Neo is the name of the central fictional character from the movie The Matrix and its sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. He is sometimes referred to as The One and has powers beyond the Machines that created the Matrix. In all three movies he is played by Keanu Reeves.
Thomas A. Anderson, who later prefers to go by his hacker alias "Neo", is invited to enter the "real world", where he finds himself as "The One" to save humankind from the empire of intelligent machines in what is believed to be the year 2199 (approximately). The Matrix is an illusory construct based on the world during the late 20th century (similar to Plato's allegory of the cave) developed by the machines to keep the human population docile and under control. "Rebels" of the system hack into the Matrix and free others. This is necessary because rebels believe that humans are used by the machines as their primary energy source, after humanity blocked out the Sun by contaminating the atmosphere.
Plato's cave allegory, and its interpretation are a major part of the Matrix. Neoplatonism (Neo+Plato) is a Christian philosophy revolving on the oneness of the existence of an ineffable and transcendent One, from which emanated the rest of the universe as a sequence of lesser beings, similar to in the Matrix. The name Thomas can be viewed as a reference to Thomas, a disciple of Jesus (or a representation of Jesus' physical self in Gnostic tradition), who was famous for his doubting (he wouldn't believe in Jesus' rising until he saw the wounds; Neo needs to be Outside of the Matrix before he believes it exists).
The character's names are viewed by many to have intentional plot-related meanings; Neo- is a Greek prefix meaning new, and Neo is also an anagram of one and eon. The coming of "The One" marks the end of an eon in the Matrix. The name Anderson literally means "son of man", the preferred self-title of Jesus (the Messiah in Christianity). Also, "Thomas" literally means "two", and he is indeed living a double life as Mr. Anderson/Neo. It could also be a reference to Marc Andreessen, creater of the first web browser that allowed pictures to be seen on the internet, not code. Neo, on the other hand, sees code instead of people and things.
Religion is heavily referenced throughout the films, not only in names but also in dialog (the first character to address Neo in the film (Anthony) tells him "you're my savior, man . . . my own personal Jesus Christ") and in fleeting background images (the Nebuchadnezzar's nameplate contains a reference to Mark 3:11 - Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God.")
Neo awakens
Neo starts off The Matrix Trilogy (plugged into the giant computer simulation known as The Matrix) as Thomas Anderson, described by Agent Smith as "program writer for a respectable software company". He pays his taxes and helps his landlady carry out her garbage. However, he also has another life, a life lived in computers. He is a hacker and goes by the alias Neo and is guilty of "virtually" every computer crime there is.
Fortunately Neo has been observed from the real world by Morpheus, captain of the Nebuchadnezzar, who believes Neo is The One, a person with fantastic powers while in the Matrix, who will end the war between man and Machine. Morpheus successfully retrieves Neo from his home within the Matrix with the aid of crewmembers Trinity, Apoc and Switch, awakens Neo's body and retrieves his body from the cold, ancient sewers of the old world megacities after it is ejected by the Matrix power-plant, where humans lie asleep, living out their lives within their own minds connected in the Matrix, their bodies generating power for the Machines.
Neo's adventures begin shortly after he is rescued and his body repaired from years in the power-plant. Morpheus takes Neo to the Oracle, who appears to be a 50-year old woman of African descent and has the power of foresight. She reviews Neo and tells him that he has the "gift", but appeared to be waiting for something—"Your next life, maybe. Who knows?" Neo infers incorrectly that the Oracle has said that he is not the One. The Oracle warns him that an event will come where he will have to choose between his own life or that of Morpheus, and that one of them will die.
It could be argued that at this point, it is Neo who chooses his own credibility as a saviour. It is not the Oracle who tells him he is not the One, but rather Neo himself, giving way to his doubt and disbelief. This is why the Oracle notes he is waiting for his next life, whereupon he will gain the true insight, faith and willpower required for him to become a Messianic/Enlightened figure.
The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are betrayed by one of their own, Cypher, to the Agents, guardians that appear as government FBI-style agents that eliminate anyone in the Matrix that knows of its true nature. Cypher's mind returns to his body at his ship and kills Dozer, Apoc and Switch. He prepares to kill Neo and Trinity when he is killed himself by Tank, the ship's Operator. Morpheus has been captured by Agents and is being tortured for the entry codes for Zion, the last human city. Neo and Trinity successfully rescue Morpheus, and at this point, Morpheus uses this as evidence that Neo is indeed The One, asking Trinity, "Do you believe it now?" Neo dismisses Morpheus' implication and attempts to relate to Morpheus the events of his conversation with The Oracle, but Morpheus dismisses this, saying that the Oracle merely told him, "exactly what you needed to hear, nothing more." He further elaborates, "Neo, soon you're going to realize just as I did. There is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path." This can be interpreted to mean that because Neo thought he wasn't the One as the Oracle told him (knowing the path), he acted in a different way than what was expected and sacrificed his life for Morpheus because he believed he wasn't The One as Morpheus had. This led to an ironic chain of events that unwittingly made him The One because he originally thought he wasn't, or walking the path.
Morpheus calls Tank to request a hard line, which is in a nearby subway station. Morpheus and Trinity manage to escape, but Neo is trapped and must fight off Agent Smith and his fellow Agents. Smith eventually kills Neo by gunshot, but after Trinity (who was told by the Oracle that she would fall in love with The One) kisses Neo's apparently lifeless body, Neo's mind realizes that the Matrix is an illusion and as a result, his death is an illusion. He rises as if resurrected and has manifested into The One. After stopping bullets in mid-air that were fired by the Agents, he effortlessly fends off Agent Smith before destroying him from within.
In "The Meaning of the Buddha's Awakening" (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, 1997), the two crucial aspects of the Buddha's Awakening, much like Neo's, are the what and the how: what he awakened to and how he did it. Neo's (as was Buddha's) awakening is special in that the two aspects come together. He awakened to the fact that there is an undying happiness, (for Neo: the battle of The Machines vs. Zion) and that it can be attained through human effort. The human effort involved in this process ultimately focuses on the question of understanding the nature of human effort itself in terms of skillful karma (i.e., the up-loading of Neo's skills) and dependent co-arising or the true understanding of his powers and what his limitations are, and what kind of right effort (i.e., the Noble Path) can take one beyond its limitations and bring one to the threshold of the Deathless (the Machine World). The quality of Neo's views and his intentions determines the experienced result of his actions.
The battle continues
Approximately six months go by between the events of The Matrix and the second film, The Matrix Reloaded. Neo is now fully manifested and confident as The One. He can fly, has fantastic speed and strength, has no match in any fight, has telekinetic and healing abilities, and can withstand dramatic damage. He and Trinity have become lovers. Neo's clothing changes with his transformation. Despensing with the long black trenchcoat, tie and black shirt he wears at the conclusion of The Matrix, Neo prefers a long coat with a high-rise mandarin collar that greatly resembles a cassock.
Neo seeks more advice from the Oracle, unsure of his purpose, while Zion prepares for a massive attack from the Machines of over 250,000 Sentinels, machines who are able to fly and kill, and guard the Machine world. After he receives information from the Oracle on finding The Keymaker, who can lead Neo to the Source, the programming heart of the machine world and the Matrix, and presumably stop the war, Neo discovers that Agent Smith is no longer an Agent and somehow can infect other Matrix inhabitants to make clones of himself. Neo barely fends off an army of over 100 Smith clones before escaping to search for the Keymaker with Morpheus and Trinity. The Merovingian held the Keymaker, a program that can access many hidden areas in the Matrix, as prisoner before Morpheus, Trinity and Neo help him escape. The Keymaker tells the Nebuchadnezzar crew and two other Zion hovercraft crews that to reach the Source, two power stations elsewhere in the Matrix must be disabled in a short time window to allow Neo to open a door in a special building that can reach the Source. This task is accomplished, but not without the Keymaker being killed, the hovercraft Vigilant's destruction, and Trinity in mortal jeopardy by Agents in the Matrix—a vision that Neo saw earlier in the movie.
Neo learns from The Architect, the creator of the Matrix, that he is actually the sixth "One". Zion has been destroyed by the machines five times before, and Neo's five predecessors have helped reload, or restart the Matrix to bring its Choice-based programming (added to the Matrix by the Oracle herself) to stability again, before being allowed to rebuild Zion with a handful of freed humans. The Architect warns of the annihilation of all human life in and out of the Matrix if he did not enter the Source door to reload the Matrix, but unlike his predecessors, Neo does not enter the door to the Source; he chooses to save Trinity, his love, from certain death.
Morpheus is gravely stricken when Neo tells him that the Prophecy that foretells of the end of the Matrix was a lie. A sudden Sentinel attack destroys the Nebuchadnezzar, but not before the crew flees. Neo, while in the real world, can feel the presence of the attacking Sentinels, and commands them to self-destruct with just a thought before falling unconscious. He and the crew are rescued by the hovercraft Hammer, who are dealing with a mystery of their own: Bane, a crewmember from another ship, was the only survivor of an ill-fated attack by the Zion hovercraft fleet. Unbeknownst to anyone, the body of Bane is actually inhabited by a Smith clone's consciousness and threatens to destroy Neo in the real world.
The one fulfills his purpose
The Matrix Revolutions picks up immediately after the events of the second movie. As a result of his stopping five Sentinels just by thinking it in the real world, Neo's mind has been dropped in Mobil Avenue, a virtual subway station situated between the Matrix and the machines' own computer world. Controlled by the Merovingian, the powerless Neo (whose abilities work mostly in the Matrix alone) is trapped until Trinity frees him after creating a Mexican standoff during a fight with the Merovingian.
Neo determines, through his new foresight abilities of visions of the Machine City, that in truth the Oracle's prophecy was correct: The One was determined to return to the Source to stop the war. However, it was the Architect that altered the prophecy and forced Neo's predecessors to end their path with Zion's destruction and the reloading of the Matrix. After a final visit with the Oracle, Neo learns it is not the approaching Sentinels that he should worry about, but Smith, whose clones are multiplying and will bring about a fatal crash of the Matrix, killing all humans and programs inside it, as well as severely reducing the power needed for the Machine City to survive. Furthermore, building on the Oracle's previous explanations about the nature of choice, Neo learns that the Architect's assertion that his choice to save Trinity would inherently lead to the extinction of mankind was incorrect. The Oracle states that, "You and I may not be able to see past our own choices, but that man can't see past any choice," due to his nature as a purely mathematical being. Informing Neo that he now has the power to choose to end the war and defeat Smith, she relates, "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo." Neo must return to the Source--in this case, the heavily-guarded Machine City, in hopes of stopping the Sentinels and Smith.
Neo and Trinity are given the Logos, a hovercraft commanded by Morpheus's former love, Niobe, in what seems to others as a suicidal journey to the Machine City. Meanwhile, Captain Roland and the surviving Nebuchadnezzar crew of Link and Morpheus in the hovercraft Hammer, attempt to return to Zion, now besieged and losing in the Machine's attack. Neo and Trinity are ambushed by a stowaway Bane/Smith, who blinds Neo, but is killed when Neo discovers he can see Smith's aura with a mysterious third-sight granted by his powers. Neo, using his limited real-world powers, and with Trinity as pilot, guide the Logos past the Machine City's defenses, but in the effort the Logos crash-lands, and Trinity sustains fatal injuries onboard.
Neo encounters the Deus Ex Machina, a Machine construct, and barters for peace between Man and Machine if he can stop Smith, who has turned all Matrix inhabitants into clones of himself and threatens not only a Matrix system crash, but an invasion of Smith's infectious code into the Machine City itself. One Smith, who has absorbed the powers of the Oracle, fights Neo in the Matrix and appears to have the same, if not greater powers than Neo himself. This cataclysmic fight leaves Neo near exhaustion and Smith apparently victorious until Neo realizes that fighting would not win this battle. Having nothing left to lose personally (with Trinity's death) and everything to gain for humanity and Machine, Neo intentionally sacrifices himself to Smith and allows himself to become a Smith clone.
Two interpretations of what happens to Smith are possible, but not fully explained in the movie. One interpretation is, because Smith/Neo is directly connected to the Machine world, the Deus Ex Machina may have sent a deletion command through Neo's connection into Smith/Neo, destroying Smith/Neo and all other Smith clones in the Matrix. A second interpretation is based on the Oracle's explanation of what Smith was--Neo's opposite, like matter and anti-matter, One to Negative-One. When Smith and Neo fuse, the powers cancel and balance is restored in the Matrix through the elimination of the Smiths and Neo.
This process of Smith's destruction apparently destroys Neo's consciousness as well. Neo's body is taken away reverently by the Machines in the Machine City, while, below in Zion, the Machines stop their attack and retreat, obliging the new peace that Neo bartered. Neo also negotiated that Zion can free minds without any Machine interference if those minds become aware of the nature of the Matrix.
As the movie ends, we see a black cat walking down a sidewalk. It stops, appears to digitize as the Matrix itself is reloaded from Neo's programming, repeats its last action and resumes its business. (This was an allusion to a scene where Neo sees a black cat appear twice in The Matrix, an indication that something has been changed within the Matrix code. To Neo, it was a déjà vu experience.).
Sati, a young program smuggled into the Matrix, awakes, meets with the Oracle, and creates a colorful sunrise in honor of Neo. Sati asks if we will see Neo again. The Oracle says, "I suspect so". When Neo's body is being carried off by the machines after the battle, we get a glimpse of the yellow aura vision of the machine world. Unlike his earlier dark figure, Neo is shining brightly in this scene. This could imply that Neo has in effect ascended to a higher state of being, achieving oneness with the Matrix.
Neo's legacy
The Wachowski brothers keep a tight lid on official "Matrix" properties and spin-offs, but things do trickle out. Two places to look for more Matrix-derived entertainment come from the gaming world.
In the MMORPG sequel, The Matrix Online, the remains of Neo's 'RSI' (Residual Self Image) are encoded into a new form of false Agents made by an Exile named Silver.
"The Matrix: Path of Neo" promises players a chance to become Neo through his many adventures.
Later, Morpheus argues that the Machines have never returned Neo's physical remains (Thomas Anderson's actual body) to Zion, but at the same time they cryptically commented that they didn't "recycle" them (perhaps a reference to the first film, in which Morpheus tells Neo that the machines liquify deceased occupants of the Matrix to provide organic sustenance for its living inhabitants).
It is also possible, though very slim, Neo might return as a program if any other exiles were to become as powerful as Smith, since he was assimilated into the matrix, he would become its guardian, but that may be only if the brothers decide to make another sequel.