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The Matrix Narrative Chronology by Julian Darius
6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	first published online on 29 November 2003							8
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		Movies	Animation	Comics	Video Games
2090-2139: The Second Renaissance^1			“The Second Renaissance, Part 1” (written by Andy & Larry Wachowski; directed by Mahiro Maeda) tells of society before the B1 murder trial to the machine nation 01’s rejection at the U.N.	“Bits & Pieces of Information” (a 10-page black-and-white story written by Larry & Andy Wachowski; Geof Darrow art) tells of the B1 murder trial (The Matrix Comics)
			“The Second Renaissance, Part 2” (written by Andy & Larry Wachowski; directed by Mahiro Maeda) tells of war between men and machines
pre-movie era	early			“The Miller’s Tale” (a 10-page color story by Paul Chadwick) has Morpheus as a boy participate in a ritual in Zion honoring Geoffrey, one of the earliest humans outside of the Matrix (The Matrix Comics)^4
	uncertain^2		“Kid’s Story” (written by Andy & Larry Wachowski; directed by Shinichirô Watanabe)	“Sweating the Small Stuff” (an 8-page color story by Bill Sienkiewicz) tells of a man named Dez who sees the Matrix’s code, fears agents, and flees drug dealers with his (drug dealer turned arms dealer) killer girlfriend (The Matrix Comics)
			“Program” (written and directed by Toshiaki Kawajiri)	“Goliath” (a 6-page color illustrated text story by Neil Gaiman with art by Bill Sienkiewicz and Gregory Ruth) is narrated by a large British man who was trained in accelerated versions of the Matrix, repeating parts of his life, in order to prepare him to fly a strike in the real world against an alien ship already hitting the Earth (The Matrix Comics)^5
			“World Record” (written by Yoshiaki Kawajiri; directed by Takeshi Koike)	“Butterfly” (a 12-page color story by Dave Gibbons) has agents (including Smith) chase a real-world man and confront a martial artist, who is killed but helps the man escape through a phone (The Matrix Comics)
			“Beyond” (written and directed by Koji Morimoto)	“A Sword of a Different Color” (a 14-page color story by Troy Nixey with Dave McCraig color) has a survivor of a ship that crashed near the fetus fields being rescued by a crazy man who ultimately takes out some machines (The Matrix Comics)
			“A Detective Story” (written and directed by Shinichirô Watanabe)	“There are No Flowers in the Real World” (a 16-page black-and-white story by David Lapham) tells a tale of someone trapped in the Matrix while his body lies broken as the sole survivor in a ship destroyed by sentinels (The Matrix Comics)
			“Matriculated” (written and directed by Peter Chung)	“Hunters and Collectors” (a 13-page color story by Gregory Ruth) has Flint, the former captain of the Pequod (destroyed the year prior in this story but said to be active in “There are No Flowers in the Real World”), working as an archeologist above ground and uncovering Moby Dick (The Matrix Comics)
	late^3			“Burning Hope” (a 13-page color story by John Van Fleet) shows a team, following the Oracle’s direction, rescue a girl named Hope, who apparently learned about the Matrix by herself and who can change her shape (The Matrix Comics)
				“A Life Less Empty” (a 12-page black-and-white story by Ted McKeever) follows Tiera, a woman who met Morpheus and chose the blue pill (The Matrix Comics)
movie era	The Matrix	The Matrix (released in 1999)
	inter-movie gap			“Artistic Freedom” (a 12-page color story by Ryder Windham with Kilian Plunkett art and Jeromy Cox colors) has the boy who bent a spoon in the Oracle’s house in The Matrix visit an artist who makes robot statues after waking up in the fetus fields (The Matrix Comics)^6
	sequels		“Final Flight of the Osiris” (written by Andy & Larry Wachowski; directed by Andy Jones) foregrounds the events of the sequels by showing the Osiris discover the sentinels drilling towards Zion
		The Matrix Reloaded (released in 2003)			Enter the Matrix (released in 2003)
		Matrix Revolutions (released in 2003)
Out of Continuity				“Get It?” (a 3-page color story by Peter Bagge) has people reacting to the movie The Matrix (The Matrix Comics)

NOTES

1 The stories in this era are actually flashbacks, though they do not provide enough narrative framework to set the stories in another era.

2 Placing these stories specifically in the continuity of The Matrix is often difficult, as they may generally simply feature the concept of the Matrix and may occur before The Matrix or during the gap between the first and second films. A case could even be made for them occurring during one of the films or after the third film. They are also not placed in order within this era.

3 While these stories feature at least one character from the films (outside of Neo), many of the same problems affecting placement of stories in the pre-movie era also apply here.

4 “The Miller’s Tale” also contains a flashback to the days of the earliest fee humans, though it is placed according to its narrative framework. Note that the tile and Geoffrey’s name refers to Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale” from his The Canterbury Tales.

5 “Goliath” is particularly hard to place, since it refers to an alien attack upon the machine-controlled Earth, one that takes out significant areas and would be noticed by Zion; the story also does not feature the Matrix as we know it, instead featuring a Matrix-like simulation that can be sped up and repeated. The story features no characters from the movies, including any agents.

6 “Artistic Freedom” makes the most sense in the inter-movie gap, since it features the bald child who bends a spoon in The Matrix. The story also plays with the line “there is no spoon,” given in The Matrix. Moreover, the Matrix having an artist so publicly displaying machines from the real world foregrounds the disruption of the Matrix in the sequels.