Lesson 3: The Matrix I: What is this movie trying to say?
The Underworld and Neo’s Journey to Heaven
The movie does an interesting thing with the theme of an underworld and a hero’s journey through the underworld: It is reversed from its usual “geographical placement.”
That is, Zion – the city where the “enlightened/saved” people live – is actually underground. As we will see in the next lesson, Zion, Biblically, is considered Jerusalem and is geographically located on top of a hill. Although the Matrix does not actually exist geographically – it is a computer program and a figment of human beings’ manipulated imaginations – it appears most of the time to be above ground. In fact, Zion appears to be dark and industrial while the scenes in the Matrix, though often seen at night, are often bright and more organic. Take the final scene of Matrix Revolutions in the park with the Oracle, Seraph, and Sati. The sunrise – although artificial – is more beautiful than anything Zion has.
The hero, Neo, then, actually travels in reverse of his hero predecessors: He travels up from the underground. The ships of Zion must come up to a certain level close to the Earth’s surface in order to tap into the Matrix.
In addition, Machine City has much more in common with heaven than Zion does. It is referred to as “The Source;” it is “full of light.” And the light actually looks like fire; the sentinels, as observed by the blind Neo, look like angels. Heaven and the angels, as we know, are pure light and fire.
The Logos
The name of Naiobe’s ship, the Logos, has biblical implications as well. Logos means “word” and, in a scriptural context, refers to the Word of God. Logos means God’s creative work on earth. Think of when God speaks words at the beginning of Genesis. These words create the heavens and the earth; in fact, God speaks words and all of reality appears. This creative power is also manifested in the person of Jesus Christ. As the gospel of John records, the Christ is the logos (Jn 1:1-5). Christ is the Word of God made human.
In Matrix Revolutions, it is the Logos that brings Neo into the Machine World to free humankind – just as in the Bible, it is the logos, the Word of God, that frees humanity from sin.
The Journey to Machine City
Neo’s journey in the Logos to The Source in Machine City is also reminiscent of Jewish and Christian stories, specifically those of Moses, Elijah and other characters ascending through the levels of heaven.
The story of Moses’ ascension through heaven to receive the Ten Commandments is not in the Bible, but it is a popular story in Jewish mysticism and in rabbinical literature. A very similar story occurs to a character called Enoch-Metatron (referred to briefly in Genesis 5:24) and Elijah in II Kings 2, all of whom travel through the layers of heaven. The Gnostic literature as well, including the Enoch literature, has similar stories of characters traveling through heaven.
In Jewish mysticism, the idea of the soul journeying through the seven levels of heaven is very old. Islam, too, has the story of the Muhammed being led by the angel Gabriel through heaven (and parts of hell).
In these stories, the hero must answer questions put them at every level of heaven. The angels ask the questions, and the human hero must answer them to continue to the next level. Moses traveled through all the levels until finally arriving at God who gave him the Ten Commandments.
Interestingly, sometimes the angels guide the hero and sometimes they try and stop him. For example, some stories have Moses, like Muhammed, being guided by the angels to God; others stories have him being peppered with questions by angels who want to stop him.
In fact, in some stories, the angels appear quite jealous and angry that God would give such a base creature as a human the sacred “Law” (as the Ten Commandments, and the first five books of the Hebrew Bible are referred to).
“What does he who is born of women here?” these angels demand in a Talmudic story when they smell a human in heaven. They ask God: “Dost Thou seek to give to flesh and blood a hidden treasure that was hidden with Thee 974 generations before the world was created? What is man that Thou art mindful of him?”
Moses is able to outsmart them, however, and tells them that the Law was not made for angels since they are unable to obey all of them. They angels don’t work so they cannot obey the commandment of the Sabbath to cease commerce. They do not have parents, so they cannot honor them. They cannot commit adultery. The angels come to understand that the Law is for humankind, and they let Moses pass.
In still other stories, the angels throw fiery balls of breath to stop Moses.
Neo travels through a series of tests – first a barrage of bombs (fiery breathe!) and then the sentinels –before making it to The Source in a similar traverse through a heaven-like environment. To Neo, the sentinels and the bombs, glowing like fire, appear like the angels must have appeared to Enoch and Moses.
Like the angels with Moses, though the machines attack Neo at first, at a certain point they come to help him. They lift him up and plug him in to fight Agent Smith. When Neo appears to be “swallowed” by Mr. Smith, the machines shock Neo back to victory. Finally, the machines seem almost gentle when they release his apparently dead body from the Matrix and carry him off into Machine City.
The Source, the thing that looks like a baby’s face, at first challenges Neo: Why was he there? “We don’t need you! We need nothing! What do you want?” But Neo convinces it that he, indeed, is needed. And the source helps him.
Neo vs. Smith: The Final Battle
The last parallel we can look at is the Final Battle in terms of the old story of David and Goliath.
The premise of David and Goliath is that two armies facing each other on the field of battle each send a single man to fight on behalf of the armies (I Samuel 17). The Philistines send Goliath, a giant of a man. “Choose a man for ourselves, and let him come down to me. If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants,” Goliath says. “But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”
The Israelites are terrified. Goliath and the Philistines are clearly stronger. David, a young shepherd, volunteers to face off with Goliath and the rest is history.
So, too, the battle between machines and humans does not end with a giant epic battle between two armies, but with a hand to hand combat between two representatives of the army. The fate of their armies rest in their hands. Neo, of course, is clearly outnumbered and Smith is stronger. Like David, Neo does not bring any of the weapons that he usually has at his disposal. Like Goliath, Smith’s arrogance is being challenged by Neo’s (and David’s) faith. The rest is cinema history.
