Characters appearing or mentioned in this film

 

AK

Roland

Mauser

Link

Morpheus

Maggie (dies in this movie)

Trinity (dies in this movie)

Neo

Bane/Smith (dies in this movie)

Colt

Seraph

Sati

Trainman

Oracle

Merovingian

Rama Kandra

Kamala

Q-Ball gang member #1

Q-Ball gang member #2

Q-Ball gang member #3

Persephone

Architect

Smith

Niobe

Ghost

Commander Lock

Councilor Hamann

Councilor Grace

Councilor Dillard

Councilor West

Zee

Cas

Link's niece and nephew (unnamed)

Dozer (mentioned only, deceased)

Kid

Captain Mifune (dies in this movie)

Sparks

Lock's lieutenant (unnamed)

Charra (dies in this movie)

Mattis

Zion Gate Operator (unnamed)

Wirtz

 

 

 

Didja Notice?

 

In the infirmary of the Hammer, Maggie wonders if the self-inflicted wounds on Bane's comatose body are the result of VDTs. It is not explained in the film what VDT stands for, but the Matrix Wiki suggests it may be Virtual Delirium Tremens. Delirium Tremens is the real world condition often abbreviated "the DTs", in which an individual suffering from acute alcohol withdrawal exhibits confused and erratic behavior, hallucinations, and the shakes. In our case here, Maggie may be suggesting Bane was suffering from withdrawal symptoms from a period of disconnection with the Matrix. The Matrix Wiki points out that the German translation of the film uses "Virtuelles Delirium" instead of an abbreviation, which tends to support the argument that VDT stands for Virtual Delirium Tremens.

 

Morpheus and Trinity go into the Matrix to meet with the Oracle, seeking help for the comatose Neo. They are shocked to see that the Oracle has taken on a different body (as seen in Enter the Matrix). The original real world actress who played the Oracle in The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, Gloria Foster, died from complications of diabetes during the back-to-back filming of The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, so new actress Mary Alice was brought in. The Oracle almost seems to give a nod to the complications of this here when she says to her guests, "I’m the Oracle. I wish there was an easier way to get through this but there ain’t. I’m sorry this had to happen. I’m sorry I couldn’t be sitting here like you remember me. But it wasn’t meant to be." The explanation she goes on to give seems to involve a deal with the Merovingian to save the AI child Sati.

 

At 10:35 on the DVD, the Trainman pulls a Colt Detective Special pistol on Seraph. During his running battle with Trinity, Morpheus, and Seraph, the Trainman manages to fire more than twice the number of bullets the six-shooter can hold. He brags to Neo later that he built the station, so he makes the rules, he is God there. This goes to show, just as Rama Kandra stated, the train station is not part of the Matrix, but the train can take you there.

 

At 10:45 on the DVD, an advertising board for Tastee Wheat is seen at the train station. It has the slogan, "Everything your body needs." Mouse remarked on Tastee Wheat in The Matrix.

 

At 11:17 on the DVD, the Trainman and his pursuers run past an advertising board for Powerade.

 

At 11:49 on the DVD, a Samsung advertising board is seen at the train station.

 

At 11:52 on the DVD, Rama Kandra is seen checking his Lexon wristwatch.

 

When the Trainman punches Neo into the wall, at 14:13 on the DVD it is clearly a stuntman flying into the wall.

 

    As Seraph approaches the entrance of Club Hel at 15:38 on the DVD, Q-Ball gang member #2 refers to him as Wingless, saying, "Holy shit, it’s Wingless." The word "seraph" is another word for "angel" in the Bible. It may be that Seraph existed in one of the previous versions of the Matrix as an angel-like being, just as the Q-Ball guards here (and Cain and Abel in The Matrix Reloaded) are seen to be werewolves, and the Twins to be phantoms. From dialog with the Merovingian, it seems that Seraph once worked for him and "betrayed" him by choosing to protect the Oracle instead, for which his "wings" (whether visible or metaphorical) were cut off in retaliation. During their meeting, the Merovingian calls Seraph "the prodigal son", "the angel without wings", and "Judas".

    Possibly, he was once able to fly with his angel abilities and now cannot.

 

Q-Ball gang member #1 holds a Mateba Model 6 Unica revolver on Seraph before being quickly disarmed by him.

 

The Q-Ball guards pull a Beretta 92FS Brigadier Two-Tone, a Beretta 92FS Brigadier Inox, and a Glock 17 on Seraph, Morpheus, and Trinity outside the entrance to Club Hel.

 

At 16:11 on the DVD, Morpheus presses the red "HELP" button in the elevator to take him and his companions to Club Hel. Notice that the P in HELP has been scratched out so it simply says "HEL".

 

Seraph is armed with a pair of Browning BDM pistols for the Club Hel confrontation. Trinity carries her traditional Beretta 92FS Compact pistols and Morpheus a pair of Heckler & Koch MP5K submachine guns.

 

The gas-mask-wearing guards at Club Hel wield Beretta 92FS (non-compact) pistols.

 

At 19:25 on the DVD, the Merovingian says to Seraph, "The prodigal child returns. L’ange sans ailes." L’ange sans ailes is French for "The angel without wings."

 

At 20:28 on the DVD, the Merovingian says, "Quelle bonne surprise, n’est pas?" This is French for "What a fine surprise, isn’t it?"

 

At 24:42 on the DVD, Seraph is driving the 1963 Lincoln Continental that Trinity was seen driving in The Matrix Reloaded.

 

During the scene between Neo and the Oracle in her kitchen, jazz music can be very lightly heard playing in the background. The music is "I'm Beginning to See the Light" by Duke Ellington, which was also heard when Neo first visited her there in The Matrix.

 

Neo asks the Oracle how he was able to take down four sentinels just by thinking about it (in The Matrix Reloaded). Neo's count is a little off...he took down five sentinels near the end of that film.

 

During Neo's visit with her, the Oracle lights a cigarette. We don't see the name of the brand, but the box looks similar in design to the real world Marlboro brand. According to some sources, the brand is the fictitious Double Destiny, but I've been unable to confirm it through an actual image of the prop pack.

 

Smith's answer to the Oracle in her kitchen about the fate of Sati implies he turned her into yet another copy of himself. At the end of the movie, we see that Sati has been restored by the Source in the new Matrix. The same is true of the Oracle.

 

Outlining his defense strategy and his request for half the infantry, Commander Lock tells the council that if it were up to him, "...I’d take every man, woman, and child, put a gun in their hands and march them straight into that dock," and Councilor Dillard responds, "Perhaps it is best that it is not up to you." This echoes an exchange between Lock and Morpheus in The Matrix Reloaded:

 

Lock: If it were up to me, Captain, you wouldn’t set foot on a ship for the rest of your life. Morpheus: Then I am grateful that it is not up to you.

 

Throughout the movie, Neo refers to Trinity by the pet name "Trin".

 

    Through the entire scene of Neo and Trinity's conversation about going to the machine city in the Logos from 46:33-48:01 on the DVD, the ports on the back of Neo's head/back are missing!

    The machine city is named as Zero-One in "The Second Renaissance". 

 

In the scene from 51:26-52:21 on the DVD as Bane/Smith holds a knife to Trinity's throat, the line of blood on her neck keeps appearing and disappearing between shots.

 

At 1:25:31 on the DVD, the Logos emerges into the surface world at the fetus fields, where human babies are grown by the machines. These fields were previously glimpsed in "The Second Renaissance", The Matrix, "Morning Sickness", and "A Sword of a Different Color".

 

Trinity dies in this movie, though she makes a return of sorts in The Matrix Online.

 

The machine being that assumes a human baby's face which Neo speaks to in the machine city is not named in dialog, but the end credits reveal it to be Deus Ex Machina, a Latin phrase meaning "God in the machine", a term used in storytelling to describe a sudden and unexpected plot device to conveniently solve a problem in the story. It seems the Wachowskis use the term here ironically, as both Neo and this machine could be considered gods by their respective communities.

 

When Smith says, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo," it is a repeat of what the Oracle told Neo when he went to visit her earlier. Smith doesn't seem to know why he just said it, which tends to indicate it was the absorbed Oracle speaking inside him, telling Neo he would have to sacrifice himself to defeat Smith and save the world.

 

The climactic battle between Neo and Smith features a chorus of voices singing lines in Sanskrit from the Hindu Upanishads. According to the Matrix Wiki, the lines translate roughly to "lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light, lead us from death to immortality, peace peace peace." 

 

The explosion near the end of the film when Smith and Neo smash into the street takes place in front of the same building seen at the end of The Matrix, where Neo makes his phone booth call to the machines, the Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel in Sydney, Australia. The phone booth is even visible in the background (the phone booth itself does not actually exist in the real world location).

 

When Deus Ex Machina takes Neo's body away, its eyes are green, not red like before, seeming to indicate the change in attitude towards humans it has undergone due to Neo's sacrifice. Some of the lights in the machine city are also seen to have turned green. In "Matriculated", a captured machine "runner" goes through a similar conversion and gains green-lit eyes.

 

The bench the Oracle is sitting on as she watches the sunrise at the end of the movie has a small golden plaque mounted on the backrest. It's unreadable onscreen, but allegedly it reads, "In Memory of Thomas Anderson", which was Neo's real name.

 

Unanswered Questions

 

Is Neo dead? It's unclear at the end of the movie if Neo is still alive after defeating Smith and the Source gently takes his prone form away. Sati asks the Oracle if they will ever see him again and she responds that she thinks so...someday. Two non-Neo comics stories follow this film ("Saviors" and "I Kant"), then the official continuation of the Matrix series took place in The Matrix Online game. Within the game, Neo's and Trinity's bodies are said not to have been recycled, but they were never returned from the machine city either. As stated earlier in this study, Trinity makes a return of sorts in The Matrix Online, but Neo does not. A fourth Matrix film (The Matrix Resurrections) is set to be released in December 2021 and actor Keanu Reeves does have some kind of role in it, but it has not been definitively stated that Neo is seen returned to life in it.

 

Do Niobe and Morpheus get back together as a couple after the end of the film? It seemed like Niobe's relationship with Lock was deteriorating over their disagreements about Neo and Morpheus and she seemed to be drawing closer to Morpheus again.

 

Memorable Dialog

 

nothing ever works out just the way you want.mp3

are you from the Matrix?.mp3

the pattern of love.mp3

cookies need love.mp3

balance-unbalance.mp3

everything that has a beginning has an end.mp3

the future of both worlds.mp3

I'm not so bad.mp3

you would know, Mom.mp3

pod-born pencilneck.mp3

you've never believed in the One.mp3

do you know what's changed in the last six hours?.mp3

the honor is still mine.mp3

still don't recognize me?.mp3

look through the soft gelatin of these dull cow eyes.mp3

some things do.mp3

he will not give up.mp3

something as insipid as love.mp3

why do you persist?.mp3

what do you think I am...human?.mp3

I believed.mp3 

 

Back to The Matrix Episode Studies