# Unanswered questions about the matrix. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 12, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174 "2006-02-12T22:57:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fringe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b5a626/32.png) [@Fringe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fringe)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/21 "2006-02-13T20:10:35Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Why? How? How could he have defeated the Machines? Where are the hints that bring you to this conclusion? Not saying they may not be there, just that I love these movies and have never picked up on anything like this. He blew them up with his mind. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/22 "2006-02-13T23:06:26Z")
I should probably pint out that recursive Matrixes (matrices doesn’t seem proper) would consume exponentially greater computing power. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/23 "2006-02-13T23:10:59Z")
> [@Revenant Threshold](#): > > No clue. I don’t think that Neo destroyed Smith - I think he just thought he did. Instead, he set Smith free. As symbolized by Smith no longer needing his Agent-Issue earpiece. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2006, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/24 "2006-02-13T23:11:30Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I should probably pint out that recursive Matrixes (matrices doesn’t seem proper) would consume exponentially greater computing power. That’s still infinitely more plausible than using humans for power, no matter how they rationalize it. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/25 "2006-02-14T00:39:37Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > What about Neo’s seeing-in-the-dark in realspace in the final movie? There seem to be 4 likely explanations for this: > > 1. It never happened, I misremembered this. > 2. Neo has a chip implanted into him because the computers know he is the One. > 3. The “real” world plays be different laws of physics than “our” real world. > 4. The “real” world is just another level of the Matrix. I thought Neo’s machine sight was explained in the movies. When he shuts down the sentinels through an act of will, Neo’s mind enters the train station. He can send his mind into the Matrix without a transmitter chair etc, because as the One his mind is connected to the Matrix and all the machines. Even after the destruction of his eyes, Neo is still receiving all kinds of data through his One wifi connection. He’s not using his eyes and it’s not really sight. Sight is just how his brain displays all the data. Which brings me to another question- Why does Neo have to go to the machine city? He wants to talk to the head machine? What, he can’t just use the ship’s radio to communicate with the machines? He can’t flag down a sentinel and relay a message through it? Re The AniMatrix Haven’t seen it yet. Re Smith’s Death That didn’t look like just setting Smith free. It looked like Neo entering Smith’s program and decompiling it into non-executable strings and variables. Yes, when Smith resurrects, he is free of past role. But, that is an effect of his death and resurrection. With Neo just come into his power, which is easier- the complete destruction of a program, or a very delicate and complex alteration of a program? Which does it look like he does to Smith? > [@Revenant Threshold](#): > > Neo, being human, seeks to increase his individual power and skill, and to increase his knowledge via communication. Smith, being a program, seeks to increase his numbers, and to increase his knowledge via assimilation. I don’t think it has anything to do with Smith being a program. Smith is an individual, even in the first film. His chat with the captive Morpheus make it clear that Smith has desires that run counter to his role and purpose. When Neo discovers his abilities, he thinks of them as tools to do the same old thing. When Smith discovers his abilities, he abandons the old methods and his old goals. ---
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/26 "2006-02-14T01:56:09Z")
What ever happened to those two ghostly twins? ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/27 "2006-02-14T03:04:44Z")
> [@Lochdale](#): > > What ever happened to those two ghostly twins? I think they got blown up at the end of the freeway chase. Then again, given their powers, they might very well have survived. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/28 "2006-02-14T11:34:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Just to clear up a common misconception: Going through Door #1 would not have “reintegrated the Anomoly into the Matrix” or any nonsense like that. Had Neo gone through that door, he would have defeated the Machines on the spot, then and there, without any possibility of retaliation from the Machines. The confrontation with the guy who looks like Colonel Sanders (who may or may not have been the Architect) makes a lot more sense when you realize that. They’re on their last ropes, they can’t stop Neo from destroying them, so in an act of final desparation, they lie through their teeth, in the nothing-left-to-lose hope that by some chance Neo will be fool enough to believe them. _And it works_! > > We are never given any reason to believe that Colonel Sanders is telling the truth. All we have is his word for it. And in case you’ve forgotten, he’s the villain. Villains lie. I disagree. If the Architect feels himself bound by his word in the end of movie 3, then there is no reason to suppose he isn’t telling the truth in movie 2. In fact, I don’t think we’re shown any machine actually lying. Also, if that were true, then we would have to ignore the entire backstory about the previous 5 iterations of the Matrix, which seems rather wasteful from a story telling perspective, and also does not fit in with the conversation with the Merovingian. I think the evidence points more towards the architect telling the truth, rather than the reverse. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/29 "2006-02-14T16:05:53Z")
One thing I didn’t like was Smith’s role in movie 2 and 3. While I hardly expected him to be a good guy, I would have expected him to be played more evenly. He might be after Neo, but it should have been to prove he was better. They turned him from a trapped, bitter guy made as a killer since “birth” into a random psycho. If they were going to play a Smith/Neo duality, there were a lot of better ways to do it. I think they should have tried to make Smith into the “dark” version of Neo (Yang to his Yin, baby!) to keep the pseudo-eastern-mysticism. The Christianity angle fell flat, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/30 "2006-02-14T17:46:11Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > I disagree. If the Architect feels himself bound by his word in the end of movie 3, then there is no reason to suppose he isn’t telling the truth in movie 2. In fact, I don’t think we’re shown any machine actually lying. In the first film, the Oracle takes Neo’s hand and tells him that he is not the One. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2006, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/31 "2006-02-14T22:43:54Z")
But she was only half-lying. Obviously, he became the One. OTOH, he wasn’t the One yet, and she acknowledged this. After all, she said that he was _waiting_ for something.In fact, she specifically mentioned “your next life” or something. And since he did die, it seems that she was right. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/32 "2006-02-15T02:29:45Z")
The scene went like this. She takes his hands, pretends to read them and go um ah, and then she says something like “And then I tell you…” And Neo finishes the sentence for her “I’m not the one”. Then she says “I’m sorry, hon, it seems like you’re waiting for something”. She never actually says that Neo is not the one, and it appears that she’s actually going out of her way to specifically NOT say that Neo is not the one. ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/33 "2006-02-15T07:02:48Z")
Can someone PLEASE answer this question: At some point in Matrix Reloaded (or maybe Revolutions), Neo encounters an Asian martial artist employed as some type of guard. Why does this guy have a golden glow, when no one else in the matrix does? ---
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/34 "2006-02-15T07:41:30Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Can someone PLEASE answer this question: > > At some point in Matrix Reloaded (or maybe Revolutions), Neo encounters an Asian martial artist employed as some type of guard. Why does this guy have a golden glow, when no one else in the matrix does? Because he reached the final level. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spatial_Rift_47)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/35 "2006-02-15T09:09:40Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > The scene went like this. > > She takes his hands, pretends to read them and go um ah, and then she says something like “And then I tell you…” And Neo finishes the sentence for her “I’m not the one”. Then she says “I’m sorry, hon, it seems like you’re waiting for something”. She never actually says that Neo is not the one, and it appears that she’s actually going out of her way to specifically NOT say that Neo is not the one. ORACLE: But you already know what I’m going to tell you. NEO: I’m not the One. ORACLE: Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you’re waiting for something. NEO: What? ORACLE: Your next life, maybe. Who knows. That’s how these things go. [Cite.](http://www.scifiscripts.com/scripts/matrix_97_draft.txt) That’s right, she says, “You got the gift,” and then qualifies that he isn’t using it. She doesn’t tell him he’s not the One, she tells him he IS the One, but allows him to believe he isn’t. So **Tabby\_Cat** is right, we never see a machine actually lying (that we know of). **Carnac** , IIRC, that guy is a special program specifically assigned to guard the oracle. There’s no reason why programs with varying types of code can’t appear as different colors. ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174/36 "2006-02-15T12:52:47Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > Can someone PLEASE answer this question: > > At some point in Matrix Reloaded (or maybe Revolutions), Neo encounters an Asian martial artist employed as some type of guard. Why does this guy have a golden glow, when no one else in the matrix does? cause he’s the last dragon [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unanswered-questions-about-the-matrix/344174.md?page=1)