FADE IN:
ON COMPUTER SCREEN
so close it has no boundaries.
A blinking cursor pulses in the electronic darkness like a
heart coursing with phosphorous light, burning beneath the
derma of black-neon glass.
A PHONE begins to RING, we hear it as though we were
making the call. The cursor continues to throb,
relentlessly patient, until --
MAN (V.O.)
Yeah?
Data now slashes across the screen, information flashing
faster than we can read: "Call trans opt: received.
2-19-96 13:24:18 REC:Log>."
WOMAN (V.O.)
Is everything in place?
The man is silent. On screen: "Trace program: running."
We listen to the phone conversation as though we were on a
third line. The man's name is Cypher. The woman,
Trinity.
TRINITY (WOMAN) (V.O.)
I said, is everything in place?
The entire screen fills with racing columns of numbers.
Shimmering like green-electric rivers, they rush at a 10-
digit phone number in the top corner.
CYPHER (MAN) (V.O.)
You weren't supposed to relieve me.
TRINITY (V.O.)
I know but I felt like taking a
shift.
The area code is identified. The first three numbers
suddenly fixed, leaving only seven flowing columns.
CYPHER (V.O.)
You like him, don't you? You like
watching him?
We begin MOVING TOWARD the screen, CLOSING IN as each
digit is matched, one by one, snapping into place like the
wheels of a slot machine.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Don't be ridiculous.
CYPHER (V.O.)
We're going to kill him. Do you
understand that? He's going to die
just like the others.
TRINITY (V.O.)
Morpheus believes he is the One.
Only two thin digits left.
CYPHER (V.O.)
Do you?
TRINITY (V.O.)
I... it doesn't matter what I
believe.
CYPHER (V.O.)
You don't, do you?
TRINITY (V.O.)
If you have something to say, I
suggest you say it to Morpheus.
CYPHER (V.O.)
I intend to, believe me. Someone
has to.
The final NUMBER POPS into place --
TRINITY (V.O.)
Did you hear that?
CYPHER (V.O.)
Hear what?
On screen: "Trace complete. Call origin: #312-555-0690."
TRINITY (V.O.)
Are you sure this line is clean?
CYPHER (V.O.)
Yeah, 'course I'm sure.
We MOVE, STILL CLOSING, the ELECTRIC HUM of the green
NUMBERS GROWING into an ominous ROAR.
TRINITY (V.O.)
I better go.
She hangs up as we PASS THROUGH the numbers, entering the
nether world of the computer screen.
Suddenly, a flashlight cuts open the darkness and we find
ourselves in --
INT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT
The hotel was abandoned after a fire licked its way across
the polyester carpeting, destroying several rooms as it
spooled soot up the walls and ceiling, leaving patterns of
permanent shadow.
We FOLLOW four armed POLICE OFFICERS using flashlights as
they creep down the blackened hall and ready themselves on
either side of Room 303.
The biggest of them violently kicks in the door --
The other cops pour in behind him, guns thrust before
them.
BIG COP
Police! Freeze!
The room is almost devoid of furniture. There is a fold-
up table and chair with a phone, a modem, and a Powerbook
computer. The only light in the room is the glow of the
computer.
Sitting there, her hands still on the keyboard, is
TRINITY; a woman in black leather.
BIG COP
Hands behind your head! Now! Do
it!
She slowly puts her hands behind her head.
EXT. CHASE HOTEL - NIGHT
A black sedan with tinted windows glides in through the
police cruisers.
AGENT SMITH and AGENT BROWN get out of the car.
They wear dark suits and sunglasses even at night. They
are also always hardwired; small Secret Service earphones
in one ear, the cord coiling back into their shirt
collars.
AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT
Oh shit.
AGENT SMITH
Lieutenant, you were given specific
orders --
LIEUTENANT
I'm just doing my job. You gimme
that Juris-my-dick-tion and you can
cram it up your ass.
AGENT SMITH
The orders were for your
protection.
The Lieutenant laughs.
LIEUTENANT
I think we can handle one little
girl.
Agent Smith nods to Agent Brown as they start toward the
hotel.
LIEUTENANT
I sent two units. They're bringing
her down now.
AGENT SMITH
No, Lieutenant, your men are already
dead.
INT. CHASE HOTEL
The Big Cop flicks out his cuffs, the other cops holding a
bead. They've done this a hundred times, they know
they've got her, until the Big Cop reaches with the cuffs
and Trinity moves --
It almost doesn't register, so smooth and fast, inhumanly
fast.
The eye blinks and Trinity's palm snaps up and his nose
explodes, blood erupting. Her leg kicks with the force of
a wrecking ball and he flies back, a two-hundred-fifty
pound sack of limp meat and bone that slams into the cop
farthest from her.
Trinity moves again, BULLETS RAKING the WALLS, flashlights
sweeping with panic as the remaining cops try to stop a
leather-clad ghost.
A GUN still in the cop's hand is snatched, twisted and
FIRED. There is a final violent exchange of GUNFIRE and
when it's over, Trinity is the only one standing.
A flashlight rocks slowly to a stop.
TRINITY
Shit.
EXT. CHASE HOTEL
Agent Brown enters the hotel while Agent Smith heads for
the alley.
INT. CHASE HOTEL
Trinity is on the phone, pacing. The other end is
answered.
MAN (V.O.)
Operator.
TRINITY
Morpheus! The line was traced! I
don't know how.
MORPHEUS (MAN) (V.O.)
I know. They cut the hardline.
This line is not a viable exit.
TRINITY
Are they any agent?
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Yes.
TRINITY
Goddamnit!
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
You have to focus. There is a
phone. Wells and Lake. You can
make it.
She takes a deep breath, centering herself.
TRINITY
All right --
MORPHEUS (V.O.)
Go.
She drops the phone.
INT. HALL
She bursts out of the room as Agent Brown enters the hall,
leading another unit of police. Trinity races to the
opposite end, exiting through a broken window onto the
fire escape.
EXT. FIRE ESCAPE
In the alley below, Trinity sees Agent Smith staring at
her. She can only go up.
EXT. ROOF
On the roof, Trinity is running as Agent Brown rises over
the parapet, leading the cops in pursuit.
Trinity begins to jump from one roof to the next, her
movements so clean, gliding in and out of each jump,
contrasted to the wild jumps of the cops.
Agent Brown, however, has the same unnatural grace.
The metal SCREAM of an elevated TRAIN is heard and Trinity
turns to it, racing for the back of the building.
The edge falls away into a wide back alley. The next
building is over 40 feet away but Trinity's face is
perfectly calm, staring at some point beyond the other
roof.
The cops slow, realizing they are about to see something
ugly as Trinity drives at the edge, launching herself into
the air.
From above, the ground seems to flow beneath her as she
hangs in flight --
Then hitting, somersaulting up, still running hard.
COP
Mutherfucker -- that's impossible!
They stare, slack-jawed, as Agent Brown duplicates the
move exactly, landing, rolling over a shoulder up onto one
knee.
Just below the building are the RUMBLING TRACKS of riveted
steel. The TRAIN SCREECHES beneath her, a RATTLING blur
of gray metal. Trinity jumps, landing easily.
She looks back just as Agent Brown hurls through the air
barely reaching the last car --
Agent Brown stands, yanking out a gun.
Trinity is running hard as BULLETS WHISTLE past her head.
Ahead she sees her only chance, 50 feet beyond the point
where the train has begun to turn, there is --
A window; a yellow glow in the midst of a dark brick
building.
Trinity zeros in on it, running as hard as she can, her
speed compounded by the train. The SCREAM of the STEEL
rises as she nears the edge where the train rocks into the
turn.
Trinity hurtles into the empty night space, her body
leveling into a dive. She falls, arms covering her head
as --
HER POV
The whole world seems to spin on its axis --
BACK TO SCENE
And she crashes with an EXPLOSION of GLASS and WOOD, then
falls onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down
stairs bleeding, broken --
But still alive.
Through the smashed window, she glimpses Agent Brown,
still on the train, his tie and coat whipping in the wind;
stone-faced, he touches his ear piece as the train slides
him past the window.
Trinity tries to move. Everything hurts.
TRINITY
Get up, Trinity. You're fine. Get
up -- just get up!
She stands and limps down the rest of the stairs.
Trinity emerges from the shadows of an alley and, at the
end of the block, in a pool of white street light, she
sees it.
The telephone booth.
Obviously hurt, she starts down the concrete walk,
focusing in completely, her pace quickening, as the PHONE
begins to RING.
Across the street, a garbage truck suddenly turns U-turns,
its TIRES SCREAMING as it accelerates.
Trinity sees the headlights of the truck arcing at the
telephone booth as if taking aim.
Gritting through the pain, she races the truck --
Slamming into the booth, the headlights blindingly bright,
bearing down on the box of Plexiglas just as --
She answers the phone.
There is a frozen instant of silence before the hulking
mass of dark metal lurches up onto the sidewalk --
Barrelling through the booth, bulldozing it into a brick
wall, SMASHING it to PLEXIGLAS PULP.
After a moment, a black loafer steps down from the cab of
the garbage truck. Agent Smith inspects the wreckage.
There is no body. Trinity is gone.
His jaw sets as he grinds his molars in frustration.
AGENT JONES walks up behind him.
AGENT JONES
Then the informant is real.
AGENT SMITH
Does that surprise you? It was
inevitable.
AGENT JONES
He'll be contacting us again.
AGENT SMITH
Expect it. Did you get anything
from the room?
AGENT JONES
Their next target. The name is Neo.
The handset of the pay phone lays on the ground, separated
in the crash like a severed limb.
AGENT SMITH
We'll need a search running.
AGENT JONES
It's already begun.
We are SUCKED TOWARDS the mouthpiece of the phone, CLOSER
and CLOSER, until the smooth gray plastic spreads out like
a horizon and the small holes widen until we FALL THROUGH
one --
Swallowed by DARKNESS.
The DARKNESS BEGINS TO RIPPLE WITH BRIGHT FLASHES OF BONE
WHITE as we PULL OUT of the eye of a skull.
It is a computer screen saver; the Jolly Roger flutters
against an electronic wind.
We DRIFT BACK FROM the screen and INTO --
INT. NEO'S APARTMENT
It is a studio apartment that seems overgrown with
technology.
Weed-like cables coil everywhere, duct-taped into thickets
that wind up and around the legs of several desks.
Tabletops are filled with cannibalized equipment that lay
open like an autopsied corpse.
At the center of this technological rat-nest is NEO, a man
who knows more about living inside a computer than outside
one.
He is asleep in front of his PC. Behind him, the computer
screen suddenly goes blank. A prompt appears: "Wake up,
Neo."
Neo's eye pries open. He sits up, one eye still closed,
looking around, unsure of where he is. He notices the
screen.
He types "CTRL X" but the letter "T" appears.
NEO
What...?
He hits another and an "H" appears. He keeps typing,
pushing random functions and keys while the computer types
out a message as though it had a mind of its own.
He stops and stares at the four words on the screen:
"The Matrix has you."
NEO
What the hell?
He hits the "ESC" button. Another message appears:
"Follow the white rabbit."
He hits it again and the message repeats. He rubs his
eyes but when he opens them, there is another message:
"Knock, knock, Neo."
Someone KNOCKS on his door and he almost jumps out of his
chair. He looks back at the computer but the screen is
now blank.
Someone KNOCKS again. Neo rises, still unnerved.
NEO
Who is it?
CHOI (O.S.)
It's Choi.
Neo opens the door, leaving the chain on. A young Chinese
MAN stands with several of his friends.
NEO
You're two hours late.
CHOI
I know. It's her fault.
His GIRLFRIEND only has to smile.
NEO
You got the money?
CHOI
Two grand.
He takes out an envelope and gives it to Neo through the
cracked door.
NEO
Hold on.
He closes the door. On the floor near his bed is a book,
Baudrillard's Simulacra Simulations. The book has been
hollowed out and inside are several computer disks. He
takes one, sticks the money in the book and drops it on
the floor.
Opening the door, he hands the disk to Choi.
CHOI
Hallelujah! You are my savior, man!
My own personal Jesus Christ!
NEO
If you get caught using that --
CHOI
I know, I know. This never
happened. You don't exist.
NEO
Right...
Neo nods as the strange feeling of unrealness suddenly
returns.
CHOI
Something wrong, man? You look a
little whiter than usual.
NEO
I don't know... My computer...
He looks back at Choi, unable to explain what just
happened.
NEO
You ever have the feeling that
you're not sure if you're awake or
still dreaming?
CHOI
All the time. It's called mescaline
and it is the only way to fly.
He smiles and slaps the hand of his nearest droog.
CHOI
It sounds to me like you need to
unplug, man. A little R and R.
What do you think, Dujour, should we
take him with us?
DUJOUR (GIRLFRIEND)
Definitely.
NEO
I can't. I have to work tomorrow.
DUJOUR
Come on. It'll be fun. I promise.
He looks up at her and suddenly notices on her black
leather motorcycle jacket dozens of pins: bands, symbols,
slogans, military medals and --
A small white rabbit.
The ROOM TILTS.
NEO
Yeah, yeah. Sure, I'll go.
INT. APARTMENT
An older apartment; a series of halls connects a chain of
small high-ceilinged rooms lined with heavy casements.
Smoke hangs like a veil, blurring the few lights there
are.
Dressed predominantly in black, people are everywhere,
gathered in cliques around pieces of furniture like jungle
cats around a tree.
Neo stands against a wall, alone, sipping from a bottle of
beer, feeling completely out of place, he is about to
leave when he notices a woman staring at him.
The woman is Trinity. She walk straight up to him.
In the nearest room, shadow-like figures grind against
each other to the pneumatic beat of INDUSTRIAL MUSIC.
TRINITY
Hello, Neo.
NEO
How do you know that name?
TRINITY
I know a lot about you. I've been
wanting to meet you for some time.
NEO
Who are you?
TRINITY
My name is Trinity.
NEO
Trinity? The Trinity? The Trinity
that cracked the I.R.S. Kansas City
D-Base?
TRINITY
That was a long time ago.
NEO
Gee-zus.
TRINITY
What?
NEO
I just thought... you were a guy.
TRINITY
Most guys do.
Neo is a little embarrassed.
NEO
Do you want to go somewhere and
talk?
TRINITY
No. It's safe here and I don't have
much time.
The MUSIC is so LOUD they must stand very close, talking
directly into each other's ear.
NEO
That was you on my computer?
She nods.
NEO
How did you do that?
TRINITY
Right now, all I can tell you, is
that you are in danger. I brought
you here to warn you.
NEO
Of what?
TRINITY
They're watching you, Neo.
NEO
Who is?
TRINITY
Please. Just listen. I know why
you're here, Neo. I know why you
left your family and your friends,
why you left your home to come to
this city. You're looking for him.
Her body is against his; her lips very close to his ear.
TRINITY
I know because I came looking for
the same thing, but when he found me
he told me I wasn't really looking
for him. I was looking for an
answer.
There is a hypnotic quality to her voice and Neo feels the
words, like a drug, seeping into him.
TRINITY
It's the question that brought you
here. You know the question just as
I did. It is a hacker's question.
NEO
What is the Matrix?
TRINITY
When I asked him, he said that no
one could ever be told the answer to
that question. They have to see it
to believe it.
She leans close, her lips almost touching his ear.
TRINITY
The answer is out there, Neo. It's
looking for you and it will find
you, if you want it to.
She turns and he watches her melt into the shifting wall
of bodies.
A SOUND RISES steadily, growing out of the MUSIC, pressing
in on Neo until it is all he can hear as we --
