The Matrix Resurrections is a 2021 American science fiction action film produced, co-written, and directed by Lana Wachowski, and the first in the Matrix franchise to be directed solely by Lana, without her sister, Lilly. It is the sequel to The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and the fourth installment in The Matrix film franchise. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jessica Henwick, Jonathan Groff, Neil Patrick Harris, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Christina Ricci, and Jada Pinkett Smith. The film is set sixty years after Revolutions and follows Neo, who lives a seemingly ordinary life as a video game developer having trouble with distinguishing fantasy from reality. A group of rebels, with the help of a programmed version of Morpheus, free Neo from a new version of the Matrix and fight a new enemy that holds Trinity captive.
Following the release of Revolutions, the Wachowskis denied the possibility of another Matrix film. Warner Bros. constantly expressed interest in reviving the franchise, hiring Zak Penn to write a new screenplay after the Wachowskis refused every offer to create more sequels. In late 2019, a fourth Matrix film was finally announced, with Lana Wachowski returning as director without Lilly, and with Reeves and Moss reprising their roles. Filming started in February 2020 but was halted the next month by the COVID-19 pandemic. Wachowski considered abandoning the film, but was encouraged by the cast to finish it. Filming resumed in August and concluded three months later.
The Matrix Resurrections premiered at Castro Theater in San Francisco on December 16, 2021, and was released theatrically and via the HBO Max streaming service by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 22, 2021. The film was a box-office disappointment, grossing $159 million worldwide on a production budget of $190 million. Critics praised the performances of the cast and the film's ambition in storytelling, though criticism was aimed at its writing, the recasting of Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving, and weak fight choreography in contrast to its predecessors. It received a nomination for Best Visual Effects at the 75th British Academy Film Awards.
Plot
A young woman named Bugs learns that the Matrix is running old code in a loop, enacting the moment when Trinity first found Neo within the Matrix. Bugs discovers a program embodying Morpheus and helps free him from the simulation.
Thomas Anderson is the creator of a video game series called The Matrix, based on his faint memories as Neo. At a coffee shop, he regularly encounters Tiffany, a married mother with no recollection of her past, on whom Anderson based the game character Trinity. Anderson has created a simulation called the Modal to develop game characters. He struggles to separate perceived reality from dreams, a known concern among his co-workers and partner. Thomas's psychoanalyst prescribes him blue pills that he takes each day to suppress the occurrences, but he stops taking them. Meanwhile, as Bugs and Morpheus work to extract Neo from the Matrix, Anderson's business partner regains his memories as Agent Smith, Neo's former nemesis.
Neo awakens in a pod and notices Trinity confined in another nearby, before being extracted to Bugs's hovercraft Mnemosyne. Neo is brought to the human city Io, where he reunites with an elderly Niobe. She explains that sixty years have passed in the real world since the Machine War ended, and that Neo's allies, including the original Morpheus, have died over time. The peace achieved by Neo's sacrifice lasted for many years, but the large number of humans leaving the Matrix created a serious power shortage, causing the machines to fight over limited resources. Zion was destroyed, though most of its people relocated to Io with the aid of sympathetic machines.
Niobe refuses to risk Io's safety to help Neo free Trinity and confines him to his quarters. Bugs and her crewmates free Neo and enter the Matrix to contact Trinity. They are attacked by Smith and other exiled programs, including the Merovingian, but Neo and the Mnemosyne crew defeat them as Neo's abilities return. The group leave and locate Trinity, but before Neo can talk to her, his therapist appears and immobilizes him by manipulating time. He reveals that he is The Analyst, a program designed to study the human psyche.