22nd-century people: Keanu Reeves as Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) among the weapon racks of the future world.

Alan Jones reports on The Matrix, the new high-octane sci-fi fantasy from Hollywood hotshots Andy and Larry Wachowski, in which stars Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne fight back against a virtual-reality programme that tries to fool people into thinking everything is fine. Which, of course, it isn't.

Neo (Reeves) battles Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving).

With Bound, an independently produced movie which premiered at Sundance in 1996, the Wachowski brothers invented a new style of erotic thriller. Now, three years later, the writer/director duo - a pair of former carpenters currently being labeled "the commercial Coens" in Hollywood - aim to take the science-fiction adventure/fantasy genre into whole new areas with their first studio picture. It is called The Matrix and, in it, East meets West as never before. Just as importantly, Keanu Reeves reclaims his action-hero crown in the genre he took by storm with Speed.

"Andy and Larry are very heavily into kung-fu fighting and wanted to combine high-voltage Hong Kong action with intelligent science fiction," explains executive producer Andrew Mason. "The more smart science fiction that gets made, the better. All the best science fiction is based on stories that make you think. Here, that sensibility is mixed with gut-level fighting."

But what is the mysterious 'Matrix' of the title? Well, basically it is a device whereby the world you think of as 'real' is actually being fed into your brain by a master computer. This is because, two centuries into the new millennium, Earth is environmentally ravaged. But the Big Brother machine keeps the population passive by plugging them into a virtual-reality universe which resembles the late 20th century.

In the movie, Reeves plays Thomas Anderson, a 22nd-century computer hacker who uses the name 'Neo'. He joins a band of freedom fighters when their leader, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), recognizes him as the Chosen One destined to awaken the world from its cyberslumber and begin the fight back against the evils of slavery. "The idea that human beings can be used as batteries for a world that's dominated by computers, and the idea they can give us a false sense of reality - I thought that was really very, very frightening," says the Academy Award-nominated Fishburne, whose last trip into the future was in Event Horizon.

The Wachowskis sold the Matrix screenplay to action specialist Joel Silver after writing the first draft of Assassins for him, which they did shortly before turning film-makers themselves with Bound. "It is a very complex story," notes Silver. "It takes place in the future but it's told in the present: it's a mind-twister to explain. Larry and Andy spent years perfecting the script so the audience can accept and understand it."