# The Matrix **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2002, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085 "2002-03-25T22:44:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/21 "2002-03-27T23:18:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kent4mmy \* > \*\* My question would be…wouldn’t word get around among the “humans” in the matrix that sometimes these people (agents) would show up that had super human strength and had a tendancy to take over your body if they so pleased? Wouldn’t there be an article or two in the newspapers? I mean, if I saw someone jump off a 20 story building, land on the street in front of me, crushing in the concrete from the force of the impact, get up and dodge several bullets, pick up a bystander and throw him/her 50 feet through the air etc… I would want to know how that was done. \*\* Nah, they’d just put on their sunglasses and flash you with the little red light thingy. Trinity was seriously hot in the black latex, but how inconspicuous are you likely to be if you dress like that? For that matter, all the humans go to great lengths to look cool in the Matrix; natty black and white suits, sunglasses (pince-nez?! Gimme a break!) etc. I guess looking cool is part of human nature and to deny that is to… whatevah. And correcting an earlier mistake of mine, the treacherous character was named Cypher. Switch was the woman with the short blonde hair. Hmm, with names like “Switch” and “Trinity”, is anyone else thinking threesome? I’m also not entirely sure how anyone can take six or seven shots at point-blank range from a .50cal Desert Eagle and not have his organs spread all over the back wall. Neo just gets these tidy little red spots in his black turtleneck. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/22 "2002-03-27T23:21:13Z")
Maybe the agents are like the strangers in Dark City… or like the agents in Men in Black :). Clean up crew to Jurgen Street! “Okay, everyone, take a look at the little red light. Now, you didn’t just see a guy cartwheel off a 75 story building and land safely, you saw someone commit suicide. (BLAM!) See, there’s the body!” ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Martin\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_E)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/23 "2002-03-27T23:32:03Z")
Yeah, I liked Dark City better. But for the embarrassingly clicheeistic happy end, it made a good piece of escapism. The Matrix, on the other hand, was entirely clicheeistic, from start to end. ---
**Author:** ![red\_dragon60](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ce73a5/32.png) [@red\_dragon60](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/red_dragon60)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/24 "2002-03-27T23:46:25Z")
See, I’d say that Trinity’s name did have significance. Trinity represented love. The Holy Trinity represents G-d, who is love. It was through Trinity’s love that Neo could rise from the dead. And this coming from a Buddhist. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/25 "2002-03-31T17:49:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kent4mmy \* > \*\* > My question would be…wouldn’t word get around among the “humans” in the matrix that sometimes these people (agents) would show up that had super human strength and had a tendancy to take over your body if they so pleased? Wouldn’t there be an article or two in the newspapers? I mean, if I saw someone jump off a 20 story building, land on the street in front of me, crushing in the concrete from the force of the impact, get up and dodge several bullets, pick up a bystander and throw him/her 50 feet through the air etc… I would want to know how that was done. \*\* Hmmm…so I wonder if the David Copperfields and David Blaines of the matrix world are actually people who learned to manipulate the matrix? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/26 "2002-03-31T18:04:23Z")
How the Matrix could have been a great movie: 1. Instead of batteries, which makes no sense whatsoever, the justification for the Matrix should have been that the machines realized that a) they couldn’t co-exisit with humans, who wanted to kill them and that 2) they had developed a moral system that made wiping out humans unacceptable, so tehy constructed the Matrix as a compromise position. Notice, within this framwork, computers could still hate poeple, just feel morally obliged to keep them alive. 2. Trinity should have hated Neo to begin with. SHe should have been brimming over wiht rage that all her life she though she was “the one” and finally went to visit the oracle only to be told “No, dear, you aren’t the savior of mankind, but you get to be his girlfriend!” falling in love wiht him should have been something she fought with every fiber of her being, not something she obviously was trying to make happen in order to have him be “the one”. ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2002, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/27 "2002-03-31T22:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by **CalMeacham** \* > I’m amazed at the way this movie polarizes people. The girl I was going out with at the time and I almost broke up over a fight we had about this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Karallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ea666f/32.png) [@Karallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karallen)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/28 "2002-04-21T18:28:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mandos \* > \*\* > 5. Why is it that so many science fiction films base their key concepts off of Biblical ones? Shouldn’t science fiction, being deeply rooted by definition in scientific concepts, be pulling away from such biblical references? > \*\* The Bible is a common source for concepts because the entire story told in that book involves God’s Impact on Humanity. It also has shown us how our beliefs have an impact on technolgy today. Science Fiction uses the technology developed by Humanity, and predicts how this will affect the Universe or the World. You must remember that Science Fiction studies Human Impact, and a way to predict that impact is to study the history of Humanity. Bibical references or themes are not only present in Science Fiction. C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicals of Narnia has several themes of Christianity, such as the resurrection of Aslan the Lion. ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/29 "2002-04-21T23:59:30Z")
I thought it was a decent movie with some plot holes I could ignore b/c I was busy staring at “Tank” & wiping away the drool. 😃 “Mouse” was pretty damn cute as well, albeit in a less overtly masculine way. ---
**Author:** ![OcularGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3e96dc/32.png) [@OcularGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OcularGold)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/30 "2002-04-22T00:14:31Z")
> [@](#): > > The “perfect world” bit was silly; it was a script patch. They had to explain why the machines chose to have people live in a flawed circa-1998 world, so they had Agent Smith say that; if he doesn’t say that, we’d all be saying “Why didn’t they make the Matrix so wonderful nobody would ever want to leave?” But taken independently, it makes absolutely no sense at all. Why wouldn’t people accept a perfect world? Are people happier when they’re unhappy? Does Somalia strike you as being a land of laughter and good times? patchy? er, no. thats the garden of eden story. it follows with the whole religious theme. ---
**Author:** ![Edlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8797f3/32.png) [@Edlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edlyn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/31 "2002-04-22T09:35:07Z")
> [@](#): > > The computers do not really seem to be malevolent. […William Wallace voice…] **Freeeedommm!** ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085/32 "2002-04-22T09:36:21Z")
Yikes. […sigh…] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-matrix/100085.md?page=1)