wakeup_7

Gnosticism and The Matrix. The most prevalent idea in the movie is Neo as Savior figure. The One who will come back to save all sentient beings from their enslavement to the machine. This parallels the belief of Gnostic Christians who think that humans are divine beings trapped in a false world, who were enlightened and saved by Jesus Christ. In Gnosticism the belief is that the creator of our reality is a false god who fell from divinity. His goddess mother of the heavenly realm created him fatherless and malformed. She cast him down, and he lived believing he was the only god and so he created the earth and humans. Because his mother was a goddess, he had divinity in him, and he passed that along to humans. The humans live their lives not knowing that their real home is in heaven with other divine beings. Jesus was sent from the heavenly realms to save the human race from their selfish god who keeps them under his control. The parallels are obvious between this story and The Matrix. The AI machines are the false god, they harvest humans and control them. They keep them in this artificial reality. Neo is Jesus, the One who will save humans from their ignorance and show them the truth. This is where the themes of truth and reality come in. What humans believe to be true is false, their reality is not real, their existence is not real either. Therefore what they know, is not true knowledge because it is not a justified, true belief. Jesus brings with him the true knowledge, and so does Neo. Neo's transformation from the 'Doubting Thomas' to the Savior has everything to do with belief. He did not believe in himself until he no longer had to. Then he just recognized the reality of his situation and through doing so became the ultimate hero figure. The truth, the knowledge, the awakening, all are themes that played a roll in Neo's development as the One. They are crucial to the story of the movie, and to the faith of Gnosticism. The final scene when Neo dies and comes back is the most overt connection to Jesus and his death and resurrection. It is the climax of the film when Neo realizes finally that he is the One. He fully believes. What precisely is belief? And what makes him realize it? It is experience, it is the reality he comes to know. In the first half of the movie Neo is seen sleeping nearly 10 times. Sleep and dreams rule Thomas Anderson's life, he is in a constant dream until he 'begins to believe' (Chapter 33 1:54:32) When he is finally awoken this is when he obtains true knowledge.

wakeup_6

The matrix is a computer generated dreamworld, built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this... (battery) (Chapter 12 0:43:25)* Dreamworld again referenced here. Neo's reality is a dreamworld for Morpheus. However, both Neo and Morpheus believe that they are experiencing true reality. Therefore what reality means to one could be different for another. The signifier is reality. What that word means is different for Neo and Morpheus, however only one can be correct and that is Morpheus' reality. The important thing to note is that the semic code is what is being analyzed here. A theme that is reoccurring and lasts the length of the movie is this idea of what exactly 'reality' is.

You've been living in a dream world Neo... (Chapter 12 0:40:58) * Dreamworld, a virtual reality. A system set up to control. Real, dream, sleep, awake, knowledge, truth, existence.

wakeup_5

NEO: This isn't real? (touching a leather chair) 

MORPHEUS: What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. (Chapter 12 0:40:14)

Real, how do you define reality? Link this back to a previous blog posting in wakeup_4, wakeup_3. Epistemological questions of knowledge again are raised. The skeptics argument is precisely how AI machines control humans in the Matrix. See... hear...

wakeup_4

NEO: Am I dead?

MORPHEUS: Far from it. (Chapter 11 0:35:35)*

NEO: Why do my eyes hurt?

MORPHEUS: You have never used them before. (Chapter 11 0:36:00)*

Neo passes in and out of sleep, for once he is being brought in and out of reality. The image of being awoken for the first time, never having used your eyes. The idea that Neo believes he is dead when in fact he is finally fully alive. The use of camera angles, and effects is important here as well. Neo opens his eyes to a blurred bright white light that then focuses on Trinity. Images of heaven, and light vs. darkness are brought to mind. 

wakeup_3

Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from the dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world? (Chapter 9 0:31:32)* The text again references dreams, sleep, reality. The epistemological questions of knowledge, how one knows they exist. Skeptics argue that for all anyone knows, nothing we hold true is in fact knowledge because we may just be brains in a vat with electrodes attached to our sensory ports. There is no definite way to acquire true knowledge. 

wakeup_2

Chapter 9 0:29:29 Neo reaches for the red pill. Neo is known as Thomas Anderson. Thomas is the name of one of Jesus' disciples, "Doubting Thomas" or the "twin". In this shot Neo is split screened in Morpheus' glasses, creating a "twin" like effect. This is another example of a reoccurring theme throughout the movie. The transition from Thomas to the One.

script

THE MATRIX

wakeup_1

you have the look of a man who accepts what he sees, because he is expecting to wake up* The fifth comment by Morpheus to Neo upon his arrival (Chapter 8 0:26:42). Sleep is a reoccurring theme. Being awoken from a dream. Living in a dream world. Going back to an earlier part in the movie, the viewers first introduction to Neo is when he is asleep, about to be awoken by Morpheus. Morpheus wakes Neo several times,  literally and figuratively, throughout the movie. The awakening of Neo shows his development from a "doubting Thomas" Anderson into a Savior of Jesus Christ proportions.