My question is: where do you see fate and / or free will in the movie?
Neo seems to disagree with the concept of fate (or the more technical term, determinism) "I don't like to think that I'm not in control of my life." In fact, he seems to use free will by choosing the blue pill over the red pill when Morpheus gives him the options.
There are other scenes where Morpheus seems to give Neo choices - "I'm just trying to show you the door. You're the one who has to walk through it" - right before they go to visit the Oracle. Morpheus also seems to make the choice to sacrifice himself when the agents attack the group in order to capture Neo. Also, Neo appears to make the choice to go back into the Matrix to save Morpheus. Even the Oracle tells Neo, "you don't believe in all that fate crap. You're in control of your own life."
But, I think that all of these "choices" are fated to happen because of a number of factors, many of which can be traced back to the Oracle's prophecies:
1. Morpheus believes so strongly in the prophecy that he would be the person to find The One that he sacrificed himself to the agents. "I did what I did because I had to. I did what I did because I believe that search is over."
2. Neo would have chosen the red pill because of his natural curiosity, his inner determinism, that drove him to find the answers to the questions burrowing in his brain;
3. Trinity, Apoc, Tank and the others of the Nebuchadezzar follow Morpheus wherever he believes they need to go, even if it means their deaths.
4. The Matrix is, in fact, slavery - a contentment program for those who power the machines. There are no choices to be made b/c the people that live in reality carefully choose those who seem to be discontent with their lives.
Cypher is the only character who has made a choice of free will when he decides to betray Morpheus and Neo. He has lived in the "real world" for nine years and chooses to go back into the Matrix (though Agent Smith would most likely kill him regardless of the promise), because he feels discontent with Morpheus, his promises, and his need for mindless enjoyment (the steak).
Your question: Agree or disagree with the fate/ free will assertion in The Matrix? Why? If you believe that there is some element of free will that I have overlooked, please let me know.
250 words minimum. Due Tuesday, April 16.
With the combination of the Matrix and the Oracle, I don’t really feel like anybody other than of course Cypher, who decided to betray Morpheus and the others living in the free world, has free will. In the Matrix, the people are in a simulated reality, so while it may appear to them that they are able to act on their own feelings and judgments, they can’t. In reality they are floating (unable to move) in vats that provide energy for the robots, and I don’t think that that constitutes free will. The individuals who had escaped the Matrix system are probably closer to what I would consider to be people acting on free will. The only reason that I think contradicts with the idea of these people as “free willers” is that they visited the oracle. Since the oracle reveals people’s futures, this essentially takes the idea of free will out of the picture. Take Neo, for example, who didn’t necessarily believe in fate. Even though he may have felt that his actions would lead to another destination than was predicted by the oracle, they didn’t. Neo’s along with all the other futures that were predicted turned out exactly as was said. So you have Neo, who is trying to prove the oracle wrong, and Morpheus, who takes the prophecy as the most important thing in the world, who both end up fulfilling their respective prophecies. The only other significant characters in the movie are the robots, who obviously aren’t freewilled due to their programming, and the agents, who again are just programs. I like the reason Neo provides for why he doesn’t believe in fate “I don’t like to think that I’m not in control of my own destiny,” but based on the facts the movie provides, he like mostly everyone, has already had his fate sealed.
ReplyDeleteAlex Lurz
I agree with your assertion of fate versus free will in “The Matrix.” I don’t think that there are any situations from the movie where true free will exists. People are led to believe that there are choices, sure, but everything that transpires is fated to happen. Even the small so-called “options” are part of a path that has already been forged, whether the characters know it or not. It sounds more cut-and-dry than it really is, but each significant event leads to the eventual goal, which is the continued infiltration of the Matrix. All the choices that Morpheus offers Neo in the beginning are simply questions he already knows the answer to; since he believes that Neo is The One, he rationalizes that someone who wants to know the truth won’t swallow the pill that takes him back to a fake world. Similarly, he can guess that Neo will want to hear what the Oracle has to say because he’ll want to reinforce the theory that he is, indeed, The One. The same goes for the Oracle – fate is still at work due to the fact that it tells him exactly what he needs to hear in order to save the world, acting the part of The One despite not believing that’s who he is. Even Cypher’s betrayal was fated to happen because if he hadn’t skipped out on Morpheus and killed the crew, Neo wouldn’t have been left in the subway to face Agent Smith and learn the universal truth, which helped him outsmart the Matrix. Free will has an excessively limited role in this movie, which is ironic, because that’s essentially what it’s about.
ReplyDeleteErin L.
in the matrix, Neo is constantly confronted with fate and prophesies and the oracle and all else determinant; however, he also spends the whole film asserting his freedom of choice and his free will, and how he in no way believes that fate crap. people arguing fate will always point out that the oracle is never wrong, and that by the end of the movie, neo goes full blown awesome; proponents of free will will always put up cypher as a shining example of choice (but what if, just as Judas, cypher was fated to betray them and cause the incident that had caused Neo's rebirth?). both, however, are wrong; both free will and a measure of fate exist. imagine you are vacationing in Florida; not currently, but you are about to be on your way. you8 decided to drive, and can't figure out which road take; which place to visit along the way. no matter which route you choose, your destination stays the same; no matter what route you choose, you are inevitably fated to end up in Florida. Life (though far more complicated) is just the same; though the destination(s) are set in fate, the path you take is subject to choice, and to free will. Neo was fated to leave the Matrix, to be reborn, and to become the One; Morphieus was fated to be captured, and give Neo the choice; Cypher was fated to be the Judas of the group: but saving Morphieus, taking the pill, and all other choices not set by fate were decisions, paths, that the characters had the make and to take all on their own.
ReplyDeleteI think that the existence of the oracle as a character in the matrix at all sort of eliminates any possibility of free will. As much as Neo boasts about how he makes his own decisions, he was still subject to the oracle’s prophesies. Every single thing that the oracle said would happen did, at least, when she was speaking truthfully. While it may seem like Cypher made his own choice to go back into the matrix, that was most likely fated as well based on his attitude about the nature of life. He may have been as predisposed to want to rejoin the matrix just as much as Neo was predisposed to oppose it. Morpheus was following his destiny to find the one based on what the oracle said exactly, giving more proof that fate is largely at work in the matrix. Even Trinity believed in her fate so much that it essentially made Neo invincible. Now you can say all you want about the prophesies being self fulfilling but that doesn’t change the fact that there is little evidence contrary to the idea of fate in the movie as a whole. While Cypher and Neo both make major decisions in the matrix this doesn’t necessarily mean that they had free will. Especially with Neo’s decisions it seems like his decisions were fated to happen and that although he was given a choice about what exactly he would do, he knew that a choice would have to be made.
ReplyDeleteDenny Walsh
I believe that there are definitely aspects of fate and free will in the movie the matrix. I’ll start with fate aspects. Firstly, anyone who is in the Matrix, obviously, doesn’t have free will. But that is very apparent. I do believe that fate exists in other parts of the movie as well, even in situations that appear to be free will. If Neo is “The Chosen One” then it must mean that someone had to have predetermined his actions, or else how could he be presented with these opportunities to be “The One”? Also, the situation that Neo would have to choose between his and Morpheus’s life must have been predetermined or else how could the Oracle have predicted it. Also, I believe that Neos training and actions were all predetermined by Morpheus until after the first meeting with the Oracle. Then, when he makes the choice to go rescue Morpheus, I believe he finally for the first time gets to have free will in his life. Many of the workers I do not believe have free will, even when they were presented with the knowledge Morpheus gave them, I think Morpheus knew that they would choose the red pill. So that could be considered fate instead of free will. However, I do believe that there are some aspects of free will in the movie. Once people are freed from the Matrix they are exposed to a world that actually exists and they have the power to take their lives back. Morpheus I believe has the most free will out of all the characters because he leads the team and he has the power to free people from the Matrix. Neo uses his free will when he decides to save Morpheus. But I believe a lot of what he this is free will was really predetermined, like I state before. Overall I believe there is some free will and some fate in The Matrix.
ReplyDeleteCarly Yashinsky
I believe that Cypher acted with some free will when he betrayed humanity but I disagree that he was the only example of real free will in the movie. Cypher did make a choice that the oracle hadn’t foreseen but the choice he made was to go back to the Matrix. I think that because the Matrix had already left an impression on Cypher and because of the type of person Cypher is, that Cypher was destined to try to return to the Matrix. Therefor, Cypher isn’t acting out of free will as much as he seems to be. He definitely made a choice on his own but he had major influence regarding his choice. I think the Oracle is another example of freewill in the movie. She decided to tell Neo what he needed to hear so that he would fulfill his destiny as The One. She makes it clear however that he may fail. The Oracle makes a conscience, free willed decision to lie to Neo and tell him he isn’t the one so that humanity has a fighting chance at rebellion against the robots. The robots also had free will (some of them anyways). They made the decision to enslave humanity and degrade them to batteries. Humanity made the decision to make robots sophisticated enough to do this. Free will is very common in this movie just not as much as in other movies. The young girl altering the spoon also had free will. She chose to tell Neo there was no spoon and give Neo his first glimpse of the Matrix as something other then a place he used to think was reality.
ReplyDeleteAllison Roche
I think that it is extremely apparent that the driving force for the plot of The Matrix. First of all, the sequel reveals that Neo is merely part of an unending cycle. He is not the first, or the last “One”. I find it rather funny that Morpheus thought it was only about a hundred years in the future. I think it may be thousands. The Oracle’s perfect ability to predict the future points very strongly towards the idea that there is no free will in this movie. After all, how can Neo possibly be stopped from success if death is merely a minor, temporary inconvenience which can be undone by a Disney esque kiss. Cypher may appear to have free will at first. However, given that Neo’s journey is a cycle; I view Cypher as a Judas like character, whose betrayal is essential for the messiah figure to fulfill his destiny. Neo definitely does not have free will, due to his innate curiosity and disregard for authority, he is guaranteed to choose the red pill every time. Morpheus, turned devout by the Oracle’s prophecies is equally chained to fate. He spends his whole life looking for Neo, and his dangerous reputation attracts Neo to him like a moth to a lamp. It’s equally clear that Trinity has no free will either. She as well has become enamored with the Oracle’s flawless predictions, and becomes certain that Neo is the One.
ReplyDeleteBen Cooper
I was trying to write the blog without referencing that info (released in the sequels) about Neo being just another example of being The One. But good call.
DeleteI don’t believe that there really is any free will with regards to The Matrix. The main reasoning for this is because of the existence of the Oracle. Even though Neo believes that he has free will and that he controls his destiny, his choices still lead him to the fate that he was destined to fulfill, the role of The One. Neo was told that he would be eventually presented with a choice. It may seem that this is an example of free will, but it can’t be. The choice that Neo made was what leads him to discover that he actually is the one. This choice that he made resulted in his death, and like the Oracle said, he may be The One in his next life. This “choice” may have seemed like it was free will, but it was in fact fate. The character Cypher really doesn’t have free will either. If everything that has happened to Morpheus and Neo is a result of fate, why shouldn’t it be any different from Cypher? Once again, while it may seem that he made a choice, he was probably already predestined to fulfill that choice. Trinity fell in love with The One, Neo recognized himself as The One, and everything else that was predicted occurred. Cypher’s fate was that he was going to turn on the crew in order to fulfill his own selfish needs. So, to sum it all up, I don’t believe that any of the characters had free will.
ReplyDeleteE. Wolf
I believe that in the movie The Matrix, some of the events happened due to fate and others were by choice. Without Cypher’s choice to betray Morpheus and the others, Neo’s abilities would have never developed. So, the choices made by Neo and other members of the crew inevitably lead to Neo’s fate of being the one. If Neo had the choice, I believe that he could have deciphered the Matrix earlier on. Neo was basically forced into accepting his abilities. Also, I believe that fate played into the movie simply because the oracle had predicted everything. The oracle basically decided Neo’s fate for him; she told him what he needed to hear, and her words implanted thoughts into Neo’s head that caused him to make the decisions that he did in order to become the one. Neo definitely made the choice to be the one. He could have had many different fates, however he decided to take the blue pill and he also decided to stay and fight the Smith. Without deciding for himself and creating his own path to being the one, he would have never gotten there. Although it is argued that Neo’s natural curiosity led him to take the red pill, I believe that Neo still made the choice to take it by himself. I think that part of him wanted to take the red pill and have everything go back to normal; however, because of the choices that he made before he knew the truth, Neo couldn’t go on living his old, boring life.
ReplyDeleteBrendan Dwyer
The appearance of fate and free will are well known in the movie The Matrix, but these aspects do not belong to every character. I feel that fate is the overall path that is "chosen ahead" or belongs to a higher power that oversees what is to happen in the future of individuals that are living within or under the power of another. Whereas free will is the ability to make choices without defying or pressuring the determined will designated by a higher power. With this definition; In this movie, many people do not have free will, I do not believe that anyone in the matrix had free will and it is explain through the famous line (indirectly quoted) "Everything you think you know is a lie" . These people living in the matrix have no control over their own lives, so much so, they weren't aware of the higher power having the ability to manipulate them into believing everything they know is true. If anyone has free will, it will be the Oracle right? The oracle and cypher. These characters show the dexterity to control what they do minus all others thought and actions. I don't feel like someone that can tell the future of another is living through fate rather by free will. Cypher is a strong individuals that carries the proficiency to "know".
ReplyDelete---sorry about the wordiness.
D.J. Terry
This is wordy? No worries.
DeleteI think that in The Matrix fate and free will both play a role in this movie. I do agree that cypher does show free will by being able to decide that he was going to go against Morpheus and the others who lived in the real world. I also think that Neo has free will when he chooses to take the blue pill instead of the red pill. But when he gos and visits the Oracle and she tells him what lies ahead in his future I think that is an example of fate because once she tells him he could potentially be “the one” he makes the decision to make himself “the one”. The decision of Neo being brought out of The Matrix and into the Real world was decided for him by Morpheus and all the training he had to go through was decided for him by Morpheus as well, but you could also say he made that decision for himself by taking the blue pill. A big decision that Neo does make in the movie that has to do with free will is his decision to go back into The Matrix and trys to save Morpheus even though they tell him not to. This is when Neo truly discovers what the Matrix is and now he is free from it and he will live his life with free will. Also anyone who lives in the Matrix does not have free will because they live in a fake world where they have to live this ideal life.
ReplyDelete- Jami L
Through The Matrix, the ideas of fate vs. free will are what build’s the main plot. I believe, due to Cypher’s decision to betray the team, and how the oracle affects everyone’s decisions, that there is actually no free will and it is all based on fate. Some would say that Cypher’s decision to betray the team was based on free will, but if you look at the result, it seems it was intended all along. What I mean by the result is the result of Neo realizing his true potential. Up until the point of saving Morpheus, Neo had not believed he could make a difference (let alone be ‘the one’) but after he rescues Morpheus and saves Trinity from the helicopter he finally starts to believe in himself. Once this is achieved Neo has the courage to fight an agent, and in the end, become ‘the one’ and destroy an agent. If Cypher had never decided had never betrayed the team, the Neo would’ve never realized his true potential and become ‘the one’. If this never happened, Neo wouldn’t have been ‘reborn’ into ‘the one’, fulfilling the prophecy of the oracle. It seemed like Cypher acted on his own to betray everyone but because of his actions leading to the oracle’s prophecy coming true, it was actually caused by fate.
ReplyDelete-Peter Butkovich
Considering the information exposed in the movie, I believe it is a logical assumption that Cypher acts out of free will when he decides to betray Morpheus. The next logical question presented would be, "Seeing that he dies anyways, why is Cypher the only person able to act out of free will?" While searching for the answer to this question, I could only assume that Cypher is a supporting character that only exists in order to help advance the movie's plot. Unlike the other characters (Trinity, Morpheus, Neo), Cypher is not given many scenes in the movie. Therefore, I believe there is not enough information presented in order to definitively say whether Cypher's "choice" was either pre-ordained or it was an actual choice. Technically we never heard the Oracle's prophesy for Cypher which could have involved "betraying new friends."
ReplyDeleteI know this proposition may sound ignorant, however I believe that Agent Smith acts out of free will during the movie. Although Agent Smith is a program created by the machines to survey the system, it seems as though Smith takes action regardless of the machine's orders. I believe that Agent Smith acts out of free will because he has a conversation with Morpheus in the armed building in which he said he was "sick of this place" and that he wanted to be free. Agent Smith also seems to ALWAYS be the person fighting everyone (Neo, Morpheus, etc.). Agent Smith also seems to have more skill than the other two agents, who frequently die, which seems illogical. Why would a machine create regulatory guards for the system that have different capabilities? I believe Agents Smith is better and smarter than the other agents because he is not only a program, but he is able to make choices for himself as well. Later in the third movie, we are able to see that Agent Smith secedes from the machines "control" and chooses to fight Neo even though the head machine already made an agreement with Neo.
~Kenneth O'Hanlon
Good call on Agent Smith. I hadn't thought of that. But, is it in his programming to want to be free of the human world and into some other state of being (which he becomes in the later sequels - a virus himself)?
DeleteI completely agree with your thoughts regarding fate, and free will in the matrix. Free will appears when cypher betrays his team in order to return to the matrix. Freewill also appears when Neo is given the choice between the red pill and the blue pill, and when he goes to see the Oracle. However, I believe that even if Neo didn’t choose the red pill, Morpheus would have somehow had convinced Morpheus to take the red pill, and see the oracle. I think Morpheus was just making Neo seem like he was in charge of his destiny, because he wanted him to join the revolution. I also believe that free will was in play when Cypher decided to double cross Morpheus and the crew. But at the same time it was fate because The Oracle said that Neo would have to choose between saving Morpheus and himself, and Neo wouldn’t have to save anyone if Cypher hadn’t told the agents the location of the crew. Trinity has used free will when she decided to go with Neo to save Morpheus. Neo’s decision to save Morpheus was controlled by fate, because the Oracle told him so. Neo also uses free will when he accepts a cookie from the Oracle. Although both free will, and fate appear a lot in this film. I believe that fate appears more because pretty much everything the Oracle said connected everyone together and eventually came true. However free will is present, it has less effect on the characters then fate does.
ReplyDeleteIn the movie The Matrix, I don’t really think there were ever any examples of absolute free will. All the humans in the matrix have no free will, because the matrix have all their plans set. But, I don’t think the people freed from the matrix don’t have free will either. Even with Cypher deciding to go against his crew and help the agents, I don’t consider this an example of free will. I say this because she told Neo and Trinity things about their futures that came true, so she probably knew things about his future as well. Also, even though the three of them were “free” from the Matrix, if the Oracle was able to tell them things about the future, was their fate still laid out and chosen for them? People can argue that the Oracle says wrong things, like telling Neo him or Morpheus will die, but I think she knew he was the one and told him what she did to inspire him to do what he did. But since Neo still had the choice to not try and save Morpheus, I think that his future was based off fate and free will. In reality, I think the future is a mix of both fate and chance/choice. I think I would have personally taken the blue pill. Even though in the Matrix everything is fate, the people don’t know that. They think they’re making their own choices, and to be “free” from the Matrix would have been extremely overwhelming. Neo taking the red pill was another example of choice, but could also be considered fate because he was “the one.” There are definitely many ways to look at different scenes from the movie and argue that they resemble free will or fate.
ReplyDeleteMaddie A
As the Matrix is a supposed re-telling of Plato's prisoner story, it stands to reason that there would be little to no free will as even the prisoner himself is led kicking and screaming to the light - he doesn't "choose" to go himself. Much in a similar fashion, Neo's "choices" are guided along from the beginning scene when the words appear on his computer monitor. From that moment, his options really become "get caught by/join up with terrifying law enforcement for a crime I have the potential to commit but know nothing about" or "join hot chick and badass fighting techies with lots of leather and guns" (death is a highly potential option in both choice A and B.) When nutshelled as so, Neo's decision is not one of free will at all, but one he was thrown into when Trinity first approaches him at the party, when Morpheus sends him the message, and truly when Neo was first born. I believe, then, Cypher was also not acting of free will but pushed along by several triggers. If Neo was fated to be the One, predicted by the Oracle, and in turn Trinity was fated to fall in love with him (also predicted by the Oracle) then it stands to reason that Cypher was also predicted (fated, really) to turn on the crew in the real world, as one of his main reasons for doing so was jealousy of the relationship he sees growing between Neo and Trinity - he even says, "She never brought me food to my room," or something along those lines when Neo was first recovering. Cypher of course later admits his love for Trinity, love she never returned. Since we know it WAS fated for Trinity and Neo to fall in love, it stands to reason that Cypher's betrayal was fated too, as neither he nor Trinity could control the objects of their affections. No character displayed true free will - however, to be entirely fair, I believe it is difficult to integrate true free will into any scenario where one thing has already been "foretold", because it then questions every single decision made up until the moment that the prophecy comes to pass. To elaborate: technically, every tiny decision a character makes could potentially be considered fated to happen, even if it seems as though they made the decision on their own, all in order to properly set up the sequence of events to fulfill the prophecy.
ReplyDeleteTL;DR: Free will did not exist in this film.
Katia Lev
Nice interpretation of Cypher's unrequited love. Thought I had gotten all of the angles.
DeleteI think there was free will allowed in the Matrix, despite it only being very limited and restricted in the eventual fate of characters. Every choice each character had led to their eventual destiny in one way or another. Neo has the most choices to make from what we saw in the movie, but ultimately I think whichever decision he made his destiny would be the same. Neo chose which pill to take out of his curiosity for what the real world was outside of the Matrix, but this decision was out of fate because he was “the one”. When Neo visited the Oracle, she told him that either he or Morpheus will die and the choice is his. He ended up choosing to save Morpheus by entering the Matrix again when he didn’t have to. He did die and Morpheus didn’t because of his choice, which is where his free will is limited to within boundaries of fate. Morpheus also only did what he did because he truly believed that Neo was the one, otherwise he wouldn’t have been willing to give his life for Neo. The only character that appeared to show free will was Cypher. He made his own decision to go against Morpheus and the rest of the crew because he genuinely believed ignorance was bliss and made his own choice, however, we do not know of his visit to the Oracle and what was said to him. You could also argue that his decision was part of fate as he ended up dying and Neo found discovered that he is the chosen one, which was Neo’s fate.
ReplyDeleteAlistair
Kelly Greer
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above hypothesis regarding the conflict between fate and free will in The Matrix. Neo may have been given choices by Morpheous that led him to believe he was in control, but I believe his driving curiosity and pre implanted curiosity (in the 'real world') of the matrix were a driving force of fate the subconsciously determined all of his reactions to Morpheous' given choices. Neo obviously would never have walked away from the opportunity to learn about the matrix because of the curiosity that had been driving him mad. This force then made his decisions for him to all of Morpheus' other questions imposed upon Neo. Likewise, I think every other individual in the matrix also had a selfish individual goal similar to Neo's, and the goal was driving all of the subconscious decisions made in the movie because everyone secretly was seeking self elevation in their own way. Therefore, I do agree with the hypothesis that there is no free will in the matrix. All of us are trapped by our needs that drive us to do things, even when we think we are driving ourselves.
I don't believe there is any element of free will in the movie. The whole movie was based off fate; it was Neo's destiny to make every decision he did. When Neo first met the Oracle, she knew he was going to break the vase because she had the ability to predict the choices that he'd make in the future. Every thing the Oracle said ended up coming true in a way. Her job was to be a guide for Neo, which caused him to make different decisions than he would have without her guidance, thus leading him through the pathway to his fate. If the Oracle told Neo that he was the one, Neo would've acted differently and made different decisions than the ones he made. I don't even believe that Cypher truly had free will. Yes, he made his own "choice" to screw over his crew but the Oracle must've still known that he'd make that choice. The Oracle knew that Neo would have to make a decision between his life or Morpheus' and Neo never would've had to make that decision if it weren't for Cypher. With that being said, the "free will" used in the movie wasn't actually true free will. It was fate.
ReplyDeleteChristina
I believe free will was exerted in the movie, to an extent. In the early portions of the movie, Neo had to choose either the red pill or the blue. The fact that Neo made a decision seemingly on his own demonstrates free will. But was it already predetermined that Neo was going to choose the red pill? In the movie, it is known that the Oracle knows all and she knows everything. She knew Neo was going to break the vase, and I believe she knew Neo was the One all along; she just made Neo believe in himself and he will know the correct answer. Another thing that seemingly demonstrates free will is Cypher's decision to betray his crew. It seems as if Cypher's actions were all decided by him and him alone, but were they? How do we as viewers know whether or not the Oracle foresaw Cypher's betrayal? Is it possible that every action in the Matrix was foreseen by the Oracle or by another force? I truly believe every character was guided by fate, but the only way to reach a final destination is through a series of "free will like" actions that will ultimately decide each characters "fate". I believe everything in this movie was guided by fate. It just seems like free will was exerted, but in reality, fate was the driving force.
ReplyDelete-Joel
Although it may look as though free will is exerted in the movie The Matrix, fate is really the driving force behind each "choice" made in the film. Firstly, we have Neo who, although Morpheus seeks him out, he has been searching for them all the time. He constantly needs knowledge, answers. This is why, when given the choice between the blue and red pills, he chooses to leave the Matrix and enter the real world. He has a need inside him to know the truth; his choice is dictated by who he is. Later, when he makes the decision to go back into the Matrix tp save Morpheus, he is only making this choice because it has been laid out for him. When the oracle tells him he will have to choose between his life and someone elses, she is garunteeing that when Neo returns to the Matrix he can save Morpheus. If the oracle had never said that, would Neo have ever though to go back into the Matrix? His choices are based of predermined things in his life, whether it be the way his mind functions, experiences put in his path, or his actual "destiny", the illusion of free will in the Matrix gives the appearence of choice, when actually, his choices are based solely of the past.
ReplyDelete