Excerpt from “Matrix Resurrections: A Personal Essay”
Returning to The Matrix—a story, franchise, and world that had been neatly closed and over with for years—was not a choice made entirely voluntarily by Lana Wachowski. For the Wachowski sisters, The Matrix was a very personal and complex piece that had run its course and had no need to be remade for the sake of profit. The Warner Bros. company, however, had every intention of making a fourth installment of the franchise with or without the Wachowskis, although they did clearly want their involvement: “Every year Warner Bros. would ask us to make another one,” stated Lana Wachowski in an interview, “and every year they would drive truckloads of money up to our house and said, ‘You could have this.’ and we said, ‘No, no, no, we’re not interested”.
. . .
While the original film essentially boils down to being a science fiction slant on Plato’s Cave, Resurrections forces its characters and audience to consider if, after realizing that there was more beyond the cave, they would either keep this knowledge, or, essentially, “blue-pill” themselves.
The knowledge of a great world outside of one’s initial cave is a philosophical thought experiment that initially seems to have a straightforward conclusion: it is clearly better to know the truth and be given that choice of freedom. However, reality is much more complex than simply walking out of the cave. There are so many forces at play that do not want you to know that you can leave. If it truly was that simple, then the initial lie of being told that there is only a cave wall and nothing else would serve no purpose. It would be a work of fiction served on a silver platter to its cattle with no drive to keep up such a tiring and elaborate scheme. For The Analyst, the robot antagonist of the fourth film, his motive is power and resources. The Analyst has no interest in compromise or relieving some of his power onto the humans. He reveals just how difficult it was to remake the Matrix in a way that fit the needs of a human population that was so close to fully breaking free from the simulation. At one point, he monologues about the fact that hope and despair read almost the same in brain scans, and as a result, he learns to walk a fine line between both to keep the simulation running.
. . .
Lana also brusquely spells out Warner Bros’ debased insistence upon continuing the Matrix series within Resurrections, which was, personally, a difficult pill to swallow. Agent Smith, before he becomes self-aware, is Neo’s boss at a game development company. He tells Neo that Warner Bros. is demanding another installment of The Matrix video game, and they are going to make it with or without him. I found the use of Warner Bros’ name to be jarring as it pulled me out of the movie experience, but I also think that it was the intent. For Lana, the return to this world was one unfortunately revived due to the death of her parents. Despite her tragic loss, it did fit in perfectly with Warner Bros’ capitalistic greed and contemptible decision to continue such a personal work of art for the Wachowskis. Lana’s grief was overwhelming, but coming home to characters that were so familiar and comforting to her helped her work through that pain. Matrix: Resurrections is very blunt and dorky that at times works against itself, but in many other ways, it contains details and subtlety that plainly bares the earnestness of the movie and just how therapeutic creating this piece must have been for Lana Wachowski.
The Matrix is a story that holds a special place in my heart for what it represents. Against all odds, two trans women created a work of art that has solidified itself as a classic and a beloved film franchise for millions. Though at first it seems as if Neo has the choice of either turning a blind eye or breaking free from the Matrix, even that turns out to be an illusion. Once we understand that something lies just beyond the cave, we can no longer pretend that we do not. We must know, and keep knowing, until there is no longer a cave.
