Readers Get Reloaded Day 1 Spoilers May 19, 2003

READERS RELOAD!!!

Before we start, let’s repeat… THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!!!

You have been warned.

And if you are still reading, you have taken the red pill…

 

MATRIX WITH A MATRIX

AND A SIDE OF FRIES was the first to offer up one of the most popular ideas about the future of The Matrix:  “Here's my admittedly crackpot theory of how Revolutions will play itself out. I believe we'll find out in the third film that Zion itself-- and every part of what the citizens of Zion consider the "real world", i.e., everything outside the Matrix-- will be revealed to be also a computer construct-- a larger "macro" matrix that encompasses the Matrix in which the current conflict takes place. In other words, NO ONE has been freed yet. Morpheus, Trinity, Neo, everyone in Zion-- is still a slave. It's the failsafe system the machines have built to protect themselves. If the rebels only **think** that their minds have been freed, then the Architect can control and manage the rebellion, which he has apparently done through six iterations.

This explains most of the seeming "rules changes" between the first and second film. Agent Smith is able to enter the "real world" because he's still operating within a computer construct. It explains why Neo is able to sense the Sentinals and stop them-- because they're still just programs, just as he is. It explains why Morpheus is able to exit a door and return to his ship without going through a hard line.

So in the third film, Neo will realize that Zion is a computer construct, and be able to operate in "superhero" mode to save it and to destroy the Matrix in its larger, macro-version. The trilogy will end with humans finally, truly "free" for the first time since the machines took over.

That's my theory... what do you think?”

TOODLES takes the idea of “what is real” to a rather fascinating, more complex place:  “I noticed an obvious thematic focus on duality and layers (a building within a building, a system within a system, etc.). Perhaps The Sixth Matrix is built within the Fifth Matrix and so on. Therefore, Neo is just realizing (at the end when he stops the Sentinels) that he is in yet another Matrix.

I realize that destroying all six Matrices (and I refuse to pluralize it by anything other than its proper plural) in the last film is going to be a hell of a lot of plot to get through, but I believe it's possible.”

AGENT SMITH

ISY made the case for an unexplained, but very clearly intended event in Reloaded:  “Neo is the Christ figure, Agent Smith is obviously the AntiChrist.  I think he cut two slashes into his hand before trying to kill Neo in the real world, signifying the number 11, the number of the AntiChrist in the Bible.  When Smith shakes Neo's hand maybe that is the source of Neo's power at the end of the movie in the real world.”

NOT AVRIL LEVIGNE writes:  “I think that in revolutions smith will be unplugged from life support and the matrix will be flawless.”

 

THEORIES ON NEO

ODAMA adds to the Neo issue with a look backwards:  “The Oracle believed in Neo just fine.  I read an interpretation that suggested that Neo had to die (bullet, 1st movie) and start his next life before he could be The One.  "Your next life, perhaps."  Also, technically, she never said "you're not the One."  She led Neo, and Neo made his own conclusion, and she said "sorry kiddo.  You've got the gift, but..."  Also, when she said (in 1) that Neo would have to make a choice, his life or Morpheus's, she was right... one of them died.  But this is all old, Matrix 1 news.”

ZAAAAAA writes:  “I believe there is significance in the comparison Neo makes between Agent Smith's attempt at infecting him and his  "death" in the first movie. The

point of Agent Smith as a virus is to rewrite/manipulate the code/consciousness of whom he sees fit. If Neo thought that his death felt the same as Agent Smith trying to rewrite his consciousness, then who is to say that Neo was not significantly altered by the machines after his death in the first movie. After all, it was only after his death that he was able to see the Matrix code and understand it and fully manipulate the world around him. Furthermore, Matrix Reloaded comments (I believe it was the architect) on how Neo's consciousness has changed slightly. Not to mention all the Oracle's cryptic conversations about him not being the one, waiting for another lifetime, got the gift, etc.

My bet is that part of what made Neo human was lost when he died, and the machines overwrote him with something more parallel with their own goals. If their "the One" is a work in progress, as evidenced by the idea that it is assimilated into the Matrix after restarting Zion, then perhaps they inserted it into Neo at the point of death? This is reincarnation, is it not?”

WINTER OF HIS CONTENT writes: “I think there is a HUGE point that has not been touched on.  I think it’s clear regarding Neo anyway, that this all has to do with enlightenment. 

Neo is the One, but he is not fully enlightened.  Not yet anyhow.   Buddhism/Taoism has been a big influence on the Wachowskis.  Lots of people seems to believe the good yet obvious argument that the Matrix is symbolic for our current state in this world, and we can be “awakened” towards realizing our full human potential. 

Okay, so let’s look at what enlightenment is with respects to Buddhism/Taoism (and most Western philosophy).   It’s perfection.  Pure perfection.  One can never be wrong because you know all that has passed and all that is to come.  One has a full and perfect understanding of causality and defies it. 

With Neo, he has the gift, but he’s not quite perfect yet.  Remember, he bleeds in that fight against Merovingian’s bodyguards.  Also, in that brilliant scene with the Architect, we see all his thoughts in the back of the television screen.  They are disjointed, a mishmash of emotions, not collected and focused as One.  He’s still confused. 

Now in the end, in the “real world” Neo stops the sentinels.  How?  Well, enlightenment certainly doesn’t just apply to when you’re in the Matrix.  It’s a pure and clear state of mind.  It must apply outside as well as inside.  And Neo is beginning to realize that his power need not apply only to the world inside the Matrix.  He’s finding himself.   

There are other little touches pointing toward this.  I love how fluid he moves now.  Also it that scene with the Architect, even though he’s a experiencing a flood of emotion he still keeps cool, never getting out of hand.  The way he sees the Matrix is also a neat touch.  He’s witnessing casualty itself and is beginning to understand it.  Very nice.”

 

PHILOSOPHY 101

P-CO writes:  “I understand exactly what the Wachowski Brothers are doing.

Like many people, back in College I took classes in philosophy. One common exercise in philosophy class is to play "Devil's Advocate" and challenge seemingly obvious assumptions about one's existence. This usually involves fantasizing scenarios in which the assumption is false. What the Wachowski Brothers have done is take these fantasy scenarios and have made them into entertainment.

The Matrix was about challenging the nature of reality, a philosophical exercise going back to Plato's allegory of the cave. The Matrix Reloaded is about the nature of choice and freedom.

We get a lecture from The Oracle about choice, and a lecture about why we choose.

Then Smith comes on the scene and discusses "purpose" as the solitary reason for our choices. It seems to me that Smith is only fighting Neo and humans because he believe it is his purpose to do so.

Then we meet the Merovingian who discusses cause and effect, how one choice has consequences that affect others. He then demonstrates how one can use cause and effect to control outcomes, leading to the idea that maybe we do not have all the choices we think we have. By keeping the keymaster, he is attempting to change the outcome of the future.

Finally, we meet the Architect who says basically that the outcomes are always inevitable, that freedom is an illusion, a view often expressed in "Devil's Advocate" exercises, just like the view that reality is an illusion as expressed in The Matrix.

Then there is this whole idea about prophecy. When a prophecy is good, we want it to come true. Prophecies of doom we want to avoid. But, it is easy to see that sometimes avoiding a gloomy prophecy, will be the very thing that makes it come to pass. What about the contrapositive, could trying to make a good prophecy come true ultimately cause it not to come true? Then ultimately prophecies are no more valuable to us than wishes, and that is the lesson of Morpheus.

What then is Neo? There is this hypothesis bandied about in mathematics that a system with enough complexity may ultimately become self aware and develop a conscience. Some believe that the humanity's awareness of the universe and its complex nature makes us (and any other intelligent life out there) the inevitable conscience of the universe. Maybe Neo is the inevitable conscience of the Matrix itself. That is why he can control machines outside of the matrix, because he is the matrix, and therefore connected directly to the same computer that controls the machines. He apparently inadvertently gave this ability to Smith.

Matrix Reloaded is ultimately a movie that you have to think about in order to understand. The box office has not been kind to such films in the past, Adaptation being the most recent example, but history is often much kinder. Which films do you most vividly remember: the films that entertained you or the films that challenged you to think? Reloaded is in the latter category for me.”

Tomorrow - What about the Merovingian?  And more…

 

PHYSICIAN HEAL THYSELF
The New Yorker & The Matrix Reloaded ...

What Would Neo Do ...||||....Character Arcs (spoilers)
Review ... |||.....Spoilers ..