As promised, Warner Bros. today dropped the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, and for fans of the original film, it looks like a mind-bending return to form, after the divisive final two Matrix movies.
Set to Jefferson Airplane‘s “White Rabbit” — itself a nod to the 1999 original — the film sees Keanu Reeves‘ Thomas “Neo” Anderson back inside the simulation, but knowing something’s off.
In a therapy session with Neil Patrick Harris, he laments having “dreams that weren’t just dreams.”
“Am I crazy?” Reeves asks.
“We don’t use that word here,” the therapist replies.
Reflecting the technology difference between our world in which the original film debuted, this trailer shows mankind pacified by their cellphones, while Reeves’ character is kept in check by handfuls of prescription blue pills.
But when he meets Carrie Ann Moss‘ character, Trinity, at a coffee shop, his doubts are confirmed.
“Have we met?” his former Matrix love interest asks him, as their hands touch.
As he did in the first movie, Anderson follows the rabbit down the rabbit hole and embraces his inner Neo, thanks to the as-yet unnamed character played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who’s clearly a take on Laurence Fishburne‘s Morpheus.
As before, it’s this guide who offers Anderson the red pill, which shows him the real world inside the machine-created simulation and who helps Neo re-awaken his power.
“Time to fly,” he tells Neo.
The trailer gives glimpses of the over-the-top action the first film pioneered, with physics-defying martial arts and gunplay enhanced by today’s cutting-edge CGI.
The film, which also stars returning Matrix co-star Jada Pinkett Smith, features series newcomers Jessica Henwick from Iron Fist, Christina Ricci, Mindhunters‘ Jonathan Groff, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas.
Directed by Lana Wachowski, The Matrix Resurrections opens December 22.
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