The Hero's Journey

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 The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

Written by Caleb Madden

We are doing Box Office Bombs Week 2: Electric Boogaloo and I’ve chosen The Matrix Resurrections, the final installment in probably my favorite franchise of all time.

Last time we did box office bombs Tyler covered another Wachowski movie, Speed Racer, which I mention only to point out that it feels like the Wachowski’s are maybe the most misunderstood directors of all time. Almost every single one of their films after The Matrix Reloaded can be considered a box office bomb. And that fact is insane to me because I think that the Wachowski’s are probably some of our best living directors. 

The Hero's Journey

The Matrix Resurrections is one of my favorite movies in recent history but I didn’t come to that conclusion in a vacuum. No, my love for these movies started way back when I was 12 years old when the first R-rated movie I ever saw was The Matrix, a film that is actually and objectively perfect. But that’s beside the point. What is fascinating about The Matrix is that it is a pretty straightforward hero's journey that focuses on free will vs. determinism (that’s  a whole other write-up right there). 

The reason why that’s all so fascinating is the movies that follow The Matrix are a total inversion of that story. The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions is all about Neo (the main character of the franchise) straight up rejecting his call to save all of humanity and instead choosing to save his love. Both of these movies are built around this choice and whether Neo even has that choice. 

Okay Now Resurrect It

And here is where The Matrix Resurrections comes in. I won't give the entire history of how this movie got made or the hardships that the Wachowski’s faced after transitioning, but basically Warner Brothers (the studio that owns The Matrix) was always wanting more Matrix movies after Revolutions. However, there was no desire from either of the Wachowski’s to make another film in the franchise. Then, tragically, in 2019, the Wachowski’s parents both died. In her grief Lana began working on another Matrix film.

What came out of this is a true masterwork that reflects not only on the idea of a reboot or sequel in the meta but also wrestles with all of the same themes of free will and determinism that was present in the movies before. The Matrix Resurrections is all about what we think we want and what the world gives us. It’s about loss and blind faith. It’s about reconnecting with old friends and loved ones in order to bring back to life the joy that we once had. It is beautiful and fun as hell.

I Still Know Kung-Fu

So, all of this to say The Matrix quadrilogy is a masterpiece. I think that what turned people away was that they really just wanted a carbon copy of The Matrix where Neo grows in power enough to defeat the machines and save the humans, which is its own article about fandoms and keyboard warriors. 

But that’s not how the Wachowski’s wanted it. The whole theme of the first three movies is about how black and white binary choices are a lie. They’re things that hold us back from reaching our full potential and The Matrix Resurrections is a movie that calls out the fan base and the studios for not seeing that from the beginning. 

I love this movie deeply and I highly encourage all of our readers to go back and give all of these films a rewatch because they deserve it.

Today’s Scene