Thread by @ImplausibleGrrl, Not that it hasn't been done before by some very excellent people, [...]

Not that it hasn't been done before by some very excellent people, but here is my live tweet of watching The Matrix as a trans woman.

The very first shot of the very first scene

Following scenes have no women at all except for Trinity. Who is chased by multiple male police officers and agents trying to arrest or kill her while shooting at her.

Symbolic of escaping masculinity? A repeating theme I think.

Pursued across rooftops by both police and agents until she makes a leap that sheds all but the agent pursuing her.

Possible symbolism for escaping masculinity but still facing the gatekeepers (the agents)?

"That's impossible" from the police officers seeing the jump. A common phrase heard by trans people who are transitioning.

Escapes the first agent by that running leap going through a tiny window. Symbolism for the narrow and rigidly prescribed gatekeeping for starting transition where the slightest error will prevent moving forward?

Now running a race between Agent Smith driving the truck at the phone booth she is going to use to escape. If she isn't fast enough - she will die as she is crushed by the gatekeeper (Agent Smith).

Her racing towards the phone booth that is either her escape - or her death seems pretty obvious symbolism

The agents gather to discuss her escape, the informant, and name the next target: Neo

We see Neo asleep in front of his computer as it runs automated searchs for Morpheus.

The names are interesting: Neo is a Greek prefix meaning 'new'. Morpheus is the name of the Greek god of dreams.

And the first message from Morpheus, while Neo is sleeping

"The Matrix has you"

"Follow the white rabbit"

I suspect that is a reference to the song White Rabbit by the Jefferson Airplane. It has this lyric and probably is foreshadowing the red and blue pills

The knock on the door and a shot of the door number. Neo lives in room 101. Probably a '1984' reference. Room 101 is the room where people's greatest fears are used to break them. The torture room: Neo LIVES in room 101

The conversation with Troy. Neo is reluctant to go to the party until Du Jour goes out of her way to show off her white rabbit shoulder blade tattoo while encouraging him to come to it.

Dance club with lots of gender variance and BDSM themes

Trinity says 'Hello, Neo' and Neo responds 'How do you know that name?'

Neo: "Jesus"

Trinity: "What?"

Neo: "I just thought...umm...that you were a guy."

Trinity: "Most guys do."

Definite trans subtext there

Trinity monologue with subtexts about questions and the matrix and how it is "why you live alone and hardly sleep"

Conversation with Neo's male boss, who addresses him as "Mr Anderson" who asserts that Neo has a problem with authority and thinks he is special (that "somehow the rules do not apply to you")

Cell phone delivered to Neo: "Thomas Anderson?". Thomas a reference to "Doubting Thomas"?

Phone call from Morpheus who tells him to stand up slowly and look. Sees female office worker pointing in his direction in front of three agents and six cops, all male

Trying to escape with Morpheus providing guidance via the cell phone

Reaches the office Morpheus directed him to. As he enters, on the desk are two photos in frames. One a boy looking to the right. On the right, what looks like a girl standing. Symbolic?

Morpheus tells Neo that there are only two ways out - escape via the scaffolding outside the window, or in the custody of the agents/police

Neo says "This is insane! Why is this happening to me?"

Very similar sentiments to trans people who are trying to fight gender dysphoria.

Neo TRIES to go out the window to the scaffolding. Get's part way there before he nearly falls and says "I can't do" this. Returns to the room. Cuts to him being escorted to a car.

Clear subtext of trying to transition but being stopped by fear and gatekeepers

Wall of TV screens showing Neo in an interrogation room. Wall of screens foreshadowing The Architect scene discussing choice with Neo later

Agent Smith talking with Neo with a thick folder full of history about Neo (similar to a medical history folder?)

"It seems you've been living two lives"

Clear trans subtext

Discusses two names

"One of these lives has a future."

"The other does not."

Obvious subtext

Agent Smith talking about Morpheus: "Considered the most dangerous man alive"

So, the God Of Dreams is "the most dangerous man alive"

Agents force the bug into Neo against his will. Involuntary medical treatments?

Switch pulls gun on Neo in the car to convince him to remove his shirt.

Note: Switch was originally written as two different sexes - one inside the matrix and a different one outside the matrix.

They remove the bug from Neo

Trinity tells Neo to 'be honest'

"You have the the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, this is not far from the truth".

"You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there is something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is. But it's there. Like a splinter in your mind driving you mad."

"Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is - you have to see it for yourself"

Blue pill / red pill.

At the time the common form of estrogen was given in a red pill.

"Time is always against us" - every trans person ever

"It means buckle your seat belt Dorothy, because Kansas i sgoing bye-bye."

Possibly a reference to "The Friends of Dorothy"? A code phrase used by gay or queer men in decades past to identify each other when being gay was criminalized.

Neo looks into the broken mirror - and his face is not visible initially.

Pre-transition trans people frequently avoid mirrors because of the dysphoria inducing effects of seeing their faces in them

Neo touches the mirror and his body starts changing into a mirror like form

Scene change to the red liquid filled pod - very like a womb

Neo bursts out of the pod and takes his first unassisted breath - birth metaphor

Surgery sequence repairing his body after his "birth" - GCS metaphor?

Introduction of the ship: The Nebuchadnezzar. The name is a biblical reference from the dream that could not be understood

Neo in "the construct". "Residual Self-Image - the mental projection of your digital self."

"What is real? How do you define real?"

Neo rejects the revelation of what the matrix is. Throwing up and then passing out in reaction. Wakes up and says "I can't go back, can I?"

Morpheus says "No. But if you could, would you really want to?"

"Supposed to start with these operation programs first"

Training programs.

"Mikey, I think he likes it. How about some more?" "Hell yes"

Kung fu training fight bewteen Neo and Morpheus

"How did I beat you?"

"Don't think you are - know you are."

"I'm trying to free your mind Neo. But I can only show you the door - you're the one who has to walk through it."

Building jump scene: "Everybody falls the first time"

"Lady in red" street scene. Interestingly, the sex balance of the background actors is almost exactly 50:50. This is actually unusual in movies. Crowd scenes tend to be about 75:25 male:female in most movies due to unconscious bias in scene sex balance as supported by studies.

It is also thematically interesting that essentially everyone except the lady in red is in a 'uniform'. Dark suits, military uniforms, police uniforms, ...

"We have survived by hiding from them, by running from them. But they ARE the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors. They are holding all the keys."

Clear call out to gatekeepers in transgender medical care

Neo: "I have these memories from my life. None of them happened. What does that mean?"

Trinity: "That the matrix cannot tell you who you are."

Neo in the Oracle's waiting area. In the background the TV is playing 'Night of the Lepus' :D

Interesting that ALL of the other 'potentials' are children. Neo is the oldest one. On the wall is an entire RACK of spoons

"There is no spoon" scene.

"Do you think you are the one"

"I don't know"

[...]

"Being the one is just like being in love. No one can tell you you're in love. You just know it."

Subtext there

The entire scene inverts the gatekeeper theme. The oracle is female. She doesn't TELL Neo if he is the one - she asks him. She says that 'you've got the gift' but 'is waiting for something'

Deju vu cat scene

Fight scene in the old hotel

The escape is through the false wall in the bathroom

Morpheus and Agent Smith fight in the bathroom

Again, all the police and agents are male

"Guns lots of guns"

Smith monologuing with Morpheus

Neo and Trinity walking into the lobby of the building and setting off the alarms

Trinity + Neo blowing through all the soldiers in tandem. There is a visual symmetry. I wonder if it is intended to show a male/female double vision.

Again, all the soldiers are male. I think this could be symbolically be crashing through the gatekeepers

FIght between Neo and the agent on the roof

Neo saved by Trinity killing the agent

It is worth noting that in this twenty year old movie women are unambiguously just as bad-ass as men.

But only on the side of the resistance - the machine civilization gatekeepers are all male without exception

And the helicopter blows up when it hits the building. Never really liked the 'the moment anything crashes it enthusiastically blows up" trope. But that's a minor nit.

Neo fight scene with Agent Smith in the subway tunnel

Observation: As Neo gets better at fighting, his fight style gets closer to that of Trinity

"Goodbye Mr Anderson"

"My name is Neo"

Trans narrative of gatekeepers trying to force use of his old name, not his chosen name

The Matrix's basis structure is a classic "Hero's Journey" structured around Neo's growth into himself despite the life threatening obstacles thrown at him by gatekeepers

Note that during the original movie he does not actually change the world of the matrix in any real way - only himself. Directly mirroring the "There Is No Spoon" exchange in the Oracle's apartment.

And now the sentinels attacking the ship while Neo runs for the exit

Neo running for the phone in room 303 (which is the room Trinity was in at the start of the movie)

And he's been shot by Agent Smith

"Goodbye Mr Anderson"

Trinity talking to Neo's unbreathing body on the ship

And she kisses the 'sleeping beauty' to wake him (yeah - I think it's a reference)

And now Neo is fully himself and the agents/gatekeepers have no power to stop him from doing whatever he wants to

Bye-Bye Agent Smith

Running for the phone before the EMP blast

Bookending with the closing phone call. The date stamp is almost exactly 1 year and 7 months after the first one.

"I'm going to show them world, without you. Without rules and controls. Without borders or boundaries. A world where anything is possible.

Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you."

And that's the end.

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