You've seen the four films. But the story of the machine war lives in nine Animatrix shorts — and the whole saga is really one loop that has run six times. Here's how the pieces slot together.
4 films9 Animatrix shortsthe 6th cycle1999 → 2021
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↻ The Matrix has been reloaded six times
The Architect built it, it failed, humanity was reborn from Zion — and it all began again. Five "Ones" came and went, each resetting the loop. Neo is the sixth. Everything below is that sixth cycle — the one where the loop finally breaks.
1streset
2ndreset
3rdreset
4threset
5threset
6thNEO
Deep History — how humanity lost the war (long before Neo)
The Sixth Cycle — the four films, with the shorts that slot between them
Glimpses Inside the Matrix — Animatrix shorts with no fixed date; watch anytime
The recommended binge order
The five standalone shorts (Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story, Matriculated) are self-contained — drop them in wherever you like.