The Matrix Revolutions - Spoiler thread

[FredLC]

Did you guys see it? Did you guys… liked it somehow?

I have to say I didn’t. Matrix revolutions is a big hoax, a sorry attempt to dodge questions they posed but were unable to answer.

What is the matrix, really? As a whole, I mean… It was a clever way to pose fundamental questions. What we are? Can we even touch some fundamental truth of existence? Would we want to, no matter what the price would be?

That, the clever questions of the first movie, was what made this idea great, distinguishable from the majority of action flicks… a proposition that diminished sensibly in the second movie, but was completely abandoned in the third. Mild philosophy cleverly mixed with competent action was changed for a weird superman-esque fac-símile of kung fu, and some bits of empty rhetoric.

I for one was never really keen with the idea of Smith growing minute after minute as the “great foe” of the series. The whole point of the movie was for me the focus of the first one… the idea of hopelessly be fighting a system. Nonetheless, I could live with the programs that went out of control. A concession to the audience, I thought… after all, usually people need a villainous smile to hate.

However, it got out of control. Evil guys like Smith and the Merovingian became true straw men… a way make us forget what was the real purpose of the fight, that was, to free the human race from the iron fist of the machines. The incidental goals were achieved, and than the “mission accomplished” flag was raised in the form of movie credits. Only that I don’t buy it that easily.

Really, having Smith as a hater of life that threatened even the machines? Where the hell did that come from? Just as a way to fabricate a silly peace treat between Zion and the machines? And why oh why was Neo “The only one” that could stop him? Just because he said so? It’s easy to debate with the machines leader, that way… he believes whatever the hell you tell him.

Placing the architect in the end to state that every one who wanted freedom would be freed… also ludicrous. The merciless killing machines all the sudden became the personification of lenience. And I guess that all the others who “didn’t want to be freed” could still be the machine’s crops without that ringing any bells in Morpheos and companions righteous sense of justice. Come on, who the hell do they think we are to buy that?

Also, they dodged the one question I was hoping to see answered… How the hell did Neo had powers outside the Matrix? In each and every time I spoke of the two first movies, I commended the authors for the clever problems and even more clever solutions they created for them. I gave them lots of credit and expected something alike now. But my expectative was truly frustrated. They just made a huge appeal to authority – the oracle said that the powers of the one were not limited to one world – and put a stone over it. No hows and/or whys were even touched. Come on now, it’s the cowards way out. For me, evidence that they created a problem that they could not later solve.

But at least they could have given it an honest end. They were not brave enough even for that. A sad end, with the architect’s scheme working just like the previous times would work far better. Or some magical solution that would make mankind defeat machines could also be acceptable if not ideal. But this fake happy ending, with mankind at mercy of the machines, counting with their goodwill about a promise made under a very artistically questionable solution, and have everyone acting as if they had a perfect, flawless victory, ha! It’s an insult to my intelligence.

And Neo becoming the Oracle? That one is precious. Can anyone explain me any sense to it… and how the hell that time loop came to happen?

And what the hell was that little girl doing in the movie anyway?

It’s really sad to see a series that started so well ending so poorly. I guess they have bitten way more than they could chew.

Can anyone please point me anything – anything at all – that I can appreciate in the movie so I don’t think it was a simple waste of time and money? If yes, please do.

I guess it’s waiting for LOTR – ROTK now, at hope that this one actually lives up to the expectative about it.

Regards .

Edit: spelling.

 

[mrbaggins]

It got ripped to absolute hell by 70% of reviewers, according to rottentomatoes.com Its not worth a movie ticket. Check it out when it goes to cable...

 

[Tacit_Exit]

I agree with just about everything you said, Fred.

I spent so much time after Reloaded trying to frame in my mind all the questions posed so I wouldn't get lost in Revolutions, only to be confronted with a lame, seemingly rushed piece that apparently was relying on the stock 'Hollywood Mega-Production' to save it.

Though I must say, if my expectations weren't so high from the second movie, I might have enjoyed it more.

The attack on Zion was AWSOME! , so I still don't feel like I wasted my money, but I lament for what might have been. . .

 

[JC Denton]

the matrix was good, no, it was great!
reloaded sucked and revolutions was just as bad... though more exilerating at times...
i'm sorry, 'tis true... the whole concept of the sequels ruined everything the first built up, and then they made nothing out of everything. the story was in no way a continuation of the first, and then there wasn't much of one either. it was bad, poor, lame, could've been better. they weren't true to the first, to their own movie. it was a disappointment, yes, it was.

'i agree with everything you said, fred.

 

[Sickman]

Maybe Matrix is for total nerds so they can feel to have power outside of their virtual reality?

I don't know...

I agree totally with you Fred...only thing that I saw differently is that I saw this coming after I saw the first movie.

All the hype around it and all.
And the final conclusion of film?
It's plastic. Crunchy but not tasty plastic.

Lot of posing and "mind blasting" comments about reality.

But maybe I'm spoiled. In the sense that I have read my Gibson and all the other stuff...so Matrix doesn't just hit me.

Well...maybe 16-year olds who have never heard word "cyberpunk" fancy it.

To all Matrix fans: What makes it so special?
I think you are cheated.

 

[Leha]

Originally posted by Sickman
Maybe Matrix is for total nerds so they can feel to have power outside of their virtual reality?

I don't know...

I agree totally with you Fred...only thing that I saw differently is that I saw this coming after I saw the first movie.

All the hype around it and all.
And the final conclusion of film?
It's plastic. Crunchy but not tasty plastic.

Lot of posing and "mind blasting" comments about reality.

But maybe I'm spoiled. In the sense that I have read my Gibson and all the other stuff...so Matrix doesn't just hit me.

Well...maybe 16-year olds who have never heard word "cyberpunk" fancy it.

To all Matrix fans: What makes it so special?
I think you are cheated.

Sickman , I agree with you . Matrix is beautiful plastic envelope that has nothing inside . I think they would be better off by finishing the whole story by first part and no sequell parts . Then , at least , I would have those questions ( btw , all those questions posed in first part aren't new to me ) to answer by myself , and most times it works very good - finishing movie by questions unanswered .

 

[RoddyVR]

yikes you guys are brutal.

yes, the peace is a bit of a cheat as far as ending the war goes. but what did you expect? the humans to make enough ammo to kill every sentinel? and then what? the machines have had hundreds (if not thousands) of years to build up a defence that could NOT be broken by Zion.
The machines have the resourses of a planet. while zion has? machine corpses are proly their best source of metal.

so the only ways to beat the machines were:
1. erase their 'programs', which would i assume involve Neo reseting the machine city instead of reseting the matrix (as the architect wanted).
2. make a deal.

you critics would have liked the first option even less then the second. you would have said "that was just too easy. they gave neo WAY too much power and there was just no contest"

The reason that Neo "changed" into the Oracle, is that he DIDNT. he went back to his own body. the oracle was what was left of Smith, after he was deleted. he'd absorbed the oracle earlier (and she was strong enough a program to survive within him) and that's why he repeated HER phrase "everything that has a beggining has an end" and he didnt know why he said it.
then when he absorbed Neo (and maybe the unexpected connection to the main machine that Neo was pluged into) they overpowered him.

the Girl was there for a VERY specific reason. to show that not all the machines are killing robots. that they have a GOOD side to them too.
the third movie shows that the machines are just like the humans, they have a large world where they live their normal lives, they also have a military that is running the war against the humans. the sentinels are just soldiers. the agents are just prison guards. the Architect (and oracle in a way i think) were just doing what was neccessary to WIN the WAR that their people (machines) were fighting.

in the first movie (and in the second, except the oracle) all the machines/programs are shown as evil. As if they are Evil and thats IT. there's no more to them then being evil. the third movie shows that they are just like the humans, they have LIVES.
its not one mass machine that is abusing the humans (the "system") it is a nation of individuals that is living its existance and doing what it must to survive.

the architect in the end says, when the oracle implies that he may be lying: "what do you think i am? A HUMAN?"
in the machine world, the humans are the ones capable of unneccesary evil.

 

[ComradeDavo]

I was debatign with my girlfriend about this.........I figure Neo had powers outside of the Matrix because...........it was really another matrix. What they thought was the real world was really just another matrix. And teh place Neo got stuck in was the link between the 2 matrix's. or something.

 

[Rout]

Originally posted by FredLC
And what the hell was that little girl doing in the movie anyway?

They come at night, mostly
Err, she was a character?

Saw it yesterday, loved it.

 

[Hurricane]

I don't see how you could call it a happy ending. IMHO, what happened, was that a fragile peace was settled, and the Matrix rebooted. That's what you saw when the girl was lying on the torn up pavement, the everyhting was changed to normal, and a nice sunset was created. So, everything started from the start again. And I don't think that the Architect meant that everyone was freed, but only the 1% who didn't believe in the Matrix, just like in the 6 versions before.

 

[RoddyVR]

Hurricane. while i see your point of it not being a happy ending as such, i think you're wrong about the ending itself.

the architect would free ALL the minds that dont accept the matrix, thats WAY more then the few that used to be freed by the rebels.
more importantly, the war outside the matrix (the sentinels vs zion's ships) would come to a halt, and the people outside can live peacefully.

the matrix had to be reset because Smith had screwed it up so much (i think he copied himself over EVERYONE in the matrix, but i might be wrong).
the biggest difference is that those that are outside the matrix would not be LIED to about the whole thing.

both sides agree that the machines need some people in the matrix, and since a lot of people would prefer the matrix world to the real one, why not keep them there (like sipher from the first movie).

the next movie (and dont try to tell me there wont be one, it might take a while, but ....) will proly deal with the fact that people like morpheous cant accept the idea that some people LIKE to be in the matrix.

 

[andrewgprv]

Odd you people described your liking of the series as Loved, Not so Loved then Hated. Mine was the exact opposite Hated, Loved, Really Loved.

The first movie sorely disappointed me. At the beginning of the show I was intrigued. Here was a movie that was exploring philosephies of existence and perception and then they blew all that for some shmuck of a story about machines vs. humans.

Then the second movie they picked up once again with philosphy, but they expanded it from just exploring existence and perception to ideas about yin and yang, love, belief, fate, fractals and infinity and in the end they opened up the possability of destroying the whole story of man and machine. They reintroduced the idea of a perception based reality, that in fact reality was like the matrix.

The third movie delved deeper into philosephies of yin and yang, good vs. evil, order vs. chaos, birth and death. In my eyes the story of machine vs. man was just one way of showing the dance of yin and yang or the battle of good and evil. The story of man vs. machine was not important what was important was the sub-story of yin and yang. You saw this mirrored everywhere in the movie the architect and the oracle, neo and smith, the emphasis on war and the emphasis on love. The ending was somewhat disappointing but how else could it have ended??? A proper ending would require a greater understanding of these philosephies then we currently posses. They had to end the movie somehow so they ended it with a new era of peace symbolised by the child.

I loved the third movie because the philosephy is what was emphasised rather then the bland plot of man vs. machine.

Now that I am done rebutting the critics I will delve into some of my observations of the movie.

To me humans were symbolised to hell and machines to heaven. The humans were primal, free, chaotic and they lived below ground, while the machine were orderly, structured they lived above ground and they were seen as almost pure light by Neo.

One question that plagues me is Smith. The idea of balance is held constant through out the movie. The Oracle balances the Architect and Neo balances Smith BUT in the end these The architect, the oracle and neo team up against Smith and defeat him and this seems to unbalance the equation. What was Smith suppose to represent? hate, death, destruction? or all of these? And Neo was love, hope, and birth...

I may be going off the deep end here so forgive me if I make no sense. Machines and human represent two opposing sides in a conflict. Could Smith be the representation of hate? As the conflict continues hate/smith grows like a disease. Eventually hate becomes so strong that nearly destroys both parties. And only by eliminating hate does the conflict end. Resulting in for now at least a peacefull coexistence of the two sides.

I think what I liked most about the series is the theme of questioning existence and reality. Just like the human mind we ponder these things endlessly of yin and yang, love, fate, death etc... And do we ever really come to any concrete conclusion? no.... we continue to ponder these things throughout our lives and yet we never really unravel the mystery.

 

[Flak]

I liked it. I still think it was crap that they were trying to convince the audience of "the war is over" business. The war isn't over until every single human is free. Period.

I was also a bit confused about the role of Smith. I'm wondering if he wasn't trying to simply take over the matrix as a whole, and he somehow got the power to give it a try when he and Neo danced in the first film. If so, then the 'balance' that andrewgprv mentions was the necessary balance of the big three versus Smith. The one thing I kind of don't get here is, I thought Neo was supposed to win the fight versus Smith. Ok. But he lost. But the big three still win. Was it a sucker job? "Hey Neo, go in there and kick some tail, ok?" When he invetably takes you down, I've got a little surprise waiting for him along the lines biting-off-more-than-you-can-chew.

I admit to reading this thread at 6 posts before I went to see the film. From this comparison, it is obvious that the Oracle is still the Oracle and so is every other program that Smith copied himself over. Apparently he could never really overcome the fundamental nature of the overwritten progam. What I couldn't quite believe here is that he could realy take over a human mind that was aware of the matrix. A mind that wasn't, sure since they strictly are a product of what the matrix tells them to be. One minute you're a housewife walking to the local store, the next minute you're a copy of agent Smith. Such is life. But a mind that had a unique identity in the real world? That knows who they are for themself. A computer program can simply overwrite that? I don't think so. I think the human mind is far more complex than something a computer program can simply overwrite, even in the matrix.

Also, Neo did not have his powers outside of the Matrix. He obviously had some power to affect the machines because of the special abilities he did have and the electronic implants that are present in every human connected to the matrix. But nowhere do you actually see him use any power from the matrix, outside of the matrix. These two existences are never confused in the film as far as I can see.

And finally, one more thing. If agent Smith had taken over so many programs in the matrix as to be a threat to the Architect himself, how was the architect able to conduct a war against the humans? I mean you saw the numbers. There hundreds of thousands of those machines pouring into Zion! Weren't atleast a few of those taken over by Smith? I was always curious why we never saw any machines fighting machines or something to that effect. Was Smith as inevitable as Neo? And it was all just an inevitable part of the program? Questions, questions....

Overall: Good action, great effects, some story inconsistencies and the ending left a lot unexplained (probably on purpose. I smell another trilogy... ). No reason not to see this movie in the theatres as hyped.

 

[floppa21]

A coworker said that the Animatrix which was a collection of animation helped explain a lot. I personally have only seen the first movie so I don't know.

 

[RoddyVR]

smith didnt take over machines in the REAL world. he was taking over thing in the matrix, and as neo told the "machine head ", eventualy he'll make his way to the machine city (via the railway the trainman ran) and start taking IT over.

the sentinells were NOT part of the matrix, they may or many not have not been part of the machine city.

 

[andrewgprv]

An important thing to remember is that Smith called the Oracle Mom. By this I would guess that the oracle is responsable for giving Smith his power. One would assume the architect made Smith origanally because the architect makes all programs. So the only reason I can think of for Smith calling the oracle mom is that she gave him his power?

If this is true then it was a plan by the oracle all along. One might surmise that the oracle planned the whole thing. Get Smith to be such a problem that a deal must be struck with the architect?

 

[Riesstiu IV]

Uhhh... when did the third matrix movie come out? I haven't even seen any commericals or heard anyone talk about the movie!

 

[Cilpot]

The movies are just one part of the explanation. The Animatrix and the video game also play a part.

Anyway: Good theories everybody! I can say some of the posts here have opened my mind

@Riesstiu IV: Last wednesday. Worldwide premiere.

@ComradeDavo: That was my theory too

 

[kangyio]

Take one point to the extreme,one of the great things you expect from matrix would be something like half hour solid fighting.Do you remember several scenes from the first matrix,Neo and Smith fighting in the underground station,the gun fight between Trinity,Neo and the goons in the big hall to rescue Mophies(spelling is something like this),and in Reloaded there are even more good matial art scenes which is great.But I just can't enjoy Revolution,the final fight bewteen Smith and Neo is absolutely ridiculous,I mean what the hell are they doing?
And one more thing,did you notice Revolution actually has the same story line as the original matrix.In the original,Neo is saved by Trinity,Mophies and the rest from the matrix(he got to the real world) and then had a fight with Smith but didn't win and got killed by Smith in the end.And in Revolution,Neo is saved again by Trinity,Mophies from the train station he can't get out,then he had this gigantic fight with Smith but lost again and got nailed by him(in a sense).
Actually Revolution raised more questions than answers indeed.

 

[Jeratain]

Jesus, Buddha, and Gvdel : Unraveling the Matrix Mythos

By Eric Furze


What do Christianity, Zen and formal mathematical logic have in common? If you look closely, "The Matrix: Reloaded" will tell you; beneath its shiny, heavily stylized surface, the second installment of the "Matrix" trilogy reveals a mythological sophistication that surpasses anything the genre has produced before. The trilogy's penchant for religious iconography is, of course, already a widely celebrated phenomenon - philosophical essays on Neo's messianic qualities began appearing in magazines and on websites shortly after the film was released in 1999 - but what has yet to be understood is that "Reloaded" profoundly redefines the structure and scope of that symbolism. While "The Matrix" was content to simply update ancient myths with modern images, the release of "Reloaded" reveals the Wachowskis to be attempting something much more ambitious: a synthesis of Oriental and Occidental mythology wholly new to the western literary tradition. If "Revolutions" can complete what "Reloaded" has begun, in fact, the trilogy could very well become the first mythology to unite East with West since the dawn of Occidental culture over 2500 years ago.

But the Wachowskis have more on their bookshelf than the Bible and the Ramayana, and in order to fully understand the framework of their creation, it is first necessary to grapple with a seminal, and famously difficult, result from mathematical logic. Fortunately, this detour through the esoteric is worthwhile: the good thing about math is that it is, if nothing else, predictable. The Wachowskis have adhered to it so faithfully, in fact, that its structure is readily visible and points to some fairly unavoidable conclusions about how the trilogy will resolve itself in its upcoming final installment.

I. The Gvdel Sentence and The One

Structurally, the mythology of the Matrix is patterned directly after a central result in 20th-century mathematical logic known as the Incompleteness Theorem, first discovered by the Austrian logician Kurt Gvdel in the early 1930's. For an excellent, mostly non-technical introduction to the Incompleteness Theorem, the interested reader is referred to "Gvdel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter. (There are also numerous websites dedicated to the topic, though they vary considerably in both didactic quality and requisite level of mathematical background.)

Gvdel was able to demonstrate that any "formal system," of which mathematics and computers are examples, is inherently incomplete. "Incomplete" has a very specific technical meaning; in broad strokes it means that there are truths that exist within a system that are not provable using the rules of that system. If the system is a set of mathematical axioms, this means that there are mathematical truths which are not provable (or "decidable") using those axioms. Such an unprovable truth is known as a Gvdel Sentence (G) and all formal systems have them (each particular system having its own unique G).

The relationship between Gvdel and the Matrix is made evident when Neo confronts the Architect at the end of "Reloaded." It is explained to him that:

Your life is the sum of the remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the Matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly which ... is systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations.

Neo is a destabilizing anomaly inherent to every conceivable Matrix: in the language of mathematics, he is the Gvdel Sentence itself.

The Prophecy of The One revolves around the fact that the Matrix is a computer and therefore is nothing more than just another formal system. As such, it is inherently incomplete and so there exists for that system the equivalent of a Gvdel Sentence, G, which is true but undecidable within its framework. Neo, as The One, is the organic instantiation of G for the formal system of the Matrix. The Incompleteness Theorem tells us that every system has a G just as, in the movie, every version of the Matrix inevitably produces its own incarnation of The One.

According to the Architect's explanation, whenever G for a particular version of the Matrix is found (i.e. The One is born) its incompatibility with the rules of the system leads inexorably to a "cataclysmic system crash." In "Reloaded," this progressive system failure is embodied by Agent Smith. Notice, for example, that his 'new purpose' was a direct and immediate result of Neo assuming his role as The One; he is the destructive consequence of the Gvdel Sentence. His continuing 'replication' is simply the exponential spread of the instability (or anomaly) throughout the Matrix, and once it reaches all parts of the system (remember Smith admitting to "wanting everything"?) the Matrix will crash.

Fortunately for the Matrix, there is a way to avoid this disaster scenario. Mathematically speaking, any formal system can be 'saved' from a given G by simply incorporating that G into its axiom schema: making it a by-definition part of the system, thereby removing its undecidability. Within the framework of the movie, this is accomplished by having The One "return to the source," which renews the Matrix and saves it from the instability introduced by his arrival. This is not a permanent fix, however: this new version of the Matrix is susceptible to its own version of the Gvdel Sentence, which will ultimately lead to the birth of yet another One and a continuing cycle of death-and-rebirth of the system, ad infinitum. According to the Architect, what happens in the movie takes place during the fifth repetition of that cycle.

That's the end of the math, but it is only the beginning of the story of "The Matrix," for while mathematics provides the foundation, the Wachowskis have looked elsewhere for the materials with which to build their mythological edifice.

II. The Hero's Journey

As the comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell described in "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," there are symbols and patterns which are common to myths and religions the world over, regardless of culture or era. This commonality manifests itself in what Campbell called the hero's journey: a cycle of separation, initiation, and return that provides the structure on which the vast majority of myth is built. It is exemplified, for instance, by the "Star Wars" trilogy (which George Lucas admits borrowed heavily from Campbell's work): Luke, the hero, leaves his home on Tatooine, proceeds along a road of trials through which he is initiated into his role of Jedi, and then returns to Tatooine to rescue his friends and, ultimately, liberate society. Another example, from ancient Greece, is "The Odyssey": Odysseus leaves to fight against Troy, has a long road of adventure, and ultimately returns home to his reward. The Oriental tradition has the story of Buddha: Prince Gotama leaves his father's home to discover the true nature of the world and in so doing awakens to his role as the Buddha. He then returns home as a teacher and guide to enlightenment. The list of examples is endless.

The fundamental difference between the Occidental and Oriental modes of the hero's journey lies in the nature of the hero's awakening. The Occidental hero succeeds by gaining relationship with the source of divine power external to himself (e.g., Luke gets his power from The Force, Christ gets his power through his relationship with God the Father). The Oriental hero, by contrast, awakens not by communing with a separately individuated divinity but by recognizing within himself the power of the divine (recognizing the godhead within, as the Buddha would say). The Buddha achieved enlightenment by realizing his lack of individual identity or ego: he was simply a part of a greater universal consciousness. The differing Eastern and Western mythological traditions spring, at their most basic, from these different understandings of humankind's relationship with the divine. The Oriental hero recognizes his own divinity; the Occidental hero, separate from the divine, establishes a relationship with it.

What is unique about the "Matrix" trilogy is that it blends both the Occidental and Oriental modes of the hero's journey. The 'ordinary' cycle of the Matrix, as explained by The Architect, is very clearly an example of the Eternal Return common to myths of the Orient: a static, never-ending cycle of life and death punctuated by the repeated incarnation of a world-saving hero. The first movie was the hero's journey in the Oriental mode (despite the popular, though inappropriate, identification of Neo with Christ in that movie): the protagonist succeeds via a transformative realization in which he recognizes within himself (in contrast to the Occidental mode) the unity of life and power of the divine. In that sense, the first movie was about Neo awakening to become the Buddha and, accordingly, that movie was rife with references to, and symbols of, Eastern mythology (e.g. bald, enlightened, lotus-sitting children dispensing Zen-koan-like wisdom and bending spoons with their mind).

"Reloaded," however, breaks from this tradition when Neo refuses to fulfill his "Buddha destiny" of merging his consciousness with the Universal in continuation of the cosmic cycle (which is what would have happened had he chosen the "door on the right," and it would have been the typical conclusion to an Oriental myth). Neo instead embraces the Occidental mode of the hero's journey, in which the protagonist succeeds by gaining connection with the power of the divine beyond himself. He affirms his individual identity (as opposed to the egoless monad of the Oriental tradition) in the most fundamentally human way possible: he chooses the romantic love of Trinity. In so doing, he turns away from his Oriental destiny and towards his Occidental one.

It is in this sense, then, that Neo becomes the Christ figure. If the Matrix is about choice then Neo, in his role as The One, is choosing for the entire population of still-connected humanity, choosing an existence apart from the Imposed Choice of the Matrix. Just as Christ fulfilled the law so that Christians would be free of the law, Neo will (presumably) fulfill his choice so that humanity can be free of that choice. What that fulfillment for Neo will actually entail has yet to been seen, but undoubtedly it will involve his confrontation and destruction of Agent Smith, the embodiment of the anomaly (sin) inherent to every human.

The identification of "choice" in the Matrix with "sin" in the Christian tradition can be understood by recognizing the first "perfect" Matrix as representative of the Garden of Eden. Biblically speaking, Eden represents a state of Man without knowledge of good and evil and therefore without the ability to choose between them. By introducing choice into the Matrix, as the Architect explains was a necessary evolution, humanity is banished from Eden, banished from the 'perfection' of the matrix without choice. Original sin is what drove man from Eden just as the first 'perfect' Matrix was doomed because of the "imperfection inherent to every human being." Christ died to free humanity from the stain of Original Sin; Neo will die to free humanity from the bondage of Imposed Choice.

III. East Meets West and What "Revolutions" Has in Store

At their most basic, the Oriental mythological forms are far older than those of the West: they stretch back to the very dawn of civilization, predating all known religious traditions. Zoroastrianism, around the turn of the first millennium B.C., was the first religious system to introduce the concepts and patterns which distinguished the Occident from this older tradition (the dates ascribed to Zoroaster vary rather widely, but by the time of the Jewish enslavement at the hands of the Babylonians in the sixth century B.C. Zoroastrianism had already become the dominant religion of the Persian Empire). From that branching point began the ever-widening gap between the Occidental and Oriental religious traditions that today divide the world into East and West. In the East, the unity of life and the never ending cycle of death and rebirth held sway; in the West, the inevitability of death, the separation from God and the yearn for return.