The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

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The choice between taking the red pill and the blue pill is The Matrix’s most famous moment. Matrix Resurrections explores this scene’s true meaning.

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The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Matrix Resurrections, now in theaters and on HBO Max.

One of The Matrix Resurrections’ most interesting aspects is how it explores the iconic red pill versus blue pill scene from the first Matrix film. That scene, where Morpheus offers Neo a choice that ultimately changes his life, has entered into the cultural zeitgeist, inspiring memes, philosophical essays and intense online discourse. The truth about the red pill is finally explained in the latest film, where the new breakout character Bugs dissects its meaning, and her answers definitely take fans through the looking glass and deeper down the rabbit hole.

The Red Pill And The Original Matrix

The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

In the first film, Neo asks Morpheus for the truth about the Matrix. Morpheus responds, “You are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.” But to fully understand, Neo must experience this for himself firsthand.

Morpheus offers him a choice between taking two pills. Swallowing a blue pill will allow him to continue believing whatever he wants, living a life of happy ignorance. But if Neo swallows the red pill, Morpheus promises to “show [him] how deep the rabbit hole really goes,” adding, “All I am offering you is the truth. Nothing more.”

This is among the most famous scenes in cinema. People have interpreted it in numerous ways, including awakening to the true all-consuming presence of capitalism, becoming aware of crypto-fascism and understanding the trans experience. It has also been co-opted by men’s rights groups (and later, alt-right groups) who believe “taking the red pill” represents becoming aware of the ways that women control the world and enforce oppressive gender roles, an interpretation that Matrix-co-creator Lilly Wachowski completely rejects.

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Bugs Explains The Choice To Morpheus in The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

The Matrix Resurrections’ first scene culminates with Bugs meeting the new Morpheus (who is a program). Bugs offers him the choice between taking the two pills. She also recounts her first reaction when the choice was presented to her. “Honestly, when someone offered me these things, I went off on binary conceptions of the world and said there was no way I was swallowing some symbolic reduction of my life. And the woman with the pills laughed ’cause I was missing the whole point. The choice is an illusion. You already know what you have to do.” To this, Morpheus responds, “The truth.”

This is important. For a long time, fans have perceived this to be a choice between accepting the truth or staying ignorant. However, simple reductionist binaries fail to properly address the real issues that need to be explored. There is no single pill-swallowing moment of change, no single choice. People who choose to act out of ignorance have already chosen this despite knowing better, while those like Neo and Morpheus, who value the truth, were pursuing it all along.

Why Neo Keeps Taking Blue Pills In The Matrix Resurrections

The Matrix Resurrections Reveals the Red Pill’s Secret Truth

In Resurrections, Neo has been hooked into a new Matrix system with a new identity. When he begins to remember his past, he questions whether he is losing his grip on reality. His psychiatrist, the Analyst, prescribes blue pills that suppress his memories (and thereby suppress his ability to think critically and perceive the lies surrounding him).

When Neo finally dumps these pills in the sink, he takes a hard look in the mirror, examining himself and the limits of his perceptions. This is one of several scenes with mirrors and bathrooms. In the next, he meets Morpheus. Neo initially does not believe Morpheus is real and refuses to take the blue pill. Interestingly, to exit the Matrix, Neo does not merely need to take the red pill but also must exit through the mirror. However, they are interrupted, and he is only able to take the time to reflect and make the decision later on, after standing on the precipice of a building ready to jump. His leap of faith (which could end in him flying or falling to his death) is interrupted by Bugs.

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She takes him to a theater, entering through a torn movie screen where a projector plays the original red-pill/blue-pill scene from his past. Neo’s perceptions about this moment are about to be ripped apart, and by extension, so are the views of some fans. In several scenes, Neo is a stand-in for fans who loved the first film but took away the wrong messages. When Neo looks in the mirror here, he realizes that his digital self-image (how others see him) is different from his perception of himself. Others see him as an old man, and only through looking hard in the mirror and challenging old ideas can he (and fans) get to the truth.

Morpheus even suggests that Neo may not have wanted to be rescued or may have been working with the machines. Again, this is for fans who identify with Neo but refuse to confront the political truths the pills represent. Morpheus is implying they have aligned themselves with the enemies of the movement. Like the movie screen, their understanding has tears in it. So does the world. In the end, Trinity shows how to fix those tears when she accepts the truth without a pill.

Trinity Embraces The Truth in The Matrix Resurrections

In Resurrections’ climax, Neo and Bugs’ team formulate a plan to extract Trinity from the Matrix. The program that assists them, Sati, explains that Trinity does not necessarily need to take a pill to be extracted as others had, but “what matters is that this is her choice.” Trinity is surrounded by forces put in place to confuse her, given a new name, family and identity that keep her from seeking the truth she feels in her heart. But as Bugs has acknowledged, the choice is an illusion. Trinity already knows her truth. She just needs to acknowledge it.

This is a painful process. She and Neo almost die. But accepting who she is and acknowledging the truth about the Matrix are inherently revolutionary acts that do not merely set her free but empower her in ways she never imagined possible. The truth also comes with new responsibilities. In the final scene, she and Neo confront the Analyst, saying they will not negotiate but instead are here to remind people what free minds can do.

Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/matrix-4-reveals-red-pills-true-meaning/

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