Transcript Matrix PowerPoint

The Gigantic and Fantastic
Matrix Unit PowerPoint!
The Players in Our “Trilogy”
• In order to “completely” understand the
trilogy, we need to understand the
following:
– Characters (humans, programs, and
machines)
– Ships
– Reasons behind the names
– Mythology
Neo
• A.K.A. Thomas
Anderson
• The One (well,
the 6th One)
• Savior of
humanity
• Anderson =
Andro (Greek
word for “man”)
+ Son
• Son of Man –
Christ
• Thomas –
Doubter (doubt
is his strength!)
• Reflects many
traditional figures:
– The Enlightened Buddhist
– The Christian or Gnostic
Christ
– The Hindu Vishnu
Morpheus
• Captain of the
Nebuchadnezzar
• Neo’s rescuer
• A possible stand-in for
John the Baptist, or
even Moses!
• Faithful man who
unquestioningly
believes the Prophecy
Trinity
• Crewmember aboard the
Nebuchadnezzar
• Helps rescue both Neo and
Morpheus
• Loves Neo/The One, and
contributes to his
resurrection
• Could represent Mary
Magdalene, the Holy
Trinity…or something else
entirely
– After all, she does die…
The Nebuchadnezzar’s Crew
• Mouse is the youngest
member
• He helps design and
program the Training
Scenarios
• Isn’t sure what Tastee
Wheat tastes like
• May represent the Israelites
– but certainly doesn’t
subscribe to any school of
Buddhist thought
– “To deny our desires is to
deny what makes us human”
• Killed as a result of
Cypher’s betrayal
The Nebuchadnezzar’s Crew
• Switch (female) and
Apoc (male) represent
the “muscle” of the
ship’s crew
• Each serves as a guard
during Matrix
invasions
• Both are killed by
Cypher himself
The Nebuchadnezzar’s Crew
•
•
Tank (left) and Dozer
(right) are Zion-born
brothers serving on the
same ship
Both names refer to
aspects of the Matrix:
– Dozer  sleep
– Tank  battery pod
•
•
•
Can’t jack into the
Matrix because they
lack ports
Tank serves as “ship’s
operator” instead, and
Dozer pilots the
Nebuchadnezzar
Dozer is killed by
Cypher’s plasma gun,
while Tank survives a
shot and kills Cypher
with his own gun
The Oracle (Both Shells)
• The Oracle is a program from the
Machine World
• Existing since the first Matrix
• Figured out that humans needed to be
able to “choose” to accept the Matrix
• Intends to find a way to end the war
between men and machines;
eventually prevails over Smith and
assists in the creation of a Matrix
where people can choose to leave
without consequences
• Lost a “shell” to an attack by the
Merovingian; agrees to watch Sati
despite the attack
• Based on the Oracle of Delphi (check
your “How to Really Bake Your
Noodle” packet)
“Matrix” Villains - Cypher
• Cypher is “shallow and stupid,”
according to one critic
• He serves as a member of
Morpheus’s crew, but betrays the
others when offered the chance to
return to the Matrix
• His betrayal leads to Morpheus’s
capture, and he murders Apoc,
Switch, and Dozer before being
killed by Tank
• While he’s presented as an amoral
monster (Judas?) by the film, he
doesn’t quite work as Judas
– After all, he’d need to betray Neo to
qualify, while he betrays Morpheus
• Interestingly, more and more of you
felt more sympathy towards his
actions as you thought about his
options a bit
“Matrix” Villains – Agent Smith
• Smith’s role shifts from film to film;
– He’s the coldly evil face of the Matrix
during the first movie
– He begins corrupting the Matrix in the
second movie, but remains a threat to
Neo and company
– By the third movie, he’s controlling Bane,
destroyed the human fleet, blinded Neo,
and taken over virtually the entire Matrix
• He has become a threat that must
be destroyed, and ironically
serves as the catalyst for a peace
agreement between the humans
and 01
The Deus ex Machina
• The central Machine God/Intelligence
• Guards the Source in the Machine City
• Teams with Neo to destroy Smith, and ends
the war between the humans and machines
Nebuchadnezzar
•
•
•
•
The trilogy’s main ship
Used to rescue Neo and ferry Morpheus about
Named after a king of Babylon from Biblical times
Nebuchadnezzar was haunted by a prophetic,
recurring dream about the rise and fall of empires in
the world
• He refused to heed the prophicies, and was
eventually driven insane when he is humbled by God
– Ironic, considering that the ship’s destruction follows an
entire film in which characters put too much stock in
prophecy
Religion and Philosophy
in Our “Trilogy”
• In order to “completely” understand the trilogy, we
need to understand the ways in which the following
are important to the films:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
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Plato (Allegory of the Cave)
Socrates & the Oracle
Descartes and Dream Skepticism
Soren Kirkegaard, the Nature of Faith, and the Effects of
Choice
Causality, Determinism, Compatibilism, and Free Will
Christianity
Buddhism
Gnosticism
Hinduism
Taoism
Let’s Start with Soren
• Soren Kirkegaard was a 19th-century
philosopher who served as the source for
Captain Soren’s last name
• Many of Kirkegaard’s philosophical writings
concerned the nature of faith (or aspects of
it)
– Kirkegaard was also fascinated by human beings’
relationship with choice, and the emotional
factors that influence choice
– The themes Kirkegaard explored fascinated the
Wachowskis, who based a significant chunk of
their trilogy around the exploration of these ideas
(choice, faith, emotion, etc.)
Hinduism and the Matrix
• “Everything which has a beginning has an
ending” is adapted from the Bhagavad Gita
• Hinduism looms large over the trilogy,
particularly in the idea that all we see is
illusory, and that reality lies behind the lies
before our eyes
– This idea is tied into the definition of maya, which
I’ll get into on the next slide
Maya
• Theoretically, everything you experience is not
everything there is to experience – you see only
Maya, and not Brahman, the ultimate spirit of the
universe
• This makes Maya part of an illusion – a fake reality
that exists only in the parts of our mind that perceive
physicality – because it is extremely limited, and
serves to divorce us from the “truth” of Brahma
– Lesser minds simply accept what they see; these minds are
trapped, and will never experience the world as it exists
– In order to develop, humans must learn to discipline their
minds and see past/reject the illusory world
– Sound familiar?
Buddhist Parallels in The Matrix
• The most fundamental problem according
to Buddhism
is our ignorance of existential reality.
• Yogacara, also known as the
“consciousness Only”
school (Vijnavada), asserts that the
objective world we
perceive to be real is ultimately a product
of our minds.
Buddhist Parallels in The Matrix
• Yogacarins emphasize the essential path and
process toward to discerning the world free of
delusion.
• Meditation techniques were developed to, in as
sense, deconstruct one’s conditioned way of
seeing the world and help one awaken to the way
the world truly is.
• According to tradition, as one progresses along
this path, one procures powers to manipulate the
perceived “objective” world. A Buddha actually
attains the power to create his/her own cosmic
realm.
Last Important Slide
•
•
•
Triads/triangles/trinities are almost, if not as, important to the trilogy
(look, another three!) as dualism and duality
Hinduism features a triad, called the Trimurti, composed of Brahman,
Vishnu, and Shiva
In the trilogy, we can see each of these aspects in the
machines/programs
– Brahman, who represents “the Source,” is represented here by the
Architect (creation)
– Vishnu, who represents preservation, is represented here by the Oracle
– Shiva, who represents destruction, is represented here by Neo
– However, the characters can fulfill many roles; one could argue that the
Architect serves as destroyer, and that the Oracle is responsible for just as
much destruction as Neo. For that matter, Neo helps to create (resetting
the Matrix) and maintain (preserving the Matrix cycle)
– …so the Wachowski’s haven’t established a clear-cut framework here. But
what else is new?