Common Matrix Reloaded Misconceptions

After The Matrix came out, few thought that the Wachowski Brothers would be able to top themselves. And with such high prospects for The Matrix Reloaded, it would be impossible to meet everyone’s expectations. No matter what you’re opinion was of the second Matrix movie, you couldn’t deny that it had you thinking.

I didn’t feel the need to write what you’re about to read until I heard a guy talking loudly about the movie in a bookstore a few weeks ago. Someone asked if he had seen the movie and what he thought about it. He went off about how the movie had no plot, everything was pointless, and there was no reason to have two new Matrix movies.

Most of what he said was based off of misconceptions, and with a storyline this complex, one can understand the confusion. But I don’t understand the close-mindedness. With that said, there seems to be two camps of people right now: Those who don’t understand the movie and dismiss it as being “lame” and “too philosophical”, and those who don’t understand the movie, yet feel they probably just need to think through it some more and see it again.

I write this article to help those in the second camp along in their journey. As for those in the first camp, when you’re ready, feel free to read this.

Misconception I: Zion is destroyed
The first misconception that people tend to have is that Zion is destroyed. It’s not. At the end of the movie, some soldiers from Zion describe a battle in which the sentinels slaughtered the humans. This battle did not take place at Zion, but at one of the main pipelines that the humans counterattacked the machines at.

It was never stated that Zion had even been attacked, let alone destroyed.

Misconception II: The dancing in Zion was an “orgy”
The five-minute sequence where all of Zion is dancing while Neo and Trinity make love is the scene I’ve heard the most complaints about. I have nothing to say to defend this scene except that it was only five minutes and what do you expect a near-extinct society to be doing thousands of miles underground?

But the thing I hear people say that is just way off base is that this scene is an orgy. Baffled by this, I have tracked down the origins of this concept to a Time Magazine article in which the scene was described as so: “The Zionists engage in a muddy but sedate orgy…” This article came out a few weeks before the movie and every Matrix freak alike picked it up and started telling the world that we can all expect an “orgy” in Zion. And even though the scene was nothing more than 250,000 people dancing to drums, people thought in their heads, “Oh, this must be the orgy that I heard about.”

Twist it how you want to, but Time said that it was an orgy and people believed it. George Orwell described this as double-think: Believing the exact opposite of what you know to be true.

Misconception III: The Merovingian is a previous “One”
The Merovingian is a previous “One” just like Neo? This theory again baffles me and comes from people not seeing the movie more than once. But as soon as someone gets this idea in his or her head, they tend to argue it to the death. So I will simply say that the Merovingian is not a previous “One” like Neo. The Oracle refers to him as a “very powerful program”. The Merovingian says things to Neo like, “Your predecessors had more respect” and “I survived your predecessors and I will survive you.”

But the main point to kill off this misconception is that if the Merovingian is a previous “One”, then the entire plot is thrown into nonsense as The Architect clearly says that “The function of the One is now to return to the source…” and “Failure to comply with this process will result in a cataclysmic system crash killing everyone connected to the matrix…” If the Merovingian is a previous “One”, that means he didn’t return to the tource and the Matrix should have fallen apart.

Misconception IV: The Merovingian’s “Spanish Fly” cake was pointless
I too, at first, thought the whole scene with the Merovingian giving the scantly clad blonde girl the Spanish Fly cake was pointless. I’m sure you remember the scene. The Merovingian almost goes into a trance describing what his cake does to the girl and she seems to have an orgasm.

Kinky? Definitely. Pointless? Not in the least.

One of the many themes being portrayed throughout The Matrix series is the concept of machines becoming human-like. We see this in the first film as Agent Smith becomes impatient with Morpheus. Although his fellow agents maintain their robot-like composure, Smith theorizes about human existence and complains about smells.

This theme is continued in the second movie as the Oracle talks about her love of candy, Smith holds a grudge, and the Merovingian’s wife wants a kiss from Neo.

Now before we all pass this off as the filmmakers taking their poetic license to the extreme, consider this: tf the machines are able to create programs that can simulate every aspect of the human senses, couldn’t the machines take those same programs and use them on themselves? To understand the human senses, the machines must feel the human senses.

In the attempt to control humans by using their own feelings and emotions against them, the machines have become susceptible to the same human-like nature themselves. The Merovingian is a program fully infected by the human sensory and playing to every desire he has from it, no matter how kinky it may be.

Misconception V: The millions of Agent Smiths were pointless
The scene with Neo fighting 100 Agent Smiths is one of the more intense scenes of the movies. Out of all the action sequences, this is the one people seem to complain about. I typically hear things like “What was the point of it?” and “It just got ridiculous.”

Well, the scene was a mere seven minutes long and it was full of unrealistic kung-fu. The Wachowski Brothers originally intended this movie to be a comic book series, so the whole film is like a comic book. But people can’t seem to get past Neo taking on 100 Smiths in true superhero style.

Again, a point is being made in this scene. In the first film, Agent Smith compared the human race to a virus. He said they go to an area and multiply “until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area.” He goes on to say, “Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague. And we are… the cure.”

The irony is that Smith himself has become the virus as he infects everything he touches within the Matrix and creates a new copy of himself.

Understanding the movie
There’s no doubt in the my mind that the Wachowski Brothers have some more curve balls to throw at us when The Matrix Revolutions hits theaters, and so trying to fully understand the second film is not entirely possible. But that doesn’t mean we can’t try.

Other than seeing the movie again, watch the first one beforehand. This will help tie things together. Dialogues and scenes had completely new meaning when I watched the first film back-to-back with the second film.

Also, read over The Architect scene. A full transcript is available online and I think we’ll all agree that it’s needed.

Most of all, be open-minded. The Wachowski Brothers have had this whole series planned out before they started filming it. Just because you didn’t understand the movie entirely in the first sitting, doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s a little more complex than The Scorpion King and should be treated as so.

Yes, it’s a cliffhanger, but so are The Empire Strikes Back and The Two Towers. It’s a “trilogy”. Deal with it.

Common Matrix Reloaded Misconceptions

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