Would you sit through a 9 hour movie? I think not. The movie, as well as the book, is one story. ONE.
Tolkien almost refused to allow Lord of the Rings to be published when he learned they wanted to split it apart.
But they did split it apart. Into three stories. THREE.
My word.
Ok, Ok, so it was written as a single story but published (and filmed) as a trilogy.
Can we get back to The Matrix now?
Holy Hijack, Batman!
Come on. Surprise? There was no surprise, the humans had it timed to the minute. The machines acted like idiots, just accept it. The movie sucks.
Sorry for continuing the Hijack, but the reason the LOTR was published as a three volume book was that he didn’t do it all at the same time. He wasn’t done with TTT when they published FOTR. He did however, have the whole outline for the story in his head. That’s why he always insisted that LOTR was one story, divided into three volumes, sometimes split into two books each.
Rhum Runner: it is perfectly stated in the movie that the gates are fotified, and thus cannot be attacked easily. I know, I know, digging through most of the earth’s crust is eassier? The filmakers thought so.
I liked the spectacle of it too, but I’m amazed that nobody else on the Internet seems to have picked out the problem with it - maybe I’m just not seeing something.
Surely this completely destroys the whole idea of the Matrix? Ignoring the fact that it all breaks thermodynamics anyway, the point is that the machines need to harvest humans because they can no longer use solar polar, due to the humans blocking the sun out. All very well, except Neo and Trinity have just proved that it takes exactly 2 seconds to fly up to the sun! What was to stop them collecting it that way or just building a massive tower for goodness sake?
To get to their position of power they had to adapt to conditions without the Sun. Since they had done that, and obtained their power, what is the utility of a tower to the sun? They’d already solved the power issue by the time they were in a position to do such a thing (if we accept that such a thing can be done).
And: a tower to the sun!? I’d be willing to suspend disbelief for human batteries long before I would do so for the tower of Babel.
Okay here is the idea:
When people are “produced” there are nanomachines built into the humans to faciltitte the energy exctraction process. These machines like all other machines communicate via and are powered by a complex electromagnetic grid that pretty encompasses the entire world. All freed humans have these nanomachines, but they lie dormant sonce they are cut off from the Source. But when Neo becomes self aware in the Matrix he also subconsciously learns how to manipulate the nanomachines with the electromagnitic pulses sent by his nervous system via the interface in the back of his head and spine. He then (subconsciously) can use these nanomachines to harvest energy from the grid and redirect it into a focused e-m pulse which can be used to blow up enemy robots. This also enables him to “see” by triangulating the scattered electromagnetic field from other “emtting” robots. This is why he couldn’t see Trinity, but could see Smith. Well at least its an idea two physicists came up with over a lunch involving too much sugar.
I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit. When Neo confronted the Architect in Reloaded, Neo said something about the machines needing humans. (Forgive my lack of being able to quote this scene, I’m in an office far away from my DVD player) The Architect’s response was that there was a level of loss that the machines were willing to accept. When I heard that, I thought the machines had found another source of power. When Neo & Trinity pierced the black sky in Revolutions with such ease, I figured that the machines had figured out how to do that as well. I’m assuming the machines didn’t turn all of their resources toward maintaining the matrix all these years, and at some point came up with alternate, renewable sources of power. Perhaps, somewhere on the surface of the ravaged world, stands MrThompson’s tower, generating power for the machines below…or even working on a way to repair the sky…or both.
I’m still a little lost at the ‘happy ending’ with the war simply being over. I mean, most of mankind is still enslaved & jacked into an artificial world…right? I didn’t feel the celebration in Zion was all that appropriate…I guess they’re just looking for an excuse to throw another rave. Why wouldn’t the machines simply wipe out humanity? I’m not buying the “machines keep their word” line. My best guess is that the machines reached a stopping point in regards to evolution. Programs interacting with humans within the matrix actually gave the machines the ability to further evolve. This would explain Sati & other programs that didn’t fit into the working of the system. I guess that might begin to explain Smith’s transformation as well. Soooo, machines don’t wipe out humanity because it’s humans that give them the ability grow in ways they were unable to before, not to mention the ability to produce another “The One” to help fix such out of control elements as Smith that could threaten the Source itself. The energy from the humans plugged in isn’t as valuable as the growth within the Matrix itself.
Of course, everybody might just be trying to protect the twins.
I’m not a fan of determinism either, but I think you’re missing the point of an illusion. Neo doesn’t KNOW his choice is illusory; he believes it’s real, and therefore feels empowered to take action. If he knew for a fact going in that no matter what he did, Trinity would die, do you think he’d have had the will to walk through either door? To save the Matrix and Zion? Clearly not, and so he needed to think that he could alter his and Trinity’s destinies. This was a highly useful illusion because in the end, he did accomplish both his and the Architect’s goals.
Illusions have high utility when the deluded party actually believes the illusion is real. Zion is also an illusion of freedom; the machines created Zion and destroyed it at will, but the fact that those people felt that they were fighting and striving for something meaningful enabled the Matrix as a program to run successfully.
As the Architect said in Reloaded: “As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% 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.”
The key phrase to me is “accept the program.” Zion is part of the program, even if it’s not part of the Matrix per se.
Yes, you are correct. The outcome is different primarily because now Zion can exist in a more real state of freedom than previously. The war between man and machine is finally over, and you are right to point out that this is Neo’s crowning achievement. However, my point was that the outcome “the Matrix is reloaded and Trinity is dead” was the same whichever door Neo chose.
Personally, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning if I knew that my future was predetermined and nothing I could do would change that. However, if I believed that I had free will and was capable of making meaningful choices, I’d get off my ass and try to have a better future. Illusions are highly useful and everyone labors under some. It’s only human after all…
Saw the movie last night at a late show. The dude I was with fell asleep ten minutes into it.
Three words: Neo Christ Superfly.
This cracks me up.
I fell asleep, too. I’m no sci-fi fan but I saw the first 2 movies and felt I should see this one. Worst movie I’ve ever seen.
They had a field day with the duplication button on their fancy CG machines, between the sentinels and the Smiths.
Did anyone else imagine the W-bros sitting in the bathtub as little kids, playing with action figures and making them fight while flying as the inspiration for the Smith fight scene?
Sheesh.
Think about it in terms of the working of a machine. Computers are based entirely on logic. If they give their word, they have no choice but to keep it. They are not capable of the human behavior of “lying.”
Yet they are capable of love and karma, even though they’re just words.
In the first movie, when Morpheus is explaining to Neo about the machines taking over and the humans scorching the sky, he mentions that the batteries are combined with “a form of fusion power that gives them all the power they could ever need.”
The Architecht says that there are “levels” of survival that they (the machines) are prepared to except, meaning that the machines are willing to let the human race be destroyed, even if it means a lower level of survival for them.
I think Smith did kill the humans he entered, because otherwise something special had to happen when he displaced Neo, to explain why it killed him. (It makes sense to me that the reason Smith was killed was that he had fulfilled his purpose, but another reason to believe it was not the Source is this: the Source is orange, and the Smith Death Light was bright white.)
Of course, the Oracle wasn’t lost when Smith displaced her, but I think that had more to do with her powers than his. Or maybe it is not fatal to programs.
Of course, if it is intrinsically fatal to humans (as has been implied), then the Matrix is empty, as it was pretty strongly implied that Smith ate everyone.
Needless to say, this series isn’t that big on logic, and we can easily assume that having the Source pumped through one is fatal, and be left with one casualty. Or rather, one dead body. Neo managed without his body for a while. Doubtless he’ll do it again.
You see the same white flash originating with Deus Ex, going into Neo’s jack just before it nukes the Smiths.
Wouldn’t not going through either door and just sitting down for a nice cup of tea alter destinies?
I would agree, except for the case when the actions they will perform have nothing to do with how they feel about them, as it is with predestination.
Well, yes. But I don’t think this is what the Architecht wanted at all.
I can’t parse this sentence. I want to ask: “Including not getting out of bed? Including choosing to not get out of bed?” If you are compelled to do certain actions, why would it matter whether you believed they were right or wrong at all? You have to do them, it is fated.
I don’t see the utility of the illusion.
Why didn’t the machines knock on the front door? Well, there were some pretty big guns guarding the door, seen in the first 10 or so minutes of Reloaded. I’m pretty sure that they were never fired in the movie, so I don’t know how powerful they really were. It’s possible that they could wipe out the machines before they even got to the doors.
Well, I really wouldn’t say that it’s most of the earth’s crust. In Osiris, it’s said that Zion is 4km down. Then again, in M1 Tank says that Zion is near the earth’s core. I’m pretty sure that it was just a slight exaggeration. 