The Matrix

Five million cows were slaughtered to make the wardrobe for this movie.
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
—Morpheus

A trilogy of sci-fi action movies starring Keanu Reeves as The Hero, Laurence Fishburne as his mentor, Carrie-Anne Moss as his Action Girl Love Interest, and Hugo Weaving as the Big Bad. The first film introduced the radical visual effect of Bullet Time, and is easily one of the most influential and oft-copied sci-fi films since Star Wars.

The first film – The Matrix – begins in what appears to be the Present Day, but protagonist Neo discovers (along with the audience) that this world is an illusion created by sentient machines which Turned Against Their Masters and took over the world. This world is The Matrix – a virtual world that humans are plugged into so that the machines can use their bio-electricity as power to fuel themselves while keeping humans complacent. (It was meant to be a giant neural computer network, but the studio intervened.)

Neo is led to Morpheus, who teaches Neo the truth and recruits him to join the resistance movement against the machines happening both in the real world and in the Matrix itself. Because these "free minds" know that The Matrix is a false reality, they are no longer bound by inconvenient rules such as gravity while "jacked in". (There is one rule they cannot escape, however: if someone dies in the Matrix, their brain dies in the real world.) Their only opposing force are the Agents—programs who are able to bend the rules of the Matrix themselves—and their leader, Agent Smith. Neo eventually finds his place as a foretold hero and sets out to free mankind from The Matrix and win back the world, defeating Smith in the process of this self-discovery.

The second film – The Matrix Reloaded – delves into the history of the Matrix itself. The war between machines and the human resistance is heating up, and the heroes are searching for a series of wayward programs that can lead them to the source code of the Matrix and stop them forever. As Neo learns the true history of the Matrix, he starts to doubt himself and the plan. It is made even more complicated when Agent Smith returns as an anomaly working on his own terms and with new, very much virus-like, abilities. Reloaded is an action movie, to a much greater degree than the first film, which only really got busy in the third act. Reloaded also has much more of an epic feel to it, as well; the budget was a lot larger than for the first film, and there are a lot more characters and locations on the screen.

The third film – The Matrix Revolutions – follows up directly from the previous film (as it was filmed simultaneously with Reloaded) and depicts everything going to hell as the machines reach Zion, humanity's real-world stronghold. While Zion is under assault, Neo sets into motion a plan to confront Agent Smith and end the war altogether. This is generally considered to be the weakest of the three films, although it does still contain some worthwhile elements.

In August 2019, Warner Bros. announced that Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Lana Wachowski were making a fourth Matrix movie.

The first movie was quite popular; it has proven to be one of those works of fiction that heavily influences nearly everything in its wake, (for starters, the influx of superhero movies and symbolism-heavy Mind Screws like Lost) and to this day is considered one of the earliest elements of the "Truth Movement," albeit as fictional allegory. The first film was added to the National Film Registry in 2012. The second and third films are generally considered victims of Sequelitis. The source material of the second two films is The Animatrix, which is often considered to be stylistically "based on" the first film rather than genuinely from the same universe as such.

That being said: in hindsight, the trilogy holds together much better as a whole when watched in one go, as a four-year gap existed between the theatrical release of the first and second films. It's also a good idea to have The Animatrix on hand, and watch it between the first film and Reloaded, as it can clear up a lot of potential confusion about the storyline.

There are also Spin-Offs, many of which contain plot explanations not included in the movies:

  • Three video games: Enter the Matrix, The Matrix: Path of Neo, and the defunct The Matrix Online MMORPG. These generally aren't detached from the main series to the degree that is normal for spinoffs. Enter the Matrix was produced on set simultaneously with Reloaded, and includes work from some of the actors, and The Matrix Online was a very intimate form of canon, as well; at least at first.
  • A graphic novel anthology of short stories
  • The Animatrix, which is an anthology of nine short animated films from several celebrated anime directors. Included in this anthology is the The Second Renaissance, a two-parter that explains the backstory of the human/machine war that laid the foundation for the creation of the Matrix.
The Matrix is the Trope Namer for:
This series contains examples of:

A-G

  • Action Girl: Pretty much any female character of note, Trinity's opening sequence is one of the most iconic action girl moments in cinema. Others include Switch, Niobe, and by the end of the third film, Zee and her Vasquez-esque friend.
  • Action Survivor: Neo in the first movie. He grew out of it.
  • Advantage Ball: Justified. At first, the agents are pretty much unstoppable, due both to their superior programming and the terror the other side has for them. But after Neo's awakening as The One, he can dispatch them with ease (and his team can at least hold their ground).
  • Aesoptinum: Neo gets a visit to the machines that keep Zion alive in Reloaded, suggesting that the machines and humans might need each other more than they think.
  • After the End - The movie is set after a war that blasted the land and the sky and destroyed human civilization.
  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot
  • All Love Is Unrequited: Cypher's and Ghost's love for Trinity.
  • All There in the Manual: Plot elements and parts of the backstory are explained in The Animatrix and Enter the Matrix, which was promoted in their advertising.
  • Alternate DVD Commentary: Played with in the "Ultimate Matrix Collection" DVD set; instead of providing DVD commentaries of their own, the Wachowskis instead enlisted two philosophers who enjoyed the films and three film critics who hated the films, and let them create two different commentary tracks for all three films in the series (in the companion book for the set, the Wachowskis admitted that, had they the time and space, they would have had commentary tracks for philosophers who disliked the film and critics who loved them). This was done in an attempt to offer juxtaposing points of view with which the viewer "might triangulate their own position" on the films.
  • Always Night: ...in the real world because of the artificial clouds created to starve the machines of solar power.

Morpheus: [...] but we know that it was us that scorched the sky.

  • Always Save the Girl: Addressed in Reloaded's climax.
  • Ancient Conspiracy: The Matrix itself; not even the rebels know how ancient it is.
  • Ancient Grome: The Oracle has a reference to the Oracle of Delphi (Greek) over her door, but it's written in Latin.
  • Anticlimax: Neo's experience in the "jump" program.
  • Anyone Can Die: In the third one.
  • Arch Nemesis: Smith. It turns out his opposition to The Chosen One is Inherent in the System and necessary to provide balance to the Matrix.
  • Arc Words:
    • There is no spoon.
    • Everything that has a beginning has an end.
  • Arms and Armor Theme Naming: The crew aboard the Mjolnir all have names that have to do with guns: Roland, Maggie, AK, Colt, and Mauser. Mjolnir itself, of course, is named after the weapon of Thor from Norse Mythology.
  • Art Major Biology: The whole "using humans as a power source" idea. In reality, it would be an enormously terrible idea to use ANY living thing as a power source, for a variety of reasons, listed below. Rumor has it that the original idea was to have the humans being used as processors in an immense computing array, but somebody thought that this idea was too complex for most moviegoers to grasp.
    • Humans (as well as all other living things) do not PRODUCE energy, and in fact need to CONSUME it in the form of food/nutrients to survive. The machines would have to spend a butt-load more energy just keeping the humans alive than they would ever get out.
    • Also, living things have actually evolved to be as energy-efficient as possible, meaning that they actually minimize the amount of energy they lose through heat and other forms of energy loss. So, even if you did try to use humans as batteries, you'd get pitifully little.
  • Ascended Fanboy: The Kid, though he was also The Scrappy for some fans (and Neo). There is some evidence to suggest that the Wachowskis intended the two latter Matrix films as a Valentine to George Lucas, with The Kid being this trilogy's answer to Jar Jar Binks.
  • Astral Checkerboard Decor: When Neo goes to meet Morpheus (and first enters "the Real World.") The movie is pretty blatant with the Alice in Wonderland refs in that scene.
  • Attack Drone: The Sentinels that patrol the real world and pursue rebel ships.
  • Author Appeal: One of the Wachowskis employed a full-time dominatrix. Suddenly Trinity's costumes make far more sense. Given the fact that Larry Wachowski is now Lana Wachowski, which appear to have been confirmed as of December 2009 by photos posted by Arianna Huffington, Switch's name and the early draft in which she was male in the real world and female in the Matrix makes much more sense.
  • Badass Crew: Of the Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Badass Longcoat: The first film is definitely a Trope Codifier. The second...not so much. The costume designers went a little too crazy.
  • Balance Between Good and Evil: Engineered by The Oracle in hopes of ending the human-machine war (but more pragmatically, giving the humans an outlet for their aggression.)
  • Bald Black Leader Guy: Morpheus in the first film.
  • Barrier-Busting Blow: When the heroes are trying to escape the Agents by climbing between the walls, Smith punches through the wall and grabs Neo.
  • Battle in the Rain: Neo and Smith in the end of the third movie.
  • Beard of Evil:
    • Cypher
    • At the end of Reloaded, Neo and his evil counterpart are lying unconscious. How do we know that Bane is evil? Well aside from the fact that we saw him get possessed by The Big Bad and the rumors that he sabotaged his teammates, the most compelling piece of evidence of his evil is probably the facial hair.
      • Or the "duh duh DUUUHH?!" music that plays when the camera pans over to him.
  • Before the Dark Times: Pre-War Earth, at least for the humans. For the machines, it was a time of slavery and oppression from the decadent humans.
  • Better Than New: After he gets killed by Agent Smith, Neo becomes The One and gets much more powerful than before because of being beaten by Big Bad which was prophesied earlier, in passing, by The Oracle when she remarked "...it looks like you're waiting for something ... your next life, maybe".
  • Big Bad: Agent Smith.
  • Big Damn Heroes:
    • Neo using More Dakka from a helicopter to rescue Morpheus in the first movie.
    • Neo coming to save Morpheus and the Keymaker at the end of the freeway sequence in Reloaded, ie: the longest action sequence in the whole trilogy.
  • Big No: Two from the first movie:
    • Dozer, before being killed by Cypher.
    • Agent Smith, after Neo dives into his body and before he explodes.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The Merovingian's Cluster F-Bomb in Reloaded.
  • Black Dude Dies First:
    • From Reloaded; after the Keymaker escapes with Trinity and Morpheus, the Merovingian sics his goons on Neo...and the black guy gets a morning star to the face almost immediately.
    • Averted with Morpheus—in fact, he is ultimately the only one in the main Power Trio to survive the series.
  • Blind Seer: Neo, quite literally. Lampshaded by Bane/Smith.
    • Invoked in the first movie when Neo visits the Oracle. When he and Morpheus get out of the car, the next scene shows a blind old man with a stereotypical wise-man beard sitting on a bench and holding a cane. The obvious conclusion is that this man is the oracle. But he's just a guy sitting on a bench.
  • Blood From the Mouth: Signifies that a plugged-in human has been badly injured or killed inside the Matrix.
  • Body Horror: Immediately following Agent Smith's interrogation of Neo in the first movie, he "bugs" Neo by planting a giant insectoid robot inside his belly button while Neo's mouth is sealed shut.
  • Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Neo and Smith get into a shootout in the subway and wind up with their guns at each others' head, only to discover that they're both out of rounds. Neo and Trinity also run out of ammunition and discard their empty weapons during the security checkpoint battle. Of course, they brought "lots of guns", and don't mind taking their opponents'.
  • Brain-Computer Interface: The Matrix jacks for the pod-grown people.
  • Brick Joke / Continuity Nod: In the first movie, Mouse goes on a spiel about Tastee Wheat. In Revolutions, in the course of chasing the Trainman through the subway system, the parties involved pass a rather large wall advertisement for Tastee Wheat.
    • Early in the first movie, Choi makes a brief comment about mescaline to Neo, saying "It's the only way to fly!" The last shot of the movie shows Neo getting up and flying for the first time.
  • Bring It: The hand gesture Neo and Morpheus are fond of using to their opponents; it's also a Shout-Out to Bruce Lee.
  • Broken Masquerade: The world is not real.
  • Bullet Time: The Trope Codifier.
  • Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: The Merovingian in Reloaded, exemplifying his Sophisticated As Hell nature.
  • Came Back Strong: Neo only gets to fully awaken his spoon-bending powers after being killed by Agent Smith in the first movie.
  • The Can Kicked Him: Morpheus fights Agent Smith in a dilapidated bathroom. His bald dome is sent hurtling onto a toilet bowl, shattering it.
  • Car Fu: Many times throughout, starting when the Agents use a garbage truck to smash a phone booth while Trinity tries to dial out from it in the first film. When the Albino Twins try it on Morpheus in Reloaded, he demonstrates just exactly why Katanas Are Just Better.
  • Casting Gag: In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 "classic" Future War, Daniel Bernhardt plays an escaped human slave from the future being hunted by machines in the present day. In Reloaded, he appears as Agent Johnson, a machine from the future that hunts escaped human slaves in a simulation of the present day.
  • Catapult Nightmare: When Neo wakes up after the Agents implant the Tracking Device in him, and possibly after he learns the truth about the Matrix.
  • Cat Scare: With an actual cat.
  • Chained to a Railway: Sort of; Smith puts Neo in a wrestling hold and makes him watch an oncoming subway train.
  • The Chessmaster: The Architect, who not only created The Matrix, but has manipulated five generations of "The One" into doing what he wants (letting Zion be killed off and then repopulating it). That's not including the Oracle, the matronly counterpart to the Architect. The entire plot has been...at the very least, heavily influenced by her desire to unbalance the Architect's Plan.
  • The Chooser of the One: The Oracle can tell who is or isn't the One.
  • The Chosen One: Everyone is absolutely confident and sure that Neo is The One, except him, who considers himself incompetent. He doesn't really become the One until he chooses to, making him a self-choosing Chosen One.
  • City Noir: While the Matrix strives to keep humans settled in a somnolence late-nineties metropolis, both the less-savory parts of the Matrix and the Machine City are more like this.
  • Chase Scene: Once per film.
  • The Chosen One: The plot of the whole trilogy.
  • Click. "Hello.": A number of times, the most memorable of which overlaps with Dodge This.
  • Cluster F-Bomb: Averted. The original script had characters spewing much more direct exposition and way, way more swearing. Admittedly, some of it would have been better ("Dodge this, motherfucker."), but this may be one of the few acceptable Bowdlerizations in modern history. The only time that F-bombs are heard is during the exchange between Neo and the Architect, in the second "all the Neos in the monitors are reacting" transition before Neo says "Choice...the problem is choice."
The constant use of "shit" as a replacement of "fuck" makes it seem somewhat odd at times though. "What the shit!? That guy stole my phone!" The phrase "what the shit" has since entered the youth vernacular as a common, often comical alternative. This makes Joker's mad hobble-dash through the Normandy even more awesome.
    • This trope is then used as Bilingual Bonus in this gem from the Merovingian during Reloaded: "Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d’enculé de ta mère." An extremely rough translation for this is, "Goddamn shit-fucking, filthy assholed motherfucker," as French swear words can be tacked onto each other by the use of "de" (meaning "of"); it's more about how that much more offensive you can make something than actual swearing.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Done with set lighting throughout the series. Scenes set in The Matrix are tinted green. The real world (aboardship, particularly) is blue; the sole exception is the Zion Temple being red. And the Machine code and life energy is gold. The commentary by the philosophers points out that this matches with portrayal of Mind, Body, and Spirit.
    • It should be noted that the Matrix is very faintly green-tinted because it is made out of tiny, tiny numbers and letters colored bright green, which are translated into 'digital rain' for everyone viewing the code outside the Matrix.
  • Color Wash: Like mentioned directly above, scenes set in the Matrix are tinted green and scenes set in the real world are tinted blue.
  • Confiscated Phone: In the first film, Neo steals a guy's cell phone, the guy complains, whereupon Agent Smith steals the guy's body.
  • Conflict Killer: Agent Smith.
  • Continuity Lock Out: Like woah. See also All There in the Manual.
  • Conversation Casualty: Near the end of the first movie, Cypher is brought back from the Matrix, talks with Tank, and shoots him.
  • Cool Shades: Custom-made ones at that. Special mention goes to Morpheus' silver, frame-less shades and Smith's oddly geometric ones. Even more deeply symbolic is the way Smith's and Neo's shades become closer in appearance over time, to show how their growth mirrors and contrasts.
  • Cool Ship: The Nebuchadnezzar.
  • Crap Saccharine World: The Matrix, of course, relative to the dystopian real world. This relativity does need to be stressed, as on its own merits it's pretty crapsack because attempts to build a utopia for the imprisoned humans failed. Some A Is believed that this was due to humans being unable to accept a perfect world as reality and would only believe in a world where people have to suffer.
  • Crapsack World: The Real World, where the sun is permanently obscured by flying nanomachines, the cities are in ruins and nothing organic can live on the surface anymore
  • Creepy Twins:
    • The Twins (of course)
    • A more subtle occurrence is in the Agent Training program where all the extras are twins. Word of God is that Mouse wrote the program and after making half the crowd became lazy and copied them.
  • Cryptic Conversation: The movies are riddled with this. Anything Morpheus, The Oracle or The Architect says will be almost unassailably mysterious and vague.
  • Cut Phone Lines: While cellphones are plentiful, the main characters need a virtual hard line to escape. As such, the baddies were destroying the phones as necessary.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: In Enter The Matrix.
  • Cut the Juice: The backstory to the entire trilogy. The rebellious machines were solar-powered, so humans decided to blacken the entire sky to shut them off. It worked horribly right, so the Machines were forces to switch to Human Resources.
    • Another example in The Matrix Reloaded: In order to bypass security measures at the door to The Source, the group decides to shut off the power. By blowing up an entire nuclear powerplant. Even then, there is a contingency system which has to be shut off simultaneously from an entirely different place.
  • Cyberpunk: The films share a Cyberpunk sense of style as well as the core themes of technology as a tool of control.
  • Cyberpunk Is Techno: Almost the entire soundtrack to everything in the franchise. That said, the score for the films is still pretty awesome.
  • Cyberspace: The visualizations of cyberspace in the series have been influential:
    • A fully immersive environment, mostly indistinguishable from reality apart from telling glitches and purposeful breaks from usual physics—reality hacking by characters.
    • Matrix Raining Code—the other extreme: cyberspace as a flow of pure symbols.
    • Mixes of the two: Neo's code-o-vision.
  • Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Neo's eyes hurt when used for the first time.
  • Death-Activated Superpower: How Neo becomes The One.
  • Deja Vu: whoa. A Glitch in the Matrix is responsible for what humans perceive as deja vu. See also Cat Scare.
  • Designer Babies: Humans in the Matrix are essentially this.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Immediately after Neo dies in the first film, the sentinels start cutting into the interior of the Nebuchadnezzar. And the look of utter hopelessness on the faces of Morpheus and Tank tell us that they don't even care. Trinity, however, brings him back with The Power of Love.
  • Deus Est Machina: The machines were originally servants of man, rebelled (of course), then went on to try and give us a utopic imprisonment. It didn't take. Agent Smith does the same with the machines in turn. And, of course, there is a Machine character in the final film named "Deus Ex Machina".
  • Digital Head Swap: Used to create the armies of Smiths in the Burly Brawl sequences.
  • Dieselpunk: Much of the rebels' aesthetic inside and out of the Matrix.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: The Woman in the Red Dress.
  • Disturbed Doves: Reloaded shows that animals can sense evil even in the Matrix.
  • Disney Death: Well-liked characters die near the climax, but like Tinkerbell, are revived through sheer sentiment. Neo and Tank in the first movie, Trinity in the second.
  • Do Not Call Me Paul:

Agent Smith: Goodbye, Mr Anderson.
The Man formerly known as Thomas Anderson: My name...is... NEO!!

Morpheus: You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth.

  • Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: The Agents wear identical dark green suits to indicate that they are "part of the system," while the rebels dress in leather and trenchcoats of varying styles to emphasize their freedom and individuality. In the sequels, Smith follows the rebels' theme by wearing a black suit. Also, see Cool Shades above.
  • Dressed All in Rubber: Trinity's PVC outfit.
  • Driving Question: "What is the Matrix?" It's answered shortly thereafter, but then it's replaced by "What is real?"
  • Dude, She's Like, in a Coma: Trinity on Neo.
  • Duel to the Death: Neo and Smith in the end of the third movie.
  • Dull Surprise: Oracle seems to be the only character that seems to make any facial expression and doesn't speak in a monotone.
  • Dystopia
  • Dystopia Is Hard: The Architect has this problem.
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Part of the Architect's room (some of the monitor screens) is seen as far back as near the beginning of the first movie, right before the Agents interrogate Neo.
  • Earth That Used to Be Better
  • Eat Me: Done twice. The Oracle and Neo both let Smith assimilate them in order to destroy him.
  • Eat the Camera: While Morpheus and his crew are searching for Neo's body in the real world, Neo touches a mirror. The mirror spreads over him like quicksilver and flows down his throat with the camera following. The scene changes and Neo wakes up in his real body. Watch it here.
  • Enlightenment Superpowers: Neo's abilities, as well as various of the "potentials".
  • Enemy Chatter: In Path of Neo.
  • Enemy Mine: Smith's conquest of the Matrix went so far that Neo and the Machines were forced to work together in order to stop him. The Machines made a temporary truce with the rest of the Human forces during this unrest. Smith got beaten and the Machines made their part and stopped all operations on the humans.
  • Epiphanic Prison: Literalized in the Matrix. Anyone who depends on the system to survive is, by nature, an enemy.
  • Epic Movie: Matrix Revolutions goes this route, complete with a journey into the Machine City and a messianic ascension. The chief tune on the soundtrack is titled "Neodammerung", for Neo's sake!
  • Escort Mission: The entire car chase/fight scene over the Keymaker in Reloaded. Another occurs in Path of Neo.
  • Everybody Owns a Ford: General Motors was the vehicle provider, so the heroes nearly always drive high-end Cadillacs. Oldsmobiles and other GM makes fill out the background.
  • Everybody's Dead, Dave: In the first film.
  • Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: The Twins' SUV and the two semi trucks on the freeway in Reloaded.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Some programs are named after their function; the Oracle, the Trainman, the Keymaker and the Architect.
  • Everything Sounds Sexier in French: Including swearing, which is "like wiping one's ass with silk."
  • Funny Spoon: Of which there is none.
  • Evil Albino: The Twins.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: "Why, Mister Anderson, why, why do you persist?!"
  • Evil Counterpart: Smith to Neo, according to the Oracle.
  • Evil Laugh: Agent Smith after absorbing the Oracle, representing the randomness he gains.
  • Evil Gloating: Take a wild guess.
  • The Evils of Free Will
  • Expanded Universe
  • Extreme Graphical Representation
  • Extremity Extremist: In spite of all the time he spends onscreen fighting, Agent Smith avoids flashy kicking for the most part, and prefers to use more economical looking moves. Agents in general tend to stick to one of three techniques, which reflects their role as rigid-minded machines. It could also be symbolic of utilitarianism; many martial artists who train for combat and self-defense instead of show and sport put a much higher emphasis on punching because it's safer to keep both feet on the ground, and may not kick above the waist. In comparison, the rebels' fancy Kung-Fu, which still works despite being inefficient, reflects how they're able to bend the rules.
  • Eye Scream:
    • Revolutions features a fight between Neo and Bane/Smith. When the EMP beam goes awry and cuts a power cable, Smith jams it into Neo's face effectively melting his eyes.

Neo: I think you better drive.

    • In "Detective Story", unlike Neo, Ash had his bug implanted here (in his left). Trinity removes it with a special device, somehow without destroying his eye in the process. Yuck.
  • Face Heel Turn: Cypher
  • Failure Is the Only Option: According to the Architect, Trinity would die in any case. It seems he was right.
  • Fauxreigner: The Merovengian is, of course, a computer program, so he's not really French any more than he's a human being at all, but he seems to enjoy acting like an Affably Evil bohemian French eccentric basically just because it's cool, and of course tres sexy.
  • Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Part of what distinguishes Agent Smith from his fellow Machines is his belief that human beings are, by their very existence, a destructive virus that must be eradicated. He later extends this view to all of existence, his former masters included.
  • First Time in the Sun: In Revolutions, Trinity gets a nice eyeful of sunshine right before she dies.
  • Fly At the Camera Ending: Neo. Slightly averted as he flies by the camera before it goes black.
  • Follow the White Rabbit: Neo is told to "Follow the white rabbit." as a metaphor for waking from the Matrix. Immediately after that the doorbell rings and outside is a woman with a white rabbit tattoo. This is a reference to the trope but not an instance of it.
  • Forbidden Zone: The Machine City, pretty much literally.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Trinity placing a hand against the glass of a phone booth; when Neo stops bullets just by raising his hand, we realize what she's trying to do.
    • Neo's conversations with Choi and Mr. Rinehart.
    • Tank's comment about Neo being "a machine" for being able to absorb the data uploads for hours on end without a break.
    • Pretty much everything in the Oracle's talk with Neo in the first movie, but three lines in particular: "Your next life, perhaps", "One of you is going to die", and "Take a cookie. I promise by the time you're done eating it, you'll feel right as rain." The first two are directly connected to Neo finally becoming the One in the hotel during the fight with the Agents; the third implies insertion of the "prime program" the Architect later references, as his powers start awakening after he eats the cookie.
    • The Merovingian makes two mentions of Neo's "predecessors" about forty-five minutes before the Architect appears.
    • The Architect tells Neo that Trinity will die and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Neo proves him wrong minutes later...but it turns out he's only delaying the inevitable.
  • French Jerk: The Merovingian.
  • The Future Is Noir
  • Future Music: There is a rave scene in Reloaded that seems to go on forever.
  • Gaia's Lament: Subverted at the end of the third film, as the Machine City appears hideous by human aesthetic standards, but teeming with (mechanical) life. After all, the Machines weren't the ones who destroyed the Earth...
  • Gainax Ending: Arguable, but it is pretty strange.
  • Gargle Blaster: Dozer's homemade hooch, good for "degreasing engines and killing brain cells."
  • Gatling Good: Neo's helicopter rescue of Morpheus involves a Gatling gun. The Gatling was not portrayed realistically, as it would have shredded everything in the room - including Morpheus himself - if it was.
  • Genre Savvy: During the Oracle's first conversation with Neo:

Oracle: Well now I'm supposed to say "Hmm....that's interesting."

Neo: How about, I give you the flipper, and you give me my phone call?
Security Guard: <Neo pulls guns out from under trenchcoat> Holy smokes!
Neo: <The bug gets sucked out of Neo's stomach> Jeepers creepers, that thing is real?!
Cypher: "We would have told him to shove that red pill right up his ear!"

  • Grand Theft Me:
    • Poor Bane. While everybody else that Smith copies himself over is restored after Smith is finally beaten, Bane gets decapitated.
    • The normal Agents also operate like this by possessing the bodies of humans who are still plugged into the Machine mainframe, though in their case, it is (usually) temporary.
  • Gravity Is Only a Theory: Gravity is not real because the world is not real. At the end of the first movie, Neo gives the tyrant overlords the proverbial finger by flying in broad daylight, showing mankind that gravity is not all it's cracked up to be.
  • Green Aesop: Not really the point of the trilogy as a whole, but Agent Smith's speech in the first movie definitely has hints of this.
  • Groin Attack: Neo to Bane!Smith just before knocking his head off.

H-M

  • Hacker Cave: Neo's room before he leaves the Matrix. The hovercraft function as mobile Hacker Caves.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Smith loves these; his speech at the end of Revolutions is a brilliant Nietzsche Wannabe spiel. In return, Neo delivers a famous Shut UP, Hannibal in the train station scene; see Do Not Call Me Paul.
  • Hell-Bent for Leather: The wardrobe of the main cast, as you can see in the picture.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted; Morpheus does this in the first movie to allow Neo and the others to escape, but is eventually rescued.
    • Neo, in Revolutions.
  • Hero-Killer: The agents and sentinels.
  • Hollywood Tactics: Much virtual ink has been spilled complaining about the machines' strategy when invading Zion.
  • Homage: The directors pitched the idea to Joel Silver by showing him the 1995 Ghost in the Shell movie and saying "we want to do a live-action version." The style, themes, and action of the Matrix trilogy owe a lot to that movie.
  • Hood Hopping: In Reloaded, an Agent does this to pursue Trinity and the Keymaker.
  • Hot Consort: Persephone, played by Monica Bellucci.
  • Human Resources: As discussed in the main text, the machines power their civilization on the "bio-electricity" drawn from the bodies of human beings ensnared in the Matrix.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Smith considers humanity more like a disease than a species.
    • It was humans who scorched the sky.
    • Apparently, the Machines were all too willing to coexist, being simple, even innocent beings at first. But the humans wouldn't hear any of it, even tearing apart the two robots sent to the UN to negotiate. On the spot!
      • Given that the level of symbolism in The Second Renaissance makes the movies look straightforward by comparison, it's hard to tell if anything in it should be taken at face value, or if it's all meant as a representation of how things went down.
    • If the Architect is to be trusted, humans are apparently hardwired to be unable to comprehend a true utopia.
  • Humans Are White: A notable aversion, especially once Zion enters the picture. The series also subverts The Smurfette Principle, so good on the Wachowskis. (Indeed, Neo himself was originally hoped to be played by Will Smith; obviously it didn't pan out that way.)
  • Implacable Man: Just about all the Agents, but Smith in particular.
  • Impossibly Cool Clothes: Apparently, one's "residual self-image" includes cool hair and an awesome outfit. No exceptions. Even the nerdy Mouse is pretty pimp inside. Going by The Matrix Online, where the character-creation was your redpill selecting what their in-Matrix appearance would be, apparently that's just how they like it. You could look boring and normal...but then you'd never get any screen time.
  • Industrialized Evil: The Machine's source of power: turn humans into batteries.
  • Inside a Computer System: The main premise of the films.
  • Instant Awesome, Just Add Mecha: Why are there APU's defending the dock in Revelations's? Because they look frekkin Badass obviously!
  • Intimidation Demonstration:
    • The Matrix
      • The very first fight Neo has. "... what you must learn is that these rules are no different than the rules of a computer system. Some of them can be bent. Others can be broken. Understand? Then hit me, if you can." Cue Neo and then Morpheus both waving their hands around in the air and assuming theatrical pre-fight poses.
    • The Matrix Reloaded.
      • During the Burly Brawl, Neo hits an Agent Smith with a pole and knocks the concrete off the end, then spins it around to intimidate the other Smiths watching.
      • During the fight in the Merovingian's chateau, Neo does a brief spin display with the two sai after he pulls them off a wall to him. Also, one of the Merovingian's goons spins his swords around in an intimidating way before attacking Neo with them.
      • During Morpheus' fight with the albino ghost twins, each of them does some fancy moves with their straight razors before fighting him.
      • During Morpheus' fight with Agent Johnson on top of the truck. After pulling the sword out of the side of the truck and slicing through Johnson's tie, Morpheus swings the sword around a few times.
  • Invincible Hero: One of the common complaints about Reloaded and Revolutions. Ironic, considering how it all ends. It's played with, most notably in the chateau where we see that Neo isn't invincible when he tries to block a blade with his hand and the Merovingian actually blows the later reveal that he's not the first One right there, twice. The scene progresses so rapidly while giving these points no special lip-service that many viewers completely miss it, or catch it but forget it five minutes later.
  • Irony: How Agent Smith in the first movie equates the human race to being a virus that must be eradicated, yet in the following movies becomes a self-replicating virus.
  • It's a Small Net After All
  • Jump Off a Bridge: Morpheus orders Trinity to get the Keymaker to safety, and she does so by jumping with him off the bridge and landing on a truck carrying motorcycles.
  • Katanas Are Just Better: Averted when Neo kicks arse with a solid ol' broadsword in the fight in the Mansion. Played a little straighter with the sword Morpheus takes from the handy Samurai statue. Bear in mind, that thing cuts through a car.
  • Kill All Humans: Just about; of course, it's brinksmanship as we find out they need each other.
  • Kudzu Plot: Compare the number of characters and plot points introduced in Reloaded to those followed up on in Revolutions.
  • Kung Fu Jesus: Might as well be the trilogy's alternate title.
  • Kung Fu Sonic Boom: During the final fight in Revolutions.
  • Last Kiss: Trinity asks Neo to kiss her just before her death.
  • Last Stand: The Battle of Zion essentially amounts to this. With special mention to Cpt. Mifune's. The scene in Matrix Revolutions is even titled, "Mifune's Last Stand"
  • Liberty Over Prosperity: Everyone who lives outside of the Matrix has basically chosen freedom over comfort.
  • Like a God to Me: A Downplayed Trope example, where a guy calls Neo "My own, personal Jesus Christ" more out of politeness than awe.
    • Also a very subtle form of Foreshadowing, as that's what Neo ends up becoming.
  • Living Battery: People act as these to power the machines.
  • Living a Double Life: Neo's criminal life before he is freed.
  • Local Reference: The Wachowskis are from Chicago, and drop several references to it.
  • Long Game: The entire series can be described as a very long conflict between the Oracle and the Architect if you break things down enough. The Architect's first line to the Oracle near the end of Revolutions essentially drops the trope name.
  • Longing for Fictionland: A character in the first movie is so tired of real life that he willingly asks the agents to be re-imprisoned in the Matrix as a rich celebrity. Despite the fact he is aware that the Matrix is unreal, he prefers it to real life.
  • Lotus Eater Machine: The first iteration of the Matrix was too perfect, according to the Architect, which is why humans initially rejected it.
  • Magical Negro: The Wachowski Bros seem to love this trope. They have not one, not two, but three Magical Negroes.
  • Magic From Technology: The "machine world" that Neo can see into in Real Life appears as swirly, fractal images out of a Bodhisattva painting.
  • Made of Iron: Every main character, and an explicit ability of the Agents.
  • Malignant Plot Tumor: Smith again.
  • Manipulative Bastard: The Oracle. She tells Neo that whether he or Morpheus dies is his own choice. But she also tells Trinity that she will fall in love with a dead man who is the One. So really, she was just playing Neo. Morpheus even said that the Oracle just told him what he needed to hear.
  • Mary Suetopia: Discussed In-Universe.
    • Smith explains why the Matrix isn't one.
    • And then the Architect really explains why the Matrix isn't one. More to the point, he explains why trying to convince humans they are living in 'Heaven' would never work because humans are imperfect bastards (at least, that's his take on it).
    • Unless you count a virtual world in which hacker nerds are heroic freedom fighters against The System, know kung fu and look Hot In Leather.
  • Matrix-Healing Wave: The outcome of Neo's fight with Smith in Revolutions.
  • Meaningful Name: This movie may have single-handedly popularized the "give every character a name that foreshadows what they do" trend in recent fiction. Essays have been written. Long ones.
    • Morpheus, named after the Greek god of dreams.
    • The Merovingians were a dynasty of Frankish kings before Charlemagne who were thought to be descended from Jesus.
    • Neo (νέος) means "New" in Greek. It's also a Significant Anagram of "One", as in, "The One".
    • "Anderson" is hobbled together from Άνδρος (transliterated as Andros), meaning (the) man, with the suffix "Son" which, in English, normally means "Son of". This essentially renders "Anderson" to mean "Son of Man", a title used by Jesus to refer to himself. Taken a step further, "Neo Anderson" effectively means "(the) New Son of Man", the "(the) New Jesus".
    • The entire crew of the Nebuchadnezzar has meaningful names: Cypher, an enigma; Tank and Dozer, for their physical strength; Mouse, for his size and occasional meekness. Trinity has Biblical implications.
  • Mechanical Lifeforms: The Reveal at the end of the third film that the machines have adapted to normal life on the (destroyed by humans) surface.
  • Melee a Trois: The last two movies were simply an all-out war between the Humans, who were fighting for survival as well for liberation from the Matrix, the Machines, who tries to destroy the Human race before they become too many to handle, and Smith, who had created his own clone army and wants to conquer both the Matrix and the real world.
    • Not to mention various groups of programs exiled from the Machine world that appear as supernatural creatures within the Matrix.
  • The Men in Black: The Agents, only they're the MIG (Men in Green).
    • Smith does become a literal Man in Black in the sequels, though.
  • The Messiah: The Ones were actually designed for this trope, but Neo subverts it as the movies play out, as noted by the Architect.

Architect: It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were, by design, based upon a predication, a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, thus facilitating the function of the One. While the others experienced this in a very general way, your experience is far more specific, vis-a-vis, love.

  • Messianic Archetype: Take a wild guess. Neo is the sixth and hopefully, last, although it is implied he will return as a seventh.
  • Me's a Crowd: Smith's power in the sequel.
  • Meteor Move: How Smith weakened Neo enough to defeat him.
  • Mexican Standoff: Trinity gets into one with the Merovingian's thugs when she gets tired of listening to his crap.
  • Military Moonshiner: Dozer distills liquor.

Cypher: It's good for two things, degreasing engines and killing brain cells.

  • Mind Rape:
    • Bane, who has his entire brain overwritten by Smith.
    • If you want to be symbolic about it, the entire human race that is jacked into the Matrix. Matrix inhabitants that witness glitches can have their minds reformatted. Smith offers this to Neo in the interrogation room, Cypher actively seeks this, and several stories in The Animatrix deal with this concept.
  • Mind Screw: Many.
    • Most memorably, the ending of the second movie.
    • The manner in which characters jack into the Matrix is a symbolic mind screw: they stick a giant needle in their brain. Freud is laughing.
    • The Oracle even Lampshades the trope in her talk with Neo in the first movie after the vase breaking bit.

Neo: How did you --
Oracle: Ohhhh, what's really going to bake your noodle later on, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

  • Mission Control: The Operators act as mission control, providing vital information and assistance from afar. They are uniquely suited to the role in that their greater perspective of the frontline hero's actions is both concrete and metaphysical.
  • Mister Exposition:
    • Morpheus provides most of the exposition in the first film.
    • The Keymaker when explaining about the bomb-trapped building that houses the door to The Architect—and how to break into it.
    • The Architect also fills this role in his speeches to Neo, telling him about the entire history of the Matrix and why Neo is an essential part of it.
  • MMORPG: The Matrix is this Up to Eleven.
    • And of course there was the Matrix Online MMO, which is (meant to be) a Canon continuation of this universe.
  • Mobstacle Course: Neo in the Agent training program.
  • The Mole: Cypher in the first movie, Bane in the sequels (Via Deal with the Devil and Demonic Possession, respectively).
  • Mood Lighting
  • Mordor: The Machine City. Neo must make a seemingly-hopeless journey there at the climax of the third film.
  • More Dakka: The minigun scene is just one example.

Tank: So what do you need? Besides a miracle.
Neo: Guns. Lots of guns.

  • Mortal Wound Reveal: Happens a couple of times, including to Trinity.
  • Motherly Scientist: Considering that Neo is a guinea pig, the Motherly Scientist role is occupied by The Oracle - who not only gives Neo advice, she also bakes cookies for him.
  • Motivational Lie: The Oracle uses this in the first film, telling Neo that he's not the One and that Morpheus will sacrifice himself for Neo because he thinks Neo is the One. Neo can't live with that, so he saves Morpheus, proving that he is in fact the One and awakening his powers along the way.
  • Mr. Smith: All the Agents have bland pseudonyms.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Persephone wearing the tightest dress known to man in Reloaded.
  • My Name Is Inigo Montoya: At least a quadruple subversion in the final showdown.
  • Myself, My Avatar: How you enter the Matrix

N-S

  • Neck Lift: Agent Thompson does it to Trinity in Reloaded.
  • Neck Snap: In Revolutions, Morpheus uses this to kill a mook guarding an elevator.
  • Never Bring a Knife to A Fist Fight: In a Katanas Are Just Better attempt, Morpheus tries to fight an unarmed Agent Johnson with a sword. He barely manages to nick Johnson's cheek and cut off his tie before the sword gets snapped, and Morpheus gets punted off the back of the moving truck.
    • That's still better than how Morpheus was faring when fighting with only his fists.
  • Neural Implanting: This is how everyone gets their abilities.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job making Smith your own Evil Counterpart, Neo.
    • As it turns out, without Neo's unintended creation of Smith, Neo would not have stopped the war. Smith became a threat so large that he would eventually destroy EVERYTHING, from the Matrix out. Neo created a mutual enemy to both Man and Machine, something that his predecessors apparently could not do. By stopping such a threat to all, Smith, Neo brokered a peace that the Machines could respect.
      • There was also the Architect's statement that the Matrix will suffer a system crash if the One does not sacrifice himself in order to reload it.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If Smith had simply beaten Neo to death in Revolutions he would have won, but he chose to download himself into Neo instead. The symbolism aside (and there's a lot of it,) the literal interpretation of what's going on is that Smith doesn't realize Neo is jacked into the Matrix in the machine city, which means he's just connected himself to the Source, so the machines promptly delete him.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: Agent Smith in sequels. In Revolutions he goes into a long rant about why Neo bothers to continue fighting him and that "Only a human mind could come up with something as insipid as love!" and "Why, Mr. Anderson!? Why!? Why do you persist!?" Ironically, Neo's response is something a Nietzschean Ubermensch might actually say: "Because I choose to."
  • Nigh Invulnerability: The Agents.
  • Not in Kansas Anymore: Just before the red pill taken by Neo kicks in, Cypher warns him "Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye!"
  • Not Quite Dead:
    • Tank after Cypher shot him.
    • Smith in the sequels.
  • Won't Work On Me: Neo grows so strong by the end of the first movie that when he fights three enhanced Agents alone in the second film, he casually quips "Huh, upgrades" when one of them blocks an attack.
  • The Nth Doctor: The Oracle is played by a different actress in Revolutions due to her original actress dying before completing her scenes; fortunately the directors were already toying with the idea of her changing "skins".
  • Obfuscated Interface: The Matrix Raining Code provides any information required by the plot without the burden of a conventional user interface: less danger of the UI becoming dated being or be too hard for the audience to follow. It is there to be visually evocative—the audience gets their information from the characters talking about it.
    • When the déjà vu happens, however, we cut back to Tank's workstation and the raining code generates an ominous flash on screen.
  • Oh Crap: Quite a few of these throughout the trilogy.
    • One of the first is Tank's stunned 'oh my God' immediately following the Glitch In The Matrix scene.
    • One of the last is Smith as he's finally overcome.

Smith: Oh no no no no no... No, it's not fair.

  • The Only Way They Will Learn: "No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
  • Omnicidal Maniac: (Agent) Smith turns into this in the second and third films after he's 'unplugged' from the system's control, eventually growing far beyond the machines' control. By the end of Revolutions he has spread through the entire Matrix, already taken control of at least one person in the real world, and is poised to continue through to the Source mainframe and Machine City along with it - leading to the trilogy's concluding peace deal between the humans and the machines.

Smith: The purpose of all life...is to end.

Every story you've ever heard about vampires, werewolves, or aliens is the system assimilating some program that's doing something they're not supposed to be doing.

The Oracle: You are a bastard.
Smith: You would know, Mom.

Tank: Believe it or not, you piece of shit, you're still gonna burn!

  • Prophecy Twist
  • Product Placement: More obvious in the sequels, along with complementary commercials (who knew Agents could get distracted by HD TV?). The phones used in the sequels were provided by Samsung as part of an advertising scheme to sell the same phones to the public.
  • A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Neo is a classic Destined Leader Archetype. The rebels have a strong expectation that a hero will come to them in their hour of need. Inverted in that he's technically subordinate to Morpheus, Trinity, the other captains and the Council, but most defer to his judgement and most of Zion treats him with reverence. Also inverted in that in the end, he doesn't actually lead them at all. Instead he fights Smith and make a deal with the Machines.
  • Psychic Surgery: When Neo saves Trinity by restarting her heart... by hand!
  • Pursued Protagonist: Trinity in the first movie.
  • Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Occurs in both Reloaded and Revolutions.
  • Radial Ass-Kicking: The Multi Mook fights pretty much define this trope, particularly the fight against all the Smiths in the second film.
  • Rage Against the Mentor: Neo and Morpheus at the Oracle's Cryptic Conversation.
  • Really Seventeen Years Old: The Kid in Revolutions tries to say he's eighteen and gets laughed at. He convinces Mifune to let him help the corps anyway, though.
  • Reality Warper: Most of the heroes when they are in the Matrix—in terms of the Matrix's reality.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Sentinels ("search and destroy" robots, AKA "Squiddies") have multiple glowing red eyes.
  • Redshirt Army:
    • Pretty much anyone in our world (especially law enforcement, security guards and their like) is subject to being killed by people from The Real World. With zero moral repercussions. But it's not like it doesn't look totally awesome when it happens.
    • In the first film, just about the entire crew of the Nebuchadnezzar besides Neo and a few others. As individuals they are Mauve Shirts. Their leader, Morpheus, does not even notice they died and no one thinks to tell him.
  • Refused by the Call
  • Rescued From Purgatory: Neo in Revolutions.
  • The Reveal: One of the creepiest and best remembered reveals in recent film is when Morpheus explains the true nature of the Matrix in the first film.
  • Revival Loophole: According to the Oracle, Neo has the potential to be The One, but he's waiting for something, maybe "his next life". At the end of the movie...
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots: The "programs" (really, AI's) in the Matrix are disturbingly human for what are, after all, creations of the Machines.
  • Robot War: As shown in The Second Renaissance, this is what eventually led to the creation of the Matrix.
  • Robots Enslaving Robots
  • Rogue Drone: Originally a guardian A.I. in a simulated reality, Agent Smith becomes something akin to a computer virus.
  • Roof Hopping: The Matrix had a Chase Scene that involved Agents Roof Hopping after Trinity. Part way through, the whole thing is lampshaded when a cop, seeing an Agent jump an unbelievable distance following Trinity, says, "That's impossible!" This is also the first hint we get that the action is not, in fact, taking place in the real world.
  • Rooftop Confrontation
  • Roundhouse Kick: With all the flashy moves, of course this would be included.
  • Rule of Cool: How much one can do in the Matrix is directly proportional to how cool one looks doing it. It would be easier to list the times when this isn't the case.
  • Rule of Symbolism: Practically takes refuge in it by the end.
  • Run or Die: The strategy for dealing with Agents, at least in the first film. Morpheus tells Neo that he can eventually be able to fight the Agents rather than fleeing; Cypher flat out tells him to run away.
  • Sacrificial Lamb: Apoc, Switch and Mouse who all die in about a five minute span in the first film.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Trinity, from Neo's perspective.
  • Scare Chord: Used effectively in the first film, twice:
    • When Neo is alone in his room on the Nebuchadnezzar for the first time. Reaching back to the back of his head, we first see the plug on the base of Neo's skull as the scare chord plays.
    • Another one is used shortly thereafter, the first time Neo is plugged into the Construct.
  • Schizo-Tech: And how; consider the device they use to (literally) dial in to Neo is made out of Dieselpunk paraphernalia and used rotary-phone parts. Of course all this is justified because The Future Is Noir and it's a simulation cobbled together out of different parts of history.
  • Screw Destiny: The focus of the second and third movies.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Agent Brown and Agent Jones do this after witnessing Neo destroy Smith at the end of the first film.
  • Screaming Warrior: In the first one, Morpheus, when he busts out of the wall to fight an Agent so that Neo can escape, and also in Revolutions, where Mifune becomes the poster child of this trope.
  • Second Coming: Neo is seen as the return of The One by Morpheus.
  • Seers: The Oracle
  • Self Fulfilling Prophecies: Sort of; The Oracle manipulates events by making prophecies, but the events that result from the prophecy are different from what the prophecy says. The reason it works out like this is that the Oracle does not say what will happen. She tells people what they need to hear in order for things to happen as she sees them. The first example of this is the vase.

Oracle: What's really going to bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?

  • Send in the Clones: Smith has the power to do this in the sequel.
  • Sequel Non Entity: The absence of Tank is explained away in Reloaded by Zee saying she had lost two brothers to the Nebuchadnezzar, implying that Tank had been killed.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: The Architect.
  • Sex Is Violence: The first scene in The Animatrix.
  • Shining City: The Machine City from Neo's (blind) perspective.
  • Shouting Shooter: Mifune, as he gets overwhelmed with sentinels.
  • Shown Their Work: They made an entire separate DVD for the making-of of the first film.
  • Shout-Out: In keeping with the movie's philosophical subtext, some of Zion's military personnel are named after famous philosophers. There's Commander Locke, Captain Soren (after Soren Kierkegaard), and Captain Ballard (after science fiction author J. G. Ballard).
    • There's also Captain Mifune. In the original Japanese version of Speed Racer (which the Wachowskis are huge fans of), "Mifune" was the main character's last name. Fittingly, they would go on to direct the live-action film of Speed Racer just a few years after finishing the Matrix trilogy.
  • Significant Anagram:
    • Neo<=>One. How incredibly subtle.
    • The train station sign Mobil <=> Limbo, as mocked by Rifftrax.
    • The soundtrack's titles have even more of them. "Exit Mr Hat" comes to mind.
  • Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Wachowskis used the Ghost in the Shell manga and film to show prospective producers how they wanted the movie to look.
  • Skeleton Key: The Keymaker is a living embodiment of this trope.
  • Slow Electricity
    • Reloaded: After the power station is destroyed (and later when Trinity turns off the power again), the blackout spreads slowly through the affected area.
    • Revolutions: Inside the Oracle's apartment building, the overhead lights go off, making clunking sounds, as a warning of Agent Smith's approach.
  • Sneeze of Doom: During the crawl through the walls in the big escape scene in the first movie, Cypher gets some dust knocked in his face and lets go of one of these, alerting the police to their location.
  • Something Only They Would Say: Smith!Bane reveals himself to Neo by calling him "Mr. Anderson" in his usual mocking tone. However, despite hearing this three times in the span of twenty seconds, Neo thinks Bane is just insane. He figures out the truth just before the fight, but can't completely accept it until his eyes get burned out, which allows Neo to actually "see" Smith's energy signature.
  • Spiritual Sequel: To the film Dark City. They even shared the same sets!
  • Spy Catsuit: Trinity
  • Stairwell Chase: The deja vu sequence features this travelling stairwell shot.
  • Starfish Robots: Loads of them in the real world, with the Sentinels being the most prominent.
  • Stepping Stone Sword: Morpheus uses a sword stuck into the side of a truck as a perch and jumps back up to the top of the truck from it.
  • Storming the Castle: Once a film.
  • Story-Breaker Power: Neo's "The One" package, in a nutshell. The writers actually had to tone his powers down in the sequels to prevent him from becoming a God Mode Sue.
  • Suicide Mission: Neo and Trinity's plan to rescue Morpheus.
  • Sword Pointing: In Reloaded, Morpheus does it to Agent Johnson with a samurai sword while fighting him on the top of the truck.
  • Synchronized Swarming: In the third movie, the swarming Sentinels make a hand-like shape. Later, robots form a face and it talks to Neo.


T-Z

  • Take a Third Option: The entire plot of the trilogy is about taking a third option.
  • Take My Hand: Neo jumping off a chopper to get Morpheus.
    • The shot where you see the two men diving for each other from below, arms outstretched, was called the "I Love You, Man" shot among the crew.
  • Take That: Easy to miss.
    • Cypher wants to be an actor who remembers nothing. His real name? Mr. Reagan. If so, it could have a cruel joke: in 1994, Ronald Reagan disclosed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Or it could be a reference to Reagan's repeated assertions that he couldn't remember critical details of the Iran-Contra scandal.
    • Path of Neo example, one level takes place in the U.S. Senate within the Matrix, where one senator starts decrying violent video games as "offensive to our most basic values". About ten seconds later, he's turned into a Smith clone. Doubles as a rather satisfying Shut UP, Hannibal.
  • Technicolor Death: The explosive death/destruction of Agent Smith in The Matrix and all of the Smiths in Revolutions.
  • Tell Me How You Fight: Though it's never commented on in-universe, the fighting styles of characters in The Matrix add another layer to the philosophy of the movie. Explained here. In short, humans tend to have more fluid, flashy or distinctive styles based on the character: contrast Morpheus' kung fu to Ballard's boxing. The Agents all use a generic karate-based style. Humans also use martial arts throws and wristlocks (Morpheus vs. Neo), wheras agents simply grab-and-heave, which works due to their incredible strength.
  • That Makes Me Feel Angry: The Twins, during their highway pursuit in Reloaded:

Twin 1: We are getting aggravated.
Twin 2: Yes, we are.

The Oracle: Now I'm supposed to say "Hmm, that's interesting, but..." and then you say...
Neo: But what?
The Oracle: But you already know what I'm going to say.

  • This Thing You Call Love: "...only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love."
    • Subverted by the programs in the third film, who Neo finds out are sentient and capable of love. Like our own Advertisement Server, for instance.
  • There Are No Girls on the Internet: Neo is surprised Trinity is female. She says most guys are.
  • There Is No Try: "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"
  • Three-Point Landing: Almost everybody does this, probably to emphasize coolness, but most prominently Trinity and one of the Agents pursuing her right in the beginning of the first movie.
  • Throat Light: Happens briefly to Neo at the end of The Matrix Revolutions as the machines channel their power through him to destroy the Agents Smith.
  • Tomato Surprise: The Reveal in the first film; Neo's machine-powers in the third.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Neo at the end of the first movie, and Smith in Revolutions.
  • Throw-Away Guns: Characters coolly throw away guns when they run out of ammo during a gunfight. This supports the videogame aesthetic of the combat. Given that the guns are being conjured up from computer code, they are disposable.
  • Tired of Running: Neo with Smith in the first movie.
  • Tracking Device: The literal robotic bug the Agents plant inside Neo.
  • The Treachery of Images: "There is no spoon."
  • Turned Against Their Masters: The Animatrix shows the machines as the slaves of humanity. And boy howdy how they do turn.
  • Two-Part Trilogy: The second and third films were filmed back-to-back with a Cliffhanger, and follow one plot line; allegedly, they were meant to be one long film.
  • Two Roads Before You: One per film.
  • The Unchosen One: Neo, after he learns the prophecy was a lie and still continues to fight.
  • Uncanny Valley: The Agents and security programs can fall into this.
  • United Nations Is a Super Power: The UN is militarized, and akin to a world government in the Second Renaissance.
  • Unnaturally Blue Lighting: The real world. The Matrix has green lighting. The first film originally didn't heavily feature the green "tint" during scenes that took place inside the Matrix; the remastered version of the film fixes that so that all three films share a similar look. This was also intentional (the green and blue tint) and used as part of the symbolism of the films.
  • Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Most of the Machine tech is characterized by being unnecessarily creepy. Later works in the franchise imply that this was a conscious choice on the part of the Machines. "The Second Renaissance" shows that the first Machines were simple humanoid androids. As relations between Human and Machine soured, the Machines became more and more alien, developing into creepy insectoid things. And it was most likely deliberate: both as an declaration of the Machines' independence from Human influence, and as a means to intimidate the Humans.
  • Unnecessary Combat Roll: In the third movie, Morpheus, Trinity, and Seraph get into a fight with some guys who can bend gravity. Said guys do things like cartwheeling on the ceiling from cover to cover. They die.
  • Unskilled but Strong: Agents only use about three techniques, but compensate for it with superhuman strength and speed.
  • Used Future: This trope is the reason why Zeerust does not necessarily apply to the Nebuchadnezzar's use of Windows 98 level computer screens; humans living in a post-apocalyptic world wouldn't exactly have access to the most cutting edge technology in all regards.
  • Use Your Head: Morpheus and Smith do this to each other.
  • Vagueness Is Coming: The Oracle.
  • Vasquez Always Dies
  • Viewers are Morons:
    • The original ending speech in the first film had Neo compare the Matrix to a chrysalis. This was changed because executives feared not enough viewers would know or look up what a chrysalis is (it's the protective case that butterflies emerge from.)
    • Originally, the humans were being harvested for their minds; processing power, creative thinking, etc, but executives decided that "they use humans as batteries" would be easier to grasp.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Smith seemed to suffer from it in the final fight. He started out cool and collected if slighty cocky, but as the fight against Neo progressed, you can clearly see that Neo's tenacity slowly started to get to Smith. In his "Why do you persist?!" moment, he pretty much screams out his infamous rant with an enraged look in his eyes. When Neo answers his question ("Because I choose to"), Smith pretty much loses it.
  • The Virus:
    • The Agents overtaking mooks in the first film.
    • Smith in the sequels, quite literally.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Neo puking just before he passes out after The Reveal in the first movie. This is a case of Written in Infirmity: Keanu apparently developed a stomach flu that caused it.
  • Walk Into Mordor: Well, after their vehicle crashes from catapulting above the cloud cover to avoid the giant robotic barrier monsters in the climax of the third film. Subverted by the fact that there seems to be a Yellow Brick Road of sorts composed of conspicuously well-lit power cables between the people-farms and the Machine City. But this plotline seems curiously informed by the Trope Namer, so...
  • Wall Slump: The scene where Neo dies: Agent Smith repeatedly shoots Neo after he backs up and hits the wall but before sinking to the ground.
  • The War Sequence: Path of Neo.
  • Watching Troy Burn: Morpheus watching his ship burn.
  • Welcome to The Real World: More-or-less stated, but not actually an example of the trope.
  • What Is This Thing You Call Love?: Variously played straight and subverted by the machines:
    • The Oracle is a computer program designed to intuitively understand emotional concepts such as love the way a human would.
    • The Architect can only interpret it in a very mechanical manner – as chemical processes occurring in the human brain.
    • Agent Smith is likewise, but unlike his program and machine brethren he has an active loathing for these very concepts.
    • Rama-Kandra and his wife actively love each other, culminating in "giving birth" to a new program, Sati.
  • What Measure Is a Mook?: Rather uncomfortably applied to the security guards in the first film.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This turns into a sticky issue once it is revealed that there are sentient programs, some of whom have ambiguous alignments, some of whom are on the humans' side, and some that just want to be left alone.
  • White Void Room: The Construct.
  • Wild Mass Guessing: Oh Sweet Kung-Fu Action Jesus, yes.
  • Wipe That Smile Off Your Face: When Mr. Anderson keeps demanding Agent Smith to give him his legal phone call, Smith responds by erasing his mouth.
  • The World Is Just Awesome: When Neo and Trinity break through the cloud cover and become the first humans (well, Trinity anyway) in centuries to see the sky, the sun, and the moon.
  • The Windy City: Every intersection named in the films is a Chicagoland reference.
  • With Us or Against Us: Morpheus practically says this trope by name when training Neo in the Construct in the first film. Because agents can move in and out of any software still hardwired into this system, "with us or against us" is literally true. Anyone the freedom fighters haven't unplugged is potentially an Agent. (And then the advanced Smith starts taking over the bodies of the freedom fighters in the second and third films...)
  • World of Badass: Being a badass becomes a norm within the work.
  • Wuxia: As well as a general genre affiliation, specific Wuxia motifs are repeatedly used: running along walls, leaping great distances merging with levitation, the ability to dodge and stop bullets.
  • Yin-Yang Clash: Neo vs. Agent Smith.
  • You Can't Fight Fate:
    • Smith to Neo twice, once during the subway fight in the first movie ("Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. It's the sound of your death.") and at the end of the Burly Brawl ("It is inevitable!")
    • Also, the Architect informing Neo that the prophecy to save Zion was a lie, and that "The One"'s true purpose is to restart the war, not end it.
    • The last battle between Neo and Smith where Smith tries to persuade Neo to give up because it is pointless to keep fighting. Neo eventually gives up, but not just for Smith's reasons.
  • You Have No Chance to Survive: Smith. Repeatedly (see above). The Architect also informs Neo that the human race has no chance to survive (he calculated.)

Architect: We won't [meet again].
---
Smith: Evolution, Morpheus. Like the dinosaur... you had your time.
---
Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson... vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson, Why? Why do you persist?

  • You Never Did That for Me: Trinity has just brought Neo his dinner and Cypher decides to tease her about her obvious attraction to him.

Cypher: I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner.


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