»Why 6 times?«

Greetings!

I am new here, but out of all the various forums this one seemed intriguing and at the same time not so unwieldy that one's opinions are lost under a million others.

Knowing the symbolic content of the movies is precise yet obscure, I latched onto the Architect's revelation that Neo is talking with him for the sixth time.

Symbolically, we would expect perhaps the magical, mystical number 7 to be the number used in this scene. Why 6?

Six is seen of course in some symbolic systems as evil - the famous Biblical 666, an unholy trinity, symbol of demonic destruction.

On the other hand, the famous TV series The Prisoner from the 1960's with Patrick McGoohan might be what the W Brothers are alluding to. McGoohan played a character known only as #6 who was bent on escaping from and then wrecking a totalitarian microcosm known as The Village. The village was a dystopian prison for people who knew too much about any governmental activity, spies, bureaucrats, etc. Implied was that the Village was operated co-operatively by both sides of the Cold War.

If Neo is the sixth one, this could be an "homage" to McGoohan's character in this series. #6 does successfully escape and destroy the Village.

Just a theory: any comments?

God created for the first 6 days of existance, and on the 7th he rested. Neo being the 6th is possibly an allusion to him being the final One who will bring an end, or "rest" to the Matrix.

SJ, I think "The Prisoner" TV-series is the exact reason why Neo is #6. So simple, yet so brilliant.

emp wrote:

SJ, I think "The Prisoner" TV-series is the exact reason why Neo is #6. So simple, yet so brilliant.

Thanks. The above idea about the parallel with the creation story is also a good one.

I also wonder if there is a sort of mathematics involved: If Neo is the One, and he is also doing this for the sixth time, 6+1=7, and so we do have our magical, mystical number seven after all.

Quote:

If Neo is the One, and he is also doing this for the sixth time, 6+1=7, and so we do have our magical, mystical number seven after all.

Well, I'm sorry, but I generally think those (abs((23+1)-(6*PI)) = a cool number) sucks.

Do you know why Patrick McGoohan was named #6 in The Prisoner?

emp wrote:

Quote: If Neo is the One, and he is also doing this for the sixth time, 6+1=7, and so we do have our magical, mystical number seven after all. Well, I'm sorry, but I generally think those (abs((23+1)-(6*PI)) = a cool number) sucks. Do you know why Patrick McGoohan was named #6 in The Prisoner?

As mentioned, I am flexible with interpretations, and do not want to reduce everything to a numbers game.

As for why McGoohan chose #6 for his character, I cannot find anything that explains why specifically 6 was chosen, except that in the Village, the higher the number, the more important you were. So #6 was very important. Some websites claim that the number 7 is never seen in any of the episodes, others say that 7 does appear now and then.

In the end, maybe Neo is the sixth one just because the W Brothers chose 6 out of the air!

Who was #3 in that movie? Is it related to Trinity?

knnknn wrote:

Who was #3 in that movie? Is it related to Trinity?

I do not believe a number 3 ever appeared. The main antagonist for #6 was #2, and there was usually a new #2 every episode. The best one was the late Leo McKern, who appeared several times as #2, including the finale.

Quote:

Do you know why Patrick McGoohan was named #6 in The Prisoner?

I believe that the number was arbitrarily chosen by McGoohan, but it's suitable for a number of reasons:

1) it's mid-range in that you can have other characters with numbers higher and lower than it;
2) it's one syllable;
3) it's also half of 12, which in episode "The Schizoid Man" was the number that the prisoner had (ok, not a good reason).

In fact, the opening sequence normally (not always" was:

Code:

Where am I?                      In the Village What do you want?                      Information Whose side are you on?                      That would be telling . . .                      We want Information You won't get it                      By hook or by crook . . .                      We will Who are you?                      The new Number Two Who is Number One?                      You are Number Six I am not a number . . . I'm a free man!                      (Mocking laughter)

...so the main character denies the number he's allocated. If I remember correctly the only time he doesn't is in the episode FALLOUT but I may be wrong (it's been years since I've seen an episode).

well, 6 is just the number of the human race.... God created human on the sixth day, so six is the number of the humans....
isn't it interesting when morpheus says:
" In the past six months we freed more minds than in the past six years " ?

emp wrote:

Do you know why Patrick McGoohan was named #6 in The Prisoner?

'cos that's the number that No.1 told No.2 to give him. Obviously.


And from ETM:

It's the number of digits in Ghost's right hand during sex

Yeah that whole scene naming Neo as #6 reminded me of The Prisoner. The Architect seemed like #2. Could this parellel continue with a weird ending like The Prisoner?

Also mentions of a previous Matrix made me think of The Village. It almost seemed like the Matrix was made as an indirect sequel.





::::: Prisoner Spoiler :::::::






When we finally see who #1 is its a cloaked figure wearing masks. When the masks are pulled away it reveals the face of #6.

@SJ and everyone,

I suppose many of you and especially SJ might find this interesting.

Quote:

As Neo runs through the old lady's apartment near the end of the film, we see an image on the TV of a menacing man in a black suit coat. The image is that of one of the Number 2s from the TV show "Prisoner, The" (1967).

regards,

atreides

I haven't done a search yet - I've only been a member for a few minutes, but has anyone brought up the fact that "6" is the first in a small list of perfect numbers. Here's a few pages with a little more info

I think the reason why Neo is the 6th one is because there are only six scramble combinations of the word one, FYI: eno, eon, neo, noe, oen, one. It'd be a little weird to have eno for a name.

eno: there is no spoon, nor are there any possibilites of me changing my name, damnit.

NotHere wrote:

concept is that of "perfect numbers", i.e., numbers that are the sum of their divisors.

Cool have added it

Videogame Freak Mak wrote:

there are only six scramble combinations of the word one

Have added it, too.

The Sixth Anomaly also could coincidently be a play on many theorists view of Life on earth and it's Extinctions, wherebe the
1st extinction="The first, 450 million years ago, occurred shortly after the evolution of the first land-based plants and 100 million years after the Cambrian Explosion of animal life beneath the seas."
2nd Extinction=came 350 million years ago, causing the formation of coal forests and so on up to the SIXTH EXTINCTION: The Possible Extinction of Homo Sapien(man to most to most people)
Man is considered by both many Biologists and Agent Smith an environmental abnormality and the greatest threat to man? Man himself (neatly tying in with Matrix lore). However this does have wider connotations since Agent Smith is turning more human and like humanity threatens it's existence by using every resource now both Humanity and AI life is threatened.

Six Anomalies 5 previous Extinctions of Man?
Will the Revolution be that the most abundant inteligent species (Humanity and AI) don't kill each other or themselves and progress into the Future?

Also, 101 is 5 in binary code, and this is the 6th number, if 0 is the first

I like hyphen's explanation about this.
Neo could have not been all of the anomalies. HOw could he be doing the same thing over and over again for the 5th time?
Like what hyphen says that the 7th is the end, so it is true.
THe 7th (trust me, i know!) is the last one. That's why neo is the sixth. And if you realised, like what the architect said, he is the most different. That's why the 7 is the last. 7 is a mystic number.
Some people cannot accept the fact that neo is dead when he is. He will come back, but as another one. His full purpose has not been accomplished. He will come back, as the 7th one. (this is scary you know!)

I have read that while 7 is a number signifying perfection or completion, 6 is the number of imperfection, or more accurately, preparation. So the 6th of anything is preparing for the 7th.

which is why God rested on the 7th day

which is why Neo, the 6th One, prepares the way for the 7th reload of the Matrix and the peace

...this interpretation comes from Peter Lemesurier's book, Decoding the Pyramid. Lemesurier is not considered by all pyramidologists to be, shall we say, a great authority, though he has studied the Great Pyramid for much of his life. Anyway, he claims that there is a certain numerology to the pyramid's design, and the code involves the following:

Lemesurier wrote:

1 = unity, the One. (all the other code-numbers are direct functions of this basic unity--a fact of considerable symbolic aptness.) 2 = production, generation, productive. 3 = perfect, utter, complete. pi = eternity, the eternal, the Divine, the spiritual.... 4 = physical, terrestrial. 5 = initiation, an initiate or Messianic leader.... 6 = preparation, and thus, spiritually, incompleteness or imperfection. 7 = eternal or spiritual perfection 8 = rebirth. 9 = utter perfection (3x3) 10 = eternity, a millennium, a Messianic age. 11 = physical reality, realization, achievement. 12 = all men, mankind, true man 19 = death, mortality 25 = the Great Initiate or One-who-is-to-come, the Messianic ideal (5x5). ...

There's more, of course. He claims that it is mostly consistent with 'other numerological applications,' and even connects it with Pythagoras specifically. I find it at least to be a fascinating interpretation of the numbers, especially in the context of the design of the Pyramid of Khefren (Khufu). I have tried to put this numerology to the test with other mythological symbols, and have found quite a few times that they seem to work. He works it out:

Lemesurier wrote:

One would also, incidentally, epect self-consistency to be a feature of the code: functions such as 6 = 2 x 3--presumably preparation is productive of the perfect--would be a god means of testing any such code against itself, once it has been constructed.

...Which makes sense, I guess.

Maybe I'll just start a new thread with this... I just picked this book up again after reading this thread, and I never tried applying this 'code' to the Matrix before.... Meanwhile, see what you can do with it.