10 Things About The Matrix Movies That Made Zero Sense

Summary

  • The Matrix franchise is a sci-fi classic, despite illogical plot holes in all four Matrix movies.
  • The fifth Matrix film may try to fix past mistakes, but logic may still be in short supply.
  • The original trilogy’s narrative struggles with unlikely scenarios, like Zion near Earth’s core and human batteries.



The Wachowskis struck gold with The Matrix, but there are some things about the four-movie franchise that make no sense. Beginning with 1999’s seminal cyberpunk The Matrix, the series went on to release a sequel in two parts in 2003, forming a trio of movies. The Matrix Reloaded was followed by The Matrix Revolutions, completing Warner Bros.’ initial plan to release a trilogy. Then, in 2021, The Matrix movies were joined by The Matrix Resurrections. This totaled four movies with numerous plot holes, but plenty of sci-fi gold alongside.

Despite the limited commercial and critical success of The Matrix Resurrections, the vast success of the franchise overall led Warner Bros. to greenlight a fifth Matrix movie. With a working title of The Matrix 5, the sequel has a chance to fill its predecessors’ plot holes with logic and rational explanations. However, given the series’ track record, this seems unlikely. The story of The Matrix is probably so great because it tackles the furthest rim of what may be possible in the distant future. However, as is perhaps inevitable with such ambition, this has created many problems within the series’ narrative.



10 Zion Being Near The Center Of The Earth

The Matrix (1999)

Shown packed full of people in the infamous rave scene, Zion was the cavernous underground world where the human rebels lived in defiance of the Machines, but it didn’t always make sense. The trilogy referred to Zion throughout and it was successful as a facet of the movie’s world-building, but the subterranean city was not so easy to rationalize. The underground city presumably used hydroponics or heat lamps to grow food, though the scale of it seemed a stretch.


There is no release date yet for
The Matrix 5
, but the movie is already in development.

Zion demonstrated the Wachowskis’ cyberpunk sensibility, uniting the rebel stray aesthetic with the futuristic. However, at one point, Tank commented to Neo that Zion was near the earth’s core. This would have been physically impossible – pressure and heat would have prevented any kind of infrastructure or construction near the Earth’s core. It’s possible Tank was just being vague, as The Animatrix referred to Zion as roughly 4km underground. In any case, the fictional city makes little sense in real life.

9 Human Batteries

The Matrix (1999)


The Matrix popularized the dystopian concept of human batteries, which is just as scientifically improbable as it is terrifying. The Machines powered their society with years worth of humans stored in pods. Those in these pods were wired up to a simulation that made them believe they were living in their old reality. However, as chilling as this idea is, humans wouldn’t have produced enough energy to be useful to the Machines, compared to whatever nutrients were keeping the humans alive.

The law of thermodynamics dictates that energy is never created or destroyed, just transferred and changed in form – calories absorbed by humans would be used up in digestion, leaving only minor remnants of heat energy. Of course, in the movies, human energy is combined with some kind of mysterious fusion that somewhat ameliorates the impossibility of this energy source. The fusion is never explained, but it’s uncertain how it would amplify human heat.


8 The Cat-trix

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The credits scene of The Matrix Resurrections defied logic for many reasons, with “the Cat-trix” providing the crux of the confusion. At Neo’s workplace, Deus Machina, the creative team behind the in-universe Matrix games led by Neo was busy brainstorming ways to continue the company’s success. “Movies are dead, games are dead, narrative is dead” was provided as input, with someone suggesting cat videos as a solution, along with the meta pun “Cat-trix.”

…”
Cat-trix
” didn’t even rhyme with
Matrix
, making the creative team look like they had run out of good ideas completely.


A Matrix pun like “Cat-trix” would have made more sense if it demonstrated any degree of ingenuity. Intelligence would have been enough – that would have poked fun at Deus Machina, and at the franchise concept this scene was ribbing, while enabling some credibility. But “Cat-trix” didn’t even rhyme with Matrix, making the creative team look like they had run out of good ideas completely. Perhaps this was the exact point, but it will remain a debatable mystery.

7 Morpheus Identifying Neo As The One

The Matrix (1999)


Despite numerous suggestions, it was never fully confirmed how Morpheus knew that Neo was the One. Morpheus had been watching Neo and his hacker activity, which signaled Neo’s candidacy for the One. Neo was a consummate cyber criminal, demonstrating a certain capacity to navigate the Matrix. Not just this, but Trinity liked to watch Neo, tying into the Oracle’s prophecy that Trinity would fall in love with the One.

Not to mention that Neo is an anagram of One. However, there was a lack of any conclusive proof that Neo was the One. This led many to theorize that perhaps Agent Smith was the One instead of Neo – Smith also presented a problematic anomaly for the Machines. Plus, Smith was “born inside” the matrix as Morpheus suggested the One was. This in turn meant that Neo’s destiny was perhaps never certain, making Morpheus’ theories more confusing.


6 The Zion Emergency Rave

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)

If it demonstrated anything, The Matrix Zion rave scene showed how extraordinary the vision of the Wachowski sisters was – they were unprepared to compromise, even if the story made little sense. Adding to the world’s cyberpunk trappings was the insertion of this party scene, which was fully convincing as far as illegal raves go. In this scene, humanity stood out as messy and physical compared to the Machines’ clinical artificiality, but the premise of the party raised eyebrows.


The party had been called to show the Machines that humans weren’t afraid, according to Morpheus, but this wouldn’t work if the party was finished by the time the Machines got there. Primarily though, the rave’s organization in response to the emergency of impending attack from the Machines seemed somewhat lacking in foresight. If there was anything at all to do to help prevent collateral damage from this attack, Zion’s residents were dancing instead of doing it.

5 Neo And Trinity Flying Over The Scorched Sky

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

The Matrix had referenced a “scorched sky” as one of the defining features of its dystopia, but this sky didn’t look so scorched in The Matrix Revolutions. Neo and Trinity flew the Logos above the clouds in a redemptive moment that proved that the beauty of the sun was still reachable, if only just. This in itself wasn’t the plot hole, as the Matrix explained over the franchise that the “scorched sky” was a buildup of artificial clouds.


Humanity created these artificial storm clouds to block off the Machines’ access to the sun because they were operating off solar power. This held true when the Logos flew above the clouds – sentinels fell away from the ship, unable to follow. However, the Machines were far more advanced than humanity and were also said to be exploring outer space, creating the mysterious plot hole of why they couldn’t transcend these clouds.

4 Sati And Her Parents

The Matrix Revolutions (2003)

Sati in The Matrix.


Sati was a character who played into the themes of the wider Matrix story but presented some mysteries on examination. Sati was smuggled by her parents into the Matrix due to being at threat of deletion as a purposeless program. But it wasn’t clear what led to her existence as a purposeless program, beyond her parents creating her. Sati’s purposelessness obviously symbolized the human trait of love finally making an appearance in Machine life.

…Sati was an apt foreshadowing of the direction that the Matrix was headed in.

This would make sense if Sati was born after Neo’s sacrifice, reflecting the change he had made to imprint love onto the system. But Sati appeared to exist before this, raising the question of how the Machines failed to predict Neo’s action if they were capable of “purposeless” love all along. Despite this, Sati was an apt foreshadowing of the direction that the Matrix was headed in.


3 Humans Scorching The Sky

The Matrix (1999)

Morpheus explained the post-apocalyptic environment of the Matrix to Neo, but it didn’t hold up well to scrutiny. Morpheus clarified that Machines warred with humans to destroy the climate – “we don’t know who struck first, us or them. But we do know it was us that scorched the sky.” Humans struck because “at the time, [Machines] were dependent on solar power.”


This desperate act seemed like mutually assured destruction since humans are also dependent on the sun. Morpheus went on to claim that “it was believed [Machines] would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun.” But humans, relying on food grown on an earth reliant on photosynthesis, were far more reliant on the sun as a source of sustenance than Machines, making this act completely non-sensical.

2 Trinity Coming Back To Life

The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

The Matrix Resurrections was a flabbergasting spectacle in many ways, and Trinity’s resurrection was one of its most surprising elements. It was a delight to see such beloved characters return to screens, and it was cathartic to see Trinity and Neo get the happy ending they deserved. But Trinity and Neo’s resurrection constituted some of the more challenging plot points of the movie, with Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity experiencing an unlikely plot twist.


For Neo to be revived following some recoding just about escaped incredulity after his mind was destroyed by Smith’s viral onslaught in The Matrix Revolutions. But Trinity was killed very physically near the end of the final movie of the original trilogy, and the Machines managed to resurrect her in her entirety. Although The Matrix is set in the future, this sci-fi necromancy went fairly unexplained, apart from a resurrection pod that was capable of restoring Trinity to life.

1 The Agents’ Body-Jumping

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)


Hugo Weaving’s inimitable Agent Smith is one of cinema’s most iconic villains, but Smith’s body-jumping ability presented something of a plot hole. Set against Smith’s many comprehensible powers, his capacity to transfer himself to multiple bodies within the Matrix was astounding. This ability, which developed in the original trilogy’s final two movies, seemed to make Smith all-powerful. Despite this, Smith was confirmed not to be omnipotent or omniscient.

Smith could jump from body to body in the Matrix, rendering it unclear how he hadn’t defeated Neo and Trinity sooner. As a virus, Smith spread faster, and the Smith clones presented an even greater threat to Neo and his crew. But if Smith could possess most bodies in The Matrix, he had numerous opportunities to intercept the movies’ protagonists and beat them. Nonetheless, the movies made Smith’s power appear seamless, and only questionable under very close inspection.


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