The peace promised by machines, however relative, is a reality. In the new city of Io, the harmony between Men and Synthetics gives birth to a small miracle of a brilliant bright red … a strawberry. During a visit to the facilities of this town which looks like an underground “paradise”, Niobe shows Neo the laboratories, but especially the botanical gardens.
A scientist collaborates with an artificial intelligence which in turn has back-analyzed the computer code of said fruit in order to recreate it in the real world. Neo, greatly surprised, brings the formerly forbidden fruit to his lips and takes a bite out of it. What was for decades the prerogative of the virtual is returning to the real. Nature is gradually regaining its rights.
The introductory sequence of Matrix Resurrections is intended to reflect that of the first Matrix released in the spring of 1999 and which on its own redrawn the contours of action cinema forever. Strangers observe a semblance of Trinity during a déjà vu scene, but which against all expectations will take an unexpected turn.
The simulation you observe is not what you think it is, it is a simulation simulation called a Modal, or a simulator-programmer. Director Lana Wachowski plays with us, with us, and with the concept of cyclical redundancy. The viewer thinks he knows the outcome… and yet… nothing is what appears to be.
Matrix Resurrections: A feeling of déjà vu
Neo is alive, but locked in the Matrix. The sleeper must once again wake up. Bugs, the White Rabbit played by Jessica Henwick, and Morpheus, or what is akin to Morpheus – scramble to free Neo’s mind. After a first abortive attempt, Thomas Anderson finally accepts, but the Analyst keeps a close eye on it.
In order to facilitate the release of the Chosen One, humans recreate a mythical setting, that of the blue pill / red pill taken from The Matrix (1999). The new sequence literally becomes a theatrical scene supposed to serve as an electroshock for Neo, as a facilitator to break his addiction to the system. There follows a hack of the Matrix, the intervention of the police and a chase on several levels, between an old theater and a high-speed train before finally witnessing the rebirth of the myth.
Neo and Agent Smith are for the Matrix the yin and the yang, the alpha and the omega. One cannot really exist without the other as their existences resonate. Neo vs Smith… a showdown gone down in history. Awakening the Chosen One also breaks the chains of one who was once a cog in the system. Now free, their face to face is inevitable, and the action scene between them is up to the event.
The latter echoes their past duels, but innovates, surprises the viewer by altering what was, by voluntarily modifying sequences that have become cult over time. This Neo vs Smith tastes like deja vu without really being one. Then the fight is commented on by the French insults of a Merovingian exiled and embodied by an unrecognizable Lambert Wilson.
The dojo scene in the first Matrix symbolized the relationship between Neo and Morpheus. It couldn’t be otherwise in Resurrections. This new sequence with an irreproachable aesthetic is a real memory box that Lana Wachowski handles with care. The “déjà vu” shots are interwoven in a new choreography which is intended to be both an echo of the past and a memory reminder intended for Neo so that he frees himself from his virtual prison.
Between two reminders of what was and what could be, Neo and Morpheus confront each other verbally and physically. Punchlines, tirades and blows are raining down. The elementary rules of physics bend under their will. Under the pressure of Morpheus, Neo cracks and shatters everything via a telekinetic impulse… The Chosen One is back.
Matrix Resurrections is released in theaters in France on December 22, 2024.
Matrix Tesurrections Trailer
