"But please - call me Larry."

August 22, 2003 5:29 PM

"Hello, Neo. I am the Architect."For those of us who liked The Matrix Reloaded but got lost shortly after the Architect opened his mouth, here's a handy annotated transcript of his entire scene. Great for people who want to delve into the deeper meanings of what he's going on about, and also great for people (like me) who are interested in the way he talks. [Warning: Geocities site. Mirrored here if it goes down]
posted by Monster_Zero (25 comments total)

I never had much respect for the Matrix, too many similiarities with Ghost in the Shell, a japanese anime (http://www.manga.com/ghost/ghost.html). Although, I did see Reloaded the first day and thought that scene was very interesting.
posted by disgruntled at 6:14 PM on August 22, 2003

Uhh. He wasn't talking about complicated stuff, he just used big words. There's a difference.
posted by Veritron at 6:20 PM on August 22, 2003

Like Monster_Zero, I think the way the Architect talks is much more interesting than what he has to say. When watching this scene in the theater I got the same impression that I got from some newly-minted junior professors during my years in graduate school: mainly that the Architect was trying to sell me something that was on logically shaky ground, by speaking really quickly in a haughty, dismissive manner, and using lots of ten-dollar words that weren't necessary.

I don't want to get into an argument as to whether what the Architect says means anything useful, because I already did that earlier this summer, and must conserve my energy for the period after the release of Matrix Revolutions. But for those who were thinking of not clicking on the FPP link, I'll say that it primarily sticks to plot explication, not highflown pseudo-analysis about the meaning of "Neo" and such. Which makes it better than any other reading of that scene I've read.
posted by Prospero at 6:23 PM on August 22, 2003

Possible Story Outline for Matrix Revolutions

Offhandedly confirmed by Moriarty of AICN (who is kinda sorta credible regarding such things) on CHUD.

And if you're wondering and don't want to get spoiled, no, it's not going to get any better.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:27 PM on August 22, 2003

Bah.

See Dark City for comparable ending. Mark my words.

Jeez. Hire some original writers for pete's sake.
posted by elendil71 at 7:04 PM on August 22, 2003

Exactly, Veritron. I saw this movie with my girlfriend who, for whatever reason, has a lot of trouble understanding the Matrix series, most likely because she never read science fiction as a kid, whereas to me the whole thing has always seemed fairly simple, though very entertaining. Further, English is her second language, once I had explained what the Architect was saying, she had absolutely no trouble with the ideas, and in fact found it made the whole story make more sense.

Not that this matters, the link is still entertaining, but the thought that our society now needs Cliffs Notes to understand a movie that is essentially an overview of continental philosophy combined with common SF themes--themes that are so prevalent they've nearly become archetypes of the genre--is frightening.
posted by Grod at 8:23 PM on August 22, 2003

Which has led you inexcerably here.

Has the whole world gone crazy? Doesn't anyone give a shit about spell-checking anymore?
posted by insomnyuk at 8:50 PM on August 22, 2003

I've always felt the philosophy of the Matrix movies was roughly on par with the politics of Rage Against The Machine.
posted by UncleFes at 8:51 PM on August 22, 2003

The scene really annoyed me during the movie and I sure didn't get it then. This makes some more sense. Maybe I'm just slower than all ya'll...Who knows?
posted by aacheson at 8:55 PM on August 22, 2003

What I didn't understand about that scene was why Neo is so ready to accept what the architect has to say and allows himself to be restricted solely to the choices that the architect presents.

It just seemed to me like the frail whining of the system trying to save itself... and Neo buys into it so readily.

I guess the lesson here is to not entrust Keanu with the future of the world.
posted by ODiV at 9:52 PM on August 22, 2003

The scene really annoyed me during the movie and I sure didn't get it then. This makes some more sense. Maybe I'm just slower than all ya'll...Who knows?

The Architect scene was bad enough, but the scene that really annoyed me was the one with the French guy in the restaurant. I was about ready to strangle the projectionist in order to get the plot to move on. And let's just pretend that the extended-remix caverave never happened, OK? It's best for all of us, that way.
posted by vorfeed at 10:35 PM on August 22, 2003

Same here, vorfeed. Have you ever heard of the phantom edit?
posted by ODiV at 10:41 PM on August 22, 2003

Its not so bad once you realize the Architect is based on either Newton or more likely Laplace and all he's doing is talking about determinism.

But instead of the determinsim of a universe, he talks about the determinism of a computer simulation - the matrix.

I think these movies are suffering from 'telling too much story.' The first one was pretty original and open ended, but number two is simply Tron - programs running around with some kind of bad guy Master Control Program in charge.
posted by skallas at 10:48 PM on August 22, 2003

Personally, I prefer the philosophy of the Matrix over the philosophy of Bad Boys II, Tomb Raider II, Terminator III, etc. Sure it isn't perfect, but it is infinitely better than most of the crap in the theatres this year.
posted by Quartermass at 10:51 PM on August 22, 2003

"Infinitely better"? At least Terminator 3 was mildly entertaining, in a highway-rubber-necking kind of way... Matrix Reloaded, in addition to its ludicrous "philosophy," was just butt-numbingly boring...
posted by JollyWanker at 11:14 PM on August 22, 2003

Y'all wait and see:

Since Neo is the one,

in episode 3, we'll meet the zero.
posted by 4easypayments at 2:04 AM on August 23, 2003

Tron - programs running around with some kind of bad guy Master Control Program in charge.

Cool. I like it.
posted by trondant at 3:57 AM on August 23, 2003

More insight into what the Architect had to say (and the Merovingian, as well) in this fine article at Corporate Mofo. It almost redeemed the movie for me, even though I know diddly squat about gnostic philosophy.
posted by zsazsa at 5:02 AM on August 23, 2003

me, i got lost after the orgy in the cave.

(oh, and elendil71: dark city stole shamelessly from several groundbreaking german expressionist films, most notably metropolis. watch who you tell to "hire some original writers", for pete's sake.)
posted by pxe2000 at 5:18 AM on August 23, 2003

I prefer the philosophy of the Matrix over the philosophy of Bad Boys II

I like the Matrix series, but really, the Wachowskis should have cast Martin Lawrence as Neo. he's much funnier than Keanu
posted by matteo at 7:10 AM on August 23, 2003

I think the Matrix would have been better as a novel than a movie - well certainly the second one, as it contained nothing special in terms of fx (well nothing that the first one didnt do better) .

Cool idea actually - bring out a movie like the matrix and then a novel as the sequel.
posted by carfilhiot at 8:23 AM on August 23, 2003

the thought that our society now needs Cliffs Notes to understand a movie that is essentially an overview of continental philosophy combined with common SF themes--themes that are so prevalent they've nearly become archetypes of the genre--is frightening.

if, by continental philosophy, you mean the recent stuff, then, rather than being frightening, this seems remarkably healthy. so the majority of people know neither science fiction nor the blatherings of derrida et al - what's frightening about that? i'd be much more worried if they needed notes to understand science (fact) or the moral and political philosophy that exists within their own culture, which will influence their lives directly (debates on abortion, taxes etc).
posted by andrew cooke at 10:17 AM on August 23, 2003

I remember reading this on Usenet earlier this year: An explanation of why the machines need humans. (Scroll to the end.) It's very funny.
posted by salmacis at 10:44 AM on August 23, 2003

The spoof of the Architect from the MTV music awards (or some awards show like that) was great.
posted by oissubke at 12:13 PM on August 23, 2003

Metafilter is older than you know. I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth Metafilter.
posted by trondant at 1:58 PM on August 23, 2003