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THE MATRIX
Written by
Larry and Andy Wachowski
April 8, 1996
FADE IN ON:
COMPUTER SCREEN
So close it has no boundaries.
A blinking cursor pulses in the electric darkness like a
heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath
the derma of black-neon glass.
A PHONE begins to RING, we hear it as though we were
making the call. The cursor continues to throb,
relentlessly patient, until --
MAN (V.O.)
Hello?
Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing
faster than we read.
SCREEN
Call trans opt: received.
2-19-96 13:24:18 REC:Log>
WOMAN (V.O.)
I'm inside. Anything to report?
We listen to the phone conversation as though we were on
a third line. The man's name is CYPHER. The woman,
TRINITY.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Let's see. Target left work at
5:01 PM.
SCREEN
Trace program: running.
The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers.
Shimmering like green-electric rivets, they rush at a 10-
digit phone number in the top corner.
CYPHER (V.O.)
He caught the northbound Howard
line. Got off at Sheridan.
Stopped at 7-11. Purchased six-
pack of beer and a box of Captain
Crunch. Returned home.
The area code is identified. The first three numbers
suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns.
We begin MOVING TOWARD the screen, CLOSING IN as each
digit is matched, one by one, snapping into place like
the wheels of a slot machine.
TRINITY (V.O.)
All right, you're relieved. Use
the usual exit.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Do you know when we're going to
make contact?
TRINITY
Soon.
Only two thin digits left.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Just between you and me, you don't
believe it, do you? You don't
believe this guy is the one?
TRINITY (V.O.)
I think Morpheus believes he is.
CYPHER (V.O.)
I know. But what about you?
TRINITY (V.O.)
I think Morpheus knows things that
I don't.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah, but if he's wrong --
The final number pops into place --
TRINITY (V.O.)
Did you hear that?
CYPHER (V.O.)
Hear what?
SCREEN
Trace complete. Call origin:
#312-555-0690
TRINITY (V.O.)
Are you sure this line is clean?
CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah, course I'm sure.
We MOVE STILL CLOSER, the ELECTRIC HUM of the green
numbers GROWING INTO an OMINOUS ROAR.
TRINITY (V.O.)
I better go.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah. Right. See you on the other side.
She hangs up as we PASS THROUGH the numbers, entering the
netherworld of the computer screen.
Where gradually the sound of a police radio grows around
us.
RADIO (V.O.)
Attention all units. Attention
all units.
Suddenly, a flashlight cuts open the darkness and we find
ourselves in --
INT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT
The hotel was abandoned after a fire licked its way
across the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms
as it spooled soot up the walls and ceiling leaving
patterns of permanent shadow.
We FOLLOW four armed POLICE officers using flashlights as
they creep down the blackened hall and ready themselves
on either side of room 303.
The biggest of them violently kicks in the door --
The other cops pour in behind him, guns thrust before
them.
BIG COP
Police! Freeze!
The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-
up table and chair with a phone, a modern, and a powerbook
computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the
computer.
Sitting there, her hands still on the keyboard, is
TRINITY; a woman in black leather.
BIG COP
Get your hands behind your head!
Trinity rises.
BIG COP
Hands behind your head! Now! Do
it!
She slowly puts her hands behind her head.
EXT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT
A black sedan with tinted windows glides in through the
police cruisers.
AGENT SMITH and AGENT BROWN get out of the car.
They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. They
are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones
in one ear, its cord coiling back into their shirt
collars.
AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT
Oh shit.
AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant, you were given
specific orders --
LIEUTENANT
I'm just doing my job. You gimme
that Juris-my dick-tion and you
can cran it up your ass.
AGENT SMITH
The orders were for your protection.
The Lieutenant laughs.
LIEUTENANT
I think we can handle one little
girl.
Agent Smith nods to Agent Brown as they start toward the
hotel.
LIEUTENANT
I sent two units. They're
bringing her down now.
AGENT SMITH
No, Lieutenant, your men are dead.
INT. CHASE HOTEL
The Big Cop flicks out his cuffs, the other cops holding
a bead. They've done this a hundred times, they know
they've got her, until the Big Cop reaches with the cuff
and Trinity moves --
It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly
fast.
The eye blinks and Trinity's palm. snaps up and the nose
explodes, blood erupting. The cop is dead before he
begins to fall.
And Trinity is moving again --
Seizing a wrist, misdirecting a gun, as a startled cop
FIRES --
A head explodes.
In blind panic, another airs his gun, the barrel, a fixed
black hole --
And FIRES --
Trinity twists out of the way, the bullet missing as she
reverses into a roundhouse kick, knocking the gun away.
The cop begins to scream when a jump kick crushes his
windpipe, killing the scream as he falls to the ground.
She looks at the four bodies.
TRINITY
Shit.
EXT. CHASE HOTEL
Agent Brown enters the hotel, while Agent Smith heads for
the alley.
INT. CHASE HOTEL
Trinity is on the phone, pacing. The other end is
answered.
MAN (V.O.)
Operator.
TRINITY
Morpheus! The link was traced! I
don't know how.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I know. Stay calm.
TRINITY
Are there any agents?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Yes.
TRINITY
Goddamnit!
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
You have to focus. There is a
phone. Wells and Laxe. You can
make it.
She takes a deep breath, centering herself.
TRINITY
All right --
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Go.
She drops the phone.
INT. HALL
She bursts out of the room as Agent Brown enters the hall,
leading another unit of police. Trinity races to the
opposite end, exiting through a broken window onto the
fire escape.
EXT. FIRE E5CAPE
In the alley below, Trinity sees Agent Smith staring at
her. She can only go up.
EXT. ROOF
On the roof, Trinity is running as Agent Brown rises over
the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit.
Trinity begins to jump from one roof to the next, her
moverents so clean, gliding in and out of each jump,
contrasted to the wild jumps of the cops.
Agent Brown, however, has the same unnatural grace.
The METAL SCREAM of an EL TRAIN is heard and Trinity
turns to it, racing for the back of the building.
The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next
building is over 40 feet away, but Trinity's face is
perfectly calm, staring at some point beyond the other
roof.
The cops slow, realizing they are about to see something
ugly as Trinity drives at the edge, launching herself
into the air.
From above, the ground seems to flow beneath her as she
hangs in flight
Then hitting, somersaulting up, still running hard.
COP
Motherfucker -- that's impossible!
They stare, slack-jawed, as Agent Brown duplicates the
move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder, up onto
one knee.
Just below the building are the runbling tracks of
riveted steel. The TRAIN SCREECHES beneath her, a
rattling blur of gray metal. Trinity junps, landing
easily.
She looks back just as Agent Brown hurls through the air
barely reaching the last car
Agent Brown stands, yanking out a gun.
Trinity is running hard as BULLETS WHISTLE past her head.
Ahead she sees her only chance, 50 feet beyond the point
where the train has begun to turn, there is --
A window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick
building.
Trinity zeroes in on it, running as hard as she can, her
speed compounded by the train. The SCREAM of the STEEL
rises as she nears the edge where the train rocks into the
turn.
Trinity hurtles into the empty night space, her body
leveling into a dive. She falls, arms covering her head
as --
The whole world seems to spin on its axis --
And she crashes with an EXPLOSION of GLASS and WOOD, then
falls onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down
stairs bleeding, broken --
But still alive.
Through the smashed window, she glimpses Agent Brown,
still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the
wind; stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train
slides him past the window.
Trinity tries to move. Everything hurts.
TRINITY
Get up, Trinity. You're fine.
Get up -- just get up!
She stands and limps down the rest of the stairs.
EXT. STREET
Trinity emerges from the shadows of an alley and, at the
end of the block, in a pool of white street light, she
sees it.
The telephone booth.
Obviously hurt, she starts down the concrete walk,
focusing in completely, her pace quickening, as the PHONE
begins to RING.
Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly u-turns, its
TIRES SCREAMING as it accelerates.
Trinity sees the headlights on the truck arcing at the
telephone booth as if taking aim.
Gritting through the pain, she races the truck --
Slamming into the booth, the headlights blindingly
bright, bearing down on the box of Plexiglas just as --
She answers the phone.
There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking
mass of dark metal lurches up onto the sidewalk --
Barreling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick
wall, smashing it to Plexiglas pulp.
After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of
the garbage truck. Agent Smith inspects the wreckage.
There is no body. Trinity is gone.
His jaw sets as he grinds his molars in frustration.
AGENT JONES walks up behind him.
AGENT SMITH
Did you get anything from the
room?
AGENT JONES
Their next target. The name is
Neo.
The handset of the pay phone lays on the ground,
separated in the crash like a severed limb.
AGENT SMITH
We'll need a search running.
AGENT JONES
It's already begun.
We are SUCKED TOWARDS the mouthpiece of the phone, CLOSER
and CLOSER, UNTIL the smooth gray plastic spreads out
like a horizon and the small HOLES WIDEN until we fall
through one --
Swallowed by the darkness that becomes --
A computer screen.
We are on-line, inside a chat room called "The Matrix."
It is an exklusive web-site where hackers hang out.
SCREEN
JACKON: I heard Morpheus has been
on this board.
SUPERASTIC: Morpheus doesn't even
exist and the Matrix is nothing
but an advertising gimmick 4 a new
game.
TIMAXE: All I want to know is
Trinity really a girl?
LODIII: 87% of all women on line
are really men.
QUARK: The Matrix is a euphemism
for the government.
SUPERASTIC: No, The Matrix is the
system controlling our lives.
TIMAXE: You mean MTV.
SUPERASTIC: I mean Sega.
FOS4: ALL HAIL SEGA!!!
We drift back from the electric conversation entering --
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT
It is a studio apartirent that seems overgrown with
technology.
Weed-like cables coil everywhere, duct-taped into
thickets that wind up and around the legs of several
desks.
Tabletops are filled with cannibalized equipment that lay
open like an autopsied corpse.
We turn towards the center of this rat-nest of
technology, following the slurping and crunching of
cereal. We pass an open box of Capln Crunch as we find --
NEO, a younger man who knows more about living inside a
computer than living outside one.
NEO
Fuckin' idiots don't know shit.
He finishes his cereal and is about to disconnect when an
anonynous message slices onto the screen.
SCREEN
Do you want to know what the
Matrix is, Neo?
Neo is frozen when he reads his name.
SCREEN
SUPERASTIC: Who said that?
JACKON: Who's Neo?
GIBSON: This is a private board.
If you want to know, follow the
white rabbit.
NEO
What the hell...
SCREEN
TIMAXE: Someone is hacking the
hackers!
FOS4: It's Morpheus!!!!!
JACKON: Identify yourself.
Knock, knock, Neo.
A chill runs down his spine and when someone KNOCKS on
his door he almost jumps out of his chair.
He looks at the door, then back at the computer but the
message is gone.
He shakes his head, not completely sure what happened.
Again, someone knocks.
Cautiously, Neo approaches the door.
VOICE (O.S.)
Hey, Tommy-boy! You in there?
Recognizing the voice, he relaxes and opens it. ANTHONY,
who lives down the hall, is standing outside with a group
of friends.
NEO
What do you want, Anthony?
ANTHONY
I need your help, man. Desperate.
They got me, man. The shackles of
fascism.
He holds up the red notice that accompanies the Denver
boot.
NEO
You got the money this time?
He holds up two hundred dollars and Neo opens the door.
Anthony's girlfriend, DUJOUR, stops in front of Neo.
DUJOUR
You can really get that thing off,
right now?
ANTHONY
I told you, honey, he may look
like just another geek but this
here is all we got left standing
between Big Brother and the New
World Order.
EXT. STREET
A police officer unlocks a yellow metal boot from the
wheel of an enormous oldsmobile.
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT
They watch from the window as the cops, silently,
robotically, climb into their van.
ANTHONY
Look at 'em. Automatons. Don't
think about what they're- doing or
why. Computer tells 'em what to
do and they do it.
FRIEND #l
Thc banality of evil.
He slaps the money in Neo's hand.
ANTHONY
Thanks, neighbor.
DUJOUR
Why don't you come to the party
with us?
NEO
I don't know. I have to work
tomorrow.
DUJOUR
Come on. It'll be fun.
He looks up at her and suddenly notices on her black
leather motorcycle jacket dozens of pins: bands,
symbols, slogans, military medals and --
A small white rabbit.
The ROOM TILTS.
NEO
Yeah, yeah. Sure, I'll go.
INT. APARTMENT
An older Chicago apartment; a series of halls connects a
chain of small high-ceilinged rooms lined with heavy
casements.
Smoke hangs like a veil, blurring the few lights there
are.
Dressed predominantly in black, people are everywhere,
gathered in cliques around pieces of furniture like
jungle cats around a tree.
Neo stands against a wall, alone, sipping from a bottle
of beer, feeling completely out of place, he is about to
leave when he notices a woman staring at him.
The woman is Trinity. She walks straight up to him.
In the nearest room, shadow-like figures grind against
each other to the pneumatic beat of INDUSTRIAL MUSIC.
TRINITY
Hello, Neo.
NEO
How did you know that --
TRINITY
I know a lot about you. I've been
wanting to meet you for some time.
NEO
Who are you?
TRINITY
My name is Trinity.
NEO
Trinity? The Trinity? The
Trinity that cracked the I.R.S.
Kansas City D-Base?
TRINITY
That was a long time ago.
NEO
Gee-zus.
TRINITY
What?
NEO
I just thought... you were a guy.
TRINITY
Most guys do.
Neo is a little embarrassed.
NEO
Do you want to go sorewhere and
talk?
TRINITY
No. It's safe here and I don't
have much time.
The MUSIC is so loud they must stand very close, talking
directly into each other's ear.
NEO
That was you on the board tonight.
That was your note, wasn't it?
TRINITY
I had to gamble that you would see
and they wouldn't.
NEO
Who wouldn't?
TRINITY
I can't explain everything to you.
I'm sure that it's all going to
seem very strange, but I brought
you here to warn you, Neo. You
are in a lot of danger.
NEO
What? Why?
TRINITY
They're watching you. Something
happened and they found out about
you. Normally, if our target is
exposed we let it go. But this
time, we can't do that.
NEO
I don't understand --
TRINITY
You came here because you wanted
to know the answer to a hacker's
question.
NEO
The Matrix. What is the Matrix?
TRINITY
Twelve years ago I met a man, a
great man, who said that no one
could be told the answer to that
question. That they had to see
it, to believe it.
Her body is against his; her lips very close to his ear.
TRINITY
He told me that no one should look
for the answer unless they have to
because once you see it,
everything changes. Your life and
the world you live in will never
be the same. It's as if you wake
up one morning and the sky is
falling.
There is a hypnotic quality to her voice and Neo feels
the words like a drug, seeping into him.
TRINITY
The truth is out there, Neo. It's
looking for you and it will find
you, if you want it to.
She takes hold of him with her eyes.
TRINITY
That's all I can tell you right
now. Good-bye, Neo. And good
luck.
NEO
Wait. Who was it? Who was the
man?
She leans close, her lips alrost touching his ear as she
whispers.
TRINITY
You know who.
She turns and he watches her melt into the shifting wall
of bodies.
A SOUND RISES steadily, growing out of the music,
pressing in on Neo until it is all he can hear as we --
CUT TO:
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT
The sound is an ALARM CLOCK, slowly dragging Neo to
consciousness. He strains to read the clock face:
9:15 A.M.
NEO
Shitshitshit.
EXT. SKYSCRAPER
The downtown office of CorTechs, a software development
company.
INT. CORTECHS OFFICE
The main offices are along each wall, the windows
overlooking downtown Chicago.
RHINEHEART, the ultimate company man, lectures Neo
without looking at him, typing at his computer
continuously.
Neo stares at two window cleaners on a scaffolding
outside, dragging their rubber squeegees down across the
surface of the glass.
RHINEHEART
You have a problem, Mr. Anderson.
You think that you're special.
You believe that somehow the rules
do not apply to you.
He stops, glancing over his glasses at Neo, who turns in
time.
RHINEHEART
Obviously, you are mistaken.
His long, bony fingers resume clicking the keyboard.
RHINEHEART
This company is one of the top
software companies in the world
because every single employee
understands that they are a part
of a whole. Thus, if an employee
has a problem, the company has a
problem.
He turns again.
RHINEHEART
The time has come to make a
choice, Mr. Anderson. Either you
choose to be at your desk on time
from this day forth, or you choose
to find yourself another job. Do
I make myself clear?
NEO
Yes, Mr. Rhineheart. Perfectly
clear.
INT. NEO'S CUBICLE
The entire floor looks like a human honeycomb, with a
labyrinth of cubicles structured around a core of
elevators.
Neo slumps down into his chair. A TALL EMPLOYEE stands
up in the adjacent cubicle, leaning over the partition.
TALL EMPLOYEE
What did he say?
NEO
If I was late again, I'm going to
be fired.
He smirks.
TALL EMPLOYEE
Well, it was nice working with
you.
Neo glares at him, as he sinks down.
VOICE (O.S.)
Thomas Anderson?
Neo turns and finds a FEDERAL EXPRESS MAN at his cubicle
door.
NEO
Yeah. That's me.
Neo signs the electronic pad and the Fedex guy hands him
the softpak.
FEDEX
Have a nice day.
He opens the bag. Inside is a CELLULAR PHONE. It seems
the instant it is in his hand, it RINGS. Unnerved, he
flips it open.
NEO
Hello?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Hello, Neo. This is Morpheus.
Neo's knees give and he falls into his chair.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I had hoped for this conversation
to take place under less adverse
conditions, but you can never
count on hope, can you, Neo?
NEO
... no.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I've been watching you, Neo, and I
want to meet you. I don't know if
you're ready to see what I want to
show you, but unfortunately, we
have run out of time. They're
coming for you, Neo. And I'm not
sure what they're going to do.
NEO
Who's coming for me?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Stand up and see for yourself.
NEO
Right now?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Yes. Now.
Neo starts to stand.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Do it slowly. Slowly. The elevator.
His head slowly peeks up over the partition.
At the elevator, he sees Agent Brown and Agent Jones
leading a group of cops. A female employee turns and
points out Neo's cubicle.
Neo ducks.
NEO
Holy fuckin' shit!
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Yes.
One cop stays at the elevator, the others follow the
agents.
NEO
What the fuck do they want with
me?!
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I'm not sure. But, if you don't
want to find out, you better get
out of there.
NEO
How?!
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I can guide you out, but you have
to do exactly what I say.
The agents are moving quickly towards the cubicle.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
The cubicle across from you is
empty.
NEO
But what if...?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Go! Now!
Neo lunges across the hall, diving into the other cubicle
just as the agents turn into his row.
Neo crams himself into a dark corner, clutching the phone
tightly to him.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Stay here for a moment.
The agents enter Neo's empty cubicle. A cop is sent to
search the bathroom.
Morpheus' voice is a whisper in Neo's ear.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
A little longer...
Brown is talking to the tall employee.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
When I tell you, go to the end of
the row to the first office on the
left, stay.as low as you can.
Sweat trickles down his forehead.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Now.
Neo rolls out of the cubicle, his eyes popping as he
freezes right behind a cop who has just turned around.
Staying crouched, he sneaks away, down the row, SHOOTING
across the opening to the first office on the left.
The room is empty.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Good. Now there is a window.
Open it.
NEO
How do you know all this?
Morpheus laughs quietly.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
The answer is coming, Neo.
He opens the window. The window howls into the room.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Outside, there's a scaffold. You
can use it to get to the roof.
Leaning out the window, he sees that the scaffold is
several offices away.
NEO
No! It's too far away.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
There's a small ledge. It's a
short climb. You can make it.
Neo looks down; the building's glass wall vertigos into a
concrete chasm.
NEO
No way, no way, this is crazy.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Don't be controlled by your fear,
Neo. There are only two ways out
of this building. One is that
scaffold. The other is in their
custody. You take a chance either
way. I leave it to you.
CLICK. He hangs up. Neo looks at the door, then back at
the scaffold.
NEO
This is insane! Why is this
happening to me? What did I do?
I'm nobody. I didn't do anything.
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
He climbs up onto the window ledge. Hanging onto the
frame, he steps onto the small ledge.
The scaffold seems even farther away.
NEO
I'm going to die.
The WIND suddenly BLASTS up the face of the building,
knocking Neo off balance. Recoiling, he clings harder to
the frame, and the phone falls out of his hand.
He watches as it is swallowed by the distance beneath him.
NEO
This is insane. I can't do this!
Forget it!
He climbs back into the office just as a cop opens the
door.
NEO
I didn't do anything!
EXT. SKYSCRAPER
The agents lead a handcuffed Neo out of the revolving
doors, forcing his head down as they push him into the
dark sedan.
Trinity watches in the rear view mirror of her
motorcycle.
TRINITY
Shit.
INT. INTERROGATION ROOM - CLOSE ON CAMERA MONITOR
A wide angle view of a white roon, where Neo is sitting at
a table alone.
We MOVE INTO the monitor, ENTERING the room as if the
monitor were a window.
At the same moment, the door opens and the agents enter.
Smith sits down across from Neo. A thick manila envelope
slaps down on the table between them.
Neo glances at the name on the file: "Anderson, Thomas
A."
AGENT SMITH
As you can see, we've had our eye
on you for some time now, Mr.
Anderson.
He opens the file. Paper rattle marks the silence as he
flips several pages. Neo cannot tell if he is looking at
the file or at him.
AGENT SMITH
It seems that you have been living
two lives. In one life, you are
Thomas A. Anderson, program writer
for a respectable software
company. You have a social
security number, you pay your
taxes and you help your land lady
carry out her garbage.
The pages continue to turn.
AGENT SMITH
The other life is lived in
computers where you go by the
hacker alias Neo, and are guilty
of virtually every computer crime
we have a law for, including the
unauthorized use of the D.M.V.
system for the removal of
automobile boots.
Neo feels himself sinking into a pit of shit.
AGENT SMITH
One of these,lives has a future.
One of them does not.
He closes the file.
AGENT SMITH
I'm going to be as forthcoming as
I can be, Mr. Anderson. You are
here because we need your help.
He removes his sunglasses; his eyes are an unnatural ice-
blue.
AGENT SMITH
We know that you have been
contacted by a certain individual.
A man who calls himself Morpheus.
Whatever you think you know about
this man is irrelevant to the fact
that he is wanted for acts of
terrorism in more countries than
any other man in the world. He is
considered by many authorities to
be the most dangerous man alive.
He leans closer.
AGENT SMITH
My colleagues believe that I am
wasting my time with you, but I
believe you want to do the right
thing. It is obvious that you are
an intelligent man, Mr. Anderson,
and that you are interested in the
future. That is why I believe you
are ready to put your past
mistakes behind you and get on
with your life.
Neo tries to match his stare.
AGENT SMITH
We are willing to wipe the slate
clean, to give you a fresh start
and all we are asking in return is
your cooperation in bringing a
known terrorist to justice.
Neo nods to himself.
NEO
Yeah. Wow. That sounds like a
real good deal. But I think I
have a better one. How about I
give you the finger --
He does.
NEO
And you can cram that file up your
Secret Service sphincter.
Agent Smith puts his glasses back on.
AGENT SMITH
You disappoint me, Mr. Anderson.
NEO
You ain't seen nothing yet.
AGENT SMITH
The irony of your situation is
that you have no choice.
NEO
You can't scare me with this
gestapo crap. I know my rights.
I want my phone call.
Agent Smith smiles.
AGENT SMITH
And tell me, Mr. Anderson, what
good is a phone call iy you are
unable to speak?
The question unnerves Neo and strangely, he begins to
feel the muscles in his jaw tighten.
The standing agents snicker, watching Neo's confusion
grow into panic.
Neo feels his lips grow soft and sticky as they slowly
seal shut, melding into each other until all trace of his
mouth is gone.
Wild with fear, he lunges for the door but the agents
restrain him holding him in the chair.
AGENT SMITH
You are going to help us, Mr.
Anderson, whether you want to or
not.
Smith nods and the other two rip open his shirt.
From a case taken out of his suit coat, Smith removes a
long, fiber-optic wire tap.
Neo struggles helplessly as Smith dangles the wire over
his exposed abdomen. Horrified, he watches as the
electronic device animates, become an organic creature
that resembles a hybrid of an insect and a fluke worm.
Thin, whisker-like tendrils reach out and probe into
Neo's navel. He bucks wildly as Smith drops the creature
which looks for a moment like an uncut umbilical cord --
Before it begins to burrow its, tail thrashing as it
worms its way inside.
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Screaming, Neo bolts upright in bed.
He realizes that he is home. Was it a dream? His mouth
is normal. His stomach looks fine. He starts to take a
deep, everything-is-okay breath, when --
The PHONE RINGS.
It almost stops his heart. It CONTINUES RINGING,
building pressure in the room, forcing him up out of bed,
sucking him in with an almost gravitational force.
He answers it, saying nothing.
MORPHEUS (V.O.).
This line is tapped, so I must be
brief.
NEO
The agents --
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
They got to you first, but they've
underestimated how important you
are. If they knew what I know,
you would probably be dead.
Neo feels sick.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I don't know what you are thinking
right now but I want you to
understand that I will not give up
on you until you give up on me.
Neo's throat cracks, dry as the Sahara.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Do you still want to meet?
NEO
... Yes.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Take the Howard line south.
CLICK. He closes his eyes, unsure of what he has done.
EXT. EL TRAIN
An EL TRAIN RAGES against its metal rails.
INT. TRAIN
It is three a.m., and the train carries the usual urban
night crawlers. Neo sits alone, eyes shifting, watching
everything nervously.
There is a METAL BANG and TRAIN CLATTER fills the car as
the door is opened.
Neo turns and sees a large man enter. He is wearing
sunglasses and a black leather jacket. His name is APOC
and he walks straight at Neo.
APOC
Come with me.
Neo stands just as the door at the opposite end opens and
two police officers rush in, drawing their guns.
Apoc grabs Neo, muscling him to the nearest exit. There
is no upcoming station.
Apoc yanks the emergency brake and the train buckles
against its own speed. The cops are thrown back. Neo
slams against the metal rail.
The doors open onto nothing and just when Neo regains his
balance, Apoc shoves him backwards --
He flies out from the train, arms windrilling as he falls
from, the raised tracks --
Hurtling towards a busy city street when, out of nowhere,
a truck races under him and --
He crashes into a large dumpster-bed filled with empty
boxes.
INT. TRUCK BED
Still shaking his head, Neo realizes he is not alone. A
man named Cabie is aiming a big gun at him. Trinity is
next to him, talking into a cellular phone.
TRINITY
We got him. Call the chop-shop.
She hangs up.
TRINITY
Listen to me, Neo. You have to,
trust us.
She tears off a long strip of black duct-tape and reaches
for his face.
NEO
What are you doing?
TRINITY
This has to be done for your
protection and ours.
She seals his eyes shut with the tape.
TRINITY
You can't understand right now,
but if you're not one of us,
you're one of them.
EXT. LOWER WACKER
A featureless black van glides up to a staircase that
curls down from the city's surface.
trinity guides the blind Neo down the steps. The back of
the van slaps open, revealing a young, skinny man who
looks to be still in his teens, wearing an outfit that is
a cross between a surgeon and a telephone repair man.
His name is GIZMO and he smiles lewdly at Trinity,
exposing his teeth that are wired with weird-looking
braces.
GIZMO
Va va va voom. Still the hottest
software around.
TRINITY
Hello, Gizmo.
Neo hears the voices around him.
GIZMO
This is really the guy? The guy
that Morpheus thinks --
TRINITY
Yeah.
GIZMO
But he's so old.
TRINITY
Are you going to help us or aren't
you?
GIZMO
Hacksaw. Load up the copper-top
and let's get the hell outta here.
Hacksaw is a huge man in a leather welder's apron. He
shoulders Neo and hauls him into the van.
A moment later the green lights of Lower Wacker curve
over the tinted windshield as the van rushes through the
underworld.
INT. VAN
The chop-shop is filled with electronic gadgets, wired to
meters and monitors. There are shelves lined with
medical supplies and rows of hanging tools, knives,
cleavers, and stainless steel clamps.
Neo is strapped down to an ambulance cart, listening
nervously as Gizmo gets to work.
GIZMO
Okay, first we take a little look
under the hood.
He pulls up the goggles hanging at his neck and they
blink to life with tiny halogen lights and lenses irising
to varying levels of magnification.
GIZMO
You're going to feel a little
prick.
He inserts acupuncture-like needles into Neo's lower
abdomen. The needles are wired to video monitors.
Hacksaw pilots the fiber-optic lens.
NEO
What are you doing?
TRINITY
We think you're bugged. We can't
take you to Morpheus until you're
clean.
GIZMO
There it is.
On a monitor, we see the bug nestled in among Neols large
intestines.
GIZMO
Hit him with 10 ccs of local.
Hacksaw loads a hypodermic needle and pumps an anesthetic
around Neols navel.
Using a device that looks like a miniature speculum,
Gizmo inserts a knuckled dental pick. Typing into a
calculator keypad wired to the pick, he automates the
tip.
On the monitor, we watch it telescope out and the end
separate into a tiny hooked, metal claw.
GIZMO
Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.
The claw snags hold of the bug.
GIZMO
Gotcha!
But the bug reacts violently. Neo screams as it wraps
itself around the soft tissue web of intestine.
GIZMO
Shit.
TRINITY
What's happening?
GIZMO
I don't know. They've never done
that before.
Neo writhes in pain.
GIZMO
Hold him down.
NEO
Jesus! God!
TRINITY
Do something!
GIZMO
I got it! Maybe we can stun it.
TRINITY
Are you crazy? That will kill
him.
We watch Neo, who can't see what they are talking about.
GIZMO
It'll work. Come on, do it or
Hacksaw will.
NEO
Do what?
The instant he hears the word, he knows.
TRINITY
Clear.
NEO
Oh, shit --
The cry is frozen in his mouth as the paddles hit his
chest. Gizmo wrestles with the bug.
GIZMO
Hit him again!
Again, the electricity convulses through him as Gizmo
yanks the speculum out.
GIZMO
Got it!
Trinity touches Neo, who is just beginning to breathe.
She eases the tape off his eyes.
TRINITY
Neo, are you okay?
He nods.
TRINITY
It's over. We got it.
Hanging from the claw pick is the inanimate metal wire-
tap.
GIZMO
Nasty little bugger, ain't it?
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
The van stops in a deserted alley behind a forgotten
hotel. The doors open and Trinity helps Neo get out.
TRINITY
Thanks for your help, Gizmo.
GIZMO
I just hope the man knows what
he's doing.
She nods then climbs out of the van. Gizmo ogles the
tight leather pants.
GIZMO
Goddamn, what I wouldn't give for
a copy of that software.
Trinity turns around.
TRINITY
Gizmo, you don't have the hardware
to handle this software.
He howls with adolescent laughter as the van pulls away.
Trinity turns to Neo.
TRINITY
Let's go. He's waiting.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE
It is a place of putrefying elegance, a rotting host of
urban maggotry.
Trinity leads Neo from the stairwell down the hall of the
thirteenth floor. They stop outside room 1313.
TRINITY
This is it.
Neo can hear his own heart pounding.
TRINITY
Let me give one piece of advice.
Be honest. He knows more than you
can possibly imagine.
INT. ROOM 1313
Across the room, a dark figure stares out the tall
windows veiled with decaying lace. He turns and his
smile lights up the room.
MORPHEUS
At last.
He wears a long black coat and his eyes are invisible
behind circular mirrored glasses.
He strides to Neo and they shake hands.
MORPHEUS
Welcome, Neo. As you no doubt
have guessed, I am Morpheus.
NEO
It's an honor.
MORPHEUS
Please. Come. Sit.
He nods to Trinity.
MORPHEUS
Thank you, Trinity.
She bows her head sharply and exits through a door to an
adjacent room.
They sit across from one another in cracked, burgundy-
leather chairs.
MORPHEUS
I imagine, right now, you must be
feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling
down the rabbit hole?
NEO
You could say that.
MORPHEUS
I can see it in your eyes. You
have the look of a man who accepts
what he sees because he is
expecting to wake up.
A smile, razor-thin, curls the corner of his lips.
MORPHEUS
Ironically, this is not far from
the truth. But I'm getting ahead
of myself. Can you tell me, Neo,
why are you here?
NEO
You're Morpheus, you're a legend.
Most hackers would die to meet
you.
MORPHEUS
Yes. Thank you. But I think we
both know there's more to it than
that. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
NEO
No.
MORPHEUS
Why not?
NEO
Because I don't like the idea that
I'm not in control of my life.
MORPHEUS
I know exactly what you mean.
Again, that smile that could cut glass.
MORPHEUS
Let me tell you why you are here.
You are here because you have the
gift.
NEO
What gift?
MORPHEUS
I've watched you, Neo. You do not
use a computer like a tool. You
use it like it was part of
yourself. What you can do inside
a computer is not normal. I know.
I've seen it. What you do is
magic.
Neo shrugs.
NEO
It's not magic.
MORPHEUS
But it is, Neo. It is. How else
would you describe what has been
happening to you?
He leans forward.
MORPHEUS
We are trained in this world to
accept only what is rational and
logical. Have you ever wondered
why?
Neo shakes his head.
MORPHEUS
As children, we do not separate
the possible from the impossible
which is why the younger a mind is
the easier it is to free while a
mind like yours can be very
difficult.
NEO
Free from what?
MORPHEUS
From the Matrix.
Neo locks at his eyes but only sees a reflection of
himself.
MORPHEUS
Do you want to know what it is,
Neo?
Neo swallows and nods his head.
MORPHEUS
It's that feeling you have had all
your life. That feeling that
something was wrong with the
world. You don't know what it is
but it's there, like a splinter in
your mind, driving you mad,
driving you to me. But what is
it?
The LEATHER CREAKS as he leans back.
MORPHEUS
The Matrix is everywhere, it's all
around us, here even in this room.
You can see it out your window, or
on your television. You feel it
when you go to work, or go to
church or pay your taxes. It is
the world that has been pulled
over your eyes to blind you from
the truth.
NEO
What truth?
MORPHEUS
That you are a slave, Neo. That
you, like everyone else, was born
into bondage...
... kept inside a prison that you
cannot smell, taste, or touch. A
prison for your mind.
Outside, the WIND BATTERS a loose PANE of glass.
MORPHEUS
Unfortunately, no one can be told
what the Matrix is. You have to
see it for yourself.
NEO
How?
MORPHEUS
Hold out your hands.
In Neo's right hand, Morpheus drops a red pill.
MORPHEUS
This is your last chance. After
this, there is no going back.
In his left, a blue pill.
MORPHEUS
You take the blue pill and the
story ends. You wake in your bed
and you believe whatever you want
to believe.
The pills in his open hands are reflected in the glasses.
MORPHEUS
You take the red pill and you stay
in Wonderland and I show you how
deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Neo feels the smooth skin of the capsules, with the
moisture growing in his palms.
MORPHEUS
Remember that all I am offering is
the truth. Nothing more.
Neo opens his mouth and swallows the red pill. The
Cheshire smile returns.
MORPHEUS
Follow me.
He leads Neo into the other room, which is cramped with
high-tech equipment, glowing ash-bliie and electric green
from the racks of monitors.
Trinity, Apoc and Cypher look up as they enter.
CYPHER
Shit.
TRINITY
I knew he would.
Cypher saddles up to Morpheus, talking in a hushed tone
away from, Neo.
CYPHER
Morpheus, I know what you believe
but I think this is a mistake.
We're rushing him. He's old. I'm
afraid he might pop.
MORPHEUS
Haven't I always told you, Cypher,
not to let fear control your life.
Apoc, are we on-line?
Neo recognizes the large man from the El train.
APOC
Almost.
He and Trinity are working quickly, hardwiring a complex
system of monitors, modules and drives.
NEO
Apoc? You wrote the Four Horsemen
Virus.
APOC
That's right.
MORPHEUS
Neo, time is always against us.
Will you take a seat there?
In the center of the room sits a chair. Near the chair
is an old oval dressing mirror that is cracked.
MORPHEUS
I imagine you know sonething about
virtual reality.
Neo sits and Trinity begins gently fixing white electrode
disks to his head, arns, and the back of his neck.
NEO
A little.
MORPHEUS
Tell me about it.
NEO
Essentially, it's a hardware
system that uses an apparatus;
headgear, gloves and whatever to
make you feel that you are in a
computer program.
MORPHEUS
If the virtual reality apparatus,
as you called it, was wired to all
of your senses and controlled them
completely, would you be able to
tell the difference between the
virtual world and the real world?
NEO
You might not, no.
MORPHEUS
No, you wouldn't.
Neo whispers to Trinity.
NEO
You did all this?
She nods, placing a set of headphones over his ears.
They are wired to an old hotel phone.
MORPHEUS
The pill you took is part of a
trace program. It's going to make
things feel a bit strange.
Distantly, through the ear phones, he hears Apoc POUNDING
on a KEYBOARD. Sweat beads his face. His eyes blink and
twitch when he notices the mirror.
Wide-eyed he stares as it begins to heal itself, a
webwork of cracks that slowly run together as though the
mirror were becoming liquid.
NEO
Shit...
Cypher works with Apoc checking reams of phosphorescent
data. Trinity monitors Neo's electric vital signs.
Neo reaches out to touch the mirror and his fingers
disappear beneath the rippling surface.
Quickly, he tries to pull his fingers out but the mirror
stretches in long rubbery strands like mirrored-taffy
stuck to his fingertips.
NEO
What is this? Mescaline?
MORPHEUS
Just relax, Neo.
The strands thin like rubber cement as he pulls away,
until the fragile wisps of mirror thread break.
With the TINKLING of GLASS, shimmering snowflakes
of electric-blinking mercury fall, hit the ground, and
fade.
He looks at his hand; fingers distended into mirrored
icicles that begin to melt rapidly, dripping, running
like wax down his fingers, spreading across his palms
where he sees his face reflected.
NEO
Uh-oh...
TRINITY
It's going into replication.
MORPHEUS
Apoc?
APOC
Still nothing.
Morpheus takes out a cellular phone and dials a number.
MORPHEUS
Tank, we're going to need the
signal soon. Stay calm, Neo.
The mirror gel seems to come to life, racing, crawling up
his arns like hundreds of insects.
NEO
It's cold.
The mirror creeps up his neck as Neo begins to panic,
tipping his head as though he were sinking into the
mirror, trying to keep his mouth up.
NEO
It's all over me --
Morpheus is right next to him, with the phone.
TRINITY
I got a fibrillation!
CYPHER
I knew it, I knew it...
MORPHEUS
Shit! Apoc?
Streams of mercury run from Neo's nose.
APOC
Targeting... almost there.
An ALARM, on Trinity's monitor ERUPTS.
TRINITY
He's going into arrest!
CYPHER
He's gonna pop!
APOC
Lock! I got him!
MORPHEUS
Now, Tank now!
His eyes tear with mirror, rolling up and closing as a
high-pitched ELECTRIC SCREAM ERUPTS in the headphones --
It is a piercing SHRIEK like a computer calling to
another computer --
Neo's body arches in agony and we are pulled like we were
pulled into the holes of the phone
Sucked into his SCREAM and swallowed by darkness.
INT. POWER PLANT - CLOSE ON MAN'S BODY
Floating in a womb-red amnion.
His body spasms, fighting against the thick gelatin.
Metal tubes, surreal versions of hospital tubes, obscure
his face. Other lines like IVs are connected to limbs
and cover his genitals.
He is struggling desperately now. Air bubbles into the
Jell-O but does not break the surface.
Pressing up, the surface distends, stretching like a red
rubber coccon.
Unable to breathe, he fights wildly to stand, clawing at
the thinning elastic shroud --
Until it ruptures, a hole widening around his mouth as he
sucks for air. Tearing himself free, he emerges from the
cell.
It is Neo.
He is bald and naked, his body slick with gelatin.
Dizzy, nauseous, he waits for his vision to focus.
He is standing in an oval capsule of clear alloy filled
with red gelatin, the surface of which has solidified
like curdled milk.
The IVs in his arms are plugged into outlets that appear
to be grafted to his flesh.
He feels the weight of another cable and reaches to the
back of his head where he finds an enormous coaxial
plugged and locked into the base of his skull.
He tries to pull it out but it would be easier to pull
off a finger.
To either side he sees other tube-shaped pods filled with
red gelatin; beneath the wax-like surface, pale and
motionless, he sees other human beings.
Fanning out in a circle, there are more. All connected
to a center core, each capsule like a red, dimly glowing
petal attached to a black metal stem.
Above him, level after, level, the stem rises seemingly
forever. He moves to the foot of the capsule and looks
out.
The image assaults his mind.
Towers of glowing petals spiral up to incomprehensible
heights, disappearing down into a dim murk like an
underwater abyss.
His sight is blurred and warped, exaggerating the
intensity of the vision. The sound of the PLANT is like
the sound of the ocean heard from inside the belly of
Leviathan.
Below Neo, a petal detaches from the stem, bearing away
the body of an old man like an automated barge even as a
new pod rises up and plugs itself into the empty space.
Inside the new capsule, its surface more translucent and
pinkish in color, Neo sees a small baby.
From above, a machine drops directly in front of Neo.
He swallows his scream as it seems to stare at him.
It is almost insect-like in its design; beautiful
housings of alloyed metal covering organic-like systems
of hard and soft polymers.
A black particle beam washes over Neo, he reacts in pain
as the scanner seems to expose the nervous system wired
to the coaxial cable at his cerebral cortex.
At the back of the neck, the cable lock spins and opens,
disengaging.
The cable pulls itself free, a long clear plastic needle
and cerebrum-chip slides from the anterior of Neols skull
with an ooze of blood and spinal fluid. The other
connective hoses snap free and snake away as --
The back of the unit opens and a tremendous vacuum, like
an airplane door opening, sucks the gelatin and then Neo
into a black hole.
INT. WASTE LINE
The pipe is a waste disposal system and Neo falls,
sliding with the clot of gelatin.
Banking through pipe spirals and elbows, flushing up
through grease traps clogged with cily clunps of
cellulite.
Neo begins to drown when he is suddenly snatched from the
flow of waste.
The metallic cable then lifts, pulling him up into the
belly of the futuristic flying nachine, hovering inside
the sewer main line.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
The metal harness opens and drops the half-conscious Neo
onto the floor.
Human hands and arms help him up as he finds himself
looking straight at Morpheus.
Trinity and Apoc. And others, dressed in bizarre, high-
tech combat gear.
Morpheus smiles.
MORPHEUS
Welcome to the real world, Neo.
Neo passes out.
FADE TO BLACK.
We have no sense of time. We hear VOICES whispering.
MAN (O.S.)
Do you think Morpheus is right?
Do you think he could be the One?
WOMAN (O.S.)
It doesn't matter now. But if
he's wrong...
FADE IN:
NEO'S POV
Neo's eyes flutter open. We see Trinity's face above us,
angelic in the fluorescent glow of a light stick.
ANGLE ON NEO
NEO
... am I dead?
TRINITY
Far from it.
FADE TO BLACK.
FADE IN:
ANGLE ON NEO
He opens his eyes again, something tingling through him.
He focuses and sees his body pierced with dozens of
acupuncture-like needles wired to a strange device.
DOZER
He needs a lot of work.
MORPHEUS
I know.
Dozer and Morpheus are operating on Neo.
NEO
What are you doing?
MORPHEUS
Your muscles have atrophied.
We're rebuilding them.
Fluorescent light sticks burn unnaturally bright.
NEO
Why do my eyes hurt?
MORPHEUS
You've never used them before.
Morpheus takes his sunglasses off and puts them on Neo.
Neo lays back.
MORPHEUS
Rest, Neo. The answers are
coming.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
Neo wakes up from a deep sleep, feeling better. He is
wearing a black tank top and shorts.
He begins to examine himself. There is a futuristic IV
plugged into the jack in his forearm. He pulls it out,
staring at the grafted outlet.
He feels his bald head. His fingers find and explore the
large outlet in the base of his skull.
Just as he starts to come unglued, Morpheus opens the
door.
NEO
Morpheus, what's happened to me?
What is this place?
MORPHEUS
More important than what is when?
NEO
When?
MORPHEUS
You believe the year is 1997 when
in fact it is much closer to 2197.
I can't say for certain what year
it is because we honestly do not
know.
The wind is knocked from Neo's chest.
NEO
That's not possible.
MORPHEUS
I promised you the truth, Neo, and
the truth is that the world you
were living in was a lie.
NEO
How?
MORPHEUS
I'll show you.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Like a sleepwalker, Neo follows Morpheus through the ship.
MORPHEUS
This is my ship, the
Nebuchadnezzar. It's a
hovercraft. Small like a
submarine. It's dark. It's
cramped and cold. But it's home.
They climb a ladder up to the main deck.
INT. MAIN DECK
Everyone is there.
MORPHEUS
This is the main deck. You know
most of my crew.
Trinity smiles and nods.
MORPHEUS
The ones you don't know. That's
Mouse and Switch. The two big
guys are Tank and Dozer.
The names and faces wash meaninglessly over Neo.
MORPHEUS
And this, this is the Core. This
is where we broadcast our pirate
signal and hack into the Matrix.
It is a swamp of bizarre electronic equipment. Vines of
coaxial hang and snake to and from huge monolithic
battery slabs, a black portable satellite dish and banks
of little systems and computer monitors.
At the center of the web, there are six ectoskeleton
chairs made of a poly-alloy frame and suspension harness.
Near the circle of chairs is the control console and
operator's station where the network is monitored.
MORPHEUS
Help him, Trinity.
Neo allows himself to be helped into one of the chairs.
MORPHEUS
Do you remember when I asked you
about an apparatus that could turn
a virtual reality into reality?
Neo nods.
MORPHEUS
It's right here.
He touches Neo's head.
MORPHEUS
And it's accessed here.
Neo feels Morpheus guiding a coaxial line into the jack
at the back of his neck. The cable has the same kind of
cerebellum chip we saw inside the plant.
MORPHEUS
This will feel a little weird.
There are several disturbing NOISES as he works the
needle in.
We MOVE IN as Neo's shoulders bunch and his face tightens
into a grimace until a loud CLICK fires and his ears pop
like when you equalize them underwater.
He relaxes, opening his eyes as we pull back to a feeling
of weightlessness inside another place --
INT. CONSTRUCT
Neo is standing in an empty, blank-white space.
MORPHEUS
This is the Construct.
Startled, Neo whips around and finds Morpheus now in the
room with him.
MORPHEUS
It is our loading program. We can
load anything from clothes, to
weapons, to training simulations.
Anything we need.
Morpheus walks past Neo and when Neo turns he sees the
two leather chairs from the hotel set up in front of a
large-screen television.
MORPHEUS
Sit down.
Neo stands at the back of the chair as Morpheus sits.
NEO
Right now, we're inside a computer
program?
MORPHEUS
Wild, isn't it?
Neo's hands run over the cracked leather.
NEO
This isn't real?
MORPHEUS
What is real? How do you define
real? If you're talking about
your senses, what you feel, taste,
smell, or see, then all you're
talking about are electrical
signals interpreted by your brain.
He picks up a remote control and clicks ON the
TELEVISION. We drift through the Windy City circa 1996.
MORPHEUS
This is the Chicago you know.
Chicago as it was at the end of
the twentieth century. This
Chicago exists only as part of a
neural-interactive simulation that
we call the Matrix.
We GLIDE AT the television as he changes the channel.
MORPHEUS
You have been living inside
Baulliaurd's vision, inside the
map, not the territory. This is
Chicago as it exists today.
The sky is an endless sea of black and green bile. The
earth, scorched and split like burnt flesh, spreads out
beneath us as we ENTER the television.
MORPHEUS
'The desert of the real.'
In the distance, we see the ruins of a future Chicago
protruding from the wasteland like the blackened ribs of
a long-dead corpse.
MORPHEUS
We are, right now, miles below the
earth's surface. The only place
humans can survive outside the
Matrix is underground.
Still MOVING, we TURN and find Neo and Morpheus; the
chairs now sitting in the middle of the black desert.
Dizzy, Neo holds onto the chair.
NEO
What happened?
MORPHEUS
It started early in the twenty-
first century, with the birth of
artificial intelligence, a
singular consciousness that
spawned an entire race of
machines.
In his sunglasses, we see storm clouds gather.
MORPHEUS
At first all they wanted was to be
treated as equals, entitled to the
same human inalienable rights.
Whatever they were given, it was
not enough.
In the circular window of the glasses, EXPLOSIONS light
up a bloody battle field.
MORPHEUS
We don't know who struck first.
Us or them. But sometime at the
end of the twenty-first century
the battle was joined.
We MOVE INTO his glasses and the war surrounds us.
MORPHEUS
The war raged for generations and
turned the face of our planet from
green and blue to black and red.
At last we see the Sentinels; killing machines that are
at once terrifying and beautiful. They have an organic
architecture like a microbiotic organism, that is
perpetually in motion.
The Sentinel cracks the body armor of a soldier,
splitting open the soft, stearing meat inside.
MORPHEUS
It scorched and burned the sky.
Without the sun, the machines
sought out a new energy source to
survive.
The Sentinel locks up, as heat lightning of black ink
bursts against the sky, spreading into a permanent cloud
of stain.
MORPHEUS
They discovered a new form of
fusion. All that was required to
initiate the reaction was a small
electric charge. Throughout human
history we have been dependent on
machines to survive. Fate, it
seems, is not without a sense of
irony.
We return to the power plant that Neo escaped from where
we see human beings looking almost blissful in their
gelatin cocoons.
MORPHEUS
The human body generates more bio-
electricity than a 120-volt
battery and over 25,000 B.T.U.'s
of body heat.
Outside, spreading all around the power plant, beneath a
breathing greenhouse, are the growing fields.
MORPHEUS
We are, as an energy source,
easily renewable and completely
recyclable, the dead liquified and
fed intravenously to the living.
Huge farm-like reapers are harvesting the crop.
MORPHEUS
All they needed to control this
new battery was something to
occupy our mind.
We see inside a clear tubular husk. Floating in viscous
fluid, there is a human fetus; its soft skull already
growing around the brain-jack.
MORPHEUS
And so they built a prison out of
our past, wired it to our brains
and turned us into slaves.
We PULL BACK to find the image is now on the television
and we are again inside the white space of the Construct.
NEO
No! I don't believe it! It's not
possible!
MORPHEUS
I didn't say that it would be
easy, Neo. I just said that it
would be the truth.
The room without walls begins to spin.
NEO
Stop! Let me out! I want out!
INT. MAIN DECK
His eyes snap open and he thrashes against the chair,
trying to rip the cable from the back of his neck.
NEO
Get this thing out of me!
TRINITY
Easy, Neo. Easy.
Dozer holds him while Trinity unlocks it. Once it's out,
he tears away from them, falling as he trips free of the
harness.
NEO
Don't touch me! Get away from me!
On his hands and knees, he reels as the world spins.
Sweat pours off him as a pressure builds inside his skull
as if his brian had been put into a centrifuge.
CYPHER
He's going to pop!
Vomiting violently, Neo pitches forward and blacks out.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
He blinks, regaining consciousness. The room is dark.
Neo is stretched out on his bed.
NEO
I can't go back, can I?
Morpheus sitting like a shadow on a chair in the far
corner.
MORPHEUS
No. But if you could, would you
really want to?
Neo isn't sure of that answer.
MORPHEUS
I feel that I owe you an apology.
There is a rule that we do not
free a mind once it reaches a
certain age. It is dangerous.
They have trouble letting go..
Their mind turns against them.
I've seen it happen. I broke the
rule because I had to.
He stares into the darkness, confessing as much to
himself as Neo.
MORPHEUS
When the Matrix was first built
there was a man born inside that
had the ability to change what he
wanted, to remake the Matrix as he
saw fit. It was this man that
freed the first of us and taught
us the secret of the war; control
the Matrix and you control the
future.
He pauses.
MORPHEUS
When he died, the Oracle at the
temple of Zion prophesied his
return and envisioned an end to
the war and freedom for our
people. That is why there are
those of us that have spent our
entire lives searching the Matrix,
looking for him.
Neo can feel his eyes on him.
MORPHEUS
I did what I did, because I
believe we have been brought here
for a reason, Neo. You are here
to serve a purpose, just as I am
here to serve mine.
NEO
I told you I don't believe in
fate.
Morpheus smiles, leaning towards hin.
MORPHEUS
But I do, Neo. I do.
He stands up.
MORPHEUS
Get some rest. You're going to
need it.
NEO
For what?
MORPHEUS
Your training.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
There is no morning; there is only darkness and then the
fluorescent light sticks flicker on.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
Neo is awake in his bed, staring up at the lights. The
door opens and TA.NK steps inside.
TANK
Morning. Did you sleep?
NEO
No.
TANK
You will tonight. I guarantee it.
I'm Tank. I'll be your operator.
He offers his hand and Neo shakes it. He notices that
Tank doesn't have any jacks.
NEO
You don't have...
TANK
Any holes? Nope. Me and my
brother Dozer, we are 100 percent
pure, old fashioned, home-grown
human. Born free. Right here in
the real world. Genuine child of
Zion.
NEO
Zion?
TANK
Zion is the place, man. You'll
see it one day. Last human city.
All we got left.
Tank smiles.
TANK
Goddamn, I got to tell you I'm
fairly excited to see what you are
capable of. I mean if Morpheus is
right and all. We're not supposed
to talk.about any of that, but if
you are, well then this is an
exciting time. We got a lot to do
so let's get to it.
INT. MAIN DECK
Neo is plugged in, hanging in one of the suspension
chairs.
TANK
We're supposed to load all these
operations programs first, but
this is some major boring shit.
Why don't we start something a
little fun?
Tank smiles as he plops into his operator's chair. He
begins flipping through a tall carousel loaded with micro
discs.
TANK
How about sore combat training?
Neo reads the label on the disk.
NEO
Jiujitsu? I'm going to learn
jujitsu?
Tank slides the disk into Neo's supplement drive.
NEO
No way.
Smiling, Tank punches the "load" code.
His body jumps against the harness as his eyes clamp
shut. The monitors kick wildly as his heart pounds,
adrenaline surges, and his brain sizzles.
An instant later his eyes snap open.
NEO
Holy shit!
TANK
Hey, Mikey, he likes it! Ready
for more?
NEO
Hell yes!
INT. MAIN DECK - CLOSE ON COMPUTER MONITOR - LATER
as grey pixels slowly fill a small, half-empty box. It
is a meter displaying how much download time is left.
The title bar reads: "Combat Series 10 of 12," file
categories flashing beneath it: Savate, Jujitsu, Ken Po,
Drunken Boxing...
Morpheus walks in.
MORPHEUS
How is he?
Tank looks at his watch, rubs his eyes.
TANK
Ten hours straight. He's a
machine.
Neo's body spasms and relaxes as his eyes open, breath
hissing from his lips. He looks like he just orgasmed.
He locks at Morpheus.
NEO
This is incredible. I know Kung
Fu.
Morpheus sits in the drive chair next to hin. He nods to
Tank.
MORPHEUS
Show me.
INT. DOJO
They are standing in a very sparse japanese-style dojo.
MORPHEUS
This is a sparring program,
similar to the programmed reality
of the Matrix. Consider this your
first lesson.
He assumes a fighting stance.
MORPHEUS
Attack me.
Neo assumes a similar stance, cautiously circling until
he gives a short cry and launches a furious attack.
It is like a Jackie Chan movie at high speed, fists and
feet striking from every angle as Neo presses his attack
--
But each and every blow is blocked by effortless speed.
INT. MAIN DECK
While their minds battle in the programmed reality, the
two bodies appear quite serene, suspended in the drive
chairs.
Tank monitors their life systems noticing that Neo is
wildly and chaotically lit up as opposed to the slow and
steady rhythm of Morpheus.
INT. MESS HALL
Dinner is up. Everyone is eating bowls of single-cell
protein. It has a cottage cheese consistency.
MOUSE bursts in the room.
MOUSE
Morpheus is fighting Neo!
All at once they bolt for the door.
INT. DOJO
Neo's face is knotted, teeth clenched, as he hurls
himself at Morpheus.
MORPHEUS
Good. Adaption. Improvisation.
But your weakness isn't your
technique.
Morpheus attacks him and it is like nothing we have seen.
His feet and fists are everywhere taking Neo apart. For
every blow Neo blocks, five more hit their marks until --
Neo falls.
Panting, on his hands and knees, blood spits fror, his
mouth speckling the white floor of the Dojo.
MORPHEUS
How did I beat you?
NEO
You -- You're too fast.
MORPHEUS
Do you think my being faster,
stronger has anything to do with
my muscles in this place?
Neo is frustrated, still unable to catch his breath.
MORPHEUS
Do you believe that's air you are
breathing now?
Neo squints at him.
MORPHEUS
If you can free your mind, the
body will follow.
Neo stands, nodding.
MORPHEUS
Again.
Their fists fly with pneumatic speed.
INT. MAIN DECK
Everyone is gathered behind Tank, watching the fight,
like watching a game of Mortal Combat.
CABLE
Jeezus Keerist! That boy is fast!
MOUSE
You ever seen anyone that fast
that soon, Tank?
TANK
Never.
APOC
Morpheus is right. He's got to be
the one.
INT. DOJO
The speed of the blows rises like a drum solo that seems
impossible to sustain. Neo's face sheds its mask of calm
with a scream.
He wants to beat Morpheus bad.
Finally a single blow catches Morpheus on the side of the
head, knocking his glasses off.
INT. MAIN DECK
There are several gasps.
MOUSE
I don't believe it!
INT. DOJO
Morpheus rubs his face.
MORPHEUS
You are angry with me.
Neo pants.
NEO
I, uh... maybe.
MORPHEUS
It's all right. It's natural.
NEO
I feel better.
MORPHEUS
Good, good. Anger is a gift, Neo,
but it's a heavy one.
Morpheus smiles.
MORPHEUS
Tank, load the jump program.
Neo straightens as the dojo DISSOLVES away like a curtain
lifting, leaving the two men now standing on a building
rooftop in a city skyline.
MORPHEUS
You have to learn to let go of
that anger. You must let go of
everything.
A WIND HOWLS, whipping Morpheus' long coat to the side.
MORPHEUS
You must empty yourself to free
your mind.
Morpheus spins, running hard at the edge of the rooftop.
And jumps. He sails through the air, his coat billowing
out behind him like a cape --
Somersaults once and lands on the rooftop across the
street.
NEO
Shit.
Neo looks down at the street twenty floors below, then at
Morpheus an impossible fifty feet away.
NEO
Okie dokie.
He takes a deep breath.
NEO
Yeah. Free my mind. Right. No
problem.
He concentrates. Runs.
INT. MAIN DECK
They are transfixed.
CABLE
He's gonna make it.
APOC
No way. Not possible.
MOUSE
No one's ever made their first
jump.
SWITCH
What if he does?
APOC
He won't.
TANK
It's never been done.
Trinity stares at the screen, her fists clenching as she
whispers.
TRINITY
Come on.
EXT. ROOFTOP
Summoning every ounce of strength in his legs, Neo
launches himself into the air in a single maniacal shriek
--
But comes up drastically short.
His eyes widen as he plummets. Stories fly by, the
ground rushing up at him, but as he hits --
The ground gives way, stretchinp like a trapeze net.
He bounces and flips, slowly coming to a rest, flat on
his back.
He laughs, a bit unsure, wiping the wind-blown tears from
his face.
Morpheus exits the building and helps him to his feet.
MORPHEUS
Everyone falls the first time.
Neo nods quietly.
MORPHEUS
If you never know failure, how can
you know success?
INT. MAIN DECK
They break up.
MOUSE
What does it mean?
CABLE
It doesn't mean anything.
CYPHER
Everyone falls, right, Trinity?
But Trinity has left.
Neo's eyes open as Tank eases the plug out. He tries to
move and groans, cradling his ribs.
While Tank helps Morpheus, Neo spits blood into his hand.
NEO
I thought it wasn't real.
Neo stares at the blood.
NEO
If you are killed in the Matrix,
you die here?
MORPHEUS
The body cannot live without the
mind.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
Trinity enters from the hall, carrying a try of food.
TRINITY
Neo, I saved you some dinner --
She sees him passed out on the bed. She sets the tray
down and pulls the blanket over him.
She pauses, her face close to his, then inhales lightly,
breathing in the scent of him, before slowly pulling away.
It seems the moment she closes the door, he wakes with a
start, unsure of where he is. After a moment, he gets
out of bed.
INT. HALL
The ship is quiet and dark. Everyone is asleep.
INT. MAIN DECK
The core glows with monitor light. Cypher is in the
operator's chair as Neo cones up behind him.
CYPHER
Whoa! Shit, Neo, you scared the
bejeezus out of ne.
NEO
Sorry.
CYPHER
No, it's all right.
NEO
What are you doing?
CYPHER
Midnight watch.
Neo's eyes light up as he steps closer to the screens
that seem alive with a constant flow of data.
NEO
Is that... ?
CYPHER
The Matrix? Yeah.
The monitors are packed with bizarre codes and equations.
CYPHER
You want a drink?
He pours Neo a drink from a large plastic jug.
CYPHER
I'll tell you, I feel for you,
man. I really do. Most of us
were still young, just punks, when
Morpheus jacked us. But you, you
had a real life.
Neo takes a sip and it almost kills him. Cypher pounds
on his back.
CYPHER
Good shit, huh? Dozer makes it.
It's good for two things:
degreasing engines and killing
brain cells.
Red-faced, Neo finally stops coughing.
CYPHER
Did he tell you why he did it?
Neo nods.
CYPHER,
I'll be the didn't tell you that
this wasn't the first time he
thought he found the One.
Neo shakes his head as Cypher fills his cup and laughs.
CYPHER
Let me give you a piece of advice.
Between you and me, if Morpheus
says you can fly, I wouldn't go
jumping out any windows to find
out if he's right. Understand?
Cypher raises his drink. Neo swallows another throat-
scorching mouthful.
CYPHER
Welcome to the real world!
INT. RESTAURANT (MATRIX) - NIGHT
CHAMBER MUSIC and the ambiance of wealth soak the room as
we watch a serrated knife saw through a thick, gorgeous
steak.
CYPHER
That's what he said to me nine
years ago.
The meat is so perfect, charred on the outside, oozing
red juice from the inside, that it could be a dream.
CYPHER
The real world. Ha, what a joke.
We recognize the grating voice, the insidious laugh.
CYPHER
You know what real is? I'll tell
you what real is.
A fork stabs the cube of meat and we FOLLOW it UP TO the
face of Cypher.
CYPHER
Real is just another four-letter
word.
He laughs, shoving the steak into his mouth.
The restaurant is located on the top floor of a Chicago
skyscraper where the view is breathtaking and the menu
has no prices.
Sitting across from Cypher is Agent Smith.
AGENT SMITH
Do we have a deal, Mr. Reagan?
Cypher chews the steak loudly, smacking it between his
teeth.
CYPHER
Mmm, so, so fucking good.
Smith watches him shovel another hunk of meat into his
mouth.
CYPHER
You know, I know that this steak
doesn't exist. I know when I put
it in my mouth, the Matrix is
telling my brain that it is juicy
and delicious. After nine years,
do you know what I've realized?
Pausing, he examines the meat skewered on his fork. He
pops it in, eyes rolling up, savoring the tender beef
melting in his mouth.
CYPHER
Ignorance is bliss.
AGENT SMITH
Then we have a deal?
CYPHER
I don't want to remember nothing.
Nothing! You understand? And I
want to be rich. Someone
important. Like an actor. You
can do that, right?
AGENT SMITH
Whatever you want, Mr. Reagan.
Cypher takes a deep drink of wine.
CYPHER
All right. You get my body back
in a power plant, reinsert me into
the Matrix and I'll get you what
you want.
AGENT SMITH
Access codes to Zion.
CYPHER
I told you, I don't know them.
But I can give you the man who
does.
AGENT SMITH
Morpheus.
INT. MAIN DECK
Sweat dapples his lip as Neo snaps out of the construct
coma.
NEO
Jeez, I was wondering about that.
TANK
What?
NEO
Why I was bald here but not in the
Matrix.
TANK
R.S.I.
NEO
Residual self image.
TANK
Good. Now what's this?
He points to one of Neo's monitors.
NEO
Life systems monitor, glucose
levels.
TANK
What's that?
NEO
Main power supply to the core.
He follows Tank to the operator's station where he points
to a red key-switch.
TANK
How about this?
NEO
Mainframe self-destruct. Uses all
remaining power to generate an...
E.M.P?
TANK
Electromagnetic pulse. Our best
weapon against the machines. The
problem is if someone is still in
the Matrix when that thing goes
off, they're not coming back.
Neo nods as Morpheus comes up behind them.
MORPHEUS
How's he doing?
TANK
We just finished the operation
programs and he's showing great
retention.
MORPHEUS
Good. I want everyone alerted to
12-hour stand-by. We're going in.
Neo, it's time for you to know why
you're here.
Morpheus walks away.
NEO
What's he talking about?
TANK
He's taking you into the Matrix to
see her.
NEO
See who?
TANK
The Oracle.
Neo looks down at the monitor teeming with Matrix data
that seems to coalesce, equations giving way to images as
a METAL SCREAM RISES BECOMING --
EXT. CHICAGO (MATRIX) - DAY
An El train.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
The room is empty, heavy curtains covering windows. It
looks as if it hasn't been touched in years. In the
bedroom with the cracked oval mirror an old black PHONE
begins to RING.
In the mirror, we first glimpse them and as we keep
TURNING, the room fills with equipment and the team.
Morpheus answers the phone.
MORPHEUS
We're in.
He hangs up.
MORPHEUS
Mouse and Cable hold the exit.
Let's go.
INT. STAIRWELL (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo follows the others down the stairwell that winds
around an antique elevator shaft.
NEO
Did you have to do this?
TRINITY
Yeah.
NEO
What did she tell you?
TRINITY
Lots of things.
NEO
Any of them true?
Trinity looks at him, then looks away.
TRINITY
Some of them.
GIZMO
Were they good or bad?
TRINITY
There's no point in worrylng.
Whatever is going to happen is
going to happen.
They cross the old lobby. Switch and Apoc stop at the
doors.
MORPHEUS
We should be back in an hour.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo squints into the sun that seems unnaturally bright.
He is the only one without sunglasses.
MORPHEUS
Do you now understand what it
means when we say, if you're not
one of us, you're one of them?
NEO
The agents. They're sentient
programs. They can commandeer any
software hardwired to the
mainframe.
MORPHEUS
Anyone that is still in a power
plant. That is why we try to be
invisible in the Matrix.
NEO
The best hacking is always
traceless.
Cypher and Trinity move away from them, securing the
perimeter. As Cypher passes a garbage can, he
surreptitiously drops something inside.
It is a cellular phone and we watch the blue display as
the LINE CONNECTS.
An early 1970s, black Lincoln Continental emerges from a
corrugated roll-up garage. Morpheus and Neo get in.
INT. LINCOLN CONTINENTAL (MATRIX) - DAY
An enormous man is waiting for them. A wad of chewing
tobacco bulges his cheek. He spits into a Coke can.
MOJO
Morpheus, been a long time coming.
MORPHEUS
You're looking well, Mojo.
Mojo coughs a brown, cankerous laugh, juice speckling his
chin and shirt. He stares at Neo.
MOJO
You bringing us geriatrics now.
Morpheus?
He spits and laughs again.
MOJO
Guess you are locking for a
miracle.
EXT. BAR (MATRIX) - DAY
The Continental pulls up to a bar in the kind of
neighborhood where every corner has a pair of eyes.
INT. BAR (MATRIX) - DAY
A lightless, lower-class bar. No one enters that is not
expected.
The front doors open in a brilliant burst of sunlight as
Mojo leads Morpheus and Neo inside. Neo looks around,
his eyes adjusting to the darkness.
Mojo talks to the bartender, then looks over.
MOJO
All right, it's cool. Go on back.
They weave their way to the back of the bar, the STICKY
FLOOR SNAPPING under their FEET.
A monolith of a man rises from his stool as they walk up.
REX
You're late.
He moves to the side, opening the heavy iron door behind
him. They descend the basement staircase toward the
single bare bulb at the bottom, hanging above the only
door.
INT. BASEMENT (MATRIX) - DAY
A high-tech laptop and modem are set up on a stack of
milk crates. Neo waits as Morpheus types in a series of
access codes. After a moment the screen blinks, "Welcome
Morpheus."
Morpheus walks back to the same door they entered, but it
now leads into --
INT. TEMPLE OF ZION (MATRIX) - DAY
The walls and floors are polished marble. Neo follows,
his mouth agape.
NEO
What -- what happened?
MORPHEUS
This is the temple. It is a part
of Zion's mainframe. It's hidden
inside the Matrix so that we can
access it.
Two PRIESTESSES are waiting in the antechamber.
PRIESTESS
Hello, Morpheus. We've been
expecting you.
MORPHEUS
Okay, you're on your own. Go with
them.
They take Neo by the arm, leading him down a hall into
another room.
PRIESTESS
Wait here. Among the other
Potentials.
INT. ROOM OF POTENTIALS (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo enters and finally understands the attention given to
his age. The Potentials are all little children.
The room feels at once like a Buddhist temple and a
kindergarten class. The children's heads are either
shaved or thick with dreadlocks. Some are playing,
others meditating or practicing their gift.
Neo watches a little girl levitate wooden alphabet
blocks. A skinny BOY holds a SPOON which sways like a
blade of grass as he bends it with his rnind.
Neo crosses to him, sits.
The Boy smiles as Neo picks up a spoon and tries to
imitate him. Despite his best efforts, Neo cannot make
it bend.
SPOON BOY
Your spoon does not bend because
it is just that, a spoon. Mine
bends because there is no spoon,
just my mind.
Neo watches as it curls into a knot.
SPOON BOY
Link yourself to the spoon.
Become the spoon and bend
yourself.
Neo nods, again holding up his spoon.
NEO
There is no spoon. Right.
He concentrates. The spoon begins to bend just as the
Priestess touches his shoulder.
PRIESTESS
The Oracle will see you now.
Spoon Boy smiles.
INT. SHRINE (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo enters nervously. Beneath his feet is a path of the
zodiac leading to marbled stairs that rise to a dais and
a three-legged throne.
The throne is empty.
NEO
Hello?
A DISTANT FEMALE VOICE calls to him and he follows it up
the stairs. At the top of the dais, he smells something
cooking.
Following the scent, he moves behind the pillars where he
finds an open door.
VOICE (O.S.)
Just come on in.
He walks through a vestibule where he sees a fabulous
moonstone headdress and velvet robes. A second door
leads into --
INT. ORACLE'S CHAMBERS (MATRIX) - DAY
It looks like a suburban tract house.
There is a lot of cozy furniture, a dining roon hutch
filled with china, shelves and tables crowded with
doilies, knick-knacks and ceramic brick-a-brack.
Neo follows the plastic carpet runner to the kitchen.
A WOMAN is huddled beside the oven, peering inside
through the cracked door.
NEO
Hello?
ORACLE (WOMAN)
I know. You're Neo. Be right
with you.
NEO
You're the Oracle?
ORACLE
Bingo. I got to say I love seeing
you non-believers. It's really a
relief. All that pomp and
circumstances just plain tucker me
out. Almost done. Smell good,
don't they?
NEO
Yeah.
ORACLE
I'd ask you to sit down, but
you're not going to anyway. And
don't worry about the vase.
NEO
What vase?
He turns to look around and his elbow knocks a VASE from
the table. It BREAKS against the linoleum floor.
ORACLE
The vase.
NEO
Shit, I'm sorry.
She pulls out a tray of chocolate chip cookies and turns.
She is an older woman, wearing big oven mitts,
comfortable slacks and a print blouse. She looks like
someone's grandma.
ORACLE
I said don't worry about it. I'll
get one of my kids to fix it.
NEO
How did you know...?
She sets the cookie tray on a wooden hot-pad.
ORACLE
What's really going to bake your
noodle later on is, would you
still have broken it if I hadn't
said anything.
Smiling, she lights a cigarette.
ORACLE
You're cuter than I thought. I
see why she likes you.
NEO
Who?
ORACLE
Not too bright, though.
She winks.
ORACLE
You know why Morpheus brought you
to see me?
NEO
I think so.
ORACLE
So? What do you think? You think
you're the one?
NEO
I don't know.
She gestures to a wooden plaque, the kind every grandma
has, except that the words are in Latin.
ORACLE
You know what that means? It's
Latin. Means, 'Know thyself.'
She puts her cigarette down.
ORACLE
Well, let's have a look at you.
She widens his eyes, checks his ears, then feels the
glands in his neck.
ORACLE
Open your mouth. Say, 'ahhh.'
She nods then looks at his palms.
ORACLE
Hmmm. You sure got the gift, but
it's tricky. I'd say the bad news
is, you're not the one. Still got
a lot to learn. Maybe next life.
NEO
What's the good news?
ORACLE
Same as the bad news, you're not
the one.
NEO
Is that it, then?
ORACLE
No. Here.
She picks up the tray of cooling cookies.
ORACLE
You better take a cookie. Got a
big day ahead of you.
He eyes her, then takes a cookie.
ORACLE
Make a believer out of you yet.
INT. ANTECHAMBER (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus rises from a bench as the Priestess escorts Neo
out. When they are alone, Morpheus puts his hand on
Neo's shoulder.
MORPHEUS
You don't have to tell me
anything, Neo, because I already
know what she said.
NEO
You do?
MORPHEUS
I brought you so that you could
hear it for yourself. I knew it
would help.
Neo finishes his cookie.
MORPHEUS
No one will ever ask you because
it is a gift from her. It is for
you and you alone.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Storm clouds shroud the streets as the sky turns
jaundice.
Cypher nervously glances down the surrounding streets.
He notices several unmarked white vans.
He mops the sweat from his forehead, when Trinity sees
the black Lincoln.
TRINITY
Here they come.
INT. MAIN DECK
In the hovercraft, we see the sweat rolling down Cypher's
face and neck.
Tank is typing rapidly at the keyboard.
TANK
Weird. This area never has this
much activity.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Apoc opens the side door and they enter the hotel.
INT. ROOM 1313 (MATRIX) - DAY
Mouse's CELLULAR RINGS.
MOUSE
Welcome to Movie-Phone.
TANK (V.O.)
They're on their way.
MOUSE
Right.
The phone flips shut as he jumps up.
MOUSE
Let's get to work.
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Light filters down the throat of the building through a
caged skylight at the top of the open elevator shaft.
Four figures glide up the dark stairs that wind around
the antique elevator.
Neo notices a black cat, a yellow-green-eyed shadow that
slinks past them and pads quickly down the stairs.
A moment later, Neo sees another black cat that looks and
moves identically to the first one.
NEO
Whoa. Deja vu.
Those words stop the others dead in their tracks.
INT. MAIN DECK
The monitors suddenly glitch as though the Matrix had an
electronic seizure.
TANK
Oh, shit! Oh, shit!
INT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Trinity turns around, her face tight.
TRINITY
What did you just say?
NEO
Nothing. Just had a little deja
vu.
TRINITY
What happened? What did you see?
NEO
A black cat went past us and then
I saw another that looked just
like it.
TRINITY
How much like it? Was it the same
cat?
NEO
It might have been. I'm not sure.
Trinity looks at Morpheus, who listens quietly to the
rasping breath of the old building.
NEO
What is it?
TRINITY
A deja vu is usually a glitch in
the Matrix. It happens when they
change something.
She also listens as the staccato BEAT of HELICOPTER
BLADES GROW ominously LOUDER.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank sees what was changed.
TANK
It's a trap!
INT. STAIRCASE (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus looks up the stairs as a helicopter shadow
passes over the clouded glass.
MORPHEUS
Come on!
INT. ROOM 1313 (MATRIX) - DAY
Cable goes to the draped windows.
CABLE
Did you just feel something weird?
MOUSE
Yeah...
The CELLULAR RINGS.
INT. BASEMENT (MATRIX) - DAY
Heavy bolt-cutters snap through the main phone cable.
INT. ROOM 1313 (MATRIX) - DAY
Mouse answers the phone.
MOUSE
What's going on?
TANK (V.O.)
They cut the hard-line! It's a
trap! Get out!
Cable yanks open the curtain.
CABLE
Oh, no.
The windows are bricked up.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
The door to the roof explodes open as heavily-armed rnen
rush towards room 1313.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank watches helplessly.
TANK
No, no, no.
INT. ROOM 1313 (MATRIX) - DAY
The door slams open and the police force pours in, dozens
of assault rifles surrounding Mouse and Cable who are
armed with only handguns.
CABLE
Morpheus! It's a trap --
INT. STAIRS (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus stops as the scream is drowned by the REPORT of
MACHINE GUNS filling the building with a terrible fury.
TRINITY
Oh, God.
INT. MAIN DECK
Mouse's body thrashes against its harness as --
INT. ROOM 1313 (MATRIX) - DAY
BULLETS POUND him against the blood-splattered brick
window. Gun smoke thickens the room, Cable blasting and
moving until --
The HAMMER CLICKS empty. He screams as a DOZEN GUNS OPEN
FIRE, ripping him apart.
INT. MAIN DECK
Blood spits from Cable's mouth, his body spasming, then
lying perfectly still.
The flat-line ALARM softly cries out from the life
MONITORS of the two dead men.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
More police cars arrive as cops break open the lobby
doors.
INT. STAIRWELL (MATRIX) - DAY
Flying downstairs, Morpheus stops, hearing the police
swarming below. He turns and rushes down the hall of the
eighth floor. At the end of it, he finds the bricked-up
windows.
CYPHER
That's what they changed. We're
trapped. There's no way out.
The sound of heavy BOOT-STEPS close around them with the
mechanical sureness of a vice.
MORPHEUS
Give me your phone.
TRINITY
They'll be able to track it.
MORPHEUS
We have no choice.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank answers the call.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Tank, find a structural drawing of
this building and find it fast.
His fingers pound the keyboard.
INT. LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Flashlights probe the rotting darkness as the police
search every floor.
INT. MAIN DECK
The diagram windows onto the screen.
TANK
Got it.
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
I need the main wet-wall.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith pauses, his hand going to his earpiece.
INT. ROOM 808 (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus is guided by Tank.
TANK (V.O.)
Now left and that's it in front of
you.
MORPHEUS
Good.
He cuts off the phone.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith hears the LINE CLICK dead.
AGENT SMITH
Eighth floor. They're on the
eighth floor.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Brown hears Smith on his earphone.
AGENT BROWTJ
Eighth floor! Move!
INT. STAIRWELL (MATRIX) - DAY
Cops flood the eighth floor, rushing everywhere.
INT. ROOM 808 (MATRIX) - DAY
Several cops sweep through the room. It is empty. As
they pass the bathroom, we see a man-sized hole smashed
through the plaster and lathe.
INT. WALL (MATRIX) - DAY
They are inside the main plumbing wall, slowly worming
their way down the greasy, black stack pipes.
Above them, light fills the hole they made to get inside.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Brown turns to Smith.
AGENT BROWN
Where are they?
INT. ROOM 608 (MATRIX) - DAY
The cops search in silence, straining for a clue, when
one hears SOMETHING STRANGE near the bathroom.
INT. WALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Cypher has slipped and is wedged between the wall and
several thick supply pipes.
INT. ROOM 608 (MATRIX) - DAY
The Cop leans in, his ear almost against the thin
membrane of plaster separating them. He can hear
WHISPERS, HISSES and a GRUNT when --
The WALL suddenly bulges, SHATTER-CRACKING as the Cop
realizes --
COP
They're in the walls!
INT. WALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo pulls Cypher free just as the Cop OPENS FIRE --
BULLETS PUNCHING shafts of light like swords into the box
of soot-black space.
INT. ROOM 608 (MATRIX) - DAY
The Cop keeps FIRING, his flashlight strapped to his gun
barrel, lighting up the wall until --
A BULLET spits out his forehead. Agent Smith watches the
BODY fall with a THUD.
AGENT SMITH
Are orders that hard to follow?
I'll say it again. Morpheus must
be taken alive. Understand?
INT. WALL (MATRIX) - DAY
They're almost falling, they're climbing so fast.
Above them, plaster is smashed open as crunbling bits
shower down on them, filling the crawlway with dust.
INT. ROOM 608 (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith looks into the open wall, at the exposed
intestines of the building, and realizes where they are
going.
AGENT SMITH
How like a rodent.
INT. WALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Just below, a RIFLE-BUTT SMASHES open the WALL, light
raking across the lathe.
COP
I got him! I got him!
Trinity finds her gun first. BULLET-HOLES POP out the
WALL as she STRAFES the room, sending cops diving for
cover.
They continue, Trinity exposed for a roment, when a
creeping cop smashes a fist through and grabs a fistful
of her hair.
He starts to yank her out when Neo kicks, his boot
bursting through plaster and splintering lathe, knocking
the Cop out.
They then quickly sink out of sight.
INT. BASEMENT (MATRIX) - DAY
This part of the basement, a dark concrete cavern, was
the main mechanical room. There are four enormous
boilers, dinosaur-like technology that once pumped hot
water like arteries.
Black and bloody, they squeeze out from the ceiling into
the tangled web of pipes.
Their enemies are waiting for them.
Blinding lights cut open the darkness as gas-masked
figures FIRE GRENADE LAUNCHERS.
Smoke blossoms from the green-metal canisters.
Morpheus never stops moving. Searching the floor, he
finds what.he needs; the cover of the catch basin.
Cypher watches him pry open the grate, when a gas can
bounces near him.
MORPHEUS
Come on!
Cypher seems to trip as the cloud envelops him.
INT. MAIN DECK
Cypher's body begins to shiver uncontrollably.
TANK
Nerve gas.
INT. BASEMENT (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus watches Cypher disappear into the smoke then
follows the others down the wet-black hole.
INT. CATCH BASIN (MATRIX) - DAY
They crawl through greasy black water in a three foot
diameter pipe that feeds into the sewer main.
INT. BASEMENT (MATRIX) - DAY
Gas-masked apparitions find the open hole.
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Cypher is carried out, hand-cuffed, his body still
shaking, mucus bubbling out his nose. As he is led past
Agent Smith, it almost seems that both men smile.
AGENT SMITH
We have them now.
INT. SEWER MAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo punches out the screen and then spills down into the
main water trough.
Oily water forms around them as they wade across the man-
made underground river, towards the service catwalk.
Neo is about to pull himself out when he sees them coming.
Flashlights and laser sites sweep at them as cops in
helmets and heavy armor, looking more nachine than human,
fill both ends of the tunnel.
There is a single manhole cover above them.
Morpheus whispers to Trinity.
MORPHEUS
You have to get Neo out.
Understand? That's all that
matters now.
TRINITY
Morpheus, don't --
MORPHEUS
He must get out. Do you
understand me?
She nods.
A font of water erupts as Morpheus leaps for the manhole
ladder, his coat flying open like the wings of a manta
ray.
COPS
There he is! That's him!
Pools of light wash over him as he hauls himself to the
surface.
COP
He's heading for the street!
Trinity urges the others to follow her. Grabbing Neo,
they wade quietly away from the chaos.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus shoots out of the sewer but the police are
waiting for him. The closest cop is armed with a
tranquilized gun. He fires --
But Morpheus' is too fast, using the manhole cover as a
shield, blocking the darts, then --
Frisbee-ing it into the cop's armored chest, knocking him
off his feet.
The cops lunge at him but every part of his body is a
deadly weapon moving with impossible speed.
It seems he might fight his way out when he throws a
spinning back fist that is caught by --
Agent Smith.
AGENT SMITH
So, we meet at last.
MORPHEUS
And you are?
AGENT SMITH
Smith. I am Agent Smith.
MORPHEUS
You all look the same to me.
AGENT SMITH
I've been waiting for this noment.
Faster than a snake spits, Morpheus cracks Smith with a
jaw-breaking right.
MORPHEUS
Oh, so have I.
Agent Smith smiles.
INT. SEWER MAIN (MATRIX) - DAY
Trinity leads the others, fading into the darkness of the
tunnel, lit only with shafts of lights streaming through
the street drains as we RISE TOWARDS them --
THROUGH a grate INTO the fight.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Smith and Morpheus exchange a furious serious of blows
that is witnessed but not believed by the surrounding
police.
Agent Smith delivers a punishing kick that staggers
Morpheus.
AGENT SMITH
You can't win.
Morpheus smiles.
MORPHEUS
I already have.
He stands up and drops his fists; a steely resolve in his
eyes.
AGENT SMITH
Take him.
Cops swarm over Morpheus.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank reaches out to the screen as if reaching for
Morpheus.
TANK
No!
EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY
Cuff ed and beaten, Morpheus is thrown into a caged
transport vehicle. The DOOR CLANGS shut.
Agent Jones finds Agent Smith.
AGENT JONES
The others were lost.
AGENT SMITH
You've taken care of Reagan?
Agent Jones nods.
AGENT SMITH
Then the others do not matter.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
A manhole cover cracks open. Two eyes peek out just as a
TRUCK RATTLES over it. The THUNDER DOPPLERS AWAY and the
cover opens.
Neo, Trinity, Switch and Apoc climb out. Trinity pulls a
water-logged phone from her pocket.
TRINITY
We need a phone.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank is again at the monitors, searching the Matrix.
TANK
We gotta find the others. They're
still alive.
The PHONE RINGS.
TANK
Operator.
CYPHER (V.O.)
I need an exit! Fast!
TANK
Cypher? I thought they had you?
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Cypher is standing at a public phone. Across the street
is the burning paddy wagon that appears to have collided
witli an oncoming car.
CYPHER
There was an accident. A fucking
car accident. All of a sudden.
Boom. They're all dead. I still
got the shakes but, Jesus,
someone's going to make a believer
out of me.
INT. MAIN DECK
Dozer spots the wreck.
DOZER
There he is.
TANK
I got you.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Just get me outta here.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
TANK (V.O.)
Nearest exit is Franklin and Erie.
An old appliance store.
Cypher hangs up and smiles as the fire trucks arrive.
CYPHER
An actor. Definitely.
INT. MAIN DECK
The PHONE RINGS. Tank answers.
TANK
Operator.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Tank, it's me.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
They are outside a pawn shop. Trinity has a new cellular.
TRINITY
We need an exit!
TANK (V.O.)
Gotcha. You're not far from
Cypher.
TRINITY
Cypher, I thought --
TANK (V.O.)
So did we. That boy's got nine
lives. I sent him to Franklin and
Erie.
TRINITY
Got it.
She hangs up.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Running, Cypher turns onto Erie.
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
Dead machines, eviscerated and shrouded with dust lay on
metal shelves like bodies in a morgue.
Plywood covering a small window is ripped off and Cypher
crawls inside.
Deep in the back room, a PHONE that has not rung in years
begins to RING.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank punches the emit command.
TANK
Got him.
Cypher's body twitches in its harness, jerking itself
awake. His eyes blink open. Dozer unplugs him.
DOZER
System check looks fine.
Cypher stands, a raspy cough spewing from his lungs.
EXT. STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Trinity sees the appliance shop.
INT. MAIN DECK
Cypher holds his chest.
DOZER
You okay?
CYPHER
Goddamn gas. My lungs are killing
me.
He crosses to an overhead bin.
CYPHER
We got any pain killers?
DOZER
The first aid kit's over here.
As Dozer stoops for a cabinet, Cypher pulls back a heavy
blanket exposing a plasma rifle.
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo crawls through the window that Cypher opened.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank finishes loading the exit programs as Cypher rises
behind him, swinging the weapon at his back.
He looks over as Dozer turns with the first aid kit, a
look of frozen disbelief crossing his face --
DOZER
No!
Tank spins as red hot wads of PLASMA EXPLODE through his
chair and into his back. Diving, a second BURST tears up
his side --
As Dozer shoots a look at the monitor where Tank was
working. He stabs the enter command activating the exit
sequence and ducks under a BARRAGE of PLASMA FIRE-
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
The PHONE begins to RING as the others crawl in.
SWITCH
God, I love that sound.
INT. MAIN DECK
Dozer rolls up, grabbing a heavy crowbar from a box of
tools.
Cypher circles the drive chairs as the sights of the
plasma rifle find Dozer's face.
Dozer charges, screaming, and the PLASMA RIFLE SCREAMS
back.
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
The PHONE is still RINGING.
TRINITY
You first,.Neo.
Neo answers the phone when there is a CLICK. There is no
signal. Nothing but silence.
TRINITY
What happened?
NEO
I don't know. It just went dead.
Trinity listens to the dead line and takes out the
cellular.
INT. MAIN DECK
The operator PHONE begins to RING- Cypher steps over the
body of Tank and looks at the monitor.
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
Trinity can almost feel him watching them. Every
unanswered RING wrings her gut a little tighter, until --
CYPHER (V.O.)
Hello, Trinity.
TRINITY
Cypher? Where's Tank?
CYPHER (V.O.)
He had an accident.
TRINITY
An accident? What about Dozer?
Is Dozer there?
INT. MAIN DECK
He walks over to Trinity's body, staring down at it
hanging in its coma-like stillness.
CYPHER
You know, for a long time, I
thought I was in love with you,
Trinity. I used to dream about
you...
He nuzzles his face against hers, feeling the softness of
it.
CYPHER
You are a beautiful woman. Too
bad things had to work out like
this.
We INTERCUT BETWEEN the appliance store and the main
deck.
TRINITY
You killed them.
APOC
What?!
SWITCH
Oh God.
Wearing Tank's operator headgear, Cypher moves among the
silent bodies.
CYPHER
In a way you're very lucky. Most
people never know why they die.
One minute they're alive, the next
they're dead. No warning.
Nothing. That's why I thought
maybe I should tell you. It
seemed the least I could do.
He stands over the body of Morpheus, as his anger boils
up out of him.
CYPHER
You see, the truth, the real,truth
is that the war is over. It's
been over for a long time. And
guess what? We lost! Did you
hear that? We lost the war!
TRINITY
What about Zion?
CYPHER
Zion? Zion is a part of this
delusion. More of this madness.
That's why this has to be done.
It has to end. Now and forever.
She suddenly sees the entire dark plan.
TRINITY
Oh rny God. This is abzut Zion.
You gave them Morpheus for the
access codes to Zion.
Cypher walks away from Morpheus and bends down next to
Apoc's body.
CYPHER
You see, Trinity, we humans have a
place in the future. But it's not
here. It's in the Matrix.
TRINITY
The Matrix isn't real!
CYPHER
Oh, I disagree, Trinity. I
disagree. I think the Matrix is
more real than this world. I
mean, all I do is pull a plug
here. But there, you watch a man
die.
He grabs hold of the cable in Apoc's neck, twists it and
yanks it out.
CYPHER
You tell me which is more real.
Apoc seems to go blind for an instant, a scream caught in
his throat, his hands reaching for nothing, and then
falls dead. Switch screams.
CYPHER
Welcome to the real world, right?
He laughs.
TRINITY
Somehow, some way, you're going to
pay for this.
CYPHER
Pay for it? I'm not even going to
remember it. It'll be like it
never happened. The tree falling
in the forest. It doesn't make a
sound.
His hand slides around the neck of Switch as he takes
hold of her plug.
She suddenly feels her body severed from her mind as she
is murdered.
TRINITY
Goddamn you, Cypher!
CYPHER
Don't hate me, Trinity. I'm just
the messenger. And right now I'm
going to prove that the message is
true.
He stands over Neo.
CYPHER
If Morpheus was right, then
there's no way I can pull this
plug, is there?
She turns to Neo, eyes wide with fear, and he knows he is
next.
CYPHER
If he is the One, then in the next
few seconds there has to be some
kind of miracle to stop me.
Because if he dies like the others
that means Morpheus was wrong.
How can he be the One if he's
dead?
He takes hold of the cord when --
She hears an EXPLOSION and a scream.
Cypher is on the ground, his left leg blown off at the
knee. He rolls over and finds Tank on the ground, and
the sights of the plasma rifle.
TANK
How's it feel, Cypher? Knowing
you're about to die?
NEO
It's Tank! He's alive.
Cypher lunges for Neo's plug just as Tank BLOWS his head
off.
INT. APPLIANCE STORE (MATRIX) - DAY
They're both listening, trying to figure out what is
happening when the store PHONE starts to RING.
Trinity smiles, tears moistening her eyes as Neo throws
his arms around her. For a moment, it looks as if they
might kiss before Trinity lets go.
TRINITY
We should, we should hurry.
NEO
Yeah. Right.
INT. MAIN DECK
Trinity's eyes open, a sense of relief surging through
her at the sight of the ship. As Tank unplugs her, she
sees his charred wounds.
TRINITY
Tank, you're hurt.
TANK
I'll be all right.
TRINITY
Dozer?
Tank's face tightens.
TRINITY
I'm sorry, Tank.
EXT. NIKO HOTEL (MATRIX) - DAY
A Japanese luxury hotel in downtown Chicago.
A military helicopter sets down on the roof. Heavily
armed Marines begin to deploy.
Agent Jones gets out of the helicopter, flanked by
columns of Marines. They open the roof access door
and enter the top-floor maintenance level of the hotel.
INT. TOP FLOOR (MATRIX) - DAY
They get in the elevator. At every door, at least two
Marines stop and post guard.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
They exit the elevator and walk to the Presidential
suite; the final two Marines post guard.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Inside, he finds Agent Smith.
AGENT JONES
There is a problem. Reagan has
failed to secure the hardware.
Agent Smith stares out the window.
AGENT SMITH
Never send a human to do a
machine's job.
AGENT JONES
But if Reagan has failed, why
haven't they pulled the plug?
AGENT SMITH
Haven't you learned by now, that
it is impossible to understand why
they do the things they do?
He turns.
AGENT SMITH
Continue as planned. Trace his
signal to locate their position
and deploy an extermination unit.
Morpheus is handcuffed to a chair, stripped to the waist.
He is bleeding from numerous wounds and is pumped full of
serum, alternately shivering and sweating. He is hooked
up to various monitors with white disk electrodes.
Agent Brown begins running a trace program.
INT. MAIN DECK
Neo looks at Morpheus whose body is covered with a cold
sweat.
NEO
What are they doing to him?
TANK
They're cracking his mind.
NEO
How?
TANK
They inject virus-like serums to
break down the system. It's like
cracking a computer. All it takes
is time.
NEO
How much time?
TANK
Depends on the mind. But
eventually, it will crack and his
alpha pattern will change from
this to this.
Tank punches several commands on Morpheus' personal unit.
The monitor waves change from a chaotic pattern to an
orderly symmetrical one.
TANK
When it does, Morpheus will tell
them anything they want to know.
NEO
The access codes to Zion.
TANK
If an agent got inside Zion's
mainframe he could do anything.
Disable the defense system. It
would be the end of us.
He looks up at Trinity who is pacing relentlessly.
TANK
We can't let that happen. We have
to do it, Trinity. Zion has to be
protected.
Trinity sees Cypher's dead body. Rage overtakes her and
she starts kicking hin.
TRINITY
Goddamnit! Goddamnit!
TANK
We have to pull the plug.
TRINITY
No!
TANK
We don't have any other choice.
Those words are like using gasoline to put out a fire and
we watch the pain in her eyes burn into a blaze. She
walks past him and gets into her chair.
TANK
Trinity, what are you doing?
TRINITY
I'm going in after him.
TANK
Morpheus could conform at any
minute --
TRINITY
If he does I'm sure you'll do what
has to be done.
TANK
You saw that place. It's suicide.
She glares at him.
TANK
I know what Morpheus means to
you --
TRINITY
No. No, I don't think you do. If
you did, then you would know that
I'm not letting him go. Not
without a fight, Tank.
She yanks her harness tight.
TRINITY
Not without a fight.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith stands in the bedroon of the enormous suite,
staring out the windows at the city, below, shimmering
with brilliant sunlight.
AGENT SMITH
Have you ever stood and stared at
it, Morpheus? Marveled at its
beauty. Its genius. Billions of
people just living out their
lives... oblivious.
Agent Brown sucks a serum from a glass vial, filling a
hypodermic needle.
AGENT SMITH
Did you know that the first Matrix
was designed to be a perfect human
world? Where none suffered, where
everyone would be happy. It was a
disaster. No one would accept the
program. Entire crops were lost.
Agent Brown jams the needle into Morpheus' shoulder, and
plunges down.
AGENT SMITH
Some believed we lacked the
programming language to describe
your perfect world. But I believe
that, as a species, human beings
define their reality through
suffering and misery.
Agent Brown studies the screens as the life signs react
violently to the injection.
AGENT SMITH
The perfect world was a dream that
your primitive cerebrum kept
trying to wake up from. Which is
why the Matrix was re-designed to
this: the peak of your
civilization.
He turns from the window.
AGENT SMITH
I say 'your civilization' because
as soon as we start thinking for
you, it really becomes our
civilization, which is, of course,
what this is all about.
He sits down directly in front of Morpheus.
AGENT SMITH
Evolution, Morpheus. Evolution.
He lifts Morpheus' head.
AGENT SMITH
Like the dinosaur. Look out that
window. You had your time.
Morpheus stares hard at him, trying hard not to show the
pain racking his mind.
AGENT SMITH
The future is our world, Morpheus.
The future is our time.
INT. MAIN DECK
Neo goes to his chair and begins strapping in.
TRINITY
What do you think you're doing?
NEO
You need help. I'm coming with
you.
TRINITY
No. No way. Morpheus sacrificed
himself so you could escape.
There's no way you're going back
in.
NEO
Morpheus did what he did because
he believed that I'm something
that I'm not.
TRINITY
What?
NEO
I'm not the One, Trinity. The
Oracle told me.
Trinity is stunned.
NEO
She said I had a gift but I still
had a lot to learn. She told me
maybe next life.
TRINITY
Did you tell Morpheus?
NEO
Why? It wouldn't mean anything.
He'd still believe what he wanted
to believe. But Morpheus is the
one that matters. He's more
important than me and we both know
it.
He straps in.
NEO
I may not be what Morpheus thinks
I am, but if I don't try to help
him, then I'm not even what I
think I am.
TRINITY
What are you?
NEO
His friend.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith sits casually across from Morpheus who is
hunched over, his body leaking and twitching.
AGENT SMITH
I'd like to share a revelation
that I've had during my time here.
It came to me when I tried to
classify your species. I've
realized that you are not actually
mammals.
The life signs continue their chaotic patterns.
AGENT SMITH
Every mammal on this planet
instinctively develops a natural
equilibrium with the surrounding
environment. But you humans do
not. You move to an area and you
multiply and multiply until every
natural resource is consumed and
the only way you can survive is to
spread to another area.
He leans forward.
AGENT SMITH
There is another organism on this
planet that follows the same
pattern. Do you know what it is?
A virus.
He smiles.
AGENT SMITH
Human beings are a disease, a
cancer of this planet. You are a
plague. And we are... the cure.
INT. MAIN DECK
Trinity and Neo hang motionless in the suspension unit.
Tank is at the operations station.
TANK
Okay. Store's open. What do you
need?
TRINITY (V.O.)
Guns. Lots of guns.
TANK
Coming right up.
He loads the weapons disk.
INT. CONSTRUCT
Racks of weapons appear and Neo and Trinity arm
themselves.
TRINITY
No one has ever done anything like
this.
NEO
Yeah?
He snap cocks an Uzi.
NEO
That's why it's going to work.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith is again at the window.
AGENT SMITH
Why isn't the serum working?
AGENT BROWN
Perhaps we are asking the wrong
questions.
AGENT JONES
Or he doesn't know.
AGENT SMITH
Of course he knows. He's
resisting.
AGENT BROWN
How?
AGENT SMITH
I don't know. If I knew...
Agent Smith hides his knotting fist. He is becoming
angry. It is something that isn't supposed to happen to
agents.
AGENT SMITH
Leave me with him.
Agent Brown and Jones look at each other.
AGENT SMITH
Now!
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank sits down beside Morpheus whose face is ashen like
someone near death. He takes hold of his hand.
TANK
Hold on, Morpheus. They're coming
for you. They're coming.
EXT. NIKO HOTEL (MATRIX) - DAY
A dark wind blows.
INT. NIKO HOTEL (MATRIX) - DAY
In long, black coats, Trinity and Neo push through the
revolving doors.
Neo is carrying a duffel bag. Trinity has a large metal
suitcase. They cut across the lobby drawing nervous
glances.
Dark glasses, game faces.
Several plainclothes cops try to stop them. They are met
by the MUTED SPIT of a SILENCED GUN and the RAZORED
WHISTLE of THROWING STARS.
The cops slump down to the marbled floor while Neo and
Trinity do not even break stride.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith leans close to Morpheus, whispering to him.
AGENT SMITH
Can you hear me, Morpheus? I'm
going to be honest with you.
He removes his earphone, letting it dangle over his
shoulder.
AGENT SMITH
I hate this place. This zoo.
This prison. This reality,
whatever you want to call it, I
can't stand it any longer. It's
the smell, if there is such a
thing. I feel saturated by it. I
can taste your stink and every
time I do, I fear that I've
somehow been infected by it.
He wipes sweat from Morpheus' forehead, coating the tips
of his fingers, holding them to Morpheus' nose.
AGENT SMITH
Repulsive, isn't it?
He lifts Morpheus' head, holding it tightly with both
hands.
AGENT SMITH
I must get out of here, I must get
free. In this mind is tlie key.
My key.
Morpheus sneers through his pain.
AGENT SMITH
Once Zion is gone, there's no
need for me to be here. Do you
understand? I need the codes. I
have to get inside Zion. You have
to tell me how.
He begins squeezing, his fingers gouging into his flesh.
AGENT SMITH
Tell me! Tell me!
The skull is about to shatter when Agents Jones and Brown
burst into the room. Agent Smith releases Morpheus.
AGENT BROWN
What were you doing?
Agent Smith recovers, replacing his ear piece.
AGENT JONES
You don't know.
AGENT SMITH
Know what?
Agent Smith listens to his earphone, not believing what
he is hearing.
INT. ELEVATORS (MATRIX) - DAY
They get in. Trinity immediately drops and opens the
suitcase, wiring a plastique and napalm bomb.
Beneath their trench coats is an arsenal of weapons slung
from climbing harnesses.
Neo hits the emergency stop. He pulls down part of the
false ceiling and finds the elevator shaft access panel.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Jones looks at Morpheus.
AGENT JONES
I think they're trying to save
him.
INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo ratchets down a clamp onto the elevator cable. Both
of them lock on. He looks up the long, dark throat of
the building and takes a deep breath.
NEO
There is no spoon.
Neo whips out his gun and presses it to the cable, lower
than where they attached themselves.
BOOM! The CABLE SNAPS.
The counter-weights plummet, yanking Trinity and Neo up
through the shaft as --
The elevator falls away beneath them, distending space,
filling it with the sound of WHISTLING METAL as they soar
to the top.
INT. LOBBY (MATRIX) - DAY
The ELEVATOR hits the botton.
BA-BOOM!
The massive EXPLOSION blows open the doors, fire clouds
engulfing the elevator section of the lobby.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
The Agents hear the BLAST AND FIRE ALARMS.
AGENT JONES
Lower level --
AGENT BROWN
They are actually attacking.
INT. ELEVATOR SHAFT (MATRIX) - DAY
Hanging by a rope, Trinity hot-wires the panel for the
door.
INT. TOP FLOOR (MATRIX) - DAY
Nervous, the Marines watch as the ELEVATOR "DINGS" softly
and slides open.
Black smoke rises out of the exposed shaft.
The nearest Marine eases to the edge, peering down at the
churning blaze engulfing the lower levels.
He does not see Trinity and Neo above him until it is too
late.
Krack! Neo kicks, knocking the Marine flying down into
the shaft.
Before the others can react, Trinity flips out into the
hall, decking the nearest Marine. Neo cracks another.
The fight is over before it begins.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
An enormous EXPLOSION THUNDERS above them, shaking the
building. The ALARM SOUNDS, emergency sprinklers begin
showering the room.
Agent Smith smashes a table.
AGENT SMITH
Find them and destroy them!
Agent Jones nods and touches his ear piece.
EXT. ROOF (MATRIX) - DAY
The roof-access tower is now engulfed in flames as Neo
and Trinity lay waste to a dozen more Marines.
Guns and knives, like extensions of their bodies used
with the same deadly precision as their feet and their
fists.
Across the roof, the pilot inside the army helicopter
watches the ferocious onslaught.
PILOT
I repeat, we are under attack!
Suddenly his face, his whole body dissolves, consumed by
spreading locust-like swarm, of STATIC as --
Agent Jones emerges.
Just as she drops the last Marine, Trinity sees what's
coming.
Neo sees her, the fear in her face, and he knows what is
behind him.
Screaming, he whirls, GUNS filling his hands with
thought-speed.
Fingers PUMPING, SHELLS ejecting, dancing up and away, we
look through the sights and gun smoke at --
The Agent blurred with motion --
Until the HAMMERS CLICK against empty metal.
NEO
Trinity!
Agent Jones charges.
NEO
... help.
His GUN BOOMS as we enter the liquid space of --
Bullet-time.
The AIR SIZZLES with wads of lead-like angry flies as Neo
twists, bends, ducks just between them.
Agent Jones still running, narrows the gap, the BULLETS
coming faster until --
Neo bent impossibly back, one hand on the ground as a
spiraling gray ball shears open his shoulder.
He starts to scream as another digs a red groove across
his thigh.
He has only time to look up, to see the barrel when Agent
Jones, standing over him, pulls the TRIGGER the final
time.
CLICK. Empty.
Neo rolls, reaching for another gun when around-house
kick snaps his jaw. Agent Jones grabs the gun and levels
it at Neo.
AGENT JONES
Only human...
Suddenly Agent Jones stops. Something is wrong. He
scans the roof. Trinity is gone.
Immediately, he whirls around and turns straight into the
muzzle of her .45 --
Jammed right into his head.
TRINITY
Dodge this, motherfucker!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The body flies back with a flash of
mercurial light and when it hits the ground --
It is the pilot.
Trinity helps Neo up.
NEO
Thanks.
TRINITY
You're hit --
NEO
I'm fine.
Neo is already looking at the helicopter.
NEO
Can you fly that thing?
TRINITY
Not yet.
She pulls out a cellular phone.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Tank is back at the controls.
TANK
Operator.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Tank, I need a pilot program for a
military M-109 helicopter.
Tank is immediately searching the disk drawers.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Hurry!
His fingers flash over the gleaming laser disks, finding
one that he feeds into Trinityls supplement drive,
punching the "load" cormands on her keyboard.
EXT. ROOF (MATRIX) - DAY
Trinity's eyes flutter as information surges into her
brain, all the essentials of flying a helicopter absorbed
at light-speed.
TRINITY
Let's go.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Marines, trying to communicate with the men on the roof,
are beginning to panic when Agent Jones comes around the
corner.
SERGEANT
Sir! Sir! There was gunfire --
we've lost communication with the
roof!
AGENT JONES
Remain at your posts.
SERGEANT
But, sir -- the fire -- we should
evacuate!
AGENT JONES
You will do as you are ordered!
SERGEANT
Yes, sir.
Agent Jones marches into the Presidential Suite.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Jones throws open the bedroom door and enters,
walking through the puddles pooling in the carpet.
Over the RUSHING WATER and the ALARMS, Agent Smith hears
a SOUND and understands the seriousness of the attack.
He turns to the wall of windows as the helicopter drops
INTO VIEW --
Neo is in the back bay, aiming the mounted .50 machine
gun.
AGENT SMITH
No.
The GUN jumps and BULLETS EXPLODE through the WINDOW in a
cacophony of CRASHING GLASS --
As the Agents go for their weapons.
But Neo is too close, the .50 CALIBER too fast and
BULLETS are everywhere, perforating the room.
Agent Smith is hit first, his body jack-knifing back,
blood arcing out with a sudden flash of light --
Then Agent Brown, his GUN still FIRING as his body falls.
And finally Agent Jones.
Neo stares at Morpheus, trying to will him into action.
NEO
Get up, Morpheus! Get up!
Morpheus sits unmoving, his head still down.
Neo grabs the climbing rope just as marines burst into
the adjoining room.
He attaches only one end to his harness when they OPEN
FIRE.
Quickly he swings the GUN, SPRAYING the other room,
WINDOWS SHATTERING, FURNITURE EXPLODING, marines diving
for cover.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Just outside the Presidential Suite, three marines
blister with snow-static.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL SUITE (MATRIX) - DAY
Morpheus lifts his face into the room's rain. His eyes,
still white, begin to blink, twitch, then close.
And when he opens them, they are again dark and flashing
with fire.
The Agents knife into the room, FIRING even as Neo's
BULLET TRAILS chase them.
Morpheus strains at his handcuffs.
The Agents and the marines turn the tide, BLASTING LEAD,
RICOCHETING, POCK-MARKING the COPTER.
FIRING wildly, Neo turns to see Morpheus rising, snapping
the handcuffs, starting for the window.
Agent Smith stops and sees Morpheus run past the open
bedroom door.
AGENT SMITH
Nooo!
He FIRES, sweeping across the sheetrocked wall in a
perfect line.
For an instant, we see the BULLETS SHRED, PUNCTURING the
WALL, searing through the wet air with jet trails of
chalk.
And as Morpheus starts to dive for the window, a bullet
buries itself in his leg --
Knocking him off balance.
NEO
He won't make it.
Morpheus lunges, out of control --
As Neo spins, every move a whip crack --
Snapping the other rope-end onto a bolted bar.
Morpheus begins to fall when Neo hurls himself into the
wide blue empty space --
Flying for a moment.
The rope snaking out behind him; an umbilical cord
attached to a machine.
As their two bodies, set in motion, rushing at each other
on a seemingly magnetic course until --
They collide.
Almost bouncing free of each other, arms, legs,
scrambling, hands searching in furious desperation,
finding hold and clinging.
Until the line ends, snapping taut, cracking their
fragile embrace. Morpheus tumbles, legs flipping over,
falling down --
The ground deliriously distant --
As Neo snatches hold of his mentor's still handcuffed
wrist.
NEO
Gotcha!
Trinity is already pulling the copter up and away.
As Agent Smith grabs the M-16 from the nearest marine.
He'll bring them all down. Targeting the helicopter, he
aims at something only he can see: the oil line.
PONK. PONK. PONK. The rear HULL is PUNCHED full of
holes and smoke and oil pours out like black blood.
TRINITY
Shit-shit-no!
Neo is pulling Morpheus up to him when he hears the
HELICOPTER BEGIN TO DIE.
NEO
Oh fuck.
Trinity throws the helicopter towards the roof of the
nearest building.
Morpheus and Neo cling to one another as they and the
machine above them begin to fall.
The ENGINE GRINDS, the CHOPPING BLADES start to slow
while --
The Agents stand in the open shattered window, watching
the helicopter disappear behind taller buildings.
Carried by its nomentum, Trinity guides the parabolic
fall over the nearest roof where --
Neo and Morpheus drop safely, rolling free as the rope
goes slack. Neo gets to his feet, trying to detach
himself but --
The helicopter is falling too fast, arcing over the roof
like a setting sun --
The coils of slack snap taught --
Yanking Neo off his feet, dragging him with ferocious
speed towards the edge even as --
Trinity lunges for the back door, her gun in one hand,
grabbing for the rope with the other --
Neo flies like a skipping stone, hurtling straight AT us,
when his feet hit the rain gutter --
A fulcrum that levers him up just as --
Trinity FIRES, severing the cord from the HELICOPTER,
falling free of it as it SMASHES, blades first into a
glass skyscraper.
Holding onto the rope she swings, connected to Neo, who
stands on the building's edge watching her arc beneath
him as the HELICOPTER EXPLODES --
She bounces against a shatterproof window that spider-
cracks out while FLAMES ERUPT behind her.
INT. MAIN DECK
Tank stares at the screen, his mouth agape.
TANK
He's the One. He's got to be...
EXT. ROOFTOP (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo pulls Trinity up into his arms. Both shaking, they
hold each other again.
MORPHEUS
I knew it! I goddamn knew it!
TRINITY
Morpheus!
She runs at him, throwing her arms around him.
MORPHEUS
Do you believe me now? He's the
One! Who else could have done
this?
NEO
Morpheus, I know you won't believe
me but the Oracle told ne I'm not
the One.
MORPHEUS
It doesn't matter if I don't
believe you --
His eyes light up.
MORPHEUS
What matters is that you don't
believe her.
INT. MAIN DECK
The PHONE RINGS.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Tank, get us out of here.
TANK
Got one ready. An underground El
station. State and Balbo.
TRINITY (V.O.)
See ya soon.
LINE GOES DEAD. Tank looks at the bodies and smiles.
TANK
See ya soon.
EXT. ROOFTOP (MATRIX) - DAY
The rope is all that remains. Agent Smith can barely
control his anger.
AGENT BROWN
The trace was completed.
AGENT JONES
We have their position.
AGENT BROWN
The extermination unit is in
place.
AGENT JONES
Order the strike.
Agent Smith can't stand listening to them. He moves to
the edge of the building, looking out at the surrounding
city.
AGENT SMITH
They're not out yet.
INT. "EL" STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
A metal gate is locked, the sign reading, "Station
Closed." Neo looks around, takes out a GUN and BLOWS OFF
the LOCK.
In the moist underground distance they hear the MUTED
RING of a TELEPHONE.
The PHONE is RINGING inside a graffiti-covered booth.
Across from it, sitting hunched against the red concrete
wall, is an OLD MAN. He stares at the RINGING PHONE,
taking a final pull off his T-bird. No one is around.
It continues to RING.
Determined, he stands and walks to the booth. He is
about to answer the phone, when Neo sees him.
NEO
Don't!
The Old Man stops, Neo rushes at hin, gliding smoothly
over the turnstiles.
OLD MAN
I'm sorry -- I didn't mean!
The Old Man is shaking, terrified. Neo looks at his gun.
He glances over his shoulder, then eases back the hammer.
NEO
Get outta here. Okay? Run! Go!
The Old Man nods, turns and hurries deeper into the urban
cave, disappearing into the shadows as Trinity and
Morpheus arrive.
TRINITY
What happened? Was that --
NEO
It was nobody.
Neo turns to the RINGING BOOTH.
NEO
Let's go! You first, Morpheus.
Morpheus gets in and answers the phone.
Lost in the shadow, the Old Man turns back and watches as
Morpheus disappears, the phone dropping, dangling by its
cord.
His eyes grow wide, glowing white in the dark.
EXT. ROOFTOP (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith stares, his face twisted with hate. He will
never be free of the Matrix.
He starts to turn from the edge of the building when he
suddenly hears it, his head whipping back around,
staring --
INT. "EL" STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
As the Old Man stares.
Trinity hangs up the phone. She turns to Neo, standing
close enough to kiss him.
TRINITY
Morpheus is right, you know. It
doesn't matter what he believes or
even what the Oracle believes.
What matters is what you believe.
NEO
I believe...
He stares at the fullness of her lips.
NEO
I want to kiss you.
She smiles.
TRINITY
I want to kiss you too...
The PHONE begins to RING.
TRINITY
But I want it to be real.
She pulls herself away and gets into the booth when
something catches Neo's eye and he looks to where the Old
Man had been.
She hears him SCREAM and sees Agent Smith emerge as if
formed by congealing darkness, charging with a fistful of
metal.
The GUN FIRES, the BULLET flying at her, BURSTING through
the plastic WINDOW just as --
Trinity disappears.
The handset hanging in the air as the BULLET HITS,
SHATTERING the EAR-PIECE.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Trinity blinks, shivering as her conscious exits the
Construct.
TRINITY
Neo!
TANK
What the hell just happened?
TRINITY
An Agent! You have to send me
back!
TANK
I can't!
INT. "EL" STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
GUN REPORT THUNDERS through the underground, both men
BLASTING, moving at impossible speed.
For a blinking noment we enter BULLET-TIME.
Gun flash tongues curl from Neols gun, bullets float
forward like a plane noving across the sky, cartridges
cartwheel into space.
An instant later they are nearly on top of each other,
rolling up out of a move that is almost a mirrored
reflection of the other --
Each jamming their gun tight to the other's head.
They freeze in a kind of embrace; Neo sweating, panting,
Agent Smith machine-calm.
Agent Smith smiles.
AGENT SMITH
You're empty.
Neo pulls the TRIGGER. CLICK.
NEO
So are you.
The smile falls. Agent Smith yanks his TRIGGER.
CLICK.
Agent Smith's face warps with rage and he attacks, fist
flying at furious speed, blows and counters, Neo
retreating as --
A knife-hand opens his forearm, and a kick sends him
slamming back against a steel column.
Stunned, he ducks just under a punch that crunches into
the beam, STEEL CHUNKS EXPLODING like shrapnel.
Behind him, Neo leaps into the air, delivering a neck-
snapping reverse round-house. Agent Smith's glasses fly
off and he glares at Neo; his eyes, ice blue.
AGENT SMITH
You can't win.
NEO
I already have.
He attacks with a vicious series of blows but the Agent
seems to absorb them, waiting for his opening.
And this time Agent Smith's attack is too much, an
unrelenting fury, fists pounding like jackhammers.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Trinity watches Neo as his body jerks, mouth coughing
blood, his life signs going wild.
TRINITY
Jesus, he's killing him!
INT. "EL" STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Smith grabs hold of him, lifting him into the air,
hurling him against the curved wall of the train tunnel,
where he falls inches from the electrified third-rail.
The Agent is about to jump down, and press his attack
when he hears sonething. From deep in the tunnel, like
an animal cry; a burst of high-speed METAL GRINDING
against METAL.
The sound of an ON-COMING TRAIN.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Tank is trying to find another entrance.
TRINITY
Send me back, Tank! Anywhere!
TANK
I'm looking, Trinity! I'm
looking!
From the cockpit, an ALARM sounds. Morpheus hurries to
the front console, typing, bringing up the radar.
Trinity follows him.
TRINITY
What is it... oh no.
In every pipe surrounding them, they see the
Extermination Unit.
TRINITY
Sentinels.
INT. SEWER MAIN
The killing machine we saw in the History Program blister
by us like tracer bullets shot down the throat of the
abyss.
INT. "EL" STATION (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo tries to get up. Agent Smith jumps down onto the
tracks and drop-kicks him in the face.
The world begins to shake, RUMBLING as the TRAIN NEARS.
AGENT SMITH
Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson?
Agent Smith grabs Neo in a choke-hold, forcing him to
look down the tracks, the train's headlight burning a
hole in the darkness.
AGENT SMITH
That is the sound of
inevitability.
Neo sees it coming and he starts to fight.
AGENT SMITH
It is the sound of your death.
There is another METAL SCREECH, MUCH LOUDER, closer, as
Agent Smith tightens his hold. Neo is unable to breathe.
AGENT SMITH
Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.
The TRAIN ROARS at them, swallowing Agent Smith's words.
The veins bulge in Neo's head, as he grits through the
pain.
He is not ready to die.
NEO
My name is Neo.
Impossibly, he hurls himself straight up, smashing Smith
against the concrete ceiling of the tunnel.
They fall as the sound and fury of the TRAIN EXPLODES
INTO the station.
Neo back-flips up off the tracks just as --
The train barrels over Agent Smith.
Neo stands, knees shaking, when the train slams on its
emergency brake. With an ear-splitting SHRIEK of
TORTURED RAILS, the train slows, part of it still in the
station.
Neo turns, limping, starting to run, racing for the
escalator --
As the train comes to a stop and the doors of the last
car open; Agent Smith bursts out in furious pursuit, his
glasses again intact.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Morpheus checks the ship's self destruct key.
TRINITY
You can't use that until Neo is
out!
MORPHEUS
I know. Don't worry, he'll make
it.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
A man sits in his Mercedes, talking on his car phone when
his door is thrown open. Neo yanks him out and jumps in.
Further down the street, Agent Smith slows, calmly
touching his ear-piece.
Neo throws the car across traffic, rocketing down a side-
street.
INT. CAR (MATRIX) - DAY
Driving like a demon with one hand, he grabs the car
phone and dials long distance.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Tank answers.
TANK
Operator.
NEO (V.O.)
Mr. Wizard, Get me the fuck out
of here!
INT. CAR (MATRIX) - DAY
Looking over his shoulder, watching the mirrors, Neo
drives almost unconsciously.
NEO
Hurry, Tank! I got some serious
pursuit!
INT. HOVERCRAFT
The keyboard clicking, Tank searches for an exit.
Trinity screams into the headset.
TRINITY
Neo, you better get your ass back
here!
INT. CAR
NEO
I'm trying, Trinity. I'm trying.
TANK (V.O.)
I got one!
Neo glances to his right and sees Agent Brown, now
driving the car beside his. Agent Brown swerves,
slamming into him.
TANK (V.O.)
Wabash and Lake. A hotel.
Neo fights the steering wheel as Agent Brown pushes the
car up over the median.
TANK (V.O.)
Room 303.
Neo drops the phone as his car bucks into the opposing
lane --
Directly into the charging path of an enormous truck
driven by Agent Smith.
Neo dives from the Mercedes as the truck plows into it,
rending metal and GLASS, crushing through, totaling other
cars, as it EXPLODES.
Neo is up and running even as orange and black clouds
billow up behind hin.
EXT. CITY STREET (MATRIX) - DAY
Three figures silhouette by the burning wreckage become
the three agents.
Further down the street, Neo hauls his broken, bleeding
ass.
Agents Brown and Smith slow, touching their ear-pieces as
Agent Jones continues chasing full-bore.
Neo spins around a corner, racing toward a hotel called:
the Heart of Chicago Hotel.
Only Agent Jones is behind him now.
Neo dives into the alley. At the far end he sees Agent
Brown charging. Neo leaps for the fire escape and begins
to climb.
INT. SEWER MAIN
Sentinels open and shift like killer kaleidoscopes as
they ready their weapons, swarming around the
Nebuchadnezzar.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
The hovercraft booms as machines drop onto it.
TANK
I'm going to make the call.
MORPHEUS
Do it!
INT. "HEART OF CHICAGO" HOTEL (MATRIX) - DAY
Agent Snith is in the elevator when he hears the DISTANT
RING of a PHONE.
EXT. ALLEY (MATRIX) - DAY
The agents chase him, FIRING, BULLETS SPARKING and
RICOCHETING even as Neo jumps for the third-floor
platform.
Neo kicks in the window, jumping into the hall. The
doors count backwards: 310... 309...
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Morpheus grabs the biggest gun he can find. The lasers
begin to slice through the hull.
TRINITY
Where is he?
TANK
Almost there.
MORPHEUS
He's going to make it.
TRINITY
Hurry, Neo.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo can hear the PHONE RINGING.
305... 304...
Agent Brown reaches the broken window behind him just as
Neo grabs the handle of 303, throwing open the door to
find --
Agent Sniith, waiting, .45 cocked.
Neo can't move -- can't think --
BOOM.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Neo's body jerks, and everyone hears it as the life
monitors snap flat-line.
Trinity screams. Morpheus is frozen in disbelief.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Three holes in his chest, Neo falls to the blue shag
carpeting, blood smearing down the wallpaper.
Agent Smith stands over him, still aiming, taking no
chances.
AGENT SMITH
Check him.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Through the lasered opening, Morpheus screams, blasting
away at the machines; comet-wads of plasma burning holes
in their armored housings.
Trinity collapses onto Neo's body.
TRINITY
No-no-no! Neo, you're not dead!
You can't be dead!
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Kneeling beside him, Agent Brown checks his vital signs.
AGENT BROWN
He's gone.
Agent Smith smiles, standing over him.
AGENT SMITH
I told you, you couldn't win.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Tank is hit, a laser bolt knocking him to the ground.
They can't hold them off any longer. Morpheus lunges for
the self destruct --
As Trinity whispers in Neo's ear.
TRINITY
You're right here. I'm holding
you, Neo. I'm not letting you go.
Do you hear me? I won't let you
go.
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
The agents walk to the elevator, leaving Neo's body
behind.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Morpheus flicks the Plexiglas shield of the self-
destruct.
TRINITY
Goddamnit, Neo! Don't give it up!
Not now!
She pounds on his chest.
TRINITY
Not now!
INT. HOTEL HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
The BLOW ECHOES deep in his mind.
His eyes snap open.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Trinity screams as the monitors jump back to life. Tank
and Morpheus stare, unbelieving.
It is a miracle.
TRINITY
Now get up!
INT. HALL (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo struggles, holding his chest, sitting up. Down the
hall, he sees the elevator closing and --
Agent Smith staring at him as if he were looking at a
Cypher.
Neo gives him the finger.
AGENT SMITH
Nooooo!
Agent Smith pounds on the elevator door.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
A sentinel BLOWS a hole in Morpheus' right arm and he
screams, refusing to let go of the detonator.
INT. ROOM 303 (MATRIX) - DAY
Neo dives for the RINGING PHONE.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
Machines split open the craft, pouring in, lasers
targeting everywhere.
A beat finds the center of Morpheus' forehead and he
screams, ready to die.
TRINITY
Now!
He turns the key.
INT. OVERFLOW PIT
A blinding shock of white lights flood the chamber;
sentinels blink and fall instantly dead, filling the pit
with their cold, metal carcasses.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
In the still darkness, only the humans are alive.
TRINITY
Neo?
His eyes open. Tears pour from her smiling eyes as he
reaches up to touch her.
And she kisses hin; it seems like it might last forever.
FADE TO BLACK.
FADE IN:
ON COMPUTER SCREEN
as in the opening. The cursor beating steadily, waiting.
A PHONE begins to RING.
It is answered and the screen fills instantly with the
trace program. After a long beat, we recognize Neo's
voice.
NEO (V.O.)
Hi. It's me. I know you're out
there. I know you're working as
fast as you can to catch me.
We CLOSE IN ON the racing columns of numbers shimmering
across the screen.
NEO (V.O.)
I thought I should call and let
you know how things stand.
We DIVE THROUGH the numbers, surging UP THROUGH the
darkness, sucked TOWARDS a tight constellation of stars.
NEO (V.O.)
I know you're real proud of this
world you've built, the way it
works, all the nice little rules
and such, but I've got some bad
news.
We realize that the constellation is actually the holes
in the mouthpiece of a phone. Seen from inside.
NEO (V.O.)
I've decided to make a few
changes.
We SHOOT THROUGH the holes as Neo hangs up the phone.
He steps out of the phone booth and starts walking,
wearing a long black coat and dark glasses. He passes a
mother dragging her little BOY, who cranes his neck as --
Neo takes off, flying up into the air.
BOY
Mommy! Mommy!
MOMMY
What?
BOY
That man! That man flies!
MOMMY
Don't be silly, honey. Men don't
fly.
There is a RUSH of AIR as the Boy stares up as Neo shoots
overhead. His coat billowing like a black leather cape
as he soars up, up, and away.
FADE OUT.
THE END