Would YOU stay in the Matrix?

[Pak-Man]

It's always been the most facinating dillema posed by the movie to me. If you found out you lived in a simulation and your body was powering a race of superintelligent robots, would you stay in your cozy, familiar world with your Ipods and Rifftrax, or live in the moist, gooey future to fight robot armies?

[kodiakthejuggler]

I'd much rather live in the Matrix, with the automatic weapons and the iPods and the Borats and the YouTubses. Though, I'd probably want to screw with the Matrix as much as possible, like flying around and dodging bullets and wearing cool shades.

[TomK.]

Once you're unplugged and know "the truth?"  That's a tough one seeing as you'll forever be dogged by agents once you jack in and face being ripped apart by sentinels regardless of whether you're in or out.

I've always felt that the MATRIX sequels were a missed opportunity (no, really).  The ending of the first film was exciting to me, because it seemed that Neo HAD interrupted the machine world signal and was promising to teach the population of The Matrix to bend the rules just as he was able to do.  In other words, I figured that Neo was going to start helping the entire world of The Matrix understand that reality was just a computer coded illusion so that everyone would learn to start living like gods.

Imagine a Matrix sequel taking place in an artificial "real world" where average citizens realize that they can fly around faster than a speeding bullet or perhaps even learn to shape reality to their own whims.  In a world where anything is possible, even the sky isn't the limit, especially in terms of plotting.

My initial disappointment with MATRIX RELOADED came from the first teaser when I realized that the Wachowskis were essentially going to disregard the ending of the first film so that they could conveniently continue the same old conflict of motley freedom fighters scurrying around to evade well-dressed computer programs.

To quote Pinhead, "Oh, such a limited imagination!"

[hariustrk]

I don't know the people in Zion seem to have really HOT parties. Plus when you need some escape you can hit the matrix and pretend to bend space and time.

Imagine all the virtual fun you could have if you were one of the few who could bend the rules in the matrix 

Hey baby look at me I can fly!!!!

[Tarantulas]

Ok... here's my highly controversial "screw over the machines by destroying their power source" idea.

If you die in the Matrix, you die in "real life", right?

Ok.... go into the matrix, then use the little loading program is get a big Earth destroying bomb.  Use the big bomb to blow up Earth.  Now all the "people" inside are "dead".   But aren't they really dead anyway?

Think of all the resources required to clone a human, create the pod, warm the pod, harvest the energy, feed the "batteries"...

Stuck in this diminishing return on their resource investment they would be forced to shut down fairly quickly.

If it was an RTS, they would already be going to Gamestop for the players guide

[gammer]

I guess the biggest *miss* in this movie is that they have to go between worlds through a Data connection in the phone line. I guess they didn't see that the future of the internet was going to be highspeed and all they had to do was plug into any rj45 jack to "get back".

[kodiakthejuggler]

So the Matrix was designed by the computers who were aware, i.e., Artificial Intelligence.

It's a program fed into our brains to deceive us into thinking that life itself exists as we know it. Basically, it's a deception used to keep us in a dreamworld while they leech off our energy.

It's a computer simulation, so therefore, it's bound by the laws of the man-made computer world, as it was when the Matrix was born. It began as an extension of what mankind had accomplished in the field of computer technology.

To that end, it is fallible. Nothing created by humankind is perfect. That's why Neo was able to bend it to his will. He was aware enough to realize that the simulation relied on our brains to run it. If our brains didn't accept it, we would die, as explained by Agent Smith. Essentially, Neo was "reprogramming" the Matrix on-the-fly, using his mind.

Fun stuff, and very intriguing, to say the least.

However, in response to Gammer's post, the way to go between worlds is through a phone line. So, in essence, to enter the programmed reality of the Matrix, we must get "jacked up".

I guess this proves that the Wachowskis were very "jacked up" when they wrote the trilogy. Moreso as each film progressed!

Buncha drug addicts...   

[Argo-Puppy]

Yeah I would want out. However, when I got out and found all the Zion people, wouldn't you think they would have done something before the machines got to their front door? 

I also found it annoying that their ships were so advanced and had ever knick-knack you could think of, but their ground weapons were so pitiful!

[Tarantulas]

I guess the biggest *miss* in this movie is that they have to go between worlds through a Data connection in the phone line. I guess they didn't see that the future of the internet was going to be highspeed and all they had to do was plug into any rj45 jack to "get back".

I think its more symbolic than anything else...

Besides, the machines were the one who left the "back door" open for those "exits" to work.

Essentially, Neo was "reprogramming" the Matrix on-the-fly, using his mind.

Lamest part of the matrix?  NEOrton Antivirus.

[RandyMistie]

I agree with TomK, if they HAD to do a sequel, (which I think the first movie would have stood up much better as a stand alone classic), they should have gone in the direction he describes.  You know, a LOGICAL one.

And, Tarantulas nailed it too.  Nice job, blow up the virtual world, what the hell?  They already blew up the real one.  That's some good thinking there, my friend.

But, to the point, I would want to be like the crew, free but able to go back in and kick ass, super-CGI kung-fu-style, at least until some agent blew me away.  Yeah, and jump over buildings and such.

And wear long black leather trenches... cool...

[Tyrant]

  I'd want out, but I'd want to go back in and get all my loved ones out. I wouldn't see the point of living in real life knowing people I cared about were still trapped in The Matrix.


  Then I'd start a diner in Zion and make tons of money cooking up fried food so people wouldn't have to eat 'goop' anymore. Then everyone would get fat and lazy and make a lovely world where no one would have to get up off their fat asses and go to work all day. And then the A.I. running the life sim would develope sentience and....er....oh.

  The real lesson to be learned from The Matrix? Eat veggies and exercise! 

[Msampo]

It's always been the most facinating dillema posed by the movie to me. If you found out you lived in a simulation and your body was powering a race of superintelligent robots, would you stay in your cozy, familiar world with your Ipods and Rifftrax, or live in the moist, gooey future to fight robot armies?

An even more interesting question: What if the option you were given was not just returning to your current life, but the option given Cypher (for argument's sake, let's leave out the betraying part)--what if you were given a chance to go back into the matrix as a new person: rich, comfortable, handsome/beautiful? And would you want to remember your time outside the Matrix (which also seems to be an option)? Me, I think I could be persuaded with the right offer (again, without the betraying part) and I think I WOULD want to remember--that way I'd appreciate it more.

Sampo

[RandyMistie]

It's always been the most facinating dillema posed by the movie to me. If you found out you lived in a simulation and your body was powering a race of superintelligent robots, would you stay in your cozy, familiar world with your Ipods and Rifftrax, or live in the moist, gooey future to fight robot armies?

An even more interesting question: What if the option you were given was not just returning to your current life, but the option given Cypher (for argument's sake, let's leave out the betraying part)--what if you were given a chance to go back into the matrix as a new person: rich, comfortable, handsome/beautiful? And would you want to remember your time outside the Matrix (which also seems to be an option)? Me, I think I could be persuaded with the right offer (again, without the betraying part) and I think I WOULD want to remember--that way I'd appreciate it more.

Sampo

Ah, but,my dear Sampo, wouldn't that in ITSELF be a betrayal of the human race?  In other words, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, bladdidyblahblah... LOL!  (I love that line)

[Variety of Cells]

If you find out you live in a program, and the world you live in is a lie and the people running it are using you for their selfish purposes, and you are nothing but a puppet where your dreams of riches are used to fuel the realized dreams of the rich, but you can't leave without ostracizing yourself and the few you choose to take with you because the program has crippled you and taught you nothing about what it takes to survive outside the program, and even if you do manage to learn they will expand until there is no place to hide and they will eventually destroy you because you are different and they believe in something called 'globalization', then you have few choices.

You either lie to yourself and say that you actually like living here, you flee for that short period before they cover every inch and leave most of your family and friends behind, or you slowly try to change things. They also have very persuasive ways of making you forget what you found out.  And if not forget it, then make it seem false. 

I choose to slowly try and change things. 

EDIT:  In other words, I'd stay in the Matrix.  Yeah, that's what I was talking about...

[Kiiml]

One thing i've always been puzzled by: don't "battery people" live just as long as "free out-of-the-matrix people"?

By leaving the matrix, one wouldn't gain a whole lot if that was the case. You'd be getting The Truth, but at the same time, the machines built the matrix to give us the illusion that we were back in our own world, which can no longer be a reality after what they've done to it. Essentially, i guess the machines wanted us to live in a replica of the world we survived in. They were probably viewing it as an act of kindness, they could've put us in pods for the rest of our lives and NOT project things into our minds, so we'd spend our lives in limbo.

Fun fact! The first Matrix movie is really a prequel to the popular animated film "Robots" starring Robin Williams! Ewan Mcgreggor's robotic character was originally supposed to be in a fifteen-minute love scene with "The Architect" (as portrayed by colonel Sanders) but the director thought it didn't tie both films together the way he'd expected. The scene was cut from the film, along with the controversial scene in which Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo make a cameo appearence.