The Matrix Conundrum

I've finally caught The Matrix Reloaded a week after its huge opening. It was enjoyable, visually impressive and a fun distraction on a Saturday evening.

Too, I watched The Animatrix the night before and am very glad I did. Of the nine shorts, four are relevant to the feature film and answer many questions that occur to the average fan who is, at times, too keen to discover the ins and outs of the Matrix. The directors of the Animatrix are well-known Anime directors. Two are my personal favourites: there is Shinichiro Watanabe, who directed the cult series Cowboy Bebop, and Square, the people who give us Final Fantasy games.

The Second Renaissance Parts 1 and 2 provide the story of why the Matrix came to be and illustrate the violent wars between man and machines. Kid's Story shows how the Kid (the young eager fellow who greets Neo when he returns to Zion) extricates himself from the Matrix to wake up in the real world. Square's triumph, titled Final Flight of the Osiris, is just beautiful. Breathtaking. Its story serves a purpose - the crew of the ship Osiris discovers a huge number of sentinels digging towards Zion, and one member sends out an emergency warning, which leads to the photographs that Captain Niobe presents at the meeting early in the feature film.

Now, anyone who has watched The Matrix Reloaded will realize that for the most part, the film is a no-brainer - plenty of heart-thumping action sequences, special effects and gorgeous close-ups of the lovely Monica Bellucci. Yet there are several times in the film when philosophical riddles and provoking conversations take place. These pave the way for the viewers as they inevitably reach the bewildering conversation between Neo and the architect of the Matrix.

With a little help from the transcript of that scene and some interesting discussions with my brother, I've managed to write down an explanation of the deeper ideas presented in the film. My brother, an engineer, and I took a couple of philosophy classes during our college years, not enough to make us experts in the field, but sufficient to help us appreciate and understand certain concepts in the film.

If you don't want spoilers, stop here. If you want to know more, keep reading. Warning: this will be my most geek-style entry ever, so do bear with me.

If you weren't paying attention, you'd have missed the meaning of what the architect was saying. True, the fellow was talking too quickly, but he invented the Matrix, he's A.I., and that high a level of intelligence most likley suggests swift expression of thoughts and ideas.

In any case, there are two ideas presented here. One is choice - do we really have a choice? Cause. Effect. Can you stop what has been effected? The other is control - the Matrix controls even those who live outside the Matrix, the freed people of Zion.

I'll talk about control first. We learn from the architect that the Matrix is a flawed one. The first was perfect, but perfection did not sit well with humans because we are flawed. Many rejected the first Matrix. So a second one was created, an imperfect one to "more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of (human) nature" says the architect. The solution (the Oracle, a computer program herself, discovered this, by the way) to getting 99% of humans to accept the Matrix - they are given a choice, even if they are only aware of the choice on an unconscious level. This addition somehow makes the Matrix flawed and creates an anomaly that if left alone will threaten the system (the Matrix) itself. Think of a computer that any of us might use - if it has some flaw in it, however minute, it will hurtle towards "an escalating probability of disaster", which means the computer will crash. So in order to prevent this, the system must be re-booted or re-formatted (hence the title The Matrix Reloaded).

The architect is saying that yes, we got the humans or most of them to accept the Matrix, but we'll need to take care of that growing probability that the Matrix will crash. That anomaly needs to be fixed when it gets to a certain point. That anomaly is Neo. Or the anomaly has led to Neo coming into existence - "Your life is the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomoly which, despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision."

In order for the Matrix not to crash, Neo, the anomaly or the result of the anomaly, must return to the mainframe to re-boot the system. Re-boot the Matrix so that everything begins again. This means Zion must be destroyed, save for a chosen few plucked from the Matrix to awaken and assume responsibility for re-starting Zion, allowing the cycle to continue. For the Matrix to work, there must be a Zion, to give that semblance of choice to humans - Zion's existence provides the impression that they have a choice to be free of the Matrix and live outside the program. But Zion is a necessary exterior part of the Matrix. (This also deals with the idea of choice - is there really one?) The Matrix 'allows' Zion to exist because it needs it to, until the time comes for the system to be re-booted.

If the Matrix is not re-booted, then the system crash will result in the deaths of all humans connected to the Matrix, which, "coupled with the extermination of Zion, will ultimately result in the extinction of the ENITRE human race." The machines have already sent the sentinels to seek out Zion and destroy it, placing Neo in a real fix.

Neo is offered two choices - enter the source of the Matrix (thus re-booting it), choosing the 23 individuals to re-build Zion (it'll certainly be destroyed by the sentinels), thus saving the human race according to the enemy's terms, OR save Trinity, don't re-boot the Matrix, thereby forfeiting the chance to choose the people who'll make up a new Zion and allowing the human race to be wiped out by the sentinels.

All the previous "Neos" or anomalies chose nobly - they re-booted the Matrix each time and allowed Zion to be destroyed and re-built five times. Good for Matrix, not so good for the inhabitants of Zion. This time, the anomaly Neo chooses selfishly. Love. His weakness is love. Lucky Trinity. The architect tells Neo that his predecessors were "by design based on a similar predication in contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species facilitating the function of 'the one'." In layman's terms, this means each Neo is designed to believe he can and should save the world. He is "the one". What sets our Neo apart is his love for Trinity, which leads ultimately to his choice.

But did he have a choice? Choice is the other theme in the movie. The architect states "we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction -- the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion, designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason." Because he loves Trinity, he HAD to go save her, there is no choice. The French guy (the one who keeps the Keymaker prisoner) spouts it again and again - cause and effect. Cause - love. Effect - must save Trinity, to hell with the rest of mankind.

There is no avoiding the effect once the cause has taken place. The film focuses on Neo's gradual understanding of this - why he is where he is and that he cannot escape his fate. There is only the matter of whether he comprehends how and why he gets there. And there's also that other little matter of saving the world, but that's for the final film.

One may then think that the Oracle - the crazy old lady with the sweets - is a fraud. She deliberately led Morpheus and Neo and a whole bunch of people to believe what she tells them and to make those things happen. She told Morpheus he would find the One; he did. She told Neo he would end the war; he will, when he re-boots the Matrix. But she didn't tell him that by doing so, the humans will be on the losing end with only a small reward - their race doesn't get wiped out. It's the Oracle's job to lead certain individuals down certain paths. She starts the cause that will lead to the effect the Matrix wants. The Oracle doesn't really predict things out of nothing. She causes an event and knows the result. Her knowledge of the result or effect is her 'prediction'.

But you've got to remember also that it was the Oracle who told Trinity she would fall in love with the One. Maybe this 'prediction' played a part in Trinity's ardor for Neo, or maybe not. The important thing is that it is Trinity's love for Neo that makes him choose differently from the previous "Neos". If Neo's unusual choice leads to the collapse of the Matrix, then one could say that the Oracle caused this. Her prediction helps Trinity fall in love with Neo, that love makes Neo reject the choice to save the human race, his choice causes the end of the Matrix. So the Oracle is helping out, isn't she? Well, sort of.

The third film will show the result and reveal other answers like why Neo was able to exercise his power outside the Matrix. My brother came up with the possibility that what if there is a secondary Matrix? What if the matrix that is featured in the films is part of another matrix? It could be too much of a complex idea, so another possibility is that Neo's powers are evolving, or perhaps he's a computer program too (Ben, the designer I work with, came up with this theory).

I'd also like to know what Agent Smith's role is, now that he's a rogue program and no longer a part of the mainframe or Matrix. Note that he's now in disguise among the humans - he 'overwrites' one of the Zion members. The one who's cutting up his hand and who is the only survivor in the attack on the five ships at the end of the film. My brother explained that it's most likely this Smith spy who sabotages the defense, which leads to the sentinels slaughtering the crew on the other ships.

How does Smith overwrite the Zion fellow? Well, think of the computer game called Everquest, a role-playing game in which you can choose your character and load him into the game each time you play. When he moves, you see what he sees, you hear what he hears. The game engages two of your senses. The Matrix engages all of your senses, it is the perfect virtual reality system, you feel like you're actually in there in the game. In Everquest, you play the character who's really made up of codes, and on a larger scale, every human plugged into the Matrix is also in codes or a coded form. In the Matrix, humans view each other in graphical interface, just as Lara Croft appears as the tough chick she is on the screen. But she's really made up of codes which we don't see unless we're special like Neo who can views things in the Matrix as how they really are - green figures that represent codes. Characters like the Keymaker and Smith are programs. They're able to re-write certain things in the Matrix. Now think about the Sony people who made and maintain Everquest, they are able to view all the codes of the game and re-write anything if they wish. Likewise Smith can rewrite the Zion guy within the Matrix, and when the Zion guy unplugs from the Matrix, he takes with him what Smith has written over into his 'program', just as a Sony guy has the power to alter your character in Everquest.

Someone asked how those fighting twins can go all translucent and pass through cars and people and the like. I don't have the real answer but here's my theory. They too are programs with certain abilities. Now two years ago, I had a whoop of a time playing the game Alice, by American McGee, a dark violent version of Wonderland that occurs when Alice is admitted into an asylum in the real world. (Coincidentally, Alice in Wonderland is a motif featured in the first Matrix movie.) I found a couple of cheat codes, one which allowed my Alice to fly and move through almost everything. She stayed in the brook - for as long as I wished - without drowning, she could move up or down through floors - it was wonderful. I soon discovered that it was more interesting to explore the landscape of the program than to limit myself to the graphical interface of Wonderland. At one point, I moved Alice vertically through all the stairs and ceilings until she reached a dark sky decked with stars. She floated there while the real landscape remained below, the only landscape she was permitted to explore if I hadn't used the cheat code. Well, I imagine that the twins in the Matrix were able to do something like what I did for my Alice. They can break the rules of the Matrix or certain rules just don't apply to them.

I've written a very long post, but I wouldn't say I'm as fond of The Matrix as I am of other movies (LOTR!); and I'm not really a science-fiction fan. But I do like it when movies make you think and figure out plots and themes. A number of people have written off the film as weak, and with a convoluted plot. I'd suggest taking a bit of time and effort to understand the ideas behind the plot - there is a structure and meaning behind the chaos and riddles - or perhaps it's only geeks like me who go hunting for them.

Posted by Monoceros at May 26, 2003 12:29 AM