The Matrix franchise was released in a trilogy, and has the best movies in Chronological Order, it’s the story of the technological fall of humankind that created artificial intelligence and led to self-awareness. The story includes philosophical, religious, and spiritual ideas. The Matrix emphasizes mythology, anime, Hong Kong action movies particularly Heroic bloodshed and martial arts moves. It also has action scenes bullet-time choreographed and slow-motion effects.
The first movie was a great commercial success, it won four Academy Awards. ‘Red pill’ and ‘Blue pill’ were created as a symbolic culture.
Confusion arises when it comes to the question of the most convenient way of watching the order due to various additions to the story, like Animatrix, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions are the three popular feature-length films.
The Matrix franchise rolled down in the year 1999 casting Keanu Reeves as Neo, Morpheus was played by Lawrence Fishburne, and Trinity was played by Carrie-Ann Moss. The movie is about hackers and eventually, Neo finds the world he lives in is unreal and is created through the machines that have restrained the human race.
Neo is hired by Morpheus and Trinity to get together to fight the machines and restrained world. The franchise began as a trilogy, one way to start watching The Matrix series is to go by the date of release. For the newcomers, the obvious way is to follow our universe timeline.
So, it is generally recommended to start with The Matrix original. When you are short on time, give priority to the primary film trilogy.
Matrix Movies In Order Of Release Date
1. The Matrix – March 1999
It is an American Science-fiction movie, released in the year 1999. It is directed by ‘Wachowskis’ plus Joel Silver produced it. The first installment of the franchise stars Neo as Keanu Reeves, Trinity as Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano.
Keanu Reeves plays the character Neo, a computer hacker who comes across a single phase continuously which increases his curiosity. He always comes across something that is called Matrix.
To receive his answers, he believes a mysterious man ‘Morpheus’ played by Laurence Fishbone can be helpful. Morpheus is said to be very dangerous. He happened to meet ‘Trinity’ played by Carrie-Anne Moss, who helped Neo to meet Morpheus for the very first time.
They together fought the intelligent agents. Sooner, Neo realized that every fight leads him to greater consequences, far more than death itself.
2. Matrix Reloaded – May 2003
The Matrix Reloaded is a continuation of The Matrix and it was released in 2003, it is an American sci-fi movie. ‘Wachowskis’ directed it and was produced by ‘Joel Silver.’
The never-ending battle continued between Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, Keanu Reeves as Neo, and Laurence Fishbone as Morpheus against the Machines on the edge. Despite the lethal skills, the fight against machines was difficult. With due time, Neo realized his role in saving humankind more clearly.
3. The Animatrix – June 2003
A director prefaces both entries, The Matrix, and The Matrix Reloaded. The Osiris is a watercraft transportation meant to fight and defend the last human city. It baffles being captured by Sentinels by defending the city of Zion.
4. The Matrix Revolutions – November 2003
The Matrix Revolutions 2003 was released in November 2003 as the third installment to the Matrix franchise, released after six months after the release of The Matrix Reloaded. In the 3rd part, Neo finds himself trapped in banishment.
Most of the world is captured by the machines in the virtual world, they created. The continuation and survival of humankind depend on the shoulders of Neo.
5. Upcoming: Matrix 4 – 2021
Yes! you heard it right. Matrix 4 is official. We are going to deliver the fourth installment of the franchise.
Matrix Movies & Games In Chronological Order
If you are already familiar with the premise then watching the movie based on its own timeline, is a catch. Here is a list of all Matrix movies and games in chronological order.
1. The Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, Part 1 and 2
It takes happens in the 21st century when the machine war was imperative and essential. The instructor narrates the story from his point of view, who is an interpreter of the Zion Archives, all of the pre-machine histories are stored in the archive.
2. The Animatrix: Detective Story Point of View
Ash is a detective who receives a phone call to watch in to carry out surveillance for a girl known as ‘Trinity’, a hacker. The movie revolves around Ash’s investigation before the Matrix giving us a backstory of Trinity.
3. The Matrix
Around 2199, The first movie, Matrix arrives. In the Matrix version, it happens in the year 1999
4. The Animatrix: Kid’s Story
Kid story takes place as soon Neo learns about the Matrix from Morpheus. The story follows a kid who takes the blue pill dreams about Neo and tries to figure out what he has to say about the Matrix.
5. The Animatrix, Final Flight
The director preludes both entries, The Matrix, and followed by The Matrix Reloaded. The Osiris is a watercraft that wars to defend the last and surviving human city. It baffles being captured by Sentinels by defending the city of Zion.
6. Enter the Matrix
It is a video game and it overlaps with the Final Fight of the Osiris and The Matrix. The story correlates with The Matrix Reloaded which is a video game as well.
7. The Matrix Reloaded
6 months later ‘The Matrix,’ a new add-on is delivered which is known as ‘The Matrix Reloaded‘.
8. The Matrix Revolutions
It begins following the events of ‘The Matrix Revolutions’ quickly which means just about 7 months after ‘The Matrix.’
9. The Matrix: Path of Neo
It is a video game, after watching the three movies together, this video game traverses their entire time-shot. Interestingly, Path of Neo offers an interesting ending.
10. The Matrix Online
It is a role-playing game. It revolves around the race to collate the fragments of Neo by following the subsequent events of the Revolutions. Matrix game takes place after the wrapping up of the trilogy but the exact dates are not mentioned.
11. The Animatrix: Beyond
After an indefinite time, the world record beyond comes. It’s called indefinite because there are no joints that can unite it back to another spot in time.
12. The Animatrix: Matriculated
Its time period is a difficult place as it doesn’t have clear hints about its events and happenings
13. The Animatrix: Program
Program era is hard to describe as they are somber.
14. The Animatrix: World Record
Similar to “The Kid’s Story,” “World Record” features a man named Dan who momentarily breaks out of the Matrix due to the strength of his physical willpower. Unlike Kid, Dan only self-actualizes for a moment, at the pinnacle of his race, before he crashes back into the Matrix.
The story is set in an unspecified time in The Matrix canon, though presumably in the previous version of The Matrix given the presence of the Agents.
15. The Matrix Resurrections
The Matrix Resurrections is set 60 years after the events of The Matrix Revolutions. We see the humans have moved to a new city, named IO, run by Niobe (Jada Pinkett-Smith).
Neo’s sacrifice and reinserting himself into the matrix has led to a period of peace but also has led to the creation of a much stronger matrix that fewer people are willing to unplug from.
