Tags: The Matrix
Remakes of popular movies often leave fans wanting. With Star Wars, for example, it was disappointment after disappointment. With The Matrix, they could have screwed it up a zillion ways. The story seemed finished, with Neo rebooting the Matrix. What more was there to tell of that story? But the first trailer, premiered today, is one huge YES, and it appears they came up with something new to say.
From the black cat in the opening scene:
There were plenty of callbacks to the original Matrix trilogy. But is there a new story to be told, or is it simply retelling the old story by using better film-making technology? There isn't enough in this trailer to determine what the new story might be other than a mission to rescue Trinity from the Matrix.
Clearly his "psychiatrist" is an Agent who is working to keep Neo from awakening. Clearly this "psychiatrist" has been "prescribing" him The Blue Pill to keep his true nature in check.
One story thread clear from the trailer is that Trinity was also reinserted into the Matrix. That means she survived their travel above the surface to meet the machines. But, she also does not remember her true self. However, it appears when Neo meets the replacement for Morpheus, it is only Neo that is awakened.
While Neo is introduced to a new woman:
And that woman suggestively tells him "if you want the truth, Neo, you're going to have to fly me". But, Neo's goal is rescuing Trinity.
The character which replaced Morpheus says "the only thing that matters to you is still here" and "I know it's why you're still fighting, and why you'll never give up". That seems an oblique reference to his plan of rescuing Trinity.
One thing to mention about that woman with the Rabbit tattoo, and the new Morpheus, is their coloring. The woman had blue hair, while Morpheus had a red suit. Remember the coding that the Blue Pill keeps you in the matrix, and the Red Pill wakes you up to the truth. It wasn't clear whether the two are working together, or whether they're in opposing factions.
Following that scene, they fly a ship into the area where humans are in their pods, have some encounters inside the matrix with Agents, and what appears to be a rescue mission that's a parallel to the mission where they rescued Morpheus in the original Matrix movie. But instead of Trinity helping Neo to rescue Morpheus, it is the new-Morpheus helping Neo to rescue Trinity.
This appears to be Trinity waking up.
In the following scenes, it appears that a large group of Agents are surrounding Trinity, with Neo performing a risky rescue mission, dispersing all the Agents, and jumping off a building in downtown San Francisco (the Pyramid Insurance building is in the background) while holding Trinity's hand.
To recap the status at the end of the original trilogy. Neo, and his collaborators, which was primarily Trinity, were thinly disguised as biblical figures. Neo was Christ, Morpheus was John the Baptist, Trinity was Magdalene, and so forth.
At the end of the trilogy, Trinity and Neo had managed to travel above the surface of the planet and see the spread of the machines across the surface. It clearly appeared that Trinity had died while piloting their ship to reach a meeting point. Then, Neo made a bargain with the machines, for his body to be reinserted into the Matrix to reboot the system. It appeared likely that Neo's body died in that process. The Architect and the Oracle had made a truce of sorts, that the new Matrix would have a different construction of some kind.
So... if Neo and Trinity are waking up and getting free from the Matrix, how can they be present if their bodies have died? It's all curious isn't it? These movie makers are expert in dropping hints to tantalize without giving away deeper plot points, so we'll have to wait until December 22 to see what the actual story is.
"After all these years, to be going back to where it all started, back to the matrix"
