10 Meanings From the Meta Messages of The Matrix Resurrections

The term Mary Sue is always being thrown around these days for the main character in stories that are an obvious writer's surrogate and are usually overpowered characters with high popularity within the story's universe - welcome to the most literal definition of the word with The Matrix Resurrection's interpretation of Neo -the avatar of Lana Wachowski struggling what every creative artist experience trying to work within a corporate system.

When we first see Neo in The Matrix Resurrections, he is Thomas Anderson. like Lana Wachowski, Thomas Anderson is considered one the greatest in his artistic field due to the critical and mainstream popularity of a project called, The Matrix, and the two financially successful sequels grouped collectively as The Matrix Trilogy. Like Lana Wachowski, Thomas Anderson also tried to commit suicide at some point and transferred all that creative energy building in his life and converted it into narrative stories. Like Lana Wachowski, Thomas Anderson has done other projects since, and whatever project he has now, it has to be put by the sidelines because Warner Brothers is demanding a new Matrix and they said it will be done regardless of his involvement or not.

So when Thomas Anderson realizes that he is actually Neo and took the red pill, she already made the choice - Lana is going back to where it all started.

When Neo as a Videogame developer Thomas Anderson heard that he is tasked with making a new Matrix videogame, the existential trauma he already had went up to 11. On the surface it is Neo having the most confusing PTSD ever, not knowing that the war he thinks he only created is a real experience he had. In a meta sense, Lana Wachowski is having an existential crisis that she is tasked again to make a new Matrix movie as if she is on a loop in her life like Thomas Anderson is on a treadmill.

The challenge of I.P. addicted modern Hollywood, as talked about in 7 Ways The Matrix Resurrections Gives The Middle Finger To Hollywood’s IP Addiction, is that every movie (or video game) is just a platform to sell nostalgia. The Matrix Resurrections is under a lot of pressure to build upon the original genre-defining movie. How can anyone do that when the keyword associated with the brand is "originality" and "fresh." Within The Matrix Resurrections, as the game designers are brainstorming on ideas for a new Matrix mov--videogame, everybody has their own opinion of how to approach the new videogame - It should eff with the head as people want it up in their grey space. It should have guns, lots of guns because Matrix is mayhem, but also mindless action is not on-brand. As philosophy porn, it should be about a lot of things - trans-politics, crypto-fascism, capitalist exploitation. It cannot be just another reboot but also reboots sell. Should there be a new bullet time? Does it need to revolutionize the game again?... No pressure there, Lana.

We learned in this movie that after the long peace between humans and machines, the machines are imprisoning humans again in a virtual world to get power out of them. The rebooted Matrix virtual world in this instance is the new Matrix movie. Because the machines in this movie are also the Hollywood machine, being run by the big wigs called, "The Suits," and they want that sweet, sweet box office energy.

A long time ago The Matrix movie raged against the machine, but the new Matrix movie is the machine we have to rage at - a part of the system used by Hollywood to imprison us with nostalgia. This is why the virtual world of the Matrix is also the stand-in for the new Matrix movie. This is why the legacy of The Matrix as a story is in the Matrix virtual world. As Bugs said they took Neo's story and turned it into something trivial. In her words, what the machines have done is weaponize every idea, every dream, and everything that is important to us.

What's great about nostalgia is zero resistance. We will stay in our pods happier than pigs. The worse they treat us, the more box office energy we produce - The capitalist idea of the original Matrix converted to the Hollywood system. We are left in a world of mediocrity with no risks of chances.

Neo at one point in the movie contemplates what did he and his friends fought for if everything just started over again. The question is a meta-commentary on how reboots make the original movies it is homaging feels so much smaller or meaningless. After all, Neo does not think he changed anything - The Matrix is either the same or worse, and he is back where he started. It feels like everything he did, everything they did, none of it mattered.

Bugs' response to this is that all of it mattered, that while it does not seem like it, he changed everything. Then he proceeds to show Neo that what he changed is that some of the machines or synthetics like Cybebe, Octacles, Lumin8, and Kujaju, are all working together with the humans. Then later, Niobe showed the innovations brought possible only by the humans and machines working together.

If the machines represent the corporate system of Hollywood, and rebel humans represent the freedom of choice outside the system, then what The Matrix Trilogy made possible is the huge compromise between artistic freedom and the corporate system in Hollywood Blockbusters the likes of which unheard of before. While The Matrix Resurrections is built on corporate foundations, what saves it, and what saves the franchise hereafter is that steady compromise. Maybe there is a chance for real peace between the artist and corporation in the near future.

In The Matrix Trilogy, Neo and Trinity died for what we thought was the end of their story. But The Matrix Resurrections reveal that The Analyst revives them so he can use them to power the new Matrix. What is actually saying is that Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are returning for the new movie to ensure its success when everyone else from the previous movies has been purged. As The Analyst said, it took The Suits some convincing, and they are crazy expensive, like renovating a house but it is too much of an extraordinary opportunity to pass by. Alone, neither Keanu nor Carrie has any particular value, but together they are something special.

The Analyst said that the previous Matrix was about precision, fussy facts, and equations, while the new Matrix movie is about emotions. While this is also part of the nostalgia metaphor, it is also an admittance that the new movie is a love story about Neo and Trinity. For the franchise to continue they are destined to never die, or never get old, or never have a happy ending. They must always need to be close together but never too close. The characters' endings have been perverted to quietly yearn for what they don't have while dreading losing what they do have. Just give the people what they want, right?

When the Wachowski Siblings were younger, they injected The Matrix with angry teenage energy and emotions fueled by vague gestures of revolution and burning down the system. Because Lana Wachowski has matured a lot since then, The Matrix Resurrections is about Neo trying to prove to the newer cast of characters that he still knows kung-fu, with a running gag of the characters asking if he can still fly. Translation: The Matrix Resurrections, between all the codes and philosophy, is about Generation X and elder Millenials like Lana Wachowski entering middle age and trying to prove to her younger peers that the old can still run, fight and look good doing it while struggling to assure herself that all that she did in her heyday wasn't all for nothing. Because Lana and Neo are the faces of The Matrix, it is also about The Matrix franchise entering middle age and trying to prove that the old can still run, fight and look good doing it while struggling to assure itself that all its stories in its heyday weren't all for nothing.

The Analyst is the new architect of the new Matrix or the architect of the new Matrix movie. He is the strawman for every Hollywood producer who wants to milk a popular intellectual property for all its worth. He is the one who decided to put Neo and Trinity back into the story. He is the one who uses nostalgia and emotional manipulation to the masses. He is also under a lot of pressure to boost productivity or answer to The Suits. The main villain in the franchise is an evil Kevin Feige.

Like in the original Matrix Trilogy, Neo has many devoted followers, but since this is a meta version of the older movies, the religious implication has turned into fandom implications. The people in IO who only knew the events of the original Matrix movies through stories are Matrix fans. In most cases, they are hardcore Neo fans. Bugs herself became inspired to find her true purpose when she saw Neo for the first time. Every once in a while, Neo will come across someone in IO who is star-struck by his presence. Maybe Neo is breathtaking or something.

The crew of the Mnemosyne are the biggest fans of all. They will do anything for Neo and will follow him wherever he goes despite only meeting him recently. Berg is even a Neo-ologist, a type of individual who obsessively researches Neo's life. He tries hard not to fanboy over Neo's presence and has a million questions about him. His meticulous research on Neo became integral to finding him. While Lexy admits that all she ever wanted in life is to be as fearless as Trinity, and based her life because she is inspired by the stories of her.