It seems the good old days of viral marketing for major blockbusters are back, as a new website has unlocked the first footage from the long awaited fourth installment of Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s science fiction saga, which has the confirmed title of “The Matrix Resurrections.”
Collider has discovered a new website called whatisthematrix.com which presents users with a choice between a red pill or a blue pill. Depending on the user’s choice and the time of day, a series of short teasers for the upcoming film will play, each series different depending on those factors, ending with the announcement that the full trailer for the film will drop on September 9.
The kicker is that there are over 180,000 different variations of clips one can see on the viral site and everyone’s experience will be unique. For example, when PopWire tested the site by clicking the red pill at 10:20 AM, a voiceover announced, “Right now, you believe that it’s 10:20 AM. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The various clips shown following that announcement, showed a man played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Aquaman”) looking into a liquid mirror, a man in an office having his mouth sealed shut a-la Neo in the first film, and finally, Neo himself, played by Keanu Reeves, standing in a street and preparing to fight something.
By clicking on the blue pill, an entirely different set of clips was shown, including a man about to step off a ledge with a crowd of people watching, a man opening a door full of light for someone to walk through, and finally, what appeared to be Neo and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) reuniting in a warehouse.
Check out the site for yourself here: whatisthematrix.com.
“The Matrix Resurrections” premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on December 22.