footstep crashing into a Smith's face.

Despite this, the brawl ultimately ends in retreat for Neo. This, however, is the key difference between him and Smith. When Smith is losing, he calls for more Smiths and continues to swarm Neo until he wins not through skill, but through force. Neo, sensing defeat, is smart enough to retreat. The Neo of the first movie would not have been so smart. It's here that Neo learns retreat can be a victory in itself, and it's this realisation which gives the Burly Brawl extra weight beyond just being another cool punching scene.

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Taking 27 days to film, the sequence is not just the high point of Reloaded, but the peak of the trilogy as a whole. No single digestible clip is as rewatchable as the Burly Brawl. The original Matrix was a masterpiece, and the other two - partially because of the strain of being filmed back to back - largely failed to reach its level. The Burly Brawl, however, ascends it. The whole trilogy is worth catching up on ahead of The Matrix Resurrections, but especially the Burly Brawl. There will have been a lot of pressure on Lana Wachowski to essentially make The Matrix 2 - a sequel to the original movie in style and tone, vaguely touching on the plot points of Revolutions but mostly following from the most popular entry in the series. With the absence of Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, it seems as though Wachowski is honouring existing canon, and that means there's hope for another Burly Brawl-type scene yet.

Next: The Matrix Resurrections Might Finally Be A Trans Movie