Film Theory: Neo ISN'T The One in The Matrix Trilogy

(Ring) (Ring) Wake up, Theorist. I don't know if you're ready to see what I have to show you but unfortunately the two of us have very little time. They're coming for you. And I don't know what they're going to do if they find you. I can help you but only if you do exactly as I say: Watch this video and perhaps you will have a chance. Good luck. (Hang up) (Beep) Hello internet! Welcome to FILM THEORY! I'm glad you decided to stick around because there is much we have to discuss. FILM THEORY When it hit theaters in 1999, The Matrix was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Well unless you keep up with any form of Cyber-Punk had ever read a philosophy textbook, were a fan of Japanese anime or kung fu films had ever watched Tron. Uh you get the idea. but hey that makes complete sense when you consider that the films creators, writers and directors The Wachowskis were absolutely massive fanatics of all of those things and wanted to add to those genres with the film that incorporated elements from all of them. And the world they created while accessible enough to be mimicked in hundreds of parodies long before poop emojis became a way to ironically say "I love you" or less ironically "I have to poop" has long been debated and reinterpreted by the same over analytical fanbase The Wachowskis themselves hail from and you know that where there's over analysis to be had the theorists will follow so I dug through the awesome first movie, the not so awesome CGI of the second, and the philsophical ramblings of the whole series Only to discover that we have been completely wrong the whole time, that the hero of humanity named 'The One' he who is prophecised to bring about the downfall of the machines and reload the matrix, is not Neo! desptie his name being a clever anagram of one no.. put aside Keanu Reeves' highly emotive face the one is in fact ........ "Me ..me..me" "me too" Agent Smith, The cold hearted, murderous, hater of humanity and the bad guy trying to stop Neo .. Is in fact the hero who sets in motion the destruction of the matrix and humanity's freedom Let's see how far this rabbit hole goes ... Now I'm gonna assume you need a bit of a refresher on what the heck this trilogy is about beyond white dredlocks and Christ imagery so let me do a real quick recap for you first in the first movie we meet "Mr Anderson" (Bad Agent Smith impression) I can't do it I can't do the voice In the first movie we meet Thomas Anderson a Hacker Codenamed 'Neo' who is disillusioned with his job, his life, and reality itself until mysterious messages lead him to Morpheus who totally blows his mind when he tells him that the world as he knows it, is a computer simulation and humanity is enslaved by machines, who use this digital reality, or 'The Matrix' to keep humanity submissive whilst they harvest their body heat for energy "Whoa" Turns out Neo is the subject of a holy prophecy he is 'The One' humanity's saviour who has the ability to trancend the laws of this digital reality in such an advanced way that he can do Amazing Epic 'Not-at-all-ripped-off-from-Dragon-Ball-Zesque things All hail the coming of 'The One' and the destruction of the matrix .. right? Well... As 'The Architect' explains in the second movie in a monologue that's gone down in history as one of the single most confusing things ever said by an actor in a major blockbuster ever.. Neo's 'special status' is all part of the machines master plan y'see another name of the one is the prime program He's the result of an imperfect system you know how when you divide numbers together you sometimes get a remainder when they don't divide in perfectly 'The One' is basically all those remainders glommed together into a big number ball and as long as he exists the matrix will remain imperfect and gradually decend into chaos until it crashes and desroys all of humanity including it's last stronghold the sweaty dubstep-fueled-rave-cave of Zion [Air Horn] Long story short Humanity will be extinct to prevent this 'The One's code needs to enter the source which allows the matrix to reload and everything to become perfect and stable eventually Neo goes to the source jacks in fights Agent Smith an AI program tasked with keeping order in the system loses or wins? and since Neo is plugged into the source over at machine city the anomly goes bye-bye and the Matrix is able to finally be reloaded Bringing peace to the struggle between man and machine with blind-jesus Neo being carried off into the light The End! Clear as mud But what's easy to lose amidst all the black trenchcoats and bullet time effects are the details! for instance let's look at the aforementioned prophecy Quote ... when the matrix was [first] built there was a man born inside that had the ability to change what he wanted, to remake the matrix as he saw fit. It was this man who freed the first of us and taught us the truth. When he died the oracle prophesied his return and envisioned that his coming would hail the destruction of the matrix and the war, bring freedom to our people :End Quote so if neo is truly the one he needs to have been born in the matrix is able to change it and ultimately destroys it to set humans free Let's start with the first criteria Born Inside the Matrix Uhhh ...... NO Neo is not born inside of the matrix he was born in one of those gross harvest pods by the machines he even has the extra electrical outlets on his body to prove it which are so useful during the holiday season to be fair neo was reborn inside the matrix after being killed by agent smith at the end of the first film but keep in mind that the Oracles prophecy also specifies quote when the matrix was first built and as we're told in the film this is the sixth version of the matrix the matrix is older than you know I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next in which case this is the sixth version mr. Anderson wasn't around way back then you know who was though Agent Smith Smith has been there since the beginning "did you know that the first matrix was designed to be a perfect human world"... "where none suffered, where everyone would be happy"... "it was a disaster!" he speaks about it in a way that implies that he was there but not only that he goes so far as to call the Oracle 'mom' in the third movie "you would know mom" so despite him being just a computer program the idea of birth still applies to look at it a different way at the end of the first matrix neo jumps into Agent Smith destroying him from within but that moment fundamentally changes Smith he's reborn in the second movie as a rogue virus as he explains to Neo "because of you I'm no longer an agent of this system"... "because of you I've changed"... "I'm unplugged... a new man..." which just goes to show one other way that Smith was born inside of the matrix ok but let's move on the second part of the prophecy says the one will be able to change the matrix to remake it as he sees fit although Neo shows some real promise at the end of the first movie with his jumping inside Smith fatality that's pretty much the end of his endeavor to do any kind of next-level hacking neo doesn't actually change anything throughout the sequel's sure he can do some kung fu moves and fly but that's about it when it comes to changing the fabric of the matrix the way it behaves Smith shows far more power I mean check out how the matrix looks by the end of the series when Smith is at the height of his power it's unrecognizable and very clearly the one who made those changes was Smith in his own words "you like what I've done with the place?" but MatPat you might be saying don't you know that Smith is only special because neo is special with neo jumped inside of him at the end of the first movie he copy part of himself onto Smith interesting theoretical theorists so you're suggesting that neo causes Smith's exceptional powers but not so fast the quality that determines if someone is truly the one is based on the ability to repel against the machines like Morpheus says yet their strength and their speed are still based in a world that is built on rules make sense machines are just a series of zeros and ones so of course they're bound by the rules of their programming for wait then how do you explain this seed in the first matrix myth takes out his earpiece while interrogating Morpheus and explains his desire to escape the matrix I must get out of here I must get free and with the other agents walk in and see him without his earpiece and they scold in smith is a program meant to ensure the security of the matrix that earpieces his direct line with the system and here it appears as though he's going rogue not only does the fact that Smith is able to go against the rules and take out his earpiece suggest his heightened ability to repel but everything he says in the scene is oddly human talking about smelling and tasting humanity and being disgusted by them it's the smell I could taste your stink long before he takes on neo Smith is working against his programming Smith not neo is the anomaly in the system and now for the final tenant of the prophecy that he would bring destruction to the matrix and bring freedom to the people and end the war ok so although the saga ends with the matrix still intact it gets pretty banged up during the Smith neo final battle and in reloading one could say that it was destroyed and look who says that he's actually going to destroy the matrix you guessed it Smith and the only reason that the war between man and machine zens is because Smith is so darn good at tearing up the fabric of the matrix that the machines can't control them anymore this precarious position Smith puts the machines in is what gives me 0 the bargaining power to strike up a deal with babyface over here that allows the humans who want to stay in the matrix day and the EDM fans who want to leave and head to the concert in Zion go over that way and get all sweaty do might be the one making the deal but without Smith's uncontrollable power the machines would need to end the war in the first place but here's the detail that seals the deal the matrix will reload when the remainder code of the one enters the source Smith openly says that he's avoiding returning to the source after merging with neo in the first movie in his own words he's been compelled to resist the call afterward I knew the rules i understood what I was supposed to I didn't I couldn't compelled to stay compelled to disobey but for that final battle neo uploads himself into the matrix from machine city at the end of the battle Smith victorious assimilates neo into a final Smith clone but then this breaks him up and all the Smiths blow up for some unexplained reason this always confused me why do Smith lose it's really unclear and it feels like a cheap ending for such an awesome villain until you consider what's happened Smith infects neo who is jacked into the matrix from machine city AKA the location of the source when Smith assimilates him his code is getting jacked directly into that source as the prophecy of the architect of said the prime program in this instance has been reinserted look at how Neos body and the wires connected to respond in the moment of his assimilation in that moment through Neos assimilated body Smith's anomalous code is reunited to the source and the matrix is finally able to reload let me make it clear he is the one but you the unwitting one he's the savior of humanity without even intending it or wanting it for that matter but that all leaves us with one final question and it's a simple one why does everyone call me old one if he's not the one who needs to watch the one the one the one who sure Morpheus in the dirty sweatshirt gang may just be mistaken but what about the architect or the Oracle these are two of the most powerful programs in the system and they should probably know right well one of them does it is rambling speech the architect says it was the Oracle who created the one not only does this strengthen the whole mom argument with agent smith from earlier but it also shows that she's the only person who truly knows the one's true nature the ones true identity I'm not the one sorry kid and what did she do with that knowledge she chooses to lie to everyone else about it in the final lines of the franchise the architect and oracle meet in the reloaded matrix with the architect saying you can be a very dangerous game what's he talking about what is this dangerous game well it's a reference to the lie she told everyone that the one was neo when she knew it was Smith why would she do this she says in these final moments that she wanted change but what does that mean well it was the only way that she could get peace had the machines known it was Smith all along they would have assimilated him into the system earlier in the war between humans and machines would have continued but by misleading everyone into thinking it was neo it allowed Smith to threaten the fabric of the matrix to the point where the machines had to make a deal of peace with me Oh creating an elaborate live was the only way to truly change the system the dangerous game was allowing a rogue program like Smith to get as powerful as he did boy did she do a good job of covering up the truth since it fold all of us to / for a decade Agent Smith that rainbow over there for you buddy you truly are the one but hey that's just a theory. A film theory. and cut subscribe to your viewer you will have your eyes open to the truth and the realms of TV and cinema class we have another matrix episode coming down the pipeline so you want to subscribe so you don't miss that one but if you're ready to go further down the rabbit hole for more matrix C goodness right now and click here to check out my friends over at the wisecrack channel as they take a deeper look at the matrix reloaded exploring all the details we've been overlooking for years that give us a sense of the movies true hidden meaning or click here to just check out their channel chances are you watch film theory for thought-provoking movie and TV related videos right well these guys do just that using education and entertainment into that sweet sweet thing we call entertainment I'm a huge fan of their stuff and I think you will be too so go ahead and click here check it out now if you'll excuse me it is long past due that we talk about some marvel more on that next time mr. and or no still can't do it damp

Channel: The Film Theorists

Views: 8,976,206

Rating: 4.8436017 out of 5

Keywords: The Matrix (Award-Winning Work), the matrix, The Matrix Revolutions (Award-Winning Work), The Matrix Reloaded (Award-Winning Work), The Matrix (Film Series), neo the one, neo, matrix the one, Science Fiction Movies, Film (Media Genre), Film Theory (Field Of Study), film theory, matpat, Film Theorists, Game Theorists

Id: VkMU1mKdwPI

Length: 15min 31sec (931 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Here are some posts from the thread in /r/movies:

No explanation for why Neo could destroy sentinels in the real world? The video just gets certain things wrong to make it's point. Neo was born in the matrix, he lived in the Matrix his whole life until he was taken out by Morpheus. He even said used the fact that there was multiple Matrixes to say that Neo wasn't born inside but the fact that in every Matrix there was a Neo, literally looking the exact same puts a stupid hole in his theory. He also makes a random assumption that Smith was around in the previous Matrixes which is never proven, with the Merovingian's guard of Vampires and Werewolves making it seem unlikely that Smith existed before. Programs from the previous Matrix are destroyed except for ones which the Merovingian managed to weasel out. Smith didn't exist before he just knew of the previous versions. His ending point about the Oracle's dangerous game was close but I think the actual thing that changed was when the Oracle gave Neo a cookie. The cookie worked how it does on your PC, it changed Neo's code slightly because the Oracle knew that Neo would infect Smith with it, turning him into the Virus. That is why Smith calls the Oracle mom.

and

This really doesn't make any sense. Smith served as a catalyst for this specific One, Neo, to make an actual change by returning to the source and ending the war in doing so. That was his purpose. Neo was very much The One and was proven to be multiple times throughout the series. This video takes clear evidence and either drastically skews it to fit the theory or completely ignores it all together. Example: the video uses the quote of the Oracle telling Neo he's not The One. But they leave out the following line where she tells him "maybe in your next life". Neo dies at the end of the film and is reborn as The One in the Matrix. It all makes perfect sense.

and

I stopped at the born in the Matrix part. That is just a stupid way to understand what that was referring to. He also completely misunderstands what the Architect's speech meant. When he talks about the sum of a remainer yada yada yada...is that whatever percent of people would accept the matrix if given an unconscious choice but some small fraction wouldn't and eventually the growing number of rejecters could create the potential for disaster. The "One" serves as a control mechanism created by the machines to both guide those wo reject the matrix and ultimately to reset it once their number gets sufficiently large. The One wasn't the machines problem it was their solution.

[u/whocaresyouguy]

This is an awesome theory but it doesn't hold up with people who actually know the movies and mythology by heart. EDIT: Long read ahead, apologies in advance. I break down each point made in the video, so listen to the video and follow along if you want to. Thanks.

1. The prophecy that he's quoting is from Morpheus. Morpheus never knew about the different iterations of the Matrix and didn't know that Neo and himself were living in the sixth version of it. He thinks there's only been one Matrix the entire time, that's why he said "When the Matrix was first built". He thinks there's only been one iteration of it.

2. He calls the Oracle mom because The Architect says "If I am the father of the Matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother." He was just calling her his figurative mother since she created the Matrix the way it is, with imperfection and choice (or illusion of).

3. Smith doesn't change the entire makeup of Mega City, the buildings and its environment still look exactly the same. Smith just copied himself on to every single person in the Matrix. He didn't have the ability to change landscapes or create something from nothing, etc. He didn't change it "the way he saw fit".

4. When Morpheus says "Their strength and speed are still based in a world that is built on rules" he's talking about AGENTS. When Neo "kills" Smith at the end of the first one, he stops becoming an agent. That's why he can break the rules. He just becomes an outdated program and is supposed to return to The Source for deletion. New Agents are made to replace him because The One is born and is able to use all his powers. Smith, instead, doesn't go back to the Source and becomes a rogue program like the Merovingian and those twins and vampires, etc.

5. Nowhere is it stated that Agents can't take out their earpieces.

6. The Matrix "reloads" when The One puts some of his code into The Source and frees 23 people, thus restarting the whole "Search For The One" and the prophecy and all that shit. That is all a game to keep humans occupied while The Machines just continue to harvest humans for energy. It's just a distraction. The Matrix does NOT get destroyed when The One puts his code into The Source. The maker of this video makes it seem like Smith put his code into Neo at the end of Revolution and THAT'S what made The Matrix "reload" to a bright sunny day. That's NOT what happened. See explanation of Revolutions ending.

7. The "dangerous game" that The Architect is talking about is her helping Neo and pushing him further along after he defied the prophecy game he was supposed to play along with. Neo was SUPPOSED to meet The Architect, go into the door and free 23 people from the Matrix, then the machines will destroy Zion and the whole thing starts over again with the 7th version of the Matrix. Instead, he defies that and The Oracle helps him on a journey that's never happened before in The Matrix universe.

EXPLANATION OF REVOLUTIONS ENDING:

When Neo entered Smith, it gave some of The One code on to Smith's self. Smith didn't die at the end of the first movie. He's a program. The body Neo jumped into was destroyed but the Agent Smith program still lived. It was supposed to go back to The Source for deletion, where all outdated programs go. The Oracle says this to Neo on the park bench in Reloaded. Smith doesn't return for deletion. He runs around being rogue. But since Neo passed some of his The One code on to him, it gave him the ability to do what The One can do, except he can now copy his code on to other people in the Matrix. So at the end of Revolutions, Neo realizes he can't keep fighting Smith because they are mirror opposites of each other. Neo is ultimate good, Smith is ultimate evil. Neo, being jacked into the Machine City and therefore, THE SOURCE, let's Smith copy on to him in The Matrix, which subsequently makes Smith jacked into The Source. Then the head machine baby face sends a delete code into Neo's body and deletes Smith. Smith didn't return to The Source for deletion but ended up at The Source anyways after he copied himself on to Neo. The prime program is NOT being reinserted.

TL;DR: Neo is definitely The One. Smith is just his opposite. Smith becomes a virus and threatens to destroy the OS of the Matrix and Neo stops him. Neo is anti-virus to Smith's virus. Neo is definitely The One.

[u/Halo_likes_me]

Guess I have to watch all 3 movies ^again

[u/SomeWeirdDude]

Never touched on how Trinity was supposed to fall in love with The One.

[u/jacob_w]

He never mentions the whole part where Agent Smith enters the real world through Bane.

[u/torik0]

The Architect stating that the Oracle created the one and Mr. Smith revealing that the Oracle is literally his "mom" sealed it for me.

[u/Protoman89]

Very interesting theory, but it's like the narrator is actively trying to annoy me with his voice

[u/Mogg_the_Poet]

50 seconds of intros.

[u/ZX2Slow]

Lies, Neo was the only true 'The One'.

I thought it was pretty obvious that the Oracle located many capable of being 'The One'. Her apartment was filled with special people.

The Oracle then selected one from the few that could be "The One" that was most likely to reintegrate into the Matrix when asked to by the Architect. So the previous 'Ones' were never the 'The One', just some remainder to be fed back into the matrix and not save humanity.

Neo was the 'The One' of prophecy. The Oracle selected him because his love and attachment to Trinity would make him most likely to reject the Architect and save humanity. It was also the Oracle that manipulated Neo to go back into the Matrix to save Morpheus and set up the weird killing/rebirth/absorption thing that linked Neo and Smith.