Replies

...I suspect they are setting up for the following revelation in Revolutions: ALL of Zion is INSIDE the Matrix, and not just a dependency upon it stuck in a "causality loop" (to paraphrase the Merovingian). Recall the scene where Neo suddenly realizes he can stop the squiddies outside the ship (when the Neb. is getting torpedoed). Recall, too, that Smith was able to transform himself into the spy in Zion -- over the phone.

This would mean that no humans are free, and no machines are free (recalling Smith's comment on why he still chases "the One" even though he was "freed" from his system program obligations). Perhaps all will be set "free" at some moment -- the moment of cataclysmic failure of the programming brought about by a cascading "anamoly," and/or the birth of the REAL real world after 7 "discrete integers" or iterations (to paraphrase the "architect")?

Curious. If all the humans in Zion are part of a carefully crafted sub-routine for control, doesn't this mean that Smith is the only truly "unplugged" independent operator capable of exercising "free choice?" If so, isn't he the good guy? Come to think of it, what does Smith really want? He has said he wants to "get out of here" and must gets the codes to destroy Zion -- and eliminate Neo. In other words, he knows that the only way to destroy THE SYSTEM and liberate himself is to end the Human-Matrix slave-based economy, of which Neo has so far been an integral component. Or is Smith supposed to be the "bad" guy because in so doing he will destroy those humans with the intellectual power of free will, but the constrained ABILITY only to think like slaves (that is, "choosing" slavery by accepting the programming sub-consciously, or acting like Neo in always being the superhero, but never knowing "the why" or using the "muscle that really matters")?

...I suspect they are setting up for the following revelation in Revolutions: ALL of Zion is INSIDE the Matrix, and not just a dependency upon it stuck in a "causality loop" (to paraphrase the Merovingian). Recall the scene where Neo suddenly realizes he can stop the squiddies outside the ship (when the Neb. is getting torpedoed). Recall, too, that Smith was able to transform himself into the spy in Zion -- over the phone.

This would mean that no humans are free, and no machines are free

It also renders virtually everything that happened in both films meaningless since it's all one big computer simulation anyway. It also puts in doubt that any next, higher level they might break into is any more real than the previous. This idea was handled much better in films like "eXistenZ" and "Last Year at Marienbad."

Well, following seeing it once I made these observations. (SPOILERS)

1) Zion mimics the pods, the tall machine like structure with everyone living around the outside, which would clearly show how the machines do in effect have control over Zion

2) Secondly, how EVERYONE except for the counsel is relatively young, which is the point of the Rave, to show that the inhabitants are in fact young partiers. Neo even asks the counsellor why there are no "young people" on the consel, and recieves a vague response. This suggests to me that the counsel are the select few who get to rebuild Zion. The age difference is interesting.

3) Furthermore the Counsel's continued undermining of Lock's defenses in supporting Morpheus and recieving word to the oracle seems to suggest that the only way to save the "human race" is by having Neo see the Architect in which he'd decide to chose a small number of people to rebuild Zion, as oppose to have Zion completely destroyed.

Smith is a program, who probably does not know about the 6 (7)previous Matrixes anymore than Neo.