World Record

Dan running on the track.

World Record is an animated short film in The Animatrix series set in the fictional universe of The Matrix series. The film is about an athlete who becomes aware that the Matrix exists during a competition. The film deliberately uses exaggerated perspective and distortion that would be difficult or impossible to achieve in live action. Unlike some of the other Animatrix shorts, it does not use any CGI.

Summary

The beginning of this short includes a short narration from The Instructor (implies that this short is a Zion Archive file) explaining details behind the discovery of the Matrix by "plugged-in" humans (that is, those who are still connected within the Matrix). Only exceptional humans tend to become aware of it; those who have "a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature," all qualities which are used to identify inconsistencies in the Matrix. However, this is not without exceptions, and "some attain this wisdom through wholly different means."

This movie is centered on an American track runner, Dan Davis (whose name is possibly a reference to ESPN announcer Dan Davis or composer for The Matrix, Don Davis), sprinting the 100 meter dash. As the race starts, flashbacks begin to appear. Dan is warned by his coach to cancel this race, but he wants to set a record no one will ever break in the future. His personal determination to make this goal an achievable one, mostly motivated by a revoked medal for a previous record, taken from him when he tested positive for drug use, in addition to claims that his record will never be broken — something he intends to prove wrong by breaking his own record of 8.99 seconds (the current real world record is 9.74). It should be noted that in one particular flashback with the Reporter, he compares qualifying to being "released from the world, and you feel totally free."

During the race, Dan speeds up; however his muscles become overloaded. He drops back and the agents realize that he is waking up. They try to catch him, but he speeds up, simply ignoring the pain in his muscles (which are, in fact, not really experiencing any pain). Ignoring the false Matrix-reality around him, Dan wins the race with a winning time of 8.72 seconds, at which point he collapses. Meanwhile, in the real world, Dan wakes up from the Matrix, but a machine shocks him and plugs him back in to the system. Days later, Dan is seen in a wheelchair in a catatonic state, while being closely watched by an agent. Even though he is disabled in the Matrix, Dan gets up slowly muttering the word "free", at which point he stands and walks a few paces, much to the dismay of the agent, before falling. The meaning of this ending is deliberately left unresolved.

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The Animatrix

Voice actors

• Victor Williams - Dan Davis
• John Wesley - Dan's Dad
• Alex Fernandez - Tom
• Allison Smith - Reporter
• Tara Strong - Nurse
• Matt McKenzie - Agent #1
• Kevin Michael Richardson - Agent #2 (as Kevin M. Richardson)
• Julia Fletcher - The Instructor

Main production team

Takeshi Koike — Director
Andy Wachowski — Screenwriter
Larry Wachowski — Screenwriter

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