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I see that every free human who goes into Matrix wears sunglasses even when it isn't sunny outside.

The Matrix poster

Talking about coolness, Neo didn't use to wear sunglasses when he wasn't free. How come his mind started to project sunglasses all of a sudden?

Is there something else to this? Are the sunglasses some kind of augmented reality devices which give them edge over agents?

Valorum
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user931
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    Because it looks cool. – Valorum Sep 06 '20 at 08:39
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    Also out of universe I think it's a product placement that Oakley payed for. – b_jonas Sep 06 '20 at 12:41
  • @b_jonas - I believe that was for the sequel/s. In the first film they were custom-made – Valorum Sep 06 '20 at 14:11
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    See also https://movies.stackexchange.com/q/70815/9391 "Why do people wear sunglasses in The Matrix?", with over 100 upvotes on both the question and an answer. – b_jonas Sep 06 '20 at 15:50
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    @b_jonas - No part of those answers (except the reference to Trinity wearing her glasses on the motorcycle) actually address what OP is asking about their in-universe purpose. Heavy on opinion and assertion, deeply lacking in evidence-based reasoning. – Valorum Sep 06 '20 at 16:09
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    Because "the future's so bright". (Thanks, Timbuk 3.) – Eric Towers Sep 07 '20 at 04:52
  • Ah I used to have that poster on my wall as a kid, epic. – Tom Sep 07 '20 at 17:13
  • @Tom I used to have Matrix screen saver. https://youtu.be/J2qDRJdTGow So sad today's screens don't need to be protected from static image burns. – user931 Sep 07 '20 at 17:23
  • Sunglasses were way better in the late 90s, now they all look like Jackie O, even for men. – niico Sep 07 '20 at 18:34
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    Might have been to block retina scans (if the Agents were even capable of doing retina scans) – SpacePhoenix Sep 07 '20 at 18:48
  • @SpacePhoenix - There's no indication that they have that ability. Are you thinking of Minority Report? – Valorum Sep 08 '20 at 13:31
  • @Valorum I've never seen Minority Report (is it worth watching?) – SpacePhoenix Sep 08 '20 at 16:04
  • @SpacePhoenix - Yeah, it's a good film. Not great, but good. – Valorum Sep 08 '20 at 16:34
  • @SpacePhoenix, If retina scans were an issue, Neo and company most likely could have appeared in the Matrix with any retinas they wanted. – Solomon Slow Sep 09 '20 at 14:41

5 Answers5

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In-Universe.

Once Neo has seen the literal light [of the real-world], the Matrix seems other-worldly and wrong to him. This includes the painfully bright exteriors.

Per the original 1996 version of the script.

EXT. HOTEL LAFAYETTE (MATRIX) - DAY

Neo squints into the sun that seems unnaturally bright.
He is the only one without sunglasses.

Note that they're not wearing them in the car scene late at night.

Bill Pope, who was in charge of the film's cinematography, said in an interview that the sun in the Matrix was sickly and wrong-looking, with evident brightness but no warmth.

... in the Matrix the sun is created by a computer; it's sickly and not quite convincing, so I needed to find a way to nullify the sun's natural warmth.

As to why people shift to wearing glasses in the Matrix, that appears to be because they've become accustomed to wearing them in the real world. In the same (1996) earlier draft the pod-borns wear sunglasses on the hover-ship because their eyes have never gotten used to real light.

NEO: Why do my eyes hurt?

MORPHEUS: You've never used them before.

Morpheus takes his sunglasses off and puts them on Neo.
Neo lays back.

Valorum
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    Out of universe, we know the Wachowskis wanted to make the movie look like anime and/or a comic book, and the shades just look cool. Like the phones. There’s a whole lot of attention paid to every detail of how things look. – Todd Wilcox Sep 07 '20 at 03:31
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    @ToddWilcox When the movie first came out, I did thought the phones looked cool. I re-watched it last year and said to myself "Damn, those are HUGE phones!" – Nelson Sep 07 '20 at 07:27
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    @Nelson - But undoubtedly cooler than the featureless black slabs that are now the only phones made by the main players. – Valorum Sep 07 '20 at 07:58
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    @Valorum https://youtu.be/OiYpqxSaiNQ – user931 Sep 07 '20 at 17:26
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    @UmbrellaCorporation - From what I've seen, those phones break after a few months of use. They are, at least, trying to innovate. – Valorum Sep 07 '20 at 17:57
  • I wonder if people would have thought today's phones looked cool if they were in the Marxis in 99? – niico Sep 07 '20 at 18:36
  • @UmbrellaCorporation Also, there's really no reason for the mouthpiece to shootout like that, it might help audio a tiny bit but just not worth it. – niico Sep 07 '20 at 18:37
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    @niico - No. Today's phones are boring. – Valorum Sep 07 '20 at 18:48
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    @Valorum To us sure, and physically. Once you turn it on and see a large big high res screen though.... – niico Sep 07 '20 at 19:03
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    @Valorum Did they look boring to you a decade ago? – user931 Sep 07 '20 at 20:23
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    @UmbrellaCorporation - You'd probably be excited by the hi-def screen and smooth motion video, but don't forget that Nokia did a range of phones with large colour screens and lots of apps in 1999. – Valorum Sep 07 '20 at 21:09
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    These two quotes are literally the only thing that matters, I'm surprised they aren't in the linked movies.se question. All other answers are pure speculation. – Möoz Sep 07 '20 at 23:48
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    @Valorum App Store with high quality apps. WiFi. Mobile Broadband. Desktop-class web browser. Multi finger touchscreen. GPS. Gyroscope. Should I go on? – user931 Sep 08 '20 at 00:54
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    I can't speak for anyone else, but personally I'm just inherently wary of any product advocated for by Umbrella Corporation. – David Thomas Sep 08 '20 at 16:29
  • @DavidsaysreinstateMonica LOL. – user931 Sep 09 '20 at 06:33
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    With everyone else saying "because they look cool", finally here's an answer that makes sense in the context of the universe. I hadn't considered it before, but it makes perfect sense. I like your answer the best. – Mentalist Sep 09 '20 at 08:35
  • @Mentalist - "Because it looks cool" is, at best an opinion unless you can provide a quote from the makers that that's what they had in mind – Valorum Sep 09 '20 at 10:12
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Out of universe

Because the people who made the movie thought it looks cool.

Plus all the production reasons given here.

In universe

Talking about coolness, Neo didn't use to wear sunglasses when he wasn't free. How come his mind started to project sunglasses all of a sudden?

Because he thinks it looks cool.

Agent Smith puts it best.

It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a Social Security number, you pay your taxes, and... you help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo, and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for.

Thomas Anderson, playing by the Matrix's rules, is a talented young man forced to conform. Yet he's unsatisfied and searching for something more. Trinity says...

I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night, you sit at your computer.

Once freed, again Agent Smith puts it best.

One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not.

His persona as Thomas Anderson was a product of his environment, The Matrix. He hated his job and always felt out of place. Once freed, he sheds that persona and becomes his more natural persona: Neo. And he changes his style to match.

Schwern
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    The sunglasses were in all versions of the script so it's clearly the writer/directors who thought the glasses would be cool, not the costume designers. – Valorum Sep 06 '20 at 20:09
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    @Valorum I originally wrote "producers". Point is, the people who made the movie thought it looked cool. – Schwern Sep 06 '20 at 20:41
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    And indeed it is, but that doesn't really address the question asked. – Valorum Sep 06 '20 at 20:50
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    @Valorum That's what the rest of the answer is for. – Schwern Sep 06 '20 at 21:22
  • He copies everyone else's style. If they all wore bell bottoms, brown tank tops and big red sunglasses without lenses, he would too I suppose. – niico Sep 07 '20 at 18:38
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Classically, in both media and the real world, sunglasses and visors represent a separation from the rest of society. Behind the glass, no one knows your thoughts, where you're looking, the reactions to stimuli. The traffic cop that pulled you over, the bodyguard watching everything, the faceless inhuman assassin. The old saying that "the eyes are the window to the soul" is never more clear than when the Terminator slides a pair on, or Blade, or the knight. And in the Matrix, the awoken and the Agents are no longer just digital cattle and fodder, gears in the machine. They are both something else, either more or less than human. And during the exposure of who they really are (cue Keanu's "Whoa"), the shades come off. Like when Smith overwrites other Agents, or when Neo meets the spoonbending kid. And Neo's separation is final when he loses his eyes, but can still see/sense the world around him, finally becoming something else.

Mary
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Eden Whited
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Because they shoot stuff up, and even tactical safety goggles don't look quite as cool.

If you have this amount of marble chips flying in the air, you need something over your eyes, or you go blind.

Pete Kirkham
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They wear them simply because you naturally blink when firing a gun, even one with blanks. Sunglasses made the characters look way cooler when shooting. I remember the directors mentioning this in an interview when it came out.

Dan
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    I don't think they wear them simply because you blink, I'm not sure why that would even help and if so the army would issue sunglasses. That said the interview would give a good out of universe reason to this. Could you find it online and [edit] in the quote/link to back this up? If so it would make it into a good answer. – TheLethalCarrot Sep 07 '20 at 08:43
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    @TheLethalCarrot This answer isn't saying sunglasses help you avoid blinking but rather avoid being seen blinking. That said, I agree this could use a bit more substance, e.g., a reference to the specific interview mentioned. – apsillers Sep 07 '20 at 12:27
  • @TheLethalCarrot the army does issue sunglasses or rather "eye protection" – Skooba Sep 12 '20 at 18:54