Is Matrix Open To Multiple Intrepretations?

IS MATRIX OPEN TO MULTIPLE INTREPRETATIONS?
In The Matrix, a 1999 film by the Wachowski brothers, a black-clad computer hacker
known as Neo falls asleep in front of his computer. A mysterious message appears
on the screen: "Wake up, Neo."1 This phrase encapsulates the plot of the film, as
Neo struggles with the problem of being imprisoned in a "material" world that is
actually a computer simulation program created in the distant future by Artificial
Intelligence (A.I.) as a means of enslaving humanity, by perpetuating ignorance in
the form of an illusory perception called "the matrix." In part, the film crafts its
ultimate view of reality by alluding to numerous religious traditions that advance the
idea that the fundamental problem which humanity faces is ignorance and the
solution is knowledge or awakening. Two religious’ traditions on which the film draws
heavily are Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism. Although these traditions differ in
important ways, they agree in maintaining that the problem of ignorance can be
solved through an individual's reorientation of perspective concerning the material
realm. Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism also both envision a guide who helps
those still trapped in the limiting world of illusion, a Gnostic redeemer figure or a
bodhisattva, who willingly enters that world in order to share liberating knowledge,
facilitating escape for anyone able to understand. In the film, this figure is Neo,
whose name is also an anagram for "the One." Although as a "modern myth", the
film purposefully draws on numerous traditions, we propose that an examination of
Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism well illuminates the overarching paradigm of The
Matrix, namely, the problem of sleeping in ignorance in a dreamworld, solved by
waking to knowledge or enlightenment. By drawing syncretistically on these two
ancient traditions and fusing them with a technological vision of the future, the film
constructs a new teaching that challenges its audience to question "reality."
Christian Elements in The Matrix.
The majority of the film's audience probably easily recognizes the presence of some
Christian elements, such as the name Trinity or Neo's death and Christlike
resurrection and ascension near the end of the film. In fact, Christian and biblical
allusions abound, particularly with respect to nomenclature: Apoc (Apocalypse),
Neo's given name of Mr. Ander/son (from the Greek andras for man, thus producing
"Son of Man"), the ship named the Nebuchadnezzar (the Babylonian king who, in the
Book of Daniel, has puzzling symbolic dreams that must be interpreted), and the last
remaining human city, Zion, synonymous in Judaism and Christianity with (the
heavenly) Jerusalem. Neo is overtly constructed as a Jesus figure: he is "the One"
who was prophesied to return again to the Matrix, who has the power the change the
Matrix from within (i.e., to work miracles), who battles the representatives of evil and
who is killed but comes to life again. This construction of Neo as Jesus is reinforced
in numerous ways. Within minutes of the commencement of the movie, another
hacker says to Neo, "You're my saviour, man, my own personal Jesus Christ." This
identification is also suggested by the Nebuchadnezzar's crew, who nervously
wonder if he is "the One" who was foretold, and who repeatedly swear in Neo's
presence by saying "Jesus" or "Jesus Christ." In still another example, Neo enters
the Nebuchadnezzar for the first time and the camera pans across the interior of the
ship, resting on the make: "Mark III no. 11." This seems to be another messianic
reference, since the Gospel of Mark 3:11 reads: "Whenever the unclean spirits saw
him, they fell down before him and shouted, ' You are the Son of God!'"
Whether we view the film from a Gnostic Christian or Buddhist perspective, the
overwhelming message seems to be, "Wake up!" The point is made explicit in the
final song of the film, Wake Up! by, appropriately, Rage Against the Machine.
Gnosticism, Buddhism and the film all agree that ignorance enslaves us in an illusory
material world and that liberation comes through enlightenment with the aid of a
teacher or guide figure. However, when we ask the question, "To what do we
awaken?", the film appears to diverge sharply from Gnosticism and Buddhism. Both
of these traditions maintain that when humans awaken, they leave behind the
material world. The Gnostic ascends at death to the pleroma, the divine plane of
spiritual, non-material existence, and the enlightened one in Buddhism achieves
nirvana, a state which cannot be described in language, but which is utterly
nonmaterial. By contrast, the "desert of the real," is a wholly material, technological
world, in which robots grow humans for energy, Neo can learn martial arts in
seconds through a socket inserted into the back of his brain, and technology battles
technology (Nebuchadnezzar vs. A.I., electromagnetic pulse vs. sentinels).
Moreover, the battle against the matrix is itself made possible through technology -
cell phones, computers, software training programs. "Waking up" in the film is
leaving behind the matrix and awakening to a dismal cyber-world, which is the real
material world.

Is Matrix Open To Multiple Intrepretations?

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IS MATRIX OPEN TO MULTIPLE INTREPRETATIONS?

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