Did you see how that guy in charge of defense was bitched at for questioning “the man”? He got it good.
Those minorities on the council (there were 3 or 4 out of like 10 or so) are just uncle toms, as the democrats would say (like what they say about Colin Powell and Dr. Rice).
This was explained in the movie. They where digging in order to bypass most of Zion’s defenses.
In the highway scene Morpheus cuts the cheek of the agent with his sword and he does bleed, he also cuts off his tie. I found that kinda odd since all the other agents seem to be able to take tons of physical damage without getting a scratch on them or even dirt on their suits (on the Smiths fight we don’t even see a broken sunglasses and those guys got smacked around pretty hard)
Oh and yes, did you see how the White Leader Of Zion used dark-skinned morpheus to get all the peons riled up to defend His kingdom?
“Now, I give you one of your own – morpheus”
(I’m just being a wise-ass here and twisting all of this in the worst possible light for fun, don’t take me too seriously please… I am pretty sure this is not what the Wachowski’s had in mind)
Did you see how the guy who bitched at him (“Comprehension is not a requisite for cooperation.”) was played by Cornel West? 
I think he was simply testing the knife on himself. He’s not sure yet how physics work in the physical world so he had to be sure if the knife was sharp enough, how much pressure is required, etc. I didn’t see a hidden symbolism to it. It’s got to be hard transitioning from an invincible agent to a relatively weak human body.
Now why was Smith/Bane the sole survivor of that last attack? Did the machines spare him in exchange for information? Was he just smart enough to avoid the slaughter? Or does Smith have the same influence over Sentinals that Neo now has? Is Smith going to be able to continue copying himself into other humans in the real world? Seems like both Smith & Neo have some wireless abilities in the real world, but how exactly? Nanotech? I wonder, are Smith & Neo in contact right now wirelessly or via the life support equipment they’re hooked up to?
I wonder too, if Smith can copy himself onto an organic human brain, what would it take for Neo to copy himself into an Agent program?
I ain’t taking a swing at THIS whoosh!
Actually, there’s an extra from the movie with a very logical opinion on why the Zion actors were all black. The first worlders were all taken out when the machines took over, leaving the less developed countries to fight back.
When he set off an EMP, it should killed the Sentinals. Why did the crew die after he set it off? Crashes?
Why didn’t I think of that? Good point! I doubt we’ll see it, but it’s a really interesting idea. Then again, there is very little advantage for Neo to turn himself into an agent, while Smith coming into the real world provides plenty of opportunities.
Ah, that makes sense now.
About the Agent’s cheek bleeding. I’m glad you brought that up. I do think there was something really significant about that but I haven’t wrapped my brain around it quite yet. Previously I don’t think an Agent could have bled, and would simply have reformed his tie after it got cut. This time he didn’t seem able to & also seemed pretty surprised at the sight of his own blood. I’m assuming previously Agent’s didn’t have blood. This also ties into Morpheus & Trinity’s new found ability to hold their own against upgraded agents. They seem to be getting a better grasp of making possibilties reality, just like Neo. The agents on the other hand are what? Becoming more human? Are the two evolving into one another? I’m guessing at the end of the second movie we’ll discover humans & machines have to get along & need each other?
I need to get outside & breath some fresh air, I’m starting to hog this thread…
Can I just say that, on a much shallower level, I thought that the line “This is my wife Persephone. Would you like something to eat?” was possibly the funniest thing I have heard in a long time, and I enjoyed listening to about five people in the packed theater laugh at it all by themselves.
The EMP was set off early, thus disabling 5 (of how many?) ships poised to counter-attack the digging Sentinels. Someone later described it by saying that it wasn’t a battle, but a slaughter.
So not all ships were disabled by it, but enough that when the Sentinels did arrive they were easily able to overcome the guerilla attack force.
How much success does one ship have against Sentinels? Enough apparently that being shorted 5 would have a serious impact on the battle. What is their main method of attack? Surely not the EMP, for we know what happens when those are employed.
Why did they continue with the plans to attack after the EMP incident?
Some guy, presumably the Smith/coma guy, set off the EMP when the sentinels were still out of range so the EMP only knocked out the human ships.
If i understood correctly the EMP was set off before the machines where there, it only took out 5 of their ships and no sentinels. When the sentinels got there it was a massacre since a good chunk of the defense got taken out by the EMP. I assume bane/smith took out his crew, set off the EMP, then managed to escape by himself and was found later by the other ship.
Good question, how many ships. I think they intentionally left it unanswered, but it’s somewhere between 15 and 100 (minus the three that were at broadcast depth, of course). I’m basing this on the Council scene, assuming all of the captains were present, but that not everyone present was a captain.
I too wonder what weapons they have besides the EMP. Didn’t they say that that was their only weapon against the Sentinels in the first film? And didn’t Morpheus say in this film that they’d been fending off these attacks for decades? On the other hand, we know the EMP has a pretty big range, because of how far away the Sentinels that set them up the bomb had to be. And if you recall that shot of the dig site, it’s packed pretty tight. One EMP in that mess could do a whole lot of damage.
If you haven’t seen the animatrix short “The last flight of the Osiris” it shows how that ship found out about the machines digging to Zion and managed to send them a message before being destroyed by the army of sentinels. The only weapons they used where machine guns mounted on the rear and sides of the ship, maybe thats all they could use while being chased and the ships do have some other kind of armaments up front, but from the looks of it the ships didnt seem to be that effective at killing the sentinels.
Sorry hit submit to soon. I meant not very effective at killing the sentinels by other means than the EMP which did seem pretty damn effective and with a decent range. While they where talking to the ship captain at the end he said something like “one of the EMP’s went off before we where in position taking out five of the ships” which could mean that all ships get in a position to use the EMP at maximum effectiveness without knocking each other out.
I got that impression as well, when Persephone says to Neo, “He used to be like you.”
I tried to post this last night, right after I saw the movie, but the board was not loading for some reason (ironic, eh?) Here it is now, though it all seems like well-covered territory this morning:
Now on to more serious matters…
So how did she know about the contents of Neo’s dreams if he’s not plugged into the Matrix? Anyone get a Blade Runner feeling from this? If you’ve seen Blade Runner, you know that the fact that Gaff knows about Deckard’s unicorn dreams indicates that Deckard is a replicant, one so humanesque that he might as well BE human. By this same logic, I’d say that Zion is part of the Matrix, and Neo’s dreams are known to the Oracle that way.
(Re: the above, was anyone else reminded of the Pink Floyd song “Welcome to the Machine”? “Welcome my son, welcome to The Machine… What did you dream? It’s all right, we told you what to dream…”)
– Why does Neo have to sacrifice Trinity to save Zion? Is it so he feels like he’s had to make a meaningful choice? I don’t understand why, if The Architect wants him to go through the door on Neo’s right, he makes it such a bloody hard choice for Neo. Why hang Trinity’s life in the balance for this choice, if the outcome is so crucial to the continued existence of reality as they know it? It seems obvious that the entire situation was a set-up: Trinity being in jeopardy was pre-arranged, but for the life of me I cannot figure out why.
– Herein is proof enough for me that Zion is just an auxiliary part of the Matrix. Think about it: if Zion is NOT part of the Matrix, why would the Matrix crashing even effect Zion? Zion HAS to be part of the Matrix, otherwise Neo’s choice is meaningless, IMO. The point of this choice is that Zion cannot exist without the Matrix and vice versa; in order to save Zion, he also has to save the Matrix. This fits in with the Counselor’s speech about the interdependence of man and machine.
Why is he now in a coma? Maybe stopping such complex programs “drains his battery,” since after all, that’s all his material body is… perhaps he can tap into his own power as a battery now that he knows there is no material reality?
Two questions:
1: So when is the final pic scheduled?
2: How good a job did the filmmakers do protecting the plot of Matrix-Reloaded? I didn’t hear anything all that accurate about the movie until it was released. Was it just me or was it a well kept secret?