Greetings, and welcome to Earthling Cinema. I am your host, Garyx Wormuloid. This week's
artifact is The Matrix Reloaded, the second film in the Matrix franchise, and the first
one set entirely in the uncanny valley.
The story begins six Earth months after Matrix: A New Hope, and the big gossip is that Neo
and Trinity are totally going steady. Hey, get a room
you two! Ew, no don't get a room. Anyway, Morpheus and the
gang attend a dominatrix convention and find out a bunch of those jellyfish bots are trying
to horn in on the underground city of Zion. But Zion is only cool because it's underground.
Once it goes mainstream, the whole thing is pointless.
Meanwhile, Agent Smith is still around somehow, since that's easier than coming up with a
new villain. This time he's got a hair-brained scheme to leave the Matrix, which he does
by taking over the body of a Batman villain named Bane.
Earth always swore by its cross-promotional synergy, right up until the bitter end.
Morpheus is burned out and pops a molly at a nearby rave, so Neo asks for help from the
only other person he knows, the Oracle. She tells him to go to the Source and find the
Keymaker, who is being held hostage by the Merovingian. Clearly just making shit up to
get him to leave. I get it, Oracle, I'm sick of him too. Smith shows up completely beside
himself, so they fight a little for old time's sake. But Neo's heart isn't in it, so he flies
away.
Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity go find the guy the Oracle was talking about and ask about
the other guy the Oracle was talking about, but the first guy gets upset that the plot
is so convoluted and sends his Jamaican ghosts after them. Fortunately, the guy's wife is
mad at him for leaving the toilet seat up, and she helps them escape. Women, can't live
with em, can't live without em freeing your prisoners. Our heroes have to use the freeway,
which is apparently the most dangerous thing in the universe.
They cruise around for a while, then get bored and head to the Source. Neo meets a program
called the Architect. He tries to tell Neo about his favorite Ben Affleck movie, but
Neo had already promised to go save Trinity for their anniversary. He catches her at about
a thousand miles an hour, which definitely doesn't crush her, then gives her a coronary
bypass.
Back in the real world, their ship gets destroyed by jellyfish, but Neo wishes them away, which
makes him sleepy. He lies down on a bed next to... who is that? Oh, it's Bane! Remember?
The guy Smith bodysnatched! Wow, what a cliffhanger! I sure hope our archaeologists uncover the
third movie! What? We're never going to uncover it? My producer is saying it's lost forever.
Oh well.
Obviously The Matrix Reloaded has some allusions to Christianity, so let's get those out of
the way up top. The original, "perfect" Matrix described by the Architect can be equated
with the Olive Garden of Eden, a place where humans could replace knowledge of good and
evil with knowledge of unlimited salad and breadsticks. And like Eden, this version of
the program was doomed because of the "imperfection inherent to every human being". Also, Agent
Smith's license plate is "IS 5416", referring to the Bible passage Isaiah 54:16, which reads:
"Behold, I have created the Smith Who blows the coals in the fire,
Likewise, Morpheus'
license plate is DA 203, referring to Daniel 2:03, a passage about a dream. And if they
went to all the trouble to get personalized license plates, you know it's a big deal
In a surprise turn for a Hollywood blockbuster, math plays a pivotal role too. Pi, a transcendental
number primarily used by nerds to show how good their memories are, shows up several
times in the movie. The Keymaker says Neo has "exactly 314 seconds" to go through the
door, a reference to the fact that the number 314 flipped over sort of looks like the word
"pie."
And speaking of numbers, 101 is back, and this time it's got a sexy new makeover. In
binary, 101 is 5. But the 6th number to a computer, and as the Architect tells Neo, this is the 6th incarnation of the Matrix,
and the first to feature an exclusive partnership with the Samsung Galaxy Note.
Another math thing is Kurt Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, which para doxically, he completed.
In the early 1900s, Godel thought it might be a hoot to demonstrate that any formal system
is inherently incomplete due to the "Godel Sentence," an anomaly he named after his mother.
For the Matrix, Neo is that anomaly, much in the same way that Keanu Reeves emoting
with his face is an anomaly. Indeed, every incarnation of the Matrix has its very own
"The One" -- it's a mathematical inevitability.
The idea of mathematical inevitability inevitably leads to the idea of determinism. The Matrix
Reloaded suggests that everyone is locked into a specific purpose, be it sitting on
a park bench or standing around with a bunch of keys.
Humans are bound by rules, the rules of cause and effect.
Whereas before Neo was painted as the subject of a holy prophecy, he is now shown to be
simply another person serving his purpose, a mathematical constant in an imperfect
equation. Smith credits Neo with setting him free and allowing him the ability to choose.
But don't sound the best friend alarm just yet. Later, he completely backtracks, saying
"We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping
reason, no denying purpose...". Even though Smith has the ability to rebel like Neo,
he realizes that there is a PURPOSE for his abilities, destabilizing the Matrix until
the anomaly goes bye bye, and more importantly, cloning himself enough that he can play tackle
football.