In a world of Keymakers linking portals throughout the interface, albino twins ghosting between corporeal and non-corporeal states and programs that could divine the future, The Matrix universe hosted a wide array of powers. At the time of Neo’s death in The Matrix Revolutions, he had mastered several abilities unique to his character.
Outside of the Matrix, he could empathically resonate with aspects of the 01 world, destroy hundreds of machine constructs simply by concentrating on them and experience his environment in a thermal spectrum despite the loss of his eyes. Within the Matrix, he could enter into programs and trigger their destruction, revive flatlined users and fly at speeds capable of creating localized gravitational effects. The new trailer for The Matrix Resurrections hints at other ways that Neo, and perhaps Trinity as well, can defy the laws of the Matrix.
After his first death at the hands of Agent Smith, Neo was reborn with the ability to perceive the code of the Matrix and respond to its programs with a speed they could not hope to match. In addition, he was able to dampen the inertia of projectiles, rendering their momentum inert. In the trailer, Neo is able to use this “technokinesis” to redirect rockets with a high degree of accuracy. Notably, the signature rooftop bullet dodge from the first Matrix film was teased in a trailer months before the theatrical release. Providing a glimpse of his talents in no way prepared the audience for how powerful Neo would become, so this enhancement, expansive as it is, could be just a fraction of his upper limits.
There are a few instances where Neo summons some sort of white energy that repulses those around him: once in the lake dojo while sparring with a young Morpheus and again while fending off almost two dozen members of an armed SWAT team. For a brief moment, there is also an image of Neo clasping someone’s hand and this energy is present between their clasped fingers. In The Matrix Reloaded, white energy was paired with the Architect, the program that conceived of and built the Matrix. Considering that Neo ultimately died while tethered to the Machine City’s nerve center, there could be a thematic connection between himself and powers of creation within the boundaries of the interface.
This tracks with established dynamic laws presented through the franchise’s world-building. Agent Smith tells Neo that his ability to absorb entities within the Matrix came to be because of Neo annihilating his code. The remnant reconstituted itself as a new Agent Smith that became a plague neither the machines nor mankind had any safeguards against. Smith extrapolated portions of Neo’s code, meshed it with his own fragments, and became something entirely new and more fearsome, so the same could be true of Neo’s own demise while linked to the core AI.
Neo at one point observes a mirrored surface where an older version of himself ripples in the distortions. The Oracle was able to parse probabilities to make reliable predictions. Perhaps Neo has gained some degree of oracular perception, which again has a precedent. When Smith absorbed the Oracle, he was able to see into likely futures, though his ability was obviously somewhat limited, and Neo did not absorb the Oracle. Instead, he was linked to the “mother” code, which may carry constituent portions of other powerful programs. The visions of himself in the mirror may be a glimmer of emerging seer sight.
In one scene, Neo and Trinity are looking at one another and lines of code are visible, cascading in her face. This could be the latest expression of his ability to discern the truth within the labyrinth of the machine’s deceptions, or it could denote Trinity’s existence being rooted in the Matrix in a new way, given that her physical body died in the real world. The Trinity interacting with Neo in The Matrix Resurrections could be a simulacrum generated entirely by the machines and so he perceives her differently. There is also a scene where Trinity is harnessed in a pod, slick with neo-natal slime, that suggests her presence is very real. If that’s the case, then maybe she is a clone built from Trinity’s genetic code, which given the previous iterations described by the Architect and the service the One is meant to provide, makes a certain kind of sense. Bereft of an Oracle, or an older, wiser version of Morpheus to guide them, it will be interesting to see these characters discern the truth of these potential abilities on their own, or with new guidance.
Finally, one scene in the Matrix Resurrections trailer shows Trinity screaming alongside splintered images of herself, some of which don’t resemble her very closely. This could be her gathering some power siphoned from all of her iterations, past, present and future. Or it could simply be an interesting kaleidoscopic rendering of her reacting to something, or someone, in a visually powerful way.
Directed by Lana Wachowski, Matrix Resurrections arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on Dec. 22.
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