Keanu Reeves Relives His Terrifying Skyscraper Dive in The Matrix 4

If anyone ever accuses Keanu Reeves of phoning in a role, show them his appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, during which he recalled jumping off a skyscraper 19 times for a stunt in The Matrix Resurrections.

When Stephen Colbert asked him about the "craziest thing" he did for the film, Reeves insisted it was the "46 story" skyscraper jump with co-star Carrie-Anne Moss. Footage of the jump surfaced in early 2020, when onlookers in San Francisco captured the harrowing The Matrix 4 stunt. "So much of the movie is digital. Why did they make you jump off a real building?!" asked the late night host. "Because it's Lana Wachowski and it's The Matrix and you need natural light and you want to do it real. I mean, there's wires."

"How many times did you have to do it?" asked Colbert. "Well, we wanted to do it in the perfect light in the morning so we did it, I would say, around 19 to 20 times, over the course of two days," replied Reeves. "You can't think of the possibility — you can't think of the fear. "You have to not block it, but deal with it, absorb it, and then just be there and do. And that's what we did."

The Matrix Resurrections premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on Wednesday, December 22. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 PM ET on CBS.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.