Tropes A to F / The Matrix Film

The Matrix Trope Examples
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11th-Hour Superpower: After Neo is shot and seemingly dies, Trinity reveals that the Oracle told her that she would fall in love with 'The One' so it has to be him. Cue his resurrection and subsequent obliteration of Smith and the other Agents.
555:
- During the opening, the trace program reads Trinity's phone number as (3_2) 555-0690. Presumably 312, a reference to the Wachowskis' hometown of Chicago.
- In the hotel room where Trinity is apprehended, a company called City Hoarding has its logo stamped on the wall. Its phone number: 555-0156.

Action Prologue: The opening chase scene, introducing Trinity as the Action Girl.
Actor Allusion:
- Keanu Reeves starred in Johnny Mnemonic, as a character who could have a jack placed straight into the back of his head. It is also a film about telepresence. Also not the first time he played a savior.
- Joe Pantoliano lying about a car accident in a movie directed by The Wachowskis... why is that so familiar?
Admiring the Poster: The young programmer Mouse designs a fetching Lady in Red for one of the training programs. At the crew's rendezvouz location inside the Matrix, he's shown lounging on a leather couch and getting turned on by an autographed pin-up from the Woman in Red.
After the End: The real world is a devastated, ravaged wasteland left to rot for over a century in the wake of the robot uprising with no human civilization outside of the city of Zion. Anyone not living in Zion is contained in pods that help fuel the Machines, trapped in a virtual reality simulation of life before the uprising.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Morpheus reveals that humans built the film's AI antagonists. The Animatrix segment "The Second Renaissance" gives important exposition that humans pissed off their own AI creations when they refused to acknowledge robots had equal civil rights as humans, which turned out to be a dangerous, backfiring decision because the machines had more than enough might and capability to overthrow their human masters.
Alice Allusion:
- Neo has his first meeting with Trinity after a chatroom message suggests he follow a white rabbit (actually a client's girlfriend, who has a white rabbit tattoo).
- During Morpheus and Neo's first conversation, Morpheus muses that Neo must be feeling like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole, then tells him that if he chooses the red pill, "you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A large deserted apartment building used by Morpheus and team as an operations center is assaulted by Agents and their mooks after one crew member does a Face–Heel Turn in trying to return to the pleasant illusions of the Matrix in exchange for his information.
Almost Kiss: After Neo saves Trinity from the crashing helicopter, he pulls her up the rope and both have a moment before Morpheus interrupts them.
Alternate Timeline: A wall of monitors show Neo awaiting interrogation, and the camera selects one and moves in. We see this again at the end of the next film; each monitor shows a different possible future.
Alike and Antithetical Adversaries: The movie has a diverse group of characters as the rebellion, spanning multiple races, ages, and genders, but the villains -the agents- are as homogeneous as you can get: they have the same appearance, voice, costume, etc.
Always Night: As Neo is told by Morpheus, humanity "scorched the sky" to cut off the machines' access to solar energy. Unfortunately, the machines came up with an alternative... This applies only to the real world, while it's averted within the Matrix, which was designed to simulate a pre-war environment.
Amulet of Dependency: Lampshaded. The rebel humans are dependent on (presumably nonsentient) machines that power their life support and equipment; if their enemies were to find the rebel humans' vehicles and bases, or gain control of them, they could defeat the rebellion quickly. The humans could just turn off the machines, but they would probably die if they did. ^note
Ancient Grome: The Oracle has a reference to the Oracle of Delphi (Greek) over her door, but it's written in Latin.
Animals Respect Nature: Agent Smith claims that every animal except humans instictively form a symbiosis with their environment, and that humanity should therefore not be classified as a mammal but more properly as a virus.
Anonymous Public Phone Call: Subverted. Neo places a call to the Agents from a phone booth. Not only is the Agents' call trace interrupted, implicitly by Neo's One powers, but he very publicly flies out of the phone booth.
Answers to the Name of God: Trinity replies to Neo's surprised exclamations of "God!" and "Jesus!"
Arbitrary Gun Power: Trinity's relatively weak (in real life) Beretta pistol somehow has the ability to make an agent fly about 10 feet when shot point blank. In fact, in that whole lobby scene, most of the guns got an upgrade in power.
Armor-Piercing Question: Morpheus is going for this when he asks Neo, "Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place?", but what really drives it home is his follow-up question, "You think that's air you're breathing now?". This is followed by Morpheus taking a beat to demonstrate that his digital avatar, in fact, does not need to breathe.
Artistic Licence – Biology: Several, for greater drama effect, although most of it has been later rectified by fanon theories.
- Agent Smith claims that humans are not ordinary mammals because they do not instinctively seek out an equilibrium within the ecosystem. In fact, no species "instinctively" seeks equilibrium with its environment — most are just sufficiently evenly matched that one species is unlikely to have the kind of overwhelming negative impact on its ecosystem that humans can have. In wild nature, animals that destroy their habitat and their food base will simply go extinct in a few generations. Humans rather function similarly to an invasive species that did not yet "learn" this rule, but on a much larger level. But invasive species can be animals, plants, or anything else. To be fair, this whole speech is an in-character lie from Smith to break Morpheus's will. Besides, nobody in this universe has observed a healthy ecosystem in quite some time.
- Morpheus claims that the human body generates more bioelectricity than a 120-volt battery and over 25,000 BTUs of body heat. These figures are not only wildly exaggerated, but the human body produces less energy while asleep and the conversion of food to energy is only about 25% efficient, making it a net consumer of power. At least he also adds that machines supplement the Human Resources with "a form of fusion".
As the Good Book Says...: On the Nebuchadnezzar dedication plate: Mark III, No. 11. Mark 3:11 (KJV) says, "And unclean spirits, when they saw [Jesus], fell down before him and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God!"
Astonishingly Appropriate Interruption: Cypher shoots his comrades and is about to pull the plug on Neo. But before he does, he demands that Trinity tell him if she truly believes that Neo is The Chosen One. Trinity says yes. Cypher shouts "No, I don't believe it!" … because one of the men he shot is still alive and pointing a very large gun at him.
Tank: Believe it or not, you piece of shit, you're still gonna burn! [Fires]
Astral Checkerboard Decor: When Neo goes to meet Morpheus (and first enters "the real world"). The movie is pretty blatant with the Alice in Wonderland motifs in that scene.
Attack Drone: The Sentinels are squid-like machines that hover across the tunnels of the underworld to search and destroy vessels piloted by humans who defected from the Matrix.
Awful Truth: Society as we know it is all a facade generated by robots who defeated humanity ages before and now source them for energy, creating a simulation of what life was like in 1999 to keep humanity locked in an unknowing stasis. The fact Morpheus obscures this information from the people he frees from the Matrix is the linchpin of Cypher's betrayal, saying that Morpheus only tells enough of the disturbing reality to get people on the hook and by the time they find out what they actually bought into it's too late to reconsider.

Balcony Escape: Subverted. Morpheus tells Neo to do this to escape the Agents looking for him at his office. He tries but is nearly blown off the skinny ledge and can't make himself go any further.
Bald Head of Toughness: Most people of both sexes in the in-story real world are either bald or very close-shaven. This is in part justified because it would appear that the machines' People Jars prevent hair growth for those inside and hair could cover the port to hook up into The Matrix, but most of the characters would presumably have been out for long enough to grow some more hair (like Neo eventually does), so that's probably not why everyone's hair is like that. This helps create a contrast between the harsh, limited living conditions of reality and the cushy, comfortable, but ultimately controlled, lifestyle within The Matrix.
Barrier-Busting Blow: When the heroes are trying to escape the Agents by climbing between the walls, Agent Smith punches through the wall and throttles Neo. Morpheus does the reverse to throw himself on top of Agent Smith to get him to release Neo.
Bathroom Brawl: Morpheus gets into a fight with Agent Smith in a bathroom, and the former is knocked out as he hits his head on the toilet bowl.
Beard of Evil: Cypher and his pencil-thin goatee. who is disillusioned with Morpheus' quest and ultimately betrays the crew to the machines.
Beat Them at Their Own Game: Neo and the other humans are nearly powerless in any direct confrontation with the Matrix's agents, and can only gain the upper hand through luck or the element of surprise (which is nearly impossible to obtain). Neo surprises his fellow humans by surviving a face-to-face encounter with an agent by dodging its bullets (as seen in the famous "Bullet Time" scene).
Trinity: How did you do that?
Neo: Do what?
Trinity: You moved like they do. I've never seen anyone move that fast.
Big Damn Heroes: Neo using a minigun from a helicopter to rescue Morpheus.
Big "NO!": Dozer, before Cypher kills him.
Blind Seer: Invoked, then subverted when Neo visits the Oracle. When he and Morpheus get out of the car, the next scene shows a blind old man with a stereotypical wise-man beard sitting on a bench and holding a cane. The obvious conclusion is that this man is the Oracle. But he's just a guy sitting on a bench. However … the blind man nods to Morpheus as he and Neo pass by. Not so blind as we thought; he was likely a lookout for the Oracle.
Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Mentioned by Cypher by name, though not seen, when he tells Neo he's been watching the Matrix Raining Code so long he can see what the code represents but not the code itself.
Blood from the Mouth:
- As Neo is returning to reality from the Jump program, he wipes a bit of blood from his mouth. This leads to the reveal that a person's mind perceives injury in the Matrix and makes it happen in the real world.
- As Mouse is being riddled with bullets in the Matrix, his body is shown jerking and twitching in his chair, then going limp with blood running from his mouth.
- Neo coughs up quite a lot of blood at one point during his fight with Agent Smith in the subway scene, with a corresponding spew in the real world, indicating just how badly Smith is hurting him.
Bloodless Carnage: At the end of the movie, Agent Smith pumps Neo full of lead from his Desert Eagle. The smallest calibre fired is .357 magnum and it can also be chambered in .44 or .50 AE, so a magazine's worth should leave penny-sized holes with severe bleeding to go along with the internal damage, not the tiny wounds and minimal blood loss visible in the scene.
Body Surf: The movie shows that, since every human still plugged into the Matrix is a potential Agent, the Resistance cannot afford to leave witnesses when they go about trying to free people. Any populated area in the city is extremely dangerous. In a matter of seconds, an agent can jump into anyone nearby and shoot you dead. This is displayed to dramatic effect in the finale when Neo runs through a market and an apartment complex. Agent Smith, Agent Brown and Agent Jones are constantly taking shots at Neo from behind or from the sides as they try to kill him.
Body Horror: Along with having Neo's mouth sealed shut as an intimidation tactic, Smith "bugs" Neo with an insectoid machine that burrows into Neo's belly through his navel. Then there's the scene where Neo wakes up in the real world for the first time... in a pod of icky pink slime, with cables cybernetically attached to points all over his naked body.
Bond Villain Stupidity: When Cypher is about to pull the plug on Neo, he stops to indulge in chitchat about Neo's The Chosen One status, giving Tank time to sneak up and electrocute him from behind.
Book Ends
- The Heart o' the City Hotel, room 303, where both the first and penultimate scenes of the movie take place.
- The Trace program that opens the movie, and the last scene of the movie. The first time around, it completes, revealing Trinity's location to the Agents. The second time, Neo uses his powers as The One to freeze it before it can make any progress.
Boom, Headshot!: Trinity disposes of an agent this way by shoving the gun right against his head.
Trinity: Dodge this.
Bottomless Magazines:
- Averted. Neo and Agent Smith exchange fire at each other in the subway station and wind up with their guns at each other's heads, only to point out to each other that they're both out of bullets. It's interesting how both of their weapons lock empty at the same time, since Neo is using a Beretta 92FS pistol, whose magazine has a fifteen-round capacity, and Smith, a Desert Eagle pistol that holds only seven rounds.
- Neo and Trinity also run out of ammunition and discard their empty weapons during the security checkpoint battle. Of course, they brought "lots of guns," and don't mind taking their opponents' weapons. And any case where people fire more rounds than they should be able to with the gun they are using can be easily handwaved because the Matrix programming can create infinite ammo.
Breaking the Bonds: During his rescue, Morpheus musters the last of his strength and breaks the handcuffs he was tied with.
Brick Joke: Early in the movie, Choi makes a brief comment about mescaline to Neo, saying: "It's the only way to fly!" The last shot of the movie shows Neo getting up and flying for the first time.
Brutal Brawl: Unlike the film's flashier, more elaborate martial arts duels, Agent Smith vs. Morpheus is a nasty fistfight in a cramped bathroom, with blows that have real weight behind them (especially Smith hitting Morpheus with rapid-fire headbutts). It eventually becomes a Curb-Stomp Battle in Smith's favor.
Buccaneer Broadcaster: Morpheus and his crew project avatars of themselves into the Inside a Computer System that is The Matrix in order to disrupt it. They sometimes refer to this futuristic, Cyberpunk act as "broadcasting."
Bullet Dodges You: At the end of the movie, Neo can stop the gunfire of three Agents by holding up his hand and making the bullets freeze in the air.
Bullet Time: The Trope Codifier, although it's used fairly sparingly in the film itself.
Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: Neo's speech at the end was going to refer to the Matrix as a chrysalis, but the execs weren't sure if enough viewers would know what a chrysalis is. (It's this, by the way.)

Call to Adventure: Neo literally receives a cell phone call to adventure from Morpheus, starting Neo's fight against the Machines (whether he wanted to or not).
Came Back Strong: After Agent Smith kills him, Neo becomes the One and gets much more powerful than before because of being beaten by the Big Bad which was prophesied earlier, in passing, by the Oracle when she remarked: "…It looks like you're waiting for something […] Your next life, maybe."
The Can Kicked Him: Morpheus fights Agent Smith in a dilapidated bathroom. His bald dome is sent hurtling into a toilet bowl, shattering it.
Car Fu:
- The movie opens with one of these, as the Agents use a garbage truck to smash the phone booth where Trinity is trying to escape, though they hit it just too late.
- And used again near the end, when Agent Smith throws Neo in front of a subway train and holds him down, only for Neo to hit him back and escape. This sort of thing is generally ineffective when your enemy can Body Surf, but Smith does find it momentarily inconvenient.
Cassette Futurism: While the world inside of the Matrix mostly looks contemporary to the time the film was made (late '90s, when there were both readily available landline phones and trendy flip-phone and slider cell phones), the real world is much grungier, with monitors only showing text terminals and information stored on MiniDiscs which manage to both look very exotic to American audiences at the time (the format never caught on in the US) and incredibly dated within a few years with the adoption of USB flash drives. Additionally, the way Matrix code is shown as green letters on a black screen suggests the look of '80s computers.
Catapult Nightmare: When Neo wakes up after the Agents implant the Tracking Device in him, and possibly after he learns the truth about the Matrix.
Catching Up on History: A variation occurs where Neo (and, presumably, every other human rescued from the Matrix) learns that history as he knows it was just a deeply immersive virtual reality simulation (albeit one based on real history) and learns via another such simulation that the actual present world is a bombed-out radioactive wasteland ruled by The Machines with the vast majority of humanity now grown in pods and plugged into an artificial dream world.
Cathartic Exhalation: The crew lets a collective release of breath out when the Sentinels back off.
Central Theme: Faith, the nature of reality, trusting our senses, and if authority would use all that to oppress us.
Chained to a Railway: Smith puts Neo in a wrestling hold in front of an oncoming subway train. Neo breaks the hold and jumps clear, leaving Smith to be hit by the train instead.
Character Shilling: At several points the crew members note how unique Neo is.
Mouse: Jesus Christ, he's fast! Take a look at his neuro-kinetics, they're way above normal!
The Chooser of the One: The Oracle can tell who is or isn't The One.
City Noir: While at the beginning of the movie and in all of the "Real World" scenes the scenery is dark and depressing, all of the scenes in the Matrix after Neo is awakened take place in broad daylight with only moderate cloud cover.
City with No Name: The city in the Matrix is not mentioned by name.^note
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: The red pill humans are able to perform seemingly superhuman feats by believing that they can do it, since they're in a virtual reality. As Spoon Boy elaborates: "There is no spoon." There are limits to even their abilities, though, which is what makes Neo, whose belief can transcend those limits as well, so important (at least, that's how it seems at first).
*Click* Hello: A few times, of which Trinity's "Dodge this!" is probably the most memorable.
Cluster F-Bomb: While the original script had a lot more swearing, most uses of "fuck" that weren't dropped were replaced with "shit" for the final film.
Confiscated Phone: Neo steals a guy's cell phone. The guy complains, and Agent Smith steals his body.
Conspicuous in the Crowd: A simulation invokes this trope by featuring a woman in a red dress in a large crowd, who distracts Neo and allows Morpheus to make a point.
Contemplative Boss:
- Morpheus looks out of a window in a contemplative Reverse Arm-Fold pose right before meeting Neo.
- Agent Smith oversees the City before interrogating Morpheus.
Conveniently Empty Building: Both hotels where the characters meet. The room they go to to answer the rotary phone also appears to be yet another one. Averted elsewhere, when the characters actively gun down innocent security guards, to prevent them from becoming bodies for Agents.
Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Trinity does this twice for Neo during the Rooftop Confrontation:
- First, she saves him by throwing a knife at a mook who sneaked up from behind him with a gun.
- Shortly after, she performs her famous "Dodge this" on an Agent who is about to shoot Neo at close range.
Converse with the Unconscious: After Smith kills Neo, Trinity is talking to his dead body in the real world.
Trinity: The Oracle told me I'd fall in love, and that the man I loved would be the One. So you see, you can't be dead. You can't be, because I love you. You hear me? I love you. Now, get up!
[Neo does. And proceeds to own Smith that proves that, yes, he is The One]
Counting Bullets: In the subway fight between Neo and Agent Smith, both note that the other has run out of bullets.
Agent Smith: You're empty.
Neo: So are you.
Cow Tools: The various pieces of equipment and implements used by Morpheus' crew to extract Neo from the Matrix certainly count: computer monitors and keyboards of different sizes and shapes, some sort of VR headset, a rotary phone hooked up to a giant modem-like apparatus, a curved rack of... server somethings with flashing lights, etc. It's never explained what exactly all those devices and gadgets do; they're just there and being used.
Crapsack World: If you think the dystopian virtual world controlled by machines is a raw deal, just wait until you see the real world ruled by machines. It is a vast, grey waste; there's nothing left. This is the primary reason why Cypher turns on his comrades and the Zion human rebellion, wishing he had never chosen the red pill from Morpheus.
Crashing Dreams: Near the start of the movie, in the club, the music turns into an alarm clock sound before Neo wakes up. The implications of this are left up to the viewer.
Crazy Enough to Work: The basis behind the plan to rescue Morpheus. Complete with call out.
Trinity: Nobody has ever tried anything like this before.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
Creator Cameo: The Wachowskis are the window cleaners in the scene where Thomas Anderson's boss is chewing him out.
Creature-Hunter Organization: Neo and the rest of the Red Pills fight against The Agents of The Matrix. who try to uphold the Masquerade within the Cyberspace for the Machines. their "real world" counterparts are The Sentinels mentioned under Kaiju Killing Corps.
Creepy Twins: A subtle version in the Agent Training Program. If you watch it and you're certain that you saw the same extras walk by the camera twice, guess what, you're right: all the extras are twins. It suggests that Mouse wrote the program and, after making half the crowd, became lazy and copied them. The producers actually went around looking for basically every pair of twins they could find just for this one scene. Now, were you looking for that, or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?
Cryo Sickness: Neo has to be carefully nursed back to health after being set free from the Matrix, as his muscles and nerves were unused to real stimulation and movement.
Cryptically Unhelpful Answer: Neo's conversation with The Oracle ends up being much less clear than it seemed to be, which frustrates Neo himself when he manages to save Morpheus despite having thought that he would die. Although this is likely intentional, in order to give the viewer the choice between multiple interpretations.
Cue the Falling Object: After Neo and Trinity have a big gunfight with the guards to rescue Morpheus, they casually enter the elevator. The camera then shows the extent of the damage to the lobby, and one of the pillars' marble collapses onto the floor. This happened by coincidence during the filming and was not planned, but was retained since it seemed appropriate. invoked
Curb-Stomp Battle: Morpheus stays behind to fight Agent Smith while the rest of the heroes escape. Despite putting up a good effort, he is easily overpowered by Smith and captured.
Cut Phone Lines: A variation. Cell lines are ubiquitous so communicating is not a problem, but to actually get out of the Matrix, you need a hard line. A virtual hard line. A hard virtual... look it's gotta be a phone line so cutting the phone lines is serious.
Cut the Juice: The backstory narrates that the machines were solar powered, so the humans took the logical (if horrible) step of blackening the sky. The machines retaliated by switching to a much nastier power source.

A Darker Me: The red pills. Before their introduction to the Real World, they were hackers, geeks, and other freaks. This makes it obvious why, when they go back into the Matrix, they all wear longcoats and sunglasses.
Darkest Hour: The Sentinels have cut open the hull of the Nebuchadnezzar and are about to invade the ship. The crew hears the noises approaching, and the look of utter hopelessness on the faces of Morpheus and Tank tell us that they don't even care. The only hope is with Neo who, in this very moment, is shot dead inside the Matrix. All hope is lost. Trinity, however, brings Neo back with The Power of Love.
Dark Is Not Evil: The Nebuchadnezzar crew (save Switch) all wear black outfits while in the Matrix.
Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Neo's eyes hurt when used for the first time after exiting the Matrix.
Death-Activated Superpower: The shock of dying in the Matrix is the last stimulus required to awaken Neo's powers.
Death Is Cheap: If an Agent is killed, he can simply overwrite a new person inside the Matrix. At the end of the subway fight, Smith knocks Neo into the path of an oncoming train, then jumps down to hold him in place, knowing that the collision wouldn't affect him at all.
Déjà Vu: Neo experiences déjà vu after seeing the same cat go by twice. The rest of the cast go on alert, as déjà vu is a sign of a recent change made in the program, caused by A Glitch in the Matrix.
Disappearing Bullets: In the rooftop scene, Neo empties two handguns at an agent, who dodges all of the bullets. However, none of the windows on the glass skyscraper behind the agent break, or even have bullet holes.
Disconnected by Death:
- A variation: Trinity spends the first minutes of the movie trying to reach a phone booth, and when she finally reaches it and pick up the phone, a truck demolishes the phone booth. Fortunately, since she departed via the landline, Trinity is not injured.
- This also happens right before Neo and Smith's subway fight, as Smith tries to shoot her before she can leave the Matrix. Once again, she manages to escape Just in Time.
Disney Death: Neo is shot multiple times by Agent Smith and killed, but gets revived by a True Love's Kiss from Trinity.
Distracted by the Sexy: The iconic "Woman in the Red Dress" moment in the Agent Training Program. Morpheus and Neo are walking in what looks like a crowded part of the Matrix while Morpheus is instructing him that they can't trust anyone still plugged into the system because there are some people so reliant on the Matrix that they will resist any attempted liberation. Neo is distracted by a gorgeous blond woman in a red dress who strolls by and smiles at him; when Morpheus asks if he was paying attention and Neo looks back at her, she's turned into Agent Smith about to shoot him. Morpheus freezes the program, revealing that this is just another training program, and points out the message: Agents can override any bluepill without warning.
Dodge the Bullet:
- The Agents, though they can't dodge everything. Dodging bullets also requires them to have their feet on the ground, which Trinity takes advantage of in the second movie.
- Neo mentions it early on:
  Neo: What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge bullets?
  Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.
- When the time comes, he does it almost as well as the Agents, although a few bullets still graze his skin. Shortly afterward, he lives up to Morpheus's claim: first by coming back to life after being shot, then by stopping bullets in mid-air.
Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- Those familiar with Buddhism and Gnosticism will find similarities in the plot with the idea of the world we see being an illusion that blinds us to the true reality. Neo is also like Buddha or Christ with this context. This was later expanded in the sequels.
- Another example is the infamous interrogation scene where Neo's mouth is erased, his shirt is ripped open, and the tracking bug forcefully digs into his navel, which is often interpreted as a rape metaphor.
Do Not Call Me "Paul":
Agent Smith: Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.
The Man formerly known as Thomas Anderson: My name ... is Neo!
Door Jam: Agent Smith shoots the phone just after Trinity gets out, leaving Neo with no exit and no choice but to fight him.
Down the Rabbit Hole: When Morpheus is offering to show Neo the Matrix:
Morpheus: [takes out a pill box and empties the contents into his hands] This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill [opens his left hand, revealing a translucent blue pill], the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill [opens his right hand, revealing a similar red pill], you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. [Neo reaches for the red pill] Remember: all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Drama Panes: Morpheus is being drugged for interrogation behind him, Agent Smith looks out of his impressive floor-to-ceiling office window while waxing philosophic about the nature of the Matrix.
Smith: Have you ever stood and stared at it, marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious.
Dramatic Ammo Depletion: Agent Smith and Neo have a shootout in a subway. They eventually end up on the ground with each of them holding their pistols at the other's head. They in turn point out that the other's gun is empty. They switch to Good Old Fisticuffs.
Dramatic Chase Opening: The opening chase of Trinity by the Agents.
Dramatic Gun Cock: There's a moment of incompetence from the SWAT team when our heroes fall into the basement - the SWAT team runs into position and simultaneously cock their guns before opening fire. Seconds later, the SWAT team turns on their laser sights after Apoc throws a smoke grenade. Oddly however, when the first SWAT member realizes that the heroes are in the wetwall and summarily unloads a magazine into it, he does not do a dramatic gun cock.
Dramatic Thunder: Used often enough to make this film a case of an Affectionate Parody.
The Dreaded: The Agents are seen as the ultimate enemy, with good reason. Morpheus' lesson to Neo in the "woman in the red dress" program makes this clear:
Morpheus: We've survived by hiding from them, by running from them. But they are the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors, they are holding all the keys, which means that sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them. […] I won't lie to you, Neo. Every man or woman who has stood their ground, everyone who has fought an Agent, has died.
Dream Within a Dream: Twice. First when Neo meets Trinity at the club only to wake up and find that he's late for work, and then again when the Agents bug him (literally) and he wakes up again.
Morpheus: You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth.
Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: The heroic Nebuchadnezzar redpills wear black stylish outfits (except Switch, who has a white one instead), while the antagonistic Agents are dressed in government agent-esque business suits that are green rather than the typical black or dark grey.
Driving Question: "What is the Matrix?", put to great effect as an integral part of the film's advertising. It's answered under an hour in, and it's then replaced by "What is real?"/"How do you define real?"
Drunken Boxing: Subverted; it's one of the many fighting styles uploaded into Neo's head during his training on the Nebuchadnezzar, but he never uses it.
Dub-Induced Plot Hole: During Neo's training program, Morpheus explains that Agents have the ability to "move in and out of any software still hardwired to their system" (i.e. they can possess Matrix inhabitants like ghosts and leave their bodies once they're dead or just no longer of any use). In Polish version of the movie, instead of merely getting properly translated, that line was replaced by completely imaginary, random sentence claiming that Agents are supposedly "controlled by separate processor". This not only totally contradicts the very nature of the Agents (who are sentient programs, not "controlled" by anything), but deprives the viewer of explanation how they actually work, setting up for major confusion later in the movie.
Dying Declaration of Love: Inverted, in that Trinity knows Neo can't be dead because she loves him.
Dying Moment of Awesome: Mouse. Even though he's trapped with no way out due to A Glitch in the Matrix and is bound to be killed by S.W.A.T. forces, he still chooses to go out with Guns Akimbo and blazing.

Early-Installment Weirdness:
- After Morpheus is captured by the Agents, the remaining heroes worry that the Agents will inevitably extract from him the access code to Zion's mainframe, with disastrous consequences for the resistance. During the interrogation, Smith even desperately rants that having the code will allow him to destroy Zion and leave the Matrix (which Smith has grown to despise). Although the storyline involving Zion's mainframe and the machines' pursuit of the code is not revisited in subsequent Matrix films or the franchise, Smith's determination to destroy both the Matrix and Zion out of spite remains evident, albeit with a twist in the sequels as he gains the ability to create clones by converting bluepills, thus posing a new threat to both worlds in Revolutions.
- The climax showcases the Nebuchadnezzar crew's race against time to extract Neo and prevent the Sentinels from penetrating the hovercraft and activating the EMP. However, in the sequel, the Sentinels, positioned outside the EMP's effective range, hurl a tow bomb at a Zion hovercraft, obliterating it. Why didn't the Sentinels employ this tactic against the Nebuchadnezzar?
Easter Egg: At the end of all the credits, the URL for the (now defunct) website of the film is given, www.whatisthematrix.com, along with a password, "steak". There's a "secret" link on the page that requests a password.
Eat the Camera: While Morpheus and his crew are searching for Neo's body in the real world, Neo touches a mirror. The mirror spreads over him like quicksilver and flows down his throat with the camera following. The scene changes, the audio sounds like it glitches out, and Neo wakes up in his real body.
Either/Or Prophecy: The Oracle examines Neo and says, "But you know what I'm going to say, don't you?" "I'm not the One," he says. The Oracle tells him that he has the gift but that he seems to be waiting for something. "Your next life, maybe." She then tells him that, soon, Neo's life and that of Morpheus will hang in the balance, and that he can save himself or Morpheus. Because Neo believes (but the Oracle did not confirm) that he is not the One, Neo chooses to save Morpheus. Neo dies and arrives in his next life once he disbelieves the reality of the Matrix.
Emerging from the Shadows: Agent Smith at the subway station comes out from the shadow, after having overridden the body of a homeless man.
EMP: The last-resort weapons against the robots. Big problem there is that they disable your own devices as well. That includes the devices that plug people into the Matrix.
Ending by Ascending: Neo shoots directly into the sky, Superman-style, after the climax of the movie.
Epic Battle Boredom: After his resurrection, Neo looks thoroughly bored as he effortlessly fights the agents attacking him, like it wouldn't seem that out of place if he put his hand over his mouth and yawned.
Epiphanic Prison: There's an Inside a Computer System version of this trope. Kind of reversed, actually — you only realize how it was a prison once you've already gotten free. Usually. And invoked even further with the revelations of the the second film. Those in Zion believed themselves free of machine control, and thus were unable to escape the repeating cycles of destruction the machines had created until the Oracle and Neo (both aware of the "prison" by the end) forced a new outcome.
Epiphany Comeback: Neo at the end comes back from death thanks to an epiphany. He proceeds to destroy the previously invincible Agent Smith with ease.
Establishing Character Music: We're introduced to Neo asleep at his computer listening to "Dissolved Girl" by Massive Attack when Trinity contacts him.
Evil Is Angular: All the major characters wear Cool Shades while inside the Matrix, but the human freedom fighters all wear shades with rounded lenses, while the Machine Agents all wear rectangular lenses.
Exact Words: The Oracle tells Neo that he is not the One, but, well, maybe in next life. When Neo dies, his latent powers awaken and make him the One, since technically his previous life is over. Later in the conversation The Oracle straight up tells Neo "Nobody can tell you if you are the One." The Oracle never actually said that Neo wasn't the One; only Neo himself did.
Extreme Graphical Representation:
- Real world computers use the flashy scrolling green characters of the "Matrix code", but in the virtual world, to the glee of many security analysts, a real hacking program was used.
- This trope is averted when Cypher explains "The image translators work for the construct program, but there's way too much information to decode the Matrix." Meaning that they can view what's happening inside their Construct program (their mini-Matrix) graphically via the "image translators", but there's too much information in the Matrix to render a graphical view of what's happening there, so they have to view it in the raining code, which is something like a debugger or a system monitor.
Eye Awaken: There's a close-up on Neo's face as he opens his eye after being brought back to life by Trinity's True Love's Kiss.
Eye Lights Out: After Trinity removes the Agents' bug from Neo's body, it returns to its mini-robot form, which has a small red light. After she drops it out of the car, it falls to the ground and its red light goes out.

Face–Heel Turn: Cypher, tired of the hardships of life in the real world and really tired of having to serve under Morpheus, informs the Agents that Neo is who they're going to try to free from the Matrix, and later arranges for the Agents to capture Morpheus.
Face, Nod, Action: Neo and Trinity go through this motion before they start the Hallway Fight at the lobby.
Failed a Spot Check: During the Agent attack on their base, Morpheus asks Cypher for his phone (to speak with Tank to find a way out). However, Cypher doesn't have it with him (as he'd left it outside earlier to signal Smith to prepare the trap). After an awkward moment, Trinity intervenes by handing Morpheus her own phone. Because of the urgency of escaping the Agents, neither Trinity or Morpheus (or anyone else) stop to wonder why Cypher wouldn't have his phone with him.
Falling into the Cockpit: Played with when Trinity needs to fly a helicopter but doesn't know how to, she gets the knowledge uploaded to her brain in an instant.
False Utopia: Subversion. Neo didn't live in a utopia, but when you look at what reality has become the Matrix ends up looking like a safe world that would be hard to let go of. Some characters are shown to think this illusion is much better than reality to the point of one of them betraying the Resistance because of it. There was also said to be a previous version of the Matrix that were supposed to be heavenly, but no one bought it.
Fan Disservice: While we do get to see Neo's bare chest and pubic hair in all of its glory during the interrogation scene after the agents rip open his shirt, it's during a disturbing scene when the bug is activated and squirms into his body through his belly button, after his mouth has been erased.
Fanservice Extra: The lady in the red dress.
Fantastic Slurs: At one point, Switch calls Neo, at the time still unplugged, a "coppertop"◊.
Feet-First Introduction:
- The first time Smith is introduced, when he gets out of the garbage truck after trying to crush Trinity, is this.
- When Neo enters the lobby of the place where Smith is interrogating Morpheus, the scene starts with a slow-motion shot of his boots coming through the revolving door.
Fighting a Shadow: Double Subversion when Neo destroys Smith at the end of the movie, seemingly for good by destroying his code itself but ultimately only causes him to become more powerful in the next movie (instead of taking over a host when he's "killed", he can turn anyone and everyone he touches inside the program into another copy of himself, even if they are another program or not hardwired into the Matrix). It's unclear whether his ability to defy true deletion is a general rule (any agent so inclined could come back the way he did) or a property specific to Smith because of how he "died" or who killed him (just like Neo, he defies the laws of the Matrix to return to life when he should have died). Smith himself does manage to take out all the other Agents by infecting literally everyone in the Matrix, though whether this destroyed their programs or simply left them without any more bodies to use is unclear.
Finger Poke of Doom: Neo, after coming back to life as The One, can stop a hail of bullets simply by raising his hand.
First-Episode Resurrection: Neo's death and subsequent resurrection by Trinity at the end of the movie is what triggers his The Chosen One powers for the following two movies. It was even foreshadowed earlier by the Oracle when she told him he was not The One and that it felt like he was waiting for something, "perhaps your next life".
First-Episode Twist: The world we know is a computer simulation run by machines. The film's relatively low-key marketing presence in its debut helped to keep the twist under wraps but with the big imprint the Matrix has made on pop culture and reality/philosophy debates, the cat is out of the bag.
Flatline:
- We hear it from Mouse's life-signs monitor as he dies.
- Happens with Neo during the Final Battle before being revived by Trinity.
Flight Is the Final Power: After finally accepting he is "The One," Neo becomes the most powerful entity in the Matrix, able to manipulate the program to his liking; the very last shot of the movie is him flying off into the sky.
Flipping the Bird: During the interrogation scene, Neo refuses to give Agent Smith any information regarding Morpheus. Instead, he gives him the finger and demands his One Phone Call.
Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: Just averted as Neo flies up and past the camera before it goes black.
Follow the White Rabbit:
- Neo is told to "follow the white rabbit" as a metaphor for waking from the Matrix. Immediately after that, the doorbell rings and outside is a group including a woman with a white rabbit tattoo. This is a reference to the trope but not an instance of it.
- On the DVD, you can choose to see the film in "White Rabbit Mode." In this version, a white rabbit symbol appears on the screen during certain scenes, and if you click it, you can see brief behind-the-scenes footage of the making of that scene.
Food Porn: Cypher comments on the taste and juiciness of a piece of steak that he is about to eat, although he knows it isn't real. Then there are he orgasm-inducing cakes the Merovingian serves.
Forced Friendly Fire: In the opening scene of the movie, several police officers try to arrest Trinity and she attacks them. During the fight she grabs one of them and forces him to use his gun to shoot another officer.
Frames of Reference: Inside the simulation, the humans wear oval shades, while the Agents wear rectangular ones. In the sequels, as Neo and Smith become more similar, Neo's shades become more angular and Smith's become more rounded.
A Friend in Need: Coincides with Suicide Mission as Neo and Trinity decide to rescue Morpheus from the Agents.
From Zero to Hero: After learning that he lives inside a virtual world and that he is the One to lead humanity to salvation, Neo becomes adept at kung-fu and bending reality (inside the Matrix), turning into the franchise's main hero.
Fruit Cart: The movie features a Shout-Out to a scene in Ghost in the Shell (1995) where Agent Smith shoots the melons on the cart while pursuing Neo through a crowded market in the Matrix.
Funny Spoon: Of which there is none.

The Matrix Film / Tropes A to F

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