Are you pissed? Pretty upset and angry? Do you feel duped? With a $24 million dollar opening day gross it’s obvious that despite mixed reactions to the sequel The Matrix Reloaded, moviegoers were still interested in how the trilogy would come to a conclusion with The Matrix Revolutions. But did the story actually conclude? Is this really the end? Producer Joel Silver has endlessly stated that the Wachowski Brothers would bring the saga to a close with the third film and that all questions would be answered. So why is it that hours after it’s opening the film has been met with so many harsh reactions? Some downright nasty. From the internet to the media to word of mouth on the street people are saying that the film stinks and that the entire story really ended with the original film four years ago. Its gotten so bad that I’ve heard and even witnessed several moviegoers waiting till after the film’s end credits in hope that there would be more. Even discussions amongst exiting moviegoers over alternative endings. I’m not kidding.
In my original review I stated my dissatisfaction with the film and how its so-called conclusion broke my heart. I understood why the movie ended the way it did and the meaning of the trilogy’s entire story, but felt that the Wachowski Brothers were making the material too heavy for moviegoers and in essence alienating them. The original Matrix was never a masterpiece but it struck a chord and was popular and successful because it transcended cultures as well as genres. For once an action adventure film made people’s brains pop not for its visual effects but for its metaphysics. It’s true that the pioneering “bullet time” effect was the initial hook that got butts into seats but the story is what kept them there.
The sequels are indeed superior to the original in every way except for the advancement of the story itself. People seek out sequels because they want to relive the original experience but with the Matrix sequels the Wachowski Brothers took an idea with limitless potential and weighed it down with elements copied from dozens of genres. They became over-bloated messes and ultimately pretentious jokes. As difficult as it may be to believe there is in fact a brilliant story and structure to the entire series, animated shorts, video games and all. What’s sad is that even though audiences like to think for themselves they don’t like to do it to the point of frustration and confusion and that’s exactly what the Wachowski Brothers have done. The meaning of the entire series is indeed a brilliant idea, it’s just that these are movies after all and we like ideas and puzzles given to us in an entertaining way.
Please be advised that from this point on I’m going to discuss the entire Matrix series, spoilers and all. So if you have not seen the final installment, Revolutions I suggest you stop reading right now and click on my spoiler free “Blue Pill Review.” You’ve been warned.
The Second Renaissance
To understand The Matrix Revolutions we’re gonna have to go all the way back to the beginning. A time that was shown in the superior Animatrix shorts “The Second Renaissance Parts I & II. In the beginning there was man. Then man created machines. Designed in man’s likeness the machines served man well, but man’s jealous nature ruined that relationship. When a worker robot killed one of its own abusive masters it was placed on trial for murder and sentenced for destruction. This incident was the spark that ignited a fuse that would burn for centuries. Humans began rioting and destroying many machines. The machines were eventually allowed to create a nation of their own, separate from areas inhabited by humans. That nation was created as a machine city known as 01 or Zero-One. Despite the aggression of their former masters and creators towards them the machines still wished to do commerce with man and began production of the many tools and devices that man needed. But the machines proved to be more efficient than their creators and their own economy began to flourish better than mankind’s. Seeking a better relationship with man and hoping to be accepted as an independent nation the machines petitioned to join the United Nations but were ultimately refused and found themselves under attack. A war had begun.
As the war progressed, man realized that they might ultimately lose to their superior creations. To end the threat the military devised “Operation Nightfall”, the “scorching” of the skies, eliminating the machines’ power source, the sun. Ironically man also used machine technology to do this and engaged in warfare on the battlefield. The machines had studied the fragile nature of the human body and were able to come up with biological weapons of their own. Ultimately man and machine had destroyed the world they lived in and barely survived. No longer dependent on the sun as a power source, the machines came to the conclusion that they would have to begin a symbiotic relationship with their enemy. “Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it,” an insect-like representative tells the United Nations just before self-destructing and wiping out New York with a nuclear blast. The machines could survive off of human generated power and in return mankind would no longer have to suffer in a ravaged world but a computer generated dream. The Matrix was created.
The Matrix
As the Architect told Neo in Reloaded when he first designed the Matrix it was “…quite naturally perfect, it was a work of art, flawless, sublime.” It was destined to fail because as Agent Smith said to Morpheus “…human beings defined their reality through misery and suffering.” Human minds could not accept the program and therefore “…entire crops were lost.” The Architect was then forced to redesign the Matrix “…based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature.” But failure soon frustrated the Architect because the new equation of the Matrix was unbalanced and the answer that eluded him “…required a lesser mind perhaps less bound by the parameters of perfection.” That lesser mind was an intuitive program: The Oracle. She came to the conclusion that 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program as long as they were given a choice, even if they were aware of it at an unconscious level. It was an answer that functioned, but was ultimately flawed creating a systemic anomaly. The Architect discovered that the 0.1% of subjects that refused the program (the human resistance) would threaten the system if left unchecked so the Oracle helped devise a form of control: the One. Just as the Matrix was a form of control for people plugged into pods, the One would be a form of control for the resistance in the real world.
Since the machines were able to grow humans for use as batteries it was decided that a special human would be designed to carry the anomalous code. This human would be designed physically and mentally to interface with the Matrix differently than the average human would. It would enable him or her to have special powers within the Matrix and gain the support of the human resistance. The plan was for the Oracle to guide those that resisted the program to the One and accept him as their savior, a person who could save and free the human race from slavery. Through her ability to predict the future (which is really her analyzing of equations to an outcome) the Oracle would guide the One to the source and the One would be given a choice to save Zion from its eventual destruction and temporarily reinsert the prime program it carried back into the Matrix. The Matrix would be reloaded and a new version would start. At the same time the machines would gain better insight into the nature of man through the experiences of the One to build a better Matrix. Even though Zion would be destroyed the One would be allowed to choose 23 individuals from the Matrix to rebuild it. That 0.1% of individuals that rejected the program would not be allowed to get any bigger. Five times this occurred. In fact many feel that the Oracle’s bodyguard Seraph was the previous One before Neo and that even though his physical body is no more, his consciousness was copied into the Matrix and is now used by the Oracle for protection. Seraph to Neo: I protect that which matters most.” The future.
Unlike the Architect the Oracle grew tired of this endless cycle and finally decided to set out and end the war between man and machine. “I’m interested in one thing Neo, the future. And the only way to get there is together.” She would again do her part in guiding the human resistance (in this case Morpheus) to the One and then guiding the One to the source. But the line would not be as straight this time. To complete the One’s journey to re-insert the prime program into the Matrix the machines and the human race would have to depend on each other for help.
The One was designed to develop an attachment to the human race so that when the Architect presented him with the choice to save it he would always choose the “door to the right.” However the Oracle knew that if the One developed an attachment to a specific person he may choose differently. Before Morpheus found Neo she guided him to Trinity, a hacker who shared many human qualities that Neo did. Before she even met him the Oracle told Trinity she would fall in love with the One. This was suggestion by the Oracle that set Trinity on the path to falling in love with Neo. Morpheus found Neo before they even met and since he believed Neo was the one Trinity began to study him. Cypher to Trinity: “You like him, you like watching him don’t you.” Since she was told she would fall in love with him she eventually did. All of this was oblivious to Neo who didn’t even know who Trinity was or how she felt when they first met.
After Neo was freed from the Matrix, Morpheus brought him to see the Oracle. She could have just told him flat out that he was the One, but knew it was something he’d have to work for. Do you tell a child he doesn’t have to study or work a day in its life because it will inherit a fortune anyway? (Unless your last name is Hilton. Just kidding) The Oracle knows that Morpheus would eventually wind up in danger and that Neo would have to save him, setting up the bond between the three of them. But to start him down the right path she tells him Morpheus’ fate and gives him a cookie. “I promise you that by the time you’re done eating it you’ll feel right as rain.” But, this isn’t an ordinary cookie, it’s an upgrade to his program. Remember how in Reloaded the Merovingian was able to put “Spanish Fly” in a pastry? Well the Oracle did something similar to Neo. She may have even placed the replicating program for Agent Smith in the cookie. When Neo is killed by Agent Smith he is reborn by the love of Trinity who is know convinced who Neo is and what he means to her.
The Matrix Reloaded
In part two of the story the machines have found Zion and are seeking it out for destruction. The human threat has grown too large and the cycle must end so that it may begin again. The Architect (whose been watching Neo on his TV screens from day one) knows that the Oracle is guiding Neo to the source and that the prime program will be temporarily re-inserted again to reload the Matrix for a sixth time. What they don’t know is that the Oracle has a plan for Neo to choose differently. When the Oracle meets with Neo again she offers him candy. Perhaps another upgrade to his program. She also knows that Trinity will end up in danger and Neo will choose her over Reloading the Matrix. She’s also aware that Neo’s interaction with the Architect will upgrade his implants and his program enabling him to stop those sentinels at the film’s conclusion and temporarily touch the power of the source. He’s not ready yet and for the meantime will discover that he’s gained the ability to separate his mind from his body and jack himself in on his own.
The Matrix Revolutions
When Neo awakens in the Mobil Ave subway station of the Trainman he meets the programs Rama Kandra, his wife Kamala and their daughter Sati. Rama and his wife aren’t just programs like the Merovingian and Persephone, but machines from the real world plugged into the Matrix. Machines can jack in. This was touched upon in Peter Chung’s wonderful Animatrix short “Matriculated.” They often plug in and take the guise of humans to insure the operation of the system. From their studies of humans and the previous Reloads of the system many machine have grown to love. Together Rama and Kamala created offspring, a program in the form of their daughter. But Sati serves no purpose and if they don’t send her away the machines will delete her. So they made a deal with the Merovingian for Sati to live with the Oracle. This act touches Neo who realizes that the machines are not evil but as capable of love as humans are.
Neo doesn’t have his powers because he’s not in the Matrix and his software cannot interact with this form of limbo. The Merovingian hoped this would happen because he too knew that Neo would walk out on the Architect. He knew of Neo’s attachment to Trinity because his wife Persephone told him. The Merovingian himself is an interesting character, representing Hades, God of the Underworld “a trafficker of information.” You see the machines have allowed the Merovingian’s secret society to exist because he is harmless and can be called upon for all the dirty little secrets and information they need, ultimately helping the system work. It’s possible he may be a previous One or was one of the first malfunctioning rogue programs. Think of it as the FBI calling on the help of organized crime once in a while. He’s allowed to have his safe haven for rogue programs such as the Trainman and the Twins and control of many programmer access points (back doors) so long as he doesn’t threaten the system. The machines must definitely share a relationship with him otherwise he would not have encountered Neo’s predecessors or survived a Matrix Reload.
It also appears that Seraph may have worked for the Merovingian but I suspect their previous encounter was due to the fact that Seraph was the previous One. When Neo fights him in the Teahouse they match each other’s every move to a standstill. Seraph does this to be sure Neo is the One. Also notice how when Seraph first shows up at Club Hell in Revolutions one of the bouncers says “Look, it’s Wingless.” or something like that. He’s referring to the fact that Seraph is now an Angel with no wings having given up his power to Reload the Matrix just as Neo was supposed to.
Let’s talk about the relationship between Neo and Agent Smith. The Oracle tells Neo that Smith has become his opposite, his negative. A result of the equation trying to balance itself out. Why did Neo jump into Smith to destroy him at the end of the original film? Neo probably doesn’t know why himself, but I suspect that he was drawn to him like a magnet. As soon as Neo discovered his powers he did this act. It appears that Smith was supposed to be Neo’s opposite all along. When Smith interrogated Morpheus in the original film he confessed that he “wanted out of this zoo.” He was already growing too human and was on the path to becoming Neo’s negative. He wanted to be disconnected from the system as evident when he takes out his earpiece during the interrogation. Smith’s fellow agents are surprised to see his ear piece removed (Agent Brown: “What are you doing?”) and if they suspected Smith’s true feelings they may have sent him back to the source for deletion from the system since he was malfunctioning. Neo was drawn to jumping into Smith because the equation was trying to balance itself. The replicating program from the cookie may have copied on to him as well.
Now that Smith is reborn like Neo with some of his code written on to him he doesn’t want to just be deleted from the system but shut down the system and everything else. His hatred for mankind is now equaled by his hatred for his machine creators. If Neo is the positive side of the equation then Smith is the negative with the desire to destroy everything. “I want what you want Mr. Anderson. I want everything.” When Neo is blinded by Agent Smith in Bane’s body he gets a grip of how connected to the machines he really is and can see them for what they really are.
Neo knows that Smith has grown out of control and the machines can’t delete him from the system. Having assimilated everyone in the Matrix, including the Oracle, Smith threatens the system, the minds plugged in and the machine world itself. The machines will lose their crops or powers source and eventually the virus that is Smith will infect them as well. To prove to the machines that peace can be reached with their creators, the human race, Neo makes a deal that if he can defeat Smith, a compromise will be reached. He needs their help to jack in because he still hasn’t mastered the ability to do it alone. Only after battling it out with Smith does Neo realizes that the solution is simple. Smith tells Neo during the final moments “What a minute, I’ve seen this before. You were laying right there and I was standing here. And I say, everything that has a beginning has an end Neo. Wait, what did I say?” The answer is it isn’t Smith who’s saying this but the Oracle who Smith assimilated. When Smith assimilated the Oracle in her kitchen he laughed hysterically because he saw her vision of him defeating Neo. He would finally accomplish what he couldn’t for so long and had made him so bitter: the destruction of the One. Smith has treated Neo with much disdain and never actually called him Neo. Smith is puzzled and scared because someone is speaking through him. The Oracle spoke this phrase to Neo before and what she was referring to was the war. It would end whether both sided survived or not. If Neo is +1 the positive side of the equation and Smith is -1 the negative side then when they are added together the sum is zero, which is what Neo does when he allows Smith to assimilate him. By doing so he has effectively opened a backdoor for the machines to delete Smith from the system through him. The machines are affected by Neo’s sacrifice and decide to recall their attacking army from Zion, ending the war and carrying out the Oracle’s plan.
A truce has been made but as the Architect indicates to the Oracle it may be a temporary one. Mankind has a habit of shitting where they eat and the Oracle will have to become a mediator between man and machine to ensure that they work together to rebuild the Earth, un-scorch the skies and live in peace. How long will it last? “As long as it can,” the Oracle says. The first step has been made, the rest is up to man and machine. Even though the Oracle can predict the outcome of variables or events she didn’t see all of this happening as she tells Seraph. But thanks to Neo and his dedication, “I believed.” “For what it’s worth, you’ve made a believer out of me.”
That s the best conclusion that I can come to for what the Matrix trilogy is all about. I’m sure it isn’t 100% accurate and the ideas I brought up were presented to me along with a few of my own. This is indeed a well-written story but the problem is it doesn’t t serve the characters. We’ve grown to love these characters and seeing them thrown around this puzzle is a waste. I understood why Neo had to die and liked the King Arthur like funeral the machines gave him, but is he really dead? Remember the Oracle told Sati that they may see him again. The Architect told Neo in Reloaded that AFTER he returned the code he carried to the source he would then choose 23 individuals to re-populate Zion suggesting that he doesn’t die from the process. Although the Oracle tells him, â€
