Watched The Matrix on downloaded iPad version.
Neo leads a double life of computer programmer as Mr. Anderson, and computer hacker at home.
Note how Neo thinks he has dreamt when his mouth is closed and the bug (an electrical item that morphs into a scorpion called a sentinel) is inserted through his belly button. Later in the car, Trinity uses a machine to detect and suck out the bug. "Jesus Christ, that thing's real!" exclaims Neo
Morpheus says to Neo that he must feel like Alice, "tumbling down a rabbit hole".
Morpheus understands that Neo wants to know something that is not right with the world. Neo knows this is the Matrix. It is everywhere, at work, when you pay taxes. The Matrix is the bondage, that Neo is slave.
"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. It is here in this very room.......It is a prison for your mind. No-one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself"
Neo is offered the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will allow him to wake in bed, the red continues his journey to what Morpheus terms 'Wonderland'. He takes the red.
The graphics are cutting edge for late 1990s: a mirror is presented as a liquid that changes from a cracked into a perfect reflection.
Morpheus asks Neo if he has had a dream that he was so sure was real. "What if you were unable to wake from that dream. How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world."
After going through the supernatural tank treatment, Neo wakes. "Am I dead." He asks. "Far from it," is the reply from Cypher, "welcome to the real world."
Neo ends up in white space, in the middle of a computer program called the Construct - the loading program. Anything can be loaded, from clothing to equipment. "This isn't real" he says. Morpheus queries what is real. If it is what you can sense (smell, hear, touch) , "it is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
The world as Neo knew exists now only as a 'neural interactive simulation' that we call the Matrix. Neo had been living in a dream world and is now in a world that exists today. He shows Neo the 'real world', in one scene describing it as 'the desert of the real' in a clear reference to Baudrillard.
The Matrix is a "computer generated dream world built to keep us under control" says Morpheus.
"As long as the Matrix exists, man will never be free." After the first man who had the opportunity to change the Matrix died, the Oracle prophesied his return and the destruction of the Matrix. Morpheus and others have spent their lives searching for him. He now believes the moment has come, the one has returned. (Some obvious illusion to Jesus Christ here).
Each of the crew of Morpheus' ship has a dual existence: one on the ship, the other when they go to 'other side'.
Cypher betrays the team and in a raid, Morpheus is captured by the Matrix agents. There is a dilemma that the agents can hack into Morpheus and obtain the computer code required to enter the city of Zion where remaining humans live. But the agents have a problem. "Never send a human to do a machine's job" says agent Smith.
The movie becomes more violent as Neo decides to ignore the prophesy from the Oracle that he would be faced with a choice between his own life or Morpheus's, and 'goes back' to rescue him. Cue some gunfights with the agents, again using some cutting edge special effects (e.g. walking up a wall).
After several more fights with agents, it eventually becomes clear that Neo is the one. He kills Agent Smith by entering him. He saves the ship and destroys the Matrix.
It is a slightly crazy story; a mixture of hero thriller, sci-fi, special effects, and even a hint of a love story as Trinity is clearly smitten by Neo. The special effects are spectacular; there are several examples of people (mainly Neo in fight scenes) flying through the air, doubtless a first in cinematic history. The plot owes much to the Baudrillard theories of simulation and simulacra (the book is used to hide a key early in the movie) as Neo fights to understand what is real and what is not, torn between his origins and what Morpheus describes as the real world. That is the subplot; the violence between humans and the agents the more visible manifestation.
Neo leads a double life of computer programmer as Mr. Anderson, and computer hacker at home.
Note how Neo thinks he has dreamt when his mouth is closed and the bug (an electrical item that morphs into a scorpion called a sentinel) is inserted through his belly button. Later in the car, Trinity uses a machine to detect and suck out the bug. "Jesus Christ, that thing's real!" exclaims Neo
Morpheus says to Neo that he must feel like Alice, "tumbling down a rabbit hole".
Morpheus understands that Neo wants to know something that is not right with the world. Neo knows this is the Matrix. It is everywhere, at work, when you pay taxes. The Matrix is the bondage, that Neo is slave.
"The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. It is here in this very room.......It is a prison for your mind. No-one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself"
Neo is offered the blue pill or the red pill. The blue pill will allow him to wake in bed, the red continues his journey to what Morpheus terms 'Wonderland'. He takes the red.
The graphics are cutting edge for late 1990s: a mirror is presented as a liquid that changes from a cracked into a perfect reflection.
Morpheus asks Neo if he has had a dream that he was so sure was real. "What if you were unable to wake from that dream. How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world."
After going through the supernatural tank treatment, Neo wakes. "Am I dead." He asks. "Far from it," is the reply from Cypher, "welcome to the real world."
Neo ends up in white space, in the middle of a computer program called the Construct - the loading program. Anything can be loaded, from clothing to equipment. "This isn't real" he says. Morpheus queries what is real. If it is what you can sense (smell, hear, touch) , "it is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
The world as Neo knew exists now only as a 'neural interactive simulation' that we call the Matrix. Neo had been living in a dream world and is now in a world that exists today. He shows Neo the 'real world', in one scene describing it as 'the desert of the real' in a clear reference to Baudrillard.
The Matrix is a "computer generated dream world built to keep us under control" says Morpheus.
"As long as the Matrix exists, man will never be free." After the first man who had the opportunity to change the Matrix died, the Oracle prophesied his return and the destruction of the Matrix. Morpheus and others have spent their lives searching for him. He now believes the moment has come, the one has returned. (Some obvious illusion to Jesus Christ here).
Each of the crew of Morpheus' ship has a dual existence: one on the ship, the other when they go to 'other side'.
Cypher betrays the team and in a raid, Morpheus is captured by the Matrix agents. There is a dilemma that the agents can hack into Morpheus and obtain the computer code required to enter the city of Zion where remaining humans live. But the agents have a problem. "Never send a human to do a machine's job" says agent Smith.
The movie becomes more violent as Neo decides to ignore the prophesy from the Oracle that he would be faced with a choice between his own life or Morpheus's, and 'goes back' to rescue him. Cue some gunfights with the agents, again using some cutting edge special effects (e.g. walking up a wall).
After several more fights with agents, it eventually becomes clear that Neo is the one. He kills Agent Smith by entering him. He saves the ship and destroys the Matrix.
It is a slightly crazy story; a mixture of hero thriller, sci-fi, special effects, and even a hint of a love story as Trinity is clearly smitten by Neo. The special effects are spectacular; there are several examples of people (mainly Neo in fight scenes) flying through the air, doubtless a first in cinematic history. The plot owes much to the Baudrillard theories of simulation and simulacra (the book is used to hide a key early in the movie) as Neo fights to understand what is real and what is not, torn between his origins and what Morpheus describes as the real world. That is the subplot; the violence between humans and the agents the more visible manifestation.
However, the movie is one important sense removed from Baudrillard's thesis. The Matrix splits the real and virtual worlds very literally - Neo and his colleagues in Morpheus' team have dual existences on earth and in the spaceship, and Cypher at one point turns on his friends in a desperate attempt to 'go back' to being human - but Baudrillard makes no such clear distinction. His 'hyperreality' is exactly that the reality is the imagery and symbols that surround us. They are 'more real than the real', they replace the reality they purport to stand for, the symbols are the reality.There is no distinction between the real and non real world according to Baudrillard, so the movie, by making such a distinction, has a very different premise.
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