Neo Was a High Schooler in Earliest “Matrix” Script
And Other Reveals From the 1994 First Draft
Though The Matrix (1999) was released over 20 years ago, relatively little has been said of its revision history, an examination of which can lend considerable insight into the fluid nature of the writing and storytelling processes. In an attempt to fill this gap, my article begins tracing and analyzing the narrative evolution of the original film — and so, in turn, its sequels — by documenting the differences between the early 1994–1995 script drafts and the final theatrical release. Please note that, as these drafts have never been released in their entirety to the public, I was forced to largely rely on available ancillary BTS materials.
The First Draft
Reportedly, the Wachowskis had written 14 drafts of the screenplay prior to beginning production, with the overall amount of work leading up to the final film’s March 31, 1999 release taking up five-and-a-half years.*
*Source: USA Today, 05 Apr 1999: 05D
It can be inferred from this that the Wachowskis had started writing The Matrix around October 1993.
Over the course of development, the film’s story naturally underwent various changes before being refined further during shooting and post-production, resulting in the final theatrical version. The film’s earliest drafts, sadly, have never been released in either official or unofficial capacity. Details about them, however, can be inferred from available ancillary materials.
By far, the most detailed source is a leaked script coverage — a report conducted by readers for production companies to determine if they want to purchase a submitted script for potential production — of what appears to be the film’s first draft. Multiple details in the Coverage corroborate its status as an authentic document:
- The coverage is attributed to Will Staeger, who was director of development in the 1990s at future Matrix producer Joel Silver’s production company Silver Pictures.
- Staeger sent the Coverage to both Silver and Wendy Wanderman, who was VP of Production at Silver Pictures from September 1992-September 1994.
- The script is said to have to have been submitted to Silver Pictures by “Circle of Confusion,” which was the name of the talent company for writers represented by James Mattis, who had signed the Wachowskis after reading their horror film script Carnivore in 1992.
- The coverage is dated 02/04/1994, meaning that the first draft had to have been written and submitted to Silver Pictures sometime before February 4, 1994, which matches up with the earlier established October 1993 start date for the writing of the film.
- Finally, some early plot points outlined in the Coverage are corroborated by the official Art of The Matrix (AOTM) book released at the beginning of December 2000.
All this evinces that the Coverage constitutes a reliable source of information on the First Draft of The Matrix.* In addition to Staeger’s evaluations of the screenplay, it also includes a detailed plot synopsis. Using this, I will now compare and contrast the First Draft with the released film. Furthermore, I will reference a later draft, which is excerpted in AOTM, to bolster my analysis of how the First Draft narrative has evolved over time.
*It is possible that an earlier script draft might exist. But as the Staeger Coverage appears to be based on the earliest known complete draft of The Matrix, I shall refer to it as the First Draft going forward.
Neo Was Initially Just a Teenage Hacker
Without a doubt, the biggest difference between the First Draft and the Final Film lies in the conception of the main character, Neo. Rather than an adult man in his 30s that works for a software company, Neo in this context is a “teenaged computer hacker” still in high school. Accordingly, rather than nab Neo at his job, the Agents take him while he is attending class.
Teen Neo’s trajectory overall mirrors that of the final film’s protagonist: he comes into contact with Morpheus and Trinity, takes a special pill that helps him awaken, learns of humanity’s war with the Machines (here referred to as “CyberMarines”) and becomes a part of Morpheus’ resistance group. After training aboard Morpheus’ hovercraft in special simulations, he ultimately rescues Morpheus from Agent Smith in the film’s climax.
But notably, his journey does not include him becoming a god-like figure known as “The One.” In fact, the concept of The One, which is the fulcrum of the final film’s plot, does not appear to exist at all in this draft.
At no point does Staeger’s synopsis mention that Morpheus and his crew are searching for The One and that this is why they’re interested in Neo, nor does it reference any visit to the Oracle, signifying her character was not yet conceived by the writers. One could argue that, even though the concept of The One is absent from the synopsis, it still could’ve been in the script. But I find this to be farfetched, as the concept of The One would’ve been so central to the plot that it makes no sense for Staeger to never reference it.
Rather than a chosen One destined to liberate humanity and bring about the fall of the Matrix, Neo is merely a young hacker and nothing particularly special, a notion reinforced by the detail that he is one of three potential recruits that Morpheus’ crew has been looking into by the time the story starts.* Neo ultimately remains “just another guy,” to quote the released film. In turn, the romance between Neo and Trinity does not fold into the narrative of “The One” but stands on its own.
* The basic story concept of a high school teenager waking up from the Matrix and later performing a heroic act for the resistance would ultimately play out in the “Kid’s Story” animated short and The Matrix Revolutions, where The Kid plays a crucial role in the defeat the Sentinel Army attacking Zion. It is thus likely that the Wachowskis had decided to revive some of the ideas they had for the “Teen Neo” iteration of the character for the sequel and spinoff media.
In the second half of the film, Neo ends up rescuing Morpheus from the Agents (who have been seeking to find Zion via the use of their truth serum) and defeating Agent Smith. But these events do not lead to his death and subsequent resurrection, as in the film proper. Rather, the end result is his getting a kiss with Trinity, with Morpheus’ approval.
“Trinity and the others determine that the only way to save their society is to use their Electromagnetic Impulse missiles — — which destroy all electronic equipment but spare people — — and kill off Morpheus and Smith and the others. Neo declares that he’s going to go back and save Morpheus, though, because there’s still a chance. He goes into the present worId, and a lengthy action sequence follows, in which Neo succeeds in saving Morpheus and defeating Agent Smith — — just in time to be rescued by Trinity with the Hovercraft — — but she has already fired an EM impulse missile. The missile destroys the CyberMarines and the Matrix, but our heroes get out in the Hovercraft just in time — — and Neo and Trinity kiss, finding love isn’t such a bad thing, as Morpheus watches, smiling.”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 3
What all this means is that The Matrix was initially conceived as a story about a simple young man making the choice to wake up, join the fight, and do something heroic. It wasn’t until a later draft that the concept of The One would be established and the narrative correspondingly revised to revolve around it. This illustrates how fluid and malleable the core storyline of The Matrix has always really been. Not to mention, it refutes the common misconception that Neo’s name was meant to be an anagram of “One” and so a hint of his true nature.
Zion and the CyberMarines
Another notable difference between the First Draft and the released film lies in the conception of the film’s world(s) and its internal history. In place of the Intelligent Machines, we have “CyberMarines, the equivalent of Robocops…”
Paralleling the Cylons of Battlestar Galactica, they were “sent as soldiers around the world” before they turned against humanity and took over the world. The CyberMarines apparently “ran out of energy” and so began to
““breed” humans on a “farm,” which is what we consider reality, the period of 1989–2009, recycled over and over.”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 2.
We get no indication if there was a full-blown war between mankind and the CyberMarines and/or if this resulted in the blocking out of the sun. But the synopsis corroborates that from this very first draft, the intention was always for the humans to be used as “batteries” to power the machines.*
*This effectively debunks a popular myth that the original idea was that human brains were meant to be used as computer processors by the Machines and that the studio forced the Wachowskis to change the concept. Instead, the processor idea actually originated in a Matrix-set webcomic story written by Neil Gaiman called “Goliath.” As he reveals in an interview here, Gaiman thought the “human battery” idea did not make a lot of sense and so chose to invent his own alternative explanation after reading a version of the script.
Staeger’s text additionally suggests that the Matrix in the first draft could very well be a virtual reality layered on top of the real world, as though the CyberMarines/Machines somehow created an illusory projection over everyone’s eyes. This is supported by the fact that Morpheus’ crew is said to travel in and out of the Matrix via “holes” in this reality and Trinity destroys the Matrix by firing EMP missiles from Morpheus’s hovercraft towards the end of the movie.
If true, this would constitute a considerable difference from the final film, wherein the Matrix is a fully separate virtual reality that one can jack into via phone lines from the “real world.” However, it is difficult to say for certain, as to whether or not this is indeed the case, for the synopsis is confusing and its author even admits at one point that
“the entire story gets caught in a strange in-between world that I still don’t understand.”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 4.
This is in line with the many statements in bts interviews over the years that executives had trouble grasping the idea of the plot during the picture’s development. It is possible then that the First Draft similarly presumes a distinction between the real world and the virtual world, but Staeger simply did not understand this separation in the course of reading the screenplay.
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This, in turn, makes it difficult to comprehend the First Draft conception of the “agents.” Staeger’s Synopsis indicates that those like Agent Smith are still tasked with keeping order and destroying the human resistance but are really CyberMarines in human disguise. This could mean that the First Draft Agents constitute AIs in physical bodies rather than “sentient programs” inside a wholly-digital world. In any case though, the Synopsis makes it clear that series’ mythology was not set in stone at the time this was written.
The Opening Teaser (“Trace Program”)
Rather than immediately acquainting viewers with its main protagonist, The Matrix opens with a teaser sequence that primarily serves as an introduction to the character of Trinity, one of the four main leads of the picture, as she is pursued by police and a group of Agents following a phone call conversation with her colleague Cypher.*
Having traced her call, the Agents chase her across a series of rooftops before she manages to escape by getting to a phone booth and jacking out of the Matrix into the real world. At the same time, it teases the big reveal about the Matrix that arrives around an hour later into the running time. (It becomes evident to the viewer that something is off about this reality, as we see both Trinity and the Agents perform reality-defying actions, such as jumping impossible distances.) And of course, it sets up the storyline of the Agents pursuing Neo, whom we meet in the next scene.
*It is not clear if a character named Cypher existed in the First Draft. But it is evident that the plotline, wherein Morpheus is sold out by one of his own crewmembers, was not in place and so must’ve been written in a later draft.
In the First Draft, the narrative action was initially the same — a character makes a phone call that is traced by the Agents, resulting in a reality-defying chase. But instead of opening with Trinity talking to Cypher, the scene began with a young man named Eddy talking to his girlfriend Christie.
“A computer screen traces a phone call as we listen the telephone conversation, between EDDY, who is calling his girlfriend, CHRISTIE, telling her about all that he has learned and that he can’t wait to see her. They agree to meet, but the computer has traced Eddy’s location, and FBI agents and a SWAT team break down his doors and try to kill him… Prior to the chase, Eddy is contacted by MORPHEUS, his “control” of some kind, and told to make a phone call fron a remote booth. The Agents catch him, however, and jam a high-tech truth serum into him, attempting to get information out of him. They get three names, one of which is NEO.”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 1.
Eddy had apparently become part of Morpheus’ crew and is now aware of the CyberMarines, virtual reality, etc. But this meant leaving his girlfriend behind inside the system. Still in love, Eddy decides to contact her and then meet up at a place they both know. Having traced the call, the Agents arrive with a SWAT team (rather than a regular police unit) and break into the room he was staying in. Eddy fights back, demonstrating superhuman abilities, and apparently takes out the initial SWAT team unit. After calling Morpheus, he then has to run across rooftops (and possibly a train) to find a phone booth, with the Agents in pursuit.
The Eddy Chase, however, ended on a very different note from the Trinity Chase: just as he is about to make it to the booth, the Agents catch up with him. Here, they use the Truth Serum (aka a “Trace,” which we see used only on Morpheus in the final film) to hack his mind. Eddy gives up three names, including Neo’s. Agent Smith then uses the payphone to taunt Morpheus, letting him know that his time will come.
Eddy then dies, though how exactly he dies is not clear from the first draft synopsis. Later, when discussing things with Neo, Morpheus
“offers him membership, but only if he isn’t in love with anyone. This, Morpheus says, — is a weakness (and it’s what got Eddy killed).”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 2.
Script excerpts from a version of the alternate Eddy opening sequence can be read in AOTM, pages 397–401. However, these excerpts are evidently not from the First Draft, as there a notable plot difference from Staeger’s First Draft Synopsis. Though AOTM unfortunately does not specify, what draft this excerpt is from or when it was written, I’ve been able to pinpoint that this scene must have been developed before the April 8 1996 draft, in which Trinity and Cypher have replaced Eddy and Christy in the opening. I will henceforth refer to this as “The 94–95 Draft” for convenience.
The plot difference indicates an increase in the narrative significance of Neo. Specifically, the Agents only get Neo’s name from Eddy, rather than three different names. Moreover, the AOTM excerpt also contains evidence that the real world/Matrix division was firmly established in the 94–95 Draft. Here, Eddy dies due to Morpheus unplugging him in the real world so as to prevent him from being able to give the Agents any more information. This corresponds to the idea that “The Matrix” was a wholly separate reality, and it’s possible to “jack” into it from the real world via phone lines.
“In the earlier version of this scene, Eddy doesn’t make it to the phone booth . The Agents use a sports car instead of a garbage truck to run him over, then place a trace on him, trying to find Morpheus. As a result , Morpheus is forced to unplug Eddy before he gives them away. Love costs Eddy his life.”
- Source: Phil Oosterhouse, AOTM, p. 399.
Taken together, these details suggest that that by the time of the 94–95 Draft, the story had been revised to revolve around the search for “The One.”
Analysis of the Eddy Teaser changes
The changes that transpired between the “Eddy Chase” and the “Trinity Chase” are rather interesting and are worth examining in more detail. Both iterations of the opening sequence set up the Neo story, while teasing a reveal about the nature of reality in this world. But rather than introducing a main protagonist that would appear throughout the rest of the plot, the former functions as a self-contained vignette or short film about a member of Morpheus’ crew that suffered a tragic fate because he had trouble letting go of a past relationship.
By telling Eddy’s mini-story, the film would’ve explored what it was like to have close personal connections that tie you to the Matrix and underscored the notion that love could be a potential liability exploited by the Machines/CyberMarines. This, in my opinion, is a fascinating concept that could have potentially anchored an entire movie all by itself.
As a viewer, I have often wondered: “How would one deal with leaving behind friends, family, loved ones inside The Matrix after waking up? With being separated from one’s siblings, parents, or children? Would you try to liberate their minds as well, leave them behind or come back to the system to reunite with them?” It seems the Wachowskis were interested in exploring these questions, but realized they ultimately had no time to ever really do them justice in the course of the picture.
This is supported by the comments of Phil Oosterhouse, who worked as an assistant to the Wachowskis on The Matrix and had been reportedly privy to the entire process of the film’s development:
“When this scene was changed, the script no longer addressed what happens when people are separated by Morpheus’s crusade. That’s the problem with working with an idea as rich as THE MATRIX, there’s no way you can explore all of its implications in two hours.”
- Source: AOTM, p. 397
The released film arguably gestures towards these issues when Morpheus tells Neo that hey don’t usually free someone as old as him, for the mind has “trouble letting go” once it reaches a certain age. But the series would not actually tackle them at all until the development of The Matrix Resurrections (2021), a significant part of which revolves around Neo’s quest to liberate Trinity — the only person he ever loved — who had grown complacent in The Matrix, in part because she now had a family, including two children. Thus, the fourth film can be said to return to abandoned ideas from the early drafts of the first.*
*Another sign that Resurrections was drawing on unused ideas from the first movie: in the opening of The Matrix, Trinity defeats a bunch of regular cops rather than a SWAT team, as per the early drafts. In the opening of Resurrections, which remakes the opening of the first film, the faux-Trinity indeed fights a SWAT team.
Another aspect worth noting is that the Eddy Chase was meant to set up the plot point of the Agents’ high-tech Serum and demonstrate to viewers precisely how it works. This, in turn, would create a parallel between the opening of the film and the end of the second act, wherein Neo and company are forced to decide, whether or not to kill Morpheus to prevent him from revealing the key information about Zion to the Agents.*
* This, of course, assumes that the third act of the 94–95 Draft always entailed Morpheus being interrogated by the Agents.
Morpheus would ironically find himself in Eddy’s position, and I have to wonder if Eddy’s death would be brought up by someone (perhaps Tank) to justify unplugging Morpheus for the greater good before Neo and/or Trinity would choose to rescue him instead. Not to mention, this would also make Morpheus a more morally ambiguous character as a whole.
By revising the scene to include Trinity/Cypher and so writing out Eddy/Christie, the Wachowskis had made the story more economical, providing the main characters of the picture with more screen time and greater narrative importance. Though this meant losing some interesting ideas and character beats, it resulted in the script becoming tighter in accordance with the law of conservation of detail.
Inferences and Observations
It is not difficult to see that the first draft of The Matrix had a story that was very similar to yet also radically different from its final iteration. The initial script appeared to be about as dense, complex and confusing as what would ultimately end up going into production, as evinced by Staeger’s negative comments about everything that happens after page 35, when teenage Neo appears to wake up to the reality of his world, and his claim that it is
“almost written like a confusing, spiritual science fiction novel rather than a movie.”
- Source: Staeger, The Matrix Synopsis, p. 4.
At the same time, it seems to have been very much a work-in-progress that needed considerable refinement. The many changes that we would see in the final film are, in my opinion, for the better as later drafts appear to address Staeger’s criticisms about clarity (though of course I cannot provide a fair evaluation as I’ve never read the complete First Draft screenplay).
The changes to the basic premise are quite fascinating in and of themselves. What began as a story about a teenage hacker who was really nothing special rising up and becoming a hero in a virtual reality war ended up as a “chosen one” narrative, with a disaffected corporate drone coming to realize his predestined role as a Christ-like figure within the digital realm.*
*It is interesting to wonder as to how audiences would’ve reacted to One-less version of The Matrix and what led the Wachowskis to ultimately make such a notable shift. Perhaps, it was the question of why exactly Neo has been selected for membership on Morpheus’ crew, which is not entirely clear from the synopsis. Perhaps it was a desire to make the narrative more spiritual. We might never know for certain.
Alongside the other differences I’ve outlined, this shift makes clear that The Matrix was not initially written with the events of Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in mind. To clarify, if the Wachowskis indeed had plans for more than one film when they wrote the First Draft, then these plans would had to have been conceived without the story and mythology surrounding “The One,” which is fundamental to the plot of the later installments. Also, assuming the Matrix itself is indeed destroyed at the end of the First Draft, it is difficult to believe that a sequel was at all under consideration in 1994.
Thanks for reading! If you’re interested in learning more about how The Matrix changed over time, be sure to read the following article I wrote about a deleted subplot from the film and its effect on the narrative.
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