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Hey everyone. I've been scouring the net and nobody anywhere that I've seen has asked or questioned one part of Reloaded that I didn't understand. I've seen and replayed the scene several times and it just doesn't make any sense. When the Keymaker is sitting in Morpheus' old chair near the end discussing how Neo needs to get through two doors while two power sources need to be blown up, his explanation is confusing. He talks about a "window" of 3:14 minutes. In order for any window to exist, there must be two points/events bracketing the 3:14, what the heck are they? They cut the power at midnight, and Neo and Morpheus enter the door, that is obviously event one. What happens after 3:14?

At first I believed that the way it works is that the first power source blows, they enter, a connection has to be remade (as the Keymaker says), they cut the backup power, and they enter the second door. If that is true, then why the need for 3:14? As long as the connection is made after the first door is entered, it wouldn't matter how long they took to blow the second one, as long as Neo and Morpheus waited that long. The problem is that the KEYMAKER sets this 3:14, it's not like the humans decided how long.

The whole scene never sat well with me the first time through, in fact I spent much of the end of the movie distracted by this misunderstanding. There was NO need for the writers to write that part so vague, but I doubt they wrote it thinking, "we need a suspenseful time limit, but nothing makes sense, we'll just snow over the audience and they won't notice". That can't be right since there are WAY easier ways to create a 3:14 window that actually make sense.

Am I totally missing the boat here? Who can explain it clearly? There should be no 'theories', it should be cut and dried!

you had the right idea, they had to cut the power first->then the power gets rerouted, so to avoid the security and blowing the whole floor, they had to cut the power a second time->the 3:14 is the estimated time until the power gets rerouted, they didnt do it for suspense, it was just facts, everyone knew they were gonna make it in the time, so no suspense

Neo had to get through the second door before 3:14, if the 3:14 is the time it took for power to be rerouted, then why even bother blowing up the backup generator, they are through anyway...

Next explanation please!

id have to watch it again for the times cause i dont know them off the top of my head, but the power WAS rerouted before that time, so they have to destroy the power plant, the time the keymaker was talking about is the estimated time, but it was rerouted sooner because the team was killed and didnt get their job done so Trinity had to come and finish it

no, the power station, and the backup system, were supposed to be destroyed at the same time, after which, Neo has a window of 314 SECONDS to get into the programmers backdoor and then get out, into the door, before the connection between that door and the source place is reset...except, thats not what happened...the power station was blown up, and Neo and Morpheus and Keymaker enter the backdoor place, but the ship was blown up, so the backup turned back on. If the keymaker had opened the door when he did, and Trinity hadn't gone back in, then they would have all been killed. Trinity shut off the backup just in time, cutting the power and allowing the ONE to enter the backdoor place, and Neo had to go the Architect...kinda confusing, now that i look back, but fairly straight forward...

It was all Smith, if it wasnt for smith, Neo and them all would be dead.

yeah...it really was...See, PURPOSE...My point is once AGAIN proven...

lol, i was going to get to that, but i guess i just made u sound smarter

yeah thats what i meant to say, just couldnt say it as well as Jedi did, no way, im not good at explaining things....btw, AliasNeo: you want me to fix your sig? it looks kindof...cheap....

Yup, i think Godshinto just wanted me to get off his back. So he made me a sig to keep me busy cus, well, i asked for one, and, he gave me one, but, i should have said, "A hella good one". By the way, Hexshintax, do u know how to make a sig just from scratch?

yup, i made mine from scratch, all original stuff, and the only thing i sampled for Jedi's was the from teh matrix poster, in the middle.

if i giv u a pic right now, do u think u could make one for me like for tomorrow?

yeah, definitely, ill work on it tomorrow sometime and see what i can do

-

sometime tomorrow, do u think u could post it in this topic?

(sorry, you are right 5:14 is what I meant)

Keymaker: Once the door is unprotected, the connection will be severed, but another connection must first be made.

Ghost: How long will that take?

Keymaker: Exactly 314 seconds.

Ghost: Just over five minutes.

Keymaker: That is the length and breadth of the window. Only the One can open the door, and only during that window can the door be opened.


His first statement makes no sense. He's saying a connection will take 314 seconds - what connection? 314 seconds from when? AFTER this connection is when the door is unprotected, but he says later BEFORE the 314 seconds is up is when the door needs to be opened.

Also contradictory is his statement about only the One being able to open the door. The Keymaker opens the first door INTO the backdoor, and also the second door OUT of the backdoor. Neo didn't need to be there for that. So he must be talking about the shining door leading to the Architect. But Neo doesn't enter this third door until after the 314 second window, I think. I guess I didn't have a stopwatch out for that, but they certainly dicked around after they were out of the backdoor -at the very least they weren't rushed.

Throw in the fact that the alarm was reset by the time Neo was done with the Architect since the building blows when he opens the left door and you have quite a garbled mess of writing by the Wachowski's!

Please explain!

well, im pretty sure it is possible that from them entering the backdoor til neo opens the door of light is less than 5 minutes. The connection is between the unfinished backddor section and the Architects room, if neo has not entered the door before the 5 minutes are up, then the connection between that door and the Architects room is severed, because a new connection has already been made. only the ONE can open the door to the Architects room.

That made me wonder.
What if someone other than the One tried or did open the door? Say for instance Morpheus went with Neo into the Architect's room.

If Morpheus walked to the door containing the source, could he open it? Or would it be a locked door? If it did open, would he die? Or simply get nothing done.

I know there are no answers to the question, just more of a philosophical question.

So according to what you say Jedi, the CONNECTION is them getting into the dark room right before the Architect. That connection is what took 314 seconds, Link is counting down and clearly the intent was for them to make it into the second backdoor by the 314 - and that matches exactly what you say, HOWEVER, that would also mean that the second backdoor is the big door the Keymaker is talking about, which is obviously not true since the Keymaker opens it and not Neo. I'm telling, there is a big disconnect between what the Keymaker says needs to happen, and what the 3 teams do. The Brothers could have made it so much more clear - why did they write it muddled?

Are you telling me the whole scene ties together nicely and makes perfect sense to you?

And don't tell me "it's not supposed to be clear, it's the Matrix"!

That whole scene it interlinked with when the keymaker is telling them what to do. It is a bit muddled but if you watch it as many times as say myself and Jedi have, it's pretty simple. Jedi basically got it right.

tshirt> See how the light kinda engrossed Neo like an enzyme eating something... if Morpheus was there, it would have still only taken in Neo. It's to do with recognition of his code, think DNA replication.

Once the two power sources are destroyed it will take the time stated for the machines to re-connect the power and the system.

It is that simple.

Okay, I buy that, that makes the most sense. I think it comes down to muddled directing, not muddled writing. The suspense to the audience is them opening the second backdoor too early, but at the same time they need to get through quickly since they are on the clock. Also throw in Smith stopping them from opening the door too quickly (Smith saves Neo's life by distracting him) and you have a nice bit of suspense. To me it felt like that suspense was totally over when they made it out of the backdoor, when in fact it was still there since they had to get through the door of light. Link counts down during this scene, and then cheers when they make it through the backdoor in time, another signal that they were safe and made it in time. That's where I got confused.

Thanks everyone!

its not muddled directing or muddled anything! i got that bit and at best im of mediocre intelligence! -can see where the confusion stems from but as audioheem says watch it alot and youll get it! i got that the third time i watched it!