This is a major spoiler. Don’t read it if you haven’t seen the flick yet.
Aaron commented on my Matrix:Reloaded post, and left this link:
I went, and was blown away. Wow. Thanks for the link, noble sir. Now I understand a lot more of why they built the story the way they have.
I’m left with only a few thoughts to add after reading Ken Mondschein’s article. Click the pic now & come back for the rest of this. It’ll make more sense.
I too suspect that the “real world” of Zion is just another layer of the Matrix. It only makes sense. If the system is smart enough to allow for disbelievers to escape the presented reality, then doesn’t it stand to reason that it is also smart enough to simply include a plausibly convincing alternate to maintain control of these loose cannons? Why give them up? Why destroy an energy source?
It’s a working theory. If so, I’m hoping that the true wild card is Mr Smith and that his chaos factor will be what really stirs things up. This would play into the recent trend toward anti-heroes. He’s the bad guy, but it’s only because of him that humanity is saved. I dunno. I’d like to see it, but I just don’t know if they’ll go that way.
So, yes I think Neo is a product of the matrix. And yes I think they’re still in it. Take careful note of the fact Neo was able to nuke the seekers “in real life”. That’s either massive psychic power, or magic… or they’re still in it and it’s confirmation that Neo is part of the system.
Unless it’s just confirmation that Neo can manipulate the system.
I love the fact I have questions. I’m thoroughly enjoying this li’l trilogy, and full kudos upon kudos to the Brothers W. I am a fan, even moreso after Ken’s brilliantly insightful article, regardless of whether or not he’s on mark.
I remember sitting with aa and mischiff when we saw a Matrix commercial that said “written and directed by the Bros.W” We were musing about the bankability of the name.
Well it turns out the commercial was for the Matrix video game, and yes it is written and directed by the brothers. Yep the video game. I have been told the video game does not let you play as Neo or Trinity and the like. It involves over an hour of story that wasn’t told in reloaded due to length. The majority of the crew who worked on the movie was flipped over and used to develop this video game. It digs deeper into Jada Pinkett-Smiths character and uses scenes cut from the movie.
I wish I knew more, sounds intriguing.
COMMENT:
Thanks for that article. I went and saw it again last night, to be sure I wasn’t totally on crack. I appreciate the movie much more the second time… whatever the cause of my dismay the first time (seeing it at 1:00 am, not paying attention whatever) did not seem to affect me on viewing #2.
Ya, when Neo starting mind zapping them machines near the end, I wondered about another layer of the matrix.
In short, my opinion has altered. I still like the movie (and in agreeance with dj, more so after reading aforementioned article) , only now it doesn’t suck. Or something like that. I still have my reservations.
I’m done now.
Oh ya, if you dooo see it again and didn’t catch this the first time round (I didn’t)… there is a teaser trailer at the end of the credits.
Interesting article, and definitely worth the link. But, I find (and I’m sure this is just the raging nerd in me) that I always tend to get a little incensed when I read film analyses that overintellectualize symbolism to the point where everything becomes a deeply relevant thematic tool that the screenwriter wields to show how intelligent they are. I agree, the authors’; comments about allusions to religion and philosophy are grounded, and the examples he found in the film support some of these theories, but it feels too easy to try and sum up each of the potentially significant moments/characters in the film by attributing them to iconography. It seems rather pat to assume that Neo is the 6th Neo because he’s a symbol of the development of the New Testament, or that Zion is populated by Blacks and Hispanics because all the White folk would rather stay connected and cruise to the golf course in their respective Toyota Matrices. Can’t the racial demographic of Zion be an artistic choice, designed to make Neo and his everpresent translucence stand out more from the crowd? Can’t Neo v6.0 just be the 6th Neo because it’s taken that long for his capacity for choice to evolve?
Ah, dear Adrian. You’re not the only one with questions…
In fact, I have one more (and I hope someone out there has a theory on this one)if the 6th Neo (who makes the choice to save Trinity rather than humanity) really is making this choice for the first time, then why do all the screens in the back (who, up until that moment, have been showing the previous iterations of Neo) show him walking towards the door that leads to Trinity, as if he’s just repeating what he’s done five times before? Just wondering…
I do believe that he has always chosen to save the girl, and that’s why the Architect was so contemptuous. He even acted like he wanted Neo to change fate, saying that he should go the other way because there was simply no way he could possibly save her. She was doomed, and his choice to make the attempt would also doom humanity, whereas if he chose door #1 he would go to the Source and save the universe even though that meant losing the girl. The idea being that humanity fails because of its inherent lack of fortitude to see The Big Picture. Even though she can’t be saved, he still makes the attempt because of selfish tunnel vision. I dunno, that was my take on it. But I’ve only seen it the once.
That’s inconceivable! We have just witnessed a remake of the ‘poison’ scene in Princess Bride.
“He wanted him to make this choice”, “But what if he knew he wanted him to make that choice so he made the other choice knowing that would make him choose the other choice making him think he chose the choice usually not chosen?”
0_6
I think he chose the one always chosen, assuming he’s actually v6.0, and not just a victim of more diversion by The Architect. And yes, he was mos’ definitely manipulated into making that choice. Insurance, I would call it. The system “just making sure”.
Well… I finally found someone to watch the movie with. It’s also just about 2:00 AM… and I’m backing up an Oracle Portal database, but enough about me, let’s talk about the movie.
The idea of the Matrix within the Matrix was sort of what I was understanding when the Architect was doing his jabbering (I have to buy this dvd when it comes out and listen to his explaination about a thousand times). It adds a whole new level to all the ideas that you come into the movie thinking.
I know people out there who really didn’t like it. Sadly I may have to verbally defend my position on liking it. Hopefully I can just take the stance that you don’t like the movie because you don’t understand it. Problem is that I can’t explain it all that well… I only have a measly little grasp of an inkling of some idea of what they’re talking about. I guess in my case I know there’s something much bigger that I’m not fully comprehending… that’s true with so much of my life…
In responce to Libby’s comment,
The TV’s in the background in that scene which had a plathora of TV’s surrounding them was following the Ergodicity Principle that’s deeply rooted in post-Everett Quantum Mechanics. It’s basically a way of showing the *possible* paralleled choices that can happen during a period of time and relating them to parralled space.
So, those were all the choices that *could* have been made – yet, in the end only one road is taken by your consciousness and thats shown by the TV that was zoomed in on. Isn’t Quantum Mechanics fun?!? :)
Also, the architect (IMHO) was trying to persude Neo to choose the other door so that the current Matrix could be “re-tooled” and fixed of it’s errors as the previous 5 or 6 were. Yet, Neo is different and due to causuality playing such a large role in this film (yet more physics!!) we should ask WHY Neo made the choice he did as opposed to the status quo decision as formed by the previous “Ones”.
This points directly back to Trinity as the reason for his choice – but why Trinity? Which isinteresting as iin the first Film it was, infact, the Oracle who instilled the relationship between the two of them. I remember Neo was sort-of indifferent to her and then she [the Oracle] started stating stuff like, “I can see why she likes you”, et al. Also, prophecising that you’ll fall for the “One” didn’t help to close the circle. :)
Great film though