The Matrix: Programs / Characters

Programs living in the Matrix, either True Neutral or fighting for or against the humans. Many of them are Exiles, programs from the Machine Mainframe or previous iterations of the Matrix, who fled deletion after they were deemed redundant/obsolete or started to malfunction.

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The Architect’s Iteration:

The Oracle

"Make up your own damn mind."

Played By: Gloria Foster (1999-2003), Mary Alice (2003)

Appearances: The Matrix | Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online

"We can never see past the choices we don't understand."

An Exile, a "rogue program" in the Matrix, who helps the human resistance at times with her cryptic advice. She can see into the future, but prefers her visitors to make up "their own damn minds" in deciding their actions. The Architect refers to her as the mother of the Matrix.

Almighty Janitor: The Wachowskis turned a domestic, uneducated woman into the wisest and most powerful being in the Matrix.
Apron Matron: She is introduced wearing an apron and baking cookies during her first meeting with Neo.
Benevolent A.I.: She ultimately wants peace between the humans and machines and is willing to play "a very dangerous game" to see that happen.
Bus Crash: Was purged, alongside many other Exiles, when the Analyst took control and repurposed the new version of the Matrix.
Catchphrase: "Make up your own damn mind."
The Chessmaster: A lot of it relied on her "pawns" behaving a certain way, but in the end she got exactly what she wanted.
Cool Old Lady: Looks significantly older in Enter the Matrix and the third film from her new shell.
Deadpan Snarker: Being clairvoyant, she tends to have a little fun with it.
Fighting from the Inside: She may have forced Smith to talk to Neo, helping him understand the need to give up in order for Smith to be deleted. Either that or Smith was just doing exactly what was foretold in the premonitions.
Gambit Roulette: Being an oracle, it's more believable, but she's still a computer program in a self-admitted less than perfect computer.
Greater-Scope Paragon: The Oracle has helped the six iterations of the One to go to the Source. However, the first five were tricked into the Architect's room.
Guile Hero: Despite siding with Neo and crew, she actually manipulates both sides of the war to get what she really wants: for man and machine to call a truce.
Heel–Face Turn: At some point before the movies, she got tired of leading the Zionites of each generation into false hope and ultimately futile actions and decided to pull strings to prevent Zion from being destroyed again and cause a cease-fire between Man and Machine.
Killed Off for Real: The Oracle was among those programs deleted by the Analyst during the program purge he caused to implement his new version of the Matrix.
Magical Negro: Her appearance in the virtual world.
Manipulative Bastard: Though her intentions are good. The last scene of the trilogy is her and the Architect commenting on the "dangerous game" she's played to end the war. It all started by introducing romantic love into the equation.
Mother Nature, Father Science: The Mother Nature to the Architect's Father Science.
The Nth Doctor: The Oracle had two actresses during the films, Gloria Foster died and was replaced with Mary Alice for Enter the Matrix and Revolutions. The in-universe explanation was that Rama-Khandra and his wife gave the Merovingian the Oracle's shell codes, causing her to gain a new physical appearance.
The Omniscient: She's not called the Oracle for nothing, after all. Her precognition is a result of her ability to very accurately perceive emotions and deduce what someone will do before they do it from that, allowing her to play incalculable Batman Gambits off of multiple people and predict the ultimate outcome.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: "Don't worry about the vase."
Team Mom: Not just to Neo and company, she is the Mother of the Matrix. Which is how Smith got similar powers to The One through her. Her role in the Matrix's creation was to provide the empathetic counterpoint to the Architect's pure logic.
You Monster!: When Smith revealed what he did to Sati, the weary Oracle can only reply that he's a sick bastard.

The Architect

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_matrix_architect_6350.png

"What do you think I am - human?"

Played By: Helmut Bakaitis

Appearances: The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix Online

"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."

The program that created and acts as maintainer and chief administrator of the Matrix. He is the least empathetic out of all the programs, seeing everything through logical means.

Anti-Villain: He did, after all, devote his existence to creating the best possible environment for humans to survive in, even if his motives weren't at all selfless. He ultimately agrees with the Oracle to institute a truce, showing that he at least has some common sense left.
Beard of Evil: Sports a white beard with a mustache to match.
Big Bad: As the creator of the Matrix, he's one of the top candidates for this trope in the franchise.
Big Bad Ensemble: With Agent Smith and the Machines for the whole trilogy.
Climax Boss: Averted because he would rather solve his anomaly by talking.
Clock King: His purpose is to balance out the equation, and he factors in the unpredictability of others to make his predictions more accurate.
Deadpan Snarker: "What do you think I am, human?"
Demiurge Archetype: The Architect is the creator of the titular Matrix, a false universe much like the material plane in Gnosticism, and an old, bearded man who has a lot of Christian imagery surrounding him who wants his creation to be perfect and will punish the humans living inside if they disobey.
Early-Bird Cameo: Even though his first appearance was in The Matrix Reloaded, one of his monitors first appeared in the beginning of the first film.
Emotionless Boy: His dialogue implies that he is a "being" of pure logic and mathematical reasoning, with little to no capacity for emotion or empathy. Thus, he displays almost no emotion during his scenes with Neo, except cold disdain at Neo's determination and a rather smug arrogance and pride when he discusses the effort he put into making the Matrix "perfect".
Evil Counterpart: To the Oracle, who has a greater understanding of humanity that would allow her to side with them.
Evil Old Folks: The Architect has the appearance of an elderly white man.
Evil Sounds Deep: His voice deeply resembles Tony Jay.
- Bakaitis based his characterisation off Orson Welles, hence the deep menacing tone.
First Of Its Kind: The first program created by the Machines.
God Is Evil: As to be expected from a Demiurge stand-in. One of the actors even calls him "a devastating critique of salvationist stories".
Grandpa God: His appearance certainly evokes this.
Greater-Scope Villain: He created the Matrix and started the conflict in the film trilogy altogether. However, by Reloaded, Smith has betrayed him and become much more dangerous.
Green-Eyed Monster: It's heavily implied he resents The Oracle for finding the solution to running the Matrix that he couldn't. He refers to her as a "lesser mind", and though he merely means that she's not bound by a need for perfection like he is, his tone still comes off as derisive. He even sneers a bit when Neo as much as mentions her.
Hope Crusher: The Architect believed that hope is the quintessential human delusion, and says that all other options are doomed to failure.
Humanity Is Insane: You wouldn't think it due to his apathy, but he actually wanted the Matrix to be a perfect paradise for humans. Not viewing himself or the machines as antagonistic, but simply doing what they do for people's own good. He was very proud of it, a place where everyone is always happy, an accomplishment matched only by its monumental failure. If man didn't want perfection, in frustration he created the next Matrix as hell on Earth. Once again, it was rejected and it crashed, killing everyone. The machines couldn't afford a third crash that would result in the extinction of humanity, so turned to the Oracle. The Architect remained bitter and dejected many hundreds of years later because he couldn't get the first Matrix to be accepted.
Ignorant of Their Own Ignorance: The Oracle notes that while nobody can see past the choices they don't understand, the Architect is incapable of seeing past any choice, as he is incapable of understanding choices as anything but variables in an equation that must be solved and balanced, while elements like the Oracle and Neo are able to unbalance his perceived equations.
Irony: His last line makes it clear how certain he is that the peace achieved thanks to Neo's sacrifice will one day be broken by the humans, since the Machines are the logical ones. Instead, contrary to his highly calculated predictions, it is the Machines who ultimately refuse to accept his terms, fight among themselves, and break the truce. Not only that, but his logic is ignored in favor of a new program who eventually replaces him.
Light Is Not Good: His appearance in the virtual world and his actions invoke this.
Mother Nature, Father Science: The Father Science to The Oracle's Mother Nature.
Mr. Exposition: His newfound purpose is to give Neo an extended version of the history of the Matrix we got from Smith in the first movie, and to tell Neo his ultimate function.
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Orson Welles was the inspiration for the Architect's voice.
- His appearance, on the other hand, makes him resemble Vinton Cerf, one of the, well, architects of the Internet.^note
Post-Peak Oil: Neo rebuffs his declaration that mankind will die, as the machines need them to survive. With no emotion the Architect replies "There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept.", but the tone of his voice goes very harsh and grim— it's clearly not something they would like, and would rather avoid. Earth is dead. With no other resources, no power sources, and many machines now no longer having a purpose, they would become a shell of themselves, barely sentient, barely ticking over.
Pride: He oozes with it when the discussion between him and Neo turns to the Matrix itself, clearly taking smug enjoyment in his achievement and how much effort he put into designing it to be "perfect". It is also clearly what drives much of his antipathy against mankind; when he talks about how some people still refuse to fit within the system he has created, he cannot help but betray some hurt pride — it clearly annoys and angers him on some level that there are those who would reject his creation, even after everything he did to achieve "perfection".
Predecessor Villain: Serves as this to Smith.
- Also serves this to The Analyst, his successor program in Resurrections.
Real After All: Even though a monitor was seen in the first movie, he finally appears in the second film.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: To an extreme; his dialogue is crammed full of ten-dollar words and convoluted phrasing. He's not quite as bad during his very brief appearance in the third movie, though. He's explicitly doing this on purpose; after his response to the first question, he congratulates Neo on figuring out that what he said was completely unrelated to the question much faster than his predecessors. After that, he tunes it back a bit and just uses unusually precise wording.
Smug Snake: Has his moments, as machines like to think they're superior to humans in every way.
Social Darwinist: The Architect views humans as very inferior and imperfect.
Spock Speak: See below.
Straw Vulcan: His exaggerated Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness makes him sound like one. That aside, he openly boasts of his great intellect and logical thinking skills and clearly likes bragging about how perfect how his work on the Matrix is. He also expresses something resembling embrassment when he grudgingly admit that the Oracle, through her intiutive methods, was able to reach a greater understanding of humans that his strictly logical world-view wouldn't allow to.
Uncertain Doom: It is not clear what became of him when the Analyst gained control of the Matrix.
Villain in a White Suit: It's off-white, but still gives this impression.
Villains Never Lie: He believes that this is something that only humans would ever do. He doesn't even manipulate Neo into entering the Source, just calmly telling him about the options. He even mentioned Trinity's impending death so that he could make an informed choice about the future.
Waistcoat of Style: He is always seen well-dressed in an off-white suit.
Walking Spoiler: Nobody expected the Architect to appear.
You Can't Fight Fate: Implied, but ultimately subverted. In his scene with Neo the screens shows dozens of possible responses Neo could make, including one that is the exact one that he's making. It's meant to imply inescapable omniscience. But The Oracle contemptuously notes that he can't see the outcome of any choice, and if he can guess all possible outcomes, he still doesn't know which one will actually happen.

Exiles

The Merovingian

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_merovingian-1_3405.png

"Cause and effect."

^{Click here to see him in The Matrix Resurrections.}

Played By: Lambert Wilson

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online | The Matrix Resurrections

"Something to eat? Drink? Of course these things are contrivances, like so much here, for the sake of appearances."

A powerful Exile taking the form of a French businessman, the Merovingian believes in "cause and effect", is very manipulative, enjoys the finer things in life, and despises the Oracle. He has a wife named Persephone, who he often cheats on. He holds the Keymaker captive, but he is freed by Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and Persephone getting payback on him. According to The Matrix Online, he was the "Operating System" of the second Matrix beta version, in charge of keeping it organized - but when it was purged he fled into the current Matrix, along with powerful relics from the earlier ones.

Big Bad Wannabe: He thinks he's one of the big threats and aspires to take over the Oracle's power. While he does have influence in the Matrix, he's nowhere near the power levels of the Oracle or the Architect and nowhere near the danger levels of Smith or even normal Agents. His attempts at manipulating the Red pills end up failing with many of his men getting killed in battle and him walking away empty-handed.
Calling Your Bathroom Breaks: "Please, ma cherie, I have told you. We are all victims of causality. I drank too much wine, I must take a piss."
Camp Straight: As far as we know. He is so refined that he appears effeminate, but he only shows interest in women.
Decadent Court: He owns both a (seemingly) high-class restaurant and the openly hedonistic Club Hel.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While it doesn't stop his infidelities, he still sticks around with his wife Persephone even after her betrayal.
Everything Sounds Sexier in French:
"I have sampled every language; French is my favourite. Fantastic language, especially to curse with." [string of profanity] "You see? It's like wiping your ass with silk. I love it."
Evil Is Hammy: To start, he's introduced by saying a string of French curse words just because he thinks it sounds nice. Every time, he speaks it's with such an overexaggerated affect that it can be hard to take him seriously.
Face–Heel Turn: Persephone claims he was once like Neo, and is bored to death with the self-satisfied hedonist he's become.
Foil: It's implied that the Merovingian's power cabal over the "Exile" rogue programs is analogous to what Zion is for the rogue humans: the Machines / the Architect realized that some would inevitably go rogue, but because this could be anticipated it could be organized into a "pressure release valve" of sorts. Zion is a great way to get redpill humans out of the Matrix, while the Merovingian ends up keeping the rogue programs in line. They have their fun and live like rock stars, but the Merovingian makes sure they don't fundamentally threaten the stability of the Matrix. So long as they keep their heads down, there's no need to destroy them. The third movie even presents him with Satanic imagery, "ruling" over Club "Hell" — Satan rules over Hell and keeps the demons in line, but he's not God. Persephone even says that he used to be idealistic like Neo, but over time the futility of the cycles in the Matrix led him to become cynical and hedonistic, just going along for the ride.
Flunky Boss: Relies on his minions to do the work.
Foreign Cuss Word: His string of French curses is an R-rating's worth by itself.
French Jerk: While he's just a computer program and thus has no real nationality, he cheats on his wife, he hates helping people, and he peppers his speech with French just because he finds it interesting, invoking this trope.
The Hedonist: He lives to indulge in the privileges his authority grants him while seeking to expand on both.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: In the original trilogy, the Merovingian was a wealthy businessman and a powerful exile in the Matrix. In The Matrix Resurrections, while he and several of his goons are shown to have survived the purge, he is clearly a shadow of his former self, now taking on the appearance of a raving, half-mad homeless person. His change in fortunes hasn't made him any less dangerous, as his brief alliance with Agent Smith to kill Neo and the Mnemosyne crew has shown.
Just a Stupid Accent: In-universe even, since he's a program who just pretends to be French for fun.
Knowledge Broker: A self-described trafficker of information.
Manipulative Bastard: He tries to be one, toying around with people to exploit what he wants. He brought Sati to the Matrix in exchange for the Oracle's shell, whom he still harbors a grudge against.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Owns a high-class five-star restaurant and lives in a swanky home.
Meaningful Name: The Merovingian dynasty were Frankish royals with close ties to the church.
Mythical Motifs: To Hades, Grecian God of the Dead. He has a somewhat disgruntled wife named Persephone and owns a club named "Hel." It's not subtle.
Non-Action Guy: He lets everybody else, especially the Twins, do his work. He is, however, one of the few programs who can see and write his own code to create powerful items in the Matrix.
Our Monsters Are Different: Not Merv himself, but many of his underlings are programs that were designed to be vampires and werewolves for earlier, more primal versions of the Matrix.
Power Perversion Potential: Reprograms a cake so that the woman who eats it gets an orgasm.
Villain of the Detour: He's a separate threat from the Big Bad, but he's got the Keymaker so he has to be confronted.
We Will Meet Again: In Resurrections, he makes a hasty get-away after Smith and the other Exiles are defeated, promising to come for Neo again.
"This is not over yet. Our sequel franchise spinoff!"
Wicked Cultured: His Establishing Character Moment is of him discussing how, out of all the languages he knows, he loves French the most, followed by him speaking (cursing in, to be specific) fluent French. The mansion he lives in is also decorated with ancient arts and weaponry to emphasize this.

Persephone

"Cause and Effect, my love."

Played By: Monica Bellucci

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online

"I envy you, but such a thing is not meant to last."

The Merovingian's wife and fellow Exile, Persephone is tired of her husband's cynical shenanigans and affairs with other women, prompting her to aid Neo to free the Keymaker.

Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She's mostly apathetic and is very attractive to boot.
Ambiguously Bi: Enter The Matrix shows that she has no qualms about receiving a kiss from Niobe, though it's unknown if she simply desires to feel the love Niobe has for Morpheus.
Broken Bird: An emotionally detached woman trapped in a loveless marriage.
Desperately Craves Affection: A more stable example than most. Her decision to help Neo and Niobe/Ghost on separate occasions in exchange for a kiss stems from her desire to feel a True Love's Kiss, something that her relationship with her husband is lacking in.
Easily Forgiven: Even though she gave Neo the means of freeing the Keymaker from her husband's custody, she's still by the Meroveringian's side in the sequel as if nothing happened. It's implied that her actions were simply part of a game between them.
Emotion Eater: Apparently, she can read a person's emotions if they kiss her, and gets off on doing so because of her loveless marriage.
To be honest, I do enjoy the taste of tears. But there is something I enjoy so much more.
Going Commando: When you look closely at her translucent dress...
Lady in Red: Dons a scarlet dress in Revolutions.
Meaningful Name: Persephone was the unhappy wife of Hades in Greek myth. One of Merv and Persephone's Decadent Courts is called Club Hel.
Mythical Motifs: As said, to Persephone, queen of the underworld. The name makes it pretty obvious, but so does her seeming discontent with Merovingian. When she talks to Neo, she tells him that the Merovingian wasn't always this way, implying the two actually had a loving relationship which also suits the story.
Ms. Fanservice: Wears a translucent white dress that is very form-fitting in Reloaded, and a red, very low cut leather getup in Revolutions. The script of Reloaded even describes her as "sex and death squeezed into a woman's business suit made of latex".
Not in This for Your Revolution: She helps Neo free the Keymaker, not because she cares for the Nebuchadnezzar's cause, but to get back at her husband for his cheating ways.
Silver Bullet: She implies that the gun in her purse is loaded with silver bullets, before proceeding to put one in the skull of a henchman of her husband's.
The Power of Love: Persephone convinces the Merovingian to surrender Neo in Revolutions, acknowledging how far Trinity will go to rescue her lover.
Too Kinky to Torture: If this exchange with Ghost in Enter the Matrix is anything to go by.
Persephone: If you kiss me, as if you were kissing your true love, I'll tell you where your friend is.
Ghost: I could beat it out of you.
Persephone: (smiles) I like the sound of that too, but a kiss will do.
True Love's Kiss: Persephone allows Neo to see the Keymaker if he kisses her like he kisses Trinity.
Uncertain Doom: While her husband survives the Analyst’s purge, her fate is not mentioned.
Vapor Wear: Usually wears something quite form-fitting.
Woman Scorned: She is very, very sick of the Merovingian's antics and cheating.

The Keymaker

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/matrixreloaded_keymaker_7.jpg

"Always another way."

Played By: Randall Duk Kim

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix: Path of Neo

"If one fails, all fail."

An exiled program who appears as a middle-aged Asian man. He carries numerous keys that allow him access to the backdoors and secret passages of the Matrix. Able to unlock a door to the Architect's chamber, the Keymaker is imprisoned by the Merovingian until Niobe rescued him, then Neo and crew rescue him for the second time. He is gunned down by the numerous Smith copies.

Captain Obvious: When Neo meets him for the first time, he is sitting at a table in a room full of keys, while crafting another one. His words after Neo's introduction: "I am the Keymaker".
Character Death: He is killed by Smith towards the end of Reloaded.
Cool Key: Take your pick. He's got a room full of them.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only called the "Keymaker". Justified since he's a program and likely never got a proper name from the Machines that created him.
Face Death with Dignity: When he's cornered by Agent Johnson after Morpheus falls off the truck during the freeway chase, he isn't the least bit afraid of his impending demise. Thankfully, it's averted when Morpheus leaps back onto the truck with a little help from Niobe.
Heroic Sacrifice: Gunned down by Smith as he closes a door to protect Neo and Morpheus from the same fate, although he claims it was meant to be.
Key Under the Doormat: He'll hide them there too if he wants.
Master of Unlocking: This is his function — if it's got a lock, he has the key. Taken to another level with his cutting of new keys, implied to be an in-matrix representation of creating hacks to access "locks" that shouldn't even have keys.
Mundane Made Awesome: His power as a program is having to the key to open every lock in the Matrix, and he carries multiple large keyrings jammed full of keys. This makes him quite a useful and powerful ally, because he can produce a key for any locked door as well as other things that use keys, like the ignition key to a motorcycle. He can also move about the Matrix with unrivaled ease since he can use programmer keys; hypothetically, he can use a programmer key on any door to make it open into the backdoors of the Matrix, and from there can open a door to anywhere he wants.
Skeleton Key: Is this for all of the Matrix.

Seraph

"...But first I must apologize."

Played By: Collin Chou

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo

"You do not truly know someone until you fight them."

The Oracle's bodyguard, an Exile who appears as a soft-spoken Asian man with kung fu powers. He once worked for the Merovingian, and had a few run-ins with Smith back when the latter was still part of the system.

Apologetic Attacker: Whenever he fights someone to make sure they are who they say they are, he apologizes in advance.
Beware the Nice Ones: Polite, soft-spoken, and a martial arts master who can go toe-to-toe with The One.
Bodyguard Betrayal: He betrayed the Merovingian to work for the Oracle.
Broken Angel: If the name wasn't a hint, the Merovingian and co. like calling him "wingless", etc. the online game suggests he once had actual wings, but lost them as punishment for his betrayal.
The Dreaded: To programs like The Trainman, who fled at the sight of Seraph.
Light Is Good: Seraph wears a white jacket, is named after a type of angel and is a good guy.
Lightning Bruiser: Seraph can match Neo in both speed and fighting prowess, and is powerful enough to have defeated Agent Smith in the past (before Smith became a rogue program).
Master of Unlocking: Can access the backdoors of the Matrix like the Keymaker, although he likely only has access to some of the back doors as opposed to the Keymaker's unlimited access.
Meaningful Name: As in Seraphim.
Meditation Powerup: When Neo sees his code, he perceives Seraph as shining with many points of golden light, unlike the green of everything else.
Names to Trust Immediately: Seraph is named after an angel and is a benevolent program who helps the heroes.
Nerves of Steel: He maintains a calm demeanor at all times, even with a gun in his face.
Our Angels Are Different: Heavily implied to have been one of the "Seraphim" programs of the first Matrix incarnation, that version's equivalent to the Agents, as hinted by the comment of him being "wingless," his brightly glowing golden code, and his combat ability. The Seraphim were phased out in favor of the current Agents because the Machines came to think they were a bit overpowered, and thus too conspicuous - explaining why Seraph is more powerful than an Agent.
Remember the New Guy?: Reloaded establishes he's guarded the Oracle for years, yet there's no sign of him in the first film. Could be handwaved away by him simply being off-screen or on a mission while Neo met with the Oracle.
Super Prototype: If he is indeed a "Seraphim" then he would definitely count as this, since they were basically super-overpowered agents which were quickly phased out when the first matrix crashed and burned.
Sweet Tooth: A blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but after the Oracle teaches Sati how to bake cookies, she tells her to ask Seraph for a taste test of the cookie dough. This was to get Sati to leave the room so the Oracle could talk to Neo alone, but judging by how long it takes between their conversation and Seraph's next scene, he must really like that cookie dough.
Tell Me How You Fight: His quote above says it all.
Uncertain Doom: While the Oracle is confirmed to have been destroyed in the Analyst’s purge, it is unknown if he went with her.
Willfully Weak: The fact he fights Neo, Trinity, Niobe, Ghost, and Ballard and seems evenly matched against all of them despite their significantly varying skill levels suggests he adjusts his "difficulty level" based on his opponent (he was explicitly not trying to kill them, just test them).

The Twins

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/matrixreloaded_twins.jpg

"We owe you for that."

Played By: Adrian & Neil Rayment

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online

A duo of identical programs who work for the Merovingian. They can turn into ghost-like forms and pass through solid objects.

Always Identical Twins: Justified, as they're not human but digial programs.
Badass Longcoat: Solid white. They also get the better of Morpheus and Trinity a few times.
Creepy Twins: Goes without saying, considering their appearance and their ghostly nature.
Crippling Overspecialization: Arguably applies to their ability to become intangible; it makes it hard to hurt them, but once Trinity and Morpheus get a better understanding of how it works, they learn how to use the intangibility against the Twins, exploiting the fact that the Twins must turn completely intangible rather than just transforming parts of themselves to put the twins in positions where they will turn intangible and thus cease being an immediate threat.
Deadpan Snarker: "Could we move along?"
Dissonant Serenity: They don't get many lines, but even counting facial and body language, the most emotion they ever show is in their "We are getting aggravated" line. Even that is delivered in a Creepy Monotone.
The Dividual: Are never not together and finish each others sentences, their dialogue also implies that they are incapable of thinking separate thoughts.
Dreadlock Warriors: Both of them sport one.
Healing Factor: When they go intangible, any wounds they suffered while corporeal are healed.
Improbable Weapon Users: Straight razors.
Intangible Men: They can turn into an incorporeal (and rather monstrous-looking) form to avoid physical damage and heal their wounds. They can control it to a certain extent, as one Twin stays corporeal even while Trinity is shooting him in the arm (said arm being used to prop open a door), but they will apparently go intangible automatically if their lives are threatened (such as when Morpheus shoots at their heads and they ghost instantly).
No Name Given: They're not named in-movie and are both collectively referred to as just "The Twins", usually in promo material.
Our Ghosts Are Different: Several of the Merovingian's lackeys have special abilities that are loosely based on various supernatural creatures. In the case of the Twins, they appear to be based on ghosts, given their albino complexions and intangibility powers.
Royal "We": Each of the twins refers to himself as "We" since they're either identical programs or two different but linked manifestations of the same program. The vast differences between human psychology and machine make it very difficult to tell for certain.
Sibling Team: Well, duh, they're the twins. Bonus points for being played by twins, too.
Single-Minded Twins: To the point of resembling Twin Telepathy.
That Makes Me Feel Angry
"We are getting aggravated."
"Yes, we are."
Those Two Guys: They're the Merovingian's.
Uncertain Doom: They're sent flying into the air after Morpheus totals their car, but it's not clear if they survived the aftermath.
Villain in a White Suit: The villain's lackeys, who have white tuxedos, white longcoats, white skin, white hair, white knives, the list goes on. They even gain a white aura when intangible.
Waistcoat of Style: The aforementioned badass longcoats are cut in such a way that they double as badass waistcoats.

Rama-Kandra, Kamala and Sati

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_sati_with_family_9639.png

^{Click here to see Sati in The Matrix Resurrections.}

Played By: Bernard White (Rama-Kandra), Tharini Mudaliar (Kamala), & Tanveer K. Atwal (young Sati), Priyanka Chopra (adult Sati)

Appearances: The Matrix Reloaded (Rama-Kandra) | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix Resurrections (Sati)

"Karma's a word. Like 'love'. A way of saying 'what I am here to do'. I do not resent my karma - I'm grateful for it. Grateful for my wonderful wife, for my beautiful daughter. They are gifts. And so I do what I must do to honor them."

— Rama-Kandra

A family of programs, Rama-Kandra and Kamala created Sati out of love but are forced to leave her in the Matrix with the Oracle, as she serves no purpose to the Machines. Going to the Merovingian for help, Rama-Kandra gives him the Oracle's shell codes, causing her to change her appearance. They meet Neo in Mobil Avenue and are taken by the Trainman to the Matrix. Rama-Kandra and Kamala return to the Machine City.

Animal Motifs: In Resurrections, Sati's real-world hardware platform is styled to look like a sleek, graceful, almost organic-looking robotic bird, possibly symbolizing her freedom from the system that requires all machine entities to have a specific purpose.
The Apprentice: It's implied that Sati will work alongside the Oracle someday. The Oracle was willing to sacrifice her outer shell to the Merovingian to bring her into the Matrix. Luckily, she got a new one. Resurrections reveals that ultimately this wasn't the case due to the Oracle being purged. Sati has however stepped up into an Oracle-like role helping the human resistance.
Armor-Piercing Question/Armor-Piercing Response: Rama-Kandra lands a philosophical double-tap on Neo, first by challenging his definition of love, and then following up by pointing out that the goals of both sides are similar.
Chekhov's Gunman: Rama-Kandra appears for all of seven seconds in Reloaded, being led away from the Merovingian's table. He then disappears until Revolutions.
Daddy's Girl: Sati.
Elemental Baggage: Sati can alter the weather in the Matrix.
Killed Off for Real: Rama-Kandra and Kamala are purged after betraying the Analyst after realizing the scope of his ambition, namely with torturing the resurrected Neo and Trinity to produce exponential amounts of power, and being disgusted enough to transfer the blueprints to their daughter Sati before they died in hopes to atone for their part in helping him do so.
Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: These parents are willing to do anything to keep their daughter safe, even if it means leaving her behind.
Nice Guy: Rama-Kandra is quite courteous and welcoming in his interaction with Neo.
Small Role, Big Impact: Rama-Kandra and his family only appear briefly in the last two films, but their conversation in the train station forces Neo to confront the idea that many of the machines and programs are thinking, feeling entities just as trapped in a broken system as the humans— a revelation that plays a major role in forming his third option solution that frees both sides from the Vicious Cycle.
- Reinforced again in The Matrix Resurrections where Rama-Kandra is revealed to have designed the technology that was used to bring Neo and Trinity Back from the Dead
Took a Level in Badass: Sati is all grown up by the time of Resurrections and has proven herself to be a helpful and loyal ally of the humans. This is partly because she wanted to avenge her parents' deaths on the Analyst's orders as well.

The Trainman

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/matrix_trainman_3667.png

"Down here... I'm God."

Played By: Bruce Spence

Appearances: Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online

"You don't get it. I built this place. Down here I make the rules. Down here I make the threats."

A program designed to smuggle Exiles in and out of the Matrix. Appearing as a dirty tramp-like man, the Trainman can teleport by leaping into the path of a train. He controls Mobil Avenue and works for the Merovingian.

Clock King: Knows exactly when trains in the Matrix are due, to the extent of being able to blindly leap in front of them to lose pursuers.
Cool Train: It is where he works, more or less.
Dirty Coward: Runs away from Trinity and Morpheus when confronted in the subway, and is only willing to fight Neo in a place where the latter has zero power.
Domain Holder: He controls the subway.
Early-Bird Cameo: He first shows up in a brief cutscene in Enter the Matrix.
Seventy-two hours... That's exactly how long Zion lasted last time.
A God Am I: Gives one of these speeches while kicking the crap out of Neo in his train station, as he is all-powerful there.
Hidden Badass: He might look like a homeless bum, but within his train station, he can do whatever he wants.
Home Field Advantage: The Trainman is much more powerful than normal in the underground subway area he controls. He's even able to subdue Neo!
Little Useless Gun: Noticeably carries a small snubnose compared to all the firepower people usually carry within the Matrix, to go along with his appearance as a dirty vagrant.
Significant Anagram: Mobil Avenue is Limbo. The Trainman himself is likely an allusion to Charon, the ferryman of the afterlife.
Uncertain Doom: It is unknown whether or not the Trainman survived the Analyst's purge.
Vehicle Vanish: Disappears behind a train this way to escape pursuit from Seraph, Morpheus and Trinity.
Virtual-Reality Warper: In the Train Station, the Trainman has complete control of the local Matrix.

The Analyst’s Iteration:

The Analyst (Unmarked spoilers for The Matrix: Resurrections )

The Analyst

"Turns out, in my Matrix, the worse we treat you, the more we manipulate you, the more energy you produce."

Played By: Neil Patrick Harris

Appearances: The Matrix Resurrections

"It's all about fiction. The only world that matters is the one in here. And you people believe the craziest shit. Why? What validates and makes your fictions real? Feelings."

The program in charge of the current iteration of the Matrix, much more ambitious than his predecessor. Masquerading as Thomas Anderson's psychologist, he's overseeing the process of using Neo and Trinity as powerful sources of energy for the Machines. He is much more empathetic than the Architect, realizing the potential of emotions, but also much more sadistic as a result.

Big Bad: Of Resurrections, as the power behind the current Matrix and the resurrection of Neo and Trinity.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: After the disaster that was Trinity's escape from the Matrix and his failure to recapture Neo after his escape, the Analyst cites his knowledge of humans, his version of the Matrix and everything about the escapees as the reason he wasn't immediately purged by his superiors, The Suits.
Contrasting Sequel Antagonist:
- The Analyst is the opposite of the Architect, and sort of a dark Foil to the Oracle. The Architect believed in mathematical precision, and tried to pound a square peg into a round hole by bending the chaotic and delusional human mind into a machine's concept of perfection. The Oracle started out as a program tasked with psychological analysis of the human mind, so she came to realize that human nature is based on emotion, choice, and belief. The difference is that while this caused the Oracle to side with the humans, this same realization made the Analyst conclude that the Architect was incompetent and he could do a better job. So he overthrew the Architect, and redesigned the Matrix to actively take advantage of the human propensity for belief and self-delusion, instead of the Architect's numbers and statistics.
- To the Agents and Smith in particular: The vast majority of Agents we see seem to only be doing what they're created for, and express as much passion or disdain for their job as, well... a machine. Smith contrasted them by actively resenting his job and only doing it so effectively to end it all the sooner, but the Analyst? He's the first character from the Machine's side we've seen who takes such active glee in what he does. He enjoys torturing Neo and Trinity, actively toys with and mocks them constantly, even talking about how much "fun" his swarm mode is. And whereas Smith and the Agents are a primarily physical threat, actively attacking people to prevent them from escaping the Matrix, every way he hurts the heroes in an emotional, psychological level that Smith never even really tries in the trilogy. In fact, without his Bullet Time ability he's shown to be quite physically weak.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Averted. In stark contrast to his predecessor The Architect and many other machines and programs who were constantly stumped by human concepts like feelings and emotions, especially love, The Analyst not only understands them, but actually learns how to take advantage of them in his new version of the Matrix which is powered by said emotions.
Evil Gloating: Once his masquerade has been lifted, he shows he loves to talk about his grand plans, how he's the ruler of Matrix, how helpless the characters are and what not. At least when he does have the upper hand, once the heroes and Smith start making strides in resisting him, this quickly gets less frequent.
Evil Is Hammy: Neil Patrick Harris is clearly having a wonderful time in the part.
Faux Affably Evil: He seems like Neo's perfectly kind and well-meaning therapist when he's really the villain and has been manipulating him the whole time. Even after dropping his facade, he's extremely chatty and possesses Neil Patrick Harris' legendary charisma but his malice and sadism are fully apparent in every word he says.
Frames of Reference: Those chunky blue glasses he wears at the start show off that he's more of an administrator than he is a fighter, along with being the exact same colour as the bluepills he 'prescribes'.
Large Ham: Once he drops the "kindly therapist" facade, he gleefully chews scenery as he espouses about his schemes. He's also played by Neil Patrick Harris, making him this by default.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: While his plan was mostly successful in exploiting Neo and Trinity as a nearly limitless power source based on their love for one another, he made a fatal error that ultimately caused it all to crash down by re-purposing the original Agent Smith's code to serve as a competent enforcer under the guise of being Anderson's business partner, something that — once he's accidentally awakened himself by Morpheus during a botched job to reawaken Neo from his stupor — leads to Smith derailing all of the Analyst's carefully constructed plan in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge; in part due to his abstract nature as a previously renegade program that nearly brought the Matrix to its knees, rendering Smith The Immune to the Analyst's admin privileges.
- And there’s the fact that when Trinity and Neo broke free of his machinations he had not one but two iterations of the One to deal with.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: On the receiving end for being a Straw Misogynist. Trinity beats him up for all the trouble he put Neo and her through with fatal strikes (breaking his jaw, slitting his throat, cutting off his head), though brings him back with power of the One.
Non-Action Big Bad: He displays no apparent fighting skills, and his preferred method of restraining Neo is slowing down time so much that all of Neo’s martial arts are ridiculously easy to dodge. It’s further demonstrated how little physical prowess he actually has when confronted by Smith, who can just ignore the Analyst’s time freeze and knocks him to the floor with a single punch.
Psycho Psychologist: Pumps Neo full of bluepills, keeps him and Trinity close but far enough apart to produce more energy, and convinces Neo that his memories of the events of the past three movies were just fantasies created from his feelings towards others and the video game he programmed influencing his daily life.
Right-Hand Cat: He has a pet black cat named Deja Vu. While disguised as a psychologist he claims it’s just an ordinary cat who Tom Anderson wrote his dislike of in his video games, but the cat’s true nature is implied to be an interface that allows the Analyst to input commands into the Matrix, since he takes it with him into battle and tries to reach for it when the situation gets sticky.
Robots Enslaving Robots: He forced Smith back into being an Agent, and committed The Purge against the Exiles.
Sadist: He appears to take great pleasure in tormenting Neo and Trinity over their love for each other and keeping them separate enough, moreso than what would be expected from a program.
Start My Own: The Machines were perfectly willing to keep to the peace Neo engineered at the end of Revolutions, but the Analyst thought he could do a better job than the Architect and used Neo and Trinity to develop new iterations of the Matrix.
Straw Misogynist: Makes misogynistic comments towards Trinity once he's been defeated, who in turn promptly and effortlessly beats him up. Because the Analyst's misogyny is never foreshadowed by any of his actions beforehand, and given his sadistic nature, it's likely he did it just to get under Trinity's skin.
Time Master: He's able to slow time in the Matrix to a crawl and rewind events should he wish.
Villainous Breakdown: He breaks down as he realizes Trinity is about to escape his Matrix, losing his composure completely and demanding his Bots destroy her.
Villainous Ethics Decay: The idea of going back on one's word was utterly alien to the Machine old guard, as exemplified by the Deus Ex Machina and the Architect, who considered such behavior something only a human would do. The Analyst breaks his promises without a second thought, something even Smith criticizes him for.
Villainous Legacy: He's the successor and replacement for the Architect.
You Have Failed Me: Inflicted this on a majority of the Programs and Exiles that had no use for him in his new Matrix between Revolutions and Resurrections, with The Oracle and both Rama-Kandra and Kamala being named among his causalities. Amusingly, the Merovingian of all people proves to be the Sole Survivor of The Purge.

Bots

Appearances: The Matrix Resurrections

"They don't look like typical Agents. They use bots now, skinned as normal people, which means they’re everywhere and you never know who to trust."

— Bugs

Programs in the Analyst’s new iteration of the Matrix, designed to look and act like regular civilians until the Analyst activates them to do his bidding. They have replaced the Agents from the original trilogy.

Conservation of Ninjutsu: They have much less martial arts skill than Agents in exchange for sheer force of numbers.
Expy: They're analogous to how in the past 20 years since the first movie, the internet is now dominated by search algorithms, and social media is now permeated by "bot" accounts who aren't real people but trying to manipulate you. Unlike the rarely encountered Agents, the Bots are saturated throughout all public and private places...and they pretend to be your trusted friends and loved ones.
Hide Your Children: Despite the implication that Trinity's children in the Matrix are Bots themselves, every hostile Bot appears to be a fully grown adult, and no child Bots can be seen attacking the heroes.
Men Are the Expendable Gender: Most of the Bots appear to be male, with a female Bot rarely seen.
Mind-Control Eyes: They look just like casual civilians, but the first sign that they’re bots is that when in attack mode their eyes fill with Matrix code.
Replacement Mooks: Bots replaced the Agents from the original trilogy...much as the Agents replaced the earlier "Seraphs" from the Matrix beta versions. They actually follow the same trendline from Seraphs to Agents: less conspicuous at the cost of being physically weaker. The whole point of the Analyst's Matrix is that he doesn't need to resort to brute strength, when it's so much easier to manipulate humans by having Bots pose as their trusted friends and family.
Quantity vs. Quality: Unlike Agents they rely on sheer numbers, and can instantly form a zombie-horde numbering in the hundreds. This is also adapting to the resistance's tactics: using complex martial arts training they could deflect the brute strength attacks of Agents one on one, at least long enough to escape. By The Matrix Reloaded, Neo's powers had grown to the point he could defeat any Agent one on one, and three "upgraded" Agents weren't too much difficulty for him. "Upgrading" the Agents didn't work, so now the Machines aren't even trying to make Programs that can fight trained resistance members one on one, but instead aiming to bury them with overwhelming numbers.
Sleeper Agent: Can be a peaceful civilian one minute, and then the next…
Suicide Attack: When the heroes try to escape through the city, the bots in the skyscrapers above begin throwing themselves out the windows, raining their bodies on the humans like makeshift bombs.
They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: They are indistinguishable from normal humans - to the point where they have jobs and families ( Trinity's husband and sons, for example) - until they are activated.
Zerg Rush: Their preferred method of attack is to swarm their targets as one overwhelming horde.

Characters / The Matrix: Programs

The Architect’s Iteration:

The Oracle

Played By: Gloria Foster (1999-2003), Mary Alice (2003)

Appearances: The Matrix | Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions | The Matrix: Path of Neo | The Matrix Online