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Overview: Since online debate around the Matrix Trilogy has been beaten to death, I’m guessing by now you’ve already long ago made up your mind on whether you liked or hated the Matrix and its subsequent sequels. Truly, whatever you decided is fine with me. As it turns out, I love them and generally think they’re great. And NO, I’m not really interested in having a Matrix Sucks/No You just don’t get it discussion. Please start a new thread in the Meatspace if you’re still interested in such banter. This essay is for something else - it’s about viewing the trilogy, specifically Neo, from a man-machine interface, or cybernetics perspective.

While most of the discussion around the trilogy deals with the classical philosophies expressed, very little discussion seems focused on a strictly sci-fi perspective. Why, I cannot say, but purpose here is to attempt to explain how the trilogy truly makes sense from a cybernetics perspective - a viewpoint that is just as intentional as the philosophical/religious journey. If you take the time to read this, forget about the philosophical and metaphysical stuff for a minute, and forget about any dialogue and acting issues you might have with the sequels. Instead, I want you to look at the trilogy purely as science fiction. Specifically I want to discuss Neo NOT as a messianic figure but as a Cyborg - a symbiotic combination of a sentient program and human being that evolves and integrates over the course of three movies. This essay assumes that you are familiar with all three movies, and will be filled with spoilers (I will also mention how Neo’s man-machine integration relates to the end of Ghost in the Shell).

 

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A Word about Battery People: Battery people are those humans who were birthed and raised in the Matrix. Both the Animatrix and the first Matrix movie makes clear that the former battery-people (those people stuck in the Matrix Pods from birth but who now live in Zion) are REPLEAT with electronic parts. Their entire nervous system is wired from head to foot. They have massive amounts of electronics in their brain that allow a virtual reality simulation to completely take over all sensory and perceptual elements. But the purpose of the cybernetic implants is two-fold – it is used to allow perceptual control of the battery people (cyborgs) and its designed to harvest and transfer human-generated energy into electricity.

 

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What is the Matrix? The Matrix is the Machine City’s power plant. It is not the focus of the machine’s existence, it is merely their source of their energy. My guess would be that most sentient machines and programs care little more about the Matrix than you do about your local electric company. Only the power plant manager – the Architect – and those working for him are truly obsessed with the running of the Matrix.

Communicating With The Machine City: Every aspect of the machine city’s society (what little we know about it) is about wireless communications. The leader sentinels (the ones with the mini-satellite dishes) appear to be almost constant communication with the “source,” and then communicates orders to the drone sentinels (who do not appear sentient). The sentinels can only “see” energy. This is the reason that the humans shut down all power when the sentinels come (this way they cannot see the ship). However, given the above discussion on battery people, it’s also clear that Sentinels can “see” battery people when they run (The end of the Matrix and Reloaded shows this). The battery person, or “cyborg’s” implants, part of whose function is to harvest human energy, gives off some kind of energy that is noticeable.

 

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How is Neo Different From Other Battery People? Now lets get to Neo - in the Sci-fi interpretation, we find that Neo actually had a special package implanted in his head at birth that was different from the other battery people (re: the architect’s conversation). This package includes both a sentient program learns over time, and a method to communicate directly with the source. Neo the “person” is actually not just a person or even a normal “battery” person, but is a symbiotic combination of human and learning sentient program. The sentient program in a very real sense is “part” of Neo. It is not a virus living off a host – it is a fully integrated entity, which transforms Neo into a true man-machine organism just as Motoko was at the end of Ghost in the Shell. The sentient program’s communications package is necessary for the “One’s” eventual planned destiny – this is part of the architect’s control loop whereby the One returns to the source and freely agrees to let the human portion of him die, and then freely communicates the sentient AI part of him back to the source to reboot the matrix. The sentient portion of the One isn’t dead, and may eventually return to the Matrix, similar to how the sentient portion of Seraph (a former “One”) has done.

So Neo has the ability to communicate with the Source and, because of his unique purpose (to understand and update the Matrix, he has “sysadmin-like” machine city powers in a computer sense required to reboot the matrix (after all, this is his intended purpose). These two aspects – his sys-admin ability and wireless communications ability - provide that rationale for Neo’s ability to communicate/attack/destroy other machines and programs from the source both internally in the matrix and externally (wirelessly) in the real world. It’s also clear that Neo has the ability to see energy similar to the sentinels - this is different from a broadcast signal. Basically, Neo was given the same capabilities for sensory perception as the machines, and is the ONLY human that has the capability to send and receive wireless communications. Incidentally, for those matrix fans watching at home, this is why the 13th floor scenario (matrix within a matrix) makes no sense.

With this basis, the much talked about and often misunderstood scene near the end of Revolutions, where the “ghost” sentinel goes through Neo also makes sense. Neo has been attacking the sentinels and other machines wirelessly for some time. The ghost sentinel going through him is merely a return wireless attack by a foe who is changing their tactics to meet the enemy’s assault. The sentinel essentially did a ghost-hack type attack, where energy from the sentinel is sent back at Neo. And in fact, the attack was successful – so successful that it momentarily knocks out the sentient program portion of Neo, so only the human part is conscious. At this point, Neo cannot see the machines and cannot fight back, so he tells Trinity to go up above the nano-clouds that destroy all electricity and block out the sun.

 

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The Scifi View is Different: Again, I’m CLEARLY separating out the sci-fi view from the metaphysical/religious view here. If one takes the metaphysical view, Neo becomes self-realized, and this has nothing to do with sentient programs or all the rest - but then the “belief” in his powers has to do with more metaphysical/religious connotations. He becomes the “One” in the same way Buddha or Jesus did - through his path to self realization. This is a significantly different but parallel storyline. Both the religious view and the sci-fi storylines are significantly different, but just as intentional. To reiterate - the matrix trilogy is fully allegorical in the sense that the entire trilogy was INTENDED to be viewed from separate and distinct story lines. This also addresses one of the many knocks on the trilogy – many knock many of the key scenes as incoherent or vague. This was purposeful action on the part of the Wachowskis. Most of the key scenes are “specifically” vague just so that they can be properly interpreted in two completely separate storylines. More than anything else, this truly is the magnificence of the story line across all three movies.

 

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Recap and Explanation: To reiterate, all battery-people are FULLY embedded with cyborg components that can completely take over full perceptual control - this was made abundantly clear in the first movie. The cyborg components run completely throughout their nervous system - only the outside pieces are ever removed. If you view the trilogy with these points in mind, here are some actual plot points to reconsider:

  • The sentient program in Neo first “turns on” and temporarily “takes over” the body “Neo” when the human portion of him dies in the first Matrix movie (M1).
  • This explains why the agents want to kill Neo in M1, even though he’s the key to the architect’s control system (another question often asked). To meet the Architect’s needs, the sentient program portion of Neo has to fully engage and this only happens with the death of the host. The Oracle knew this, which is why she “predicted” this.
  • The integration proceeds throughout Matrix Reloaded (M2) - this is how Neo “sees” the matrix green and now “yellow” energy of the machine city code. Some say the cookies and candy provided by the Oracle helped with the symbiosis process (others say this was her way of subverting the Architect’s intent).
  • The architect states that Neo needs to freely provide this code back to the machine city (which communicates though wireless communications) in order to reboot the matrix. This explains both the wireless capability and the need for the sentient program, which is a product from the machine city, to have the same sensory perception as other things from the machine city.
  • The purpose of the sentient program is to fully understand current human thought process and the nature of their evolved perception so that it can reboot the Matrix effectively to return the negative feedback control system (that’s a cybernetic term, not meaning “bad” feedback”) back to its initial goal state. This explains the rationale for the sys-admin-like powers.
  • Combining the wireless capability and machine city sysadmin-like powers, the sentient program portion of Neo now has the ability to “attack” machines outside of the matrix.The CLEAR sign of this was near the end of Revolutions, when the machine “ghost” launched an attack back at Neo as he approached the Machine city. The wireless portion of Neo was knocked out, so Neo, now dazed, was no longer able to either see or hurt the machines - in a reverse from his death in M1, now on the human portion of Neo was operating alone.
  • This also explains how Mr. Smith was able to get powers outside of the Matrix. Because he mixed with Neo’s essence, in fact what happened is Mr. Smith obtained a portion of Neo’s sentient program which mixed with the Agent, creating something altogether new and deformed. (which is why Mr. Smith is orange in Matrix colors versus something yellow or green). Mr Smith as a sentient program invaded a battery-person who still had all the implants that any battery person does, but Mr. Smith could not attack Neo wirelessly, as he didn’t have the extra hardware needed.
  • Seraph also provides support for this understanding. He is a former “One”. The sentient program portion of him is all that exists now, and came back from machine city through the train station - which is why he was an indentured servant for the Merovingian. As an aside, Seraph also provides clarity to the intended religious portion of the story arc – Neo will arise again, but only the sentient program portion of Neo will remain.
  • I will probably write a separate essay on this, but just to be clear, this viewpoint shows that the Matrix trilogy is the philosophical sequel to Ghost in the Shell (GITS). GITS2: Innocence does not follow Motoko’s journey after she integrates – Neo does. GITS2: Innocence is really a furthering of the philosophies that Oshii advanced in Avalon, meaning that conceptually, GITS2: Innocence is the sequel to Avalon, not the original GITS.

 

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In Closing: The purpose of this essay was to show that the Matrix Trilogy does indeed make sense from a purely sci-fi perspective. No religious conversations necessary here – I’m not expecting you to magically love the sequels now even if you understand and accept my reasoning – I’m just providing you some points for you to consider. Feel free to reject them or call me a loon. But if you find yourself re-watching these movies, try this viewpoint on and see how it fits.

 

This post has been filed under Essays by SFAM.

Terminatrix

Year: 1995

Directed by: Mikio Hirota

Written by: Mikio Hirota

Degree of Cyberpunk Visuals: Low

Correlation to Cyberpunk Themes: Low

Key Cast Members:

  • The Terminatrix: Kei Mizutani
  • Rating: 6 out of 10

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    Overview: In pursuit of me desire to see all cyberpunk-like films out, I was seduced into getting this flick. Terminatrix is basically the original terminator movie remade with in naked Japanese chicks. In Terminatrix’s vision of the future, an evil artificial intelligence has taken over the human race, and sex is fully regulated to stop overpopulation. But one woman, seeing the injustice in this system, rebels (This is the John Conner stand-in) and starts the resistance by convincing everyone to have massive orgies of their own free choosing. To stop this, the AI sends a hot Japanese cyborg chick - the Terminatrix, played by Japanese Exploitation Queen Kei Mizutani, back in time to have find the father of the chick who leads the orgy resistance. The Terminatrix has the ability to make people impotent by fucking them and breaking their dicks off (this also seems to kill them as well). To find our future heroine’s father, the Terminatrix doesn’t know his middle name, so, um, she goes through the phone book in order to kill the male Sarah Conner stand-in. In an attempt to stop this foul plot, the resistance is able to send a single hot naked human chick (Reece’s replacement - I must say, she looks a lot better than Reece!) is sent back to stop her and to save the father (Sarah Conner substitute). Our Reece substitute can tell who Terminatrix is by checking out her ass, so she is forced to go around lifting up all the women’s skirts!

    Yes, this plot is as cheesy as they come, but let me be clear about this - Terminatrix is a frickin RIOT!!! Why, you ask? On an extremely twisted level, Terminatrix so closely follows the Terminator story that you’re continually busting out in laughter. On top of this, both the writing and production values are far above what you’d normally expect from a movie such as this. Literally, if you’re as familiar with that movie as I am, and have a soft spot for over-the-top cheesefests, you will LOVE this movie.

    The terminatrix’s cyborg vision lines are a riot. When having sex (they don’t get explicit here, just frontal nudity) with her victems, the Terminatrix’s “terminator screen” messages show things like, “Not cuming fast enough” or “Whip him.”. When the Reece chick finds the future father, she says, “The future of humanity depends on your penis!” At least he has the good sense to shut the door on her. Also, if Terminatrix’s future prognostication is any guide, the future is tailor-made for male chauvinists. In this “dystopia,” a computer calls you to have sex with random chicks - but here’s the bad part - you have to lay down while they to all the work! Hmm…come to think of it, I can probably imagine worse computer-dominated future scenarios than the one that prompted the revolution.

    Funniest scene Hands down, the bathroom cyborg self-repair scene is a riot! You know the one I’m talking about - where Arnold has to fix up his face and stuff? In this version, the Terminatrix has been shot six times in her primary weapon (her vagina), and has to repair it. While rolling her eyes, she forces six bullets to come out of her vagina (they don’t show this other than by the dropping of bullets), then she recharges herself by putting electricity through her nipples. To make final repairs, she fixes herself down below by sitting on a mechanical dildo! In watching this, all you can say is “My God, what a bizarre flick!”

    It Matters Where you Purchase This: IMDB doesn’t even have a listing for Terminatrix, so one would think its not easy to come by. At the time of this review, you can purchase it for $27 bucks at Amazon. While funny, $27 bucks is about least $18-20 more than you would want to pay for something like this. But you’re in luck as Deepdvddiscount has it for $5.99! That’s about as large a jump as I’ve seen in available DVD prices.

    The Bottom Line Again, I’m rather shocked that Terminatrix has relatively decent production values. The acting isn’t bad either, so much so that it’s like they made a serious attempt at this! I didn’t attempt the dubbing track (I almost never do), but I’m guessing it’s something to stear away from. All in all, Terminatrix is a very fun entry into the cyberpunk (facade) soft-core porn market. And while this clearly isn’t cyberpunk, it is definitely a cyberpunk parody (of the Terminator). Fair warning - this movie will make you laugh out loud - it will not get you in the “mood.”

    And my apologies for the lack of screencaps. I honestly tried to take screencaps but it was a waste of time, as all the cool scenes had nudity in them.

     

    ~See movies similar to this one~

    Tags: cyberpunk movie review Terminatrix

    This post has been filed under Hot Cyberchicks Kicking Butt, Time Travel, 5 Star Rated Movies, Soft Core CyberPorn, Android Movies, B Cyberpunk Cinema, Cyberpunk movies from 1990 - 1999 by SFAM.

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