When people think of "The Matrix," they think of weird '90s fashion, slow motion fight scenes and Lawrence Fishburne offering a choice between a red pill and a blue pill. They probably don't think of transness at all. I am not those one of those people.
I am certainly not the first to claim that transness is a central theme in "The Matrix." But with both directors of the film recently coming out as trans women, people have increasingly begun to take the trans interpretation of the film more seriously. These analyses have helped me to think about "The Matrix" in ways that I had honestly not thought of before.
The first thing to note is that the film begins with a line of code on a computer screen. The very first line of code is, "run trans_opt." We see this line again in the very last scene of the film. Now this might be a huge coincidence. However, I think it is very interesting that the word "trans_opt" appears in both the first and last scene of the film. Again, this might not mean anything. But it's an interesting thing to keep in mind.
Moving onto the actual theory, I feel that the Matrix represents the static and inflexible gender binary. It is something that is forced on every person from the moment they are born. But it isn't actually real. Yet, it's lack of realness doesn't stop people from believing in it. As the character of Morpheus points out in the film, people are incredibly dependent on it's existence. In fact, their belief in it is what gives it power in the first place.
And like the gender binary, the Matrix is enforced through violent means. The Matrix employs "agents" to hunt anyone who realizes the lie of the Matrix and who tries to free others from it. This parallels the enforcement of the gender binary in the real world, where trans people, especially those of color, are killed at extraordinary rates, especially by law enforcement.
Not only it is enforced through violence, it is also enforced by silencing dissidents. There is one scene in the film where Neo is detained by Agent Smith. After denying Neo's Miranda rights, Agent Smith threatens Neo with imprisonment unless he cooperates with them. Eventually, Neo gets angry at Agent Smith, demanding fair treatment. But his angry outburst is cut short as his mouth begins to close, making him unable to speak. This moment represents how trans people are silenced when we begin to challenge the structures that oppress us. So many times, trans people are deemed oversensitive and irrational when they try to do anything that advances trans liberation.
But what is important to note is that the agents are not individual people. There is a scene in which Morpheus explains to Neo that agents can take over the body of anyone that is still plugged into the Matrix. He tells Neo that agents are "everyone and no one" and that "anyone can be an agent." In the real world, there are no actual gender police. No one's explicit job is to demonize trans people. Rather, the demonization of trans people comes through the people who are plugged into the system and who may not even realize what they're doing. In our world, any cis person that is complicit in trans oppression can be used as a tool to directly reinforce it.
That brings us to the protagonist himself, Neo. He is a man who understands that something is wrong with his life but he isn't sure what, an experience that mirrors gender dysphoria in a lot of trans folks. Thus, he begins to question and reject the Matrix, just like trans people begin to question the gender binary.
Neo's central conflict of the film is him learning how to reject the Matrix and accept his own identity as, "the One." This path of self-actualization is the only way he can become free of the control exerted over him.
This path isn't easy as the film makes clear. As the film goes on, Neo begins to realize more about himself and his identity. He begins to seek out others who understand what he feels, just how like trans people often seek each other out for support. When he eventually finds Morpheus, Morpheus offers to tell Neo the truth about the world which Neo accepts. Neo takes the red pill, which causes him to wake up in a human battery, only to see millions of other batteries just like it. He realizes that the Matrix, like the gender binary, isn't real. The sight causes him to be consumed with terror. A few scenes later, Morpheus teaches him the truth about the real world, which is that it is a barren wasteland ruled by the machines. That knowledge is too much for Neo to handle and he passes out.
Neo's utter terror in both situations is analogous to the terror that a trans person experiences when they realize the lie behind the gender binary. It can be incredibly scary to learn that something you were taught to believe in all of your life isn't actually real.
It could also represent the terror a trans person experiences when they realize the realities of trans oppression. Being trans often involves losing a fair amount of privilege, so a lot of trans people are forced to recognize how oppressive the world really is after they discover their transness. Before I transitioned, I was perceived as a cis, white man. So as soon as people started to see me as trans woman, it was incredibly jarring. I was forced to recognize realities about the world that I hadn't had to consider until that point.
One of the main ways Neo learns to resist the control of the Matrix is by rejecting his birth name, Thomas Anderson. He decides instead to go by "Neo." His rejection of his birth name and the acceptance of a new one directly mirrors how many trans people (though not all) pick a new new name when starting to transition. Rejecting your birth name and naming yourself can be a very powerful act of resistance against the gender binary.
Names are a very important part of this analysis. It is important to note that Agent Smith never refers to Neo as "Neo." Rather, he always calls him "Mr. Anderson." He does this to delegitimize Neo's identity outside of the Matrix and imply that "Thomas Anderson" is his true identity.
The refusal to be called by your chosen name is something trans people are all too familiar with. Oftentimes, cis people will delegitimize trans identities by calling trans people by their birth name. Calling a trans person by their birth name implies that their identity isn't real. Taking such an action upholds the gender binary, just like Agent Smith's actions upheld the Matrix.
The most essential scene for the trans reading of the Matrix is the fight between Agent Smith and Neo in the subway. It is the first time that instead of running, Neo directly challenges an agent of the system. If we buy that Neo is supposed to be trans, this is the moment where he challenges cisnormativity.
During the fight, Agent Smith manages to subdue Neo, holding him on the train tracks as a train approaches. He chastises Neo for thinking that he could hope to win in a fight against the Matrix and then refers to him as "Mr. Anderson", again delegitimizing his identity.
As a response, Neo shouts,"My name is Neo." With that, he pushes Smith off of him and jumps out of the way of the train, while shoving Smith in front of it. I think this statement is incredibly telling. In this context, like trans people, Neo is like a trans person that is being misgendered. In this scene, he finally realizes that it doesn't matter what Agent Smith calls him, he is Neo and nothing can change that. His name, his identity, is not defined by the Matrix. Declaring his real name helps him overcome the Matrix's control, just like trans people declaring their names can be acts of resistance against the gender binary.
As others have pointed out, I do not believe it is a coincidence that this moment takes place in a subway station. One of the directors, Lana Wachowski, has talked about when she was young, she almost committed suicide due to her transness. She talked about how she went to a train station and was planning on jumping in front of a train. So I think it is very intentional that Neo's struggle with cisnormativity and the gender binary happens in a space where Lana Wachowski had to fight against those same concepts.
A few scenes later, Neo is being chased by the agents and he is eventually killed. But he comes back to life as he finally recognizes his identity as "the One." After this realization, when the agents try to hurt him, they simply can't. This is because Neo has finally completely recognized his transness and that realization gives him power. Neo then kills Agent Smith for good (until the sequels but let's pretend like those never happened), becoming the first human to ever defeat an agent.
The film ends with a dramatic act of resistance from Neo. He tells the machines how he is going to show the world that the Matrix isn't real and that they cannot stop him. The film ends with Neo flying up in the air in the middle of a city, showing the people plugged into the Matrix that their world isn't real. In a trans context, Neo is choosing to be a visible trans person in that moment. He is showing people that he exists, thus the gender binary isn't real.
It is entirely possible that the trans themes in the film are entirely coincidental. But considering that both of the directors are trans women, I think it is quite likely that these themes are intentional. In any case, I think applying a trans lens to the film gives us some interesting insight.
