The Matrix
Is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by The Wachowskis, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano.
It depicts a dystopian future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality called "the Matrix", created by sentient machines to subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Computer programmer Neo learns this truth and is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, which involves other people who have been freed from the "dream world."
The Matrix is known for popularizing a visual effect known as "bullet time", in which the heightened perception of certain characters is represented by allowing the action within a shot to progress in slow-motion while the camera's viewpoint appears to move through the scene at normal speed.
The film is an example of the cyberpunk subgenre. The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes drew upon their admiration for Japanese animation and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema influenced subsequent Hollywood action film productions.
The Matrix was first released in the United States on March 31, 1999, and grossed over $460 million worldwide. It was well-received by critics and won four Academy Awards, as well as other accolades, including BAFTA Awards and Saturn Awards. Reviewers praised The Matrix for its innovative visual effects, cinematography and entertainment value. The film's premise was both criticized for being derivative of earlier science fiction works and praised for being intriguing. The action also polarized critics, some describing it as impressive, but others dismissing it as a trite distraction from an interesting premise.
The film has since appeared in lists of the greatest science fiction films and, in 2012, was added to the National Film Registry for preservation.
The success of the film led to the release of two feature film sequels, both written and directed by the Wachowskis: The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. The Matrix franchise was further expanded through the production of comic books, video games and animated short films, in which the Wachowskis were heavily involved, and even inspired books and theories on ideas in religion and philosophy.
Plot
Trinity, an infamous hacker, is cornered by police in an abandoned hotel. She overpowers them with superhuman abilities, but a group of sinister superhuman black-suited Agents lead the police in a rooftop pursuit. She answers a ringing public telephone and vanishes.
Computer programmer Thomas Anderson lives a double life under the hacker alias "Neo". He believes something is wrong with the world and is puzzled by repeated online encounters with the cryptic phrase "the Matrix". Trinity contacts him, saying that a man named Morpheus can explain its meaning; however, the Agents, led by Agent Smith, apprehend Neo at his office and attempt to get a plea bargain out of Neo in exchange for helping them capture Morpheus, whom they call a terrorist. Undeterred, Neo meets Morpheus, who offers him a choice between a red pill, which will allow him to learn the truth about the Matrix, and a blue pill, which will return him to his former life. After swallowing the red pill, Neo's reality disintegrates and he awakens, naked and weak, in a liquid-filled pod, one of countless people connected by cables to an elaborate electrical system. He is rescued and brought aboard Morpheus' hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzar.
Morpheus explains that, in the early 21st century, intelligent machines waged a war against the humans that created them. When humans blocked the machines' access to solar energy, the machines retaliated by harvesting the humans' bioelectricity for power. The Matrix is a shared simulation of the world as it was in 1999 in which the minds of the harvested humans are trapped and pacified; Neo had lived in it since birth. Morpheus and his crew belong to a group of rebels who hack into the Matrix and "unplug" enslaved humans, recruiting them as rebels. The rebels' understanding of the simulated reality allows them to bend its physical laws, granting them superhuman abilities. Morpheus warns Neo that fatal injuries within the Matrix also kill one's physical body, and that the Agents are powerful sentient programs that eliminate threats to the system. Neo's skill during virtual combat training lends credence to Morpheus' belief that Neo is "the One", an especially powerful man prophesied to lead the insurrection of enslaved humans against the machines.
The group enters the Matrix to visit the Oracle, a prophet who predicted the emergence of the One. She implies that Neo is not the One and warns Neo that he will soon have to choose between his life and Morpheus' life. Before they can leave the Matrix, the group is ambushed by Agents and tactical police. Morpheus allows himself to be captured so Neo and the rest of the crew can escape. However, their getaway is hindered by Cypher, a crew member who betrayed Morpheus to Agent Smith in exchange for a comfortable life within the Matrix. Cypher disconnects from the Matrix and murders several crew members as they lie defenseless in the real world. He prepares to disconnect Neo and Trinity as well, but Tank, a crewman whom he had left for dead, kills him.
In the Matrix, the Agents interrogate Morpheus in an attempt to learn his access codes to the mainframe computer in Zion, the rebel humans' last refuge in the real world. Tank proposes killing Morpheus to prevent this, but Neo, who believes that he is not the One, resolves to return to the Matrix to rescue Morpheus; Trinity insists on accompanying him. They rescue Morpheus, and in so doing, Neo gains confidence in his abilities, performing feats comparable to the Agents'.
Morpheus and Trinity exit the Matrix, but Smith thwarts Neo's escape. Now surer of himself, Neo fights Smith as a near equal and defeats him, but Smith's nature as an Agent allows him to survive. Neo flees the converging Agents and locates an exit in the hotel from which Trinity had escaped earlier, but Smith shoots him dead. In the real world, machines known as Sentinels attack the Nebuchadnezzar, while Trinity whispers to Neo that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with the One, and that Neo cannot be dead because she loves him. She kisses Neo, and he revives, this time with the power to perceive and control the Matrix. He effortlessly defeats Smith and leaves the Matrix in time for the ship's electromagnetic pulse weapon to disable the attacking Sentinels.
Some time later, Neo makes a telephone call in the Matrix, promising the machines that he will show their prisoners "a world where anything is possible". He hangs up and flies into the sky.