Neo (The Matrix)

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Thomas A. Anderson (alias Neo) is a fictional character in The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as having a cameo in The Animatrix short film, Kid's Story. He was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Trilogy and The Animatrix.

(For details of the plot and of the Matrix series itself, see The Matrix (series))

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 a form of fusion in addition to the bioelectrical energy of human beings as their primary energy source. Previously, the machines had relied upon solar power but this energy source was cut off during the war, when the humans used nuclear weapons to start a nuclear winter.

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 legend, "The One." His (or her) discovery 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.

When the nature of the Matrix is revealed to him, Neo becomes part of the human resistance and he is revealed to be 'The One'. The Matrix film trilogy explores his abilities as The One to manipulate his computer-simulated reality to his will, and his messianic mission as the savior of mankind.

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.

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 for the "respectable software company" Metacortex. Anderson is also a computer hacker who penetrates computer systems illicitly and steals information, under his hacker alias "Neo". During his time as a hacker, Anderson has learned about something known only as "The Matrix." It is described by Morpheus as a vague notion that Neo has felt his "entire life: that there's something wrong with the world."

During the years prior to the events of The Matrix, Anderson spent his time trying to find the one man whom he thought could tell him what The Matrix was: a supposed "terrorist" known only as Morpheus. But what Anderson didn't know was that Morpheus had been looking for him as well, and apparently for a longer period of time.

Morpheus identifies Anderson as being the person within the Matrix whom he believes to be The One. But the machines have tapped the line, and Anderson is found, almost simultaneously, by the deadly Agents. 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, 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:

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: 11 March, 1962
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 on another page in the file which displays a passport:

Type: P
Surname: Anderson
First Name: Thomas A.
Nationality: United States of America
Date of Birth: 13 Sep 71
Sex: M
Place of Birth: Capital City
Date of Effect: 12 Sep 91
Date of Expiry: 11 Sep 01

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 (commonly called the "red pill") designed to disrupt his body's neural connect to the Matrix, and wakes up disoriented and alarmed to find himself weak, hairless, 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 badly 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 knowledgeable in many forms of combat simply by 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 believes the Oracle to mean 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 two entire magazines 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,that's all." 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."

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, stranding him in front of a train. Smith takes over the body of the driver, 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 fatally shot 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:

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.

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. (Link, the new operator, refers to Neo using his powers as "doing his Superman thing" which is fairly accurate.) 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 worn by religious clerics.

After a stop in Zion in which he makes love to Trinity, 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 known simply as Smith) appears, and a dramatic change becomes apparent. Somehow, Neo had separated Smith from the rest of the Matrix code when he destroyed him by flying through his body, 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 fends off 100 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.

The Architect presents Neo with a radically different explanation of his origins and purpose, claiming that Neo is actually the sixth "One". He goes on to say that 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 is told, 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 a 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, as the ship is destroyed by the Sentinels. 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, and/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 program, which has allowed Smith to survive and bring Agent Smith into the real world through Bane's mind.

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 not only 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, but also threaten the machine city itself. 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 lover, 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 (Mjolnir), 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, the Neo/Smith clone cracks his neck and 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. This implies that Neo has actually achieved oneness with the Matrix, and has reached a higher plane of being.

Neo has carried since his inception the Matrix's source code, known as the Prime Program. This gives him the ability to manipulate the simulated reality of the Matrix, an ability which he utilizes as various superhuman powers.

The power he exhibits most often is 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. His speed of flight is further exemplified by his ability to "outfly" explosions and the fact that as he flies, objects around him tend to twist, or smash; the sonic boom left in his wake has the power to overturn rows of heavy vehicles.

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 have limits. Even though he could block a sword with the edge of his hand, he received a small cut, indicating (as the Merovingian pointed out) that he was still human despite his powers. His endurance is also finite: when confronted by masses of Smith clones in the second film, Neo was forced to escape rather than continue fighting, and upon exiting the Matrix, he appeared visibly tired and out of breath.

He can also dodge bullets in a manner similar to the Agents (or stop them outright with his telekinesis). Neo also possesses the ability to run an unprecedented number of the Resistance's combat programs simultaneously; he is therefore a master of every known martial art, including Kung Fu, Karate, Eskrima, and Taekwondo (However, in training for the series, Keanu Reeve's fighting arsenal, as well as the entire cast's, emphasizes Wushu.)

He has displayed the ability to heal people with the Matrix, even to the point of resurrecting the recently deceased (though the extent and limits of this ability are not known) and a limited form of precognition. This has been described as "seeing the world without time", or visualizing possible futures like a chess player looking several moves ahead.

In the real world, Neo has some degree of wireless connectivity with the Matrix system: he can sense the presence of the Machines, and even interfere with their function. Apparently because of his status as The One; he has a direct connection to the Source, and can therefore affect the machines also connected to it. Additionally, after he is blinded in the fight against Smith/Bane, Neo receives the ability to see everything connected to the Source:The Sentinels, the fetus fields, the Machine City itself, etc. — as silhouettes of golden light.

At the start of the MMORPG sequel, The Matrix Online, scattered code fragments of Neo's 'RSI' (Residual Self Image) were found on the bodies of the impostor Agents who appeared across the Mega City during Chapter 1.1. When held, these fragments echoed some of the final thoughts of Neo inside the redpill's mind. It wasn't long before each of the three main post-war political organizations inside the Matrix realized the possible significance of these fragments and began fighting amongst themselves to gather as many as they could.

With their large number of Neo Fragments Zion had their specialist coders try and reforge the one's RSI, however, they were only able to partially do so and even then it was essentially flawed (This partially reforged RSI was later placed permanently inside the Matrix by the Machines for the "edification of redpills").

The Oracle went on to reveal a secret society of exiles known only as The Shapers are the only ones with the ability to bring the Fragments together in any significant way and that they must be protected from the impostor agents' corruption. Unfortunately the redpills distrust and organizational differences proved too much for any strong unity and a Shaper fell into the captivity of the false agents. They went on to use his power to encode some part of the one's being onto themselves, creating the powerful, pale skinned and dark presenced "N30 Ag3nts".

Later, in Chapter 1.2, Morpheus states that the Machines never returned Neo's physical remains (Thomas Anderson's actual body in the real) to Zion, 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).

There was also a newspaper clipping found in one of the game's storyline missions which detailed a woman who suddenly and unexpectedly awoke from a coma only to leave the hospital without a word. The name of the woman was Sarah Edmontons, which is an anagram of Thomas Anderson. This was recently confirmed as not being a loose thread as MxO writer Paul Chadwick "has not forgotten [sic] about that little newspaper clipping".

As of April 2007, an RSI transmission appearing to be that of Morpheus has appeared throughout the city at random claiming that Neo is still alive and that the Machines have him captive. However, these transmissions have been recently revealed to be a fabrication made by the Exile known as The General, planning to sow dissent amongst the redpills of Zion and the Machines.

• Plato's allegory of the cave
• Simulated reality

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• The Matrix Trilogy: A Man-Machine Interface Perspective: a study of the trilogy from a strictly technological as opposed to philosophical viewpoint