History Film / TheMatrix

** Averted with Morpheus, who is ultimately the only one in the main PowerTrio to survive the series.

* GattacaBabies: Humans in the Matrix are essentially this.

* ''The Animatrix'', which is an anthology of nine short animated films from several celebrated anime directors. Included in this anthology is the ''The Second Renaissance'', a two-parter that explains the backstory of the human/machine war that laid the foundation for the creation of the Matrix.

->''"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."''

* MisterExposition: The Keymaker when explaining about the bomb-trapped building that houses the door to The Architect -- and how to break into it. The Architect also fills this role in his speeches to Neo, telling him about the entire history of the Matrix and why Neo is an essential part of it.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: The Architect. ''[[TropesAreNotGood Holy God, the Architect.]]''

** Also, the train station sign Mobil <=> Limbo, as mocked by [[MeaningfulName Rifftrax]].
** The soundtrack's titles have even more of them. [[TheMatrix Exit Mr Hat]] comes to mind.

* SneezeOfDoom
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Smith-Bane reveals himself to Neo by calling him "Mr. Anderson" in his usual mocking tone. However, despite hearing this ''three'' times in the span of twenty seconds, Neo thinks Bane is just insane. He figures out the truth just before the fight, but can't completely accept it until his eyes get burned out, which allows Neo to actually "see" Smith's energy signature.

* SynchronizedSwarming: In the third movie, the sentinel robots make a hand-like shape. [[spoiler:Later, robots form a face and it talks to Neo.]]

** The shot where you see the two men diving for each other from below, arms outstretched, was called the "I Love You, Man" Shot among the crew.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: This turns into a sticky issue once it is revealed that there are sentient programs, some of whom have ambiguous alignments, some of whom are on the humans' side (or just want to be left alone).

* {{Wuxia}}: As well a general genre affiliation we have specific Wuxia motifs: running along walls, leaping great distances merging with levitation, the ability to dodge and stop bullets.

-->'''Cypher''': "I don't remember you ever bringing me dinner."

* ClusterFBomb: Averted. The original script had characters spewing much more direct exposition and way, ''way'' more swearing. Admittedly, some of it would have been better ("Dodge this, motherfucker."), but this may be one of the few acceptable Bowdlerizations in modern history.\\

* FreudWasRight: Seriously, watch this movie with an eye toward sexual imagery and you'll find it [[RuleOfSymbolism everywhere]], and in the [[BodyHorror most]] [[NaughtyTentacles awful]] [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong ways]]. The most graphic stuff is found in the first film, but it's still very much there in the last two. Makes you wonder just what was on the Wachowskis' minds the whole time they were writing this.

* IAmNotShazam: Viewers tend to refer to Smith as "Agent Smith" throughout all three movies; he's not an Agent from ''Reloaded'' onward, just "Smith."

* LastStand: The Battle of Zion essentially amounts to this. With special mention to Cpt. Mifuni's. The scene in Matrix Revolutions is even titled, "Mifuni's Last Stand"

* ShoutOut: In keeping with the movie's philosophical subtext, some of Zion's military personnel are named after famous philosophers. There's Commander Locke, Captain Soren (after Soren Kierkegaard), and Captain Ballard (after science fiction author J.G. Ballard).
** Also, there's Captain Mifune: in the original Japanese version of ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' (which the Wachowski brothers are huge fans of), "Mifune" was the main character's last name. Fittingly, the brothers would go on to direct the live-action film of ''Film/SpeedRacer'' just a few years after finishing the Matrix trilogy.

* ArtisticLicense-Biology: The whole "using humans as a power source" idea. In reality, it would be an enormously terrible idea to use ANY living thing as a power source, for a variety of reasons, listed below. This troper heard that the original idea was to have the humans being used as processors in an immense computing array, [[ViewersAreMorons but somebody thought that this idea was too complex for most moviegoers to grasp.]]

* Artistic License - Biology: The whole "using humans as a power source" idea. In reality, it would be an enormously terrible idea to use ANY living thing as a power source, for a variety of reasons, listed below. This troper heard that the original idea was to have the humans being used as processors in an immense computing array, [[ViewersAreMorons but somebody thought that this idea was too complex for most moviegoers to grasp.]]

* {{Manipulative Bastard}}: The Oracle. She tells Neo that whether he or Morpheus dies is his own choice. But she also tells Trinity that she will fall in love with a dead man who is the one. So really, she was just playing Neo. Morpheus even said that the Oracle just told him what he needed to hear.

** And then the Architect ''really'' explains why the Matrix isn't one. More to the point, he explains why trying to convince humans they are living in 'Heaven' would never work because humans are imperfect bastards (at least, that's his take on it).

* RunOrDie: The Agents, at least in the first film.

* GrandTheftMe: Poor Bane. While everybody else that Smith copies himself over [[IGotBetter is restored after Smith is finally beaten]], Bane gets decapitated.

* GravityIsOnlyATheory: Gravity is not real because the world is not real. At the end of the first movie, Neo gives the tyrant overlords the proverbial finger by flying in broads daylight, showing mankind that gravity is not all it's cracked up to be.
* GreenAesop : Not really the point of the trilogy as a whole, but Agent Smith's speech in the first movie definitely has hints of this.

* AndIMustScream:
** The portion of the movie where the Agents make Neo's mouth disappear.
** ''The Animatrix'' implies this to have occurred for the first humans embedded in the prototype Matrix.

* YouFailBiologyForever: Humans being used as batteries. Humans, like any living organism, do not produce more energy (body heat, movement, etc.) than they consume. Thus, if you're using them as a source of energy but you are also the one who's responsible for feeding them - as the machines are - it will only ''cost'' you energy. (Unless you found some magical way to harvest ''all'' of their energy output with 100 per cent efficiency; even then, you'd just break even.) Also counts as YouFailPhysicsForever - y'know, conservation of energy and all that.

* OracularUrchin: The androgynous monk child ("Spoon Boy" according to the script) who claims that "There is no spoon."

* FeelingOppressedByTheirExistence: Part of what distinguishes Agent Smith from his fellow Machines is his belief that human beings are, by their very existence, a destructive virus that must be eradicated.

* ActorAllusion: Keanu Reeves starred in ''JohnnyMnemonic'', as a character who could have a jack placed straight into the back of his head. It is also a film about telepresence.

* ArcWords: There is no spoon.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: From ''Reloaded''; after the keymaker escapes with Trinity and Morpheus, the Merovingian sics his goons on Neo...and the black guy [[BoomHeadshot gets a morning star to the face]] almost immediately.