Page 4: After the Matrix

Contents

There are fans of "The Matrix" who have been stubbornly burying their heads in the sand for 25 years, claiming that it is such a good thing that the movie was never continued. Should you belong to this group: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You skip the rest of the article, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

If you read on, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the franchise hole goes. Because when "The Matrix" did not only outperform box office expectations, but also broke all DVD sales records, it was clear that a continuation was all but inevitable. It still came as a surprise when not one sequel was announced, but two.

Before the sequels, various comics and nine short films were released that expanded and developed the plot. The nine-minute CGI short "The Last Flight Of The Osiris" was even shown in cinemas as a lead-in for "Dreamcatcher" (2023).

On May 22, 2003, "The Matrix Reloaded" was released in cinemas, followed six months later by "The Matrix Revolutions". The video game "Enter The Matrix" was released together with the first sequel. It ran parallel to the movie plot and contained additional scenes featuring the original actors.

"The Matrix Reloaded" broke various box office records, but reactions were divided – not least due to its open ending. Ultimately, the sequels turned out to be one story, told in two parts.

When "The Matrix Revolutions" was finally released in cinemas, the audience reaction continued to be polarized: Some found it courageous how the Wachowskis had defied expectations. Others were furious about what the sequels did to characters they had grown fond of. Fans who previously had an insatiable appetite for all things Matrix, angrily turned their backs on the franchise.

Films hamper the games

This reaction was bad news for the video games "The Matrix: Path of Neo" for PC, PS2 and Xbox and "The Matrix Online" for PCs. In "Path of Neo", players replayed action scenes from the films as Neo – with one major difference at the end.

The multi-player game "The Matrix Online" continued the plot of the films in real time, with the blessing of the Wachowskis. Reviews for both titles were mixed; the MMORPG's servers were closed in 2009 due to a lack of players.

For a few years, the franchise went dormant. The studio repeatedly expressed keen interest in a sequel, and the Wachowskis repeatedly declared that they were done with the Matrix. Everything changed in 2019, when Lana Wachowski came up with an idea on how to continue the story. The Matrix Resurrections was released in cinemas on December 17, 2021, giving the saga a new ending.

Heirs and premonitions of the Matrix

Books and films with gigantic conspiracies are nothing new. Virtual worlds were also used in cinema and television before "The Matrix". Examples include "World on a Wire" (Welt am Draht) from 1973, "Tron" from 1982, "Brainstorm" from 1983, "Total Recall" from 1990, "The Lawnmower Man" from 1992, "Wild Palms" from 1993 and "Strange Days" from 1995. In terms of its thematic proximity to "The Matrix", the German two-parter "World on a Wire" is highly recommended.

At the turn of the millennium, the idea of illusory worlds must have hung particularly heavily in the air. "Dark City" was released a year before "The Matrix", with a plot that shows some astonishing parallels. One month after "The Matrix", moviegoers were treated to "eXistenZ", which played with the theme of levels of reality. This was followed at the end of May 1999 by "The 13th Floor", another science fiction thriller with virtual reality elements.

Of all of its cousins and siblings, "The Matrix" left the deepest mark on pop culture. 25 years later, the themes of Man as the scourge of the planet and losing oneself in virtual worlds are still as relevant as they were on March 31, 1999, when the green letters of "The Matrix" trickled down the screen for the first time. (vza)