Musical Montage: Rage Against the Machine “Wake Up”
The Matrix celebrated its 25th anniversary this past weekend and everyone remembers how the movie ends on “Wake Up” by Rage Against the Machine. Building during Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) final monologue, the song blasts into the credits and became one of the defining parts of the franchise. A cover of the song appeared in the trailer for The Matrix Resurrections and a cover by Brass Against plays over Resurrections credits, mirroring the original movie. The song has also appeared in Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2 and the ABC show Dirty Sexy Money. The song originally came out in 1992 on the band’s self-titled debut album and was never released as a single. The song was a staple of the band’s live performances, usually played as an encore with lead singer Zach de la Rocha giving a speech about a contemporary political issue, replacing the album version’s spoken word segment that features a speech by J. Edgar Hoover. There wasn’t a Matrix-related music video for the song but you can listen to it below.