Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive.

         Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.

Thomas A Anderson is a computer programmer who leads a double life as a hacker, using the alias of Neo. After years on his computer one question burns continually....what is the Matrix???? However after receiving a cryptic message to 'follow the white rabbit' he ends up meeting a female who may have the answer, and lafter attending work the following day he is caught by some sinister agents who are searching for the individuals he met the previosu evening. Eventually Neo meets with a male he had heard a great deal about, a man who may be able to answer his question: Morpheus.

Morpheus gives neo an option - he takes the blue pill and he wil wake up and remember nothing. However if he takes the red pill he will learn what the matrix actually is.....and he takes the latter. When he wakes up he is naked and in somke form of liquid filled chamber; his body seems to be connected to a mechanical tower by numerous wires. The connections are severed as he awakens and he is rescued by Morpheus and taken aboard his hovercraft, the Nebuchadnezzer. Neo's body, in poor condition as it has never been used, is painstakenly restored and Morpheus is given the opportnity to explain. He tells Neo that the year is probably near to 2199 and humanity is at war with intellegent machines. He tells Neo that the sky is schorched, created by humanitys war with the machnes, and that the machines responded by using human beings as their energy source (no solar energy), growing countless humans in pods and harvesting their bio-electrical energy and body heat.  The world which Neo has inhabited since birth is the matrix, an illusory simulated reality construct of the world of 1999, developed by the machines to keep the human population docile. Morpheus and his crew are a group of free humans who "unplug" others from the Matrix and recruit them to their resistance against the machines. Within the Matrix they are able to use their understanding of its nature to bend the laws of physics within the simulation, giving them powerful abilities. Morpheus believes that Neo is "the One", a man prophesied to end the war through his limitless control over the Matrix.

Initially Neo struggles to come to terms with his new environment and the revelation that his world is a lie....A socket to the back of his skull, used to assimilate him to the matrix,is used to upload knowledge and skills into his mind. Among his new found knowledge is the use oif various martial arts skills, and a battle with Morpheus impresses the rest of the crew. He also learns of the dangers of the matrix - if he dies in the matrix his physical body also dies. He is told of the agents of the matrix, powerful and fast sentient programmes, with the ability to take over the body of anyone still connected to the system, whose purpose is to seek out and eliminate any threats to the simulation. Yet Morpheus predicts that, once Neo fully understands his own abilities as "the One", they will be no match for him.

The group enters the Matrix and takes Neo to the apartment of the Oracle, the woman who predicted the eventual emergence of the One. She implies that he is not the One, then adds that Morpheus believes in Neo so blindly that he will sacrifice his life to save him. Returning to the hacked telephone line which serves as a safe "exit" from the Matrix, the group is ambushed by Agents and police officers, and Morpheus is captured in an attempt to save Neo. The group discover that they had been betrayed by one of ts own members, Cypher, who had been promised a return to the matrix and untold wealth in return for turning his friends over to agents. His betrayl lead to the death of all the team apart from Neo, Trinity, Tank and the captured Morpheus - and so Neo and Trinity mount a rescue mission. The agents want the access codes to the mainframe of Zion, the humans refuge deep underground, and Morpheus can provide this for them.

However they have not banked on Neo, who has become more confident and familiar with manipulating the Matrix, ultimately dodging bullets fired at him by an Agent. Morpheus and Trinity use a subway station telephone to exit the Matrix, but before Neo can leave, he is ambushed by Agent Smith. He stands his ground and eventually defeats Smith, but flees when the Agent possesses another body.

As Neo runs through the city pursued by the Agents, "Sentinel" machines converge on the Nebuchadnezzar's position in the real world. Neo reaches an exit, but he is shot dead by the waiting Agent Smith. Trinity whispers to Neo that she loves him and refuses to accept his death, then kisses him. Neo's heart beats again, and within the Matrix he stands up; the Agents shoot at him, but he raises his palm and stops their bullets in mid-air. Neo sees the Matrix as it really is, lines of streaming green code: he finally becomes "the One". Agent Smith makes a final attempt to physically attack him, but his punches are effortlessly blocked, and Neo destroys him. The other two Agents flee, and Neo returns to the real world just in time for the ship's EMP weapon to destroy the Sentinels that had already breached the hull of the ship. Neo is now free to enter the matrix and free more people.....

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