Casting Call Issue 25 9.19.07: Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo!
Posted by Jason Chamberlain on 09.19.2007
"It was inevitable" that Jason Chamberlain's tour through the green code of The Matrix would come to an end, and it does as he examines the leaders of the resistance. From Morpheus to Trinity to The One himself, the last hopes for the human race are all here!
Oh boy. The pressure is on. I am closing out my examination of The Matrix trilogy and I have promised you a great finale. I've discussed the machines, the humans, the parents of the system and even the system itself. I've looked at the agents and the scariest suit of all. But I've saved the most important characters for last.
In every great story, in every world changing battle, in every war, there are those who come to the fore. All do their part, but some stand out. There's a reason your average movie has thousands of extras, and only a few stars!
In the Matrix films, while there are a number of heroic human characters (A-Pac, Switch, Dozer, Tank, Link, Niobe, Ghost, the list goes on) it can`t be denied that three stand out. In the war against the machines, three Zionists lead the charge. Their fates are intertwined, and so it`s only fitting that I examine them all at once.
They are Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne), Trinity (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) and Neo (played by Keanu Reeves).
Within the Matrix, the system portrays all Zion insurgents as terrorists. Morpheus may be a freedom fighter, but to the newspapers within the Matrix he is an anarchist bent on destruction. The average blue pill would never question such information...this is one way that the machines make it difficult for Zionists to free their brethren trapped in the Matrix.
However, for certain ever questioning minds within the Matrix, this information is not enough. Not everyone trusts what the system tells them (at times, should we?). And so they go searching for answers. And since it is a digital world, it only makes sense that they should find them in a digital realm.
These ever questioning individuals invariably become hackers... masters of the ability to manipulate computers, go anywhere inside of the system and do anything. This is the path that Morpheus himself took once, and it is the path that both Trinity and Neo follow. Trinity is revered by hackers within the Matrix as "the one who cracked the IRS D-Bates". Of course, they all figured she was a guy, but that's beside the point. Trinity was searching for answers... she knew something wasn't right with the world, and as a result of her efforts to figure it out, Morpheus found her, freed her, and taught her the truth.
Becoming a part of his crew aboard the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity assists Morpheus in his quest to free the human race. But Morpheus is also driven by a higher goal; the Oracle has told him that it is his destiny to find The One, the man born inside the Matrix who will possess the power to end the war once and for all. Morpheus is phenomenally strong in his faith, and once he receives this assurance from the Oracle, his life changes. Where he once had a romantic relationship with Niobe, his entire existence becomes focused on his pursuit of the One. Though Thomas Anderson doesn't know it yet, Morpheus and his entire crew have been scouring the Matrix looking for him. Once they find him, he is surveyed constantly. They know how risky it will be to pull him out of the Matrix, not only because he is already under surveillance by Agents (for his actions as a hacker) but because he is an adult. Zionists only free the minds of children, because they are not yet entirely dependent on the system. Adults are generally far too used to their lives in the Matrix, and separation from them might cause them to go mad, or even die from shock. But this is a special case... if Neo is the One, he must be freed and taught the truth regardless of his age.
Where Morpheus is driven by his faith, it could be said that Trinity is driven by her passion. Naturally, she believes in their cause and gives her all to their pursuit of the One and to help Zion... but the Oracle has told her something as well. Trinity is destined to fall in love with the One, so even though she is a hardened warrior, she has a personal interest in Neo from the moment she sees him.
More than once, Trinity acts out of passion and her belief in what is right. When Neo decides to try and save Morpheus from Smith in the first film, she tells him she is coming and nothing he does can stop her. Later in the story, when Neo asks her to stay safe outside of the Matrix, she defies him and heads in when it appears his mission will fail. She is not afraid to buck any system or disobey any orders or requests, even from the man she loves, if she believes she must.
As for Neo himself, he is also possessed of the same ever questioning nature that guides both Morpheus and Trinity. Of course, he has the greatest destiny of them all. He is searching for Morpheus long before he knows that Morpheus is searching for him. Of course, they find each other, just in the nick of time. The war against the Machines reaches a new level when the One joins the cause.
Neo is obviously gifted with incredible abilities. He can outfight any opponent, he can bend the Matrix to his will. He can fly! But he`s not Superman. In the real world he`s normal, just like everyone else, and even the One can`t fight a war all by himself.
He is in love with Trinity as well, and the two of them share a romantic bond that makes Neo different from the Ones that came before him. He is more attached to his race because of his love for Trinity and his strong friendship with Morpheus. Unlike the other Ones, he does not submit to the ‘inevitability' of a machine victory. Even when the Architect tells him his purpose is to let Zion burn while the process of the war repeats itself, he doesn't give up. Whether he has the power to end the war he is no longer sure, but he won't do nothing while the people he loves die. Even the Architect is forced to acknowledge how different Neo is from those who came before.
Morpheus is strong in his faith, but it does waver a bit (just a bit) when Neo tells him the truth about the prophecy. "I have dreamed a dream," he laments, "but now that dream is lost to me." He still believes in Neo, but he does not know if he can believe in the One, or anything that he used to. But he still loves and will fight for the human race, and that carries him through.
Neo and Trinity's love remains constant throughout the films, never wavering. Neo even brings her back from the brink of death once, as she did for him at the end of the first film. When Neo decides that he must travel to Machine City, everyone decides he is crazy, except Niobe, who offers him her ship, Morpheus, who knows him too well to doubt him, and Trinity, who loves him so much she immediately volunteers for what they both know will be a one way trip.
The three of them now face what seems like an impossible battle, one they can't possibly survive. Morpheus returns to Zion to do his part in the battle there, and as the machines pulverize the human defences, it looks like he and the rest of his race are doomed. Meanwhile, Neo and Trinity travel to Machine City, making a suicide run across the surface of the planet, through the clouds and over them, just long enough for Trinity to catch one single, fleeting glimpse of a real sun... when she stares at the horizon and whispers ‘beautiful' it's an aching reminder of the sad lives that she and the rest of the human race have suffered for so long.
Trinity has loved Neo with all of her heart and her belief in him has strengthened his belief in himself, even after he learns that the One was never ‘meant' to change anything. She is the reason he is stronger than the Ones that came before, and having given that gift to him, her role in the story is over. Their crash landing into Machine City proves fatal for Trinity, who dies in Neo's arms. Her sacrifice only strengthens his resolve to achieve what he set out to do.
Smith has become so powerful that he is a danger not only to the human world but to the machines as well. When Neo arrives, he is immediately set upon by the Deus Ex Machina, who demands to know why he has come. When Neo tells the machines he is the only one who can defeat Smith, they initially resist his offer, telling him they need no help from the humans. But they do not kill him, because they know he is right. He asks for peace, and offers them a truce. They will insert him into the Matrix, he will fight Smith, and when Smith copies himself onto Neo (killing him) the machines will be directly connected to him, thus able to destroy him for good with a surge of power.
The final battle between Neo and Smith is beyond epic. They soar through the sky, crash through buildings and fall to the pavement, beating the hell out of each other all the way. But even though he goes down swinging, Neo knows that the only way it can end is for him to sacrifice himself. By allowing Smith to copy himself over onto him, he gives the machines the direct conduit they need to destroy him. But he uses the battle to make a final statement about himself and the human race.
As Neo picks himself up after yet another beating, Smith may as well be speaking for the machines when he says,
"Why Mr. Anderson, why? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something, for more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom, or truth? Perhaps peace, could it be for love? Illusions Mr. Anderson, vagaries of perception. Temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it Mr. Anderson, you must know it by now. You can't win, it's pointless to keep fighting. Why Mr. Anderson, why do you persist?!?"
What a speech. It perfectly encapsulates not only Smith's hate for the human race, but the difficulties the machines have in understanding humans. The machines believe in inevitability, in ultimate control. They believe that one life, especially a human life, can't make a difference. But Neo does.
When he responds, "Because I choose to," he may spark something in the machines that could be recognized as respect. The humans have resisted the machines every attempt at controlling their existence, and now they know why. And it's so simple. When all hope was gone, when he knew he was doomed, Neo chose to keep fighting. With that choice, he defined himself, the human race, and the future.
Neo does submit to Smith, and dies doing so. The machines send a power surge through Neo's body that destroys Smith completely, returning the Matrix to its normal state. And they keep their word. They stop their war, remove their attackers from Zion, and release all humans who no longer want any part of the Matrix. The war is over. It didn't end like Morpheus originally expected it to. The machines aren't gone. They never will be. But for the first time in centuries, the humans are free to choose their own path, free of the machines. In a way, the machines are free as well. And they can thank Neo for teaching them something about choice.
Morpheus carries on, with the rest of Zion, to define the future that Neo has won for them.
In the end, that's the gift that the One gave them.
