Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for The Matrix Resurrections
The Matrix Resurrections features a small reference that fixes the mistake Captain Roland made in The Matrix Revolutions. Despite being a relatively minor character, Captain Roland is a noticeable presence in the original trilogy due to his attitude towards Neo and Morpheus. However, one character in The Matrix Resurrections goes some way to rectifying Roland's initial flaws.
Set sixty years after the conclusion of the Matrix trilogy, Resurrections centers around the return of Neo (Keanu Reeves), who awakens from a new Matrix to discover that he and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) have been revived by the Machines in order to power the very system that enslaves the human race. Director Lana Wachowski returns as well, continuing the story she began over twenty years ago. Upon his escape from the Matrix, Neo is rescued in the real world by a band of young human rebels, as well as several machines who have volunteered for the cause of freedom. One of these humans is a young woman named Ellster (Mumbi Maina), who introduces herself as the granddaughter of Captain Roland, who commands the ship Mjolnir in Reloaded and Revolutions. At the end of the Second Machine War, Roland is hardened and cynical after a lifetime of battle. He can't imagine a future in which the Machines can be defeated, and definitely not in his lifetime. Roland believes that humanity's only hope is perpetual caution, and an eternity of hanging by a thread. Because of this, Roland was firmly against Morpheus and his belief in the prophecy of The One. He even argued against Captain Niobe when she offered her ship to Neo in The Matrix Revolutions.
However, when Neo reawakens from the Matrix sixty years later, Ellster reveals to him that Roland had ultimately been moved by Neo's sacrifice, and was amazed that Neo succeeded in brokering a peace between the human and Machine worlds. She says that Roland often said to her that Neo "freed his mind a second time". Roland still would often joke publicly that he never believed in the prophecy, yet in private, he revered Neo for the rest of his life. Thanks to Ellster, Neo learns that Roland ultimately regretted his mistake of doubting Neo.
Captain Roland was an important presence in Reloaded and Revolutions. He was proof that people were divided about the prophecy of The One and that Neo didn't have the world behind him. In Morpheus' belief in The One often led to choices that risked the safety of Zion and the entire free human race. Eventually, in Revolutions, Neo had to tune out both Roland's caution and Morpheus's belief and put his trust in himself. Neo needed to see the vast differences of perspective to learn that perspective is relative, and the only choices he can truly feel confident in are his own.
Taking the time to include a reference to Roland in The Matrix Resurrections helps bridge the gap between the original trilogy and the new film. It illustrates that the world was indeed changed by Neo's actions, even though Neo worries that everything he did was for nothing. The most powerful way to change the world is to change people's minds, as Neo did for Roland.
