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was Morpheus trying to get Neo to fall to his death?

posted 4 years ago by filmgeek99 (592)
14 replies | jump to latest

For those of you who have seen The Animatrix, you may recall a particular short called Kid's Story, which tells the origin of the young man who claims Neo saved his life in the sequels. In that film, the Kid ends up putting his faith in Neo by throwing himself off a roof, thereby ending his life in the Matrix and waking up in the real world.

Was Morpheus trying to get Neo to do that when he told him to stand outside the ledge of that office building? It'd make sense if that was his intent, considering how risky it is to tell someone to do such a thing when they're the supposed destined savior of the entire world. Yes, Neo was about to get arrested by Agents but surely, that's better than putting his life at dear risk when he's supposedly the One, right?

I suppose the appearance of Trinity on the bike outside negates said theory, but she may have just been there as backup in the slim chance that Neo actually managed to leave the building without getting caught. I suppose Morpheus would think of every contingency he can when planning something as important as this.

What do you think? Was that Morpheus' plan all along? Has anyone else ever given this a thought?

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 4 years ago

I doubt it, although it's been ages since I've seen Animatrix, so I don't remember exactly how it worked.

I'm pretty sure that the idea was to get Neo out of the building safely. If you could just die and awaken in the real world, they could have just killed Neo. Unless it has to be willing suicide, but if that's the case, then Neo still wouldn't escape by falling because it would be an accident.

Of course, these rules aren't defined super clearly and maybe it is possible to extricate people through death in a reasonably safe manner and maybe that's what Morpheus was attempting.

If nothing else, however, I'll rely on Occam's Razor, which would suggest that Morpheus' instructions for Neo to get down safely and escape with Trinity down below were an honest representation of his plan.

[–] ExTechOp (2747) 4 years ago

Agreed ... the movie makes it look like the ONLY way to get someone out of the matrix and onto the Nebuchadnezzar is to make them swallow the red pill.

Without the red pill, Neo's death would either kill his physical body or result in him being dumped down the drain with no way for Morpheus and his crew to find him.

So whatever happens should Neo fall, Morpheus wouldn't have wanted him to "die" at that point.

Re: death in the Matrix, we don't know for sure. Maybe dead Matrix residents resurrect as different people - seems like a waste of a good battery otherwise.

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 4 years ago

Yeah, there are a few questions floating around about how the machines handle stuff like pregnancy or premature death. Maybe some of the crop just are faulty and they die in the Matrix? Maybe the Matrix is actually a world without premature death (except, perhaps, for some fabricated news reports)?

[–] ExTechOp (2747) 4 years ago

Actually I just reviewed the film - the dead are "liquefied" and fed to the living (eeeeew), so there'd be no reason to extend anyone's life past death, premature or otherwise.

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 4 years ago

Yes, that's what they do with the physical bodies, but do people die before old age in the Matrix? Like, can a teenager die by joyriding a corvette, racing a train, and, uh...losing the race? Can a guy go postal and shoot up an office? One assumes yes, but why would the Machines waste that much "battery power" by allowing them to die? I guess you'd have to let them, though, or the simulation wouldn't be complete.

I wonder if the battery humans are more docile, generally-speaking? Like, do they get pumped with chemicals that keep them more-or-less complacent most of the time, thus preventing that sort of thing (most of the time)?

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

I think they can die. And when they die in The Matrix, they die in the real world as well.

The way the AI uses human bodies to supply their energy needs is not well established. For good reason, because the AI is supposed to be smarter than any human can be. So what they do is by definition beyond our comprehension. If the movie explained it, it would actually ruin the whole concept.

They simply somehow can.

And from the little glimpse the movie actually did show, it looks like human were grown in ridiculously high number. Basically as plants.

Do a farmer even care about every single kernel in a cob that wither and die normally in a vast vast area of corn fields?

As long as the amount of dying people in The Matrix is not alarmingly high, they simply leave them be. The rounding error.

The world in The Matrix might be constantly monitored and kept in a way so that nothing catastrophic could happen, like a meteor hit or a super deadly plague, etc. So that the people that died is consistently minimal. Just like what we do in a corn field.

We just minimise any significant crop damage as a whole, not terribly concerned to every single kernel in every single cob on every single plant.

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 3 years ago

It's also fun thinking about how the machines handle pregnancy in the Matrix.

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

I don't think anyone is going to be pregnant outside The Matrix. Everyone is living in separated pods. If everything is simulated then the sex is simulated. There is no spoon.

If someone is pregnant in The Matrix and deliver a baby, in real world a freshly produced baby is then assigned as the baby in The Matrix. Connect the wires. Done.

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 3 years ago

Yeah, but don't you want to watch a short film or something about the poor, overworked droid who's job it is to match new-grown babies with couples in the Matrix so they have similar genetic traits and things?

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

Hey, the AI is smarter than us. Droids are too expensive. They'll use Chinese underpaid and overworked children.

[–] Ace_Spade (9348) 3 years ago

Even better. The machines set up a company inside the Matrix which crunches numbers in some code. The employees are data-entry, basic programmers, stuff like that, and they have no idea that they're actually just matching up candidates with babies.

One of the places could be MetaCortex where Neo worked.

[–] kungfulord (957) 3 years ago

I dint read all the coments so i dont know if someone already point this out but Morpheus wasen't sure if the agents knew Neo was the one so be caught by the agents would be death. Morpheus says it to Neo by telephone the night after when he call him to have finally a meeting

"They got to you first, but they've underestimated how important you are. If they knew what I know, you would probably be dead"

Also the kid is the only one who can disconnected himself from the Matrix without help i mean by jumping of the building in an act of faith if you remember in the short you mention someone Neo or Morpheus himself says he never tought that such thing was possible, at the moment this even create theorys between the fans that maybe the kid was the one

[–] avortac4 (3458) 3 years ago

You dying in the matrix wouldn't bring you to real world, it would just make you die.

(Which is stupid, but the movie says so:

"If you die in The Matrix, you die here?"
"-The Body cannot live without the mind."

So that's a yes.)

[–] acidraindrop (3055) 3 years ago

And what happened to the Kid was basically a freak occurrence. They're shocked in the epilogue that he's still alive.