The Matrix glitches out, spills some plot in new Resurrections teaser

With The Matrix Resurrections only weeks away, the time has come for the marketing department to give us a little plot (we’ve been so patient). And if the latest teaser is to be believed (and most beliefs in The Matrix are lies anyway, so take it with a grain of salt), there’s a whole lot of the original Matrix trilogy in the new movie. Namely, Keanu Reeves’ Neo is experiencing some severe déjà vu.

“Déjà vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix,” Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity reminds us at the onset. “It happens when they change something.” The rest of the trailer follows this logic, presenting us with flashbacks from the trilogy that blend together with new footage from Resurrections, creating a near-seamless connection between the original movies and this new one. Neo’s birth in the first film, for example, wipes to his rebirth in Resurrections.

By the looks of things, and this is purely this writer’s prediction, Neo’s everyday life from the first trailer is another training simulation, complete with a face-melting Trinity. And within the first few beats of the film, the simulations guide him going through events from the trilogy—sort of like Avengers: Endgame, but in a more Matrix Reloaded “isn’t the hero’s journey a little passé” kind of way.

As exciting as it may be for fans of the trilogy for Lana Wachowski and her co-screenwriters David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon to comment on the previous films by subtly remaking them, it does give one pause….

How meta will Matrix Resurrections be, and how will it alter impressions of the earlier movies? “Why use old code to make something new?” an unseen character asks over the trailer. Of course, this quote could be the Modus Operandi of the film, or just a white rabbit to follow. [Clearly, I have already fallen down the hole.]

To some, this will be an instant turn-off, no doubt. Not everyone was bowled over by Wachowskis’ deconstruction of The Matrix the first time around, but goodwill remains for this revival. Good or bad, it’s hard to imagine that Lana Wachowski would go full tilt into fan service—this probably won’t be The Matrix: Afterlife. Still, Lana Wachowski’s impressions of our Matrix nostalgia seem to be the thrust of this teaser. What she’ll do with it remains to be seen.

People can jack into The Matrix Resurrections on December 22 in theaters and HBO Max.