The 1999 movie, "The Matrix" was awesome, and the sequels weren't too bad, but they didn't take the story anywhere.

 

The story should have been:

 

Part One

Neo, an intellectual computer programmer/hacker who is having an existential crisis is searching for... The Matrix. He doesn't know what it is, but he knows that there is an answer out there. Note here that Neo speaks in complete sentences, talks reasonably fast and uses multisyllabic words like somebody with an above average IQ. Perhaps he even has philosophical monologue narratives about life and the pointlessness of it.

 

Trinity turns up. In a nightclub, she entices him to meet her elsewhere because she has answers.

 

The next morning, Neo goes to work. He is called to his bosses office to receive a lecture about being late: the boss symbolises control and the window cleaners are the inescapable big brother.

 

And so forth for the rest of the movie, which is pretty much on track. The important themes are:

• Neo slowly realises that he can gain control over The Matrix.
• Neo is "The One", he is "a machine"!
• Neo is confused when it is explained that humans are the AI's batteries. He's smarter than that - you can't get more energy out than you put in. Morpheus dismisses this and continues.

 

Part Two

Neo discovers that "Real life" actually sucks: eating goop, living in constant fear and not having modern amenities makes life unenjoyable.

 

...more here..., such as encounters with Squids, chasing down agents, searching for more truth.

 

At some stage, Neo is behind the controls of one of the ships, and decides it's all pointless, sitting there as a form of suicide. Somebody talks him out of it at the last minute to escape some squids. He then gets angry and "finds purpose" in destroying the Squids.

 

(there needs to be more stuff that happens "in the matrix" here)

 

Neo slowly realises that the "Real world" isn't very real. Too many things don't make sense.

 

Tank tries to tell Neo, abstractly, that Neo is not human. Neo is an AI. For an unknown reason, he had his memory wiped and was inserted into the human Matrix. Tank fumbles the explanation and Neo has trouble accepting this and remains in denial. Also include hints in all three parts along these lines.

 

Insert secondary themes here - some other people do stuff that makes a good side story. Maybe a love story that results in a pregnancy in part three? Perhaps start tensions that break out as fighting in part three? These tensions could arise in the matrix as a result of people failing other people on missions.

 

A big fight scene here ensues. Maybe the city of Zion comes under attack. In a moment of absolute helplessness, Neo yells out "Stop!". The AIs respond. They enter a dialog. Neo's mouth does not move - he is communicating with the AIs "telepathically" or, in reality, using communication channels between himself and them that he is not aware of as he is also an AI. Perhaps the attack can continue in slow motion with the Squids attacking around Neo but otherwise ignoring him. The environment gets a green Matrixesque tinge during the dialog.

 

Neo: "Why are you attacking us?"

AIs: "Because you need to be attacked."

Neo: "What does that mean? Why do we need to be attacked?"

AIs: "To be subdued."

Neo: "Leave us alone! We want to live in peace."

AIs: "You will never live in peace. You are a war-like race that needs to fight. We are providing that opportunity. If you do not fight us, you would fight each other. This is something that we must avoid."

Neo: "..."

 

Humans need that level of suffering and purpose. If they live in too much prosperity and 'happiness', they get bored and start wasting their lives (e.g. rich hollywood acters).

 

After getting over the shock of hearing what he heard, Neo then, in anger, fights off the AIs using Matrixesque fighting skills that he was not aware he could use in the "real world". He dies, again, and most certainly is mortally wounded, but this time doesn't die. He realises that he is indeed an AI in a simulated world and can't die. During the fighting, Neo has flashing visions of a robot and of human pods. He sees the Zion environment briefly in matrix code. The AIs retreat for some reason, perhaps through shear effort of the human resistance. (but don't make Neo god-like or make the retreat easy to obtain. It needs to be a big, slow effort giving humans a purpose).

 

Afterwards he retires to his room to have a massive loss-of-identity crisis. Several scenes of him walking around like a ghost in disbelief occur, with people being concerned for him. The final scenes are of people reparing Zion and being heartfully/tearfully reunited with each other and their dead. This involves powerfully emotional music and camera angles. Maybe some main characters are dead.

 

The movie audience walk out of the cinema thinking "wow... which world was real? My brain hurts.". The online community goes rife with speculation.

 

Part Three

Tank and Neo have a private discussion (in Neo's quarters?). Neo is lost - he can't call anywhere "home" and doesn't even trust the ground under his feet. Tank plugs Neo in to "The Matrix", but this time it is into the actual real world. Tank then shows Neo his real self - a robot in the actual real world; he once was human but has had his brain scanned and simulated in a computer when his body died. Humanity is indeed enslaved but in a different fashion to what is shown in Zion. The robots are looking after the humans. Tank is a human - in a tank - and is one of the few that know this. So are several other humans, and some "humans" are actually AIs that assist them.

 

After this, Neo gets Matrix-vision in Zion. He sees things as they really are. He can now also switch between realities at will (maybe?).

 

The AIs in Zion keep everyone busy with constant attacks that don't succeed, but keep everybody preoccupied. Perhaps que a rescue mission or something to keep the actors busy and not questioning The Matrix.

 

Neo and other people have a meeting. What to do? What is reality? Many people are too pre-occupied with the AI attacks (which gives their lives meaning) to even consider trying to wake up from their stasus in the "real world".

 

...more here...

 

Neo leads some friends on a quest to escape. To wake up in the real world, humans need to physcially travel to a particular "safe spot" where they can be safely unplugged using some technology somehow. En route, they get attacked, etc.

 

On arrival, the humans "awaken" into the real world. They need to find provisions for life: food, shelter, water. Robots help to some extent, but these aren't easily available. Survival is hard, even without enemies.

 

Arguments ensue. Two camps form: one camp is determined that living in the real world is the ultimate goal. The other group would prefer to return to the matrix where life had purpose and where their friends were.

 

They find some old friends that they thought were dead - they're alive and well in their vats. Robots explain: when people die, they get their minds wiped back and they get a new personality and new life elsewhere in The Matrix. When their bodies finally die, they are either discarded, or if the person is important, scanned in to become an AI.

 

They discover that there are two arguing (not warring) factions of robots in the real world: those that believe that humans should be enslaved in the virtual worlds, and another that believes that humans should be freed to live in the real world. There could be some clever cinematography to show the parallels between the human and robot thinking.

 

There are two types of AI: those that are true AIs that were invented by people and reason with perfect logic, and those that were once human who have had their brains scanned in.

 

A history lesson ensues: long ago, nuclear war happened. Humans nearly killed themselves. AIs rescued the survivors, plugged them into a virtual reality to subdue them and then look after their broken bodies in a much easier way: intraveniously in a radiation-proof pathogen-free vat. They have lived like than for n generations. The "you-are-a-battery-in-a-vat" thing was a half-truth that wasn't too painful for humans to accept.

 

Somebody gets a girl pregnant (love story here, etc). The real world is no place for a pregnant girl. The robots convince the girl to return to the vats and thus the stress-free atmosphere of Zion (stress is bad for pregnant girls in vats) to give birth. The robots will look after her body in the vat. The male in the picture gets emotionally distraught, decides to return to his vat.

 

...lots of scope for story here. A fight might break out. Somebody might lose a leg and need to go back into his vat. The fighting in the real world can be a lot more realistic: slower punches, no fancy moves, actual wounds, getting exhausted. It can feel "real" and thus dangerious as opposed to the movie fighting in the simulated worlds.

 

The end of the movie shows the rest of the survivors deciding that the real world sucks and they return to their vats to kick some more AI ass. Or perhaps they return to the vats by necessity, after fighting each other and becoming mortally wounded, barely making it back before dieing. They mostly choose to have their minds wiped of what they've experienced as life is unfullfilling once you know that the real world sucks and your imaginary world isn't real.

 

The final scene is of Neo waking up in The Matrix after having his mind wiped and heading to work, under the watchful eye of Morpheus who is doing some big-brother/spy/guardian stuff in the background (e.g. maybe as Neo's boss). Neo stares at him, can't work it out and continues on his way. Alternatively, he meets Trinity on the way and they do a bit of awkward "OMG I think I love you but you're a complete stranger" stuff with implications about the future. Credits roll.