An allusion is a reference. Many allusions are used throughout the film. There are biblical, mythological and cinematical allusions. The references made to the bible are that the man receiving the hacker’s disk near the beginning of the film referred to it as his “own personal Jesus Christ.” Neo is referred to as ‘the one’. He is seen as the Messiah and like Christ he is betrayed by one of his own (Jesus betrayed by Judas/Neo betrayed by Cyfe), and he dies and is resurrected. The letters of Neo’s name rearranged spells ‘one’. Neo in Greek means ‘new’ and he has to be born anew to become ‘the one’.
Trinity, the female lead character’s name is a word used to describe the three forms of the Christian God. ‘Tri’ means ‘three’ and ‘unity’ means ‘one’, this refers to The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost.
Morpheus is the Greek God of sleep, which is ironic since he is trying to wake everyone up. Morph means shape or change shape and Morpheus’ shape in the real world is very different from that in the digital world.
Another mythological allusion is the oracle. She is a reference to the oracle at Delphi, a woman who sees into the future by looking into a bubbling cauldron. The oracle in this film is in the kitchen at her stove, which is like a modern day version of the cauldron the oracle at Delphi uses.
Another biblical allusion is made when Neo has to choose the red or the blue pill. This is similar to when Adam and Eve had to choose whether to eat the fruit of knowledge or the ordinary fruit in the Garden of Eden.
When Neo was rising from the sewers into Morpheus’ ship the ‘Nebecanezza’ it is similar to when Jesus was rising, and to when the monster rose when lifted by chains in the movie ‘Frankenstein’.
A cinematical allusion used in the film is the reference to ‘Alice In Wonderland’ this appears many times. The first of which was near the beginning of the movie when the computer told Neo to follow the white rabbit. It was referred to again when Neo had to choose which pill he was to take. Morpheus told him that if he takes the red one he will find out ‘just how deep the rabbit hole goes.’ The final time it is referred to is when Neo and Morpheus are in the loading program with the white background and Morpheus says that Neo must feel like he is Alice falling down the rabbit hole.
Also while Morpheus and Neo are in the loading program, Morpheus explains that it is similar to the matrix in the way that anything can be loaded from clothes, to furniture and, even food. When Neo touches the couch and asks whether it is real Morpheus answers with, “What is real? Define real? If real is what you can taste, touch or smell then real is just electrical signals interpreted by your brain.” This is a confusing statement and makes one wonder if anything is real. How could a person be sure of what they have lived through? If they remember their last birthday party how can they be sure it really happened and it is not just a memory planted in their brain?
How can Neo be sure that he escaped the Matrix and what he now believes is the real world is not just another part of the matrix? If this is so, how will he ever be able to tell when he has really escaped?
When Neo is first brought into the real world he is amazed by the newfound knowledge he has come upon. The knowledge that lets him know that he was not living in the real world but was lying in a pod where only his mind was active. He did not really talk or walk or even see with his own eyes. This is why when he came into the real world his eyes were sore and when he asked why, he was told it was because he had never used them before.
Plato 300 BC stated that what we see is only a shadow of what is real.
This idea is similar to that use in the film ‘Vanilla Sky’. The character in this film is sure he is living in the real world until he finds that what he believes is real is in fact just a dream. He is having a lucid dream and lying in a drawer where only his mind is active and his body is asleep. He is faced with the decision of whether to stay in this dream or re-enter the real world, where the date is not what he believed it should be, but in fact one hundred years later.
Another choice that is made in the film ‘The Matrix’ is what the oracle was to tell Neo. Neo wanted to know whether he was ‘the one’ or not. The oracle told him that either he or Morheus would die. If she then told him that he was ‘the one’ he would be sure to let Morpheus die in an effort to save himself because he would have known he was ‘the one’ and he had the power to change the Matrix. This would have never worked because Neo only truly became ‘the one’ after he died. So the oracle told him that he was not ‘the one’ therefore he would save Morpheus and let himself die which would give him the opportunity to be resurrected and become ‘the one’. The words ‘know thy self’ appeared above the door that Neo was standing under. This provokes an interesting question. The oracle asked Neo if he thought he was ‘the one’. He replied ‘no’ and she told him that he was not. If he said that he was ‘the one’, what would the oracle have said? Would she agree and say that he was or would she tell him that what he felt and believed within himself was not true and he was not in fact ‘the one.’ Existentialism – the philosophy of choice – therefore plays a big part within the film.
This film has a past/future feel to it. It follows the same plot structure as many mystery movies as it has a delayed exposition. The film uses props, such as telephones, cars, clothes and television, from different decades. The year in the matrix is later revealed as 1999 as is the year in the real world, which is closer to 2199. The aspects within the matrix seem to be set in the recent American past. The police uniforms date from the 1950’s, as do the telephones. These phones, many of which are public phones are a recurring pattern or a motif. People within the matrix are brought back to the real world through the phones.
Near the beginning of the film Neo is instructed to follow the white rabbit. This turns out to be a woman with a tattoo of a white rabbit on her shoulder. This woman is dressed in unusual clothes, which leave the audience guessing which era they might be in. She could have been wearing tribal style clothes or maybe clothes found in the seventies or even clothes that are futuristic. This leaves an opening for the audience to try and make sense of the information they already have to guess which decade they are in before it is later disclosed.
The cars within the matrix do not seem the most recent and the buildings look run-down. Since the matrix is a computer program designed by the artificial intelligence the props and objects in the world of the matrix are not real. It seems that the artificial intelligence that created the matrix chose items from anywhere in the twentieth century and situated them in the matrix in any order. The effect created by this is a slight feeling of disorientation. This is perfect since the filmmaker would want the audience to feel the same uneasiness as Neo and his fellow characters experience while trying to make sense of the so called world they live in.
To make the audience feel the same anxiety and rush as the characters feel, the film crew use different camera angles. As well as this, other film techniques are used. These can be lighting, colour or other things such as rain, which creates a sad or gloomy emotional effect. It is also used in scary scenes. The rain coming down is like the numbers scrolling down in the matrix. The numbers scrolling down is a recurring image, which appears many times throughout the film.
Colour within films gives a message. Sepia can give the idea of age. Yellow shows happiness and grey shows dullness or gloominess. Inside the Nebecanezza it is all dark and grey, this shows that the real world is dull and gloomy and it shows all the machinery in the ship.
At the beginning of the movie the first image seen is that of a computer screen and the camera zooms into it. This is to show that we are entering the digital world. There is also a voice over so we can hear Morpheus and Trinity but we do not know it is them and we do not know what they look like. This is part of the delayed exposition.
Fast camera changes from place to place show that it is fast moving and creates the effect of anxiety. When Trinity is running away from the agents the camera darts from place to place and we see through Trinity’s eyes. Various cameras would have been used to shoot this because they would have been placed in different areas to take shots from all areas and display them together so images dart everywhere. Overhead camera angles are also used. This gives the effect that someone is watching. The idea of someone watching may have come from ‘1984’ By George Orwell. In this book the main idea is that people are always watching through cameras. This may also have been where Neo’s room number comes from. The number is 101. Room 101 was referred to in the book as the room where you meet your fear.
A recurring effect throughout the film is backlighting. This is used when characters are running through corridors or dark narrow passages. It represents the light at the end of the tunnel and sometimes is there to show that there is a great distance between the character and their desired destination.
The technique of synecdoche is used in the film. This is used on the agents and the audience only sees their feet. This is used to dehumanise the agents.
‘The Matrix’ is a very complex film and has to be viewed many times to understand it properly. Even then it may not be fully understood. Numerous people worked on the film for a long time so everything put into it is there for a reason. Many people do not understand how much work is put into creating a film. When studying a film the amount of work put into it is more recognised and appreciated than if a person was to just sit down and watch the film for pure enjoyment.
