Matrix Trilogy Synopsis

															-[ Matrix Movies Explained In Order (Matrix Trilogy Summary) ]-
It’s been a long time since the Matrix movies, and with The Matrix: Resurrections releasing soon, are you looking for a quick recap of the first three films? Look no further! The Matrix Trilogy started off with The Matrix in 1999, which rewrote the benchmark for the film industry with respect to visual effects, fight choreography and plot complexity. Part 2 and 3 were released in 2003, a few months apart. While The Matrix: Reloaded upped the game even further, The Matrix: Revolutions didn’t deliver that finishing blow all too well. That said, the trilogy remains one of the most epic film series made. Here are the Matrix movies explained in short; a quick summary of the Matrix Trilogy; spoilers ahead.


																		-[ The Animatrix: Movies Summary ]-
The Second Renaissance Animatrix

These were nine short films released after the first part, The Matrix. Of these, The Second Renaissance Part 1 & 2 are the only two shorts we’ll need to know about for this summary.

In short, the humans mess up. In the early 21st century, humans give birth to Artificial Intelligence robots to handle their everyday chores. One of the bots malfunctions and kills its owner, and the humans retaliate and begin killing every bot. The machines appeal for a peaceful solution, but the humans go to war and scorch the skies to cut off solar energy. The humans are no match for the machines and succumb. Many opt to live out their lives in an artificial simulation called the Matrix, where people enter a dream state and live a virtual life set in the late 1990s. Over time the rest of the human resistance is captured and forcibly inserted into the Matrix. Because the sun has been cut off, the machines now draw from the bioelectricity energy generated by the sleeping humans.

																			-[ Summary: What is the Matrix? ]-
Matrix Movies Explained: what is the matrix?

The Matrix is a shared simulation into which most of the planet’s humans are plugged in. People’s physical bodies are asleep, while their minds are in a dream state where each one believes they are somebody living at the end of the 20th century. The physical rules in the Matrix are designed based on classic physics, which governs people’s movements.

The catch, however, is that each mind only follows those rules because it believes it must. If one can really see past the fact that their world is only a simulation, they can break these rules. If a person dies in the Matrix, they die in the real world. This again is the mind believing that it is dying, which triggers the actual death of the body.

																-[ The Matrix Movies Explained: The Matrix (Summary) ]-
Matrix Explained
Click on the image above for a detailed explanation of the movie The Matrix (1999)
In the year 2199, a team of rebels led by Morpheus are extracting people from the Matrix. The team lives in Zion, the last human city, a community of people freed from the Matrix and those born in the real world.

Morpheus is following a prophecy told to him by an entity called The Oracle that he will find a person who can defy all the rules of the Matrix. They refer to this person as The One.

The Agents, led by Smith, are gatekeeper programs who are tasked with finding and destroying anyone hacking the system. They are empowered with higher speed and agility, and they can assimilate anyone plugged into the Matrix.

Neo meets morpheus

Mr Anderson, a.k.a Neo, is a hacker born into the Matrix. Morpheus believes he is The One, and the team frees Neo from the Matrix. Trinity, the commanding officer, begins falling in love with Neo.

The Oracle lies to Neo, saying he’s not The One and tells him that he will need to choose between his life and Morpheus’ in the future.

Another crew member, Cypher, resents Morpheus for exacting him out of the Matrix and believes he was happier in the Matrix. He makes a deal with Agent Smith to have him reinserted into the Matrix as a wealthy and affluent person. In return, he leaves a tracer, using which the agents take Morpheus prisoner.

Cypher unplugs and kills a few crew members in the real world, but he is killed off before getting to Neo.

neo catch morpheus

Unplugging and killing Morpheus is the only way to stop Smith from extracting Zion’s location from him, but Neo chooses to save Morpheus. Neo and Trinity enter the Matrix and attack the building with guns, lots of guns and get to the roof. Neo dodges the bullets of an agent, displaying signs of being The One. Neo and Trinity use the chopper to take out the agents and save Morpheus.

Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix but Smith shows up and shoots the phone, the exit link, before Neo can leave. Instead of running, Neo chooses to stand his ground and fight Smith, and Neo puts up a good fight before Smith gains the upper hand. Figuring that an agent can’t be killed, Neo makes a run for it as Morpheus guides him to an exit.

Before he can get to the phone (exit link), Smith shoots Neo. As his mind begins to die, Trinity reveals that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with The One. She confesses her love to Neo and reminds him that his mind only thinks it is dying, but he is The One and can’t die.

Stop bullets

Neo gets up and sees the Matrix for what it is – software. The agents try to shoot at Neo, but he stops the bullets. Smith desperately tries to throw punches at Neo, but he’s no match for the speed of a person who is beyond the programming of the Matrix. Neo assimilates Smith, destroys him from within, and exits the Matrix in time for Morpheus to fire an EMP to deactivate a bunch of Sentinals commissioned to destroy the ship.

The Matrix ends with Neo telling the system that he is going to eventually free everyone. Little does he know that he’s only a measure of control for the system.

														-[ The Matrix Movies Explained: The Matrix: Reloaded (Summary) ]-
Matrix Reloaded Explained
Click on the image for a detailed explanation of the movie The Matrix: Reloaded (2003)
Six months after the events of The Matrix, Zion is approached from above by hordes of Sentinels. Commander Lock is against the prophecy and Morpheus’ wasting resources seeking The Oracle, who has been missing for a while.

It turns out that Smith was not destroyed by Neo, and he became an exile program who has acquired the ability to clone himself onto anybody in the Matrix as long as he can make physical contact. Smith clones himself on a crew member, Bane and Smith’s consciousness exits the Matrix as part of Bane’s mind and now controls Bane in the real world.

seraph

The Oracle finally makes contact. Seraph, The Oracle’s protector, takes Neo to her, and she reveals herself to be a software that claims to side with the humans because she was created to understand them. She instructs Neo to get to the Keymaker, an exile program held prisoner by a powerful program called the Merovingian.

After she leaves, multiple Smiths show up and try to clone onto Neo, who fights his way out of there, realizing he’s no match for the countless Smiths.

Against Lock’s wishes, the council approves two ships to help Morpheus; one of them is led by Niobe, who was once with Morpheus.

merovingian persephone

While Merovingian refuses to hand over the Keymaker, his mate Persephone (another program) gets them to the Keymaker in exchange for a kiss from Neo as she wants to experience what she once did – true love.

After a massive fight and a brilliant highway chase/fight sequence, the team gets to a safe house with the Keymaker, who explains that Neo must open a door in a particular building to get to the Source. He provides Neo with a key (access) that can be used on the door only when the power to the building has been cut.

While Neo goes for the door, the other two teams attack the power grids. Niobe succeeds, but the other team gets killed by a Sentinal in the real world. Trinity enters the Matrix to complete the job. While she terminates the power before Neo opens the door, she gets attacked by an Agent.

Architect Speech Explained

In the Source, Neo learns that this is the sixth time The One has emerged. Each time, Zion is destroyed, and The One is forced to pick 23 people from the Matrix to repopulate Zion. If The One refuses, everyone in the Matrix will be terminated. The previous five “The Ones” have let Zion be destroyed with its people to save the remaining in the Matrix, but Neo refuses the offer as he loves Trinity and can’t lose her.

Trinity leaps through a window in desperation but is shot by the agent in mid-fall. Neo flies to her and catches her, and extracts the bullet. Neo digitally performs CPR on Trinity and saves her from certain death.

In the real world, Morpheus is almost in tears when he learns that the prophecy was a lie. They get attacked, and somehow, Neo stops the Sentinals with his mind; after this, he goes unconscious.

At Zion, Smith, who controls Bane, triggers an EMP and sabotages the first line of defence against the Sentinals, causing them to be helplessly slaughtered. We see both Neo and Bane unconscious as the film comes to an end.

															-[ The Matrix Movies Explained: The Matrix: Revolutions (Summary) ]-
the matrix revolutions explained
Click on the image for a detailed explanation of the movie The Matrix: Revolutions (2003)
We learn that Neo has wirelessly connected to the machines and jacked himself to an area called the Subway Station, which is essentially digital limbo outside the Matrix. The place is controlled by the Train-Man program who ferries programs into their digital afterlife. Think of it as programmatic garbage collection.

Neo meets with a family of programs (from the Machine World) who have, on their own, created a child software called Sati. This behaviour is not expected of them, but their artificial intelligence makes them create and love. The parent programs have made a deal with the Merovingian to take Sati safely to the Matrix. When the train arrives, Neo tries to muscle his way in, but this place was built by the Train-Man, and he is all-powerful and knocks Neo to the floor.

subway station

Morpheus, Trinity and Seraph locate Merovingian and force him to allow access to the train to get Neo out. Neo meets with the Oracle, who doesn’t have any advice for him. This is the first time an anomaly (The One) has not chosen to destroy and restart Zion. All she knows is that Smith is spreading like a virus and will soon consume everything.

Later, Smith clones himself on the Oracle and now can predict the most probable set of events that will unfold, but he still can’t see past a choice one hasn’t yet made.

Neo and Trinity prepare to head to the Machine City to try and strike a deal. Smith (Bane) attacks them and blinds Neo. Because Neo’s wirelessly connected to the machines, he gains machine-vision, which is shown in golden. The two head out.

Bane Smith

An all-out war ensues with thousands of Sentinals attacking. Niobe and Morpheus manage to fly a ship into the dock and trigger an EMP that decommissions all the Sentinals. The battle has been won, but the machines will deploy more Sentinals soon.

Neo and Trinity approach the Machine City, where they are attacked by hundreds of Sentinals. Neo is able to destroy many using his mental link, but soon becomes overwhelming, and they crash; Trinity dies from her wounds.

Neo gets up to meet Deus Ex Machina (Machine Leader) and strikes a deal. Smith has gone beyond the control of the machines and will soon wipe out everything, and Neo offers to enter the Matrix and destroy him and asks for peace in return. The Sentinals stop attacking Zion, and Morpheus realizes this is Neo’s doing.

final fight

In the Matrix, there is primarily only Smiths now. The Oracle Smith walks forward and states that he has already witnessed defeating Neo, so the others will only watch. The two battle it out endlessly until Neo realizes that he and Smith are equal and opposite and for one to die, so must the other.

Neo allows Smith to clone onto him. Because Neo is wired in from the Machine City, the machines have a direct handle to Smith. They terminate Neo, which in turn entirely obliterates the Smith program in the Matrix, and the system is restored to a state before Smith wreaked havoc. As agreed, the Sentinals pull back, and Zion celebrates.

The Architect meets The Oracle to tell her that she played a dangerous game, and she says that change always is. Sati makes the sunrise look beautiful and dedicates it to Neo. The film ends with The Oracle stating that one day Neo might return.

And that’s that! Everything that you need to know about The Matrix movies to be ready for The Matrix: Resurrections. If you still have questions, you can check out the individual articles for each of the films below or drop your questions in the comments section down below.