Neo was the “chosen one” both figuratively and in-universe, but the way the Matrix movies deal with the idea of a predestinated hero is quite different from other popular stories like Star Wars. In The Matrix, being The One meant that Neo could perceive the Matrix simulation in a way that no other human could.
Trinity, seeing Neo die in the real world while his mind is still in the Matrix, tells his evidently lifeless body that the Oracle had foretold that she would fall in love with the One. When kissed by Trinity, Neo comes back to life, finally fully emerging as the One.
Did Neo choose to be The One or was it his destiny?
The Core Message Is Of The Importance Of Free Will
1999's The Matrix ends with him rejecting this outcome and choosing to accept his destiny as The One, which he believes allows him to forge his own path.
The Matrix Resurrections Makes Trinity & Neo Both The One
If there was one overall driving theme of The Matrix trilogy, it was that Neo (Keanu Reeves) truly was "The One," the foretold savior that would signal the dawning of a new era in the conflict between human and machine.
Neo wasn't chosen. He was the result of a systemic anomaly. Normally, other anomalies in the past never fell in love with anyone. Hence they chose to pick 23 people from Zion to restart.
Why The Oracle Tells Neo He's Not THE ONE in The Matrix
Why is Neo so special?
It was thanks to this cycle that Neo became the one, having be predestined to do so. However, Neo proved to be unique as he would eventually break that cycle thanks to his love for Trinity, marking him out as an even more anomalous anomaly.
The Analyst discusses how it's Trinity and Neo as one - and now, seemingly, The One - that is special, at least in the rebooted version of the Matrix, which likely explains how she gained the ability to fly too: the Analyst likely meddled with her code, giving her access to the Prime Program and at least some of Neo's ...
1 Trinity Is At Least As Powerful As Neo, If Not More
The fact that Trinity now possesses powers identical to those of the One implies that the real Prime Program is the nexus of emotion between her and Neo, and not just the latter.
Essentially, the process of being resurrected and reuploaded into the Matrix (and coded all over again whenever he tried to escape) has quashed Neo's One powers.
Throughout the film, it is apparent that Trinity has been in love with Neo from afar for some time, although she continues to conceal her feelings for him.
The Oracle is acutely aware of this fact, as she is well-versed in the intricacies of the human mind. If she had, in fact, told Neo that he was destined to be the One, it would lead to feelings of complacency, due to which Neo might have ultimately failed to bring about balance and freedom in the world.
Scaling Neo's power is easier when comparing Keanu Reeves' character to Agent Smith. Before fully awakening his potential, Neo is soundly beaten by the Agent, but overtakes the enemy program after evolving into The One.
The Animatrix confirms that only two people have ever achieved self-substantiation: an Olympic track athlete named Dan Davis and a teenager known as The Kid. The Animatrix segment "World Record" revealed Dan accidentally unplugged himself from The Matrix by pushing himself beyond his physical limitations during a race.
Neo is referred to throughout the Matrix trilogy as the One, that is, the chosen one, which also describes Christ—a messiah, sent to deliver salvation. References to Christianity proliferate in the films, and the Matrix films are an allegory for the Christian faith and that Neo is a modern-day Jesus.
He has transcended the use of this sense, as he can now see the true nature of things. It is this true sight, which he gains via being blinded, that allows Neo both to sacrifice himself and to end the seemingly unsolvable conflict at the center of The Matrix series.
Even with Neo growing into The One, Morpheus is able to take him on and defeat him multiple times, despite him later finding it impossible to defeat any one of the Agents he then comes up against.
Neo, on the other hand, was able to manipulate just about any part of the system however he wanted. Flying off is one of the ways he shows just how much power he has; not only did he defeat all the agents, but now even gravity is no longer a limit for him.
The studio has announced plans to continue the franchise, with a fifth Matrix movie now in development. It will be the first installment in the cyber-action film series without either Lana or Lily Wachowski as directors.
After a very exciting, anime-influenced fight, Neo is also absorbed by Smith, but the machines send more power through to the Matrix and he emerges from Smith, killing all the Smith copies along with him. Zion is spared. Neo's body is taken away by the machines.
Morpheus tells of the original “the One,” the first person to wake from the Matrix. Because they were the first, they necessarily broke out on their own. Nearly everyone in Zion can trace their freedom directly back to that first mental prison break.
Although, by the end of the Matrix series, Neo is basically all-powerful, he is still trying to learn his potential when he makes his first visit to The Oracle. Because of this, she doesn't explicitly let Neo know what he is capable of, but one prop in The Matrix secretly tells him that he already is The One.
Pantoliano's Cypher is one of several crew members of Morpheus' (Laurence Fishburne) ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, but he infamously betrays the entire crew after being offered a tasty deal by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving).
