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Let’s dissect how The Matrix Resurrections upgrades Neo’s White Rabbit by turning it into his bravest and most important freedom fighter.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections, now in theaters and on HBO Max.
In The Matrix, Neo’s (Keanu Reeves) “White Rabbit” was a huge part of him discovering his destiny as the One. It was a tattoo on a goth lady that led him to a nightclub where he’d start exploring the idea more of being free, and the symbol matched the message Morpheus sent him just before, allowing Trinity to start planting seeds at the club. It evoked that life-changing journey down the rabbit hole that he needed to embark on his journey and is one of the series’ briefest yet most important pieces of iconography. Well, it just got even more important because The Matrix Resurrections upgraded Neo’s White Rabbit by turning it into his most important freedom fighter.
This “White Rabbit” is now an actual person: Jessica Henwick’s Bugs, who shockingly got a lot more screen time than the nanobot version of Morpheus. Neo previously ignored Morpheus’ attempts to lure him in, but he quickly listened to Bugs, realizing she was, well, less robotic and way more passionate about him escaping the real world.
Morpheus did offer him the red and blue pill, but none of his words resonated like Bugs, and it’s because Neo saw her as more human. She was endearing and honest, filled with heart and soul, which is why he eventually followed her to Morpheus’ lair later on to begin his journey with the right pill. And the kicker is, when she took her jacket off, she had a big white rabbit tattooed on her, which is why her name is a riff on Bugs Bunny.
It’s also meta because Bugs is a Warner Bros. property, with WB being the studio behind these movies and the company Neo, as Thomas Anderson, is designing the Matrix video game for in the fake digital construct. That said, as much as Bugs liberated Neo mentally, this White Rabbit also helped him physically disconnect when he arrived in the real world, bald and ready for the new war.
She took him to the new Zion, IO, and made it clear her soldiers would fight alongside him. But her value didn’t end there, as she also offered her brain up to Sati when they infiltrated Machine City to free Trinity from the pods. In addition, she disobeyed the IO council to do all this, proving that she was a rebel that balled up the essences of the old Morpheus and Trinity into one, doing whatever was necessary to help Neo become whole again.
She never questioned betraying IO or how risky it was to get Trinity’s body back — she simply had faith a freed Trinity would create an optimal Neo. And what really made her journey all the more nuanced is that when it came to Bugs being freed years before, no one found her and brought her in. Bugs, while washing windows on a skyscraper, saw Neo’s disguised form try to walk off a building, but she saw his real self.
It was a magical connection in this cyber-realm where she realized the messiah still existed and that she needed out into the real world ASAP. It’s self-enlightenment, discovery and cognizance people don’t experience on their own in this series, carving out a deeper, pseudo-religious connection as the White Rabbit to Neo. He freed her, just as much as she freed him, which is why she’s hopped around for years, trying to find and repay him with undying belief.
And to top things off, Bugs was incredible in so many action sequences, protecting Neo and leaving Sati’s project to plug back in to save her crew. From bullet time to dodging various attacks, Bugs showed that everyone, no matter how minor a character they were, was more than worth protecting. And in her compassionate, less extremist demeanor, she actually was the movie’s true leader and someone Neo appreciated and drew inspiration from.
See how the White Rabbit becomes a key figure in The Matrix Resurrections, now in theaters and on HBO Max.
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