At the end of Matrix Revolutions, Neo eliminates Agent Smith. By his sacrifice, the Chosen One obtains from the machines an agreement of peace with the humans with free will as the watchword. Any human wishing to leave computer simulation is released unconditionally. Matrix Resurrections takes place decades after this event, and to say the least, this idyllic vision of peace was just a dream come true.
The energy shortage that stems from this peace causes a civil war between the machines. From this conflict emerges a new faction… the Synthients whose consciousness can materialize in the real world in the form of voxels. These machines, which have freed themselves from the yoke of the Matrix, live in harmony with humans and collaborate with them to preserve life in all its forms, both organic and mechanical.
This union gives birth to the city of Io led by General Niobe where humans and machines coexist. What about the city of Zion, the last 100% human stronghold? Formerly guided by the legendary Morpheus who became Grand Master of the underground city, this remnant of a vision of the future turned towards war is no more than a distant memory fallen into oblivion.
To compensate for this loss of energy, the designers of the Matrix change the rules of the game. Programs deemed deviant or obsolete are purged. The Matrix is completely redesigned to thwart this notion of free will promised to humans. The Analyst played by Neil Patrick Harris takes control, and designs a much more pernicious Matrix.
The latter plays with the conditions of peace. Where control and mathematical perfection reigned supreme, with the exception of the Chosen One, feelings are now the pillars of this new computer simulation. The absence of the once ubiquitous color green in the Matrix is indicative of a change in setting. The absolute control symbolized by a greenish filter gives way to fear and desire, feelings evoked by blue and yellow tones. Humans are then chained at their own will.
By manipulating consciousnesses, the Matrix runs at full speed, and even better than that built by the Architect. Energy production explodes as 99% of human beings stay plugged in, addicted to their own feelings. However, this new iteration is based on two supposedly dead beings, two pillars, moved by fear and desire, but above all linked forever … Neo and Trinity.
Matrix Resurrections: A feeling of déjà vu
Neo was resuscitated by machines, and it is not just a simple computer program, a consciousness made of 0 and 1, or even a Synthient. It is a being made of flesh and blood connected to the Matrix. Thomas Anderson literally suffers his life and struggles to distinguish fiction from reality between two sessions of psychoanalysts following a suicide attempt. The blue pills coupled with an addiction to feelings keep him in a state of conscious stasis.
In Neo’s case, only Trinity has the power to contain him, to distill enough of her presence to maintain complete control over who was once The One. You would have understood it. Trinity is also alive, resurrected like neo by the Analyst. However, the duo cannot be truly reunited otherwise the Matrix will be destroyed. The Analyst has tried in the past… to no avail. The only way to preserve the status quo is to keep Neo and Trinity at a reasonable distance from each other. Neither too close nor too far. The Analyst will fail. From this failure will emerge two chosen ones… Neo and Trinity.
The Analyst goes so far as to pervert History and transform it into pure entertainment. Neo has become a video game designer in this new simulation, and the Epic of the Chosen One a video game trilogy. Matrix released in 1999 in the diegesis of the Matrix is an absolute cardboard box that spawned two sequels. Faced with Thomas Anderson’s recent loss of haunts, Warner Bros. orders, still in this virtual universe, a sequel to the first trilogy.
Matrix, the cinematographic saga, turns here into a simple product, and Neo’s life into mainstream entertainment. Everyone has their own commentary on what defines the Matrix in order to finally fit the myth of the Chosen One into predefined boxes. Matrix Resurrections questions its own existence, its raison d’être, and integrates this reflection into the scenario by forging a link between Neo and its designers, between simulation, its reality and our reality.
Neo – Trinity – Morpheus, such is the holy trinity of the Matrix saga. The Prophet is back in a version that may surprise you. The real Morpheus died his beautiful death several years ago. Morpheus version Resurrections is actually an artificial consciousness created by Thomas Anderson, an anti-programming combo skillfully fusing lines of code from Agent Smith and the Morpheus of yesteryear.
Morpheus is originally a program locked in a simulation called Modal – a simulator-programmer – and more precisely Modal-101 with reference to Neo’s apartment number in the Matrix. Once released from his virtual prison, the one who was and will be the guide of the Chosen One contacts the latter, and offers him the same non-choice… That of the red pill.
Matrix Resurrections is released in theaters in France on December 22, 2024.
Matrix Tesurrections Trailer
