THE MATRIX explained

The Matrix

The Matrix (March 31, 1999 ) movie is the first in a trilogy of films about a sci-fi spiritual computer world. Directed and written by Andy and Lana Wachowski, the film won 4 oscars, with another another 28 wins and 36 nominations. At the time, it was touted as being one of the best films ever made with special effects, costuming and talent. An intrical story line with deep spiritual messages on every level. This extremely thought provoking story takes us into the computer world of the matrix. The characters move through their lives and changes to see who and what they truly are becoming in their mortal and spiritual lives.

The One, Neo (Keanu Reeves), works as a software agent by day and a hacker by night. The dichotomy brings his battle from within into his spirituality. He feels a hole in his soul, his life that cannot be filled during the day or at night.

As he is spending another night alone, selling his hacker ware to the highest bidder, he gets a message from a stranger telling him to follow the white rabbit, a tattoo on the shoulder of one of his customers. while at the nightclub, he meets Trinity (Carrie - Anne Moss) who leaves him with a thought provoking message about where his life is leading.

While Neo is at work getting a brow beating from his boss, he gets a call from a stranger instructing him how to escape the new agent like strangers who have shown up to take him away. But Neo is caught anyway. In the process, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) and the others take him into a room to interrogate him. Once strange things happen in the interrogation, like his lips disappearing and his mouth being closed off, plus an insect being shot into his stomach, which he sees crawling under his skin, Neo realizes that things are not as they should be.

Trinity and the other fighters show up to save him and extract the insect, a probe to track him with. They fight off the agents and save Neo from his impending doom. Neo is still confused about why all this is happening to him. As Neo tries to leave, Trinity asks him, if he really wants to continue on the path he has been taking or if he is ready to take a chance, a risk and choose another path. He chooses another path.

They take Neo to Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) their fearless leader. Morpheus tells Neo about the matrix and how reality is really not true reality. He is asked to make a decision of staying where he is and choosing another path, a path of enlightenment, if you will. Once again, he has to make a choice, not knowing what the outcome will be, taking a risk to trust and believe in his own intuition.

Once Neo makes this decision, the viewer is taken on a whirlwind ride through the world of the computer matrix. All the dualing characters within the matrix battle it out to help "their" side win. Good again versus evil. Will evil eventually win or will the good in us all take over and battle against the evil inside us all? Will we all become thoughtless, emotionless programs in the matrix?

This film plays into many people’s basic religious and life beliefs. Dealing with where we come from, how we were created, how we live out our lives and where we will eventually go when we move on from one world to another. It brings in mainly christian beliefs, but also makes us aware that all religions have the same basic ideas. All are born out of the same basic beliefs. We may think we are separated and against one another, but we are truly a part of one person, one being, one mind.

Neo hears a still knowing voice at all times, telling him he is missing out on something. That “something” is the question that keeps him searching for the meaning of his life. He wants to fill up the hole inside his heart that just keeps growing as time passes. The same hole we all have, which is, "What is the meaning of life?" Or more poignantly, what is the meaning of my life in respect to the universe! This is the driving force throughout the movie. The questions will be answered at every level. And oh, what a ride it is!

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