Part 5
INT. CONSTRUCT
Neo is standing in an empty, blank-white space.
MORPHEUS
This is the Construct.
Startled, Neo whips around and finds Morpheus now in the
room with him.
MORPHEUS
It is our loading program. We can
load anything from clothes, to
weapons, to training simulations.
Anything we need.
Morpheus walks past Neo and when Neo turns he sees the
two leather chairs from the hotel set up in front of a
large-screen television.
MORPHEUS
Sit down.
Neo stands at the back of the chair as Morpheus sits.
NEO
Right now, we're inside a computer
program?
MORPHEUS
Wild, isn't it?
Neo's hands run over the cracked leather.
NEO
This isn't real?
MORPHEUS
What is real? How do you define
real? If you're talking about
your senses, what you feel, taste,
smell, or see, then all you're
talking about are electrical
signals interpreted by your brain.
He picks up a remote control and clicks ON the
TELEVISION. We drift through the Windy City circa 1996.
MORPHEUS
This is the Chicago you know.
Chicago as it was at the end of
the twentieth century. This
Chicago exists only as part of a
neural-interactive simulation that
we call the Matrix.
We GLIDE AT the television as he changes the channel.
MORPHEUS
You have been living inside
Baulliaurd's vision, inside the
map, not the territory. This is
Chicago as it exists today.
The sky is an endless sea of black and green bile. The
earth, scorched and split like burnt flesh, spreads out
beneath us as we ENTER the television.
MORPHEUS
'The desert of the real.'
In the distance, we see the ruins of a future Chicago
protruding from the wasteland like the blackened ribs of
a long-dead corpse.
MORPHEUS
We are, right now, miles below the
earth's surface. The only place
humans can survive outside the
Matrix is underground.
Still MOVING, we TURN and find Neo and Morpheus; the
chairs now sitting in the middle of the black desert.
Dizzy, Neo holds onto the chair.
NEO
What happened?
MORPHEUS
It started early in the twenty-
first century, with the birth of
artificial intelligence, a
singular consciousness that
spawned an entire race of
machines.
In his sunglasses, we see storm clouds gather.
MORPHEUS
At first all they wanted was to be
treated as equals, entitled to the
same human inalienable rights.
Whatever they were given, it was
not enough.
In the circular window of the glasses, EXPLOSIONS light
up a bloody battle field.
MORPHEUS
We don't know who struck first.
Us or them. But sometime at the
end of the twenty-first century
the battle was joined.
We MOVE INTO his glasses and the war surrounds us.
MORPHEUS
The war raged for generations and
turned the face of our planet from
green and blue to black and red.
At last we see the Sentinels; killing machines that are
at once terrifying and beautiful. They have an organic
architecture like a microbiotic organism, that is
perpetually in motion.
The Sentinel cracks the body armor of a soldier,
splitting open the soft, stearing meat inside.
MORPHEUS
It scorched and burned the sky.
Without the sun, the machines
sought out a new energy source to
survive.
The Sentinel locks up, as heat lightning of black ink
bursts against the sky, spreading into a permanent cloud
of stain.
MORPHEUS
They discovered a new form of
fusion. All that was required to
initiate the reaction was a small
electric charge. Throughout human
history we have been dependent on
machines to survive. Fate, it
seems, is not without a sense of
irony.
We return to the power plant that Neo escaped from where
we see human beings looking almost blissful in their
gelatin cocoons.
MORPHEUS
The human body generates more bio-
electricity than a 120-volt
battery and over 25,000 B.T.U.'s
of body heat.
Outside, spreading all around the power plant, beneath a
breathing greenhouse, are the growing fields.
MORPHEUS
We are, as an energy source,
easily renewable and completely
recyclable, the dead liquified and
fed intravenously to the living.
Huge farm-like reapers are harvesting the crop.
MORPHEUS
All they needed to control this
new battery was something to
occupy our mind.
We see inside a clear tubular husk. Floating in viscous
fluid, there is a human fetus; its soft skull already
growing around the brain-jack.
MORPHEUS
And so they built a prison out of
our past, wired it to our brains
and turned us into slaves.
We PULL BACK to find the image is now on the television
and we are again inside the white space of the Construct.
NEO
No! I don't believe it! It's not
possible!
MORPHEUS
I didn't say that it would be
easy, Neo. I just said that it
would be the truth.
The room without walls begins to spin.
NEO
Stop! Let me out! I want out!
INT. MAIN DECK
His eyes snap open and he thrashes against the chair,
trying to rip the cable from the back of his neck.
NEO
Get this thing out of me!
TRINITY
Easy, Neo. Easy.
Dozer holds him while Trinity unlocks it. Once it's out,
he tears away from them, falling as he trips free of the
harness.
NEO
Don't touch me! Get away from me!
On his hands and knees, he reels as the world spins.
Sweat pours off him as a pressure builds inside his skull
as if his brian had been put into a centrifuge.
CYPHER
He's going to pop!
Vomiting violently, Neo pitches forward and blacks out.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
He blinks, regaining consciousness. The room is dark.
Neo is stretched out on his bed.
NEO
I can't go back, can I?
Morpheus sitting like a shadow on a chair in the far
corner.
MORPHEUS
No. But if you could, would you
really want to?
Neo isn't sure of that answer.
MORPHEUS
I feel that I owe you an apology.
There is a rule that we do not
free a mind once it reaches a
certain age. It is dangerous.
They have trouble letting go..
Their mind turns against them.
I've seen it happen. I broke the
rule because I had to.
He stares into the darkness, confessing as much to
himself as Neo.
MORPHEUS
When the Matrix was first built
there was a man born inside that
had the ability to change what he
wanted, to remake the Matrix as he
saw fit. It was this man that
freed the first of us and taught
us the secret of the war; control
the Matrix and you control the
future.
He pauses.
MORPHEUS
When he died, the Oracle at the
temple of Zion prophesied his
return and envisioned an end to
the war and freedom for our
people. That is why there are
those of us that have spent our
entire lives searching the Matrix,
looking for him.
Neo can feel his eyes on him.
MORPHEUS
I did what I did, because I
believe we have been brought here
for a reason, Neo. You are here
to serve a purpose, just as I am
here to serve mine.
NEO
I told you I don't believe in
fate.
Morpheus smiles, leaning towards hin.
MORPHEUS
But I do, Neo. I do.
He stands up.
MORPHEUS
Get some rest. You're going to
need it.
NEO
For what?
MORPHEUS
Your training.
INT. HOVERCRAFT
There is no morning; there is only darkness and then the
fluorescent light sticks flicker on.
INT. NEO'S ROOM
Neo is awake in his bed, staring up at the lights. The
door opens and TA.NK steps inside.
TANK
Morning. Did you sleep?
NEO
No.
TANK
You will tonight. I guarantee it.
I'm Tank. I'll be your operator.
He offers his hand and Neo shakes it. He notices that
Tank doesn't have any jacks.
NEO
You don't have...
TANK
Any holes? Nope. Me and my
brother Dozer, we are 100 percent
pure, old fashioned, home-grown
human. Born free. Right here in
the real world. Genuine child of
Zion.
NEO
Zion?
TANK
Zion is the place, man. You'll
see it one day. Last human city.
All we got left.
Tank smiles.
TANK
Goddamn, I got to tell you I'm
fairly excited to see what you are
capable of. I mean if Morpheus is
right and all. We're not supposed
to talk.about any of that, but if
you are, well then this is an
exciting time. We got a lot to do
so let's get to it.
INT. MAIN DECK
Neo is plugged in, hanging in one of the suspension
chairs.
TANK
We're supposed to load all these
operations programs first, but
this is some major boring shit.
Why don't we start something a
little fun?
Tank smiles as he plops into his operator's chair. He
begins flipping through a tall carousel loaded with micro
discs.
TANK
How about sore combat training?
Neo reads the label on the disk.
NEO
Jiujitsu? I'm going to learn
jujitsu?
Tank slides the disk into Neo's supplement drive.
NEO
No way.
Smiling, Tank punches the "load" code.
His body jumps against the harness as his eyes clamp
shut. The monitors kick wildly as his heart pounds,
adrenaline surges, and his brain sizzles.
An instant later his eyes snap open.
NEO
Holy shit!
TANK
Hey, Mikey, he likes it! Ready
for more?
NEO
Hell yes!
INT. MAIN DECK - CLOSE ON COMPUTER MONITOR - LATER
as grey pixels slowly fill a small, half-empty box. It
is a meter displaying how much download time is left.
The title bar reads: "Combat Series 10 of 12," file
categories flashing beneath it: Savate, Jujitsu, Ken Po,
Drunken Boxing...
Morpheus walks in.
MORPHEUS
How is he?
Tank looks at his watch, rubs his eyes.
TANK
Ten hours straight. He's a
machine.
Neo's body spasms and relaxes as his eyes open, breath
hissing from his lips. He looks like he just orgasmed.
He locks at Morpheus.
NEO
This is incredible. I know Kung
Fu.
Morpheus sits in the drive chair next to hin. He nods to
Tank.
MORPHEUS
Show me.
INT. DOJO
They are standing in a very sparse japanese-style dojo.
MORPHEUS
This is a sparring program,
similar to the programmed reality
of the Matrix. Consider this your
first lesson.
He assumes a fighting stance.
MORPHEUS
Attack me.
Neo assumes a similar stance, cautiously circling until
he gives a short cry and launches a furious attack.
It is like a Jackie Chan movie at high speed, fists and
feet striking from every angle as Neo presses his attack
--
But each and every blow is blocked by effortless speed.
INT. MAIN DECK
While their minds battle in the programmed reality, the
two bodies appear quite serene, suspended in the drive
chairs.
Tank monitors their life systems noticing that Neo is
wildly and chaotically lit up as opposed to the slow and
steady rhythm of Morpheus.
INT. MESS HALL
Dinner is up. Everyone is eating bowls of single-cell
protein. It has a cottage cheese consistency.
MOUSE bursts in the room.
MOUSE
Morpheus is fighting Neo!
All at once they bolt for the door.
INT. DOJO
Neo's face is knotted, teeth clenched, as he hurls
himself at Morpheus.
MORPHEUS
Good. Adaption. Improvisation.
But your weakness isn't your
technique.
Morpheus attacks him and it is like nothing we have seen.
His feet and fists are everywhere taking Neo apart. For
every blow Neo blocks, five more hit their marks until --
Neo falls.
Panting, on his hands and knees, blood spits fror, his
mouth speckling the white floor of the Dojo.
MORPHEUS
How did I beat you?
NEO
You -- You're too fast.
MORPHEUS
Do you think my being faster,
stronger has anything to do with
my muscles in this place?
Neo is frustrated, still unable to catch his breath.
MORPHEUS
Do you believe that's air you are
breathing now?
Neo squints at him.
MORPHEUS
If you can free your mind, the
body will follow.
Neo stands, nodding.
MORPHEUS
Again.
Their fists fly with pneumatic speed.
INT. MAIN DECK
Everyone is gathered behind Tank, watching the fight,
like watching a game of Mortal Combat.
CABLE
Jeezus Keerist! That boy is fast!
MOUSE
You ever seen anyone that fast
that soon, Tank?
TANK
Never.
APOC
Morpheus is right. He's got to be
the one.
INT. DOJO
The speed of the blows rises like a drum solo that seems
impossible to sustain. Neo's face sheds its mask of calm
with a scream.
He wants to beat Morpheus bad.
Finally a single blow catches Morpheus on the side of the
head, knocking his glasses off.
INT. MAIN DECK
There are several gasps.
MOUSE
I don't believe it!
Home
Part 5
