The Matrix (1999) - FAQ The content of this page was created directly by users and has not been screened or verified by IMDb staff. Visit our FAQ Help to learn more FAQ How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie? For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for The Matrix can be found here . What is "The Matrix" about? The story is set at an indeterminate point in the future, estimated by one character to be the 22nd century, in which human bodies are used for heat and electrical energy while their minds are held in a computer-generated, virtual reality simulation called the Matrix. Humans are essentially slaves in this world. People in the Matrix are subject to the lifelong, full-sensory illusion that they inhabit modern times at the turn of the century.

Computer programmer/hacker Thomas "Neo" Anderson ( Keanu Reeves ), who may be "The One," joins a Resistance led by Morpheus ( Laurence Fishburne ) and several other freed humans, including Trinity ( Carrie-Anne Moss ), Apoc ( Julian Arahanga ), Tank ( Marcus Chong ) and his brother Dozer ( Anthony Ray Parker ), Switch ( Belinda McClory ), Cypher ( Joe Pantoliano ), and Mouse ( Matt Doran ). They endeavor to expose the truth, overthrow the Matrix, and defeat the vengeful and warlike Machines behind it. What is "the One"? "The One" is the man prophesied to release the humans from their bondage to the Matrix through his ability to manipulate the Matrix. It was prophesied by the Oracle that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix and bring freedom to the human race. Morpheus is convinced that Neo is that man, although others, Neo included, are not so sure.

As explained by the Architect in the second movie, ]the "one" is a program anomaly that the Matrix could not account for; an anomaly that occurs because humans have to be given a choice (if the only an illusion of such) in order to accept the virtual world the machines have created for them. Doing so creates the anomaly that is 'The One'. According to the Architect, there were 5 predecessors to the current "One". Once Neo reaches the Architect, he is told of the choice of the One: to choose a certain number of humans to repopulate Zion and start all over again, or to choose to let Zion fall and cause the mutual destruction of both, the machines and the humans. The One is basically a real world reset switch. There are those in the Matrix that will never fully accept the machines' reality, and they will find ways to leave the Matrix for the human city of Zion. Once the free human population of Zion grows too large, it poses a threat to the machines; therefore the "One" is reintroduced to the Matrix to restart the cycle.

Once the One meets the Architect, he is given a choice: to return to the source in order to save humanity and rebuild Zion (thus starting a new cycle and bringing balance as prophesied), or to choose to stay in the Matrix, thereby assuring the destruction of both species. Each of the 5 predecessors to the current Neo chose to save humanity. How does Morpheus know everything about Neo's office during the phone call? Morpheus is watching the green raining code screens on the Nebuchadnezzar. The code is the visual representation of the Matrix. He's able to decode what he sees on the screen, giving him a full view of Neo's office building, locations of Agents, the existence of the window washer platform, etc. Think of it like unlimited security camera footage. What is that road that Neo has been down before? A metaphor. This was not referring to any specific physical place, but rather to the act of Neo getting out of the car and not getting the answers he sought. In the past, he probably used to run away from the truth; this is the 'road' that he has been down before, and they know that he does not want to go that way again.

What's with the red and blue pill thing? Morpheus offers Neo the choice of either a blue pill, which will render him unconscious and give him the impression that all of the recent events were simply a dream, or a red pill. The red pill, as Morpheus states, is a gesture in the real world of Neo's mind's desire to be freed and is part of a tracing program that will help Morpheus and crew locate Neo quickly after he awakes. How did Cypher get into the Matrix to meet with Agent Smith? The Art of the Matrix's script notes on an extended version of this scene confirm the fan theory that Cypher rigged the system to connect him to the Matrix automatically while the others were busy elsewhere.This is why he jumps so much when Neo surprises him. Cypher casually but quickly turns off several screens, including three that have real time imagery instead of the Matrix code. This is likely so the inquisitive Neo wouldn't ask him about it. Why did the Oracle tell Neo that he wasn't the One? The Oracle ( Gloria Foster ) never explicitly tells Neo that he is not The One.

She expresses sorrow that he seems to be "waiting for something." He can't be told he is "The One", he has to believe it, much like what Morpheus had been alluding to during the training sequence. What does "There is no spoon" mean? The spoon exists only in the Matrix, which really means it doesn't exist. It's a lesson for Neo, to help him realize that manipulating the Matrix isn't about focusing on an object and trying to change it. The object doesn't exist, so he can't change it, he has to change himself. Metaphorically, it's all in his head. What is Zion? Zion is where free humans live. Far below the destroyed surface of the earth, the citizens of Zion are both former inhabitants of the Matrix who've been freed, and also 100% home-grown humans that have never been slaves to the Matrix. What is the wall of TV screens seen when Neo gets arrested? At first it looks just like a screen wall that you would expect in a police station's guard room, to monitor several areas at the same time, but that does not explain why Neo is displayed on every screen.

Actually, the sequel The Matrix Reloaded later revealed this wall to be located in The Source, which is actually the origin of the signal that constitutes the entire Matrix. In the Source the Architect resides. The Architect is the machine program that created the Matrix. The Architect apparently keeps a close watch on Neo, and the reason for this is that Neo is a complex and intricate part in the Machines' ploy to keep the humans subdued. How come Apoc and Switch died when Cypher unplugged them? "The body cannot live without the mind." Somehow, the mind/consciousness leaves when they get plugged in, and one needs a proper 'hard-line' (data path) to get back in properly. It's likely that it forms some sort of data corruption between the user's mind and the Matrix. Think of when you want to transfer a file from your computer to a portable hard drive; if you're half way through the transfer and you sever the connection between your PC and the hard drive, the file will be damaged and useless. Why does Agent Smith remove his earphone when talking to Morpheus? He doesn't want the other Agents to know what he's saying to Morpheus.

The Agents seem to operate collectively, finishing each others' sentences at times and certainly knowing what each is thinking. Smith's actions may largely be symbolic to show that he's able to turn this collective consciousness off and, in this case, has a reason to. His discussion with Morpheus implies that he is much more "human" than his colleagues/ He shows frustration, exhaustion, impatience, and hatred of the Matrix itself and his place in it. How does the movie end? Pursued in the Matrix by the three Agents, Neo races for the exit at the Heart O' the City Hotel, room 303. The moment he gets inside, however, Agent Smith empties his gun into his chest. Neo slumps to the floor as, back in the Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity, Tank, and Morpheus watch incredulously as Neo's body flatlines. As the Sentinels continue to break through the hull of the ship, Trinity whispers into Neo's ear that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with the One, so Neo must be the One because 'I love you,' she says and kisses him. Neo suddenly begins to breathe.

At the same time, he awakens in the Matrix now knowing that he is, indeed, the One. When the Agents empty their guns at him, he stops the bullets in mid-air. When Agent Smith tries to attack him, Neo easily bests him and takes over his body, killing him. The other two agents run away, and Neo transports back to the ship just as Morpheus orders the electromagnetic pulser (EMP) to be engaged, destroying the attacking Sentinels. In the final scene, as the blank screen fills with system prompts and a grid of numbers, a voiceover by Neo says, 'I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.

Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.' In the Matrix world, Neo hangs up the phone. He looks at the masses around him, puts on his glasses, looks up, and takes flight. How does Trinity's kiss revive Neo? The brain does not die immediately when heart and respiration stops. Neo was almost the One, he'd not been affected by the first bullet, until he saw his blood. So, his mind was almost to the point of disbelieving the illusion of the matrix -- that he should be injured by bullets. He could feel Trinity's kiss or hear her words, somehow, which reminded him that the matrix was not real. Why does Neo see the 3 agents as green code after he comes back to life? Now that he truly believes he is the One, Neo is beginning to use some of his power over the Matrix. He can now see the Matrix for what it is, and this will lead to additional abilities to manipulate it as he sees it. Who is Neo talking to on the phone at the end of the movie? Neo is talking (possibly metaphorically) to the machine mainframe. He's talking to the Source, to the power behind the machines, to whatever sends the Agents after him.

And he's telling it/them that he's done running, that he can defeat them and because of that the best for both sides is that the machines simply stop attacking humanity. How do people have babies in the Matrix? Morpheus explains to Neo that babies are not born in the Matrix; they are grown. This suggests that the usual human birth cycle (in utero fertilization and growth followed by birth at term) is not being followed. The most likely methods are by cloning or by harvesting a female's eggs and artificially inseminating them, then placing the embryos in incubation, some of which may be allowed to develop and others of which, as Morpheus also explains, are liquefied as food. As for how do people procreate while connected to the Matrix; it's possible they don't. We never see any pregnant women inside the Matrix, so it's impossible to say for sure. Another possibility is that when the machines grow a new human infant, they pre-program a couple inside the matrix to conceive a child. Why don't the Machines use animals besides humans for energy? They need the access to the human mind....it fuels the story line, unlike if this was an animal induced world it would be pretty far behind technologically.

Other: ..Based on all available information about the setting of the Matrix movies, the easiest explanation to accept would be that too few animals are left alive after the war between humans and the Machines. However, in 'Matriculated', an episode of The Animatrix (2003), a monkey named Baby was depicted with functional implants for jacking into simulations, evidence that the Machines could indeed insert some animals into the Matrix. Scientifically, the whole premise that Machines need to harvest human body heat to survive is dubious at best. For one thing, there's no adequate explanation of how the humans are kept alive. (Feeding them the liquid corpses wouldn't be enough.) Furthermore, other forms of fusion would probably prove more efficient. At the Machines' level of technology, solar power could still be an option, despite the sun being blocked off. Fans have proposed some alternate explanations for why people are kept alive in the Matrix. One intriguing idea is that the Machines cannot artificially replicate certain qualities of biological sentience and are secretly using human brains as CPUs. Otherwise, it is conceivable that the human race is being preserved for conservationist, ethical, sadistic, or sentimental reasons. Were the actors martial artists?

The actors that were hired had some kind of physical background; Carrie Anne-Moss was a dancer and Keanu Reeves used to play ice hockey. The actors underwent a hard training regimen for several months prior to filming. If the Agents still had control over Neo in the beginning, why didn't one of the Agents just take over Neo's body and effectively kill him? It isn't made clear what the rules are for the Agents to take over a person's body, but as shown in the movie, they wanted to use Neo in order to locate Morpheus and kill him and the rest of his group. Originally the agents tried to get Neo to simply agree to help them in order to have his criminal record expunged. When this fails they grab hold of Neo and put a tracking device into his stomach (also possible, given that it had some sort of bio-mechanical function that it could have taken over Neo's body causing him to fall under the control of the machines). To explain why the agents wouldn't take over Neo while Neo was with Morpheus is likely because they likely need to be within a certain radius from Neo. As the tracking device was removed from Neo, the agents didn't know where Neo was and could not take over his body.

Also, after the Agents release Neo, Morpheus calls him and says "They have seriously underestimated how important you are. If they knew what I know; you'd probably be dead.". So simple naivety or arrogance on part of the machines is likely why they didn't kill him. Why didn't "The Matrix" win any major Oscars? Usually, science fiction films rarely even get nominated for the "majors" (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Picture), and none have ever won. However, The Matrix did win four Academy Awards in the "technical categories" - Sound Effects, Visual Effects, Sound and Editing. Keep in mind as well that 1999 was an unusually strong year for film. Those twelve months saw the release of Eyes Wide Shut , Payback , Todo sobre mi madre , Bringing Out the Dead , The Talented Mr. Ripley , American Beauty (the Best Picture winner that year), Man on the Moon , Being John Malkovich , Topsy-Turvy , Boys Don't Cry , Magnolia , The Straight Story , Election , Toy Story 2 , The Insider , Lola rennt , Three Kings , The Sixth Sense , and Fight Club .

All of those titles either upon release or over the years were celebrated as outstanding films by audiences and critics alike. An argument could be made for any of them to have deserved "major" Academy Awards. Any recommendations for other films like "The Matrix"? One movie often compared to The Matrix is Inception (2010). Movies about memories or altered reality (whether distorted or artificial) include Total Recall (1990) (or its remake Total Recall (2012)), Twelve Monkeys (1995), The Truman Show (1998), Mr. Nobody (2009), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Dark City (1998), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) and Abre los ojos (1997) (or Vanilla Sky (2001), which is a remake of the previous one). For movies that deal with population control, check out Dark City (1998), Gattaca (1997), Equilibrium (2002) and The Island (2005).

Movies about double lives in cyberspace include eXistenZ (1999) and The Thirteenth Floor (1999). Like The Matrix, the actors in Charlie's Angels (2000) also studied martial arts solely for the film and did their own fight scenes. If cyberpunk is of interest, check out Johnny Mnemonic (1995). The Matrix (1999) - Synopsis Synopsis The screen is filled with green, cascading code which gives way to the title, The Matrix . A phone rings and text appears on the screen: "Call trans opt: received. 2-19-98 13:24:18 REC: Log>" As a conversation takes place between Trinity ( Carrie-Anne Moss ) and Cypher ( Joe Pantoliano ), two free humans, a table of random green numbers are being scanned and individual numbers selected, creating a series of digits not unlike an ordinary phone number, as if a code is being deciphered or a call is being traced. Trinity discusses some unknown person. Cypher taunts Trinity, suggesting she enjoys watching him.

Trinity counters that "Morpheus ( Laurence Fishburne ) says he may be 'the One'," just as the sound of a number being selected alerts Trinity that someone may be tracing their call. She ends the call. Armed policemen move down a darkened, decrepit hallway in the Heart O' the City Hotel, their flashlight beam bouncing just ahead of them. They come to room 303, kick down the door and find a woman dressed in black, facing away from them. It's Trinity. She brings her hands up from the laptop she's working on at their command. Outside the hotel a car drives up and three agents appear in neatly pressed black suits. They are Agent Smith ( Hugo Weaving ), Agent Brown ( Paul Goddard ), and Agent Jones ( Robert Taylor ). Agent Smith and the presiding police lieutenant argue. Agent Smith admonishes the policeman that they were given specific orders to contact the agents first, for their protection. The lieutenant dismisses this and says that they can handle "one little girl" and that he has two units that are bringing her down at that very moment. Agent Smith replies: "No, Lieutenant.

Your men are already dead." Inside, Trinity easily defeats the six policemen sent to apprehend her, using fighting and evasion techniques that seem to defy gravity. She calls Morpheus, letting him know that the line has been traced, though she doesn't know how. Morpheus informs her that she will have to "make it to another exit," and that Agents are heading up after her. A fierce rooftop chase ensues with Trinity and an Agent leaping from one building to the next, astonishing the policemen left behind. Trinity makes a daring leap across an alley and through a small window. She has momentarily lost her pursuers and makes it to a public phone booth on the street level. The phone begins to ring. As she approaches it a garbage truck, driven by Agent Smith, careens towards the phone booth. Trinity makes a desperate dash to the phone, picking it up just moments before the truck smashes the booth into a brick wall. The three Agents reunite at the front of the truck. There is no body in the wreckage. "She got out," one says.

The other says, "The informant is real." "We have the name of their next target," says the other, "His name is Neo." Neo ( Keanu Reeves ), a hacker with thick black hair and a sallow appearance, is asleep at his monitor. Notices about a manhunt for a man named Morpheus scroll across his screen as he sleeps. Suddenly Neo's screen goes blank and a series of text messages appear: "Wake up, Neo." "The Matrix has you." "Follow the White Rabbit." Then, the text says "Knock, knock, Neo..." just as he reads it, a knock comes at the door of his apartment, 101. It's a group of ravers and Neo gives them a contraband disc he has secreted in a copy of Simulacra and Simulation. The lead raver asks him to join them and Neo demurs until he sees the tattoo of a small white rabbit on the shoulder of a seductive girl in the group. At a rave bar Neo stands alone and aloof as the group he's with continue partying. Trinity approaches him and introduces herself. Neo recognizes her name; she was a famous hacker and had cracked the IRS database.

She tells him that he is in great danger, that they are watching him and that she knows that he is searching for answers, particularly to the most important question of all: what is the Matrix? The pulsing music of the bar gives way to the repetitious blare of Neo's alarm clock; it's 9:18 and he's late for work. At his job at Metacortex, a leading software company housed in an ominous high rise, Neo is berated by his boss for having a problem with authority, for thinking he's special. Neo listens to his boss, but his attention is on the persons cleaning the window of the office. Back at his bleak cubicle Neo receives a delivery as "Thomas Anderson." Upon opening the package he finds a cellphone which immediately rings. On the other end is Morpheus, who informs Neo that they've both run out of time and that "they" are coming for him. Morpheus tells him to slowly look up, toward the elevator. Agents Smith, Jones, and Brown are there, obviously looking for him, as a woman points towards Neo's cube.

Morpheus tries to guide Neo out of the building but when he is instructed to get on a scaffolding and take it to the roof Neo rejects Morpheus's advice, allowing himself to be taken by the Agents. In an interrogation room the Agents confront Neo. They've had their eye on him for some time. He lives a dual existence: one life as Thomas A. Anderson, a software engineer for a Metacortex, the other life as Neo, a computer hacker "guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for." Agent Smith asks him to help them capture Morpheus, a dangerous terrorist, in exchange for amnesty. Neo gives them the finger and asks for his phone call. Mr. Smith asks what good is a phone call if he's unable to speak. Neo finds that his lips have fused together. Panicked, he is thrown on the interrogation table by the Agents and they implant a shrimp-like probe, a bug, in his stomach, entering through his belly-button. Neo awakens with a start in his own bed, assuming it has all been a bad dream. His phone rings and Morpheus is on the other line. He tells Neo that the line is tapped but they've underestimated his importance.

Morpheus tells Neo he is the One and to meet him at the Adams St. bridge. There he is picked up by Trinity and two others in a car; they all wear black latex and leather. A woman in the front seat, Switch ( Belinda McClory ), pulls a gun on him and tells him to take off his shirt. Trinity tells him it's for their mutual protection and that he has to trust her. He takes off his shirt and she uses a device to remove the probe that Neo believed had been part of a nightmare. Trinity drops the bug out into the road where it slowly goes dark in the rain. Trinity takes Neo to Morpheus. Morpheus explains that he's been searching for Neo his entire life and asks if Neo feels like "Alice in Wonderland, falling down the rabbit hole." He explains to Neo that they exist in the Matrix, a false reality that has been constructed for humans to hide the truth. The truth is that everyone in the world is a slave, born into bondage. Morpheus holds out two pills. In his left palm is a blue pill.

If Neo takes it he will wake up in his bed and "believe whatever you want to believe." But if he takes the red pill in Morpheus's right hand, then "you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." Neo takes the red pill. As the rest of Morpheus's crew straps him into a chair, Neo is told that pill he took is part of a trace program, to "disrupt his input/output carrier signal" so that they can pinpoint him. Neo looks at a shattered mirror placed next to him which miraculously reforms itself. Neo touches the surface and the silver begins to creep over his skin, engulfing him as Morpheus's crew attempt to locate something on the monitors around them. The silver takes Neo over and he blacks out. He awakens inside a pinkish/purple embryonic pod, extending from the side of a circular building, a massive power plant. He is hairless and naked, with thick black tubes snaking down his throat, plugged into the back of his skull, his spine, and invading most of the rest of his body. He finds his pod is open and that he is surrounded by tower after tower of pods just like his, all filled with bodies.

Suddenly a menacing, hovering nurse robot grabs him by the throat. The tubes detach and Neo is flushed down a tube into an underground pool of filthy water. Just as he's about to drown in the muck a hovercraft appears above him, snags him and hauls him into its cargo bay. Neo finds himself surrounded by Morpheus's crew again, but they are dressed differently, in simple knit garments. Just before Neo passes out Morpheus says to him, "Welcome to the real world." Neo drifts in and out of consciousness. At one point he asks, "Am I dead?" "Far from it," replies Morpheus. Again he wakes, his body a pincushion of acupuncture. "Why do my eyes hurt?" he asks. "You've never used them," Morpheus replies. Neo finally wakes, fully clothed, with a short shock of hair on his head. He removes a connector that is sunk deep into his arm and reaches to find the large socket at the back of his neck when Morpheus enters the room. "What is this place?" Neo asks.

"The more important question is when," says Morpheus, "You believe it is the year 1999, when in fact it is closer to the year 2199." Morpheus goes on to say that they really don't know when it is. He gives Neo a tour of his ship, the Nebuchadnezzar (they pass a plaque stating it was built in 2069). Neo is introduced to Morpheus's crew including Trinity; Apoc ( Julian Arahanga ), a man with long, flowing black hair; Switch; Cypher (bald with a goatee); two brawny brothers, Tank ( Marcus Chong ) and Dozer ( Anthony Ray Parker ); and a young, thin man named Mouse ( Matt Doran ). Morpheus gets to the point. "You wanted to know about the Matrix," he says, ushering him to a chair. Neo sits down in it and Trinity straps him in. A long probe is inserted into the socket at the back of Neo's skull. Neo wakes in a world of all white.

He is in the Construct, a "loading platform" that Morpheus and his team use to prepare newly freed humans to deal with the Matrix world. Gone are the sockets in Neo's arms and neck. He has hair again. Morpheus tells him that what he is experiencing of himself is the "residual self image, the mental projection of your digital self" and bids him to sit while he explains the truth. "This," he says, showing an image of a modern city, "is the world that you know." A thing that really exists "only as part of a neural, interactive simulation that we call the Matrix." Morpheus then shows Neo the world as it truly exists today, a scarred, desolate emptiness with charred, abandoned buildings, black earth, and a shrouded sky.

Morpheus goes on to say that "at some point in the early 21st century all of mankind was united in celebration as we gave birth" to artificial intelligence, a "singular consciousness that birthed an entire race of machines." Someone started a war, and no one knows who, but it was known that it was mankind who blotted out the sky, attempting to deprive the machines of the solar power they required to function. Instead the machines turned to humans as a power source; Mopheus explains that a human's body provides "more electricity than a 120 volt battery and over 25k BTUs in body heat." Morpheus shows Neo fields where machines grow human beings, connecting them to their outlets, ensconcing them in their pods, and feeding them with the liquefied remains of other human beings. "The Matrix," says Morpheus, "is a computer-generated dreamworld created to keep us under control, to turn us..." into a mere power source, into coppertop batteries. Neo rejects this information so feverishly that he pulls himself out of the Construct. He is back in the chair on the hovercraft.

He fights to free himself from this harsh reality, only to end up vomiting on the floor and passing out. When Neo wakes up in his bunk, Morpheus is beside him. "I can't go back, can I?" Neo asks. "No," says Morpheus. He apologizes to Neo for breaking a cardinal rule: after a certain age people aren't brought out of their simulacrum, but Morpheus explains he had to bring Neo out. When the Matrix was created there was a man born inside it who could create his own reality inside it. It was this man who set Morpheus and the others free. When he died, the Oracle ( Gloria Foster ) prophesied that he would return in another form. And that the return of the One would mean the destruction of the Matrix. As long as the Matrix exists, humanity will continue to live in complacency inside it and the world can never be free. "I did what I did because I believe that search is over," says Morpheus. The next day Neo starts his training. Tank is his operator. Tank and his brother Dozer are "100% pure old-fashioned, homegrown human.

Born in the real world; a genuine child of Zion." Zion, Tank explains, is the last human city, buried deep in the earth, near the core, for warmth. Tank straps Neo back into the jack-in chair, by-passes some preliminary programs and loads him up with combat training, starting with Jiu Jitsu. When Tank hits "load" Neo is shocked by the force of the knowledge pouring into him. "I think he likes it," says Tank, "want some more?" "Hell yes," replies Neo. Neo is fed a series of martial arts techniques including Kempo, Tae Kwon Do, Drunken Boxing and Kung Fu. Morpheus and Tank are amazed at Neo's ability to ingest information, but Morpheus wants to test Neo. Morpheus and Neo stand in a sparring program. The program has rules, like gravity. But as in many computer programs, some rules can be bent while others can be broken. Morpheus bids Neo to hit him, if he can. They fight with Neo impressively attacking but Morpheus easily parrying and subduing him. The rest of the crew gathers around the monitors to watch the fight.

Morpheus ends up kicking Neo into a beam, explaining to him that the reason he has beaten him has nothing to do with muscles or reality. They spar again. "What are you waiting for?" Morpheus asks him. "You're faster than this!" Neo finally brings a punch near his teacher's face. They can move on. A jump program is loaded. Both men now stand on one of several tall buildings in a normal city skyline. Morpheus tells Neo he must free his mind and leaps from one building to the next. Neo nervously tries to follow him and doesn't make the jump, falling to the pavement below. Neo wakes back in the Nebudchanezzar with blood in his mouth. "I thought it wasn't real," he says. "Your mind makes it real," replies Morpheus. "So, if you die in the Matrix, you die here?" "The body cannot live without the mind," says Morpheus, underlining the very real danger faced in the simulation. Later, Trinity brings Neo dinner. Outside his room, Cypher remarks that Trinity never brought him dinner. He asks Trinity why, if Morpheus thinks Neo is the One, he hasn't taken him to see the Oracle yet.

Trinity says he'll take him when he's ready. Morpheus and Neo are walking down a standard city street in what appears to be the Matrix. Morpheus explains that the Matrix is a system and that the system is their enemy. All the people that inhabit it, the people they are trying to free, are part of that system. Some are so inert, so dependent upon the Matrix that they can never be free. Neo notices a stunning girl in a red dress. "Are you listening to me?" asks Morpheus. He asks Neo to look at the girl again. Neo turns to face Agent Smith, pointing a gun straight at his head. Morpheus stops the simulation, which has just been created to look like the Matrix. Neo asks what the Agents are. "Sentient programs," says Morpheus, that "can move in and out of any software hard-wired into their system, meaning that they can take over anyone in the Matrix program. "Inside the Matrix," Morpheus says, "They are everyone and they are no one." Thus Morpheus and his crew survive the Agents by running from them and hiding from the Agents even though they "are guarding all the doors.

They are holding all the keys and sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them." But no one who has ever stood up to an Agent has survived; all have died. Still, Morpheus is certain that because the Agents live in a world of rules that they can never be as strong, never be as fast as he can be. "What are you trying to tell me," asks Neo, "That I can dodge bullets?" "When you're ready," Morpheus says, "You won't have to." Just then Morpheus gets a phone call. "We've got trouble," Cypher says on the other line. The Nebuchadnezzar is on alert. They see the holographic image of a squiddy, a search and destroy sentinel, which is on their trail. They set the ship down in a huge sewer system and turn off the power. Tank stands at the ready switch of an EMP, electro-magnetic pulse, the only weapon man has against the machines in the real world. Two squiddies search for the ship -- the crew can see them -- but they move on. Neo startles Cypher, who is working at a computer console streaming with green code.

Cypher offers Neo a drink and says that he knows what Neo is thinking, "Why, oh why didn't I take the blue pill?" Neo laughs but is unsettled. Cypher asks Neo if Morpheus has told him why he's here. Neo nods. "What a mind job," says Cypher, "so you're here to save the world." Cypher is now in a fancy restaurant with Agent Smith in the Matrix. Agent Smith asks if they have a deal. Cypher cuts up a juicy steak and ruminates that he knows the steak is merely the simulation telling his brain that it is delicious and juicy, but after nine years he has discovered that "ignorance is bliss." He strikes a deal for the machines to reinsert his body into a power plant, reinsert him into the Matrix, and he'll help the Agents. He wants to be rich and powerful, "an actor" maybe. Smith says he wants access codes to the mainframe in Zion. Cypher says he can't do that, but that he can get him the man who does, meaning Morpheus.

Meanwhile, inside the Nebuchadnezzar's small dining room in the real world, the rest of the crew is trying to choke down the oatmeal-gruel that they have as sustenance. Mouse muses on the mistakes the machines may have made trying to get sensations right, like the taste of chicken. Since they didn't know what it tasted like they let everything taste like it. Morpheus interrupts the meal, announcing that he's taking Neo to see the Oracle. Morpheus, Trinity, Neo, Apoc, Switch, Mouse and Cypher are jacked into the Matrix. As they walk out of a warehouse Cypher secretly throws his cell phone into the garbage. On the car ride to the Oracle, Neo asks Trinity if she has seen the Oracle. Trinity says that she has but when she's asked just what she was told by the Oracle, she refuses to answer. The Oracle, Morpheus explains, has been with them since the beginning of the Resistance. She is the one who made the Prophecy of the One and that Morpheus would be the one to find him. She can help Neo find the path, he says. He enters the apartment of the Oracle.

Inside are the other potentials: a mother figure and numerous children. One child levitates blocks, one reads Asian literature, another is playing chess. One bald child is bending spoons. He gives one spoon to Neo and says, "Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth...that there is no spoon." Neo bends the spoon as he's called in to see the Oracle. The Oracle is baking cookies. She sizes Neo up and asks him whether he thinks he is the One. Neo admits that he does not know and the Oracle does not enlighten him. Neo smiles and the Oracle asks him what is funny. Neo admits that Morpheus had almost convinced him that he was the One. She accepts this and prophesies that Morpheus believes in Neo so much that he plans to sacrifice himself. She tells Neo that either he or Morpheus will die, and that Neo will have the power to choose which one it will be. She then offers him a cookie and promises him that he will feel fine as soon as he's done eating it. As the crew returns to their jack point, many floors up in an old hotel, Tank, in the control room, notices something odd.

Meanwhile Neo, walking up the stairs, sees what appears to be the same cat cross a room twice. "Deja vu," he says, which gets the attention of Trinity and Morpheus. Deja vu, they explain to him, is a glitch in the Matrix; it happens when they reset the computer parameters. Outside, the phone line is cut. Mouse runs to a window which has now been bricked in. They are trapped. Mouse picks up two machine guns but he's no match for the police coming into the room. He's riddled with bullets. Back on the Nebuchadnezzar, the real Mouse spurts blood from his mouth and dies in the chair. More police and Agents stream into the bottom of the hotel. Morpheus has Tank find a layout of the building they're in, locating the main wet wall. The Agents arrive on the floor they're on, finding a coat that Cypher has left behind. They only find a hole in the bathroom wall. Meanwhile the crew is climbing down the plumbing of the wet wall. As the police approach Cypher sneezes, once more giving them away. The police open fire. The crew, including Neo, begin to fire back.

An Agent takes over the body of one of the policemen, reaches into the wall, and grabs Neo by the neck. Morpheus, who is above Neo in the walls, breaks through the wall and lands on the agent, yelling to Trinity to get Neo out of the building. A fierce battle between Agent Smith and Morpheus ends with Morpheus face down on the tile. Agent Smith sends the police unit in to beat him with their batons. Cypher returns to the Nebuchadnezzar before Trinity, Neo, Switch and Apoc. As Tank attempts to bring the others back, Cypher attacks him from behind with an electronic weapon. Dozer attempts to tackle Cypher, but Cypher electrocutes him as well. Trinity attempts to call Tank but Cypher pulls the headset off of the smoking remains of Tank and answers. As Cypher talks to Trinity inside the Matrix he leans over the still form of Trinity in the hovercraft. Cypher recounts the things he hates about the real world, the war, the cold, the goop they have to eat, but most especially Morpheus and his beliefs.

"He lied to us, Trinity." Cypher pulls the plug out of the back of Apoc's head, and Apoc falls down dead in the Matrix. Cypher then moves to Switch and as she protests "Not like this..." in the Matrix, Cypher kills her on the ship. She falls down dead before Trinity and Neo. Cypher moves on to Neo's supine form, saying that if Neo is the One, a miracle will prevent Cypher from killing him: "How can he be the One, if he's dead?" he asks. He continues badgering Trinity, asking her if she believes that Neo is the One. She says, "Yes." Cypher screams back "No!" but his reaction is incredulity at seeing Tank still alive, brandishing the weapon that Cypher had used on him. Tank fries Cypher with the electrical device. Tank brings Trinity back and she finds out that Dozer is dead. Meanwhile Agent Smith, a tray of torture instruments near him, marvels at the beauty of the Matrix as he gazes out at the city all around them. He informs Morpheus, who is tied to a chair, that the first Matrix was designed as a utopia, engineered to make everyone happy.

"It was a disaster," says Agent Smith, people wouldn't accept the program and "entire crops were lost." "Some believed," continues Smith, "that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned." Agent Smith compares humans to dinosaurs and that evolution is taking hold. Another Agent enters and relays that there may be a problem (as they now know that Cypher has failed). Back on the hovercraft the shuddering form of Morpheus betrays the torture he's being put through by the Agents in the Matrix. Tank realizes that they're trying to get the codes to the mainframes of Zion's computers; each ship's captain knows them. Because a breach of Zion's defenses would mean that the last remaining vestiges of mankind would be wiped out, Tank says their only choice is to unplug Morpheus, effectively killing him. Back in the Matrix, the Agents process their next move. If Cypher is dead, they deduce that the remaining humans on the ship will terminate Morpheus.

They decide to stick to their original plan and to deploy the Sentinels. Tank is performing what amounts to last rites for Morpheus, laying one hand on his head as his other moves to the back of his skull to remove the jack. Just as he's about to pull it out Neo stops him. He realizes that the Oracle was right. He now has to make the choice to save himself or to save Morpheus; his choice is to head back into the Matrix. Trinity rejects the idea. Morpheus gave himself up so that Neo could be saved since he is the One. "I'm not the One, Trinity," Neo says, relaying his understanding of the discussion with the Oracle: she did not enlighten him as to whether he was the promised messiah. And, since Morpheus was willing to sacrifice himself, Neo knows that he must do that same. Tank calls it suicide; it's a military building with Agents inside. Neo says he only knows that he can bring Morpheus out. Trinity decides to come with him, reasoning with Neo that he will need her help and she's the ranking officer on the ship.

"Tank," she says, "load us up!" Meanwhile Agent Smith continues to share his musings with a brutalized Morpheus. Because humans spread to an area, consume the natural resources and, to survive, must spread to another area, Smith says we are not mammals but viruses, the only other creature that acts that way. In the Construct, Neo and Trinity get armaments. "Neo," protests Trinity, "No one has ever done anything like this." "That's why it's going to work," he replies. Morpheus has yet to break and Smith asks the other Agents why the serum isn't working. "Maybe we're asking the wrong questions," responds one. To that Smith commands the other Agents to leave him alone with Morpheus. Smith removes his earphone and his glasses and confides that he hates the Matrix, "this zoo, this prison." Smith admits that he must get out of this "reality." He hates the stench. He's sure that some element of the humans will rub off on him and that Morpheus holds the key to his release. If there is no Zion there's no need for Smith to be in the Matrix.

"You are going to tell me, or you are going to die." Downstairs, in the lobby, Trinity and Neo enter, heavily armed. They shoot their way past the guards and a group of soldiers and make their way into the elevator. Agents Brown and Jones enter the interrogation room to find Smith with his hands still fixed on Morpheus's head. Smith looks embarrassed and befuddled and the others tell him about the attack occurring downstairs. They realize that the humans are trying to save Morpheus. In the elevator, Trinity arms a bomb. They both climb through a hatch to the elevator roof, attaching a clamp to the elevator cable. Neo says "There is no spoon" before he severs the cable with a few shots. The counterweight drops, propelling Neo and Trinity upward. The elevator falls to the lobby exploding upon impact and filling the floor with flames. The Agents feel the rumble of the explosion and the sprinkers come on in the building. "Find them and destroy them!" Smith commands. On the roof, a helicopter pilot is calling "Mayday" as Trinity and Neo take out the soldiers there. Agent Brown takes over the pilot and appears behind Neo.

Neo shoots several rounds at the Agent, who dodges them and pulls his own weapon. "Trinity," yells Neo, "Help!" But it's too late. The Agent begins to shoot. Instead of being shot, Neo dodges most of the bullets, though two of them nick him. As the Agent approaches Neo, who is lying on the ground, he levels a kill shot but Trinity shoots him before he can fire. Trinity marvels at how fast Neo has just moved; she's never seen anyone move that quickly. Tank downloads the ability to fly the helicopter to Trinity, who can now pilot the aircraft. Trinity brings the helicopter down to the floor that Morpheus is on and Neo opens fire on the three Agents. The Agents quickly fall and Morpheus is alone in the room. Just as quickly the Agents take over other soldiers stationed nearby. Morpheus breaks his bonds and begins to run to the helicopter. The Agents fire on him, hitting his leg. Morpheus leaps but Neo realizes that he is not going to make the leap and throws himself out of the helicopter, a safety harness attached. He catches Morpheus, but Agent Smith shoots the helicopter's hydraulic line.

Unable to control the helicopter, Trinity miraculously gets it close enough to drop Morpheus and Neo on a rooftop. Neo grabs the safety line as the helicopter falls towards a building. Trinity severs the safety line connecting Neo to the helicopter and jumps on it herself as the vehicle smashes into the side of a building, causing a bizarre ripple in the fabric of the building's reality as it does. On the ship Tank says, "I knew it; he's the One." Neo hauls Trinity up to them. "Do you believe it now, Trinity?" asks Morpheus as he approaches the two. Neo tries to tell him that the Oracle told him the opposite but Morpheus says, "She told you exactly what you needed to hear." They call Tank, who tells them of an exit in a subway near them. The Agents arrive on the rooftop but find only the safety harness and line. Though Agent Smith is angered, the other two are satisfied. A trace has been completed in the real world and the Sentinels have been dispatched to attack the Nebuchadnezzar. In the subway, they quickly find the phone booth and Morpheus exits out of the Matrix. A wino watches this occur.

On the rooftop Agent Smith locks in to their whereabouts through the wino and appropriates his body. Meanwhile, as the phone rings, providing Trinity's exit, she confides to Neo that everything that the Oracle has told her has come true, except for one thing. She doesn't say what that thing is and picks up the phone just as she sees the approaching Agent Smith. Smith shatters the ear piece of the phone; it's impossible for Neo to exit there now. Instead of running, which Trinity implores him to do as she looks on from the ship, Neo turns to face Smith. They empty their guns on each other, neither hitting the other. They then move into close combat, trading blows. Neo sweeps Agent Smith's head, breaking his glasses. "I'm going to enjoy watching you die, Mr. Anderson," says Smith. They trade some thunderous blows with Smith hitting Neo so hard he spits up blood in the Matrix and in the chair aboard the ship. "He's killing him," says Trinity. Neo gets back up, sets himself and beckons Smith to start again. This time it's Neo who delivers devastating blow after blow. But Smith counters, throwing Neo into a wall then pummeling him with body blows.

A wind from the tunnel signals that a subway train is approaching and Smith has a wicked notion. He throws Neo into the subway tracks then drops down there himself. He puts Neo in a headlock and, in the glow of the oncoming subway says, "You hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. It is the sound of your death. Good-bye, Mr. Anderson." "My name," he replies, "is Neo." Then, with a mighty leap, Neo propels them to the ceiling of the tunnel. They fall back down and Neo backflips off the tracks, leaving Agent Smith to the oncoming train. Neo heads for the stairs, but Smith has already appropriated another body and emerges from the doors of the train. Meanwhile the Sentinels have arrived to attack the Nebuchadnezzar; there are five of them and they are closing fast. Morpheus tells Tank to charge the EMP. Trinity reminds Morpheus that they can't use the EMP while Neo is in the Matrix.

"I know, Trinity, don't worry," says Morpheus, "He's going to make it." Back in the streets of the Matrix, Neo swipes a cell phone from a nearby suit. He calls Tank: "Mr. Wizard, get me the hell out of here." He races through a crowded market while Agents appropriate bodies right and left. They force Neo down a dark alley. He kicks in a door and rushes through an apartment complex where the Agents appropriate more bodies, including that of a sweet little old lady who throws a knife at Neo as Agent Smith. Neo leaps down into a pile of garbage with the Agents in hot pursuit. On the Nebuchadnezzar the Sentinels have arrived. They begin to tear the ship apart. In the Matrix, Neo arrives back at the Heart O' the City Hotel. Tank tells him to go to room 303. The Agents are literally at his heels. The Sentinels breach the hull of the ship. They are inside. Trinity, standing next to Neo's body in the chair, begs him to hurry. Neo reaches room 303 and enters. He's immediately shot, point blank in the gut, by Agent Smith.

Smith empties his magazine into Neo's body. Neo slumps to the floor, dead. On the ship Neo's vital signs drop to nothing. "It can't be," says Morpheus. Agent Smith instructs the others to check Neo. "He's gone," one replies. "Good-bye, Mr. Anderson," says Smith. The Sentinels' lasers are beginning to cut through the major parts of the hovercraft. Trinity leans over his dead body. "Neo," she says, "I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man... the man that I loved would be the One. So you see, you can't be dead. You can't be... because I love you. You hear me? I love you." She kisses him. In the chair Neo suddenly breathes. In the Matrix, Neo opens his eyes. "Now get up," orders Trinity. The Agents hear Neo rise behind them and they open fire. "No," Neo says calmly, raising his hands. He stops their bullets in mid-air. They drop harmlessly to the floor. "What's happening?" asks Tank. "He is the One," says Morpheus.

Back in the Matrix, Neo can see things for what they really are, green cascading code. Agent Smith is furious. He runs to Neo and attacks him. Neo blocks Smith's blows effortlessly before he sends Smith flying with one well-placed kick. Neo then leaps into Smith's body and appropriates him. Smith's shell explodes in a sea of code and Neo is all that is left, the walls buckling in waves as they did when the helicopter crashed. Agents Brown and Jones look at one another and run away. The Sentinels are now fully in the ship. They are right above Trinity and Morpheus. Back in the Matrix Neo sprints to the ringing phone in the room. Morpheus has no choice but to engage the EMP. He does and the Sentinels fall inert to the floor. Neo has made it back. He kisses Trinity. The screen is black. A command prompt appears: "Call trans opt: received. 9-18-99 14:32:21 REC: Log>" then "Carrier anomaly" "Trace program: running" As the grid of numbers appears again a warning appears "System Failure." Over it all is Neo's voice: "I know you're out there.

I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you." In the Matrix world, Neo hangs up the phone. He looks at the mindless masses around him, puts on his glasses and then looks up. From high above the city we see him take flight. The story is picked up in The Matrix Reloaded , the second of three Matrix movies. Synopsis

Question: Who tries to save the world from virtual reality in The Matrix?
Answer: Keanu Reeves