Joe Pantoliano says the Wachowskis “lied” to him about Cypher’s destiny whereas capturing The Matrix.

The 74-year-old actor was requested whether or not or not his character actually dies on the finish of the beloved 1999 sci-fi movie throughout a current Matrix reunion panel with costar Laurence Fishburne at New York Comedian Con.

“They lied to me!” Pantoliano shouted. “They f—ing lied!”

As Pantoliano tells it, he made the "mistake" of telling the movie's writer-director siblings the story of how he as soon as satisfied The Fugitive director Andrew Davis to not kill off his character within the 1993 thriller, which he relayed to panel attendees.

"Harrison [Ford] was saying, 'It's nice if you get killed. They'll really feel sorry for you.' And I mentioned, ‘What if there's a sequel?’ Harrison simply smiled, he mentioned, ‘It's not going to be a sequel, as a result of I gained't do that piece of s— once more,'" Pantoliano recalled. "And I mentioned, famously, 'Effectively, f— you. We’ll simply chase another $20 million a–hole via the woods.’ After which Harrison got here out, 'You're doing it! You're doing it!' So I instructed that to the Wachowskis." (And, to his level, Pantoliano did reprise his position within the movie's 1998 sequel, U.S. Marshals.)

Pantoliano went on to clarify that he floated the thought of Cypher probably surviving the movie whereas on a cellphone name with Lilly.

"I mentioned, ‘Hey, you’ll be able to't kill me, proper? You're not gonna kill me?'" he mentioned. "And Lilly mentioned, 'Hey, Lana, he doesn't need us to kill him.' And I heard Lana off digicam, figuring out that I may hear this, and he or she mentioned, 'Effectively, simply deceive him and we'll kill him anyway.'"

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The panel’s moderator, Josh Horowitz, shortly got here to Pantoliano's protection, noting that it's "not definitive" that Cypher dies within the movie as a result of his lifeless physique isn’t truly proven onscreen. As a substitute, the character is final seen getting blasted backwards after being shot with a lightning gun by Tank (Marcus Chong) for betraying and killing virtually all of their crew.

And, actually, Pantoliano nonetheless isn't blissful about his supposed demise. "Don’t get me began, all proper? They introduced f—ing Agent Smith again," Pantoliano groused, referring to Hugo Weaving's character. "It's The Matrix!"

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So it's secure to say he's very a lot nonetheless holding out hope that Cypher continues to be alive on the market, someplace, and will make a possible return in a future Matrix installment.

"It's not too late," he added. "It's by no means too late."

When requested what Cypher could be doing if he was nonetheless alive, a fan within the viewers steered that the character could be a profitable actor with an Oscar by now.

"Yeah, you must've performed Cypher," Pantoliano quipped again.

Regardless of Pantoliano's desires, Cypher has by no means returned in any of the following Matrix sequels; nonetheless, the actor continues to be lots busy with out having to dip again into the Matrix, showing in celebrated reveals like The Final of Us and confirming on the panel that he has an undisclosed position within the upcoming Marvel tv sequence Surprise Man.

When requested if he loved his time filming the Yahya Abdul-Mateen II superhero sequence, Pantoliano riffed on his costar's identify as he replied, "Yahya! And Sir Ben Kingsley. Simply to listen to him say my identify: Joe Pantoliano."

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