Political Psychology of "The Matrix Resurrections"

The Wachowskis’ new movie, The Matrix Resurrections, had a lot to reckon with, from Neo and Trinity’s deaths at the end of the 2003 Matrix franchise, to the new virtual reality we are all living in, to the seeping of the Matrix’ metaphors into politics and culture. QAnon, a political movement spawned online from chatrooms and encrypted platforms that engulfed millions of followers around the world, co-opted the Matrix’s “Red Pill” to signify an awakening into their alternative reality: a secret cabal of pedophiles and Satan worshippers, lizard people, space lasers, and microchipped vaccines. Another online space marked by identity politics, Incels (involuntarily celibates), evolved the “Red Pill” into “Black Pill,” a term to denote their beliefs about the society’s deterministic views on mate values rooted in good looks and misogyny. The Wachowskis cheekily showcase their awareness of this, referencing a “handsome Chad”—an Incel term for high-value males who squeeze less fortunate men out of the meet market.

It had to feel surreal to the creators of the Matrix to witness their art pop up in politics, inspiring real people to real action––though perhaps not the kind of action they aimed to inspire. In a meta, mind-warping sequence, they answer this question through Neo, who is now living as a real-world creator of “Matrix,” an online gaming platform. Once reawakened, he’s trying to come to grips with how he ended up re-enslaved by the Matrix, his life turned into a game. That’s what the Matrix does, his liberator tells him, it takes your greatest achievement and trivializes it. For Wachowskis, this is art imitating life imitating art.

The new Matrix is no longer the rigid structure erected by The Architect, but a flexible, psychologically astute mirage cast by The Analyst. The machines have gotten smarter. The Agents are now assisted by Bots—regular people who can be made to act in the interest of the Matrix. There are many more of them, and they are less costly to maintain than Agents, we are told. The violent mobs that swarm and try to kill Neo and his friends share a digital code scrolling over their glossy eyes. It’s hard to ignore the parallels to recent political events, including the January 6th storming of Capitol Hill, inspired and orchestrated by online activity.

The human world of the last Matrix movie has changed, too, with sentient digital beings making life better, more colorful, and palatable. Fighting the machines doesn’t seem to be the way anymore. Fighting in general, it seems, is a thing of the past Matrices. Neo, who in the old movies boasted superhuman feats of strength and power, now rejects violence. Pummeled over and over in a fighting simulation game, he turns the other cheek, saying to Morpheus-2, “You don’t know me.”

The Wachowskis, it seems, have abandoned their old prescriptions for societal ills. Instead of fighting the machines, humans rely on them in their new movie. Liberating as many souls as possible no longer seems to be the goal. When the Analyst says, “the sheeple don’t want freedom; they want to be controlled,” Neo and Trinity don’t argue. Instead of destroying the Matrix, Neo and Trinity plan to “change a few things.”

Fighting is not the answer. Neither is opening the eyes of multitudes. What, then, is the goal?

Perhaps one clue is the new portal from the Matrix into the real world. Replacing telephone landlines of the old movies, the way to human reality in the new Matrix is through a mirror. Seeing yourself for who you are beneath the public persona is the first step to freedom. Shedding the names others give us, Thomas Anderson or Tiffany, shedding the roles we play, even the highly valued roles of a famous web designer or a devoted wife and mother, is the way to our real self.

Another clue is that all the Agents in the Matrix are White men, while the people fighting the good fight are women and people of color. Do not expect a savior, especially not a White Male Savior, the movie hints. “I’ve never believed in the One,” says Neo. Proving his point, when it matters most, it is women who carry Neo, quite literally: through their creative genius; on a motorbike; or by the hand while flying through the air. The movie chips away at the myths that enslave our minds.

But the biggest bang in the new Matrix (again, literally) comes from human connection. Hands touching hands. Neo’s hand touching Trinity’s. The new Matrix runs on people’s unsatisfied yearning for each other. Reaching beyond cunning algorithms, beyond avatars and monetized narratives––to our authentic selves, seeing others for who they are, and connecting with them is the way out. For whatever it's worth, as a social scientist studying mass psychology, radicalization, and online disinformation, I couldn’t agree more.