Spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections and the entire franchise
During the holiday weekend, I watched The Matrix Resurrections, the fourth installment to a franchise I thought had come to an end in the early 2000s. I still don’t know how I actually feel about the film, riding somewhere between “that’s a cool concept,” “this is now a Bugs stan account,” “can Yahya keep dressing like this please” “how do Keanu and Carrie-Anne still have so much chemistry together,” and “what in the hell is everyone talking about right now?”
Did I like The Matrix Resurrections? I honestly don’t know, but what I do know is this: not since this year’s Single All The Way have I seen a piece of media unapologetically embrace ao3 fanfic tags.
Not only is The Matrix Resurrections a coffee shop AU, but Neo and Trinity shake hands and feel something familiar when they touch, leading to a conclusion where the tragic canon ending of their story gets rewritten so they can, I kid you not, flying around in the sky via the power of love.
Let me explain in the most “ao3 fanfic synopsis” way I could possibly come up with.
The Coffee Shop AU
Thomas and Tiffany are two ordinary coffee drinks who frequent the same coffee shop, “Simulatte.” Thomas, a soft-spoken developer for the breakout video game series, The Matrix, takes a liking to Tiffany. Unfortunately, Tiffany is a happily(?) married woman and a mother of two rambunctious kids.
Even so, something about Thomas has her coming back to him. Thomas is actually interested in her passion for motorcycles unlike her bland vanilla husband, who fails to see the 90s (and current day) appeal of such a bad bitch on a motorcycle.
Is there something brewing between Thomas and Tiffany? Or will they continue to long for each other, one frappe at a time?
It’s just a game … or is it?
There’s something about Tiffany that feels familiar to Thomas, but he can’t figure out what it is. She bears a striking resemblance to his video game character, Trinity, and it’s beginning to blur the line between fiction and reality. Now that Thomas and the other game developers in the company are being forced to make a new installment of The Matrix (thanks Warner Bros.), he’s spending a lot more time thinking about Neo, Trinity, and the game world he created.
His therapist says that he’s just seeing things, that he’s working so hard that he thinks the game is invading his real life, but Thomas can’t deny the warmth he felt when he shook Tiffany’s hand. Is there something more between them?
But they were (resurrected) soulmates …
After taking THE red pill, Thomas realizes that he is “The One” known as Neo. A savior to an entire people, Thomas is trying to make sense of the life he thought he made up in his video game. Struggling to comprehend what really is “the truth,” things take a turn when he realizes that Tiffany is, in fact, Trinity, the woman he fell in love with many years ago.
How is this possible when both of them died? Did someone bring them back, and if so, who? And for what purpose? He doesn’t have much time to find out as a looming threat approaches, one that intends to take Trinity away from him again.
But maybe Trinity wants to be taken away. Maybe she wants to be oblivious to the “real” world. What will she choose to do?
Fix-it Fic
Decision made, Neo and Trinity find themselves being hunted down by a system that seeks to tear them apart. The last time the two were together it ended with both of them dying, but no one has any plans of dying today. Neo and Trinity are much stronger together than they are apart, harnessing a power that would make any superpowered anime protagonist proud.
The two have been given a rare second chance, changing the original narrative in favor of being together in the way they were destined to be.
—
While I still don’t know how I feel about the movie, I do know that thinking about it as a “fix-it fic” brings me joy.
(Image: HBO Max)
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