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108 Claudia HULPOI Claudia HULPOI Another Apocalypse to EEnnjjoy:: The Matrix through PPlato’’ss and Descartes’ Lookking Glass …a sensible man would remember that the Abststracract:t: This comparative approach is inspired eyes may be confused in two ways, and for by the collective volume The Matrix and Philosophy. two reasons – by a change from light to Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002), where ele- ments of Buddhism, Platonism and traditional Christianism darkness, or from darkness to light. are generally identifified as the most recurrent themes of (Plato, The Republic)) the “jazz mythology” on which the narrative structure Looking today at the still ground- of the Wachowskis’ movie is based. Our aim is to exa- breaking Matrix through the eyes of the mine two specifific philosophical views in their relationship 1717thth century René Descartes, then going to the apocalyptic theme developed in The Matrix : these are Plato’s simile of the cave (The Republic ) and René thth so far back as the 5 century Plato and his Descartes’ First Meditation ((Metaphysical Meditations,, analogy of the cave to unearth other pos- 1694). Jean Baudrillard’s theory of Simulacra and sible affiffinities might leave us with the ee- Simulation (1981) will also inform our considerations, given rie feeling that the adage “The future is that Andy and Larry Wachowski make a clear reference now” is somehow outdated. For the fu- to it in the fifirst part of the movie as to a possible “mise en abyme” of its philosophical grounds. Topics as reality vs.vs. ture was, too; it just looked a little diffffer- illusion, freedom vsvs. manipulation, past vs.vs. present will ent. Actually, every now and then art- be identifified along the above mentioned texts as they are ists and thinkers get to stimulate an en- mirrored by The Matrix, in the attempt to shape a possible hanced (or “apocalyptic”, in its etymo- meaning of the apocalypse in our present civilization. logical sense of “revelation”) awareness Keywords: Matrix, Plato, Descartes, Baudrillard, of our relation to time and space. Andy simulacrum, alienation, Apocalypse. and Larry Wachowski did just that, and they did it in quite a spectacular way. Claudia Hulpoi The success of the Wachowski broth- E-mail: [email protected] ers’ trilogy – The Matrix (1999), The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolution (2004) – was such that the phrase “the Matrix generation” soon became a sort EKPHRASIS, 2/2012 stst A APOCALYPSE ININ CCINEMA AND VVISUAL AARTSRTS.. of brand name for the 21 century. The NNEWEW IIMAGES FOR OOLDLD MMYTHS pp. 108-116 Another Apocalypse to Enjoy: 109 The Matrix through Plato’s and Descartes’ Looking Glass transit from one millennium to the oth- The Matrix is not, indeed, just anoth- er could but bring along all the exhilara- er Hollywood production with a remark- tion of new beginnings. However, there able box office success. It touches some must have also been an unsetling sense very deep level of our perception, of our of some imminent end – the end of some- imagination, of our mind. No sooner had thing. Nobody knew of what exactly, al- it been put out in the United States than though some still say there is going to be the movie managed to completely seduce an end of the world. not only the mass public, but also – may- In 2012, we’re still safe and sound and, be especially – the scholars. As Deborah even if we fancy doing it through differ- and George McKnight remember, “When ent “glasses”, we still enjoy watching The The Matrix opened in 1999, philosophers Matrix. Maybe it’s precisely because it ex- could be found talking to one another, orcises our fear of the end, or simply be- either in university corridors or at aca- cause this movie is still able to challenge demic conferences, and they were tell- us visually – and intellectually. At the ing each other the same story2. In any in- same time, and this is the beauty of its troductory philosophy course you cared paradox, The Matrix might seem so rev- to name, afer lecturing on, say, Plato’s olutionary, and its impact on us ever so Cave or Descartes’ First Meditation , stu- fresh, namely because some of the ques- dents would either put up their hands in tions it raises are incredibly ancient. In class or come up to you afer the lecture our postmodern – and post-human – and say: “It’s just like in The Matrix.””3. age of cybernetics and virtual realities, Descartes’ metaphysical doubts on the Le territoire ne précède plus la carte, ni ne nature of reality and even Plato’s myth of lui survit. C’est désormais la carte qui pré- the cave suddenly – and oddly – become cède le territoire (...). C’est le réel, et non la carte, dont des vestiges subsistent ça et very contemporary. The only difference là, dans les déserts (...). Le désert du réel lui- is – and it makes all the difference – that même « (Jean Baudrillard, Simulacres et simu- Plato’s philosophy, for instance, stemmed lation , Paris: Éditions Galilée, 1981, p. 14). from a set of beliefs (strong enough to die 2 One of the outcomes of such talks is the col- for, as Socrates actually did), while our lective volume edited by William Irwing, present civilization is being eroded, as The Matrix and Philosophy. Welcome to the Jean Baudrillard puts it, by a simulated Desert of the Real (2002). Afer the last part of the Wachowskis’ trilogy was launched, “hyperreality” or “neo-reality”, with no Josh Oreck also gathered a series of filmed 1 link whatsoever to its – absent – referent . interviews in his Return to Source: Philoso- phy & The Matrix (2004). 1 "Aujourdhui l’abstraction n’est plus celle 3 Deborah Knight and George McKnight, de la carte, du double, du miroir ou du “Real Genre and Virtual Philosophy” in concept. La simulation n’est plus celle d’un The Matrix and Philosophy. Welcome to the territoire, d’un être référentiel, d’une subs- Desert of the Real , PerfectBound e-books, tance. Elle est la génération par les modèles Harper Collins & Carus Publishing, 2002, d’un réel sans origine ni réalité: hyperréel. p. 206. 110 Claudia HULPOI Everything was more or less “just like in tops”) meant to fuel the machines which The Matrix” those days, and somehow it have thus come to rule the world. might still be, even if we’re no longer so Once he himself has been liberated, much aware of it. Thomas Anderson’s – alias Neo – mis- The only similarity I intend to further sion is to free humanity from this illu- explore here, though, is the one between sion by sabotaging the very program The Matrix and the above mentioned re- that was generating it. Although plainly flections of Plato and Descartes. For those Messianic, his atempt to save the world who saw the movie a while ago, and also implies a hypnotic choreography of ju for those – if any – who haven’t seen it jitsu , Western and mortal combat style yet, it might be useful to go over some fights against the Agents of the Artificial of its significant scenes. This should help Intelligence. The visual effects can be in- us get more acquainted with the phil- deed seducing, but there is much more osophical vision it shares with the first to it: we’re facing a subtle problematisa- of Descartes’ Metaphysical Meditations – tion of manipulation, alienation, extinc- and, more specifically, with Plato’s anal- tion and of our own way of relating to the ogy of the cave, since the later consists world around us, be it real, virtual, or in- of a mythical scenario that could have in- between. The words concluding the first spired Andy and Lana Wachowski more part of the trilogy – “I’m not here to tell than Descartes’ less dramatic philosophi- you how it is going to end, I’m here to tell cal speculations. you how it is going to begin” – sound like Matrix, as some of us know, is the a sibylline warning message that Neo ad- name of a dream world, simulated by dresses to the “Matrix generation”. a gigantic computer program to which Morpheus, a key character in the mov- the brains of the entire human species ie, is the one that “wakes up” Thomas are connected. Only few – “the happy Anderson from the digital dream he few” – manage to escape this fake reality: used to live in, although he did it with they choose either to openly fight it, like the feeling that “there was something Morpheus and his team, or to get shel- wrong with the world”. “Wake up, Neo”, ter and, if necessary, defend themselves reads the message Morpheus sends him in an underground city bearing the bibli- on the computer screen. Soon follows the cal name of Zion. The others are reduced well-known scene of “the red and blue to a larval, forever fetal state, while at the pill”, that is, the moment when Thomas same time leading a virtual life as pris- Anderson/Neo is asked to choose be- oners of a virtual reality controlled by an tween ignorance and knowledge. Of Artificial Intelligence – or the Architect, course, he chooses to know – and do as we find out in the last part of the tril- something about it, otherwise the mov- ogy. His master plan is to turn individu- ie would have ended right there. Once als into mere sources of energy (“copper- Neo has accepted Morpheus’ “truth”, the Another Apocalypse to Enjoy: 111 The Matrix through Plato’s and Descartes’ Looking Glass later introduces him further into the se- prophetic intimation that there is a differ- crets of a multidimensional world, or in ence between dreaming and awaking”5.

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