The original Matrix starts with Trinity and Cypher talking, the screen shows “Trace Program” and the date “2-19-98”.
The movie ends with Neo making a phone call, the trace program is initiated and the date reads “9-18-99″… 19 months have passed at this point (One year and seven months).
The time sequence in the first movie implies that they found Neo shortly after that initial conversation (a few months after 2-19-98 at most).
Significant? Yes. I propose that Reloaded and Revolutions consecutively take place between 2-18-98 and 9-18-99.
The Proof
Only a few months could have passed from the time Morpheus and the crew ‘free’ Neo to the time Neo is killed and revived in the hallway. Why? For one, Neo’s hair barely grows in that time and that’s not a trivial observation. It’s also obvious that Neo grew out his hair in Reloaded which occurs roughly 6 months after he’s unplugged.
We also know the Wachowski brothers don’t put insignificant things into their movies. The fact that they obviously signal to us that 19 months have passed from the start of the Matrix to the time Neo makes that phone call is there for a reason.
In Reloaded, Neo says that “I wish I knew what I was supposed to do”. The phone call scene in The Matrix, Neo is very sure of what he is supposed to do, “I’m going to hang up this phone and show these people what you don’t want them to see… a world without you, without controls and boundries”. Why would he have forgotten what to do between the first and second movie? He didn’t, that last scene in The Matrix occurs after Revolutions!
Also, at the end of the first movie, Neo states that “I can feel you now, you are scared”. At the end of Reloaded he says, “Something is different, I can FEEL them now”.
Finally, a game directed by the Wachowski brothers called The Matrix Online is due in 2004 and the timeframe takes place after Revolutions… and the matrix is alive and well in the game.
My guess is that there is no Matrix-within-a-Matrix, they don’t destroy the Matrix because they can’t unplug everyone at once and we’ll see Neo make that very same phone call at the end of Revolutions.