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In the first Matrix film, we see how Morpheus shows Anderson the devastated Earth, first from a TV screen, then like being actually there, looking on a city that looks like New York (the destroyed buildings look like the former WTCs). If it's indeed New York, it looks like they're watching it from a dried out Atlantic Ocean. Throughout the 2nd and 3rd film, the Logos goes from Zion to the Machine City eventually, leaving the underground tunnels close to the machine city and the fields and towers of the bluepills. Since I suspect Zion somewhere beneath North America and the Machine City is in Mesopotamia, either the tunnels are so deep they go beneath the Atlantic Ocean or there are no more oceans on the Matrix Earth.

It is assumed that Zion isn't "close to the Earth's core" as Tank put it, but much closer to the surface. Throughout the trilogy no surface water is seen (outside the Matrix), so are there no more oceans on the Matrix Earth and if so, how did that happen?

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    "Since Zion is in Northern America" - Citation required.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 17:19
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    @Valorum After the Operation Dark Storm's failure, the war ended in New York, for the time being. Since all surviving humans in Morpheus' time speak English, and the matrix is set in a futuristic version of Chicago, Zion quite sure is somewhere beneath either New York or Chicago or elswhere beneath former U.S. territory. It would be quite a surprise if Zion is below another continent.
    – Better not tell
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 18:54
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    Since all of the people in Zion learned English from inside the Matrix, it really doesn't follow that Zion must be in America, simply because everyone speaks English. Similarly, the Matrix also includes simulations of Japan (where they speak Japanese), and London.
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 28, 2021 at 19:06
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    Except Zion was founded by the machines? It functions as a sort of pressure valve for the instability in the matrix. When it reaches critical mass, the one emerges, meets the architect, the machines destroy Zion, then the one choses 23 individuals to rebuild it.
    – Immortal Blue
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 7:36
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    Do people in Zion really speak English? Or are you just watching a movie in English? Translation Convention is a thing, y'know...
    – Matthew
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 13:51

2 Answers 2

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In the Animatrix short film 'Matriculated' we open with our main character staring watchfully out to what we can assume is the sea. It follows that large expanses of open water are still around on the Earth.

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As to the location of Zion, your question is at fault. We know from The Second Renaissance that the Machine City is in Mesopotamia. Since the Zionese hovercraft only seem to be capable of subsonic travel (and given that Neo and Trinity reach the city from Zion in only a few hours), it follows that Zion must also be relatively close by.

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    "it follows that Zion must also be relatively close by." Or the stories are mutually inconsistent...
    – RonJohn
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 3:02
  • Your claim they'e incapable of supersonic travel isn't sure either. And it wouldn't be very wise to build Zion too close to their enemy.
    – Better not tell
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 6:10
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    @Betternottell - We don't see them travel supersonically and their ships don't seem well designed for it. And if the plan is to recover people from the Matrix, they need to be relatively close to the Power Plant to do so, hence relatively close to Zero-One.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 8:12
  • I thought the implication was that there is more than one power plant. Indeed, since there are roughly 8 billion people living in the Matrix (it's basically same as the real world present-day population), it would be pretty much impossible for them to all be in one location.
    – Darrel Hoffman
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 14:39
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    @DarrellHoffman - It's certainly also.possible that the Machine City isn't Zero-One but another city entirely although I'd need a lot more convincing of that, given that it's explicitly confirmed to be the same place in the Matrix Online.
    – Valorum
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 14:41
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I'm not aware of an unambiguous canonical answer, but some details in The Matrix comic "The Miller's Tale" by Paul Chadwick (included in the volume 1 collection) can be read as a yes.

Specifically, it describes the rain as unceasing, which seems unlikely without oceans to support a very active hydrologic cycle...

Here's an image of this page from a partial/incomplete copy of it at the web archive

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  • Thank you for your answer too. I accepted Valorum's one just because her answer is directly showing it.
    – Better not tell
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 6:12
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    @Betternottell I don't think Valorum is a "she", but don't take my words on it. That's just the profile picture.
    – Clockwork
    Commented Mar 1, 2021 at 14:12
  • I wonder then who the woman on Valorum's profile image is. Is the upvoter of Clockwork's statement Valorum her-/himself? So far, Valorum didn't tell us here.
    – Better not tell
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 10:18
  • @Betternottell I think this is the answer to your comment: scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7681/…
    – Clockwork
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 11:26
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    I think that anyone who uses a female avatar intends to be referred to as "her". And there's always the chance that Valorum is Sarah Michelle Geller and that's her actual picture.
    – Shawn V. Wilson
    Commented Mar 4, 2021 at 16:18

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