warning: These allusions and metaphors will do you no good if you haven't already seen the movie. So go see it. Run, don't walk!

Agents Smith, Brown and Jones = Resembling the Gnostic concept of Archons, or cosmic minions of a false Creator God, the agents are responsible for keeping order and submission to that reality. Morpheus says as much when he mentions how "they guard all the doors, they hold all the keys". It is a "zoo", a "prison" to them and just like Gnostic Archons, they are the guards, the wardens.

Alice In Wonderland//Through The Looking Glass = The Matrix is rife with allusions from Lewis Carroll's Alice In The Wonderland/Through The Looking Glass. "Follow the white rabbit" is lifted from the story of Alice following a rabbit down the rabbit hole (in Neo's case, a girl with a white rabbit tattoo) and into the world of Wonderland, a completely nonsensical place some have said resembles her escape from innocence, a total parallel to Neo's adventure. "I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes" is another line connotative of Alice in Wonderland.

One other allusion to Alice in Wonderland is the scene in which Neo is touching the mirror and it begins to creep up his hand like a liquid. Alice encountered a mirror halfway in her travels and this seems to indicate that in regards to Neo, there's no going back now.

Cypher = The Judas of the movie, who betrayed his Messiah not for thirty pieces of silver but the taste of a good steak again. A cipher is also a message written in a secret code as well as a person of no influence, a nonentity. Cypher is also a sort of play on words of Lucifer. His real name by the way, Reagan, seems to be ironic considering his statements "I want to be someone important...like an actor" and "I don't want to remember anything, you understand me? Nothing."

Jungian Psychology = It was the noted psychologist Carl Jung who found that most mythologems found in Gnostic scriptures (and Gnostic allegories like The Matrix) possess psychological relevance and applicability. For instance the blind and arrogant creator-demiurge (The Matrix AI) bears a close resemblance to the alienated human ego that has lost contact with the ontological Self. Also, the myth of Sophia (The Oracle) resembles closely the story of the human psyche that loses its connection with the collective unconscious and needs to be rescued by the Self.

Last Supper = Connotative of Christ's last meal with his Apostles, this scene is the last meal Neo has with most of the crew of the Nebuchanezzar, a certain foreshadowing of Cypher's betrayal as Christ was said to have prophesized his betrayal by someone at his table.

The Matrix = The AI, the illusional world pulled over the eyes of humanity to disguise us from the true world. In a very Gnostic way, The Matrix is resemblant of The Demiurge, the "half-maker", the God who botched creation, a God who is supplemented by Archons or agents of his will. The Biblical similarities are even more prevalent in Agent Smith's monologue, in which he describes the first world the Matrix created, the "perfect world", which is in effect the Garden of Eden and out of which we were kicked because of knowledge -- the knowledge that it wasn't real, specifically.

Morpheus = Named for the Greek god of dreams (his dream symbolism is further cemented in the name of his ship, The Nebuchanezzer), Morpheus also has Christian characteristics to his character. Very much the John The Baptist who baptizes Neo in the truth about the Matrix (but with only a glass of water this time), Morpheus is also the Jungian father figure (Tank says as much before nearly pulling the plug), the liberator ala Moses (Note the statement he makes to Neo that "you were born a slave". You almost expect him to say "Let my people go") and the Zen teacher to Neo's student.

Nebuchanezzar = The name of Morpheus' ship, it's the name of a king of Babylon in the Old Testament who had an enigmatic dream and eventually went mad when he didn't heed the truth in its interpretation.

Neo = meaning "new" or "renewed", it is also an anagram using the letters in the word "one" tying into Morpheus's belief that Neo is The One. Neo's character is both cemented in Christianity and Buddhism in many respects. First in Christianity as a Christ figure by being tempted by the evil Agents when caught by them, very much like Christ's temptation by evil (in Matthew 4:1-11), by being betrayed by someone close to him, Cypher, very much like Christ's betrayal by Judas (in Matthew 26:47-56), his death and resurrection very much like Christ's (in Matthew 28:1-10) and ultimately his miraculous, unreal powers. Jesus is mentioned at least four times in this film, a repetition that's no accident:

PUNK "You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ."

CYPHER: "You scared the beJesus outta me."

CYPHER: "Jesus, what a mindjob."

NEO: "Jesus." TRINITY: "What?"

The biblical overtones also reside in Neo's "real" name, Thomas Anderson. Refusing the truth of his senses about The Matrix, he becomes a doubting Thomas. This is ironic as Thomas was one of Jesus' prophets who balked at Christ's ressurrection until he saw the Messiah's hands and feet. The name is equally ironic as one of the tenets of Gnostic belief is written in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.

Neo's character also shares characteristics with many Buddhist beliefs, mainly reincarnation as Morpheus believes Neo to be the original liberator reborn, and with the Mahayana Buddhist belief in the bodhisattva, an enlightened one who refuses to enter nirvana until all spiritual beings are awakened. In yet another odd twist, Keanu Reeves played Prince Siddharta Guatama, the original Buddha, in the Bernardo Bertalucci movie "Little Buddha".

Oracle = Much like the Gnostic concept of the Aeonial being Sophia ("Wisdom"), the Oracle represents the enigmatic answers to a confusing reality. Her predictions, that Trinity would fall in love with The One, that Morpheus would find The One, that Neo wasn't The One (but "maybe in your next life" i.e. after his death and subsequent ressurrection) all came true albeit with puzzling and non-literal accuracy. Oddly enough the inscription "Know Thyself" which hung over her kitchen door, was said to have been inscribed at The Oracle at Delphi in Greek lore.

Sleeping Beauty = In the scene where Trinity awakens Neo with a kiss, this is reminiscent of Snow White and/or Sleeping Beauty, curiously mixed with Buddhistic overtones as Neo "awakens" not just from death (and thus discards his old life, just as the Oracle predicted) but from his doubts and fears.

Trinity = Name has Christian overtones as the Father (God), Son (Christ) and Holy Spirit as well as possibly connected to the Trinity Nuclear Test, the first atomic bomb explosion in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

 

 

Zion = Mentioned in the Book of Revelations as the kingdom of God where the righteous will be saved after the destruction of the earth, Zion is the only city in the world of the Matrix where humans are free, oddly enough deep beneath the earth's surface as opposed to the ascending heights of Heaven.