Warning: Full spoilers follow for The Matrix Resurrections. Do you want to know if the movie has a post credits scene? We’ll tell you right here: There’s one The Matrix Resurrections end credits scene, but nothing in the mid-credits.
Free. Your. Mind. The Matrix: Resurrections (read our review) is here, 18 years after the trilogy supposedly concluded, and as the title suggests, some things have been brought back to life. Directed by Lana Wachowski, the fourth film in the Matrix saga simultaneously picks up where The Matrix Revolutions left off while also acting as something of a meta-reboot that leaves room for more installments. There’s a lot to unpack, but stick with us and we’ll go over everything that went down and where the series could go next.
The Matrix Resurrections Plot and Ending Explained
Neo is no longer “The One” – or he isn’t the only one. It turns out he just doesn’t work without his better half, Trinity. Oh and, also: They’re both back from the dead. We’ll do our best to explain all that in a second, but let’s break down everything else going on in Resurrections.
In the real world, 60 years have passed since the events in The Matrix Revolutions, and the truce between man and machine promised in that film has been broken. The squids are up to their old tricks, keeping most of humanity trapped in the Matrix to use them as an energy source, and terrorizing the ones who’ve gotten out.
Within the Matrix, Neo (and Keanu Reeves) is back to being Thomas Anderson, but this time around he’s an award-winning game dev with a mega-popular video game series called The Matrix, and he’s being pressured to make a fourth Matrix game by his boss, a guy named Smith, and his studio’s parent company, Warner Bros. Yeah, it’s pretty meta. And Smith is a common last name, but it’s no coincidence Neo’s new boss has the same name as his old nemesis.
Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity is also in this Matrix, but she goes by Tiffany now and has a husband named Chad and some kids. That kinda puts a damper on any romance with Thomas, even though she clearly feels a connection when he introduces himself down at the local Matrix coffee shop.
Meanwhile, Morpheus is also stuck in the Matrix, but this is a different Morpheus. For starters, he’s played by Yahya Abdul Mateen II. And also, he’s an agent. At least he is until he encounters Bugs, played by Jessica Henwick, who gives him the red pill. Yep, that’s right! Programs can be awoken now too.
Anyway, Bugs and Morpheus make it their business to find Neo and wake him up, which sounds great, but if a character from a video game you created approached you in a public bathroom asking you to take drugs, you might question your own sanity. And that’s exactly what Thomas does.
Luckily, Thomas has been in therapy and his analyst, played by Neil Patrick Harris, is very good at keeping Thomas from questioning reality, not to mention prescribing a whole lot of blue pills that keep him docile.
Long story short, Bugs and Morpheus manage to free Thomas Anderson from the Matrix and bust him out of his goo-filled pod all over again, but there’s another pod right next to his and who’s in it? Trinity.
Onboard Bug’s ship, the Mnemosyne, the crew heads home to the last surviving human city, Io. A now-elderly Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith) from the previous two films is running the place, and she locks Neo up to keep him from stirring up any trouble that would lead the machines to them. But nobody actually follows orders in these movies, so the Mnemosyne crew busts him out and they head back to try and rescue Trinity.
We learn that the Analyst, or rather the piece of software that’s pretending to be an analyst, was there when Neo and Trinity died in Revolutions and figured that, because Neo is such a powerful anomaly within the Matrix, he probably also generates way more energy than your average human battery - which proves to be true. So the Analyst had Neo and Trinity’s bodies remade and reinserted them into the Matrix, but he also realized that they’re a package deal and both of them need to be hooked up at the same time for it to work.
Anyway, the Mnemosyne gang plans a heist to sneak back into the heavily guarded tower where Trinity’s body is kept while simultaneously sending all of Io’s hovercraft captains into the Matrix at once to confront the Analyst and red-pill Trinity.
In the Matrix, Trinity chooses Neo and there’s a big fight, and then Smith shows up and temporarily takes out the Analyst (bear in mind Smith is also trapped in the Matrix, so he’s got his own beef with the guy running the show). But his victory is short-lived: the Analyst activates “Swarm mode” and basically everyone in the entire San Francisco financial district turns into AI-zombies and chases after Neo and Trinity and their hacker friends.
Neo and Trinity escape to the roof of a building and take a big flying leap of faith off the edge… but only one of them is able to fly: Trinity. She carries Neo off to safety away from the swarm and an army of SWAT team guys and missile-launching helicopters.
In the very final scene, Neo and Trinity burst into the Analyst’s office in full Matrix garb, seemingly back at full power, to show him they’re running the show now - and to let him know he’s given them a fresh start. They fly off into the sunset (cue Rage Against the Machine) and roll credits.
The Matrix Resurrections Post Credits Scene
Of course, the inevitable question is whether or not there’s an end credits scene in The Matrix Resurrections. The answer is yes, though your mileage may vary as to whether or not it’s worth waiting for.
The post credit scene finds some of Thomas Anderson’s game dev buddies pitching a cat video idea called “The Cat-rix”... and that’s pretty much it. So not much to go on there regarding where this series will go next, if anywhere.
In a lot of ways, The Matrix Resurrections leaves the universe in the same state it was when the first movie ended, but with some big shifts: Neo has unleashed his true potential - but this time, so has Trinity. Basically, they beat the game. They’re totally capable of putting the Analyst in his place if he gets in their way. But there’s still the issue of convincing the Matrix’s human inhabitants that they’re living in a simulation.
Also, once again Smith is still out there, but now there’s also the Analyst. They definitely don’t seem to get along, and we now know the machines aren’t above fighting amongst themselves. The remains of free humanity are still hiding out in Io, but now they’ve befriended some of the machines, who are apparently more interested in growing strawberries than turning babies into batteries…
There’s no guarantee we’ll see more Matrix films, but Resurrections leaves the door open for it. And while it’s clearly a mainline entry in the timeline, it also functions as a somewhat literal reboot. Or maybe look at it like when you beat a game and then reload an old save file so you can try to get a different ending where the protagonists don’t go blind or get impaled on rebar.
What did you think of The Matrix Resurrections? Let’s discuss in the comments.
