More posts than teeth
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The essay below forms the second part of an essay I submitted to this forum earlier titled “the matrix trilogy explained (2)’, but considering that it was a bit of a long read, I’ve decided to split the essay up according to the titles of the movies.
The interpretation of The Matrix Reloaded that follows is based on evidence provided in the dialogue. Here and there I may go out on a limb, but I have tried to keep myself within limits of wild speculation by sticking to what people say in the movie or what we see happen on screen.
The Matrix Reloaded Explained
During a flight of the Nebuchadnezzar returning to Zion, Neo awakes from a dream in which he sees Trinity falling from a window and being shot while trying to escape from an Agent. This vision proves to be a foreshadowing of events yet to unfold. The Oracle would later describe this vision as “the sight”, and as him being able to “look at the world without time”.
Back in the Matrix, the Human Resistance hold a secret meeting and Niobe informs them that a quarter million sentinels are digging “straight from the surface into Zion”. Soon after Neo, Morpheus and Trinity arrive at the meeting, the resurrected Agent Smith pulls up and delivers a package for Neo containing his earpiece. When Neo escapes the Agent Upgrades in search of the Oracle, Agent Smith shows up and is revealed as having a different ‘code’.
Upon arrival of the Nebuchadnezzar to Zion, Morpheus meets with Commander Lock and Councillor Hamann, who decide to hold a temple gathering to address the “persistence of rumors”. Morpheus’s speech is followed by a Celebration of Humanity in the temple of Zion. In the meantime, Smith assimilates Bane (thereby creating an avatar of himself in the real world) just before Bane is able to exit the Matrix back on board of the Hammer.
When Neo is having trouble sleeping, he has a meditation on machines in the engineering room with Councillor Hamann. Machines are revealed to be part of a double-edged sword, they “have the power to give life and the power to end it”. Human civilization in Zion depends on machines for their survival, and yet the machines are at war with the humans because of their “vanity and corruption”. In turn, machine civilization depends on human bodies for their survival, and yet humans are at war with the machines because of their “enslavement of humans”. Depending on the heart of man, machines can be both evil and good at the same time.
Back on the main dock in Zion, Bane is disoriented (cuts himself in the hand) and sets out to stab Neo in the back, but is saved by the Kid just before Link, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity are about to board the Nebuchadnezzar in search of the Oracle. When Neo enters the Matrix, he encounters Seraph, the Oracle’s protector, who appears as a body made of golden light. After a fight to find out if Neo is really the One, Seraph takes Neo through the backdoors of the Matrix to go and see the Oracle.
During his conversation with the Oracle, Neo learns an important lesson about the functioning and psyche of programs within the Matrix “there are programs running all over the place, the ones doing their jobs are invisible, those not doing their jobs […] is the system assimilating some program from doing something they’re not supposed to be doing” and that “programs usually choose exile when they face deletion”. Programs facing deletion can either choose to hide in the Matrix or “return to the Source –the machine mainframe– where the path of the One ends”.
When Neo tells the Oracle of his vision of Trinity falling but that he doesn’t see her die, she realizes that Neo will eventually choose the left door in the Architect’s Chamber instead of the door to the right and she becomes hopeful: “for what it is worth, you’ve made a believer out of me”. Unlike the Architect, the Oracle has grown tired of the endless cycle of creation and destruction within the Matrix ‘Reload’ construct. The Oracle realizes that even if Neo chooses the door on the right in the Architect’s Chamber, the war between man and the machines will still not be over. She knows that if the three realms of mind, body and spirit are to become liberated and redeemed together, they first need to become connected to one another somehow. In the park she therefore tells Neo “I’m interested in one thing Neo, the future, and believe me I know, the only way to get there is together”.
A certain disharmony and imbalance is inherent to the functioning of the Matrix because it shuts out the realms of body and spirit. Perhaps that also explains why neither the Architect (male rationality) nor the Oracle (female intuition) could get the Matrix to function properly or the equation to become balanced in the first place. To truly end the war between man and the machines and to bring back harmony between the realms of mind, body and spirit, something is going to have to happen that will break the cycle of creation and destruction within the construct of constantly reloading new versions of the Matrix. The Oracle hopes that if Neo can find an attachment to a particular person, that he’ll eventually choose the left door in the Architect’s Chamber instead of the right door, and thereby prevent a new reload of the Matrix.
Concerning the choice Neo must eventually make between saving Trinity’s life and saving Zion, the Oracle says “you haven’t come here to make a choice, you’ve already made it, you’re here try to understand why you’ve made the choice”. What the Oracle is trying to tell Neo is that his choices are in fact not governed by his own free will, but by exactly what the Oracle wants to see happen. She does not tell him that his choices are actually an extension of the Oracle’s wishes, because she knows that Neo does not believe in fate and that he likes to believe that he is in control of his own life. Based on his previous choices (to save Morpheus, which causes him to realize that he is indeed the One, and to save Trinity, which eventually causes him to choose the left door in the Architect’s Chamber), the Oracle says “I thought you would have figured that out by now”. What Neo doesn’t realize yet is that the Oracle needs to manipulate and keep certain information from him because, as Morpheus explains “there is a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path”. Her equivocalness even causes Neo to question whether the Oracle “can be trusted or not”, and even here, she leaves room for Neo to make his own decisions: “you’ll just have to make up your own damn mind to either accept what I’m going to tell you, or reject it”.
Before parting, the Oracle tells Neo that in order “to save Zion”, he’s going to have to “reach to the Source” but to do that, he’ll first need to “find the Keymaker who is being held prisoner by the Merovingian”. All the Oracle says about the Source is that this is the place where “the path of the One ends”, even though (based on Neo’s vision of Trinity falling), she knows that Neo’s path will not end in the Architect’s Chamber. By not being explicit about where the Source is, she knows that Neo will again have the idea that he is acting upon free will when he denies the words of the Oracle by not choosing the right door to save Zion. When Seraph and the Oracle leave, Neo is confronted by the new Agent Smith who now does not read like an agent.
Agent Smith confirms his resurrection when he says “you destroyed me […] now here I stand because of you, a new man, apparently free”, and when he tells Neo of their “connection”, though not “knowing exactly how it happened”. He describes it as some part of Neo being imprinted onto him and some part of him being imprinted onto Neo. Agent Smith also reveals that he has chosen exile in the Matrix even though he was meant to be deleted: “I knew the rules, I knew what I was supposed to do, but I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey”. Agent Smith has found new purpose in wanting to destroy Neo because he realizes that “without purpose, we would not exist”. His previous purpose was to obtain the access codes to Zion’s computer mainframe and when this failed, he also faced deletion by the system but refused to give up easily: “they’re not out yet”. By finding new purpose, Agent Smith hopes to prevent deletion by the system even though he has found a way to hack the system by no longer “being an Agent of the system”.
The program Smith has now somehow become compatible with humans in such a way that he no longer jumps from one body to the next -as other Agents do- but is now able to “multiply and spread from one place to the next” very much like humans do and, in his words, like viruses. Since his fusion with Neo and the transcription of part of Neo’s code onto him, Smith has taken over some human traits. This not only includes his will to multiply and grow, but also his will to exercise free will, albeit in the form of disobedience. By temporarily merging with Neo, Smith has developed a heightened consciousness of the world of humans, and by going through the death-and-rebirth cycle, Smith, just like Neo, has awakened to a higher level of spirituality.
After the Burly Brawl with multiple Smiths, Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity set out to meet with the Merovingian. During their conversation, the Merovingian reveals himself as a Master of Causality. He tells Neo, Morpheus and Trinity that in the world of causality, “choice is only an illusion created between those with power and those without”. What Neo still doesn’t realize is that all the choices he has made so far are all based on the manipulation of information by someone with a real source of power over the Matrix: the Oracle and her ability to predict outcomes (i.e. to see causality).
The Merovingian describes himself as a “trafficker of information”, likely between the machine world and the Matrix since he has access to programmer exits within the Matrix. After Neo kills his bodyguards in the Great Hall, the Merovingian tells Neo “I have survived your predecessors, and I will survive you”, suggesting that the Merovingian forms some integral part of each new Matrix Reload. Even during their earlier conversation in the park, the Oracle described the Merovingian as an “old, primitive program”, suggesting that he has been around since the primary versions of the Matrix.
The Merovingian attributes his position of power to knowing the why of cause-and-effect. He says to Neo “knowing the why is what separates us from them, you from me”, suggesting that Neo has still not come to grips with his understanding of the why in the choices that he has made thusfar. The Merovingian characterizes the visit by Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity as “just another link in the chain” which renders them powerless. He also mentions that the Keymaker is his and because he is a man who lusts for power, he will not want to give him up easily. Even the Oracle recognizes this when she says to Neo “What do all men with power want? More power”. Since the Keymaker can make keys that will fit to any backdoor to the Matrix, the Merovingian sees “no reason to give him up” because he wants to preserve this instrument of power and maintain his role as a “trafficker of information” between the machine world and the world of the Matrix.
After parting with the Merovingian, Morpheus, Neo, and Trinity encounter Persephone, who offers to surrender the Keymaker after she receives a kiss from Neo, perhaps to find out whether Neo will eventually choose Agape (love for the particular) or Eros (love for the abstract) in the Architect’s Chamber (i.e. to see causality). When Trinity later strikes a deal with the Merovingian for Neo’s release from Limbo, Persephone hints that she knew all along that Neo would eventually choose the left door in the Architect’s Chamber because, through her kiss, she now knows just how much Neo and Trinity are willing to sacrifice for their love.
When Morpheus and Trinity leave with the Keymaker, the Twins chase them onto Freeway 101. During the car chase, Agent Upgrades show up but “the exile is the primary target” –the Keymaker. Since Agents are the gatekeepers between the the program world of the Matrix and the real world of Zion, they are programmed to stop any person holding or gaining access to all keys to the backdoors of the Matrix, especially the key to the Source.
The Agents are not even aware of the greater picture of the One needing to reach the Source for another Reload, because they are merely control-programs. Even though these Agents are described as “Upgrades”, they are still only responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Matrix and for limiting the uprise of the Human Resistance. However, since the equation governing the operation of the Matrix always needs to be balanced, the Agents become more powerful as the power of the One increases. During his most recent confrontation with the Agent Upgrades, Neo fought them with one arm –just as he did against Agent Smith in the subway station after realizing that he was indeed the One– but soon realizes here that he now needs two arms just to hold them off.
During the freeway chase, Morpheus kills the Twins in an explosion while Trinity and the Keymaker escape on a motorcycle. The Keymaker is then transferred onto the top of a trailer where Morpheus fights with one of the Agent Upgrades. When Morpheus falls onto the hood of Niobe’s car, the Agent tells the Keymaker that he is “meant for one more thing: deletion”. After Morpheus kicks the Agent from the trailer, the Agent assimilates the driver of another truck who then makes a U-turn. Just after the head-on collision, Neo is able to save Morpheus and the Keymaker from the ensuing inferno.
The Keymaker later says he knows so much about the One needing to reach the Source because he is “meant to know”, it is his purpose. This again suggests that the Keymaker is merely a program that has been placed in the Matrix to make the One Key and to guide the One to the Source. After the Keymaker opens the door to the Source and is shot by one of the Agent Smiths, he tells Neo and Morpheus that it was his “destiny” and that it was “meant to happen”. The Keymaker knows this because he knows that every new Reload of the Matrix depends on his help and guidance. Since the Keymaker is a program with a clear purpose, he has not (yet) been deleted from the system and has become an integral part of each new Matrix Reload.
In the Architect’s Chamber, the first thing the Architect tells Neo is “You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human”. The process that the Architect is referring to is Neo’s merging with Agent Smith in the subway station, which he has seen happen on one of his TV sets. Because some part of Agent Smith was imprinted onto Neo during their temporary fusion, Neo has taken over some part of Agent Smith’s program-code and since then, Neo’s conscience has grown more towards that of programs, though he remains for the largest part human.
The choice that Neo is eventually forced to make is a very rational one –one that only a program like the Architect could conjure up. The choice between “saving Zion” and risking “the extinction of the entire human race” is still within the world of the finite. As Neo adequately puts it: “the problem is choice”. Reloading a new version of the Matrix would still not end the war between man and the machines; humans would still be enslaved within the Matrix, humans in Zion would still need to face yet another attack, and the machines would still be stuck in their war against man.
The problem with the choice being offered is that it offers no real option to permanently end the war. It is essentially a choice between two evils: self-destruction of the Matrix and the extinction of the entire human race, or continuation of the war between man and machine and the enslavement of humans for at least the duration of another Matrix Reload. The choice offers no option for redemption and peace between man and the machines and does not seem to fit in with the words of the Oracle to Morpheus spoken earlier: “the One will end the war and bring freedom to our people”.
On the conscious side of choice, Neo has attained part program-conscience and part human-conscience. Both these types of conscience will help Neo determine his eventual choice. Without realizing it himself, by walking out of the left door in the Architect’s Chamber, Neo is choosing exile in the Matrix over deletion and replacement, just as the Oracle described a program would: “usually a program chooses exile when it faces deletion”.
On the unconscious side of choice, however, Neo still does not realize that the real reason he chose the left door was actually because it was what the Oracle hoped he would do. The reason the Oracle told Trinity that she would eventually fall in love with the One comes down to this moment. By his choosing to save Trinity over Zion, Neo has chosen Agape (love for Trinity) instead of Eros (love for Humanity), and by doing so, has ended the endless cycle of creation and destruction –exactly as the Oracle hoped he would, and exactly as Persephone expected he would based on her kiss earlier.
After Neo eventually makes his ‘unanimous’ decision, he walks out the left door and sets off to save Trinity. What Neo must learn to understand about his decision to save Trinity is that his choice to re-enter the Matrix was partly governed by his program-conscience (i.e. the need for endurance) and partly by his human-conscience (i.e. the need for love) at the same time. When Agent Smith faced deletion after he was destroyed by Neo, he chose exile in the Matrix, and now that Neo is faced with the same prospect, he chooses the same thing. While Smith is becoming more and more connected to humans through his will to grow, Neo is becoming more and more connected to programs through his will to endure. And since Neo and Smith are so interconnected, they are going through this transition of consciousness together. Smith and Neo have both become part-human and part-program, even though their shifts in conscience have occurred in opposite directions.
When Smith assimilated Bane earlier and just prior to his return on board of the Hammer, Smith’s conscience transcended into the real world. And since Neo and Smith are so interconnected, their transcendence of consciousness beyond the world of the Matrix also occurs together. This explains why Neo says he is able to “feel the machines” just before he stops the attacking Sentinels and also explains why the little boy from the Oracle’s place he met earlier offered his spoon to Neo. It was the little boy’s way of telling Neo that his power had now transcended beyond that of the Matrix. It is no coincidence that Neo received the spoon shortly after Bane arrived back into the real world. Because Neo’s conscience has shifted towards that of programs and because his conscience has transcended the world of the Matrix, he is able to resuscitate Trinity by manipulating the ‘code’ within the Matrix.
Although Neo says that he can “feel the machines”, he remains for the largest part human, and does not (yet) have full control over the Sentinels. Moments after Neo stops the attacking Sentinels, he falls to his knees. The Oracle would later tell Neo that this happened because he was “not yet ready to connect to the power of the Source”. Perhaps Neo is waiting for exactly the same thing as he was waiting for the first time before he was able to connect with program-consciousness –his next life. In order to gain control over machines and to connect with machine-consciousness, Neo first needs to merge with a Sentinel, just as he first needed to merge with a program (Agent Smith) before he could gain control over them and become connected to their realm of conscience.
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