The world most people know is the Matrix, a simulation built by machines that won a war against humanity and now grow people in pods for energy; a few freed humans fight back from the underground city of Zion. The hacker Neo is revealed as the One, and he ends the war by sacrificing himself to destroy the rogue program Agent Smith. Sixty years later, in The Matrix Resurrections, Neo and Trinity are brought back, freed again, and set out to remake the Matrix themselves.
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No. 01 · 1999 · Film
The Matrix recap
Thomas Anderson is an office worker by day and a hacker called Neo by night. He is contacted by the hacker Trinity and her leader Morpheus, who offers him a choice: a blue pill to go back to his life or a red pill to learn the truth. Neo takes the red pill and wakes in a pod of fluid, one of billions of humans used as batteries by machines that took over the world around the year 2199. The world he knew is the Matrix, a simulation of 1999 that keeps people docile. On Morpheus's ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, Neo learns that inside the Matrix he can bend its rules, and Morpheus believes he is the One, prophesied to end the war. The Oracle hints that he is not. Cypher, a crew member tired of the real world, betrays them to the Agents, and Morpheus is captured by Agent Smith.
How The Matrix ends
Neo and Trinity storm the building where Morpheus is held and rescue him. Smith kills Neo, but Trinity, told by the Oracle she would love the One, confesses her love, and he revives. He now sees the Matrix as code and destroys Smith easily, then escapes just as the ship's EMP stops the attacking Sentinels. In the last scene, Neo warns the machines that he will show people the truth, and flies away.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 2003 · Film
The Matrix Reloaded recap
Six months later, the machines are digging toward Zion, the last human city, with an army of 250,000 Sentinels. Neo has nightmares about Trinity dying. Agent Smith, freed from the system after his defeat, now copies himself into other people, including a human called Bane. The Oracle sends Neo to find the Keymaker, a program that can open the door to the Source, the machines' main computer. The Keymaker is held by the Merovingian, an old program who trades in information, and his wife Persephone helps Neo free him in return for a kiss. Neo fights a hundred Smiths, and Trinity and Morpheus escape the Merovingian's ghostly Twins and Agents in a long freeway chase. The crews of several ships plan to cut the power to a building so Neo can reach the Source.
How The Matrix Reloaded ends
Neo meets the Architect, the program who designed the Matrix, who tells him the One is part of the system: he is the sixth One, and each One is meant to choose survivors to rebuild Zion after it is destroyed. Neo refuses and goes to save Trinity, catching her as she falls and restarting her heart. Back in the real world, Neo stops a group of Sentinels with his mind and falls into a coma, lying next to Bane, who is secretly possessed by Smith.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. After the credits, a trailer plays for The Matrix Revolutions, which was released six months later.
No. 03 · 2003 · Film · optional
The Animatrix recap
The Animatrix is a collection of nine animated short films by different directors. Final Flight of the Osiris shows a ship's crew discovering the machine army drilling toward Zion and dying to send a warning, which leads into Reloaded. The Second Renaissance, in two parts, tells the history of the war: a robot kills its owner, robots win equal rights and build their own nation, humans attack them and block out the sun, and the machines win and turn people into an energy source. Kid's Story shows a teenager who escapes the Matrix on his own by jumping from his school roof. Program has a rebel fighting her partner in a samurai training simulation after he asks her to betray the others and return to the Matrix with him. World Record follows a sprinter who briefly breaks free of the Matrix by running so fast. Beyond follows a girl through a haunted house that is really a glitch in the Matrix. A Detective Story has a private detective hired to find Trinity. Matriculated has rebels trying to convert a captured machine to their side.
How The Animatrix ends
The collection has no single ending. Each short tells its own small story, some inside the Matrix and some in the real world, and several feature characters who briefly glimpse that their world is not real. The shorts that matter most for the films are Final Flight of the Osiris, which sets up Reloaded, and The Second Renaissance, which explains how the war began.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2003 · Film
The Matrix Revolutions recap
Neo's mind is trapped in a train station between the Matrix and the machine world, run by the Merovingian. Trinity, Morpheus and the Oracle's guardian Seraph force the Merovingian to free him. The Oracle, now with a new face, tells Neo that Smith is his opposite and will destroy both worlds, and then Smith copies himself into her. Neo decides he must go to the Machine City, and he and Trinity take a ship there, while Bane, possessed by Smith, stows away and blinds Neo in a fight; Neo can still see the machines as light. In Zion, the army of Sentinels breaks through, and soldiers in walking machine suits hold the docks. Niobe flies a ship through the tunnels so the Zion fighters can fire an EMP that disables the invaders for a time.
How The Matrix Revolutions ends
Trinity dies when the ship crashes in the Machine City. Neo offers the machines' leader a deal: he will stop Smith, who now threatens them too, in exchange for peace. Neo fights Smith in a city of Smith copies, and after he lets Smith copy himself into him, the machines destroy every Smith through Neo's body. The Sentinels leave Zion, the Matrix is restored, and the Architect promises the Oracle that anyone who wants to leave will be freed. Neo's body is carried away.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2021 · Film
The Matrix Resurrections recap
Sixty years after the war ended, Thomas Anderson is a famous video game designer, the creator of a trilogy of games called The Matrix, who takes blue pills from his therapist to calm his doubts about reality. His company is told to make a sequel. At a coffee shop, he keeps seeing a married mother called Tiffany who seems familiar. A captain named Bugs and a new program version of Morpheus pull him out, and he wakes in a pod. In the human city of Io, he finds an aged Niobe and learns that the machines rebuilt him and Trinity after their deaths. The therapist, called the Analyst, is the new Matrix's designer and keeps them close but apart because their longing generates huge amounts of energy. Smith, now Anderson's business partner, is free again.
How The Matrix Resurrections ends
Neo and the Analyst agree that Trinity will choose whether to leave. She remembers who she is and chooses Neo. Pursued by the Analyst's forces, Trinity discovers she can fly, and she and Neo escape together. Later, free, they visit the Analyst, beat him, and tell him they plan to remake the Matrix their own way, perhaps painting the sky with rainbows. Then they fly off together over the city, the two of them now equals.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. After the credits, the game company's staff mock pitches for the next big idea, including putting cat videos into the Matrix, a joke that sets nothing up.
Common questions
What is the Matrix story so far?
The world most people know is the Matrix, a simulation built by machines that won a war against humanity and now grow people in pods for energy; a few freed humans fight back from the underground city of Zion. The hacker Neo is revealed as the One, and he ends the war by sacrificing himself to destroy the rogue program Agent Smith. Sixty years later, in The Matrix Resurrections, Neo and Trinity are brought back, freed again, and set out to remake the Matrix themselves.
Where did Matrix leave off?
The Matrix Resurrections (2021) is the latest. Neo and the Analyst agree that Trinity will choose whether to leave. She remembers who she is and chooses Neo. Pursued by the Analyst's forces, Trinity discovers she can fly, and she and Neo escape together. Later, free, they visit the Analyst, beat him, and tell him they plan to remake the Matrix their own way, perhaps painting the sky with rainbows. Then they fly off together over the city, the two of them now equals.
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