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The Matrix Resurrections is a 2021 American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski, and the first in the Matrix franchise to be directed solely by Lana, without her sister. It is the sequel to The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the fourth installment in The Matrix film franchise. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and Jada Pinkett Smith. The film is set sixty years after Revolutions and follows Neo, who lives a seemingly ordinary life as a video game developer having trouble with distinguishing fantasy from reality. A group of rebels, with the help of a programmed version of Morpheus, free Neo from a new version of the Matrix and fight a new enemy that holds Trinity captive.
Following the release of Revolutions, the Wachowskis denied the possibility of another Matrix film. Warner Bros. constantly expressed interest in reviving the franchise, hiring Zak Penn to write a new screenplay after the Wachowskis refused every offer to create more sequels. In late 2019, a fourth Matrix film was finally announced, with Lana Wachowski returning as director without Lilly, and with Reeves and Moss reprising their roles. Filming started in February 2020 but was halted the next month by the COVID-19 pandemic. Wachowski considered abandoning the film, but was encouraged by the cast to finish it. Filming resumed in August and concluded three months later.
The Matrix Resurrections premiered at Castro Theater in San Francisco on December 16, 2021, and was released theatrically and via the HBO Max streaming service by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 22, 2021. The film received generally mixed reviews from critics and it was a box-office disappointment, grossing only $159 million worldwide against a production budget of $190 million. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 75th British Academy Film Awards.
Plot[edit]
A young woman named Bugs learns that the Matrix is running old code in a loop, enacting the moment when Trinity first found Neo within the Matrix.[a] Bugs discovers a program embodying Morpheus and helps free him from the simulation.
Thomas Anderson is the creator of a video game series called The Matrix, based on his faint memories as Neo. At a coffee shop, he regularly encounters Tiffany, a married mother with no recollection of her past, on whom Anderson based the game character Trinity. Anderson has created a simulation called a Modal to develop game characters. He struggles to separate perceived reality from dreams, a known concern among his co-workers and partner. Thomas's psychoanalyst prescribes him blue pills that he takes each day to suppress the occurrences, but he stops taking them. Meanwhile, as Bugs and Morpheus work to extract Neo from the Matrix, Anderson's business partner regains his memories as Agent Smith, Neo's former nemesis.
Neo awakens in a pod and notices Trinity confined in another nearby, before being extracted to Bugs's hovercraft Mnemosyne. Neo is brought to the human city Io, where he reunites with an elderly Niobe. She explains that sixty years have passed in the real world since the Machine War ended, and that Neo's allies, including the original Morpheus, have died over time. The peace achieved by Neo's sacrifice lasted for many years, but the large number of humans leaving the Matrix created a serious power shortage, causing the machines to fight over limited resources. Zion was destroyed, though most of its people relocated to Io with the aid of sympathetic machines.
Niobe refuses to risk Io's safety to help Neo free Trinity and confines him to his quarters. Bugs and her crewmates free Neo and enter the Matrix to contact Trinity. They are attacked by Smith and other exiled programs, including the Merovingian, but Neo and the Mnemosyne crew defeat them as Neo's abilities return. The group leave and locate Trinity, but before Neo can talk to her, his therapist appears and immobilizes him by manipulating time. He reveals that he is The Analyst, a program designed to study the human psyche.
The Analyst explains that after Neo's and Trinity's deaths, he wanted to study Neo's body and his anomalous powers as The One, and convinced his superiors to resurrect both of them. He discovered that due to The One's inherent connection to all humanity in the Matrix, manipulating Neo could make the Matrix produce more energy. Moreover, he found that the code anomaly in Neo was shared in his bond with Trinity, and that by suppressing their memories and keeping them close but always apart, the Matrix generated much more energy. Solving the energy crisis put The Analyst in a position to seize power from The Architect, after which he rebuilt the Matrix to control humans with emotional manipulation, claiming that humans generally believe what they want to believe. Neo's liberation destabilized the system and triggered a fail-safe to reboot the Matrix, but The Analyst stalled the reboot by convincing his superiors that threatening to kill Trinity would coerce Neo to return to his pod.
Neo and Bugs return to Io and talk to Sati, an exiled program that Neo previously met.[b] Seeking to avenge her parents' deaths at the hands of the machines, Sati helps devise a plan to free Trinity. Back in the Matrix, Neo makes a deal with The Analyst: he will return to his pod, if he fails to convince Trinity to leave the Matrix. Tiffany reaffirms her identity as Trinity while talking with Neo. Realizing that he has lost, The Analyst attempts to kill her, but Agent Smith appears and attacks The Analyst, seeking revenge for his own imprisonment.
Neo, Trinity, and the others escape in their vehicles, chased through the streets by hordes of bot programs and attack helicopters. As the last ones to be extracted from The Matrix, Neo and Trinity become cornered atop a skyscraper. Holding hands, they leap off and Trinity begins to fly, taking them to safety. With Trinity's newfound control over the Matrix, both return to confront The Analyst. They sarcastically thank him for giving them a second chance by resurrecting them, which they intend to use to remake the Matrix as they see fit. Neo and Trinity then triumphantly fly off into the sky together.