Semiotic Analysis Between The Matrix and The Bible
By Daniel MartinezThis essay will look at the symbolic aspect of the first movie of The Matrix; though it is a trilogy, I felt that the last two films didn’t follow the biblical semiotic theory as the first one did. So as you read keep in mind this essay is referring to only the first Matrix.
Semiotics: The theory and study of signs and symbols
I must say that the film “The Matrix” is going to go down in cinematic history as one of the greats. Though the story has been told before in one form or another, it brought a new era of film to the new millennium. Its breakthrough special effects, thrilling action scenes, and the philosophical questions and symbolism that it presents have brought on questions that doctorates of their discipline will be asking for years to come. Even currently film and philosophy students are using this film as a learning tool for their discipline, examining the multilevel that encompass it has brought on many of a discussion. In fact, it is so broad that for me to comment on them all would take more work than what I want to do. So because of that I have chosen one aspect in particular to focus on, it is about the relationship the Matrix has to the Bible, and the symbolism it carries. There is nothing to prove here, so don’t expect any arguments, I just want to enlighten you, the reader, of the parallels between the two.
In order for you to understand the relation between the two you must first understand the story and theory that accompanies them. We will start with the Bible.
The Bible is broken into two sections, Old Testament, and New Testament. The Old Testament is what the Jews believe to have happened, they call it the Torah; it’s their accounts of their history and of their God; it’s the events before Christ’s coming. The New Testament is the accounts of Christ’s birth, death and resurrection and His revelation. The orthodox Jews do not believe in Christ as Lord God as Christians do; they are still waiting for their Messiah to come. But Christians believe in both Old and New Testaments and their prophecies and revelations. The importance of this is that The Matrix refers to Old and New Testament facts and events to drive their story of Neo being the ‘savior’, correlating him to Jesus.
The film is about a futuristic world where the ‘enslavement’ of the human race lives for the sole purpose of perpetuating the existence of AI machines (ironically created by the humans). To keep them incarcerated, the AI has concocted “The Matrix”. The Matrix is basically a computer program controlled by the machines, to which the humans are connected to through their brain, to give a sense of reality. But in actuality it is not real and we are used for our energy to be a power source, or batteries to the oppressors. Within the Matrix there is Thomas Anderson, a computer programmer who goes by the hacker alias ‘Neo’ (anagram for One), who lives a mundane life doing the same thing day in and day out looking for the answer. Unbeknownst to him as to what that answer is, he later finds out that it’s the Matrix that he is searching for. Trinity and Morpheus find him as does Agent Smith, (a program in the Matrix whose purpose is to extract those who try and free the human race) and henceforth an exhilarating adventure of Neo finding out that he is “the One”. What is “the One”? The Matrix refers to the One as the person who will free mankind from the clutches of the machines.
How the Matrix paralleled itself to the Bible can be seen many times throughout this film. One example is that they talk about the prophecy of the One who will be the salvation of them all. This can be seen in the Old Testament dating back to Genesis (3:15) where God foretold about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Neo’s name in the Matrix is Thomas Anderson and can be related to 'doubting Thomas' in the bible when he doesn't believe that he is the One; and Anderson means 'son of man', which is a messianic title, and 'son of man' is another name for Christ. Early on in the film when Neo has to decide whether to find out the truth of the Matrix or be blissfully ignorant, he chooses the red pill, which allows for a trace on his body and allows for Morpheus and his crew to rescue him. I think the choosing of the red pill represents Eve choosing to eat from the “fruit of the tree of knowledge”; thus having knowledge of sin and later resulting in the coming of Christ, or the One. After Neo is freed from the Matrix he has to come to realization that he cannot go back and that the real world is a dim full place, but he “chose” to go there. Training begins to get him ready for the trials to come, and he slowly realizes his potential and eventually recognizes himself as the One.
A note that I would like to add is you can correlate the films ‘real world’ to our real world and the concept of Heaven. Humans are trapped in the Matrix as we here can perceive the same as this world being a trap, and going up to Heaven is like freedom from the Matrix. Another corresponding example is when Neo is finally freed from the Matrix, he comes out naked and through a canal, representing the birth canal and thus ‘rebirth’. Biblically when you receive Christ as your Savior (finding the truth) you are considered born again; Neo leaving the Matrix this way represents him finding the truth as it does in Christianity.
In film, the characters drive the plot, and the characters in this film had impacting symbolism accompanying them. For the first power character there is Morpheus, captain of the hovercraft Nebuchadnezzar. Morpheus believes in The Oracle's prophecy, and he believes he has finally found the One. He acts as Neo's mentor and a father figure to them all and is the one person who didn’t doubt Neo as the One. The only reference that I can find in this character to the Bible is John the Baptist. My concluding this reasoning is by the fact that John never doubted Jesus as the Messiah. And when Morpheus chose to give his life as a sacrifice to Neo you can see that John did the same for Jesus.
Trinity, the love interest of Neo has shown little correlation to the Bible other than her name. There has been some propaganda to support the theory that Jesus had a love interest with Mary Magdalene but I believe that to be false since there is not real evidence to support a premise of a relationship brewing. But with Trinity being the prominent female figure, I think there is a correlation to these two; Trinity was the one who was the first to see Neo come back to life, and Mary Magdalene was the first to see Jesus when He rose from the dead. As for her name ‘Trinity’ the reference here is to the biblical trinity, (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) but for symbolism, I wouldn’t think that there was any hidden meaning, there isn’t any reference other than her name to the Christian Trinity.
Agent Smith, the main adversary to Morpheus' plan, is a sentient program in the Matrix; Smith is able to do almost everything Neo can. Agents are supremely powerful, and no one has ever survived a standoff with an Agent before Neo. Agent Smith could possibly symbolize Satan who is the enemy of Christ and thus the enemy of Neo. Agent Smith tricks Neo at the beginning into thinking that Morpheus is a criminal and one not to be trusted. Neo doesn’t fall for this deception and is punished for it. Yet this can be correlated to Christ roaming through the desert for 40 days and nights, being tempted by the devil, but rejecting him and condemning him. Another example to support this is at the end when Neo fights Smith and conquers him; this is a manifestation of Christ going to hell for our sins and returning as the conqueror of evil and the redeemer of mankind. Also, anyone who is still in the Matrix can become an agent the same as the devil possessing the unbeliever. Agent Smith is the antagonist throughout this film as Satan is throughout the Bible.
Cypher is the classic betrayer, the Judas Iscariot. The word refers to a mathematical symbol denoting an absence of quantity, a zero, also, someone with no value, a nonentity. It's also potentially related to Satan (the name could be a shortened version of 'Lucifer'). Cypher also has a goatee and wears red early in The Matrix, which relate to the popular images of Satan. So this character represents the betrayal of Christ (Judas) and the Devil through his dark demeanor.
The remaining five-characters left in the film to me represents Holy Angels. Switch, a member of Morpheus' crew is curiously the only one who appears in white clothes when they enter the Matrix, thus supporting my theory of an Angel type character. She is a fighter and could be connected to say an archangel. Apoc, another member of Morpheus' crew is the first to die at the hand’s of Cypher. Little is told about him in the story but his name could be short for “apocalypse”, and since he is the first to die at the hands of Cypher, it could be a foreshadowing of what is to come. Mouse, the youngest and smallest member of Morpheus' crew is the 'digital pimp' responsible for programming the woman in red, and he offers private visits with her as well. I really couldn’t find any connection of this character to the Bible. He is the first to die through Cypher’s betrayal, so maybe he represented the lost lives at the hands of the devil. The Oracle is an unusual inhabitant of the Matrix, she is able to see the future. Morpheus takes members of his crew to her, most importantly Neo. The Oracle is also responsible for the original prophecy concerning the existence of the One. This can be seen biblically in the prophets of the Old Testament and their prognostications of Christ’s coming.
As the story goes along we confirm more illustrations connecting the two by the vessel that Morpheus and his crew fly in called: Nebuchadnezzar. Biblically Nebuchadnezzar was the builder and king of Babylon, the symbolism here is that Morpheus and his crew (including the ship) are a part of the building of the future of mankind, influencing the viewer to perceive them as the leaders and builders of their future. One thing that is not noticed is that there is a scene in the film that shows a plaque with the inscribing: Mark III No. 11 - Nebuchadnezzar – Made in the USA – Year 2069. Now I don’t know if this was intentional or what, but in the Bible Mark chapter 3 verse 11 is: “Whenever the evil spirit saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” This may be a metaphorical reference to the crew and ship realizing that Neo is the One. A note that I would like to add is that Nebuchadnezzar was an evil genius, I don’t think this had any influence on the film, but the real Nebuchadnezzar tried to burn alive Daniel and his friends for rejecting his god, but later realizing his own error appointed Daniel the position of an advisor and later became friends with Daniel.
One last note that I want to add is the name they gave to their home miles under the Earth, Zion. Zion was the home for all humankind in the real world in the film, biblically it originally was a stronghold captured by King David (the 2nd king of the Israelites); above it was built a temple and later the name extended to the whole hill; finally it became a synonym for the city of Jerusalem. The home of the people in the Matrix is Zion; the home of the Jews is also Zion. This is the most blatant representation in the film that I can see.
This film had many levels to work on, not only the one mentioned here. As I said I choose to cover the parallels that this film had to the Bible to show how the Bible itself had a profound impact on the writers. I hope that you now will understand the intricacies of this story and will appreciate the film for its philosophical aspect and not for the ‘cool’ fight scenes. (Even though I thought they kick-a**)
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