The Matrix: Deconstructed

I have seen The Matrix: Reloaded twice, within the first week it had come out. Following that, I digested several excellent essays that attempted to dissect the film (though I do not necessarily agree with their conclusions), and saw the much-ballyhooed anime supplement, The Animatrix. Having time to ponder all this information, and wanting to understand it more, there was only one thing to do: Obtain an apparently illegal copy of Reloaded so I could sate myself until the actual DVD comes out October 14. Well, there were other things I could have done, but it’s difficult to resist a snappy phrase like “there was only one thing to do”. Very dramatic! Anywho…

Anyway, here’s a few insights into Reloaded you might have missed. (Judging by the general reaction of the ignorant masses, you did.) There are a few spoilers in the following paragraphs, so if you don’t want to know what happens, then just deprive yourself of knowledge. If you haven’t seen it already, then you probably have very little interest in which case read-away. Who knows; you might see things openly.

AGENT SMITH is the most intriguing returning character, and most likely the key, or kink, in Revolutions. Agent Smith, unlike any other agents seen in either movie, demonstrates human emotions and self-preservation instincts. In his interrogation scene with Morpheus, he removes his connection to the system (the earpiece, again) in order to tell Morpheus that he is desperate to get out of the Matrix. He even tells Morpheus that he believes the key is in this [human] mind, foreshadowing his apparent successful leap out in film two. For some reason, this particular agent (program) has developed further than any of his counterparts, probably because he has been around for at least one previous iteration of the matrix. We know this from the conversation between the two Agent Smiths in the beginning of Reloaded:

Agent Smith(i): It's happening exactly as before.
Agent Smith(ii): Well... not exactly...

The exactly is that in this iteration, the One destroyed an agent (Smith), severing his connection to the system. Metaphorically, Agent Smith did the same thing to Neo moments before, when he shot and killed Neo in the matrix. Neo resurrected himself as the incarnation of The One. Agent Smith resurrected himself to become something else, Neo's antithesis: Smith's new ability to clone himself makes him The Many (Note that in the Bible, the demon that Jesus purges from a person identifies itself as "I am Legion"). The One and The Many, Christ and Satan, Good and Evil. I believe that the end will come down to the two god-figures battling for the souls of the matrix.

Confession: I wrote the above a few months ago, and after seeing the Revolutions trailer, I think that I was on the right track. It is all about Smith and Neo, the many and the one. Only, in my interpretation, it looks as if Neo makes a deal with “God” (the mind behind the entire matrix) that he will get rid of the “satan” who is destroying “God’s” world. If this in fact turns out to be true, then I’m loving it.

In the context of all this, I just cannot get into the Lord of the Rings hype, despite the new trailer. That movie isn’t coming out for a few months. Revolutions is in 35 days. Let’s get some perspective, people. Sheesh.