This page is a place for readers of the site to send their own thoughts, opinions and interpretations on The Matrix. A lot of people out there have a lot of very different and very interesting ways of looking at the Matrix. These are just a few that I have received. I encourage everyone to send me either their own opinions or react to the ones on this page. BTW, I borrowed these from another Matrix page and lost it’s address. If you know of it’s whereabouts please let me know. send your view my way!
The comments on this page to not reflect the thoughts and opinions of MatrixFans.net, they are all sent in by FANS and visitors to this site.
Jarek says:
Location: Differences in Sunglasses
Hi there!
Most probably someone has already noticed, but in case noone did, here I go: While Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and all the other rebels wear oval sunglasses, the Agents wear rectangular ones. My interpretation: oval is a biologic, natural form, fitting for humans, while the rectangle is an artificial, logical form fitting for computer-produced constructs.
Duo Maxwell says:
Location: Christ in the Matrix Comments: Neo=Jesus “the one” who can deliver them…
Trinity=Thomus, doubting but in the end believing…
Cypher= Judas, betraying Neo (Jesus)
Morpheus= mankind, constanty searching for the answers.
Agents= Saducies, always trying to “give humans a good life” in the matrix but keeping them from being freed.
I’m not saying that it is a total christian thing. Jesus wouldn’t have gone into a building with a 44 Magnum and lit people up, but it is definatly something that you can gather….
Scott Anderson says:
On Matrix Technology:
The Matrix Revisited has got me thinking about The Matrix again. Although a lot of people look at the Matrix from a philosophical stand point, I’ve been thinking of it from a purely technological stand point.
If the matrix followed a standard client-server model (the humans in the Matrix being clients, the Matrix itself being the server) then it wouldn’t work the same way as it does in the movie. All of the mind over matter, “there is no spoon” physical tricks just wouldn’t work, because the central server would have the final say on everything. There would also be no need for agents, because the server could instantly terminate (or at least remove) any human causing problems.
The Matrix has to use a more peer-to-peer style model (humans connected to other humans) for it to work the way it does. This would also imply that the Matrix software is running completely (or mostly) on human brains. If you think about it, this would be a lot more economical (less energy, less resources) then building some super computer to run the simulation. This also makes all of the mind over matter tricks completely possible, because part of the matrix software is running on your brain. The average person’s brain would be conditioned by the software to accept certain limits, but simply knowing the Matrix is a simulation that they can alter would let them do some interesting things. This also means that the more you understand the Matrix software the more you can do (so it makes sense that expert programmers have a lot of power in the Matrix).
An explaination like this (if it’s necessary) would clear up a lot of people’s questions on the validity of the technology of the Matrix. It’d be interesting to see this in the new movies…
Richard says:
Location: Neo and Neo-Tech
Comments: The Matrix is said to be about a real family. The family that makes Neo-Tech literature. Although this formal rational site, of objectivist has gone mystical in some of it’s literature, it’s basic theme is that of the matrix movie. It’s at Neo-Tech.com. Ps The Neo-Tech wedge or use of mysticism is just a poker strategem, (to the best of my knowledge) to bring, conciousness without a trance of bicameral mentality. The memmes of this world. Thank you and good day.
Chaynor says:
Just wanted to add a few things:
All the Oracle’s words come true. Morpheus does find the One, Trinity falls in love with the One, Neo breaks a vase, makes a choice between Morpheus and himself. I say that he was reborn, in contrast to what some people think. He made the choice and he rescues Morpheus, but is left behind. And he dies at the business end of Smith’s .44 Desert Eagle. However, the Oracle does say in response to Neo’s aloud revelation, “I’m not the One”, “Maybe in your next life.” That was a subtle clue, in my belief, that Neo must die to be reborn.. and he is, able to manipulate the reality of the Matrix, flex it as if it were as natural as his own muscles.
Trinity’s name is a light jab at Christianity. It’s the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Ghost. Not one of those is a woman.
<<ED.NOTE: Not a light jab, the name sounds more feminine than masculine>>
Neo: THE Trinity? That cracked the IRS D-base?
Trinity: That was a long time ago.
Neo: Jesus..
Trinity: What?
Neo: I just thought, um.. you were a guy.
Trinity: Most guys do.
Just interesting tidbits I noticed.. among other things. The movie starts and ends in the same place (Heart of the City Hotel), many of the names are from different religions (Obviously).. There are just some random thoughts to pick up on. The phone is in room 303, and it takes Neo three minutes to get up and face Smith. The movie starts with Neo in room 101, which might be a clue to what he’s to become..
Gustaf says: <<maybe the “mush” that Tank hands Neo to eat could be compared to Manna, mentioned in:
Exodus 16:15
When the Israelites saw it, they said to each other, “What is it?” For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat.
Exodus 16:31
The people of Israel called the bread manna. It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.
TheMatrix- Dozer: “It’s a single-cell protein, combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.”>>
I recently viewed the Matrix at the cheap theatre with my father and he was reminded of this song by Jefferson Airplane:
White Rabbit
by Jefferson Airplane
(G. Slick)
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small,
And the ones that mother gives you
Don’t do anything at all.
Go ask Alice
When she’s ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall,
Tell ’em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call.
Call Alice
When she was just small.
When the men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you’ve just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low.
Go ask Alice
I think she’ll know.
When logic and proportion
Have fallen sloppy dead,
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen’s “off with her head!
“Remember what the dormouse said:
“Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head”
The pills would of course be refering to the blue and red pills that Neo had to choose between and it still has that running Alice in Wonderland theme.
from Charles
I would like to state some things:
(1) Neo didn’t die. If you remember when Neo went to see the Oracle, the little boy told him, that he was able to bend the spoon if he understood one thing. The spoon wasn’t there. By the end of the movie, Neo had to have some faith that he was teh chosen one after everything that had happened. He never died, because his mind understood that no real harm had happened to his body. He wasn’t reborn, because during the end of the movie, he displayed many great abilities, not to mention that during the begining they said his mind was already working faster to begin with so no rebirth was needed.
(2) The story of the Matrix is not exactly like the story of Jesus, like you have made it out to be. It is more along the lines of Moses. Moses tried to set his people free. Moses didn’t believe that God could use a man like him, until he took a leap of faith and with the help of his brother Aaron was able to us the power God gave him. Alot like Neo. Neo didn’t think it was possible for him to be the chosen who to set the human race free, but once he understood his abilities like Moses did, he was better able to fight for what he believed in.
(3) Cypher is sometimes used as a computer term for “hidden”, Cypher had hidden motives hence his name.
(4) A good point to hit for a prequel would be about that guy that Morpheus mentioned that took him out of the Matrix.
from shapeshifter –
Just a corection to Charles’s #1 point: Neo DID die. He died in the Matrix, AND the real world. While he was in the Matrix, his body was monitored for brain activity, heart rate, respiration, etc. All were flatlined for a short period of time after he was shot in the Matrix. Then he was “reborn”, which did seem to make his powers stronger. Sure he was able to dodge a few bullets like the Agents did before he died, but it wasn’t until AFTER he was reborn that he could STOP them. “Breaking” the rules of physics, as opposed to “bending” them, which is all Agents can do. My theory is that it wasn’t that the rebirth gave him the power to break the rules, just that Neo finally realized he could break them, and in fact had to in order to survive, and coming back from death was just the first rule he broke.
Neo: So what are you saying? That I can dodge bullets?
Morpheus: No Neo. I’m saying that when the time comes, you won’t have to.
from Trinity 99 –
I have been pondering this movie everyday since the first time I saw it (I have seen it 20 times), and although I have not had any kind of “revelation”, I do think the names and symbolisms are very well… intertwined, the movie is violent but the over all message is positive and beautiful. I especially love the names,
Trinity- The holy truth, The god-head, The essence of love.
Neo- The new, A revelation, An awakening.
And in the end it takes their combined efforts, their love to defeat the enemy. Neo and Trinity and the rest of the Resistance are fighting to save minds, Trinity to show them the truth, and Neo to “awaken” them. Oh BTW sorry if this is off the subject.
From Joshua-
a special note to Alicia’s view: Nebuchadnezzar was not a prophet, let’s get that straightened out first and foremost. I’ll explain shortly….
my views on the matrix? Many names do have spiritual significance, I do not feel like it was a real “messiah movie” though. But here are my views nonetheless.
NEO – anagram of “the ONE”, also means “NEW”
TRINITY – in Chrisitanity, (1)GOD the Father, (2)GOD the Son – Who sacrificed Himself for all mankind, and GOD the Holy Spirit – Who dwells in our hearts when we accept Christ
MORPHEUS – Roman(Greek?) god of dreams
NEBUCHADNEZZAR – Biblical king who was troubled by dreams (see how the two relate now?)
CYPHER – definitely the Judas figure, but how does the name relate? If you pronounce it “Si-fer” it is sort of a derivative of LUCIFER
APOC – in the original script for Matrix, Neo recognizes him as the hacker who wrote the “Four Horsemen” virus. I can only assume then, that APOC is short for APOCALYPSE
ZION – the final resting place for believers in Christ, after the war against evil is finished
MOUSE – ??? the thing you use when surfing on the web
and the AGENTS remind me of DEMONS, they way they can possess people not freed from the Matrix – which is definitely a Christian parallel
My Views (some are based on the views of those below)
Morpheus- god of dreams? John the Baptist? or is it a reference to the Mentor/Apprentice relationships between Jedi Master and Jedi Knight?
Neo- the “neo” saviour? I think he is a Luke Skywalker-like character, Destroying the “Death Star,” Agent Smith, which is only the beginning of a larger battle to destroy the Empire, AI using us for batteries
Trinity- Representing the Holy Trinity? I think she is Neo’s sister! Haha kidding! Ummmm… helped Neo
Cypher: Wanted power and ended up dead because of his selfish ways. I keep thinking of the story of Adam and Eve, or Cain and Abel.
Zion: I hope to see this city in the next one.
The Oracle: sort of like the one from Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex)? Not too sure of this one.
Nebuchadnezzar: Wasn’t he a bad King?
from Cecil
The Matrix is a very cool flick! But I wonder,…is it just a coincidence that it gets released at Easter?! I don’t think so. Consider these:
1) A Savior is born – LITERALLY, out of that mucky, womblike incubator that Neo is in.
2) A group of people willing to follow him believe him to be “The One” – the one whose coming was foretold (by the Oracle) and who would bring about a new world order.
3) The name of the underground city that was almost holy to this group – Zion!
4) The girl’s name – Trinity!
5) The ship’s name – Nebuchadnezzar!
6) There were two brothers in this following of Neo’s.
7) Neo (and the group) are betrayed by one of their own!
8) Neo is killed by the authorities, and, instead of 3 days – in 3 MINUTES he is resurrected with a HIGHER POWER than he had before!
9) After invading the Agent’s body and causing it to explode, Neo is represented as a BRIGHT WHITE light!
10) After his resurrection, Neo was going to have a dramatic effect on his world.
Hey, I don’t pretend to have all the answers, here. BUT,…I don’t think Hollywood believes in coincidences of this magnitude any more than I do!
These parallels and references are not idly done. Even with the high tech and the cool (oh,…very cool!) shades, this is still a very well done Messiah movie! I loved it! I even liked Keanu Reeves in this movie – and Lawrence Fishburne played a really together role as Morpheus (or was he John the Baptist……….)
Go see this movie! It’s a great ride!
from Alicia
First of all I want to say I loved the movie. I sat through it with my jaw on the floor, but not just b/c of the effects, the depth of the movie shocked the hell out of me and was a welcome surprise.
Ok, so here’s my opinion and what I noted.
First you’ve got the mythical references:
Morpheus= god of dreams
Nebuchadnezzar= a prophet that foretold the coming of Christ which fits in nicely with Neo as Christ figure.
Trinity= That’s just obvious. Morpheus is the father, Neo is the son, and Trinity is the spirit.
Cypher is the Judas figure.
Neo is required to go through a symbolic death and rebirth which is important in many religions- Christian, Wiccan, Hinduism, etc.
The Sleeping Beauty/Snow White imagery- Trinity woke Neo w/ a kiss. Gender reversal here which is always cool.
Neo=new. Neo has come to usher in the new age.
Their is also correlation to lucid dreaming and astral projection as it is practiced by Neo-pagans and some students of the Kabbalah. Lucid dreaming asks us to question reality.
Plus you can also slip a little extentialism in there.
One thing I found weird is when they take Neo to see the Oracle, (Delphi from Greek myth. Apollo was the god of truth and oracles) everybody was wearing black except Switch. That has to be significant I just can’t figure out how since Switch is a secondary character.
Anyway, just my thoughts.
from Gordon
Matrix was great. A movie that probably has many interpretations but here is mine.
The movie is about two possible futures. One where the future is knowable, predictable and dictated by the elite – a static future (The Matrix). The other a future that is unknowable, chaotic and dynamic and will evolve from the individual action of billions of people ( represented by the characters that have escaped the Matrix).
The Wachowski brothers realize that the battle between Conservatism and Liberalism is over and now it is between Stasism and Dynamism. Stasism is a philosophy where everything has intricate rigid rules and regulations and everyone is under predictable control. (The Matrix where everyone exists in a complex controlled computer program) There is only one solution to a problem and it will be dictated by the elite who know the answers. One size fits all. For example Al Gore (a liberal) is a stasis in his view of global warming. He just knows it is happening, he knows why and he has all the right answers. He is going to force everyone to follow his solution. There is no room for alternate innovative answers. Pat Robinson ( a conservative) is a stasis when he wants to protect American jobs by preventing the export of jobs to foreign countries. He doesn’t want new solutions just old answers.
Dynamism is based on individual freedom. It sets broad general rules and lets different groups of people try different solutions generated from local information and customs. Dynamism is chaotic and unpredictable. (Represented by the characters that have been freed from the matrix.) A Dynamisist solution to global warming is to try different solutions, planting trees, diverting rivers, bioengineering or learning to live with it and then choosing the best answers when we see what works. No over riding legal authority needed. A good example of a stasis solution and a dynamisist solution to a problem is welfare. The stasis solution was to have it administered by the centralized federal government. One set of rules for 300 million people from 50 different states. The dynamisist solution was to give the money without strings attached to each of the 50 states and let them set the rules. 50 different solutions. Some will work some will not, but you can be sure each state will evolve into a better program than what we had. In short the movie addressed how we will achieve life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Will we all determine our own or will it be dictated by the elite.
BK says-
While I am very impressed with all of the comparisions you have made to religion and the coming of the Messiah, I am rather disappointed that none of you tied this argument to its origins. The idea of a false reality is as old as Philosophy itself and every great philosopher has tackled it at one time or another. Plato was the first to address it as the caverns of Socrates in book Seven of his Republic in which Socrates demonstrates scientific argument to deal with philosophical questions.
In his example, Plato envisions prisoners in a cave who can only see shadows cast by light. Any prisoner who was to escape and see what was causing these shadows would have had his reality so changed that he would be unable to accept what his colleagues saw and likewise, they would consider him insane when he told them of what he saw. Reality is simply what we percieve to be true. And since we make decisions based on those perceptions, real or not, they shape our immediate reality and the way in which we approach our environment.
This discussion was most noticeably later taken up by Descartes and was of course, the source of his “I think, therefore I am.” Since he realized that there was no way to know if what we percieved was in fact reality, then the only thing any of us could ever know was that we were thinking beings. Whether the manipulator of our reality was a magician or an evil scientist, the result was the same, what we saw was not necessarily reality but just a trick of the mind.
Christianity has also challenged the notion of reality as demonstrated by the discussions of Bishop Berkley who was “refuted” by British writer Samuel Johnson. Johnson “proved” the reality of our perceptions by kicking a rock. While this had certainly seemed quite wise at the time, in fact, it could have been incredibly ignorant. Depending on whether or not this is real.
I disagree with Neo’s impression that he had never “really” eaten at the hogdog stand that they pass on the way to the Oracle. In fact, since his mind had taken him there and had experienced eating the hotdog, it was as real as one could make it outside of physically going there. Some of you may argue that this is the point. That since he didn’t physically go there, it wasn’t real.
Rather, I would counter with the example of “Total Recall” in which Arnold Schwazenegger’s character discovers that everything he remembers is a lie. That those things did not actually happen, that someone had implanted those memories.
Neo’s memories of eating at the hotdog stand were not implanted. They were achieved through his own actions within the framework of his reality. Therefore, his actions while not physically genuine were still the results of his acting within his reality and were therefore not false.
Again, it does not matter what your reality is or whether it is a conjuring by an evil wizard, a mad scientist or a computer program. As long as you operate under the belief that it is real and you interact within the rules of that reality, then your perceptions are that it is real. If you percieve it to be so, you will act according to that reality. The point of Neo’s quest is not to save people from an artificial reality (one could argue that all reality is artificial) but to save them from enslavement which was made possible by the Matrix. The Matrix and its artificial reality are not inherently evil. They are simply tools. It is the slavery that they are fighting.
Regarding the comparisons to Jesus and Moses, the simple truth is that EVERY major religion has a savior figure. And many, many elements of their stories are quite similar. So saying that Neo is a copy of this one or that one is foolish. Each is a copy of a previous “messiah” figure, a savior of their people and they pretty much all posses the same traits. Joseph Campbell’s “Hero With A Thousand Faces” is an excellent resource for starting this comparison between Jesus, Moses, Buddah and the rest. Neo is a savior figure, but his story involves more than just the elements of Jesus’s story because the story of Jesus borrowed elements from the story of Moses who’s story was an adaptation of another socieity’s savior figure.
Lastly, can someone please tell me why they had to have the Matrix at all? Why couldn’t the people have just been catatonic? Or why use people at all? Why not use pigs or some other animal? What was the point other than to have people that could escape? I enjoyed the movie but I need a little bit more explanation as to why?
Thanks for letting me rant.
~BK~
BN says:
Love the take on perception and reality BK. As far as the reason for the captivity and use of humans compared to other organisms, I believe there might be several possibilities.
The extraction of ‘energy’ from a human being is not that efficient. Although we do give off large amounts of heat energy, we also expend a considerable amount. Thus, we are not that efficient, as we did not evolve to warm up rooms. Bacteria would be much more efficient, but might not have access to enough sunlight in the post-apocalyptic Matrix world to exist. (Extremophilic bacteria would exist but that’s not good movie material) I think the energy extraction reason put forth is a simple concept for people to grasp, that being slavery, although unwittingly.
Consider that the machines might utilise the matrix for two reasons. One, to suppress and hold captive their creators and two, to extract ideas and creativity from humans. The matrix might be an idea machine, fueled by the creativity of the human mind. You have to wonder whether it was coincidence that Neo worked for a software company called metacortex. In light of all the references everyone has seen, it’s doubtful. The first reason is a heady one indeed. The aforementioned situation of holding your creator captive, unwitting employment no less, is far more attractive than simply killing them. And although they are machines in this story they were created by humans. How could they not be influenced by human ego and narcissism.
Just my take,
BN
Terminal_Breach says-
I don’t have the same thinking as most people on this page but i thought it was a very interesting movie that brings out our own fears for the real world. like, could this movie have been made to trick people into thinking that this is only a movie? or was it a plan to hide the truth? maybe, maybe not. its just one of those that makes you think.
EyeHateLars says-
I propose that the Matrix is not inherently a “Jesus story” as some have proposed. I won’t use this as a forum to blast Christianity, but rather to show how the Matrix fits with my very non-christian beliefs. I believe the Matrix itself to be a very blunt metaphor, rather than the subtle one everyone seems to think. And perhaps, looking through Wiccan eyes, the Matrix itself IS Christianity. The agents are the cardinals, bishops, priests, etc., and Agnet Smith could be the Pope – all controlling the people they purport to protect. Or, looking at it through anarchist eyes, the Matrix could be the government – ours especially. We are taxed heavily, not told where the fruits of our labor are really going, forced to obey “their” rules, etc. I suppose that’s the beauty of the story, that there ARE so many possible explanations. My point, trhough, is that whatever force you are being repressed by – religion, government, school, society, for instance – the only way to be free is to go through the same metamorposis as Neo did. You must not let your oppressor control you, or you WILL pay with your life. I find it interesting that the Oracle was not the only prophet in the movie. No matter how long since my last viewing of the movie (which I’m collaborating with others to make a free-thought class of the story), the part that stays the freshest in my mind is Agent Smith’s speech to Mr. Anderson – “One of these lives has a future…. and one of them does not.” I notice he only insinuates. but never outright says, which is which. I urge everyone to remember this, and maybe we’ll get this wonderful planet out of the funk our society has put it into and be allowed to stay.
Jr. Gregory says-
I just wanted to add that i think the matrix is based on the Bible and Jesus. Neo being the character of Jesus, The resistance crew being the believers and the agents being the non-believers. It makes sense because The One dies and comes back to life just as Jesus did.
Acid Doll says-
I really agree with EyeHateLars. It’s kind of disappointing how many base this movie on Christianity. I personally loved The Matrix to death. It contained so much beauty, meaning, and symbolism. It wasn’t just one of those, hot-shot, action packed, sexy famous movie star-filled movie, (well, it was all that too, *hehe* but that’s besides the point!! =P ) I think this movie might have some great influence in some people. It might be an eye-opener to some superficial ones. I doubt it, but….. I think this movie has A LOT of different meanings. One thing that nobody has really mentioned was that The Matrix, and the agents, might be symbolism for society. Perhaps, someday, “The One” will come to save us from all of the ‘corruption’. One will come to “begin” the “system failure” *lmao see how I’m trying to be all intelligent and sophisticated? =D * Anyhell, I think it’s a great movie and I can’t wait until Matrix 2 and 3 come out, lots of interpretations to be made, which means lots of thinking.
Editor’s note: What’s disappointing about man base this movie on Christianity? It was and is still the intention of the Directors, and it is continued in the sequels.
>^..^< Kristonai >^..^< says-
No one has mentioned Morpheous’ paraphrase of John 8:32 – ” and you shall come to know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” I think that this movie in steeped in religious symbology in a way that shows how theology can be created and recreated to fit circumstances that cannot be explained.
Throughout this movie there are religious references that are simply recorded events that could inspire new versions of the same bible stories, such as waking up to the truth, darkening of the sky, angels of light, mind control, being unable to see what is real, searching for the one, phrophecies of a loving savior reborn that would set men free, apocolyptic references of the day of reckoning, etc.
Yes I did say reborn – the oracle was specific that he would have to die to save Morpheous and that he had the gift but he was waiting for something. His next life, maybe. He did not beieve in this kind of thing. He was in control of his own life, remember. Well, that life had to die and his gift was reborn with a knowledge that there is no spoon and he was in control.
Phil (Vill23) says-
Don’t know quite why a few people seem irked by the Matrix’s Christian symbolism, those who seem to be complaining fail to have noticed that the Christianity espoused by the Matrix is not an orthodox one, but a distinctively Gnostic one (of course both Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism also inform the Matrix paradigm, along with elements of Hinduism and Taoism). One area that fails to have been examined fully is the significance of the resurecting kiss, the kiss is a physical expression of Neo’s enlightenment, of his union with his ‘not Neo’, Trinity is Neo’s anima, Shakti to his Shiva, Mary Magdalene to his Jesus, his female self, the result of the kiss is Neo’s resurection as the Primordial androgyne, Christ (in whom there is no male or female). This union is also a union of Neo and the Matrix, Neo percieves the Matrix as a flow of information in which objects do not exist separately but through dynamic interelations (Neo can now live in Eden reading the Adamic code of creation). Neo is finaly the One not only in the sense of some sort of chosen figure but as all there is Neo is the Matrix, the Matrix is Neo. OK what about the machines, what do they represent? Well they are both Yaldabaoth, blind demi-urge creator of this world and deluded false god, and our own egos, that which spins the web of Maya causing us to percieve self and not-self, and permitting the great game to be played by the One.
Pheonix Angel says-
there is a “real” matrix in the world…if you can call it that. it’s within your mind, as you sleep, it is your dreams. see, inside a dream, sometimes you wonder if it is true or not (sometimes i can’t even tell between my dreamlike state and real) but once you figure out that the dream isn’t real, you can command it and redirect it…(are you guys getting what I’m saying?) ok, so here’s an example:
sometimes when i’m in a dream that i think is real (meaning i don’t get that the dream is just that…a dream, but instead i think its really whats happening) everything becomes real. for instance, once i dreamed that i was bitten by a dinosaur (i know, i know, freaky dream isn’t it?) anyways, since i didn’t know that i was having a dream, it seemed real to me. it actually hurt where the dinosaur had bit me.
on the other hand, i also had a dream where i was being pursued by a person with a gun (also very scary) but this time, i knew that it was only a dream and that i could awake from it, and i had power over it. in that dream, when i was “supposedly” shot with the gun, it didn’t hurt…obviously cuz it was only a dream, but also cuz i KNEW it was a dream.
the same thing applies to neo in the matrix. the matrix world was not real, but neo “thought” it was, which made him “feel” the bullets and die. but once he realized that it “wasn’t” real, he could take control (ie: stopping the bullets; killing the Agent)
I hope that made sense……..sorry if it made you even more confused!!! LOL. i’m not sure this fits in the “symbolism” feedback page…
Rainbow Heron says-
Anyway I was reading your debates here, and I’d just like to say that I don’t think that Neo actually died. If you look closely at the “flatline,” it’s not 100% flat! People have been known to be revived in the er and such with lines as “flat” as that and flatter. So it’s not impossible, nor is it a real “resurrection”.
I also doubt the reincarnation bit too. If the directors really wanted this to parallel Christianity, then the “Second Coming” would be Neo’s life pre-“flatline”, where he is the reincarnation of the first guy (non-Biblical) who woke up. The Second Coming is supposed to herald the Apocolypse;, does this mean that Neo heralds the Apocolypse? Maybe one for the AI but not for the humans. So I really don’t see how that would work. Unless you wanna argue that along the lines of: humans created AI, AI turned against humans, humans tried to redeem those lost, and a second coming of their initial savior will bring about the end of AI? So Neo is there for the AI??? %-/ Guess we’ll have to wait for the sequels then eh? 😉
Besides, if Neo really *did* die during the not-so-flat-flatline, then wouldn’t Neo as a reincarnation have a *third* life, where he stops the bullets etc? In addition, people seem to like to think that Neo’s pre-awakening is like a life seperate from his post-awakening. Wouldn’t that make 4 lives: the initial awakening in the past, the reincarnation as Neo asleep, Neo awakened, & Neo post-“flatline”?! That makes even less sense in my opinion; I mean *4* “Comings”???
Methinks this whole thing is more of a ‘similarity’ to Christian elements than an actaul duplication. Tribute, throw-back, inspiration, duplication, parallel, parody…who knows?…well besides the bros of course!
..So, I don’t buy the reincarnation or rebirth bit, but I still really like The Matrix. There are many other themes and morals here (yes the spfx too), but I’ve already used up too much of your bandwidth. 😉
Seeker says-
Just want to clear up a small part of what Phil said. You said in reference to Christ: “in whom there is no male or female”. It is true, that apart from his incarnation as a man on the earth for a period of about 40 years, Christ is spirit. But that Biblical phrase isn’t refering to his gender (why do so many people get hung up on this gender thing anyway?), but rather it refers to the fact that all manner of people can be saved and can come to enjoy status as friends of Christ. There is neither slave nor free, male nor female…….
I also want to address something said by EyeHateLars. You speak of the Pope, bishops, etc. as likened to the oppressor of the people caught in the matrix. It really saddens me when people equate the pope, or for that matter, Christians, with Christ and His Kingdom. I can’t deny the fact that many who call themselves Christian, and many who are Christians, distort the gospel message and impose a great many unbiblical rules. But, please, Christ is so much bigger than all of us. He is not about oppression, but about freedom. Thank God!
p.s. I’m really sorry this is soooo way off topic, but I feel it is important for the sake of Christ.
Editor’s note: What’s wrong with equating the Pope and Christians with Christ and his Kingdom? Well, if they are equated, that means made equal to, and the Pope is far from Christ’s equal.
Papal authority has strong support in Scripture, and it can be easily traced historically.
There are a lot of guesses here. People see many “Signs” as to what the Matrix is about, but without the proper context, the code is “Unbreakable”. Hackers are “code breakers” but have you ever wondered why Neo is not shown employing this skill since it would appear to be his only exceptional trait that would qualify him for being the “One”? Instead he is trained in “hand” to “hand” “combat”. The real Matrix is based is based on an allegoric code so everything is in metaphor. Every time Neo “fights” he is employing his coding skills.
The code is very ancient and some small portions have been recognised as code (e.g. Da Vinci Code) but most of it is unrecognised by the “uninitiated” and this is its primary defence. The entire Bible is written in this code and in the Gospel accounts the real history of Christianity has been hidden. This hidden history then provided the basis for the story told in the Matrix movies. That is why Neo appears related to Christ but many of the details don’t appear to fit.
Judas the Galilean exposed the secrets of this code to his followers and taught how honest allegoric interpretation (AI) should be done. These were the original Gnostics. This led to an “apocalypse” or “uncovering”. To counter this, Philo of Alexandria and others came up with a false system of Al and people promoting this new system were infiltrated into Judas’ Gnostic groups which resulted in Christian Gnosticism and the resurrection of the “Word”. This infiltration of the Gnostics by their enemies is why Neo was called a “machine” by Tank during his training and this is how Agent Smith was destroyed from within. (In Matrix Revelations Smith’s final act was to review the “script” that had been rewritten so that he lost even though he had destroyed the Word.) There was also strict censorship (taxation) imposed which can be represented by “blindness” or the blotting out of the sun. Saul’s/Paul’s blindness and conversion on the Road to Damascus represents the transition from Judas’ Gnosticism to Christian Gnosticism. (The name “Judas” was intended to suggest the Hebrew word “yada” which means “to know.”) The false history provided by the Gospels then appears to “cure” the blindness. (The true origin of Christian Gnosticism could not be told because it would naturally keep alive knowledge of what Judas had really done, so a cover story was needed.)
The Jewish historian Josephus also employed this code to hide Christian involvement in the “Jewish” Revolt of 66-73CE. (The “tomb” only appeared empty.) He was helped by the “tacit” Tacitus and the “tranquil” Tranquillus. The code has been employed in nearly every conceivable form of art and literature so it can be found everywhere. All the books and art shown in the movie V for Vendetta represented the Matrix which was then twice “fed” to Evey as an “egg in a basket”. (Matrix = womb = egg in a basket – “There is no such thing as coincidence, just the illusion of coincidence” – V).
I strongly suspect that the employers of this allegory believe that it has some sort of hypnotic effect that makes us better “sheep” because they are constantly “feeding” it to us. Look at the reaction that the Matrix movies have had. They should be viewed as just fiction by our rational minds, but many of us are drawn into watching them multiple times because we can sense the hidden meanings and we want to discover them. In many cases this effort leads us into the “spiritual” realm which allows us to believe in things that are not real. In other words, we are color blind in regards to which “pill” we are reaching for. (The name “Adam” means “to be red” and when this fact is linked to the Matrix pill metaphor it suggests that “males” represent real knowledge which then naturally suggests that the opposite is true for “women”. So Neo’s belief in a real “God” had led him to think that “Trinity” was a “guy”, but when Cypher looked at the Matrix he simply saw “…blond, brunette, redhead”.)
Decoding this allegory really is not that difficult once the correct context is established and many times this is done by the employment of allusions, such as the “egg in the basket” mentioned above. The problem with allusions, however, is that you need to be familiar with the target of the allusion. Writers of allegory are aware of this issue and will often help by providing “genealogies” or some other kind of reading list, but it is difficult to do this in movies, so the identification of many allusions often relies on luck for someone such as myself. Without the key allusion that was necessary to identify “V” in V for Vendetta, my efforts at interpretation were severely hampered, but by some lucky accident I had a chance to walk the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem and I caught on before I reached IV (Evey). It was then very simple to link Veronica’s (a.k.a. Valarie the “lesbian” who did not have any “man” in her life) “veil” to the “mask” worn by V (the “true image” of Christ).
In the Matrix the concept of allusions was illustrated in the “jump program”. “Buildings” have multiple “stories” so they have come to represent “books”. When you encounter an allusion in one book, your mind “jumps” to the message presented in another. If you are being guided in your jump, such as Neo was, then you will “fall” and get a view of the “underworld” of hidden meanings and you most likely will come out with some “red” “blood”. (Literal readers jump all the time without falling since the use of allusions is a recognised literary tool that is frequently employed by uninitiated writers.)
The employment of allusions is also necessary because literal time elements have been sacrificed to serve as metaphors. This helps to explain why Morpheus could not give Neo an exact year for the date. All numbers have hidden meanings which means that the enumeration of years almost always cannot be trusted. (There are some tricks that can be employed to alter the meaning of metaphors such as repeating the metaphor which is referred to in The Matrix as a “deja vu”.) Likewise, each individual month has metaphoric meaning which is clearly indicated by the allegory related to Astrology. In allegoric movies the corruption of the time element is often directly addressed such as Professor Birack did during a lecture in the John Carpenter’s movie Prince of Darkness or when another professor deliberately drops his watch into a waste can to illustrate its uselessness in the 2002 movie The Code Conspiracy. (When the character John Davis describes his “unbreakable” code in the Code Conspiracy movie, he is actually describing how allusions provide context for breaking the code. John’s description also indicates that his code has no connection to the “Bible code” or the “Torah code” which serves as a contextual literal “cover” for this movie.)
One thing that often helps to identify a movie as employing this code is what I refer to as “WTF moments”. These are scenes that seem out of place or even bazaar in the context of the rest of the movie. Most likely every one reading this has seen many movies with one or more of these moments. (It would be a mistake to consider all WTF moments as indications that the allegoric code was employed because movie makers attempt to learn from other movie makers and if a movie maker has not been given knowledge of the code they can easily end up merely “parroting” the coded allegory.) The defeat of Agent Smith in Matrix Revelations was a WTF moment. In the above mentioned Code Conspiracy there was a WTF moment when several hooded figures were shown gathered around a microphone providing a false “news” account of a plane crash. There was an even stranger WTF when near the end of this movie when John Davis is caught by a “black ops” guy who then takes the disk containing the code from John and appears to shoot and kill him. The black ops guy is then shot by a woman and John emerges from hiding carrying the disk. He takes the disk from the dead black ops guy so that he then has two disks where there had only been one. The dead John obviously carried the real code, and the John that emerged from hiding carried the revised code promoted by Philo. This revised code was then transmitted to the world as Christianity. (Although The Code Conspiracy is an excellent example of an allegoric movie telling the story of early Christianity, it is not very well known and difficult to find. I got my copy in a DVD bargain bin at Walmart. It may also occasionally appear on free movie websites such as Crackle or Popcorn Flix.)
If you are interested in cracking this code, there is a simple observation that helps immensely. Allegory is dualistic with the “above” being a “reflection” of the “below”. (If a mirror is placed on a ceiling, then the person in the reflection appears upside down. This is why some movies will insert a form of reverse gravity as a visual effect such as the Club Hell “coat check” in Matrix Revelations or the upward movement of liquid in Prince of Darkness.) By applying this understanding to religion, a number of key metaphors are easily discerned. Plato’s Cratylus is also immensely useful as a “cratalis”.