The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - 58 questions

Question: This is the 6th iteration of Matrix and Neo succeeds in killing Smith by unbalancing the equation. But doesn't the equation get unbalanced when the previous 5 Neos don't succeed and die?????

Answer: Smith's being "set free" by Neo is something new to this iteration of the Matrix. The previous iterations simply ended and began anew, as was the machines' plan.

Question: Neo stopped five sentinels in the end of Matrix Reloaded, so why did he ask the Oracle in the beginning of The Matrix Revolutions to explain to him how could he stop four sentinels?

Answer: Because he misremembered. It was pretty high-stress moment and he blacked-out immediately. Not surprising he'd be a little hazy on the details.

Question: The film states that Smith infected every single person in the Matrix. If that's the case, when the source deletes Smith, shouldn't that kill everyone in the Matrix? It killed Neo after all.

Answer: It only killed Neo because the termination signal was sent directly through him. Everyone else was simply freed of Smith's corruptive programming.

Question: I hope I'm not missing anything, but why do the machines allow Zion to be rebuilt each time the Matrix is renewed, the code returns to the source, etc. etc. and everything basically starts over? If people can consciously free themselves from The Matrix, fair enough, but wouldn't it just be easier for the machines to detach them, de-tank them and dunk them like they did to Neo? Otherwise they are in effect, re-creating their own enemies over and over again.

Answer: The machines use the humans as power so it stands to reason that they would want to hold onto as many humans as possible (even defective/inefficient ones). The Architect, in his enormous speech in Reloaded, states that the Zion "solution" was an acceptable (from the machine point-of-view) way of dealing with people who rejected the Matrix (less than 1% of the total pod-people population). Those freed would then free others who also reject the matrix (this is desirable for the machines as the disbelief could spread and result in more rejecting the matrix resulting in "crashes"). Once the Zion population gets too big the machines eradicate it and start again. So, yes, the machines are creating their own enemies, but strictly on their terms as part of the plan to keep the matrix going.

Question: This applies to both Revolutions and the first Matrix film really - why do the machines have no security around the Matrix itself? In the first film, Morpheus and co. are able to fly near enough to extract Neo once he's been de-tanked, and in Revolutions Neo and Trinity fly right by it - do the machines not think Zion might ever try and disable their main/only source of power, thus beating them once and for all?

Answer: The vast majority of the machines live in one central "Machine City" which we see in this movie and is located somewhere in the middle east (The Animatrix:The Second Renaissance), the huge towers we see Neo in when he is first freed are scattered around the earth built on the remnants of the human mega-cities (New York/London/Tokyo/etc). This means that a) they are very very big and b) they are very spread out. The tower/cities are protected by Sentinel patrols (and possibly other defences) and the amount of damage one lone Zion ship can cause is insignificant at best and it's implied that the machines have control over the creation of new humans, so any pod-people lost could quickly be "manufactured" and replaced.

Question: What exactly do the machines do on a day-to-day basis? What's their reason for existing? Is it solely to maintain and perfect the Matrix, develop more efficient programmes and hunt down the remaining humans? Are they planning universal domination? Or just designing more cute inquisitive little metal spiders with which to fill their cities?

Answer: The machines tried to peacefully found their own nation before the war that sent the last of the human race underground. So their society would not be entirely unlike our own. They perform tasks similar to a society based on agriculture would. They are not planning any sort of domination. They just wanted to be free and respected as mankind's equals. Humanity wouldn't have it, so they did what they had to do to survive.

Question: During Neo's final fight with Smith it looks as if Smith has turned every living person (including other "human" programmes) in The Matrix into versions of himself - have The Merovingian and Persephone also been captured and morphed? It's an odd thought that these two seemingly powerful figures would have given up without a fight, although The Oracle was turned too so it might not be implausible. Any mention of them again in any other media?

Answer: ##The Oracle deliberately choose to be assimilated so she could help Neo in the final fight. The Merovingian (and Persephone) had access to the Trainman and so, most likely, would have either hid in the machine world or in the Trainman's half-way Mobile Station. The both played a large role in the (now defunct) Matrix Online Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Game.

Question: If the machines have managed to locate Zion, wouldn't it have been easier for them to try and find the main door through which all the hovercrafts fly and blast their way through that, as opposed to digging through a HELL of a lot of pure rock to get into the city?

Answer: To do so, they'd have to search a vast labyrinth of tunnels under the earth, contending with human ships, booby traps, dead ends and so forth, plus they can guarantee that they'll be facing a defensive bottleneck of apocalyptic proportions. Once they establish the location, much easier to just take the direct route and drill straight down to it, rather than waste time and resources attempting to locate the entrance used by the human ships. Plus the drilling method has the added advantage of bypassing most of the Zion defence grid and putting their forces directly into the dock, rather than having to battle their way there.

Question: Do the film's writers/creators ever explain why the machines choose to use humans as a power source over other, more efficient power sources such as nuclear power? (Nuclear power would require infinitely less maintenance and produce an infinitely higher power yield).

Answer: Nuclear power requires fuel. If we switched to 100% nuclear power, we would run out of uranium in less than 200 years. Not a very good long term plan for machines who plan to live forever.

Question: Why does The Merovingian call Seraph 'Judas'?

Answer: Seraph previously worked for the Merovingian, but left him to protect the Oracle, thus the Merovingian considers that Seraph has betrayed him.

Question: What exactly is the machine entity known as 'Deus Ex Machina'? Is it a physical representation of the machines? Or a separate being all together?

Answer: The physical machine itself would serve a purpose around the machine city and it may be coincidental that that specific machine was used to communicate with Neo, but whilst talking to Neo it is a representative of the Machine Collective, an ambassador or diplomat of sorts.

Question: It's been stated that Seraph is a former angel programme left over from a previous Matrix. Then why does one of The Merovingian henchmen refer to him as wingless?

Answer: A Seraph is the highest level of God's angels, typically depicted with six wings (three pairs), the joke refers to the fact that Seraph physically has no wings in the matrix and that he now no longer works for the machines and so is also meant as a "fall from grace" jibe.

Question: What exactly did the Architect mean when he said to the Oracle, "You played a very dangerous game"?

Answer: By encouraging Neo to go to the machine city and negotiate a peace contract she has upset the Architect's "perfect" world. The Architect, ruled by brutal logic, has a method that is tried and true; the death and rebirth of Neo and Zion, the Oracle has created a new order of things and has allowed Zion to survive, throwing a rather large spanner in the Architect's plans.

Question: What is it that Captain Mifune shouts to the other people in the APUs after the digger has drilled through, just before the sentinels come through the hole? I've listened many times, but still can't work it out.

Answer: "Knuckle up" meaning to load the guns.

Question: What are some of the plot points that are covered between Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions within the "Enter the Matrix" video game?

Answer: The game covers the retrieval from a post office of the information about the sentinels digging (information we see dropped at a post box in the Animatrix), the escape from the ambush at the start (ie. what's happening inside while Neo fights the agents), Ghost and Niobe getting into the matrix and ending up in a car behind Morpheus, further exploration of the mansion the Keymaker's held in (including more details on the type of program Persephone kills, ie. vampire-like), the destruction of the power plant, and Niobe's arrival at the end in her ship. In terms of specific plot, from memory there's nothing particularly significant - the game fleshes out minor events not seen in the film, but there's no particularly new information.

Question: Do the names Sati, Rama-Kandra, and Kamala have special significance in Hindu culture or meanings in Hindi?

Answer: Rama-Kandra is the combination of two ancient Hindu figures. Rama is the seventh incarnation of the god Vishnu and known for being a memorable hero. Kandra is the Hindu god of fertility. Then Rama-Kandra can be linked to the movie as the father of Sati (connected with fertility) and the man with wisdom and virtuosity (he talks with Neo about love and honour). Kamala is referred in Hindu tradition as counterpart for other gods, mainly because she represents the feminine side of the material world. Sati, on the other hand, does not refer to a god, but to an ancient Hindu ritual in which a man's wife can achieve deification and redemption by casting herself onto the funeral pyre of her husband and burning to death through self-immolation. We can relate the name Sati with the sacrifice Neo does to save the world.

Question: Sati is the daughter of two programs..I really don't understand how two programs can mate. How's it possible?

Answer: Some Matrix programs have become so sophisticated that they are self-aware and much like humans. Keeping with that, Sati's "parents" wrote her using some of their own code, thus, she is their daughter.

Question: Does anyone know how long the war with the machines has actually been going on or what year it actually is in the real world?

Answer: I don't think anybody knows - Morpheus says in the first film that the year is not 1999 as Neo thinks, but closer to 2199, but they don't know for sure. They just know the war started 'early in the 21st century' so presumably anywhere between 2000-2025.

Question: Which Smith does Neo fight at the end in the Super Brawl? I ask because at the end you see a shot of the Oracle lying unconscious in the middle of the street in the pouring rain, hinting maybe it was Oracle Smith Neo fought, to rub in the irony that the machine that was most behind the human's cause was the one to do them in. So which Smith was it? Original Smith, Oracle Smith, one of the other programs Neo encountered, or just a generic Smith?

Answer: It's made clear that's it's Oracle Smith when he says "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo" in the pit. It's unclear which Smith assimilates the Oracle (they're technically all identical), but it seems likely there's only one "Oracled" Smith.

Question: Did the filmmakers gave a reason why there were numerous biblical references in the trilogy?

Answer: The movies are about the coming of savior (Neo/Jesus), a war to end the world (Armeggedon), an evil force that enslaves mankind (machines/AntiChrist), etc., etc., etc. Since the Bible is greatest common point of cultural reference in Western culture, it would be extremely hard to make a movie with this plot without making a Biblical reference to some degree. Even if it had been made by Bollywood about Vishnu and Krishna, when shown in the West it could have had Biblical comparisons drawn.