The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
"Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness."
Dir. Lana & Lilly Wachowski Rated: R Run Time: 2 hours 18 min
Where Can I Watch? PlutoTV
While you can stream The Matrix Reloaded, if you own a 4k Blu Ray player (like a PS5) and have a compatible TV, I would highly recommend getting a 4k Blu Ray copy of The Matrix Reloaded. The restoration has been done from the original camera negative by the original editor, and as such is visually distinct from all previously released versions of the film, whether it be VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray, or streaming. It is the intended version and one that hasn’t been seen since it was released in theaters. Just a plug!
While 1999’s The Matrix was a largely standalone sci-fi movie, it set up a fascinating world and left audiences with lots of questions about things that were discussed or alluded to but never seen. What is Zion like? Who created The Matrix? What does Neo’s role as “The One” actually mean? 2003’s The Matrix Reloaded answers those questions and replaces them with many more. It is both thought-provoking and at times confounding, with long monologues on philosophy, existence, choice, and the essence of humanity. It also less a sequel than a Part 1 of a two-part next chapter in The Matrix Saga, and ends on a cliffhanger that would be resolved in its Part 2, The Matrix Revolutions, which released a mere 6 months later. It’s got flashier visuals, bigger action scenes, and some jaw-dropping (for the time) CGI, but it’s less groundbreaking than its predecessor, and that’s not necessarily a detriment: it’s clear that Lana and Lilly Wachowski were far more committed to the big ideas in The Matrix and really leaned in to the headiness here, and that the action on display was less the propellant for the story moving forward and more a byproduct. It’s unfortunately the reason the sequels are considered lesser products (and they are, to an extent, though I truly loved 2021’s The Matrix Resurrections, and only rank it below the first movie due to the fact that my love of it is deeply connected to my love of the original Matrix): Reloaded and Revolutions feel more dry, a little more wooden, mostly because at any given time, the characters find their focus pulled in a dozen different directions, and no one character (besides Neo) is more important than the ultimate goal of liberating Zion from the machines.
It’s been six months since the events of The Matrix, and an army of machines is tunneling towards Zion and will reach it in 72 hours. Agent Smith, who has become even more powerful since merging with Neo’s code at the end of The Matrix, finds a way to leave The Matrix via Bane, a crew member on Morpheus’ ship. Meanwhile, Neo meets with The Oracle, who tells him that he must reach the source code for The Matrix, and the only way to get there is through The Keymaker, who is being held captive by a rogue program called The Merovingian. Neo also keeps having premonitions about Trinity’s death, and he is told that he will need to make a choice between her and the salvation of Zion.
There are lots of interesting ideas on display in The Matrix Reloaded, but the most fascinating reveals are saved for near the end of the movie. Unfortunately, those reveals are also obscured in some philo-psycho-babble and, at least for me, required multiple viewings to suss them out. The essence is this: this is not the first version of The Matrix, but the sixth. In each iteration, there is a human rebellion in the form of Zion, and there is also a “One”, a mythical figure of salvation. The One is an intentional design choice by The Matrix. If enough humans choose, via free will, to leave The Matrix via the red pill, it will trigger a fatal system crash, which will kill everyone in it. The One’s role is to reboot The Matrix from its source while choosing a handful of survivors to repopulate Zion, which has been destroyed 5 times now, and the whole cycle starts again. Neo now has a choice: save Trinity, and in the process kill everyone in The Matrix and call curtains on humanity, or preserve the future of humanity, perpetuating the cycle of machine control as humans continue to deceive themselves that their resistance is via their own free will?
It’s a lot to wrap your head around, but I ultimately like this direction, especially from a philosophical standpoint. Free will seems to be humanity’s most distinguishing characteristic, but what if that free will was simply a part of an artificial cycle of destruction and rebirth? Morpheus’ entire life’s purpose was dedicated to finding The One, and all along he was doing exactly what the The Architect, the machine program that designed The Matrix, had designed for him to do. We don’t learn anything about the previous “One”s, but clearly Neo is different (otherwise why make the movie), and how he overcomes his pre-destiny will serve as the catalyst for both The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Resurrections.
The Matrix Reloaded blows out the world of The Matrix. No longer are we relegated to the cramped quarters of Morpheus’ ship, but we see several ships and several ship captains, and, of course, we are introduced to Zion. Zion is a massive underground bunker, partially dedicated to preserving life, and partially dedicated to machines of war. Despite their meager existence, Zion has a robust military hierarchy, and they also host rave orgies? The orgy scene is a little odd, but I think it’s included in order to show that humanity’s primal urges are another differentiator from the machines, as is joy. It’s fine, if a little uncomfortable. We also learn a lot more about The Matrix, including the fact that there are several rogue programs, like The Merovingian, who smuggle illegal code into The Matrix, often in the form of “Exiles”, programs from older versions of The Matrix that should have been purged when those versions were shut down. These programs can be used in several ways, like organized crime as a means to amass extreme wealth. They can be used to control people via manipulating their code. And they also explain things like ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and anything considered to be “paranormal”. These things existed at one time in some past version of The Matrix, which is why this versions current inhabitants don’t recognize them as “part of this world”.
Agent Smith, Neo’s nemesis, rises to arch-villain status over the next two films. No longer an Agent, Smith has gone rogue himself, wreaking havoc on The Matrix’s codes and duplicating himself hundreds (eventually thousands) of times in order to take over The Matrix from within. While he still really hates Neo, he hates The Matrix even more, and eventually the threat he poses to the machines from within will serve as the vehicle that finally brings the machine war to an end (though you’d have to wait until Revolutions to find out how). In Reloaded, Smith’s new powers manifest by a 1 vs. several hundred fight between Neo and tons of Smiths, and while it’s fun, it gets a little mind-numbing after a while, especially when the CG fully takes over and it has that hollow, weightless look. In The Matrix, Smith is a cog in the machine. In Reloaded and Revolutions, he turns against The Matrix, and he and Neo have a common goal to break free from their shackles. Why they want to break free is where they differ. He is The Joker to Neo’s Batman, a program who simply wants to watch the world burn, and the two have a one-sided symbiotic relationship that will perpetuate well in to The Matrix Resurrections.
There’s a lot going on in Reloaded, and digging in to it ultimately ends up being extremely rewarding, both in the short term and for the continuing series. A lot of care has been put in to the storytelling of The Matrix Reloaded, and while at times it can be a bit befuddling, it does all make sense when it’s parsed out. Revolutions, which I will cover soon, is comparatively light on philosophy, with the final hour and a half being mostly dedicated to the battle of Zion. I would argue that Revolutions pays off everything that was set up in Reloaded, and I’d consider it the Deathly Hollows Part I and Deathly Hollows Part II of the series, though Revolutions is often discussed as though it is a complete disaster. I think if, ultimately, the Wachowskis had released the two together as one movie (though it would have been nearly 5 hours long), it would be far more clear that they must be viewed together in order to see the whole.