This article contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections.
Fans might be leaving the theater a bit exhausted by the time the credits roll on The Matrix Resurrections. After all, it’s quite a chaotic and disorienting trip for Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Bugs (Jessica Henwick), and Morpheus (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) too, as they try to decipher what’s real and what isn’t in this new version of the simulation.
The surprises aren’t over when Neo and Trinity fly away happily ever after, though. This is Warner Bros.’ big holiday blockbuster so of course there’s a post-credits scene, but it isn’t quite what you think! Don’t expect a teaser for The Matrix 5 or a spin-off movie starring Bugs and the new Morpheus.
For all intents and purposes, the story is over, the Analyst has been defeated, and our heroes have another chance to free minds from the Machines’ exploitative simulation. But there’s still one group of characters trying to answer one the movie’s key questions at the end of the credits.
Remember those game designers at Deus Machina who were trying to figure out what the next Matrix should be about? Well, despite everything that’s happened in the last two and a half hours, they’re no closer to finding the right idea. They’re still just throwing out internet buzz words around a conference table and fantasizing about bullet time in VR. Poor Thomas Anderson, world famous award-wining game director, would probably be cringing right now if he weren’t busy saving humanity as Neo.
But then two of the designers pitch an idea they think will settle the debate once and for all. “Games are dead. Narrative? Dead.” What if the next Matrix was just made up of neural response-triggering cat videos? The name of this innovative new experience and the next era of this beloved franchise: “The Catrix.” End scene.
It’s one final troll from director Lana Wachowski whose latest Matrix movie spends a lot of its time subverting expectations for what a legacy sequel is supposed to be. Yes, Resurrections is jam-packed with nostalgia from its very first scene, but this is no exploitative easter egg hunt meant to give viewers a simple sugar high for two hours. Throughout the movie, Wachowski questions why this current era of pop culture is so obsessed with the past and whether just because you can bring back a story and characters from 20 years ago means you should.
It’s a balancing act for Wachowski to be sure. The director uses the movie to comment on nostalgia while also dealing out a ton of it as Neo wakes up in the real world once again to fight the bad guys with Trinity and the new Morpheus. The approach isn’t always successful, especially when trying to revisit the events of Revolutions, which slows the second act down to a crawl. But in the first hour of the movie, the meta commentary can be quite funny. It’s no surprise, then, that the credits end on a silly note.
As Wachowski says through Jonathan Groff’s Smith, Warner Bros. was going to make this sequel whether its original creators were involved or not. With Resurrections, she gets to end things in her own way. Even if it is with cat videos.
The Matrix Resurrections is out now in theaters and on HBO Max.
