Scene Anatomy 101 05.21.08: The Matrix Reloaded

Posted by George H. Sirois on 05.21.2008

Choice…



On March 31, 1999, Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Pictures presented to us the latest film from Silver Pictures. Larry and Andy Wachowski delivered to us a story that combined various elements of cyberpunk science-fiction with plenty of pulse pounding action and beautiful martial-arts choreography. The result was The Matrix, and this wonderfully original film broke the ten-year record that 1989's Batman had as the highest-grossing film in Warner Bros. history.

By the end of the film, when the character Neo (Keanu Reeves) has finally become The One that will - according to Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) - destroy The Matrix and bring an end to the war against the machines, he flies off into the air as "Wake Up" by Rage Against the Machine plays over the credits. It was the perfect final image to the film, something that puts an exclamation point on everything we've seen before and opens up plenty of possibilities for the next one. Since there HAD to be a second one, right? No way would they just end it all on that one shot.

Four years later, Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures unveiled the latest chapter in the tale of Neo, Morpheus, Trinity and Agent Smith, the Wachowski Brothers' 2003 smash hit…



It's common knowledge that the second act in a 3-act drama is the most difficult to create since the storyteller (or, in this case, storytellers) must come up with the biggest problems to put their characters into, if only to make them stronger when they solve those problems in the third act. We've seen it time and time again in many different trilogies. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back comes to mind since one major character loses his hand in combat with the man he discovers to be his father, another major character is frozen in carbonite and sent off to a gangster who wishes to use him as a decoration, and the Galactic Empire seems stronger than it ever was. Another would be Back to the Future Part II, in which the main problem in that sequel was solved, only for the DeLorean to get struck by lightning and sent seventy years back in time.

I could keep going on about different second acts, but instead I'll stay focused on the issue at hand. The Matrix Reloaded presented the same kind of challenge, plus something else that audiences did not expect. See, we knew that Neo had truly become The One by the end of the first film, but what we did not know was what it meant to be The One and what was expected of him now that Neo had reached his potential. Sure, we knew what Morpheus had said, but just because Neo could fly didn't mean that he was going to just "destroy The Matrix" as it was said in the original film. We didn't know how this would happen, or even if that was Neo's actual purpose, until this sequel.

Right from the start, we are given the problem of impending doom when the commanders of various ships come together in The Matrix for a secret meeting. A fleet of sentinels – a fleet larger than anyone has ever encountered at once – is digging its way to Zion, the last human city where all freed humans are living.

We also see another problem within The Matrix, when Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) re-appears after his supposed demise at the end of the original. While he still has the same look of a typical agent, he is unplugged from the machines, a fully independent program that acts as a replicating virus. Everyone Smith encounters is turned into an exact replica of him; even a human who was jacked into The Matrix is possessed by him and set loose into the real world. Because of this new-found gift, Smith becomes an even more dangerous adversary than he ever was before.

So there are two major problems in both the real world and in The Matrix. Then there is still the question of what Neo's course of action must be, which is answered when Neo meets with The Oracle (the late Gloria Foster, who unfortunately passed away while this film was in production). She tells him that the Path of The One ends at The Source, which is the machine mainframe, but in order to reach him, he needs to find "The Keymaker." This is a very special program that opens doors to anywhere inside The Matrix, and he provides the key that will allow Neo to reach The Source.

Neo, Morpheus and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) are sent to a powerful program called The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson) in order to free The Keymaker from him. When they arrive and make their demands, The Merovingian very calmly demands a reason to give him up. He wants to know why they want The Keymaker, and interestingly, they don't really have a reason. They were sent there by The Oracle, but they don't know why or what reaching The Source will do to save Zion.

It brings up another problem, that the freed humans are still not completely free because they need someone else to tell them what to do to save their home. This is compounded when Neo earlier makes the correct assumption that The Oracle is not human, that she is a program that freed humans answer to, and he is not sure if he should trust her.

Of course, The Oracle's response to that is perfectly fitting to her: "You'll just have to make up your own damned mind. Either accept what I'm telling you, or reject it."

This kind of attitude comes into play later on in the film after The Keymaker is freed and the necessary steps are taken to clear the way for Neo to reach The Source. When he unlocks the door, it fills the entire room with light, enveloping Neo and transporting him to a very special room. The room is completely white with television monitors stacked up along the walls.

A hand comes into view and, with a pen-like remote, switches the different images on the monitors to a point of view of Neo. The man with the remote turns around in his chair, facing Neo. This is the man that we are about to know as The Architect (Helmut Bakaitis).

ARCHITECT: Hello, Neo.

Neo has never seen this man before, and can only assume that he knows him through what he sees on the monitors.

NEO: Who are you?

ARCHITECT: I am The Architect. I created The Matrix. I've been waiting for you.

So this is literally The Source of everything. Standing before him is the program that is inherently responsible for the creation of The Matrix. And here is where he will finally be given the answer to what he must do and what it truly means to be The One.

ARCHITECT: You have many questions. Though the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand and some you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.

NEO: Why am I here?

What follows is definitely not the answer of why. Instead, it's an answer of what. As in, what is Neo? And what is The One?

ARCHITECT: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of The Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I've been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected and thus not beyond a measure of control, which has led you, inexorably… here.

A very heavy-handed answer, and one that needs a little breaking down before we continue.

As The Architect explains, Neo represents the lack of perfection that has been attempted time and time again in the programming of The Matrix. No matter how many times The Architect – this being of completely logical and exact thinking – has tried to reduce the remainder to zero and thus establish The Matrix as the ultimate in perfection, there just hasn't been a way to do it.

So instead of eliminating The One, the next course of action was to make sure that it was on a tight enough leash to use at the will of The Matrix. This explains why The Oracle told Neo that he could save Zion if he reached The Source, and then sent him out on his way to do what needed to be done.

Neo now has a sense of what he is, but he's still waiting for the answer to his original question, the one that The Architect so casually dismissed as irrelevant.

NEO: You haven't answered my question.

ARCHITECT: Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others.

This isn't the first time that "others" have been mentioned in this film. Earlier, The Merovingian declares that he has "survived (Neo's) predecessors," but he says it in a way to suggest that there were other freed humans that attempted to take him down before Neo was awakened and brought into this war.

However, the only way The Architect can encounter someone is if they reach The Source, and the only one who can do that is The One.

Suddenly, we see all the other Neo's on the monitors react on their own. Each of them starts questioning what's going on, while the Neo we know simply stands and watches their reactions.

OTHER NEOS: Others? How many? What others?

The camera zooms into one of the monitors that shows the calm, quiet and somewhat confused Neo we have been following. The Architect continues on, still not answering Neo's question but giving him (and the audience) more information that will, in the words of The Oracle, "really bake his noodle."

ARCHITECT: The Matrix is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next. In which case, this is the sixth version.

This means that each time The Architect has come up with the anomaly, he had to control it back to The Source and then try again. What Neo represents is the sixth time he has been faced with this problem.

The other Neos on the screens react with confusion, anger and denial. The Neo we know, meanwhile, is trying to come up with his own reasoning as to why he hasn't been told this information before. With everything that Morpheus told him when he first took the red pill and "stayed in Wonderland," he would have thought that this would have been mentioned… if Morpheus knew it.

OTHER NEOS: Five before me? He's lying. Bullshit!

NEO: There are only two possible explanations.

OTHER NEOS: There are five ones before me.

NEO: Either no one told me… or no one knows.

ARCHITECT: Precisely. As you are undoubtedly gathering, the anomaly is systemic creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations.

The "fluctuations" The Architect speaks of are being acted out on all the monitors in front of Neo. The other versions of him show various frustrated, angry and screaming reactions. One of them even gives The Architect the finger!

OTHER NEOS: You can't control me! I'm gonna smash you to bits! I'm gonna fucking kill you!

As Neo watches them, he understands what The Architect means by "fluctuations." It's something that a computer program wouldn't be familiar with, especially one as logical and exact as The Architect.

NEO: Choice. The problem is choice.

We then cut to Trinity inside the building where The Source is located. She had gone in against Neo's wishes to disable the power systems and give Neo, Morpheus and The Keymaker enough time for Neo to unlock The Source. She had to go in, however, because the ship carrying the crew that was supposed to disable the auxiliary power was destroyed, killing everyone that was given that mission.

We see an elevator door open and an agent is standing in Trinity's way. The two of them begin to fight, just as Neo saw them in a recurring dream he has had.

We cut back to The Source, as The Architect is now telling Neo of the early days of The Matrix. There's a lot being explained here, so I'll be cutting in and out as he goes on.

ARCHITECT: The first Matrix I designed was quite naturally perfect, a work of art. Flawless, sublime. A triumph equaled only by its most monumental failure. The inevitability of its doom is apparent to me now as a consequence of the imperfection inherent in every human being.

This first obstacle that The Architect found in its path is similar to God's creation of Earth and the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are given a paradise without a care in the world before them, and it would continue to be that way for them as long as they did not eat the "forbidden fruit." Once coaxed into choosing to eat the fruit, they were expelled from the Garden of Eden, and mankind was forever marked with "Original Sin."

So what The Architect tried to do was create a perfect world for imperfect human beings, and because of that, he had to start all over again.

ARCHITECT: Thus, I redesigned it based on your history to more accurately reflect the varying grotesqueries of your nature. However, I was again frustrated by failure.

The next time The Architect tried to design The Matrix, instead of going to one extreme of perfection, it went to the extreme of imperfection. Therefore, it made the assumption that if mankind would not accept a paradise, it would accept a place where everything went wrong no matter what they did. Both times failed to catch on.

ARCHITECT: I have since come to understand that the answer eluded me because it required a lesser mind. Or perhaps, a mind less bound by the parameters of perfection.

This kind of thinking goes right to the enhanced artificial intelligence that the machines created for themselves as they developed.

In the short film from The Animatrix titled "The Second Renaissance Part II," we learn that as the machines grew accustomed to their own exiled country 01, they continued to develop the AI that the humans first installed within them. In very little time, the machines' intelligence grew exponentially to the point where they considered humans to be simply primitive carbon-based protein shells. Therefore, their minds were not "bound by the parameters of perfection," so in order to succeed, The Architect needed the help of a program that could think more like humans.

ARCHITECT: Thus, the answer was stumbled upon by another, an intuitive program initially created to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. If I am the father of The Matrix, she would undoubtedly be its mother.

Fortunately, Neo is not once again afflicted with ROTJ Syndrome like he was in the original film. Since The Architect is referring to a program as "she," and there's only one program that could possibly have that kind of ability that is also a "she," he knows who The Architect is talking about.

NEO: The Oracle.

ARCHITECT: Please.

Keep in mind the dismissive tone that The Architect gives when Neo mentions The Oracle by name. You'll hear the same sort of tone next week when I show what happens when The Architect's name is mentioned to The Oracle.

We've seen it all the time in our own workplaces; just because you work with someone doesn't mean you have to like them.

ARCHITECT: As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby 99 percent of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice even if they were only aware of the choice at a near unconscious level.

We have seen The Oracle giving Neo many different choices, even those as insignificant as giving him candy. She never says, "Have some candy" or "You will take the candy," despite already knowing that Neo is going to take it. "Wouldn't be much of an Oracle if I didn't." But because she simply offers him the choice of whether or not to take it, he accepts since it is his ultimate decision of accepting it. Just like what he said in the previous film, he is in charge of his own life.

ARCHITECT: While this answer functioned, it was obviously fundamentally flawed, thus creating the otherwise contradictory systemic anomaly that, if left unchecked, might threaten the system. Ergo, those that refused the program, while a minority, if unchecked, would constitute an escalating probability of disaster.

It is the belief in the systemic anomaly, namely The One, that has prompted the freed humans to not only reject The Matrix, but also to show others the truth and hopefully prompt them to reject it as well. Of course, the only way to fully eradicate that possibility is to crush it at its source.

NEO: This is about Zion.

ARCHITECT: You are here because Zion is about to be destroyed. Its every living inhabitant terminated, its entire existence eradicated.

NEO: Bullshit.

OTHER NEOS: Bullshit!

Both Neo and the other Neos are on the same wavelength there. Just as The Architect has been through this five other times, he knows that is the most likely response they would have since they have all been told the same thing. They can save Zion if they reach The Source. Now that he's reached The Source, he's being told that Zion's still going to be destroyed.

ARCHITECT: Denial is the most predictable of all human responses. But rest assured, this will be the sixth time we have destroyed it, and we have become exceedingly efficient at it.

We cut back to the agent and Trinity fighting. Their fight continues to unfold just as Neo dreamt it. Unfortunately, he is still unaware that any of this is going on.

Back to The Source, where The Architect is finally getting around to what it means to be The One. And it's definitely not what Morpheus had in mind…

ARCHITECT: The function of The One is now to return to The Source, allowing a temporary dissemination of the code you carry reinserting the prime program. After which you will be required to select from The Matrix 23 individuals, sixteen female, seven male, to rebuild Zion. Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to The Matrix, which, coupled with the extermination of Zion will ultimately result in the extinction of the entire human race.

It's this moment here, when the function of The One is spelled out, that is where a lot of people had problems with this sequel. What they were prepared to believe was that the "function of The One" was to "destroy the Matrix and end the war." Now that this is what Neo is being told, audiences interpreted this as "Remember everything that we told you in the first film? Well, forget it."

From a certain point of view, they're not wrong, since that is what's going on. But at the same time, remember who it is that filled us in on the backstory in the previous film. It's Morpheus, and he has only been alive for so many years. He has taken what The Oracle has prophesized and adjusted it to fit his own beliefs, which is what many people do when they say that God is speaking through them. When it's all said and done, Morpheus is a flawed human being and he can be wrong, despite the amount of trust we or Neo would invest in him.

Neo still can't believe what The Architect is saying, especially since he is familiar with how the machines power themselves. He knows what humans are used for since he saw the rows of pods with his own eyes.

NEO: You won't let it happen. You can't. You need human beings to survive.

ARCHITECT: There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept. However, the relevant issue is whether or not you are ready to accept the responsibility for the death of every human being in this world.

This is what it truly means to be The One. Neo has been chosen to be, if not the savior, the representative of the human race. It is his action, his choice that will determine whether The Matrix is rebooted, or if The Matrix shuts down, cutting off the brain activity of every human on Earth.

On the monitors now, The Architect is flooding Neo with images of all different men, women and children that he will now choose whether to spare or leave to their demise. But while Neo is looking around, he is not fixed on any specific person. The only one he can think of is not on any of those screens.

ARCHITECT: It is interesting reading your reactions. Your five predecessors were, by design, based on a similar predication, a contingent affirmation that was meant to create a profound attachment to the rest of your species, facilitating the function of The One. While the others experience this in a more general way, your experience is far more specific, vis-à-vis love.

This brings us to another moment from the previous film that we have to remember. What was it that brought Neo to realize that he was The One? When Trinity confessed her love to him. And how did she know that Neo was The One? Because she was told by The Oracle that she would fall in love and that the man she fell in love with would be The One.

Before this version of The One, there were other freed humans so it's safe to assume that The Oracle did not predict that one of them would fall in love with The Previous One. It's also safe to assume that The Oracle has seen The Matrix being reloaded – hence the title of the film – so many times and since she was designed to think like a human, she has decided to, in a sense, change the rules of the game by inserting more human emotion into the equation.

Therefore, since it was love from Trinity that gave Neo his final push to becoming The One, as soon as love is mentioned by The Architect, Neo can only think of one person on the entire planet.

NEO: Trinity!

The monitors then switch to show an image of Trinity on every screen. And it is this moment where The Architect chooses to give Neo the information that he was not aware of, which is her current whereabouts.

ARCHITECT: Apropos, she entered The Matrix to save your life at the cost of her own.

NEO: No.

Yes, despite Neo's pleading that she not enter The Matrix and stay in the real world, Trinity went in anyway to ensure that Neo would enter The Source safely.

ARCHITECT: Which brings us at last to the moment of truth, wherein the fundamental flaw is ultimately expressed and the anomaly revealed as both beginning and end.

Here it is. This is the moment where The One will make his ultimate decision that will decide the ultimate status of the human race.

ARCHITECT: There are two doors. The door to your right leads to The Source and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads back to The Matrix, to her and to the end of your species. As you adequately put it, the problem is choice.

The choices are laid out in front of Neo, but he can't make the move towards The Source. If he walks through the door on the right, everything that he knows comes to an end without any resistance. But if he goes back into The Matrix, then everything still goes on and he has a chance to save Trinity.

But Neo's still hesitating since he doesn't know if there is any sort of time limit on The Matrix that would result in a crash before he can save her. The Architect curiously watches Neo as he contemplates what to do.

ARCHITECT: But we already know what you are going to do, don't we? Already I can see the chain reaction, the chemical precursors that signal the onset of an emotion designed specifically to overwhelm logic and reason. An emotion that is already blinding you from the simple and obvious truth: she is going to die and there is nothing you can do to stop it.

Just the fact that The Architect says that there is nothing Neo can do to stop Trinity from dying is all the motivation he needs. Neo walks towards the door to take him back into The Matrix. The Architect almost pities him. Almost, since pity would be a human emotion.

ARCHITECT: Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness.

Neo glances back towards The Architect.

NEO: If I were you, I would hope that we don't meet again.

ARCHITECT: We won't.

Neo opens the door and makes his way back to The Matrix. He can tell exactly what's going to happen, as his dreams told him, and he refuses to accept not being able to do anything and letting her die. When Neo explodes from the door to The Source, he is traveling faster than he ever has before. Nothing is going to keep him from saving the woman he loves, just as nothing was going to stop her from letting him die in the previous film.

This is where we see the ultimate flaw in someone seeking perfection like The Architect. In his mind, there is only one logical choice and one illogical choice. Just by hearing his dialogue and seeing how pristine he is dressed, he is so steeped in mathematics because that is the only way of thinking that provides an exact answer all the time.

Humans don't act like this. They are always keeping their eyes open for other options, and it's never just one way or the other. One choice moves to another choice and another choice. Neo chooses to go back into The Matrix, and he chooses to go as fast as possible to save Trinity from her supposed death. And after saving her from the drop he kept seeing in his dream, he makes the choice to revive her just as she did to him.

As The Architect failed to predict, The Matrix did not crash when Neo chose to save Trinity. Instead, life went on for Neo, Trinity, Morpheus and the rest of the Nebuchadnezzar. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the ship itself since it is attacked by sentinels and destroyed. But with Neo refusing to simply reload The Matrix, his gift evolves even more. For one brief moment, he can feel the sentinels and use the powers of The One to knock them out of commission. The moment doesn't last, as Neo falls into unconsciousness, his fate unknown until the next and final chapter of this epic tale.

Next week, we will be celebrating the fourth anniversary of Scene Anatomy 101 with column number 175, a look at a scene from that final chapter. We will see Neo getting the last of the answers he needs from The Oracle, or at least the last of the answers that she will provide. Remember, she can't tell him everything; in the end he has to make up his own damned mind. Whatever direction he takes, that's for him to decide.

Until next week, Class Dismissed!


-- George H. Sirois