November 12th, 2003

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What is (Up With) the Matrix?

So I took some time out this afternoon to watch The Matrix: Revolutions. Compared to the second film, it was more comprehensible and more ordinary. Though the dialogue wasn’t a strength of any of the films, it was pretty weak in this movie. This was contrasted with a really strong spiritual/use the Force vibe that lent some depth to the film.

Predictably, I’ve got a bunch of unanswered questions. NOTE: Movie-wrecking huge spoilers ahead. If you haven’t seen the film, I wouldn’t click on the comments either.

Once more, HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD.

Some of these no doubt are answered in the second film, but I only saw that once and have forgotten large chunks of it. In no particular order then:

  • At the end of the film, now that Neo is apparently ‘dead’, what’s stopping the machines from just massacring all the people in Zion? Neo’s deal? The machines presumably aren’t beholden to human concepts like honour or trustworthiness.
    To suggest an answer: Neo is not really dead. After all, the Oracle says he’ll be back and he’s rendered as a brightly-glowing thing during the film’s denouement. He wields some control over the machines.
  • Sure, Neo bargained a deal, but the devil’s in the details. How will the machines survive? Will the humans re-occupy the surface of the world? When the machines free all those humans, what are they going to eat?
  • As the Oracle said, Neo never was the One. The One is actually Sati, the little girl? After all, she could change the sky in the Matrix, something more powerful than Neo could apparently achieve.
  • Why didn’t the poncy French dude have better bodyguards? I mean, he had those two wicked twins in the last film. Why wouldn’t he have some equally-talented thugs at his side now?
  • Are the machines–meaning the sentinels, etc–actually sentient, or controlled by a central network?
  • What did the Oracle do to Agent Smith after he, uh, assimilated her?

Answer away, my insightful cineastes.

Comments: 11 Responses so far

Joe Drumgoole
November 13th, 2003
2:40 am

In the original Matrix (1) the focus was on choice. As all humans will be given a choice the expectation is that a significant proportion will decide to remain in the Matrix. The rest will benefit from Zion’s swords to ploughshares policy. I hope they keep some of those APUs though, they were pretty cool!

The body guards at the entrace were still pretty spiky, but remember Darren, good software takes time, debugging that kind of gig doesn’t come easy.

Like the idea of Sathi being the one, didn’t make that connection in the movie but it makes sense.

As regards the Oracle I think they baled pretty badly on that one. If she got “Smithized” how did she retain her Identity? She should have been greased along with the rest.

Obviously we are being primed for Matrix 4,5,6 etc.

Joe.

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michelle!
November 13th, 2003
7:53 am

The Matrix 1 2 and 3 are not about the beginning and the end of the matrix.. it was just Neo’s story… the people weren’t set free… the machines just stopped attacking Zion… I figured they wouldn’t answer everything… I was pretty dissappointed, though

Anyway, here are my maybe’s

maybe Neo didn’t “die”… maybe he gave up his zion life and he was somehow linked to the matrix at the end —because it carried him into the center of the machine city- it didn’t just dump his dead body somewhere…

Wasn’t Sati a program? Maybe her job was to re-boot the matrix or something like that..Maybe since Neo was supposed to mean the end of this version of the matrix she was facing deletion

I think the sentinels were controlled by that “motherbrain” thing—the big face talking to Neo at the end- because it stopped their attack on Zion instantly…

Re: the Oracle… I don’t know
I think the original actress died.. so they had to give her a reason to change bodies… then when Agent smith infected her.. she was agent smith–ok, I get that

When Neo got infected with Agent Smith, and destroyed him… everyone who was infected before changed back to whatever they were before, right, because we saw the oracle laying in the puddle…
but if that body she was in “died” in that puddle shouldn’t she have had a different body at the end?

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harp
November 13th, 2003
9:11 am

I hear the Wachowski Brothers aren’t going to make any more Matrix movies (thank the lord), and that the stuff at the end is for comics or video games or whatever else they’re going to continue the Matrix as. And yeah, the original Oracle died so they got a new one and put in the “ooh, I’ve got a new body” subplot.

I had so many questions, like:
-why should we care about Zion? It’s a cave where bad speeches and awful dialogue comes from. What about the rest of the world trapped in the machines? Why did the story focus shift to Zion?
-what in Sam Hill was any of that dialogue in the fight between Smith and Neo at the end?
-how could something as well thought out as the first movie become swiss cheese with plot holes like the last two movies?
-can I get my money back?

There were other ‘Ones’ according to the second movie, Sati’s the next One? And as for Neo, he can’t be human, he’s in the real world and lightning bolts are jumping out of his hands and stuff? Uh-huh.

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ritchie
November 13th, 2003
9:37 am

hummm, interesting points. apparently there is a 1to1 mapping between the characters in the story to characters in the bible.

so neo (rearranging the letters spell one as in “the one”) i think, is jesus. so he has power everywhere kinda thing. realworld and matrix.

everything else is really a blur, but i think because the architect’s job is to balance the world of the matrix; smith was created/freed because neo is an anomalty. but as neo’s powers grew, smith was getting equally powerful. so when ummm smith infected neo, the balance was restored and there was no need for him to be powerful so he was destroyed.

thats my take on it, but theres this other blog (http://matrixessays.blogspot.com) that might have all the answers.

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John Keyes
November 14th, 2003
4:03 am

I think the only thing that is certain about the Matix is its uncertainty.

There are many ways the story could end. I think Neo is a windows macro. The machines are contemplating migrating to linux but the architect (Ballmer) is offering them cut price licenses. Clippy has disguised himself as a middle aged black woman who keeps offering useless advice.

I could continue but this has hurt me enough.

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michelle!
November 14th, 2003
11:55 am

I just read an explanation (hard copy) it’s really long though- too much to type.

I’m going to see if I can get it emailed to me by the original sender and I’ll post it.. stay tuned…

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Darren
November 14th, 2003
12:49 pm

Thanks for that. If you do get some illustrative, email it to me: darren at darrenbarefoot dot com and I’ll post it in a follow-up entry. DB.

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Justin Leonard
December 18th, 2003
2:41 pm

Sati is the Sun Maker.

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Chris Spinas
December 21st, 2003
6:15 am

Sati is Neo and Trinity’s Daughter (mmmm what went wrong)…..

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Shane Leonard
December 23rd, 2003
12:22 pm

I think Sati is a lost girl and she is in love with Agent Smith. She comes from a lonnnng line of apes like in that 1 movie….

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CT
July 17th, 2006
8:21 pm

I think is great that some people here have the wonderful imagination to question and answer things about such interesting movies as the Matrix movies. Unfortunately, there are also low IQ individuals that do not understand, therefore do not appreciate the art and wonder of the story line behind them, so they drop a couple of stupid lines anyway.
Anyway, here are some of my thoughts about the movies.
The first one seemed better than the rest because it gave us a story with plausible events in real life, which were not presented to us before (with the exception of the movie “The Thirteen Floor”, which had a somewhat similar idea) It also gave us just enough info to make our own conclusion on what would happen next or before the matrix. Once it was explained (partly), some of that wonder disappeared, but it gave some of us the desire to hear more and more about the Matrix. A fourth movie would probably be too much, but a nice animated series like what we see on Animatrix would be nice. Just a different story every time instead of soap like series.
I have to say The Matrix movies are my favorite movies of all times. Obviously not because of direction, acting, or any of the usual things we are supposed to appreciate out of the art of film making, but because it reminds me of the amazing imagination we have as human beings. Imagination is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. It is what puts on top, and literally gives us our humanity. I only hope that we all where as inquisitive as the people behind those great stories because I’m sure the world would be a better place. But we should always think kipping our feet on the ground. Fantasy is a children thing. Fantasy is easy. Just imagine anything you want with no regards for rules and there you have it. However, SiFi, good SiFi, is the result of our brains wondering what if, without forgetting about what is and what is not possible. At least it appears to be that way lately. (Thank God).
So readers, keep wondering and asking questions. Keep contributing to our human evolution.
PS By the way, Sati is not the one, nor could be the next one. The Oracle explained that programs were made to govern different things, air go, Sati just happens to know how to do what she did. Her being a program negates the possibility of being the one (next one) because humans would not trust her. And besides, The Oracle calls neo The One when she talks to him sitting on that bench.

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