Neo’s choice between the red and the blue pill at the beginning of Morpheus reveals what the Matrix is, a scene that culminates with Neo’s choice between falling down “the rabbit hole” or returning to his everyday life.
It is only after Neo’s conversation with Morpheus that audiences find out that the world was not actually real, but The Matrix sells the idea of there being something off with reality right from the beginning. As a talented programmer who does not like following rules and orders, Neo was the type of questioning mind that Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar were used to recruiting, but Keanu Reeves’ character was also a person who Morpheus believed to be the One.
Considering what had already been established in The Matrix, it was no surprise that Neo took the red pill. It was later revealed in Neo was expected to take the red pill anyway. Therefore, had Neo somehow broken the cycle much earlier and chosen the blue pill, the Architect’s Path of the One strategy would have failed for the first time in centuries.
What Would Happen To Neo If He Chose The Blue Pill?
It’s important to notice that, on top of their symbolic meaning, both the red and the blue pill work as programs inside the Matrix. The red pill contains a tracking program that helps the survivors in the real world pinpoint the location of someone they are trying to rescue amidst millions of imprisoned humans, which is why Morpheus knew exactly where Neo would be once he woke up. Likewise, it is assumed that the blue pill contains a program that resets someone’s memory inside the Matrix simulation back to a state in which they did not know the truth about the world around them. Therefore, had Neo taken the blue pill, he would most likely have woken up in his apartment with no memories of his encounter with Morpheus. In fact, that is exactly what happens in The Matrix: Path of Neo, a canon Matrix game that reveals a what-if scenario in which Neo took the blue pill.
Would There Be Another One If Neo Chose The Blue Pill?
In theory, the One is nothing but an individual randomly selected by the machines to be granted the Prime Program, the source code behind the Architect’s Path of the One that somehow balances the Matrix’s equation and eliminates any loose ends. In other words, the Prime Program and the Path of the One are quintessential for the Path of the One could have gone forward without Keanu Reeves’ character.
What Would Happen To The Matrix If Neo Chose The Blue Pill?
There are a few possibilities for what would have happened to the Matrix had Neo chosen the blue pill. The first one assumes that the machines can easily the Prime Program in another human, even if takes a while before the loop can be rebooted, thus continuing the same cycle that had been going on for centuries. The other possibility assumes that Neo was actually much more important than what the Architect suggests, that is, that Neo is in fact the only version of the One and that it all always comes down to his decisions. If that second scenario is the correct one, then Neo choosing the blue pill would lead to the ultimate destruction of both Zion and the machines. The Path of the One was crucial for the machines to keep Zion in check and the Matrix running, and the Prime Program was essential for the Source to continue working. Therefore, without the One, the entire symbiotic relationship between machines and humans would have collapsed.
Interestingly, all of those scenarios make it so that Agent Smith never breaks free of his programming, as the only reason he managed to do so was that he briefly merged with Neo at the end of The Matrix. That said, there is also a third possibility, one that assumes Neo never actually had a choice. As a result of the Prime Program specifically designed to keep the Matrix running, Neo was bound to act the way did throughout the Matrix movies. As such, in that scenario, Neo would never take the blue pill in The Matrix.
