I mentioned this before, but with the benefit of hindsight, all 3 Matrix films are pretty clearly a subtle Trans allegory.
The Matrix 4
- Thread starter JoeZhang
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I admit this is a perspective I didn't consider until you started talking about it in this thread, but it makes sense (even before your detailed explanation in this post). I particularly agree that the imagery in at the 0:41 mark in The Second Renaissance is striking when you see it from that angle.
I haven't watched The Matrix in many, many years and certainly not since either of them came out as trans women, so I am curious to see how I would see the film now with this perspective. Especially after watching and loving Sense8.
Not at all. If anything, viewing it as a transgender allegory actually helped me understand the movies. Back in the day I had a problem with the film's message about those who live in the real world are better off than those in the Matrix, since from my perspective the ones in the Matrix are living a life of relative comfort in blissful ignorance, while those in the real world live a life of no real luxury while being hunted by mechanized squids. However, when viewed through the scope of a transgender allegory, where the ones who live in the real world are free to be themselves as opposed to those in the Matrix conforming to society's expectations, it really clears things up and helped me understand the franchise's message of how living in the real world is supposed to be more desirable over living in the Matrix.
It's beyond the script.
Red Pills are those pretending that it is still the past.
(Bill Pills, not a word) Everyone else is enjoying the future.
Red Pills are those pretending that it is still the past.
(Bill Pills, not a word) Everyone else is enjoying the future.
And sometimes it’s something deeper, especially when put into a context that lines up with the creator’s lives at the time. The Matrix films run deep with symbolism, it’s far from a simple movie about hackers fighting robots.
The resistance is chosen for their hacking skills, and then they never hack.
Weird.
Weird.
He cites (with links) all the papers he mentions in the video notes.
I need to rewatch the sequels sometime.
And this is exactly what dysphoria is like before you realize what it is and why you’re feeling it.
It’s like everyone else seems to know how to be comfortable and you don’t.
And this is where I don't agree. People sometimes just look more into a film more than is needed. Is The Matrix deeper than most movies? Sure, but it's not the most deep film series in the history of Sci-fi. Sometimes and apple is an apple.
With Keanu being an ageless vampire whose career is on the rise (if it was ever even down) and Carrie-Ann being VERY good in Netflix Marvel shows, the iron is hot to bring them together again. How it will work out, have no idea. But I can see how it wasn’t rejected outright in the pitch meeting.
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Yeah, and the more @Awesome Possum and @The Nth Doctor talk about the transgender allegory, the more I want to see it. I'm curious how Lana will shape this film considering where she is now compared to where she was in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
I could see Warner Bros coming to her after their two major franchises, DC and the Wizarding World being disappointments. They need a big blockbuster, a new Matrix could do that.
Given that Switch from the first film was meant to be played by two different actors (one male and one female) showing that the Matrix body didn’t always represent the pod body, it could be very interesting to see what she brings into it now.
Cgi de-aging.
Young in the Matrix, and old as dirt in the real world.
Young in the Matrix, and old as dirt in the real world.
I hadn't heard about that before.
I'm disappointed they didn't do that, it would have been a great surprise.
the monochromatic green-for-white look of the Matrix wouldn't work well now, unless to just have a retro appeal for nostalgia reasons. Zion culture, or how it even worked, was never really shown very well, just a few fun glimpses.
As someone else said, I never thought the machined NEEDED humans as batteries. That always struck me as pointless unless it was something they enjoyed or had an appetite for, and in that way, it makes more sense. Humanity killed the sun for the burgeoning AI species so it in turn intended to punish them for all eternity. It's a vengeful rube goldberg machine, and I suppose coming from vengeful machines, that makes sense. Our ancestors were threatened by lions and we make them do tricks in circuses now.
But why didn't the machine entities just build new solar structures in space? why limit themselves like that? I know the movie is supposed to be taken symbolically in many ways (and I know the sequals are supposed to be taken to .. ok the twins were cool and I liked the Merovingian). I have no idea what the new movie would be about.
As someone else said, I never thought the machined NEEDED humans as batteries. That always struck me as pointless unless it was something they enjoyed or had an appetite for, and in that way, it makes more sense. Humanity killed the sun for the burgeoning AI species so it in turn intended to punish them for all eternity. It's a vengeful rube goldberg machine, and I suppose coming from vengeful machines, that makes sense. Our ancestors were threatened by lions and we make them do tricks in circuses now.
But why didn't the machine entities just build new solar structures in space? why limit themselves like that? I know the movie is supposed to be taken symbolically in many ways (and I know the sequals are supposed to be taken to .. ok the twins were cool and I liked the Merovingian). I have no idea what the new movie would be about.
2 centuries after man cut off the sun, the human batteries are probably only needed to power the Matrix. It's probably a self sufficient closed system, and "most" the machines have forgotten about man, or never knew about them, since they are young and self involved.
Seconds after the sun went away, that's maybe another story.
In the Matrix, it's always 1999.
The oldest people to have escaped the Matrix, and the culling, each cycle, have been stuck in place in 1999 for Decades. It's effectively a virtual time-loop... Unless a cycle is much shorter than I think it is... Oh, the free born Twins. Early 20s.
Because it's always 1999, how you perceive cool is never up dated or out dated, which is why every one enjoys the same mode of thinking, 90s style, in total agreement, where everyone listened to the same music when they young and watched the same TV when they were young.
PS.
There are no other countries.
There are no other cities.
The Matrix is New York, New York the size of 80 Earths, in virtual space.
A little racist? (Of the machines.)
Smith said that the Matrix was originally a punishment zone, as much as a power plant.
The worst punishment the machines could think to force on humanity was to live in the same episode of Friends forever.
Fitting.
Seconds after the sun went away, that's maybe another story.
In the Matrix, it's always 1999.
The oldest people to have escaped the Matrix, and the culling, each cycle, have been stuck in place in 1999 for Decades. It's effectively a virtual time-loop... Unless a cycle is much shorter than I think it is... Oh, the free born Twins. Early 20s.
Because it's always 1999, how you perceive cool is never up dated or out dated, which is why every one enjoys the same mode of thinking, 90s style, in total agreement, where everyone listened to the same music when they young and watched the same TV when they were young.
PS.
There are no other countries.
There are no other cities.
The Matrix is New York, New York the size of 80 Earths, in virtual space.
A little racist? (Of the machines.)
Smith said that the Matrix was originally a punishment zone, as much as a power plant.
The worst punishment the machines could think to force on humanity was to live in the same episode of Friends forever.
Fitting.
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The Second Renaissance implies it was a form of revenge. The machines had originally wanted peace and to form their own nation. But humans rejected it and started trying to wipe them out, so they fought back and won in the end. Giving themselves to the machines was part of the surrender.
I remember having a theory at the time that the name Trinity was actually a clue that referred to the Hindu Trinity (a misinterpretation, I know) and that the Architect (Brahma), Neo (Vishnu) and Agent Smith (Shiva) were allegories for the cycle of creation and destruction. I remember thinking this when Neo met the Architect at the end of the second movie and the Indian family in the third movie cemented the idea in my mind. I couldn't resolve it as a perfect allegory, but I still think the general ideas and archetypes were there.
