Author: Bai Guangguang
At 9:00 p.m. Beijing time on September 9, 2021, the first official trailer was released for The Matrix Restart.
At that time, the "Matrix" trilogy could be described as a big hit, creating a phenomenon-level film storm. It's been 20 years since the first installment in the series, and there may be many friends who don't know much about the previous game who will ignore the trailer and the characteristics of the Wachowski sisters' love of playing with philosophical metaphors and detailed narratives. In view of this, I will list a little bit of the clues and memes in the trailer here, some of which are basically explicit, some of which may be over-interpreted, and before releasing more information, let's have a good time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="5">Ready seen</h1>
The intention of the black cat that appears in the trailer is very clear: a tribute to the Déjà vu black cat in the first film of The Matrix before the siege began. When this occurs in the Matrix, it means that the Matrix is undergoing internal adjustments, similar to the Glitch phenomenon that occurs during a reset.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > the book behind the black cat: the "whiteboard theory" of human nature</h1>
In the first film of The Matrix, the most talked about is the simulacra and simulation that Neo used to hide money. This is the philosopher Jean Baudrillard's most famous philosophical work (although he later believed that the Wachowski brothers misunderstood his intentions and refused to participate in the production of the next two episodes, the French opened a philosophical seminar specifically for The Matrix).
Baudrillard argues that the consumerist society constructed by advanced capitalism at the end of the 20th century, in which "images of simulated reality" created by mass media and the Internet have replaced reality itself. Real people understand reality by contacting the image, but when the "image" is no longer limited to the reproduction of simulated reality, but tends to simulate the "image" itself, then they are no longer reality, and the world in which they exist, which is also the world in which we live, becomes a world surrounded by the self-simulation of the image.
Human beings abstract and give concepts to the figurative world as the cornerstone of the cognitive world, but when reality has been replaced by imitation, concepts gradually move from reality to emptiness: media platforms create endless needs for emptiness, and many desires and emotions that are like chicken ribs or even insignificant after returning to reality are infinitely amplified, maintaining the dilemma of dual identity between cyberspace and real life... Everyone thinks they should have free will, but in the midst of the image, in the virtual vision, self-perception and desire, where does free will come from and where should it go?
In the "Matrix Reboot" trailer, there are also some books on the shelves behind the black cat that are quite indicative.
Behind the cat is a horizontal book, which has been identified as The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature: The book is the work of Canadian psychologist Stephen Pinker, which won the Pulitzer Book Award and the Royal Society Science Book Award in 2002.
Stephen Pinker argues that John Locke's statement that "human nature is a blank slate" in the Age of Psychological Enlightenment is problematic. This set of doctrines holds that after birth there are no attributes, and all personalities, abilities and habits are formed by the education and cultivation of the day after tomorrow. Similarly, the whiteboard theory believes that "human cognition is determined by the outside", but the "non-whiteboard theory" believes that human cognition is determined by the brain itself; at the same time, violence is determined by the biological competitive structure of the brain, while culture is the unique design that humans try to help themselves and simulate the evolution of biological evolution in the process of evolution; Stephen Pinker also believes that children are born with mental genes, and the influence on their personality and characteristics is decisive. The family growth environment and external compulsory education factors have little impact on growth.
At the same time as the whiteboard theory, two other doctrines of human nature were the "noble barbarian" proposed by the French philosopher Rousseau, and the "ghost in the machine" proposed by Descartes. But there is a complexity about human nature, which is still controversial. Perhaps, The Matrix Reboot wants to bring another "non-whiteboard" interpretation to Neo's rebirth.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" >resurrection, red-blue dispute</h1>
At the end of The Matrix 3: Matrix Revolution, Neo, who has exhausted his life energy to restart the world, is introduced into the machine city, and after this, his fate is not given a specific account.
In the flashback of this trailer, we can see that Neo's damaged body has been repaired, and he may have been treated in another capacity (Thomas? Re-entering the rebooted Matrix, reverting to the banal life of the matrix as an ordinary person (a programmer for a game company).
However, the illusion in the Matrix will eventually be broken, and the operating framework and rules of the world may have problems again, at this time, the former one has been revived, and he needs to wake up and save the world.
The imagery of the red pill and the blue pill has been widely known in The Matrix, and it represents not only the boundary between the virtual and the real, but also the courage and redemption to break the illusion and pursue oneself.
The doctor with the blue glasses must have meant something; the blue pill may be suppressing Neo, and speaking of the red pill, because Neo entered the world directly with his original divinity and went dormant, he should have the superhuman power of the first book when he was awakened again.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > image, perhaps Lacan's mirror theory</h1>
"Mirrors" are everywhere in Matrix's imagery. In addition to crossing the mirror to get rid of the image into reality, there is a scene in this trailer that makes me feel that this may be related to the mirror theory of Lacan's psychoanalytic theory.
The core of Lacan psychoanalysis is the position of me (le moi), which is the basis of human psychological and cognitive formation, and mirror theory is the basis of Lacan's psychoanalytic theory.
Lacan believes that man discovers his own existence from the mirror and realizes that the establishment of the concept of "me" predates not only language, but even consciousness itself. It is the original pain and the mark of separation—the basic structure of all suffering in life. This pain cannot be avoided, but it also prompts the individual to make choices, and at this stage the transformation of the person as a subject cannot be parsed in language. Language is lacan's only means of psychoanalysis, so the mirror period is not only unable to state, but also cannot be intentionally split using language tools.
Ultimately, mirror image theory directs Lacan's psychoanalytic doctrine toward "material ontology"—that is, the subject relies on the materiality differences between the individual's own materiality and the environment during the period of self-establishment. It is also the most difficult to understand and the most difficult to discuss in the subjective theoretical characteristics of Lacan's division and disunity, the ultimate supreme in the imaginary/symbolic/real realms— reality. It is the realm that the subject cannot say in speech, the real existence of the perfect realm that the subject cannot fantasize about, the perfect existence that is completely material, but cannot be clearly explained in words--perhaps this is in line with the concept that Matrix wants to express in "The Matrix" is an image rather than reality, and seeks symbolism in the imagination.
Eat the blue pill, retain the subject cognition in the mirror, and stay in the imagination
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" >Follow the Rabbit, Alice roams wonderland again</h1>
At the beginning of the first part, the intention of Follow the Rabbit is extremely clear, and it is the girl with the white rabbit tattoo that guides Neo to the land of fate where Trinity meets, unveiling the Matrix. This time the old terrier was not only reused, but also repeatedly exploded and used...
Chinese subtitle version is extremely intimate...
Also, the tracks in the trailer unmistakably highlight the image of "falling into a rabbit hole." The song, Released by Jefferson Airplane in 1967's White Rabbit, depicts the fantasy scenes of Alice in Wonderland, and has been used as a soundtrack in many films over the years, even in Zach Schneider's 2011 Sucker Punch.
yup
One pill makes you larger And one pill makes you small, And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall. And if you go chasing rabbits And you know you're going to fall, Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar Has given you the call. Call Alice When she was just small. When the men on the chessboard Get up and tell you where to go And you've just had some kind of mushroom And your mind is moving low. Go ask Alice I think she'll know. When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead, And the White Knight is talking backwards And the Red Queen's "off with her head!" Remember what the dormouse said: "Feed your head. Feed your head. Feed your head"
Of course, Grandpa can still block bullets this time! (Trinity takes buff, think about the third part of the final rush to machine city)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > others</h1>
Since The Matrix: Matrix Reboot and John Wick 4 were shot at the same time, there are plenty of interesting stories about the actors. Agent Johnson, for example, who appeared in The Matrix: The Matrix Reboot, is played by Swiss actor Daniel Berhart. He played Kirill, a bodyguard for a Russian tycoon, in The Rush (John Wick Part 1).
But that's not his first appearance in The Matrix: Agent Johnson last appeared in The Matrix 2: Reloaded, also played by Daniel Burhart.
Yes, that's him! Big Brother in the Middle! I didn't know who he was until 20 years later!
In addition, Hugo Viven, who played Agent Smith in the previous trilogy, was close to joining "The Matrix Restart" to play this role, but due to scheduling problems, it was not formed.
I miss you a lot
In short, there is still a long way to go before the final Date of December 22, and I'm looking forward to the fact that The Matrix Reboot will continue to release some guessing clues to construct the world's complete form — after all, many of the Wachowskis' little tricks are often hidden in their occasional releases, whether they are brothers or sisters.
We would like to express our strong gratitude to Sapporo for its work in querying and indexing some of the information