Personally, looking back after eight years, and going through all of the old stories on the website as I’ve been re-posting things to the blog that I’d lost when the server crashed, it got me thinking again. I’ve decided to start what could be a series of blogs featuring ideas for reboot versions of the sequels. Some will be way more fleshed out ideas than others, but this is merely for my own, and hopefully some of your, enjoyment. This entry started out as a thread in the forum.
Now, I did find an article I had written about why the Matrix Revolutions ended the way that it did.
It sounded very logical, and in fact, if the Machines had continued their route of Zion, all of it would have been destroyed. (Likely save for the number of survivors needed to rebuild the city.)
I think, if I was re-making the film, I’d start by re-configuring The Matrix Reloaded. I’d wipe out the pointless rave and sex scenes entirely. They have no bearing on the overall story, and mean nothing. Say what you will about them being representative of something that the machines can never understand, they don’t move the story forward at all, and that is wasted screen time. I’d use that extra time to begin providing some answers to open questions. Neo would be freeing people from the Matrix by the thousands. Zion, in the hundreds of years since the Matrix was built, will have an infrastructure that is capable of housing all of the people that are being freed. That would be one of the twists in the middle of the film, with the revelation that Zion’s infrastructure is actually quite substantial. I would also take part of that time to end the film with a cliffhanger that lands like a firework. Something that makes people talk, not something like “Agent Smith is on the table next to Neo, OMG.” Neo would have the same powers in the real world that he does inside the Matrix. In fact, not just the same powers, but also the ability to EMP blast Machines.
I’d then start Matrix Revolutions with Neo, now empowered, entering the Matrix to free whomever he can, while avoiding the hundreds of thousands of Agent Smiths that roam the world. At this point, Neo has a technique that allows minds to be freed from the Matrix in a way that doesn’t require signal disruption from a red pill. The free minds are quickly found and recovered by tracking the bots that are unhooking the bodies from the Matrix. The hovercrafts that are going around collecting the newly free people will quickly plug them into a chair where the operator uploads programs to their mind. This sequence will be a callback to when Neo was learning martial arts, operations and all of that in the first film. This time, instead of a montage of one person learning all sorts of martial arts, it’ll be all sorts of people being trained with a coping program. This program allows these people to very quickly understand what has happened, and have the ability to deal with it. There could be other programs that we see on the screen, such as “life in Zion,” “farming,” “necessary skills,” etc.
This elevates Neo into the hero we all wish he’d been, as he rushes to free as many minds as he can. At the same time, there are teams from various hovercrafts doing what they can to help Neo on foot. These are strike teams that are acting with extreme precision, moving in and out of the shadows, avoiding Agent Smith copies as much as possible. They’re attempting to free more minds, and get out via the next available hardline with tactical precision. At this time, the Matrix is becoming unstable, parts of the Matrix are now beginning to glitch, and hardlines are becoming unreliable. Some team members don’t make it as a direct result.
At the same time, inside the Matrix, Agent Smith is continuing his push to take over as many minds as possible, copying himself as much as he can. As Agent Smith takes over a new mind, the Matrix begins to respond by unplugging those people. It’s brutal and diabolical.
As the Machines are unplugging people, less power is getting into their systems, and they begin to fail more and more, and entire sections of the Matrix start shutting down. Agent Smith is causing the Matrix to collapse on itself in his mad rush to replicate. Neo can still destroy Smith in the same way as he did at the end of the first film, and continues to do so. Each time, however, begins to take a toll on him and makes the other surviving Agent Smiths stronger.
Finally, Neo realizes that he’s out of time. There aren’t anymore lives to free from the Matrix, and he needs a way out. There’s one hardline remaining that works, and he has to get past all of the remaining Agent Smiths to get there. The Matrix is unplugging the Smiths as quickly as it can. Agent Smiths are everywhere, and he needs to sneak around and avoid being seen. This sequence would have Smiths nearly see him and suddenly vanish as they are unplugged. This leads to one final battle with Agent Smith to get there. They fly throughout the Mega city, battling in the rain, and Neo finally gets to the hardline and exits the Matrix.
At this point, Smith shouts, “this is my world! My WORLD!” as he does in the film, and the Matrix blinks off.
It’s going to start a very long reboot sequence.
This was all part of the plan. Neo is now flying toward the Machine City of Zero One. In doing so, his speed causes a break in the polluted sky for the first time in hundreds of years. When he arrives, the Machines are ready for him, but he is too strong, too fast, too powerful for them. He manages to shut down the defense systems long enough for Zion’s fleet of hovercrafts to launch a full assault against the machine city. Some approach from above, others rise from below, full batteries firing.
Finally, Neo is able to get to the prime machine, the Deus ex Machina, as we saw in the film. Only this time, the deal is different, and the Machine leader uses machine logic so that it will survive alone, but that is what Neo needed to infect it with a virus. The very same one that he had sold at the beginning of the first Matrix film. (So that’s what it was!)
In the end, humanity is free, and natural life starts to rebuild without artificial intelligence to fight back or enslave us.
Personally, I think a victory for our heroes is far better than a truce between humans and machines. That was much more of a cop-out, like Abraham Lincoln saying: Let’s have peace, if you want to have slaves, that’s fine as long as you free a slave if they discover that they are enslaved.
The only problem with this is that the Matrix Trilogy has too many plot holes and unanswered questions. The first move is fine until you get to Reloaded which really messes things up, (though it is the better of all three) it is also the worst for the plot line.
When the Merovingian, Architect, Oracle, and Smith reappears it not only raises more questions in the first film, but add plot holes in the first film as well. Not to mention the game Enter The Matrix. What of the other One’s? What is so special about Neo as the One this time around? What happen to the other One’s after Zion was destroyed and they chose men and women to rebuild? Wouldn’t those the other One’s chose still remember and have recorded him down? Wouldn’t the other One’s tell the new people he chosen of the Architect, the choice he made, and the repeat, so they would know record it down ad pass it down as knowledge to the others who will come in Zion? Did the other One’s have a love interest?
When Persophe talks to Neo she tell him her husband the Mero was just like him when he first came, so knowing the history of the Merovingian who believed they were Christ blood line… What kind of abilities did the mero have, where did he come from, how did he gain them, and what happen to them? In reloaded/revolutions he clearly has none. The Mero tell Neo he survived his predecessors, so what conflict did they have before then with him? If the Mero had abilities like Neo what did the agents do about it? Does the Mero knows there’s an Architect, and what happens to him after Revolutions, and where is he during the Matrix?
Why did Trinity jump out the window in reloaded if she didn’t Neo was going to catch her? Neo never told anyone but the Oracle how she died and didn’t even tell the Oracle how he just said he saw her falling. So if Trin didn’t know Neo would catch her why jump out the window if she would die anyway?
What bigger role do the Architect and Oracle play, and does Deus ex Machina has it set up this way, and why? We know the Oracle and Architect know of each other and all that has ever happened, the question is who control them” Does Deus ex Machina does or do they operate freely?
Is Neo really the One? The oracle said that the One can remake the matrix however he deemed fit, however Neo did not do this in revolutions. Morpheus said the One would end the war, but Neo failed to this as well, at the end of Revolutions we know there is peace as long it can last, or an armistice, never an end to the war. The war to end it would be to destroy the machine in the City of Zero One.
If Jesus was the Son of God, wouldn’t Neo be the son of Deus Ex Machina who is represent as God in the real world, in which neo his only Son was sent into the Matrix to die for everyone sins and free them? If he is then wouldn’t that make Neo a machine and not human, as Jesus was a God born into a human body? If so then wouldn’t that mean that the Machines have found a way to replicate humans from flesh and bone to walk and talk in the real world?
How do we know that Zion is another Matrix or level of control? And if the humans in Zion know that the war was fought between man and between shouldn’t they know (like i said) about the Architect? But if it is another Matrix then wouldn’t that history be fabricated to as well with the war? If the Matrux has to mimic real world how long does it exists before it is rebooted, does it goes into the future or does it remain like 1999 the whole time? if so why don’t know one notices it, or dies it get to 1999 and repeat, and if it does repeat what year does it reboots too current or past centuries?
The Matrix really when you see it is not a well written trilogy. It has great ideas but the story/screen play is not well written at all. This could be because of since it was stolen from that black lady (forgot her name) but’s overall is not well written or clearly thought out. Matrix would be hard to remake because It’s hard to capture the original feel, but not impossible. If I had to make it I would continue the story where it left off and go into detail where the previous films left gap.
Okay. I understand that you have a lot (a LOT) of very valid questions and all. I’m just curious as to why you started with “The only problem with this is that the Matrix Trilogy has too many plot holes and unanswered questions.”
My article / story suggests that The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions didn’t actually happen, and would be rebooted using the story points that I described throughout the article. Entire characters, such as the Merovingian, would be cut out, and never appear.
My questions for you are these:
Why did you take the opportunity to comment on this article with all of these questions/comments about the actual movies, rather than my pitch for rebooted versions of the movies?
What would you do, if you were to reboot the sequels?
I still think that Reloaded and Revolutions rank as some of the best sequels ever written. A lot of the issues you raise are addressed in the film. For example, the Architect is a program charged with creating and maintaining the Matrix while the Oracle was designed to help understand and manipulate the emotions of humans. They each operate under the control of Deus Ex Machina who is presumably the supreme authority of the machines. The prophecy about “The One” was a lie spread by the Oracle in order to manipulate the Zionites. Neo was never really “supposed” to defeat the machines.
Also, some of these questions aren’t addressed in the films because they aren’t relevant to the plot. What powers does the Merovingian have? Where was he during the events of the first film? How do the years pass in the Matrix? None of that stuff really matters to the story being told.
If you rebooted the Matrix and did not include these characters then it wouldn’t be a reboot, but a re-imagined matrix almost how Ronald D. Moore did re-did Battle Star Galatica which is considered a re-imagined version and not a reboot since it did not stay true to the source, but changed how the story was told.
To do a true reboot you would have to include the Merovigian and all those who appear inside the trilogy. That’s why I raised these questions because a true reboot would have to answer all of these questions when it is remade. Spiderman was rebooted into the Amazing Spider-man with the same characters, same origin, but stayed true to the comics.
So would you want to re-boot the Matrix trilofy or re-imagined it?
I see why you went the way you did then. And indeed, Spider-Man was a reboot, but it was going to use the same characters because those are true to the original comic.
I supposed it’s re-imagined then… however, I’m not going to change the titles, so :-P. I’m going to keep calling this series “The Matrix Sequels Rebooted” because it’s what brings the traffic. And that’s good enough for me. 🙂 Plus, I’ve just done some research about the terms “Reboot,” “Reimagine,” and “Remake,” and none of them seem to apply to what I would do.
This doesn’t actually fit the Battlestar Galactica model, the Spider-Man model, the Batman Begins model, or anything that has been done save for one thing: Superman Returns.
Superman Returns is actually not a reboot, but a sequel. It was made as a sequel to Richard Donnor’s Superman and Superman II. It also considers Superman III and IV to be non-existant. This makes Superman Returns the new Superman III, though it uses none of the characters from the original Superman III. That’s sort of what I mean, and is a more perfect example for what I would do: ignore the fact that Reloaded and Revolutions exist at all, and make two new sequels to “The Matrix.”
If I had to do it that way, I don’t think I would make another two. The Matrix literally took everything from comics, video games, movies, philosophy, religion, and much more and combined it into one movie. The Matrix itself was so amazing and culturally moving that I think it would of been fine as a stand alone.
But if I really had to make more I wouldn’t do two but just one more and it would have a run time of about 155 minuets, and it would take all that was thrown into the first Matrix and go deeper with it. Take it further down the rabbit hole and end it with Neo reaching total enlightenment.
Sometimes bigger is not always better and though Reloaded had more money, we saw that it focused more on visuals than story, which made the first movie so great. An example would be The Chronicles of Riddick. Riddick: Pitch black was made on less money and showed Riddick’s true gritter side which made people love him. However the second movie was made with more money and a larger scope and took Riddick from the smaller environment to a bigger one that didn’t make him the same as he was before.
Making my sequel would be for like 125 million less than reloaded/revolutions of 150 million but more than the Matrix 63 million, and less than Inception 160 million. I would return to the same smaller style The Matrix was, expand on Neo as the One, and go further down the rabbit hole and in the end have him become like a God in the Matrix.
See, that’s what I was hoping to inspire. These types of thoughts. Thanks for that. Interesting thoughts. I’m not sure that our ideas are so far apart. My idea of doing two sequels is based on the idea that studios tend to love trilogies, and my ideas might be too big for just one movie. However, since it’s not been written, it’s possible that all of my ideas would fit in one script. (Keep in mind that, on average, the number of pages in a script tends to equal the number of pages in a script. (Unless it’s an Aaron Sorkin script, or Gossip Girls, where it’s about one and a half pages per minute.))
I like the idea of keeping it smaller, too. I think a good idea would be to follow the TV series style of storytelling, or the Tolkien one, where the action sequences and films aren’t pushing things beyond the scope of the first part at all, it’s just the stakes that are raised a bit, as the story gets a bit more complex or the plans set in motion from the first part are finally coming to fruition and mistakes can’t be made.
In the sense of The Matrix itself in terms of how far can one develop Neo and the story, then maybe a film is not needed, but a TV mini series of 10 episodes with each being 60 minuets and no commercials. Like how Spielberg had Band of Brothers on HBO as ten part mini. This would give The Matrix 600 minuets or 10 hours to shell it out or a 12 part mini that would be 720 minuets. With this you can really allow Neo to grow on people, expand on ideas that would be too much for a film, and have sub plots to carry it on, and have cinema style visual effects.
I think a lot of the criticisms of the two Matrix sequels are based on misunderstandings of the underlying symbolism. For example, you propose an idea where Neo could forcibly disconnect mass amounts of people from the Matrix without offering them the red pill. You might be able to make that work on a basic plot level, but it contradicts the underlying symbolism of the red and blue pills. Sleepers in the Matrix have to WANT to be freed, and most of them don’t. The vast majority of people will choose to remain comfortably in their pods instead of facing the harshness and uncertainty of the real world. You can’t “force” someone to wake up from the Matrix anymore than you can “force” someone to abandon capitalist ideology or fundamentalist religious dogma. Furthermore, Morpheus states in the first movie that the rebels rarely even consider freeing adults because of the dangers involved. Neo flying around wantonly separating masses of people would result in most of them dying and of the survivors, most would be embittered Cypher-like escapists, desperate to betray the resistance and return to the Matrix. That’s why your Abraham Lincoln analogy doesn’t work in my opinion. The horrifying thing about the Matrix isn’t just that it enslaves sleepers; it’s that it makes the sleepers WANT to be enslaved. As Morpheus says in the first film most of the slaves will fight and die to protect the system that enslaves them.
Yeah, that’s definitely true, and the sort of thing I was hoping someone would remind me of, so it could be talked through. The entire situation makes the Matrix a necessary evil for at least 2 generations, if somehow they can all be allowed to survive.
However, remember that some folks, like The Kid, never had the red pill to escape.
True, there are a handful of characters that wake up without the red pill. It’s extremely rare though; when The Kid is first rescued Trinity comments that she didn’t know “self substantiation” was even possible. That plot device usually has some kind of metaphorical significance such as representing transcendence or spiritual awakening.