“ My name is Bugs, as in bunny - and tech that listens.
”― Bugs to Neo.[src]
Bugs is a secondary protagonist and a "true believer" in the legend of Neo: she commands a rag-tag group of human Resistance members who never stopped believing he was still alive somewhere, even after everyone else gave up hope years ago. Other members of her crew include Lexy and Berg, and their Operator Sequoia.[2]
Bugs is the captain of the hovership Mnemosyne.
History[]
Bugs was born in the Matrix, a self-described "Coppertop" unaware she was living in a simulation. She worked as a window-cleaner on sky-rise buildings.
Some years ago, "Thomas Anderson" had a mental breakdown at a rooftop party to celebrate the release of his new (Matrix-inspired) video game - in truth, he was getting flashes of his old memories back. Falling into a haze of half-remembered details of his life, Thomas/Neo tried to walk off the roof of the building. Because none of the party guests could react in time to stop him, the Machines had no choice but to "freeze" the simulation, leaving him impossibly hanging in mid-air.
All of the party-guests' memories were then altered to believe that he'd been rescued at the last second - but the Machines neglected to wipe the memory of the window-washer who happened to see the event from several floors below. Bugs saw Neo hovering in mid-air, and even saw his RSI slip back into its original form for a brief moment, and this led her to question the nature of her reality, ultimately setting her on a path to encounter members of the human resistance who eventually freed her from the Matrix, particularly Niobe. Even though most people in the real world thought Neo died years ago, Bugs' brief glimpse of Neo convinced her that the Machines were hiding him somewhere in the Matrix, driving her to assemble a like-minded crew determined to find him.[3]
Notes[]
- Bugs explicitly chose her hacker alias/real world name after the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. She says that she is "Bugs, as in Bunny" and quotes the line "What's up, Doc?".
- According to Jessica Henwick, she had the choice between auditioning for the role of Bugs in the new Matrix movie or auditioning for a role in the Shang Chi Marvel movie (after previously appearing in the Netflix Iron Fist TV series), and she ultimately chose to audition for The Matrix.
- Jessica Henwick said that when Lana Wachowski first described the role to her, one of the requirements was that she'd have to shave her head bald - apparently because Bugs' RSI in the Matrix itself was bald, not just as flashbacks to when she was freed from the pods, so she'd have to be bald for the entire film shoot (i.e. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss both had to shave their heads at the end of filming to do their pod scenes). Henwick agreed, rationalizing that she might be able to argue down Lana at some later point; after she was hired they had further discussions and this eventually led to Lana coming up with Bugs' final look of short, blue-dyed hair.
- Jessica Henwick uses her natural speaking voice to play Bugs, which is a British accent (she is British).
- Multiple reviewers noted that there seems to be some implication Bugs and Lexy have a more than platonic relationship, based on how Bugs rushes to hug Lexy when she's injured, lingering stares, etc. So far there hasn't been a cited interview in which the cast or Lana Wachowski have confirmed if this was intentional and if they played it as such.[4]