Lore FortressNeo: Who the One Really Is
Neo is Thomas Anderson, the hacker who woke up and became the One. The sequels reveal that the role he took on was built by the Machines, and that the choice he makes with it was his alone.
Neo is the name Thomas Anderson chose as a hacker, and it's also an anagram of the One. He begins The Matrix as a tired software worker who suspects something is wrong with the world. By the end he can stop bullets. What makes him worth talking about is what the sequels do with that, because they tell him the whole story of his heroism was written in advance. (The Matrix)
Waking up#
Anderson works in software by day and sells illegal programs at night. He's been searching for Morpheus and for an answer to a question he can't put into words. Trinity finds him first. Morpheus offers him the choice of two pills, and the red one wakes him in a pod with cables in his body. The real world is a ruin. (The Matrix)
Morpheus trains him aboard the Nebuchadnezzar and believes completely that he's the One. The Oracle tells Neo he isn't, or more precisely lets him tell himself that. What decides things is his choice to go back for Morpheus. Killed by Agent Smith in a corridor, he revives and sees the world as green code. (The Matrix)
The Architect#
Reloaded is where the character gets interesting. The Architect tells him he's an expected result, the sixth One. The Matrix can't hold everyone, so the One gathers the people who reject it, returns to the Source and restarts everything, keeping a handful of survivors to rebuild Zion. The five before him all took the deal. They were moved by love for humanity in general. Neo is moved by love for one person. He walks out through the other door to save Trinity. (The Matrix Reloaded)
The deal#
In Revolutions, blinded by Bane, he can still sense machines. He reaches the Machine City and gives its intelligence a reason to talk: Smith is out of control and will consume the Machines too. Neo fights him, loses, and lets himself be assimilated, and the Machines use that connection to wipe out every copy of Smith. He's carried off in the light, his body taken by the Machines. Peace follows. (The Matrix Revolutions)
Resurrections#
The fourth film finds him alive. The Analyst has rebuilt him and Trinity and put them back in the Matrix, where he's a successful game designer who has been told his past is fiction. The two of them generate more energy together than apart, so they're kept near each other but never close. Once he's out, Neo goes back for her, and the film reveals she can fly too. (The Matrix Resurrections)
Frequently asked questions
- Who is Neo in The Matrix?
- Thomas Anderson, a hacker freed from the Matrix by Morpheus and believed to be the One. He's played by Keanu Reeves.
- Is Neo really the One?
- Yes, but the title isn't what Zion thinks. The Architect explains that the One is a planned feature of the Matrix, and that Neo is the sixth. He's the first to refuse his role.
- Why can Neo use his powers in the real world?
- The films never fully explain it. He's able to sense and stop machines outside the Matrix at the end of Reloaded, and later sees them even when blinded. The Oracle says his power extends beyond the Matrix to the Source.
- Does Neo die?
- He dies at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, and the Machines take his body. In Resurrections he and Trinity are brought back by the Analyst.
Sources
- FilmThe Matrix, The Wachowskis, Warner Bros., 1999
- FilmThe Matrix Reloaded, The Wachowskis, Warner Bros., 2003
- FilmThe Matrix Revolutions, The Wachowskis, Warner Bros., 2003
- FilmThe Matrix Resurrections, Lana Wachowski, Warner Bros., 2021
- FilmThe Animatrix, Anthology of animated shorts, Warner Bros., 2003
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
Agent Smith: the Program That Stopped Following Orders
Agent Smith starts as a ruthless enforcer of the Matrix and ends as a virus that threatens humans and Machines alike. His hatred of Neo is the most personal relationship in the series.
The Machines: How They Won and What They Want
The Machines are the real rulers of The Matrix's world, an artificial civilisation that began as humanity's servants, won a war of survival and keeps billions of people alive for power.
The Matrix Story Explained: From the Machine War to Resurrections
The full story of The Matrix in order, from the war that ended with humanity in pods to Neo's deal with the Machines and his return sixty years later, including what the Architect really told him.
Zion: the Last Human City
Zion is the free human city of The Matrix, deep underground near the Earth's core. It's home to everyone freed from the pods, and the Architect reveals that it has been destroyed before.
Mentioned in4 entries
Agent Smith: the Program That Stopped Following Orders
Agent Smith starts as a ruthless enforcer of the Matrix and ends as a virus that threatens humans and Machines alike. His hatred of Neo is the most personal relationship in the series.
The Machines: How They Won and What They Want
The Machines are the real rulers of The Matrix's world, an artificial civilisation that began as humanity's servants, won a war of survival and keeps billions of people alive for power.
The Matrix Story Explained: From the Machine War to Resurrections
The full story of The Matrix in order, from the war that ended with humanity in pods to Neo's deal with the Machines and his return sixty years later, including what the Architect really told him.
Zion: the Last Human City
Zion is the free human city of The Matrix, deep underground near the Earth's core. It's home to everyone freed from the pods, and the Architect reveals that it has been destroyed before.
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