can't be it
that theory sounded good the first time i read it and i was convinced that was it but you have to think about the end of the first movie, they set off the emp right after neo left the matrix and neo didn't get knocked out...
so there's the big hole in that part of it, unless they're expecting people to forget about that
Just passing by via the google express and I thought I might read the Revolutions “Spoiler.” It asks a lot of questions – some of which I have found myself asking on more than one occasion but they rely heavily on what is not explained. Since the Wachowski Brothers it can be assumed know what they want as can be seen plainly on the DVD (the amount of control they exercise over the matrix movie making process) There Comes a point where one should not question what came before in the context of a good story. Therefore from my perspective it doesn’t matter that our understanding of 23rd century technology is somewhat lacking. Which leads me to my first counterpoint:
Humans are not the machines only source of power… the machines use a form of fusion as well. It remains unknown to me just how the two are linked but perhaps the human minds are collectively controlling the reaction. Also of note is the fact that humans currently are much more efficient at utilizing hydrocarbons than any machine in your house – a car looses the majority of it’s fuel energy in the form of heat…a human does not, plus any heat the human body produces serves to optimize enzyme efficiency. On a different note perhaps the humans could be storing the energy from that fusion somehow. Or perhaps a human in one world possesses different abilities than in the other world. Part of being in a dream is that things that some things that don’t work in one world work just fine in the other.
Counterpoint 2:
Why are the humans plugged into anything that simulates reality or allows interaction at all? Perhaps the machines keep the humans around so they can ask them questions about problems that face them in their world -- Humanity is often referred to as intelligent when it admits it doesn’t not know everything. This coevolution would also explain why the two worlds are so similar in appearance with similar rules (i.e. you are in human form in both worlds, there is gravity etc…). Another possible explanation is that the machines don’t desire to kill their creator.
Counterpoint 3:
Why is most of Zion black? First off 70% of the world today is not white; all of Africa is overwhelmingly populated by blacks for instance. If that is not enough for you suppose those countries that were left relatively undamaged during the machine wars (because of the fact that they lack much industry in our time) were populated by blacks. Or perhaps the last person to be “The One” picked 21 black women and 5 black men. You just don’t know.
Counter Point 4:
Why do the machines allow Zion to exist at all? The architect told you why already, moving on.
Side Note:
“Supposing the robot slave masters ARE defeated and Neo were to free humanity from the Matrix, what would happen once they wake to find themselves naked in the ashes of a demolished world with a permanently blackened sky? Would you call that a triumphant ending?” -- While I agree, that would suck as an ending, that’s blue sky in the final Revolutions trailer!
Counterpoint 4
The Animatrix is not on the same level as the full-length movies, as far as I can see it adds nothing new to the plotline just explores further what the movies mentioned but did not have time to go into detail about. And they are flawed in ways the movies are not. For instance Flight of the Osiris – When in the matrix why did she do all those gymnastics when she could just use her phone to get a message across ala Niobe’s call to another operator, or Neo’s “Mr. Wizard get me the hell out of here.” Or just some answering machine... Or the runner who was getting to close to the real world? Come on I know another character who agents thought was getting close to the real world and they didn’t restrain neo like that when they suspected him… if they did then the first movie would have never happened sigh…
I could go on but I see that I am only through page 4 of your epic novel – while it seems to be heavy in the “facts” department I hope I have opened minds to equally valid interpretations.
Take care
I was just thinking about the theories in the shower (hey, I suck at singing so what else is there to do in the shower?!?)...But I doubt many of them would be things that the Wachowski brothers would actually do...But I thought of something that might work that explains the ending of Reloaded...
*spoiler!!!*
Neo disappears from the matrix code when he goes through the door. What if, when he leaves the Architect, the place where he goes is a program separate from the Matrix? Neo saves Trinity in the program and apparently leaves the matrix to go to the Nebuchadnezzar. But instead, he was still inside a program. He realizes at the end that he is still in a program, so he is able to dispose of the Sentinels. Then for some reason, perhaps the realization that he really didn't save Trinity, or just an emotional/psychological overload, he faints and goes into a coma.
Zion exists, the people aren't all robots, the Matrix is where it should be, it's just that Neo was temporarily tricked to believe a program was the real world.
*/end spoiler!!!*
Or maybe not...At least I don't believe it but it would be a less disappointing ending.
A NON-DEPRESSING THEORY FOR ONCE!!!
Just thought of another theory...
What if humans run both the Matrix and Zion? If the revolution had already ended, and the humans won, what would they do with six billion people plugged into the Matrix? They couldn't unplug them all, because Zion is the only inhabitable part of the earth left.
The solution: Keep the Matrix going. Remove the anomalies so they do not end up destroying the matrix by telling everone the truth, and send them all to Zion. When Zion gets too full, destroy almost everyone in Zion to make room for more.
It would be better to kill a quarter of a million people than six billion, and they would have to keep the robot ruse up so that Zion is oblivious to the real enemy.
One of the biggest questions was what to do after the war ended. Maybe it already has decades ago, and each time the Matrix is rebooted it is make room for more anomalies to get out of the Matrix.
Make sense? Not make sense? Oh well, it's the most believable theory I've thought of that I can live with...it sounds like something that the Wachowski bros. would think up. And it gives an explanation for everything but the fact that Neo passes out at the end of the second movie...
I guess this is directed mainly to lunchbox and albino_agent:
I like the theory about Neo, Trinity, etc, all actually being machines. It answers a lot of questions, and fits logically and philosophically. My only questions with that theory is this: why would humans, after they won the war, need to plug the A.I. back into the Matrix? What purpose does that serve them? If they need the A.I., are the A.I. doing anything for the humans while being in the Matrix? If not, then why not destroy the A.I.? And what happens when Neo (as A.I.) "frees" people from the Matrix back into the "real" world? I read the attached file on the original post twice, and maybe this is answered in there but I just missed it.
You gotta love a movie that makes you think this deep...
Holes in the theory
This is interesting theory, and it certainly has its merits, but here are my objections:
If Neo is a robot and that thing he did at the end of the Reloaded was EMP which knocked him out too, but did not knock out Morph and trin because they were out of reach, then the most obvious question is: How the hell they all managed to remain unaffected in all of the previous uses of EMP throughout the story? For example at the end of part one?
In my opinion whave not and we shall not (or at least we should not) see the real world. Everything is the virtual world. Because, for Neo to have that power in the real world, and to be able to stop those Sentinels in the real world would be unforgiven, and it would ruin the movie for me. I already explanined why the EMP theory cannot account for this in the real world.
The rest of the theory I liked.
There doesn't need to be a MWTM to explain Neo's stopping the sentinels.
Look in one of the Behind the Scenes threads, that discusses clipc and video from the very beginning of Revolutions.
Somehow Neo is still jacked into the Matrix at the end of Reloaded. How he did that and why it happened is still debatable.
One theory is, that he was never meant to leave the Architect through the door back to the Matrix. The choice was an illusion.
Neo :"If I were you, I'd hope we never meet again."
The Architect: "We won't."
How does he know that? With such certainty? Was it because Neo's digital self was supposed to be deleted in the explosion, and that way send back to the Source (what happens to deleted programs)?
But it didn't work. Or it worked, but not exactly as it was supposed to?
Originally posted by The Omega
One theory is, that he was never meant to leave the Architect through the door back to the Matrix. The choice was an illusion.
Neo :"If I were you, I'd hope we never meet again."
The Architect: "We won't."
How does he know that? With such certainty? Was it because Neo's digital self was supposed to be deleted in the explosion, and that way send back to the Source (what happens to deleted programs)?
But it didn't work. Or it worked, but not exactly as it was supposed to?
ooo me likes....I like that idea, it would make sense also!
I also liek the theory thet he is "still" jacked in and thats how he could stop the sentinals...BUT...the only problem there is that the sentinals arent within the matrix....
here's a wacko idea..:
what is the Sentinals are AGENTS withing the matrix...lol
I don't believe in MWAM, i think neo can stop the sentinels because they are also linked up to the matrix, as he is, and if he stops them/destroys them in the matrix (they probably dont have the same shape) then they are destroyed in the real world. perhaps the blindfold stops him getting confuse between the matrix and the real world, and stops him going into a coma? WHO KNOWS??? i'm confusing my self now, i'll just end this post