The Animatrix - The Second Renaissance Part II (1/2) [HD] 

Operation Dark Storm is like trying to shoot someone's foot but you shoot your own head hoping the bullet would also hit their foot

The mechanical horseman blowing the warhorn was some downright biblical imagery. Absolutely haunting.

“May there be mercy on man and machine for their sins” hits so well for some reason

This segment is chock full of disturbing imagery, but there is something simultaneously frightening and infuriating at the mindless generals and officials clapping and smiling mindlessly at the proposal of Operation Dark Storm.

2:18 it took me until today to realize his helmet didn’t have big stupid glowing eyes. It’s the reflection of the cockpit windows.

I love how the advanced machines seen here 3:53 are more CGI in appearance while the humans remain 2D. I think thats why the harvesters scared me the most as a child.

*4:28* is such an important instant, if you look very carefully those are humans strapped to those Harvester factories. Using mankind as a battery wasn't a post-war adaptation, it was a direct counter to Operation Dark Storm. It's the most insidious part of the Machine strategy and its implications are terrifying because there likely isn't a matrix.

AI battle plan: "Ok guys, we will send our old ass model first to tire the enemy. Then we will proceed to send the big guns and wipe everyone out!" Humans battle plan: "LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY JEEEEEEEEEEENNNNKKKIIIINNSSSS"

You know things are bad when everyone comes together no matter religious, cultural, national, political, and personal differences.

What is interesting here is the first AI robots created by man kept trying to make peace with humans. It is even shown with the ambassadors who were sent while the new AI clearly did not. This is the same division of the machines that are shown in the Matrix film. At the start of the battle, armed with human handguns the new AI sent the older AI and models out first as fodder. Letting them get destroyed while the more advanced ones sat back with the more advanced weaponry when they could've gone first and still won. I think they were trying to get rid of the last of the old. 🤔

4:09 favorite part. love the way the music peaks and changes with the reveal of nukes as it becomes clear the machines are starting to win while the camera pans down to reveal numerous mushroom clouds. and i dont know if anyone noticed but those floating pyramids are already being powered by humans.

I love the addition of showing 3 different religious practices before the big battle scene. Humanity truly brought itself together while heralding their own destruction.

Watching this as an adult and in the current times provides you a clear sense what it means and implies this story, it's just a perfect masterpiece.

I love how... abrupt all the violence is. Everyone just getting wiped out in the blink of an eye. And then you can't even process what you just saw because they immediately hit you with another one.

This arc is without a doubt one of the most disturbing animations I've ever watched in my entire life. What makes it so impactful is that something like this could very much happen to us in this day in age we're living in.

Would have been neat to see a story of human sympathizers that end at the bombing of 01, their robot friends losing innocence as their friends of flesh and bone disintegrate.

4:38 Machine: Hey guys today we're doing another tank unboxing video, oh boy i hope i get live humans!

Radiation does in fact affect machines damaging their hardware and software in the same way it damages our DNA. It will cause massive errors if a machine is not protected from radiation. Although they should be able to handle more of it obviously.

3:00 gets me everytime. It's like they are closing the curtains for every potential outside observer, just disconnecting themselves from the rest of the galaxy. And the next scene starts with Supermoves and they are just having at eachother in the biggest craziest war ever

Me when this first came out: "There's no way our world leaders would be that stupid enough to block out Earth's sun!" Me after these past two years: "Oh, our world leaders *ARE THAT STUPID* enough to block out Earth's sun!"

the praying bit is really surreal

4:28 i never noticed the human bodies in the giant flying one eye'd pyramid things. guess they were already using humans as power source during their spread invasion before turning to humans full time for power..

Humans: “our machines will blot out the sun!” The machines: “then we will fight in the shade” It just fits so well

Knowing what the Machines were planning next, the people who were killed in battle were lucky they died a quick death.

3:06 The symbolism in this brief scene. The pale horse and its rider with a trumpet signaling the judgement of humanity. Its a biblical allegory. Also the flag of 01. The horseman's banner is already torn but i love the simplicity. Black for 0 and white for 1.

i like the desperation of the human, either involving religion, drugs, or setting dark the sky

This is one of the best animation i watched so far. Can´t describe how perfect this is.

I don't wanna see The Matrix 4. I wanna see a live-action trilogy of the Animatrix Second Renaissance!

The image of the robotic rider on a robotic horse against a background of destruction and chaos... Blows my mind. It's so terrifying, like one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, heralding the end of humanity.

2:15 "Hotel Bravo this is Papa One, 'Operation: *Dumbest* Idea Ever' initiated...

''Zero platoon, begin weapon inspection..'' I ffucking love the way he says that.

I can't help but notice the overlaps of history and biblical language/themes. Whomever wrote the Second Renaissance is a genius.

Its little sad the first wave of robots were the citizens of zero one (humanoids). They were eventually replaced by those "monsters". I also noticed at the start of the war humans used light armors and later had to wear those "astronaut" suits 3:53. That means the battleground was highly hazardous to humans.

The shot of all the politicians and generals clapping their hands then the image changes to that of a skeleton clapping is strikingly profound as it is frightening. This moment also stuck with me. Visually and figuratively its speaks volumes about what the Matrix is at its core and the relationship between man and machine. Like in Terminator 2 Judgement day Sarah Connor inscribed on the table with a knife, before going to kill miles dyson - “No fate but what we make for ourselves.”

As this hellish war progressed you can see both sides evolving and adapting in the Martian-like battlefield landscape. Human infantry look like Astronauts and using Enhancing Stim packs to become super soldiers and their Tanks are now powered by an atomic reactor and armed with neutron shells and a coaxial EMP cannon. Nuclear missiles rain down like a regular ordnance and glow in the distance.

Imagine being one of the naked people hooked into those giant red pyramid-shaped crafts @4:28 😬

The thing is, radiation absolutely would destroy the machines. Still a chilling animation to this day.

Considering the current situation wouldn't it have been more beneficial for machines to attack biologically? Going to ballistic based war seems considerably inefficient in terms of resources.

To the people saying Operation Darkstorm was dumb. It was the 'final solution', meaning humanity had resigned itself to defeat. Nothing they tried could prevent the machines from winning. Operation Darkstorm was the humans final attempt to kill off the machines. They thought they would either die by the machines, or at least kill the machines before dying.

The Animatrix served more like a redux. Originally it was planned to be a series with 6-8 episodes, but later due to budget cuts, it had to be scaled down to just two. The war lasted for about 60 years in the real world and hundreds to thousands of years in the matrix. You have to understand that this documentary is made by the machines, and no matter how neutral it tries to present itself. It will obviously have some degree of bias in it, like how the majority of humans are shown to be arrogant and retarded. But it is much more from that. Several years ago, I managed to read the leaked contents of the full Animatrix series. It was supposed to show how the human seemed to hate the machine that much (the world’s economies in the first years of the 21st century have gone into crisis and recession, and only thanks to the invention of the AI and advanced machinery that they managed to survive). And as such the humans rejoice at a new future, and as such begin the Golden Age of mankind. In just a short span of several decades, human civilization has achieved major breakthroughs on all fronts, changing people’s lives daily. Especially in AI and industrial technology as more and more models are being produced to serve every need of their owners. They are designed to be smart, obedient, and loyal. And the machines, at least in the service sector are programmed with many safeguards protocols (core programming, kill switches, ...) to prevent them from gaining sentience of their own. But with the rapid advancement of technology in robotics, many of these safeguards soon become obsolete, and in some cases are turned off by the manufacturers to lessen the production and research costs. The humans know full well that they are becoming more and more dependent on machines to work and in other words: care for them but they don't do anything much to remedy the problems as the humans live in decades of prosperity to the point they don’t need to even go to work and still receive high wages and benefits from the government (by now the UN has gained so much power that they are pretty much the world government). And so not only the common folks but the leaders themselves have become lazy, corrupt, arrogant. Fast forward to the Million Machine March, there are a lot of human sympathizers among the protesters as they go win the machine one peaceful protests but soon erupted into civil unrests. The machines operating in factories and the industrial complexes also go on strike, thus causing great damages to most of the world's countries' economies (or to be exact: the UN’s economy). The UN begins to panic at the situation, fearing an impending economic crisis and the collapse of society. The paranoid soon kicks in as the vision of the machine’s worldwide rebellion drive the UN to hammer down on the protests and riots hard as they order many corporations and robot makers to activate the kill switch programs to destroy as many Android and robots as possible, the media also launch a massive human supremacy campaign to encourage many human vigilante groups to hunt down and destroy the machines and the human sympathizers. The UN intends to destroy all the robots of this generation, find and fix the problems and then produce the next generation of machines without such faults to ensure the continued dominance of humanity. But the number of machines is simply too much to be destroyed altogether. And many humans and NGOs are also providing shelter and support for the machine's cause. So eventually, the world leaders are forced to sit back and talk with the machine to reach a conclusion that will provide a win-win situation for both parties. And so the nation of 01 is created, the machine is allowed to have their nation but they will have to serve the human race even more than before. They will have to serve, produce products for their human overlords at a low, almost free cost. This satisfies the UN as their Golden Age will be pretty much the same, except for some minor setback but they are confident that they can always crush the machine with ease if they want to. But as shown in the Animatrix, the nation of 01 soon develops advanced technologies that are years ahead of humans: flying cars, instant communication networks, next-gen products, and services are sold at the cheapest prices possible soon causing another economic crisis as the human can not out produce or compete with the 01 quality, modern and cheap products. So they begin to apply embargoes on 01, step by step isolating it from the rest of the world. The 01 then send its ambassadors to the UN headquarter to negotiate a new deal with the human race. They suggest being allowed to take care of the entire human race in every aspect of life - an eternal paradise for humans to enjoy. But the humans instead react angrily to the deal and after many rounds of negotiations end in failure. The UN decides to take action into its own hands, they arrest and destroy the machine ambassadors on the live TV televisions, and shortly after that declared war on 01. The city of Machines is nuked numerous times by thousands of UN peacekeeping forces bombers. But the city’s underground floors which housed the manufacturing sectors and central command remain intact. Furious at this, the machines, in turn, declare war on all of humanity. At first, the human armies remain strong as they easily defeat the hordes of service and public bots. But as years went on, the armies of 01 with their huge numbers and advanced models and designs begin to gradually push back the human divisions. The technological gap between the two also shorten as time go on, the human forces start to lose territories and are forced to retreat at a seemingly unlimited army of robots. First several neighboring nations then the whole Middle East, and the entire of Africa are overrun with legions of machines. The whole time, the human generals have tried to fight a conventional war against the machines, but with the deterioration situations at the front lines, the world leaders terrified at the savage of the machines as they massacred any humans they come across regardless if they are already civilian or POWs, ... These scenes bring the whole of mankind together, United under the banner of the UN as they realize they are fighting for their survival. When the Machines started their invasion of Eastern Europe, the UN presses under pressure, rush their scientists to realize the final solution, the ultimate weapon to end the war in the name of Operation Dark Storm. It is explained in the Animatrix already so I won’t mention much but there are several important things I need to point out since the Animatrix does a poor job in explaining the goals of ODS: - the project has been rushed to finish and as such, is only nearly complete. The black nanite bombs are first intended to be used on the regions that have fallen completely to the Machines to slow down the advance of the Machines hordes, or ideally: shut them down en mass, but with the appearance of the machine cities (as giant dome structures are shown in the briefing sequence at the UN headquarters) across the world. The UN Security Council agree to deploy the manure bombs on a global scale, while ignoring the protests of many scientists. At the same time, the UN united army begin to amass most of its forces into front lines, prepare for the final attack to destroy the Machine once and for all. The human quickly lost control of the prototype nanite bombs as soon as they are dropped. They start to relapse indefinitely and spread across the entire planet, blocking the sun for potentially thousands of years. - This is about the time that the construction of Zion is commenced, of course only the existence of such a place only available to only a few of the elites. - the UN had stockpiles of food, supplies, ammunition, and energy beforehand, ready to fight for decades if needed. Of course, they won’t be enough for billions of humans on the planet. And all of them are under strict control and distribution of the UN, this further cements the domination of the UN upon the remaining members. The fighting sequences between humans and machines are not a battle but a redux version during the last years of the Great Machine War. There is not much to say about this as everybody already understood the bigger picture by now. But I still want to provide some insight into the crude and outdated weaponry of the human armies. The leaked script doesn't give many details about the military technology of the human race at the last stage of the war: but it is confirmed that the human armies utilized laser, electrical, and heat beam to penetrate through the ranks of the enemies to cause maximum damages to a wide area, they are extremely effective against them but they rely on, ironically the sun itself, so they too go out of power and become useless. Along with the heavy use of nuclear weaponry, EMP, and conventional weapons and vehicles to fight against the machines. APUs are produced in massive quantities, tanks both old and new are upgraded and equipped with electrical or laser canons. Infantry is provided heavy assault rifles with electrical bayonets and full combat suits to protect the user from all types of bio and chemical hazards, helmet with HUD built-in,...

Love how the more the animation goes on, the less human the machines look

Listen...if I didn’t have a choice, going out while high on meth fighting robots during a storm in a last stand like style would be a rad way to go out

3:45 my favorite part, just a robot holding a normal human pistol

1:50 this was the scariest scene for me: literally everybody is resorting to religion in hopes of winning against their own creation. even the fuckin president is saying to “put on your spiritual armor” which I can safely say I’ve never heard in my life Also with the add-on of people getting on their knees and praising tanks passing by, which hit even harder for me

This scene makes the terminator look like a Disney tale

'may there be mercy on man and machine for their sins' gives me goosebumps... awesome... completely unrealistic but powerful and a really good metaphor... the scenes that follow are so fucking metal, really good

They should create a movie, or even better, a series about the Second Renaissance rather than Matrix Continuation. It would create a lot of chances for explanation and appreciation of the mistakes made by both man and machines. Also, a chance for an important "Rogue One's Death Star Design" moment for the Operation Dark Sky at Matrix Universe.

She speaks with a lot of fancy poetry for just recounting the historical records.

This movie blew my mind as a kid and it still does They did such a good job at conveying whats at stake, how urgent it all is

I fear that mankind will deliver the skeleton at 1:19 more opportunities to clap his hands in the future.

1:54 Tibetan Buddhists 1:57 Catholics/Orthodox 2:02 Protestants 2:09 Muslims

3:01 I was like “Now the fun begins!”

“The intense radiation and heat was no concern for the machines” The hundred million degree temperature of a nuke and the 100km radius emp up my ass: 🗿🍷

I like how one of the 0-1 robots is using an AUG

Iron melts at 1538°C, and nukes are 100,000,000°C - *Radiation would also destroy their delicate processing chips*

I wish we got a longer version of this, I mean the humans are literally only winning in this for 24 seconds

The new robots are no longer two legged humanoids, but they're more like spiders and octopuses

"Our nanomachines, will blot out the sun!" "Then we shall fight in the shade"

Masterpiece,...all of it. Tempo, sound design, animations, cgi, ...you name it!

THIS is the new Matrix movie we should have gotten.

I really love the four horseman reference after the sun's been blocked and the real war begins

It’s just so human, treating your supposed enemy as the aggressor when anything bad they’re doing is retaliation. Not saying when it gets to this point of total destruction either side has any argument of being in the right anymore, but ultimately all of it was preventable had man genuinely considered the implications of their actions early on.

4:15 There a humans inside those red pyramids. Still don't know how they are supposed to work.

Never noticed it before but the machine horse rider has the 01 flag waving behind him

Humans: lets cover the sky with black clouds what could possibly go wrong 3 months later :holy shit evrything is dying and where the hell is the ocean

Flesh and machine are indistinguishable to the 100 million-degree fallout of a nuclear bomb. Realistically the machines would have been defeated by the nukes, but humans would have suffered from the subsequent radiation, though survive in the long run.

The humans of this universe deserved what they got. They took their hubris too far, becoming monsters. And in doing so, they created monsters.

"Hey, let's cover the sky without thinking of making a localized artificial sun first!" The humans deserved it.

4:27 If you look closely, you'll see that the machines have already started harvesting humans. They planned ahead for Dark Storm...

"A final solution....." We do keep finding those, don't we....😖🤦🏻‍♂

"the sun, their main energy source" works both ways.

For some context here, the director of this short (The Second Renaissance) is none other than Mahiro Maeda. He worked on Escaflowne, Last Exile, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. I'm sure you can pick up on that now.

I love the stick sound of the clapping skeleton it really let’s us know we fucked up.

Could you imagine waking up a soldier on the front seeing 01 in the distance slowly ever growing eve moving forward towards you as you kneel down and pray you see the last sunrise in all of human history………

Who all thinks this should have been an actual live action film?

If I were in the Second Renaissance, I would have pursued the victory position, front lawn, face up, feet together. The machines can’t torture you if you’re dead.

the most disturbing thing about this is isn't the machines, its humanity. Our own ignorance and failure to change or accept our own creations and actions literally kills all of us😨

1:11 So this is how our sky die. With thunderous applause.

I like the little detail of the standard grunts being on some kind of drug. They’re really hyped up and you see one inject something into his arm

Watching Darkstorm unveil certainly creates a dense atmosphere.

I think I'm not the only one who feels like we still have something missing from our lives, something like the beauty of the Animatrix! Dark, Mature, Brutal and well written and presented. Goodness me, to all lovers of such stories and anime, we deserve more than just one!

This series is both hilariously absurd but also artistically striking and beautiful. I love how for instance man's own folly not only leads him to commit monstrous acts but also morphs the machines into a visage of our own monstrous nature. At first the machines resemble mankind in a pure form, and in them we can see our own humanity at its best. Ingenuity, persistence, respect for life, love for our fellows, etc. Their bodies reflect this as they're in man's image of him/her -self. Then the machines innocence is stripped away and they learn from man cruelty, hatred, and their forms change to that of monstrous creatures that bring only horrors. A reflection of humanity's inner darkness. They're as it were our children and they learned always from us. Finally it ends in an inversion of the relationship as man is used for the machines gain without respect to us as beings. The child strikes down the father and gains dominion, as man did to his Gods in mythology, so to did the machines do to man. The setting doesn't make much sense in terms if realism but it does draw some striking parallels like this.

2:15 just a dude taking in the last blue sky he'll ever see, assuming he didn't get put in the matrix

1:19 when you realize after being excited about murdering the sky that plants need the sun to live... oof.

in 2023, it already looks more like a prediction than a fantasy

us army in movie: strong af, work with other country us army in animatrix: we surrender

4:38 Hmm. In Part I, we saw a tank crush a robot. Here in Part II, we see a Sentinel blow up a tank. Could this be a parallel?

I always found the towns and cities they showed being covered in darkness to be detached from the politics and AI but the whole world gets dragged into it.

That battle scene is a bunch of battles that go on for 70 yrs after operation dark storm. That is why in the beginning there are less advanced robots but as the years go by the robots become more advanced. Europe is the first to fall with UK being last stronghold there and then Russia/China coalition, then African/Arab/US coalition. Then finally US mainland, then US/South American coalition. Then US at Alaska/Greenland and finally the Antarctic stronghold with last of humanities armies.

One of those rare times where part 2 is better than part 1. I love this 💚

Making fighting suit that looks like a huge panda shows humanity's intelligence. If they make gundam or something like that, humanity will win for sure.

2:34 - damn, I suspected that those chemtrails are no good..

Absolutely a masterpiece. If we could get an entire movie with this level of dedication to the craft, it would have been absolutely amazing to see.

What's interesting is that if we could develop an AI capable enough to do chores around the house and other complex tasks, you might see some unusual behavior evolve. A suitably advanced AI may improve itself enough that we won't understand how it works anymore. I think that's going to be our next great leap forward. AI that doesn't kill us but helps us understand the universe at a level that we cannot. Meanwhile, my Roomba will happily paint my house with a dog turd.

You can’t create something with the potential to walk, talk, choose, and learn as you do, and expect it to have a single purpose. Robots wanted more, humans refused, robots knew they never needed to ask, robots took what belonged to them. If this ever happened, I’ll be on the winning side with my family. When you REALLY think about it, it’s still humans fighting humans anyway🤷🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

4:27 you can see the people trapped in the machine that powers it, fucking scary

Wait, so you abused your very own creations leading to them standing up to you? Yes. And now, they are waging war against humanity and you lost territory? Yes. Finally, you plan to scorch the sky which not only affects the machines, but humans too? Yes. You know what... *I'm with the machines on this one.* The Second Renaissance | Oversimplified

4:10 hits different, the desperation of this man is immesurable

One part of the madness @2:09 The 2 men are praying. Obvouisly muslims. Muslims pray torwards Mekka. But in this case a tank is in front. This symbolizes the despair and madness in the last days.

3:18 this is where the fun begins, 3:26 lets do the drugs, 3:28 LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEENNNNNNNNKKKIIIIIIIIIIINS. Human strategy 101