Neo and Trinity are back in The Matrix Resurrections. But how is that possible? Didn’t they die in Revolutions? And why is there a different version of Morpheus running around the simulation?
There are plenty of questions to be answered in The Matrix Resurrections and many of its big mysteries are addressed head on. Here are some of the biggest questions answered (or we tried).
How Are Neo and Trinity Alive?
Let’s get the hard question out of the way first. It’s confirmed in Resurrections that Neo and Trinity did indeed die in Revolutions — your eyes weren’t deceiving you — but death wasn’t meant to be the end of their stories. The Analyst (Neil Patrick Harris) reveals that he revived Neo and Trinity to power a new version of the Matrix built on desire and fear — a desire for the things people don’t have and fear of losing the things that they do. By keeping Neo and Trinity in close proximity, longing for each other within the simulation, the Analyst created a new template for human experience within the Matrix, one designed to manipulate feelings and emotions instead of just recreating facts as the Architect had in the last version.
In one particularly gruesome scene, we watch as Machines rebuild Neo and Trinity’s broken bodies, healing the awful wounds they sustained during their final mission to the Machine City.
What Is a Modal and What’s Up with Morpheus/Agent Smith?
Although it looks like history is repeating itself in the opening scene, Bugs (Jessica Henwick) and Sequoia (Toby Onwumere) are actually watching a fake Trinity fight a SWAT team and Agents from inside a simulation within a simulation called a “modal.” In terms of what a modal is within the Matrix universe, Bugs explains that it’s a simulation designed to evolve programs.
In this case, the modal was created by Neo himself, who thinks he’s just running a test within his game “Binary.” But subconsciously, he’s trying to spark the events that led to the original Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity finding him and waking him up in the first Matrix movie.
The program being evolved in this particular modal is a new version of Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who begins life as an amalgamation of Agent Smith and Neo’s captain, the two opposing forces that led to Neo becoming who he needed to be back in 1999. New Morpheus describes the experience of being both people at once as “more than a little crazy-making.” Fortunately, Bugs helps him wake up and learn his true purpose: he must find Neo.
Who Is the Analyst?
In short, the Analyst is the new Architect, the manager of this new version of the Matrix. But where the Architect sought to control human minds through cold, hard math and facts, the Analyst likes to take a more personal approach, manipulating feelings to create fictions that keep the blue-pills in line. (He observes that humans will “believe the craziest shit,” which really isn’t very far off from the truth if you’ve ever spent any time on Facebook.) The Analyst says that his approach has made humans produce more energy to feed the Machines than ever before, all while keeping them from wanting to escape the simulation.
While he’s never mentioned in the original trilogy, the Analyst confirms that he was there watching as Neo helped the Machines defeat Smith in Revolutions.
Will There Be a Matrix 5: What’s Next for Neo and Trinity?
Is there enough for a Matrix 5? Well, that’s more complicated. Yes, the movie does leave things somewhat open-ended, with Neo and Trinity off to change the simulation and free more minds like it’s 1999 all over again. But surely the Analyst and the Machines aren’t just going to sit back and let that happen, right? And that hologram isn’t going to protect Io from the Machines forever either. So yeah, there could be enough for a sequel that sees humanity and the Machines in further conflict, but that feels to me like too much of a retread at this point.
Of course, Lana Wachowski has proved here that she can take even a nostalgic legacy sequel in unexplored directions, so there’s no doubt that she could surprise us with a really exciting new twist that carries another installment. But Resurrections is also about finally giving Neo and Trinity the happy ending they deserved in 2003. Neo and Trinity zipping through the dawn of a brand new day for humanity seems like the perfect stopping point for these characters.
Hopefully this article has answered some of your burning questions. You can comment down below and see any fellow commentors will share any insights on the world of the Matrix. Are we living in the Matrix? You can now catch The Matrix Resurrections at your local cinemas.
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