Frequently (or infrequently) asked questions - without definite answers:
| Question | Theories |
| Why are people used as batteries? Does that make sense? Why didn't they just kill all humans and use nuclear energy? Why not use other animals instead? | Human energy is "combined with a form of fusion" - maybe the AI came up with some technology we can't imagine today. But humans require energy to survive, more energy than they produce (you never get more energy out than you put into anything.) Morpheus said that they "liquefy the dead to feed to the living" but, how could that sustain a person for a lifetime (assuming a 1-to-1 body ratio)? Another possible answer is that Morpheus did not know the whole story as to why the AI kept HUMANS around. Perhaps they needed human thought because of its creativity, or used all the brains as a processor. From a draft of the screenplay: Morpheus: "They discovered a new form of fusion. All that was required to initiate the reaction was a small electric charge." |
| What exactly was the Oracle? How did she know all that stuff? Was she a human? Plugged or unplugged? Was she an AI who joined up with the resistance? | We were not told. The Oracle is one topic that may be the domain of mysticism instead of science. "And she's never wrong?" "Try not to think of it as right or wrong." The Oracle tells him what he needs to hear. She tells Neo that either he or Morpheus will die. This is true, Neo does die briefly. She never specifically tells Neo he's not the One, it is he who says it. |
| What kind of cookies was she baking? | Looked like oatmeal to me... anyone else? :) <<The script that I downloaded online calls for chocolate chip cookies that the Oracle is baking, but my friends think they're hash cookies because she mentions he'll feel better after eating them.>> |
| How do the AI maintain the illusion of time passing for the pod people? Is it always 1999? | The opening date of the movie is 2-19-98, and the end date is 9-18-99. Smith says that the "peak of your civilization" was the setting. Does the clock 'reset' for them occasionally, but their minds are controlled to not know about this? It's possible -- note how after the Agents bug Neo, he wakes up thinking it was a dream. I guess if that was all you had ever known, you would accept it. But, we don't know how long the matrix has been running. |
| What was the significance of Switch wearing all white? | She does wear black in her first scene, but stands out in white when the others wear all black. Her colors were switched. Other than that, maybe it just looked cool? :) |
| How come Apoc and Switch died when Cypher unplugged them? | "The body cannot live without the mind." Somehow, the mind/consciousness leaves when they get plugged in, and one needs a proper 'hard-line' (data path) to get back in properly. (I don't know exactly how the jacking-in works, but it's stronger than virtual reality as we know it.) The hard-lines were hacked by the Neb crew, to transport their minds back. |
| Why did Agent Smith want to get out of the matrix? He was just a program. | Perhaps he was developing emotion. Perhaps he was programmed to hate it, to make him meaner, or programmed to hate his life, and told when he finished the task (eliminating the resistance) it would be over. |
| What was Trinity's message from the Oracle? | "The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that that man, the man that I loved, would be the One." But was there more? "Neo, I wanna tell you something. But I'm afraid of what it could mean if I do. Everything the Oracle told me has come true. Everything but this." Everything as in what? My current theory is that she was referring to Neo not yet having faith in himself, thus not yet being the One. |
| But didn't Trinity say, "The Oracle told me that I would fall in love with a dead man"? | For some reason, a lot (A LOT!) of people thought that was what they heard her say during her "love speech". Apparently, "and that that man" sounds like "with a dead man." The actual words are, "Neo, I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that that man, the man I loved, would be the One." The captioning from the DVD is, "I'm not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I'd fall in love, and that the man I loved... would be the One." |
| How did Cypher jack himself in to meet with Agent Smith? | Don't know. We were never TOLD that you need an operator to do it, even though that was the impression. But since he would not be in danger since he was collaberating with the Agents, an operator to keep an eye on you might not be necessary. Perhaps he just ran a macro. When Neo walked in on Cypher and surprised him, Cypher 'casually' turned off most of the screens. He was likely planning his rendezvous. |
Frequently (or infrequently) asked questions - with answers:
| Question | Answer |
| So, is The Matrix worth seeing?? | <<Well, unfortunately no one can be told how good the matrix is, you have to see for yourself. Besides, more important than if you should see it, is how often you should see it. You believe one time is enough when in fact it is closer to 5 times. You'll understand later. ;-)>> |
| What city did this take place in? | The matrix-city is only given as City (on phonebooks, payphone, subway.) The movie was filmed in Sydney, Australia. The names given of streets are streets in Chicago, where the Wachowskis are from. |
| What was that bug put in Neo's stomach? | A tracking device (aka a bug.) A virtual representation of a program. Why did it have to look like a real bug then? I guess that's just what the Agents decided it should look like -- to intimidate Neo. |
| Why did the AI choose to set matrix-world in 1990s? | Smith states that a "perfect" world was created first, but the human brains would not accept it. He then says (somewhat sarcastically) that they chose, "the peak of your civilization." Yes, maybe it was the peak of human civilization, but it involves suffering, which humans need to accept the world as normal. Also, the AI would have had much more data for creating a world circa 1990s than they would for any past time. And, life expectancy is higher in 1990s than in the past (don't want your batteries dying off soon.) |
| What are those characters in the green matrix code? | Numbers, and katakana Japanese letters mirror-reversed. |
| How did Tank come back to life? | It's a miracle. :) (Cypher: "If Neo's the One, then there'd have to be some kind of a miracle to stop me.") Besides, he was only zapped in the shoulder and the side. Dozer was hit full-on, lunging at Cypher. Cypher had those current-conducting metal plugs. |
| How does Trinity's kiss revive Neo? | The brain does not die immediately when heart and respiration stops. Neo was almost the One, he'd not been affected by the first bullet, until he saw his blood. So, his mind was almost to the point of disbelieving the illusion of the matrix -- that he should be injured by bullets. He could feel Trinity's kiss or hear her words, somehow, which reminded him that the matrix was not real. Or perhaps it was just a coincidence, and he would have come around on his own anyway. |
| Why did they make the character Neo a hacker? | As the One, he will essentially be a super-hacker. Trinity had been a hacker. Theorized that the rest of the crew used to be hackers (note the computer names.) |
| Couldn't the Agents have killed Neo any time they wanted? Why didn't they have unlimited bullets? Why couldn't they make a building fall on him? | In the beginning, they probably could have killed him, but their goal was to find Morpheus, using Neo as a lead. Morpheus: "I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall, men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air. Yet their strength and their speed are still BASED IN A WORLD THAT IS BUILT ON RULES, because of that, they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be." |
| The Holy Trinity Theory | The three together (Morpheus, Neo, Trinity) are necessary to conquer the matrix - the three in ONE. They may have powers against the matrix that others do not. | |
| character | religious figure | explanation |
| Morpheus | God the father | Tank: "Morpheus, you were more than a leader to us. You were a father."
Also, John the Baptist, who heralded the coming of Jesus. |
| Neo | Jesus the son | Choi: "Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ." Neo dies, and returns to life. He is the second coming, sent to save the people. <<In the gospels, two days after Jesus died, he resurrected and roamed the lands for 40 days breaking bread, appearing to people to tell them about the truth of salvation, showing them the miracle of life, and on the 40th day, he ressurected, soul AND body up into heaven. In the Matrix, 2 minutes after Neo dies, he ressurects, and now roams the matrix and he is going to show the people of the land the truth about their lives and how it isn't the end, it's just the beginning. At the very end of the movie, Neo flies UP into the sky, which seems very similar to Jesus' rising up into the sky and leaving the earth physically as well as his soul.>> <<After invading the Agent's body and causing it to explode, Neo is represented as a BRIGHT WHITE light.>> The movie was released on Easter weekend (holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.) |
| Trinity | The Holy Spirit | Representation of love. Also possibly the Virgin Mary, as a nurturing mother-figure who facilitates Neo's 'birth' into the real world. Also possibly Mary Magdaline. |
| Thomas Anderson | Doubting Thomas | Doubting Thomas did not believe Jesus had died and been resurrected until he saw the wounds. Thomas/Neo is shot, does not feel it until he sees the wound, dies momentarily, and then believes he is the One. |
| Cypher | Judas or Demon | Judas: Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Cypher betrays with a celphone and a sneeze.
Cypher sounds like Lucifer. Demon: Visual cues: goatee, red spots reflecting in his glasses like red pupils (seen upon return from Oracle), when sitting on Morpheus with headset on, light reflects on headset like little horns. He was the only character to wear red clothing. Cypher: "Don't hate me, Trinity. I'm just a messenger." Satan called himself the messenger. Cypher's deal with the Agents = selling his soul for material pleasures = a deal with the devil. |
| Tank | The Virgin Mary? or Lazarus | Virgin Mary: Tank says he is 100% pure (er, old-fashioned homegrown human.) He acts as the communicator between two worlds. He is portrayed as kind and good-hearted.
<<He could pass as Mary perhaps, or even more specifically, the Mexican Virgin Mary (Guadalupe), a loving brown messenger sent to console and galvanize her people.>> Lazarus: Resurrected from the dead by a miracle. |
| The Oracle | The Delphic Oracle | <<All the prophets and sybils on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, including the Delphic Oracle, foretold the coming of the Messiah. >> |
| Zion, last human city | Zion, Biblical city | Psalms 48 - "Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge." |
| Nebuchadnezzar, hovercraft | Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon | Daniel 2-5 - <<Nebuchadnezzar was a historical king, but there are legends about him in the Book of Daniel. He has a dream and wants it interpreted, but he can't remember what it was! Daniel tells him his dream and interprets it for him. Later, Nebuchadnezzar is striken mad and wanders like a beast in the wilderness.>> <<My King James version of the Bible Dictionary says that Nebuchadnezzar literally means: "Nebo, protect the crown" (or the landmark.) Nebo was the Babylonian God of Wisdom. The madness part - it says he later recovered and acknowledged God's power and goodness.>> 2 Kings 24 - "In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him." |
Matthew 1:24, 25 - And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus. |
Neo is literally born into the real world from the womblike incubator that he's existed in all his life! The imagery in the movie is even symbolic of a birth - from an enclosed sac (complete with several umbilical cords!), down the chute of the birth canal into the world! |
Matthew 1:23 - "Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel", which translated means, "God with us". Christ was also referred to as: - the "Son of Man" (see at right and below in "Judas"); - the Christ of God, His Chosen One; and a host of other names. |
Thomas Anderson - The name "Thomas" can be linked to "Doubting Thomas", in that Neo never really believed that he was The One, and had to see for himself that he WAS The One. The name "Anderson" means "Son of Man", which is how Jesus was often referred. Neo's name means "new" or "change". That's exactly WHY he was there. Neo was expected to change things, to bring about a new world order. Neo is also an anagram: Neo - Eon - "One". |
Mark 3:14 - And He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them out to preach. |
Neo is brought into a group of people that are excited about his presence; that are willing to believe he is "The One". Tank: "If you ARE,.....it's a very exciting time!" |
John 1:29, 30, & 34 - The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is He on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me'. And I have seen, and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." |
Neo's way was prepared by Morpheus who fervently believed and proclaimed to everyone that Neo was "The One". And the Oracle told Morpheus that HE would be the one to find "The One". Morpheus: "We've done it, Trinity. We found him." Trinity: "I hope you're right." Morpheus: "I don't have to hope. I know it!" |
Isaiah 7:14 - "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel." |
Neo's coming was foretold by the Oracle (and THAT woman knows EVERYTHING!). Morpheus: "... the Oracle prophesied his return and that his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix and the war, bring freedom to our people." |
Matthew 4:18-20 - ...He saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And they immediately left the nets, and followed Him. |
There are two brothers in this crew on the Nebuchadnezzar. With Jesus, there were 3 sets of brothers among the apostles. The fact that there were siblings in this small group (especially brothers!) makes this noteworthy as a parallel. |
Matthew 26:15, 16 - ...and said, "What are you willing to give me to deliver Him up to you?" And they weighed out to him 30 pieces of silver. And from then on he began looking for a good opportunity to betray Him. Luke 22: 47, 48 - ...and the one called Judas, one of the 12, was preceding them; and he approached Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" |
The group is betrayed from within their own group by Cypher. Here, the Christ allegory breaks down somewhat in that Neo is not really the target of the betrayal as Jesus was with Judas (....if the Agents had only known!). The Agents, unaware of Neo's real importance, want Morpheus, and that is the deal Cypher makes - to lead Morpheus and the rest of the group into a trap where Morpheus can be taken. Cypher's reward: to be reinserted into The Matrix for a "better" life. |
Matthew 16:21 - From that time Jesus Christ began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. |
Neo's death & resurrection is predicted by the Oracle during Neo's visit. She tells Neo that he has "the gift", but it looks like he's waiting for something. Neo asks, "What?" And the Oracle (very prophetically!) replies, "Your next life, maybe!....." |
Matthew 12:40 - "...for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Luke 24: 4-7 - "...And it happened that while they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling apparel; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen. Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee. Saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." |
Later, Neo IS killed by the authorities (the Agents), and, instead of 3 days, in less than 3 minutes he is resurrected! We know that showing the passing of 3 actual days in this situation would've been impossible, so how did they symbolically represent 3 days? Neo is dead for about 72 seconds on screen. Those 72 seconds are symbolically 72 hours, and 72 hours = 3 days. Now,...what force brought Neo back from the dead? LOVE! The instrument of that love was Trinity (and not necessarily the person as much as what the NAME signifies in Christianity!). With that in mind, let's look at that resurrection scene.....(the) Trinity leans over Neo and kisses him (the proverbial "kiss of life" or "breath of life"!) and Neo awakens! And the first words Neo hears are in the form of a command from (the) Trinity, "Now,....get up!" (Can't you imagine God breathing life back into Jesus, and the first words Jesus hears are God's, "Now,....get up!") |
Matthew 28:18 - And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." |
After his resurrection, Neo's mastery of the Matrix is total, and the authorities (Agent Smith) are powerless against him. |
Matthew 17:2 - And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. |
After he inhabits Agent Smith's body and causes the Agent to explode, Neo is represented as an incandescent figure! |
Mark 16:19 - So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. |
At the end of the movie, Neo hangs up a telephone after telling the Artificial Intelligence that this is the beginning of a world with no boundaries and no borders; then he "ascends" into the sky. A very fitting end! |
Religious allegories
| Buddhism | <<The Matrix is actually a direct parable of Buddhism. One of the underlying beliefs of Eastern religion (and in fact what sets them in diametric opposition to Judeo/Christianity) is that enlightenment involves recognizing that the world around us is an illusion. Conversely, Christianity teaches one to follow the lord like sheep to a shephard, and - one could imagine the Christ myth as a programmed collective memory used by the matrix to keep massive amounts of the population in line. If this is the case, and we're part of the Matrix as we speak, would Eastern religion be made up of those who are beginning to get an inkling that we're all really pod-people? Makes sense... especially considering that the spoon-bending kid in line to see the Oracle was decked out like a Tibetan monk.>> <<Well, if one knows or studied Buddhism, he/she would realize that, technically, Jesus is a buddah...for being one means to be "the enlightened one." Many sects of Buddhism acknowledge him as such.>> |
Literary references
| The book | Movie correlation |
| I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream - Harlan Ellison | Neo's mouth is made to seal shut by the Agents.
<<The plot of "IHNMAIMS" is that after a global computer system becomes sentient, it battles with humans for control, and wins, and then takes out its anger by imprisoning some humans in an artificial world of the computer's own making.>> <<The bit where AM explains how much it hates humans parallels Agent Smith's last chat with Morpheus.>> |
| Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll | "Follow the white rabbit." "I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole?" "You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes." In the book, Alice falls into a hole which turns out to be really deep, she falls for a long time. Repeated mirror imagery ('through the looking glass') including a mirror covering Neo as he 'falls' into another world. Giant rabbits (movie Night of the Lepus) on TV in Oracle's living room. Red pill/blue pill: In the book, 'drink me' potion makes her big, 'eat me' cake makes her small. Jefferson Airplane's song, White Rabbit, "One pill makes you bigger, one pill makes you small." The Matrix, the red pill wakes you to a new reality, the blue pill makes you go back to your old life. Coincidentally(?) 1999 is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. "A generally pleasant year which will bring new hope to the lives of many"(!) |
| Simulacra and Simulation - Jean Baudrillard - "On Nihilism" | The book that Neo has discs hidden in. A postmodern philosophical book. Morpheus: "Welcome to the desert of the real" - quoting Baudrillard. From the screenplay draft: Morpheus: "You have been living inside Baudrillard's vision, inside the map, not the territory." |
| Neuromancer - William Gibson | <<Gibson presented the idea of a global information network called the Matrix, and the term cyberspace, a virtual reality simulation with a direct neural feedback.>> <<In "Neuromancer," the place that Maelcum is from is called Zion. Maelcum is a big, "all natural" rastafarian that wouldn't enter the matrix -- much like Tank and Dozer. * "Neuromancer" was the first book (that I know of) to use "jack in" and associated terms to refer to using a computer network. * The Matrix in "Neuromancer" is the same as in the movie; it was totally real, and if you died in it, you died in real life (there was one character, "Dixie Flatline" who died, and his persona was recorded into a "construct" (eh, ever heard of that? ;) and used by the main character of the book as a guide). * In "Neuromancer" you hooked up electrodes to your forehead to jack in; in The Matrix, you plugged it right into your brain. Users of the matrix in "Neuromancer" would strap themselves into their chair, so that they wouldn't move around too much while they were jacked in -- remember Neo jerking around during the fights with the Agents? * In "Neuromancer" the AI "Wintermute" was controlling the lives of a few of the characters via interacting with their electonic appliances, and they didn't really know it; hmm... AI's controlling humans? * In "Neuromancer", Maelcum flys a "tug" space-vessel... It's weaponless, and good for hauling people and gear around. Much like the Neb in the Matrix, I suppose.>> |
| Metamorphoses - Ovid | <<A mythological compendium in epic style by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso.>> <<There is another Morpheus, known from Ovid's Metamorphoses, plays no part in Greek mythology. His name means "he who forms, or molds.">> |
| The Tibetan Book of the Dead | <<On page LXIX: On principle, it would seem that in the case of entry into an unborn body such entry may made into the MATRIX in the same way as if it had occurred after a break of consciousness in death. On page LXXXI: This last is followed by the consciousness taking up its abode in a suitable MATRIX, whence it is born again as a Birth-Consciousness.>> |
Foreshadowing
| Choi: "Hallelujah. You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ." "Yeah, I know, this never happened. You don't exist." "It's called mescaline. It's the only way to fly. Hey, it just sounds to me like you might need to unplug, man." |
| Neo's boss (Reinhardt): "You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson. You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you." "The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Anderson." |
| In the bug-removal scene, Switch calls Neo "copper-top." Later, Morpheus indicates the AI's use of humans, by holding up a Duracell "copper-top" battery. |
Little details / references
| Ronald Reagan: Cypher is called "Mr. Reagan" by Smith. Cypher says "I don't wanna remember nothing." Ronald Reagan notoriously said "I don't remember" during the Iran-Contra scandal (covert operations.) Cypher says, "I wanna be rich, you know, someone important. Like an actor." Ronald Reagan was an actor before he was President. Cypher has traits of Satan. Ronald Wilson Reagan was referred to by some as Satan, there are 6 letters in each of his 3 names, 666. Cypher wishes to live a life of material decadence. Ronald Reagan presided over an era remembered for decadence, greed, and deceit. |
| Superman: Trinity 'flies' like Superman in the opening chase scene, soon after departs into a phonebooth. In the last scene, Neo exits a phone booth, then flies like Superman, with a long coat instead of a cape. Trinity and Morpheus both 'leap tall buildings in a single bound.' Also ref. Nietzsche's superman. |
| Sleeping Beauty: Trinity 'awakens Neo with a kiss.' |
| Keep clear: As the crew exit the loading dock of the building on the way to see the Oracle, two signs can be seen that say Keep Clear. Window washers make the windows clear while Neo's boss talks. These can refer to seeing things clearly, seeing the matrix as the illusion that it is. Which requires keeping your head clear. In the same scene, another sign reads 'loading area only' 'no parking.' That's the building where they 'load' in and out of the matrix, and it's not a good idea to hang out there long ('park'). |
| More signs: There are green 'exit' signs seen in most of the buildings when they are in the matrix. When the agents arrive on the top of the mmi building to find only the helicopter's tow rope, a sign on the door behind them says "Authorized personnel only." |
| As they enter the Oracle's apartment, you see a rack of collectable spoons on the wall (just before Neo meets the spoon-bending boy. And coins the line, "There is no spoon.") |
| The music playing in the background at the Oracle is "I'm Beginning to See the Light" by Duke Ellington. |
| When Switch says to Neo, "We don't have time for 20 questions," Neo had just asked approximately his 20th question so far in the movie. |
| The only time we see anyone "twinkle" into the phone is when the bum witnesses Morpheus. Also the only time we see that a human has seen this. |
| The name of the hotel containing room 303, which Trinity is in at the beginning of the film, and Neo is in (and shot in the heart, and his heart stops) at the end, is called The Heart o' The City. In the '96 screenplay, it's called The Heart of Chicago. That screenplay has Chicago as the setting. Chicago is the Wachowskis' hometown. |
| <<The smoking "Guns & Ammo" sign during the opening rooftop chase is an Israeli "Desert Eagle"... which just happens to be the exact same weapon the Agents are using.>> |
| When they go to visit the Oracle, Trinity's outfit has a distinctive triangle neckline (like an inverted v-neck.) |
| Cypher's red sweater has a hole right over his heart, perhaps symbolizing that he is "heartless." |
| In the subway showdown, there's an ad on the wall for Sol, a brand of Mexican beer. Sol means "sun" -- as in, the sun was blocked when the sky was scorched. As in, the light of the world (Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." John 8:12). A homonym for "son," as in son of God. |
| The TV in the construct is labeled AWA. A radio tower flown over in the helicopter scene bears the same logo. <<AWA is an Australian company,which pioneered Radio and Television in Australia. They were the leader in electronics, right from the early 1900s. The tower is, of course, the same brand, and logo as the TV set. The AWA tower was actually the tallest tower in Sydney up until the mid 1960s. AWA as a company, in this form (TV, Radio) is today, non-existent, but still operates in different business interests(including navigation beacons,medical supplies and electronic ICs) and using a different logo, which had been changed many years ago.>> |
| In the scene where Neo is asleep at his computer, which scrolls various news articles about Morpheus, one of the 'newspapers' is the "Courier New Press." Courier New is the name of a common computer font. |
| In the "agent training program" scene, there are identical twins (computer-generated I presume) that can be seen when the people freeze-frame. Why? |
| Mouse and Cypher both have mauled looking ears in the real world, but their ears look normal in the matrix. WHY? Obviously, there's no issue with the fact that they might look better within the matrix (residual self-image) but WHY would the filmmakers go to the trouble of crudding up their ears, and what was it in the real world that supposedly injured them? |
Technical
| Telephones | Only a "hard line" can be used to bring the crew in and out of the matrix. (Today, most people access the internet via hard lines.) These are data paths that have been hacked by the crew. How do they talk to Tank via celphone, or any non-hard line? The number they dial goes to a router that had been hacked, and is patched into Tank's headset (my theory.) |
| Jacking-in | Their signal/mind/consciousness enters the matrix via a hacked connection. "Dozer, when you're done, bring the ship up to broadcast depth." They broadcast and receive signals like a satellite does. They don't need a physical connection to the matrix "mainframe." |
Symbols
| Sunglasses | Indicates strength/vulnerability -- note Agent Smiths sunglasses, the scene where they are broken by a blow from Neo, in addition to the scenes where he removes them. |
| Mirrors | See Alice in Wonderland. Mirrored sunglasses, with deliberately placed reflected images. Mirror substance covering Neo. Mirror-like liquid injected into Morpheus. Mirrored images in the spoon in the 'Spoon Boy' scene. |
| Matrix code | Literal, green code trickling down the screen. Similar images: the trickle of suds before wiped by the window-washers, the rain falling on the car windows (when Neo first goes with Trinity), the water cascading from the machine-gunned office down the Mirrored building. Morpheus' black with green-pattern tie. |
| Neo | Anagram of "one." Means "new." Becomes a new person after being unhooked. He is also the new incarnation of another. He marks a new life is coming for the humans. He is "born again" via the symbolism of his removal from the pod/womb. |
| Thomas Anderson | Thomas: Doubting Thomas. Anderson: <<The Greek root "andr" (from "andros") = "man," therefore "Anderson" may be read as "man's son" or "Son of Man," i.e., as yet another Christ-reference.>> |
| Morpheus | Greek god of dreams.
<<In comics, Morpheus is the name of the Sandman, Lord of the realm of dreams.>> <<There is another Morpheus, known from Ovid's Metamorphoses, plays no part in Greek mythology. His name means "he who forms, or molds.">> <<Orpheus, a mythological character who journeyed into the underworld to rescue his beloved, Euridicye, from the afterlife.>> |
| Trinity | The three-in-one. See Christian allegories |
| Cypher | Means "zero." Computer term.
<<The zero part of Cypher's name opposes the Neo (one) acronym - The One... then, you get binary, computer language and the Identity Matrix in Math which is comprised of only 0's and 1's.>> |
| Switch | Computer term/tool. |
| Mouse | Computer term/tool. |
| Apoc | A version of the screenplay refers to him as the creator of the Four Horsemen computer virus. |
| Tank | Earth machine. |
| Dozer | Earth machine. |
| Agents | Smith, Jones, and Brown. Common last names. 'Agent' is also a computer term for an intelligent computer assistant. |
| Choi and DuJour | The goth couple who come to buy software from Neo. DuJour is French for "Of the day." Choi... choir? - he did say "Hallelujah." ;) Choice? To go out or stay home, to unplug or not? "Choix du jour" = "Choice of the day" or "Offer of the day." |
| Correlations with names of synthesizers | <<Morpheus - E-MU Morpheus synthesizers. Trinity - Korg Trinity synthesizers. Matrix - Oberheim Matrix synthesizers. As for numbers: 303 and 101 are Roland techno synthesizers marks.>> Definitions of synthesizer - "an electronic keyboard instrument that can generate reasonable imitations of other instruments." "A musical instrument (usually with a keyboard) that generates sound electronically, and allows changes to the sound parameters to simulate conventional instruments or to create entirely new sounds." |
| Clear parallels with Greek oracles: "An oracle can be a person, a place, or a thing. As a person an oracle is a priest or priestess who administers a shrine. Such oracles were considered to be in close contact with a god and thereby able to act as mediums to the god. In this fashion, Greeks could pilgrimage to the oracle in order to ask important questions of the gods and receive their answers....It is worthy of note, that despite the male dominated world of the ancient Greeks this role of direct communion with the god Apollo at Delphi was reserved for a woman....note that the god's answers were often in riddle form, amphibolies, requiring an interpretation....An amphiboly is a statement whose meaning is indeterminate in a peculiar way. The statement has an obvious meaning which is false and a hidden or concealed meaning which is true." "These oracular responses were notoriously ambiguous, and their interpretation was often only 'deduced' after the event to which they referred." The woman who answers the door at the Oracle's is referred to in the credits as Priestess. "There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: 'Know thyself,' and 'Nothing too much;' and upon these all other precepts depend." - Plutarch - Consolation to Apollonius The Oracle to Neo: "You know what that means? It's Latin. Means know thyself." Delphis is also the Greek word for womb.
Search ancient Greek texts "The Pythia, an elderly priestess of Apollo, was the most famous and respected oracle in the ancient world." "Pythia is an alternate name for Delphi." " Apollo spoke his oracles in the Sanctuary of Gaia through a Pythia who sat on a tripod fastened on the edge (stomion) of a chasm (chasma ges) from which issued an inspiring vapor (pneuma)." Tripod = 3-leg stool, chasm = oven, inspiring vapor = "Smell good, don't they?" Hmm? "...having entered her trance state by inhaling smoke from burnt henbane and/or other psychotropic substances, the priestess would then make her oracular utterances that were interpreted ..." Perhaps why The Oracle was shown smoking? Oracle is the name of a large software corporation. Delphic Oracle is the name of a company which makes computer game software. |
Numbers
| Neo's apartment: 101 |
| Heart o' The City room: 303 |
| Crew's license tag: AA 034 (AA, popular type of battery) |
| Agents' license tag: 70858 |
| Date on computer in opening: 2-19-98 13:24:18 |
| Date/time on computer in closing: 9-18-99 14:32:21 |
| Time on Neo's clock when he is awoken by the alarm (after having met Trinity for the first time): 9:18 |
| Phone number traced in opening: 555-0690 |
| Plate on the Neb: MARK III No. 11 / Nebuchadnezzar / Made in the USA / Year 2069 Mark III No. 11 could refer to Bible verse Mark 3:11 - "And unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him, and cried, saying, Thou art the Son of God." |
| On the 3 blocks the girls are juggling at the Oracle's: 3,9,V,Z,P,L,I,W |
| Phone number for City Boarding, printed on the walls of room 303: 555-0156 |
| Phone number on Guns billboard: 555-0161 |
| The building they land on top of after swinging from the helicopter is the "mmi" building. In Roman numerals, mmi = 2001. |
| The Oracle's apartment number: C960 (9th floor.) |
Music
| The song in the nightclub scene? | <<It's a remix of a Rob Zombie song called Dragula. The first line is: "Dead, I am the One...">> Don't think that line is heard in the movie though. |
| The song when Neo is asleep at the computer? | Dissolved Girl by Massive Attack, from the album "Mezzanine". It's actually #6 on the album, but on Neo's CD player, it's #5. It's not on the soundtrack. Lyrics in that scene include: "'Cause I feels like I've been, I've been here before (deja-vu?), And you are not my SAVIOR, But I still don't go, Feels like something that I've done before, I could fake it but I still want more." |
| What is the music in the trailer? (not in the movie) | The Eyes of Truth by Enigma, from the album "The Cross of Changes." The part used in the trailer begins about 4:05 into the song. |
Objects
| Where can I get sunglasses like that? | You can't, they were custom-made for the film. |
| What kind of celphone was that? | Nokia 8110i. Apparently. The spring-open-action was custom for the movie. The Nokia 7110 does have spring-open-action, but looks different.
<<It was a Nokia 8110. But, that's another way you can tell the movie was shot in Sydney, the phone could not be used in the US. I know because after moving from Sydney to Los Angeles, I found out that I couldn't use my phone (the Nokia 8110) on any US network because they all work on a different frequency to the rest of the world. Plus, it's digital, which is just catching on in the States.>> |
| What kind of car did the crew drive in the matrix? | A 1964 Lincoln Continental. In the Wachowskis' first film, Bound, a modern big black Lincoln is a prominent car. In both movies, the Lincoln is used in a similar-looking scene.
<<There is also a slight mistake in the film is the scene when Morpheus and Trinity are getting out of the car and Morpheus closes his door first (the front door), then Trinity second (the back door). This isn't possible since the rear door is a suicide door (reverse-opening) then if the front door closed first, then the back door wouldn't shut, since the front door overlaps the rear door.>> |
| What kind of coat does Neo wear? | It's a duster, I believe. |
| Where can I get clothes like those worn in The Matrix? | Sorry, can't help you there! Most clothes were custom made for the movie. |
| Is there no spoon? | Apparently not... On board the Neb, the crew eat their goop with sporks. "A spork symbolizes a dual existence ... Is it a spoon with fork qualities, or a fork with spoon qualities?" |
Symmetry
(by Terry Stewart)
Okay, here's a new twist on the Matrix (or at least one that I haven't seen anyone else going on about). It's not quite as out there as the numerology stuff, but I think it also shows the incredible attention to detail that went into that movie.
Okay, here's my theory: The movie is exactly symmetrical. The order of events in the first half of the movie is the exact opposite of the order of tightly related events in the second half of the movie. The first thing that got me looking at this was the fact of the call trace that occurs at the beginning and the call trace that occurs at the end. Okay, fine, that's not out of the ordinary: lots of movies do that whole "coming back to where they started" thing to give a sense of closure. The same is true for the fact that the beginning and the end both take place in Room 303 (the room the cops burst in on Trinity and the room Neo gets shot in). You even see the same mess of wires hanging down in the hallway outside. Anyway, those things really just point to the sense of closure, which, as I said, is a pretty standard thing in all literature.
But then I started noticing other things (after the 3rd or 4th time). Let's consider the order we meet the major characters:
Trinity
Agent Smith
Neo
Switch (in the car)
Apoc (in the car)
Morpheous
Mouse
Now, let's consider the order that they die or have something majorly bad happen to them:
Mouse dies
Morpheous is captured
Apoc dies
Switch dies
Neo dies (temporarily)
Agent Smith dies (presumably)
Notice a pattern? Now this isn't a perfect symmetry, since I haven't included Cypher, Tank, or Dozer. Tank and Dozer get killed (will, shot at so we think they're dead) after Morpherous gets captured, and they're not introduced until after we meet morpheous, so it's not quite perfect. But, they are "pure" humans, and so it's reasonable for them to be outside of this symmetry system. (Yes, that's rationalization on my part).
Now, as for Cypher... Well, I had a theory about him and I checked it out the 4th time I saw the movie. You remember the scene where he's talking with Neo ad gives him the advice to run away if he meets an agent? And then it cuts to Cypher meeting with an agent? That cut is within a minute of the _exact_ middle of the movie (I'm not sure exactly, since I didn't get an accurate measurement of the length of the movie). I thought that was a very cool symmetry.
There's also a symmetry of locations. Here's the first half of the movie:
Room 303
The club
Neo's Office
Neo's Interrogation
That building with the prominent staircase
The Training Areas
Here's the second half:
The Oracle
That building with the prominent staircase
Morpheous's Interrogation
The Agents' Complex
The subway
Room 303
Very symmetrical...
Three other pairs of scenes stand out in my mind as well:
1) there's a shot near the beginning after Trinity escapes being crushed by a truck which involves zooming inot the phone. At the end, when Neo makes his call to the agents, there's the reverse of that shot.
2) The very beginning of the movie shows Matrix Code dribbling down the screen. At the end, we see that Matrix Code as seen from the inside: the world as we know it.
3) When they drives up to the place to meet Morpheous, there's a shot looking down from above of the side of the building, with rain pouring down. At about the symmetrically opposite point in the movie, there's a shot of the building where they're holding morpheous, looking up from below of the side of the building, with water from the sprinkler system pouring down one side, and shells from the gattling gun pouring down th other side.
Oh, and two other observations of little tiny details. Firstly, when we first meet Neo and he sells some disk to that guy for 2 grand, he gets the disk out of a book. That book has some title to do with Simaculura (sp?). More importantly, when he opens the book, on the left side of the page is some text with the title "On Nihilism" (the theory that nothing really exists).
Secondly, and this was brought up by a friend of mine, there is at least one attempt to bring the movie up another layer as well. When Cypher is meeting with the agent, he asks to be made "rich... and important. Like an actor." Note that this happens at pretty much the exact centre of the movie. Also, Keanu gets to do his trademarked "Whoa" right at the beginning. Hmm. there was one other thing like that that I don't remember right now. Aw well.
What else... oh, one question I still have: What the heck was that gooey mirror stuff that covers his body just before he awakens? Trinity seems surprised by it when she sees it, but Morpheous is completely nonchalant. And Trinity's next line is "It's going into replication" -- presumably referring to that mirror stuff.
Oh, one other symmetry I forgot. Guess what's exactly symmetrically opposite to the point in the movie when Neo really fully uses his powers and discovers he's the One? It's his boss telling him "You think you're someone special. You think that the rules do not apply to you."
God, I love this movie...