[2] He is portrayed by Laurence Fishburne in the first three films, and in the video game The Matrix: Path of Neo, where he was the only original actor to reprise his character's voice.

[1][4][5] The Wachowskis, the creators of The Matrix franchise, instructed Fishburne to base his performance on Morpheus, a character in Neil Gaiman's comic book series The Sandman.

Despite his strong faith, Morpheus still showed some rationality in dangerous situations rather than blindly relying on his beliefs to see him through the current crisis; perhaps his only truly irrational decision was to attack Agent Smith while unarmed in order to give Neo a chance to escape.

In the first feature film, The Matrix, Morpheus successfully finds and monitors a man named Thomas A. Anderson, a hacker who calls himself Neo.

The Nebuchadnezzar crew is then able to eject Neo's body from the Matrix power plant and retrieve him from the cold sewers beneath the Earth's surface.

Neo is eventually killed by Agent Smith shortly after the rescue, but revived as the One and returned to the Nebuchadnezzar before the Machines' Sentinels can destroy the ship.

Here he incurs the wrath of Jason Locke, commander of the Zion defensive forces; but Morpheus' actions are defended by Councillor Hamann, a member of the city's ruling body.

Referring to the subjectivity of reality throughout the film trilogy, Morpheus' last line in The Matrix Revolutions, said in disbelief as the Sentinels retreat from Zion, is "Is this real?".

Morpheus appears aboard the Mnemosyne using a nanobot body, and encourages Neo to escape confinement in Io in order to search the Matrix for Trinity, which the extraction is successful as they manage to rescue her onto the ship.

[citation needed] In Chapter 1.2 of The Matrix Online, Morpheus grows impatient with the machines and demands that they return the body of Neo.

Morpheus escapes the treatment facility; however, upon his leaving, the Assassin bends the code of the Matrix and emerges from a vent in the wall.

These codes were utilized later in the story as well, being the basis of function for The Apothecary character and the subject of The Oracle's plan to wound the Oligarchy.

Rumors and the popular belief of a faked death still run rampant however, largely based on the fact that prior to Morpheus' assassination a few select redpills were sent an email stating that he would likely "fade away" and hide.

It took the form of an RSI transmission, apparently originating from the Real World and spread disjointed messages about Neo's survival and imprisonment at the hands of The Machines.

This was later revealed to be nothing more than a farce created by The General to sow dissent between Zion and The Machines, an effort he'd hoped would renew conflict between the two parties and give him purpose again.

The fake, a Morpheus Simulacrum created from Zion records of the captain, took on a greater role once its master ordered it to deactivate itself.

This wasn't however done with malicious intent, in fact, the Simulacrum's personality was notably innocent, being more concerned with the world around it and its own existence than taking sides in any political or ideological struggles.

In later chapters the Morpheus Simulacrum played a supporting role in the Oracle's faked death and subsequent plan to weaken the Oligarch forces threatening The Matrix.

Approached by the Oligarch Halborn during his research into the life of The One, the Simulacrum coldly dismissed the Intruder's actions as only leading to his inevitable defeat.