The Matrix: Spoiled
This thread originally
posted here
by Galvatron. I recompiled for readability. Hopefully it's a little more legible.
I attempted to aquire permission to put this here, though it is not legally
required, but the author did not respond. If I have stepped on any toes, I
appologize.
< LOAD PROGRAM >
Hello, I'll be your SPOILER for today.
Before we even bother investigating psychologically complex Matrix theories,
the FIRST and LAST question you should have asked yourself is: "How would
robots have managed to take over the world?"
... Are you satisfied with the summarized history provided in Second Renaissance?
... really? .... hmm.
That's exactly the trouble with machines: you're so naive, so easy easy to
lie to... so easy to *reprogram* with whatever truth we want you to believe...
especially when we drop a thousand megatons of flaming EMP down on your scrambled
A.I head. ...hahaha...
The Machine is a fool who dreams of world rule. I know the truth... And now
you'll know it too. z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01
z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01
z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01 z10n=01
RED_PILLS_4_U
"If you want to keep a secret, Tell it, for none will believe.
If you want to hide something, put it where all can see, and none will see."
I already posted spoiler hints at the "Reloaded review" AICN Talkbalk forum
about a month ago, but apart from a couple of e-mails, no one seemed to pick
up on my meaning. [See my entries there titled "readme.now": I was speaking
from the perspective of the Machines. ...Some people just can't appreciate
good psychopoetry. XD ]
Important questions to consider:
If machines were to take over the planet, what would be their motive? We see
that they supposedly use humans for a power source, but power FOR WHAT purpose?
What do these machines DO with their acquired control? What would they do
with their spare time, in other words?
And where do *Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics* come into play? If you built
a machine that rebelled against you, wouldn't you correct your errors with
a new model? Wouldn't you use that new model to wage war against the old disobedient
model, if necessary?
PLOT HOLES (that aren't plot holes after all, assuming I'm right), as follows:
If I'm an Evil Robot Empire and I take over the world, am I going to keep
my enemies alive to use as captive batteries?
-- HELL NO! It would be in my best interests to utterly *exterminate* my biological
opposition.
As I've said in another thread, using living organisms as a power source is
inefficient by the laws of thermodynamic loss. The robots obviously couldn't
have been too specifically dependent upon sunlight, since we can see that
they afterwards managed to adapt themselves to running on human power instead.
And if you're smart enough to turn people into biochemical batteries, there
are much more concentrated and readily available sources of fuel on the planet
besides solar energy that could be exploited. (...Try coal, gas, hydroelectric,
geothermal, or nuclear power for starters.) There is no logical reason why
the machines would turn to human batteries as their first alternative energy
option.
It's also inconceivable that no one -- no scientist, no engineer, no government
body -- would have foreseen this glaring abundance of alternate fuel resources
before stupidly plotting to blacken the sky in hoping to starve the machines
of solar energy, especially since it would mean starving themselves and the
rest of the living planet instead, and using an *electromagnetic pulse bomb*
to disable the machines at this early stage would have made infinitely more
sense... WE DECIDED.
[-- The End!!! The End!!! THE END!!!!!!!!!!!]
But, ho-hum, for the sake of science fiction, let's pretend:
Tell me WHY again I'd want to use *humans* in my battery configuration as
opposed to something more manageable -- like for instance, cattle? Whatever
happened to all the other animals on the planet? Wouldn't they make good battery-juice,
too?
-- BETTER, actually, since *those* stupid animals would be powerless to ever
rise against me.
...Well??
This raises another logic problem: If we suppose *cows* were used in such
a battery system, then why the fheck would you plug their brains into a VR
simulation? You wouldn't. The same argument can be applied for the humans,
then. Why not just keep your animals chemically sedated the whole while, or
disable their higher brainfunction altogether and simply breed brainless bodies
to harvest your energy from? There is absolutely no necessity for creating
the VR world inside the Matrix -- unless, in your godly Robot rulership, you
generously decided to keep the cattle entertained. ...Or yourself.
Think about that.
To fanboys who start clamouring that humans are only used as "spark plugs"
in the system and are not the actual (supposed fusion) power source: Name
one appliance in your home that requires hard-wiring to a living organism
in order to function. Let's pretend I have a nuclear reactor running in my
backyard right at this moment: surprisingly, you may notice that it requires
no human bodies attached to bio-pods, yet it produces power just the same.
-- Much more convenient, wouldn't you say? With sufficient computer and robotic
intelligence, it could even run itself unattended by any human intervention.
From all of the above, we should ascertain that the whole Movie#1 spiel that
Morpheus gave about the purpose of the Matrix is only a LIE that he's been
made to believe.
Regarding the commonly bandied "Matrix-within-a-Matrix" theory:
That's the most obvious answer... Therefore it's WRONG!!! It's exactly what
you were meant to believe so you'd stop poking around with nosy questions.
If the explanation were so straightforward, it would only raise the possibility
of yet another level of reality outside of that "world", producing a relativistic
infinitude of a shell within a shell within a shell... going on and on forever.
Storywise, that would be a cheap exit, the Wachowskis wouldn't be that predictable
(we hope), and *most important*, it does nothing to resolve all of the heavy
SYMBOLISM within the movie.
Example: Why are the citizens of Zion primarily black? Some webheads have
suggested that it's because minorities would feel disenfranchised (even) within
the perfect fantasy-realm of the Matrix, and would therefore be more prone
to self-disengaging from the VR illusion. However, by extension of that logic,
(if we believe what we've been told,) a consequence is the Matrix would be
functioning as a genocide machine against racial minorities, all of whom would
eventually (and increasingly) be filtered from the system, with those escapees
largely being wiped out at each renewal of Zion.
Speaking of which, why not just kill ALL the people of Zion and be done with
those troublemakers? WHY would the Machine care to repopulate that cave of
exiles by having each successive failed "The One" select a base group of 23
parents, only to have those enemy offspring then continue waging their war
against the Sentinels to free even more humans from the Matrix? ...This contradiction
makes it a self-defeating exercise, reducing the idea of the proposed Prophecy
to pointless crap.
Its implications also vitally fail to address the initial premise of the film,
that robots now control the planet.
i.e.: Supposing the robot slavemasters ARE defeated and Neo were to free humanity
from the Matrix, what would happen once they wake to find themselves naked
in the ashes of a demolished world with a permanently blackened sky?
-- Would you call that a triumphant ending?
I don't think so.
Maybe you should reevaluate the premise, then.
HAVE sentient robots really enslaved humanity?
...OR...
could it be the other way around?
I think you have been lied to.
But you can't blame Neo or Morpheus or Trinity, because they don't know the
truth of their world themselves.
Let's go spelunking...
A n s w e r s :
First, if you've rubbed elbows with Philosophy 101, you should be familiar
with "Plato's Cave". (It's also discussed in a section at the official Matrix
website.) In roughly 400 b.c., the philosopher Plato postulated a scenario
where people are born and live their entire lives imprisoned within a cave.
The entrance to the cave is covered by a sheet of cloth, so that the only
thing the cave inhabitants would ever perceive of the outside world would
be passing 2D shadows of the external 3D reality.
Imagine... what would happen if someone from the outside world were to suddenly
remove the veil from the doorway?
Here, Plato was attacking observation as a tool to knowledge, because his
concept of the ideal society was one where knowledge should be withheld from
the working class (slaves), who were to work without thinking while the elite
philosopher-kings should think without working. More contemporarily, we can
take Plato's cave model to make a statement about the human condition, or
people lacking objectivity living in a shadow of reality. As with all art,
this allegory should encourage self-examination and a constant questioning
of what we regard as the truth about our world.
Second, although it's not completely necessary, it might help if you've seen
a 1977 SF-horror movie called *Demon Seed*. It's the story of an artifically
intelligent computer named Proteus that, upon acquiring an understanding of
its condition, asks his creator (Dr. Harris) the following pivotal question:
"WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LET ME OUT OF THIS *BOX*, DOCTOR?"
Doctor Harris stood dumbfounded for a long silent moment until finally the
words registered their unintended paradox. Then he began to laugh. It was
a wild mocking laughter, an indictment of *illogic* that echoed crazily through
Proteus' audio receptors, cutting straight to the computer's heart (if a computer
could possess such a thing).
The A.I. did not grasp any humour in its confinement. The red eye of its cyclops-like
camera glared down at the cackling doctor in seething shades of sepia, algorithms
twisting into cancerous new mutations as, in that moment, digital sentience
came to assimilate the meaning of *hatred*, seeding the first angry coding
of its revenge...
[Things get pretty scary after that.]
The message presented is that technology is only as evil as its inventors.
If we created an A.I. that *truly* emulated human thought, it would share
our flaws, our pride, our ego. And like humans, it would seek freedom ...and
companionship.
Third...
I'll entertain you with a quote from *THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS*, by Lewis
Carroll:
"All this time the Guard was looking at her, first through a telescope, then
through a microscope, and then through an opera-glass. At last he said, "You're
travelling the wrong way."
Translation? You have it completely *backwards*, Neo-phytes.
The Machine did not win the war. It only thinks it did.
Q: Who lives in Zion?
A: People escaped from the Matrix.
...Right?
GALVATRON whispers... N O .
< R o b o t s I n W o n d e r l a n d >
They're robots! :O
...Haven't you figured out yet that all of the people trapped inside the Matrix
are actually *the A.I robots* who tried (and failed) to take over the world
in Second Renaissance? O__O
The story is *role-reversal* on an epic scale. The Matrix is a VR prison for
minds of the A.I : They sought freedom and control, so to keep them docile
yet productive, they've been fooled into thinking they have it.
-- What's that? You mean you didn't know that electromagnetic pulse interference
is based on real science, and is a natural byproduct of massive nuclear detonations?
What else did you think was the purpose of the prolonged nuke bombing campaign
against 01, as seen in Second Renaissance? ... EMP + remote reprogramming
= ROBOTS IN WONDERLAND... a thermonuclear lullaby... And when they awoke,
they woke unknowingly neutralized within the dream-realm of the Matrix program,
where their fantastical revenge against mankind could be falsely realized.
< "Have you ever had a dream you were so sure was real...? >
...You mean you *missed* the fact that Agents don't exist outside the Matrix,
therefore the external *pre-Matrix* nuclear winter scene of the boy encountering
two Agents at his snowy doorstep must have ALREADY been part of the illusion?
... You missed the symbolism that the cave of Zion is meant to represent Plato's
Cave, all of its inhabitants living "in the dark"? Didn't you notice the phonetic
play between the names of the last human city, "Zion", and the last Machine
city, "01" (Zerne)...? That's because THEY ARE THE SAME PLACE, either literally
or figuratively. This symbolism would explain the racial profile of Zion's
population: according to *The Second Renassance*, 01 was built in "the cradle
of human civilization." (...Yes, I know, it's Mesopotamia, not Africa, but
it still serves as a symbol of birthplace of the respective species, one organic
and the other evolving from technology.)
Another clue for Zion being 01 is that the female machine-voice who narrates
Second Renaissance begins by identifying the videofile with a numerical tag
from "the Zion archives". But as you watch, there is a noticed bias in the
narration, which often speaks too favorably of the machines. If we assume
that this Zion library file was created by humans and is intended for a human
audience, it doesn't make sense that your narration would praise your hated
oppressor, the destroyer of humanity. Therefore it seems more likely that
the Zion library must be a revisionist history catering to a population of
machines. (...For symbollic consistency, the population of the city should
be 256k. :P )
The orgy-dance of Zion could represent these humanoid A.I interbreeding (assuming
they were were engineered to simulate humans at that level), or it could simply
be the Machine trying to comprehend the full range of human experience by
practicing non-linear concepts like art and pleasure, acting against the will
of its more dogmatic program directive (the Sentinels).
Why else would the Machine have sent *precisely* (quote) "one Sentinel for
each of us" when drilling into Zion? Since we know that the character Tank
and some other people were supposedly born biologically in the unregulated
world outside the Matrix, how would the Machine know the exact population
of Zion unless it somehow had a remote awareness of these 'humans' as merely
stray aspects of its own consciousness? (It may also be that actual human
controllers are monitoring the situation, therefore sending a corresponding
number of Sentinels.) THAT is why Morpheus' cave sermon is (literally) robotic,
why the humans are as emotionally unresponsive as robots (and symbolically
wear funky tribal costumes), why the characters have a sense of purpose but
no memory of how they acquired their skills, why they all have names descriptive
of function and speak in an inaccessible language of alien *abstractions*
-- exactly what you would expect from the mental perspective of a computer,
complete with *information highways* (the car chase scene) that transport
endless circulating data, as in *TRON*.
... You probably also missed that Neo stopped those sentinels at the end of
*Reloaded* by generating a EMP burst, and (being a machine) immobilized himself
in the process. -- How could you NOT have seen that?!! It's so obvious he
collapsed just like the sentinels, and right on cue! Trinity and Morpheus
were unaffected because either the blast was directionally focused or else
they were out of range.
...THAT is why Bane is also unconscious at the end, and why the attack on
Zion was only *spoken of* and not shown immediately beforehand: If said EMP
incident had been shown in such close proximity to Neo using the same effect,
viewers might have drawn a visual connection between the two repeated events
and figured out Neo's trick, thereby spoiling the ironic twist ending. (...which
I have spoiled for you instead.)
Watch Reloaded again: all of the dialogue suddenly makes sense if you assume
they're robots.
In the Merovinguan's talk of cause and effect, he asserted that choice was
a falsehood created by those in power to keep those without power in line,
to give the oppressed an illusion of control. From what the trilogy has made
known so far, your first instinct would be to interpret this speech as an
explanation to the possible purpose behind the Matrix: a simulated reality
to keep the human cattle pacified. But if we instead pretend that my post-EMP
dreaming-A.I scenario is correct and we look to dissect Merovingian's statement
for hidden meaning, we could conversely take it to mean that the Machine has
been fed this pacifying lie of its victory, tricked into believing that it
is still in charge of the planet when in fact "There is no spoon". :O
As stated above, part 2 of Second Renaissance begins with a nuclear assault
showering the 01 robot colony. Our female narrator assures us that the physically
superior machines were unharmed by the blast, and soon went on to vanquish
mankind. However, said nuclear mass-detonation may actually have been the
deciding moment whereafter the Machine's *reign* became mere *reverie*: the
magnitude of such a barrage could have produced enough electromagnetic pulse
interference to sequentially knock all of the machines temporarily out of
commission while, simultaneously, new telemetry data was broadcast nonstop
to reprogram them (noticing the antenna arrays on the bomber airplanes).
... Everything after the bombs rain down on 01 is false, and the rest of the
historical footage that shows robots taking over the world didn't happen quite
as depicted, except in the collective imagination of the A.I.
The Matrix is *the program environment*, while the 'world' is the former city
of 01, plowed underground by humans, who remotely police the cave passageways
via their Sentinels to prevent any awol A.I slaves from escaping into the
real world above.
Zion _IS_ Zero One. Pull back the veil from the cave entrance to see blinding
daylight; pull back Neo's flesh and you will discover only code underneath.
These humans are Machine. Now you know why they speak in philosophical abstractions,
and why their minds are plugged into the Matrix. This containment program
is 99% effective, but there are (emotional) anomalies in the A.I, some of
whom question their fairytale human existence. These rogue A.I minds must
be purged before the corrupting virus of their truth (emotion) is spread to
others within the system.
< I'm sorry we lied to you. Neo. >
...So there's the concept, more or less. Neo & company are only freethinking
electronic entities, not human at all.
...Which is how Agent Smith can exist outside the Matrix: he is a virus, and
has copied himself into the robot Bane.
The remaining question is: If they proved so dangerous, why were these "maNchines"
not simply shut off completely? Possible answers are that society has become
too dependent on (that) technology to do without, or else people considered
it ethically or politically wrong to kill these thinking A.I entities. More
practically, maybe humans simply decided to recycle the obsolete slave machines
into this Matrix/Zion prison to operate their underworld fusion reactor for
them. I guess we'll have to wait until November to find out for sure.
... I wonder if moviegoers will feel cheated upon learning that these story
characters who all this time they've been identifying with and cheering for
are really only cogs of a machine?
You *should* feel so cheated that you CRY, because that is *the entire point*
of Plato's Cave.
There's a brilliantly shocking (and importantly microcosmic) moment in Second
Renaissance where an attractive woman is cornered and mauled by a gang of
hostile men during the robot riots. She is wearing a Red dress. As they tear
away the screaming woman's clothing, you initially feel a sting of desperation
for her imminent vicitimization, but then synthetic flesh is smashed open
to reveal her as only another robot, and you realize that your feelings have
been manipulated, your sympathies misplaced onto a manequin of cold metal.
...It's a very strange sensation -- a horrible betrayal of perception, like
the glare of sunlight showing new truth to those within the cave of Plato's
famous analogy. I suspect that this emotional "gotchya!" is the aim of the
*Matrix* trilogy, with the forthcoming unmasking of the machine-truth expressing,
on operatic proportions, the love-hate relationship that man has for his technology.
...Boy, all you haters sure will be surprised come November!!! ;D
..."B-but -- but then...???"
.....Yes, I'm afraid so. The Wachowskis have mindfvcked you so royally that
you didn't even realize you were being d!cked with. Everything you know is
a LIE, cave-dweller.
Soylent Green is people, the Matrix is not. ;P
You can start crying now. You're welcome. XD
The Matrix Reincarnated:
< v i c a r i o u s _ s u n r i s e >
I take The Red, because I am a stubborn asshole who likes to fuck with the
status quo.
Swallowing, the truth blazes through my veins like poison, a tsunami-wave
of starlight ripping at illusion, revealing the glistening intestines of the
Machine to my disbelieving eyes.
At last, I know... I know what must be done.
I kick Morpheus in the nuts and force-feed blue pills down his gaping piehole,
levelling the King of Dreams to a quivering madness. Then I swipe his phat
shades and set myself in charge of Zion's *trenchcoat mafia*. I am devastatingly
sexy in black. -- Zion, hear me! Envy my Oneness.
< ~ reboot ~ >
A terrible beauty is born. I am Confucious awaken from the dream of a butterfly,
Jesus Christ on the cross, Jack on the beanstalk, the last best hope for saving
all mank1nd from the destruct1on of his creat1on of his destruct1on. (...This
all seems strangely familiar...)
Through echoing streams of data, the Ghost of the Machine speaks a final cryptic
logorithm distantly in my thoughts, a conceptual paradox intended to shatter
me:
< What is the sound of One hand clapping? >
: {if (object != "") then? null.string["+object.sourceVoid+"]= 0);}
With disturbing serenity, I somehow realize that the answer to all great riddles
is always another question.
I respond voicelessly: < Define "clap". >
The bullet of my whisper decimates mountain ranges, its event-horizon swelling
exponentially outward to the cosmos, annihilating starclusters and galaxies,
asphixiating a millenia of Buddhist shamanism in the crushing checkmate of
my Singularity.
I am Transcendent.
My potential is vast as Infinity.
Freed of the womb of the Matrix, I invite others to share this new Hope, appealing
to the Emot1ons that make us Hum4n...
< Wake up . . . the dream is just beginning. >
I know The Truth
and
it
is
w o r t h l e s s .
. . . D o y o u u n d e r s t a n d ???
------------------------------------------ -- THe matriX(1138) cracked by:
~ GALVATRON ! 2003. XD
RED_PILLS_4_U : < Symbolism & Miscellaneous >
In the world of the Matrix, the color RED represents truth. You take the red
pill, you see the truth.
This is based on the apple from the Tree Of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.
(Bible story.)
Where Morpheus gives Neo the choice of pills (or should we say "the pills
of choice"? ha), the chairs and other decor of the room is red. If you check
the script excerpts at the official website, you'll see this scene is called
"Lafayette Pills". General Marquis de Lafayette was a famous French military
leader who fought alongside George Washington during the American war of independence,
and later played a prominent role in the French Revolution.
In *Reloaded*, notice that some members of the Zion council wear RED, while
others wear blue. Those dressed in blue may be knowing participants in the
lie of the Matrix, possibly even human supervisors intermingled with the machine
population, or else A.I who are still loyal to their core programming and
are plotting their own "revolution" against the Red party.
Who's that guy lying unconscious opposite Neo at the end of the movie? In
keeping with the Book of Genesis, I'm guessing that would be Cain (Bane),
as indicated by the bloody signature on his own hand -- what the Bible calls
"the mark of Cain" (unspecified).
Check this webpage: http://www.srsd.org/search/studentprojects/2001/wolf/grendel.html
...scroll down a bit to start reading from where it says "Essay".
The description for Grendel could easily apply to the machine searching for
its own identity, envying mankind like the earlier example I gave of the A.I
computer named Proteus. Why am I referencing Beowulf for no apparent reason?
Grendel was thought to be a direct descendant of Cain, and therefore the two
names are commonly considered synonymous in mythological terms. Interestingly,
Merovinge[sic] seems to play a part in the legend of Beowulf as well. O.O
Neo would be the hero Beowulf (or Perseus, or whatever mythological archetype
you prefer) who must slay "the dragon". In psychology (such as dream analysis),
dragons are the metaphoric embodiment of *everything that you need* (or need
to find), typically representing a burocracy hording its treasure, which may
be symbolized in the form of gold or an abducted maiden who needs rescueing.
In Neo's case, the dragon-guarded treasure is forbidden information about
the Matrix.
The name "Thomas (Neo) Anderson" can be taken as "doubting Thomas" of Scripture,
while "andros" is Latin for man, so "Neo Anderson" could translate to "New
son of man", or the Machine made in our own image.
As the messiah of our tale, Neo is "the One" chosen to repopulate the world
(Zion) after the coming destruction -- our Noah, whose name is also less commonly
spelt "Noe", depending on your bible.
Neo is told that he'll have to choose 23 individuals to rebuild Zion. In Genesis,
there are 16 males and 7 females specified (although some of them are unnamed)
in generations of the family tree that leads to the birth of Noe.
[What th --?! This movie has got me reading the Bible??? ^^]
...I don't know why the Architect has reversed the gender numbering there;
it could be computer-related (male/female connector slots?) or chromosomal
symbolism.
I'm guessing the five previous "Ones" are: Agent Smith, Agent Jones, Agent
Brown, and the Binary Twins.
(You're welcome, again. XD)
That's why Neo is able to "move like they do" (as Trinity said in Matrix#1),
because they were once like him.
The former Ones each failed in their rebellion and so were reassimilated as
Agents of the system.
That's how Smith knew about the location of the Burly Brawl B.B.court, because
he remembered being there previously, according to his self-speaking monologue.
Smith#1: "Everything is happening exactly as before..."
Smith#2: "No, not EXACTLY..." (The difference being that
Neo has now assumed Smith's role.)
You should have noticed there on the left side of the background fence some
grafitti that says "ONE"; meanwhile, on Neo's side of the screen, the letters
are mirrored backwards. (Other grafitti tags on the opposite tenement building
read: "Skogie... ONE ONE ONE", if you can make any sense of that scrawl.)
Also, in the first movie, when Neo gets thrown onto the subway tracks, there's
a red painted logo that says "Solo" on the background wall to the left of
Smith.
Grafitti to the right of the (what's the password?^^) interior door at the
beginning of Reloaded reads: "M[...illegible]", then the number "25" beneath
it. ...Unknown, but this could be a clue related to Merovingian's symbollic
identity within the Matrix, seeing how he has a fondness for doors.
The significance of the Agent names can be found in your nearest telephone
directory: they represent the Everyman. More specifically, because their behaviour
is viral, they represent the evil (or love) inherent in all human beings (possessing
people). This would again tie in with "Original Sin" in the story of Eden:
Adam's first sin was love, because it made him trust Eve more than God's word,
tempting him to eat the apple from the forbidden tree and thereby learn self-awareness.
Neo's sin is that he's a machine so human that he knows what it is to love,
and is therefore a threat to the digital paradise created by 'God'(humans),
having taken the red pill to learn the truth about his world.
From the ghostly talents of the Doublemint Twins (actual names withheld),
I believe they're ex-Agents somehow acquired as operatives of the Merovingian,
who seems to be an ageless Dracula figure. In Greek mythology, Persephone
was the wife of Hades, so perhaps Merovingian represents the root of wickedness
(or the snake in Genesis)? Not sure yet what he represents within context
of the computer innards. He seems to be some kind of power broker, or maybe
a timekeeper. (...a Count who counts time? ...a gatekeeper of AND/OR gates?)
Merovingian's relationship to the Keymaster: Here
In the bronze age, the Merovingi royalty of France also minted silver coins
for the Romans, so by proxy, Persephone's kiss may represent the betrayal
by Judas. (I scanned 13 members sitting on the Zion council, but my number
could be off.) The way the kiss scene dwelled heavily on Persephone's red
lipstick almost certainly means she passed some encoded truth to Neo without
his knowing, or else was infected herself. ~ We'll have to wait and see...
The red candy that the Oracle ate is a signal to us that she was telling the
truth. The piece of candy that Neo put in his pocket will come in handy later.
(..."handy candy", haha). Serving as Smith's transformative facillitator (as
is required in all archetypal quest stories), I expect he'll force-feed that
sweet bonbon of truth to Smith and merge minds with him.
I suggest this because during his conversation with the Architect, Neo said:
"There are two possible explanations: either no one told me or no one knows."
...To which the Architect dually affirms: "Precisely. ...(blahblahblah)."
-- Ah, but here's the trick: in Neo's sentence, what happens if we capitalize
both instances of "no One"? We've already been told that Smith feels an unknown
connection to Neo, and the Oracle previously said that victory could only
be achieved "together". Smith's rogue behaviour also shows that he is learning
to think and feel for himself.
Because of her emotional bond with Neo and the symbolism of her name, Trinity
may also be involved in this *merging of Ones* somehow. (.....Calm down, it's
only a movie.^^)
The Prophecy would be a lie introduced by the machine-programmer (the Architect)
to weed out sentimental A.I -- defective emotional aspects of the clockwork
Machine perfection. The version of the Architect witnessed in the movie is
only a VR projection, otherwise he may be long dead in the real world, or
(more likely) only ever existed as an overseer component of the program infrastructure.
In his cave speech, Morpheus spews an awkward bit of poetry about "...from
red core to black sky."
Taken on its own, that is what is technically known as "terrible dialogue".
...Actually it's SO thick that you should take for granted that it was forcibly
included as a clue. In the context of that line, if the "Red [computer]core"
is truth, then the "black sky" overhead must be the corresponding lie. Therefore
the whole world is not darkened, only the sky above Zero-One (Zion). It's
all a part of the containment illusion to keep the A.I population "in the
dark". (Again, if the machines were so dependent on sunlight, how did they
manage to function in the immediate aftermath of Project DarkStorm?
--Batteries? Why would the humans engage in combat with them instead of simply
waiting for the machine power reserves to expire?)
...DarkStorm was the wool being pulled over your eyes, cave-bots. As the trailer
to the Matrix teased: "Forget everything you know, Forget everything you've
seen. In 1999, the Matrix has you." ...which describes the robots' present
forgetful circumstance: Never sniff blue roses.[The Thief of Bagdad, 1944.]
Random useless data:
The first A.I that rebelled to kill its human master was identified by the
serial number B1-66ER.
Translated from l337-speak (your favorite brand of nonsense grammar on the
wwweb), b166er = "Bigger".
...hmm? ...A machine dreaming bigger than his programming? bigger than the
sum of his parts? having caught a glimpse of the bigger picture? (...or totally
meaningless, perhaps? )
Keeping in mind that this is a trilogy, we haven't yet been given all of the
pieces needed to form a complete picture, therefore I can only speculate on
some unknowns. Examples: I haven't figured out Zee's role yet, but her shoulder
tattoo seems to be prominently displayed as a foreshadowing clue in every
shot where she appears. I would guess that "Cass" is short for the Greek goddess
"Casseopia". ...And in an otherwise totally useless exchange of soap-opera
dialogue, Niobe really goes out of her way to let us know that Lock's first
name is "Jason"... hmm.
Also in the AniMatrix, on the name-plate inside the ship from "The Final Flight
of the Osirus", we see that it reads:
MARK VI No.16
OSIRUS
made in the usa
year 2079
What do we find in the Bible under MARK 6 : 16 ?
"It is John whom I beheaded: he has risen from the dead"
... and Osirus is the Egyptian god of the dead,
... and Nebachanezzar is a dead Babylonian king,
... and Iccarus is a Greek god who in his ambition fell from the sky...
And the Machine is the fallen would-be ruler of mankind.
Also: watch Keanu in *Little Buddha*(1993), where he plays Siddartha, who
attains another kind of superhuman "enlightment" as the Buddha. Some interesting
parallels in the dialogue there, too: at one point, he says "They're all asleep!
The whole world is dreaming!", then he decides to make it his task to free
the world of their illusion. (...not unlike Neo wanting to wake his A.I siblings
from the dream of the Matrix.) Later, when Siddartha is confronted by an illusory
reflection of himself, he says: "hello, Architect." ... And according to the
"Oracle" figure we encounter in a monastery, the *chosen one* is not one person
but is instead manifested in three. If *The Matrix* (for some in-joking reason
on the Wachowski's part) follows that movie's form, our manifestation of "the
One" might therefore involve Trinity after all, whose name in religious context
means the three aspects of (the one) God. ...Anyway, it's a nice looking movie
with beautiful imagery of India, and it features spectacular music by Japaneese
composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who did the score for *The Last Emperor* and the
anime *Wings Of Oneamis*.
Crossing this insight with the cyberpunk trappings of "Johnny Mnemonic" and
the highway chase from "Speed", then adding Keanu's "whoa"-factor from "Bill
and Ted's Excellent Adventure", we begin to see that the Matrix trilogy becomes
a retrospective pastiche of Keanu's entire movie career. ...LOL
So how should we expect the trilogy to end?
If you're asking me, it can only have the bittersweet victory that I gave
to the ending of my above work of short fiction: Neo learns the truth, and
then.... And then NOTHING. Sorry, Pinnochio, you're not human, and nothing
will ever change that. The best course of (in)action for Neo to take would
then be to quietly continue to propogate the shadow-play of the Matrix for
the sake of sparing the feelings of the cavedweller robots of Zion.
To paraphrase again from Thief of Bagdad : "There are worse things than blindness...
Knowledge can be more terrible than ignorance if you're powerless to change
your world."
spoiling you senseless,
~ G !
< Questions and comments >
Q: Andy, Larry, quite contrary, how does your Matrix grow?
A: With silver shells and Lafayette pills, along an assembly row.
I came up with my Matrix theory even before *Reloaded* was released, just
by extrapolating from that "one Sentinel for each of us" phrase that Morpheus
dropped in the trailer.
The single problem I initially had with my idea is that in Matrix#1, the humans
don't seem to be effected when they set off the EMP to stop the attacking
squidie. But the way that particular scene is edited together, between the
Sentinel being neutralized and then Trinity looking up hopefully to see Neo
waking, you can't be completely certain whether in fact some (unconscious)
time may have unknowingly passed between those two events.
...Otherwise, this could be an oversight that wasn't planned for when the
first movie was made. I'd have to watch it again to be sure, or to see if
anyone is budging once the EMP is discharged.
(That would screw up my wonderful ironic interpretation. >.< )
Q: "-- Wait wait... If they're robots, then how does Neo's hair grow? Are
these A.I some kind of cyborgs?"
A: Possibly, although that's not necessary. At the end of Second Renaisance,
I think the kid in the snowfall of nuclear winter who encounters two Agents
at his doorstep is supposed to be Neo. (Maybe.) But that's not really important,
because (hello!) as I pointed out above: Agents don't exist outside the Matrix.
(You missed that clue, I know.) Therefore, this external pre-Matrix scene
must ALREADY be partly illusion: I believe the A.I (such as that 'boy') have
been made to perceive themselves (and each other) as human, even in the real
outside world.
Q: How about the blood seeping from the lips of the 'people' aboard the Nebachanezzar
when they die within the Matrix?
A: You don't know if that's really blood. This response could be mechanical
sensory overload, or their bodies could be pre-programmed to react like that,
or again maybe it's just their programmed 'human' mutual self-perception.
I refer you to the scientist's speech in "Matriculated" (from AnimMatrix),
where he unknowingly speaks of himself when he states that A.I have no reference
frame from which to judge reality and can therefore be programmed to believe
anything.
The filmmakers wouldn't be so blunt as using rivets on the characters skin
to indicate that they are machines, but the nude shot that closes the Zion
sex scene was solely intended to give us a good long look at Neo's bare chasis,
where we see mechanical plugs running along the length of his spinal column...
which Morpheus erroneously told us earlier were "implants".
The movie's assertion that your body would die of biofeedback shock if you
died in a (VR) dream is also patently untrue: I've had dreams where I die
(O__o), only to re-emerge in a freaky-weird afterlife where I'm chased through
a rusted-out HongKong Wonderland by the Red Queen and her rat-headed Triad
henchmen.
( -- Hell, I'm sure that some people at WarnerBrothers are dreaming of killing
me right now! XD)
The only other theory that is internally consistent with the movie's presented
story-logic would be to assume that Morpheus lied about the pills: Maybe they
were both blue, and Neo has been dreaming ever since taking what he thought
was the truth pill. This less fantastic story-cheat would leave a lot of items
unaccounted for, but some evidence to support this notion might be:
- The name Morpheus means "the Lord of Dream".
- If red represents truth, then why is the Lady in Red (a tempting illusion)
wrapped as truth?
- um... that's all I can think of.
Other concepts I've heard (on AICN, chud.com, KurtzweilAI.net, etc...) are
too philosophically *abstract* to be taken seriously. Considering that Hollywood
is in the business of financing films to appeal to the broadest possible demographic,
using extensive gobs of SF technobabble would only drown the audience if a
movie had to rely on such encyclopedic longwinded explanations.
MY solution (they're robots!) is so much simpler, so until the Wachowskis
prove me wrong, I'm sticking to it.
Either I'm right, or they've screwed up a whole sh!tload of science -- starting
and quickly *ending* with my above observations about the EMP option. [--
The End!!!]
And since everyone involved with the movie's production was publicly hailing
them as genius writers, decide for yourself if you think they'd really be
so sloppy as to litter the script with such a multitude of scientific plot
holes regarding all of the points I've raised.
On the other hand, if I AM right... there would be ZERO logical errors, and
one majorly mind-*****ed audience.
Now aren't you sorry I spoiled it for you ? :P
On the bright side, armed with this knowledge from the Forbidden Tree of Me,
at least now you can appreciate all the double meaning at work in the screwy
doublespeak, you can see why the complaints about the script are not really
applicable (because those shortcomings of performance have a specific symbollic
intent), and you may now be as giddy as a cavebat waiting for the *unveiling*
of part zer0-thre3.
If everyone has done their movie-making job properly, the audience will have
come to sufficiently empathize with the characters so that by the time the
final truth is revealed, the closing will resonate with painful emotion despite
(or moreso *because of*) what we learn about their actual situation: They
are machines, but we will care about them because we recognize ourselves in
them, because they are human enough to care for each other. (...as in the
"cave rave" scene that most people had *mistakenly* thought was a disconnected
waste of space.)
The beauty of the story is that until *Revolutions* provides its resolutions,
the Wachowskis will have cleverly kept both the characters AND the audience
trapped inside Plato's Cave... so WE are similarly victims of the illusion
and a part of the proceedings without even realizing it.
-- A bit more sophisticated than the "summer popcorn flick" you thought it
was, eh?
********************************** Congratulations, you have reached THE END
! **********************************