The Matrix

The 1999 hit movie, The Matrix, redeifined all movies when it hit the big screen. The movie starred Keanu Reeves as Neo or “the one”. Neo was just a normal man until his eyes were opened by a man named Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne. He showed Neo that the world he was living in was not the real world. It was just a fake that humans were put into so the machines could use their bodies as power sources. As Neo began to believe in what he was seeing and himself, he began to become the one Morpheus was looking for. It was fate that made him “The one” that would be able to defeat the agents and bring the machines down. Even a backstabber and multiple gun shots to the chest would not be able to stop him on his way to his destiny.

This movie plays off the theme of machines taking over the world. It’s obvious that machines rule everything and humans were no longer the dominate intelligence in this world. They needed a hero, though, to come to the rescue of humanity and give people hope, that came in the form of Neo or as known as “The One”. All questions about why and how the machines came to power are answered when Morpheus tells Neo the real history of the human race. Then we find out why they picked Neo, but how did they decide to pick him. It says nothing about how they came to think that he was the one to help them. Did they just get this by instinct or what? They should have explained or went a little deeper on that so that a person could clearly answer all questions and figure out the relationship that separates Neo from everyone else. Even without that information, the movie was still able to succeed in trying to make us believe in Neo verse the computer. The movie does a really good job of setting up for the final show down and the transformation of Neo from a normal person to the rebel human to “The One”.

This movie looks like it was taken right from the Christian bible. Like the article, Journal of Religion and Film, says, everyone in the movie represents someone from the time of Christ. The ones that the article does not mention is the everyday ordinary people in the movie that were completely ignorant to what was going on. These are the people Neo is trying to save just like Jesus worked so hard to try to save everyone on earth. These people were used by the agents like puppets to switch from body to body doing whatever they liked and there was nothing they could do. This is just like people in past, present and future times. We want to be saved by Jesus, even if we do not know it or admit it. Like the agents used the people, the devil uses us humans to cause pain and dismay all over and then just disposes of us when we die like we are nothing, but there is one who cares. Neo, like Jesus, cares and wants to help all, but his hand is forced when it comes to facing off against the agents. I am also thinking that this movie did have a god like figure in it, contrast to what the article thinks. I believe that the Oracle is the god figure in this movie. She appears to be human, but has unexplainable future telling abilities. She knew what was going to happen before it happen and by giving her advice, she probably influenced the future. Who knows if Neo would have let Morpheus die, if the Oracle had not told him about his choice? She was the pushing force to the future and the deciding factor. She is not completely a god like figure, but she is the closest symbol to god.