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By Sven Mikulec In his fifth feature film, Paul Thomas Anderson, the boy genius who turned into one of the leading American filmmakers of today, takes us into the dusty fields of oil-seeking California before the petroleum boom at the close of the 19th century. There Will Be Blood, a haunting, epic, sprawling
Jul 6, 2024 · This is why he easily falls into the trap of an impostor pretending to be his brother. Hence the extreme reaction when he discovers the truth. He hoped the man would be his support. In his mind, a blood bond means shared ideas, the same goals and reasoning, and above all, full trust. When this is compromised, and the familiar stranger turns out ...
May 8, 2020 · In 2007, writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson released the film that, even years later, many fans consider to be his masterpiece. ... (Daniel Day-Lewis) who quite literally pulls himself up into ...
- The Matrix
- The Matrix Reloaded
- The Matrix Revolutions
- The Matrix Resurrections
- Powers and abilities
- Biographical Profile
- Interpretation
- Trivia
Thomas A. Anderson
Neo (born Thomas A. Anderson) was one of the billions of Bluepills connected to the Matrix. As Thomas Anderson, he was a "normal citizen with a social security number" who held a day job as a computer programmer for the MetaCortex software company. However, outside of this public persona, he worked as a hacker selling contraband programming under the alias, Neo, which he later adopts as his common-use name once he got freed from the Matrix. One night, Neo falls asleep at his desk while conducting an extensive online and periodical search for any citing of "Morpheus". The search gets interrupted as his screen blacks out beneath the message: As if by command, Neo wakes up and reads his screen before three more lines are delivered saying, Suddenly, a loud banging can be heard from the door and Neo is forced to get up and answer it. Behind the door were a group of people lead by a buyer, Choi, and his girlfriend, Dujour. Neo transacts with Choi, accepting payment and handing over a disc from a hollowed-out copy of Simulacra and Simulation. Noticing Neo looking pale and troubled, Choi invites Neo along to party at a nearby club. Neo initially refuses but spots Dujour's tattoo of a white rabbit. He then decides to tag along. At the club, Neo meets the person responsible for the messages, a hacker who calls herself Trinity. Neo recognizes her infamy at cracking the IRS D-base. But seeing Neo to be a little surprised at her identity, Trinity also recognizes that people tended to share such misconceptions about her gender. More importantly, she alleviates Neo's suspicions and alludes to the existence of the Matrix, further hinting at clues Neo is yet to discover. Neo awoke the next day already late for work. At the office, he is reprimanded by his boss, Mr. Rhineheart, for his frequent tardiness. Neo is given an ultimatum to comply before being sent back to his desk. Back at his cubicle, a courier delivers a package to Neo. Upon opening the package, the contents reveal a cellular phone which immediately rings. Neo answers to find Morpheus speaking at the other end. And without much formal introduction, Neo is warned that the authorities were quickly coming to arrest him. Morpheus then offers help on how Neo could escape the building. Neo follows Morpheus' instructions and makes it out of the building without being seen. However, the escape route includes crossing a narrow hanging outside the building's office walls and the current floor was more than ten stories off the ground. Fearing a fall, Neo turns himself back in to the authorities. Neo is interrogated by the Agents, Brown, Jones, and Smith. Agent Smith, their leader, offers to expunge Neo's lengthy list of criminal charges in exchange for information on the whereabouts of Morpheus. But Neo refuses and demands his phone call per the usual rights of the accused. But Agent Smith replies, Upon hearing the question, Neo's face begins to deform as his mouth starts sealing shut, blocking any screams of shock, outrage, or pain as the Agents prop him up and proceeds to drop a hectically squirming bug unto his body. The bug burrows straight down into his navel, depicting a quite uncomfortable scene.
Training and Education
After his recovery, Neo is immediately familiarized to the Nebuchadnezzar and the rest of its crew, meeting Dozer, Tank, Mouse, and Apoc. After a tour of the hovercraft, which is the apparent home to its crew, Morpheus plugs Neo into the Construct, a virtual world used as a sandbox by the Resistance. Here, Morpheus illustrates the concepts and known origins of the Matrix, revealing one shocking truth after another. Not expecting the graveness of reality, Neo faints from the sheer distress and disbelief of all his new found knowledge. Back in his private quarters, Neo recovers consciousness to find Morpheus apologizing for his overt bluntness. Explaining himself, he shares with Neo the story of The One, a man born within the Matrix with the ability to freely shape it. In particular, he shared how the previous incarnation of The One had freed the members of the current Resistance. And how his resurrection and eventual return is prophesied by The Oracle. He then leaves before discussing anything more, telling Neo to get some rest instead. Neo immediately begins his combat training the next day. Tank, revealed to be the ship's operator, digitally uploads various fighting styles into Neo's mind for ten straight hours. Piqued by the amount of data Neo was able to absorb, Morpheus challenges him to a duel. Within the Construct's sparring program, Morpheus further demonstrates to Neo the strange limits of the physical laws governing the Matrix, expressing them through their combat which utilized various forms of martial arts. When news broke of the digital duel, the crew immediately hurries to watch the ongoing fight and are amazed that Neo is able to hold his own fairly well against Morpheus. Still, experience prevails, and though Neo is thoroughly outmatched, Morpheus' unfailing guidance does empower Neo into landing a single hit - an impressive achievement recognized by the crew. Glad to see Neo's mind beginning to free itself, Morpheus commands Tank to load the Jump program. Morpheus next demonstrates the possibilities that a truly free mind can achieve within the Matrix, leaping from one building to another in a single bound. Neo is unable to replicate the feat however, falling drastically short into the ground below. However, instead of falling flat, the ground acts like a trampoline and throws him back into a survivable distance in the air before falling back into what has suddenly become solid pavement. Returning to the Real World, Neo wakes back into his real body but finds himself tasting blood, an unpleasant reminder of the perception shared by his mind and body. As an extension of this lesson, he also learns that death within the Matrix transcends into the Real World. Having had enough training, Neo rests back in his quarters. Trinity visits his quarters to serve him some food but finds Neo hard asleep.
The Oracle
Morpheus decides that Neo is finally ready to see The Oracle, an advisor to the Resistance residing within the Matrix. The operatives all jack into the Matrix and Morpheus, Trinity, and Cypher take Neo to The Oracle while Switch, Apoc, and Mouse remain to secure their exit. On the way, Neo asks questions about who The Oracle is and of what futures she has told Trinity and Morpheus. Trinity remained silent on the matter while Morpheus admits to being told that he would find The One. Arriving at their destination, only Morpheus escorts Neo to The Oracle's home. Morpheus is then made to wait at the anteroom while Neo is taken to the living room where the other Potentials lounged. Here, Neo meets a young boy in Buddhist robes, casually bending spoons simply by looking at them. Conversing, the boy hands Neo a spoon. Neo takes the spoon and, taking the lesson in, succeeds to bend it in a feat of telekinesis. Just then, he is called to see The Oracle. The Oracle sits on a stool, enjoying the smell of freshly baked cookies. Coyly, she hints at Trinity's romantic attraction to him but quickly moves on before he has a chance to figure it out. She then comes close to Neo and examines him. The Oracle tells Neo that he has the gift but that he appears to be waiting for something. When Neo asks what it is he was waiting for, she says perhaps his "next life", but that no one would truly know. Neo then expresses how Morpheus had almost convinced him that he was indeed The One. And The Oracle shares with him an ominous prediction. That Morpheus, because of his overwhelming belief in Neo, would soon sacrifice his life for him. She then warns Neo of an impending choice he needs to make: to save Morpheus or to save himself. Trying to lift the mood, The Oracle reminds Neo that he doesn't truly believe in fate. For Neo to remember how he believes his destiny is his own. She then sends him out and gives him a cookie.
The Resistance
Tank unfortunately becomes a casualty within the Nebuchadnezzar's many operations in the six months that follow, being replaced by his brother-in-law, Link, as the ship's operator.
Purpose
The Nebuchadnezzar flew back to the tunnels that hide Zion. Upon reaching broadcast depth, Neo jacks into the Matrix and finds himself in Chinatown. Using the coordinates received from The Oracle, he walks down the bustling streets and makes his way into a tea house only to find a mysterious being sitting across the room enjoying his tea. Neo approaches the man whose code, as Neo observes, glowed a golden yellow in contrast to the Matrix code's typical green. The man stands up and introduces himself as Seraph and offers to bring Neo to see The Oracle. But apologizing beforehand, he first launches a surprise assault on Neo who is quick to respond. Displaying an amazing exchange of martial arts, each unleashes a flurry of blows which the other dodges. Eventually, Neo manages to push back Seraph and as quickly as the fight began, Seraph signals an end to the test. Satisfied that Neo is indeed The One, Seraph takes out a set of keys from his sleeve and heads towards the door from which Neo entered. Using one of the keys, he then turns the lock and opens the door, revealing a bare corridor where Chinatown once stood. Neo enters and follows Seraph into the sleek hallway which was riddled with doors left and right. Recognizing them as backdoors, Neo asks if Seraph was a programmer upon which Seraph shakes his head. When prompted what he was, Seraph states, "I protect that which matters most" before using another of the keys to open a backdoor into a small park. Sitting in one of the benches, feeding birds, The Oracle once more reveals herself to Neo.
The Merovingian
Following the specifics given by The Oracle, Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus jack into the Matrix to meet with The Merovingian at the Le Vrai Restaurant. Neo notices that the building is coded distinctly from the rest of the Matrix and that each floor was wired with explosives. At the restaurant floor, the host obliges when the operatives ask to meet The Merovingian. Treated as expected guests, they are lead to The Merovingian's table where Neo catches sight of a Program being taken away by a guard. Surrounded by a slew of Exile bodyguards, The Merovingian welcomes the three operatives and introduces them to his wife, Persephone. Once seated, the three cuts to the chase and asks for The Keymaker. Making fun of Neo and the rest for simply following The Oracle's orders without truly understanding what the endgame is, The Merovingian goes into a tirade about how causality is at the very essence of the universe. Morpheus rebuts that "everything begins with choice", prompting The Merovingian to express his ideals on control: Directing Neo to observe, The Merovingian points out a woman who was being served a slice of chocolate cake personally coded by The Merovingian himself, using her to exemplify both his point and his own power. Using his ability to look at the underlying Matrix code of the events that unfold, Neo observes the dessert's programming take effect as the lady takes a bite out of the cake. Spurring an uncontrolled reaction from within her, the lady cannot help but let her body rapture. She then excuses herself from the table, recoiling from the cake's forceful impact. Fully demonstrating his thesis on causality and further mocking the group for their powerlessness in light of their unawareness, The Merovingian instead orders the three to deliver a message for The Oracle, that: "her time is almost up." Ending the discussion, The Merovingian leaves and lets his bodyguards escort the group out of the restaurant and back into the elevator. Empty handed, the three operatives try to revisit The Oracle's exact words during the ride down. This causes Neo and Trinity to rethink if they failed some junction of their meeting with The Merovingian. But Morpheus assures them, given how they followed everything The Oracle advised, that "what happened could not have happened any other way." A brief moment later, the elevator suddenly stops and its doors open to the sight of Persephone, who asks them to follow her if they want The Keymaker. Morpheus simply smiles and leads Neo and Trinity as the group proceeds to follow Persephone.
Mobil Avenue
Neo awakens in a mysterious train station with no knowledge of how he got there after his meeting with the Sentinels. He begins to have visions, this time about traveling to the Synthient City following three large pipelines. Upon awakening he is greeted by Sati, a program being smuggled into the Matrix by her father Rama Kandra, the same individual whom he saw at Le Vrai and who explains to Neo what the Mobil Avenue train station is. He tells Neo that it is run by The Trainman, a program who serves The Merovingian, and only he can make the decision of who will be released from here. Rama Kandra talks to Neo about love, to which he explains that programs too can understand it; that it is a feeling or affinity, not just a word, and that this is what defines it. He reveals that Sati, like himself and his wife, Kamala, is also a Program but, unlike others, was created with no purpose and created out of love. And that like all other Programs, her lack of purpose means that she is faced with deletion. Rama Kandra chose to send Sati into Exile and made a deal with The Merovingian to smuggle her into the Matrix, which is done via the Mobil Avenue station and The Trainman. Rama Kandra says that he sees that Neo is in love and asks what lengths he would go to keep that love, Neo answers, "Anything". When the train arrives Neo attempts to board the train with Rama Kandra but is stopped by The Trainman, who realizes who he is and that he is being searched for by Trinity, Morpheus, & Seraph. Neo states that he doesn't want to hurt him, but The Trainman punches Neo sending him flying into a wall, stating that he created this place and saying, "Down here, I'm God". Neo watches helplessly as Rama Kandra and Sati are boarded and driven away. Not long after, Neo is rescued from the Mobil Avenue by Trinity, whom he embraces and kisses, but this is not until after Morpheus, Trinity, & Seraph make a dangerous and brutal entry to a club run by The Merovingian to negotiate his release.
Last Visit to The Oracle
Neo has decided to visit The Oracle the last time before going back to the real world. Upon arriving there, The Oracle explains to Neo that her purpose is to unbalance the equation, making her an opposite to The Architect, who balances the equation. She tells him that the power of The One extends out into the real world, which it is an explanation of what Neo felt when touching the Sentinels. When Neo asks The Oracle about Smith, she told him that Smith is Neo's opposite and negative.
Neo's Legacy
After Neo destroyed Smith, the Matrix was saved with all of its inhabitants restored after the system rebooted. The Synthients' human power supply remained intact, and they called off their genocidal attack on Zion as per Deus Ex Machina's truce with Neo, which in turn led to an uneasy peace between the Synthients and Zion. Neo's body was taken away by the Synthients to the Synthient City, leaving his fate unknown, but rumors concerning his still being alive continued to circulate decades after the end of the war. Despite the ambiguity of Neo's fate, The Oracle declares to Sati that she expects they will see Neo again.
Neo's Return
Neo's body was reconstructed at great expense on orders from The Analyst. The Synthients analyzed his source code in an effort to discover what made him tick, finding that he and Trinity held no particular value individually, but discovered that when bonded together they were dangerous. During the rebuilding process, Neo and Trinity were restored back to life, and when they briefly regained consciousness, they caused severe damage to the Synthients keeping them in stasis. The Analyst placed Neo and Trinity in the Anomaleum, suppressed their memories, and reinserted them both into the Matrix as a means of controlling the rest of the Bluepills, exploiting their unconscious bond to keep the others docile and unwilling to escape. Neo was given his Thomas Anderson persona, this time with memories of a videogame designer of an award-winning game trilogy called The Matrix", while Trinity was given a false life of a wife and mother named "Tiffany". They were placed in each other's social orbit, close enough to frequent the same coffee shop but not for anything closer as mandated by The Analyst. To further conceal Neo's resurrection, the Synthients periodically altered his appearance. His latest incarnation made him appear as a balding bearded man to others. At times, though, his real self manifested to witnesses like Bugs and inspired them to free themselves from the Matrix.
Sessions with The Analyst
Inside the Matrix, Neo was seeing The Analyst to discuss feelings he had been having. As Thomas Anderson, he had a psychotic break, had trouble distinguishing his video game Matrix from reality, and attempted to walk off a high rise building ledge during a work-related publicity event. He was given medication called Ontolofloxin to keep his mind from being opened up as it had been in years past.
Reunion with Trinity
Neo later reunited with Trinity, now under the identity of Tiffany inside the Matrix, after being reintroduced to her by his co-worker Jude Gallagher. With help, Neo was able to remind Trinity of who she truly was and bring her back to the Real World. The two then began to reshape the Matrix as they saw fit, now both with powers.
Neo has carried, since his inception, the Matrix's source code known as the Prime Program. This gives him the ability to freely manipulate the simulated reality of the Matrix, similar to the authority a system administrator has over a given system. He manifests these abilities as various superhuman powers.
The power Neo exhibits most often is telekinesis, in that he seems capable of manipulating any object in the Matrix through will alone. By focusing this ability upon himself he can fly at amazing speeds and jump great distances. Whilst his speed is never specified, he flies from The Merovingian's mountain manor to the highway "500 miles due south" in a very short time.
His high-speed flight is further exemplified by his ability to escape explosions, and the sonic boom left in his wake has the power to overturn and two rows of heavy vehicles and debris. His sonic boom almost destroyed a city block while catching Trinity. He has used this ability multiple times to stop several bullets in mid-flight, first against the Agents and then again against The Merovingian's henchmen.
Further, Neo possesses superhuman strength and agility and is invulnerable to many attacks. His reflexes are great enough to dodge bullets. Although he could block a sword with the edge of his hand, he received a small cut, indicating (as The Merovingian pointed out) that he was still human, despite his powers. His endurance is also finite: when confronted by masses of Smith clones, Neo was forced to escape rather than continue fighting, and upon exiting The Matrix, he appeared visibly tired.
Neo was able to revive the recently deceased Trinity by gently applying pressure on the heart, and thus making it operational once again. Though the extent and limits of his ability to revive within The Matrix are not known.
A more subtle application of Neo's ability is a heightened awareness of the simulated nature of The Matrix, enabling him to easily detect Agents, Exiles, and other anomalous phenomena (such as the presence of explosives). He is even capable of a limited form of precognition. This has been described as "seeing the world without time" by The Oracle.
The folder brought in by Agent Smith during his interrogation with Neo contained information on his life while inside the Matrix. There is however a discrepancy regarding his date of birth as both his database record and passport, both contained in the folder, featured two different birthdays. The database record also contains a reference to his birth state, known only as "FU", which his passport does not mention. The information below is taken from both documents.
Name: Thomas A. Anderson. Marital Status: Single.
Date/Place of Birth: March 11, 1962, aged 36/37 (Record) or September 13, 1971, aged 27/28 (Passport), Lower Downtown, Capital City, USA.
Mother's Maiden Name: Michelle McGahey. Father's Name: John Anderson.
Schools Attended: Owen Patterson High School: Central West Junior High School.
Notes:
•Smith parrots The Oracle and says to Neo, "Everything that has a beginning has an end." Speaking about the inevitable both proves the accuracy of The Oracle's powers, who uses the phrase to help guide Neo even through Smith, and reveals how The Oracle's powers of precognition is not absolute, being limited in helping Smith avoid his inevitable demise against Neo.
•It is also possible that Smith's deletion was due to the fact that he had completed his objective, defeating Neo was his purpose, and that he had not escaped his base programming at all and was simply allowed to exist until that objective had been completed.
•Another theory about Smith's ultimate demise originates with Neo and Smith's conversation at the park where Smith asks Neo if he is aware of their "connection" and says, "I don't fully understand how it happened. Perhaps some part of you imprinted onto me, something overwritten or copied." Smith says it is irrelevant at that point but his theory of their connectivity could be grouped with the "fulfilled program purpose" and "balanced equation" theories quite soundly. After becoming free of his Agent programming, his continued existence becomes literally attached and dependent on Neo's own existence. And by assimilating Neo and killing him, Smith fatally severs the connection.
•Some theories suggest that Neo's decision to sacrifice himself was possibly due to The Oracle's cookies, believing that The Oracle put codes into the cookies to influence Neo's decision when the time is right, as it was proven that data can be transferred through food as proven by The Merovingian's cake at the Le Vrai restaurant.
•In Space Jam: A New Legacy both Granny and Speedy Gonzales takes on the role of Neo as they manage to dodge the hail fire of bullets within a closed building.
•Neo’s line of “Guns. Lots of Guns” is said in Keanu Reeves’ other action franchise John Wick. Likewise, in the same series, the Bowery King is played by Laurence Fishburne (Who plays Morpheus). When he is first introduced he says “Mr. Wick doesn't remember but we met many years ago before my ascension, when I was just a pawn in the game. We met and you gave me a gift,” which is similar to how Neo and Morpheus were in the Matrix.
•In an earlier version of the script, Neo was the 6th potential One freed by Morpheus with the other five potentials having died. This concept is reused in Reloaded where there has been five different versions of the matrix, each with their own One.
•Neo does not use a gun after the first film.
Sep 1, 2022 · Paul Thomas Anderson is probably the most significant director of Hollywood from 2000-2010. In this relatively short period Anderson made only eight films and recently released his ninth, “Licorice Pizza” (2021), which was warmly received by critics. Half of his cinematography is already imprinted in history as a significant cultural legacy.
Feb 20, 2024 · In 2007, Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis teamed up to create something special . ... (Daniel Day-Lewis), a turn-of-the-century miner who makes a name for himself as a formidable oilman ...
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Nov 29, 2017 · So here are 10 reasons why Paul Thomas Anderson, with his meagre filmography, has become the greatest filmmaker of our generation. 10. Experimentation. Let’s consider the filmography of the subject of this article. He began with “Hard Eight”, a noir film based on his short film “Cigarettes and Coffee”.
