MSU English 212

While leaving class, Sunny Rae told me about the moment she stopped watching The Matrix. She explained that when Cipher was sitting with Agent Smith, eating steak, and saying "ignorance is bliss", the raw icky steak made her sick to her stomach.(Gee, me too!) I had one of those "oops!" moments because I completely missed that when I cover food. Food in the matrix, Cipher refers to has "Goddamned goop" and Tank says "It's a single-celled protien with vitamines and minerals, everything the body needs".(followed by Mouse) "It doesn't have everything the body needs... To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human." In the real world, food is a sustinance but nothing more. In the matrix, food takes on a more carnal nature. The pleasure of eating, such blissful nature, is sin according to the Classical tradition from the ignorance which goes with it. But Cipher makes a choice between that and the "bowl of snot" as Apoch describes it. Chosing ignorance becomes chosing sin. In the shot of Cipher eating the steak, while he describes it, the camera is foccussed on his face but not on the steak. The steak becomes blury. Ignorance does not lead us into detailed information but away from a sharp crisp image of life. Oooooo... Light bulb conversation. :)

Biblical and Classical References found in The Matrix

B denotes Biblical, C denotes Classical, M denotes Modern of Biblical/Classical nature
Reloaded denotes The Matrix Reloaded, Revolutions denotes The Matrix Revolutions

How did I descend upon this topic? I was watching The Matrix Revolutions and saw Agent Smith grab The Oracle by the wrist and place his other hand just above her wrist to copy himself upon her. It shouted at me “hey! This is a classical metaphor for abduction and rape!” Every other character Agent Smith shows copying occurring through the chest. Either this was a merely a coincidence or a direct reference to the Classical tradition. As I pondered this, a saying of Neos rang in my mind just like the telephone which brings him out of the matrix. “This can’t be just coincidence. It can’t be.”

The following are references which can be tied into the Biblical and Classical traditions. I’ve taken many more notes than this but I must keep my writing somewhat tied to the structures of the class. If you’re a Matrix fan, I’ve many more juicy morsels of thought found in these movies which I would love to discuss. This might not be the typical essay format but it will still(hopefully) prove interesting to read(especially for you matrix fans). I’ve used parentheses quite liberally as a guide to keep my writing on the path(first matrix movie) and differentiate my subject, the first movie, from the following sequels when it becomes necessary to give background information (connections, parallels, light bulbs, etc) from the other two movies.

Every time I watch these movies I am exposed to new levels of understanding about what is them, the ever deepening meaning found within its plot, dialogue, and camera work. I’ve met people who read the bible every day and always get something new from their readings. I suppose you could say I’ve taken the easy road as I watch The Matrix for the same educational purpose. Our Biblical and Classical literature class has given me wide new avenues to reinterpret my viewings of The Matrix. Even the Biblical and Classical material I was already familiar with now has an unexpected depth and texture. These movies are pregnant with references beyond all expectation.

So here is a surface of meaning behind those references. I’ll need to watch the trilogy several hundred times before I can dig beneath their surface.

• B/C The movie starts with the direct image of Darkness into Light. The flashlight image, searching in the darkness, finds a door.(The importance of Light and Doors merge together in Reloaded when Neo enters the door that leads to the architect) We find Trinity in a single room, the only entrance and exit which is the front door. This reminds me of Frye’s metaphor of the cave.
• B The first shot outdoors in the movie is of the outside of the hotel. It scrolls from the top to the bottom, referencing Frye’s ladder in the mountain metaphor. The image of the axis mundi, the even sided cross with the circle around it, is found next to the vertical word “Heart” on a neon sign. The vertical nature of the axis mundi and how it is traveled according to the heart is shown with an amazing amount of obviousness.(The image of the axis mundi, the same which appears next to the heart, is found later on in Revolutions in the night club, “club Hell”, of the Merovingian. “The Merovingian” is a direct reference to the supposed line of early French nobility which claims to trace it’s blood back to the child of Mary Magdalene and the blood of Jesus Christ. The color Red becomes vital in its association and is the color worn by both the Merovingian and his wife Persephone. Persephone is an obvious reference to the Classical tradition.)
• C Neo reads on his computer screen “wake up neo”. This references, roughly, Plato’s allegory of the cave. It is an introduction to the more obvious reference to the allegory of the cave afterword. This reference strongly reinforces the obvious nature of the cave as “a system of control” and the sufferance inside of it through sleep, through being unaware, through being controlled by the cave.
• M The number on Neos door reads 101. This is how we determine some level of knowledge to be at its beginning. Take college classes for example, 101 is the intro level. Neo takes Choy’s money and places it inside a copy of Simulacra & Simulation(READ THIS BOOK!). He opens his book to the chapter “On Nihilism”, which he has removed the pages of in an effort to hide objects(I could write an entire essay on this one shot of the movie), and places money inside the book while he removes some computer program on a disk. Simulacra & Simulation, in part, is about the decay of iconology and a commentary on the Biblical tradition.
• B “Hallelujah man. You’re my savoir, my own personal Jesus Christ” says Choy as Neo hands him the disk. This is both the first reference to Neo as a savior, in the Biblical sense, and the first direct commentary on Christianity. He will routinely be referred to as “The One” which can loosely reference most prophets from most religions. The direct commentary on Christianity is of Jesus Christ being “personal”. Neo is helping only one person. By helping more than one person, Neo will ultimately transcend the act towards the individual into the act of the individual for the world through sacrifice. (In Revolutions, Neo dies through the agency of The Source at the machine city. Light bursts forth from him in the shape of the cross we associate with the Biblical tradition, the bottom is longer and fits the legs. In effect, Neo is crucified for the salvation of both the humans alive in zion and those inside the matrix, for those who know and accept him as well as those still in ignorance.)
• B/C “Jesus. I just thought that you were a guy.” “Most guys do.” This is the first conversation Neo has with Trinity. Here we are shown the male dominated idea of power and the patriarchal nature of society. It is related to Jesus through secondary reference. Without Mary Magdalene, Jesus would not have had the same capacity for love, a legendary argument. Here, this argument is our introduction to Trinity and the love they will share throughout the three movies. Patriarchy. Power. Women are the real answer.
• B/C “You believe that you are special. That the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken.” This is spoken to Thomas Anderson, not Neo. When he is merely human, he is not special. The Rules do apply to him. When he becomes more than human, he is special and the rules do not apply to him. This is connected with the nature of rules which do not apply to Jesus or to the Gods in the Biblical and Classical traditions.
• B “Thomas Anderson.” Google “Biblical Anderson” Thomas can be a reference to the gospel of Thomas in which there are no stories about Jesus, just sayings. Alone this may not be of much significance but, combined with the conversation Neo has with Morpheus, it stands out. “I don’t know if you’re ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately you and I have run out of time.”…“Stand up and see for yourself”. Must we see Jesus through the stories of others or can we see Jesus through his sayings? Can we see Jesus for ourselves?
• B “Jesus Christ! That thing’s real!?” Does Jesus define reality? This also asks if Jesus Christ is real. Because of the nature of the “bug” the agents leave in Neo, a bug which is in the matrix and thus not “real”, by asking if Jesus is real, when the bug is not, we can see the connection that Jesus is not real in the way that we see. However the bug was something which had to be removed. So the reality of Jesus is one which is different from what we think it to be.
• B “Do you believe in fate Neo?”…“Why not?” “Because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.” This is commentary on control, on choice, and the omnipresence of an all powerful deity. Only God is to have this power over the life of humans. Yet humans are to have free will. Some level of compromise must be made of the level of choice and power the individual has and that which God must exercise upon humans. As this parallels with the matrix, the matrix replaces the role of God and also exercises complete dominance and control over the humans trapped inside it. (This sentence about control over life and the issue of control is raised further in Reloaded by Counselor Hammand who asks “just what is control?” and sums up Neos response with the answer “the power to give life and the power to end it.” This sense of control, when held entirely by god or by people, becomes too much power. This is the attitude we hold as agriculturalists and have held for 10,000 years. Agent Smith goes into greater detail about this later on in the movie with his speech about how humans take over an area, consume every natural resource, and then the only thing left to do is spread to another area. This has been the exact pattern of agriculture and agricultural people. What is the fate of the agriculturalist? The matrix. Our dominance of fate and control will leave us without choice in either of them.
• C “Unfortunately no one can be told what the matrix is, you have to see it for yourself.” This is the most direct and obvious reference to the allegory of the cave in the entire movie(aside from the visual references). In the cave, the people inside of it cannot tell they are in a cave because all they have seen are the images from the light of their cave fire on the cave wall. They do not understand how these images are created because they cannot be outside the cave to see what is occurring. (In Reloaded and Revolutions, this ties in with the Merovingian’s principles of Cause and Effect.) People inside it cannot see the matrix for what it is, they must wake up from it and see the physical nature of the cave they have escaped from.
• B When Neo is flushed out of the matrix, his slide down a tube is reflective of descent in the axis mundi. By landing in water, one of Frye’s metaphors for the changing of levels, we see Neo pulled(by machine, oddly enough) into the light in the hold of the Nebuchadnezzar and into the life of a free human. “Nebuchadnezzar” interestingly enough has the etymological meaning “protect the crown” and refers to the monarch who rebuilt almost all of Babylon and almost every structure outside of the city in the land. See Nebuchadnezzar wikipedia. Interestingly, the inscription on the ship of the Nebuchadnezzar, “Mark III 11” reads the following from the Bible, “¹¹Whenever the evil^[a] spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, "You are the Son of God." When the sentinel is facing Neo after cutting through the ship hull, it falls down before him from the EMP. (This happens again at the end of Reloaded when Neo places his hand in front of him and stops them using his mind, effectively delivering a miracle.)
• C “I can’t go back, can I.” “No, but if you could, would you really want to.” This is another reference to the allegory of the cave. Neo and Morpheus converse about the matrix and beneath this conversation is the parallel of the matrix being the real world and their real world being the land of the Gods. When they are inside the matrix, they are superhuman.
• B Zion, “deep underground where it’s still warm”, is(at least part of it) quite literally a cave. Zion is a metaphor for the promised land where god lives among his people. Neo and trinity live there and, interestingly enough, the homes in which the people live are red and inside where as the pods in which they live inside the matrix are red but on the outside. Inversion!
• B “I won’t lie to you Neo…everyone who has faced an agent has died. But where they have failed you will succeed.” The agents are synonymous with Goliath and Neo with David. The agents “strength and speed are based on a world that is built on rules and because of that they will never be as strong or as fast as you can be.” Neos strength is based on belief, as was David’s. “Don’t think you are, know you are.” When Neo first fights Agent Smith and Trinity asks “What is he doing?” Morpheus answers “He’s beginning to believe.”
• B Cipher, which means puzzle, the Judas who betrays Morpheus and kills crew members from the Nebuchadnezzar, is the one who introduces Neo(in the real world) to alcohol. In vino veritas, through Ciphers drinking we get the truth. “A word of advice, if you see an agent, you do what we do. Run. You run your ass off.” Cipher does not have the belief to fight an agent(as Neo and Morpheus do). This conflicts with what Morpheus has told Neo(paragraph above) and contrasts the betrayer and the leader. But Morpheus is “more than just a leader, you were a father.” In this instance, Cipher is also playing Cain, killing his “Able” brothers. As in the story of Cain and Able, Adam(Morpheus) plays no role in the resolution of Cain. Instead of divine judgment, there is the miracle Tanks not dying. While Cipher prepares to remove the plug from Neos head he claims “There’d have to be some kind of a miracle to stop me. I mean, how can he be the one, if he’s DEAD!” But Tank isn’t dead. “No, I don’t believe it!” “Believe it or not you piece of shit you’re still gonna burn!” Tanks weapon fries Cipher and there is also the reference to hell, where sinners go to burn.
• C The Oracle is a direct reference to the Classical tradition. She wears ying-yang earings and a green dress(she is the only character in the matrix to wear all green). As Neo and Morpheus enter the building of the Oracle, there is a blind man sitting in the hallway with red tiling and red graffiti on the wall behind him. Morpheus nods to him and he nods back to Morpheus. Blindness leads to oracular vision. Blindness occurs with red behind us. (Red references blood, which Neo gives up along with his eyes in Revolutions to become a blind prophet who can see what others cannot, the light inside of machines.) When they enter the elevator, we see the graffiti on the wall behind the blind man is that of a pair of eyes while at the same time Neo crosses them and reaches his hands towards his face, with fingers on either side of and aimed above his nose. “Try not to think of it in terms of right and wrong. She is a guide. She can help you to find the path.” The Oracle isn’t right, the Oracle simply knows and tells. Right requires wrong and this is not the nature of an Oracle. Oracles exercise knowing. (Neo explains to The Source at the machine city, once he has become blind and a prophet, “Soon he will spread through this city as he has spread through the matrix. You cannot stop him, but I can.” “We don’t need you. We need nothing!” “If that’s true then I’ve made a mistake and you should kill me now.”) Oracles are right only as far as their telling of the truth and of the future is correct. Being right and being correct are two different things and, for clarity, Oracles must be viewed without the nature of “right” associated with their prophecy.
• B The Oracle says “being the one is just like being in love”. Neo, constantly compared to Jesus, is told that being in love is like being Jesus. All forms of Christianity compare Jesus to love and use of the word “just” confirms the exact nature of love in Jesus. Neo is lead into love through Trinity(think father, son, holy ghost) and it is Trinity’s love which brings Neo back to life. Here, love creates life in the metaphorical sense(in the literal, the physical act of love breeds life. Someone once told me that love is when you put someone else’s needs ahead of your own(I grew older and then read Stranger In A Strange Land for myself and saw where that idea had appeared most recently in popular literature). When leaving the TV repair shop, Neo says “you first” and hands trinity the telephone. Biblically, love is shown by placing god before ones own self, regardless of what happens, as in the story of Job and again with Jonah. When Job and Jonah show their faith and submission to god, we are shown their love for god becomes them almost in the entirety of their being and demonstrating effectively the similarity between loving god and being in love.
• B Being The One and the discussion of love is paralleled throughout the matrix with several themes, namely that of food. In response to Neo, the Oracle says she is in the matrix because “I love candy”. Then she eats a red piece of candy which looks remarkably like the red pill Neo swallowed to exit the matrix. Red, the color of love and life, the primary color found upon the sweaters of all the ship captains in Reloaded and Revolutions, the color of the pods humans are physically held inside of while their minds are connected to the matrix and the color of the doors to their homes in zion, is a powerful connecting symbol for loves struggle. Candy, like love, is sweet when you have it but it is not always present and we must appreciate it when we have access.) Though food inside the series as a subject is somewhat broader, there are two other images of characters eating and each of these images is associated with love. The Oracle hands Neo a cookie, apologizes for giving him bad news and tells him he will feel better after he eats it. Though coming from the Oracle, this act can be compared to the act of communion. It replenishes the soul while connecting the receiver and the giver through the means of faith and love(this is preceded in the scene by a discussion concerning belief). The third marriage of food and love is the cake orgasm delivered by the Merovingian in Reloaded and represents the physical carnal lust side of love. The Merovingian and his wife Persephone are almost vampiric in their consumption of the emotions of the real people inside of the matrix, specifically of love.
• B “I think they’re trying to save him.” The agent speaking shows the connection between Trinity and Neo and that Trinity is necessary for Neo to do any saving at all. “He’s not gonna make it” Neo mutters to himself. Neo jumps, catches Morpheus and ‘saves’ him. This is prophetic because in Revolutions the city of zion faces destruction at the hands of the machines and Neo must again make a jump to save Morpheus and the rest of zion. Trinity, the woman and a parallel for love, is with him driving the ship(Neo is the blind prophet). Neo cannot head through them but can make it over the machines, in effect he ‘jumps’ over them and lands inside the machine city(in a ship called the Logos, literally bringing “The Word” to the machines).
• B Crucifixion. Neo must die before he can become the one and Neo must die again for the salvation of humankind. In his first death in the matrix, we see the red blood(red is love) from the first wound and then we see the red of his second wound sprayed on the wall behind him. Then the image of Neo accepting every bullet from Smiths gun with open arms. His death and Trinity’s love allow for resurrection.(During his second death, in Revolutions, we see light spread out from his body beginning in the shape of the christian cross.) When Neo wakes up from his death, it is, like the beginning of the movie, an image from darkness into light focused upon the love Neo and Trinity share, their first kiss. “I’m going to show these people a world without you. A world without rules and controls, without boarders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible. Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.” Neo brings, through Trinity, love into the matrix.