The Matrix: Through the Looking Glass …

Now here’s a thing.

A nicely chewy night in Adrian, and a copy of The Matrix, and lots of tea!

We have GOT to use those crisps, at some point!!

I’ve pot a link to the IMDb synopsis, here, but let me recap, briefly: The Matrix, is the story of Neo (Keanu Reeves) who finds the reality he lives in is a computer generated fantasy: designed to keep humanity enslaved and usable as batteries by computers.

As part of this, Neo also finds — through Morpheus (Laurewnce Fishburne) — that he’s the much talked of ‘One’.

Like I say, I’ve put in a link, above to the plot synopsis, above, so I’ll speak no more of it, here.   But it is one with deliberately inserted depths.

I’m no philosopher, I’ll admit, but one of the obvious subtexts – that reality is an illusion, controlled by others, for their purposes – isn’t hard to spot.   And probably be an interesting study, if I can find a halfway simple guide.

And I certainly can never work out whether, in the words of Douglas Adams, Larry and Andy Wachowski are “… getting needlessly messianic”.

We could carry on, couldn’t we?

And on top of that, there’s influences on, and from, other sources.

Film, the written word, and the odd bit of TV!!

Obviously, there’s tons of film I could point to.

The original Alien, and Bladerunner amongst them: there’s a lot more, according to Wikipedia, but those are the two I was thinking of, tonight, especially in terms of each film’s look and feel.

I’m also thinking The Matrix has influenced science fiction, and fantasy, after it, as well: certainly, the Underworld trilogy of films seem heavily influenced by it, in terms of action and colour palette.

Cyberpunk’s had a huge influence, here, as well.

I can’t remember when I first read Neuromancer, but William Gibson’s first and best known novel, does show its influence, here.   Neo is, in terms of the artificial reality he’s trapped in, a minor criminal hacker, and stylish with it, much like a certain Mister Henry Dorset Case, the central protagonist of  Neuromancer.

I can’t help but wonder, as well, if the Wachowskis ever saw some of the nineteen-seventies era Doctor Who?

I know that’s where I first saw the concept of a Matrix: a huge computer, or computer network, that one could directly plug oneself into, that fed an alternative reality into a users mind, and which could kill, if one wasn’t careful.

One really does wonder.

And that, I think, is kind of the point, with any half way bit of decent science fiction.   It’ll tell you a ripping good yarn.

But it can make you wonder …

To quote Julian May, “Science Fiction will never run out of things to wonder about until the human race ceases to use its brain.”.

And I think that’s a good quote to leave on, isn’t it?