The Desert of the Real:Technology and PostmodernPhilosophy in The Matrix

The Matrix exists in a world where nothing is as seems. The film questions the most basically held human truths and presents a postmodern philosophy in which there are no absolutes to hinder its creative visual and narrative techniques. The philosophical ideas in The Matrix act as a social commentary for audiences as it examines many relevant concepts about existence and humanity in our postmodern world. During this process it becomes clear that technology plays a lead role in the emergence of postmodern thought by blurring the distinctions between real and fantasy. This essay will examine the postmodern conundrums posed in The Matrix and how virtual technology has given them new relevance.

In the movie, humans have been living in a virtual reality dream world for the last hundred years, serving as electricity generators for the machines who enslaved them. People in this world are completely unaware that their lives are not real, but rather programmed by a computer. The illusion of the matrix leads us to ponder ancient philosophical questions about reality. How do we know what is real? Is it possible that everything we believe is false? 2,400 years ago Plato wrote in his Republic a story of men trapped in a cave for their entire lives. A fire is behind them, and they believe the shadows on the walls to be the real things themselves. Because they have never encountered anything real the men are oblivious to their ignorance. Furthermore, if they managed to escape from the cave they would not be able to accept the new reality that faced them (Plato 263).

In the seventeenth century, a philosopher named Rene Descartes theorized the possibility that all of our beliefs could be wrong. Descartes ventured that because our senses are so easily fooled, perceptions are not secure foundations for knowledge. It is then possible that everything we sense is really a dream. He wrote, "I see so plainly that there are no reliable signs by which I can distinguish sleeping from waking that I am stupefied- and my stupor itself suggests that I am asleep" (Descartes 75).  He went on to propose the disturbing thought that our existence is a deception controlled by a "malicious demon."   

These metaphysical questions about reality and illusion have been discussed for centuries, but very few people have taken them seriously. In his essay, "The Matrix Simulation and the Postmodern Age," David Weberman says that they were viewed as farfetched and "outlandish thoughts" by most people (228). However, the advent of virtual reality technology now lends credence to these ancient theories that question the notion of our existence. The concept of an artificial dream world is now very believable. Technology has blurred reality and illusion so that we can no longer trust our senses to tell us what is truth.

The plausibility of an illusionary world is well demonstrated in The Matrix. After Neo takes the red pill and decides to discover what the matrix is, Morpheus asks, "Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference between the dream world and the real world?" By posing this question he shows that the existence of the matrix fantasy world means the line distinguishing real from imaginary is no longer clear.

Like Plato's cave dwellers, Neo soon breaks free from his imprisonment and is faced with the startling truth that his knowledge of reality is false. Upon awaking into the real world, Neo is naked in a pod of gel with tubes attached to him. As he breaks free we see a close up shot of his face and realize that he has no body hair. In this way his appearance is different from the self-image that he has seen in the matrix. Neo looks up and the camera follows his eyes as he gazes in awe at monstrous towers of humans sleeping in pods like his own as they generate power for the machines. The camera then pans down 90 degrees to an overhead shot that again reveals vast, never ending rows of people being harvested as far as the eye can see in every direction. This view allows us to glimpse the shocking reality as Neo awakens and learns that he has been living in an entirely different world from what he believed. Dramatic music underscores this key realization. A zoom-down approach gives us the hopeless feeling that we are falling in this heartless mechanic world.  The fall is stopped just above Neo's head, and a point of view angle shows a hideous spider-like machine that has been alerted to his awakening. The machine quickly unplugs his tubes to terminate him. Ruthless, cold, and precise, this process illustrates in a gripping way how technology has conquered and enslaved humanity. The machines have become the manifestation of Descartes' "malicious demon" that controls theiu thoughts and lives. The technology of virtual reality has allowed the machines to create a prison for the minds of its slaves. The unique thing about this prison is that the captives cannot tell they are in it.

This is unsettling because there is no way to prove or disprove the existence of reality and whether we are in it. How can anyone know for sure that they are not trapped in a dream world like the matrix? Any argument or evidence put forward against this claim could easily be another mind trick played by the machines. With this possibility comes the philosophy of skepticism. There are no longer any borders or distinctions between reality and illusion so nothing can be accepted as truth. The very idea of a definite truth becomes irrelevant when simulated images and experiences can be fed into our brains and appear real. This skepticism is at the heart of postmodernism, which rejects any grand narratives or universal truths. In essence it questions reality, even going so far as to say "the idea of any stable or permanent reality disappears" (Klages). Understanding the illusion of reality brings the profound skepticism of postmodernism.   

Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher, wrote a book named Simulacra and Simulation that can be considered the cornerstone of postmodernism concepts. He philosophized that the existences of what we perceive and what is real are different.  Baudrillard states that in a postmodern society there are no longer any originals, only copies called simulacra. The copy of the reality is all that is in existence. In postmodernity, he writes, "The very definition of real becomes that of which it is possible to give an equivalent reproduction […] the real is not only what can be reproduced, but that which is always already reproduced. The hyperreal transcends representation (Baudrillard 146-147). The real has been eroded and replaced with simulated images, making the real distanced from the representation. This philosophy inspired The Matrix, whose virtual world is a digital replica of the world as it used to exist. Reality has been replacedby reproduction in the film world, just as Baudrillard described it.

An explicit reference to Baudrillard is made in the film. When Neo grabs the pirated software for his client, he takes it from a hollowed out copy of Simulacra and Simulation. The hollowness symbolizes how meaningless our lives have become when reality is nothing more than simulated images. For Neo this had profound truth because he was trapped in a giant simulation. With no reality, Neo's life was hollow and meaningless. His entire human existence had been a hoax.

When Morpheus reveals the "truth" behind the matrix dream world, Baudrillard's theories are most clearly presented.  Neo is hooked up to the construct program, simulation of a simulation. He spins in a circle, taking in the complete emptiness, then Morpheus appears behind him. Even in this program of truth, Morpheus can simply materialize, making us question that truth even exists. Neo is informed that they are in a computer program, but has a hard time coming to grip with reality. Two old chairs and an old TV appear, an ode to simpler times before postmodernism. Neo sees the visual object of the chair, but Morpheus tells him it is an illusion. "What is real," he asks. "How do you define real? If it is what you feel, smell, taste and see, the real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

This again confirms that the senses can be simulated and are therefore not able to diffrentiate reality from illusion. But Baudrillard theorizes that this perfect simulation is not "false," only indistinguishable from the real. And because it is indistinguishable, it is no longer just an image, but has become its own reality, a hyperreality. Technology has blurred all distinction between real and fantasy, and has even gone so far as to turn the fantasy into real. Morpheus has a remote control that allows him to manipulate the virtual world, and turns the television on to project images of the dream world and the real world. When the real world is shown, the screen widens out and becomes the image that has become reality. This has the effect of revealing that simulacra on the screen has become real, as stated in Baudrillard's theory of progression of images. The camera then focuses on a long shot of the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the real world. We then see the same shoot down from above technique as in the pod scene. Morpheus spreads out his arms and proclaims, "Welcome to the desert of the real," a direct quote from Baudrillard.  In this dream world, the reproduced images become more real than the real ones they were copied from.  The real world is an unappealing an uninhabitable place. We see here that technological replication has made simulacra more alluring than the original. Throughout the film we also see the green backdrop of virtual code cascading down computer monitors, but this code is never seen in the matrix, only the real world. It is ironic that the real world is the one dominated by technology. The real appears more virtual than the fantasy.

In addition to raising philosophical questions via the narrative, The Matrix also explores issues of reality through visual form. As discussed earlier, it seems in some ways that the real world could be a type of simulation as well. The real world's visuals are always of mechanical things, even on the Nebuchadnezzar. A world that is supposed to be liberated from machines is anything but. The ship is full of machines and technology, showing that it could be part of a virtual world as well. The visuals of the matrix dream world are not mechanical, seeming to be more tangible than the real world. But the virtual world is very deceptive. The film uses action scenes to visually underscore the false reality of the matrix. People are able to perform superhuman feats in the virtual world as long as they accept that it is fantasy. Neo, Trinity and Morpheus jump extraordinary distances and show incredible strength and agility in combat. In a scene of law-defying spectacle Neo encounters an agent on a roof. The agent unloads his handgun directly at his foe, and Neo dodges the bullets. The camera spins 360 degrees to let us see his acrobatic maneuvers. This visually displays how virtual technology melded fantasy and reality together. Not only is this shot filmed from every angle, but it also occurs in slow motion. Neo can manipulate time as well as motion in the matrix. The matrix allows people to bend reality and we see that what appears to be an ordinary world is actually an example of Baudrillard's hyperreality. The matrix shows us that there is no truth in a postmodern world. When Neo and Trinity enter the lobby to rescue Morpheus, a fierce firefight ensues. When the smoke clears, they both walk away in defiance of laws of nature that say thousands of rounds should have killed them. But most striking about this scene are the stone pillars, which have been thoroughly littered with bullets. These pillars represent the absolute truths of modernity that have destroyed by the virtual technology of the postmodern world.

The film reveals the multiple levels of reality and determines that none can be taken at face value, yet it attempts to make visual distinctions between the world of the matrix and the "real" world. The Matrix uses color contrasts to serve this purpose. A bluish- gray tint covers the "real" world to show its coldness and emptiness, while the scenes in the virtual world are filmed through a green filter. Green is often associated with naivety, as when rookies are called "green." The green could symbolize how clueless the inhabitants of the matrix are that they are living in a dream world.  But the matrix is not just a dream world. When Neo is injured from matrix combat, blood appears on in his mouth in the real world. Once again this signifies that the matrix might be another level of reality. Matrix Reloaded provides another example questioning Morpheus' claim on the truth. In this sequel, Neo is able to transcend the matrix and use his mental powers to stop sentinels. We already know that people who accept the "reality" of the real world can manipulate the virtual world, but now they can manipulate what they believe to be the real world. 

Through these visual cues, the film tries to paint a line between real and fantasy, all the while acknowledging that there is no such line. We see this by going back to the construct loading program scene. Postmodern theory teaches that there is no reality or truth, yet this scene tries to clearly define both. The white emptiness signifies that the truth is about to be revealed, but it is impossible to know whether the "real" world is not just another level of virtual reality. In trying to define reality the film contradicts itself because fantasy and reality overlap.

The Matrix may not be able to come to a conclusion about what is real and what is illusion, but that ambiguity is the whole point of postmodern theory. In this film, technology serves as a platform to question reality and concludes that there is no way to prove the nature of our existence. We must face the possibility that nothing is certain. Descartes realized this, but also came to the realization that one thing is for certain: your own existence. Even if one is living in a virtual deception, there must be a "you" that is being deceived. The very act of doubting your existence illustrates that you do exist. This revelation led Descartes to proclaim the only grand narrative truth: "I think therefore I am" (51).  

Works Cited

Baudrillard, Jean. "Simulcra and Simulations."Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings. 2nd ed. Ed. and introd. Mark Poster. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2001. 140-187.

Descartes, Rene. Discourse on Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy. Trans. John Veitch. New York: Hackett, 1998.

Klages, Mary. Postmodernism. 6 December 2001. University of Colorado, Boulder. 6 March 2005 <http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/1997pomo.html>.

The Matrix. Dir. Larry and Andy Wachowski. Warner Brothers 1999.

Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. The Literature Page. 10 Mar 2005 <http://www.literaturepage.com/read/therepublic-255.html>.

Weberman, David. "The Matrix, Simulation and Postmodernism." The Matrix and Philosophy. Ed. William Irwin. LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 2002. 225-240.