The Matrix Resurrections’ new trailer is less about what we can expect from a return trip to the cyberspace of the Matrix, and more about what it means that everything looks so familiar... with just a little difference.
Warner Bros. has released another cryptic new look at Lana Wachowski’s fabled return to the iconic Matrix saga, and while there’s not actually all that much in the way of new footage from Resurrections in it, it’s a fascinating and cleverly stylish way to draw parallels with the stories that came before it. Oh, and Keanu Reeves stares at a cat... again.
Familiar cyber-felines aside, it’s a pretty slick and intriguing little thing. Interlacing moments from the new movie with similar sequences from the first three films don’t just invite stylistic parallels between Resurrections and its predecessors but offers a fascinating narrative question too. It’s titled “Deja Vú” for good reason, as the trailer is punctuated by a modulated, repeating line of familiar dialogue from Carrie Anne-Moss’ Trinity taken from the original film: “A deja vú is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.” Back in the original Matrix, Trinity was explaining to Neo that the black cat he saw walk by past them in the Lafayette Hotel was an indicator that the code of the Matrix itself was being re-written around them, indicating that the Agents were on their tails.
But pulling it out for use here in Resurrections, especially as we’re invited to draw on all these moments of familiarity across all four movies has us wondering just how much of what we’re going to see in the next movie relies on us being able to pick out moments and ideas that we’ve seen before, and what it means to have them re-played in the Matrix all these years later. After all, Lana Wachowski does want us to look beyond the surface of the mirror reflected back at us for Resurrections. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
We’ll find out when The Matrix Resurrections hits theaters and HBO Max December 22.
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