The Wachowskis filled The Matrix sequels with callbacks to the original movie to remind fans why they enjoyed it so much. When it arrived in 1999, The Matrix was instantly hailed as one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, with a thought-provoking meditation on the nature of reality and a mind-blowing narrative that suggests the entire world might just be a computer simulation. The Matrix sequels continued this story with one foot stuck in the past. The fourth movie is a meta, self-aware commentary on the original movie itself.
It’s pretty common for Hollywood sequels to replicate the most iconic or beloved moments from the original film, because the whole point of a sequel’s existence is to please fans of the original. Taken 2 has another scene of Liam Neeson delivering a menacing speech over the phone. The Hangover Part II has another scene of the Wolfpack waking up after a night of partying to find that someone is missing. The Matrix sequels have plenty of familiar scenes like this – including moments directly lifted for the self-spoofing Matrix Resurrections.
10 The Red Pill Or The Blue Pill?
The Matrix Resurrections
At the beginning of The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill will open his mind to the realities of the universe, while the blue pill will allow him to resume his mundane life in the simulation. In The Matrix Resurrections, a new version of Morpheus offers him the same choice. In this movie, Neo is unwittingly prescribed a daily dose of blue pills by the Analyst, who needs to keep him in the dark. The use of the red pill/blue pill motif in The Matrix Resurrections is a meta commentary on the original movie, not just an Easter egg.
9 More Confusing Conversations With The Oracle
The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions
While anyone can enjoy the high-octane action sequences of The Matrix franchise, Neo’s confounding conversations with the Oracle can only be understood by a select few. Whenever anyone visits the Oracle, she waxes poetic about the nature of reality and the philosophies surrounding human existence. This was one of the most confusing parts of the first Matrix movie and it continued to baffle audiences throughout the rest of the trilogy. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions each have their own fair share of confusing Oracle scenes.
8 Morpheus Visits Thomas Anderson At His Office
The Matrix Resurrections
The plot of The Matrix kicks into gear when office drone Thomas Anderson receives an ominous phone call from Morpheus warning him that Agents have entered his workplace and that he needs to leave as soon as possible. In The Matrix Resurrections, Anderson receives a similar phone call from the new version of Morpheus, who similarly warns him about the arrival of nefarious Agents. The scene plays out slightly differently here, with some explosive action on the office floor, but the setup is exactly the same.
7 Neo Fights Multiple Agent Smiths
The Matrix Reloaded
The thrilling climax of The Matrix sees Neo harnessing the superpowers he has within the Matrix to fight Agent Smith and his goons. Since audiences loved seeing Neo fight Smith in the first movie, the Wachowskis put a very similar scene in The Matrix Reloaded. This time, the directors upped the ante by having Neo fight a bunch of Agent Smiths in a playground. The sequence is let down by some shaky CGI – it’s often compared to PS2 cutscene graphics – but it’s one of the most exhilarating set-pieces in the entire Matrix franchise.
6 Neo Fights Infinite Agent Smiths
The Matrix Revolutions
After The Matrix Reloaded upped the ante from Neo’s fight with Agent Smith in the first movie by having Neo fight a few dozen Smiths, The Matrix Revolutions upped the ante even further. This time, Neo has to fight infinite Agent Smiths. They all stand in a line in the pouring rain and wait for the main Smith to take on Neo. Staging action in the rain is one of the many techniques that Akira Kurosawa inspired in Hollywood blockbusters. It makes the fight much more cinematic to have rain lashing down on the fighters.
5 Neo & Morpheus’ Dojo Fight
The Matrix Resurrections
Morpheus first shows Neo the extra abilities he has in the Matrix by taking him to a digital dojo for a fight. The Matrix Resurrections recreates this scene directly as the new Morpheus takes Neo to a slightly different digital dojo in the middle of a lake. By the end of the fight, the entire dojo is destroyed. This is another case of The Matrix Resurrections adapting a scene from the original movie as a postmodern commentary on the power of stories and the blurred line between reality and fiction.
4 Déjà Vu
The Matrix Revolutions
When Neo enters the Matrix for a dangerous mission in the original movie, he makes an off-hand remark about the “déjà vu” of seeing a black cat twice. According to Trinity, déjà vu is a sign of a glitch in the Matrix, so it means they’re in trouble. The Matrix Revolutions has a fun callback to this moment in its grand finale. After Agent Smith is defeated once and for all and the Matrix resets itself, a black cat disappears and then reappears in a nod to the déjà vu scene from the first movie.
3 Rippling Mirror
The Matrix Resurrections
One of Neo’s earliest introductions to the mind-bending illusion of the Matrix is his ability to make the surface of a mirror ripple simply by poking it. A similar thing happens when a helicopter crashes into the side of a skyscraper. Before the whole wall shatters, the reflective surface ripples away from the helicopter’s impact point. The Matrix Resurrections has a near-identical scene in which Neo pokes a mirror and causes it to ripple, confirming that he’s inside the Matrix.
2 The “Truth” Speech
The Matrix Reloaded
The scene in The Matrix Reloaded in which Neo reveals that the prophecy of The One is a lie copies the dialogue almost verbatim from a similar scene in the first movie in which Morpheus tells Neo the truth about the Matrix. This time, the dynamic is flipped: Morpheus is the one who refuses to believe a harsh truth and Neo is the one insisting it’s true. In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo, “I didn’t say it would be easy, Neo, I just said it would be the truth.” In the sequel, Neo tells Morpheus, “I know it isn’t easy to hear, but I swear to you, it’s the truth.”
1 The Analyst Recreates Bullet Time
The Matrix Resurrections
After The Matrix was released, the Wachowskis’ “bullet time” effect became one of Hollywood’s favorite filmmaking techniques for a while. Since it was homaged in countless other movies, the Wachowskis made limited use of “bullet time” for the rest of the original trilogy. But in The Matrix Resurrections, “bullet time” becomes a canonical concept. The Analyst is inspired by Neo dodging the Agents’ bullets to implement “bullet time” as a new feature in the rebooted Matrix. The in-universe “bullet time” allows the Analyst to slow down or even freeze time within a localized section of the simulation.
