Thomas Anderson uses the hacker alias Neo in The Matrix.
By day, Thomas works as a computer programmer; by night, he operates as a hacker under the name Neo. He is contacted by Morpheus and Trinity, who reveal that the world he knows is a simulated reality created by machines.
Keanu Reeves plays both Thomas Anderson and Neo. Laurence Fishburne plays Morpheus, Carrie-Anne Moss plays Trinity, and Hugo Weaving plays Agent Smith. The distinction between Thomas’s legal identity and Neo’s hacker identity is central to the film’s transformation story.
The Matrix was released in 1999 and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski. It combines science fiction, cyberpunk imagery, martial arts, and philosophical questions about reality. The film became a major cultural reference point for simulated-reality stories and popularized several visual effects, including “bullet time.”