The Matrix Explained???

AsSiMiLaTeD

Okay I get the basic gist of humans vs machines and all, but can someone help me out here? I've seen a few articles posted about all the religious symbolism and all that, but don't really get all that...

I'm just wanting a fairly simple explanation of the story through the three movies. I'm no good with symbolism and all that stuff, never did well in Literature, was always a Math and Physics person...

What the hell is the point of the movies...I was actually OK up until the last part of the second movie, then lost track of what was going on...

Anyone able to explain this???

AsSiMiLaTeD

You know what...Nevermind.

I think I'm gonna sit down this weekend and watch all three and see what I come up with...

I see the symbolism all over the place, but I feel like I'm missing something, so I'm gonna watch them again and see what happens...

Airplay355

the last part fo the second movie? u mean where neo goes blind but can still see the machines?

i think this is due to a special connection "the one" has with the machine world and the matrix. im guessing this physical connection can be a result of the humans being grown in fields by the machines. just my guess.

movieguy

just enjoy the special effects and cool stuff, you need to be up to snuff on about three religions to "get it"

Airplay355

i ignored all the religous symbolism and just tryed to get things to make sense in terms of science....seems to have worked so far lol

PolkThug

Polkmaniac,

Download the Animatrix, that will help you.

Regards,
PolkThug

**I didn't like the end where we just have to accept that Neo has superhuman powers. I would have been much happier if the "Real World" would have been an extension of the primary Matrix.

gmorris

I'm with Movieguy on this one. Just enjoy the movies for what they are. Great action, special effects and sound.

The story is not hard to follow. People are grown in fields by machines. Their brains are plugged into the Matrix, which they percieved as real. But, some people have been unplugged from the Matrix, and are fighting the machines with other Zion born people.

Neo, on the other hand, is a special human. How does he get these powers? WHO CARES! IT IS A MOVIE! PLAY ALONG!! If you really want to figure it all out, then go nuts and try to track all the religious undertones and references.

And as far as Neo having powers in the real world, BIG DEAL. IT IS A MOVIE. No one complains about Super Man or the Incredible Hulk.

I think the Matrix trilogy is great. Far better than LOTR. And nearly as good as the 3 original Star Wars movies.

I think the only trilogy that beats those three has got to be the Police Academy movies!! (ha ha, just kidding)

Billm57

I dont think the guys that made the movie could actually explain it...a lot of pyschobabble nonsense
Dont get me wrong I enjoyed all 3 movies but I dont think much of it was suppsoe to make sense

PolkThug

Originally posted by gmorris
And as far as Neo having powers in the real world, BIG DEAL. IT IS A MOVIE. No one complains about Super Man or the Incredible Hulk.

They explain the Incredible Hulk's powers (from gamma rays, etc.) and Superman (from another planet, under our sun blah blah blah). Neo, on the other hand is just "special."

That's where my point of view is coming from. Up until Neo showed special powers in the real world, the movie was more realistic.

Regards,
PT

gmorris

Originally posted by PolkThug
They explain the Incredible Hulk's powers (from gamma rays, etc.) and Superman (from another planet, under our sun blah blah blah). Neo, on the other hand is just "special."

That's where my point of view is coming from. Up until Neo showed special powers in the real world, the movie was more realistic.

Regards,
PT

And that is where the religious references come in. I'm not a religious nut or anything, but if you believe in Jesus Christ, you don't need an explanation of his "powers". He is God's son.

Neo is obviously comparable to Jesus, in the context of the movie. Was he God's son in the movie? I dunno, maybe. He has powers, and that is that. I agree, it is unclear how he has these powers.

faster100

Originally posted by gmorris
Hulk.

I think the Matrix trilogy is great. Far better than LOTR.

puhleeze.. :rolleyes:

The matrix is weird, unexplainable... and confusing to say the least.. me and my wife, couldnt follow the movie.. It was great action and effects, grant that!! But we opted out on a purchase after the rental.. and when revolutions came out, we said forget it..

gmorris

Well, I didn't like LOTR at all.

I inadvertently started a flame war here once about LOTR, and I don't wish for that to happen here again.

I respect your opinion if you like LOTR better than Matrix. I just don't like it.

faster100

Nah, your not gonna get a flame war from me, I never liked them type movies either until i seen gladiator... and lotr.. I liked them alot.. Matrix was cool in the special effects and sound, just didn't get "IT"

Shizelbs

LOTR has been well respected for several years also. Matrix really can't say the same even in its first years.

Frank Z

I said I wasn't gonna watch part 3, but I did anyway. Now if someone could please explain how the damn thing ended. The young kid dances around telling everyone that the war is over, how the hell did that happen? Who won? How did they decide to just end the war. As far as I could tell the machines were kicking the snot out of the "humans." The Smith program gets killed/erased/cold booted, so everyone/everything lives happily ever after? Huh?

I agree that sometimes you just gotta turn off the brain and be entertained, but in this case there are just too many holes in the plot for me to do that.

The little girl, what the hell was up with that? Mini-oracle?

Anyone?

PolkThug

Frank,

The program Agent Smith grew out of control and overtook the Matrix. The machines need regular ("pod") people to live out their lives in the Matrix. Neo made a deal with the source, that he would wipe out Agent Smith, if the Source would grant peace to Zion. So the machines get their Matrix back to the way it was, and the humans in the Real World get to live happily ever after.

Hope this makes sense,
PolkThug

gmorris

What PolkThug said is 100% correct. To further explain, Agent Smith is a computer program, not a machine. So, the original combatants in the "war" were the machines Vs. the humans.

Agent Smith comes along with the potential to destroy the Matrix, thus killing all the Pod people, thus eliminating the Machines source of energy. This is way bad for the people & the machines.

So, Neo strikes a deal with the source to erase Smith, thus saving the Machines source of energy. In return, the source calls off the Sentinals that are attacking Zion, and the war is over. Then that dork runs around screaming the war is over.

jdhdiggs

Originally posted by Polkmaniac


Anyone able to explain this???

Website courtesy of Ron-P:
http://wylfing.net/essays/index.html

gmorris

great link... i'm just starting to read it. lets see what it says.....

HBombToo

Originally posted by gmorris


Then that dork runs around screaming the war is over.

***:D LOL:D***

That about sums it up!!!

AsSiMiLaTeD

Uhhh...if the machines need the people to live, then how are they going to live with the new deal that Neo worked out...

So he takes care of Smith so the machines are cool and all, so then the machines quit attacking Zion...I see only one of two possibilities:

1 - Part of the deal that Neo works out is for the machines to not only quit atacking Zion, but quit using humans for energy as well...then how in the hell are the machines going to live? I don't think the 'machine leader guy thing' is going to make a deal that will rob the machines of their energy source...which leads me to possibility 2...
2 - The whole 'using the humans for energy as food' thing isn't part of the deal...so the machines quit attacking Zion, but they're still going to use the humans as energy...Well this one really sucks becuase then we're just back to the beggining of part 1, and we've made three movies without accomplishing anything...

I really hate to way the story carried itself out through part 3 for one of two reasons:

1 - One of the above possibilities I mentioned about the ending is true - and they're both just horrible ways to end the story...
2 - Neither of the above possibilities is true, and they just made the damn thing too difficult to understand by not offering a good explanation...

Either way I'm pissed...

jdhdiggs

Nope, you missed the point. If you could live in a perfect world and had all kinds of cool, superhuman powers. Could get any girl you wanted, etc... OR travelling around a frozen and barren wasteland, which would you chose? I'm thinking that people can come and go as they please as batteries making the matrix a cool VR trip. The machines get power, humans entertainment. If that doesn't work, nuclear power. Who cares about the pollution, the world is already FUBAR...

gmorris

PolkManiac,

If you haven't already read the essay that is contained in the link above, READ IT QUICKLY.

Yes, it is long. BUT, I'm about 1/2 way thru the essay for Revolutions, and it explains the ENTIRE trilogy.


Website courtesy of Ron-P:
http://wylfing.net/essays/index.html

gmorris

I have now finished reading both the essays contained in the link provided above. I will offer an explanation based on the essays.

The question has been asked many times how Neo has "powers" in the real world.

The answer is he DOES NOT. He has control over the machines. If you watch Reloaded & Revolutions again, you will notice Neo does not fly in the real world, nor does he do super kung-fu. His "powers" are limited to controling the machines. At the end of Reloaded, he stops the sentinals, and in Revolutions, when flying into the Machine City, he does many thing to stop the machines attack.

The explanation as to how he gets the ability to control the machines is given in detail in the essay, but it boils down to: Neo is connected, in some way, to the Source.

Again, I recommend reading the essays. Yes, they are long (13 & 22 pages) but if you really want to understand what is going on in the trilogy, these 2 essays clear up everything.

PolkThug

Originally posted by gmorris
The question has been asked many times how Neo has "powers" in the real world.

The answer is he DOES NOT. He has control over the machines.

Granted, he doesn't fly in the real world, but I'd say he does have "powers". Its more than just control. Remember in Revolutions when his body absorbs the huge hulking mass of the sentinel that gets on the windshield? In that scene he absorbs a physical object.

Regards,
PolkThug

gmorris

Yes, but that huge hulking mass is nothing more than a machine. He is connected to all the machines. I can't really give a satisfactory explanation to all the things he is able to do in the real world, but agian, read the essays.

Even if you don't agree with or believe everything in the essays, it sure is a better explanation than any of us Polkheads have come up with.


EDIT: Now that I think about it, the essays say something about the colors orange & green. Green is the color of the Matrix code, and orange is the color of the machines energy, or code or something. When the sentinal is absorb by Neo, the color of the image of the machine is orange. I suspect he has absorbed the energy of the machine, not the physical machine itself. He didn't do a physical act, more of an energy act.

PolkThug

I think I'll just stick to watching TRON.

gmorris

Originally posted by PolkThug
I think I'll just stick to watching TRON.

Don't give up so easily......

I had both essay read in two days, just reading during trips to the John.

(also, I just wanted to make sure you caught my EDIT in the post above)

Frank Z

Originally posted by PolkThug
I think I'll just stick to watching TRON.

Yeah, and then you could be just like this guy!

Shizelbs

Thanks for the link to the essays. I have read a page or two and can tell some good thought went into these.

gregure

I agree with most of what's been said regarding these films as a bit empty beyond special effects. The symbolism and byzantine plot seem more confusing and frustrating than enlightening. That said, I still think the filmmakers were attempting to convey some sort of subtext. I haven't seen the final film since I saw it in theaters, but here are a few thoughts I had in trying to piece together some underlying ideas:

Agent Smith was basically the Anti-Christ to Neo's Savior (to be religious about it), and in a physical (and perhaps spiritual) sense, they cancel each other out, which is what Neo realizes in the end. Agent Smith is the machines gone awry, trying to take over the entire Matrix: Machines gone power hungry rather than their previously exhibited survivalism. On a superficial level, this is what the plot seems to me to be attempting to convey.

Beneath that, and this is where the little Indian girl and her family come in, the machines, in finally deciding to allow Zion to be free, and thus to free the other humans who wish to leave the Matrix, are finally realizing that machines aren't perfect. The machines are realizing that there is validity to the human way of life, and to the appreciation of beauty, the experiencing of emotions, etc. This is why the beautiful sunset (created by the little girl--a new program) is so significant, because the machines (especially the Oracle) are starting to see that the reality they have created for the humans has more to it than just a facade, and that the humans deserve the right to exist and perpetuate the experiences and attributes that the machines, for all their perfection, were previously unable to understand or achieve.

Sorry it's a little long, but again, from what I remember, those are some of the thoughts I had coming out of the third film. It was way overdone, but it had its moments. In case anyone cares, I too am much more enamoured of the LOTR trilogy than the Matrix.