Question: Where do humans get their power from, like electricity? Because there is no sun and I know they're like a big furnace thing, but surely there are no resources left because there is no sun. Also, life cannot be sustained without sunlight, so the film is flawed. But I still love it.
Tailkinker
25th Jul 2012
The Matrix (1999)
25th Jul 2012
The Matrix (1999)
Question: How exactly does the blue and red pill work? How does Neo taking the pill trigger him to wake up?
Chosen answer: The pills are the Matrix representations of computer programs. The red pill contains code designed to disrupt Neo's input/output signals, so that Morpheus' team can pinpoint his physical location in the real world. Once located, a signal of unspecified type is sent from their ship, which presumably serves to wake Neo up.
4th May 2011
The Matrix (1999)
Question: I get that people in the matrix, who have not been freed, are not ready to be freed, and I know at one point when Morpheus is explaining the matrix to Neo (I believe during the woman in the red dress test) he says something along the lines of: The matrix is a system, that system is our enemy. The matrix is filled with minds we are trying to save, but until we do they are still part of that system and that makes them our enemies. Many of them are so dependent on that system they will fight to defend it.- I am paraphrasing, but it is something like that. As I'm sure everyone knows he also says "The body cannot live without the mind." And therefore if you die in the matrix you die in the 'real' world. My question is, do they ever address the ethical questions that could arise from the fact that they kill mind after mind of police officers, SWAT teams, security guards, innocent humans just doing their jobs? I understand that sometimes it may be necessary, and that Neo doesn't have much choice but to fight agents and kill their hosts at times. But things like Mouse, knowing he is going to die so he grabs machine guns and takes out as many people as he can. Or when Neo and Trinity, on their way to save Morpheus, cover them selves in guns and take out that whole building of guards and pretty much end up with one gun each. The guards were completely prepared to let them enter the building freely if they passed the metal detector, could they not have went empty handed and just taken out two guards later, and used their weapons? It just seems like a pretty bad way to go about a mission to save people. Unless perhaps I missed a speech about sacrificing some minds for the cause or the needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few type deal. Just wondering if that is ever addressed.
Chosen answer: No, they don't address it, other than Morpheus' speech during the test. It's not something that they have any realistic choice about, so they just have to accept it and do what they need to do. Mouse, yes, he chooses to defend himself when cornered, but who wouldn't? These may be innocent victims of the Matrix he's shooting at, but they're still there to kill him - he's hardly going to stand there and accept his fate meekly. There's also no indication that the guards were "completely prepared" to let Neo and Trinity into what's clearly a high security building, undoubtedly they would have been asked for identification, what their purpose was there and so forth and turned away if, as seems likely, their answers weren't satisfactory. Shooting their way in from the start is likely their only option. Yes, it's absolutely ethically unfortunate, but if they're going to resist the machines successfully, it's not something they have any choice about. A necessary evil.
15th Jun 2010
The Matrix (1999)
Question: Okay, so help me out here. When someone still plugged into the Matrix dies from say, cancer or is hit by a car, does that mean the real world counterpart of that person has been completely drained of energy by the machines? When a human has served its purpose to the machines, do they alter the Matrix to make that person die? I'm very curious to know how how death works in the Matrix.
Chosen answer: Insofar as can be told from what little we know, the human body will continue to produce energy indefinitely, at least until it dies of old age or from some other cause - there appears to be no precedent for an individual to be fully drained by the machines. If an individual dies in some abnormal manner within the Matrix, such as a car crash, their body will die on the outside and will have to be disposed of. Otherwise, their body will presumably age normally until they expire of natural causes. As for how cancer might operate, we have no information. To theorise, as the digital body represents the actual body with reasonable accuracy, should an individual plugged into the Matrix develop cancer in their real body, then it's a plausible hypothesis that their digital self will demonstrate the same symptoms - the real and virtual afflictions will proceed at the same rate and the digital self will expire when the real body passes away.
25th Jun 2009
The Matrix (1999)
Question: What exactly is the Matrix for? Was it designed solely to keep the human mind sane? Or does it have other uses?
Chosen answer: Without it, the human race would effectively be locked in sensory deprivation tanks, their minds active, but with no stimuli, which would have a derogatory effect on their well-being. The Matrix is designed to keep them busy and, yes, sane, ensuring a good survival rate and decent longevity to stop the machines having to deal with a high turnover in their power plants.
29th Nov 2008
The Matrix (1999)
Question: How is it that the heroes are able to "broadcast their pirate signal and hack into the matrix", but the machines are unable to hack the "codes to Zion's mainframe computer"?
Answer: It's a range issue. It's specifically mentioned that, in order to tap into the Matrix, the ships have to rise to "broadcast depth". Zion's too far down for signals to reach it, so the machines can't hack their systems.
18th May 2005
The Matrix (1999)
Question: After the opening credits, during the short dialogue between Trinity and Tank, they talk about Neo and he says, "We're gonna kill him, understand that". Why are they going to kill him?
Answer: They're not going to kill him themselves, the statement is meant to refer to the fact that the course of action that they're going to take is likely to lead to his death - possibly because he's really too old to be freed, or because he'll do something stupid because he believes that he's the One, something that the rest of the crew seem less than convinced about.
28th Feb 2005
The Matrix (1999)
Question: Is it ever explained how Morpheus knows that Neo is the one initially? In the beginning all we know is that they are looking for each other, what happened before then?
Chosen answer: It's never explained. From what we do know, it's clear that Morpheus and his group have been observing Neo for some time, as they presumably do with potential new recruits. While Neo was too old to be a recruit, it seems likely that Morpheus saw something during that time that convinced him that Neo was the One, leading him to break the rules regarding age and extract Neo from the Matrix anyway. It's also possible that the Oracle gave him some relevant information when she told him that he would find the One - not a name and address, obviously, but something that Morpheus ultimately recognised in Neo.
30th May 2004
The Matrix (1999)
Question: Right before Trinity leaves Neo on the subway station, she tells Neo: "Everything the Oracle told me has come true, except this." She then picks up the phone and vanishes before noticing in horror the agent. What did the Oracle tell her that wasn't true? Was Trinity not (yet) in love with Neo? Had the Oracle told her that Neo should leave the platform first? Or was she referring to Morpheus's rescue, which wasn't supposed to happen?
Answer: You're misinterpreting her statement - when she said "except this", she wasn't saying that something the Oracle had told her was a lie, just that it hadn't come true at that point. The Oracle presumably told her that she and the One would fall in love - by this point, it's clear that she loves him, but, what she doesn't know yet, is whether he loves her. She wants to tell him but, in typically human fashion, is afraid to, for fear of rejection.
18th Apr 2004
The Matrix (1999)
Question: How exactly do you cut the hard line? In the scene at the hotel where the walls turn to brick, a shot is shown of someone literally cutting a cable with a big pair of pliers, but how would that affect the Matrix?
Answer: The entry and exit points from the Matrix are always functional landline phones - we don't know precisely why, as the full details of how this works are never explained (the book "Taking the red pill" has some theories). As the Matrix largely follows the same rules as our reality, cutting the line to the phone will prevent that phone from functioning, and thus it cannot be used as an entry point.
17th Feb 2004
The Matrix (1999)
Question: What is the mirror? What does it do? And why does it take over anybody who touches it?
Answer: What happens with the mirror does not appear to be typical of a 'disconnection', judging from the look exchanged between Trinity and Morpheus as the mirror 'heals'. What we see occuring may be the result of disconnection trauma triggering Neo's fledgling abilities, rather than some specific part of the disconnection process.
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Answer: Zion runs on geothermal energy, drawn from deep within the Earth. Given the advanced technology of the future, it seems entirely reasonable that they could produce enough food to keep Zion fed using artificial lights and hydroponics techniques. Life might not be overly pleasant, but it would be sustainable.
Tailkinker ★