The Matrix Resurrections Writers Explain The Two Ideas That Kicked Off The Movie [Exclusive]
For "The Matrix Resurrections," director Lana Wachowski shares scripting duties with Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell, the latter of whom authored the novel, "Cloud Atlas," which Wachowski also helped adapt into a film back in 2012. Wachowski began developing ideas for the fourth "Matrix" movie with the two writers in late 2018 after both of her parents died earlier that year.
In a forthcoming interview with /Film's Jack Giroux, Mitchell said there were two "foundational ideas" for "The Matrix Resurrections" that Wachowski initially presented him with. The first of those relates to the whole meta aspect of the movie whereby the original "Matrix" trilogy exists as a series of video games that Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) designed. Mitchell explained:
"The notion that the trilogy becomes an artifact within the fourth film. I've seen many films I'm less than enamored by when there is, I guess, a resurrection in a sequence, and it's just one more in a row. And I loved immediately Lana's idea that this wasn't just one more in a row. It's actually a kind of a fractal case that holds and encases the trilogy. It has a trilogy inside it with the conceit of 'The Matrix' trilogy existing in this rebooted Thomas Anderson's world as a trilogy of video games that he had designed 20 years ago, when in our world, 'The Matrix' trilogy was playing in multiplexes all over the planet. That was just an irresistible idea for me."
Love Conquers All
For its meta slant, a number of reviewers have likened "The Matrix Resurrections" to "Lana Wachowski's New Nightmare," a reference to the seventh "Nightmare on Elm Street" film, "Wes Craven's New Nightmare." However, another key aspect of "The Matrix Resurrections" is the revived romance between Anderson/Neo and Trinity, played by Carrie-Anne Moss.
Some, such as our own Jeremy Mathai, have argued that "The Matrix" has "always been a love story." Others, such as The Wrap, have argued that "Neo and Trinity's love in the first film was little more than a plot point, and never an entirely convincing one." However, their love helped drive Neo's decision-making in "The Matrix Reloaded" in a major way, and according to the Architect (Helmut Bakaitis), Neo's attachment to Trinity was the defining feature that separated him from previous versions of the One.
In "The Matrix Resurrections," Neo and Trinity are able to sit down and finally converse beyond action-movie dialogue in the Simulatte coffee shop. According to Hemon, their love and what it represented (namely, Wachowski's parents) was the other foundational idea behind "The Matrix Resurrections." He said:
"The other thing, it was that prominence in the dominance of love in the narrative, right? Because [Lana] lost two important people in her life, her parents ... She liked the idea of their coming back in love and that itself is kind of resurrection of love as a dominating concept ... That's the thing that I remember when she was talking about [it] ... in some ways, her love, our love, my love for her parents would be inscribed in the movie. It's a memorial."
"The Matrix Resurrections" is in theaters and on HBO Max now.