APU

From The Matrix Wiki

The APU (Armored Personal Unit) was first seen in The Matrix Reloaded, but mostly seen in The Matrix Revolutions. They are hydraulic power suits designed for combat and defense of Zion. More than 120,000 units were produced, however by the time of the Battle of Zion, only 350 remain (although in screen when Mifune gives his speech there are only around 70 APUs present). Its main armament are two 30mm cannons attached to its arms. All motion of the APU is controlled by the operator's hands, including its legs. A training program for safe operation is required.

APU ammunition is reloaded by hand from the back. To reload the cannons, a runner with a cart loaded with ammo would have to run out in the middle of the battle to jam the boxes of ammo into the APU.

The entire APU corps was deployed in defense of the Dock. All of the APUs except 13 seem to have been destroyed during the battle, and the remaining 13 were destroyed after the Mjolnir hovercraft activated its EMP inside the Dock, wiping out the first wave of Sentinels. Though they are a formidable defense, during the Battle of Zion, they are eventually overwhelmed by the large swarm of Sentinels that flood the Dock.

[edit] Notes

• "APU" likely stands for "Armored Personnel Unit".

• In short film The Second Renaissance, Part II, the UN forces can be seen using the a different model. This version had some sort of jet boosters but didn't seem to have as much arm movement as the Zion APUs and looked very restrictive in it's shooting. This version of APUs fought against 01's machine army. These forerunners, having enclosed cockpits, more armor, some flight capability, still had little effect against 01's combat harvesters that could bound their arms with tentacles, open the enclosed cockpit with laser and kill the pilot. They were also seen to need a large amount of maintainance.

• In the defense of the dock the pilots seem to operate in squads of three or four APUs back to back as to cover all arcs of fire. According the the artists working on the APUs, a cockpit would make practical sense but they decide that it would be a lot easier to identify characters such as Captain Mifune without one.

• The ammo runners are extremely vulnerable to sentinels and are escorted by two soldiers with lighting rifles.