Lights, camera, action!
Meet Thomas Anderson. You know him better as Keanu Reeves in a trenchcoat.
He's just you're typical world-class-hacker-parading-as-a-software-programmer kind of guy. That is, until he's contacted by some mysterious people whose names—Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)—he's heard rumors of.
First, a fun little rendezvous with some secret agent-looking dudes led by Agent Smith, who do some not-so-nice things to him because they want to get to Morpheus. Finally, though, he meets Morpheus and Trinity. And this is when he learns that his world isn't exactly what he thought it was. What he's known as reality his whole life is merely...a computer program.
Yep, he's living in the Matrix.
The enigmatic Morpheus is wearing sunglasses inside. Actually, a lot of people are wearing sunglasses inside. What's up with that?
Wait, where were we? Right. Morpheus offers Neo (Thomas' hacker pseudonym) a choice:
- A red pill, which will allow him to discover what the Matrix is as he breaks its bond
- A blue pill, which will make him fall back into the illusion of the Matrix none the wiser
Guess which he chooses? Yep: Reddy McRed.
Hey, a movie about a programmer would be a total snoozefest.
In any case, he now finds himself aware of the "real world" for this first time.
Unfortunately, the "real world" isn't doing so well, which you can tell when he wakes up in a vat with wires coming out of holes he didn't know he had, surrounded by thousands of other still-sleeping people. But don't worry: Morph and the gang come to his rescue in their hovercraft (we're in the far-off future) and fill him in on the whole "machines have taken over the world and farm humans for energy" thing.
They also let him in on the fun factoid that he is The One and has to save humanity from extinction.
So...no pressure.
Next, it's training time. Neo enters the "construct" and gets his groove on—and hey, he's actually pretty good at kung fu. Then it's time to meet the Oracle (Gloria Foster), who's just some old cookie-baking lady (we weren't expecting that) who tells him he isn't The One.
Huh? This is Hollywood...the protagonist is always The One….
That's when things start to get ugly. Before they can get out of the Matrix, the secret agent guys converge on them and capture Morpheus. It turns out one of the crew members named Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) has betrayed them so he can get back into the Matrix. Cypher tries to kill the rest of the crew to stop them from unplugging Morpheus so that the agents can extract the codes to Zion's (the last human city) mainframe from his mind. But Cypher fails, and Neo and Trinity go back in to free their friend and mentor from the clutches of the enemy.
And what do you know: they actually succeed. It turns out Neo really is The One and uses his super speed and strength to defeat the agents, save Morpheus, and just barely make it out alive.
Oh, and he can stop bullets and go inside of computer programmed people and blow them up...so that helps.
Then he kisses Trinity—who was in love with him just like the good ol' Oracle predicted—and they live happily ever after.
Just kidding. There are still two more movies, so hang tight.