Film / The Matrix

This article is for the first film only. For tropes applying to the entire franchise, see The Matrix.

Five million cows were slaughtered to make the wardrobe for this movie.

"Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?"

— Morpheus

The Matrix is a cyberpunk action film written and directed by The Wachowskis, released on March 31, 1999. Its massive critical and commercial success kicked off a franchise of the same name; even if you haven't seen it yet, you've still likely seen its influence.

Thomas A. Anderson (Keanu Reeves) is a young and dissatisfied computer programmer who lives a double life online as "Neo", a skilled hacker for hire. Feeling that there is something off about the world, and after meeting a mysterious woman only known as Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Thomas pursues an enigmatic darknet phrase referring to "the Matrix" and finds himself stumbling down a rabbit hole to a terrifying truth: the Present Day world he knows is an illusion, a computer simulation of Earth designed to keep humanity passive and captive under the control of sentient machines. It turns out that humans and machines fought a war with each other over dominance ages ago, and the machines won.

Freed from the restraints of the Matrix and taught how to exploit its systems, Neo joins a ragtag resistance movement, led by a man named Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), as they search for "The One", The Chosen One prophesied to bring an end to the war between humans and machines.

The film also stars Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith and Joe Pantoliano as Cypher.

The film was followed by two sequels in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and by another in 2021, The Matrix Resurrections.

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Do you want to know what tropes are in The Matrix?

• Tropes A to F
• Tropes G To O
• Tropes P to Z

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"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 how this is going to end. I came to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone and 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."

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