It’s been a long time since the Matrix movies, and with The Matrix: Resurrections releasing soon, are you looking for a quick recap of the first three films? Look no further! The Matrix Trilogy started off with The Matrix in 1999, which rewrote the benchmark for the film industry with respect to visual effects, fight choreography and plot complexity. Part 2 and 3 were released in 2003, a few months apart. While The Matrix: Reloaded upped the game even further, The Matrix: Revolutions didn’t deliver that finishing blow all too well. That said, the trilogy remains one of the most epic film series made. Here are the Matrix movies explained in short; a quick summary of the Matrix Trilogy; spoilers ahead.
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The Matrix Trilogy Explained: Video
Here’s a video that summarizes this article.
(If you can’t see the video below, please use this link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvqYD8cAtLU):
Contents
Here are links to the key aspects for each of the Matrix movies:
- – The Animatrix: Movies Summary
- – The Matrix Summary
- – The Matrix: Reloaded Summary
- – The Matrix: Revolutions Summary
As a start, let’s take a quick look at The Animatrix to really understand why The Matrix came into existence.
The Animatrix: Movies Summary
The Animatrix was nine short films released in 2003 but had two movies that formed the origin story to The Matrix – The Second Renaissance Part 1 & 2.
In the early 21st century, humans gave birth to Artificial Intelligence machines to handle their everyday chores. One of the bots malfunctioned and killed its owner, and the humans retaliated by killing every bot – bots that believed they were alive.
The machines appealed for a peaceful solution, but the humans went to war and scorched the skies to cut off their solar energy. The humans were no match for the machines and succumbed. Over time, the human resistance was eliminated, and the survivors were captured and forcibly inserted into the Matrix. Because the sun was cut off, the machines started drawing from the bioelectric energy generated by the sleeping humans.
Summary: What is the Matrix?
The Matrix is a shared simulation into which most of the planet’s humans remain plugged in. People’s physical bodies stay asleep, while their minds are in a dream state where each one believes they are living in the late 20th century. The rules in the Matrix follow those of classic physics, which governs people’s movements.
The catch, however, is that each mind only follows those rules because it believes it must. If one can really see past the fact that their world is only a simulation, they can break these rules. If a person dies in the Matrix, they die in the real world. This again is the mind believing that it is dying, which triggers the actual death of the body.
Early Versions Of The Matrix
The designer of the Matrix was a program called the Architect who created the early version of the Matrix to be too utopian and flawless. As a result, most human minds rejected the programing. The subsequent designs encountered similar issues until a program called The Oracle, which was created to understand the human psyche, introduced a subconscious element – a false sense of choice for every mind.
The Anomaly And The Truth About Zion
While 99% of the humans accepted this false sense of choice, 1% still rejected the programming of The Matrix. And periodically, there emerged an Anomaly who could completely defy every rule of The Matrix.
To solve this problem, the machines allowed a place called Zion to exist in the real world, which comprised of people born outside the Matrix and those extracted from within. Over time the people of Zion became the resistance and fought to free the rest in the Matrix, freeing people under the guidance of The Oracle.
The Oracle fed the resistance a prophecy that they would find The One, which would end the war. The Machines waited till the Anomaly showed up and then guided the person back to the Source to meet The Architect.
While Zion is prepped for complete annihilation, the anomaly is given two choices:
- Restart Zion with 21 people selected from the Matrix OR…
- Be responsible for the death of every human in the Matrix.
The guilt of extinction of the entire human species made the first five anomalies choose to let the Matrix be… and pick 21 people to restart Zion from its ruins.
There have been five anomalies in total, and Zion has been obliterated five times. This is where the first movie The Matrix begins… in the sixth cycle of Zion.
The Matrix Trilogy Explained: The Matrix (Summary)
In 2199, under The Oracle’s guidance, Morpheus and his team are looking for the anomaly they call The One.
The Agents, led by Smith, are gatekeeper programs tasked with finding and destroying anyone hacking the system. They are empowered with higher speed and agility, and they can assimilate anyone plugged into the Matrix.
Neo is a hacker born into the Matrix that Morpheus believes is The One. The team frees Neo from the Matrix, and Trinity, the commanding officer, begins falling in love with Neo.
Mr Anderson, a.k.a Neo, is a hacker born into the Matrix. Morpheus believes he is The One, and the team frees Neo from the Matrix. Trinity, the commanding officer, begins falling in love with Neo.
The Oracle lies to Neo, saying he’s not The One and tells him that he will need to choose between his life and Morpheus’ in the future.
Another crew member, Cypher, resents Morpheus for exacting him out of the Matrix and believes he was happier in the Matrix. He makes a deal with Agent Smith to have him reinserted into the Matrix as a wealthy and affluent person. In return, he leaves a tracer, using which the agents take Morpheus prisoner.
Cypher unplugs and kills a few crew members in the real world, but he is killed off before getting to Neo or Trinity.
Smith wants to stop hackers like Morpheus from hacking into The Matrix and demands the codes to Zion to put an end to it all.
Unplugging and killing Morpheus is the only way to stop Smith from extracting Zion’s location from him, but Neo chooses to save Morpheus. Neo and Trinity enter the Matrix and attack the building with guns, lots of guns and get to the roof. Neo dodges the bullets of an agent, displaying signs of being The One. Neo and Trinity use the chopper to take out the agents and save Morpheus.
Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix but Smith shows up and shoots the phone, the exit link, before Neo can leave. Instead of running, Neo chooses to stand his ground and fight Smith, and Neo puts up a good fight before Smith gains the upper hand. Figuring that an agent can’t be killed, Neo makes a run for it as Morpheus guides him to an exit.
Before he can get to the phone (exit link), Smith shoots Neo. As his mind begins to die, Trinity reveals that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with The One. She confesses her love to Neo and reminds him that his mind only thinks it is dying, but he can’t die because he is The One.
Neo gets up and sees the Matrix for what it is… software. The agents try to shoot at Neo, but he stops the bullets. Smith desperately tries to throw punches at Neo, but he’s no match for the speed of an anomaly who does not conform to the programming of the Matrix. Neo assimilates Smith, destroys him from within, and exits the Matrix in time for Morpheus to fire an Electro Magnetic Pulse that deactivates the attacking Sentinels.
The Matrix ends with Neo telling the system that he is going to eventually free everyone. Little does he know that he’s only a measure of control for the system.
The Matrix Trilogy Explained: The Matrix: Reloaded (Summary)
Six months after the events of The Matrix, Zion is approached from above by hordes of Sentinels digging their way down. Commander Lock is against the prophecy and Morpheus wasting resources to seek The Oracle, who has been missing for a while.
It turns out that Smith was not destroyed by Neo, and he became an exile program who has acquired the ability to clone himself onto anybody in the Matrix as long as he can make physical contact. Smith clones himself on a crew member, Bane and Smith’s consciousness exits the Matrix as part of Bane’s mind and now controls Bane in the real world.
The Oracle finally makes contact. Seraph, The Oracle’s protector, takes Neo to her, and she reveals herself to be a software that claims to side with the humans because she was created to understand them. She instructs Neo to get to the Keymaker, an exile program held prisoner by a powerful program called the Merovingian.
After she leaves, multiple Smiths show up and try to clone onto Neo, who fights his way out of there, realizing he’s no match for the countless Smiths.
Against Lock’s wishes, the council approves two ships to help Morpheus; one of them is led by Niobe, who was once with Morpheus.
While Merovingian refuses to hand over the Keymaker, his wife Persephone (another program) gets them to the Keymaker in exchange for a kiss from Neo as she wants to experience what she once did – true love. Artificial Intelligence enables her to feel emotions like humans.
After a massive fight and a brilliant highway chase/fight sequence, the team gets to a safe house with the Keymaker, who explains that Neo must open a door in a particular building to get to the Source. He provides Neo with a key (access) that can be used on the door only when the power to the building has been cut.
While Neo goes for the door, the other two teams attack the power grids. Niobe succeeds, but the other team gets killed by a Sentinal in the real world. Trinity enters the Matrix to complete the job. While she terminates the power before Neo opens the door, she gets attacked by an Agent.
In the Source, Neo learns the truth about the previous anomalies, but Neo chooses differently. He loves Trinity and goes back to The Matrix to save her.
Trinity leaps through a window in desperation but is shot by the agent in mid-fall. Neo flies to her and catches her, and extracts the bullet. Neo digitally performs CPR on Trinity and saves her from certain death.
Morpheus is almost in tears when he learns that the prophecy was a lie. They get attacked, and somehow, Neo stops the Sentinels with his mind; after this, he goes unconscious.
At Zion, Smith, who controls Bane, triggers an EMP and sabotages the first line of defence against the Sentinels, causing them to be helplessly slaughtered. We see both Neo and Bane unconscious as the film comes to an end.
The Matrix Trilogy Explained: The Matrix: Revolutions (Summary)
We learn that Neo has wirelessly connected to the machines and jacked himself to an area called the Subway Station, which is essentially digital limbo outside the Matrix. The place is controlled by the Train-Man program who ferries programs into their digital afterlife.
Neo meets with a family of programs (from the Machine World) who have, on their own, created a child software called Sati. This behaviour is not expected of them, but their artificial intelligence makes them create and love. The parent programs have made a deal with the Merovingian to take Sati safely to the Matrix. When the train arrives, Neo tries to muscle his way in, but this place was built by the Train-Man, and he is all-powerful and knocks Neo to the floor.
Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph locate Merovingian and force him to allow access to the train to get Neo out. Neo meets with the Oracle, who doesn’t have any advice for him. This is the first time an anomaly (The One) has not chosen to destroy and restart Zion. All she knows is that Smith is spreading like a virus and will soon consume everything.
Later, Smith clones himself on the Oracle and now can predict the most probable set of events that will unfold, but he still can’t see past a choice one hasn’t yet made.
Neo and Trinity prepare to head to the Machine City to try and strike a deal. Smith (Bane) attacks them and blinds Neo. Because Neo’s wirelessly connected to the machines, he gains machine-vision, which is shown in golden. Neo takes down Smith (Bane) and leaves with Trinity.
An all-out war ensues with thousands of Sentinels attacking. Niobe and Morpheus manage to fly a ship into the dock and trigger an EMP that decommissions all the Sentinels. The battle has been won, but the machines will deploy more Sentinels soon.
Neo and Trinity approach the Machine City, where they are attacked by hundreds of Sentinels. Neo is able to destroy many using his mental link, but soon becomes overwhelming, and they crash; Trinity dies from her wounds.
Neo gets up to meet Deus Ex Machina (Machine Leader) and strikes a deal. Smith has gone beyond the control of the machines and will soon wipe out everything, and Neo offers to enter the Matrix and destroy him and asks for peace in return. The Sentinels stop attacking Zion, and Morpheus realizes this is Neo’s doing.
In the Matrix, there is only Smiths now. The Oracle Smith walks forward and states that he has already witnessed defeating Neo, so the others will only watch. The two battle it out endlessly until Neo realizes that he and Smith are equal and opposite and for one to die, so must the other.
Neo allows Smith to clone onto him. Because Neo is wired in from the Machine City, the machines have a direct handle to Smith. They terminate Neo, which in turn entirely obliterates the Smith program in the Matrix, and the system is restored to a state before Smith wreaked havoc. As agreed, the Sentinals pull back, and Zion celebrates.
The Architect meets The Oracle to tell her that she played a dangerous game, and she says that change always is. Sati makes the sunrise look beautiful and dedicates it to Neo. The film ends with The Oracle stating that one day Neo might return.
And that’s that! Everything that you need to know about The Matrix movies to be ready for The Matrix: Resurrections. If you still have questions, you can check out the individual articles for each of the films below or drop your questions in the comments section down below.
Further Reading | The Matrix Trilogy: Detailed Explanation
The Matrix: Reloaded Movie Explained
The Matrix: Revolutions Movie Explained
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