Nearly 20 years after the final film in the trilogy, some fans are still scratching their
heads over various elements of The Matrix series. So now, we’re taking a look at the
most confusing scenes in the franchise and finally explaining these Matrix moments.
The Matrix primarily takes place from Neo's point of view, and in his world, he's just
a random guy who happens to be a really good hacker. That all changes when he's contacted
by Morpheus, pulled out of the Matrix, and told he's "the One." Morpheus seems to believe
Neo is his man with absolute certainty, but what the film never tells us is how he knows
Neo is the One.
The short answer is that it doesn't matter to the story, because we're meant to experience
it from Neo's perspective as someone coming to terms with the news that he's a messiah.
But if we really want to dig deeper, the film makes it clear through action that Morpheus,
in addition to being a leader of the resistance, is an expert hacker. The film also makes it
clear that Neo has gained a reputation as someone who seems to question the nature of
his reality. Neo has also heard of Morpheus before and has expressed curiosity about him
in the past. Therefore, it's likely that Morpheus had been observing Neo for some time before
the events of the film, and that he came to the conclusion that Neo was the man he was
looking for. Morpheus did the legwork. It's just legwork we don't get to see on the screen.
"I can guide you, but you must do exactly as I say."
In The Matrix, Morpheus explains to Neo that the Matrix exists as a simulation to occupy
the minds of humanity and make them think that they're living a normal life. In reality,
the Matrix exists because the Machines have enslaved all of humanity for the purposes
of power. Humans are living batteries, kept alive in pods in vast farming complexes to
supply energy to the Machine civilization. This, of course, begs an important question:
Why don't the Machines try to find other sources of power?
As Morpheus also explains in The Matrix, humans "scorched the sky" during their war with the
Machines, because at the time, the Machines were primarily dependent on solar power. Since
the polluted skies of Earth make it impossible for the machines to feed on the sun, they
use the humans as a new power source. But what about fossil fuels or hydroelectric power?
Well, The Matrix takes place at some point in the future, so it's possible the machines
simply used up the remaining fossil fuel. As for water and wind power, those could have
been crippled by the permanent loss of the sun and the change to Earth's ecosystem. Even
if they weren't, though, who's to say the Machines haven't tried those in the past or
are still trying them now? The Machine world is vast. They might use more than one power
source.
After freeing Neo from his pod, Morpheus takes him to meet the Oracle, a prophet with a thing
for baking cookies and smoking cigarettes. The Oracle spends a little time alone with
Neo before basically telling him that he's not the One. The thing is, Neo is the One.
That's established firmly by the end of the film. The Oracle is supposed to know everything,
so why does she steer Neo wrong?
If you look at the scene again, Neo is actually the one who says the words:
"I'm not the One."
"Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something."
Shaken by the news, Neo presses her for more details, and that's when the Oracle tells
him about the importance of Morpheus to the resistance movement. She also tells him how
much Morpheus believes in him, to the point that she's sure one of them will die as a
result. This inspires Neo to stay close to Morpheus and to rise to the occasion of saving
his life at the end of the film, putting him on the path of The One.
So, the Oracle always knew Neo was the One, but she judged him as someone who wasn't ready
to hear that. He needed to have faith in himself first. By telling him what she did, the Oracle
pointed Neo in the right direction.
In the Matrix franchise, the human resistance movement is forced to live underground, with
limited resources and weapons. However, one of these weapons is especially effective in
the war against the Machines. We're talking about a device that generates an electromagnetic
pulse, or EMP, that knocks out any electronic equipment in the vicinity. These devices are
used to great effect as defensive weapons that allow humans to neutralize nearby Machines
as a last resort to live and fight another day. So why don't the humans start using them
offensively?
Well, for one thing, EMPs have drawbacks. They knock out the Machines, but they also
kill any electronic equipment the humans are using, including their hovercrafts and computers.
This means no one can be jacked into the Matrix when an EMP is used, or they'll die in the
process. For another, there are simply too many Machines to make offensive use of EMPs
practical. Their effect is only temporary, and even if every human hovercraft launched
a full assault on the Machine City, they'd barely reach the outskirts before having to
activate every EMP they had at once to defeat the first wave of Machine sentinels. Another
wave would surely follow, and they'd be overrun.
In the world of The Matrix, Zion is the last human city, an underground refuge where the
resistance movement is headquartered and the human race continues to fight for survival.
Every resistance mission is launched from there, and hundreds of thousands of people
live in freedom while they work to wipe the Machines out entirely.
Meanwhile, the Machines have clearly put various systems in place to counteract human resistance,
from Agents to Sentinels, and their resources are vast. So, why haven't the Machines wiped
out Zion?
As the Architect explains in The Matrix Reloaded, Zion is allowed to exist by the Machines,
because the concept of resistance centered around the prophecy of the One is a Machine
creation. It was generated to make humans resisting the Matrix feel like they have a
choice. In the eyes of the Machines, Zion is a necessary evil that must exist so the
Matrix can persist and their key source of power can remain in place.
In The Matrix Reloaded, Agent Smith shows an immense power to copy himself onto others
within the Matrix, creating a sizable clone army. He then expands that ability to the
real world when he possesses the resistance member Bane via a phone line. Smith then exists
in the real world through Bane's body, but how is that possible?
Well, Smith is a computer program, created by the Machines as an enforcer within the
Matrix, who's been freed via Neo's attempt to destroy him in the first film. So in the
first movie, Smith is basically an antivirus program. However, in the last two movies,
he essentially becomes a software virus himself, able to replicate and spread through contact.
The humans living in the Matrix are grown by the Machines and designed to receive software
through the ports built into their flesh. Smith is basically using that same principle
to transmit his own code into Bane's brain, possessing him. As for how he can survive
in there without a connection, well, these humans have certain tech built into them.
That's how the Machines make the illusion of the Matrix persist, and how the resistance
does things like teach themselves martial arts via software. Smith is basically just
hijacking that innate stuff for his own nefarious purposes.
In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo meets the Architect, the program that designed the Matrix, and
the two have a lengthy conversation about what's going to happen next. For many fans
both when the film came out and now, this scene sort of grinds the movie to a halt.
After all, the Architect is a deliberately humorless, analytical being who speaks ... well,
like a computer program might speak.
"Concurrently, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not
realize it is also the most irrelevant."
So, what's the Architect really trying to say?
It's a little complicated, but it breaks down like this. The resistance movement isn't an
entirely human creation. The prophecy of the One was generated by the Machines, and the
resistance is allowed to persist, because of an anomaly in which a small percentage
of the population rejects the Matrix as their true reality. By allowing a human resistance
movement, the Architect can course correct this by creating the illusion of choice. The
One is also a Machine creation and contains a special code that reboots the Matrix each
time he returns to the Source, continuing the cycle of human subjugation.
The Architect explains this to Neo and gives him a choice. He can go to the Source and
be given the opportunity to repopulate Zion and restart the cycle, or he can save Trinity
and, by extension, kill the human race. Neo chooses Trinity, and his love for her introduces
a new variable that the Architect did not foresee, leading to the next film.
At the end of The Matrix Reloaded, Neo manifests a new power and neutralizes several Machines
with his mind, but he falls into a coma immediately afterwards. At the beginning of The Matrix
Revolutions, Neo's body in the real world is still in a coma, but his Matrix form wakes
up in a subway station where Rama-Kandra and his family are waiting. Rama-Kandra explains
that the train station, which they can only leave on the Trainman's train, is a kind of
limbo. It's a waypoint for rogue programs being smuggled into the Matrix by the Merovingian
to avoid deletion by the Source. So how did Neo get there?
The Oracle explains in the video game Enter the Matrix that, when he lashed out at the
Machines, Neo unwittingly touched the Source, but entered limbo rather than dying. That's
not the most concrete explanation ever, but at least it explains why Neo's body and mind
were separated.
In The Matrix Reloaded, the Oracle explains to Neo that the Matrix is full of rogue programs
who refused to go back to the Source for deletion when they were intended to. Instead, they
live a somewhat hidden life, often pursuing various criminal enterprises or simply trying
to survive because they like existing. These include the Merovingian, his Twin enforcers,
the Trainman, the Keymaker, and many others.
At the end of The Matrix Revolutions, the Matrix is rebooted after Neo fulfills his
end of the bargain with the Machines and defeats Smith by sending him back to the Source. So
what does that reboot mean for all of those rogue programs?
The short answer is actually not much. While Smith and all traces of him were seemingly
deleted at the end of the film, we see the rogue program Sati still alive at the exact
moment of the reboot. The Matrix Online later reveals that characters like the Merovingian
are also still alive and doing their thing. In fact, the Merovingian remains one of the
oldest programs in the Matrix, which suggests that he's survived multiple reboots. So, rebooting
doesn't necessarily mean cleaning up everything. Historically, it was usually about the Machines
trying to repeat the cycle of human subjugation. At the end of Revolutions, it signals a fresh
start for humans more than it does the Matrix.
In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo realizes that Agent Smith has become too powerful for the
Machines to defeat, and so he strikes a deal with the robotic overlords, offering to take
care of Smith once and for all. The machines agree, and Neo uses Smith's obsession with
him to launch a fight. He then allows Smith to try to copy him while he's directly connected
to the Source. This sends Smith back to the Source, where he's deleted, and the Matrix
reboots while the Machines agree to Neo's terms of peace with the human race. The downside
of this, of course, is that Neo gives his life in the process, but the Oracle casts
doubt on his permanent death, saying at the very end of the film that she thinks we might
see him again.
Obviously, we now know this is true because a fourth Matrix film starring Keanu Reeves
is on the way, but why does the Oracle think this? How can Neo come back from the dead?
Well, because he was pre-programmed to be the One, Neo is partially software, even more
than the other humans born in pods. So theoretically, a program could be built from the remnants
of his code that approximates his mind and personality. In fact, one of the early storylines
in The Matrix Online video game centers on that idea. Parts of Neo are out there, even
if they're fragmented. The trick is bringing those fragments together as something that
actually retains the essence of Neo.
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