From: Ramez Naam (mez@apexnano.com)
Date: Thu May 22 2003 - 23:53:22 MDT
Major spoilers below. I analyze the movie in detail. I make
predictions about the next movie. Read at your own peril.
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Okay, I saw this a second time. Here's what I think is going on.
First of all, I reject the idea of a matrix within the matrix. Zion
is in base reality. I believe this for reasons Brian Atkins has
already posted and also for the following meta-reasons:
Such a plot resolution would not be satisfying to most of the
Matrix's audience.
I believe the real them of Reloaded and of the resolution of the story
in Revolutions is symbiosis between man and machine. At the end of
Revolutions the humans and some machines will both be alive and on
their way to co-existing in some positive-sum way.
There are a couple important conversations in Reloaded about
symbiosis:
1) The Oracle says "I care about the future. And the only way to get
there is *together*."
2) The councilor talks to Neo about the codependence of the humans in
Zion and their machines.
Okay, that's the resolution the plot is heading for. Now, here are
some details of what I think is going on with Neo, the past Ones, the
Architect, etc..
1) Neo is indeed the 6th entity called "the One" in the Matrix, though
he is also different from the past entities. Evidence:
1a) Smith says "it's happening just as before" when he sees Neo
kick the butts of the three agents at the beginning. Then Smith #2
shows up and says "well, not quite". This indicates to me that Smith
has been around in past versions of the Matrix. But in past versions
of the Matrix, Smith has never broken free and gained the ability to
duplicate himself. This is also consistent with Smith telling Neo
"you did something I thought wasn't possible, you destroyed me". That
had never happened to Smith in his battles with previous Ones. They'd
beaten him, but never as deeply. Smith has now gone rogue in the
Matrix. He says "I knew the rules, I knew what I was supposed to do,
but I didn't. I stayed."
1b) The Merovingian tells Neo "I survived your predecessors",
which indicates past One's. But he also says "your predecessors had
more respect", which indicates a difference between Neo and previous
Ones.
1c) The Architect of course tells Neo that there have been
previous Ones, but he also at one points says "interesting. you
figured that out faster than the others" which indicates again that
Neo is different.
1d) Also, if the Architect gave past Ones a choice similar to
Neo's, and we believe what the Architect is saying, the past Ones
*must* have chosen to return to the source, pick a few people from
Zion, and re-create it. Otherwise humanity would now be extinct. But
Neo chose differently, again pointing out a difference between him and
past Ones.
2) Neo has his powers in the Matrix because the compromise in this
version of the Matrix is that humans must be able to at least
subconsciously choose whether or not to accept the Matrix. Neo is one
of the very rare individuals who can partially accept it and partially
reject it, allowing him to bend its rules of physics. The existence
of such individuals is an unfortunate but inevitable side effect of
giving people a subconscious choice. And giving people a subconscious
choice is, as the Architect tells us, the only technique found so far
that gets such a large number of humans to accept the Matrix.
This is basically straight out of the Architect's speech, but makes
more sense in the second viewing.
3) The Architect believes that the warping effect on the Matrix of
either Neo ignoring so many physical laws or perhaps side effects of
that will result in the complete violation of the Matrix's rules and a
crash of the entire simulation. That is why the Architect tells Neo
that if he goes back into the Matrix without first going to the Source
and having his code disseminated, he will cause a crash in the system
that will kill everyone human plugged into the Matrix. This is again
straight out of the Architect's speech, but makes more sense in the
context of why Neo has his powers (see #2, above).
4) The Architect will be found to be wrong. Neo is more special than
the previous Ones, and either his greater power or greater control of
his powers or something else special about him will allow him to avoid
that total crash. Instead he will liberate the humans plugged into
the Matrix without causing all their deaths.
5) It seems plausible to me that Persephone really is the "intuitive
program created to investigate human emotions" that the Architect
talks about. The Oracle is definitely not it based on his reaction.
I think the whole "Mother of the Matrix" thing is a bit over hyped.
The intuitive program just basically made the realization that if
humans plugged into the Matrix had a subconscious choice about
participation, more of them would accept the illusion. The Architect
is still the one who built the Matrix and put that attribute into the
system.
6) Smith is very simple. He is a program that has served as an Agent
for several versions now. In that role he (and the other agents) had
limited access to information. They were not omnipotent over the
Matrix as a whole, clearly. In any case, once some of Neo's code
imprinted on him, Smith has gained the ability to replicate. He hopes
to use that ability to completely take over the Matrix, and then
eventually use that to take over the AIs computing power as well. His
replication ability is something that has not been seen in any
previous version of the Matrix, and so he represents another wildcard
that the Architect has not previously dealt with.
7) Neo was able to stop the robots at the end because he's touched the
source and is somehow still connected to it. Exactly how isn't clear.
Maybe all the humans have wireless hardware. Maybe some friendly
program like the Oracle had the wireless hardware implanted in Neo's
brain while he was still in the Matrix. Maybe Neo is a genetic freak
whose brain serves as a transmitter and receiver. Don't know. But
everything is consistent with him using his connection to the software
world to force the robots themselves to self-destruct.
So, in sum, next movie it will be revealed that both Neo and Smith are
unique phenomena not seen in past versions of the Matrix. Neo will
defeat Smith (possibly incorporating some of his code) and will go on
to liberate the humans plugged into the Matrix, avoid a complete crash
of the Matrix, and catalyze a positive symbiosis between the humans
and some computers (perhaps by going into the Source and kicking ass).
cheers,
mez
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