The Big Picture

  • The Matrix franchise includes three feature films, an animated anthology, and a 2021 fourth installment, The Matrix Resurrections.
  • The Animatrix anthology is considered Matrix canon and consists of animated short films that take place at various points along the Matrix timeline.
  • It is recommended to watch The Matrix before diving into The Animatrix in order to fully understand and appreciate the short stories.

The Matrix hit theaters in 1999 and dazzled audiences with a leather-clad and gravity-defying Keanu Reeves, as he, along with Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne, fought against artificial agents of a programmed reality with their stylized kung-fu and black leather outfits. Aside from looking cool, they were also working to free humanity from the grips of a machine-controlled Matrix. The Wachowski Sisters introduced the now well-known red pill/blue pill metaphor for interpreting the world and asked viewers to consider the similarities of our own reality to that of a computer simulation.

The Matrix was followed by two more feature films, The Matrix Reloaded (May 2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (November 2003), and then after a 20-year break, Lana Wachowski returned to the franchise to create The Matrix Resurrections (December 2021). The franchise also includes an anthology of animated short films released in the middle of the trilogy, titled The Animatrix (June 2003). With four of the nine shorts written by the Wachowskis themselves, The Animatrix is considered Matrix canon. While the collection of animated short films are housed within the anthology, the individual shorts take place at various points along the Matrix timeline. And, although a couple of The Animatrix stories take place before the events of the first Matrix film, we suggest watching The Matrix before diving into The Animatrix in order to fully understand and appreciate the short stories.

As for the feature films, the fourth installment of The Matrix franchise brings back familiar faces with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, but it also stars newcomers like Jessica Henwick, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Neil Patrick Harris, and Priyanka Chopra. Resurrections was released in December 2021, adding one more chapter to the epic story and one that plays into the dynamics and lessons learned in the original trilogy. If you're looking for a quick overview of The Matrix franchise, we've got you covered. Below, we’ve organized all The Matrix franchise movies and shorts by order of chronological events and by order of release date for easy perusing. See you in the desert of the real.

the-matrix-movie-poster
The Matrix
R
Action
Adventure
Sci-Fi

When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.

Release Date
March 30, 1999
Runtime
136 minutes

The Matrix Movies in Order of Release Date

And here is every Matrix movie in order of release date:

The Matrix (March 31, 1999)

The Matrix Reloaded (May 15, 2003)

The Animatrix (June 3, 2003)

The Matrix Revolutions (November 5, 2003)

The Matrix Resurrections (December 22, 2021)

All of these films are available now to stream on Max.

The Matrix Movies in Chronological Order of Events

The AnimatrixThe Animatrix: The Second Renaissance, Part I and II

Part I and Part II of "The Second Renaissance" tell the origin story of the rise of the machines and the downfall of man. It tells how humans became enslaved by the machine-created Matrix and turned into batteries. The story takes place circa 2090, and it includes the creation of artificial intelligence and the events of the war of the machines.

The Animatrix: A Detective Story

"A Detective Story" mixes anime and classic film noir while following Detective Ash in his pursuit within the Matrix of the ever-elusive internet hacker known as Trinity, sometime after the creation of the Matrix and before she joins forces with Morpheus.

The Matrix

The Matrix is the 1999 film that introduces audiences to Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus, as they fight machines of the real world and agents of the Matrix, somewhere around the (estimated) year 2199 according to the human rebels. However, seeing as the Matrix has already gone through six cycles, the real year the movie is set could be far more distant than that.

The Animatrix: The Kid’s Story

"The Kid” featured in this gritty animated story is a character seen in the second installment of the film trilogy — a young boy who breaks out of the Matrix and saves himself by sheer willpower alone, self-actualizing as no one has before him — and his story takes place within the six-month gap of time between the events of The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded.

The Animatrix: Final Flight of the Osiris

"Final Flight of the Osiris" takes place just before the events of The Matrix Reloaded, and it primarily focuses on the stylized simulated fight between Jue and Thadeus. However, the mission that leads to their demise involves sending a message to the human rebels about the Sentinel army drilling toward Zion.

The Matrix Reloaded

The Matrix Reloaded occurs six months after the events of The Matrix and follows the love story between Neo and Trinity, as Neo discovers the cyclical nature and creation of the Matrix. It picks up right after the "Final Flight of the Osiris" short.

The Animatrix: Beyond

"Beyond" occurs sometime during the events of the trilogy given the existence of the previous version of the Matrix. It follows a young girl named Yoko and some local kids who discover a “haunted house” that is filled with curious anomalies that we know to be glitches in the Matrix.

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-actuallizes 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.

The Animatrix: Program

"Program" is a stunningly animated short that revolves around simulated training set in a Samurai-like training program. Given that it is a story about rebels testing their crew's loyalty to the cause, it is likely that "Program" is set after The Matrix and before The Matrix Revolutions.

The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Revolutions picks up immediately after The Matrix Reloaded ends — concluding the trilogy of feature films and portraying Neo’s ultimate sacrifice and attempt to make peace with the machines.

The Animatrix: Matriculated

Another animated short without clear placement in the Matrix timeline, "Matriculated" follows a separate group of human rebels different from the ones we know from Zion. They exist near the surface of the planet and spend their time capturing machines and "awakening" them by teaching them human qualities like empathy, passion, and playfulness. It's hard to place this since these humans could be very far removed from the Zion and Machine cycles.

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.

Kacie Cooper Stotler also contributed to this article.

All four of The Matrix movies are available to stream on Max.

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