The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction action film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15, 2003, and around the world during the latter half of that month. It was also screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival The video game Enter the Matrix, which was released on May 15, and a collection of nine animated shorts, The Animatrix, which was released on June 3, supported and expanded the storyline of the movie. The Matrix Revolutions, which completes the story, was released six months after Reloaded, in November 2003.
PLOT SUMMARY
Six months after the events of the first movie, Morpheus receives a message from Captain Niobe of the Logos calling an emergency meeting of all of Zion’s hovercraft. Zion has confirmed the last transmission of the Osiris: an army of Sentinels is tunneling towards Zion and will reach it within 72 hours. Commander Lock, the ranking military officer of Zion, orders all ships to return to Zion to prepare for the onslaught. Morpheus asks a ship to remain in order to contact the Oracle, in defiance of Commander Lock’s orders. The Caduceus receives a message from the Oracle, and the Nebuchadnezzar ventures out so Neo can contact her. One of the Caduceus crew, Bane, encounters Agent Smith, who takes over Bane’s avatar. Smith then leaves the Matrix, gaining control of Bane’s real body.
In Zion’s temple, Morpheus announces the news of the advancing machines to the people. Neo receives a message from the Oracle and returns to the Matrix to meet her. After realizing that the Oracle is part of the Matrix, Neo asks how he can trust her; she replies that it is his decision. The Oracle explains that she is an exiled program and instructs Neo to reach the Source of the Matrix by finding the Keymaker, a prisoner in the home of the Merovingian. The Keymaker makes keys that can open hidden portals. As the Oracle departs, Smith appears, telling Neo that after being defeated, he knew he was supposed to return to the Source to be deleted, but refused, and is now a rogue program. He demonstrates his ability to clone himself using other people in the Matrix, including other agents, as hosts. He then tries to absorb Neo as a host, but fails, prompting a battle between Neo and Smith’s clones. Neo manages to hold his own, but is forced to retreat from the increasingly overwhelming numbers.
Neo, Morpheus and Trinity visit the Merovingian and ask for the Keymaker, but the Merovingian refuses. His wife Persephone, tired of her husband’s attitude, betrays him and leads the trio to the Keymaker, allowing one of the Merovingian’s henchmen to escape to tell her husband. The Merovingian soon arrives and, while Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker escape, Neo fights the Merovingian’s supernatural servants. Morpheus and Trinity are trying to escape with the Keymaker on the highway, facing several Agents and The Twins. Ultimately, the Twins are killed, and Neo flies in to save Morpheus and the Keymaker.
Zion’s remaining ships prepare to battle the machines. Within the Matrix, the crews of the Nebuchadnezzar, Vigilant and Logos help the Keymaker and Neo reach the door to the Source. The crew of the Logos must destroy a power plant in order to prevent a security system from being triggered by the Keymaker’s keys, and the crew of the Vigilant must destroy a back-up power station. The Logos is successful, while the Vigilant is bombed by a Sentinel, killing everyone on board. Although Neo requested that Trinity remain on the Nebuchadnezzar, she enters the Matrix to replace the Vigilant crew, and she destroys the backup station. However, her escape is compromised by an agent, and they fight. As Neo, Morpheus and the Keymaker reach the Source through a hallway of shortcuts to other doors in the Matrix, the Smiths appear and try to kill them. The Keymaker unlocks the door to the Source, allowing Neo and Morpheus to escape the Smiths, but the Keymaker is killed.
Neo meets a program called the Architect, the Matrix’s creator. In the complex conversation that follows, the Architect explains that Neo is part of the design of the Matrix; there were multiple previous versions of the Matrix and the One. Unless Neo returns to the Source to reboot the Matrix, it will crash, killing everyone connected to it. Combined with Zion’s destruction, this would mean mankind’s extinction, and the machines would survive on some lesser energy source. Neo learns of Trinity’s situation and chooses to save her instead, as Trinity falls out of a window and is shot by the Agent she is fighting. Neo catches Trinity, but she dies. Unwilling to let her go, Neo uses his powers to remove the bullet and restart her heart.
In the real world, the Nebuchadnezzer is destroyed by Sentinels, and Neo displays a new ability to disable the machines, but collapses and falls into a coma from the effort. The crew are picked up by another ship, The Hammer, where its captain Roland reveals the remaining hovercrafts were wiped out by the machines after someone activated an EMP too early, with Bane as the only survivor.
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First Published: Mar 6, 2012 – Last Updated: Mar 29, 2014
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