Bringing back The Matrix parallels
So I recently rewatched The Matrix and was flabberghasted by how many iconic scenes and lines of dialogue originate from that movie (go watch it if you haven't already). But I was also surprised by the amount of inspiration ST seems to be drawing from it, with some of the parallels being really obvious. So this is a little collection of parallels I noticed. Though I probably missed a bunch because it's been 3 weeks since then and I was stoned while watching it (because that's what you do when you're in Amsterdam)
Spoilers for the first The Matrix movie ahead (obviously)
Let's start with the -- in my opinion -- most important parallel:
Trinity & Neo
I’m surely not the first to point this out but the parallels here are wild. While trying to exit the Matrix, Trinity tells Neo this before they are interrupted by an agent.
Trinity: Neo, I want to tell you something, but I’m afraid of what it could mean if I do. Everything the Oracle told me has come true. Everything but this.
Then, when Neo dies because he was killed by the agent, Trinity confesses her love which basically resurrects Neo and helps him win against the agents:
Trinity: Neo, I’m not afraid anymore. The Oracle told me that I would fall in love, and that that man, the man who I loved would be The One. So you see, you can’t be dead. You can’t be, because I love you. You hear me? I love you…. [kisses Neo] Now get up.
So firstly, the parallels of Trinity/Will being afraid to speak the truth are so obvious, as well as then overcoming that fear and saying that they are not afraid anymore. I also think the role of the Oracle is very interesting: Both the Oracle and Vecna tell/show the future to the characters.
Morpheus: 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?
Both the Matrix and Will’s vision felt real.
But the Oracle doesn’t necessarily tell the whole truth, only what the characters need to know for now:
The Oracle: But you already know what I’m going to tell you. Neo: I’m not The One. The Oracle: Sorry, kid. You got the gift, but it looks like you’re waiting for something. Neo: What? The Oracle: Your next life maybe, who knows? That’s the way these things go. What’s funny? Neo: Morpheus. He… he almost had me convinced. The Oracle: I know. Poor Morpheus. Without him we’re lost. Neo: What do you mean, without him? The Oracle: Are you sure you want to hear this? Morpheus believes in you, Neo. And no one, not you, not even me can convince him otherwise. He believes it so blindly that he’s going to sacrifice his life to save yours. Neo: What? The Oracle: You’re going to have to make a choice. In the one hand you’ll have Morpheus’ life and in the other hand you’ll have your own. One of you is going to die. Which one will be up to you.
So while at first glance it seems like the Oracle is telling Neo that he’s not the One, she’s actually just predicting the sequence of events that lead to Neo becoming the One because he only becomes the One after dying (in an attempt to save Morpheus) and being brought back to life (his next life) by Trinity’s words and kiss (the thing he was waiting for). Remember the theories that Vecna showed Will his future in order to force him to come out? Making Will think that he was doing it of his own volition/as an act of rebellion but it was actually part of Vecna’s plan all along?
But I think there is a parallel much more important than the Byler one — the Mileven one.
Because Mike says ‘I love you’ in the season 4 finale when El is struggling against Vecna. In a scene that visually parallels The Matrix, too.
Yet him saying that doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t strengthen her. While Trinity’s love confession is what allows Neo to become the One and win against the agents, El instead loses against Vecna.
It’s like the Duffers purposefully paralleled Neo and Trinity’s scene to violate it. To show us that Mike and El’s love isn’t real. Because it violates the logic which their show is based on; that love is stronger than fear/hate, that love wins. They prove it to us when El recovers the memory of her mother telling her ‘I love you’; they prove it when Nancy and Jonathan’s mutual love confession is what stops the room from melting further; they prove it when Will’s self-acceptance and his love for Mike are what save Mike from the demogorgon.
The two times they violate this ‘law’ are the season 4 and 5 finales, respectively: In season 4, they tell us that fake ‘love’ doesn’t save you because it’s a lie (just like part of the Nancy and Jonathan confession scene is honesty). The second time is when Will downplays his feelings for Mike in his coming out scene; this violates the law of love winning because they somehow win against Vecna/the Mind Flayer without love. And we’re supposed to believe that. Uhu...
Blue & red
In 501, when the WSQK signal is sabotaged, the signal being down is indicated by a red light, and once the fuse is connected again it switches to a blue light. this is in spite of the manual (which Dustin told us to read) stating that the lights should be red and green.
In The Matrix, the red pill wakes you up from the simulation; if you swallow the blue pill instead, you forget everything you knew about the existence of the Matrix (i.e. that it’s a simulation) and go back to living your (simulated) life as usual.
Morpheus: You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes…
I don’t think we should treat Camazotz/the radio head lights/flayed Hawkins as analogous to the Matrix (because i don’t think the Duffers would just rip off the concept) but I do think that we can establish that blue represents some sort of propaganda/simulation while red represents the truth/reality.
Déjà vu & flayed Hawkins
Trinity: Deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something.
Lucas is having serious deja vu, and we see things changing… The grey dial that turns red; the blue light that should be green according to the manual; Lovers lake moving places in season 5; etc.
Another brick in the wall
When the characters try to exit the Matrix to escape the agents, one of them is trapped in a room where the exits are suddenly bricked up. This happens after the deja vu; the agents changed something in the Matrix to trap them.
The epilogue starts with a shot of a brick wall being built.
Doors & exits
The characters are able to disconnect from the Matrix again by picking up a phone that provides a connection to the outside world. They call these exits. Like the exit signs so prominently featured in season 5.
On top of that, Morpheus uses the metaphor of a door (i.e. an exit) to talk about freeing yourself:
Morpheus: I’m trying to free your mind, Neo, but I can only show you the door, you’re the one that has to walk through it.
And Holly the Heroic can cast Dimension Door… teleporting you anywhere you can visualize…
The machines & the Mind Flayer
I have so many things to say about the following conversation…
Morpheus: […] The world as it was at the end of the twentieth century. It exists now only as part of a neural-interactive simulation that we call the Matrix. You’ve been living in a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it exists today… Welcome.. to the desert.. of the real.
Interesting that the Abyss was so dry and looked like a desert when we expected it to be all slimy and wet like the Upside Down.
[continued] We have only bits and pieces of information but what we know for certain is that at some point in the early twenty-first century all of mankind was united in celebration. We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to AI. Neo: AI? You mean artificial intelligence? Morpheus: A singular consciousness that spawned an entire race of machines.
Later, Morpheus also goes on to explain how everyone inside of the Matrix is their enemy because it’s a system they believe in and anyone that hasn’t been unplugged can potentially be an agent. Just like the hivemind… That is basically a unified consciousness controlled by the Mind Flayer. And if we consider conformitygate at its core, conformity produces a hivemind/singular consciousness, too, because you loose individuality and free will.
Then, Morpheus goes on to explain how the machines/the AI grows humans as their food/source of energy:
Morpheus: […] We are grown. For the longest time I wouldn’t believe it, and then I saw the fields with my own eyes. Watch them liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living.
This really reminded me of the Meat Flayer in season 3, and potentially even the Pain Tree in season 5 if we assume that the demogorgons, bats, etc. were merged to create it.
Stinkgate
I wasn't really a stinkgate truther but given how random the remarks about bad smell are, the parallels to The Matrix do feel intentional...
Agent Smith: Can you hear me, Morpheus? I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell. If there is such a thing. I feel.. saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected by it, it’s repulsive. I must get out of here. I must get free and in this mind is the key, my key.
Also honorary mention of the key/missing puzzle piece being in someone's mind...
