2003’s overlooked animated anthology movieThe Animatrixonly added to the legend of Carrie-Anne Moss’ character Trinity established by the live-actionMatrixfilms. Written and produced by The Wachowskis for online release immediately afterThe Matrix Reloadedand beforeThe Matrix Revolutions,The Animatrixfeatures nine non-chronological animated shortsdirected by some of the franchise creators’ favorite anime filmmakers.
Two of the shorts, in particular, focus on Trinity’s backstory, making her even cooler than when she appeared on the big screen in the original live-actionMatrixtrilogy.“A Detective Story” serves up the kind of coded messages and escapology the feature films lead you to expect from Trinity. Her minor role in “Kid’s Story”, meanwhile, portrays her hero status almost on a par with Neo.
The Animatrix’s “A Detective Story” Shows How Big Of A Threat Trinity Was To The Machines
She Was Impossible To Catch And Unbeatable As A Hacker
Although Trinity isn’t the protagonist of “A Detective Story,” her reputation precedes her asshe becomes the focus of hard-boiled private investigator Mr Ashfor virtually all the short’s 10 minutes.“This Trinity was well-known in hacker circles, a real artist by the sound of it,” Ash recounts. He also makes the same mistake Neo did in the first Matrix before meeting Trinity, by assuming she’s male. This indicator of rampant misogyny might not be quite as valid20 years on from whenThe Animatrixwas first released, but it still has the ring of truth about it.
Ultimately, though, it’s just one more example of the fear and respect Trinity invokes in anyone trying to catch her. Ash tells us that three detectives before him had been hired to track her down, with each one of them suffering a catastrophic fate. “One of the guys killed himself, another disappeared, another went crazy.” This track record only enhancesTrinity’s reputation as a fearsome warrior inside the Matrix, and an ingenious hacker in the real world.
Even Ash himself doesn’t manage to find her without her giving him a big helping hand. Just as she instructs Neo to “follow the white rabbit” inThe Matrix, Trinity introduces herself to Ash with references toAlice in Wonderland. She calls herself the “Red Queen” and tells him, “It is you who are through the looking glass.” These coded messages are designed to help Ash, who Trinity is actually trying to “save”, as she explains to him later in the film. They illustrate the extent to whichshe’s one step ahead of those trying to catch her, and often aware of the danger those around her are in before they are.
“A Detective Story” Makes Trinity’s Iconic Introduction In The Matrix Even Better
It Perfectly Sets Up The Police Chase At The Start Of The Movie
In relation to the rest of theMatrixfranchise, “A Detective Story” is set some time before the action starts in the first feature film. If you wereviewing everything in chronological order, you’d watch it beforeThe Matrixitself. The animated short suggests thatthe Agents had already been tailing Trinity for some time beforewe see her leading two police units astray and disappearing from a phone box at the start of the first movie.
It also includes a train chase sequence that mirrors the kind of death-defying live-action stunts Moss described as a “challenge” for her in a recent interview withCollider.Trinity exits the story by crashing through the moving train’s window, proving she’s the character we know and love from the moment she dives off a rooftop, down a staircase, and points two gun barrels at the audience duringThe Matrix’s first action sequence.
Trinity Also Plays A Role In The Animatrix’s “Kid’s Story” Episode
She Cements Her Place As One Of The Franchise’s Main Heroes
As well as “A Detective Story”, Trinity turns up in another ofThe Animatrix’s shorts.“Kid’s Story” provides some background for theMatrixcharacter Kid, who appears inMatrix ReloadedandRevolutionsas a young boy who’s managed to free himself from the Matrix and is a willing soldier for the humans in the First Machine War. In the anime,the Kid comes into contact with Neobefore being chased out of his school by Agents and plunging to his death inside the Matrix.
Trinity first appears as one of the names scrawled on Kid’s exercise book as he sits in his classroom. We then see her shadow as he begins to regain consciousness in the real world. “His vitals are good, he’s gonna make it,” she says. “It’s unbelievable. I didn’t think self-substantiation was possible,” she adds, referring to the process by whichKid has freed himself from the Matrix without the help of others. “Apparently it is,” Neo replies. The two of them are side-by-side, jointly sharing the role of humankind’s savior.Neo might have been the One, but, asThe Animatrixunderlines, he would have been no one without Trinity.
The Animatrix
Cast
The Animatrix is a collection of nine animated short films set in the universe of The Matrix. Released in 2003, the anthology delves into the origins of the Matrix, the war between humans and machines, and individual stories that expand on the film trilogy’s themes. Each segment is directed by a different filmmaker, blending various animation styles to explore the complex world created by the Wachowskis.
