posted
A few facts: The first movie takes place in 1999 from the point of view of the people pluged in. We don't have a time frame for the second one, though it's at least 6 months after the first and most likely set in 2001 since Morpheus and crew drive a 2001 Caddy.
Morpheus says that they've been fighting the war for 100 years and that that the previous One freed the first of them (which would actually have been Neo's predecessor choosing the new group of Zionese after the last reloading).
These events obviously took place long before Morpheus was born, and he's mostly relying on Zion history and what the Oracle says for his inaccurate version of history.
The Architect says that the Matrix was designed with the varying grotequeries of our history in mind and we see pictures at least as far back as WW2.
So what I'm getting at is, for those in the Matrix, does the world always appear to be around the turn of the century, or have they actually been reliving human history?
The pics of WW2 could be the "actual" WW2 that happened before the machines rose to power without ever having happened in the Matrix history.
The presence of Werewolf guys and mentions of "a much older version of the Matrix" seem to hint at the fact that there have been different points in history represented. Perhaps each reloading of the Matrix makes the world more and more advanced.
Yes, I just rewatched Matrix and Reloaded. Not Revolutions though cause it stank.
posted
In the anime "Megazone 23", the inhabitants of a huge spaceship are brainwashed into thinking that they were always in a city in the 1980s (yikes!), even though hundreds of years had passed. I think a similar thing is the case here - everyone is constantly living in a state believing it's 1999. That they reboot every few decades would probably help before recursion in the poplulation ("it feels like nothing ever changes around here") could lead to masses of people figuring it out.
posted
Without having seen Revolutions, I would say that the periodic restarts of the Matrix keep the timeline from advancing too far. Although I don't think it would always be the turn of the century, it very well could be. The machines do seem to have the ability to alter the memories of the Matrix's inhabitants, as Cypher wanted his memories of being outside the Matrix erased. But it seems easier to just start from a set point in history, run the program for a century or so, and then reboot.
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Yes, I agree with that for the most part, since WW2 would be a good time frame to remove the dead, and dying, batteries from the system and replace them....
OTOH, I don't see a big deal with Matrix being able to recreate any timeline it wants, except if it needs to keep millions of billions of minds busy, or, for that matter, it could multi task and shunt minds in to whatever timeline(s) it desires to recreate....
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I think the passage of time exists within the matrix for mabye one "one" generation. Around 1970s - 2010s or so.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Aban Rune: "since Morpheus and crew drive a 2001 Caddy."
*imagines Morpheus and Trinity fleeing from the Twins in golf car* Oh, you meant 'Cadillac'!
Anyway, I must disagree about "Revolutions" stinking. It was resolved in one of the best ways possible, just not in the "WE KILL ALL ENEMIES IN ONE BANG AND JOHN TRAVOLTA GETS HIS ARM SHOT OFF!!!"-way, which, although appealing, is too Lived Happily Everafter:ish.
And that's not counting the detailed "Fall of Zion" and all the fights. The thing with movie fights is you get spoiled, you can't eat pizza every day of the week or you'll get tired of it.
I'm still working on identifying the ships in the Loading Dock-scene in early "Reloaded", those ships are so unique as a concept, and there are no two alike.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
I agree that the hovercraft are awesome concepts. I love the design style. I have a hard time seeing any of the other ships during Reloaded. I'll have to look harder next time. They don't have names printed on them or anything, though, do they?
I should probably watch Rev. again before I make any firm judgements on its level of stink. I just remember thinking it felt like a half hour of plot stretched into a two hour movie. The whole thing with Neo in the train station and Trin and Seraph's encounter with the Merovingian (sp?) seemed utterly useless to me. The movie would have worked just as well had Neo simply woken up, having been in a coma from the shock of using his Oneness in the real world. But then we would've missed the best fight scene of the movie in the BDSM club.
What I felt the worst thing was, is that I don't understand what happened at the end. I don't mind the answers not smacking me in the face, but I want there to be an answer out there somewhere. It's like with the end of the Planet of the Apes remake... I don't know what happened, the director doesn't know what happened... no one knows. It was just a "cool" ending. And I hated it.
It seemed liek there were things that could have been explored that weren't and things that were irrelevant that were delved into for far too long.
But as I said, I need to watch it again, if for nothing else than some more yummy Trinityness.
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ It was a truce, and a rightful one, at that.
If we take "Animatrix" as canon (which we must do, since several of the shorts involve people or information used in "Reloaded") the world leaders had it coming, going all Vietnam and Auschwitz on the sovereign robot nation. I'm not saying we deserved eternal damnation and bondage, but we did "start it".
So, they promise to let all the minds go that want to, and we'll see how it goes from there.
Kind of a good deal, considering all we did was help them terminate one little faulty program. And considering a minute earlier, they were content with digging out every last man, woman and child to penetrate with large steel coils.
And it does leave it open for a sequel, albeit a few years from now. "How long do you think this peace will last?", said the Architect.
Well, you have continents of living computers and machines, and one small nation of settler humans beginning from the bottom, or maybe have already started rebuilding for several generations, if one does an "ALIEN 4" time jump. I've seen Anime-spinoffs with much weaker plot promises, managing to create something new and good anyway.
Also, I thought it was a nice touch with Trinity seeing the sun, it made an impact in the otherwise barren wasteland.
That reminds me, if the human-ships can float in free air and even escalate over cloud height, do they really classify as "hovercraft"? All forms of hovercraft rely on the surface or on water for support.
What do they call those things on Starfleet ships, the devices that make the ship stop or stand still? The pads on the Matrix-ships must be like those. Friction generators, or something. But then what makes them go forward or up?
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
About the time thing, one would think some of the Zion hackers could hack into regular Machine software not tied into the Matrix and just look at the chrono index. The Machines must have a concept of time and reference for it, although they probably don't measure it from the birth of Jesus Christ.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
The machines would probably have records on how long it's been since they took over. Regardless of how they keep time, you'd think it would give the humans a decent idea of what year it actually is. They obviously can't get that info though, cause noone has a clue as to how long the Matrix has *really* been up and running.
There's one Animatrix short that supposedly takes place some years *after* Revolutions indicating that the peace didn't last all that long. At least not in the form it took at the end of the movie.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ And I get the part about the machines and humans reaching a truce, but I don't understand what happened to Neo and Smith and how everything went back to the way it was except better. The closest I can figure is that the machines injected the Neo code into the Matrix and rebooted it, and since Smith had taken over everything, he was destroyed when everything rebooted. But I have no idea if that's right or not.
posted
Aban Rune said: "There's one Animatrix short that supposedly takes place some years *after* Revolutions indicating that the peace didn't last all that long."
Are you referring to "Matriculated"?
"I don't understand what happened to Neo and Smith and how everything went back to the way it was except better. The closest I can figure is that the machines injected the Neo code into the Matrix and rebooted it, and since Smith had taken over everything, he was destroyed when everything rebooted. But I have no idea if that's right or not.
I see what you mean. Hopefully the book "Art of Revolutions" will set the record straight. Together with "Art of the Matrix" and "Art of Reloaded" it will be quite a bundle of information.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Obviously information that is much better presented in 20 dollar coffee table books than, say, in the movies themselves.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Actually it's mostly concept art, storyboards and such, not some sort of "last resort" to explain anything, but I think it will give a bit of a hint as to what the producers were trying to do.
I'm rooting for schematics and pics of the ships and exoskeletons.
Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged
![[Confused]](confused.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
