Be careful, there are spoilers here:
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101...mmatrixqa.html

Here is the Q/A

In the six months that elapsed between the plots of the first and second movies, what happened to Tank, the driver who saved them all in the first movie?

Marcus Chong, the adopted son of Tommy Chong (one half of Cheech and Chong), is gone. Neither the studio nor Chong would comment on why, but Warner Bros. replaced him with Harold Perrineau, the guy in the wheelchair from HBO's Oz. Chong told Entertainment Weekly that after he was replaced he tried to crash a Matrix press junket and he took food from the Matrix lot.

God Chong is an idiot.

What a moron to throw away an opportunity like this, that certainly countless actors would've taken at the drop of hat. He was cool in the first one, but I'm not at all worried about him not being in the second. Regardless of what he thinks, he was not deserving of top billing.

Stupid is, stupid does. I can't believe he didn't know how good he might of had it after the sequels came out.

[Red Foreman]DUMBASS!!![/Red Foreman]

Basically, with this story in mind I rewatched the first film. Chong actually does a great job as Tank. He's a great supporting character. I'll certainly miss him in the next film, although it's hardly a dealbreaker.

Sort of a spoiler, but not really

""As far as my co-leads are concerned Keanu, Fishburn and Moss they do not know the details and they were signed on before this went down and must fulfill their contract."

Co-leads???

The more I read on this guy, the dumber he sounds...

Idiot.

I don't think that's quite right.

What did he have, 10 lines? And he wants to be on a poster?

Personally, I think his acting was horrible.

But after seeing how there were others in Reloaded with much less screen time AND are on posters, maybe his request wasn't too over the top.

Tank was a fun character, but apparently Marcus Chong is an idiot. Too bad.

Although I wouldn't mind seeing him do bodily harm to Joel Silver, as he evidently threatened to.

But hey... that's just me.

-- Jough

Crow: Wicked Prayer, The (2004) (pre-production) .... Luc's Gang #1



Matrix, The (1999) .... Tank

High Freakquency (1998) .... Jordan Barnes
... aka 24/7 Radio (1998)

Pure Danger (1996) .... Freethrow

Panther (1995) .... Huey Newton

Vanishing Son IV (1994) (TV) (as Marcus S. Chong) .... Fu Qua

Vanishing Son II (1994) (TV) .... Fu Qua

Vanishing Son (1994) (TV) .... Fu Qua Johnson

American Heart (1992) .... Terry Cosmos

"Street Justice" (1991) TV Series .... Miguel Mendez (1991; 1992-1993)

Flight of Black Angel (1991) (TV) .... Dragonfly

Knife and Gun Club, The (1990) (TV) .... George



Evil Altar (1989) (as Marcus Wyatt) .... Troy Long

Blood Beach (1981) (as Marcus Wyatt) .... 2nd Kid




Wow he is big time.

What an idiot. I saw The Matrix like 20 times and I didn't give a rat ass about Tank. What was he smoking with those demands?

He must have had too much of the cookies the Oracle made.

It seems that Link (the new operator on the nebbie) is married/shaggin dozer and tanks sister. her name is Zee, and she has a line that suggests tank succummed to his wounds and eventually diedsometime after the first movie. her line went something like this: "i have lost two brothers on that ship [the nebbekenezer] and i dont want to lose you too" zee said this to Link while they were in zion. Apparently Link made a promise to Tank or Dozer to take their place should anything happen.

but that is the only mention of tank throughout the movie

PS: THIS MOVIE ROCKED!!!!!!!!

In reading all this I ponder something and without trying to sound to profound did it ever occur to anyone that maybe, just maybe, as the actor in the role of Tank he had a much bigger part to play by the end of the trilogy?

In the teaser trailer at the end of the movie there is a shot that looks like it could have been Tank. If he was a major player in the whole movie come part three then that could over inflate his ego. Now I am not saying he did have a major role but something that slipped through the cracks yet is supposed to be answered by the end of the trilogy is this question.

Who was the operator in the first matrix when Cypher was talking to Smith in the resturant?

This is still not answered. We know that there is no way Cypher could plug himself in and if they pull some lame bs to explain it later I will be vastly disappointed. With Chongs desire for more money and more equal billing it is quite possible that Tank was that operator. He could have been offered a chance to live in the Matrix thinking that a virtual life with all it's living comforts would be prefered to his horrible real life of misery and war. It could be anything. Me thinks that Chong MIGHT have known more then us concerning his characters importance in the film. I'm not saying he is right, just saying it's a possibility.

Good theory, but Tank could never enter the Matrix because he does not have the required hardware (having been born in Zion).

Thats great, not only did you answer a question that had already been answered, but you did it while revealing possible spoilers. Good job.

I see the point that maybe the character of Tank had a bigger role to play in 2&3, but still, in the letter he states that he is willing to sign before reading anything, meaning that he hadn't even seen a script yet. To me that says that he didn't know anything about the future of his character. And I'm sorry, unless you are kicking the crap out of agents IN the Matrix, then you don't deserve top billing. His loss, not ours.

-CM-

I wondered about Tank for like a minute since I don't remember him dying. When Link's woman explained her brothers had died, I figured he must have died in between movies, and couldn't have cared less.

No doubt he is the fool (assuming all of these are legit) but I REALLY missed him. His replacement was adequate but I had problems with the incongruesness from the first to the second film. His absence was certainly atleast noticable.

Sigh used up his 15 minutes of fame. He should have taken the $250k for the next 15 mins.

When I showed my dad the advance poster art the first thing he said was "Where's Tank?"

I said something along the lines that he was killed by Joey Pants in the first film. He reminded me that someone asked him if he was okay and he said he'd live, etc.

I didn't even think about the character not being in the film, although after seeing the new operator obviously they should have gotten a better character actor (someone with a little personality) to replace him.

-- Jough