The Matrix (1999) quotes

Director
Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski.

Cast
Keanu Reeves.
Laurence Fishburne.
Carrie-Anne Moss.
Hugo Weaving.

A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers.

 

I know what you’re thinking, ’cause right now I’m thinking the same thing. Actually, I’ve been thinking it ever since I got here: Why oh why didn’t I take the BLUE pill?
– Cypher

How did I beat you?
– Morpheus
You… you’re too fast.
– Neo
Do you believe that my being stronger or faster has anything to do with my muscles in this place? Do you think that’s air you’re breathing now?
– Morpheus

Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.
– Morpheus

You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability… It is the sound of your death… Goodbye, Mr. Anderson…
– Agent Smith
My name… is Neo.
– Neo

I know kung fu.
– Neo
Show me.
– Morpheus

I’m trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.
– Morpheus

You’re cuter than I thought. I can see why she likes you.
– Oracle
Who?
– Neo
Not too bright, though.
– Oracle

What is real? How do you define ‘real’? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then ‘real’ is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
– Morpheus

Neo, sooner or later you’re going to realize just as I did that there’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
– Morpheus

Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization.
– Agent Smith

Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?
– Morpheus

You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years, you know what I realize?
– Cypher
Ignorance is bliss.
– Cypher

Why do my eyes hurt?
– Neo
You’ve never used them before.
– Morpheus

Please Neo, you have to trust me.
– Trinity
Why?
– Neo
Because you have been down there Neo, you know that road, you know exactly where it ends. And I know that’s not where you want to be.
– Trinity

Welcome to the desert of the real.
– Morpheus

Neo, I’m not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love and that that man… the man that I loved would be The One. So you see, you can’t be dead. You can’t be… because I love you. You hear me? I love you.
– Trinity
Now get up!
– Trinity

You’re empty.
– Agent Smith
So are you.
– Neo

Dodge this.
– Trinity

You’ve been living in a dream world, Neo.
– Morpheus

As you can see, we’ve had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson.
– Agent Smith

Our way… or the highway.
– Switch

I used to eat there. Really good noodles.
– Neo

So what do you need? Besides a miracle.
– Tank
Guns. Lots of guns.
– Neo

This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
– Morpheus

You have to let it all go, Neo. Fear, doubt, and disbelief. Free your mind.
– Morpheus

Neo… nobody has ever done this before.
– Trinity
That’s why it’s going to work.
– Neo

What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
– Neo
No, Neo. I’m trying to tell you that when you’re ready, you won’t have to.
– Morpheus

Do not try and bend the spoon. That’s impossible. Instead… only try to realize the truth.
– Spoon boy
What truth?
– Neo
There is no spoon.
– Spoon boy
There is no spoon?
– Neo
Then you’ll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
– Spoon boy

I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.
– Agent Smith

To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.
– Mouse

I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid… you’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future. I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin. I’m going to hang up this phone, and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see. I’m going to show them a world without you. A world 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.
– Neo

Welcome to the real world.
– Morpheus

Never send a human to do a machine’s job.
– Agent Smith

What is “real”? How do you define “real”?
– Morpheus