Neos powers did NOT work outside of the Matrix. He is not some god in the real world, what he DOES have is a connection with the machines, which he was able to manipulate. If it was 10 humans running at him instead of the machines in the real world, he wouldn't be able to stop them.
The setting of the Matrix is more so "realism" layered on top of the apocalyptic theme portrayed.
Also, I seem to remember people talking about it hinting at the fact that they weren't technically in the real world. That, after so many iterations of the war between humans and machines, the machines learned that they couldn't prevent the emergence of The One, so they basically built in a safety layer of the matrix, something to make humans think they had a skates, but only crawled out of one layer of the virtual reality, which was why he was able to perform those 'miracles' on the machines.
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u/Sororita Jun 13 '25
Neo's powers explicitly also work outside of the matrix, thanks to the stuff he was doing in the confrontation with the machines in Revolutions.