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The Matrix – Too Complex to Pin Down

The Matrix has been studied from so many perspectives, perhaps showing how brilliant the movie is.  There’s really no telling what the beliefs of the movie’s makers are; there’s such a montage of meaning in it.  Analyzing all the underlying meaning is daunting, but that is not my goal with movies.  Because I want to edify my Christian faith when watching a movie, I’m always going to gravitate to the biblical meanings that were either intentionally or accidentally in the movie.  I believe it appears in all aspects of life even in artistic works.  I don’t contend that there are no other meanings; I just don’t see the need to go there.  Reviewing it from a biblical perspective only is still daunting.  In the Matrix are the obvious Christian messages and the not so obvious. But it’s odd for a movie to be so wrapped up into a worldview that so parallels the Christian or biblical worldview as The Matrix does.  It will take several posts to get anywhere with this movie, so here are my initial thoughts.

I will focus on the first movie of the trilogy. The 2nd and 3rd movies can be ignored as mere glitzy presentations of special effects, having little worthwhile meaning beyond that. The first installment is a classic.

The Matrix is so full of biblical allusions that it needs a special introductory post. The movie doesn’t so much preach as feel like reality. When I say reality, I mean truth. And when I say it feels real, I don’t mean the words don’t need to be heard and understood. The feeling of the movie is an aspect of good movie-making. The words are significant. The actors speak their lines to perfection. It is in a category that I call a perfect movie. I consider a perfect movie one in which every scene, every act, accomplishes its purpose, and the movie must have a grand theme.

The theme of the matrix is reality. Yet, there are numerous sub-themes – how to know the difference between reality and fantasy, the slavery of those who don’t know reality, what it takes to know reality, how an organization that seeks to show reality to the world operates, faith, the difference between people who know reality and those who don’t, the differences amongst the people who know reality, and the need for One to lead.

I cannot explain the plot in one post. It would take too long, and it would not do the movie justice. The plot is merely a construct, a vehicle, to show us the real world. In a sense, The Matrix is one of the most important movies of modern time because it so effectively shows us how we can be deceived and never know it and that we actually cannot know that we’ve been deceived, at least, not on our own. Only someone from outside the reality we live in can tell us what is real. Yet to exit reality is to die.

Personality and the principle of faith are keys to understanding the power of the movie. Even though the movie portrays technology as governing almost all of reality, individual persons are the heroes in this movie, not technology.  And not groups either, but individuals are what make the difference in this world. Faith is key to acting in this world. Without faith, one is prey to the “laws” supposedly governing the reality we live in. Faith allows a person to go beyond and demonstrate the existence of another reality.

The movie follows a path, a trajectory, which involves the finding of “the One,” a messianic character who can manipulate the Matrix and not be controlled by it. That person can free the others. He comes from outside the Matrix, yet he lives in it. As John 1 says of Christ:  “That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.” Jn 1:9-10.

There are disciples in this movie who follow a John the Baptist type, named Morpheus, who seeks “the One.” They find a person whom they think is “the One,” who seems like a fairly normal person, but even before “the truth” is revealed to him, we learn that he’s a computer programmer operating outside this world’s laws & restrictions as to how computers and programs can be used.

With the exception of Morpheus’ small band of disciples, all other people are enslaved in a computer-generated dream world.  They think they are normal humans living in a normal world, when in reality, they are the slaves of the computers who use humans as a power source.

The computers keep the world going & program reality; therefore, it is they who have taken over the control of the world. That seems to be their only purpose for existence – control. Future posts will go into the details, & they are many. Therefore, the posts covering the meanings within The Matrix may be extensive. Entire blogs could be and have been devoted solely to this movie.

To be cont’d.