Revisiting “The Matrix”
This is one of the few films which has an amazing repeat value. Everyone who has seen matrix will agree with me that it has much more to offer than just sci-fi aspect. Every watch of matrix makes your mind think and ponder and to chew on. It's a common argument that there was no need for second (reloaded) and third part (revolutions) of matrix. But I wonder, with only one part, how we could understand matrix in totality, its existence, its purpose not that now I understand it completely but still lot of question were answered in subsequent parts and some question were raised.
According to me the most important scene in matrix series is the one where Neo reaches the source in reloaded, the one between Neo and the architect. This scene explains many things like who is Neo, what is his purpose, what's the actual role of Oracle etc.I hope to have some healthy debate on matrix theories on basis of this scene. Please correct me if my below mentioned understanding is wrong.
In Matrix, Matrix was the 8th version. The first version developed by the architect, was a perfect world,world without flaws but Humans could not accept this flawless world and start rejecting it.
Due to the failure of first matrix, the second one was designed which again failed (i dont know the reason for it’s failure )and architect had to look for someone else do build it.The Oracle developed the third version. The Oracle found a solution wherein 99% of people will accept the program as long as they were given choice even if the choice is at subconscious level.The remaining percentage of people ,no matter how small the number is ,would bring down the system if they were not kept in check. The remaining people would be part of Zion.This was the anomaly in matrix and in order to fix this Oracle devised a form of control called the One ( Neo for this version). The One was grown as human and was developed so as to get assistance from the people from Zion.The One would then be guided by Oracle to the source,where the One would be given choice either,
a] to control the population of Zion by destroying it and then picking 23 people from matrix to rebuild it or
b] Destruction of the matrix,
And every time the choice would be a] and by destroying Zion matrix was reloaded.This continued for next 5 versions but this time (current Version) Oracle had some different plans. In the current version ,the One, Neo was grown to have more human feelings and attachments with Humans and Trinity was made to believe that she would fall in Love with the One.Due to this small manipulation by Oracle, Neo and Trinity fall in Love and Neo chooses to save Trinity instead of destroying Zion.
I have few questions and I hope to find answers over here:
1] Its not clear to me if Zion is real place or a fake place, real world or simulation.Because if it is a real world then how can the part be explained where Neo stops the sentinels , also the part where Smith is able to come out of matrix to Zion using human body. A theory mostly referred as Matrix within matrix (MWM) is very famous among matrix fans and considers Zion as another matrix like fake world.
2] Another point that boggles me is that, whether Morpheus and his group are also another form of control. Their Purpose being making one realise that he is The One and guiding him to the Oracle.
3] Why Oracle needs to do this, I mean she is a program (if I can call her so) and whats the need for her to bring peace between machines and man.
4] How was it possible for Neo to destroy smith.
I have many more questions, but let's start with this. There are lot of philosophical and mythological references in matrix ,may be someone else can write a post on that………
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Let me try an attempt at this.
1. Man panicked and pushed the button against the machines(AI) and made the world an uninhabitable place and what was left was only nuclear bunkers and subterranean hyperwaves.
2. Machines were in charge of terraforming and had to sustain the period of sunless surface world with only human power.
3. The Matrix remains a suspended animation for the interregnum and the destruction of matrix is ‘inevitabe’ in the end as humans have to come up to the surface once the ’surface’ is free of pollutants and sun is out again. Machines have no ‘destiny’ separate from humans.
4. Zion is the symbolism of the choice for people who are not suited to ‘guided’ life in Matrix – like Neo and Morpheus. Offcourse it is not for the ones like Cipher (who like most of us regretsthe decisions made). The ‘agent’ programs and machines that hunt for Nebuchadnazer ship and zion are arranged to ever put pressure on the humans from accepting the “alternatives” and stagnate. Humans are needed to be in perfect competetive shape of mind and body to lead the days of peace in future. Present may be good, but dont settle in it too cmfortably, explore and challenge yourselves.
5. The last part is still hazy to me. I am chewing on it yet.
I consider the destruction of Agent Smith as the best part of Matrix Trilogy. You couldn’t have thought it in any better way. Actually Neo made a pact with the Machines. And as part of the deal he allowed Smith to convert him to Smith. So therefore Neo becomes Smith. Now this is the time that the Machines kill neo. Since neo was no longer neo but had become Smith therefore smith dies.
The important thing here is to realize that all the copies of smith’s were not different copies but a single entity. “the best thing about being me is that are so many of me” … remember smith saying. But the thing to remember is that all of them are still “me” that is single person. Smith had become so powerful that it was not possible to kill him in the matrix. The only way was to kill neo who had become Smith.
Anand my memory is a bit faded, so where did u get this thrid version Oracle developed this blah blah blah and the choices (The One has- destroying Zion??!!!) raelly??? thst was there in the film?
mebe i need to revisit it again
as for the questions there are hundreds of diff interpretations and answers in a lot of cult forums..
sir….read ur cmmnt….i too had the doubt over zionnd i had a healthy debat(fight u can say)..over…it…as he was comtinuosly sayin…dat it is a tru world…but thn how smith was be able to cum der…n also hav a doubt agent smith was a part of machines..once…as i understud…orrrr..was a creation of arhitect….?????????
pls clarify this…to me….i hav this doubt coz…how cum machines cum to know about matrix everytim its being created….nd as u said…zion can also be a matrix…i thnk it is the sam…i thnk it is the two sids of a coin…well debat will b continued…..tak car…ur mighty fan……my id is..die_liv@yahoo.com….wud luv to see ur cmmnt…nd pls read my cmmnts on ur TZP review…pls………
dpac,
during the conversation between neo and the architect it is clearly stated that neo wasn’t the first one….
”
Neo: You haven¡’t answered my question.
Architect: Quite right. Interesting, that was quicker then the others.
Neo: Others? (What others? How many? Answer me)
Architect: The Matrix is older then you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next. In which case this is the sixth version.
”
sixth version as in from the emergence of integral anomaly…..plus there were 2 earlier versions as stated in below dialogues :
”
Architect: The first matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect; it was a work of art, flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being. Thus, I redesigned it, Based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However I was again frustrated my failure. I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection. Thus the answer was stumbled upon by another and intuitive program, initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of the matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.
Neo: The Oracle
“
Long back when I had seen reloaded… I discussed and came across the below. This should explain a lot.
———
Is councilor Hamen trying to hint, as did the Oracle, that perhaps man and machines are inseparably dependant on each other? That this “real world” is simply another kind of, or another part of The Matrix? By saying that he has no idea how the water recycler works, and then immediately, how Neo does what he does, is he hinting that Neo is also a machine, a program from the system? If so, this explains how Mr. Smith is able to enter the “real world” just as Neo does. The “real world” is accessible to programs just as the Maatrix is, because the “real world” is another part of, the Matrix.
The Architect implies that Neo is himself a program, when he compares Neo with his predecessors, and also says: “It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were by design based on a similar predication: a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of “The One.” He implies that all Neo, like his predecessors, was “designed,” like everything else in the Matrix.
On two occasions, the Merilvincian compares Neo with his predecessors, once claiming that he’d survived them, and will survive this one too.
The Architect implies that the Oracle, the belief in her, and her advice and instructions are actually a form of control, by the system: a way of controlling, and isolating the 1% of the population that choose not to participate in the Matrix. “The One” is her prediction, is found based on her instructions, and utilized by the system through your instructions, to control, isolate, and periodically purge the system of those who “choose” not to participate in the Matrix.
While Neo defies his designed purpose, to take the door to the right, (just as he was designed to do), Zion is wiped out, yet there remain the crew of the two remaining ships at the end of the movie. Could these remainder be 16 male, and 7 female needed for the 7th rebuilding of Zion, thus allowing the Matrix to “reboot” free of the effects of the anomaly created by “choice”, the “anomaly” triggered by the quintessential anomaly: Neo, and manifested in the computer virus running rampant as the ever-spreading, disobedient, viral Mr. Smith?
In the first movie, Mr. Smith in hatred described humanity as a virus. Ironically, Mr. Smith became a virus himself.
Mr. Smith was able to change a human program into a copy of himself, and actually enter the “real world.” This calls into question the very existence of the “real world”. Since Zion is a control mechanism by which to isolate, confine, and separate the 1% that choose not to participate in the Matrix, from the 99% that do choose to participate, then is Zion itself, still a part of the Matrix? Is this why Mr. Smith can enter the “real world” too? Is this why Neo’s “powers” also apply in the “real world?” If so, is there a “real world” at all?
If there is no “real world” apart from the Matrix, then there is not now, nor has there ever been anything but The Matrix. This seriously challenges our own belief in our own “real” world as an illusion like the Matrix. Perhaps we are beings of Light and of Mind, made in “Gods Image”, trapped not in machine pods, believing in a computer generated world, but rather, trapped in bodies of flesh and blood, believing in an imaginary world composed of mental “programs” (habits) and mental constructs or belief systems, without which, as beings of Light and Mind, we could not “live”… that is to say, we could not “experience” life. As Cypher so clearly tried to say in the first movie, Without the illusion of the “real world” and the sensory illusion provided by the “traps” of flesh and blood in which we live, Beings of Light and Mind cannot directly feel the wind on our cheek, the taste of adventurous food, the thrill of danger, the drama of suffering and horror, and all the other sensual delights that the senses of flesh and blood offer.
Thus the Oracle, like mystics of many traditions, one who loves the illusion of life, and also loves the knowledge of how life really works as an illusion created by the Mind, as a trap for beings of Light, that they might partake of the experience that is Life.
smith has the ability to duplicate himself like a worm or a trojan……
he takes over the body of the human guy when the human is connected to the matrix….thereby ‘corrupting’ him
Anand G…thanks for the explaination…man you got to write a post on matrix…:)……btw if zion was another matrix,isn’there possibility of another matrix for ppl who reject zion and so on….?
@Anand G
Kudos!