Matrix Allegories

The Matrix trilogy of films contain many subtextual references to Myths, Philosophies, Religions, and Computing terms, both ancient and modern.

This page contains Spoilers which may reduce your enjoyment of the films if you read further.

Neo: Anagram of "One" as in TheOne?. A Jesus-Christ-like figure. In Zion the people worship him and bring offerings to his door. His Christlike status is evident when he is taken back into the Heaven of the MachineWorld? in Revolutions.

Morpheus: Initially a Christian "Father" (God) figure, later becomes a JohnTheBaptist? figure of Christian belief. Gives Neo the RedPill? which makes Neo Born Again in a form of Baptism. Morpheus was the god of dreams.

Cypher Eating Steak: "I know it's not real, but it tastes like steak". The last supper of Jesus with Judas - "This is my flesh"

Trinity: The missing member of the Christian Holy Trinity - the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Breathes life back into Neo.

SimulationsAndSimulacra? by Bouillard: Neo takes a copy of SimulacraAndSimulations? from a shelf. This work by JeanBaudrillard? is a deep philosophical treatise on the meaning of reality, and how people are already living in the fourth level of a redirected and simulated world. In the film, the book is not really a book (geddit?) because it is a concealed hiding place for a computer disk containing a virtual world, desired greatly by the druggie type characters he deals with. The film book's chapter on Reality is not is the same place as in the real book.

Persephone: The wife of the Frenchman = The unwilling wife of Hades, forced to live with him in Hell in Greek mythology.

Mobil Ave. = Anagram of Limbo - Milton and Dante's antechamber to Hell. Neo finds that walking between stations brings him back to the same place. Perhaps The Subway Loop = a computing Infinite Loop (programmer's error)

RamaChandra?: Working for the Frenchman and later trapped in Mobil Ave = Indian god

Agent Smith: The Devil/Lucifer perhaps? The "Sound of Inevitability". Utterly set against the concept of Free Will. In Computer Terms - A virus