It was surely inevitable that Hollywood would eventually return to the world of The Matrix. After all, the Wachowskis’ turn-of-the-century cyberpunk trilogy makes clear that the titular virtual-reality universe is regularly rebooted when it all gets a little too crazy in cyberspace. There’s even provision for Keanu Reeves’s Neo to be brought back with a new face, Doctor Who style, as 2003’s Matrix Reloaded revealed the existence of umpteen previous digital messiahs, all going by the same name, before the latest iteration arrived on the scene to bullet-time the machines into submission.
Rumours have been swirling around a new film since at least 2017, when Ready Player One’s Zach Penn was reported to be writing an episode for studio Warner Bros that would cast Michael B Jordan as the lead. Now, as the original 1999 film returns to US cinemas, writer-director Lilly Wachowski, who oversaw the original trilogy alongside her sister Lana, has given the concept her blessing (while suggesting she is too busy to get involved herself).
“I like it when stories go out into the world and then come back to you in different ways,” Wachowski told /Film. “I mean, that’s what storytelling is all about. I’m part of a bigger thing. I don’t have any ownership over stuff like that, so whatever story anybody wants to tell, I can’t wait to hear. I hope it’s better than the original.”
The Matrix introduced the concept of life as a simulation designed to keep humanity from rebelling, a sort of virtual opium of the masses for the 21st century. Tear through the humdrum carapace of everyday existence, it suggested, and you too might be able to redefine yourself as a kung fu-kicking babe magnet in shades and leather. Dive down the rabbit hole and available upgrades might include enhanced charisma, new vocabularies, and even the ability to see without one’s eyes. Almost anything was possible within the Matrix – damn, give Boris Johnson the Red Pill and send him blustering after the White Rabbit, and he might even be able to solve Brexit.
The problem here is that even the Wachowskis were not able to repeat the success of The Matrix with sequels Reloaded and Revolutions, which means it’s difficult to imagine how anyone else can. With its heady philosophical ideas increasingly torpedoed by big-budget action motifs as the series stumbled towards its disappointing conclusion, the trilogy was eventually fully absorbed into Hollywood’s own matrix of blandness, like one of the many annoying clones created by Hugo Weaving’s nefarious Agent Smith.
A truly visionary writer-director – Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan or Alex Garland spring to mind – might be able to wring new life from the concept, but of these only Villeneuve, the Canadian director of Blade Runner 2049, has shown any sign in recent times of being keen on uploading himself to the Hollywood sequel mainframe. I Am Mother’s Grant Sputore, District 9’s Neill Blomkamp and Moon’s Duncan Jones would be other names to get fans excited, though only the first of those has an unblemished CV. Whoever takes it on should be told to focus first and foremost on the ideas that made The Matrix so intriguing, rather than blowing audiences away with giant FX cannons.
Imagine, for a moment, if the Wachowskis’ first movie had been left as a standalone episode. It might well have developed even greater cult status by now – just as 1982’s Blade Runner did after being allowed to percolate through the discerning sci-fi fan’s senses for the best part of three decades. The fact this did not happen stands as testament to the dangers of studios greenlighting sequels before they are really ready to emerge fully formed into the light. There is a reason James Cameron has spent more than a decade working on sequels to (the far less iconic) Avatar, and that Ready Player One writer Ernest Cline is planning a new novel before even considering venturing back into the brand-heavy virtual world brought to the big screen by Steven Spielberg last year. Get these followups wrong, and there is a serious danger of tarnishing the original episode.
The Matrix’s enigma, like the Carrollian underworld that partly inspired it, is intrinsic to its value as a cultural totem. That first movie was so inspiring because it introduced us to a superbly stylised, incredibly cool inner world that it seemed we would never be able to fully understand.
Once we know the functions of Smith, the Oracle and Neo himself within the fabric of this digital labyrinth, they become far less intriguing. Once we see what the machines actually look like they become far less horrifying – the relentless Sentinels introduced in Reloaded, tunnelling their way towards Zion, are boring machines in more than one sense. A mere glimpse of this secret digital Shangri-La, a peek through the looking glass at what lies beyond, it turns out, was all we should ever have been given.
