The first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections brings with it more questions than answers, as Keanu Reeves' Thomas Anderson seemingly lives a normal life, albeit one in which he's unsure whether everything around him is real. Most notable, however, is the trailer's final line, which implies Anderson is preparing to re-enter the Matrix.
Considering where we last saw the franchise on film, it's a difficult pill to swallow. In The Matrix Revolutions, Zion had survived against the Machines, but Trinity was killed, Agent Smith was destroyed, and Neo had seemingly sacrificed himself to stop the war. The trailer seems to imply that, somehow, everyone is fine. But what if it's simply the Machines messing with Neo's mind in an effort to break him -- or, worse, turn him?
The Original Films Still Happened and Nothing In The Trailer is Real
The last time we saw Neo, he had seemingly died sacrificing himself to The Source. Humanity survived the attack on Zion, but Neo's body was taken away by Machines and the Matrix was rebooted. So what's going on?
The easy answer is this: Revolutions still happened. Smith is gone, Trinity is dead, and Neo sacrificed himself, but he survived. Neo is now trapped inside a machine simulation -- not the Matrix itself, but something similar. The Machines are trying to break Neo to either gain access to Zion or to turn him against it, which involves making his brain think it's safe.
It explains a lot of what we see in the new footage. There's a lot of imagery that calls back to the original film, including one scene in wich they appear to literally be watching sequences from The Matrix, and the dojo encounter with a seemingly Morpheus-like character played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II or the sudden reappearance of a Trinity who doesn't recognize Neo. If everything in the trailer is all being done in the name of messing with Neo's mind, then it would make sense that Resurrections would feature several callbacks to the original trilogy as the Machines try to attack Neo using his own memories. Not only does it make sense for the Machines to attack Neo like this, they've used this same tactic before.
The Machines Have Done This Before
Although the Matrix trilogy is said to occur sometime around 2199, the Matrix itself is perpetually locked in at the "peak of humanity," around 1999. That's the result of the ongoing struggle the Machines have had keeping humanity in the Matrix without realizing it is trapped in a simulation. The 1999 setting is said to be perfect for this; it's peaceful enough that humans accept it, but imperfect enough that they don't question the good things.
That is, in fact, said to have been an ongoing issue with the Matrix in its various incarnations. According to the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded, there were two previous Matrixes: one, a paradise, was so perfect that humanity immediately realized it couldn't be real; the other a hellscape filled with monsters that was so terrifying that, again, humanity couldn't accept it as real.
If the Machines are indeed doing this to Neo, it makes sense that much of his world is lifted from the moment in which he was the most easily influenced: not the era where he was Zion's champion fighting for freedom, or earlier in his life when he believed in the simulation, but the moments surrounding his release from the Matrix. The Machines have recreated his world at a time when Neo suspected something was wrong but was still looking for the information that would mold his worldview.
Neo Is In the Simulation to Break Him - or Turn Him
There are two obvious outcomes for why the Machines would want to screw with Neo's mind. Based on events from the original trilogy, it may be an attempt to get Zion's access codes. We've heard about the importance of the codes, when Smith and the Agents attempted in the 1999 original to break Morpheus in order to gain them. However, we also know the Machines are aware of Zion and, according to the Architect, have always had the capability to find and destroy Zion, so the access codes may not have mattered.
That makes a second objective more sinister: Creating a familiar simulation may allow them to turn Neo rather than break him. We learned in Revolutions that Neo's abilities as The One aren't just limited to the Matrix, as he took down a squid in the real world. If the Machines can convince Neo to side with them in his simulation, it's entirely possible this could translate into Neo turning in the real world as well. Given that we've witnessed the Machines fail to destroy Zion unaided, having Neo on their side could give them a truly dangerous advantage. It could also lead to a sequel in which some of the characters missing from this film's cast -- most notably, Fishburne's Morpheus -- return at Zion to battle the Machines one last time... this time, fighting against Neo.
The Matrix Resurrections arrives Dec. 22 in theaters and on HBO Max.