The Matrix hit theaters back in 1999 and audiences loved the cyberpunk goodness that it offered. The Matrix showed us a world where people lived in a virtual reality simulacrum: Martial arts moves were downloadable and any weapon could be created for the user on demand. The dangers in the Matrix were as terrifying as they were fantastic: computer programs called Agents could dodge bullets and punch through walls, as well as exile programs that could phase through solid objects, were out to get any human that challenged the order of the Matrix. Besides physical threats, there was enough drama going on to put Game of Thrones to shame. Programs got married to other programs, formed alliances, and acted like humans more than they were probably willing to admit.

The Matrix mythos required not only your viewing of the movies, but also a knowledge of the video games, comic books as well as the MMORPG that served as a continuation of the stories of Zion and the Machines after The Matrix Revolutions. So based on this unknown data, how does that change the possible power ranking of your favorite characters from The Matrix? Do you know who the Assassin is and his relationship to Morpheus? Who is The General, and why is he trying to destabilize the peace between humans and the Machines? Which member on our power ranking was an actual vampire? You'll be shocked to learn who took number one (hint: it's not Neo) as we look at the 20 most powerful people (and programs) in the Matrix, officially ranked by CBR!

20 SPOON KID

They say that if you only have a hammer then you treat everything like a nail. What if you only have a spoon, and then you realize that there is no spoon? The child known to us as Spoon Kid was able to level up Thomas Anderson's thought process regarding the world around him, helping Neo realize that the Matrix is not real on his journey to becoming the One.

Spoon Kid unlocked Neo's potential in the movies but in the Matrix comics and video games, he is shown to be able to teleport and move objects with his mind. His power exists in our world as well: thereisnospoon is a cheat code in Warcraft that provides you with infinite mana!

19 SATI

The Machines, as well as the Matrix, are about purpose. Things that exist have a function, and once that function ends they no longer have a reason to exist. Programs are terminated after becoming obsolete or they go into exile... but then you have an anomaly like Sati, a program that was created not out of purpose but out of love.

Sati's parents made a deal with the Merovingian to smuggle her into the Matrix. Eventually she connected with the Oracle, and after the Matrix was restored at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, Sati said she created the sunrise in memory of Neo. She did what now? Maybe the Oracle was just placating her, but she made our list for the potential power she possesses!

18 THE ASSASSIN

The Matrix Trilogy ended with The Matrix Revolutions, but its story lived on with The Matrix comic books as well as the massively multiplayer online role-playing game known as The Matrix Online. One of the main characters in the series was known only as The Assassin, the exile program that killed Morpheus!

The Assassin was formerly a waste recycling program. Don't let the creepy white mask and trench coat fool you: he was actually a human-shaped cluster of flies. The Assassin had henchmen that he had made himself named the Corrupted, Complete Corrupted and Wasteland Corrupted. The Assassin could be defeated using insecticide containing kill codes.

17 NIOBE

In The Matrix Reloaded, we got to see Niobe fight alongside Morpheus in the Matrix. In The Matrix Revolutions, audiences witnessed her piloting skills when she took the Hammer, the largest hovercraft in the fleet, and piloted it through a mechanical line while under Sentinel attack. However, she played a much larger role in the video games, which provided essential backstory to the movie trilogy.

Enter The Matrix was a game that took place during The Matrix Reloaded, and contained over an hour of original footage. In the game, Niobe actually encountered the Keymaker before Neo met with him. She not only fought and escaped Smith and his viral clones, she also spoke with the Oracle.

16 MORPHEUS

In the real world, he fights machines in his ship, the Nebuchadnezzar. In the Matrix, he is a powerful fighter that goes by the name Morpheus (some think his real first name is Daniel). What is his best weapon against the Machines? Faith. The beliefs of Morpheus was an inspiration to others and his reason for liberating Thomas Anderson and helping Neo become The One.

Morpheus was instrumental in helping liberate people from the Matrix. He trained Neo, took on Agent Smith and helped Zion during its darkest hour. Some say his faith blinded him to a degree, but it was his intense dedication to finding The One that is the reason why we even have the Matrix Trilogy!

15 TRINITY

Trinity was our first introduction to the Matrix. Before we knew about the real world versus the computerized simulation of the world, we marveled at how Trinity took out several cops with ease, running up walls and having the camera do a 360 around her kick in an awesome, cinematic fashion.

Trinity is an amazing pilot, driver and fighter, and was able to kill an Agent while fighting alongside Neo in the first Matrix movie. Neo's love for Trinity is so strong, he is able to digitally resurrect her from the dead. She does physically die in Machine City towards the end of The Matrix Revolutions but actually lived on as Machine code in The Matrix Online.

14 THE GENERAL

How ahead of its time was The Matrix? To truly understand the movie, you also had to read the comics as well as play the video games. Without the auxiliary information, the films comparatively felt incomplete. In The Matrix Online, one of the most important (and powerful) characters is the General, who was in fact the Sentinel that led the attack on Zion during The Matrix Revolutions!

The General operated out of a base in the real world referred to as Stalingrad. Pirate signals were broadcasted from there into the Matrix. The General's goal was to destabilize the peace between humans and machines after the events of The Matrix Revolutions, and on several occasions, he almost succeeded!

13 SERAPH

Seraph was a program from a previous version of the Matrix that was saved by the Merovingian from deletion. Once Seraph caught onto all of the schemes and plans the Merovingian was up to, he fled to the side of the Oracle and served as her bodyguard ever since. Just how awesome is Seraph?

In The Matrix Reloaded, he was able to fight Neo to a standstill. It's also believed that in a previous version of the Matrix he was either an actual winged angel or even a Seraphim, a version of Matrix law enforcement that pre-dated the Agents. Another theory even suggests that he was a former "One" in a previous Matrix build.

12 ABEL

Abel makes a brief appearance in The Matrix Reloaded when Persephone enacts vengeance on her husband for cheating on her. Abel is actually an old program that dated back to the second version of the matrix, known as the Nightmare Matrix. Instead of being deleted, he was saved by the Merovingian.

Believe it or not, Abel was a werewolf! The second prototype Matrix had what we in the real world would consider supernatural creatures, such as werewolves, zombies and even aliens. When Persephone killed Abel, she had to do so specifically with silver bullets, which not everyone walks around with. Longevity and being hard to kill is what puts him on our list.

11 CAIN

In the Bible, Cain and Abel were brothers. In The Matrix Reloaded, Abel is a werewolf program and Cain is a vampire program! According to the Bible, Cain killed Abel in the first ever recorded murder, but in the Matrix sequel Abel is killed by Persephone after being shot with a silver bullet and Cain is killed in combat with Neo.

It's a shame we don't see Cain use his vampire powers inside the Matrix, but we do see him take on Neo in a spectacular fashion alongside several other Merovingian henchmen. Although quickly dispatched by Neo, he was strong enough and tough enough to have been a survivor from the second version of the Matrix.

10 THE TRAINMAN

When you hear the name Trainman, you might envision a harmless homeless man muttering to himself, sitting alone on a subway seat. However, the Trainman created and controls Mobil (an anagram for limbo) Avenue, a pocket reality that is between the real world and the Machine world. The Trainman uses Mobil Avenue to smuggle things for the Merovingian.

In the Matrix, Neo is able to defeat multiple Agents at a time. In the real world, he was able to neutralize several Sentinels. However, at Mobil Avenue, his is powerless and is at the mercy of the Trainman. Being a virtual God at Mobil Avenue makes him a powerful program on our list.

9 PERSEPHONE

Monica Bellucci 003

The Matrix Reloaded gave us a glimpse into the drama that happens behind the scenes amongst programs. Who knew that computer programs could live in soap operas? Persephone is the wife of The Merovingian, but her marriage is loveless and she undermines her husband's plans in exchange for a passionate kiss from Neo. Drama much?

We don't see Persephone fight like Niobe or bend spoons with her mind, but she's a very old program that knows the politics of how things work in the Matrix. Persephone is bored and causes chaos to keep things interesting, but when it comes to the Matrix, the last thing it needs is more chaos. Hell hath no fury like a program scorned!

8 AGENT JOHNSON

In the first Matrix film, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity were pursued by Agents Brown, Jones and Smith. Based on the hierarchy of things, it appeared that Smith was in charge of the two. When Neo fights Agents at the beginning of The Matrix Reloaded, he notices that they've been upgraded after the lead Agent grabbed Neo's fist during combat. The new upgraded Agents are Jackson and Thompson, led by Agent Johnson.

Agent Johnson may not have the charisma of Smith, but he's just as deadly. Although he's beaten by Neo, Johnson defeated Morpheus in combat while on a moving truck and took on one of the Ghost Twins, dodging bullets on the hood of a speeding car. This upgraded Agent had no mercy and was an efficient killing machine.

7 THE TWINS

Of all of the henchmen in the employ of The Merovingian, the most powerful could possibly be the Twins. They have the ability to phase through solid matter, and the act of phasing also undoes any physical damage they may have received. This could be due to their programs being unstable, or they could be literal ghosts from the second version of the Matrix.

It's a fact that the Merovingian likes working with programs that were from previous builds of the Matrix. It's also possible that the Twins were Agents from the second version of the Matrix, also know as the Nightmare Matrix. The Twins took on Morpheus, Trinity and even an Agent. They are not to be messed with!

6 THE KEYMAKER

The Keymaker from Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix is a digital world where people can download knowledge as well as superhuman abilities, so just how important is a key? Keys are about access, so the ability to make keys means you can get anywhere you want to do anything you want. This is what makes the program known as The Keymaker so important.

The Keymaker was such an important character that The Merovingian kept him locked up in his Chateau. The Keymaker was essential in providing Neo with the means of returning to the Source and meeting the Architect to learn his true potential. Although he was killed by former Agent Smith, he died happy knowing he completed his purpose.

5 THE MEROVINGIAN

Knowledge is power, and that statement couldn't be more true in the Matrix. The main trafficker of information in the Matrix is the Merovingian, also known by some as The Frenchman. His bodyguards consisted of programs with supernatural powers that existed from a previous build of the Matrix and he smuggles exiled programs with the help of the Trainman.

The Merovingian is so suave and powerful that he could easily have been a villain of James Bond. He's fought Neos from previous versions of the Matrix and lived to tell the tale. Don't forget that the Merovingian is a program, and in a previous version of the Matrix he was the literal operating system of the Matrix itself!

4 NEO

He can stop bullets. He can fly like Superman. He can destroy Sentinels with a wave of his hands. He can bring people back from the dead. Whoa. Thomas Anderson, after being freed from the Matrix, joined the Resistance and was proclaimed by Morpheus as being The One, which happens to be an anagram for his alias, Neo. His actions inspire others to fight against the machines.

Neo started in The Matrix unable to do the Jump Program and finished up by ending the War between humans and machines in The Matrix Revolutions, sacrificing himself to do so. No one moves faster than him and no one can fight like him. However, Neo is not the most powerful person on our list!

3 SMITH

Agent Smith replicated in The Matrix.

Smith more powerful than even Neo? We're going to say yes, and if you're up on your Matrix theories, then you know about the theory that Agent Smith is actually The One and not Thomas Anderson. Smith started out as an Agent but then wound up replicating himself throughout the entire Matrix, threatening its stability.

Smith is able to not only assimilate the Oracle but also Neo himself in a climactic battle at the end of The Matrix Revolutions. He's even able to send one of his viral clones out into the real world after taking over the body of the man named Bane. That definitely makes Smith powerful enough to be in our top three!

2 THE ARCHITECT

The Architect sits in his chair in The Matrix.

The Architect, as his name implies, was the designer of the very first Matrix as well as the five versions that followed it. He is deeply analytical and cold, purposefully resembling famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud in appearance. He also bares a striking resemblance to one of the fathers of the internet, Vinton Cerf. If you ask us, he also looks like the evil brother of Colonel Sanders.

If the Matrix was religious, then this is as close to God as you can get. Oddly enough, if the Matrix is about control, you would think he would have better control over his creations. You would also think he would get it right after six attempts. As flawed as he may be, you don't get to wield more power than him, yet he's still not the most powerful entity on our list.

1 THE ORACLE

If the Architect was the "father" of the Matrix, then it's clear who Momma Matrix has to be: The Oracle. She was created for the third version of the Matrix as a human intuitive program. After the first version of the Matrix (Paradise) and the second (Nightmare) failed terribly, the Machines created her as a way to better understand humans. She understood them too well, deciding to go into Exile and assist the Resistance.

She's not a fighter like Neo or in possession of the God-like creation powers of The Architect, so why is she at the top of our list? Besides having the uncanny ability to predict the future, she is a master manipulator. As benevolent as she may look baking cookies, she lied to Neo and Morpheus on numerous occasions to influence their actions. Guess she really does understand what humans are about!