The Matrix: Unloaded

Now, as The Matrix: Reloaded hits the screen, to be followed by The Matrix: Revolutions, veteran science fiction writer Karen Haber has gathered together a stellar constellation of 17 science fiction writers and digital artists on the cutting edge of the genre — among them Alan Dean Foster, Joe Haldeman, Bruce Sterling, Ian Watson — to decipher the movie’s numerous meanings. A strange omission is cybergod William Gibson, invoked by virtually every contributor.

What exactly is The Matrix about? Crudely put, cyber-rebels discover that the world is an artificial computer-generated construct. Neo is the instrument for the destruction of this dream-prison. The rebels are led by Morpheus, and aided by Trinity, operating from the ship Nebuchadezzar. Any skill required can be downloaded in seconds.

Much has been made about the quasi-religious nature of The Matrix. The brothers W, usually voluble, have been reticent as to whether this was deliberate. But it must have been, given the way it permeates the entire story. The messianic Neo has been foretold, and wakes from the dead. The name Trinity is a loaded one. And the discourses of Morpheus, in which he leads Neo to the Truth? A blend of Gnostic Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, taking the idea that what we take to be reality is, in fact, a kind of illusion or dream from which we have to wake up. Only then can enlightenment or freedom, spiritual or otherwise, occur.

Another concept embedded in the movie is that of choice and freedom. In one scene, Neo is faced with the prospect of taking the blue or the red pill. He has to make the choice himself. It will determine his future, and that of the world. The blue pill will make him free of the Matrix, and bring him face to face with an unpleasant reality. The red one will take him back into another kind of freedom — that of a constructed reality.

Consciousness, true or false, choice, freedom. These are basic concepts which haunt the human psyche. That’s why The Matrix has gone from cult to iconic status — it touches a raw nerve in every viewer. Behind the array of aerobic martial arts and stunning digital special effects lies the question of what it means to be human. But then, does it mean that machines are dangerous? No, in themselves they are not, it the use to which they are put which is dangerous. The Matrix is a warning against the negative consequences of a consciousness which mistakes the virtual to be the real. To err is cyber. To realise it in time is human.