It's like 10,000 spoons, when all you need is a knife. There is no spoon. (Video being disordered) (Gun shot) (splatter, thump) (Film Theory Theme song) Hello internet, Welcome to Film Theory! Where the spoon doesn't bend, it's only you. Last time we talked about the Matrix, we covered the idea that the one wasn't keanu reeves. But was, in fact, an unwitting Agent Smith. Elrond for the win. And I was able to convince a lot you, even Reddit was pretty darn positive with that episode. for once you guys liked one of my theories. Still not my voice though. Anyway, the biggest objection I heard was that Neo had to be the one, since his powers not only exist within the matrix, but also outside of it In the real world, aboard the good ship Nebuchadnezzar. Remember that time he used some sort of telekinesis or pr techno-pothy to stop, control, and destroy the machine droids in the real world or how he still able to see the aura of Smith and the machines after being blinded in Revolutions. No, well trust me those things happen, it's easy to forget them amidst machine baby key makers and Merovingia whose whatsits. But here's the kicker. I bet if he tried hard enough, Neo would be able to do so so much more in the real world with his powers. And it's not because he's the one. Oh no Neo is able to have these superpowers becasue he's still in the Matrix. They all are. Morpheus, Trinity, enthusiastic rave dancer. Everything we're shown in these movies from Zion, to the city, to the Simulations aboard Nebuchadnezzar are different tiers within a grand complex, multi-layered matrix. Like Inception, but with more trench coats fewer bawhhes (BAWHHHHH) Ready to have your eyes opened and see the truth? Let's start by paying a visit to the Architect's chamber from the Matrix Reloaded. Now this scene is awesome, with all the screens showing all the different outcomes and iterations of Neo's conversation here. but while you're trying to focus on what exactly the Architect was saying, deciphering the string of ergos and consequentlys. You probably overlooked this, in the Architect long confusing monologue, he states that the first Matrix failed because it was built to built as a utopia. It was too perfect. Humans wouldn't accept it as a reality. The second Matrix because humans needed choice. And so as long as humans were offered a choice, even one felt an unconscious level, 99% would accept the Matrix, living in the virtual world. The remaining 1% would choose the other option, becoming a free mind, destined to become part of the human resistance basin in the in Zion. In his speech, he says this, "You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts, I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision." But if the one is truly the only imperfection in a mathematically perfect system, that would mean he's already found a solution for human free will, for the remaining 1% of people who refuse to accept the Matrix, and what was that solution? Well, he did it by offering them a choice, The option of Zion, the "real world," a simulated quest to escape being enslaved by the machines. He's already admitted to creating imperfect worlds for humans to accept the Matrix. Is it really so hard to believe that he would create a simulated struggle as another tier within the Matrix to account for those humans that reject a digital world? It may seem like overthinking at first, but it actually explains a lot of logical errors from the franchise. First off, let's look at the hilariously convoluted plot of the machines. Futurama nailed this one on the head. (Leela' voice) "Don't be ridiculous, their bodies are being used to generate electricity. The idea came from and old movie called The Matrix, (Bender's voice) but ... but wouldn't almost anything make a better battery than a human body? Like a potato? Or a battery?" So we're supposed to believe that the machines keep growing and harvesting humans for use as makeshift batteries powering their vast artificial empire, but the sad truth is, that just doesn't stack up with science. The amount of energy produced by literally billions of humans would be pocket change compared to other sources of power available to the machines, wind, geothermal, really anything. (Fry's voice) "Plus no matter how much energy they produced, it would take more energy than that to keep them alive!" It makes much more sense to use this setup of humans they got going as something like a neural network for extra processing or computing power, which, as it turns out fun fact, was actually the Wachowskis' original idea. The suits at Warner Brothers thought that the human network concept would be too confusing to an audience who had only recently been exposed to computers at a massive scale, and as a result forced the Wachowskis to change it in the last minute. What we as audiences were left with was a huge scientific hole, or a really compelling scenario to keep the people who reject the Matrix occupied, freeing their fellow pod people. Speaking of the people who reject the Matrix, we learn from the Architect that the 5 predecessors to Neo have supposedly freed a new set of humans, and led to the creation of a new Zion under the supervision of the machines. "After which you will be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals, 16 female, 7 male to rebuild Zion." I'm liking those odds. But dreams of repopulating the world aside, why would the machines have difficulty finding and gaining access to Zion when they're the ones who are allowing it to happen? Better yet, why would they allow Zion to exist in the first place? If they knew the rebels were going to cause so much trouble for them in the long run? I mean, the Architect even admits they've destroyed it 5 times before. "But rest assured, this will be the 6th time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it." What a waste of time. Really though, it all adds up. Due to the human need for free will, some humans will inevitably choose to reject the Matrix. When they do, they wake up and enter what they believe to be the real world, where they're all led by a false Shepard in the One, in a war that is, ironically, meant only to pacify them, to stop them from looking just a bit further and seeing that the real world, this real world, is yet another layer in the illusion created by the Matrix. The Architect has successfully designed a system where 1% reject the Matrix but still exist within the Matrix. I mean seriously, why would Neo have telekinetic powers in the real world? The One is a superhero within the Matrix. The prophesies, though, say nothing about him also having powers outside of the Matrix. In fact, there are a ton of absurd interactions between the digital world, and the one we're led to believe is the physical one that make no sense, unless the real world is also a part of the Matrix. Now, some of it makes sense like having the jack in the back of your head ripped out while your consciousness is within the Matrix being fatal. Alright, having your mind more or less separated from your body seems like a pretty sure fire way to die, and I can even buy dying within the Matrix killing you in the real world. You know how they say if you die in a dream, you die in real life? Even though that's not actually backed by science, it could be written off as some sort of super intense placebo effect, where the power of suggestion in the Matrix is so strong, the brain reacts in violent ways and shuts down. It is a science fiction action film after all, so we're gonna have to suspend our disbelief a little bit, but when we go a little further down the rabbit hole, the explanations start to get a lot tougher. For example, injuries within the Matrix or other similar simulations are somehow able to adversely effect the physical well being of people's bodies in the real world, and I'm not just talking about moving and shaking while their avatars in the Matrix are fighting. I twitch in my sleep all the time. That's perfectly normal, I assume. No, these injuries draw blood from their real bodies, but the neural link into the Matrix is only into the brain or spinal cord. It shouldn't be affecting blood vessels, but it's even weirder when the reverse happens, like when Neo brings Trinity back from the dead by literally reaching into her chest and restarting her heart, all from within the Matrix. He didn't take a defibrillator to her physical chest to electrically restart her heart beat. He touched her digital avatar made up of code, and somehow got her physical IRL heart to pump again through a link into her brain, and this time we can't pin it on the power of suggestion or a placebo effect because her brain is literally dead. She can't be suggested to be healed because placebo effects can't work if someone's brain is no longer functioning. If reviving someone by stimulating their brain or spinal cord was actually feasible, you'd think you'd see doctors using it on a more regular basis, right? The short answer is, quite frankly, it doesn't make sense, unless the "real world" was also just a bunch of code. Speaking of problems with jacking in, in the Third Movie, Neo finds himself in the train station limbo area without being jacked in at all, but that doesn't make any sense from the movie's logic. No matter who you think the One is, whether it's Neo jumping into the Matrix, or Agent Smith jumping out, the transition always needs to happen through one of those neural jacks. We also see the kid in Matrix Reloaded, and in the Animatrix, Dan Davis, pull themselves out of the Matrix by shear force of will. This would seem to be a job for Cinema Sins (ding), except the sins can be explained if the real world and Zion are just constructs of the machines. But enough talk about logical errors, let's talk cutlery, the spoon. In the first movie, Neo meets a boy who begins to teach him a bit about the nature of the Matrix, saying, "Do not try and bend the spoon, instead only try to realize the truth. There is no spoon. In saying this, the boy teaches Neo that the spoon is a symbol, that it doesn't actually exist, but instead is a bunch of code that Neo perceives to be a spoon. By changing his perception and seeing the code that makes up the spoon, seeing the truth, Neo is then able to bend it, and thus was born a decade's worth of there is no spoon cheat codes. Ok, interesting idea, but then fast forward to the second movie, when spoon boy sends Neo a present. "A gift from one of the orphans. He said you'd understand." So spoon boy sends him a spoon in Zion ... in the real world? First off, how, but secondly this moment is never explained, but the Wachowskis specifically scripted that Neo be reminded of this symbol in Zion, a symbol of reality being different from what you see. It's a reminder to Neo, and to us as the audience, that there was no spoon in the Matrix, but likewise there's no spoon here in Zion, either, but you don't have to take my word, the Architect's word, or even spoon kid's word for it. You can trust everyone's favorite dirty sweatshirt gang ring leader, Morpheus. He's the one who believes this quest for freedom more than anyone else. He is convinced that Neo is the One, and yet, the last shot of Morpheus has him in Zion asking, "Is this real?" Uhhh, kinda late to be having second thoughts there buddy. Seriously, the Wachowskis didn't put his sudden lack of faith in there for no good reason, and beyond that Morpheus is the name for the Greek god of dreams, and his ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, is named after a Babylonian king mentioned in the Bible who is haunted by bad dreams. Morpheus and his ship are symbols of dreams, illusions, and when the franchise starts, we would assume that the dreams his name is a reference to is the Matrix itself, an artificial reality, but as the franchise goes on, and we peel back the layers of strange physics, convoluted speeches, and spoons, it starts to become apparent that the illusion isn't just the Matrix; it's the real world, another fabrication created by the machines. By including this line of "Is this real" as humanity finally wins and Morpheus's goals are realized, the Wachowskis undermine the victory, hinting that it probably isn't, sneaking around the machines, the hunt for the One, Zion itself. Red or Blue? Huh, take either pill. It doesn't matter which one cause you'll still be trapped in the machine. Wake up Theorists, there is no rejecting the Matrix. But Hey ... That's just a Theory! A FILM THEORY! AAAND CUT! We interrupt your regularly scheduled end card to bring you the following nerdy video related
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The Machines themselves are also oblivious to the second Matrix, unless you have specific permissions like the Architect.
How else can you explain his telekinetic powers outside of the matrix. Time for Matrix 4...
In the movies they said they used the humans as a power source -- along with a type of fusion energy. That's like saying "This airliner is hamster-powered....and oh yeah the two jet engines on the side."
and yes, the side with the USB symbol is up.
I had totally signed off the trilogy when Neo demonstrated having powers in the "real" world (what would be the 1st level in Inception speak). Seemed too hokey or religious. But this is making me reassess the quality of the trilogy (in the up direction) and intellectual aspect of it, which gels more with what I know of them the Bros (now Bro & Sis) from their other work.
This smug bastard again...
Yea, I'd believe that. Seems plausible.
pretty chill theory
fun stuff to think about, but i think its going a bit far. Not to mention the very nature of the movies makes it easy to over analyze.