The stars of ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ did many of their own stunts, including leaping from a Financial District skyscraper. We jumped to conclusions about which skyscraper it was, and its actual height.

Our lord and savior Keanu Reeves appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert this week, promoting his new upcoming blockbuster The Matrix Resurrections. Apparently Reeves and much of the cast did many of their own stunts for the film, and when Colbert asked, “What’s the craziest thing you got to-slash-had to do?,” Reeves was so clearly so giddy to answer the question that he could barely contain himself.

“Jump off a building!,” Reeves answered. “Carrie-Ann [Moss] and I grabbed hands and leapt off a building.” He further added, “We wanted to do it in the perfect light, and in the morning, so we did it, I would say, around 19 or 20 times over the course of two days.”

Keanu describes the building as being “I’m going to guess, around 46 stories.” But what building was it? That he did not say. But there are a few seconds of the scene in the Matrix Resurrections trailer, a screenshot of which is seen below.

SFGate reported in February 2020 that the building is 44 Montgomery Street. That building’s website describes the skyscraper as “A forty-three story landmark high-rise by renowned architect John Graham.” When it was completed in 1967, it was the tallest building west of Dallas, Texas, but it has since been surpassed by, among others, the Salesforce Tower which is also in the shot.

When this video was posted to Youtube in February 2020, its comment section was bursting with speculation about whether it was really Carrie-Ann and Keanu, or whether it was stunt doubles. Both may be true. Yes, Reeves said they made the jump themselves, but it's also possible that additional shots were performed with stunt doubles.  

You may argue that Keanu was lying, you may argue that there’s so much CGI in the shots released that we can’t really be sure of the shot’s location, you may argue that life is just a computer simulation, so none of this even matters. As Colbert asked during the interview, “So much of the movie is digital, why did they make you jump off a real building?”

To which Reeves responded, “Because it’s Lana Wachowski, and it’s The Matrix, and you need natural light, and you want to do it real.” And we’re going to take his word for it. Because when Keanu Reeves says “Jump,” we say “How high?”

Related: ‘Matrix Resurrections’ Will Have Its Red Carpet U.S. Premiere at the Castro on December 18 [SFist]

Image: Warner Bros.