the matrix movie assignment

The Matrix Introduction Introduction

Release Year:  1999

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Director:  Lilly and Lana Wachowski (as the Wachowski siblings)

Writer: Lilly and Lana Wachowski (as the Wachowski siblings)

Stars:  Keanu Reeves , Laurence Fishburne

It's the question that you've pondered when you're brutally sleep-deprived, giddy from altitude change, hopped up on DayQuil during a nasty bout of flu, or when your mind has been altered by, uh, some other means:

What even is reality, anyway?

That's the Big Question The Matrix tackles. But in the movie, it's more specific, more pointed, and way  more terrifying :

What if the very world you lived in were an elaborate lie, a scheme to keep you from the truth of your existence?

Welcome to The Truman Show— oh wait, nope. Welcome to the The Matrix.

Neo is just your everyday world-class hacker (hello, '90s!) who finds himself mixed up in some shady business. He's contacted by a mysterious group of people and wakes up in a whole new world ...with a hovercraft instead of a magic carpet.

The Matrix was released in 1999, staring Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, and Keanu Reeves as… well, basically as Keanu Reeves, except this time with a trench coat.

It was a critical and financial hit, and as for the public, they couldn't get enough of this sci-fi thriller with its crazy special effects. We're talking stuff like " bullet time ," which has since been used and spoofed in approximately one billion other movies. With all the kung-fu action and crazy gun scenes, it's no wonder that people ate up The Matrix like a bowl of Tasty Wheat . In fact, they loved it so much the Wachowskis got to make two more movies. Good thing, too, because they'd always envisioned Neo's story as a trilogy.

But as it turns out,  The Matrix is not all karate chops and green screens: unlike other folks (we're looking at you 

Get ready for symbolism, allegory, and more philosophy than an action movie should be allowed to have. You're about to enter The Matrix.

Why Should I Care?

Wake up Shmooper. The Matrix has you. This movie isn't just worthy of your study: it demands it .

This film was a critical and public success, so if you're into cinematography or just want to be culturally in the loop, you need to sit down and watch it. But it's also so much more than that.

It's a movie that makes us question reality in a very, erm, real way. It asks us what counts as "real" and if certain realities have more inherent meaning or desirability. And this question has only gotten more relevant the more we rely on separate realities. We're not just talking about such relics as Second Life —we're referring to social media, dating apps and (yup) video games: places we visit on a near-daily basis to feel more connected, more loved, and more validated.

And the more we participate in these separate realities, the less we can dismiss them as not being really real, or being lesser than. Does a slight from a frenemy hurt less on Instagram than it does in the "real world?" Can flirtation on Tinder be as exciting (or, yes, icky) as at a party?

And The Matrix knows all about these deep questions. This movie understands. Even though it's a relic from that magical time of dELIA*s catalogues and AOL Instant Messenger—the '90s— The Matrix goes beyond asking "What if your life is a virtual simulation?" and asks "Does it matter if your life is a virtual simulation?"

But let's not get bogged down by all this reality talk. This is a true blockbuster film we're talking about, so they're plenty of other light topics to discuss like predestination and free will and ones agency in a system determined by fate…yeah. The Matrix keeps it light like a dang anvil.

You might want to buckle your seatbelts: this is going to be one bumpy ride through the service tunnels of analysis. Just think about what might start happening in the not-so-distant future when a singular machine consciousness begins to look like a possibility—or when humans begin to develop the capabilities to run ancestor simulations. Even today people are starting to ask big Matrix-y questions .

But if you're not interested, that's fine. Just enjoy the juicy, delicious steak of ignorance while the rest of us delve down the rabbit hole of genius that is The Matrix .

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W hy's T his F unny?

by The Wachowskis

The matrix analysis.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by people who wish to remain anonymous

Red pill or blue pill? This is the basis of everything The Matrix as a story is about: whether one is willing to wake up to the truth of one's own reality or remain a sleepwalking drone in the world. What makes this premise so interesting and engaging is that it is a very real philosophical choice we all must make in our own lives. Do we live in delusion or reality? Reality seems the obvious choice, but this path comes with many obstacles in the form of hard choices, difficult sacrifices and the need to become the truest version of ourselves so that those we love benefit from our ability to live in fullness.

That describes the journey of Neo and each character in the film. Neo goes from a scared coder working a corporate job to The One. He must sacrifice what he thinks he knows for a higher level of understanding, and even with this acceptance Neo doesn't instantly become The One. He must overcome many battles both in his external environment as well as internally. Even so, it is only with Trinity 's love that Neo can become The One. The Wachowskis deepen this action-packed journey with characters that feel deeply for one another and believe in a better world so much that they are willing to give their lives for it.

On the other end we watch as Cypher, a crew member of Morpheus , gives in to the machines and betrays his crew all for the ability to live in ignorant bliss rather than have to continually deal with the pain of real life. He even tells the Agent to make sure he doesn't remember any of his betrayal which claims the lives of many of his friends. This storyline reveals how our choice to remain sedated effects not just our lives but the lives of all those who trust in us. In the end, it is sacrifice that causes the crew to defeat the Agents and begin to win the war against the machines. Each person in the crew makes sacrifices for the greater good to be done, and though many lives are lost there is hope for humanity to be set free once more.

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The Matrix Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Matrix is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

What is outside the Matrix?

The "new " reality which is actual reality is a dystopian world rule by Artificial Intelligence. Humans are enslaved in cocoons for their raw energy. Waking up puts you in a strange post-apocalyptic world of metal and robots.

Elements of the film

What kind of elements are you referring to? Narrative, CGI, cinematography?

Computers or AI (artificial intelligence) control reality hence they control the world.

Study Guide for The Matrix

The Matrix study guide contains a biography of The Wachowskis, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Matrix
• The Matrix Summary
• Character List
• Director's Influence

Essays for The Matrix

The Matrix essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Matrix by The Wachowskis.

• Jean Baudrillard’s Concepts of Simulacrum and Hyper-Reality Across Media: Strange Days, The Matrix, and White Noise
• Philosophy in Film - The Matrix

Here's How To Watch the Matrix Movies in Order (Chronologically and by Release Date)

Welcome, to the Desert of the Real.

The Big Picture

• The Matrix franchise includes three feature films, an animated anthology, and a 2021 fourth installment, The Matrix Resurrections.
• The Animatrix anthology is considered Matrix canon and consists of animated short films that take place at various points along the Matrix timeline.
• It is recommended to watch The Matrix before diving into The Animatrix in order to fully understand and appreciate the short stories.

The Matrix hit theaters in 1999 and dazzled audiences with a leather-clad and gravity-defying Keanu Reeves , as he, along with Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne , fought against artificial agents of a programmed reality with their stylized kung-fu and black leather outfits. Aside from looking cool, they were also working to free humanity from the grips of a machine-controlled Matrix. The Wachowski Sisters introduced the now well-known red pill/blue pill metaphor for interpreting the world and asked viewers to consider the similarities of our own reality to that of a computer simulation.

The Matrix was followed by two more feature films, The Matrix Reloaded (May 2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (November 2003), and then after a 20-year break, Lana Wachowski returned to the franchise to create The Matrix Resurrections (December 2021). The franchise also includes an anthology of animated short films released in the middle of the trilogy, titled The Animatrix (June 2003). With four of the nine shorts written by the Wachowskis themselves, The Animatrix is considered Matrix canon . While the collection of animated short films are housed within the anthology, the individual shorts take place at various points along the Matrix timeline. And, although a couple of The Animatrix stories take place before the events of the first Matrix film, we suggest watching The Matrix before diving into The Animatrix in order to fully understand and appreciate the short stories.

As for the feature films, the fourth installment of The Matrix franchise brings back familiar faces with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, but it also stars newcomers like Jessica Henwick , Yahya Abdul-Mateen II , Neil Patrick Harris , and Priyanka Chopra . Resurrections was released in December 2021, adding one more chapter to the epic story and one that plays into the dynamics and lessons learned in the original trilogy. If you're looking for a quick overview of The Matrix franchise, we've got you covered. Below, we’ve organized all The Matrix franchise movies and shorts by order of chronological events and by order of release date for easy perusing. See you in the desert of the real.

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

The Matrix Movies in Order of Release Date

And here is every Matrix movie in order of release date:

The Matrix (March 31, 1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (May 15, 2003)

The Animatrix (June 3, 2003)

The Matrix Revolutions (November 5, 2003)

The Matrix Resurrections (December 22, 2021)

All of these films are available now to stream on Max.

The Matrix Movies in Chronological Order of Events

The animatrix: the second renaissance, part i and ii.

Part I and Part II of "The Second Renaissance" tell the origin story of the rise of the machines and the downfall of man . It tells how humans became enslaved by the machine-created Matrix and turned into batteries. The story takes place circa 2090, and it includes the creation of artificial intelligence and the events of the war of the machines.

The Animatrix: A Detective Story

" A Detective Story" mixes anime and classic film noir while following Detective Ash in his pursuit within the Matrix of the ever-elusive internet hacker known as Trinity, sometime after the creation of the Matrix and before she joins forces with Morpheus .

The Matrix is the 1999 film that introduces audiences to Neo , Trinity, and Morpheus, as they fight machines of the real world and agents of the Matrix, somewhere around the (estimated) year 2199 according to the human rebels. However, seeing as the Matrix has already gone through six cycles, the real year the movie is set could be far more distant than that.

The Animatrix: The Kid’s Story

"The Kid” featured in this gritty animated story is a character seen in the second installment of the film trilogy — a young boy who breaks out of the Matrix and saves himself by sheer willpower alone, self-actualizing as no one has before him — and his story takes place within the six-month gap of time between the events of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded .

The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris

"Final Flight of the Osiris" takes place just before the events of The Matrix Reloaded, and it primarily focuses on the stylized simulated fight between Jue and Thadeus. However, the mission that leads to their demise involves sending a message to the human rebels about the Sentinel army drilling toward Zion.

The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded occurs six months after the events of The Matrix and follows the love story between Neo and Trinity , as Neo discovers the cyclical nature and creation of the Matrix . It picks up right after the "Final Flight of the Osiris" short.

The Animatrix: Beyond

"Beyond" occurs sometime during the events of the trilogy given the existence of the previous version of the Matrix. It follows a young girl named Yoko and some local kids who discover a “haunted house” that is filled with curious anomalies that we know to be glitches in the Matrix.

The Animatrix: World Record

Similar to "The Kid’s Story," "World Record" features a man named Dan who momentarily breaks out of the Matrix due to the strength of his physical willpower. Unlike Kid, Dan only self-actuallizes for a moment, at the pinnacle of his race, before he crashes back into the Matrix. The story is set in an unspecified time in The Matrix canon, though presumably in the previous version of the Matrix given the presence of the Agents.

The Animatrix: Program

"Program" is a stunningly animated short that revolves around simulated training set in a Samurai-like training program. Given that it is a story about rebels testing their crew's loyalty to the cause, it is likely that "Program" is set after The Matrix and before The Matrix Revolutions .

The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Revolutions picks up immediately after The Matrix Reloaded ends — concluding the trilogy of feature films and portraying Neo’s ultimate sacrifice and attempt to make peace with the machines.

The Animatrix: Matriculated

Another animated short without clear placement in the Matrix timeline, "Matriculated" follows a separate group of human rebels different from the ones we know from Zion. They exist near the surface of the planet and spend their time capturing machines and "awakening" them by teaching them human qualities like empathy, passion, and playfulness. It's hard to place this since these humans could be very far removed from the Zion and Machine cycles.

The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix Resurrections is set 60 years after the events of The Matrix Revolutions . We see the humans have moved to a new city, named IO, run by Niobe ( Jada Pinkett-Smith ). Neo's sacrifice and reinserting himself into the matrix has led to a period of peace but also has led to the creation of a much stronger matrix that fewer people are willing to unplug from .

Kacie Cooper Stotler also contributed to this article.

All four of The Matrix movies are available to stream on Max.

Watch on Max

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

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"The Matrix" is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting. It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out. We want a leap of the imagination, not one of those obligatory climaxes with automatic weapons fire.

I've seen dozens if not hundreds of these exercises in violence, which recycle the same tired ideas: Bad guys fire thousands of rounds, but are unable to hit the good guy. Then it's down to the final showdown between good and evil--a martial arts battle in which the good guy gets pounded until he's almost dead, before he finds the inner will to fight back. Been there, seen that (although rarely done this well).

Too bad, because the set-up is intriguing. "The Matrix" recycles the premises of " Dark City " and " Strange Days ," turns up the heat and the volume, and borrows the gravity-defying choreography of Hong Kong action movies. It's fun, but it could have been more. The directors are Larry and Andy Wachowski , who know how to make movies (their first film, " Bound ," made my 10 best list in 1996). Here, with a big budget and veteran action producer Joel Silver , they've played it safer; there's nothing wrong with going for the Friday night action market, but you can aim higher and still do business.

Warning; spoilers ahead. The plot involves Neo ( Keanu Reeves ), a mild-mannered software author by day, a feared hacker by night. He's recruited by a cell of cyber-rebels, led by the profound Morpheus ( Laurence Fishburne ) and the leather-clad warrior Trinity ( Carrie-Anne Moss ). They've made a fundamental discovery about the world: It doesn't exist. It's actually a form of Virtual Reality, designed to lull us into lives of blind obedience to the "system." We obediently go to our crummy jobs every day, little realizing, as Morpheus tells Neo, that "Matrix is the wool that has been pulled over your eyes--that you are a slave." The rebels want to crack the framework that holds the Matrix in place, and free mankind. Morpheus believes Neo is the Messianic "One" who can lead this rebellion, which requires mind power as much as physical strength. Arrayed against them are the Agents, who look like Blues Brothers. The movie's battles take place in Virtual Reality; the heroes' minds are plugged into the combat. (You can still get killed, though: "The body cannot live without the mind"). "Jacking in" like this was a concept in "Strange Days" and has also been suggested in novels by William Gibson ("Idoru") and others. The notion that the world is an artificial construction, designed by outsiders to deceive and use humans, is straight out of "Dark City." Both of those movies, however, explored their implications as the best science fiction often does. "Dark City" was fascinated by the Strangers who had a poignant dilemma: They were dying aliens who hoped to learn from human methods of adaptation and survival.

In "Matrix," on the other hand, there aren't flesh-and-blood creatures behind the illusion--only a computer program that can think, and learn. The Agents function primarily as opponents in a high-stakes computer game. The movie offers no clear explanation of why the Matrix-making program went to all that trouble. Of course, for a program, running is its own reward--but an intelligent program might bring terrifying logic to its decisions.

Both "Dark City" and "Strange Days" offered intriguing motivations for villainy. "Matrix" is more like a superhero comic book in which the fate of the world comes down to a titanic fist-fight between the designated representatives of good and evil. It's cruel, really, to put tantalizing ideas on the table and then ask the audience to be satisfied with a shoot-out and a martial arts duel. Let's assume Neo wins. What happens then to the billions who have just been "unplugged" from the Matrix? Do they still have jobs? Homes? Identities? All we get is an enigmatic voice-over exhortation at the movie's end. The paradox is that the Matrix world apparently resembles in every respect the pre-Matrix world. (I am reminded of the animated kid's film " Doug's 1st Movie ," which has a VR experience in which everything is exactly like in real life, except more expensive.) Still, I must not ignore the movie's virtues. It's great-looking, both in its design and in the kinetic energy that powers it. It uses flawlessly integrated special effects and animation to visualize regions of cyberspace. It creates fearsome creatures, including mechanical octopi. It morphs bodies with the abandon of "Terminator II." It uses f/x to allow Neo and Trinity to run horizontally on walls, and hang in the air long enough to deliver karate kicks. It has leaps through space, thrilling sequences involving fights on rooftops, helicopter rescues and battles over mind control.

And it has performances that find the right notes. Keanu Reeves goes for the impassive Harrison Ford approach, "acting" as little as possible. I suppose that's the right idea. Laurence Fishburne finds a balance between action hero and Zen master. Carrie-Anne Moss, as Trinity, has a sensational title sequence, before the movie recalls that she's a woman and shuttles her into support mode. Hugo Weaving , as the chief Agent, uses a flat, menacing tone that reminded me of Tommy Lee Jones in passive-aggressive overdrive. There's a well-acted scene involving Gloria Foster as the Oracle, who like all Oracles is maddeningly enigmatic.

"The Matrix" did not bore me. It interested me so much, indeed, that I wanted to be challenged even more. I wanted it to follow its material to audacious conclusions, to arrive not simply at victory, but at revelation. I wanted an ending that was transformational, like "Dark City's," and not one that simply throws us a sensational action sequence. I wanted, in short, a Third Act.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

The Matrix (1999)

Rated R For Sci-Fi Violence

135 minutes

Keanu Reeves as Neo

Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus

Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity

Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith

Joe Pantoliano as Cypher

Gloria Foster as Oracle

Written and Directed by

• Andy Wachowski

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Decoding The Matrix Exploring Dystopian Characteristics through Film

• Resources & Preparation
• Instructional Plan
• Related Resources

The Matrix is a fast-paced action movie with plenty of dazzling special effects. At its core, however, it is a dystopian work with many of the same characteristics found in dystopian novels such as Fahrenheit 451 , 1984 , and Brave New World . In this lesson, students are introduced to the definition and characteristics of a dystopian work by watching video clips from The Matrix and other dystopian films. They first explore the definition and characteristics of utopian and dystopian societies, and then compare and contrast the two using a Venn diagram online tool. Next, they identify the protagonist in clips from The Matrix and then discuss how the clips extend and confirm their understanding of a dystopia. Students then view additional film clips and identify which characteristics of a dystopian society the clip is intended to portray. Finally, they explore how they can apply their knowledge about dystopias to future readings.

Featured Resources

Interactive Venn Diagram : Use this online tool to compare and contrast the characteristics of utopian and dystopian societies.

From Theory to Practice

NCTE's Topical Resource Kit, Professional Communities at Work : Engaging Media-Savvy Students explains that exploring texts from popular culture in the classroom can open doors for students: Because of their ties to students' world, these texts often result in a higher level of engagement and underscore the literacy skills that students bring to the classroom. Teachers can identify print, visual, and sound texts that students already read and compose; then, they can analyze and compose examples of such texts in class. Once students understand these reading, composing, and critical thinking concepts in familiar texts, teachers extend students' reading or composing practices to more traditional texts and additional examples and genres from popular culture. In this way, multimodal teaching practices provide a connection to more traditional literature and enable students to enhance and build sophisticated literacy skills that help them explore the cultural texts in the world around them. ("Framing Text" 6) This lesson models precisely this move from familiar text to less familiar text-students begin with an exploration of a popular film that many will already be familiar with and then are ready to extend the analytical skills and new ideas to less familiar novels or other texts. Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 2. Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 4. Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
• 12. Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
• Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics
• Identifying Dystopian Characteristics
• Identifying the Characteristics of a Dystopian Protagonist
• Dystopian Film Clip Guide
• Teacher’s Film Clip Guide: The Matrix

Preparation

• Prior to Session One, use the Dystopian Film Clip Guide and Teacher’s Film Clip Guide: The Matrix to select and preview the film clips will you will use for this lesson. All of the film clips selected are free of profanity and contain only mild violence.
• Make copies or overhead transparencies of the handouts: Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics , Identifying Dystopian Characteristics , and Identifying Characteristics of a Dystopian Protagonist .
• Test the Interactive Venn Diagram on your computers to familiarize yourself with the tools and ensure that you have the Flash plug-in installed. You can download the plug-in from the technical support page.

Student Objectives

Students will

• define the literary terms utopia and dystopia.
• identify dystopian characteristics in a film.
• explain how dystopias criticize contemporary trends, societal norms, or political systems.

Session One

• Ask students to brainstorm lists of characteristics that describe a perfect society silently in their notebooks.
• Once everyone has had a chance to jot down some answers, ask students to share the characteristics with the class. Record their responses on the board or on chart paper.

A place, state, or condition that is ideally perfect in respect of politics, laws, customs, and conditions.

• Have students identify connections between the class list of characteristics for a perfect society and the definition of a utopian society. Encourage students to fit the items from the brainstormed list into the definition. Ask students whether the items on their lists are aspects of politics, laws, customs, conditions, or something else.
• Show “The Real World” (Chapter 12, counter 0:38:39 to 0:44:22) from The Matrix , and ask students to think about their list of the perfect society and the definition of utopia as they view the clip.
• Ask students to compare the society depicted in the film clip to the utopias that they have described. Students should readily point out that the world of the film is quite opposite from their ideas of a perfect society.

A futuristic, imagined universe in which oppressive societal control and the illusion of a perfect society are maintained through corporate, bureaucratic, technological, moral, or totalitarian control. Dystopias, through an exaggerated worst-case scenario, make a criticism about a current trend, societal norm, or political system.

• Pass out Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics and Identifying Dystopian Characteristics .
• Go over the information on the Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics sheet, answering any questions.
• Ask students to use the Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics sheet to fill out the Identifying Dystopian Characteristics chart. If desired, students can complete the sheet in small groups rather than working individually.
• Once students have completed the chart, gather the class and have students share their findings.
• Have students save their charts for use during later sessions.
• For homework, have students use the Interactive Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the definitions for dystopia and utopia.

Session Two

• Review the material covered in the previous session by asking students to share their Venn diagram printouts with the class.
• Show “Morpheus’ Proposal” and “Down the Rabbit Hole” (Chapters 8 and 9, counter #0:25:10-029:50) from The Matrix.
• Identify the protagonist in the clips.
• Discuss the difference between direct and implied information. To provide an example, compare what is directly stated to what is implied by the characters’ comments.
• Arrange students in small groups.
• Pass out copies of the Identifying Characteristics of a Dystopian Protagonist chart, and ask students to use the information on the Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics to fill out the sheet. Ask students to focus both on direct and indirect information that is communicated in the clip.
• Gather the class, and ask groups to share their finding with the class. Encourage discussion and exploration of the ways that the clips extend and confirm their understanding of the characteristics of a dystopia.
• Review the types of dystopian controls listed on Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics .
• For homework, ask students to complete a journal entry in response to the following question: “What does this film communicate about the world in the film? What controls the world in this film and the people who live in that world?”

Session Three

• Have students share their journal observations with the class. Encourage students to connect their thoughts to the types of dystopian controls listed on the Dystopias: Definition and Characteristics sheet.
• Show students “Slimy Rebirth” (Chapter 10, 0:32:25 to 0:35:23) and “The Gatekeepers” (Chapter 17, 0:56:30 to 0:58:53) from The Matrix . Allow discussion of the dystopian characteristics the clips exhibit between the clips.
• Ask students to identify the aspects of dystopian society that these clips focus on.
• Ask students to focus on the second sentence of the definition (indicated in bold above).
• Ask students to identify the “worst-case scenarios” that the film clips explore. List their observations on the board or on chart paper.
• Review the list, and ask students to make some initial suggestions of the trends, norms, and/or systems that the film clip criticizes. Record their responses on the board or on chart paper.
• What illusion of a perfect society is depicted in the clips the class has viewed? What is the society like in reality?
• How are the members of this society being oppressed?
• What kind of control is used to keep the members of this society oppressed?
• What current trend, societal norm, or political system is exaggerated in this world?
• What criticism is made through this exaggeration in the clips? What current trend, societal norm, or political system is addressed?
• Gather the class, and have students share their observations and discussion.
• Have students compare their findings to the lists gathered at the beginning of the session.
• Ask students to discuss how to apply what they have learned about dystopias in this exploration to future readings. Begin by asking students to brainstorm suggestions that they would give to someone who was reading (or viewing) a dystopian work for the first time.
• Work students suggestions into a set of guidelines, and record the ideas for use as the class reads and views additional texts.
• What illusion of a perfect society is depicted in this clip? What is the society like in reality?
• What current trend, societal norm, or political system is exaggerated?
• What criticism is made through this exaggeration? What current trend, societal norm, or political system is addressed?
• Feed (M.T. Anderson)
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox (Mary E. Pearson)
• The House of Scorpion (Nancy Farmer)
• Uglies series (Scott Westerfield)
• Bar Code Tattoo (Suzanne Weyn)
• Unwind (Neal Schusterman)
• Delirium (Lauren Oliver)
• Matched (Ally Condie)
• Human.4 (Mike Lancaster)
• Divergent (Veronica Roth)
• Chaos Walking series (Patrick Ness)
• The Search for WondLa (Tony Diterlizzi)
• Ship Breaker (Paolo Bacigalupi)

Student Assessment / Reflections

Informal assessment works best for this activity. As students work, circulate through the classroom, observing students’ analytical process and their understanding of dystopian characteristics. Provide support and feedback as you speak with individual students and small groups.

• Professional Library
• Student Interactives
• Calendar Activities

This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

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Thanks to the Wachowskis' imaginative vision, The Matrix is a smartly crafted combination of spectacular action and groundbreaking special effects.

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The Matrix Explained Simply (Full Plot & Ending Explained)

The Matrix changed everything about filmmaking when it came down to visual effects. Tonnes of people walked into theatres, had their brains thrown into a knot and jaws pinned to the floor. The movie was truly a turning point for all Science Fiction films to follow. While the visuals remaining stunning till date, the depth and thought around the story and execution remains one of the most amazing concepts. Occasionally a movie comes around and makes us question our own reality, The Matrix did just that. The actors Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving play the lead roles and the brilliance was all brought together by the Wachowskis. Here is the simplified plot analysis and ending of the movie The Matrix explained, spoiler alert.

The Matrix Trilogy Explained: Video

Here’s a video that summarizes and explains all the Matrix movies.

Hollywordle – Check out my new Hollywood Wordle game!

Where To Watch?

To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer .  You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

I’ve put together a quick explanation and a detailed explanation . You can pick your poison based on the patience you’ve got. Alternately, if you’re looking only for The Matrix Ending Explained , you can go – here .

The Matrix Plot Explained Simply – Quick Version

This is more than The Matrix synopsis, it’s full of spoilers. The events of The Matrix are happening in the year close to 2199. All the parts of the movie that appear to be the regular 1999 is not real. It is only a computer simulated program that has been created to enslave the human race. This computer simulation is called The Matrix.

Who’s created this simulation, The Matrix?

Machines, with Artificial Intelligence.

Who created this Artificial Intelligence?

The humans, in the early 21st century.

Why does AI enslave mankind?

Well, you’re going to have to read the detailed explanation for this one. The short version is that the humans and AI had a fall out. AI eventually saw humans as a threat to their existence. With humans plugged into The Matrix, the AI could tap into bioelectricity that the human body produces. Humans are used as a source of electrical and heat energy by the machines. The humans plugged into the Matrix don’t realize they are in a simulated dream and sleep through their entire lives.

The Resistance finds Neo

There are a group of people in the real world who are free from the Matrix. Morpheus and his team are one such group that forms the resistance. Morpheus has been consulting a person called the Oracle and freeing select people from the Matrix. The movie begins with Neo being freed from the Matrix. The Oracle has told Morpheus that he will find a person in the Matrix who will not be bound by its rules. They refer to this person as The One. Morpheus believes Neo is The One and Neo will help bring down the Matrix.

As the plot unfolds, Neo begins to display more abilities that hint that he indeed could be The One. Trinity has been told by the Oracle that she will fall in love with The One. She finds herself falling in love with Neo. As the climax approaches, Morpheus gets captured because Cypher takes the side of the AI and sabotages the mission. Neo and Trinity go in and save Morpheus from the Agents.

Saving Morpheus

The Agents are the gatekeepers of the Matrix, their job is to kill intruders like Morpheus and his team. They capture Morpheus and try to get to the location of Zion so all the free humans can be destroyed. Neo and Trinity save Morpheus. As they exit, Agent Smith intervenes and a fight ensues between him and Neo. Agents are computer programs and hence are highly powerful and fast. Human minds are more bound by the laws of physics the Matrix enforces. Neo’s mind is quite strong and he’s able to stand toe to toe against Smith. But there is no killing Smith as he’s a program and will just spawn into another “plugged-in” human.

The Matrix Ending Explained

After a chase sequence, Smith shoots Neo in the Matrix. Neo’s mind believes that he’s been shot. His heart stops. He’s not yet dead. Trinity tells Neo that the Oracle told her she would fall in love with The One. She tells Neo that she loves him. But if that were the case, The One can’t be dead. Neo’s mind had not yet become completely free. His near death experience and Trinity’s guiding voice unlocks his mind completely. He wakes up as The One and destroys Smith’s code.

The movie ends with Neo talking to The Matrix and saying that he’s eventually going to free everyone’s mind that is connected to the Matrix. He flies away after that. He’s no longer bound by any rules of the Matrix. The film ends. Honestly, you should not stop here. There are so many amazing little things the movie offers. Do read the The Matrix explanation in detail below.

The Matrix Plot Explained : Detailed Version

The Animatrix: The Backstory

Let’s take a step back into what really happened in the world in the early 21st century. This information is from the series called The Animatrix which takes a deep dive into what really happened. Do watch The Second Renaissance Part 1 & 2. These short animated films were released much after The Matrix. A synopsis from this is important to know as it is very consistent with the movie(s).

In the early 21st century, man develops AI – Artificial Intelligence. They initially create a series of humanoid bots that are meant to do household work for humans. The bots were content doing this and humans got lazier and more corrupt. In 2090, one of such bots kills its owner. The bot pleads that it was in self defence and that it didn’t want to die. Humans pass a ruling saying that the bots are not entitled to the same rights as humans, that humans had the rights to destroy their property and not the other way around. Humanity is split at this point – some stand up for Robot rights and the others see them as mere ‘living tissue over metal endoskeleton’. However, the bot is sentenced and is destroyed. Other bots and human supporters raise against this and protest. This event is seen as a Rise of the Machines and it is ordered for all bots to be destroyed. The surviving bots along with supporting humans find exile in a new nation they call Zero One. Zero One prospers and they develop further generations of AI. The remaining human nations suffer. The UN approves of a global economic blockade of Zero One. Two representatives are sent over from Zero One to figure a peaceful solution. Humans retort by using full nuclear force on Zero One. This turns out to be a bad move as the bots are impervious to the human weapons. Zero One strikes back. An interesting thing here is there are enough humans fighting on the side of the bots. Human nations are defeated one at a time.

In desperation, humans decide to scorch the sky – “Operation Dark Storm”. Machines need solar energy for power. Blocking the sun will cut off their power supply. After this, humans attack again. But this is not good enough. The Bots still get the upper hand and begin to move to a more sentinel based design. They stop looking human. They continue winning the war. Humans get more desperate and use nukes which causes the deaths of their own armies. The machines use biological weapons and humans are brought to their knees. The humans on the side of the machines volunteer to be plugged into a simulated dream state to escape the horrors of their reality. This is symbiotic as machines can draw power from the sleeping humans while the humans sleep in a state of bliss. As more human nations surrender, they are plugged into this virtual world and used as a power source. UN is forced to sign a treaty after which the remaining human leaders are blown up, just in case, and the war ends. The surviving humans are all plugged into a new and improved version of the Virtual Reality that gets called The Matrix.

The Events Of The Matrix Film

The movie and its events are happening about a hundred years after this war. The entire Human race is used for power supply. Their bodies are asleep and their minds are plugged into the Matrix. The Matrix is a virtual world that has been pulled over their minds to hide them from the truth – they are slaves now. Humans are grown, the dead are liquefied and fed to the living intravenously.

Morpheus and his Crew

There is, however, a small population of the humans who are free and live in a hidden place called Zion. This is deep beneath the surface of the Earth where it is warm (there is no more sunlight). Morpheus and his team are part of the resistance and they have been freeing people from the Matrix. This team uses backdoor access to enter and exit the Matrix. The access point inside is typically a phone. The team has the following people:

Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) – Named after the Greek God of Dreams, is the captain of his ship, the Nebuchadnezzar (named after the biblical king).

Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) – She is the first officer on the ship. She was freed by Morpheus. Before that she was a famous hacker in the Matrix, known for hacking the IRS database.

Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) – He’s been freed from the Matrix too. But after a while he grows to hate Morpheus for showing him the real world. He feels he would have been happier, in his ignorant bliss, unplugged from the Matrix.

Apoc – Another dude who’s been freed from the Matrix and is part of the crew.

Switch – Another dudette who’s been freed from the Matrix and is part of the crew.

Mouse – He’s been freed from the Matrix and is the youngest crew member. He’s a programmer and designs simulations.

Tank – Operator on the ship. He’s not from the Matrix. He was born outside of the Matrix. This also means he doesn’t have any sockets on him and neither can he enter the Matrix.

Dozer – He’s the pilot of the ship. He’s Tank’s brother and is also not from the Matrix.

This team has been using the guidance of a person called the Oracle (Gloria Foster). The Oracle is someone still residing in the Matrix. She is a prophet, of sorts, who has been telling Morpheus about The One. People who have been freed are taken to the Oracle and she advises them on things to come. The Oracle has told Morpheus that he will find The One. She has told Trinity that she would fall in love with The One.

The Matrix Explained: Introduction To The One

The prophecy stated by the Oracle is that the team will eventually find a person that they will free from the Matrix. He will own the ability to manipulate the Matrix to an extraordinary degree. We’ll talk about this more later. Just know this that Morpheus and his crew have already been looking for The One.

The movie begins with Trinity and Cypher talking. This is the dialogue:

Cypher : You like him, don’t you? You like watching him. Trinity : Don’t be ridiculous. Cypher : We’re going to kill him. Trinity : Morpheus believes he is the One. Cypher : Do you? Trinity : It doesn’t matter what I believe. Cypher : You don’t, do you? Trinity : Did you hear that? Cypher : Hear what? Trinity : Are you sure this line is clean? Cypher : Yeah, of course I’m sure. Trinity : I better go.

A couple of things come out straight from here. Trinity has been watching this person in the Matrix by the name Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) who is a software programmer at a firm called Metacortex. He goes by the alias Neo who’s a hacker by night. Trinity is clearly interested in Neo, which is what Cypher is referring to (her love for Neo is revealed only at the end). The other thing to talk about here is that Cypher is interested in Trinity (which is revealed later in the film). Also, he’s grown weary of this hunt for The One, hence he’s skeptical. Cypher has also made a deal with the Agents of the Matrix to help them get to Morpheus (this too revealed later on). This line is actually not clean, Cypher has set up Trinity (who is presently inside the Matrix) and she gets cornered in an abandoned hotel. Trinity has been trained to bend rules within the Matrix. She displays enhanced powers and beats up the cops. But there are Agents, she outruns them and heads to a telephone booth to exit the Matrix. The truck, driven by an Agent, smashes the phone booth just moments after Trinity exits. The Agents say the following – “The informant is real”, they are referring to Cypher. “We have the name of their next target. The name is Neo”, the Agents don’t know anything about The One, they only think that Morpheus is trying to free Neo.

These are software programs. They are the gatekeepers of the Matrix. Their primary responsibility is to keep out attackers like Morpheus and his team. Since they are sentient programs, they are written to operate at extremely high speeds and power. They can move in and out of any one still hardwired to the Matrix. That means that anyone that hasn’t been unplugged is potentially an agent. An Agent can render himself onto any one still unplugged. But that said, they are bound by the rules of the Matrix. Which means their speed and strength has an upper limit. Smith is the primary Agent responsible to locate Zion. He’s looking to get to Morpheus.

Wake Up Neo

Neo has been plugged into the Matrix since the time he was born. Neo has constantly felt that there is something wrong with his world. Most people plugged into the Matrix don’t feel this, their minds don’t find fault with the virtual world. But people like Trinity and Neo are different. Their minds intrinsically reject the programming of the Matrix. Just like Morpheus and team are trying to reach out to Neo (through his computer), he too stays up at night and hunts for answers to reach out to these people who have been contacting him. Trinity talks to him through his computer. Types – “Wake up Neo, the Matrix has you. Follow the white rabbit. Knock Knock, Neo”. Soon after this there is a knock on Neo’s door. Trinity can see the code of the Matrix, she sees the people walking up to Neo’s door. She knows they are going to knock. Trinity is no fortune teller.

Neo opens his door, it’s a group of people who have hired Neo to hack something for them. They invite him out. While he initially refuses, he notices a white rabbit on the girl’s shoulder. He remembers what he sees on the computer so he decides to join them. At the club, that they go to, Trinity walks up to him and starts her conversation. Neo is pleasantly surprised that Trinity, who he knows as The Trinity – hacker of the IRS Database, is a girl. She tell him this “I know what you’ve been doing. I know why you hardly sleep…why you live alone and why, night after night…you sit at your computer. You’re looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me…he told me I wasn’t really looking for him…I was looking for an answer”. She’s referring to Morpheus. “It’s the question that drives us, Neo. It’s the question that brought you here. You know the question…just as I did. What is the Matrix?”. Neo now knows that it’s not paranoia, people are really trying to reach out to him.

Morpheus? Yes.

Next day, Neo (Mr. Anderson) is late to work and is being told by his manager to not repeat this else he’d get fired. At his cubicle he gets a courier. It’s a phone. It rings. On the line is Morpheus. Morpheus is guiding Neo to escape from the Agents. The Agents are coming to get Neo because they know he’s Morpheus’ next target. Morpheus knows this too. Neo thinks they are coming to arrest him because of his hacker profile. Morpheus asks Neo to use a scaffold on the outside of the building to get to the roof. But Neo’s unable to and gets caught and taken away.

What good is a phone call?

Neo is interrogated by the Agents. Agent Smith makes it appear to Neo that they are a government group who have found out about his dual life as a Software Programmer and a Hacker. Smith tells Neo that they are willing to wipe the slate clean and give him a fresh start. In return, they want him to give up details about Morpheus. Smith refers to Morpheus as a known terrorist. Neo gives them the finger. Smith uses the programming of the Matrix to seal Neo’s mouth and they drop a large bug that enters Neo. This part actually happens in the Matrix. Even though Neo wakes up thinking it to be a dream, the Agents have bugged him and put him back to his house to give the appearance that it was just a dream. The Matrix is already a state of virtual reality, a dream, it’s interesting how the minds connected to the Matrix have dreams inside the VR.

No, The Honor Is Mine.

Morpheus reaches out to Neo again. This is what he says – “They got to you first, but they’ve underestimated how important you are. If they knew what I know…you would probably be dead”. Morpheus is referring to the fact that the Agents don’t know that Neo could be The One. Neo agrees to meet Morpheus. He is met by Apoc, Switch and Trinity under a bridge. He gets in. They point a gun at him, they tell him it’s for their protection. Understand that Neo is still plugged into the Matrix. Which means that an Agent can assimilate onto Neo. In case that happens, they will need to shoot the Agent. They locate the bug inside Neo and take it out and discard it.

Neo is taken to meet Morpheus. Morpheus says “Let me tell you why you’re here. You know something. What you know, you can’t explain. But you feel it. You felt it your entire life. Something’s wrong with the world. You don’t know what, but it’s there. Like a splinter in your mind…driving you mad”. This is what I was referring to earlier on, Neo’s mind rejects the programming of the Matrix . The following is The Matrix explained by Morpheus:

The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window…or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work…when you go to church…when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes…to blind you from the truth. That you are a slave. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage…born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison…for your mind.

Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills. A red pill and a blue pill. The blue pill would ensure Neo goes back home and to his bed and continues on with his life. The red pill would mean Neo will stay on to find out what the Matrix really is. Neo chooses the red pill.

The Matrix Explained: The Red Pill

It’s actually part of a trace program. Though Morpheus and team know where Neo is inside the Matrix, they don’t know where his physical body is located. The pill disrupts his carrier signals so they can pinpoint his physical location. Neo is seated next to a mirror with a crack. The crack heals itself. Neo touches the mirror and his hand dips in like it were liquid. Morpheus says “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?”. The liquid spreads on to Neo’s hands, then face and enters him. You hear a digitized scream from Neo. It blacks out. This is what happens. A mirror is something that is a reflection of reality. While it is symbolically used in this scene, Neo’s experiencing something that his mind is not able to explain. This mirror is merely a program placed there by Morpheus and team. Neo feels the experience with the mirror can’t be real. His mind is going into a state of panic. As a result, his physical body is reacting accordingly. It produces a fibrillation. The team is looking for this. The panic caused by the mirror is enough to wake Neo up into the real world . Neo sits in a pod with tubes connected to him. This is the reality of every human (except people of Zion) on the planet. Neo looks around to see an endless array of such pods. Neo is obviously confused. He has no idea where he is. A sentinel passes by and grabs Neo and checks on him. It notices that a human has woken up so it treats him as malfunction and discards him. His tubes come off and his body is flushed. Morpheus’ team is waiting for this in the Nebuchadnezzar and pick Neo up. Morpheus welcomes Neo to the real world.

Rest, Neo, the answers are coming…

Neo’s body in the real world has been in a pod all his life. His muscles have atrophied, the team rebuilds them. His eyes hurt, because he’s never used them before. In the real world, he has technically just taken birth. The team is bringing Neo’s body up to speed. Morpheus meets Neo, after he awakens, to tell him about what’s going on. That it’s not 1999 but close to 2199. Tells him that they are on his ship, a hovercraft. Introduces him to the team. He plugs Neo into the Loading program. Morpheus enters too.

The Loading Program

This is the white space that Neo and Morpheus stand and talk in. This is the construct. This is where the team arrives before entering the Matrix. This construct is not shown every time they enter the Matrix but is understood. Here they load clothes, weapons, equipment, anything. From here they also load simulations where they can practice and train.

Mental Projection, Digital Self

When they enter the loading program and further into the Matrix their appearance is what they call the residual self-image. Morpheus explains it to be “the mental projection of your digital self”. Once you have jacked into the Matrix, everything you are and do is merely what your mind is projecting in a digital environment. Inside the Matrix, otherwise, you are just lines of code. The mind visualizes everything else. Morpheus, goes on to explain what the Matrix actually is. He shows Neo simulations of how the world looked at the end of the 20th century and how it looked like currently. Neo can’t handle it. He exits, throws up and faints.

Morpheus hopes Neo is The One

When Neo wakes, Morpheus apologizes for the situation he has brought and left Neo in. He tells him that it is dangerous to free a mind after a particular age. The mind has trouble letting go. Morpheus also tells Neo that When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted and to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of them taught them the truth. One thing to know here is that Morpheus only knows this information as something that has been passed on to him. This is not necessarily the truth . Morpheus also mentions that the Oracle has prophesied his return. Morpheus tells Neo that their search for this person is over.

Everybody falls the first time

Tank meets Neo the next morning and they begin training. Tank explains that he and his brother were not born in the Matrix. Hence he has no holes. First off, it’s martial arts. Neo begins to learn Jujitsu. Once he’s done, he wakes up to say “I know Kung Fu”. There’s been a confusion regarding this line. Kung Fu refers to any study, learning, or practice that requires patience, energy, and time to complete. So when Neo says he knows Kung Fu he’s not referring to any specific form of martial arts. The first one is, however, Jujitsu.

Getting back, Neo and Morpheus enter a simulation similar to the programmed reality of the Matrix. It has the same basic rules. Like gravity. These rules are no different than those of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken. They begin to fight. In the real world, the rest of the team hurriedly come and observe the fight. Neo shows good adaptation and improvisation but is beaten by Morpheus. Morpheus explains to Neo how he being stronger or faster in the simulation has nothing to do with his muscles. Morpheus asks “you think that’s air you’re breathing?”. This question reminds Neo that in the simulation, everything is powered by his mind. If his mind can see past the programmed rules of the simulation he will not be limited in speed or strength. Neo displays incredible speed and beats Morpheus. Morpheus explains that he’s trying to free Neo’s mind.

Next they load the jump program. Morpheus takes a flying leap from one building to the next. Neo preps himself and attempts the jump. But he is unable to see past the programming of the simulation. His mind accepts the expected gravity and falls to the ground. The ground is programmed to cushion the fall hence it’s flexible. Once outside the simulation, Neo is bleeding in his mouth. Morpheus explains that even though they were in a simulation, the mind makes it real. If you die in the Matrix, you die in the real world. Later, Trinity takes Neo some dinner. Cypher intercepts and asks – “I don’t remember you ever bringing me dinner”. Trinity likes Neo. Cypher likes Trinity and is jealous.

Woman In Red

Next day, Morpheus and Neo enter another simulation. It’s a busy street with lots of people. Neo doesn’t know this is a simulation. Morpheus is explaining how everyone connected to the Matrix are the people they are trying to free but are also a threat to them. Neo is distracted by a woman passing by in a red dress. She’s a program placed by Mouse intentionally. Neo turns around to see her and in per place is standing Agent Smith . The simulation freezes. Morpheus explains who the agents are, how they manifest and that Neo is going have to fight them one day. Neo asks if he can dodge bullets. Morpheus replies by saying when he’s ready he will not have to. This means that when Neo’s mind is fully free, he can simply stop the bullets with his mind. The ship gets a proximity warning of a sentinel. Sentinels are the squid-like machines programmed to search and destroy. They get ready to fire an Electromagnetic Pulse but the sentinel is unable to locate them and it leaves.

Ignorance is Bliss

Later, Neo and Cypher have a conversation. Cypher explains how you need to look at the Matrix in code because there is way too much information to be decoded into visuals. Cypher expresses his frustration of not having chosen the blue pill. I’m going to go out on a limb and say this. Perhaps Cypher was initially thought to be The One. But that didn’t pan out. Cypher’s frustrations perhaps stem from this fact. Right after this, Cypher sneaks into the Matrix and meets with Agent Smith. Cypher says:

You know I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years you know what I realize? Ignorance is bliss.

He prefers to be ignorantly blissful in the state of a dream rather than suffer in real life. He wants to forget everything and be reinserted into the Matrix. He wants to be made someone rich and famous like an actor. In return, Cypher promises to get him Morpheus who knows access codes to the Zion’s mainframe. Using these codes, Agent Smith can track and kill every hacker trying to enter and free minds from the Matrix – that is his purpose, keeper of the gate.

The Matrix Explained: Questioning Our Own Reality

At breakfast, Mouse brings up some really good points about taste. Machines never understood taste like humans did. So when they programmed taste in the Matrix, how did they define the taste of various food? Take chicken for example. Maybe they didn’t know what to make it taste like, which is why it tastes like everything. This bit of the conversation is talking about our world as viewers of the movie. People do feel that chicken does taste like everything. Going by the logic thrown in the movie, if a dream is programmed to be so real, how do we know that we (the viewers) are not part of some simulated world. That we, the viewers, could very well be the human slaves mentioned in the movie. There is no way to refute it. This factor is what makes the movie so fantastic. Mouse also suggests he can arrange for a meeting with the Woman in Red. A digital pimp, hard at work.

There Is No Spoon

The team goes into the Matrix to get Neo to meet with the Oracle. As they go in, Cypher leaves an open cell phone line for the Agents to trace. Neo meets a small child who’s bending spoons. Here’s another trivia, as viewers, out world has claimed to see people bend forks and spoons. This remains a popular myth but the movie goes about to explain how this may be possible. Once again, we the viewers, are made to question our reality. The child tells Neo “Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon” . The spoon is just code, it doesn’t exist. Neo’s mind is not bending the spoon, it is merely altering the programming around it. This kid is a “potential”. Which means at very early age, this kid is able to free his mind and will soon be unplugged from the matrix.

Not too bright, though.

Neo meets the Oracle. She displays foresight. She’s able to see that Neo was going to break the vase. Either that or she said the right statement to ensure that Neo broke the vase. If she had not said anything, Neo wouldn’t have turned around to break the vase. She mentions that he is cute and gets why Trinity likes him. The Oracle tells Neo that though he has the gift, he seems to be waiting for something. A next life maybe. She goes on to tell him that in the one hand, he’ll have Morpheus’ life and in the other hand, he’ll have his own. One of them was going to die. Which one would be up to Neo. But she also tells him that he’ll remember he doesn’t believe in any of this fate crap. That he’s in control of his own life. What the Oracle does here is that she tells Neo what he needs to hear. She’s not telling him the whole truth. Just like talking about the vase makes him break it. Telling him about the choice will make him take a step towards becoming The One.

The Matrix Explained: Déjà Vu

Déjà vu is a French phrase that means “already seen”. Ever have those moments in life where you’re in a situation when you feel you have already been through that exact situation? It feels like you are reliving those few seconds of life again but can’t explain how this could be happening? Well that is what is referred to as Déjà vu. Scientists explain it as a temporal lapse in information flow in the brain. The Matrix explains it as a glitch in the Matrix when the Agents change something. On their way out. Neo sees a black cat that walk up and shakes. He sees the cat doing that exact thing again. Neo exclaims saying “Déjà vu”. Obviously, the team panics. The Agents have cut the hardwire and have walled up all the windows, trapping them in the building. The team locates the main wet-wall and hides between them. Mouse gets cornered and killed. Cypher gives up their location by sneezing. Agent Smith grabs Neo. Morpheus sacrifices himself and asks Trinity to leave with Neo. A fight ensues between Morpheus and Smith. Obviously, Morpheus has his ass handed to him and is taken prisoner.

Cypher breaks away from the team gets out earlier. Tank doesn’t know Cypher is behind all the trouble they have been having. Cypher gets a phaser gun and fires at Tank. He then kills Dozer with it. He gets on the call with Trinity and confesses his betrayal. After which, he abruptly unplugs and kills Apoc and then Switch. Just as he’s about to kill Neo, Tank (shot but not killed) fires at Cypher and kills him. Neo and Trinity exit the Matrix.

Agent Smith: Human Beings, A Virus

The Agents have Morpheus chained to a chair and they are using some code (in the form of syringes) to get Morpheus to give up the codes to Zion’s mainframe. Agent Smith is hacking into Morpheus’ mind. I can’t dilute the amazing monologue by Agent Smith, so here they are:

Have you ever stood and stared at it? Marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives. Oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believe that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that as a species human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. So the perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this. The peak of your civilization. I say, “your civilization” because when we started thinking for you, it became our civilization which is, of course, what this is all about. Evolution, Morpheus. Like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time. I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops an equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease. A cancer of this planet. You are a plague. And we are the cure.

Tank suggests that it is only matter of time before they get the codes from Morpheus. He suggests that they pull the plug on Morpheus. He suggests they kill him. Tank is about to pull the plug. Neo remembers what the Oracle tells him. This is the moment when he gets to choose between Morpheus and his life. He decides to go into the Matrix to attempt rescuing Morpheus. He tells Trinity that he is not The One and that the Oracle has told him this already. He explains that Morpheus is more important that him. Trinity insists on coming in too because Neo will need her help. Neo feels this will work because no human has tried to hit the agents directly, they would not expect it. “That’s why it’s going to work”, Neo says. They load themselves up with plenty of guns and enter the Matrix.

Morpheus holds strong. Smith asks the other two agents to leave. He does something strange here. He takes off his earpiece and tells Morpheus:

I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place this zoo this prison this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell. If there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do, I fear that I have somehow been infected by it. It’s repulsive. Isn’t it? I must get out of here. I must get free. And in this mind is the key. My key. Once Zion is destroyed, there is no need for me to be here.

Smith is a program. Programs, in the Matrix, have a function and they perform their function. Smith seems be an anomaly. He expresses frustration like human. He wants to move on from the Matrix, from his function. He bypasses his programming to disconnect himself from communication (removing his earpiece is indicative of that). This odd behaviour is picked upon very well in the next two films.

Trinity and Neo break into the building with a large bag and guns. The large bag contains a bomb. They kill all the guards in an uber cool sequence. They enter the lift and head up. They stop the lift midway, leave the bag in and get on top of the elevator. Neo says “there is no spoon” and shoots the lift wire. Neo is reminding himself that none of this actually exists. It’s all just code. The lift falls down and they go up. The bomb explodes with the elevator hits the ground. The other two agents walk in on Smith wondering what he was doing. The bomb triggers the sprinklers. Neo and Trinity are on the roof taking down security. One of the agents renders himself on to a security guard. Neo tries shooting him but the agent is too fast and dodges all the bullets. Then Agent fires at Neo, to everyone’s surprise, Neo dodges the bullets too. Well almost. One of the bullets scrapes him and he’s on the floor. Remember, the Oracle only told Neo what he needed to hear. He’s in the Matrix trying to save Morpheus because of what the Oracle told him. Trinity gets to point blank range to the Agent and shoots him. Why couldn’t the agent dodge that? Well the Agents are fast but are still limited by the rules of the Matrix. This is what Morpheus tells Neo earlier on. The Agent is not fast enough to dodge a bullet from a point blank range . But of course, Trinity doesn’t kill the Agent. They can’t be shot because they are simply a render on top of another person, in this case that security guard. Which is why as the Agent falls to the ground, it becomes the security guard as he hits the floor.

He’s Not Going To Make It

Neo asks Trinity if she can fly the chopper. She asks Tank for a download of the pilot program for the B-212. Now she knows how to fly it. The chopper has a machine gun that fires a 100 rounds per second. This will give Neo his speed advantage. Trinity flies the chopper at the level where Morpheus is held and Neo unleashes on the Agents. The Agents are unable to match the speed of the gun and get shot. Morpheus regains some control and strength is able to break his chains and run to the chopper. Another re-assimilated Smith enters and fires through the wall at Morpheus, he gets him in the leg. Neo notices that Morpheus can’t make the jump so he leaps off the chopper and catches him in the air. They both hang off Neo’s safety harness. Morpheus is dropped to safety. The Agents appear again and fire at the chopper’s fuel tank. Trinity loses control of the chopper and beings to crash. She sees Neo grabbing on to the safety harness so she shoots its other end off the chopper, hangs on to it and swings away to safety. Neo pulls her up. Morpheus tells Neo that the Oracle told him only what he needed to hear.

He’s Going To Make It

The machines have located Nebuchadnezzar because of the signal it’s transmitting. The Agents instruct sentinels to attack. They continue to scan for the three of them. They’re not out yet. The trio head to their exit phone at a subway. Morpheus exits. A homeless person happens to see this. Trinity is trying to tell Neo about what the Oracle has told her. Smith renders himself on to this homeless person, and just as Trinity is exiting. he fires. He misses her and gets the phone. Neo can’t exit. He needs to run. But he stays to fight Smith. He’s beginning to believe. The two of them begin to shoot at each other but run empty before they can. They’ve both counted each other’s bullets. A fist fight ensues. While Neo has a short moment where he’s beating Smith, he soon gets his butt kicked. Smith throws him onto the tracks and pins him down waiting for the train to kill them both. Of course, Smith wouldn’t die, only Neo would. Neo conjures up enough ability to jump and smash Smith to the ceiling and escape the train. But just as he’s leaving the subway, a fresh Smith exits the train.

Neo realizes there is no beating Smith. He runs for it. The agents begin chasing him. They are fast and keep rendering themselves onto the people Neo runs past. Tank is guiding Neo to the next phone to exit. Smith preempts the phone’s location and reaches it and waits. Soon as Neo enters, Smith shoots him.

Neo is shot, his mind is not strong enough to overcome the bullets that are killing him. He begins to die. His heart stops. But he’s not yet dead. His mind is still alive, dying, but alive. Meanwhile, sentinels begin to attack the ship. If they use the Electromagnetic Pulse before Neo gets out, they will end up killing Neo. Trinity realizes that the Oracle has told her what she needed to hear. She tells Neo…

I’m not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man… the man that I loved would be The One. So you see, you can’t be dead. You can’t be because I love you. You hear me? I love you.

She kisses Neo in the real world. In the Matrix, Neo perhaps needed to go into a near dead state before his mind could fully break free off it. So somewhere between the Matrix, the real world and death, Neo hears what he needs to from Trinity and regains consciousness. As he gets up, he’s reborn ( also what the Oracle was referring to, not literally his next life, but rebooted ) as The One. The Agents fire at Neo, he stops the bullets with his mind. He’s no longer bound by the rules of the Matrix. He can change it as he sees fit. Smith desperately attempts to attack but Neo’s speed is not limited anymore. He single-handedly (quite literally) beats Smith, enters him and destroys his code. Neo exits the Matrix just in time for Morpheus to fire the EMP and destroy the sentinels. Neo and Trinity kiss.

The film ends with Neo, in the Matrix, leaving a message to the machine.

I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future.I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’ll hang up this phone and then I’ll show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.

Neo plans to steadily help free everyone’s mind in the Matrix. Free them from their state of slavery. He looks unstoppable. He hangs up and flies away. He can fly as he’s bound by no rule anymore. The film ends.

Though Neo feels unstoppable, things are not how they seem. The next part, The Matrix : Reloaded, is about just this.

Here’s the explanation to the second part –  The Matrix Reloaded Simplified & Explained.

Here’s the explanation to the third part –   The Matrix Revolutions Simplified & Explained

Here’s the explanation to the fourth part – The Matrix Resurrections Simplified And Explained

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Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

The Matrix – symbolism, mythology, philosophy, and psychology

The Matrix Interweaves much symbolism, mythology, philosophy, and psychology. On the surface, the movie challenges the dominance of technology in our culture and predicts an apocalyptic result from the use of artificial intelligence. Yet, behind the human struggle for survival is a mythical backdrop upon which are backlit some of C. G. Jung’s basic ideas regarding the human psyche . These Jungian ideas include the ego-Self relationship and how it relates to the persona, the shadow, individuation, and the transcendent function.

The earth has been decimated due to a battle for control of the earth between the AI’s and humans; the Matrix camouflages this decimation. Humans are artificially created and sustained by the AI superstructure. Then they are plugged into a computer. A computer program generates a simulated reality called the Matrix. Humans live their lives in this computer-generated reality, but this reality is only in their minds. In fact, humans are kept in mechanical eggs filled with an amniotic-like fluid. The AI infrastructure keeps humans alive to tap the energy they produce.

The strangers are a group of humans who have escaped the Matrix. Their leader is named Morpheus. Neo is believed by Morpheus to be the savior, “The One” (The Matrix). An oracle (also an escaped human) predicted long ago that a savior would come, a sort of second coming , and that he would be able to see through the Matrix and bring it down. The oracle told Morpheus that he would find The One. One question, which threads through the movie, is whether or not Neo is The One. Neo is asleep at his desk at home in one of the first scenes.

A computer monitor next to him flashes repeatedly the simple text: “Wake up Neo” (The Matrix). The message is an instruction from the Self. The sleeping man is in ego mode, a symptom of an egocentric psyche. He is unaware of the possibility that there is something else besides the ego and he has not yet awoken to the possibility that there is another world outside of the persona he lives behind. The theme of Neo as a Jesus Christ figure plays throughout the movie. In Edinger’s opinion, Christ was a figure who represented the individuating ego.

The image of Christ, and the rich network of symbolism which has gathered around him, provide many parallels to the individuation process. When the Christian myth is examined carefully in the light of analytical psychology, the conclusion is inescapable that the underlying meaning of Christianity is the quest for individuation (131). The reference to Jesus Christ in this scene implies that Neo represents the human psyche beginning the individuation process. Neo meets a woman named Trinity at the party. Trinity tells Neo that she is aware of his desire to know what the Matrix is.

It’s the question that brought you here. What is the Matrix? ” (The Matrix). Trinity is the one who will lead him towards the underworld. Jung called the her a soul figure, one that occupies an area or boundary between the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. Trinity is also associated with a person’s calling or fate. Trinity, as a “three” figure, is incomplete. Jung writes, “the number three is not a natural expression of wholeness, since four represents the minimum number of determinants in a whole judgment” (Storr 275). Jung believed that the number four represented wholeness in the human psyche.

If one were to re-arrange the name Neo slightly, it would be the word “one” The separateness of the numbers “one” and the “three” in the movie, of Neo and Trinity, represent an incompleteness in the human psyche. As we shall see, the joining of Neo and Trinity is what effects the change necessary for Neo to overcome his adversaries at the end of the film. Early resistance of the ego characters occurs after Neo’s initial recruitment by Morpheus’ group. Neo has a meeting with his manager after arriving late to work.

His manager says, “You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson” (The Matrix). Neo is his alias as a computer hacker; his name in the “real world” is Thomas Anderson . The manager tells Mr. Anderson in no uncertain terms that he will lose his job if he is late again. The manager is an ego defense mechanism attempting to re-gain control over Neo’s distraction of the intrusion by the unconscious (Trinity). Ironically, during this scene, window washers are cleaning the windows on this high-rise building, which distracts Neo. I believe that the window-washing image implies that he is getting some clarity and that he sees things a bit more clearly.

The stakes are raised higher as AI agents arrive (more ego defenses) to take in Mr. Anderson for questioning. Morpheus attempts to help; he calls Neo on a cell phone and attempts to direct him out of the building before the agents can get to him. This is a conflict between the unconscious figure represented by Morpheus and the ego defenses represented by the AI agents. The AI agents capture Neo. The agents’ names are Smith, Brown, and Jones. I believe that these common names imply a collective face of society lacking in individuality.

They are defenses of the ego, there to keep Neo under control so he doesn’t discover what is really happening. He is interrogated in a, bland room with yellowed fluorescent lighting. Agent Smith tells Neo that he has two personalities. One personality is a tax-paying citizen who goes to work everyday. The other personality is a computer hacker who has broken “every hacker law imaginable” (The Matrix). He’s told that one of his personalities has a future and the other does not. It’s his choice. This split of Neo and Mr. Anderson also demonstrates Jung’s concept of the persona.

The persona is a complicated system of relations between individual consciousness and society, fittingly enough a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and, on the other, to conceal the true nature of the individual” (Storr 94). The persona is a public sense a self, the self that an individual displays to the world. Everybody has a persona, but if one believes that the persona is all that one’s personality is composed of, then the individual is too adjusted to the outer world and not enough to their inner world.

In this case, Mr. Anderson is the persona, the mask worn by Neo in the outer world. Neo meets Morpheus face to face. He is a black man and represents a figure of the shadow, another Jungian concept. The shadow is a part of the personal unconscious that retains discarded parts of the personality. Oftentimes the shadow contains parts of the personality that have not been accepted by parental or authority figures during childhood. Thus, the shadow tends to contain aspects that are uncomfortable for persons to face or relate to. The shadow aspects may be considered immoral from the viewpoint of the ego, which tends to consider itself of the highest morals.

The shadow is merely somewhat inferior, primitive, unadapted, and awkward, not wholly bad” (Storr 90). Consider the reconciliation of opposites, the ego and the shadow, to be a difficult but significant task for individuals. The shadow binds up personal energy; becoming aware of the shadow and integrating its aspects allows the psyche to free up more psychic energy. This allows for changes and a broadening of the personality. The shadow character’s name Morpheus implies change . When Neo meets Morpheus and chooses to find out what the Matrix is, he is choosing to face his shadow and to change . Morpheus goes on to describe what the Matrix is.

He says, “The Matrix is all around us. It’s like projected psyche created by man. It has been pulled over your eyes to shield you from the truth” (The Matrix). The Matrix is a psychic reality created by the AI creatures that control earth. The psychic reality is projected into the minds of the humans who actually live like fetuses inside these egg-like containers. Humans experience what they perceive to be reality, but in fact is only a reality created by a computer to keep humans satisfied. Thus, the agents of the ego (AI) are responsible for projecting a false world, a front, in order to control humans.

The ultimate goal of the AI creatures is to reap the energy that humans naturally produce to keep the AI infrastructure operative. The Matrix is a description of psychic projection. In Jacobi, she defines projection as: the unconscious, automatic extrapolation of a psychic content into an object, as an attribute of which it then appears to us. He projects everything that is unconscious in man into an object situated outside his ego, so that the phenomenon of projection is a part of the natural life of the psyche, a part of human nature itself (48n).

For example, shadow contents are often projected onto others. A Christian perceive that someone who does not accept Jesus Christ as their savior to be demonic or evil; these feelings of evil or demonism that a fundamentalist perceives as belonging to others are their own feelings or emotions of evil projected from their personal shadow. For years, during the rule of the Soviet Union and the Cold War, citizens of the United States projected their collective shadow or collective feelings of evil onto citizens of the Soviet Union.

During the colonization of Africa, Europeans projected their primitive shadows onto the black Africans they encountered, assuming the Africans to be uncivilized and animal-like. The ego is oftentimes unaware that projections are occurring. The humans that the AI creatures control are also unaware that the Matrix exists. The humans physically live in a womb-like, pre-birth status but in their minds perceive reality as the Matrix. This state of existence is like the pre-individuated ego, before the birth of awareness of the Self. In the film, Neo is released from his womb with the assistance of Morpheus and his comrades.

The lid of the egg opens, he raises his head, covered in thick clear liquid, and he looks around. He finds himself in an enormous grid of countless eggs occupied by humans. A series of cords pop from his spine and a long metal tip is pulled from the back of his skull. He then slides down a tube and lands in a pool of water. He nearly drowns, but is pulled up, through a trap door, dripping wet, into the Nebuchadnezzar, the underwater ship that Morpheus and his group live in. This scene is filled with images of a painful separation and re-birth that leads to a path of individuation for Neo.

Jung wrote, conscious and unconscious do not make a whole when one of them is suppressed and injured by the other… Both are aspects of life… This means open conflict and collaboration at one… It is the old game of hammer and anvil: between them, the patient iron is forged into an indestructible whole, an ‘individual'(Storr 225). In Jung’s words, “… it [individuation] is a process or course of development arising out of the conflict between the two fundamental psychic facts” (Storr 225). The two psychic factors he referred to were the conscious and unconscious.

It is also important to note that Jung considered individuation a lifelong process, not a task with a definite end. Neo’s path of individuation passes through a painful re-birth process. It leaves him feeling alienated from his former sense of reality. “Whenever a man consciously encounters a divine agency which assists, commands, or directs, we can understand it as an encounter of the ego with the Self. The encounter generally occurs in the wilderness or in a fugitive state, i. e. , alienation” (Edinger 70). It takes time for Neo to recover from his shock of his new understanding of the world.

His thought patterns are turned inside out. His muscles and mind have atrophied. Neo is cared for and nursed back to health by Morpheus’ group. Even his eyes are not working properly. Neo asks, “Why are my eyes so sore? ” The answer: “Because you’ve never used them before” (The Matrix). He’s now developing an eye toward his inner world . Once Neo physically recovers, he is trained and taught many new skills by Morpheus’ gang. This gang represents figures from the personal unconscious. But there is also a group of freed humans who live deep inside the earth’s core in a human community named Zion.

Zion is only talked about and never seen in the film. The Zion of historical times is described as “symbolic of … heaven or God’s dwelling-place with his people” (Columbia Encyclopedia 3042). Zion is symbolic of the Self. The Self is a central organizing principle and is the central archetype of the human psyche. Edinger described the Self as “the self-ordering and unifying center of the total psyche (conscious and unconscious)” (3). Also, “the Self is the seat of objective identity. The Self is thus the supreme psychic authority and subordinates the ego to it” (3).

The Self is connected with “themes such as wholeness, totality, the union of opposites, the central generative point, the world navel, the axis of the universe… ” (4). In a religious sense, the Self is the god-image. . Neo, Morpheus’ group, Zion, and even the AI agents are parts of the Self since the Self is the totality of psychic existence. Yet the central archetype of the movie is Zion. Like an archetype, it is never directly experienced, but it is the ordering principal and force behind the renegade acts of the free humans.

The near final scene in the movie features a one on one battle between Neo and an AI agent. The agent shoots Neo several times. Neo slumps to the floor and dies. He has no heartbeat. Trinity, his soul figure, reveals to Neo that he must be “The One” because the oracle told her that she would fall in love with The One. Since she loves him, he must be “The One. ” She kisses him. He resurrects and comes back to life. Neo rejoins the battle and his mind is freed of believing that the reality projected by the Matrix is real.

He sees through the projection, sees through the imagined power of the agents, and finally destroys the Agent who had killed him. I believe that this scene is interesting for two reasons. One, it joins Trinity and Neo together, forming a “four,” as well as joining the feminine and masculine. The number four symbolizes wholeness in the human psyche. Two, the scene demonstrates Jung’s transcendent function. Jung discusses how the “knowledge of symbols is indispensable, for it is in them that the union of conscious and unconscious is consummated.

Out of this union emerge new situations and new conscious attitudes. I have therefore called the union of opposites the ‘transcendent function'” (Storr 226). Neo has battled the AI agents before but they have outwitted him. He is limited by his previous projections of them as power figures. The kiss, symbolically a transcendent function, joins him with Trinity in a union of the opposites and forming a four, wholeness. He transcends his previous limitations and is able to see the AI agents for what they are.

He withdraws his projections, restores the personal power previously projected onto the agents, and finally defeats the AI agents. The final scene of the film shows Neo in a telephone booth (superman figure? ). This is his message to the AI infrastructure: I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how it’s going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone and show people what you don’t want them to see.

I’m going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from here is a choice I leave to you (The Matrix). Neo has become an individuated ego. He negotiated a series of challenging psychic experiences to grow out of his former egocentric attitude. His statement speaks of an awareness of the ego as well as a sense of Self. He even refers to the ego field as scared and seems to be compassionate of the ego’s fear. But he wants to live without the rules and control of the ego.

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Breaking Down the Philosophy of 'The Matrix' Trilogy

The wachowski siblings really packed a lot of deep thinking inside the matrix films.  .

Recently, the term "red pilling" has been popping up all over social media. It refers to someone taking the same pill Neo did in The Matrix , the one that wakes him up to the damaged world around him. Of course, this term was co-opted by white supremacists and then, somehow, by Kanye West . If you like to scroll on sites like Reddit, you'll see popular memes like "There is no spoon," and "I know Kung-fu," and I still pretend to dodge things in bullet-time. 

But the fact remains the same,  The Matrix has had an amazing effect on society and internet culture since its release in 1999. I can't name a modern movie that had such an effect on culture. But the most interesting thing about this effect is that it's based on centuries-old philosophy. 

Today, I wanted to go over the philosophy of The   Matrix and take a look at what went into the Wachowskis' incredible writing inside the series. 

Breaking Down the Philosophy of The Matrix  Trilogy 

When looking at a trilogy of movies, I thought it would be more helpful to break down the most prominent philosophical points or personas that the movies borrow from, and then give you their general application.

I do not think this is a comprehensive list. There are entire books on the subject. But I think it gives you a jumping-off point to then look deeper into these philosophers and their influences as well. 

So let's take a look at what I came up with and talk about The Matrix . 

Plato's Cave 

We have covered Plato's cave on this site before, but let me give you a refresher.

First, I'll have you imagine a cave. The people inside the cave were born there and spent their entire lives inside the cave. They have no idea there is an outside world or that anything in that world exists. They are chained so they can only see the cave wall in front of them. 

A fire burns behind them, providing the light for shadows. Between the fire and the prisoners, there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers use puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave.

No prisoner can see a puppet or puppeteer, only the shadows. And they can only hear the echoes cast by objects that they do not see.

Therefore, the prisoners, with no other knowledge, think the shadows they see are actually reality. But it's not reality, only the appearance of reality. 

In that sense, the Wachowskis ask the same question Plato does with this allegory: “How do we know what our reality really is?”

In the movie, Neo and other humans are chained in a cave themselves, plugged in and given a reality by the machines. They have no idea that the shadows on the wall are not real until they "red pill" out of them. 

The Oracle of Delphi

There are oracles all over Greek and Roman legend, but none as famous as the Oracle of Delphi. She was known to give cryptic messages to people who sought her out, ones you would have to interpret to know your fate. 

In a direct correlation to this, we see Neo visiting the Oracle in The Matrix , and then see her again in subsequent films. The original Oracle at Delphi had a plate in her temple that said, “Know Thyself,” which is the quest of the oracle in the movies. Only when Neo can overcome his ignorance can he gain true knowledge of who he is and what he's meant to do. 

Jean Baudrillard’s  Simulacra and Simulation

This philosophical reference is actually tangible in the Matrix universe. Neo actually stashes his illegal computer programs inside a hollowed-out copy of philosopher Jean Baudrillard's  Simulacra and Simulation .

It's a book about consumer culture. It talks about how simulations or imitations of reality have actually become more real than reality itself, a condition described as the “hyper-real.”

This, in addition to Plato's Cave, provides the basis for what we feel and see inside The Matrix . We are in a reality that feels more real than the one presented in Zion or the tunnels. 

Yes, at the heart of the Matrix is a great Marxist allegory. As you may know, Karl Marx argued that the working class is exploited by the ruling classes. Or the ruling machines in this case. Marx said that the working class’s exploitation was only possible because it does not perceive itself as being exploited.

Do humans in The Matrix know they are part of a huge battery field? Definitely not. So they are controlled without knowing said control exists. 

These Marxist tendencies do not stop there. We can see the destruction of the globe and the takeover of machines into authoritarian rule as the effect of capitalism on society. We can see the uprising of humanity as a worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. We see echoes of communism inside Zion, where everyone shares in one goal and shares in all the resources as well. 

The Work of René Descartes

Most famous for the saying, “I think, therefore I am,” Descartes published the book  Meditations on First Philosophy , in which he poses the question of how he can know with certainty that the world is not an illusion being forced upon him by an evil demon.

Again, this echoes the idea of a simulated world or the one inside a cave. The evil demon in Descartes was concerned with changing our dreams, and with Neo inside the Matrix dreaming, there's the direct manipulation of that space he enters, knowing he has control there as well. 

Christianity 

There are lots of religious influences inside the movie, from Buddhism and Judaism to some tenements of lots of different and obscure world religions. I chose the big one, because—well, "the One." Christianity is the belief that the savior of humanity, Jesus, came to fulfill the prophets of old and be "the one" to save us from the devil. 

You also have names like Trinity, Zion, and an argument between fate and free will. Some people think the movie is actually a metaphorical retelling of the Gospels. With Morpheous as the Old Testament God, Trinity as the Holy Spirit, and Neo as Jesus.

The religious implications inside The Matrix  are complicated, since the simulation in which these people live is populated with the religions and philosophy the movie encapsulates. A real mind twister! 

In The   Matrix , Morpheus is waiting on a savior who will be the one taken from the Matrix to rise up and actually save humanity from the machines. Neo's evolution as a Christ-like figure in the movies shows us that he is not just a powerful prophet, but someone with actual powers. He's even crucified by the machines in a final scene, with them twisting out of his hands and side, mimicking Christ's wounds on the cross while splaying him out in a Jesus-like pose. 

There are some arguments between Christianity and Gnostic Christianity that modern religious figures have debated in correlation with the film, but I'll leave that argument for them. The point is, The Matrix borrows a lot of Christian imagery and words to tell the story of a savior rising to defeat the machines. 

Summing Up the Philosophy of The Matrix  

As you can see, the trilogy of Matrix movies takes on lots of different world teachings and digs deep into how these perspectives can be made into fiction. With a fourth Matrix movie coming soon , it will be interesting to see how these ideas are expanded upon within the world. Will we add more philosophy or will we stick to the pillars created in the original films? 

Time will tell. 

Let us know your predictions and reactions in the comments. 

• What Is an Allusion? ›

5 Ways to Crack Act Two in Your Screenplay

These tips can help you crack the most brutal part of your script..

I am at the point in my new spec that I just want to quit—the dreaded second act. I find this to be the worst part because it takes so much effort for me to connect the dots in order to tell the story I want.

Even though I outline, and even though I'm a professional, this stage still sucks and proves to be a challenging hurdle for my story craft.

So, what do I do when I get to this point?

I have five trusty tips I always go back to that help me crack Act Two. So, I figured, why not share them with you today?

Let's dive in.

1. Raise the Stakes

Jurassic Park

This can feel like such an amorphous statement, but it's a crucial one. When I get into act two, the first thing I do is make the stakes higher .

That involves a bit of the following:

• Introduce Complications: Act One set up your protagonist's goal. Act Two is about throwing obstacles in their way. The more difficult the challenges, the higher the stakes in the story.
• Increase the Pressure: Make your protagonist's problems time-sensitive, or build towards a looming deadline. This adds tension and urgency.
• Force Difficult Choices: Put your character in dilemmas where every option comes with a cost. This raises the stakes and reveals their true nature.

2. Go Deeper in Character

For me, the second act becomes the place where I reveal the most character. So I like to focus on development at this juncture. What can we learn about the backstory and how can we help show what's arcing in this story?

• Flaws and Contradictions: Don't make your characters perfect. Give them internal conflicts and weaknesses they must confront. This makes them more relatable and creates opportunities for growth in Act Two.
• Relationships Matter: Build the relationships between your characters, not just with the protagonist. Romance, rivalry, friendship—these subplots add layers to your character development and your overall story.
• The Midpoint Reversal : A big event about halfway through Act Two should change the game for your protagonist. A perceived win becomes a setback, a setback opens a new path... keep the audience guessing.

3. Expand the World

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Worldbuilding is my favorite part of writing stories. I love creating the rules, finding the tone, and just giving the lay of the land for the reader.

In the second act, you can expand your world. Let the characters out to play and see what they see. This is where you can bring out the theme and also where trailer moments pop. Give us those fun other characters and places that make readers excited.

• New Locations: Introduce settings that visually and thematically expand the scope of your story. This can add new challenges and expose different aspects of your characters.
• More Characters: Don't just rely on the ones from Act One . New characters introduce new conflict, alliances, or information that pushes the narrative in exciting directions.
• Exploration of Themes: Use Act Two to really dig into your story's deeper ideas. Through dialogue, plot events, and character choices, explore the underlying themes your story is dealing with.

4. Introduce Your B-Story

(500) Days of Summer

Searchlight

You can't expect to have a full story without a few subplots . Act two is where those story beats shine. You can add a romance or switch out of the main plot and go on a side journey.

The point is, figure out how you'll incorporate these and you'll see how your story builds through the second act and toward a turn in the third.

• Parallel or Interwoven Storyline: This is a subplot that runs alongside your main story. It could involve a supporting character, a flashback, or a seemingly unrelated issue that thematically ties into your main plot.
• Changing Perspectives: A B-story allows you to break up the main narrative. This can provide relief and also show us events from another character's perspective.
• Heightened Stakes: A well-timed B-story can resonate with your main story and ratchet up the tension for your protagonist.

5. Build Toward the Climax

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Act Two is all about delivering us the meat of the story that makes the climax in Act Three matter. So you should always be writing with the climax in mind.

What scenes can you do to plant and payoff things?

• Rising Action: Act Two needs to feel like you're constantly climbing a hill. Obstacles grow bigger, stakes feel higher.
• Leave Them Wanting More: Your Act Two should end at a point of no return for the protagonist. They're too deep in to simply walk away from their goal, but you leave the audience unsure of how they'll possibly succeed.
• A Taste of the Climax Create a mini-climax towards the end of Act Two – a victory that quickly unravels, or a defeat that sparks desperate action. This gives your audience a glimpse of the intensity to come in Act Three.

All of these steps work for me, but you have other ways to crack Act Two.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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How to Watch The Matrix Movies in Order (and Where to Watch Them)

Samuel J Harries

Official JustWatch writer

In this guide, we’ll show you how to watch The Matrix franchise in order and show you where you can watch them on popular streaming services in the United States. We’ll also let you know if there are options to stream The Matrix movies legally for free.

In 1999, The Matrix became an overnight sensation when the directorial duo Lana and Lilly Wachowski unveiled their kung fu science fiction classic to the world. Starring Keanu Reeves as Neo, Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, this groundbreaking movie grossed $460 million worldwide at the box office on a $63 million budget. This marked the beginning of an ongoing blockbuster franchise that is still beloved by fans today.

The Matrix franchise now includes a trilogy ( The Matrix , The Matrix Reloaded , The Matrix Revolutions ), an anthology of anime short films ( The Animatrix ) and a soft meta-reboot ( The Matrix Resurrections ). There are also tentative plans for an upcoming fifth installment by Warner Bros. Whether you’re watching The Matrix for the first time or rewatching the classic sci-fi franchise, this guide shows you where to watch them all online and the different viewing orders (release vs chronological).

How to watch The Matrix movies in order

If you only want to watch The Matrix feature-length movies, you can watch them chronologically in exactly the same way they were released.

The Matrix (1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The Matrix: Resurrections (2021)

This is a great viewing order if you are new to the franchise and want to enjoy the main storyline without getting overwhelmed by the franchise’s expanded universe of short films and canonical video games. However, the Wachowskis and Warner Bros. have always been ambitious when expanding The Matrix as a multimedia franchise. They have released several canonical stories in video games (Enter the Matrix, The Matrix Online and Path of Neo) and The Animatrix. In particular, The Animatrix offers some of the franchise’s best storylines that you won’t want to miss. So, if you’re ready to ‘take the red pill’ and go deeper, here’s how to watch the franchise in its entirety.

How to watch entire The Matrix franchise in chronological order

While watching the Matrix movies in order isn’t too complicated, this becomes more difficult if you want to watch the entire story unfold in every movie, short film and video game. Technically, The Matrix video games Enter the Matrix, The Path of Neo and The Matrix Online are all canonical, so we’ve included these in our complete Matrix timeline. Similarly, the short films included in The Animatrix anthology take place at various times throughout the story.

The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, Part I and II

The Animatrix: A Detective Story

The Animatrix: Kid's Story

The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris

Enter the Matrix – Video game

The Matrix Reloaded

The matrix revolutions.

The Matrix: Path of Neo – Video game

The Matrix Online: The Matrix Online – Video game

The Animatrix: Beyond

The Matrix: Resurrections

The Animatrix: World Record – Exact timeframe unknown

The Animatrix: Matriculated – Exact timeframe unknown

The Animatrix: Program – Exact timeframe unknown

The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, Part I and II takes place during the human/machine war in the mid-21st century. According to Morpheus’ estimations, everything from The Animatrix: A Detective Story until The Animatrix: Beyond then takes place circa 2199. The Matrix: Resurrections picks up the story 18 years later. Three Animatrix shorts have no discernable timeframe, so the best option is to watch those last.

The Matrix documentaries

The Matrix Revisited (2001)

Another important release for Matrix completists is The Matrix Revisited. This 2001 documentary shows the making of the first movie in 1999, revealing how many of the stunts were performed and explaining the movie’s revolutionary CGI techniques.

Where can I watch The Matrix movies in release order?

Below you can find the latest streaming information for every Matrix movie. You can check each movie’s availability on streaming services and find out if they are available online.

Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.

Six months after the events depicted in The Matrix, Neo has proved to be a good omen for the free humans, as more and more humans are being freed from the matrix and brought to Zion, the one and only stronghold of the Resistance. Neo himself has discovered his superpowers including super speed, ability to see the codes of the things inside the matrix and a certain degree of pre-cognition. But a nasty piece of news hits the human resistance: 250,000 machine sentinels are digging to Zion and would reach them in 72 hours. As Zion prepares for the ultimate war, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity are advised by the Oracle to find the Keymaker who would help them reach the Source. Meanwhile Neo's recurrent dreams depicting Trinity's death have got him worried and as if it was not enough, Agent Smith has somehow escaped deletion, has become more powerful than before and has fixed Neo as his next target.

The Animatrix

Straight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.

The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith.

The Matrix Resurrections

Plagued by strange memories, Neo's life takes an unexpected turn when he finds himself back inside the Matrix.

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19 Things The Matrix Predicted About Life Today

How a 1999 keanu reeves movie anticipated (almost) everything about the way we live..

This series originally ran in 2019. We are republishing it as The Matrix Resurrection hits theaters and HBO Max.

1. Our National Aversion to Reality

In an era when the president’s lawyer can go on TV and splutter, “Truth isn’t truth!” as if it’s something everyone should know, The Matrix is omnipresent. It’s not that the film was prescient. It didn’t anticipate our world. But it anticipated — and probably created — a new way of viewing that world. Since 1999, the real world has provided ample opportunity for people to turn The Matrix into the foundational text of a frighteningly thorough and self-adoring denial of whatever was in front of their noses, which roughly translates as, Reality is fake and I don’t have to listen to anyone about anything (plus maybe I know karate despite never having studied it) . The Matrix concocted the perfect one-size-fits-all combination of flattery, paranoia, anti-corporate wokeness, libertarian belief in the primacy of the individual, and ideologically nonspecific anger at the system: a “Wake up, sheeple!” for its era and, even more, for ours. We live, today, in the anti-reality world The Matrix built.

Read more by Mark Harris here .

2. Red Pills, the Involuntarily Celibate Villains of the 21st Century

Misogyny, anti-feminism, and crude “pickup artist” dating advice have existed on the internet for a long time, but it’s the religious sensibility of The Matrix as translated into “the red pill” that combines these strands into a coherent cosmology: Feminism, the Red Pill theory tells its mostly young male adherents, is a cruel fabrication that causes personal unhappiness, societal disorder, daily chaos, global strife, and, worst of all, is the reason that you’re not having sex. Only through the red pill can you see the world for what it really is, and — finally! — get laid.

Read more by Max Read here .

3. … Plus a Whole Pharmacy’s Worth of Red-Pill-Adjacent Cyberideologies

The Matrix ’s red pill has long been a symbol for the online misogynists of the men’s-rights movement. But over the years, it’s also inspired a whole pharmacy’s worth of other memes and cyberideologies — some playful, some hateful, some of which describe actual beliefs, and others used mostly pejoratively. Here are the more prominent and stranger ones.

Like red pill but less worried about feminism than reptilian aliens enforcing the New World Order.

Anti-materialist more concerned with personal enlightenment than with the Illuminati.

Ignorant of politics and global conspiracies. Hates reading and just wants to get laid.

Indigo Pill

Supporter of the Illuminati (or possible member). Thinks people need to be controlled.

Aware of the Illuminati and is certainly no fan, but isn’t getting worked up over it.

Into bodybuilding, the neo-Paleo diet, and the alt-right. Claims to have supernatural powers.

More nihilistic red pill, too dejected to even learn pickup-artist techniques.

4. The Breakdown of the Gender Binary

Trans women have claimed The Matrix as an allegory for gender transition since at least 2012, when Lana Wachowski publicly came out as a trans woman while doing press for the film Cloud Atlas . (Her sister Lilly followed suit in 2016.) The symbolism is easy to find: Thomas Anderson’s double life (he’s a hacker by night), his chosen name (Neo), his vague but maddening sense that something is off about the world — “a splinter in your mind,” Morpheus calls it. The Matrix is the gender binary. The agents are transphobia. You get it. And then there’s the red pill itself, less a metaphor for hormone therapy than a literal hormone. “Welcome to the desert of the real,” Morpheus intones after Neo takes it. Many have pointed out online that, back in the ’90s, prescription estrogen was, in fact, red: The 0.625 mg Premarin tablet, derived in Matrix-like fashion from the urine of pregnant mares, came in smooth, chocolaty maroon.

Read more from Andrea Long Chu here .

5. The Academic Case for Simulation Theory

In his 2001 paper “Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?,” Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom — who, funny enough, had not yet seen The Matrix when he wrote it — posited that if humanity does become capable of creating a Matrix-like simulation of reality, it will create many of them — meaning there would be lots of simulated realities and only one non-simulated one, in which case maybe it’s more likely than not that we’re living in a simulation right now.

Read an interview with Bostrom here .

6. The Not-So-Academic Case for Simulation Theory

Some people claim to remember TV coverage of Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s, even though he lived until 2013. Is “The Mandela Effect” proof that whoever is in charge of our simulation is changing the past? Or could the reason we haven’t met aliens yet be that the computer we live in only has enough RAM to simulate one planetary civilization at a time?

Here are 15 plausible and not-so-plausible reasons people think we live in a simulation.

7. Most of What Elon Musk Thinks

Is Elon Musk the real-life Neo? A former Tesla exec says he’s the One: “Watch The Matrix . Elon is Neo. He sees these zeroes and ones.” Musk himself says there’s only a “one in billions chance” that we aren’t living in a simulation , and he may have hired scientists to try to break us out . But he also owns a company called Neuralink that seeks to connect human brains to computers, which is a little Agent Smith–y.

8. The Rise of Superhero Movies

It was obvious even in 1999 that The Matrix had reinfused action movies with swagger. Evident only now is how it managed to do something even more monumental: teach Hollywood how to put superheroes on film. Comic books rely on people in ridiculous outfits routinely bending physics, two elements for which movies had not yet found a convincing visual language. The Matrix provided that language and, what’s more, made it look awesome. The film’s central conceit — that the characters exist within a computer simulation and, once they figure this out, are capable of miraculous feats — allows for a world where lithe weaklings can plausibly pummel muscle-bound goons and where Ted from Bill & Ted can punch Hugo Weaving a hundred feet in the air. This world conditioned us to believe in a fistfight between Tom Hiddleston and the Hulk.

Read more by Adam Sternbergh here .

9. Non-Muscly Action Heroes

In the wake of Neo’s slender poise, the notion of the “unlikely action star” became quite common. No longer did action films need to be anchored by chiseled, emotionally limited commandos like Stallone or martial-arts experts with expressive charm like Wesley Snipes. An action star could be James McAvoy stumbling headlong into great power and various conspiracies in Wanted or pure maternal fury like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill I and II . The saviors of a film could be as different as Michael Cera’s lanky, perennially awkward protagonist in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Matt Damon’s peripatetic amnesiac in The Bourne Identity and its sequels. Think of Kate Beckinsale sauntering and slicing herself a bloody trail in gleaming latex in the Underworld franchise, or Reeves’s previous co-star Charlize Theron magnificently glaring her way through the wildly uneven Aeon Flux and the bombastic Atomic Blonde .

Read more by Angelica Jade Bastien here .

10. Everything Kanye West Has Said or Done for at Least the Past 5 Years

Kanye has called The Matrix “the Bible of the post-information age” and said, “When the hundred guys come at Neo, those are opinions, that’s perception, that’s tradition … If you have a focus wide and master senseis like Laurence Fishburne and you have a squad behind you, you literally can put the world in slow motion.” Also, he claims to be writing a philosophy book called Break the Simulation , he got the Kardashians to wear tiny sunglasses , and the sweatshirts and bomber jackets from his Yeezy Season 1 fashion line looked like dead stock from the storerooms of the Nebuchadnezzar.

11. The Appeal of Donald Trump (at Least to Alex Jones)

Is Donald Trump the real-life Neo? Yes, according to whoever made the video above (and this one , and this one ), but especially to Infowars’ Alex Jones, who says reality “is already an A.I. system that made the decision to have a post-human world, and Trump has jumped in with some others and they’re saying, ‘No, we’re not doing it,’ at the elite level.”

12. The Modern Movie Fight Scene

“ The Matrix literally transformed the industry,” says Chad Stahelski, who was Keanu Reeves’s stunt double in the film and went on to become one of the busiest stunt choreographers in the industry. Nowadays, he’s best known for directing the John Wick films, also starring Reeves. But he’d be the first to admit that those movies, not to mention most of the others he’s worked on, would never exist without The Matrix. “Back in the day,” he recalls, “fight scenes were secondary to car chases and horse chases and helicopter chases and motorboat chases.” And what fights there were focused on “single-gun battle stuff or Arnold Schwarzenegger pummeling you to death with his hands.”

Read an interview with Stahelski here .

13. Our Unending Love Affair With Bullet Time

In 1999, before they were widely imitated, widely parodied, and finally old hat, the “bullet time” sequences in The Matrix were — what is a suitably retro phrase? — da bomb . Here was proof that we could no longer trust our brains to process visual stimuli. The last time I saw bullet time, it was used on the E! Network’s Golden Globes red-carpet show to give audiences a better view of the fashion and celebrities on display. Meanwhile, most big-studio live-action movies are no longer different in essence from animated ones, which are themselves becoming more three-dimensional, more “real.” In retrospect, bullet time seems like the crossover point, the bridge between the human and the not human, the real and the synthesized. It helped us get comfortable with no longer trusting our own brains.

Read more by David Edelstein here .

14. A Thousand Copies of This Shootout Scene

The Matrix thrilled audiences with this climactic (and in retrospect, extremely disturbing) vision of a trench-coated Neo and Trinity gunning down security guards and dozens of first responders in the lobby of an everyday office building. Movies still relentlessly chase the high of that notorious sequence, with can-you-top-this​​? massacres in every proudly disreputable Deadpool or Kick-Ass or Equalizer . There couldn’t be an Avengers franchise as we know it without the example of the Wachowskis’ staging, camerawork, EDM scoring, and slow-mo celebration of slickly violent teamwork.

Read more by Alan Scherstuhl here .

15. Barack Obama’s Post-Presidency

During the 2008 campaign, John McCain ran ads referring to Obama as “the One,” mocking Democrats’ Morpheus-like awe for their candidate. Ten years later, describing life after his second term, Obama said , “Everything moves in slow motion. You leave the presidency and you are like Neo, where bullets are coming at you and they are super-slow and you just put your hand up.”

16. Matrix -Style Fashion

For the past few years, celebrities, models, and street-style influencers have paired tiny sunglasses with black nylon trench coats, tactical belts, and even chest rigs. (“Bella Hadid Looks Like She Stepped Out of The Matrix ,” read a Daily Mail headline from March 2018.) But the movie still has a grip on fashion — looks inspired by all four of its main characters could be seen on the spring 2019 runways.

Read more by Emilia Petrarca here .

17. Twitter

When most people first saw The Matrix , they probably identified with Neo or Trinity. Lately, I find myself identifying more with the villain, Cypher. Not because I want to ally with the machines for the taste of nice steak, but because I spend most of my days, like Cypher, staring at nearly incomprehensible, endlessly scrolling arrays of information. In the movie, revolutionaries who have disconnected from the Matrix keep tabs on it by watching ever-falling green text on screens. Since the Matrix code is allegedly too complex to be rendered visually, the green text is the only way to monitor it from the outside. It’s called “digital rain.” We have something similar: Twitter, which is also an incredibly depressing, totally inadequate view into a simulated world. — Max Read

The Matrix ’s soundtrack — featuring Rammstein and Rob Zombie — failed to anticipate the bursting of the late-’90s nu-metal bubble. But the movie may have changed the course of pop anyway: When Neo and Trinity shot, kicked, and backflipped their way through an office-building lobby, they did it to “Spybreak!” by the English big-beat electronica duo Propellerheads — instantly making dance music the province of impossibly cool action heroes and pushing it into the mainstream (and onto the soundtracks of lots of other blockbusters). Big-beat-style electronica would soon go the way of nu-metal, but it’s hard to imagine EDM permeating the national consciousness as easily as it has without the support of a generation of Matrix fans. — Craig Jenkins

19. Soylent

In 2019, climate change threatens to decimate agriculture. In 1999, The Matrix showed us its own postapocalyptic future with no food, where humans who have freed themselves from the simulacrum survive on a “single-cell protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals.” The movie’s snot-textured gruel is uncannily similar to real-life meal-replacement shakes like Soylent, the insta-smoothie invented in 2013, which, the last time I tried it, tasted like milk left over after eating a bowl of Cheerios. Soylent can “replace any meal,” says the marketing, and it’s become the nutrient-­delivery platform of choice for tech workers short on time, plus anybody looking to make an early transition before tastier, more traditional dinners go extinct. — Alan Sytsma

… Plus the One Thing The Matrix Got Wrong:

Where are the wachowskis.

It’s rare to see definitive statements about being done with show business, but the news from Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s Realtor in October that they were selling their Chicago production office and had no more projects in development was as close as you get. It’s tempting to make an “unplugging from the Matrix” joke, but the Wachowskis have always had a tenuous-at-best interface with the Hollywood grid. We could never have anticipated all the ways The Matrix would shape the world of 2019, yet one thing that seemed assured 20 years ago was a long, successful career for its creators. But maybe that kind of success matters only in the Matrix, and the Wachowskis never lived there to begin with.

Read more by Emily Yoshida here .

*A version of this article appears in the February 4, 2019, issue of  New York Magazine. Subscribe Now!

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Interpersonal Communication Concepts In The Movie The Matrix Essay.

1,790 Words Published On: 05-01-2021

You will be writing an analysis of a movie based on some of the interpersonal communication concepts we have learned in class. You will choose a movie from the following list of movies below or a movie of your choice (just be sure to run it past me first).  Your task is to thoroughly analyze the film and look for prevalent interpersonal concepts. In your paper, you will define and explain the concepts and then provide a detailed description of the example found in the movie.  Your analysis might include relationship dynamics, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, listening, and conflict.

Since you are filtering through large amounts of information, it would be helpful for you to view your film more than once, and taking good notes will be essential. You will not be able to write about everything-so using your notes, choose elements you find most important to the film and the concept or concepts.  Organize your essay in a way that best highlights your information.

Be sure to include background information on the film to begin your paper. Then summarize the film as briefly as you can. These items should be about one page. The rest should be analysis and examples.

Movie Analysis:

The Matrix is a science fiction movie which was released in the year 1999. The Wachowski Brothers wrote and directed the film. The cast of the film consists of Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving. The movie shows a dystopian or frightening future where the reality which is perceived my most people is in actual a stimulated reality which is known as the Matrix. The Matrix was created by the living machines who wanted to overpower the human race while they use their bodies’ electricity and heat as the source of energy. Bullet time is a visual effect which was made popular in the movie (Akechi et al., 2014). The film has been awarded four Academy awards along with many other awards. The movie has also appeared in the list of films which were science fictions and was added for preservation to the National Film Registry in the year 2012.                

The movie begins with the shot of a computer screen which indicates that a phone call is being traced as voices can be overheard discussing on whether they were able to find The One. A woman, Trinity, played by Carrie-Anne Moss is cornered by police in a motel where she overpowers them with her superhuman skills. A group of superhuman Agents arrive at the scene and lead the police in a rooftop chase to try and catch Trinity. Trinity reaches a phone booth where she answers the phone and vanishes. Thomas Anderson who is a computer programmer lives a double role of a hacker, Neo played by Keanu Reeves. He becomes confused with a cryptic phrase, the Matrix, which he encounters online repeatedly. Trinity contacts Neo and says that a man named Morpheus can provide him the meaning of the phrase. The Agents capture Neo and threaten him to help them catch Morpheus. Despite that Neo meets Morpheus, who in turn offers him two pills a red one which can show him the truth and a blue one which can return him to his previous self. Neo takes the red bill and disintegrates and wakes up weak, naked and hairless. He is rescued by Morpheus by his hovercraft which was called the Nebuchadnezzar. As Neo recovers, Morpheus tells him the truth about how the living machines declared war against the human population. The Matrix is a shared imitation of the world, where the harvested humans’ minds have been trapped. The last refugee world, Zion, is inhabited by the free humans. Neo and Trinity along with Morpheus and his crew enters the Matrix to pay a visit to the Oracle, who is a prophet who had predicted the existence of the One. She says that Neo is not the one and warns him that soon he will have to make a choice between Morpheus and his own life. While leaving the Matrix the group is attacked by agents and the tactical police because of the betrayal of a crew member named Cypher. Morpheus gets himself captured by the Agents so that Neo could escape with the rest of his crew. Cyphers exists the Matrix and kills several defenceless crew members. While attempting to disconnect the tanks of Neo and Trinity, he is killed by Tank, another crew member whom Cypher had left to die. The Agents questions Morpheus in the matrix to gain access to the codes to the mainframe computer in Zion. Tank proposes killing Morpheus so that this could be prevented, however, Neo decided to return to the Matrix and rescue Morpheus. Trinity accompanies him and while rescuing Morpheus, Neo regains confidence over his abilities. Trinity and Morpheus exits the Matrix but Neo gets killed by Smith before he can get a chance to leave. In the real world, Nebuchadnezzar is attacked by machines known as Sentinels. Trinity’s loves awakes Neo and he defeats Smith and leaves the Matrix just when the electromagnetic pulse weapons of the ship is disabled and attacks the Sentinels.                          

Background of The Matrix

There are various interpersonal communication concepts that have been used in this movie. Firstly, relationship dynamics means the relationships that exists within different people. It is the likings and disliking that people have towards each other and in different relationships (Palmatier et al., 2013). There can be different kinds of dynamics between different people. It can be about power and control. It can also be about liking and disliking. It can be about respect towards one another. The main point of relationship dynamics is that people form different kinds of bond in various kinds of relationships and it can be of different values. In the movie the Matrix there are different kinds of relationship dynamics. However, the most two important relationships is that of Neo and Trinity which is a relationship of liking and love. Both of them like each other and at the end of the movie we can clearly understand their love when Trinity is able to awake Neo from his death by kissing him and telling him that she loves him. The second relationship is that of Neo and Morpheus which is a relation of respect and that of a teacher and student. Neo treats Morpheus as his teacher and listens to every advice he has to offer. This relation is understood more prominently when Neo risks his life to rescue Morpheus from the Matrix without thinking about his own safety. Secondly, verbal communication means the kind of communication which is done through words. This is the most common type of communication which is done by people all over the world (Huczynski, Buchanan & Huczynski, 2013). The whole movie is mostly based on verbal communication. The characters speak to each other to convey their feelings whether positive or negative. The communication between Neo, Trinity, Morpheus, Smith and all the other characters are all examples of verbal communication in the movie. For example when Morpheus tells about the reality and the Matrix to Neo he was verbally communicating with Neo regarding the truth that existed and prevailed. Thirdly, non-verbal communication meant communicating without the use of words. This kind of communication could mean that people are communicating with each other with the use of body language, facial expressions, eye contact, touch, posture, use of space and so on (Mehrabian, 2017). This type of communication is very hard to portray and even harder to understand but it is done when words are no longer needed to express one’s feelings.  In the movie the Matrix, there were many non-verbal communication used between different characters. For instance, the respect and loyalty that Neo had towards Morpheus need not be explained or expressed through words. It could be clearly understood from the actions and the unquestioning ways that Neo supported Morpheus. It could even be understood when Neo did not think once about the risk that he was taking on his life when he went into the Matrix to rescue Morpheus from the clutches of the Agents. There is also Trinity whose actions have always made it clear that she was in love with neo and would do anything to protect him from any harm. This was maintained till the end when she used words to describe her feelings towards Neo. Fourthly, listening meant to understand pay attention to everything that others told them but only to listen and keep in mind the important ones which would be helpful in the long run. Listening not just meant to simply hear each word that the speaker said, it also meant that the listener will apply the words into actions so that something comes out of it (Hayes, 2013). Listening is a step towards learning and a good listener will be able to learn new things if he listens to the worlds of the right person. In the same way the listener will embark on a bad path if he or she listens to the wrong person. In the movie the matrix, Neo listens to every advice that Morpheus gave him and followed it without questioning him about anything. For example, in the first training sessions Neo is given the task to jump from one huge skyscraper to another. His mentor Morpheus completes the task with ease and advices Neo to clear his mind. Even though Neo is not able to compete his task but he keeps his mentor’s advice in his mind and uses it later on in the movie. Lastly conflict means a disagreement or a kind of argument that is present between different parties which can lead to be very serious or harmful with the change in time (Van der Vliert, 2013). The main conflict that is present in the movie the Matrix is the idea of free will which is not given to certain beings. The machines have enslaved the human race with the vision to eradicate them from the face of the earth. The humans were not given free will to exist in their own world. In the whole movie, the concept of free will is what creates grave problems as this was not a reality in the world.                       

Hence, it can be said that the movie used interpersonal communications to a great deal and to convey different messages to different people. Not just verbal communication, all other types of communication such as non-verbal, listening, and conflicts were used to prove that not just one kind of communication is needed to explain the different feelings of the people. The whole film has depended on the birder of reality and illusion and have showed the different dynamics that the different characters had with each other. The movie, like every other, also showed in the end that good always prevailed over the evil and no amount of evil can eradicate the good deeds from the face of the world.

References:

Akechi, N., Kitahara, I., Sakamoto, R., & Ohta, Y. (2014, November). Multi-resolution bullet-time effect. In SIGGRAPH Asia 2014 Posters (p. 30). ACM.

Hayes, J. (2013). Interpersonal Skills: Goal directed behaviour at work. Routledge.

Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D. A., & Huczynski, A. A. (2013). Organizational behaviour (p. 82). London: Pearson.

Mehrabian, A. (2017). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.

Palmatier, R. W., Houston, M. B., Dant, R. P., & Grewal, D. (2013). Relationship velocity: toward a theory of relationship dynamics. Journal of Marketing, 77(1), 13-30.

Van der Vliert, E. (2013). Complex interpersonal conflict behaviour: Theoretical frontiers. Psychology Press.

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Demystifying the Fiction Movie “The Matrix” Essay

Introduction, demystifying ‘the matrix’.

Written and directed by Andy and Wachowski, The Matrix is a fiction movie released on March 31, 1999. It has attracted numerous responses from fans who think of it as ingenious, intriguing, and very entertaining piece, as well as critiques who think that it is just an idea borrowed from previous fictional works produced in the past. Nevertheless, it offers a unique perspective on the world and especially with regard to the element of reality. The post-apostolyphic world depicted in this movie is bad.

The movie depicts the co-existence of two worlds. One of the worlds is termed as the “real” world, whereby the sentient machines seize control of the world, imprisons the entire human population, and uses the prisoners as energy sources. The machines live off the heat and electrical energy emitted by people.

The second world is a generic world created by the machines in order to pacify the human being as the machines siphon energy from people by plugging the human beings into an artificial intelligence system known as the Matrix. Once plugged in, the Matrix re-programs the brain to think that what it perceives is actually real and so every person plugged into this system thinks that the life he or she is living is real.

For instance, Thomas Anderson, the main character in the movie, is a computer programmer who has a double life as a hacker going by the name Neo. This side of a hacker is his life in the matrix. In the “real” world though, the machines have plugged him into the Matrix and he has been there ever since.

The entire movie revolves around Thomas, alias Neo, and his quest to free everyone from the Matrix so that together they can fight against the machines and attain their freedom from both the Matrix and the machines that control them. With that in mind, this essay takes a critical look into the generic world, the Matrix. The aim is to establish whether that world is good or bad as depicted in the movie by highlighting some of the advantages and disadvantages as compared to the “real” world.

Everything has its advantages and disadvantages and this age-old aspect is one of the criteria used in the determination of good and bad. Looking at the Matrix from the point of view of the people, one of the discernible advantages is that even though the machines plug people to the system against their will, the people co-exist peacefully without conflict.

Human beings are prone to conflict due to their numerous differences regarding personalities and ideas. This element is notably absent in the Matrix before Neo, in his self-awareness, disrupts it. The existence of peace benefits the machines in that they are able to optimize energy harvesting, but it also enables people to get along without fighting one another.

Another notable advantage is that there is synchrony in the running of affairs in the generic world. People do not fight for resources as what they perceive as a good life is controlled by the system. People have jobs and homes and though only generic, they seem “happy” in this state.

Thirdly, those who understand the difference between the ‘real’ world and the Matrix can enter into the simulated reality at will. Their understanding of its nature allows them to compromise its systems of operation laws and by so doing assume herculean abilities that do not work in the real world.

That aside, life in the Matrix also has its demerits. The first disadvantage is the fact that the machines forcefully take away the will and freedom of the human beings, thus leaving them at the mercy of the machines to do as they please.

The danger in this move is that the machines look at things from a self-preservation point of view and although they have sentience, they would consider their own survival pertinent thus dooming the human population to death. This death occurs gradually as the machines drain the energy out of the people for the entirety of their lives until nothing is left.

Another disadvantage is that plugging people into the Matrix makes them prisoners to their perceptions. They lose the cognitive ability to determine the difference between an illusion and reality, which is much akin to the theory of forms discussed in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

The theory suggests that the substance of an object lies not in people’s understanding, but the character of that object. In Plato’s view, nescient people amount to restrained individuals in his allegorical cave. As a fire burns behind them, shadows appear on the walls of the cave, but not the real objects. Such individuals confuse shadows with the reality, and in the confusion, the inherent meaning of the reality is lost and ultimately the individuals become captives of the ensuing unending confusion.

The people perceive the shadows as the reality thus losing sight of the true forms of the objects and consequently becoming prisoners of their own false perceptions. Similarly, people plugged into the matrix perceive their lives in the Matrix as real. It is thus more difficult to free themselves from their own perception than it is to free themselves from the machines, even after being unplugged from the Matrix.

For instance, Morpheus asks Neo to twist a spoon with his mind. He tries, but it does not work because he views the spoon as real. However, Morpheus is in a position to do this bending with ease. When asked how it is possible, Morpheus responds by saying, “there is no spoon.”

Due to the lives that people lead in the Matrix, and even though the idea of freedom is seemingly tantalizing, some people get disillusioned when they do get to the ‘real’ world and find that it is not as they expected. It is like leaving a comfortable prison and going into a free world where one has to fight everyday to survive.

To some people, this idea may not seem ideal, thus beating the whole purpose of liberation and setting back the process of attaining freedom. One such example from the movie is Cypher. He willingly joins the rebellion, but upon his encounter with the real world, he gets disillusioned. He strikes a deal with the agents to deliver Morpheus to them in exchange for comfortable living back in the matrix.

Given the fact that the demerits of living in the matrix outweighs the merits of the same, it is a sensible deduction that the post-apostolyphic world depicted in this movie is bad, taking into account that if operated as planned, its result would be the extinction of the entire human race, without as much as a fair fight. Machines govern the system in a totalitarian way, and thus they depict human beings merely as sources of energy.

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IvyPanda . "Demystifying the Fiction Movie "The Matrix"." November 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/movie-the-matrix/.

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