List of Minor Characters in The Matrix Series - Roland

Roland (played by David Roberts) is the captain of the hovercraft Mjolnir. He appears in the feature films Reloaded, Revolutions and the video games Enter The Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo. He has a tendency to say "Goddamn" in many of his sentences.

Roland is the captain of the biggest hovercraft of the Zion fleet, the Mjolnir (nicknamed the Hammer). His first appearance is in Reloaded, during the captains' meeting initiated by Niobe in a sewersystem inside the Matrix.

In order to surprise the Sentinel-army in a pre-emptive strike, commander Jason Lock ordered six ships to create a frontline to ambush the machines. Because of the immense size and weight of the Mjolnir, captain Roland and his team arrive 'too late' at the frontline. They discovered that an EMP was triggered before they could get into position, deactivating all other ships, leaving them and their crews to be destroyed by Sentinels. When the Hammer's crew searched for survivors, they found only Bane, a crewmember of the Caduceus, who was unconscious but alive.

When their sensors picked up another explosion in the vicinity, the Hammer went to investigate and found a destroyed Nebuchadnezzar, its crew on foot, and also an unconscious Neo. There, Roland learned that the Vigilant had been destroyed, but the fate of the Logos was unsure. He ordered a massive search for them in both the Matrix and the real world. On their way back to Zion they picked up a distress signal from the Logos and then turned back to aid the ship and its crew. Roland found Niobe, Ghost and Sparks unharmed, and the Logos in need of a battery-powered jump start in order to fly again. After this Roland and Niobe created a small faction, wherein the Hammer and the Logos shared crews and resources and traveled both back to Zion.

Roland was very cynical and unwilling, after having seen the carnage wreaked on the other ships, to assist Neo in his request to take one of the ships to the Machine City until Niobe offered Neo the use of the Logos. Roland is furious, but Niobe throws his own words back in his face about what he said about not letting them use his ship.

After Bane killed Maggie, Roland understands that it was Bane who triggered the EMP too early. A wide search of his ship showed him that Bane is no longer aboard the Hammer, which was already in flight and bound for Zion. Roland gave Niobe the helm and they rushed through a small mechanical line straight down to Zion. Roland mans the guns during the flight and is extremely impressed with Niobe's flying as he didn't think his ship capable of the maneuvers she did.

At that time the first wave of the Sentinel army reached the docks of Zion, whereupon the Hammer deactivated all the Sentinels by means of an electromagnetic pulse. Roland and the rest of his crew were then considered heroes and the saviors of Zion until Commander Lock accused him of "handing over the docks on a silver platter" on grounds that the EMP also destroyed Zion's last defenses and the few remaining APUs who were also defending the docks of Zion.

Roland's final appearance in the films is at the 'bottleneck', the entrance to the Zion Temple. Together with Lock, Morpheus, and Niobe he watches in disbelief as the sentinel army withdraws from Zion.

In the MMORPG The Matrix Online, Roland only recently re-entered the storyline after being appointed to Commander of Zion's fleets. This promotion comes after the Machines destroyed the city of Zion while Cypherite spies detonated explosives in the Zion command center. In the aftermath, Commander Lock was listed as Missing In Action.

In his absence, Roland's first mate, Colt, has been promoted to captain of the Mjolnir.