Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity: mere plate glass cannot hold her. But Neo (Keanu Reeves, below) can.

Nor has the mix of acrobatic kung fu and science fiction: "We always wanted to bring Hong Kong fight sensibilities into our Western story ideas and this provided the perfect opportunity," say the Wachowskis. To that end, the brothers insisted on hiring Hong Kong fight choreographer Woo-ping Yuen and his team of wire specialists to plan the action, having seen and admired his work on the 1994 Asian hit, Fist of Legend. But Woo-ping - who was superstar Jackie Chan's mentor and has himself directed such Hong Kong hits as the first Drunken Master movie (which made Chan a star in 1978) and Iron Monkey (1993) - would only agree to work with the brothers on one condition: they had to guarantee that the cast would put in long hours of training for several months prior to shooting, so that they could learn kung fu and master the technique of working with the wires.

"And you know something?" laughs Fishburne. "It's probably been the most beneficial thing I've ever had to do in terms of my physical health! We started with three hours of kung fu every day. We stretched for an hour and went through a series of kicking exercises. Then they put us through the paces of learning the actual choreography we would have to do in the film. We had personal trainers, too, for weights, aerobics, agility and strength-building. And that was for about six months straight!"

The Wachowskis knew that such an intense training period was a big demand to make of their leading actors. "Within the same period, they could be making another movie!" they joke. "That's what impressed us about Keanu Reeves: he understood why it was necessary and the dedication that it required. In fact, the whole cast amazed us with their dedication to the training regime: it's been incredibly rigorous."

In the film, both Fishburne and Reeves repeatedly adopt the aggressive poses that have become a Woo-ping trademark. "That's one of the great selling points of these kind of movies," explains Fishburne. "When you see a character go into a pose, it really tells you a lot about their personality and their fighting style. I got my specific pose down thanks to Woo-ping and his team. It's obvious to me they have pulled from every kind of imaginative source available to come up with something that's really exciting to watch."

And high-octane fantasy excitement is ultimately what The Matrix is all about, says Osborne. "What I love about this story is that the audience discovers along with our lead character that the world you knew - or thought you knew - isn't quite what it seems to be. Then you realise that you're living in a virtual world."

But that's not all of it. "One of the main themes of the film is that you can accomplish what you want if you put your will to it," he adds. "The technique of revealing through the main character both the story and the reality is very clever and so well-executed by Larry and Andy. It calls into question how reality can be manipulated, and it taps into our modern-day paranoia."

PHOTOS: Jasin Bolland