The Matrix is an eye and ear candy experience that challenges you to think about stuff you normally wouldn't see in action flicks. It's basically Epistemology 101 disguised as an action movie, or vice versa.

The Matrix is about endless possibilities within a limited environment, speculating that if our environment was limited by accurate programming, little glitches in the program could give some unexpected results. The Matrix is a highly developed computer game, which is played by almost every living human being, and they don't know they are playing a game. Only a selected few have been able to escape the IP connection. They live in the last city of earth, Zion, which we learn is close to the Earth's core, but the humans travel around in airships in their desperate search for hope.

The humans who have escaped are able to enter the computer game by a connection they need to establish themselves and secure. Before entering the game world, they can download unlimited skills and weapons, and there is this prophecy going around, that one human being is able to play in God mode.

Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), captain of the airship Nebuchadnezzar believes he has found the one who can play in God mode. He approaches the one with his crew, which include Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), Cypher (Joe Pantoliano), and a few more colorful characters.

It's probably around the year 2100, human beings have lost in a war against the machines, led by artificial intelligence. Most of the population has been reduced to function as batteries to run the systems for the AI. Human beings would perish without a soul, so the machines have designed this huge world for the humans to dream in, making them believe their dream selves were the real selves.

The humans need to find a conscious soul within The Matrix, and convince them to join the rebellion in the real world, in order to establish a connection with their real corporal self. If they can find the body of the soul, they can wake that person up from the sleep. When that happens, the machines disconnect the humans and processes them to become food for the next generation of dormant human beings. The human crews know the process and are usually able to pick up the bodies before they drown.

The A.I. has devised programs that have the singular mission of tracking down the humans that connect to The Matrix and eliminate them. One such program, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), has become tired of playing the game, and wants to find a way to destroy the city of Zion, eliminate all the rebels, so that he doesn't have to function in The Matrix any more.

That's the setup.

Morpheus believes he has found the one in a guy who works at a software company by day, but hacks from home by night. His day name is Thomas Anderson, but his hacker identity is Neo. Since Neo is an anagram for One, and with a special niche with hacking computer systems, Morpheus contacts him. But a traitor among the crew gives Neo's location to the agents, so he is captured before managing to escape according to Morpheus' guidelines.

Neo has no idea what he's got himself into, but is released by the agents who simply want to use him in order to get to Morpheus. Morpheus and the crew are able to contact Neo again, explain to him that something isn't right with the world, and convince him to wake up. He does.

What follows is an extensive training process where Neo learns to enhance his skills faster than anyone has ever done before.

By what you have read, you might start to believe that The Matrix is a complex sci-fi universe with rich characters, and lots of action. You would be right, but there is more.

The action scenes are beyond awesome. They are expertly executed and fit the tone, character and importance in the story exactly as they should. Those signs are simply fantastic. One scene has Trinity running away from agents and the police, jumping between rooftops and finally through a window, before finding a telephone booth in order to establish a connection to her real body. Another scene, that could be named 'Morpheus' rescue' is simply brilliant, well built and long. It included Neo and Trinity loading up with weapons, entering a secure building where they have to blow away dozens of security guards, get to the rooftop, steel a helicopter and use a rattling gun to free Morpheus, and in the process the helicopter blows up in a fantastic way, and Neo learns not only to dodge bullets, but to take some control over the environment around him.

The Matrix excels also in the more quiet moments, in one scene, Neo goes to visit the Oracle to find out if he's really the one. Before he enters into the room with her he has a little talk with a boy who's bending a spoon with his mind, and teaches him the trick by informing him that "there is no spoon."

What would you do if you learned that the world that surrounds you isn't exactly what you believed it to be? Would you start fighting for what you believe to be true, or would you be able to continue your life, pretending to be ignorant?

Well, we all have this choice. The world isn't what appears in TV, it's not even the massive collection of what appears on TV. The world is so huge and difficult to grasp, that nobody actually knows this world we are living in, we only have theories about it, and the lazy ones have theories that fit a perfect and infallible system, - which is actually not a very clever thing to do when you have realized that we are all fallible beings.

What gives The Matrix even a richer flavor is the fact that the dialogue of many characters are based on specific philosophical ideas.

Agent Smith reminds me on Thomas Moore, where he discusses the attempt to create a perfect world for the humans, a place where they would all be happy, but he realizes that the human condition seems to require discontent and suffering in order to keep the belief system intact.

Morpheus discusses in great depth about the difference between dreams and reality, giving life to Rene Descartes' Meditations, as he explains to Neo that not all is what seems, that there is more to this world than meets the eye. The ironic thing is that he's absolutely right. This is true, and very few people seem to believe this.

The Oracle appears to be some kind of Spinoza, discussing determinism. Cypher is an skeptic, while Trinity seems to represent feminism. Neo himself is both Alice in wonderland and the prisoner who escaped Plato's cave.

The richness of ideas is astounding. Too bad that the sequels only aimed for action, forgetting the true meat behind the original. Ironically, societies and educational establishment do the same mistake, neglecting philosophy and the treasures it gives a thinking soul.

I seem to recall an old episode in The Twilight Zone (1959), where a person woke up from her life as a human being dreaming about the earth that used to be. Total Recall (1990) deals with a similar issue, where people can buy installments of dreams so real that you can't tell if you are dreaming or not. The Terminator (1984) movies deal with the concept of the machines taking over the world. And movies such as Dark City (1998) and 13th Floor (1999) share similar tales.

Trivia:

Sets from Dark City (1998) were used in The Matrix.

Quote:

Morpheus: Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?

Questions:

1. If you were living in a dream world, within the real world, and you wouldn't know, how could you ever find out the truth?

2. Have you ever had a dream you were convinced was real until the moment you woke up?

3. Is it possible that such a dream could be more real than your waking life?

4. Do you know yourself better when you are awake or while you are dreaming?

5. Some people say they don't believe in out of body experiences. What if I told you I didn't believe in out of mind experiences?

6. Is the mind and the soul the same thing?

7. Is the mind separate entity from the body?

8. Are the soul and the body two different thing or a single whole?

9. Who are you?