The Matrix
Computer hacker Neo learns the startling reality that the life he has been living is a sophisticated trick of a malevolent cyber-intelligence when a stunning stranger takes him to a terrifying underworld.
The Wachowskis are the writers and directors of the 1999 science fiction action movie The Matrix. With Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano in the lead roles, it is the first film in the Matrix film series. Set in a dystopian future, humanity is unwittingly imprisoned inside the Matrix, a virtual world that intelligent machines have created to divert people’s attention while using their bodies as a source of energy. After discovering the reality, computer programmer Thomas Anderson—a hacker going by the name “Neo”—joins other Matrix escapees in a revolt against the robots.
One work of science fiction in the cyberpunk type is The Matrix. The Wachowskis’ style of action sequences was influenced by Plato’s Cave, 1990s Telnet hacker networks, and anime and martial arts films, especially the fight choreographers and wire fu methods from Hong Kong action cinema. Terminologies like “red pill” and “bullet time” were made popular by the movie, which also introduced a visual effect wherein the action in a shot moves in slow motion while the camera appears to move through the scene at normal speed, allowing the sped-up movements of certain characters to be perceived normally.
On March 31, 1999, The Matrix had its theatrical debut in the United States to resounding praise from reviewers who commended its inventive visual effects, action scenes, cinematography, and entertainment value. With a $63 million budget, the movie made nearly $460 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing Warner Bros. picture of 1999 and the fourth highest-grossing movie of the same year.
The movie won all four of the 72nd Academy Awards categories in which it was nominated: Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing. Numerous additional awards were also given to the movie, including Best Sound and Best Special Visual Effects at the 53rd British Academy Film Awards and Best Director and Best Science Fiction Film at the 26th Saturn Awards, all won by the Wachowskis. One of the best science fiction movies ever made, The Matrix was chosen by the Library of Congress in 2012 to be preserved in the United States National Film Registry because it was “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.”
Due to the movie’s popularity, the Wachowskis wrote and directed two feature-length sequels, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, which were released in 2003. The Wachowskis were actively involved with the animated anthology film The Animatrix, as well as comic books and video games that further extended the Matrix property. Books and theories elaborating on some of the theological and philosophical concepts hinted at in the movie have also been inspired by the franchise. On December 22, 2021, a fourth movie with the title The Matrix Resurrections was released.
Plot of the Movie
A police team confronts Trinity at an abandoned hotel, but she overcomes them with superhuman strength. Police and a crew of suited Agents with comparable superhuman abilities follow her as she runs. She disappears after picking up a ringing public phone.
Online, “the Matrix” keeps coming up, confounding computer programmer Thomas Anderson (hacker, also known as “Neo”). Neo’s questions are answered, according to a figure named Morpheus, whom Trinity informs him about. Agent Smith leads a group of agents and policemen who show up at Neo’s place of employment to look for him. Despite Morpheus’ best efforts to lead Neo to safety, Neo gives up rather than take a chance on a perilous escape. Neo’s criminal record will be expunged if he assists the Agents in finding Morpheus, who they identify as a terrorist.
Neo is pinned down, his jaw is fused shut, and a robotic “bug” is implanted in his abdomen when he refuses to comply. After what he thinks is a nightmare, Neo awakens. Shortly later, Trinity brings Neo to meet Morpheus, and she takes out the bug from Neo.
Neo is given an option by Morpheus between two pills: blue, which will cause Neo to lose all memory and go back to his previous existence, and red, which will expose the truth about the Matrix. After taking the red pill, Neo experiences a distortion of reality and awakens in a liquid-filled pod surrounded by many other pods that contain other people. Then, he is taken aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, Morpheus’s flying vessel. Morpheus describes the scenario as Neo heals from a lifetime of idleness in the pod: In the early 21st century, a war broke out between humanity and intelligent machines.
The machines retaliated against humans for preventing them from accessing solar energy by enslaving people and using their bioelectric power to power their shared virtual reality, the Matrix, which was based on the world as it was in 1999. The surviving free humans sought safety in the underground city of Zion in the years that followed.
A group of rebels led by Morpheus and his gang break into the Matrix in order to recruit and “unplug” enslaved people. Because they are aware of the Matrix’s simulation nature, they are able to circumvent its physical rules. Morpheus informs Neo that whereas rebels are eliminated by robots known as Sentinels in the real world, Agents are sentient programs that destroy threats to the system. Neo is also warned that death within the Matrix also kills the actual body. Neo’s skill in virtual training solidifies Morpheus’s conviction that Neo is “the One,” a person meant to set humanity free. The gang goes inside the Matrix to see the Oracle, a software that resembles a prophet who foresaw the coming of the One.
She informs Neo that he will have to decide between saving Morpheus’s life and his own, implying that he is not the One. A dissatisfied crew member named Cypher, who betrayed Morpheus in return for a contract to be plugged back into the Matrix and enjoy a luxurious life, tips off the agents and police before the gang can exit the Matrix.
Morpheus battles Smith and is taken prisoner in order to buy time for the others. After leaving the Matrix, Cypher kills the other crew members while they are still unconscious. Crew member Tank regains consciousness and kills Cypher before Cypher can kill Neo and Trinity, freeing Neo and Trinity from the Matrix. In order to destroy the mainframe computer in Zion, the Agents question Morpheus to obtain his access codes. As the Oracle predicted, Neo decides to go back to the Matrix and save Morpheus; Trinity demands that she go with him. Neo becomes more confident in his skills while saving Morpheus and accomplishes feats that are on par with the Agents’.
Smith ambushes and seems to murder Neo after Morpheus and Trinity escape the Matrix safely. Trinity declares her love for Neo as a squad of Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar, citing a prophecy from the Oracle that she will fall in love with the One. After being resurrected, Neo has the ability to see and manipulate the Matrix. He easily overcomes Smith, which causes the other Agents to run, and he exits the Matrix moments before the electromagnetic pulse from the spacecraft destroys the Sentinels. Neo calls the robots back in the Matrix, telling them he will show their inmates “a world where anything is possible.” He ends the call and takes off.
