Matrix Q's

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You have to see it for yourself.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>The movie occurs in basically three parts</U></b>:</div> <div> 1.  What is the Matrix - introduction of themes, characters, settings.</div> <div> 2.  Neo's birth into the real world, explanations, preparations and a visit to the Oracle.</div> <div> 3.  Playing out the choices of Neo, Cypher, Morpheus and Trinity.</div> <bR> <div>  </div> <div> <B><U>Motifs</U></b>:  </div> <div> How do the following motifs force us to confront the central philosophical issues of the film (reality, truth, ethics)?</div> <div> <B>1.  Binary oppositions.</b>  The film presents a series of binary choices to Neo, which in turn drive the plot forward.  The plot, then, develops according to a model that computers follow, creating an infinitely sophisticated network of information from the simple binary opposition of switches that are either open (1) or closed (0).  The first two thirds of the film present Neo with at least 8 choices, with the important 9th choice occurring in the latter third of the film.  (How do we reconcile the emphasis on binary choices alongside the importance of the number “3” in the film?).  The use of several black and white oppositions is also evident throughout the film.  We might wonder, should moral questions or even everyday decisions be reduced to simple opposites?</div> <div> <B>2.  Mirrors and reflections.</b>  Look for ways the film uses mirrors and reflections to make statements about reality and identity.  Also, consider ways that the use of black and reflected light (even on black leather, for example) might support the themes of the film.</div> <div> <B>3.  Alice in Wonderland.</b>  The film also offers a the motif of Alice in Wonderland, that following a white rabbit down its hole leads further into a bizarre but interesting world.</div> <div> <B>4.  Christ narrative.</b>  The film is a story about a supernatural being who redeems the people of the world.  Look for the clues and the parallels to story of Christ's life.</div> <div> <B>5.</b>  <B>Birth and awakening.</b>  Either literally from sleep, or figuratively from a dream-like or unreal existence into a new, real, one.</div> <bR> <div> <B><U>Questions to consider:</U></b></div> <div> Lieutenant:  I think we can handle one little girl.</div> <div> <B>Agent Smith:  No lieutenant, your men are already dead.</b></div> <div> 1.  Why did the filmmakers alter the studio logos in the opening credits?</div> <div> 2.  What clues first tell you that something is different about this world?</div> <div> 3.  What room # do the police break in on?</div> <div> <B>“Wake up, Neo”</b></div> <div> 4.  What are the first words addressed to Neo?  What (two) meanings can those words have?</div> <div> 5.  What room # is Neo's?  Could these numbers carry any significance?</div> <div> 6.  Notice the “book.”  It's called <I>Simulacra and Simulation</I> by French theorist Jean Beaudrillard and it has been called a “postmodern work on the erosion of the real and its displacement by simulated images.”  What is deceptive about this “book”?  How is that deception related to the book's title?  to the film that it's in?</div> <div> 7.  Why don't we meet the hero and recognizable star until 8 minutes into the movie?</div> <div> 8.  What do the people at the door call Neo?  Why?  What motif is introduced here?</div> <div> 9.  Why doesn't their “drug” life interest him?</div> <div> 10.  What motif is introduced in this scene?  This scene relates to the stage in a hero's journey called the “call to adventure,” as described by Joseph Campbell, a scholar of world mythology who noted similar patterns in stories told by all cultures.</div> <div> CHOICE 1:  </div> <bR> <div> Neo: I just thought... you were a guy.  Trinity: Most guys do.</div> <div> 11.  What is the question?</div> <div> 12.  Where is the answer?  How will it find you?</div> <div> 13.  Neo says a name that he was just called in the previous scene - what is it?</div> <div> 14.  Why do the filmmakers include the window washers as a such a presence?</div> <bR> <div> “The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Anderson.  You believe you're special. You believe rules don't apply to you.”</div> <div> CHOICE 2:</div> <div> 15.  Neo receives a phone call from Morpheus.  What is choice 3?</div> <div> CHOICE 3:</div> <bR> <div> 16.  What would you do?  What does Neo end up doing?  Why?</div> <div> 17.  How/why do the filmmakers make the transition into the interrogation room?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“How about I give you the finger”</b></div> <div> 18.  What two lives has Neo been living?</div> <div> CHOICE 4:</div> <div> 19.  What would you do?</div> <div> 20.  Why is Agent Smith wearing sunglasses?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“You are the one, Neo”</b></div> <div> 21.  An anagram is when you re-arrange the letters of one word to spell another.  What is an anagram of Neo?</div> <div> CHOICE 5:</div> <bR> <div> “You've been down there, you know that road, you know exactly where it ends.”</div> <div> 22.  What do Trinity's words (written above) mean?</div> <div> 23.  Why is neo referred to as “coppertop”?</div> <div> CHOICE 6:  </div> <div> 24.  Here's a few references to other films:</div> <div> The overhead view of rain falling recalls similar effects in <I>Blade Runner</I>, and the spiral staircase appears in <I>Blade Runner</I> and <I>Run Lola Run</I>.</div> <div> Why does the floor have black and white tiles?</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> “Like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.”</div> <div> 25.  Does Neo believe in fate?   Why/why not?  </div> <div> 26.  Do beliefs and ideas tell what you believe, or what you WANT to believe?</div> <div> 27.  What does Morpheus tell Neo that he is?</div> <div> 28.  Can anyone be told what the Matrix is?  Why/why not?</div> <div> CHOICE 7:  </div> <div>      Blue:</div> <div>      Red:</div> <div> 29.  Notice the reflection in Morpheus' glasses - do you find anything odd about it?</div> <bR> <div> (Time :30)</div> <div> “Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, because Kansas is going bye-bye.”</div> <div> 30.  What is the significance of the mirrors in this scene?</div> <bR> <div> “Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream, Neo? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?”</div> <div> 31.  Provide responses to Morpheus' questions:</div> <div> 32.  What happens to Neo?  What natural process is he repeating?  To what cultural process can you draw an analogy to as he drops into the water?</div> <bR> <div> Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?  Morpheus: You've never used them before.</div> <div> 33. In what year do the events in the movie take place?</div> <div> 34.  Do you find any significance in the name of the ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, Mark III No. 11, Made in the USA, Year 2069?</div> <div> 35.  What is “the construct”?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“Welcome to the desert of the real”</b></div> <div> 36.  How does Morpheus define reality for Neo?</div> <div> 37.  What happened to the world Neo knew?</div> <bR> <div> “Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony.”</div> <div> 38.  What events is Morpheus describing and what does he mean by the above statement?  How is his story like that of <I>The Terminator</I>?</div> <div> 39.  How many Neos are now in the reflection in Morpheus' glasses?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“I can't go back, can I?”</b></div> <div> 40.  Who was born inside and what are his abilities?  (the film <I>Dark City</I>, made a few years before <I>The Matrix</I>, has an identical plot)</div> <bR> <div> <B>“I Know Kung Fu”</b></div> <div> 41.  Neo “knows” Kung Fu, but does he have an experiential basis for that knowledge?  Does the film make a distinction between knowledge as information and knowledge as lived experience?</div> <div> 42.  Which rules can be bent, and which can be broken?  How/why?</div> <div> 43.  Who must open the door?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“Whoa”</b></div> <div> 43.  What must Neo let go of?  Compare to Yoda's advice to Luke.</div> <div> 44.  If you get hurt in the Matrix, what happens to your body?  Why?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“The Matrix is a system, Neo”</b></div> <div> 45.  What motif is expressed with the walk sign?</div> <div> 46.  What is the lesson of this simulation?  What motif is that an example of?</div> <div> 47.  We are offered a quick glance at a sleek police officer - a wink to <I>Terminator 2</I>?</div> <div> 48.  Who/what are the Agents?</div> <div> 49.  Besides Agents, what other obstacles are Morpheus and Neo faced with?</div> <div> <B>CHOICE 8</b> - what was Neo paying attention to?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?</b></div> <div> <B>Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.</b></div> <div> 50.  Why won't Neo need to dodge bullets?  (How is that related to the source of the Agents' strength and the nature of the Matrix?)</div> <bR> <div> (time :59)</div> <div> <B>“Why oh why didn't I take the BLUE pill?”</b></div> <div> 51.  Neo scared the _________ out of Cypher.</div> <div> 52.  Why does Cypher have to look at the code?</div> <div> 53.  What deal does Cypher make?</div> <div> 54.  What realization has he had?</div> <div> 55.  If Cypher wants to remember nothing, how will he know that the agent faithfully followed through on the deal?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“How do you know what Tasty Wheat tastes like if you've never tasted it?”</b></div> <div> 56.  What does Mouse believe the “body” needs?</div> <div> 57.  According to Mouse, what makes us human?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“Really Good Noodles”</b></div> <div> 58.  Neo says that none of his memories happened, but if so, then how is he aware of them?  If nothing really happened in Neo's life before being “born” into the real world, then how can he speak and understand English?  Walk?  Know that he likes those noodles?</div> <bR> <div> <B>“What's really going to bake you're noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn't said anything?”</b></div> <div> 59.  What did the oracle tell Trinity?</div> <div> 60.  Why do the filmmakers place a blind man in the lobby?</div> <div> 61.  How is a “path” different from right/wrong?  If the film uses binary oppositions so much, why doesn't it accept the right/wrong split?</div> <div> 62.  What did the oracle tell Morpheus?</div> <div> 63.  What are the “potentials”?</div> <div> 64.  What did the child mean when he said, “there is no spoon”?</div> <div> 65.  What motif is apparent in the spoon scene?</div> <div> 66.  Was the oracle what YOU were expecting?  Why did the filmmakers depict the oracle like this?</div> <div> 67.  Who/what is the oracle?  Why do Morpheus and Trinity believe in her?  Given the system of the Matrix, what his her source of power?  Is she plugged in to the Matrix?  Do the agents know about her?</div> <div> 68.  The answer to the Oracle's question about the vase is most definitely ____________.</div> <div> 69.  What does “know thyself” mean?  What famous philosopher said that?  Why isn't it in Greek in the movie?</div> <div> 70.  Being the one is just like being in love.  How?</div> <div> 71.  The Oracle announces that Neo is going to have to make a choice (choice 9 if you're still counting).  What is the choice?</div> <div> 72.  Summarize what Neo has experienced and learned from the Oracle:</div> <bR> <div> “Déjà vu is a glitch in the Matrix.” </div> <div> 73.  What was changed?</div> <div> 74.  How did they know where Morpheus was?</div> <div> 75.  When were we last in this building and what is special about it?</div> <div> 76.  Will this movie make sense anymore when we have Internet connections via cell/satellite phone?</div> <div> 77.  If this film were a Christ narrative, what character would Cypher be?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Cypher:  Morpheus lied to us, the Matrix can be more real than this world</b></div> <div> <B>Trinity:  He set us free, the Matrix isn't real</b></div> <div> 78.  Which viewpoint do you agree with?</div> <bR> <div> (time 1:31)</div> <div> <B>“Have you ever stood and stared at it, marveled at its beauty, its genius?”</b></div> <div> 79.  What was the first Matrix and what was wrong with it?</div> <div> 80.  If the present Matrix is one with misery and suffering, how can the filmmakers reconcile that with the opposition they have set up between the real world (which is painful) and the Matrix (which up to now has been depicted as more perfect)?</div> <bR> <div> <B>Neo's Choice</b></div> <div> <B>CHOICE 9 (this is the big one):</b></div> <bR> <div> 81.  Why does Neo go (why does he believe he can bring back Morpheus), when he believes he's not the “one”?</div> <div> 82.  If computers can use binary symbols to create sophisticated codes, like ASCII, which create a world like the Internet, do you think it's possible to also encode or make a morality out of binary code or is there a difference in kind between binary code and morality?</div> <bR> <div> “Tank: So what do you need, besides a miracle?”</div> <div> 83.  What does Neo think he needs?</div> <div> 84.  Are guns really a solution to problems?</div> <bR> <div> “The smell”</div> <div> 85.  What is Agent Smith's view of the Matrix?   If so, who is enslaved in the Matrix?</div> <div> 86.  Agent Smith feels trapped in a world not of his own making.  In a way, his fate is determined, yet he still wants to change it because he doesn't like it.  What has Agent Smith developed?  In what way is he similar to Neo?</div> <div> 87.  How will Agent Smith achieve his goal?  How is his solution similar to Cypher's?  Do you find either to be a satisfactory solution?  Why/why not?</div> <bR> <div> The Lobby Scene</div> <div> Note:  Do NOT try this at home or anywhere else!  The weapons exist in the Matrix, not in reality; their use is symbolic.  Secondly, you are watching a movie, which itself is not real.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> Do Not Use Lift in Case of Fire</div> <div> 88.  If they don't use the elevator, will there be a fire?  (How is this question similar to the Oracle's question about the vase?)</div> <bR> <div> “There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”</div> <div> 89.  Trinity received the knowledge of how to fly the helicopter, but from where did she acquire the experience necessary to fly it?  When it's shot and it malfunctions, would she “know” what to do?  What if the instructions that she downloaded were in the kind of English that often comes with TV or VCR instruction manuals produced outside the U.S.?</div> <div> 90.  In what way did the Oracle tell Neo everything he wanted to know?  What is the difference between knowing the path and walking the path?</div> <bR> <div> “My Name is Neo”</div> <div> 91.  What motif of Western movies is parodied in this scene?</div> <div> 92.  What room does he go to?</div> <bR> <div> “I Love You”</div> <div> 93.  Was the oracle wrong with either Trinity or Neo?  How do you explain what ends up happening?  Compare this scene to similar ones in Run Lola Run, The Fifth Element, or countless other movies.  Is love a “deus ex machina” (ghost in the machine) that comes from nowhere to save the day, or is it inherent in the story itself?</div> <bR> <div> “Wake Up”</div> <div> 94.  What kind of world does Neo leave us?</div> <div> 95.  Now it's our turn to do what?</div> <div> 96.  What motif is once again implied as the camera zooms in and the letters “M  F” appear on the screen? </div> <bR> <div> <B><U>General Questions:</U></b></div> <bR> <div> A.  Do oracles actually know the future, or do they influence events with their predictions?</div> <bR> <div> B.  Are the action scenes and fight sequences necessary?  For that matter, is the philosophy necessary?</div> <bR> <div> C.  Compare <I>The Matrix</I> to <I>Dark City</I>.  Which one do you find more philosophically consistent and interesting?  Which one would you rather watch?</div> <bR> <div> D.  Despite its message of waking up and thinking for ourselves, does <I>the Matrix</I> actually reinforce submission by being a product that we passively consume in a darkened theater?</div> <bR> <div> E.  The message of <I>the Matrix</I> seems to center on individual awareness, but is it possible that the Matrix is composed of intersubectivity also?  For example, if something happens to one person in the Matrix, aren't all of the others in the Matrix aware, or capable of becoming aware of it?  Do we see examples of intersubjectivity in <I>the Matrix</I>?</div> <bR> <div> F.  Will the sequels contain as much food for thought?  Does it matter?</div> <bR> <div> G.  Is this a good film to show in a philosophy class?  Why/why not?</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>