The Matrix: Film Analysis

The Matrix is a critic-renowned science fiction film directed by The Wachowski Brothers that delves into a dystopian future in which humans have been enslaved by machines to be used as a power source while their minds are trapped within a virtual reality – the matrix. The film follows the awakening of the protagonist Thomas Anderson, also known as his hacker alias Neo, from the matrix. The crew of the Nebuchadnezzar, a resistance group made up of some of the last ‘free’ humans, procure Neo from the matrix with the implication that he is the ‘one’ that has been prophesized to save humankind by freeing them en masse from the matrix. The film follows Neo’s path to fulfilling the prophecy and achieving enlightenment to ultimately transcend the

This liberation from samsara is referred to as nirvana, which signifies enlightenment and the end of the cycle of rebirth and suffering. Once a person has achieved nirvana, they become a bodhisattva, a person who has found the path to enlightenment and is liberated from suffering, who must now reveal this path to others – bodhisattvas are also called buddhas. The structure of this project seeks to prove that these themes are inherent within the film, and will be constructed as follows. Samsara is connected to the dialectic between the real world and the matrix, as well as the cycle of rebirth that Neo undergoes. The motif of Neo rejecting worldly values and ‘freeing his mind’ as Morpheus puts it is promulgated throughout the entirety of the film, which is a central aspect of escaping samsara. This is also contrasted by minor characters such as Cypher and Mouse giving into samsara in various ways, resulting in negative consequences. Next, the concept of nirvana is connected to the final rebirth of Neo, when he is able to control the matrix with his own volition after leaving behind the conditioned rules of the matrix and gaining mastery of the empirical reality through psychic powers and impossible feats. It is even

By doing so, it will further prove that religious archetypes are pervasive in popular culture and may have subtle influences on the media we consume on a day to day basis without us