The Matrix’s Joe Pantoliano recently revealed that the Wachowskis lied to him about Cypher’s fate at the end of the film. The iconic antagonist was one of the most memorable characters in the film. However, actor Pantoliano said that the directors did not tell him that his character would be killed off after he shared a story from The Fugitive (1993) with them.
Joe Pantoliano claims the Wachowskis lied to him about Cypher’s fate in The Matrix
Joe Pantoliano recently appeared in a Matrix reunion panel with co-star Laurence Fishburne at New York Comic Con. At the panel, fans asked the 74-year-old actor whether his character, Cypher, really dies at the end of The Matrix.
Pantoliano had quite a reaction to this as he shouted, “They lied to me!… They f***king lied.” He recounted telling the directors a story about how he once convinced director Andrew Davis not to kill off his character in The Fugitive.
He continued, “I said, ‘Hey, you can’t kill me, right? You’re not gonna kill me?'” He added, “And Lilly said, ‘Hey, Lana, he doesn’t want us to kill him.’ And I heard Lana off camera, knowing that I could hear this, and she said, ‘Well, just lie to him and we’ll kill him anyway.'”
At this point, moderator Josh Horowitz said that it is not definitive that Cypher dies in the film. Still, the actor was not happy about his implied death. “Don’t get me started, all right? They brought f***king Agent Smith back,” he said, “It’s The Matrix!”
But he holds out hope that anything can happen in the matrix. And Cypher may as well be alive in there. “It’s not too late,” he said, “It’s never too late.”
Originally reported by Sourav Chakraborty on ComingSoon.
