Neo (The Matrix)
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Neo, also known as Thomas A Anderson, (born March 11, 1962 in Capital City, by the Matrix's reckoning) is the central fictional character in the movies The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions. He is sometimes referred to as The One and within the Matrix discovers he has extraordinary abilities which he can use to further the cause of a free humanity. In all three movies he is played by Keanu Reeves. The name "Thomas Anderson" is likely a reference to the main character from It Conquered the World, Tom Anderson.
Neo and the world of the Matrix
- (For details of the plot and of the Matrix series itself, see The Matrix)
The character Neo lives in the world of the Matrix, an illusory construct in which humans are neurally connected to a gigantic computer system which simulates the world of the late 20th century. This system has been developed by intelligent machines to keep the human population as tools for the machines survival - the machines use human energy as their energy source, their previous solar energy source having been cut off by humans during the war between the humans and the machines.
Those who live their entire lives connected to the Matrix are unaware that their reality is not in fact real, nor that there is a human rebellion by the few 'free' humans in the city of Zion. From time to time, individuals are freed from the Matrix, a risky and complex operation.
There is a legend or prophecy amongst free humans (which some believe and others scorn) that there is a human who, when connected to the Matrix, can override its computer-created simulated rules, and perceive and manipulate its code directly, and thus seemingly, within the simulated reality of the Matrix, they would appear to be able to perform miracles. This person is called in myth, "The One." His (or her) finding is the subject of a lifelong quest by Morpheus, an admired ship's captain of the Zion fleet, assisted by Trinity and the rest of his crew. It is said in legend that The One will bring the perpetual war between Man and Machine to an end.
The truth behind this 'prophecy' remains simple; Neo is a systemic anomaly, a variant of the equations the entire source code is based on. These erroneous humans are freed and are isolated from the system in the city of Zion. But the variant that needs to balance the equation as always, becomes "The One".
The word 'Neo' is an anagram of the word 'One.' Neo is also Greek for 'new,' suggesting messianic overtones for his mission in the Matrix.
In The Matrix
At the start of the series, Thomas Anderson is one amongst billions of humans asleep, neurally connected to the Matrix, unaware that the world he lives in is anything other than it appears. In this simulated world, he lives a double life. In his legitimate activities, he is a quiet programmer "program writer" for the "respectable software company" Metacortex. Anderson is also a computer hacker who penetrates computer systems illicitly and steals information, and under his hacker alias "Neo", Anderson is guilty of "virtually every computer crime there is a law for." During his time as a hacker, Anderson learns about something known only as "The Matrix". Although Anderson had no idea what it is or what relevance it had with him, he knew that it was something of great importance. So during the years prior to the events of The Matrix, he spent his time trying to find the one man who he thought can answer his question: a supposed "terrorist" known only as Morpheus. But what Anderson didn't know, however, was that Morpheus had been looking for him as well, and apparently for a longer period of time too.
Morpheus identified Anderson as being the person within the Matrix who he believes to be The One. But the machines have tapped the line, and Anderson is therefore found, almost simultaneously, by the deadly Agents as well. The Agents are intelligent programs which appear as humanoid FBI-style government agents within the simulated reality. They enter the Matrix as needed, in order to protect it, by killing any humans who might interfere with it or learn of its true nature.
Anderson is contacted by Morpheus, but rapidly captured by the Agents. Agent Smith peruses a file (Matrix DVD time index 00:17:41) on "Thomas A Anderson". File contents follow:
The Agents' File
Note: What follows is a transcription of the database file used by Agent Smith while interrogating Neo briefly before bugging him.
3809940TAA DATABASE RECORD SECURITY CLEARANCE FACTOR 7 Date of last amendment or addition: 22 July, 1998 Personal Details Name: Thomas A Anderson Date of Birth: 1962-03-11 Place of Birth: Lower Downtown, Capital City FU, USA Mother's maiden name: Michelle McGahey Father's Name: John Anderson Marital status: Single Education Record Schools attended: Central West Junior High School Owen Paterson High High School Record Anderson excelled in the sciences, mathematics and computer courses. He also displayed some aptitude for English and History. After some trouble with disci- pline at the age of 13-14, Anderson settled down to become a fairly well-regarded member of the school community. This was mainly due to an increased involvement in sports, especially football and hockey.
The remainder of the first page of the file is not shown in sufficient detail for transcription. More information is provided in another page in the file from what looks like a passport:
United States of America * Anderson Thomas A ** ****** ** Capital City USA
Refusing to co-operate with the agents, he has an electronic bug implanted within his matrix-simulated body, so that his actions can be tracked and those seeking to make contact from the free world can be traced and destroyed. However they have underestimated his importance. He is re-contacted by Trinity, the bug removed, and taken to meet Morpheus.
Anderson, who they call by the name Neo, is offered the choice to remain in his everyday life, or to see reality, and learn what the Matrix is. Accepting, he takes a drug designed to disrupt his body's neural connect to the Matrix, and wakes up disoriented and alarmed to find himself weak and naked in a pod of liquid connected to many wires. As the Machines have no use for awakened humans, he is swept automatically into the sewers to be processed into raw nutrients, which is where Morpheus and Trinity catch, retrieve and rescue these unplugged humans for the rebellion.
Neo's adventures begin shortly after he is rescued and his body is repaired from years in the power-plant. Once Neo regains consciousness and is able to walk around, Morpheus tells Neo the truth about the Matrix, about the real world, and about the fate of humanity. At first Neo refuses to believe any of it, but he ultimately realizes that the Matrix was not real, and that he could not go back, no matter how bad he may want to. After recovering from his initial shock, Morpheus also tells Neo about the prophecy of the One, and how he believes that Neo is the One. The next day, Neo begins his "training", becoming knowledgable in many forms of combat by simply having various training programs uploaded directly into his brain. He also receives further instruction from Morpheus on subjects such as "freeing his mind" and Agents.
After a few days aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, Neo is taken to meet the Oracle, who has the power of foresight within the simulated world. She tells him that he has the "gift", but appeared to be waiting for something—"Your next life, maybe. Who knows?" Neo infers incorrectly that the Oracle has said that he is not the One. The Oracle warns him that an event will come where he will have to choose between his own life or that of Morpheus, and that one of them will die.
On their way back to the phone, the crew of Morpheus' ship are betrayed by their fellow comrade, Cypher, and in the battle, Morpheus is captured and held by Agents within the Matrix. Just barely escaping certain death at the hands of Cypher, Neo and Trinity learn that the Agents seek to force Morpheus to tell them the access codes to the Zion mainframe. At first they decide to take the safest course of action by unplugging his mind while he is still jacked into the Matrix, thus killing him. It is then that Neo realizes that this was what the Oracle had told him about, and he decides that he must go save Morpheus. With Trinity at his side, Neo fights his way through the heavily-armed guards that were stationed throughout the building. They make it up to the roof level of the building only to be confronted by Agent Jones. Neo unloads an entire clip of ammo on Jones only to have every one of them be dodged effortlessly. But once Jones returns fire, Neo proves to be capable of dodging bullets himself, moving in a way that only Agents were thought to be capable of moving. Then, using an armed chopper, Neo and Trinity successfully rescue Morpheus from the floor of the building that he was on. Having just completed a successful rescue mission in a building protected by heavily armed guards and agents, a feat never before achieved, Morpheus takes this as confirmative evidence that Neo is indeed The One, asking Trinity, "Do you believe it now?" dismissing the Oracle's words by saying that she merely told him, "exactly what you needed to hear, nothing more." He further elaborates, "Neo, soon you're going to realize just as I did, there is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path."
(This can be interpreted to mean that because Neo thought he wasn't the One as the Oracle told him, he acted in a different way than what was expected and sacrificed his life for Morpheus. This led to an ironic chain of events that unwittingly made him The One because he originally thought he wasn't)
Reaching the hard line, Morpheus and Trinity manage to return to the real world, but Neo is trapped by Agent Smith. Rather than run, Neo decides to stand his ground and fight Smith. Neo skillfully engages Smith in combat, almost seeming to be Smith's equal. In the end, however, he is overcome by Smith's brute strength and superior understanding of how to bend the rules of the Matrix, but Neo is able to subdue him, striking him down in front of an oncoming train. But Smith takes over the body of the engineer, and emerges from the train. Realizing that this was a fight that he could not win, Neo runs.
Neo is pursued by Smith and his fellow Agents, but Neo is able to outrun them and make it to the location of the hard line... only to be ambushed and shot to death by Smith. When this happens to a person's mind and neural connections within the simulated reality of the Matrix, their body outside the Matrix also dies. Trinity, seeing Neo's body dying with his mind still in the Matrix, tells his apparently lifeless body that he cannot die - she loves him - and that the Oracle had foretold that she would fall in love with The One. Slipping into death, Neo's mind realizes that he doesn't need to die. He doesn't have to believe in the compelling reality of the simulation or that the Agents have killed him. He can choose to realize it truly is an illusion, and that as a result, his death is an illusion. He rises, and the Agents, stunned, attempt to shoot him down again. But this time he doesn't believe it can truly harm him. He sees the simulation for what it is, simulated bullets in a simulated reality, his mind against the artificial mind of the machines. He simply holds out his hand, and the bullets stop, suspended in mid-air, and then drop to the ground. Then he looks at his surroundings and realizes that he can see the Matrix code that makes up everything around him. Coming to believe more fully in his newfound powers, he effortlessly fends off Agent Smith before diving into the Agent's simulated body to destroy him from within.
Neo is then seen leaving a message for the machines via phone, one that they are inexplicably unable to trace:
"I know you're out there. I can feel you now. I know that you're afraid... you're afraid of us. You're afraid of change. I don't know the future. I didn't come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it's going to begin. I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to show these people what you don't want them to see. I'm going to show them a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."
In The Matrix Reloaded
Approximately six months go by between the events of The Matrix and the second film, The Matrix Reloaded. Neo is now fully confident in his ability to manipulate the artificial world within the Matrix – he can fly, has immense strength and speed, has telekinetic and healing abilities, and is nearly invulnerable. Aside from these incredible powers, Neo, using his code vision, can see through solid objects like X-Ray vision, which also makes sneaking up on him impossible. He and Trinity are now lovers. Dispensing with the long black trenchcoat and black shirt he wears at the conclusion of The Matrix, Neo prefers a long coat with a high-rise mandarin collar that greatly resembles a cassock.
Neo seeks more advice from the Oracle, unsure of his purpose, while Zion prepares for a massive attack from the Machines of over 250,000 Sentinels, machines who are able to fly and kill, and act as autonomous seek and destroy machines against Zion's fleet. The Oracle directs him on a quest to find The Keymaker, a personification of a matrix program that has access to numerous backdoors within the system. The Keymaker will be able to lead Neo safely to the Source, the programming heart of the machine world which actually contains the programs sustaining the Matrix illusion.
As the Oracle leaves, Agent Smith (now just Smith) appears, and a dramatic change becomes apparent. Somehow, in entering Smith's form from within, Neo discovers that he has separated Smith from the rest of the Matrix code, giving him a life within the Matrix systems independent of the machine's systems. Agent Smith is no longer an Agent of the Matrix, he has become more virus-like, able to insert his code into other systems, and infect other programs and human minds to make repeated clones of himself. Neo easily fends off 250 of the Smith clones, before he, Morpheus and Trinity steal the Keymaker from behind the back of his keeper, The Merovingian.
The Keymaker explains that two power stations elsewhere in the Matrix must be disabled in a short time window to disable the security system and allow Neo to reach the Source. "Only The One can enter that door, and only during that time frame can the door be opened." This task is accomplished, but not without the Keymaker being killed, another ship's destruction, and Trinity in mortal jeopardy by Agents in the Matrix—a vision that Neo saw earlier in his dreams. Entering the door, Neo finds himself confronted by the The Architect, a personification of the systems which create and design successive versions of the Matrix.
Neo finally learns the truth behind his existence. He discovers that he is actually the sixth "One". Zion has been destroyed by the machines five times before, and faced with the dilemma of allowing humanity to be destroyed, or allowing the machines' preferred status quo to be reconstructed, Neo's five predecessors have helped reload, or restart the Matrix, before being allowed to rebuild Zion with a handful of freed humans. The productive output of the Matrix is based upon this repeated cycle of destruction and recreation, to keep the human minds which power it in a stable structure. The Oracle is as much part of that self-perpetuating design as the Architect, Neo discovers, and the prophecy of The One is designed to ensure it runs smoothly each time.
The Architect warns of the annihilation of all human life in and out of the Matrix if he did not enter the Source door to reload the Matrix, but unlike his predecessors, Neo does not enter the door to the Source; he chooses not to believe the Architect's dire warnings of consequences, and to save Trinity, his love, from certain death instead.
Together, they exit the simulation of the Matrix, and return to the real world. Neo tells Morpheus that the Prophecy was merely another system of control emplaced upon them, and that Zion's destruction is somewhat imminent. However, they are given no time to ponder their current predicament, as group of Sentinels begin to close in on the ship. Neo and the others are forced to abandon the Nebuchadnezzar, and attempt to make a run for it. But suddenly Neo stops, he then turns to Trinity and says, "Something's different, I can feel them." Just as the Sentinels approach, Neo discovers within himself a new talent, that he can influence them in the real world, just like he influences objects in the simulated Matrix world.
The effort is extreme, or the connection has an effect on him too: the Sentinels destroyed, he drops to the floor, unconscious. He and the crew are rescued by the hovercraft Hammer, who are dealing with a mystery of their own: Bane, a crewmember from another ship, who is the only survivor of an ill-fated attack by the Zion fleet. Unbeknownst to anyone, the body of Bane has become caught and infected by a copy of the Smith system, which has allowed Smith to survive and used Bane's connection to the Matrix to infect his mind, and bring the Smith program into the real world in Bane's mind...
In The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Revolutions picks up immediately after the events of the second movie. As a result of his struggle with the Sentinels, Neo returns to consciousness to find himself caught in an isolated limbo only accessible by order of the Merovingian, on the fringes of the Matrix, from which his mind is unable to free itself. Told by The Trainman (a servant of the Merovingian) that he could be left there for eternity, he remains trapped until freed by Trinity who threatens the Merovingian in a Mexican standoff unless Neo is freed.
Neo determines, through his new foresight abilities, that in truth the Oracle's prophecy was correct: The One was determined to return to the Source to stop the war. However, it was the Architect that altered the prophecy and forced Neo's predecessors to end their path with Zion's destruction and the reloading of the Matrix. After a final visit with the Oracle, Neo learns it is not the approaching Sentinels that he should worry about, but Smith, whose clones are multiplying and will bring about a fatal crash of the Matrix, killing all humans and programs inside it, as well as seriously damaging the very power needed for the Machine City to survive. Furthermore, building on the Oracle's previous explanations about the nature of choice, Neo learns that the Architect's assertion that his choice to save Trinity would inherently lead to the extinction of mankind was incorrect. The Oracle states that, "You and I may not be able to see past our own choices, but that man can't see past any choice," due to his nature as a purely mathematical being. Informing Neo that he now has the power to choose to end the war and defeat Smith, she relates, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo." Neo must return to the Source--in this case, the heavily-guarded Machine City, in hopes of stopping the Sentinels and Smith.
Neo and Trinity are given the Logos, a hovercraft commanded by Morpheus's former love, Niobe, in what seems to others as a suicidal journey to the Machine City. Meanwhile, Captain Roland and the surviving Nebuchadnezzar crew of Link and Morpheus in the hovercraft Hammer, attempt to return to Zion, now besieged and losing in the Machines' attack. Neo and Trinity are ambushed by the stowaway Bane/Smith, who blinds Neo, but is killed when Neo discovers he can still see Smith's aura with a mysterious third-sight granted by his powers. Neo, with Trinity as pilot, guide the Logos past the Machine City's defenses, but in the effort the Logos crash-lands, and Trinity sustains fatal injuries and dies, leaving Neo alone to face the machine city.
Neo encounters the Deus Ex Machina, a Machine construct, and barters for peace between Man and Machine if he can stop Smith, who has turned all Matrix inhabitants into clones of himself and threatens not only a Matrix system crash, but an invasion of Smith's infectious code into the Machine City itself. The offer is accepted; Neo enters the Matrix one final time, to find that the Smith program has cloned itself throughout the simulated world, and has turned it into a rainswept dark simulation where copies of Smith, and little else, exists. One of the copies of Smith steps forward to fight Neo, and appears to have finally achieved the greater powers within the Matrix to do so (Smith had assimilated the Oracle, gaining her powers). The two engage in a seemingly never ending battle between two forces of equal might. The cataclysmic fight leaves the two at an equal standpoint, with Smith unable to defeat Neo, while Neo himself realizing that fighting would not win this battle. Having nothing left to lose personally (with Trinity's death) and everything to gain for humanity and Machine, Neo intentionally sacrifices himself to Smith and allows Smith to seize victory by finally infecting Neo with the Smith program and turning Neo's mind and body into a Smith clone. But even as he succeeds, and the newly created Smith clone laughs with victory, he then removes his sunglasses, the new clone begins to explode, and all the other incarnations of Smith in the Matrix do likewise. Finally, the virus-like Smith program is fully eliminated from the Matrix software.
This process of Smith's destruction apparently destroys Neo's consciousness as well. Neo's body is taken away reverently by the Machines in the Machine City, while, below in Zion, the Machines stop their attack and retreat, in deference to the peace that Neo bartered. As well as peace, Neo had also negotiated that any human minds that become aware of the nature of the Matrix, will be allowed to be freed without interference.
As the movie ends, we see a black cat walking down a destroyed sidewalk. It stops, appears to digitize as the Matrix itself is reloaded or restarted, and repeats and resumes its business. (This was an allusion to a scene where Neo sees a black cat appear twice in The Matrix, an indication that something has been changed within the Matrix code. To Neo, it was a déjà vu experience.).
Sati, a young program smuggled into the Matrix, awakes, meets with the Oracle, and creates a colorful sunrise in honor of Neo. Sati asks if we will see Neo again. The Oracle says, "I suspect so". When Neo's body is being carried off by the machines after the battle, we get a glimpse of the yellow aura vision of the machine world. Unlike his earlier dark figure, Neo is shining brightly in this scene.
Powers and abilities
Neo possesses extraordinary powers inside the Matrix, such as telekinesis, which allows Neo to levitate, move, lift, and even split objects. By levitating himself Neo can fly at amazing speeds and jump great distances. Whilst his speed is never specified, he flies from The Merovingian's mountain manor to the highway "500 miles due south" in less than 15 minutes, implying that his "cruising speed" is in excess of three times the speed of sound. Further, Neo possesses superhuman strength and agility, and is able to brush off attacks that would kill or disable a normal human being with relative ease. However, his strength and endurance has limits. Even though he could block a sword with the edge of his hand, he received a small cut, indicating that he was still human despite his powers. He can also dodge bullets in a manner similar to the Agents (or stop them outright with his telekinesis). Neo seems to be a master of several martial arts, including Jujitsu, Kenpo, and Taekwondo, as well as possessing the ability to return people to life (though the extent and limits of this ability are not known), and has a limited form of precognition. Neo is also an extremely powerful reality warper.
For unknown reasons, in the real world, Neo can sense the presence of the Machines, as well as interfere with their function. Additionally, his sight is augmented in a similar, yet differing, manner to that of his 'Matrix vision'; in the Matrix films, this is depicted by a bright, coruscating corona of light surrounding a given object.
Neo's legacy
In the MMORPG sequel, The Matrix Online, the remains of Neo's 'RSI' (Residual Self Image) are encoded into a new form of false Agents made by an Exile named Silver.
Later in the storyline of The Matrix Online, Morpheus argues with the Oracle that the Machines have never returned Neo's physical remains (Thomas Anderson's actual body) to Zion, but at the same time they cryptically commented that they didn't "recycle" them (a reference to the first film, in which Morpheus tells Neo that the machines liquefy deceased occupants of the Matrix to provide organic sustenance for its living inhabitants). On top of this, there was a newspaper clipping of a woman who woke up from a coma and left the hospital bypassing all security guards. The name of the woman was Sarah Edmontons, which is an anagram of Thomas Anderson. Walrus, the game producer, has not given any outright answers, but stated that Edmontons will play a role in future events.
See also
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- Articles lacking sources from June 2006
- Fictional hackers
- Fictional characters with telekinesis
- Fictional characters with the power to fly
- Fictional characters with precognition
- Fictional characters with superhuman strength
- Fictional characters who can move at superhuman speeds
- Fictional technopaths
- Matrix characters