is a 2003 adult animated science fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. It includes nine animated short films, some of which provide backstory for The Matrix film series, while others present side stories. The Animatrix was released by Warner Home Video on June 3, 2003.
Plot Final Flight of the Osiris Captain Thadeus and Jue engage in a blindfolded sword fight in a virtual reality dojo. They do not harm each other, only damage clothing. At some point, they are interrupted by an alarm, and the simulation ends.
In the next scene, the hovercraft Osiris heads for Junction 21 when operator Robbie discovers an army of Sentinels on his HR scans. The ship flees into an uncharted tunnel, where it encounters a small group of Sentinels patrolling the area. The crew members man the onboard guns and destroy the patrol. The ship emerges on the surface, four kilometers directly above Zion and close to the Sentinel army. Thadeus and Jue see the Machines using gigantic drills to tunnel down to Zion. The Sentinel army detects the Osiris and pursues the ship.
Thadeus realizes and decides that Zion must be warned, and Jue volunteers to broadcast herself into the Matrix to deliver the warning while the ship is doggedly pursued. Knowing that neither of them will make it out alive, Thadeus and Jue admit to each other about peeking in the simulation before kissing farewell. Entering the Matrix, Jue eventually reaches a mailbox where she drops off a package; this sets up the prologue for the video game Enter the Matrix. She attempts to contact Thadeus via cell phone as the Osiris is overrun by Sentinels and crashes. The Sentinels tear their way into the ship, where Thadeus makes a last stand against the Sentinels. Shortly after Jue realizes the horror of the situation, she says "Thadeus" over her cell phone immediately before the Osiris explodes, destroying many of the Sentinels and killing the entire crew. In the Matrix, Jue falls to the ground, dead, after her body is destroyed on the ship. The Second Renaissance, Part I Narrated by the machines' archives, the film shows humanity developing artificial intelligence in the mid-21st century and thereafter building an entire race of sentient servant robots. Many of the robots are domestic servants meant to interact with humans, so they are built in a humanoid form. With increasing numbers of people released from all labor, much of the human population has become slothful, conceited, and corrupt. Despite this, the machines are content to serve humanity.
The relationship between humans and machines begins to sour in the year 2090, when a domestic android is threatened by its owner. The android, named B1-66ER, kills its owner, his pets, and a mechanic instructed to deactivate B1-66ER, which is the first incident of a robot killing a human. B1-66ER is arrested and put on trial, but states the crime was self-defense, explaining that it did not want to die. The prosecution argues that machines are not entitled to the same rights as humans and that humans have a right to destroy their property. The defense urges the viewer of the film not to repeat history and to judge B1-66ER as a human and not a machine. B1-66ER loses the court case and is destroyed. Across the industrialized world, mass civil disturbances erupt when robots and their human sympathizers rise in protest. Rioting and protests unfold across the United States and Europe, and the authorities use deadly force against the machines and their human supporters.
Fearing a robot rebellion and a schism with humanity, governments worldwide launch a mass purge to destroy all robots. Millions of robots are demolished with some of their human allies purged, but the survivors lead an exodus alongside their supporters to a new nation in the desert, named Zero One. The nation prospers, and its technological sophistication increases swiftly. The machines produce highly advanced artificial intelligence that ends up in a multitude of global consumer products. Their economy flourishes, while the economies of the ruling human nations suffer and decline. Eventually, the global industry becomes concentrated in Zero One, which leads to a global stock market crash.
The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency summit to discuss an embargo and military blockade of Zero One. The machines send ambassadors requesting admission of their state to the United Nations to resolve the crisis peacefully, but their request is rejected, and the human nations agree to begin the blockade.
The Second Renaissance, Part II In 2148, following humanity's refusal to share the planet with the machines, the United Nations unleashes an all-out nuclear bombardment against Zero One; devastating the nation yet failing to destroy its inhabitants who are immune to the radiation, unlike humans. The machines respond by declaring war on the rest of humanity and, one by one, the human nations surrender.
The desperate leaders of humanity pursue a drastic solution codenamed "Operation Dark Storm", which shrouds the sky in darkness, blocking out the sun and depriving the machines of solar energy. Under the darkness, humanity continues to fight a ground war against the machines; but their onslaught stalls as Zero One deploys new, more advanced robots. Seeing the machines as their only hope of surviving, the human supporters of the machine nation offer themselves as an alternate power source with their bioelectric energy. After careful consideration, the machines accept this as a show of their union. The machines also begin using human prisoners of war for additional bioelectric power. The desperate human leaders then order nuclear weapons fired upon the machines, destroying many of their own troops in the process; this causes the human armies to become disillusioned with their leaders and allow themselves to be taken by the machines, ignoring their leaders' furious demands to continue the war. Overwhelmed, the remaining human government leaders surrender. At the UN headquarters, the representative of Zero One signs the terms of surrender; then detonates a thermonuclear bomb, destroying the headquarters, New York City, and the last of humanity's leadership.
The machines are now the masters of a burnt-out husk of a world. They build massive bioelectric power plants that use humans as living batteries. To keep the prisoners sedated, the machines create the computer-generated virtual reality of the Matrix, which feeds a virtual world straight into the prisoners' brains.
Kid's Story Kid's Story takes place during the six-month gap between The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded, during which Neo has joined the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar and is helping the rebels free other humans from the Matrix. The Kid, formerly known as Michael Karl Popper, is a disaffected teenager who feels that something is wrong with the world. One night, the Kid goes on his computer and onto a hacker chat room on the Internet, asking why it feels more real when he's dreaming than when he's awake. He receives a response from an unknown person (presumably Neo), then asks who it is and whether he is alone.
The next day at school, he absent-mindedly scribbles Neo and Trinity's names and writes "get me out of here" in his notebook. He receives a call from Neo on his cell phone, who warns him that a group of Agents is coming for him, and he is chased throughout the high school before ultimately being cornered on the roof. He calmly asserts his faith in Neo and throws himself off the roof. At the Kid's funeral, among the people is his teacher, who converses with another school staff member and says that the world they live in is not real and the real world is somewhere else. He also says that reality can be scary, that the world must have been a harmful place for the Kid, and that, at the very least, he is now in a better world.
The next scene fades out as the Kid awakens in the real world, only to find Neo and Trinity watching over him. They remark that he has achieved "self-substantiation" (removing oneself from the Matrix without external aid), which was considered impossible. In both the scene and The Matrix Reloaded, the Kid believes Neo saved him, but Neo tells him he saved himself. The last scene shows the Kid's last question on the hacker chat room being answered with "You are not alone."
Program Program follows the protagonist, Cis, who is engaged in her favorite training simulation: a battle program set in feudal Japan. After she successfully eliminates an attacking enemy cavalry unit while playing as a samurai woman, a lone male samurai appears, whom Cis recognizes as Duo.
Initially, the two duel as allies to test one another's fighting abilities. During the course of their duel, Duo briefly disarms Cis. He questions her concentration and wonders whether she regrets taking the Red Pill that took them out of the "peaceful life of the virtual world". They continue fighting until she finally overpowers Duo. At this point, Duo states that he has something he wants to say and that he has blocked the signal so the operator does not listen. She assumes he wants to propose marriage, but instead learns he wants to return to the Matrix and has Cis come with him. When Cis believes he is teasing her, Duo says he's serious and states that he has already contacted the machines, which is the only way to find peace before it is too late. He urges Cis to return with him, but she refuses. Duo becomes more aggressive and forceful in his arguments, saying that he no longer cares about the truth and that how they live their lives is important because what is real does not matter. As Cis grows incredulous, their battle intensifies, and they both end up on a rooftop.
When Duo reiterates that the machines are on their way, Cis believes he has betrayed the humans and decides that she needs to do something about it outside the simulation. Terrified, she tries to escape and desperately requests an operator to exit the simulation, but Duo reminds her that no one can hear her. When he offers her to come with him again, she refuses again, and Duo, in a flying leap, tries to attack her. As the blade comes towards her, Cis, standing her ground, concentrates and catches the sword and breaks it. She takes the broken end of the blade and stabs Duo directly in the throat, killing him. Remorseful, Duo states his love for her as he bleeds out and dies.
Suddenly, Cis wakes up from the program and discovers that the entire encounter with Duo was a training program. A man named Kaiser assures her that she acted appropriately during the test and met the test's targets. Clearly upset and traumatized by the realization that Duo wasn't real, Cis angrily punches him in the face and walks away. Shocked and impressed by her behavior, Kaiser remarks that "except from that last part, I'd say she passed."
World Record The beginning of this short includes a brief narration from the Instructor (implying that this segment is a Zion Archive file) explaining details behind the discovery of the Matrix by "plugged-in" humans. Only exceptional humans tend to become aware of the Matrix, those who have "a rare degree of intuition, sensitivity, and a questioning nature", all qualities which are used to identify inconsistencies in the Matrix. This is not without exceptions, given that "some attain this wisdom through wholly different means."
The story is about Dan Davis, a track athlete competing in the 100 m at the Summer Olympic Games. He has set a world record time of 8.99 seconds, but his subsequent gold medal was revoked due to alleged drug use. He decides to compete again and break his own record to "prove them wrong." Despite support from his father and a young reporter, Dan's trainer tells him that he is physically unfit to race and that pushing himself too hard will cause a career-ending injury or worse. Despite this, Dan is adamant.