The Matrix Resurrections builds on itself, like Final Fantasy 7 Remake

The Matrix series deserves to be compared with video games more than any other movie series. Parts of it have transpired in actual video games, thanks to the Wachowskis’ decision to let The Matrix Online players “inherit the storyline” after the original trilogy. These single-player games include The Matrix is open for you Path of Neo, made with the Wachowskis’ involvement, also posit a bizarre alternate ending to Neo’s journey. So it makes sense that Resurrections of the MatrixIt also focuses on its videogame themes.

Many movies have become franchises and will never die. Ghostbusters (1984) Ghostbusters 2016 Ghostbusters (2021). But Resurrections isn’t just a belated sequel; it’s something different, something stranger — but something familiar. In the world of video games, there’s a specific term that’s caught on to describe what Resurrections does: “spiritual successors.”

Other forms of media can have spiritual successors, too, but there’s a reason that video games take up almost the entire Wikipedia entry that defines this term. In the world of games, a sequel that’s built on top of the framework of the original entry often feels better to play; if you don’t have to build the entire game world from scratch, you can spend more time refining the individual pieces, which often allows for better writing, stronger themes, and riskier choices.

Remakes, remasters, and reboots in the world of games still carry reputation baggage, in the same way that other media’s revisitations of famous works can carry the baggage of their predecessors. However, spiritual video games can also overcome the spiritual and technical limitations that their predecessors had.

[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections and Final Fantasy 7, both the original 1997 game and FF7 Remake.]

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Resurrections of the Matrix updates The Matrix for a modern audience, building upon a recognizable pre-existing framework to clarify the series’ core themes. This includes footage taken from previous films and reenactments major scenes. Major characters like Agent Smith or Morpheus have been literally recast by other actors in the story. Others, like Neo and Trinity, are played by their original actors, but these “resurrected” versions of Neo and Trinity have actually been built from scratch by the Analyst – just as a video game remake would create new, updated models for its characters.

Video games are a big part of Resurrections is also made much more literal within the movie’s fiction, where “The Matrix” is a trilogy of video games created by designer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves). But, as it turns out, that only happened in a new version of the Matrix where Thomas has been trapped, and which he must escape so he can rediscover his true identity – Neo.

He can only tell that Neo’s world is wrong and fake until he makes his escape. The video games he made represent a memory deep inside him; their version of the world is one that’s closest to the truth, but they don’t offer the same sense of freedom that truly escaping the Matrix would afford. Neo is still trying to find that ancient memory. In fact, he even programmed and played with Morpheus’ new avatar on a secret server. It’s a resurrection and a reinvention, and soon we learn that Neo’s resurrection is just as literal; the designer behind this new Matrix has brought Neo and his lover Trinity back to life, reconstructing and reanimating the corpses they left behind in Revolutions. Neo and Trinity’s beautiful longing for one another now serves as the inhumane battery for yet another dastardly system of control.

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It is just like the Matrix films before it. Resurrections is a love story, but it’s also a commentary on the fact that Lana Wachowski knew the Matrix franchise would continue whether she and her sister came back to helm it or not. Neo uncovers the Analyst and doesn’t get any answers. Trinity and he have been resurrected only for one purpose: to power the Matrix of Warner Bros. of Hollywood capitalism. After they come to grips with the unsavory, nonconsensual circumstances of their having been forced back to life — a painful, draining form of life — Neo and Trinity escape together.

But Neo and Trinity don’t stay away forever. At the film’s end, they re-enter the matrix that once entrapped them. This time, they’re in control, capable of overcoming the Analyst and every other limitation placed upon them. The possibilities are endless: They can free other people and show them the world outside of the Matrix, or they can rebuild the Matrix into something different – or both. They’ve defeated the most important enemy, which is the system that forced them back into their standard narrative. The screen will fade to black, and Neo and Trinity will return to our imagination. They’re truly free.

To quote another remake, “The unknown journey will continue.” That’s the ending line of Final Fantasy 7 RemakeThis is the game called. Resurrections For me, the most important came to mind. You might also like Resurrections, FF7 RemakeThe beginning is familiar. But then, it changes into something totally new.

We can all free ourselves from the grip of fate together

Square Enix

Final Fantasy 7The first version was released in 1997. The Matrix. But unlike The MatrixThe original FF7 doesn’t hold up well.

It’s a lengthy slog to play, devoid of modern quality-of-life conveniences like save states and difficulty settings. Still, its story of a reluctant, laconic hero who gets dragged into a fantastical adventure and eventually must face the scariest truth of all — his true identity, buried deep under layers of denial and trauma — still resonates many years later, the same way The Matrix still does. FF7 This was a common flashpoint in videogame storytelling, as it proved that even games with simple, uninteresting sprites, they could tell a story about love, grief and trauma.

Many gamers pleaded for a remake over the years.Final Fantasy 7. This thread was started in 2002 by fans who speculated about: FF7 PlayStation 2 remake In the PlayStation 2, remake. FF7 RemakeIn 2015, the game was officially announced. The game didn’t actually come out until 2020, and by that point, expectations were high, to say the least. However, it is still available. FF7 Remake surpassed them — not by giving players a prettier, modernized version of the story they remembered, but by upending the entire paradigm of what a remake could do and be.

Square Enix

Square Enix

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Image by Warner Bros. International

Some changes were simple, but not all. One example is: Final Fantasy 7 RemakeThis version has a more complicated battle system. It builds on the basic mechanics of the original, but feels significantly easier to use. FF7 also altered the infamous Honeybee Inn scene — little more than a transphobic joke in the original, now a joyfully queer dance scene. They were exactly the kind of changes that I expected. However, FF7 RemakeYou did more than you thought possible.

Any player who’s familiar with the original FF7 Knows the story, and knows where it takes you. FF7 RemakeGhostly apparitions make this familiarity a real gameplay challenge for the player. They force players to stay on the same path as 1997. The reputational baggage of the game’s predecessor becomes an enemy the player must fight to overcome. You can also use the As FF7 RemakeThe story progresses and the characters are able to take a different path. This allows them to create multiple realities. Before you start playing FF7 RemakeThe players believed they had a good idea of the ending, but the credits showed that these assumptions proved to be wrong. FF7 Remake brings new meaning to the “remake” in its title by remaking FF7 Into something completely new.

Resurrections of the Matrix makes a similar gambit, although the critical response to Lana Wachowski’s solo revisiting of the sisters’ famous franchise has not been as joyful as the response to FF7 Remake. Perhaps that’s because Resurrections Should be looked at with the same video game lens. Carolyn Petit Kotaku put it this way in her article “What Resurrections of the MatrixVideo games-related articles:

Within the world of the films, what is the Matrix, after all, but an elaborate MMO, one people don’t know they’re playing but which nonetheless has systems that dictate what is and is not possible? Similarly, most games are made up of interlocking systems that dictate — or try to dictate — how it is that players interact with the game, what we can and cannot do … In a way, I think of Neo, Trinity, and the other members of Morpheus’ crew in The Matrix as akin to speedrunners — they are doing things within the systems of the “game” that most players simply can’t because the systems aren’t designed to allow those things.

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Resurrections It does more than just present the remaking and empowering of The Matrix. Resurrections also introduces the concept of a “God mode” for Neo and Trinity at the movie’s end; they have graduated beyond hackers or speedrunners, into actual developers. Meanwhile, since Lana Wachowski co-created the original Matrix films and concept, she can operate in “God mode” as well, building a new story on top of the scaffolding of multiple established predecessors.

Lana Wachowski is a great example of this. could do it doesn’t mean she Wanted to. Warner Bros. has been asking the Wachowski sisters to make a sequel “every year,” EW reported.

“It never was interesting to me as an idea to continue it,” Lana Wachowski said, via EW’s coverage of her panel at the Berlin International Literature Festival. But then, according to Wachowski, she experienced extreme loss: “My dad died, then this friend died, then my mom died. I didn’t really know how to process that kind of grief. I hadn’t experienced it that closely.”

After a night of inability to sleep, I had the brilliant idea for ResurrectionsHer mind exploded with ideas. “I couldn’t have my mom and dad … yet suddenly I had Neo and Trinity, arguably the two most important characters in my life,” she said. “It was immediately comforting to have these two characters alive again, and it’s super-simple. You can look at it and say: ‘Okay, these two people die, and okay, bring these two people back to life, and oh, doesn’t that feel good?’ Yeah, it did! It’s simple, and this is what art does and this is what stories do. They comfort us and they’re important.”

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Although it is difficult to relive an old memory, it can be healing and provide a sense control and stability. You know what’s going to happen, so you know what to expect — and, maybe this time, you can change it. Emily VanDerWerff shared her analysis in Resurrections, the movie begins in the realm of the familiar yet uncanny: “The very first scene is a largely faithful re-creation of the first scene from the first film, with characters who amount to Matrix superfans offering commentary on what’s new and different.” But as ResurrectionsAs the story unfolds, it becomes even more bizarre and uncanny. The new version of Morpheus doesn’t philosophize on end; instead, he interrupts his recitation of his predecessor’s famous lines with “blah, blah, blah.”

You might like FF7 Remake, this once-familiar world will be remade into something new — and thank goodness. VanDerWerff continues:

Fans can demand our favourite characters be back again and again. This will ensure that we don’t ever give them closure or any kind of peace. They are being asked to live through their most painful moments in order for us all to enjoy our entertainment. We are inadvertently trapping them in a trauma spiral, and then in stories that insist you can confront your trauma and blow it up if you’re sufficiently motivated.

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Final Fantasy 7 fans have already begun to speculate and fantasize about the parts of the original game’s story that they want to change. Many fans wonder if the original game’s story will ever be rewritten. Remake’s future installments will undo the game’s most memorable character death. Will FF7 Remake create a version of Cloud’s story that doesn’t traumatize him as deeply? The game already introduces the concept of an alternate universe where Zack (a favorite character that died fighting for Cloud) somehow survives the fateful battle. Is this reality going to collide with our reality?

I’m not sure how FF7 Remake’s follow-up games will answer that question. Before I saw Resurrections, I would have said I didn’t want to see the original game’s deaths reversed. Now, I’m not so sure anymore. Thanks to Lana Wachowski’s God mode, I can see how retelling a story with resurrected characters — even characters whose death mattered to the story, the first time around — can result in a very compelling and healing journey.

However, I hope the Matrix series ends and Neo and Trinity are free to roam in our imaginations. Every gamer is aware that God mode can get boring very quickly. Resurrections You have nowhere else but this. That’s fine. This was worth the effort to unlock all of it before turning off the game and letting everything go.