The Reason Neo And Trinity Are Alive In "The Matrix Resurrections" Is Actually Heartbreakingly Beautiful

For those keeping track, it's been over 20 years since The Matrix entered our lives and forever changed the way people make movies and think about life.

Keanu Reeves as Neo, bending backwards dodging bullets

I mean, the impact of innovations like "bullet time" and phrases like "glitch in the Matrix" alone really solidify the films' legacy in film history.

Warner Bros./ Courtesy Everett Collection

And just when you may have thought The Matrix trilogy was done/a thing of the past, co-creator Lana Wachowski decided to come back and say "hold my red pill."

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For a quick refresher (or if you never saw it), Neo and Trinity died at the end of The Matrix Revolutions (the third, and until now, last Matrix film).

Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Ann Moss as Neo and Trinity flying a ship
Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

Trinity is fatally wounded (like, impaled to all heck by a bunch of rebar) when she and Neo crash while entering Machine City. She dies in their ship.

Neo holding Trinity's head as she dies
Warner Bros.

Later, Neo is plugged into the Matrix by the machines who then surge his body with energy, causing him to basically explode and finally "kill" Agent Smith. And, as we know from experience, if you die in the Matrix, you die IRL as well.

Neo plugged into the matrix with a bunch of machine cables, and a giant explosion of light coming out of him
Warner Bros.

The last time we see Neo, his dead body is ceremoniously carried away by the machines.

Neo being carried away by machines in Machine City, and a human form that looks like its made of light
Warner Bros.

So, when the news broke (back in 2019!) that a fourth Matrix film was happening — with Keanu Reeves AND Carrie-Anne Moss returning to their iconic roles, fans were like, Wait, whaaaaat?

Now, I'm not going to reveal any spoilers. You're gonna just have to wait and see the movie to see HOW Neo and Trinity are still alive.

Neo and Trinity standing close together in a city street
Murray Close / Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

But I can tell you that, when talking about why she returned to tell another chapter of The Matrix that included Neo and Trinity, Lana Wachowski really had a beautiful and heartbreaking reason.

Neo and Trinity looking close in each other's eyes
Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

In a release from the studio, Wachowski explained, "After we [her and Lilly] finished Sense8, which was a peak experience, we felt like we were done. Lilly didn’t want to keep making films either, and we decided that would be the close of it for now."

Lana Wachowski directing on the set of Sense8
Kontrolab / LightRocket via Getty Images

"Then our parents got sick and my wife and I came back to Chicago and moved in with them and we took care of them for the last few months of their lives. One night, I woke up, and I was in a lot of pain, and in the grief that I was experiencing with my parents dying, my brain wanted to imagine a story that would be soothing."

"And so, these two characters that were dead, my brain, one night, just resurrected them and brought them to life — Neo and Trinity. And I immediately responded to this hook of an idea that I woke up with, and I went downstairs and I just started writing it."

Neo and Trinity standing together and looking off into the distance
Warner Bros. / Courtesy Everett Collection

She continued, "My art all comes from this emotional place. I think about things intellectually, but it’s all led by this emotion. This desire to say something about my heart to other people’s hearts."

Warner Bros. / Via giphy.com

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The Matrix Resurrections opens in theaters on Dec. 22, 2021 and will also be available on HBO Max for 31 days from theatrical release. And you can watch the most recent trailer here: