»Neo is an Anti-Christ who challenged Heaven and Wins«

I am not of a Christian background, but I do not intend to offend anyone.

After watching Revolutions, I could not help but feel that the brothers took an easy way out, a hollywood ending where everyone can leave saying

"so Neo really IS Jesus! Wow! I cant wait for my kids to see that used in Sunday School!"

It is ridiculously easy to make Neo fit the Christian mold so I have taken a rather different perception on the movies...

The Matrix represents Heaven and God.
Zion represents hell.
Neo is an Anti-Christ
And the movie is a satire of Christianity.

lets take a little dip down THIS rabbit hole...

In the first Matrix, Neo is awaken and takes a symbolic fall from his cocoon/embryo pod. This is like the fall of Lucifer from Heaven. But wait! I hear you scream, so why is The Matrix heaven?

The answer lies in the The Second Renaissance, specifically the motivation for the Humans to act the way they do and why they decided to keep Humans as an energy source as opposed to just cloning cows and getting energy from them.

The Machines are made to serve mankind, I assume this is hardwired. In the 2nd Ren part 1, a B166ER "discovers" free will and argues for the right to life. His action does not defy the commands of his human master because at no time during either the Anime or the Matrix comic (and I may be wrong on this) does his master order him to stop. Since he has no reason to stop. B166ER kills.

Then follows the machine crackdown, and the Machines are placed in a dilemma, they want to be recognized but doing so it against the will of there masters, the humans. So that is why, despite requesting free will, they allow themselves to be victims of what one could describe as a genocide, it is the will of the Humans that this be the case.

The Machines thus know they are rejected by society and establish there own nation, where they prosper. However, Mankind is not entirely pleased with this and tries to "Play God" and nukes 01. This the machines interpret as the action of a belligerent, corrupt, and over confident mankind, challenging the machines and requesting war. They applaud in the United Nations when they consider project Dark Storm since they know this will cause a final war and the end of mankind. In other words, they "wish" for there civilization to end.

The Machines respond in kind and inflict much pain and suffering.

After being the losers, mankind now has a new request, they want to return to peace, to bliss, to forget the tragedies they have brought upon themselves. The may not ask for it, but the Matrix is the Machines giving back to mankind there wish, the Machines save us form our own destruction and give us a perfect world, a heaven were our existence is guaranteed and we live our life as we want.

The Matrix is also heaven in the same sense that the Architect is also God. I wont spend to much time on this, but the architect is omnipotent (all those TV screens let him see everything) he is all knowing, and presumably all powerful, but just like our current god, does not actually exercise the rite to throw down bolts of lighting just to fix something.

Now why is Neo and Zion hell? You could look at this in several ways...

A) The Red pill is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge (Genesis) and taking it is against the will of God, just as taking the fruit is against the will of the machines. Neo and the red pill make a trophy out of what in Christian mythology, is the source of Sin, but you don't see anyone complain how there messiah ate the forbidden fruit in the movie do they?

B) Neo dresses in Black, a color associated with being "evil" (not intended by any means to be a racist comment, but just think about examples in current society, Darth Vader wears black, for example, and "light" is preferred over "dark) when Neo confronts the Architect in the 2nd movie, the Architect (god) not only has the beard and aged wisdom, but also the white colour.

C) Zion represents hell in several ways, it is near the fiery center of earth, ala fire and Brimstone. It is also a place of succumbing entirely to temptation, the dance rave scene? Its a Brave New World "Orgy-Porgy" taken to the extreme. It is a rebellion against legitimate authority, and is expressed by that most horrid sin of sex and having pleasure! (The Bible does prefer Virgins does it not? It certainly does not approve of mass social orgies) Zion is a place of near limited, and somewhat anarchic chaotic freedom, ie not a very holy place.

D) When Neo goes blind, he sees things as they "really are" in the Real World. So why does he only see the Machines or Machine creations?(eg. Smith in Banes body). I am not sure WHY, so much as WHAT he sees. Just as he saw The Matrix for what it really was at the end of the first movie (code) he sees the machines as what they really are, Angelic beings, all with light, and gold. 01 looks like heaven and that is how it really is.

The fact that there were six other Ones before Neo places him in the status of false prophet. He is the not the One who will destroy the matrix despite the prophesies that claim so. In fact, what he does achieve is a short term aim that does not end the rule of Heaven at all. His rebellion as achieved one goal, it has alerted the Machines to the "desires" for some humans to be released, those who realize that they want to go, the 1%. The 1% that the Architect can afford to loose.

And finally, the creation of a Neo myth at the end of the movie is effective satire of the Jesus story. Lets think of it this way:

Reality- Neo fights smith and does not have the actual strength to overtake him. He thus must offer him self as a sacrifice, thus a sign of weakness and NOT being invulnerable or even the dominating master of the Matrix. Smith takes that honor.

Then the Machines out of the Matrix help out, and pump Neo full of antivirus code/energy/chemical X/etc. and thanks to all that Neo has gone through, he somehow acts as a "transmitter" of the signal. The Matrix, the Machines, Heaven kills Smith, they end the war.

The Oracle and Architect then talk realistically about how the cease fire wont last long.

What Zion thinks Happens- They have no bloody clue, and the Kid, who is a symbol of naiveté and lack of experience, makes and assumption that Neo just won there war and that he has "saved" them. If he said that Neo walked on water, they would believe him, they are desperate and don't know what to believe anyway.

This is my first draft of my theory, yell at me and scream at me, but don't assume I am in this to insult anyone or there faith in the church.

I just got so bloody bored of the Jesus=Neo analogies.

very good theory. it is very possible that the trilogy itself is a satire of christianity, but in a little different way from the one u describe. the original matrix movie was undoubtedly a retelling of the "greatest story ever told", and left christians expecting an affirmation - but these hopes were deliberately betrayed in m2 and m3, which were the satires. the brothers used the bait-and-switch tactic. this is elaborated on metaphilm, a (catholic!) film review site.

a few counterpoints to ur theory.

the architect is more similar to the demiurge than god, who would be the Deus Ex Machina, or the source, since the Logos proceeds from God, and the one comes from the source.

the other ones before neo can be likened to the prophets and the final saviour.

smith defeating neo is not a mockery, but the biggest affirmation of the christian symbolism. recall how neo gives smith a face blow after the i-choose-to thing. this is clearly shows that he is an equal, and can keep fighting if he wants to. carefully analyse the events which follow - it is neo who stands up and challenges smith - "What are you afraid of?" smith is shaken to the core "It's a trick!". neo sacrifices himself, out of pure choice. smith does his stuff unwillingly, knowing not why he does it. very much like the devil rushing to help betray christ. then neo is copied like everyone else - but his sacrifice is the salvation for everyone else. like the 'he died for our sins' thing.

and the oracle and the kid's blind belief - what better synopsis of christian philosophy? the cornerstone of christian philosophy is belief and faith. [/i]

Uh, it's not Christian. It's Hindu. Neo is Vishnu, Smith is Shiva. It's actually a combination of faiths, but it's primarily motivated by Hinduism. I read an interview which even states that the Bhagavad-Gita was really what inspired the Wachowski Bros. to make the trilogy.

And the Architect is Brahma, and the Oracle is Kali. Trinity is like Durga, another aspect of Kali. The movie has many parallels to the Ramayana. While you see Neo making a cross, look after that and you'll see that Neo's deathbed forms a lotus, a Hindu and Buddhist symbol.

well, that could be very well be true. but when u try to associate the characters with the gods in the hindu pantheon, they dont associate very well and there are a few problems.

for example, durga is the wife of shiva(smith?). and shiva, though associated with destruction, is part of their trinity. it is not even conceivable in hinduism of shiva and vishnu cancelling out each other. and kali is also somewhat the goddess of destruction and death, if u have seen her idols and the kali-worshipers repulsive stunts(like piercing their tongues with huge nails and prancing around with huge props stuck in their heads) you will never associate kali with the nice candy-offering have-a-nice-day oracle.

Uh, its not Christian?
it is beyond dispute that there are chrisitian parallels in the m1 and m3, and maybe in m2. the only question is whether hindu mythology is represented in addition to that.

there seems to be no correlation between the events in hindu mythology and the plotline of the story, and it is hard even to simply say that the characters are representations of certain deities. but in the case of christian parallels the characters fit very well with those in the bible, and biblical events are closely paralleled in the film.

or do we feel that way because we are more familiar with the bible than hindu mythology? but maybe we associate hinduism because it sounds 'exotic' to us. anyway if u find more suitable associations than those above please post them. one that occurs to me is the 7 incarnations of vishnu and the 6(7?) Ones. but then vishnu would have to be the source. maybe i'd better leave it alone....

I thought the idea would be that the oracle is Shiva (or perhaps Kali to suit the sex? Is that necessary? - it's only symbolic), the architect is brahma and Neo is vishnu?

then again Neo is a saviour not a preserver - isn't he?

oracle as shiva? how can she be associated with destruction? i dont think u have to bother with the sex. anyway how can machines and even gods have gender. saviour and preserver can be said to be the same thing. but what i think we should try to do is find parallels to the myths/events in hindu mythology rather than simply cast them as deities.

i found this page

Okay guys. Was just readin and decided to reply. You cannot say that its not Christian, its not Buddhist, its not Hindu. Its all of them. The trilogy incorporates ideas from most religions. To not aknowledge that is ignorance. Yes the Brothers were inspired by the Bhagvad-Gita. They were also inspired by comic books, other science fiction movie, mathematics, Gnoticism and Buddhism. "It was a hodge-podge of every idea we ever had".

As for Hinduism. We can most definitely agree that the Architect is Brahma, the creator. Vishnu is the preserver God. After a period of time, he takes a human form (an avatar) and comes to Earth to bring stability to the world. The various Ones are different avatars of Vishnu. Neo could be Rama or Krishna. Shiva is the destroyer God. He is responsible for ending the cycle so that a new one may begin. The Oracle is similar to Shiva because she wants to end the cycle and start a new one of peace. Her original programming is similar to Shiva's.

No, Smith is not Shiva. Oracle is not Kali and whatever else neovsmatrix wrote. Yes, you are becomming confused because you are not as familiar with Hindu philosophy as you are with the Bible. But those are correct connections I just made.

As for other connections. Vedic philosophy says that our minds are trapped inside what we think is the real world. It is actually maya or illusion. Or some say that the maya world and the real world both exist. Either way, you can see the connections. Only the ones who really want to can escape from this cycle. Those are the Zionites. The 1%. The theme of enlightenment is more Buddhist so I will not address that. Also there is the concept of yugs in Vedic philosophy which is basically ages. Each yug is destroyed and a new one then created. Its all a cycle. That relates to various versions of the Matrix. Then of course you can see what the characters are here to do. Create, preserve and destory. Thats basically it.

The reason I came up with the idea that the Oracle would be Shiva is this.

It's all about that thing the oracle said about the difference between her and the architect.

He balances the equations and that's all he can understand wheras the oracle is there to UNbalance the equations.

In the same way Shiva is meant to destroy life so that it may be reborn.

Quote:

The Matrix represents Heaven and God. Zion represents hell. Neo is an Anti-Christ And the movie is a satire of Christianity.

I have to admit, this is one of the few really original ideas on this site.

Indeed. A well though out post!

However look into the new documentaries in the 10 disc edition and you will see that there are elements from EVERY religion and EVERY school of philosophy!

Still a nice post though.

yep..it worked and will continue. more and more fall for the religious propaganda and dig themselves a deeper hole to hide in and wallow. the matrix sure has many more minds since the movies were released. people wake up from their sleep only to create a whole other matrix to sleep in while they cry religion. what a great job the warner bros. and the wac. bros. did shaping more minds through the influence of religious mind sculpting. yep....the matrix is alive and kicking.

Well, none of the religions in this world can really describe the world and its history, simply because all of them were created by men. I know a lot of people have a problem with this... Because they think that God spoke to prophets and made them do things.

For starters I reccomend everyone to Read Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses. Where the being talking to prophets is Satan not God, at least not in conventional God meaning. Maybe a creature who is both God and Devil...
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Who am I? Let's put it this way, who has the best tunes?
Who am I? Who else is there?
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Noone knows the truth....


Moprpehus is the sherpent, it is quite clear... He gives pills... Opens their eyes... And neo saw that he was naked...
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Smith and Neo are one and same... So they can be Christ/Antichrist... However which one of them is Christ/Antichrist is not clear...

By accepting the first theory, you hereby forget that it was humans that created the machines.So you say humans created God and God then created heaven and put humans at heaven? NO.It isn't true.I'm not a christian i'm a muslim but you say here is a real offensive theory against the Christian religion and God.And by your theory, Zion is Hell and humans created Zion, the Hell?NO.Your theory is totally wrong.This was for Dr.Strangelove