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Breaking Free of Genre |
So far we have seen how much of the first half of "The Matrix" script has layered the necessary information for us, the audience and/or script reader, to get oriented in its strange new universe. It has done this via the character of Neo -- a name which etymologically means "new," and relates to the word "neophyte." As Neo learns, so do we. This is a common narrative device to excuse and disguise exposition in stories which require a fair amount of explanation for us to understand a story's "rules."
Yet, during this "learning" and character development phase, "The Matrix" intermittently bombards us with scenes of either extreme action, surrealism, or science-fiction. This is an excellent structure for a well-told story, and also for solid entertainment. This rhythm can be thought of as a pendulum that swings back and forth between movement and reflection, or between plot and subplot, or between story and character.
Stories, like music, are about the building and releasing of tension. Not all elements always build or release at the same time, yet the different threads do tend to coincide at a high or low point at moments like act transitions. It is always important to remember that drama is about the interplay of opposites, and that elements are reinforced by their opposite. Think of an action scene, like a car chase, and you will see the tension in such a scene is greatly reinforced if it is preceded by a scene that is calm, slow, or introspective. The worst action films are very often bad precisely because they are ironically all action. One of the best action films ever made is certainly "Raiders of the Lost Ark," because its structure carefully weaves action and character development in an exquisitely paced back-and-forth rhythm. Almost every action sequence in "Raiders" is followed by a scene of character development. This makes its characters more dimensional, thus we care about them more -- and our feelings for them thus make the action sequences even more tense! This lesson was lost on the writers of the "Raiders" sequel, "Temple of Doom," because the story's action is relentless, and there is little character development to counterpoint the action. Too much action undermines the power of the action sequences.
Exposition is Maya
First Subact, 2nd Half of Act II
(page 63-76)
On page 63, where this analysis left off, an important but small moment takes place. Cypher drops a cell phone into a garbage can right at the building where the Resistance team enters the Matrix. This is the next step in Cypher's betrayal, and a setup that pays off later. This tiny moment is also a great bit of foreshadowing, and an excellent way to build some tension in what is otherwise a fairly slow segment in the film.
Right before Neo meets the Oracle, there is a scene in this draft that was cut from the final film -- and rightly so. In it, Neo hesitates to enter the door to the Oracle's apartment. Neo and Morpheus debate, and Morpheus launches into a long-winded and wholly unnecessary explanation of faith, trust, and Neo's destiny. This scene lasts almost three pages (pages 67-69 in the June 3, 1997 draft). Fortunately, the filmmaker's instincts took over, and the bloated passage was excised. The story at this point approaches a critical juncture, and it is far past the time for explanations. While exposition is often a necessary evil, if it can be avoided, it should be. I've said it before, but if you approach your own scripts as if they were written transcriptions of silent films, your stories will be more purely cinematic.
Neo's meeting with the Oracle is yet another test. She tells him he is not the One, and he is both let down and relieved. In a very real sense she's right, in that Neo is not the One, because he has not yet decided to assume that mantle. However, her role is not to discourage Neo, but like a Zen master, to paradoxically allow him to attain what he seeks by diverting him away from it. Zen Buddhism is replete with anecdotes about wise sensei and their naive young acolytes who constantly pester them for answers about enlightenment. The Zen masters typically responded with a riddle, or even a whack upon the acolyte's head with their walking stick. The entire point was that to reach enlightenment, you needed to cease both trying and wanting, which were both concerns of a human mind trapped in a material world.
"The Matrix" is replete with Zen ideas, including the extremely Buddhist notion that the world is maya, or illusion. The veil of maya hangs before our eyes, hiding from us the Truth of existence. Neo, like an acolyte, must learn to see past the curtain by removing earthly desire from his heart, and must learn to simply be and act, not think.
The Oracle tells Neo one more thing -- that Morpheus will sacrifice himself to save Neo. She says that Neo is the only one who decides which one of them lives and which dies, but that one of them will die. This, again, proves to be a kind of Zen puzzle spoken by the Oracle that does not prove to be really true. Its purpose is to spur Neo on at a critical moment.
Betrayal
Second Subact, 2nd Half of Act II (page 76-86)
That cell phone in the garbage can on page 63 is now about to pay off. We are now on page 76, and the Resistance team has returned to the drop-point after the visit to the Oracle. Neo sees a black cat, and a second later, sees another that moves exactly the same way. He says aloud, "Whoa. Deja vu," and the other team members freeze. Trinity tells him that, "A deja vu is usually a glitch in the Matrix. It happens when they change something." Moments later, they hear a helicopter, and realize that they are in a trap. Chaos erupts.
Pages 76 through 92 (almost 16 pages) is begins a long, rapid action sequence that bridges two subacts, and intercuts between the world of the Matrix and the interior of the hovercraft "Nebuchadnezzar." By leaving the cell phone, Cypher has given away the Resistance members' location to the Agents. Swarms of cops and several Agents appear. The "hard line," their only means of escape via a hardwired telephone, is cut, and they are trapped.
Team member Mouse discovers interior windows have been bricked over -- the "changes" indicated by the black cat. He is killed by the police troops as he tries to fight back. Using a map of the building, Tank, directing the operation from the hovercraft via cell phone, leads the group to an interior wall, into which the Resistance members shoot a hole in order to escape.
As the group tries to quietly creep down through the claustrophobic space inside the walls, they are discovered. The police begin to shoot at them through the drywall. Suddenly, Agent Smith thrusts his arms through the plaster and grabs Neo. Fearing that Neo will be captured, Morpheus leaps through the wall and attacks Agent Smith. Morpheus fights Smith, but it is futile, and he is captured.
Cypher calls Tank, who directs him to a hard line, a phone in an abandoned appliance store. Cypher answers the ringing phone, and awakes inside the hovercraft.