A visitor named John suggested I visit several websites devoted to trying to unravel the meaning of the Matrix movies. I found two very interesting. The first a blog devoted to posting essays about the film. It can be viewed here. The second is a website by someone named The Masked Reviewer. This is an interesting site, because on it, the reviewer attempts to explain the movie - not just its philosophical meaning, but primarily the story itself - and predict the outcome of the third movie. He's kind some fairly radical interpretations of the movie - if even some of them are right, then it means we're all going to be very surprised.
One thing I'm picking up, though, is that most seem to agree that the character Bane, who apparently sabotauged the ships by hitting the EMP detonater as the machines were approaching, and thus causing Zion to lose five ships instantly, was infected by Smith. Some say that he is actually Smith himself, and not merely infected by Smith. My theory at this point is that Smith has somehow changed Bane, possibly driving him mad while still forcing him to serve as a saboteur in Zion. I base this mainly on the that scene where he is cutting his hand. This is a typical cinematic ploy - if you want to show that a person has gone mad, and that he is attempting to hide this fact so that he can more or less screw up everything by being a pain in the butt, then have the guy cut his arm or his hand while no one's looking. It reminded me of that time in The Abyss where the navy seal with the armed warhead went crazy because of the bends, and decided to fight the water creatures by arming the nuke and sending it to the depths. He was simultaneously in control of his senses and not at the same time. This, it seemed to me, was what was going on with Bane.
Somehow, I am reasoning, Smith's infection of him in the matrix changes him in reality. This could be the case, since apparently, all the humans who were freed from the Matrix are quasi-cyborgs anyway. They have all these outlets and interface connectors on their bodies, which is what enables them to have their consciousness enter in and out of the matrix. So, maybe it's got something to do with that fact. Smith's infection takes, more or less, because humans have some kind of machine-like qualities to them, as a result of having all this hard-wiring equipment in their bodies.
Also, some of the people on one of those websites are saying that there are other clues embedded within the new Matrix videogame. It is undoubtedly a good thing that the standing policy in the Cunningham household is that I can never own a Sony Playstation, whatever the version, as we collectively agree that it would be the end of me, both professionally, as well as personally, as I doubt I'd want to hang out with Miles or Paige if we owned one. When Tomb Raider 2 came out, a friend and I probablly logged roughly 60-70 hours playing that thing, until we finally beat it. It was ridiculous. I would come up for air to sleep and use the bathroom and eat, and that was just about it. So, if there are any gamers out there who have the game, please post any clues on here from time to time, as I'm interested.
Posted by Admin at May 31, 2003 10:25 AM