The Matrix turns 25

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, March 22. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A movie from 1999 that still packs a punch.

Here’s movie reviewer Max Belz.

MUSIC: [Spybreak! by the Propellerheads]

MAX BELZ: It's been 25 years since Neo chose the red pill, freeing him from his simulated world and ushering him into the fight for reality. The Matrix has aged well. That’s in part because it broke new ground with its special effects, but also because it foresaw our digitally saturated world. And for Christians, the film drew uncanny parallels with the story of redemption.

MORPHEUS: You’ve been living in a dream world, Neo.

For those who need a refresher, the story goes like this: machines have taken over the world and trapped human beings in a computer simulation called the matrix to harvest their energy.

MORPHEUS: The matrix is a computer-generated dreamworld built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this.

But a band of renegades led by Morpheus are still moored to the real world and they long for the arrival of a messianic figure to free humanity from the machines. They recite the prophecies of old and the utterings of the Oracle.

THE ORACLE: It’s Latin, it means know thyself.

Morpheus plucks a computer hacker named Neo, played by Keanu Reeves.

MORPHEUS: This line is tapped so I must be brief. You are the one, Neo…

From his dubious work inside the matrix to return to the real and dying world. They will battle against the shape-shifting machines who stand in the way of human thriving.

The special effects stand up well after 25 years. Most notable are the action sequences featuring hyper-slow motion as bodies bend and bullets stop mid-flight.

NEO: I know Kung Fu.

MORPHEUS: Show me.

SOUND: [Kung fu fighting]

The breathtaking kung fu fighting in the movie was inspired by Hong Kong cinema.

When it was released in May of 1999, The Matrix concerned some people because of the violence in the story’s climax. But the movie also posed profound questions about the nature of human beings–what it means to love and what it means to give your life for another.

The movie speaks to our technological bondage. It suggests we float in a virtual reality that buffers us from the pure features of life. We need to pierce the fog to see the vivid colors and taste the flavors that fill our lives.

AGENT SMITH: Never send a human to do a machine’s job.

After The Matrix came out, “taking the red pill” entered common usage for seeing reality as it is. By rejecting false accounts that blind us, we recover what is true. This conflict is at the heart of the story.

MORPHEUS: You are a slave, Neo. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch.

This theme squares with the Apostle Paul’s words that human beings “exchanged the truth about God for a lie.” Our ultimate rebellion against God is trading true worship of him for counterfeit gods and a false sense of desire and purpose.

NEO: Why do my eyes hurt? 

MORPHEUS: You’ve never used them before.

But as The Matrix reminds us, even our perceptions need to be reborn. Neo is a classic Christ figure. He stands in the gap representing a new vision of humanity and giving himself for his fellow freedom-fighters, finding what was lost and binding everything together again.

The Matrix endures as a captivating story about the soul of humanity and it’s a classic man-versus-machine tale, alive with action, romance, and courage.

AGENT SMITH: Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet...and we are the cure.

In later installments, the full messianic saga comes to fulfillment, even if the other films are inferior to the original story. The movie is rated R, but its theme of discerning what is real will resonate with audiences for years to come.

MUSIC: [Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine]

I’m Max Belz.

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