History Film / TheMatrixResurrections

* AllForNothing: Played with and ultimately subverted. When he's first freed from the new Matrix and brought to the new human city Io, Neo initially assumes that his fight was pointless, because the war between human and machines is still going on, machines are still the dominant force with humans living in a hidden city, and the Matrix still exists. Bugs and Niobe show him that he's wrong: not only is Io much larger and more comfortable than Zion was, its residents enjoy a simulated sky, are learned to recreate real fruits and vegetables, and more. Not to mention some of the Machines switched sides during the civil war preceding Neo's reawakening, and even Programs now have the ability to manifest in the real world by using nanomachines to create a physical avatar of themselves. Neo may not have ended the war for good, but he ''did'' make a real impact on the world for the better, and human and machine alike owe a lot to his sacrifice.

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: Neo subconsciously created the modal and the new Morpheus as a means of fighting back against the Analyst and getting out of the Matrix again. While Morpheus was meant to be come self-aware and seek out and free his creator, however, Neo couldn't actually release his would-be savior from the modal himself. Doing so would have only attracted the Analyst's attention and tipped his hand. To work around this, Neo instead intentionally left the modal in plain sight, its access open, and the program running off old Matrix code. His hope was that someone (presumably from Zion) would eventually notice the strange code, investigate the modal, and free Morpheus. It works (though it ultimately helps that Bugs had, by chance, encountered Neo before she was unplugged and was obsessively seeking any sign or clue of the One's return.]]

* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler:The real purpose behind the modal. Despite the Analyst's suppression of his memories, Neo subconsciously realized he was back in the Matrix against his will and retaliated. The Morpheus Program was Neo's escape plan -- a Program meant to eventually achieve sentience, seek out its creator, and lead him back into the Real World if his suspicions were correct. Bugs also realizes Neo subconsciously ''had'' to leave the modal open and hope someone would eventually discover and free Morpheus (since doing it himself would've risked attracting attention and tipping his hand). When the Analyst finally realizes what happened, he begrudgingly concedes it was a clever plan.]]

* FightingFromTheInside: A variation. [[spoiler:Bugs and the Morpheus Program deduce this was the real purpose behind the modal. Despite the Analyst's suppression of his memories, Neo subconsciously realized he was back in the Matrix against his will and retaliated. The Morpheus Program was Neo's escape plan -- a Program meant to eventually achieve sentience, seek out its creator, and lead him back into the Real World if his suspicions were correct. Bugs also realizes Neo subconsciously ''had'' to leave the modal open and hope someone would eventually discover and free Morpheus (since doing it himself would've risked attracting attention and tipping his hand). When the Analyst finally realizes what happened, he begrudgingly concedes it was a clever plan.]]

* FightingFromTheInside: [[spoiler: When she finally meets Neo, Bugs has deduced this was the real purpose behind the new Morpheus Program and the Modal. Despite the Analyst's suppression of his memories, Neo's subconscious recognized he was back in the Matrix against his will and retaliated. The Morpheus Program was Neo's "Break Glass in Case of Emergency" -- a Program meant to achieve sentience, seek out Neo, and lead him back into the Real World. Bugs also realizes Neo ''had'' to leave the modal open and hope someone would eventually discover and free Morpheus (since doing it himself would risk attracting attention and tipping his hand). When the Analyst finally realizes what happened, he begrudgingly concedes it was a clever plan.]]

* ArcWords: At several points characters are presented with binary choices (allá the famous red pill-blue-pill scene) and comment "Not much of a choice at all". [[spoiler: Fittingly, Neo and Trinity free themselves by breaking a binary choice set up by the Analyst.]]

* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The film keeps the tradition of having the sequel subtitle start with "Re" after ''[[Film/TheMatrixReloaded Reloaded]]'' and ''[[Film/TheMatrixRevolutions Revolutions]]''.

** Tiffany's husband is named [[WebOriginal/VirginVsChad Chad]]. Chad is often the term used by the incel community to refer to the sort of men that women prefer over them.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "Tiffany" expresses discomfort about her name, even though as far as she knows, it's the name that she's had all her life, and notes that even though she's a mother, she's unsure if this is something that she personally wants or if she's just doing what she's expected to. [[spoiler:When she awakens to her true identity as Trinity, she no longer makes any secret of how much she hated being called "Tiffany", similar to a trans person despising a deadname; in this regard, her struggles with the idea of motherhood also parallel how a trans person might struggle with social expectations that prescribe what someone of their assigned sex "should" want from life.]]

** Tiffany's husband is named Chad. Chad is often the term used by the incel community to refer to the sort of men that women prefer over them.

* CrapsaccharineWorld: The Architect's version of the Matrix was a steel-and-concrete CrapsackWorld deliberately designed to be soul-crushing in order to be convincing to the human mind as the real world. The Analyst's version of the Matrix, in contrast, appears to be a place of shallow material fulfillment but spiritual banality. The Analyst even brags to Neo how he's achieved a virtually zero-percent redpilling rate by keeping the captive human populace content by meeting their superficial wants and needs.

* LighterAndSofter: The trilogy was steeped in dark themes and a lot of grim ruminations on the nature of fate and free will. This film keeps some of that, but on the whole goes for a considerably more optimistic tone, focusing on subjects like love and shedding old prejudices. A lot of the characters are less stoic or deathly serious, preferring familial and cordial engagements with one another that ease off on the direness of previous ''Matrix'' movies. Even the antagonists are a contrast, with Smith being reborn as a modern-day executive with a casual relationship with his employees that he maintains even when he is reawakened, and the Analyst having none of the Architect's stone-cold logic and seeing things in a flexible, malleable context with a laid-back and bemused opinion of humanity. The ending is also upbeat, with a tinge of comedy and [[spoiler:Neo and Trinity reunited and unplugged from the Matrix once more to make it a better place instead of facing a long road ahead that hasn't even begun to take shape, like the original film's]]. And, as pointed out earlier, EverybodyLives.

* ZergRush: While the Agents are still in evidence, the machines' primary weapon against the redpills are swarms of bots -- programs blended in as humans that can activate at any time. They're not nearly as effective as the Agents in combat, but use surprise and massive numbers-- [[spoiler:in the finale, hundreds, if not thousands, are controlled by the Analyst in an attempt to stop Neo and Trinity]].

** Keanu Reeves being OlderThanTheyLook is acknowledged, as characters point out how he looks pretty much the same, while other returning figures such as Niobe have aged significantly. [[spoiler: It's because he was resurrected by the machines.]]

** Tiffany is a thing gauze muslin, lampshading the paper-thin disguise of the alias.

* MeaningfulName: Tiffany's husband is named Chad. Chad is often the term used by the incel community to refer to the sort of men that women prefer over them.

----

* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** When Tiffany is introduced into the film, she's initially seen alone. But when Tom approaches her, [[spoiler:her two children appear. When Tom and Tiffany continue speaking, her husband shows up. And when Tiffany lingers, her husband says that they need to pick up a third child, showing that this iteration of the Matrix is doing everything that it can to keep Neo and Trinity apart.]]
** Thomas Anderson's business partner repeats some of Agent Smith's lines from the first film under the guise of simply enjoying said lines. He's later revealed to be Smith himself, reborn.
** The whole game development team dresses primarily in blue, with one exception: [[spoiler: a woman who wears mostly reddish colors, who is later revealed to be Sati.]]
** Part of the reason the Human forces had trouble finding Neo is that the Machine World altered his DSI (ExpoSpeakGag for "appearance"). We first notice this in a FreezeFrameBonus during the HardWorkMontage while Thomas Anderson labors over the 4th ''Matrix'' game: in one of the shots of him taking his pills at the mirror, his reflection is of someone else.
** Tiffany thinks that she looks just like Trinity, but her husband finds the idea laughable. We are led to believe that the husband is just being an asshole, but it's later revealed that ''her'' DSI is altered as well. (There's another FreezeFrameBonus of her reflection being a blonde woman.) So to the husband, she really looks nothing like Trinity.
** Also in the above scene, Tiffany expresses how angry she was at her husband laughing at her, going so far as to say that she wanted to kick him hard enough to "knock his jaw off". [[spoiler: At the end, Trinity does exactly that to the Analyst -- the entity most directly responsible for keeping her from being Trinity.]]

! Spoilers for ''all'' ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' works preceding it will be left unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned!

''The Matrix Resurrections'' is an American {{Cyberpunk}} ScienceFiction action film directed and co-produced by [[Creator/TheWachowskis Lana Wachowski]][[note]]Her sister and regular collaborator Lilly, who worked on the first three films and various spin-off projects, chose not to participate[[/note]], who co-wrote the script with Aleksandar Hemon and Creator/{{David Mitchell|Author}}. The third sequel to ''Film/TheMatrix'' and the fourth film installment in the ''[[Franchise/TheMatrix Matrix]]'' franchise, the film was released on December 22, 2021, both in theaters and on Creator/HBOMax (the latter for a one-month duration), over [[SequelGap 18 years]] after ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions''.

* OneTrueLove: After hinting at it throughout [[Franchise/TheMatrix the original trilogy]], this film more or less explicitly confirms Neo and Trinity as soul mates who will always find their way back to each other. Their love for each other is strong enough to [[spoiler:transcend any attempts to suppress it]] and eventually leads to [[spoiler:Trinity breaking free of the Matrix altogether when she is properly reunited with Neo]].

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:The Analyst's design for the seventh Matrix hinges on keeping Neo and Trinity ''juuuust'' tantalizingly close enough for their energy to power the simulation, but never close enough to unlock their powers and break free. Between that, the tight leash of observation that he keeps on Neo, and the absence of an Oracle to put the right people in the right places, finding and freeing the One in this cycle should be a near-impossibility. Even Bugs, who caught a glimpse of the real Neo and subsequently freed her mind, needed an extended search and a razor-thin window of opportunity from Neo's own in-Matrix programming experiments to get any sort of tangible lead. But what the Analyst failed to realize is that, by using Trinity's body and her bond with Neo as such a keystone of his digital ecosystem, [[CreateYourOwnHero she also becomes a critical anomaly in the Matrix on par with Neo]]. Sure enough, when Trinity finally breaks free, she unlocks Neo-like powers within minutes, turning the tables and leaving the Analyst and the Machine City with their own unpredecented, Herculean problem to solve: namely, figuring out how to fend off ''the sixth'' '''''and''''' ''seventh Ones at the same time.'']]

* LoopholeAbuse: How the Analyst gained his advantage as a RulesLawyer. Both humans and Machines living together in Io note that Neo's truce held. Humans who discovered the artificiality of the previous (Neo's) Matrix were allowed to leave, and the Machines were not actively seeking complete control, domination or extermination of humanity. However, the Machine CivilWar left those in support of the truce losing against those who wanted more energy from the Matrix. The Analyst gains control by creating a new Matrix v.4 (the failed utopia, haunted house and stable Matrix managed by the Architect as prior art). Improving on the last Matrix, he resurrects and weaponizes [[TheChosenOne The One's powers]] against himself as needed. In this new fourth Matrix, the Architect respects the letter of the law in allowing the humans to leave, but, because of its refinements, virtually no human is aware at all of its artificiality, violating the spirit of the truce.

* LoopholeAbuse: How the Architect gained his advantage as a RulesLawyer. Both humans and Machines living together in Io note that Neo's truce held. Humans who discovered the artificiality of the previous (Neo's) Matrix were allowed to leave, and the Machines were not actively seeking complete control, domination or extermination of humanity. However, the Machine CivilWar left those in support of the truce losing against those who wanted more energy from the Matrix. The Analyst gained control by creating a new Matrix v.4 (the failed utopia, haunted house and stable Matrix managed by the Architect as prior art), and even weaponizing [[TheChosenOne The One's powers]] against himself. In this new fourth Matrix, the Architect respects the letter of the law in allowing the humans to leave, but, because of its refinements, virtually no human is aware at all of its artificiality, violating the spirit of the truce.

* RulesLawyer: How the Architect gained his advantage. As both humans and Machines living together in Io notes, Neo's truce held. Humans who discovered the artificiality of the previous (Neo's) Matrix were allowed to leave, and the Machines were not actively seeking complete control, domination or extermination of humanity. However, the Machine CivilWar notes that those in support of the truce lost against those who wanted more energy from the Matrix. The Analyst gained control by creating a new Matrix v.4 (the failed utopia, haunted house and stable Matrix managed by the Architect as prior art). In this new fourth Matrix, the Architect respects the letter of the law in allowing the humans to leave, but, because of its refinements, virtually no human is aware at all of its artificiality, violating the spirit of the truce.