Matrix


	The film takes us to the year 2199. The world has been taken over by the Matrix, and is now being run by an artificial intelligence. As in Dark City, humans are living in a computer-generated dreamworld. Humans are being harvested like plants to be part of the Matrix. Humans live their lives in an artificial reality never realizing that they are slaves of an evil system that has a false claim on the world. A few rebel humans discover the horror of the Matrix. They believe that computer programmer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who by night is a computer hacker nick named Neo, is "the one," who according to prophesy, will save the world from cyber-slavery. The story begins as the rebel humans start recruiting Neo to defeat the evil Matrix. Neo, after some convincing, signs on with the rebel forces. (There is a very interesting tip of the hat to Alice in Wonderland at the start of the film, with the use of a mirror to introduce Neo to the other world of reality.) Creating two worlds. Director of Photography Bill Pope: "To distinguish the Matrix from 'reality', from the Nebuchadnezzar and the pods, reality was given a cooler look, a bluer, more normal, less sickly look. The future in the film is cold, the sun is blotted out, there is no real warmth unless it is artificial heat, so that is whey they went for the cool side. Whereas the Matrix, created by the computers, is a decadent, decaying world, so it has a green hue. These are the two different colors -green and blue. The Matrix should make you feel sick, and in 'reality' you should feel a little more at home, but never comfortable. If you make it gold and warm you know that it is home, a safe haven."

What if the Prophecy is true?
What if tomorrow this war could be over? Isnt that worth fighting for? Isnt that worth dying for?

Thomas Neo Anderson (KEANU REEVES) made a costly decision when he chose to ask the question that Morpheus (LAURENCE FISHBURNE) and Trinity (CARRIE-ANNE MOSS) had asked before him. To seek and accept the truth. To free his mind from the Matrix.

Everything begins with choice.

Now, in the second chapter of the Matrix trilogy, Neo assumes greater command of his extraordinary powers as Zion falls under siege to the Machine Army. Only a matter of hours separates the last human enclave on Earth from 250,000 Sentinels programmed to destroy mankind. But the citizens of Zion, emboldened by Morpheuss conviction that the One will fulfill the Oracles Prophecy and end the war with the Machines, rest all manner of hope and expectation on Neo, who finds himself stalled by disturbing visions as he searches for a course of action.

We can never see past a choice we dont understand.

Strengthened by their love for each other and their belief in themselves, Neo and Trinity choose to return to the Matrix with Morpheus and unleash their arsenal of extraordinary skills and weaponry against the systematic forces of repression and exploitation. But there exist powerful figures within the Matrix who refute the artifice of choice, evading the responsibility it brings as they feed on the emotional truths of others.

Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without.

Meanwhile, there are exiles like Agent Smith (HUGO WEAVING), whose inexorable connection to Neo compels him to disobey the system that has called for his deletion. Driven by the humanity he once despised, Smith will consume everything in his path on his quest for revenge.

What do all men with power want? More power.

On his treacherous journey toward further insight into the construct of the Matrix and his pivotal role in the fate of mankind, Neo will confront greater resistance, an even greater truth and a more impossible choice than he ever imagined.

You didnt come here to make the choice. Youve already made it. Youre here to try to understand why you made it.

At the confluence of love and truth, faith and knowledge, purpose and reason, Neo must follow the course he has chosen. What if I cant? he asks. What if I fail?

Then Zion will fall.

Biblical content of Matrix 1:

The hero, Thomas Anderson, is the Everyman who also has a dual identity under his hacker name, Neo (=new man). We later learn in the film that he is the chosen One (= the messiah). He dresses in a black duster, sort of a cross between the angels in "City of the Angels" and the mystical hero in all of Clint Eastwood's westerns.

Morpheus (= I will be what I will be) is the father image, the champion of Zion, leader of the rebel forces. He is determined to set his people free through the chosen one. Not only is he a father figure, he is also a forerunner to Neo, announcing his coming, in this way he is a type of John the Baptist.

Trinity is capable of supernatural fight and flight! If Morpheus can be the father/God image, and Neo the dual-nature/Son image, then Trinity is the Spirit. As her name implies, the three are inseparable. One for all and all for one. Trinity is also the name of the Terence Stamp character in his 1970s western series called Trinity, which is part of the modern mythology from which this picture borrows. Also, as a follower of Neo she serves as a Mary Magdalene type.

At the center of earth is their 'holy city,' Zion, which in the Bible is Jerusalem -the city of God. The rebel forces, called Zionist, defend Zion from the Matrix.

The two worlds, one visible and the other not, is a running theme throughout the Bible. In both Matrix and the Bible, dreams can connect a person to the other dimension.

The rebel ship is named after the biblical Nebuchadnezzar, the greatest and most powerful of all the Babylonian kings. His name means, "Nebo, protect the crown!" or the "frontiers." A perfect name for the rebel ship.

The term AI, means artificial intelligence. In the Bible Ai was the scene of Joshuas defeat, and afterwards of his victory - in the film as well.

Saving the world seems to be the major preoccupation of super heroes in recent cinema. As Jesus once said, " I have come to save the world." The 'Saving the world' action in the Matrix is like watching 'The Men in Black' meet the 'Spaghetti Westerns'.

As Richard Schickel of Time magazine says about Matrix, "A lot of what they (the heroes) do and endure consists of spins on the sci-fi past. There are references to everything from the Alien movies to The Terminator to Soylent Green, but that's what we have for a living mythology these days, and the (writer, director) Wachowskis (brothers) are bold and knowing in their deployment of it. They're acknowledging a tradition, not ripping it off."

The biggest biblical parallel comes at the end of the movie when Neo is shot dead and then is resurrected to life again. A direct reference to the life of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection scene also borrows from "Sleeping Beauty" with a twist. Instead of the male prince kissing the woman, Trinity kisses Neo. Clever twist. The resurrection transforms Neo. He now has the ability to render the Matrix useless: System failure. The Neo man, like Truman, Jesus, and Superman defeats the system.