My Metaphysical Bet with the Wachowski Brothers

And now, a semi-substantive post.

I've had the chance to read a few online discussions about "The Matrix Reloaded." Quite a few people seem to have rejected the implication that Neo's repulsion of the Sentinels at the end of "Reloaded" indicates that the world of Zion is a meta-Matrix.

SHIT OF BULL, I say. It's a meta-Matrix, pure and simple.

My metaphysical bet with the wily Wachowski brothers is that they're following a golden rule: it is axiomatic that humans in the "real" world can't perform miracles. Call me a party pooper, but to me, any evidence of superpowers indicates that we're still inside the Matrix. This seems obvious. It doesn't matter that Neo may have "gained" powers thanks to Smith's attempt to chest-rape him (any feminist takers on the penetration issue? penetration happens quite a few times in the film!). Neo's new powers are still intra-Matrix powers. Smith, even when he invaded and "possessed" Bane, wasn't moving into the real world. He simply moved "up" one level in the Matrix. That's what I contend, anyway.

Now, the first "Matrix" flick was epistemological crap. It made a very clear distinction between the "real" world and the world of the Matrix. People who came away from that movie bedazzled by the "what is real?" question were simply fooling themselves. The movie just wasn't that complex (though the religious and literary tropes in the first film are another matter). I hate to say it, but Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" did a better job of leaving us hanging re: the "is this a dream?" question, as did Cronenberg's "eXistenZ," with its "are we still in the game?" conundrum.

"Reloaded," however, seemed to be subverting everything we thought we knew from the first film. If the first "Matrix" is highly religious, the second one seems heavily philosophical. Some people complain that a Matrix-within-a-Matrix notion is a cinematic cop-out. Why? Quite the contrary, this strikes me as about the only really interesting way to go, philosophically and cinematically.

One last piece of evidence in my favor: it seemed to me that, in watching the opening sequence of "Reloaded," the green code stream began to morph into a spoked structure, with a column at the center uniting the spokes. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the chasm-city of Zion we're looking at, and it's in code! Zion's not real, folks. It's just as much a part of the Matrix as the Merovingian's hideout. The hint's right there, at the beginning of the movie.

A further observation: I was struck by how Hindu "Reloaded" was at points. The whole question of purpose, for example, corresponds almost exactly to the Hindu (not Buddhist!) notion of dharma, especially as developed in the Bhagavad Gita. Dharma can be translated in a slew of different ways-- law, role, function, truth, order, purpose, etc. In the Bhagavad Gita, the warrior Arjuna is having doubts about whether he should proceed onto the battlefield. His charioteer, it turns out, is none other than God (Krsna), and God spends a few chapters explaining to Arjuna that his purpose, his role-- his dharma-- is to function as a warrior. Smith (no longer "Agent" Smith) resents Neo's liberation of him, and now he finds himself experiencing adharma, or chaos. Smith can attach himself to only one purpose, an echo of his former Agent-hood: he has to destroy Neo. Smith is right, of course, to realize that this isn't truly freedom. But Smith isn't the only one who uses dharma-language. The Keymaker's rhetoric is also about purpose: "I know because I must know."

A major Hindu theme is incarnation, and every time we see a cyber-avatar, I'm reminded of this. Neo himself, like Vsnu, is apparently a reiterated incarnation (and it's been pointed out that Neo is, like the Buddha, the sixth in a series of incarnations).

Might the Wachowskis take this enterprise in a very Hindu direction? I think it's possible. Hinduism in its various forms (and, granted, certain mystical/philosophical strains of Christianity) often entertains the thought that all the cosmos is a dream, God dreaming. Perhaps all the "Matrix" dramatis personae are going to discover that they are simply pixels in the mind of an enormous computer god. No real Zion, therefore no real attack on Zion, no real Neo, no real anything... maybe the councilor was wrong, and Neo's lack of sleep doesn't indicate he's human, after all. Perhaps we'll never see how deep the rabbit hole really goes. Maybe it is just turtles all the way down.

It would, at the very least, be a ballsy move on the Wachowskis' part to end the series on an indefinite note-- dreams fighting dreams, worlds within worlds within worlds. I think they can get away with it. Some of us would actually appreciate such a move, because it would make for an architecturally beautiful metaphysical structure-- a magnificently swirling, fractalized ontology (and don't the opening credits hint at that, as well?).

We'll all know in November, I suppose. I quite deliberately haven't checked the rumor sites on this one. Have you?

You prying bastard.
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