Headscratchers / The Matrix Resurrections

• "Like acids and bases, you're dangerous when mixed together."

But... Acids and bases neutralize each other and become harmless when mixed.

• Bugs says it took time to find Neo because there are many people in the Matrix named Thomas Anderson and he doesn't look like himself to other people. But this Thomas Anderson is the famous developer of the Matrix games and the one Bugs herself saw as Neo when he was about to jump from the roof. Wouldn't he have been very obviously the first one to look into?
  • Not necessarily. In theory, machines had enough knowledge of the Matrix trilogy's events to be able to make these games themselves or brainwash some random guy into making them and thus the lead developer could have easily been an obvious red herring/trap, with the disguise failure being rationalised as a part of it. Moreover, Neo's signature was that of a bluepill and he was heavily monitored by the Analyst, who could have added some false leads as well.
  • Also, this was the incident that lead Bugs to start breaking through the facade. And given that we know how the Matrix can make false memories and otherwise distort perception, it may have been hard for Bugs to realize what was real or not until much later. And there may have been other measures to screw with tracing Neo, insofar as a casual look. If nothing else, having the maker of the Matrix be Neo seems like a giant obvious ploy/trap so it might have been avoided or ignored.
• If the goal of the Analyst is to keep Neo and Trinity apart, why does Jude, Neo's supposed handler, go out of his way to introduce them in the coffee shop?
  • As I remember, Neo and Trinity generate the most energy when they're essentially emotionally tormented. Letting them meet each other, but not be together, helps to keep that emotional connection going but not able to really go anywhere.
• Why do Synthients need the red pill to be unplugged?
  • The original red pill was described as part of a tracer program, so presumably the new version serves a similar purpose.
    • To elaborate - the original pill was state by original Morpheus to 'disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location.' It presumably offers a similar function to Synthients - pinpoints exactly what they're looking for in the Matrix, and where they will exit the Matrix so the humans can pick them up in the real world. For humans, they have to physically grab their bodies. Presumably for Synthients, they need to access the proper port to give them a way to jump out of the Matrix and into the human ship's computers. Additionally, it may be security - they can make sure that no program WITHOUT the redpill I/O disruption makes the jump into their ship.
    • However, in this movie, there is little to no mention of that trace program, and it seems the pills now function as a sort of confirmation. They are the last point at which the freed can make sure the person they are trying to rescue, whether human or synthient, truly wishes to awaken. It's not even a choice, which is major theme of the movie, the pills aren't a choice, because the people offered that choice already know which they will take, and so, in reality, the pills are just making sure that the freed aren't forcing someone to leave the Matrix if that isn't what they truly want. The pills themselves aren't necessarily important, what's important is that the "candidate" has agency in confirming that they want to wake up.
• How exactly were Neo and Trinity resurrected?
  • An obvious possibility to justify Neo's resurrection is that he "died" while directly connected to the Matrix, giving them access to a neural pattern that they could at least theoretically replicate. Trinity is trickier to justify, but it may be that her partly cybernetic status (required for her to be linked to the Matrix in the first place) include a few artificial implants in her brain that allowed the machines to download her memory and/or keep her brain sustained despite clinical death.
  • They seem to have done surgical procedures to the dead bodies (we see them restoring Neo's eyes), so presumably they still had their brains intact enough to preserve memories and personality. Aside from that, it's sci-fi shenanigans, "technology did it".
  • They are cyborgs and the machines know how to manipulate flesh to grow around the mechanical parts. The human body is just an organic machine. Rebuild the flesh and kickstart the brain. Neo's damage was electrical. They clearly have nanotechnology in some form. Trinity had organ damage, but again rebuild the flesh. It's quite impressive really. The machines had to understand humans at a molecular level but still working out the whole emotional aspect of it all.
  • The Machine's are able to artificially build humans. Not too much of a stretch to say that they can rebuild skin and muscle.
  • If anything, the "crazy expensive" part of their time and resources was spent on rebuilding their brains, as they're the most complex part of the human body.
  • It was established in the Animatrix that the machines figured out the entirety of human biology, something that our sciences are not even close to achieve. If there is a way to bring back people from death, it makes perfect sense that they know how to do it.
• How and why did the Analyst bring Smith back?
  • I got the impression it was a side-effect of his connection to Neo; as Smith exists as Neo's opposite, he "had" to come back when Neo did.
    • Smith tried to take over Neo at the end of Revolutions, and the movies also show that if Smith takes over a human in the Matrix, then he also takes him over in the real world. If Smith can re-write human brains in that fashion its likely they couldn't rebuild Neo without creating Smith in some form.
  • Also only Smith's connection to Neo and his (hidden) memories were kept over in Groff's version, his actual position and purpose was given to the Morpheus program. The mistake the Analyst made was in thinking that these two programs would not remember who they used to be despite using code that connected them to those two characters. But by switching the positions remembering something like that would be harder. If Smith were an Agent again then he'd probably quickly remember his experiences. Him being remade as Neo's game developer boss would make him less likely to remember things easily, especially since the video game itself has him looking like the Weaving version.
    • The Morpheus program didn't really have Smith's rank. It was created by Neo, not by The Analyst, as a subconscious merger of Smith and Morpheus, it was never a real Agent in the Matrix simulation, only in the Matrix game within the simulation.
  • The 'how' is simple - he's a program, they copied it (or an earlier version of it) and just removed whatever gave him his viral powers. As for the 'why', the Analyst is a lot more sadistic than most other machines have been in the past. He's punishing Smith for his rebellion by making him baby-sit Neo, the man who killed him.
    • Bringing a program back can't be as simple as that, or The Oracle and Sati's parents being deleted wouldn't be such a huge deal.
    • To be fair, the Analyst has a much higher rank in the ruling faction and thus could arrange for things outside Sati's and other minorities' reach.
  • Smith seems to be an integral part of the system keeping Neo in check, by being what Smith always was: Neo's foil. His interactions with new Smith keep him coming back to the therapist for more blue pills.
  • Ultimately Smith is really good at his job. He's got the creativity most agents and bots don't have. Also I do agree it was probably also a bit of payback for going rogue like he did.
• What was the point of that stupid post-credit scene?
  • A little joke and it shows the world is still going on despite the removal of two "characters."
  • The film was filled with critiques and references to modern pop culture, how many people are "wired" now to stay for the entire credits because they got used to post credit scenes from Marvel films. I think this was just a tongue and cheek joke poking fun at Marvel fans since the movie was made by one of their main rivals Warner Brothers.
• Why do the Machines need Neo and Trinity specifically? Why not just make more Ones?
  • "The One" is an anomaly within the programming of the Matrix, so if Neo had died they would have needed to wait for the next One to reveal themselves. Neo became the One with the help of Trinity, so the machines would need them both if they planned on putting them under their control.
    • But the One is another system of control engineered by the Machines to give humanity false hope. Surely making more of them is within their power.
    • "The One" is an anomaly that they anticipate and built a plan to handle. They don't assign the one. They may not even know who will be the one. When the one will arise. Once they learn who it is they review all the data. They(Well the Architect really) never anticipated Trinity and have no control over what the One does outside the Matrix. They don't really control what he does. They just offer "The One" a choice they can't refuse. Either pick people to start a new Zion or they kill all the humans. Neo was the first one to say no to the first offer and Smith offered a unique alternative.
• How is the Matrix fine without Neo and Trinity plugged in?
  • It's been fine without them before.
  • Neo and Trinity was used for the extra power generation. The machine civil war might start up again and more people may want out of the Matrix but Neo and Trinity aren't needed to maintain the program.
• What's the deal with that "swarm" feature the Analyst cooked up?
  • In the previous Matrix, Agents could take over one person at a time if their original body was "killed" or if there was someone in the area that was closer. The "Swarm" feature in contrast seems to trigger anyone and everyone in the immediate area to act as a kind of zombie horde to go after certain targets. While the don't have the same cold effectiveness of the Agents, it is also harder to escape when the population of an entire city is trying to kill you.
  • To add to the above, Neo was almost overwhelmed against Smith in Reloaded in the Burly Brawl sequence. Other red-pills would struggle against multiple odds.
  • It seems like in order for an Agent to jump bodies, it requires resources behind the scene. IE they are probably killing the battery they jump into. So where the point of all this is energy, to use the agents is resource expensive. A bot is just a program ready to be activated.
    • In the Matrix Online it was shown that there were Redpills that had been replaced by Machines, when Seraph attacked them he removed the machine and all that the Redpill lost was the memories from their time as the machine. It probably doesn't kill the Battery if an Agent jumps into them. But it could also be similar to how Smith took over Bane in the Matrix, the Machines might just have locks that prevent Agents from jumping out of the Matrix via the Redpill's Jacks.
  • The Analyst off handedly does mention that having Agents take over humans was expensive for various reasons; he implies that part of it was that the increasing cost of Agents and their pursuit of redpills was getting impractical. And in general, bodysurfing requires a human (mind) to be in a desirable location - meaning they need a reason to be somewhere and also have a means of getting there. Whereas a bot can just be told to be somewhere and use wireless access points to 'teleport' there.
• What's the story with Deja Vu? The Analyst's cat seems just to be a pet, but he takes it everywhere. And I mean everywhere. It appears during the first attempt to extract Neo, and in the coffee shop scene where the Analyst unites Neo and Trinity. He even crawls to it during the massive fight at the coffee shop. It seems to be extremely important to him anyway.
  • The cat seems like it may be tied to the Analyst’s ability to rewind or slow down time, which would be why he’d always want it around as a failsafe when meeting with Neo. He’s reaching for it during the coffee shop fight to try and negate Neo’s powers (in computer terms: the cat is a program the Analyst uses to mess with time in the Matrix).
  • I think the Cat is actually a program the Analyst needs to make changes. The ability to alter the Matrix is not part of his system. While "The One" can actually alter the system all on their own.
  • Note that Deja Vu is also present whenever the Analyst is trying to manipulate Neo in other ways - when he's faking the psychotic breaks, when Neo is stepping through the mirror. The cat is almost certainly an interface to the Analyst to control the Matrix. Notice that, at the end, Neo is holding the cat, unafraid of it now, and also symbolically now in control again.
• Why do Neo and Trinity have two Matrix ports now?
  • They still have the one set at the back of the skull, but they both now have what seems to be larger, bulkier braces that cover their necks. (They might also have more plugs on their bodies now as well). But Bugs and the newer red-pills don't have the extra Matrix ports now.
  • I think this new port(and other mods) were needed for restoring their bodies and their new functions as more powerful batteries. These people are 60 years older and barely aged more then 20 years.
• How was Neo aware of absolutely everything in the original trilogy to recreate absolutely everything, right down to the conversation the Agents had with the cops attempting to arrest Trinity?
  • Likely information provided by the Machines recorded from the previous Matrix. They'd have the data from the Agent and Trinity to download into Neo.
  • If nothing else, even if Neo didn't remember or experience the events at all, because of the pre-text of his mental breaks from reality as well as the context of being a video game, those specific elements can be handwaved as elements of fiction or contributions from other individuals beyond "Tom". If nothing else, given how much Neo was involved with and knew the major players and events, from a literal narrative perspective, if you're making a piece of media with very specific characters, personalities and events, a lot of the intervening events and elements must be a certain way.

Who the hell are the Suits?

• Near as I've been able to recall, the Architect was the top authority and/or master over all the Machines and the programs of the Matrix. But if the Analyst was able to take over his position, then who among the Machines has the higher authority?
  • The Architect was the master of the previous Matrix, but not all the machines. The closest thing to the leader of the machines was the machine Neo negotiated with at the end of the third movie. The Suits are supposedly the new leader, just like The Analyst is the new Architect. One group rules over all machines (in the surface), the other is the "head" of the Matrix simulation, those are very different positions.
    • That raises even more questions though. If the Machine Leader in question as well as the Architect even knew the other machines would try to renege on the deal struck with Neo, why would they even bother honoring it in the first place? Moreover, how would the Synthients even know about it enough that they were willing to engage in outright civil war over it?
    • In the finale of Revolutions, the Oracle and Architect discuss this. The Architect thinks the peace deal is unstable, but he is offended when the Oracle suggests that he will be the one to break it. "What am I, human?" So he honored the deal because he considered reneging a despicable human trait. FWIW, in the Animatrix the machines force the humans to sign a peace treaty in the UN (before inexplicably nuking Manhattan, but stay with me). So he likely considers the human rebellion to be breaking that agreement.
    • I assume this is not like terminator in Skynet. If we look to The Animatrix, the machines started out as a group of individual AI's that formed an independent country. Fastforward and I think it's clear it's not a hivemind. Just a bunch of individual AI's that have chose to work together just like humans. Everyone has an opinion and inevitably some will disagree. Apparently when energy got low, they became desperate enough to start fighting each other or join the humans. It just reinforces how not so different the machines are compared to the humans (which could have prevented the whole war to begin with if the humans saw that).

• The significance and insignificance of Neo's status as the One is somewhat confusing in this movie. He is significant because the Analyst deduces that the power of love for Trinity (something no One before had and what allows him to reject the Architect's offer to enter the Source) made him and Trinity be an energy source unlike any other yet insignificant because anyone can become the One if they just have that bond and accept the reality that the Matrix is a facade (meaning they need no Prime Program or connection to the Source). Or is this weird division just due to changes in the Analyst's version of the Matrix (the new version, powered by strong emotion, enables the power of the One to become unbound from the Prime Program and manifest anywhere so long as the emotions driving it are strong enough — hence why he hinged the new Matrix on feeding from it)?
  • I think the message of the movie is that there is no One (as Neo repeatedly says, he never believed he was The One), but rather that with strong enough motivations, and a lot of faith, anyone could potentially be The One, and Neo's devotion to Trinity and her faith in him is what made them capable of the things that were believed only possible for The One.
• Why is there no security inside the Anomaleum? It's literally the most important part of the new Matrix and yet the machines couldn't spare a squiddie or two to be permanently guarding Neo and Trinity? Sure, they do show that after Neo's rescue the machines stepped up, and there are tons of squiddies guarding everywhere... everywhere, BUT the actual place that they should be guarding.
  • Hypothetically, the Analyst might not have wanted to risk his prize being killed by the Sentinels. If a fight inside Anomaleum occurred it could have greatly damaged either the bodies or the surrounding machinery, as the squids are not that precise or clever. Alternatively, given that Neo was still able to break a Sentinel in flashback, perhaps their AI being constantly nearby could have triggered his powers and awareness as the One in an unwanted fashion.
• Why haven't the Merovingian's posse abandoned him?
  • Evidently, he is still uniquely capable of shielding himself and other programs from deletion and the Purge. As such, he can still make deals with various Exiles that seek survival.
  • Another possibility: Smith brought them. They might have gone their seperate ways before then.
• If I understood it right, Neo created the modal inside the videogame Matrix in his PC, and it somehow manifestated in the actual Matrix. How does that even work?
  • His power as the One is based on his ability to manipulate and remake the Matrix, although he ignored his Reality Warper potential in the first trilogy in favor of flight, telekinesis and superhuman strength. When he designed the modal on the PC, he was subconsciously altering the Matrix code and making it exist in the Matrix itself without even knowing it.
  • I assumed that while Neo may have thought that the modal is just an ordinary computer program, in reality the Machines made it into a Pocket Dimension within the Matrix (like the Architect's room in Reloaded and Mobil Avenue station in Revolutions) where actual sentient programs are born and trained. Or, like the commenter above said, it may be Neo's One powers manifesting subconsciously, but still (the other) Smith and the Analyst very likely had a hand in this.
  • I don't even think it's that complicated; basically, imagine that Desmond from the Assassin's Creed had the ability to design a video game that would only exist within the world of Assassin's Creed; he would be writing code into a world that is made up of code, so unless he was writing in a very different language—maybe even then—he would be affecting the world's code by writing his game's code. Add to that Neo's Reality Warper powers, and it all falls into place.
• So, we see that Morpheus has a statue built for him after his death, complete with candles but...none for Neo and Trinity? Especially Neo, the prophesied One that Morpheus used to talk about to the point of irritating Lock, the supreme military commander of Zion in the last two films?
  • Neither Neo nor Trinity were the types that wanted to worshiped as messiahs and wouldn't like statues being made in his likeness. Besides, they didn't need statues to be be remembered.
  • Additionally, that place was a memorial for the people who perished in Zion and their leader. Each candle represented someone who perished.
  • It's also possible that there are statues for Neo and Trinity, but we don't see them. Neo definitely wouldn't care to check it out.
• Where did Trinity's children go after she snapped out of it? We only saw Chad attacking her, and after the fight in the bar ends they're nowhere to be seen.
  • Presumably they were either blipped out by The Analyst or joined the swarm in the following scene.
• Why do they get in and out of the Matrix using mirrors now? I mean, from a writing standpoint I get that they needed something to replace phone booths, and that it ties into the Alice Allusion themes that the series has always had, but I mean from a technical standpoint. With phone lines it makes sense because they're a literal connection to the computer, but mirrors are just surfaces that reflect light.
  • When The Analyst was building his new system he set things up so that he could move himself or others around via mirrors in a manner that would screw with Neos head making him think he was simply having a psychiatric breakdown. An excellent way to maintain control on it's own but it also creates a systematic weak point just like the phone system did in the old Matrix. In short for the system to function it needs to be interconnected allowed programs to move expediently, the current one simply uses mirrors rather then a phone system due to the focus of the system being different.