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{"id":1253,"date":"2003-10-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-10-29T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2003\/10\/29\/matrix-the-apocalypse\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:23:41","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:23:41","slug":"matrix-the-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/10\/matrix-the-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Matrix, the Apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Anyone looking for the \u201cMatrix\u201d movies at a video store knows to seek the digital mythologies shelved under \u201cscience fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That will have to do, since there isn\u2019t a space labeled \u201capocalyptic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThese movies are truly that ambitious,\u201d said the Rev. Chris Seay, co-author of \u201cThe Gospel Reloaded,\u201d about faith and \u201cThe Matrix\u201d phenomenon. \u201cThis story reads more like the Book of Revelation more than it does your normal sci-fi thriller. Everything has this other layer of meaning. \u2026 You have to wrestle with all that symbolism and philosophy if you take these movies seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That statement may sound ridiculous to most clergy, said Seay, pastor of the young Ecclesia congregation in urban Houston. But anyone who studies Hollywood knows that the Nov. 5 release of \u201cThe Matrix Revolutions\u201d will be an event of biblical proportions to millions.<\/p>\n\n

The numbers are staggering. The final movie in the trilogy will open \u2014 zero hour is 9 a.m. in New York City \u2014 on almost 20,000 movie screens in 60-plus nations. Meanwhile, Forbes estimates gross revenue for \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and \u201cThe Matrix Reloaded\u201d is almost $2 billion, when ticket sales are combined with videogames, music, DVDs and other merchandise.<\/p>\n\n

It matters little that Andy and Larry Wachowski veered into Star Wars limbo in \u201cReloaded,\u201d sinking into a swamp of linguistics and logic while striving to explain the visual mysteries of \u201cThe Matrix.\u201d Few acolytes blinked when Larry Wachowski left his wife, hooked up with a dominatrix and, newspapers reported, began taking hormones to prepare for a sex-change operation. <\/p>\n\n

Millions will flock to theaters anyway.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cEverything about these movies is getting bigger \u2014 bigger action scenes, bigger philosophical speeches, bigger rumors,\u201d said Greg Garrett, co-author of \u201cThe Gospel Reloaded\u201d and an English professor at Baylor University. \u201cNow they have to justify the buzz. \u2026 I have faith that these guys are talented enough storytellers that they will be able to create some kind of cosmology that ties all this together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

But anyone seeking one coherent set of answers has got the wrong trilogy. The only certainty in \u201cThe Matrix\u201d universe is that its new path to enlightenment is made out of pieces of all of the older paths, even if they contradict each other. The only absolute truth is that there is no one absolute truth, no one true faith.<\/p>\n\n

Instead, these movies offer a crossroads where \u201call of our stories collide,\u201d write Seay and Garrett. \u201cThey not only coexist, they come together to create a story of tension, adventure and spiritual pursuit. As Buddhism<\/a>, Christianity, Zen, existentialism, Gnosticism, Plato and Jacques Derrida interact with one another, we are encouraged to interact with them as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone who has studied religious trends in recent generations, they added. \u201cIf movie theaters have become the new cathedrals, as cultural observers from Bill Moyers to George Lucas argue, then the priests of that domain are clad in black leather. And Cool Hand Luke, Obi-Wan Kenobi and E.T. assist in serving the sacrament.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Yes, \u201cThe Matrix\u201d is this kind of metaphysical myth, said actor Laurence Fishburne, who plays a Batman meets John the Baptist hero named Morpheus. Many viewers will seek, and find, deep meaning in the ties that bind Morpheus, the heroine named Trinity and the messianic Neo.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWhat kids or young people will get from this divine trinity is \u2026 not for us to say,\u201d he said, at a Warner Bros. press conference. \u201cIf they get whatever they need, then we\u2019ve done proper service not just to the filmmakers but the larger thing, which is the story itself. So there you have it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

So there you have what, precisely?<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe Matrix\u201d movies show miracles, but no ultimate power that performs them. Characters make moral choices, but follow no commandments. They pray, but to an undefined god. They believe, but in what?<\/p>\n\n

\u201cWe deal with all kinds of people today,\u201d said Seay, \u201cwho believe in a Creator, but they have no idea how to articulate that belief. Their God is energy or light or love or something. But it\u2019s real to them and they don\u2019t want to answer that question. \u2026 \u2018The Matrix\u2019 movies are powerful because they offer people all kinds of things to believe in and none of them are very specific.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"