Article January 1, 1999 Issue

The Matrix

Patrick Meibom

The young computer programmer Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) enters a room in which there are other candidates who, like him, are about to have an audition with the Oracle. They're all children who show transcendental abilities. Neo notices a boy clothed with a Buddhist cowl. The boy bends a silver spoon by looking at it in a very concentrated manner,

“How do you do that?” asks Neo. The boy then gives Neo one of his spoons. Neo looks at it with concentration. Nothing happens. The boy tells him: “Try not to want to bend the spoon. Become aware of the fact that the spoon doesn't exist at all. Then you will see that not the spoon, but your thoughts, will bend.” Neo concentrates a second time, and indeed the spoon bends. Appearance or reality? This scene in The Matrix takes place in an illusory world, a so-called matrix. This matrix consists of computer codes and virtually simulates today's world

In the film, people are being bred as energy dispensers by intelligent machines that have taken over the world the machines themselves have created. And these people are being held hostage in this illusory world. Those who see through the simulations of the matrix have to defend themselves against the guards, who control everything, and the agents of the machines — both in “reality” and also in the matrix world.

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