Art and the Machine
Have you ever read one of those stories written by an AI? At first, it can be pretty surprising that a machine can string together seemingly coherent sentences and even a plot. But when you’re done, you can’t help but laugh or scratch your head because what is produced just seems so meaningless. Well, that’s what watching the Matrix Resurrections felt like when I first saw it. It was as if all of the old elements were repurposed and cobbled together by a machine and nothing truly original was created.
But something didn’t sit quite right after the movie was over. Call it a glitch in the matrix. This uncomfortable intuition that a movie that appears to be made by the Hollywood machine as a “cash grab” on the surface is simply too self-aware. As Bugs says, “So Deja Vu and yet it’s obviously all wrong”. Perhaps the creator, Lana Wachowski, just wanted to make a bad movie on purpose in order to send a message. However, the many meta elements and easter eggs placed throughout the movie called for a deeper examination. And Bugs seems to serve as our guide in this exploration. As she says, “Maybe this isn’t the story we think it is.”
Consider the following possibility. The movie is not just meta commentary on the original trilogy and society, it’s a meta commentary on itself and its own purpose for existing. It’s self referential and it’s autobiographical. There is a deeper reality and moving emotional message that the creator is burying in this seemingly lackluster fictional work. And it’s a very personal story of her own struggles and desires. It’s her reckoning with her own legacy and asking us to remember what the original Matrix trilogy was all about.
Let’s start by going through each of the main characters and what they represent symbolically with this meta self-referential narrative in mind. If you re-watch the movie after reading this, you might find that it has much more emotional weight, meaning and impact. And it might just inspire you.
Thomas Anderson / Neo
The meta narrative of Thomas Anderson being the game designer of the Matrix video game is an obvious indication that Neo is a stand-in for Lana Wachowski herself. This is reinforced when Thomas Anderson and Tiffany chat at the Simulatte. Tiffany asks “Did you base your main character on yourself?” And Anderson responds, “There is a lot of me in him. Maybe a little too much.”
There have been rumors that Lana did not actually want to write a sequel, but that her hand was forced. I don’t know what exact truth is, but the movie essentially tells us this early on. Agent Smith, masquerading as a business partner, calls Thomas Anderson in to his office to tell him that the parent company, Warner Brothers, wants to do a sequel to the video game series, “with or without us”.
From Anderson’s initial reaction to this information to the montage of him sitting in the meetings to the conversations with his therapist, we can clearly see how this makes him feel. Disgusted, frustrated, exhausted. “This attack effectively took away your voice”, Anderson’s therapist says, echoing what Neo is feeling. This is likely how Lana felt after Warner Brothers threatened to reboot the franchise without her and effectively take control of her art.
If Lana is writing herself as the main character, one might think that she is being too self-indulgent, too enamored with herself as a kind of hero of the world. But she makes it very clear throughout the movie that this is not so much about her as someone special as it is about her personal journey and struggle with the machine that still finds herself a part of. It’s a method of coping with the situation she finds herself in. Perhaps it’s an expression of her “adaptive anger in healing trauma” as the Analyst explains to Thomas Anderson. It’s also about communicating the necessity of saving something very precious to her. Trinity.
Tiffany / Trinity
On the surface, Tiffany is Trinity, trapped in the new Matrix like Thomas Anderson. When the movie begins, we see the modal sequence replaying the beginning of the first Matrix movie. Neo has written this code as “an experiment” and in it, we see a different ending to the original sequence. Trinity, instead of successfully escaping the Agents, is captured and taken hostage.
Trinity, I believe, symbolizes her art which has been taken captive by Warner Brothers. Trinity is the original Trilogy. The term trinity comes from the Holy Trinity and has a divine connotation. Lana mentioned in an interview that the movies were always designed to be an elegant Hegelian dialectic — thesis, antithesis, synthesis. And the number 3 features prominently in symbolism throughout the movies. It’s obvious she considers this work sacred and that any thoughtless, cash-grabbing sequel is akin to blasphemy, defeating the entire purpose and message.
The trilogy takes on the feminine form and is personified as Tiffany who expresses a clear disdain for her husband and regret for having a family, but nevertheless goes along with her situation. As Tiffany tells Thomas Anderson at the Simulatte, “I remember wanting a family, but is that because that’s what women are supposed to want?” We see a relevant gender commentary about the patriarchal systems that control and manipulate women. In a similar way, it is often believed that art needs to belong to an institution, the machine. This may be Lana expressing regret for partnering with the studio for her Matrix story.
Much like women in a patriarchal system, the art has become an object that Warner Brothers has the “rights to” and can abuse for its own profit. It does so by rebooting the series as a “cash-grab” and diluting and even undermining its original message. And the machine thinks it can do as it pleases because words on a page can’t fight back. As the analyst says to Trinity in their final confrontation, “If you hated the name [Tiffany] so much, then why did you heel like a good little b**** so long?”
Lana probably feels this attack on the trilogy as a direct attack on her. After all, she poured so much of herself into the original Matrix trilogy that by abusing and trivializing her work, the company is doing the same to her. Art and artist are as inseparable as Neo and Trinity are. And their true power is unleashed only when they are together.
As the movie shows, the Hollywood machine is mistaken if it thinks the art will simply submit. I believe this is one of the hopeful messages that Lana is trying to send. Her art does indeed have the power to stand on its own and speak for itself. When Trinity decides to fight back and leave her life in the Matrix, the frustrated Analyst says, “I own that mistake. Shouldn’t have pressed. Women used to be so easy to control.” And in their final confrontation, Trinity is torturing the Analyst and overpowering him. He cries out to Neo, “Can’t you control her?”
To the casual observer, the gender commentary probably seems unnecessary and a thoughtless corporate nod to “woke” culture. But it’s much more than that. This is about art, what it represents and how we treat it today. Art, and specifically the Matrix trilogy, has the power to stand for something greater than mere entertainment. It’s more than just an object for our amusement and profit. The original trilogy is the ultimate heroine of this movie and truly has the power to make real change. In the end, it’s not Neo that saves Trinity. It’s Trinity that saves Neo.
Morpheus
Morpheus has three forms and appears in three different locations: as Agent Smith becoming self-aware in the modal, as a flashier Morpheus in the Matrix itself and then as exomorphic Morpheus in the real world. It’s fitting that his form changes because the name Morpheus comes from the Greek God of Dreams, a god that can appear in any form and also has the power to wake people up.
I believe Morpheus represents Lana’s journey writing and releasing this movie, the Matrix Resurrections, to the world. He represents the various stages of development from an early private experiment, to a committed, but difficult public endeavor and finally to a finished product. He also represents the movement of art as it evolves from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind and finally into the world at large. Art first awakens to itself, then wakes up its creator, and then finally the world.
Bugs embraces Morpheus when he first reveals himself in the modal, reflecting the recognition of the art as awakening to its real purpose, to wake up others and more importantly, to wake up its creator. We often consider the possibility that machines have sentience, but we forget that so does art. It moves the creator as much as the creator moves it.
When Morpheus appears to Neo in his flashy, yellow suit coming out of a bathroom stall, we see the confrontation between art and artist as one of initial fear and reluctance. This is Lana reckoning with what her unconscious mind is telling her that she must do. As Morpheus says Neo, “What do you mean, no? You wanted this, you did this. This was your idea.” And in this metaphor, the art is reminding its creator that she is still a part of the Matrix, the Hollywood machine, when he presents the red pill.
When Neo later accepts that he must free himself, he enters the white space where Morpheus tells him, “As to my role in all this, my best guess is that you wrote me as an algorithmic reflection of two forces that helped you become you, Morpheus and Agent Smith. A combo pack of counter-programming that was…Let’s just say more than a little bit crazy-making.” At this point the movie takes shape in written form as a reflection of these two forces, Lana’s Morpheus-like faith in her past work and hope for a better future, and her Smith-like rage at the machine that has imprisoned her and her artistic legacy.
Finally, we see Morpheus’ third form as the “exomorphic particle-codex”, which gives programs, such as Lana’s personal message, access to the world via the film industry. It works by “paramagnetic oscillation”, a collection of scenes weakly held together by some external force. Decoding the message can’t be done easily. As Bugs says “Downloading used to be fun. Now it’s all manuals and diagnostics.”
In his final version, Morpheus is a combination of machine and man. A human story embedded in a robotic shell. And it’s here that Neo shakes hands with Morpheus in the same way he shakes hands with Trinity (interestingly, a handshake occurs 3 times in the movie). “Thank you” Neo says. “It was my honor”, Morpheus responds. This represents the artist connecting with their art and expressing gratitude. Thank you for freeing me. For waking me up. For showing me what I have to do.
In the extraction mission to save Trinity, we learn that Morpheus’ role is to infiltrate the machine tower. As he says, “I get it. The exomorph slinkies up Neo’s old umbilicus. What could go wrong?” This is the movie, the final product, making its way through the Hollywood machine and embedding its message without detection. Amazingly, here we are discussing this movie and Warner Brothers may still be none the wiser as to how cutting this attack is on them. There’s a reason for that, which I’ll get into more below.
Agent Smith
Lana has a difficult choice to make when she discovers that her art is held hostage. She has to go back into the Hollywood machine to save it and prevent it from being turned into trivial entertainment. Similarly, Neo has to go back into the matrix to save Trinity. We see that Neo is eventually confronted by Agent Smith who tells him, “I have such dreams Tom. Big dreams. Well mostly just extremely violent revenge fantasies, but in order for me to pursue mine, I need to dissuade you from pursuing yours. I won’t have his leash on my neck again.”
Agent Smith is Lana’s alter ego, her shadow side. If Neo represents her journey to save the artistic legacy of the original Matrix movie even if that means working with Warner Brothers, then Agent Smith represents her desire to be completely free of the machine and instead focus purely on revenge. Lana finds herself wrestling with her shadow throughout the movie. In the end, we discover that she is able integrate it. Her rage, especially, carries her and supports her without completely consuming her.
Agent Smith also represents her pride and self-pity. In the beginning when Agent Smith is not aware that he is trapped, he seems to glory in his role as “the boss”. In contrast to Thomas Anderson, who is a “balding nerd” he is a young, handsome executive that initially takes delight in the idea of making a new Matrix 4. When he later fights with Neo along with the exiles, he condescends him, “You’ve lost something Tom. You’re not what you used to be.”
Agent Smith comes to the aid Neo and Trinity in the final showdown with the Analyst and tells the enemy that “Tom and I have more in common than you know”. He then leaves with the parting words: “Here our unexpected alliance ends. You know the difference between us Tom? Anyone could’ve been you, whereas I’ve always been anyone”. Everyone has a shadow side, but Lana is who she is because of the specific choices that she has made.
Bugs
When Morpheus asks Bugs who she is, she responds, “The name is Bugs. As in ‘Bunny’. And tech that listens.” On the surface, the name and its connotations can be unsettling. It brings to mind the idea of Big Brother and its modern manifestations with technology such as Amazon’s Echo. It’s also troubling that it refers to a Warner Brothers property. Some have interpreted this to mean Lana is using the character as a joke in order to shame the audience. See? This movie is just the corporate machine at work. This is what you wanted isn’t it? Well here it is and I made it bad on purpose.
But the brilliance here is that much like the movie itself, the reality of what Bugs represents is buried beneath this cynical wrapper. It’s by design. Bugs, in my view, actually represents Lana’s conscience and the reason she is fighting to save her artistic legacy. Bugs also represents the audiences that were deeply impacted by the original movies. Bugs is us. Me. You. The ones willing to listen and who still care about the message of the Matrix trilogy and its relevance today.
Bugs, as Lana’s conscience, is the driving force throughout the movie and therefore, the artistic process. It is Bugs that hacks into Neo’s modal and finds Morpheus. It is Bugs that saves Neo from jumping off the ledge and bringing him to see Morpheus. It is Bugs that breaks Neo out of prison in Io. It is Bugs that remains a steadfast believer in Neo and his mission. And it is Bugs that reminds us what’s important when she tells Niobe, “You care more about growing fruit than freeing minds.”
As to why she chooses the Bugs Bunny character specifically, the answer is twofold. For one, it’s a reference to the concept of a rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. Bugs is our guide throughout the movie and is someone that is willing to ask questions and dig deeper to go down the rabbit hole. But more specifically, I believe Lana is doing to the machine what it has been doing to her. Using its own property against it. After all, Bugs Bunny is a trickster that always foils the villain, who is none other than the “doctor”, the Analyst. Remember, Bugs Bunny’s signature phrase is “What’s up, doc?”
In the extraction sequence, I initially thought it was arbitrary that the only mind that’s a “near enough match” to Trinity’s to implement the bypass operation was Bugs. It didn’t make any sense to me at first, but Bugs replies confidently in that scene, “Figures.” This tells us that this was a thoughtful and deliberate choice. With this symbolism in mind, it should make sense that Bugs would have a mind that is a match to Trinity’s. Only a free mind with a conscience can help free art from the machine.
Bugs’ appearance is notable with her short, blue hair and her blue-tinted glasses. When Morpheus takes the red pill, he is disoriented and Bugs puts on blue-tinted glasses to stabilize him. The blue glasses are likely required by a freed mind to adjust back to the Matrix. This is probably because it has to match the frequency of the Matrix, which is represented by the color blue as in the blue pill. Bugs’ blue hair, therefore, makes sense as a lingering effect of the Matrix having been recently freed. Symbolically, I believe this represents the recent awakening of two forces within Lana Wachowski after spending years being lost in the Hollywood machine, her conscience and her creativity.
The Journey of The Artist
Ultimately, this movie is about Lana Wachowski’s awakening and coming to terms with the legacy of the Matrix trilogy and her own life over the last twenty years. We can see through the metaphor of Neo that despite all the praise, accolades and money she received for her work on the Matrix trilogy, she felt she had languished as the time just flew by. I believe that’s what the Analyst’s bullet-time power represents as well as the many references to Neo’s age. She’s hinting that she feels the Machine took those years away from her.
It was probably not until Warner Brothers threatened to reboot the franchise without her that she hit a crisis point and decided to change. This movie is not just reminding the audience about the purpose and message of the original Matrix trilogy, it’s telling us that Lana herself had forgotten. As Neo tells Trinity in the bike shop, “After we spoke, I realized, my life wasn’t a life. At some point I think I gave up searching for something real.” And Lana seems to feel guilty about this, questioning whether she had any impact at all.
But the journey is one of hope and resolve. Hope that her movies did in fact have an impact and still remain relevant today. Despite the fall of Zion, we see Io thriving, especially in their partnership with machines. She has many allies and is not alone in her quest. And in her resolve to fight for what the original movies were all about, we see her reignited with passion and reawakened to her purpose, no matter how diminished she feels her abilities have become after all these years.
Making this movie seems to have been a freeing experience for Lana. And I think it’s very brave and inspiring that she put herself and her story out there in a such a vulnerable way. It’s clear she intended to make this movie as a work of art without worrying about the reviews, the money, or how entertaining audiences will find it. She simply wanted to tell her story and remind herself and others why art, passion, and authenticity are more important than ever. And to do that using the Machine’s $200mm budget? That’s an extraordinary accomplishment given how the Machine works.
The Hollywood Machine
How is it that a movie like this got made? How does the machine not see what was unleashed onto the world and how this is a direct attack on it to save the legacy of the Matrix movies? Well, we are shown throughout the movie how the machine thinks and what its limitations are.
When Thomas Anderson sees Tiffany enter the Simulatte, Jude says “Oh yeah. There she is. Total f’ing MILF.” And when he shakes her hand, her son calls out, “Hey you trying to ball my mom or what?” To the Machine, this connection between Neo and Trinity is nothing but sexual tension. It’s reduced to biological chemistry. And it believes this is what allows it to generate so much energy. Of course, the machine can’t understand that something far deeper and more powerful is at work here. To the machine, “love” is just another word for “sex”.
At a business meeting discussing the fourth Matrix video game, we once again see the Machine misunderstand something fundamental. A marketing executive says the top two keywords from their focus group research are “originality” and “fresh” “which I think are great things to keep in mind as you begin working on Matrix 4.” It speaks as if these terms have meaning or utility for an artistic project. As if “originality” is some repeatable, algorithmic process. But the machine doesn’t understand that. After all, how could it? A machine can only see superficial patterns and never their deeper meaning. All it can do is identify, label and reduce.
One can imagine how Warner Brothers execs would respond to the pitch and the script for this movie. It has meta dialogue? Check. It has philosophical exposition? Check. Cool fight scenes? Check. New swarm mode? Cool. Check. Nostalgic elements with old characters, villains and scenes from the original movies? Check. Bullet time? Check. It does appear you mention us here in a meta dialogue about the making of the Matrix 4 video game. But it’s a small reference so it’s not a big deal. We’ll let it slide. Identify, label, reduce. Only a machine would think of an artistic project as a checklist.
In a sense, we should pity the machine. And yet, we worship it.
Deus Machina
Here we are in 2022 and it seems most are still trapped in the Matrix. As the movie alludes to, it really does feel as if the machines have won and have taken over. Not by enslaving us against our will, but by making us believe the machine is superior and that we should discard our humanity to achieve our goals. Even worse, we falsely believe our goal is to simply acquire as much as possible and to never be satisfied. To desire what we don’t have and to fear losing what we do. As the Analyst says “For 99.9% of your species, that is the definition of reality. Desire and fear, baby.”
It’s understandable why we worship the machine. We’ve become terrified of the unknown. We crave predictability, no matter how illusory that actually is. We want to feel assured that as long as we follow some algorithm, everything in life will work out neatly. And in our fear, we feed the machine. We reduce reality. And we lose touch with our humanity. As the Analyst says in his final speech, “The sheeple aren’t going anywhere. They like my world. They don’t want this sentimentality. They don’t want freedom or empowerment. They want to be controlled. They crave the comfort of certainty.”
I’ve personally observed this machine-like thinking in my own experience in the world of startups and technology. The industry employs a reductionist data-driven approach and has a mindless obsession with KPIs (key performance indicators). Users are sheep to be “nudged” and herded into a marketing funnel. Employees are merely replaceable, interchangeable “resources”. And the only metric that matters is growth, which the venture capital machine feeds on.
The world of entertainment seems to be no different. With few exceptions, television and movies today feel devoid of real meaning and purpose. The machine is more interested in viewer engagement by appealing to our reptilian brain than it is in pushing the boundaries and producing original works of art. And that makes sense. The machine wants a repeatable process and guaranteed outcomes based on past results. But as long as we keep feeding the machine as a mindless bot and addict, we will never hear new stories, we will never evolve and we will never truly be free.
The Message
I found the montage of those business meetings at the beginning of the movie to be both hilarious and tragic. By summarizing what the trilogy is about through the mouthpiece of corporate executives, we are being told what it’s not. No, its not about “crypto-fascism” or “corporate exploitation”. That doesn’t mean these aren’t legitimate issues or are even partially referenced, but they miss the larger point. It’s also most certainly not about “bullet time” and it’s not “philosophy mind porn”.
So what is it about? It’s about the systems that control us, manipulate us, gaslight us and use us for its own ends. It’s about the importance of waking up and seeing reality as it is in order make meaningful progress. It’s about telling the Truth in a world of lies. It’s about having the courage to explore new territory, face the unknown and remind others of their humanity. Most importantly, it’s about the untapped power of love, art, and discovering that we are so much more than our modern machine-driven society would lead us to believe.
