Is it always 1999 in the matrix?

Okey dokey people:

Morpheus tells neo in M1 that within the matrix {at least during the events of the first film} the year is 1999. I'm curious - is it always that year?

Think about it: if there have been 6 versions of the matrix, then each of them must have lasted around 30 years {6 x 30 is roughly 200, and the films are set 200 years in the future}. Does that mean the matrix starts in the 70's and ends at the turning point of the millenium {when the anomaly occurs}? Or is it perpetually 1999 there?

Each verdion, we believe, lasts 100-200 years. Morpheus believes it 2199 because each time Zion is destroyed, time resets itself. It's hard to explain, but the humans are in a time loop.

So - the matrix starts in 1900 then? Or is it perpetually 1999?

I have no idea when the Matrix starts. My guess the 1990's up til 2099, but there's no evidence. We have not yet seem another version of the Matrix, so we may never know when it stops.

Well considering the first movie starts in 98 and ends in 99, then no, it isn't always 99. The date is one of the first things in the movie, if not THE first 🙂

It probably starts in 1900 and goes up to 2000. Then it is restarted and goes back to 1900. So in the real world it is about 2700. Give or take a couple years.

Yes, I agree with Freemind here.
Both Smith and the Architect hints at the Matrix being the 20th Century. Why should it be ALL of the 20th Century?
As has been stated, Morpheus in M2 tells us that for 100 years Zion has fought against the Machines.
So, obviously it’s been 100 years since Zion was destroyed and the previous One (the fifth) went to the ruins of Zion with 23 individuals from the Matrix. Since the Matrix is Reloaded just prior to the One going to Zion with his 23 unplugged humans, it was reloaded 100 years ago.
The Matrix requires the anomaly to BE Reloaded. So since there has been no ONE since the fifth (whom everyone thinks was the first One), the Matrix has not been Reloaded for 100 years.
ERGO 😄 It runs from 1900 to 1999.

But Neo first visits the Source in the year 2000.

but there is no 'time-loop'...time itself keeps going on, like in real life, except the matrix itself is reset, making it seem like time is being reset, when time continues in the real world...thats confusing...let me rephrase that...the time in the Matrix is relative, because it is beginning at a point in history and continuing until the Matrix is reset, at which point it starts back at the original 'time-point', but real time, in the real world, keeps moving, no matter what day or year it is in the Matrix...

what about leap years?

does that mean that theres a program that writes people's histories for those people that are older than 1 in the matrix that boots in 1990? cuz that doesnt make a whole lotta sense if machines dont understand human emotions and whatnot, that would mean that Neo (thomas a. to be exact) was born in an earlier version and then aged to be h/e old he is before the new matrix was booted, and that he had a past written for him, "all these memories from my life, none of them ever happened? what does that mean"
"that the matrix cannot tell you who you are"
ooh, i like that, lol

I agree with JediHDM here, and I don't think that time really is a statement. When the matrix resets, the "matrix inhibitants" don't realize that their time was resetted. Then comes the dawning of the new age, and life starts all over again. The way I see your interpretation realworlddreams, is that if anyone has lived before the "time range" of the resetted matrix. Like I said, time for me is not a factor, and only believed purposely in the matrix. You never know if they are already born after the coming of the new Matrix.

this is not directly related but when your dreaming you have no real concept of time - a few seconds dreaming can seem much longer...

one second in the matrix is one second in real time, (real time being zion time). the matrix as a 100 year span, so since there as been 5 pervious ONES plus neo, thats 600 hundred years that must have pasted in Zion time, and Assuming that the machines and humans had the war in the year 2000 then the real time(zion time) would be about the year 2600, the matrix keeps looping(every time it is Reloaded) from 1900 to 2000.

the year 2600 real time, does not take into account the time for the war to pass nor the previous versions of the matrix, how long they took is not mentioned.

regards godfather

Originally posted by godfather
one second in the matrix is one second in real time, (real time being zion time). the matrix as a 100 year span, so since there as been 5 pervious ONES plus neo, thats 600 hundred years that must have pasted in Zion time, and Assuming that the machines and humans had the war in the year 2000 then the real time(zion time) would be about the year 2600, the matrix keeps looping(every time it is Reloaded) from 1900 to 2000.

the year 2600 real time, does not take into account the time for the war to pass nor the previous versions of the matrix, how long they took is not mentioned.

regards godfather

does the animatrix state how long it took for machines to be built and then have the war etc because otherwise we cant know the starting date - but if we have that then adding 600years (100 for each matrix cycle) would give us the date.

Time OUTSIDE the Matrix itself of course just goes on. That’s the reason we’re probably nearer 2600 or 2700 than 2200. But the Matrix program runs from 1900 (! Not 1990) to 1999 (or 2000). The exact time for reloading is not important.
What matters is that the Matrix program is designed to run at the “height of your civilisation”. The 20th Century.
When reloaded back to 1900 this program must naturally erase the memories of everyone, and give them a new life. It’s the entire “good noodles” from M1 taken to new heights. Neo’s life up until he was freed wasn’t real. His memories were fabricated by a program.
So of course it’s possible for the machines to insert fake memories in human when the Matrix is reloaded back to 1900. We know the machines CAN do that. When they reset or repair the Matrix pod-humans won’t realise something was changed/repaired.

And the machine AI’s DO understand human emotions.

If I remember correctly smith when interogation morpheus (m1) for the codes to zion says something about the matrix takes place in the peak of "our" society.

Maybe the Matrix begins in 1901 and ends on or before 2001, since that's when each century actually begins.

2010-60 -- Humans create humanoid drone robots with Artificial Intelligence to fill jobs as construction labourers and servants.

2069 -- The hovercraft transport ship Nebuchadnezzar, later to be captained by Morpheus, is constructed in the United States.

2075 -- All programs evolve and some robots began to resent their human overlords.

2077 -- In the first case of a machine rising up against its owners, the butler robot B166ER slaughters two humans, leading to B166ER's eradication and a backlash against robots and artificial intelligence.

2080-85 -- Rioting and violence against machines prompts robots to flee major cities and establish their own community -- known as Zero One -- in a remote part of the Middle East.

2085-2095 -- Zero One thrives, creating superior vehicles, computers and weaponry. The Machine World creates new and better AI and decimates the economies of many human nations.

2096 -- United Nations officials refuse to accept the robot civilisation of Zero One as a sovereign nation. A trade blockade of robot goods leads to war.

2097 -- Zero One survives a nuclear attack -- its inhabitants are impervious to the heat and radiation and casualties are quickly replaced. Counterstrikes launched against humans.

2098 -- As cities fall beneath the might of mechanised forces, desperate military leaders attempt to block the main source of energy for the robot city: the sun. The plan destroys the atmosphere and fills the sky with choking black smoke -- but does not stop the machines.

2099 -- Machine forces overtake human armies and capture survivors and civilians for experimentation, determining that human bio-electricity can be harnessed to replace the sun's energy.

2100 – The Architect creates the first Matrix, a perfect world, which fails.

2101 – The Architect creates the second Matrix, a dream-like world set in the 20th century, to extend the lives of the comatose human batteries. This is also met with failure. The Oracle, a program created to study certain aspects of the human psyche finds the solution to the problem, and the final version of the Matrix is installed.

2105 -- The first human known as The One, locked in bondage inside the Matrix, learns he can manipulate the world through thought and manages to break free. Seeks sanctuary in the underground human stronghold of Zion.

2105-2150 -- Zion resistance movement created, although The One later dies under unexplained circumstances. The Architect realises the consequences of the unequal equation of the final version of the Matrix, and sets ups the prophecy with the help of the Oracle, who prophecies the return of “The One.”

2199 –- The second human known as The One is freed from the Matrix.

2200 –- The Machines starts digging towards Zion. The One is led to the Architect and offered the choices: Return to the Source or bring about the annihilation of all mankind. The second One chooses the door to the Source. Zion is completely destroyed. The second One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix and starts rebuilding Zion. The Matrix is reloaded.

2299 –- The third human known as The One is freed from the Matrix.

2300 -- The Machines starts digging towards Zion. The One is led to the Architect and offered the choices: Return to the Source or bring about the annihilation of all mankind. The third One chooses the door to the Source. Zion is completely destroyed. The third One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix and starts rebuilding Zion. The Matrix is reloaded.

2399 – The fourth human known as The One is freed from the Matrix

2400 -- The Machines starts digging towards Zion. The One is led to the Architect and offered the choices: Return to the Source or bring about the annihilation of all mankind. The fouth One chooses the door to the Source. Zion is completely destroyed. The fouth One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix and starts rebuilding Zion. The Matrix is reloaded.

2499 –- The fifth individual known as The One is freed from the Matrix.

2500 -- The Machines starts digging towards Zion. The One is led to the Architect and offered the choices: Return to the Source or bring about the annihilation of all mankind. The fifth One chooses the door to the Source. Zion is completely destroyed. The fifth One chooses 23 individuals from the Matrix and starts rebuilding Zion. The Matrix is reloaded.

2561 -- Morpheus born in a Matrix womb; freed in childhood.

2567 -- Trinity born in a Matrix womb; freed in early childhood.

2575 -- The Oracle prophesizes that Morpheus will discover the second coming of The One.

2599 -- Trinity and Morpheus discover Neo, a hacker in the Matrix. They free him and do battle with Agent Smith, a program designed to rid the Matrix of humans who detect its flaws. Neo attempts to delete Smith, but instead creates a computer-virus.

2600 -- The Osiris, another human rebellion ship, discovers machines drilling through the Earth above Zion. Crew members send a message through the Matrix to their compatriots shortly before being destroyed.

2600 -- Now living in Zion and working with the rebellion against the machines, Neo encounters The Architect, the artificial intelligence program that created the Matrix. The sixth One chooses to return to the Matrix, and in the real world discovers the full extend of the power of The One. The Smith virus threatens to take over the entire Matrix and machine-city. The Machines attack Zion. Neo travels to machine city and offers to remove the Smith virus in exchange for peace. He succeeds.

but how can the humans be fighting the machines for 100 years, if by the time those free 100 years ago, it was 1908 or something and that time in history there were none of the machines that exist today, it's like they were freed thinking like it was some kind of time machine or something?

how can those free 100 years ago jack into the matrix if there where no phones in the matrix (or in the real world for that matter) in the year 1901?
what did they used to fight, powder guns?

i think the time inside the matrix is reseted every 40 years or something