Neo, (born Thomas A. “Tom” Anderson) the main protagonist of The Matrix franchise, is a redpill rescued by Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar. Prophesied by The Oracle to be The One, he is set out on a course to free humanity from the Matrix and end the Machine War. He is portrayed in The Matrix franchise by Keanu Reeves.

Neo was born as one of the billions of blue pills connected to the Matrix, where he was known as Thomas A. Anderson. As Thomas Anderson, he was a ‘normal citizen with a social security number’ and worked as a computer programmer for the MetaCortex software company. Aside from his professional life, Anderson worked as a hacker selling contraband programming, under the alias Neo, which became his common-use name after he was freed from the Matrix.

One night, while waiting for a client to pick up contraband software, Anderson was conducting an extensive online and periodical search for Morpheus when he fell asleep. A message interrupted the search, blanking out his screen: “The Matrix has you…” and “Follow the white rabbit.”