How The Matrix Reloaded Completely Changed Neos Story

How The Matrix Reloaded Completely Changed Neo’s Story

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The ending of the 1999 science-fiction classic The Matrix has Neo embrace his destiny as The One, only for the sequel to totally subvert this change.

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How The Matrix Reloaded Completely Changed Neos Story

While The Matrix introduced the world to amateur hacker-turned-freedom fighter Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) and the prophecy of The One, The Matrix Reloaded completely subverts Neo’s transformation from the first film. The Matrix, released in 1999, is one of the most celebrated science-fiction films of all-time, a deft mix of Hong Kong-inspired martial arts and theoretical scientific postulating. The film’s narrative follows a budding cybercriminal known as Neo, who discovers his reality is simply a simulation created by a sentient race of machines and designed to keep humans under control and decides to join a group of resistance fighters to save the future of humanity.

The first movie was such a critical and commercial success that it quickly inspired the release of two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. While both were huge successes at the box office, neither sequel managed to capture the same awestruck reaction from critics and audiences as the original, with many citing The Matrix Reloaded’s overemphasis on action and Revolutions convoluted plot and murky symbolism as defining reasons. Regardless, the entire trilogy has remained a cornerstone of popular culture, with scenes and concepts from all three being parodied and homaged to this day.

Despite the mixed reaction of The Matrix Reloaded, the Wachowski Sisters still managed to write a compelling narrative that directly challenges a lot of the developments from the first film. Most notably, Reloaded reckons with the ending of the first movie, in which Neo comes back to life and embraces his destiny as The One. While seen as a triumphant revelation at the end of The Matrix, its sequel takes a step back to ask whether or not the prophecy of The One is as freeing as it seems.

Neo’s Original Story In The Matrix

How The Matrix Reloaded Completely Changed Neos Story

When we first meet Neo at the beginning of The Matrix, he’s a nobody. Working a dead-end office job and suffering from feelings of dissatisfaction, he is essentially another cog in the machine, working to uphold the monotonous status quo crushing those around him. His only real outlet is hacking, a hobby that eventually leads to a chance meeting with Trinity and then Morpheus, two “known terrorists” who offer him a chance to see the truth of what’s behind the veil of normalcy. Neo takes that chance, and discovers that his entire life up until that point had been a lie; what he considered to be reality was merely a simulation of the year 1999. In actuality, the year is 2199, and Neo (along with the large majority of humanity) has been enslaved and exploited by a race of sentient machines who are siphoning bioelectric energy from human bodies.

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Neo is again rescued in the real world by Morpheus and Trinity, who then teach him about the history that led to this dystopia as well as training him in how to manipulate the Matrix to his benefit. Morpheus also teaches Neo about the prophecy of The One, a messianic figure destined to save humanity and bring an end to the machine/human war. As Morpheus helps Neo acclimate to the real world and his place in it, audiences are keyed into the fact that The Matrix is a movie about escaping the system and the rigorous shackles put in place to prevent individuality.

However, towards the end of the film, Morpheus is kidnapped and Neo and Trinity are forced to launch a desperate plan to save him. In the aftermath of their rescue, Neo is shot and seemingly killed by Agent Smith, a program designed to maintain the illusion of the Matrix. Trinity declares her love for Neo by revealing that the Oracle prophesied that she would fall in love with The One, giving him the strength necessary to literally rise from the dead and defeat Agent Smith. The Matrix ends with the implication that Neo’s destiny as The One allows him to transcend the Matrix, giving him power over it as well as allowing him to ultimately escape the system that dictated his entire life weeks earlier.

How The Matrix Reloaded Changed Neo’s Journey

How The Matrix Reloaded Completely Changed Neos Story

In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo has gotten more comfortable with his destiny as The One, demonstrating a total mastery over the simulation and fighting off Agents with ease. The resistance has been on a streak of freeing humans from the Matrix, and Neo is essentially being viewed as a Christ-like figure. However, the movie implies that Neo is still uncertain about his place in all things, and to make matters worse, the machines have discovered the location of the city of Zion (a refuge for free humans), and will arrive in 72 hours. To circumvent this, Neo is tasked by The Oracle with finding the Source of the Matrix.

After several high-stakes battles and the recruitment of a program known as the Keymaker, Neo ends up making it to what he believes to be the Source of the Matrix. However, he’s thrown for a loop when he arrives and instead meets The Architect, the first program created by the machines. The Architect was designed to be the overseer of the Matrix simulation, and as such, has built the entire program from the ground up. It’s here that Neo’s world is turned upside down. He discovers that the Matrix is a never-ending loop on its sixth cycle, with each loop ending with the destruction of Zion, and that The One is a continuous anomaly in the program directly connected to the Source, making Neo the sixth version of The One.

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The Architect also reveals that the prophecy is merely a narrative designed to lead each version of The One to him, so that Neo can make a choice: return to the Matrix and allow a total system failure that would kill every human connected to the Matrix, or step into the Source and choose a handful of human survivors to repopulate Zion for the next cycle of the simulation. In one fell swoop, Neo discovers that the destiny he thought provided an escape from the system is actually a product of the system itself, designed to keep him from making his own choices and decisions.

The Matrix Reloaded’s Neo Change Was Good

After the release of The Matrix Reloaded, a large subsection of fans felt understandably betrayed by the movie’s narrative. While Neo’s destiny as The One was portrayed as a triumphant transformation at the end of the first movie, some audiences felt as if the reveals in Reloaded undermined Neo’s previous character development. However, the twists presented in the sequel only further Neo’s character development, as well as adding some much-needed nuance to the franchise’s binary portrayal of good and evil.

At the end of the first movie, Neo seemingly transcends the oppressive structure of the Matrix by embracing his destiny as The One. However, The Matrix Reloaded deepens this narrative by presenting Neo as conflicted about his future, showing that he still inherently craves structure. By revealing that The One is simply another part of the structure of the Matrix, the franchise pushes Neo ever closer to his true path at the end of the Matrix trilogy: transcending predestination entirely and giving his life to preserve free will. While The Matrix Reloaded may not have received universal praise on release, it is nevertheless an important step in Neo’s journey throughout the trilogy.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/matrix-reloaded-neo-one-story-change-good/

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