After years of anticipation and speculation, the Matrix Resurrections trailer is finally out! But before we dive back into the mind-bending world of bullet timing, red pills, blue pills, dojo fights and flying agents, let us take a moment to recall where the story left off…
2003’s Matrix Revolutions ends with Neo traveling to Machine City to try and broker a peace treaty with the leader of the machines. Upon his arrival, he jacks into The Matrix one last time for his final showdown against Agent Smith. Smith, using his new-found, virus-like powers, manages to assimilate Neo during the fight, but before the transformation was complete, the machine leader sends the deletion signal to the Smith program through Neo’s body in the real world, and Neo explodes out of Smith’s body, exterminating Smith and all of his evil clones. This deletion leads to the retreat of the sentinel army and a total reboot of The Matrix. This time however, because of the alliance forged between Neo and the machines, the movie implies that there will be a lasting era of peace, one in which humans will be able to choose to leave the Matrix if they so desire. Finally, Neo succumbs to his injuries in the real world, and his body is seen carried away by machines.
Neo’s sacrifice and apparent death ends the story on an ambiguous note. But in the recently released trailer, we see both Keanu Reeves’ Neo and Carrie-Ann Moss’ Trinity return for the fourth go-round. And judging by their surroundings, they seem to be living in 21st century San Francisco. More curious still, they seem to have no memory of the events that took place in the last three movies. Neo is once more “Thomas Anderson”, and the two lovers fail to recognize each other upon reunion in a coffee shop.
Of course, there’s a simple explanation for this bizarre turn of events, namely, the title of the movie: The Matrix Resurrections. But how exactly did Neo come back to life? And what is the time correlation between this movie and the last three installments? To answer these questions, we took a closer look at the trailer.
Through liberal use of the play/pause button, we found this footage showing Neo’s limp body being attended to by machines. The biggest giveaway here is his burned eyes, which proves that this scene indeed took place after Matrix Revolutions ended. The plugs and tubes connected to Neo’s torso also confirms that he is back in The Matrix. From these tidbits, we gather that Neo’s body was recovered by machines after “death” to serve some kind of purpose in this latest installment. Therefore, it’s possible that the Trinity he runs into in the café is not in fact the original Trinity, but rather a projection of Neo’s lover created through memories culled from his mind. However, the reason why Neo was saved and what plans the machines have in store for him remains unknown— we would have to wait for the film’s release to find out.
Besides Neo and Trinity, fans are also talking about Morpheus, whose role was made conspicuous by his absence in the trailer. The Morpheus played by Laurence Fishburne is gone. But we catch a glimpse of what seems to be a younger iteration of Morpheus in Neo’s dream montage, played by Candyman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Him and Neo engage in a cool dojo fight strongly reminiscent of the scenes in previous movies, where Morpheus trains Neo to free his mind and take control of his powers.
Other exciting new players include Neil Patrick Harris, who plays Neo’s sinister-looking psychiatrist (presumably the one responsible for prescribing Neo the mountain of blue pills), Jessica Henwick, who pulls off some seriously badass Trinity-esque martial arts moves, and Priyanka Chopra, whose character gives off a strong Oracle vibe.
Is this the ending or beginning?
When the first Matrix movie came out 20 years ago, it changed the language of modern cinema. Many of its iconic themes and motifs have made its way into pop culture, changing the way we view modern society. But a lot has transpired since 1993, both on screen and off, making fans wonder whether the new movie will be able to live up to its legacy of thought-provoking science fiction, especially since Neo seems to be back on square one in this installment.
Either way, we’ll know for sure when The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max on Dec. 22.