On Finally Understanding The Matrix Sequels

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Published 2018-09-29
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For fifteen years, I’ve assumed that the Matrix Sequels were irredeemable failures. But looking back on them with fresh eyes reveals a pair of films that are exhilarating, interesting, and sometimes hilarious. In this video I try to make sense of these two movies, and what they have to say about free will and the systems that control society.

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Works Cited:

DRAGUNOIU, DANA. “Neo's Kantian Choice: ‘The Matrix Reloaded’ and the Limits of the Posthuman.” Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, 2007, pp. 51–67. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44030393. www.jstor.org/stable/44030393?read-now=1&loggedin=…

For more on Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative read: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals.

More Matrix analysis:

Chelsea L. Shephard. “Call Trans Opt: Transgender Themes in The Matrix.” ontologicalgeek.com/call-trans-opt-transgender-the…

Moviebob’s “Really That Good: THE MATRIX.”    • Really That Good: THE MATRIX  

Wisecrack’s Matrix videos:
The Matrix Reloaded: What Went Wrong?    • The Matrix Reloaded: What Went Wrong?...  
The Matrix Reloaded: What were they thinking? – Show Me The Meaning! LIVE   • The Matrix Reloaded: What were they t...  
The Matrix Revolutions: What Went Wrong?   • The Matrix Revolutions: What Went Wro...  
The Matrix Revolutions: Profound or Poorly Thought Out? – Show Me The Meaning! LIVE   • The Matrix Revolutions: Profound or P...  

Freewill, Fate, Causality in The Matrix Reloaded: montalk.net/metaphys/70/freewill-fate-and-causalit…

Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/

All Comments (20)
  • @murfdog19
    I began dating my wife, Melissa Anderson, in 2005. Ive dressed as Agent Smith for Halloween every year since, just so I could say "Hello, Mr. Anderson" to my father in law.
  • @mrsticky005
    The Matrix Trilogy is really just live action anime.
  • I guess this is why I love Matrix: I am " someone who loves philosophical conversations and also enjoys ridiculously over the top action sequences " I am the target audience
  • @benedictifye
    The Merovingian's line "Choice is an illusion created between those with power and those without," foreshadows the Architect's scene in that the Machines are trying to offer the humans a choice but to constrain it to make the choice come out in their favor.
  • @Nani-zl8mq
    Good thing neo took the blue pill and became john wick
  • @michaelnone1437
    "The only way to live in an unfree world is to make yourself so absolutely free that your very existence becomes an act of rebellion" Albert Camus
  • I've always been partial to the idea that, when he's heard that there were other Ones before him, Neo suddenly realizes "Wait, this has happened before. Time and again, they've chosen that door. Just to mess with your head, I'm going to choose this door, save the woman I love, and save Zion for real. How do you like them drumsticks, Col. Sanders?"
  • @Lilliathi
    Joke's on you, 15 year old me thought the architect's speech was amazing.
  • @DanCreaMundos
    "Listening to some guy explain philosophy for 15 minutes at a time"... The video lasts 15 minutes... I see what you did there o.ó
  • @esyphillis101
    When Neo says "It was inevitable" it was his way of goading Smith into assimilating him, thus ensuring his own demise. He was tricking him.
  • The Matrix franchise is one of the most thought-provoking movies of all time
  • I love the scenes with The Architect. It's silent, but tense, and if you pay attention to what he's saying it is actually easy to follow. It's brilliantly done, because it actually feels like a computer outputting data rather than a person communicating an idea. Cold, precise, and unrelenting. Can you imagine if they did the typical "super-villain" thing, having the architect all emotional and evil?! That would have been a major flaw.
  • @Matheus072
    Matrix 4 guys... Was it really inevitable?
  • I think The Matrix Reloaded is pretty good. It ends on an amazing cliffhanger. My issue with Revolutions is that it seems like an inordinate amount of time in the film is taken up by a subplot where the guy who played Michael on Lost pilots a Gundam
  • 6:21 Neyo choosing to ''help others'' by french kissing some hot chick must have been the most difficult one of all, I felt for him!
  • @jaredjenkins99
    The Matrix trilogy is so empowering to me because essentially when you watch it, every single scene builds up to the one moment: “Why do you persist?” “Because I choose to” That one line without context is quite poor but because nearly everything we’ve seen is telling us that free will doesn’t actually exist, it’s immensely powerful. Because whether or not he even has free will in that moment, whether or not his choice to keep fighting is just a matter of everything that’s happened to him up to that moment, HE STILL CHOOSES TO FIGHT. Even if it’s not really a choice, he doesn’t care. He’s going to fight anyway. And because of that fact he’s going to win. And that’s amazing.
  • @bobcatgaze
    "So why did he actually go through this door?" To rage against the machine my dude... to rage against the machine.
  • @SnipeMD
    There is no paradox tbh. Neo saying "Because I choose to." isn't a response to Smith, but rather him making the realization that his "choice" to resit is keeping him from winning. It's like what the Oracle said in the second movie, "You didn't come here to make a choice, the choice has already been made. Now you have to understand it." Neo letting Smith absorb him is Neo understanding the choice that has already been made and letting Smith take control of his body for the Machines to deal with him is the understanding of said choice.