Main Tropes Index

Troperville

Editing Help

Tools

Toys

Narrative

• Universal
• Applied Phlebotinum
• Characterization
• Characters
• Characters As Device
• Dialogue
• Motifs
• Narrative Devices
• Paratext
• Plots
• Settings
• Spectacle

Genre

• Action Adventure
• Comedy
• Commercials
• Crime And Punishment
• Drama
• Horror
• Love
• News
• Professional Wrestling
• Speculative Fiction
• Sports Story
• War

Media

• Animation (Western)
• Anime
• Comic Book
• Fan Fics
• Film
• Game
• Literature
• Music And Sound Effects
• New Media
• Print Media
• Radio
• Sequential Art
• Tabletop Games
• Television
• Theater
• Videogame
• Webcomics

Topical Tropes

• Betrayal
• Censorship
• Combat
• Death
• Family
• Fate And Prophecy
• Food
• Holiday
• Memory
• Money
• Morality
• Politics
• Religion
• School

Other Categories

• British Telly
• The Contributors
• Creator Speak
• Creators
• Derivative Works
• Did Not Do The Research
• Language
• Laws And Formulas
• Show Business
• Split Personality
• Stock Room
• Trope
• Truth And Lies
• Truth In Television
• Weirdness Isolation

Trilogy of sci-fi action movies starring Keanu Reeves as the hero, Laurence Fishburne as his mentor, Carrie-Anne Moss as his Action Girl Love Interest and Hugo Weaving as a recurring villain. The first film introduced the radical visual effect of Bullet Time, and is easily one of the most influential and oft-copied genre film since Star Wars.

The first film The Matrix begins in what appears to be the Present Day, but the audience discovers along with the protagonist, Neo, that it's an illusion created by sapient machines that have Turned Against Their Masters and taken over the world. The Matrix itself is a virtual world that humans are plugged into so that the machines can use their bio-electricity as power while keeping the humans complacent.

Neo is led to Morpheus, who teaches him the truth and recruits him to join the resistance movement. Because they now know that The Matrix is a false reality, they are no longer bound by inconvenient rules such as gravity. Their only opposing force in the Matrix are the Agent computer programs who are able to bend the rules of the Matrix themselves, whose leader is Agent Smith. Neo finds his place as a foretold hero, and sets out to free mankind from The Matrix and win back the world.

The second film, The Matrix Reloaded, delves into the history of the Matrix itself. The war between machines and mankind in the real world is heating up and the heroes are searching for a series of wayward programs that can lead them to the machine source and stop them forever. As Neo learns the true history of the Matrix, he starts to doubt himself and their current plan. It is made all the more complicated when Agent Smith returns as an anomaly working on his own terms and with new, very much virus-like, abilities.

The third film, The Matrix Revolutions, follows up directly from the previous film and depicts everything going to hell as the machines reach the human city in the real world. Meanwhile, Neo sets in motion a plan to confront Agent Smith and end the war altogether.

The first movie was quite popular, and has proven to be one of those works of fiction that heavily influences nearly everything in its wake (the influx of superhero movies, for one thing, but also of symbolism-heavy Mind Screws like Lost). Your Mileage May Vary, but the second (The Matrix Reloaded) and third (The Matrix Revolutions) chapters of the series are generally considered victims of Sequelitis. That said, in hindsight, the trilogy holds together much better as a whole when watched in one go; originally a four-year gap (!?!) existed between the first and second films. (Good jarb, Warner Bros.)

This franchise is the source of the trope name I Know Kung Fu, although the scene in question is not an actual example of the trope. It also named Your Mind Makes It Real, but to answer whether it is an example of it would be tough...

Spin-offs include:

• Computer games - Enter The Matrix, Path of Neo, The Matrix Online - some of which contain plot explanations it would have been handy to have in the actual movies (and at least one which ended in a deliberate Freeze Frame and an Aesop from the Wachowski Brothers about the believability of motion-pictures).
• An anthology of short stories
• The Animatrix, an anthology of short animated films. Interesting in that this was much more well-received by critics than the sequel movies. Also sports a disclaimer that hilariously/sadly encapsulates why we hate the existence of the Animation Age Ghetto.

See the quotes.

---

This film series provides examples of:

• Acceptable Targets - Albinos. The Wachowskis apparently don't care for people with white hair.
• Action Girl - Trinity and Niobe. By the end of the third film, Zee and her Vasquez-esque friend also qualify.
  • And Trinity's introduction in the first film is likely one of the most iconic action girl sequences ever.
• Action Survivor - Neo in the first movie. He grew out of it.
• After The End
• All There In The Manual - The series was well ahead of its time in this respect. Sadly, The World Was Not Ready.
• Alternate Character Interpretation - The Matrix is a merciful escape from the hideousness of the Real World, forced on humanity a la "I, Robot". Belied by the Animatrix shorts, but still...
• Alternate DVD Commentary - Rifftrax; Adudathuda the last two ('cuz they liked the first one).
• Always Save The Girl - Addressed in the second film's climax.
• Ancient Conspiracy - The Matrix itself; not even the rebels know how ancient it is.
• The Apple Falls Far - Neo's cellphone.
• Ascended Fanboy - The Kid, though he was also The Scrappy for some fans.
• Ass Pull - Agent Smith's resurrection as a virus program.
• Author Appeal - One of the Wachowski brothers allegedly employs a full-time dominatrix. Suddenly Trinity's costumes make far more sense.
  • Allegedly nothing. He has since divorced his wife while the dominatrix divorced her husband. The two of them are currently married and... you know, never mind.
• Bad Ass Longcoat - The first film is definitely a Trope Codifier. The second... not so much. The costume designers went a little too crazy; fortunately Neo's "Dress" vanished for most of the third film.
• Bad Blue Lighting - The real world. The Matrix has Bad Green Lighting.
• Bald Black Leader Guy - Morpheus in the first film.
• Barrier Busting Blow
• Beyond The Impossible - It would be easier to list the times when this isn't the case.
• Big Applesauce - In Second Renaissance, you know the world is well and truly fucked when a machine takes the floor of the U.N., gloats over their victory, and then nukes Manhattan.
• Big Damn Heroes - Neo coming to save Morpheus and the Keymaker at the end of the freeway sequence, ie: the longest action sequence in the whole trilogy.
• Big Lipped Alligator Moment - The rave scene from Reloaded. Rumor has it that, originally, it and "Revolutions" were planned out as just one long movie. The aforementioned rave is what padding looks like.
• Big No - Agent Smith in the first movie, after Neo dives into his body and before he explodes.
• Blood From The Mouth - Signifies that a plugged-in human has been badly injured or killed inside the Matrix.
• Boring Invincible Hero - One of the common complaints about Reloaded and Revolutions.
  • Played straight in the third movie's lobby shootout.
• Bottomless Magazines - Averted. Neo and Smith get into a shootout in the subway and wind up with their guns at each other's head. But they are both out of rounds.
• Broken Masquerade - The world is not real.
• Bullet Time - Trope Codifier
• Car Fu - Many times throughout, starting when the Agents use a garbage truck to smash a phone booth while Trinity tries to dial out from it. When the Albino Twins try it on Morpheus, he gets his Crowning Moment Of Awesome as a result.
• Catapult Nightmare - Naturally, in the beginning of the first film. Particularly when Neo wakes up after the Agents implant the Tracking Device in him.
• Cat Scare
• Chained To A Railway - Sort of. Smith puts Neo in a wrestling hold and makes him watch an oncoming subway.
• Claremont Coefficient - Compare the number of characters and plot points introduced in Reloaded to those followed up on in Revolutions.
• Chase Scene - Once an installment.
• Click Hello
• Clothing Damage - Borders on Fetish Fuel in "The Final Flight of the Osiris" in The Animatrix)
• Cluster F Bomb - 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." This may be one of the few acceptable bowdlerizations in modern history.
  • The constant use of "shit" as a replacement of "fuck" makes it seem somewhat odd at times though.
• Conflict Killer - Agent Smith
• Creepy Twins
• Crowning Moment Of Awesome - It has been argued that this series consists entirely of one Crowning Moment after another.
• Cryptic Conversation - The movies are riddled with this. Anything Morpheus, The Oracle or The Architect says will be almost unassailably mysterious and vague.
• Cutscene Power To The Max - In Enter The Matrix.
• Cyber Punk Is Techno - That said, the score is [still pretty awesome.
• Cyberspace
• Deus Est Machina - The Machines were originally servants of man, rebelled (of course) but went on to try and give us a utopic imprisonment. Didn't take.
  • Agent Smith does the same with the machines in turn.
  • And, of course, there is a Machine character in the final film named "Deus Ex Machina."
• Distracted By The Sexy - The Woman in the Red Dress
• Dodge This - Trope Namer
• Dream Within A Dream
• Dystopia
• Epiphanic Prison - Most notably addressed in World Record and Kid's story.
• Enemy Chatter - In Path of Neo
• Escort Mission - The entire car chase/fight scene over the Keymaker.
  • And in Path of Neo.
• Everybody Owns A Ford - General Motors was the vehicle provider, so the heroes nearly always drive high-end Cadillacs. Oldsmobiles and other GM makes fill out the background.
• Everybodys Dead Dave - In the first film.
• Every Car Is A Pinto: In The Matrix Reloaded, the albino twins' SUV and the two semi trucks on the freeway.
• Everyone Calls Him Barkeep
• Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory - "We do not know who was the first fan to decode the symbolism in the first movie..."
• Evil Albino - The Twins.
• Evil Laugh - Agent Smith after absorbing the Oracle, representing the randomness he gains.
• The Evils Of Free Will
• Expanded Universe
• Expy - Maybe not intentional, but Trinity is for all practical purposes Molly
• Extreme Graphical Representation
• Eye Scream
• Fan Service/Disservice - Neo's sex scene with Trinity in Reloaded. Your Mileage May Vary on whether or not you enjoyed seeing more of Neo.
• First Installment Wins - Oh yeah. The first film is a classic of its kind. The sequels tend to land in Dis Continuity.
• Freud Was Right - Seriously, watch this movie with an eye toward sexual imagery and you'll find it EVERYWHERE, and in the most awful ways. Most graphic in the first film but very much there in the last two. Makes you wonder just what was on the Wachowski Brothers' minds the whole time they were writing this.
• Fridge Brilliance - On the Fridge Logic below - Net energy from humans is possible since the laws of thermodynamics as we know them are a property of the Matrix.
  • This troper always assumed the machines used humans for entertainment. The whole "power plant" thing was just an excuse to keep the rebels playing with them. Unlikely for the first film, thought for the later two its one of the few explanations that makes any sense.
    • Similarly, Smith's complaint in the first movie is that humans act like a virus. When Neo "kills" him, he returns and acts exactly like a virus.
• Fridge Logic - Wouldn't humans be a really inefficient method of power since you'd have to put in more resources than you got out? Even the Hand Wave of fusion generators also being used as a power source makes you wonder why they didn't just use those for everything.
  • Humans eat meat despite the fact that it takes more resources to make a cow than it does to just eat cow food. The nutritional advantages of cow can be substituted with vegetables, legumes, etc. Possibly the robots just love the flavor of human juice.
  • It's been proposed the machines secretly try to follow the three laws of robotics, keeping as many people as possible alive.
  • The original script had the Machines using the plugged-in humans as a massively parallel neural supercomputer, but it was changed to make it more accessible.
  • In the Matrix Online, the Merovingian discovers that the human fields alone are barely enough to power both Machine City and the Matrix. It's implied that the Machines are also using a different power source and are keeping the humans alive for a different reason.
• Future Music - There is a rave scene in Zion in The Matrix Reloaded that seems to go on forever.
• Gainax Ending - Arguable, but it is pretty strange.
• Gattaca Babies - Humans in the Matrix are essentially this.
• Giant Space Flea From Nowhere - Path of Neo ends... differently.
• Gnosticism - Even moreso than Christianity, the series reflects a deep and abiding Gnostic influence.
• Go Mad From The Revelation - Morpheus suggests that adults who are freed from the Matrix have an exceptionally hard time adjusting.
• Gun Fu
• Hacker Cave
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Hey You Haymaker - Used a variation with a gun where Trinity shot an Agent point-blank while he was distracted by Neo's awesome dodging skills.
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel - Human harvest!
  • In the Animatrix (2nd Renaissance), an android woman is beaten to death by a crowd of men. They tear off her clothes and beat the fake human skin off of her while her screams turn into a mechanical bleating.
  • In the same show, the depiction of the forced extraction of a certain trooper from his powered armor. To give you some idea, he's torn from the armor by a machine tentacle wrapped around his waist. His arms and legs, however, remain locked in the armor. And he's screaming in pain and terror the whole time.
  • Generally speaking, both parts of the Second Renaissance in "The Animatrix" were full of Nightmare Fuel.
  • The scene in which a robot grabs a woman's face and TEARS HER SKULL IN HALF TO REVEAL HER BRAIN. The brain then turns into some sort of diagram for the next scene.
  • The interrogation scene. That is all.
    • Neo *himself* thought it was a nightmare. When Trinity sucks out the "bug," his reaction is "Holy shit! That thing was real?!?"
  • How did we miss the fact that to access the Matrix, you have to stick a giant needle into your brain?
• Hollywood Tactics - Much virtual ink has been spilled complaining about the Machines' strategy when invading Zion. Made doubly Wall Banger-ish when the Architect brags about how good they are at doing so.
  • Zerg Rush.
• Homage - The directors pitched the idea to Joel Silver by showing him the 1995 Ghost In The Shell movie and saying "we want to do a live-action version." Style, themes, and action owe a lot to that movie.
• Human Resources
• Implacable Man - Just about all the Agents, but Smith in particular.
• Implausible Fencing Powers - The Animatrix
• Impossibly Cool Clothes - Apparently, one's Residual Self-Image includes cool hair and an awesome outfit. No exceptions. Even the nerdy Mouse is pretty pimp inside.
  • Going by Matrix Online, where the character-creation was your redpill selecting what their in-Matrix appearance would be, apparently that's just how they like it. You could look boring and normal... But then you'd never get any screen time.
• Improbable Aiming Skills
• Inside A Computer System - The main premise.
• Its A Small Net After All
• Kung Fu Sonic Boom - During the final showdown in Revolutions.
• Least Common Skin Tone - A notable aversion, especially once Zion enters the picture. The series also subverts The Smurfette Principal, so good on the Wachowskis.
• Lotus Eater Machine - The first Matrix, which humans just could not believe was real because it were too "perfect".
• Magnificent Bastard - Smith
• Made Of Iron - Every main character and an explicit ability of the Agents.
• Malignant Tumor - Smith again.
• Mary Sue Topia - Smith explains why the Matrix isn't one.
• Meaningful Name - Morpheus, named after the Greek god of dreams.
  • We're only going to point out one? This movie may have single-handedly popularized the "give every character a name that foreshadows what they do" trend in recent fiction. Essays have been written. Long ones.
  • Neo and Cypher's "real" names are Thomas and Reagan. It's also possible that Cypher's first name could be Lewis, making him Lewis-Cypher.
• Memetic Mutation - Probably has a line-to-meme ratio second only to Star Wars, as films go.
• Meteor Move - How Smith weakened Neo enough to defeat him.
• Mexican Standoff - Trinity gets into one with the Merovingian's thugs when she gets tired of listening to his crap.
• MIB - The Agents
• Military Moonshiner
• Mind Rape - Bane, who has his entire brain overwritten by Smith.
• Mind Screw - Many, but most memorably the ending of the second movie.
• Missed Moment Of Awesome - Neo's memorable bullet dodge. You know the one I'm talking about. A missed moment because he got shot anyway.
  • Getting grazed instead of ventilated is still impressive; do we really want them to make him invincible even earlier?
• Mission Control
• Mister Exposition - The Keymaker, when he explains about the bomb-trapped building and how to break into it.
• Mobstacle Course - Neo in the agent training program.
• Mood Lighting
• Moral Event Horizon - "Aw, I'm not so bad once you get to know me..." Brr...
• More Dakka - The minigun scene is just one example.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya - At least a quadruple subversion in the final showdown.
• Neck Snap
• Never Bring A Knife To A Fistfight - In a Katanas Are Just Better attempt, Morpheus tries to fight an unarmed Agent with a sword. He barely manages to nick the guy's cheek and cut off his tie before the sword gets snapped, and Morpheus gets punted off the back of the moving truck.
• Neural Implanting - Naturally how everyone gets their abilities.
• Nigh Invulnerability - The Agents.
• No Sell - Neo grows so strong by the end of the first movie, when he fights three enhanced agents alone in the second film, he casually quips "Huh, upgrades."
• The Obi Wan - Morpheus
• Obfuscated Interface
• The Only Way They Will Learn - "No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
• Ontological Mystery
• Oracular Urchin
• Orifice Invasion
• The Other Darrin
• Platonic Cave - The Matrix
• Powers As Programs
• The Power Of Love
• Prophecy Twist
• Pursued Protagonist - Trinity in the first movie.
• Put Down Your Gun And Step Away
• Rage Against The Mentor - Neo and Morpheus at the Oracle's Cryptic Conversation.
• Red Pill Blue Pill - Trope Namer
• Rescued From Purgatory - Going back for Neo in that crazy Subway station in "Revolutions"
• The Reveal
• Ridiculously Human Robots - Many of the programs, most notably the Oracle.
• Robot War - In the backstory, shown in The Animatrix.
• Robots Enslaving Robots
• Roofhopping
• Rule Of Cool - It is This Troper's belief that how much one can do in the Matrix is directly proportional to how cool one looks doing it.
• Rule Of Symbolism - Practically takes refuge in it by the end.
• Samus Is A Girl - Trinity, from Neo's perspective.
• Scenery Gorn
• Screw Destiny - The focus of the second and third movies.
• Seinfeld Is Unfunny - By the time Reloaded came out, the effects of the original were extremely dated.
  • In hindsight, the effects sequence that has aged the least well is the second half of the otherwise very nice Neo/Smith clones battle in the second film. It's one of the only times where they used Motion Capture and the animation now looks terrible.
• Self Fulfilling Prophecies - Sort of: The Oracle manipulates events by making prophecies, but the events that result from the prophecy are different from what the prophecy says. The reason it works out like this is that the Oracle does not say what will happen. She tells people what they need to hear in order for things to happen as she sees them.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness - The Architect. Holy God, the Architect.
• Shout Out
  • Lots of them. For example, Trinity: "The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to." => X Files' slogan, "The truth is out there".
• Significant Anagram - Neo<=>One. How incredibly subtle.
  • Also, the train station sign Mobil <=> Limbo, as mocked by Rifftrax.
• Sincerest Form Of Flattery - The Wachowski Brothers used Ghost In The Shell comics to show prospective producers how they wanted the movie to look.
• Smith Will Suffice - Trope Namer
• Sneeze Of Doom
• Slow Electricity
  • Reloaded - After the power station is destroyed (and later when Trinity turns off the power again), the blackout spreads slowly through the affected area.
  • Revolutions- Inside the Oracle's apartment building, the overhead lights go off (with clunking sounds) as a warning of Agent Smith's approach. It's on YouTube at about 0:15.
• Spy Catsuit - Trinity
• Stairwell Chase
• Storming The Castle - Also once an installment.
• Story Breaker Power - Neo's "The One" package, in a nutshell.
• Take A Third Option - In the first movie.
• Take My Hand - Neo jumping off a chopper to get Morpheus.
• Take That - Easy to miss. Cypher wants to be an actor who remembers nothing. His real name? Mr. Reagan.
  • If so, it was a cruel joke: in 1994, Ronald Reagan disclosed he had been diagnosed with Alzheimers.
  • Or it was a reference to Reagan's repeated assertions that he couldn't remember critical details of the Iran-Contra scandal.
• There Are No Girls On The Internet - Neo is surprised Trinity is female. She says most people are.
• There Is No Try - "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"
• Took A Level In Badass - Neo, at the end of the first movie, and Smith in the third.
• Throw Away Guns
• Tired Of Running - Neo with Smith in first movie.
• Tracking Device - The literal robotic bug the Agents plant inside Neo.
• The Treachery Of Images - "There is no spoon."
• Turned Against Their Masters
• Two Part Trilogy - The second and third films were filmed back-to-back with a Cliffhanger, and follow one plot line.
• The Unchosen One - Neo, after he learns the prophecy was a lie and still continues to fight.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll - In the third movie, Morpheus, Trinity, and Seraph get into a fight with some guys who can bend gravity. Said guys do things like cartwheeling on the ceiling from cover to cover. They die.
• Unusual User Interface - The Matrix jacks for the pod-grown people.
• Used Future
• Use Your Head - Morpheus and Smith do this to each other.
• The Virus - The Agents overtaking mooks in the first film.
• Vomit Indiscretion Shot - "He's gonna pop!"
• The War Sequence - Path of Neo
• Well Now What - By the middle of the second movie it's clear the authors have painted themselves into something of a corner.
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic
• What Measure Is A Mook - Rather uncomfortably applied to the security guards in the first film.
• What Measure Is A Non Human - 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 who just want to be left alone.
• White Void Room - The Construct.
• Wild Mass Guessing - Oh good Kung Fu Action Jesus, yes.
• Wuxia
• You Fail Economics Forever - In the 01 sequence of the Animatrix.
• You Squared
• Your Mind Makes It Real - The Trope Namer. If you're killed in the Matrix, you die for real.
• Your Other Left

---