College Essay on the Film The Matrix

The Matrix makes some radical statements about our way of life, with the mass uniformity of our society highlighted especially. Are the filmmakers trying to make a statement about the effects that mass society has on people’s individuality and ultimately show that life as an individual is counter-cultural? 

Take the setting for example. Centered within a metropolis, the matrix is representative of the world as the audience knows it. Through this world the audience is treated to visuals of citizens dressed in conforming business attire, walking the sidewalks in droves. No one sticks out in particular. Each person is just another face in the crowd. The real world setting in the film is quite different. It is a desolate place that surely most people would not want to live in, yet this is the world that the resistance strives to awaken the rest of society into. Why? Only in the real world can an individual experience truth and make choices that define their being. 

Morpheus explains to Neo, “The matrix is control.” Essentially, the matrix takes all aspects of people’s individuality by stealing the right to free will and blinding those who would access the truth with a simulated, though pointless, reality. The resistance characters are individuals. Probably hackers prior to awakening from the matrix (note each is known by a handle instead of given names). The resistance characters are hackers still, trying to dissemble the ultimate program. Glorified via wardrobe choices, the resistance characters are privileged with having style. While the other characters are stripped of individuality through a uniform appearance, thus serving more as a backdrop than any key element to plot. Occupations are represented over individuals. Police, security guards, SWAT team members, businessmen, and the agents are all reoccurring buzzwords, but these automatons have no names and consequently no identities. That is with exception of Mr. Smith, but note his first name is strategically omitted leaving him with one of the most common last names in history.