The Matrix is really about (a) Trinity

I re-watched The Matrix recently for the first time in many years. And here is my 27-year-old hot take:

The most important character journey in this movie IS NOT NEO'S.

His is just the one we're watching.

Hollywood loves telling stories about the Very Special Boy who goes on a journey to embrace his inner potential. And along the way, there is always a Mentor for teaching and a Girl for kissing.

The Matrix has all those same pieces, but it does something WAY more interesting with them.

The One

The question of whether Neo is The One or not is really only partly to do with Neo. Because The One is actually a Trinity. There are three conditions that have to be met in order for someone to be The One:

1. Morpheus has to believe in him.

2. He has to believe in himself.

3. And Trinity has to love him.

Unless and until ALL THREE of those conditions are met, he is not The One. A Very Special Boy could Hero's Journey until the cows came home and it still wouldn't happen for him without conditions 1 and 3 also being met.

I mean, isn't that what happened to Cipher? Morpheus offered him the pills. He's obsessed with Trinity. But he clearly creeps her out. So it was a swing and a miss with him. And something about his bitterness screams sour grapes.

I get the impression he probably wasn't Morpheus' only failed attempt, either. That there have been other candidates, other Very Special Boys, but none of them have yet been The One.

And you know and I know which condition it was they didn't meet.

Because for the whole movie, the entire crew of the Nebuchadnezzar is looking to Trinity to see if she believes yet. They don't know why. But she does, and the movie does.

Don't believe me?

Let's walk through it.

The very first scene of the movie, when it's still just voices over digital rain, gives us this:

Trinity: Morpheus believes he is the one.
Cipher: Do you?
T: It doesn’t matter what I believe.
C: You don’t, do you.

-- The Matrix (1999)

So condition 1 is met from the jump. And Trinity refuses to weigh in. She is living in fear of the prophecy the Oracle has given her. So much so that we don't even learn there IS a third condition until the climax of the movie.

As for condition 2, when Neo is climbing out his office window trying to escape the Agents, he lets us know "I'm nobody." So hard no, still, on that condition.

Later, when Morpheus and Trinity are standing over Neo, right after they've freed him from the matrix, we get an update on conditions 1 and 3:

M: We’ve done it, Trinity. We’ve found him.
T: I hope you’re right.
M: I don’t have to hope. I know it.

-- The Matrix (1999)

The Jump

By the time Neo tries the rooftop jump for the first time, Trinity is rooting for him. A part of her wants it to be him. And she’s disappointed when he doesn’t make it. But she ducks out of that scene before the end, like she's afraid of her own disappointment.

On the way to see the Oracle, Neo asks Trinity:

N: Did you go to her?
T: Yes.
N: What did she tell you?
T: She told me…
N: What?

-- The Matrix (1999)

But Trinity turns away. She can't talk about it yet.

The Oracle

And during Neo's own conversation with the Oracle, she asks:

O: So, what do you think? Do you think you are The One?
N: Honestly, I don't know.

-- The Matrix (1999)

So, progress from "I'm nobody." He's considering the idea. But that's a long way from believing in himself. Still no on condition 2.

The Oracle also uses the following simile:

O: I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Being The One is just like being in love. No one can tell you you're in love, you just know it. Through and through. Balls to bones.

-- The Matrix (1999)

This script is so well crafted. That simile was not an accident.

The Helicopter Crash

Jumping ahead, Neo becomes more comfortable in the matrix, and eventually rescues Trinity from the helicopter crash. It's very dramatic, and it convinces Tank.

Tank: I knew he was The One.

-- The Matrix (1999)

Morpheus then immediately turns to Trinity. To TRINITY. Not Neo.

M: Do you believe it now, Trinity?

-- The Matrix (1999)

She doesn’t answer.

Neo then turns the conversation to what the Oracle said. He is not The One. And so then the conversation becomes about Neo’s journey.

Neo Believes in Himself

Later, they run for an exit. Morpheus gets out. But Trinity has something she needs to say to Neo.

T: Neo, I want to tell you something. But I’m afraid of what it could mean if I do. Everything the Oracle told me has come true. Everything but this.
N: But what?

-- The Matrix (1999)

She hesitates. Still afraid. And they get interrupted by an Agent. Trinity leaves the matrix but the Agent destroys the phone before Neo can get out.

And then Neo chooses to face him instead of running.

Trinity: What is he doing?
Morpheus: He’s beginning to believe.

-- The Matrix (1999)

Neo fights the Agent. And as they're both about to get flattened by an oncoming subway train:

Agent: Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.

-- The Matrix (1999)

Neo backflips out of harm's way.

N: My name… is Neo.

-- The Matrix (1999)

And this is it, folks! Condition 2 is met. DING DING DING! Neo has embraced his identity. He believes in himself. BUT HE'S NOT THE ONE YET.

You know how I know? Because he immediately starts running for his life.

Neo Dies

Neo runs and runs until an Agent gets the jump on him and empties a whole entire clip into his chest at point blank range.

And then he dies.

Agent Stark pronounces him “gone”.

He flatlines out in the real world. "The body cannot live without the mind."

Agent: Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.

-- The Matrix (1999)

AND THEN

Trinity: Neo. I’m not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that that man, the man that I loved, would be The One.

-- The Matrix (1999)

LOOK AT THE PHRASING THERE! THAT IS NOT ACCIDENTAL!

Trinity: So you see, you can’t be dead. You can’t be. Because I love you. You hear me? I love you.

-- The Matrix (1999)

And she kisses him.

Condition 3 has just been met. And THAT is when Neo becomes The One.

Trinity: Now get up.

-- The Matrix (1999)

And he does. And now he can stop bullets.

And just to reiterate - NEO WAS DEAD during that whole scene.

In both worlds.

He was not active. Could not be.

It was Trinity's transformation that was the key. And also the relationship between those three lead characters.

And this is part of why the sequels were SO disappointing. They sidelined and undermined that key three-way relationship, which was what we all ACTUALLY loved about this movie, even if we couldn't articulate it.