Introduction

People, Places & Things

Relevant Ships and Crew

In order of appearance (including Enter the Matrix and The Animatrix):

Nebuchadnezzar

Captain Morpheus, Neo, Trinity. The Nebuchadnezzar's inscription reads, "Mark III No. 11 made in the USA year 2069." Mark 3:11 reads, "And whenever those possessed by evil spirits caught sight of him, they would fall down in front of him shrieking, 'You are the Son of God!'" This surely signals the fact that Zion's savior, Neo, is first found by the Nebuchadnezzar crew.

• M1: Tank (operator), Cypher (betrayal), Mouse (created woman in red dress), Dozer (Tank's big brother), Switch (white clothes), Apoc ("I hope the Oracle gave you some good news"). Tank and Dozer were both born in Zion, thus their "Earthly" names.
• M2 & M3: Link (operator)

Osiris

Captain Thadeus, Jue (from Animatrix episode "Final Flight of the Osiris"). The inscription on the Osiris reads, "Mark XVI No. 16 Made in the USA Year 2079." Mark 16:16 reads, "The one who believes and is baptized will be saved, but the one who does not believe will be condemned." This could refer to the fact that Zion needs to believe the last transmission of the Osiris. It could also refer more generally to the fact that someone (Niobe) needs to believe in Neo, or the human race is doomed.

Logos

Captain Niobe, Ghost (Niobe's sidekick in Enter the Matrix), Sparks (pessimistic and helpless operator in Enter the Matrix). Neo & Trinity take the Logos to Machine City in M3. The inscription reads, "Mark XIV No. 14 Made in the USA Year 2101." Mark 14:14 reads, "He sent two of his disciples and told them, 'Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him.'" This refers to the fact that two people, Neo and Trinity, use the Logos to go into the (Machine) city.

Vigilant

Captain Soren, Jax (operator), Axel, Vector, and Binary. The Vigilant's inscription reads, "Mark XIII No. 32 Made in the USA Year 2106." Mark 13:32 reads, "But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." The verses that immediately follow suggest people should be always ready for this to happen (therefore exercising vigilance).

In Enter the Matrix, the Vigilant crew is rescued from Agents by Niobe and Ghost. Soren expresses appreciation for that rescue during ETM, before the rebel meeting begins. Soren volunteers to help Neo reach the Source in M2, and he and his crew are killed by a sentinel bomb while they are jacked into the Matrix.

Caduceus — Captain Ballard, Malachi and Bane / Bane-Smith. Captain Ballard agrees to wait for word from the Oracle for 48 hours on behalf of Morpheus at the beginning of M2.

Mjolnir (referred to as Hammer)

Captain Roland (pessimistic captain who was against letting Neo take the Logos to machine city in M3), Colt (first mate), AK (operator), Maggie (medic killed by Bane-Smith) and Mauser. Niobe pilots the Hammer through a mechanical line back to Zion in M3. Inscribed on the ship is "Mark XIV No. 62 Made in the USA Year 2111." The corresponding Bible verse reads, "Jesus said, 'I am. You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of the sky.'" This verse is a display of awe-inspiring power, much like the dramatic entrance the Hammer makes into Zion.

Mnemosyne

Captain Bugs, Lexy, Sequoia / "Seq" (operator), Berg, Ellster (medic), Hanno (pilot), Cybebe, Octacles (looks like a bee), Lumin8 (looks like a grasshopper). After Bugs saves Lexy from the swarm, they embrace. Bugs calls Lexy "Lex," and Lexy calls Bugs "Bugsy."

Inscribed on the ship is "Mark III No. 19 Mnemosyne Made in the EU Year 2274." The corresponding Bible verse reads, "And Judas Iscariot, which also betrayed him: and they went into an house." This probably refers to the fact that the crew of the Mnemosyne disobeyed/betrayed General Niobe. Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory and mother of muses. One could say the Mnemosyne is a ship of memory, as it extracts a Modal "memory" of Morpheus and rescues both Neo and Trinity, who have been "memories" for 60 years. It's also worth noting that Neo's name is kind of embedded: the mNEmOsyne.

People / Machines / Synthients

• The Analyst - The designer, and presumably operating system, of the new Matrix system in M4, extracting more power from humans than the Oracle's Matrix because of his understanding and exploitation of human emotion.
• Counselor Hamann - The main counselor on the Zion Council who cleared the Nebuchadnezzar for takeoff against Commander Lock's wishes.
• Commander Lock - Commander of the Zion military who doesn't believe in prophecies. He was together with Niobe in the first two movies, but by the end of M3, Niobe had gravitated back to her old lover, Morpheus. He is derogatively called "Deadbolt" behind his back because of his stubborness (Captain Ballard refers to him this way in the meeting at the beginning of M2).
• Cybebe - Synthient and secret ally of Io, becomes an exile when they move Neo's body from the Anomaleum to the Mnemosyne. Also transports Bugs to/from Trinity's Anomaleum pod.
• Captain Mifune - The leader of the APU squadron who is the last one standing against the sentinel attack. He also goes with Commander Lock's lieutenant to "keep the peace" when they bring Morpheus to Commander Lock.
• The Kid - Real name is Michael Karl Popper, the kid who is the only known case of "self-substantiation" (self-ejection) from the Matrix, due to his unshakeable belief that Neo would save him. In Zion, the Kid operates Captain Mifune's APU in order to open the gate for the Hammer.
• Morpheus - Takes on four forms throughout the movies: M1-M3 (the original Morpheus), M4 Modal (posing as Agent Morpheus), M4 Matrix Morpheus, and M4 Exomorphic Morpheus (which I'll refer to as ExoMorpheus on this site). The M4 Morpheus was coded by Neo and was put into a Modal in order to evolve his character and was pulled out of the Modal by Bugs and Seq.
• Zee - Link's wife, and also the sister of Tank and Dozer. Zee helps the Kid open the gate for the Hammer.
• Bugs - Captain of the Mnemosyne. She says her name comes from Bugs Bunny. This could be because when she sees Neo step off a ledge and float, it resembles what we see in Looney Tunes cartoons, such as when Wile E. Coyote floats until he realizes he's not standing on ground.

Places

• 01 (Zero One) - Machine City (referred to on this website as "Machine City" since that is what the movies call it).
• Anomaleum - Special building in Machine City that solely serves to imprison Neo and Trinity in the Analyst's Matrix.
• Backdoors - In computer terminology, hidden access to a system, usually not detectable by system administrators. The backdoors of the Matrix are not only hidden access to parts of the Matrix, but the doors are literal representations of the "backdoor" term.
• Club Hel - The Merovingian's underground club.
• Le Vrai - The Merovingian's restaurant (French for "The True").
• Io - Real world human and synthient city commanded by General Niobe, with a bio-sky and an entrance hidden from enemy synthients by a holographic rock cliff. Io is an alphabetic adaptation and reversal of Machines' city, 01, not to mention the two middle vowels of the words Zion and Niobe.
• Mobil Avenue - The train station Neo wakes up in at the beginning of M3, operated by the Trainman.
• Simulatte (inside view) - Coffee shop in M4 where Neo meets Trinity.
• Zion - People City, four kilometers below the Earth's surface. Residents are called Zionists.

Terms

• APU - Stands for Armored Personnel Unit, the giant robots that humans use to defend Zion.
• Broadcast Depth - The minimum distance from Machine City required to wirelessly hack into the Matrix.
• Deus Ex Machina - the "boss" machine that strikes a deal with Neo at the end of M3 to eliminate Smith in exchange for peace. Not to be confused with Deus Machina, the name of the game company that employs Thomas Anderson in M4.
• Hard Line - A "land phone line" within the Matrix that is used by Matrix hackers (such as Tank and Link) in order to broadcast their signals to and from the Matrix. Redpill hackers cannot enter or exit the Matrix without reaching a hard line. In M4, hard lines are no longer needed since redpills are able to hack glass pane or mirror surfaces to create portals.
• Matrix Feed - The continuous encrypted Matrix signal broadcasted from Machine City.
• Potential - A person who is in the process of questioning the reality of the Matrix (a redpill candidate). Potentials we see are children in the Oracle's living room. Mr. Anderson was a Potential before actually taking the red pill.
• RSI (Residual Self Image) - The "mental projection of one's digital self" (using Morpheus's description), or the appearance a redpill hacker gives to themselves inside of a computer-generated virtual reality. In M4, we learn that a bluepill's appearance is known as their DSI, or Digital Self Image, and it is generated by the human pod. The Analyst is able to alter DSIs of humans at will, as we see DSI reflections of both Neo and Trinity that show completely different looking people.
• Sentinel - A squid-like machine designed to attack human ships.
• Wachowskis - The brilliant writers and directors of the Matrix trilogy.

Chronology of Story (Hovercraft Point of View)

• M1 - Nebuchadnezzar rescues Neo from drowning, evades sentinels, broadcasts into the Matrix and finally EMPs sentinels.
• Animatrix - Osiris picks up sentinel army and sends message to Zion via a P.O. Box drop.
• ETM - Logos broadcasts into the Matrix to obtain Osiris's message.
• ETM - Axel (Vigilant) is captured by Agents just before meeting that begins M2. Logos (Niobe/Ghost) rescues Axel before the meeting.
• ETM - Logos broadcasts Osiris transmission to Commander Lock, who orders Logos to head the recall of all ships.
• M2 - Logos calls for meeting with all other ships: Nebuchadnezzar, Vigilant, Caduceus, Hammer, Gnosis, Icarus, Novalis and Brahma.
• M2 - Caduceus agrees to stay for 36 hours to await contact from the Oracle. Other ships return to Zion (including Nebuchadnezzar since it needs recharging).
• M2 - Caduceus is contacted by the Oracle, and Malachi returns to the Caduceus world with a disk requesting that Neo meet the Oracle in the park. Bane is taken over by Smith before returning to the Caduceus.
• M2 - Caduceus returns to Zion to deliver disk to Neo. Nebuchadnezzar leaves Zion to meet the Oracle via approval from Councillor Hamann.
• ETM - Commander Lock announces plans to send all available hovercrafts to a surprise attack against the sentinels - all ships except the Logos, because Commander Lock can't bear to lose Niobe (he convinced the Council that the Logos's EMP would be too weak to be effective against sentinels even though it's not true).
• M2 - After extended absence of the Nebuchadnezzar, Council asks for volunteers to find the Nebuchadnezzar. Vigilant volunteers (presumably because Soren wants to help Morpheus just as Niobe helped Soren), and Logos volunteers (because Niobe is angry at Lock and also because she's starting to realize she still loves Morpheus). Commander Lock thinks the Council is insane because the dock will have no hovercrafts.
• M2 - Vigilant and Logos leave. Logos rescues Nebuchadnezzar (Morpheus) from freeway chase.
• M2 - All other ships leave Zion to execute surprise attack against sentinels.
• M2 - Nebuchadnezzar, Logos and Vigilant execute plan to get the One to the Source. Vigilant is destroyed by a sentinel bomb (Axel, who has a knee brace in the real world because of an injury to his leg while in the Matrix, falls when crossing a catwalk, which kills Jax, the operator, just before the bomb goes off).
• ETM - Niobe sees the Oracle before getting out of the Matrix.
• M2 - Sentinels (which are crawling everywhere) find the Nebuchadnezzar as well as the Logos.
• ETM - The Logos fights the sentinels off since it is the fastest ship in the Zion fleet, eventually killing all the sentinels with an EMP and getting stranded in uncharted territory.
• M2 - The Nebuchadnezzar is destroyed by a sentinel bomb. Neo destroys sentinels and his consciousness is placed into Mobil Avenue.
• ETM - Bane-Smith kills Caduceus crew and sabotages attack plan against sentinels with EMP. All ships are affected and destroyed except the Hammer, which rescues Bane.
• M2 - Hammer rescues Logos ship and Nebuchadnezzar crew. Hammer and Logos are the only two remaining ships.
• M3 - Neo, Trinity and Bane-Smith take Niobe's Logos (the lightest ship) to Machine City.
• M3 - Niobe, Morpheus, Link, Roland, Sparks, Maggie and others take the Hammer (which has a "fat ass" in Niobe's words) back to Zion, with Niobe piloting (the best pilot in the fleet). Hammer crashes through Zion gate and sets off EMP in the dock.