»Significance of Eyes?«

1. The Merovingian wants the Eyes of the Oracle in exchange for Neo.

2. Smith becomes able to ‘see’ after copying himself onto the Oracle

3. Neo loses his eyes.

4. Neo is able to ‘see’ the gold code of Smith/Bane and the machines.

I know that this is a significant theme, but I can’t seem to decode its relevance. Any thoughts?

just a thought: eyes are thought of as the "window to the soul"

1) In the Oracle's case, she managed to escape destruction by the Merovingian by switching "shells", or bodies. Her eyes may be a way to get at her soul, or core program, or kernel, if you will. The Mero wanting her eyes could also be a symbolic thing - he is jealous of her ability to "see" everything that goes on in the Matrix, and wants to take that away.

2) Smith could always see, but now he "sees" in the way the Oracle used to see, i.e. knows everything about the Matrix, because he has the power of the Oracle after assimilating her.

3) Neo losing his eyes is another one I'm not to sure about. I think its symbolic. As humans, our eyes play tricks on us all the time. Optical illusions and stuff like that. We are also incredibly naive because we believe that what we can touch, smell, see and hear is reality, while scientists have proven that humans are only able to experience 1 millionth of what is actually going on. For example - can we hear/feel/see radio waves? No, but they are still there. In fact, we can't detect most of the elecrtomagnetic spectrum, but it definitely exists.

In the movie, humans are enslaved as a result of their perceptions. The Matrix is a program stimulating human senses. That is all it takes to enslave them. Neo losing his eyes is a way of the Wachowski Bros saying that Neo's eyes meant nothing, and were probably more of a hindrance to him discovering the "truth" and becoming free.

4) As for the gold "code" - i would interpret that as Neo seeing energy. It's a bit hippie, but animals and humans are surrounded by energy patterns - some people call it heat, some call it auras, whatever. It's energy, and maybe Neo can pick up on that, much in the same way he can see the Matrix code when he's in there.


I'd love to hear other theories!

just a thought: eyes are thought of as the "window to the soul"

1) In the Oracle's case, she managed to escape destruction by the Merovingian by switching "shells", or bodies. Her eyes may be a way to get at her soul, or core program, or kernel, if you will. The Mero wanting her eyes could also be a symbolic thing - he is jealous of her ability to "see" everything that goes on in the Matrix, and wants to take that away.

2) Smith could always see, but now he "sees" in the way the Oracle used to see, i.e. knows everything about the Matrix, because he has the power of the Oracle after assimilating her.

3) Neo losing his eyes is another one I'm not to sure about. I think its symbolic. As humans, our eyes play tricks on us all the time. Optical illusions and stuff like that. We are also incredibly naive because we believe that what we can touch, smell, see and hear is reality, while scientists have proven that humans are only able to experience 1 millionth of what is actually going on. For example - can we hear/feel/see radio waves? No, but they are still there. In fact, we can't detect most of the elecrtomagnetic spectrum, but it definitely exists.

In the movie, humans are enslaved as a result of their perceptions. The Matrix is a program stimulating human senses. That is all it takes to enslave them. Neo losing his eyes is a way of the Wachowski Bros saying that Neo's eyes meant nothing, and were probably more of a hindrance to him discovering the "truth" and becoming free.

4) As for the gold "code" - i would interpret that as Neo seeing energy. It's a bit hippie, but animals and humans are surrounded by energy patterns - some people call it heat, some call it auras, whatever. It's energy, and maybe Neo can pick up on that, much in the same way he can see the Matrix code when he's in there.


I'd love to hear other theories!

Merovingian told Trinity and Morpheus why he couldn't get the Oracle's eyes. He said that they were something that had to be given they couldn't be taken away. In essence he wanted the ablitiy to see the future, an ablitiy aquired by Smith when the Oracle gave in to him.

Smith: If you know what is going to happen then why didn't you run
Smith: If you knew I was coming then you are sitting here deliberately, purpously, arrogantly.

Those quotes aren't exact but they are pretty much what smith said.