The Matrix : 25th Anniversary Retrospective

The Matrix released in 1999, spawning countless imitations and homages. This includes everything from parody to tastefully borrowing technique. For 25 years people have been analyzing the film and its impact on society. There have been arguments about the glorification of guns and gun violence and the uptick in mass shootings since its release.

Correlation does not equal causation. Free your mind.

One of the benefits of studying story telling and philosophy is gaining a new perspective on movies you’ve grown up with. You begin to see the different layers to reality; the reality of the tale being told before you.

It’s on that level that I appreciate The Matrix the most. For 25 years, people have dissected this film and made documentaries on it. I’m sure even a few academic papers have been written about it.

Having just watched this movie again I’d like to share my personal connection with it, what I enjoy and what I found masterful in its story telling.

To properly do this there is some groundwork, a foundation I must lay to properly convey some ideas.

As a child I had an out of body experience. I made nothing of it because it didn’t seem special at the time. I was simply home sick from school, watching Die Another Day when it happened. One moment I had closed my eyes to blow my nose, the next I’m watching the movie for several seconds from 3 or 4 feet behind myself floating and looking down at myself.

If it had not been for there being a movie, something that is reproduceable that shows the passage of time in a distinct way, I would say it was just a strange byproduct of being sick. On the other hand, I didn’t witness a holy deity come before me and send me a special message to save all of mankind. It was as subtle and just enough for me to not completely discredit it.

It would take many years later and someone else sharing their experience with me, completely unprompted but also in the same vein as my own, for me to take it seriously. It would also take my love of writing and character development for me to gain an interest in philosophy. That led me to Alan Watts and Ram Dass.

These men related both Buddhist and Hindu philosophy in a way to me that I could appreciate. Nothing presented as fact, just story telling from their study and their experiences.

These concepts are very present in The Matrix. Neo is on a spiritual journey and so are all the other members of the Nebuchadnezzar. He is locked in his own conformist reality, writing code for Meta Cortechs.  He his simply fulfilling a role in a bigger cog in the machine by day. He has the capacity to be a free thinker which he exercises by being a hacker at night.

Others who have already seen a bigger picture to reality, have awakened, prompt his awakening. His enlightening brings him into contact with others who have also awakened. Before I continue to write about the concepts I enjoy, I do feel the need to clarify I do not believe there is one “right” path in life. Enlightenment and awakening in this context simply mean to see things on a different level than just the pure input taken in by the senses. It’s to realize that there is more than one level to the machine of reality. These are not “holier than thou” terms in this context.

When Neo is shown reality, it’s explained that humans rejected paradise. I am not well versed in the Christian belief system, but I imagine there is a relation there and the fall from the Garden of Eden. I believe that is from the gain of knowledge as well.

Their reality is suffering. The reality humanity embraces as reality “The Matrix” also has forms of suffering, just enough to keep them locked in their perpetual cycle of being turned into Duracells.

When Neo meets the oracle, he is in a room of other enlightened beings. The child who tells him “There is no spoon.”, wears eastern style robes and implies that acceptance of reality can make anything possible.

There is a principle that crosses over between philosophy, spirituality, and psychology that The Matrix showcases excellently.

If a person can get passed their own mental blocks and objectively thinks on a different level, beyond suffering, that person can go on to accomplish great things.

The movie delivers ideas that anyone who is a psychology and philosophy nerd can appreciate while furnishing plot with what looks great on the big screen. Action in the form of Kung Fu. It is well deserving of all the attention and analysis it’s gotten.

I think anyone who enjoys it on this level should also enjoy what seems to be the series reboot, The Matrix: Resurrections. It goes back to meta commentary in a fun way.