Collected Thoughts
on The Matrix (part 1)

Some of the bigger plot flaws of the movie

We know and love The Matrix, where the hero discovers that the world he believed was real is really a huge, virtual reality controlled by intelligent machines who harvest humans for power. The real world is a desert where the humans are fighting the machines. A nice movie about prophecy, martial arts fighting and the indomitable human spirit but the villian’s tactics against the human rebels are illogical. This is particularly ridiculous considering the villians are computers. The stupidity of the machine’s tactics are numerous:-

• Since the humans hack into the Matrix virtual world from within their subterranean ships using wireless broadcasts, the machines could hunt them using mobile scanners. As the humans need time to disconnect from the Matrix and cannot leave broadcast range during that time, they have limited scope for evasion. The connected, human agents would also be killed by signal jammers used by the hunters.
• The machines could change communication between the Matrix power stations to landlines. The Matrix could still be hacked from the surface but considering the machine’s military supremecy, this is not a problem.
• As the humans have to ‘unplug’ their recruits, the machines could kill everyone who disconnects from the Matrix. This would kill those who disconnect for other reasons but the machines recycle their bodies anyway.
• When an enslaved human disconnects, the machines could wait for any human ship retrieving their recruit and ambush it. The machines should do a better job of securing their power stations in the first place.
• As human operators outside the Matrix can watch human agents within it, the machines can do the same with known, potential recruits and don’t need to plant virtual tracking devices. Potential recruits could be watched, leading them to their recruiters. Even better, a machine agent could take over a watched recruit just before they can unplug him, forcing the humans to kill the recruit.

Criticism should be constructive, not simply fault finding. Instead of the military supremecy of the machines in the real world, they are besieged within their fortified power stations and the humans can hack the communication lines between the power stations. Instead of enslaving humans for power, the machines could believe they must remove mankind’s control of the real world for their own good. Using Asimov-style logic, the machines refuse to kill any human except those attacking the Matrix, which is built for the greater, human good. They continue to imprison and feed those who disconnect because abandoning them also causes harm. As the machines would kill any known, potential recruit, they simply never know Morpheous and Trinity contacts Neo, who then disconnects and escapes.

Yes, this radically changes the story but The Matrix is a major abuse of artistic license. The Wachowsky brothers have a lot of explaining to do.