The Animatrix (2003)

The Animatrix is a 2003 adult animated science fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. The film details through nine animated short films the backstory of The Matrix film series, including the original war between humanity and machines which led to the creation of the titular Matrix, in addition to providing side stories that expand the universe and tie into the film series. Since the anthology’s release, multiple franchises have partaken in similar projects over the years.

01: The Second Renaissance Part I. In the mid twenty-first century, humanity falls victim to its vanity and corruption. They develop artificial intelligence, and soon build an entire race of sentient AI robots to serve them. Many of the robots are domestic servants meant to interact with humans, so they are built in “man’s own image” (in a humanoid form). With increasing numbers of people released from all labor, much of the human population has become slothful, conceited, and corrupt. Despite this, the machines were content with serving humanity.

02: The Second Renaissance Part II. The United Nations dispatch their aircraft to unleash a massive nuclear bombardment on Zero One, devastating the nation but failing to wipe out the robotic race as the machines, unlike their former masters, were much less harmed by the radiation and heat. Shortly after, Zero One retaliates by declaring war on the rest of the world; one by one, mankind surrenders each of its territories. As the machines advance into Eastern Europe, the desperate human leaders seek a final solution, codenamed “Operation Dark Storm”, which covers the sky in a shroud of nanites, blocking out the sun to deprive the machines of solar energy, their primary energy source; inevitably, it also initiates a worldwide famine and total collapse of the biosphere.

03: Program. Program follows the protagonist, Cis, who is engaged in her favorite training simulation: a battle program set in feudal Japan. After she successfully eliminates an attacking enemy cavalry while playing as a samurai woman, a lone, male samurai appears whom Cis recognizes as Duo. Initially, the two duel as allies, testing one another’s fighting abilities. During the course of their duel, Duo briefly disarms Cis. He questions her concentration and wonders whether she regrets taking the Red Pill that took them out of the “peaceful life of the virtual world”.

04: World Record. The beginning of this short includes a short narration from the Instructor (implying that this short is a Zion Archive file) explaining details behind the discovery of the Matrix by “plugged-in” humans. Only exceptional humans tend to become aware of the Matrix, those who have “a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature”, all qualities which are used to identify inconsistencies in the Matrix. This is not without exceptions, given that “some attain this wisdom through wholly different means.”

05: Kid’s Story. Kid’s Story is the only one of the animated shorts contained in The Animatrix in which Neo appears. The story takes place during the six-month gap between The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, where Neo has joined the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and is helping the rebels free other humans from the Matrix. Kid, who was formerly known as Michael Karl Popper, is a disaffected teenager who feels there is something wrong with the world.

06: Beyond. Beyond follows a teenage girl, Yoko, looking for her cat Yuki. While asking around the neighborhood, which is somewhere in Mega City that resembles Japan, she meets a group of young boys. One of them tells her that Yuki is inside a nearby haunted house where they usually play. The haunted house is an old run-down building filled with an amalgamation of anomalies, which are revealed to be glitches in the Matrix, that the children have stumbled across. They have learned to exploit them for their own enjoyment, through several areas which seem to defy real-world physics.

07: A Detective Story. Set in a dystopian future, the story follows a private detective, Ash, who dreamed of following the steps of hard-boiled characters Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe but is a down-on-his-luck detective. One day, he receives an anonymous phone call to search for a hacker going by the alias “Trinity”. Ash starts looking for Trinity and learns that other detectives have failed in the same task before him; one committed suicide, one went missing, and one went insane.

08: Matriculated. The film deals with a group of above-ground human rebels who lure hostile machines to their laboratory in order to capture them and insert them into a “matrix” of their own design. Within this matrix, the humans attempt to teach the captured machines some of the positive traits of humanity, primarily compassion and empathy. The rebels’ hope is that, once converted of its own volition (a key point discussed in the film), an “enlightened” machine will assist Zion in its struggle against the machine-controlled totalitarianism which currently dominates the Earth.

09: Final Flight of the Osiris. Captain Thadeus and Jue engage in a blindfolded sword fight in a virtual reality dojo. With each slice of their swords, they remove another part of each other’s clothing. Immediately after cutting the other down to their underwear, they lift their blindfolds to peek at the other. As the two are about to kiss, they are interrupted by an alarm and the simulation ends. In the next scene, the hovercraft Osiris heads for Junction 21 when operator Robbie discovers an army of Sentinels on his HR scans.