After nearly twenty years we are less than two weeks away from a fourth Matrix movie. The Matrix: Resurrections hits screens on Boxing Day, but if it’s been a while since you’ve brushed up on your Matrix history, you’re not alone.
The Matrix: Resurrections brings back a lot of familiar characters in new and interesting ways. Some we’ve seen before, like Neo and Trinity, others we’ll be seeing again but in a different form. Either way, it can get confusing, so we’re here to recap some of the important Matrix plot points before you see the new film.
What do you need to know before watching The Matrix: Resurrections
What happened at the end of the third Matrix film?
The Matrix: Resurrections is a canon sequel to The Matrix: Revolutions. This means the ending of that film is pretty important.
To recap, The Matrix: Revolutions ended with Neo striking a deal with the machines to save the human city of Zion. Basically, Agent Smith had plans to take over both the Matrix and the real world by infecting everyone he came into contact with. This was resulting in more humans dying and thus the machines were losing energy. Smith also infected a human within Zion, Bane, who tried to stop Neo and Trinity from entering the Machine City.
Bane’s efforts left Neo blinded but he learned he was still able to see source code in the real world as a form of vision. Neo then approaches the king machine (aka Deus Ex Machina) and agreed to stop Smith if the machines agreed to back off from Zion.
In order to stop Smith, Neo had to be assimilated by him which rendered him lifeless but allowed the machines to overload Neo’s body and destroy the rogue agent and all his clones. The Matrix was not shut down but was instead rebooted for its seventh iteration.
Are Neo and Trinity dead?
As far as we know, Neo and Trinity are both dead in the real world and The Matrix.
Trinity died after their ship crashed in the Machine City and Neo sacrificed himself to stop Smith. They appear to be back in The Matrix: Resurrections but how they return is unclear.
As for Morpheus, he survived the battle at Zion in Revolutions. However, in the events of the video games, Morpheus does die from an assassin’s bullet.
Who is Sati?
You may have noticed that Priyanka Chopra Jonas is appearing in The Matrix: Resurrections. It was later confirmed she would be playing an adult version of Sati, so who exactly is she?
Sati appeared in The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions as a young girl played by Tanveer K. Atwal. Sati was a program born of two other programs, Rama-Kandra and Kamala. She was born without a purpose which means she had to be hidden from the machines or risk being deleted and was taken in by the Oracle.
And what about the Merovingian?
The Merovingian is another name you’ll hear often in The Matrix and he’s coming back in Resurrections. The Merovingian is one of the oldest and most powerful programs in the Matrix. He basically acts as the head of a crime syndicate and operates a smuggling ring for exiled programs.
The Merovingian butts heads with Neo, Trinity and Morpheus in the films as they attempt to find the Keymaker, who is a program within his control. Later when Morpheus and Trinity are searching for Neo, they hold the Merovingian at gunpoint to get him back.
That’s the last we saw of the Merovingian but he’ll be back somehow in The Matrix: Resurrections.
If you’d rather recap all The Matrix films yourself you can find the whole trilogy on Netflix now. The Matrix: Resurrections releases on December 26.