The Matrix Resurrections

The return of The Matrix was always going to be a much-vaunted event, not least due to Keanu Reeves’ upward trajectory since (see: John Wick, from which Reeves retains the hair). The eighteen years since the last instalment has seen an immense increase in the amount of time with which we live our lives and depend on digital spaces. Moreover, the series and those around it has been a cultural touchstone, for better or worse: since the original trilogy, the Wachowskis have specifically said “the Matrix is a ‘trans metaphor’”; meanwhile, the term “take the red pill” has been co-opted as a dog whistle by the alt-right.

Where, then, from here? “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane signals a desire to reevaluate the entire Matrix ethos. “The ones that mother give you don’t do anything at all,” Grace Slick sings while we see Neo (Reeves) fumble dozens of blue pills into the sink at 0:58. The trailer clearly understands it has nostalgia as leverage and does not shy away from ruminating on the myth the Matrix has become in the popular consciousness.

Still, by the minute mark the cut begins to do more interesting things with its choice of song. At this point, we see a copy of Alice in Wonderland right after the song makes a reference to it (“go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall”), complete with the thump when the book closes adding a syncopated beat to the soundtrack.

At 1:08 the song’s arrangement changes, adding strings and other ethereal sounds. The congruence of lyric and visual continues with the appearance of a rabbit at 1:14. Notice how as we transition from the original song to a cover version in the soundtrack, it’s in this middle section that we get these synch points between word and sight, as if the film itself occupies a liminal, transversal state at this particular point. By 1:28 we hear sixths in the strings in a stepwise, upward motion, adding greater tension. At 1:30 the music stops in synch as Neo stops the punch.

By 1:40 the music has changed entirely, with the pulsating synths we might expect from the franchise, debuting alongside the release date title card. Throughout this entire sequence, nearly every gunshot and other action sounds are synched with the music, in what has become an unwritten rule of modern action trailers.

Just as we see Neo’s gradual (re-entry into the Matrix, the music follows neatly in turn—not leading with a trailerized cover version, but rather building gradually from the original Jefferson Airplane version to something truly epic and full of grandeur. It has a guttural vocal that still basically resembles Grace Slick, but much more by way of The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan. It’s a gradient of an arrangement.

The Matrix Resurrections comes to theatres and on HBO Max on December 22.

— Curtis Perry