Matrix, by the Wachowski sisters: analysis and interpretation of the film.

Matrix is a science fiction action film directed by sisters Lilly and Lana Wachowski released in 1999. It is part of a trilogy made up of The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded Y Matrix Revolutions.

The film became an icon in the world of cyberpunk, science fiction subgenre characterized by the advancement of technology and the precariousness of life.

Summary of the movie

Matrix narrates the adventure of Neo, a young man hacker which is summoned by the resistance movement led by Morpheus, who fights against the domination of human beings by machines. Morpheus offers him two pills of different colors: with one he will continue in the illusion, with the other he will discover the truth.

The protagonist chooses the red pill and wakes up in a capsule, in this way he discovers that the human race is dominated by artificial intelligence, and lives trapped in a computer program and serves only as a source of Energy. Neo realizes that the resistance believes that he is the Chosen One., a messiah who will free mankind from the bondage of Matrix.

Although he doubts his fate all the way, he learns to overcome the simulation rules. He manages to save Morpheus, who had been kidnapped, and defeats Agent Smith after a duel in which he proves his worth as a warrior and confirms that he is the Chosen One.

Characters and cast

Neo (Keanu Reeves)

Computer scientist by day, Thomas A. Anderson hides a secret: he works at night like hacker using Neo's name. He is located by Morpheus and Trinity and discovers the truth about Matrix, becoming the Chosen One who will save humanity from slavery.

Morpheus (Laurance Fishburne)

Morpheus is the leader of the human fight against the domination of the machines. Having "awakened" many years ago, he knows the tricks of the simulation and is sure that he will find the Chosen One. Like a true teacher, he guides Neo throughout the entire narrative.

Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)

Trinity is a famous hacker that goes in search of Neo through Matrix. Although the agents underestimate her because they believe that she is weak, Trinity manages to escape from them and defeat them on several occasions. He accompanies Neo on a mission to save Morpheus, risking his own life. Her faith and her unwavering love for the protagonist is what makes him resist until the end.

Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving)

Agent Smith represents the authority in Matrixher, her responsibility is to maintain order and neutralize the actions of the resistance. Since he is part of a computer program, he possesses abilities that make him an almost impossible enemy to defeat. Although he is not human, he manifests emotions such as anger and despair.

The Oracle (Gloria Foster)

Oracle is a woman who appears to be middle-aged but, according to Morpheus, has been with the resistance from "the origin". Her power of premonition allows him to divine the future of her companions, predicting that Morpheus is going to find the Chosen One and that Trinity is going to fall in love with him. When she receives a visit from Neo, the Oracle tells the protagonist what she needs to hear to reach her destination.

Cypher (Joe Pantoliano)

Cypher is part of the resistance movement but hates the cruelty of real life and has a grudge against Morpheus, who showed him the truth even knowing that he could not turn back. He accepts Agent Smith's proposal and betrays the leader, revealing his location in exchange for returning to ignorance in Matrix.

Plot

Approach

The film begins with an action scene starring Trinity that serves to start the narrative. When he talks to Cypher on the phone while looking for clues about someone's location, he realizes that the line has been tapped. Later, the place is invaded by agents who find the woman, from behind, sitting on a chair. Trinity fights against everyone and manages to defeat them in an almost incredible way.

She then runs into a phone booth to answer the phone and disappears without a trace. The agents continue on her path and decide to go after the person she was looking for.

Neo, a computer scientist who works as hacker at night, he receives a strange message on his computer, ordering him to follow the white rabbit. Two strangers knock on his door and invite him to a party, Neo sees the tattoo of a white rabbit on the woman's shoulder and decides to accompany them. There she meets Trinity, the famous hacker that she has been looking for him, that she announces that Morpheus wants to meet him. He asks what it is Matrix and she assures him that he will find the answer.

The next day, while he is working in the office, he receives an order through a telephone that begins to ring. When he answers, he discovers that Morpheus is on the other end of the phone, to warn him that the police are looking for him and provides him with a way to escape. Neo refuses to jump out of the window and is eventually arrested.

At the police station, he is questioned by Agent Smith, who offers him immunity in exchange for him He confesses the location of Morpheus, and assures him that he is one of the greatest terrorists in the world. world.

The hacker he refuses and Smith makes his mouth disappear. Neo tries to scream, desperate, but nothing is heard. He is paralyzed and a robotic insect is implanted into his body, through his belly button.

The next morning, he wakes up in his bed and touches his belly button, believing it was all a dream. He is summoned to meet Morpheus, Trinity goes to look for him and takes the opportunity to remove the mechanical insect placed in his navel in order to spy on him.

Before Neo enters the room, the hacker he advises you to be sincere. Morpheus is in a room, in which there are two chairs facing each other and in the center a table with a glass of water.

Developing

Morpheus compares Neo to Alice, when he is about to descend into the rabbit hole and discover a new world. Say what Matrix it is a lie, a simulation created so that people cannot see reality. So he extends his hands to Neo with two different pills, one blue and one red, and proposes to the protagonist to choose between two possible paths. If he takes the blue one, he will wake up in his bed and think it was all a dream. However, if he takes the red one, he will know the whole truth, but he will not be able to go back.

The protagonist takes the red pill and soon begins to notice the effects. When he is transferred to the laboratory, he observes the matter of everything that surrounds him, even that of his own body, it seems to defy the laws of physics.

Suddenly, he awakens in a capsule, completely naked and with his body pierced by tubes. A spider-shaped machine notices his presence and throws his body into the water, down a kind of drain. But, before falling, Neo observes that there are countless identical capsules.

Morpheus' group rescues him and takes him to his ship. When he recovers, he discovers that this is the real world, where machines will have control of everything and humans will become mere sources of energy, trapped in the virtual world. Some "awakened" humans form the resistance movement, led by Morpheus and guided in the hope of the arrival of a messiah, the Chosen One who will save humanity. Morpheus and Trinity think that the Chosen One is Neo.

Tank, one of the ship's crew members, demonstrates that it is possible to connect with Neo's mind through computer programs and simulations, installing in a matter of seconds the ability to fight through martial arts. Morpheus challenges the young man to a duel that everyone attends, but Neo is much slower and loses. He tries the jumping program and suddenly appears on top of a skyscraper and Morpheus orders him to jump to another building that is far away, asking him to "free his mind from him".

The hacker he jumps but falls on the asphalt and wakes up, in real life, with a bloody mouth. Thus, he discovers that when he is injured in Matrix, her body is also damaged in real life. She also discovers that the agents who hunt down the resistance group are programs whose sole purpose is to protect the simulation. Morpheus guarantees that Neo will be able to break all the rules and defeat them.

Meanwhile, a member of the crew, Cypher, makes an agreement with Agent Smith and plans a trap to capture the leader of the group. The traitor assures that he prefers to return to the lie rather than continue facing the truth.

Meanwhile, Neo goes to meet the Oracle, a woman who is cooking and tells him, casually, that he must "know himself" and that he is not the Chosen One., because he is waiting for someone else. She also confesses that the teacher will sacrifice her life to protect him.

The group falls into the trap, Morpheus ends up being kidnapped and some members of the crew are defeated. Agent Smith tortures the leader to try to obtain the codes from the resistance base, Sion. The group decides to disconnect the leader from Matrix and end his life to save them. Neo tries to prevent it and enters Matrix To rescue him, Trinity accompanies him.

Final

Neo and Trinity enter the building where Morpheus is imprisoned, loaded with backpacks full of weapons and machine-gunning all the agents who cross their path. They use a helicopter to enter through the window into the room and free Morpheus, who is suspended with Trinity but both are saved by him. hacker. They manage to answer the phones in time and are returned to the real world but Neo is trapped in Matrix and he is obliged to fight the agents.

He is beaten, pushed against the walls, and his body is getting hurt more and more in real life. Trinity heals her wounds as enemy ships approach them. Neo dies and Trinity confesses her love for him, telling him that the Oracle revealed to him that she would love the Chosen One. She kisses her mouth and brings her back to life, rising in Matrix and stopping all the bullets making a gesture with his hand.

He fights Agent Smith again, this time with his arm behind his back, to demonstrate superiority and power. She lunges at his body and enters him, causing Smith to explode. The rest of the agents flee. Neo answers the phone and wakes up on the ship kissing Trinity.

Finally, we can appreciate a cybernetic message sent by Neo, with the aim of freeing new minds. We see how the Chosen One walks down the street, puts on dark glasses and flies off.

Film analysis

As intriguing as it is disturbing, the Wachowski sisters' film marked an era, not just because of the special effects and perfectly planned fight scenes but mainly for its thematic.

Matrix it is a dystopia, that is, a story based on an oppressive, totalitarian universe, where the individual has neither freedom nor control over himself.

In the play, humanity is trapped in a simulation, although it is not aware of it. This virtual reality, called the "Matrix" (or the model), was created by machines to keep the human species under their dominance and to absorb their energy.

In the style of dystopian narratives, the film has a critical and satirical component on contemporary society, magnifying its defects like a magnifying glass.

Released in 1999, on the eve of the dreaded "millennium mistake" that never happened, Matrix exposes the concerns and anxieties of a society in full transformation.

During the 1990s, the sale of computers increased considerably in the most important countries. developed and Internet access became an everyday thing for most of the population. The entry into this new world, together with technological progress, opened debates about the future of humanity.

In the film, humans become so dependent on machines that they end up being subdued by them, becoming in simple "batteries" that generate energy to feed them, and, worse still, their alienation is such that they do not realize that they live prisoners.

Follow the White Rabbit

Since the beginning of the film, there are several references to Alice in Wonderland (1865), a children's work by Lewis Carroll. Like the protagonist of the story, Neo is bored with his life and the world around him. Maybe that's why he works as hacker during the night, committing small computer crimes in exchange for money.

The hacker he is exhausted, sleeping on the keyboard, when he is awakened by two messages that appear on his screen advising him to "follow the white rabbit". At that moment, there is a knock on the door of his house: they are Choi and Dujour, a couple of acquaintances accompanied by some friends who come to ask for a service.

When saying goodbye to her, he notices that the woman has a white rabbit tattooed on her shoulder and, therefore, he accepts her invitation to a party. There he meets Trinity and they speak for the first time about Morpheus and Matrix. Although he does not imagine what is happening, Neo is looking and in turn is being searched.

Curiously, Neo is compared to Alicia: both are moved by the existence of a mystery and by the possibility of the existence of a new and totally different reality. Like the protagonist of the story, the hacker he decides to follow the white rabbit to find out what exists.

The names of Choi and Dujour can be translated as "Choice of the day", something that seems to mean that, however much the way is pointed out, it is determined by our decisions, by our power to choice.

When Neo finally meets Morpheus, the teacher compares him to Carroll's heroine, confirming that he is about to meet a new world that is going to destroy all of his beliefs:

I guess now you'll feel a bit like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

You may also like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Blue or red?

When they meet, Morpheus tells him that he has been looking for him and knows that Neo also lived in a constant search: "You are here because you know something. What you know you cannot explain, but you feel it. You have felt it all your life, that there is something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you crazy. " With confirmed suspicions of her, she does not hesitate to ask the question that haunts him: "What is Matrix?".

The answer comes in the form of an enigma: it is "the world that has been placed before your eyes to hide the truth from you." Morpheus offers him access to reality, to true knowledge, but warns him that the journey depends entirely on Neo's will. The protagonist insists on knowing what is the truth that has been hidden from him.

You are a slave, Neo. Like others born in captivity. You were born in a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind. It's something that I can't tell you, you have to see it.

Morpheus knows that he cannot, nor would it be worth it, to tell Neo everything that is happening "on the other side". On the contrary, each individual needs to see it with his own eyes and come to his own conclusions. Aware of the difficulties of life in resistance, and of the painful process of "waking up", he does not provide information to anyone.

Instead, he offers two pills that will lead Neo to different destinations, depending on the choice he makes. He also points out that it is a turning point, that it is a path of no return.

If you take the blue pill, end of story, you wake up in your bed and believe what you want to believe. If you take the red one, you stay in wonderland and I will show you how far the rabbit hole goes.

It is interesting to investigate the symbology of the colors chosen for the pills. The pill that will take people to the simulation is blue, a color associated with calm, peace and tranquility. However, the pill that makes you wake up is red, a tone that suggests passion and energy.

Red is also the color of Dorothy's shoes, the protagonist of the famous movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), inspired by the work of L. Frank Baum. Like Alicia, Dorothy was also transported to an unknown world when a tornado carried her from Kansas to the fantastic land of Oz. There she discovers that the Great Sorcerer is, in fact, a middle-aged man who used technologies (film and microphones) to deceive the population.

It is not only, then, through the color red but, mainly, by the theme of the film that is referred to in Matrix. After taking the red pill, Neo is transferred to the resistance laboratory, where they begin to tie him to different machines. One of the team members jokingly says:

Buckle up, Dorothy, because we're heading to the world of Oz.

The pill also allows Neo's body to be located and awakened, causing her to come out of the simulation and see reality for the first time. As he waits for the effects, he begins to see the world around him transform.

When she looks in the mirror, the surface seems to suddenly deform. As she runs her hand over the surface, she notices that the material becomes malleable, almost liquid, and begins to rise up her arm, until it completely covers her body.

Neo begins to panic, he feels her cold body and that he loses his senses. In the movie, as well as in Alice through the mirror (1871) and in other fantastic tales, the object has a kind of magical power, serving as a portal linking two different worlds.

During the experience, Morpheus continues to guide him with his speech. As if he prepared it before the "trip", he asks her if he ever had any dreams that he could swear was real. Next, he asks:

What if you couldn't wake up from that dream? Can you distinguish between dreams and reality?

Neo wakes up desperate, trapped in a capsule with tubes running through his body. He is weak, as if his muscles are atrophied. He observes that, all around him, there are countless identical capsules with human beings inside. Finally, he exits the simulation and returns to the other side.

The two worlds are shown, in the film, with filters of different colors that help the viewer to detect where the scenes take place. While the real world has a bluish hue, what happens in Matrix has a green hue.

This is the color of the computer codes that appeared in the computers, of the characters that make up the simulation. Blue and green, although they are cold colors, seem to refer to the lack of sunlight, clarity and warmth.

Welcome to the desert of the real

Neo's adaptation to the world outside of Matrix it is slow, the muscles of his body are not developed and his consciousness is unable to process all the information he received after being rescued.

When he thinks he's ready, the leader takes Neo to a lab where he gathers the entire team. There, he orders her to sit on a chair, giving her a visor for her eyes. Before the young man experiences virtual reality, he warns him: "This is going to be a little strange."

Neo feels a severe headache and passes out. He appears with Morpheus in a completely white empty room. The "teacher" begins to make objects appear in the space, including a television and two armchairs. So he shows her pictures of what happened and tells her the real story.

He explains that they are in the year 2199, although in the simulation they believe they are in 1999. Humanity lived in harmony until the creation of artificial intelligence. He manufactured a race of machines that declared war on their creators. Since the machines relied on solar energy, humans attacked the sky with chemicals, causing gray weather and a constant tempest.

Human heat became the source of energy for these robots and people began to be "cultivated" in large fields. While they are imprisoned and fed by tubes, their minds are distracted in a world dominated by computers, created to deceive and control them.

Neo realizes that he is participating in a simulation program that pretends to imitate Matrix. His appearance returns to the "normal" state: he no longer has a hole in his head, he is wearing clothes from the past. It is about your residual self-image, the way you think, project or remember yourself, even if it does not correspond to reality.

Morpheus continues with his speech, and begins to ask extremely deep and difficult questions to answer, such as "what is real?" He points out that we can apprehend it through the senses, which depends on "electrical signals interpreted by the brain." In this way, he raises a question that amazes all moviegoers: there is no way of knowing if what we are experiencing is real or not.

You've been living in a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it is today: ruins, storms, darkness. Welcome to the desert of the real!

Then the protagonist begins to be aware of the difficulties of life out there. For a moment he refuses to believe it and panics, tries to free himself from the machine and passes out. His reaction seems to reflect humanity's anguish at the breakdown of certainties.

The eighties of the twentieth century are part of what has been called postmodernity, that is, what emerged after the modern era. Marked by the end of the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union and the ideological crisis that ensued established, the time translates into an abandonment of incontestable reason and the search for knowledge absolute.

At the same time, by questioning "universal truths", postmodernity opens a space for new values ​​and new ways of understanding the world. This period was also marked by strong technological and digital development through the Internet, which brought new paradigms and approaches.

In 1981, Jean Baudrillard published the work Drill and simulation, a philosophical treatise that defends that we live in a society in which symbols, abstract representations of things, have become more important than concrete reality.

Therefore, we would be living under the dominion of the simulacrum, a copy of reality that becomes more attractive than the truth itself. The work seems to have been a great inspiration for the film, in fact, it appears in Neo's room at the beginning of the film and serves as the beginning of his adventure.

Considering these possibilities it can be disconcerting, living in the resistance movement seems exhausting. On the one hand, we can see that the truth sets these individuals free. From the moment they realize they are in a simulation, they can try to control it, change its rules, subvert that world, and use their plasticity against it.

This is what Morpheus tries to convey to his protégé, when he challenges him to fight for the first time:

You have to know that these rules are not different from those of a computer system: some can be controlled, others can be broken. Understood?

In this way, the revolutionary power that exists in this "awakening" becomes visible, capable of destroying but also of building.

On the other hand, the sacrifice that this path requires is undeniable. In addition to poverty and scarcity of resources, it implies constant persecution and danger, as it represents a threat to the established system. That is why Chyper, a member of the team, decides to expose his leader to Agent Smith to return to the simulation.

Declaring that he is tired of war, hunger, and misery, he talks to Smith as he eats a juicy steak and reveals his desire to return to Matrix. Even knowing that none of this is real, he chooses lies and unconsciousness, since he affirms that "ignorance is happiness."

In this way, Cypher represents madness, resignation, the end of free will and the total acceptance of the simulacrum:

I think the Matrix is ​​more real than the world.

Humans are a disease

Through agent Smith we can know the opinion that machines have of the human race, its enemy. More than hatred, he feels contempt for humanity, because he believes that it depends on "misery and suffering." In the scene in which he interrogates Morpheus, after the kidnapping, he tells that the first simulation failed due to the absence of pain:

The Matrix was created to be a perfect human world where no one suffered and everyone could be happy. It was a disaster. Nobody accepted the program.

He reflects on his evolution, compares the human being to a "dinosaur" because he is about to become extinct, and announces that "the future is our world." Furthermore, he claims that humans caused the ruin of his species and worse, the devastation of the planet.

Each mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural balance with the environment that surrounds it, but human beings do not, with you there is another problem, do you know what it is? You are a virus, yes, humans are a virus, you are the cancer of this planet. You are a plague. And we the healing.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the fact that it leads us to reflect on our behavior as a species. Although resistance symbolizes good, the liberation of the human species, Smith's speech highlights the devastating effects that our species has had on Earth.

Likewise, the narrative helps to relativize that positivist division between good and evil that does not seem to apply here. In the end, despite all that they are suffering now, they also oppressed and made people suffer in the past.

This is also evident in some moments of the interrogation, when Smith manifests similar human emotions, transmitting feelings such as anger, frustration and fatigue.

In this context, the line that separates humanity from the artificial intelligence that it created at its whim is blurred. At the same time, the behavior of the prisoners in the simulation can be compared to that of the robots that carry out their function without even realizing that they are being observed.

When he is showing the simulation for the first time to the young man, Morpheus stresses that the people who are aligned are as great a threat as the agents themselves.

The Matrix is ​​a system, Neo. An enemy system, but when you are inside, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The minds of the people that we want to save, but until we save them, these people are in the system and, therefore, are enemies. You have to understand that many are not ready to be disconnected. And many are so used, so desperately dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.

That is to say, for the resistance, the other humans represent the danger, since if someone "is not one of us, he is one of them". In that sense, knowing the truth makes them even more lonely, away from their own species.

As they cross the street, in the opposite direction to the crowd, Morpheus warns him to be careful with them, as if they could guess the betrayal he will suffer later.

A matter of faith

Although the mirror reflects the worst in our society, it also shows redemptive values ​​such as hope, sacrifice for the common good, and the fight for freedom. Throughout the entire film, we can observe the presence of religious symbols that are quite clear and known to the public.

The resistance awaits a messiah, someone who will come to save the human species. Neo, the Chosen One, would be like Jesus (son) and together with Morpheus (father) and with Trinity (Holy Spirit) they seem to form a kind of Holy Trinity, as in the Catholic religion. Although he is the young protagonist, his actions work in tandem with the rest of the trio, with unquestionable loyalty and total faith in each other.

The names of the characters also add meaning to divine predestination. Trinity means "trinity", Morpheus was the god of Greek mythology who ruled dreams. Neo, in Greek, means "new", and can also be an anagram with the word "one" ("chosen").

This symbolic charge is confirmed by the name of the place where the human race managed to hide and resist, Zion, or Zion, as the city of Jerusalem was known.

Cypher, who would be Judas, betrayed his companions and, defying the heavens, threatened to kill Neo's body while his mind was on. Matrix:

If he's the Chosen One, some kind of miracle will have to happen to stop me now ...

Then one of the team members who appeared to be dead manages to get up and shoot Cypher. Later, just like Jesus, Neo dies, resurrects and manages to ascend to heaven. Although only confirmation arises, the film gives several clues about the messianic character of the protagonist. It is curious to observe that when he works as hacker, Choi thanks him for the job, saying, "You are my savior. My Jesus Christ ".

To rescue his friend, Neo decides to take charge of his life, revealing to Trinity that he is being led by faith. Thanks to that he manages to overcome fear and does not mind sacrificing himself:

Morpheus believes in one thing and is willing to die for it. Now I understand, because I also believe.

Know yourself

In the past, there was a man who, although born into the simulation, could control it. It was he who was responsible for "waking up" the other comrades and creating the resistance movement. When he died, the Oracle, a normal-looking woman who manages to see the future, predicted that she would return as a messiah to free the human race from slavery.

Morpheus tells the story to him hacker, after rescuing him, stating: "I think the search is over, rest, you're going to need it." Even when other team members doubt the leader believes he has surely found the Chosen One. When he takes him to meet the Oracle, he tells him that "she is a guide, she will help you find your way."

In the waiting room of the house there are several people, of all ages, waiting to find out if one of them is the messiah. They all seem to do some "trick" that defies the laws of Matrix, showing the transformation capacity of him. Among them is a boy, dressed similar to that of a Buddhist monk, bending a metal spoon with the force of thought. The child tries to explain the event and ends up teaching the protagonist a very important lesson:

Don't try to bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead try to understand the truth. If you do, you will see that it is not the spoon that bends. But yourself.

That is, after being aware that they are living in a simulated world, individuals can transform the reality around them.

When he is finally called into the kitchen, where the Oracle is making cookies, Neo confesses that he does not know whether or not he is the Chosen One. She responds by pointing to a plaque above the door, with the inscription "Temet nosce", a Greek quote that means "know yourself."

Read more about Know yourself.

I'm going to tell you a secret: being the Chosen One is like being in love. No one can tell you that you are in love, you just know it.

The Oracle examines your eyes, your ears, your mouth, and the palms of your hands. Quickly, Neo concludes with a negative answer: "I am not the Chosen One." The woman regrets it and tells him that, although he has a gift, "it seems that he is waiting for someone else." Stating that "maybe in another life", and warns him that Morpheus believes so blindly in Neo that she will die to save him.

Although he predicts that tragic future, the Oracle does not give it as a certain fact, explaining to the protagonist that he can save the leader in exchange for his own life.

Once again, destiny and free will seem to merge in the film, and the Oracle says goodbye, remembering: "You are in control of your life." Thus, while Neo seems to hear a "no", in reality the Oracle warns him that everything depends on the will of the protagonist.

Even though the gift is necessary, he has to know its powers and believe in himself for something to happen. Neo can only be the Chosen One if he truly wants it and trusts in his abilities. To do this, he first has to convince himself that he is capable of fulfilling the mission that was assigned to him.

This is also the message that Morpheus tries to convey to his apprentice at different points in the film. When they are in the jumping simulation, he reveals a trick to dominate Matrix:

You have to forget everything Neo: fear, doubt, disbelief. Free your Mind.

The team attends Neo's jump, eager to know if he is the savior. When it fails, they seem disappointed, but Morpheus continues to believe. Later, he challenges the Chosen One to a duel with the intention of helping him unlock his powers.

You are faster. Don't think you are. You know you are.

The key to Neo's success lies in self-knowledge. At the beginning of the movie, when Neo is in the office and discovers that he is being chased by the agents, we can hear his inner monologue: "Why me? What did I do? I am nobody. "

It is curious to note that before "following the white rabbit", Neo already had a natural aptitude for breaking the rules. Throughout history, he has been confident in the importance of him for the resistance movement and the future of humanity.

Trinity and Neo

The relationship between Trinity and Neo seems to exist even before the characters meet. In the first scene of the film, while talking on the phone, Cypher hints that he likes to keep an eye on the Chosen One. The connection is then traced and several policemen invade the place, surrounding Trinity.

She stars in the first fight we attend and defeats all opponents in a second, with blows that defy the laws of gravity. When Agent Smith appears, the police chief says they can defeat "a girl", to which she replies, "all of her men are already dead."

In this way, Trinity breaks with obsolete gender roles, not only with her talent in martial arts, but also because she dominates the world of technology. She is Morpheus' right hand, the one responsible for watching over Neo and leading him to the leader.

When they meet at the party, she tells him "I know a lot about you." Neo, on the other hand, recognizes Trinity's name, a hacker very famous, but she confesses that she believed him to be a man. In this way, she confirms that the programming world was still dominated by the male sex.

When Neo decides to risk his life to save Morpheus, Trinity insists on participating in the rescue, thus she confirms that he is a key piece in the mission: "You need my help."

Guided by faith in Neo and loyalty to Morpheus, they invade the building and fight their enemies together.

Trinity ends up piloting the helicopter that saves the leader and they both manage to answer the phones in time and get out of Matrix, but Neo gets trapped and has to fight Smith.

At first, Smith manages to hit the protagonist and Trinity, from the resistance ship, takes care of his body. When Neo is out of breath and his heart stops beating, he pleads, revealing that the Oracle predicted, that he would love the Chosen One.

She orders him to wake up and thus confirms his divine predestination: "The Oracle told him what he needed to hear." At that moment, his heart beats again, Neo wakes up and kisses Trinity.

Throughout the narrative, the protagonist slowly builds his self-confidence. However, Trinity's love seems to be the encouragement she needs to come back to life and fulfill her destiny.

Resistance victory

Once he begins to train his protégé, Morpheus warns that one day he will have to fight the agents of Matrix. He confesses that all those who tried were killed, but assures that Neo will succeed: "Where they failed, you will succeed."

His energy, and his speed, originate from a rule-based world. Therefore, they will never be as strong or as fast as you will be.

Neo's triumph, then, is human courage, the ability to break rules and defy logic. When he finds out that the master has been kidnapped, he decides to take a chance and enter Matrix with backpacks full of weapons. His partner warns him that no one has done it before and he responds: "That's why it will work."

While hanging on the cables of an elevator to flee from an explosion, Neo remembers the Oracle's house and repeats "The spoon does not exist!" to remember that everything is just a simulation. Little by little, as he fights against the adversaries that appear, he becomes faster and more efficient. Trinity says, "You are as fast as them. He had never seen anyone move so fast. "

The trio's words seem to have a kind of power. During the rescue, when the protagonist yells "Morpheus, wake up!", The leader rolls his eyes as if he concentrates all his strength and manages to break the handcuffs. Later, when Neo seems to have died, it is also the words of his partner that make him resurrect.

When he gets up in Matrix, the officers start firing in his direction. Neo raises his hand, causing the bullets to hang in the air. It is the moment of Neo's consecration as the Chosen One, in which Morpheus' prophecy is fulfilled.

"What are you trying to tell me, that I can dodge the bullets?"

"No, what I'm trying to tell you is that when you're ready, you won't need to dodge them."

Here is the certainty that he is the savior of humanity and he begins to see the code that makes up all things in the simulation and breaks with the domain that Matrix had on him. When he confronts Smith again, he wrestles with one arm behind his back, showing calm and assurance. Finally, she lunges at him and enters his body, causing him to explode.

In his first conversation with the guide, Neo says that he doesn't believe in fate because he doesn't like "the idea of ​​having control" over his life. Throughout the movie, he will realize that even being predestined, an individual has to believe in himself and want to fulfill his mission.

As Morpheus explains, in the end "there is a difference between knowing the way and walking the way." Although he has won the first battle, the resistance still has many things ahead, now with the leadership of the Chosen One.

Matrix It ends with a message from Neo to the machines controlling the simulation, warning that the human revolution is coming.

I'm going to show everyone what you don't want people to see. I will show you a world without you. A world without rules, controls and without borders or limits. A world where anything is possible.

Interpretations and meaning of the film

Matrix is a dystopian science fiction film that reflects on humanity and the reasons that can lead to its ruin. It shows a hopeless future for humans, who depleted the planet's resources and destroyed the sun to stop the machines that they themselves had created.

It also looks at our relationship with technology and the separation of body and mind, which has been increased by the advancement of robotics and virtual reality. Released in 1999, the film warns of the dangers of a simulated reality that becomes more attractive than the tangible world.

The story shows that only through the truth is it possible to reach free choice or self-control. In this sense, he recalls that even in the most extreme situations there can be hope if someone resists and defies instability.

There is thus a clear allusion to Plato's allegory or myth of the cave. The story, part of his Republic, is an important lesson about freedom and knowledge.

There was a cavern where several men were chained to the walls, in the dark. During the day, they only saw shadows of the people outside and they thought that was the reality. When one of the prisoners is released, he sees a bonfire for the first time but the light hurts his eyes, he is scared and decides to return.

Upon his return, his eyes are no longer used to the dark and he cannot see his companions. Therefore, they think that leaving the cave is dangerous and that darkness is synonymous with safety.

This reflection on the human condition, knowledge, and consciousness seems to be the main message of the Wachowski sisters' film.

See also Plato's Cave Myth.

Matrix Trailer

Curiosities about the film

• Matrix, became a cult movie by mixing references from anime, manga, subculture cyberpunk, martial arts, philosophy, Japanese action cinema, among others.
• In addition to the film trilogy, the franchise also features nine animated shorts, Animatrix, and a computer game called Enter the Matrix.
• Actors Will Smith and Nicholas Cage were nominated for the lead roles, but they declined the offer.
• The film became a major influence on later science fiction films, making the effect famous bullet time, which plays back images in slow motion.
• In 2002, the famous philosopher and film critic Slavoj Zizek used Morpheus' phrase to title his book Welcome to the desert of the Real.
• After the success of the film, several theories emerged, one of the most popular is that the Chosen One is Smith and not Neo.
• The green code that we see in Matrix it is actually made up of sushi recipes in Japanese characters.

(Text translated and adapted by Marian ortiz).