If it’s been a minute since you’ve seen The Matrix, or the other two films in the Matrix trilogy, don’t worry: The new film, The Matrix Resurrections, functions as more of a reboot than a sequel, so you don’t need to have every detail of the original franchise under your belt.
Warning: The rest of this article, obviously, contains spoilers from the original Matrix trilogy.
Here’s the part you probably remember: Over the course of the first film, Keanu Reeves’s character Neo transforms from an isolated tech geek trapped in a virtual reality simulation, aka the “Matrix,” into the savior of all mankind, aka “the One.” He does this by falling in with a group of freedom fighters who show him the truth: The real world is actually a scorched, barren, post-apocalyptic prison now run by machine overlords who’ve created the Matrix to trick humans into thinking the world is normal, meanwhile keeping them docile and enslaved while the machines harvest them for energy.
The new film catches up with Neo — though not as you remember him — and rejoins the original Matrix storyline, but in an all-new context.
They don’t always look like Hugo Weaving, either, which can leave us with something of a “who is the human and who is the replicant?” situation.
The Oracle suggests at one point that she might be the next One, and many fans think that she might be an iteration of the Architect — or even a villain, since at one point she’s assimilated by Agent Smith, and it’s unclear when he relinquished his hold over her.
The final film sees both Trinity and Neo perish near the climax.
Trinity’s death arguably leaves Neo with nothing preventing him from fully sacrificing himself for the cause of saving humanity, which he ultimately does: after the machines — embodied in the form of a single entity cheekily called the Deus Ex Machina — learn that Smith is hellbent on destroying the Matrix, and with it, mankind, they strike a peace treaty with Neo and send him into the Matrix to battle Smith once and for all.
Suffice it to say, Neo is pretty dead once that’s over with.
As mentioned, the machines are dead set against Smith destroying everything — so much so that they’re willing to work with Neo to defeat him.
The Matrix is rare among cinematic narratives of its kind in that it doesn’t offer revolutionary overthrow as the ultimate victory for its heroes, but rather a tentative way forward, in which both man and the artificial intelligence can work together and build a new world.
You might not remember her, but as the character of Niobe, Jada Pinkett Smith kicks major ass in the second and third Matrix films. A central leader among the Zion revolutionaries, Niobe pilots the spaceship Logos, uses guerilla tactics to successfully plant bombs in a major power plant, and figures out how to steer a hovercraft.
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