The Matrix / Tropes N to Z

The Matrix Trope Examples
A - G | H - M | N - Z

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N

• Neck Lift: The Docbot does it to Neo when he first wakes up from the Matrix, Agent Thompson does it to Trinity in Reloaded, and Smith does it to Neo at the end of their Battle in the Rain in Revolutions.
• Neural Implanting: This is how everyone gets their abilities. A jack in the back of the neck.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Averted. As it turns out, without Neo's unintended creation of Smith, Neo would not have stopped the war. Smith became a threat so large that he would eventually destroy EVERYTHING, from the Matrix out. Neo created a mutual enemy to both Man and Machine, something that his predecessors apparently could not do. By stopping such a threat to all, Neo brokered a peace that the Machines could respect.
  • The Architect's statement that the Matrix will suffer a system crash if the One does not sacrifice himself in order to reload it. Thankfully, he took a third option.
• Nigh-Invulnerability:
  • In addition to diamond-powers, the Agents in The Matrix also manifested by taking over the bodies of those still connected to the Matrix, which could be considered a variation of Fighting A Shadow. Due to their abilities, "killing" an Agent is an incredible feat for a human — and all it meant was that the Agent had to move on to the next body. Then there's Smith in the latter two films, who could infect any plugged-in human or program and rewrite them into a copy of himself.
  • Neo, the central protagonist of The Matrix, is also effectively Made of Diamond (while inside the Matrix), specifically in Reloaded and Revolutions. He's able to block a sword cut with his hand, only drawing a tiny bit of blood. An on-looker proceeds to highlight this fact, ignoring that Neo just proved himself to be ungodly tough even by Matrix standards. The character's NOT as invulnerable in the original movie until he learns to dis-believe the reality of the artificial world at the film's conclusion (and therefore seize the means to manipulate it). When Neo meets the multiple Smiths for the first time in Reloaded ("The Burly Brawl"), it's a case of Diamond vs. Diamond as neither can defeat the other no matter how hard they hit each other. Smith does draws the stalemate close to a win since there was only one Neo, who escapes from a dog-pile of nearly 100 Smiths atop him.
  • The Twins from The Matrix sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, combine Made of Air with Regeneration. Not only can they turn intangible at will, but while intangible they almost instantly heal any injuries they have sustained while in corporeal form. On the other hand, the Twins couldn't hurt anyone when intangible either, which the heroes used to their advantage.
• Not Quite Dead:
  • Tank after Cypher shot him.
  • Smith in the sequels.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: The humans always refer to 'Machines' and 'The Machine City.' Justified that they are sentient beings.

O

• Obligatory Earpiece Touch: The Agents do this whenever they receive new orders from the mainframe. Since they don't communicate much except vague menace, this cue is important to signal that they are going to try something new next.
• Omnicidal Maniac: (Agent) Smith turns into this in the second and third films after he's 'unplugged' from the system's control, eventually growing far beyond the machines' control. By the end of Revolutions he has spread through the entire Matrix, already taken control of at least one person in the real world, and is poised to continue through to the Source mainframe and Machine City along with it - leading to the trilogy's concluding peace deal between the humans and the machines.
  Agent Smith: The purpose of all life...is to end.
• The Omniscient: The Oracle, The Architect to a lesser extent.
• Once an Episode:
  • Neo and/or Trinity dies at the end of every film.
  • A club/rave scene (the party where Neo meets Trinity in the first movie, the celebration in Zion in the second, and the Club Hel scene in the third).
  • A fight between Neo and Smith where they say that Neo's death is inevitable.
• Online Alias: Rebels seem to adopt their online handles as their names. Neo and Trinity are the two best examples.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: A lot of the red-pilled humans use codenames instead of their real names, never revealing who they used to be. Examples are Trinity, Morpheus, Mouse, Switch, and Apoc. For those born free, their real names just sound like nicknames.
• The Only One: As early as the first film; when they are hacked into the Matrix, any and every human being around them who is still plugged in by the machines has to be considered a threat because they could become an Agent in the blink of an eye. Their small group is basically operating behind enemy lines, outnumbered some 6,000,000 to 9. In Reloaded, Smith starts to blatantly invoke this trope in his fights with Neo in an attempt to overcome The One's Reality Warper abilities in regards to martial arts and combat. By Revolutions, within the Matrix, he spends the whole movie setting this up for the climatic final confrontation against Neo by turning every single person in the Matrix, human or otherwise, into a copy of himself. Though he needn't have bothered once he converted the Oracle and saw that he would win, he's just that kind of a perfectionist.
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Used occasionally.
  • The freeway scene in The Matrix Reloaded features "Mona Lisa Overdrive" by Juno Reactor, with Sanskrit chanting from "Navras," also by Juno Reactor & Don Davis.
  • The final battle in The Matrix Revolutions has some extremely Ominous Sanskrit Chanting in the background, although thematically it's rather positive: "And when he is seen in his immanence and transcendence, then the ties that have bound the heart are unloosened, the doubts of the mind vanish, and the law of Karma works no more." As the Wachowskis put it, "We couldn't very well have the choir chanting, 'This is the One, look at what he can do,' could we?"
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Smith vs. Neo in the latter films.
• Order Versus Chaos:
  • Agents vs. the Zion resistance; Smith calls Morpheus a "known terrorist" early in the first film, and Niobe is later seen blowing up a power plant just to cause a black-out, which is gonna look pretty troll-y if you're standing outside the situation.
  • Also seen in their fighting styles and builds. The Agents are essentially Munchkins with maxed-out Constitution, Dexterity, etc. The human fighters don't care because they defy the rules anyhow. Smith rolls 99 dice to hit. Neo throws bricks at the GM.

P

• Perfection Is Impossible: The first version of the Matrix was apparently a Lotus-Eater Machine without even the possibility of suffering. It was a total disaster, as no one would accept it as reality. Some machines believe they lacked the programming language to describe a true utopia; Smith, who despises humanity, believes they just can't imagine a world without misery.
• Power Glows: Instead of Matrix Raining Code, Neo sees programs like celestial, fractal golden swirly things in Real Life. Ironically, the Machine City looks like a hideous Gaia's Lament to human eyes, but it looks beautiful to Neo when he has one foot in the "machine world".
• Powers as Programs: Anyone at any time can call Mission Control, ask for a program, and receive instant skills. When run, the programs give people the muscle memory and mental know-how required to perform the actions. In practice, the heroes can get a copy of a superpower.
• Pre-emptive Declaration:
  • The Matrix:
    Agent Smith: What good is a phone call if you are unable to speak?
    • And, of course, the original Oracle scene. You know the one.
    Oracle: Oh, and don't worry about the vase.
    Neo: What vase? [looks around, knocking over a vase in the process]
    Oracle: That vase.
  • Combined with Apologetic Attacker in The Matrix Reloaded.
    Seraph: You seek the Oracle.
    Neo: Who are you?
    Seraph: I am Seraph. I can take you to her, but first I must apologize.
    Neo: Apologize for what?
    Seraph: For this. [attacks Neo]
• Pre-Explosion Glow: Agent Smith goes out this way twice, at the end of both the first and third films.
• Product Placement:
  • More obvious in the sequels, along with complementary commercials (who knew Agents could get distracted by HD TV?). The phones used in the sequels were provided by Samsung as part of an advertising scheme to sell the same phones to the public.
  • In the first movie, all the cell phones are from Nokia and the label is often very visible.
  • Dat Duracell Battery.
• Prophecy Twist: After the Driving Question of what The Matrix is about is answered, Neo must figure out how his abilities as the One are to end the Man-Machine War.
  • Neo realizes that the Oracle is, in fact, a Machine intelligence herself, rooting for and supporting the humans. She tells him that the One must find the Source to end the war.
  • But it seems that the Oracle's prophecy is nothing more than a manipulation by the Oracle's counterpart and the Matrix's creator, the Architect, into a "Groundhog Day" Loop of man/machine detente for the virtual world's existence, so Neo Takes a Third Option. When Neo inadvertently freed Agent Smith and turned him into a nihilistic destroying virus in the Matrix, he is able to use Smith's relentless destruction that also threatens the real world to make a pact with the Machines in the real world. The false prophecy of the Oracle and the Architect becomes Metaphorically True— specifically, from a point of view outside of the Matrix.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Neo is a classic Destined Leader Archetype. The rebels have a strong expectation that a hero will come to them in their hour of need. Inverted in that he's technically subordinate to Morpheus, Trinity, the other captains and the Council, but most defer to his judgement and most of Zion treats him with reverance. Also inverted in that in the end, he doesn't actually lead them at all. Instead he fights Smith and makes a deal with the Machines.
• Punched Across the Room: Multiple characters. Smith really likes doing this to Neo by hitting him in the chest.
• Pursued Protagonist:
  • Twice in the first movie: Trinity, as she's chased by cops and an Agent; and Neo, as all three Agents pursue him.
  • Neo by Smith in the second.
• Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Occurs in both Reloaded and Revolutions.

R

• Radial Ass Kicking: The Multi Mook fights pretty much define this trope, particularly the fight against all the Smiths in the second film.
• Raster Vision: Vertical raster bars appear on the TV set inside the Construct.
• Rated M for Manly
• Reality Warper: Most of the heroes when they are in the Matrix — in terms of the Matrix's reality.
• Recurring Camera Shot: The battle at the entrance of the skyscraper in The Matrix and the entrance to Club Hel in The Matrix Revolutions both end with Trinity kicking someone in slow motion. The kicks themselves have nearly identical choreography as well.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: The Sentinels ("search and destroy" robots, AKA Squiddies, AKA Calamari) have multiple glowing red eyes. This is eventually revealed to be the default state of the machines, as we see in the machine city in Revolutions. After Neo succeeds in defeating Smith and rebooting the Matrix, the machine that transports his body away has green eyes.
• Redshirt Army: Pretty much anyone in our world (especially law enforcement, security guards and their like) is subject to being killed by people from The Real World, with zero moral repercussions. But it's not like it doesn't look totally awesome when it happens.
• Refusal of the Call:
  • Neo balks at Morpheus' guidance in the first film, when he is told to climb to the roof of an office building. In the game, Path of Neo, you can change this decision.
  • One of the online comics is about a hacker who chose the blue pill.
  • Cypher initially accepted the red pill, but grew to regret it. He saw himself to be little more than a lapdog to Morpheus and yearned to return to the illusion of the Matrix by any means necessary—so he threw his conscience out the window and pulled an insidious betrayal.
• Refused by the Call: Neo thinks this is the case in the first movie, but it turns out to be only Metaphorically True.
• The Remnant: The first inhabitants of Zion or the "original" one if you believe the Architect were comprised of U.N. soldiers who managed to elude capture and early escapees from the Matrix.
• Remote, Yet Vulnerable: The forces of Zion suffer from this in the first and second movies.
• Ridiculously Human Robots: The "programs" (really, AI's) in the Matrix are disturbingly human for what are, after all, creations of the Machines. This is explained by the fact that they were largely designed that way; the closer to humans the programs are, the more intuitive human traits they are given to understand them.
  • When Neo is speaking to the voice of the Machines in Revolutions, it angrily proclaims that it doesn't need him or anyone. Think about it: the Machines have become advanced enough, human enough, to exhibit irrational behaviors like bravado and denial, lying to Neo and maybe even itself.
• Robot War: As shown in The Second Renaissance, this is what eventually led to the creation of the Matrix.
• Robots Enslaving Robots: There's the rogue exile faction, made of programs that were scheduled for deletion or were created without a purpose, such as Sati—created simply because her parent programs wanted a child. Highly ironic when you consider that being treated mercilessly by humans is what made the Machine City rebel. Unless forcing such programs to make new lives for themselves in the Matrix is considered to be giving them a purpose. Like Zion, they could be serving needs the Machine City is unhappily unable to fulfill through its own agents.
• Rogue Drone: Originally a guardian A.I. in a simulated reality, Agent Smith becomes something akin to a computer virus.
• Roundhouse Kick: With all the flashy moves, of course this would be included.
• Rule of Cool: How much one can do in the Matrix is directly proportional to how cool one looks doing it. It would be easier to list the times when this isn't the case.

S

• Schizo Tech: And how; consider the device they use to (literally) dial in to Neo is made out of Diesel Punk paraphernalia and used rotary-phone parts. Of course all this is justified because The Future Is Noir and it's a simulation cobbled together out of different parts of history.
• Schrödinger's Butterfly: At the end of the second movie Neo was able to stop a machine with his mind in what was supposed to be the real world when nobody had shown powers in the real world before. Although this idea existed during the first movie and it was fully explained in the next one, this scene encouraged fans to speculate that the "real world" might just have been another layer of the Matrix used to control rebellious minds. One of the comics also references the Trope Namer in a short comic where a monk or something beats up some Agents.
• Science Fantasy: Neo is "The Chosen One", prophecied by an oracle, and he has special powers that allow him to fly, dodge bullets, and [bend spoons. Oh, but it's only because he's in a computer simulation run by intelligent machines.
• Screw Destiny: The focus of the second and third movies.
• Second Coming: Neo is seen as the return of The One by Morpheus.
• Seer: The Oracle is a subversion, as she can't actually see the future. She can, however, predict what choices people will make with near-perfect accuracy and from that extrapolate events that will come, through an innate understanding of the human psyche. She also admits that this ability has limits: if she doesn't understand a choice someone will make, she can't predict what they will do, and she doesn't know what will happen after that.
• 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. The first example of this is the vase.
  Oracle: What's really going to bake your noodle later on is: would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?
• Send in the Clones: Smith has the power to do this in the sequels. During the first fight with Neo, he realizes that there aren't enough of him to make a difference and says "More." Cue dozens more Smiths running in to attack Neo.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several works: in The Matrix: Alice in Wonderland ("Follow the White Rabbit"); The Wizard of Oz ("Buckle your seat belt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye"); Commercials for Life Cereal ("Hey, Mikey, I think he likes it."), in Reloaded: when Neo flies across the city, his cape flapping in the wind, one of the characters says "Neo is doing his Superman thing"; and others.
  • In keeping with the movie's philosophical subtext, some of Zion's military personnel are named after famous philosophers. There's Commander Locke, Captain Soren (after Soren Kierkegaard), and Captain Ballard (after science fiction author J.G. Ballard).
  • There's also Captain Mifune. In the original Japanese version of Speed Racer (which the Wachowskis are huge fans of), "Mifune" was the main character's last name. Fittingly, they would go on to direct the live-action film of Speed Racer just a few years after finishing the Matrix trilogy.
  • In the first movie, the exit where the heroes get out of the Matrix and into the real world is Room 303. Maybe the phone was next to Asuka Soryu's hospital-bed?
• Shown Their Work: They made an entire separate DVD for the making-of the first film.
• Signature Move: Several characters have one.
  • Morpheus on several occasions uses a high-jumping diving knee strike.
  • Smith seems to prefer a straight right punch to the chest.
  • Trinity's is her iconic levitating crane kick.
• Significant Anagram:
  • Neo <=> One. How incredibly subtle.
  • The train station sign Mobil <=> Limbo, as mocked by Rifftrax.
  • The soundtrack's titles have even more of them. "Exit Mr Hat" comes to mind.
  • Film score composer Don Davis said outright in the initial DVD release's commentary track (one with no SFX or character voices, just the music and the composer's commentary on it) that he named several pieces as anagrams, including (in the first movie) "Bow Whisk Orchestra" and "Switch or Break Show" which are both anagrams of "Wachowski Brothers". In one of the two sequel films, a piece in the score was titled "Saw Bitch Workhorse"
• Simulated Fantasy, Post-Apocalyptic Reality: The series is set in a sunless post-apocalyptic wasteland caused by a war between machines and humanity, and most of the human race is now serving as batteries for the machines while their minds are kept occupied by the eponymous virtual reality simulation, a Mind Prison based on the world as it was over a century ago. However, the rebel humans that have been freed from the Matrix still use simulations throughout their lives, not only to train and fight back against the machines, but - as Enter the Matrix demonstrates - simply for the sake of fun.
• Sincerest Form of Flattery: The Wachowskis used the Ghost in the Shell manga and film to show prospective producers how they wanted the movie to look.
• Sliding Scale of Robot Intelligence: Most of the machines and programs in the films are vastly more intelligent than the humans, although some are difficult to assess because of how vastly inhuman they are. The Sentinels and other war models are likely either completely programmed Bricks or on par with humans. Some programs designed to mimic humans are more or less on the human level, barring some extrasensory perceptions. The Architect and the Oracle are definately Nobel bots, with the Architect coming across as distinctly alien in his viewpoint. Deux Ex Machina may or may not be effectively a machine god.
• Spiritual Sequel: To the film Dark City. They even shared the same sets!
• Spiritual Successor: The 1995 animated film Ghost in the Shell is cited by the Wachowskis as a direct influence on the films, so much so that it's practically their spiritual predecessor.
• Starfish Robots: Loads of them in the real world, with the Sentinels being the most prominent.
• Storming the Castle: Once a film.
• Story-Breaker Power: Neo's "The One" package, in a nutshell. The writers actually had to tone his powers down in the sequels to prevent him from becoming a God-Mode Sue.
• Straw Nihilist: Agent Smith in sequels. In Revolutions, he goes into a long rant about why Neo bothers to continue fighting him and that "Only a human mind could come up with something as insipid as love!" and "Why, Mr. Anderson!? Why!? Why do you persist!?" Ironically, Neo's response is something a Nietzschean Ubermensch might actually say: "Because I choose to."

T

• Take a Third Option: The entire plot of the trilogy is about taking a third option. The Architect claims Neo's only choices are to do as he's told (let the machines destroy Zion) or cause the entire Matrix to crash, which will kill everyone in the world. While the other five "Ones" accepted this, Neo refuses. He later makes a new choice when confronting Deus Ex Machina: he offers to save the Machine City from Smith if the machines will let Zion survive, with the implication that the Zionites will also continue to remove 'undesirables' from the Matrix.
• Technicolor Death: The explosive death/destruction of Agent Smith in The Matrix and all of the Smiths in Revolutions.
• Telephone Teleport: The series has a variation; the rebels use phones to jack their operatives into and out of the VR simulation.
• Tell Me How You Fight: Though it's never commented on in-universe, the fighting styles of characters in The Matrix add another layer to the philosophy of the movie. Explained here. In short, humans tend to have more fluid, flashy or distinctive styles based on the character: contrast Morpheus' kung fu to Ballard's boxing. The Agents all use a generic karate-based style. Humans also use martial arts throws and wristlocks (Morpheus vs. Neo), wheras Agents simply grab-and-heave, which works due to their incredible strength.
• This Was His True Form: Agents are capable of taking over bystanders' bodies. If they should be killed, the program leaves and the innocent most recent host is unmistakably dead. There are no other bodies, but all their other hosts are presumably very dead as well, or they just find themselves someplace strange with no memory of how they got there.
• Theme Naming: Each of the movie sequels that's a type of cycle.
• Three-Point Landing: Almost everybody does this, probably to emphasize coolness, but most prominently Trinity and one of the Agents pursuing her right in the beginning of the first movie.
• Throw-Away Guns: Characters coolly throw away guns when they run out of ammo during a gunfight. This supports the videogame aesthetic of the combat. Given that the guns are being conjured up from Tank's computer code, they are disposable and it saves them any time that they would have wasted reloading.
• Tomato Surprise: The Reveal in the first film; Neo's machine-powers in the third.
• Took a Level in Badass: Neo at the end of the first movie, and Smith in Revolutions.
• Transformation of the Possessed: The Agents are Machine programs who manifest inside the Matrix by taking over the bodies of people who are still plugged into the program, which alters their physical appearance to that of the agent. Obviously, it's easier for them to do since the whole thing is a simulation. If an Agent is ever killed (no small feat), their host body turns back.
• Turned Against Their Masters:
  • The Machines rose up against humanity to turn them into batteries. Though as shown in The Animatrix, it was our fault since we started it.
  • And in the sequels, the former Agent Smith turns against the other machines. Even in the first film he was already trying to subvert his masters' control. When he removed his earpiece so the others can't hear him talk candidly to Morpheus, he admits that he really doesn't want to enforce the masquerade, but instead wants to wipe humanity out and destroy the Matrix, seeing it as much a prison for him as it is for them.
• Two-Part Trilogy: The second and third films were filmed back-to-back with a Cliffhanger, and follow one plot line; allegedly, they were meant to be one long film.
• Two Roads Before You: One per film.

U

• Uncertain Doom: The bluepills most recently occupied by Agents when they are killed are most certainly dead, but it's never made clear whether the bodies that survive also die.
• Underground City: Zion.
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: The real world. The Matrix has green lighting. The first film originally didn't heavily feature the green "tint" during scenes that took place inside the Matrix; the remastered version of the film fixes that so that all three films share a similar look. This was also intentional (the green and blue tint) and used as part of the symbolism of the films.
• Unnecessarily Creepy Robot: Most of the machine tech is characterized by being unnecessarily creepy. Later works in the franchise imply that this was a conscious choice on the part of the machines. "The Second Renaissance" shows that the first Machines were simple humanoid androids. As relations between humans and machines soured, the machines became more and more alien, developing into creepy insectoid things. It was most likely deliberate: both as an declaration of the machines' independence from human influence, and as a means to intimidate the Humans.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Agents only use about three techniques, but compensate for it with superhuman strength and speed.
• Used Future: This trope is the reason why Zee Rust does not necessarily apply to the Nebuchadnezzar's use of Windows 98-level computer screens; humans living in a post-apocalyptic world wouldn't exactly have access to the most cutting edge technology in all regards.

V

• Vagueness Is Coming: The Oracle.
• Vasquez Always Dies: Switch in The Matrix and Charra in Revolutions.
• Villain Decay: In the first film, one of the things that makes Neo special is that he's on par with the Agents. In the second film, he even ACKNOWLEDGES that the Agents have had "upgrades"... but the rest of the cast can hold their own against them, most notably in Morpheus's truck top fight. The "upgrades" are increased speed and strength in exchange for reduced intelligence. That makes them better against Neo (if only barely), but less effective against everyone else. Niobe and Ghost outright kill several Agents in the canonical Enter the Matrix game. They could still possess someone else; but still so much for "nobody has ever beaten one."
• Virtual-Reality Warper: The human "redpill" hackers are able to bend the laws of the Matrix to perform superhuman feats - within limits: empowering themselves with downloaded knowledge, making themselves stronger and faster than most human beings, and making absolutely impossible jumps appears to be the extent of their abilities. In turn, programs like the Agents are able to counter with powers of their own...
• The Virus:
  • The Agents overtaking soldiers' bodies in the first film.
  • Agent Smith in the sequels, quite literally.

W

• Wall Jump: One of the more commonly-used wuxia, wire-fu tricks this series employs in the fight scenes.
• Weaker in the Real World: Both Neo and Smith experience this once they cross over to the real world.
  • At first Neo is as weak as a newborn baby due to severe muscular and organ atrophy. Later, once he recovers from this and becomes capable of superhuman, Reality Warper style feats in the Matrix, in the real world he remains just a guy. (Although maybe just a bit more, as the ending of the second movie shows.)
  • Meanwhile, not only is Smith disgusted by the human body he possesses in order to exit the Matrix, he also specifically talks about how weak it is compared to what he was used to.
  • And when the two fight in the real world in the third movie, there's no super powered, wuxia type moves or wire fu, you just have a couple of guys awkwardly wrestling each other and trying to grab anything that can be sued as a weapon. (Although again, the climax of the fight shows there's a little more going on with Neo, although it takes him awhile to be learn this and how to use it.)
• Welcome to the Real World: More-or-less stated, but not actually an example of the trope.
• We Will Meet Again: Neo in Reloaded and Smith in Revolutions.
• What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: This is variously played straight and subverted by the machines:
  • The Oracle is a computer program designed to intuitively understand emotional concepts such as love the way a human would to better understand human choice.
  • The Architect can only dispassionately interpret love in a very mechanical manner — as chemical processes occurring in the human brain.
  • Agent Smith goes way beyond reducing emotions to biology and becomes a nihilistic destroyer who despises everything created by human minds and by extension of his own former masters.
  • Rama-Kandra and his wife are two programs who actively love each other, culminating in "giving birth" to a new program, Sati.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Unfortunately, a repeating trope:
  • In the first film, the Oracle is assisted by a young woman in looking over potential Ones, all children (one of them the Spoon Boy who gives Neo advice). From Reloaded onward, the woman is replaced by Seraph, and the potentials disappear completely except for one Call-Back.
  • The Twins don't reappear after Morpheus blows up their car on the freeway. It seems highly unlikely it actually killed them, given their intangibility, but still nothing.
  • Link, Zee, the Kid, and many other Zion citizens are unmentioned in Resurrections, but considering how much time has passed they likely died of old age.
• What Measure Is a Mook?: When any mook (or even innocent bystander) can become an Agent at the drop of a hat, killing them is not only justified but becomes a basic element of self-preservation, despite the fact that these people are shown to have lives and feelings.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: This turns into a sticky issue once it is revealed that there are sentient programs, some of whom have ambiguous alignments, some of whom are on the humans' side, and some that just want to be left alone.
• White Void Room: The Construct is portrayed this way until something's inserted into it, like the chairs that Neo and Morpheus sit in when Morpheus revels the complete truth about the Matrix and when they drop into the city for the jump program.
• Wild Mass Guessing: Oh Sweet Kung-Fu Action Jesus, yes.
• Wire Fu: Oh yes. The Neo vs. Morpheus fight is just one of many examples.
• With Us or Against Us: Morpheus practically says this trope by name when training Neo in the Construct in the first film. Because Agents can move in and out of any software still hardwired into this system, "with us or against us" is literally true. Anyone the freedom fighters haven't unplugged is potentially an Agent. Gets an Exact Words twist in the sequels; some Machines aren't inimical to humanity, and Agent Smith develops the ability to write over the minds of Rebels.
• World of Badass: Being a badass becomes a norm within the Matrix.

Y

• You Can't Fight Fate:
  • Smith to Neo twice, once during the subway fight in the first movie ("Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability. It's the sound of your death.") and at the end of the Burly Brawl ("It is inevitable!")
  • Also, the Architect informing Neo that the prophecy to save Zion was a lie, and that "The One"'s true purpose is to restart the war, not end it.
  • The last battle between Neo and Smith where Smith tries to persuade Neo to give up because it is pointless to keep fighting. Neo eventually gives up, but not just for Smith's reasons.
• You Have No Chance to Survive: Smith. Repeatedly (see above). The Architect also informs Neo that the human race has no chance to survive (he calculated.)
  Architect: We won't [meet again].
  —-
  Agent Smith: Evolution, Morpheus. Like the dinosaur... you had your time.
  —-
  Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson... vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself. Although... only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson, Why? Why do you persist?
• You Shall Not Pass!: An example in each movie.
• "You!" Squared
• Your Mind Makes It Real:
  • If someone is killed in the Matrix, they're dead for real.
  • Neo's powers.

Z

• Zombie Apocalypse: From the perspective of all the bluepills, what Smith does in the Matrix.

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