After more than two decades, people are still
analyzing every frame and perceived undertone
of the Matrix franchise, and things have gotten
bonkers. Get ready to question your reality
as we look at the Matrix theories that would
change everything.
As regular internet users know, there's a
happy contingent of moviegoers in the world
who take a great deal of personal pride in
being able to poke holes in a film's plot
using an arsenal of boring, complicated tools
like "science" and "reality." These are the
folks who refuse to engage with the movie
as a piece of fiction, and instead spend their
days picking it apart as though it was a documentary
and not a piece of entertainment.
One of their favorite targets is the Matrix
franchise's claim that humans are being used
to generate bioelectric power for the Machines.
The nerd community was quick to point out
that this was a pretty inefficient way to
do things, since a person's body would, by
necessity, consume more power than it could
ever put out. It's be a little bit like trying
to run a battery charger on the batteries
it was charging.
But what if we told you that all of that was
a lie?
"You've been living in a dream world, Neo.
This is the world as it exists today."
What if humans actually do produce the energy
necessary to juice up a robot army and the
world's most malevolent Second Life server?
It sounds crazy, but there's a solid explanation
for why we wouldn't know about it. According
to one theory on Reddit, we're all living
in the Matrix right this second, and our robot
overlords have programmed the simulation to
make it seem like we generate less power than
we actually do. The purpose? Plausible deniability,
and an easy way to throw us off the scent,
keeping us from ever taking the all-too real
Matrix stories too seriously.
According to a long-running fan theory, Neo
was never the One at all. Sound crazy? Then
think about the parameters that Morpheus lays
out for his cyberpunk messiah. He says that
the One was born inside the Matrix, has the
ability to change the Matrix's code, and would
eventually destroy the system. While that
might sound like Neo at first glance, putting
a little bit of thought into it puts some
dents in the description.
Neo wasn't technically born in the Matrix.
Instead, he was born in a goo pod and then
jacked in. He can do some wild stuff while
he's on the inside, but we never really see
him change the Matrix itself, just the things
he can do when he's plugged up. And as far
as destroying the Matrix goes, he's definitely
chipped in, but can we really say that he
was 100 percent responsible for shutting everything
down? Obviously, the descriptions of the One
don't fit Neo like a glove. Not the way they
fit someone else: Agent Smith.
"You were right, Smith. You're always right."
Born in the Matrix? Check. Able to change
its code? That's all the guy does in movies
two and three. And even before he gets reintegrated
with the Source at the end of Revolutions,
Smith has caused more damage to the overall
program than a baby boomer opening every email
in their spam folder.
What if the secret human city of Zion, hidden
from the machines, the real world in which
it exists, and all of its dripping wet dubstep
dance parties were never real at all? What
if they were just another layer of the simulation?
That's the premise of what's known as the
"Matrix in a Matrix" theory, a line of thought
that takes us in a decidedly trippy direction.
Maybe even the people who supposedly "know
the truth" don't know the truth. Maybe the
Matrix is a Russian doll of false realities,
all built inside of one another to ensure
that nobody can ever truly escape. Proponents
of the theory point to a couple of issues
in the last two movies of the franchise. The
first is the apparent ease with which Smith
manages to possess the body of Bane in the
"real world." Even with all of his new power,
transcending the digital plane and rewiring
a human brain doesn't seem like the sort of
thing that a glorified pop-up window virus
should be able to do.
The second piece of evidence, and one that's
far more convincing, comes from the One himself.
At the end of Reloaded and again throughout
Revolutions, Neo manages to control Sentinel
robots outside of the Matrix, which, even
with a healthy extension of disbelief, seems
like a weird new skill set to develop. Also,
if it really was the real world, how did Neo
get back into the program after passing out
at the end of Reloaded?
From the moment he walked onscreen with his
rich baritone and cool sunglasses, Morpheus
joined that top tier of fictional mentors
who will exist forever in the minds of audiences.
He's Obi-Wan meets Master Splinter with a
little bit of Mister Miyagi thrown in for
good measure. Too bad he might've been the
bad guy all along.
This one gets complicated, but let's dig into
the intricate theory that was posted online.
It all starts with Morpheus' ship, the Nebuchadnezzar.
Historically, Nebuchadnezzar was the king
of Babylon back in Bible times, and, more
importantly to the theory, the man responsible
for the enslavement of the people of the kingdom
of Jerusalem, also referred to as…wait for it...
Zion.
"What truth?"
"That you are a slave, Neo."
Want to see how far the rabbit hole goes?
Then you should also know that "Morpheus"
is the name of the Greek god of dreams.
The theory goes that one of two things could
be going on. Either Morpheus is a human who
was sucked in by the machines just like Cypher
in the first movie, or we're back to the idea
that the real world is actually part of the
Matrix, and Morpheus is just another program.
His job? Keeping people convinced that they've
made their escape, feeding them misinformation,
and essentially, keeping them asleep and dreaming.
Creepy.
One of the most popular complaints about the
third Matrix movie is that it lacked the usual
amount of explosions. The first two pictures
in the series had their fingers on the pulse
of the audiences' love of watching stuff blow
up. Part three, on the other hand, was more
focused on thoughtful chats, Christ allegories,
and rather than giving the core cast a big
final fight scene, it mostly reserved its
big action sequences for CGI squids fighting
secondary characters that, let's be honest,
nobody really cared about.
Instead, we learned about programs that were
really interested in getting their kid into
a good school. So what was the deal with the
little girl who Neo runs into in the train
station, anyway? Sure, a humanizing moment
for the perceived villains of the film is
always welcome, but it seemed like a lot of
time was dedicated to Sati and her family.
According to one theory, that's because she
was a lot more important than you might've
realized.
Some folks are of the opinion that Sati isn't
the purposeless program that her dad makes
her out to be. Maybe, they suggest, she's
a potential upgrade to the Oracle. First of
all, it's said that her mother was a software
engineer, which would certainly help. But
let's not forget what the Wachowskis love
best: symbolism.
During The Matrix Revolutions, we get to see
Sati helping the Oracle to make cookies. Cute?
Certainly. But it could also be an image of
a young program with a lot of importance partaking
in an act of creation with the mother of the
Matrix.
One in the long line of theories devoted to
explaining how Neo gets his real-world superpowers,
this puppy gets sinister.
According to one fan theorist, Neo's meeting
with the Architect in The Matrix Reloaded
has more significance than we're led to believe.
Everything that the Architect tells Neo is
true. There have been six versions of the
Matrix, and Neo has appeared in every one,
eventually leading to a complete system reboot.
What he doesn't tell Neo is that this time
around, he's decided to use the One's penchant
for choosing the door on the right to lure
him into a trap. The Architect has made a
whole new program, specifically designed to
convince Neo that everything is going according
to prophecy. It's a Matrix within the Matrix
built only to make Neo think that he's an
unbeatable messiah with abilities that extend
into the real world. The theory also points
out that from this point forward, there's
a new Oracle, and that she speaks in a more
condescending and long-winded fashion than
we've seen before, leading the theorist to
believe that she's actually the Architect
in disguise.
And if that's not too weird for you, the whole
thing eventually spirals into an argument
that the John Wick movies are all part of
Neo's new dream world, too. Maybe that's why
we never see dogs in the Matrix, just that
one weird cat. And maybe why Keanu Reeves
doesn't seem to have aged more than a couple
months between The Matrix and John Wick.
"People keep asking if I'm back, and I haven't
really had an answer, but now, yeah,
I'm thinkin' I'm back."
If you keep a sharp eye out and really pay
close attention, it's possible, just maybe
possible, that you noticed how the CGI in
The Matrix Reloaded gets a little...funky.
The scene where this phenomenon is most obvious
has to be the fight between Neo and the army
of Agent Smiths. Faces get rubbery, clothes
sort of flap around like capes in a World
War II-era superhero cartoon, and even the
sound effects go weird. What most people would
brush off as an unfortunate side effect of
overly ambitious special effects before the
art of computer animation had time to properly
ripen, some Matrix fans have worked into an
in-universe explanation.
According to one theory, the reason that things
get all Scorpion King during this sequence
is pretty straightforward: The Matrix itself
is having rendering issues. The program was
never designed to handle thousands of clones
of the same character copying himself that
many times, nor was it designed to allow for
Neo's ability to change the laws of physics
around himself. Put those two things together,
and you have a situation that's familiar to
anyone who has ever tried to run a PC game
that was just a little too intense for their
setup: the simulation dropped the graphics
quality just a little bit so that it wouldn't
have to slow down the action.
In the years before the events of The Matrix,
humanity went to war with the Machines, a
race of self-aware robots. After a series
of global atrocities, mankind fell to the
supremacy of their mechanical overlords and
wound up plugged into generators, being used
as batteries while living meaningless, simulated
lives.
Or maybe not. If one fan theory is to be believed,
humanity actually managed to beat the Machines
after they burned out the sky in their final
desperate act. Maybe once the Machines surrendered,
the humans, now living on a planet without
any other means of survival, programmed their
former adversaries to believe that they'd
won the war. And maybe, just maybe, they continued
to reprogram the robots to keep humans alive
and happy in a simulated reality.
This one might be a little less "mind blowing"
and a little more "hey, fun coincidence,"
but here it goes.
Maybe, just maybe, Star Wars is just another
level of the Matrix.
No, really. Just give us a second to explain.
It all comes down to this one scene in Attack
of the Clones, when Obi-Wan Kenobi is approached
by a dude in the business of dealing death
sticks. Old Ben does some mind trickery, and
the misguided youth goes on his merry way,
but wait. Eagle-eyed viewers might notice
that the death stick entrepreneur is played
by none other than Matt Doran, the actor who
played Nebuchadnezzar crew member Mouse in
the first Matrix movie. He's the kid who gets
excited about how he'd programmed the woman
in the red dress in Neo's first training exercise
who distracted The One from all the exposition.
You might also recognize the woman in the
red dress as Australian actress Fiona Johnson,
who shows up in the same scene from Attack
of the Clones as a bar patron.
Sound a little too flimsy? If so, well, there's
nothing to see here. Move along.
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