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Jim Halpert pulled many pranks on Dwight Schrute on The Office, but there was one epic prank that never aired — and it was inspired The Matrix. The prank was supposed to air in the series finale but was cut for time. Luckily, the actors ran through it at the finale table read and it’s beyond hilarious.

John Krasinski as Jim Halpert and Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute on 'The Office'
John Krasinski as Jim Halpert and Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute on ‘The Office’ | Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Jim’s final prank on Dwight was next level

Over the course of The Office’s nine seasons, Jim had a lot of fun at Dwight’s expense, pulling prank after prank on his co-worker. Naturally, there would have to be a final prank on Dwight in the season finale and the writers dreamed up the perfect one — Jim tried to make Dwight believe he was part of The Matrix.

Unfortunately, the prank, which would have been the finale episode’s cold open, never aired. During the Sept. 8 episode of An Oral History of The Office podcast, host Brian Baumgartner and editor Dave Rogers discussed the prank that was cut.

“We can talk about the prank that hasn’t made it to the big screen yet that I think we’re saving for the 10 year reunion. The Matrix, do you remember that?,” Rogers asked Baumgartner.

Fans can watch ‘The Office’ finale table read to see ‘The Matrix’ prank

While fans might not have seen the prank play out in the series finale, the actors did walk through it during the table read. Jim’s greatest prank never got to see the light of day, but you can imagine how great it might have been.

“That’s the finale script, they prank Dwight to make him think he’s in the Matrix,” Rogers explained. “Remember Hank [the security guard] is down as Dorpheus, he’s Morpheus’ brother. And they have a cat, there’s a cat that walks by… and the cat walks by again as Dwight is in Michael’s office. And Jenna goes, ‘It took six months to train the cat.’”

“And then we have the security guard walk by… he was the big guy, but he had a twin brother and we used him also as a glitch,” Rogers continued. “And then he’s going to take the red pill or the blue pill?”

He added, “Like we had a whole thing, but it was too long. We cut it for time.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11zRl9bWY_A
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Inside one of Jim’s most involved pranks on Dwight

While The Matrix prank didn’t make the cut, there was another Jim prank on Dwight that was so involved, it required great attention to detail. In one season 3 episode, Jim conducted a psychology experiment on Dwight, training him to want an Altoid mint when he heard the sound of Jim’s computer rebooting. The prank required Jim to offer a mint with every reboot sound, so it took him a period of weeks to get the end result.

Jim explained in a talking head interview, “In school, we learned about this scientist who trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell by feeding them whenever a bell rang. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been conducting a similar experiment.”

During the Sept. 9 Office Ladies podcast, hosts Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey explained how the scene required John Krasinski and Rainn Wilson to change their clothes several times to show the passage of time. The background actors also had to have wardrobe changes.

“They had a rack of clothes of all these different changes and would film and change a few times,” Fischer explained. “But guys, it wasn’t just John and Rainn. All the rest of us were in the background.”

Kinsey added, “Anyone that the camera saw had to change as well.”

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