Matrix, The Meanings

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2009-07-24 13:58:53     Rating:

This movie's very complex and philosophical. It takes place in the future at a part where machines and robots are at war with the humans and the robots have created a computer-generated dream world called the matrix. It tells a story about a guy named Neo who is one of the many people trapped in the fantasy world. He describes his feelings of not being sure if he's really awake or still dreaming. The movie has a lot of metaphors an example would be that Neo meets Morpheus and Neo's feelings are described as falling down the rabbit hole which is a metaphor from Alice in Wonderland meaning that he feels like he's entering a world he doesn't know about which is the feeling of escaping the matrix and entering the real world.

It illustrates the philosophical assertion that we're all just "brains in a vat." In the beginning of the movie, Neo had an ordinary life in a world just like ours. Little did he know he was the "chosen one" thus, he was allowed the choice of either dwelling in the fictional reality the machines created (blue pill) or entering "the real world" with Morpheus and Trinity (red pill). He takes the red pill. Subsequently, he awakens to find himself in a gel-filled pod surrounded by machines and other pods. He awoke to find himself as just a "brain in a huge vat" where others, too, were bred only to experience the fabricated reality. Neo along with the other crew members aboard Morpheus' ship were destined to defeat the Matrix and its agents. The whole point of the humans in pods is to fuel the machines because that was at a time where machines conquered humanity.

Submitted by: anonymous
Added: 2009-08-17 19:19:04     Rating:

This is the most complex series in movies since Star Wars for it's meaning this film has a lot of themes from history, mythology and sci-fi this shows that are dreams can be a reality. Example Morpheus this name goes all the way back to mythology times meaning the god of dreams. That guides Neo through things so he can be the chosen one.

I think Neo is a person that we can all relate to because here is a man that doesn't know who he is or what his purpose Morpheus shows Neo Two world's a dream and the reality blue and red pill but I think these are two dream world's that Neo did and felt became a reality. Morpheus is symbol of a question that I'm going to tell you right now. Is are reality just a dream?

Submitted by: TheForeignMan
Added: 2010-01-15 14:11:31     Rating:

Indeed this film does have a philosophical meaning. It is mainly based on Plato's Cave.

Plato's Cave is a theory Plato came up with. This was the story he told:
There were people chained to a wall in a cave. Behind them was a huge fire that lit up the wall in front of the people. Objects passed in front of the fire, casting shadows on the wall in front of the people. The people could not turn their heads to see what the objects was, but could see its silhouette. They therefore interpret it as "the real world" as this was the only thing they could see.
If one of these people was set free by Saviour, and they wandered out of the cave, they would see reality: the colors, the animals, the plants... all in their natural form, rather than shadows. This man goes back into the cave to tell the others about his finding. The others think he is a fool and is insane, so they kill him.

Now if we replace some of these parts with that from the Matrix, we get:

Plato's Cave - The Matrix

The cave - the ordinary world we live in.
Images cast on the wall - Images sent to the brain, to make us think we are living in an ordinary world.
the people chained - people like Neo, who think they are living ordinarily
The Saviour - Morpheus
The freed-man - Neo
Reality - Xion, the war against the machines
The freed-man's return to the cave - Neo's return to the "artificial life style"

The Truman Show is another example of the use of Plato's Cave. It is simply, The Matrix without the violence.

Hope this helped

This movie clearly has biblical reference (Trinity, Xion, Nebakanezer (A Persian king in the old testament)). The movie is loosely based on Jesus' life in-terms of the he is "the one" to free the humans from world to realize what they were originally for and he does so by sacrificing himself to conquer Agent Smith (Sin) who has infected everyone.
There are a lot of subtle hints pointing in this direction:
1) Smith questioning him in the end as to why he is fighting (Love, peace, freedom or truth) where Neo replies "because I choose to".
2) The face made of sentinels in the end saying "it is done" similar to what Jesus said "it is finished" (John 19:30).
3) One has to let go of "doubt, fear and disbelief" in other words have "faith" to be truly "free".

These are stating a few but there are much more.

Although the movie drifts from the idea here and there but there is undeniable similarities.

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