Minute 43: “…facing the pure horrifying precision…”

Transcript

Transcribed automatically from the audio, and imperfect for it — names and punchlines suffer worst. Useful for finding a moment, not for quoting one.

0:00Welcome to The Matrix Minute, a podcast where we discuss the first film, one minute at a time. I'm your host, Phil, and I have no trivia today. No, I'm just kidding! I wished I saw the fields again, those big, ugly fields, in the next movies. But that never happened. Too bad. Hey, I'm Jake, can you give me, like, a trivia? No. Oh, okay. No! Tim, these are mine! I'll sell you some trivia for some bono there. Or no, some bonos. You mean the opposite? Oh, come on. And with us, once again, is our special guest, Gary Roby. Hello, sir. Hi, guys. Yeah. Who helped us so much. I think that was a great episode on Monday. Now let's hope we have an even better episode. I don't think we can top it.

0:40Don't raise the bar. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, thank you, Gary, for joining us once again. Thank you for having me. I'm having so much fun. Awesome. We are, too. And here we are, episode 43. And without further ado, I guess we're just going to have to get into it. It's episode 43. Sperm spiders! Please. Sperm spiders! Read us the description. Sperm spiders! There we go. I have to do it as well. Sperm spiders! There we go. Okay. And this is what happens in episode 43. The machines harvest the human embryos in fields. Endless fields. Where human beings are no longer born. They are grown. Showing the horrific landscape with giant spider harvesters, Morpheus tells Neo at first he couldn't believe it, but had to see it himself with his own eyes.

1:27He concludes the lesson that the Matrix is control. A system keeping human minds occupied in order to make them batteries for the artificial civilization. He holds up a Duracell battery, and Neo is stricken with an angry outburst. Dun, dun, dun! Dun! And, uh, you know, Morpheus said he couldn't believe it until he saw it with his own eyes. So what does that mean? What do you think that could mean? He had to go there himself. I don't know. I guess they flew around. Right, like in reality, like how would this happen? Yeah, I guess they must, yeah, maybe they must have visited it in the real world. But it's interesting that he, he just says to Neo, like, I didn't believe this until I saw it with my own eyes. Now trust me, like, I'm not gonna go show you the...

2:12Right. Look at these magical effects I put around you. Look at the CGI. Yeah! Believe me with your eyes. Well, I don't know what to say about that. I wouldn't believe Morpheus either. He's like, no, no, he's just like, no, I don't, I don't believe this. Tim is Morpheus, is a Morpheus skeptic. Yeah, he's a Morpheus skeptic. I'm an anti-Morpheus, I'm gonna start my own cult. I mean, like to me, Morpheus was one of the coolest characters. Don't believe his lies. Don't believe his lies. Yeah. I like to think that Morpheus, honestly, is doing what he believes is right, and I think that he's really trying to help Neo, you know what I mean? Okay, I know there's this whole one thing, but I think that he's still, like, at the end of the day... I don't think he's doing it for selfish self-interest.

2:54I just think your pro-Morpheism is speaking right now. You're clearly a Morpheus sympathizer. Yeah. Your bias is against... A Morpheus. His glasses and his magic... He will say something, Gary. Continue, please. What? Oh my goodness, I don't even remember what I was going to... Um... Okay. Sorry, sorry. No, it's okay. It's okay. I was gonna ask, actually, um... Do we not see these fields again in a later movie? Like, I think before they approach the Machine City, aren't they over... Yeah, just a little bit. Is it on the same kind of thing? Okay, it's like a little brief. Yeah, it's a brief thing, and I was kind of sad, because, like, when I saw, like, previous Star Matrix Revolutions, I saw, like, the human power plant again, and I was hoping back in 2013...

3:402013, yeah, that's when it came out. 2003, that they would actually visit the power plant in, um... In the real world. Yeah, you could see... Yeah. You could see how that thing works in more detail, but... Sadly, that was not the case, but that's okay. It's all good. I just love how it looks like. I love that it really looks like a cornfield. It really does. Yeah. At night, and it looks like there's this moonlight going on, and then you have these... These hideous... But I love them. They're beautiful. Oh, they're so cool. These harvesters that are just kind of floating around and just, you know, taking these little embryos. They look... They look like viruses. Oh, yeah, you're right. Like, you would see in, like, a biology textbook or something.

4:23That's right. That's how those weird, like, polygonal virus-looking things... Yeah, and they're little tentacles, and they're just, like... I always like that they actually showed these fields, because I remember when I first watched the movie, it was like, you think that the power plant is where all the humans are plugged in, the sort of more grown humans. I thought that was it, but then when they show this, like, oh, there's more, like, areas to this machine, the city, and you kind of go, oh, wow, like, it's not just those giant plants. Right. Yeah. And maybe if they, in the future, they do Matrix reboots, and, you know, Disney buys the Matrix, and then they'll have a... Tim, what is this nightmare world you're talking about?

5:03At Disneyland, so we have a ride, and you can go to the Matrix. We have a ride, and we'll go to the power plants. Oh, boy. That sounds so great. This is where we harvest our babies. Zippity-doo-da! Zippity-doo-da! Oh, no! Oh, boy. Morpheus, in this minute, pulls out some numbers out of his ass. Okay. About some gigawatts and all kinds of stuff about power. Does he, in this minute? I thought it was last minute. I think that was yesterday. Oh, really? Yeah, I think maybe it was yesterday. Or Monday. Sorry, Monday. Yeah, Monday. Oh, it was Monday? Okay, so I'll pretend this is a retcon. I was talking about those numbers are wrong. There is used to, like, one day. Oh, okay. Yeah.

5:44So I have some actual numbers for comparison. Okay, tell us the actual numbers. Some people did calculations. Morpheus is saying here that per human can generate an output of 315 watts of power, which would, for the entire population, which would mean it's about 2 terawatts of power. Okay, wait, wait. Can we have some reference? I'm horrible at this. So Watts, give me some, like, what are some things that, like, give me some reference points for, like, things that use power and sort of, so I get an idea. Well, Watts is actually. Like, what are some, like, a computer, like a computer. Where does a computer work? Like, a desktop computer. That's like what? Well, all the, like, well, computers, you have, well, it's all limited to, you know, your European or your, you know, American standards.

6:30You know, how many. Those are volts. Yeah, volts. Oh, sorry, volts. Sorry. Well, let's see. I think a desktop computer is like 100 watts or something like that. Isn't that true? A typical desktop computer uses about 65 to 250 watts. Okay. Wow. So it has a computer. Right. So humans are like 100. And what did Morpheus say about humans? That it generates 315 watts of power. So basically like a high-end computer. Hmm. But generating, right? Okay. So if you do the whole entire population, that would end up at 2 terawatts of power. Okay. Which is equivalent of 5 times of an output of a nuclear, all the nuclear reactors in a planet. Is that good?

7:11That sounds good. That's good. That's what Morpheus is saying. But actually, when you do the calculations of how much a body could output in heat as a power, all of it, when you take the efficiency, it kind of ends up at 0.80 terawatts. So that's, I would say, what, like a tenth of the entire thing that Morpheus was saying. Morpheus, get your facts together. Well, it's the thing. What Gary is saying, he doesn't know everything. Yeah, he doesn't. Yeah. But he sure makes it sound like it. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. With that little battery he pulls out, that's a good trick. With that majestic Lawrence Fishburne voice, yeah. His showmanship. He's great at that. He's very good.

7:51And he spins it as well. It's like a nice move. It's not like he's just like... Pulls out his pocket. Like, what's this in my pocket? The battery. Ooh. Yeah. It's just like he does a little like, he shows the plus. It's great. Yeah. He's a showman. So let's go back to these harvesters real quick. On their back are rows of these cylindrical objects that are probably the pods that will be horizontally placed. Like these babies, when they're old enough, they suck them in. Right. And they pump them into that... Yeah, they pump it up. That big cylinder on their back. And then they go into the power plant and they actually, I think, place them. Insert them. Into... Maybe they don't, but another machine does. There's a lot of fun stuff that you can see.

8:35Doc Bot. Pick them up. Yeah, Doc Bot will pick them up. And this was obviously designed by Jeff Darrow. I think that goes without saying. I think he did most of the real world stuff. It's like Alan Lee with Lord of the Rings where he, where Alan Lee and John Howe did most of the visual flair. This is a Jeff Darrow film when it comes to, you know, the real world. So anyway, then we get the famous close-up where it goes, and that was, you know, the pod doors closing. And the only reason I'm mentioning that is because there were many people, if you watch the behind the scenes for some of the Matrix features, many of the crew members were talking about how the Wachowskis, they love doing sound effects to describe how they want something

9:19to sound. So this was a recurring one where they just went, and so there's the sound. It's a great sound. I love it. And so the camera pulls back and we get to see our, our star of the minute, I guess, the tiny little baby. A little baby. The baby we follow the story. To all these things. Jake, what did you say? Did you say like, this has been dangerous for a baby? And I'm like, it's. Yeah, I know. I was an idiot. Basically. Short story. Hey, I noticed something that I need to check with you guys. But if you look at the baby, it's got some stuff in the nostrils as well. Does Neo have that when he wakes up? Yes, he does. He does. It's a whole crazy setup. Oh, he has like a whole thing that goes into his mouth as well, right?

10:02That's, that's what he pulls out. That's the first thing he pulls out from what I remember. Yeah. I think this is one of those iconic Matrix visual elements that they have going on for them. And it's, you know, like the baby in the, in the pod. I think that's one of those big images that when you say Matrix, you have that in mind, you have bullet-time in mind, you have the, the, the construct in, in mind, the red pill, blue pill and stuff like that. So this is another one of those. Is this a CGI baby? It's not a CGI baby. It's a practical baby. Not a real one. They just like, no, no, no. Yeah. That would be, that'd be bad. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be dangerous for the baby. As Jacob says it.

10:42It's just a, yeah, it's just a, it's just a prosthetic. What do you call us, Philip? Yeah. It's a dummy. It's a hydraulic little baby puppet. That's the word. Oh, it's creepy. It looks, it looks, it looks so, it is creepy. It is creepy. It's a CGI. So that's what I was asking. Cause ears like all like low poly. His little baby motions are kind of weird. Yeah. No, I, I, 1999 wouldn't be able to generate such a, such a baby. Yeah. No, no, I wouldn't think so. Did you see the Quake graphics? Yeah. See, that's the thing. Like, yeah. You don't want, you don't want that kind of thing. They'll just use Quake and just screen capture that. Oh, great. Yeah. Like, like what we did with our short movie. Yeah. We, we thought no one would notice the low poly. Yep. Nevermind. Nevermind.

11:22Let's, let's, let's move on here. Please. So when I was a kid, I always thought this was Neo. Actually, they were looking at Neo's backstory. So I thought that was Neo. Neo as a baby. I'll accept that that's canon. It doesn't matter really. It's all abstract and artistic to me. From now on, it's Neo. I'm going to write it to the Wikipedia. And then it goes back to the TV and we're back in the construct again. Morpheus switches off. The radiola. The radiola. The television program. Yes. And then he says, what is the matrix? Control. And that's our answer. Finally. This is. Well, we can talk about that really quick. That's an interesting point because big hitter. Yeah. Is painting it as control.

12:04Right. But we mentioned earlier with the Renaissance story, there's more to it than that, obviously. Right. Yeah. But I think that, you know, obviously within the context of the first matrix, it is definitely. Well, see, I was always wondering, I was wondering if you guys have any opinions on this. Like, there is a big sort of theme in the matrix is control. But to be honest, I have sometimes a hard time noticing where exactly that comes into play in the matrix besides the machines and the matrix. Well, they're controlling humans so they don't prosper or fight back. Does it also maybe relate to how we talked about like the machine, the humans controlling the machines early on and that kind of stuff? Or I don't know. Humans controlling the machines. Yeah.

12:44I think Morpheus is really against the, even though humans do have free will to do whatever in their, you know, individual world. Technically, they are still restricted to whatever the machines put as bound. So it's like, it's basically like a zoo, you know, like an animal can run around within that zoo and eat the food that it's given. But it is essentially a prison, you know. And sure, if you go look at philosophically, we as humans are in a prison. We're stuck on this, you know, planet because of the rules that we can't move. We can't go move to another planet. Rules like the right thing. Yet we do not take that as a prison because no one, you know, kind of did that on purpose. That's just the way things are.

13:25So that's the limitation. Like everyone's limited to something, but if someone's doing that on purpose with like a, you know, a bad intent, then you as a human, as a free will, should fight that on just those terms. Maybe it's good for you. Maybe it's bad for you. But Morpheus is one of those people who doesn't care for that. He just cares for the principle. And, you know, you'd rather have freedom than doubt yourself because, you know. Yeah. And I think it also goes, uh, coming back to that whole, you know, like a hard truth versus like a comfortable lie. Yeah. That thing. Yeah. Yeah. Which do you choose? Look at Neil. Look at his face. Which do you choose, Gary? No. No. You don't have to answer.

14:05The hardest question. It's such a, that's so complicated. It is. It is. What would you go? Would you go for crappy world eating, uh, goop or would you go for Matrix? Gary. I think I. We sit you down. We just met you and we give you the hardest question. I'm sorry. I think I would like to wake up. Right. Like, I think that's. Ah. There's something about, I know you guys have talked about Plato's allegory of the cave before and things like that. That idea of like waking up or becoming enlightened, like recognizing the world around you is, is something constraining. Uh, and kind of wanting to achieve more than that, right?

14:47Or grow beyond that. I know that as a kid, I, I remember being in like middle school and whatever like world religions class I was taking was talking about like Buddhism and enlightenment and like little 12 year old Gary just thinking like, I want that. Like, I would love to like rise above myself, right? Like, so the idea of like. Right. Right. Understanding that the world is just this fake thing that the machines have created. I, I think I would like to move past that. I think if you, if you're aware of it. Yeah, that's right. I don't know if I would like to just blindly accept. I don't know if I could do the, the cipher thing and want to like be plugged back in once I know. Yeah. I'm with you, man. Just like go back. Yeah. I totally agree with you.

15:28If you. Yeah. But there's an option. Maybe you can go like, okay. You go to the, okay. Like, I've seen what the matrix are doing, but I'll make my own matrix with my own damn rules. With hope. You know, this is the same problem. Maybe you've heard of the, um, what's it called? This thought experiment where it's like, if you could, would you want to go into, you know, your own fake world and live in that fake world? Would you be satisfied with that? Or. Maybe for a week. Would you want a real world with other real people and, you know, real interactions? Yeah. So that's the big question. I mean, I would not want to go into the pod. It depends on the rules of the fake world. I think to me, because if, if it's something that I'm aware and you can kind of exploit it.

16:09Yeah. You're aware of it. Yeah. Obviously you, you would want to go, you know, as far as like playing a VR game. So that's the question. Well, I mean, I guess I would never go there if there wasn't an option to turn it off, you know? Yeah. So you, so you like spend like, I don't know, like five years, but I'm turning it off. Yeah. I mean, on the other hand, you have like, okay, it's like the matrix, but it's on your own rules, but you're not aware of it. Like, would you do that? Would you go into a world that you construct for yourself, think this is the best world for you? No. Because you don't want to live in a real world, but you're not aware of that. Like, no, I think, I think that's the problem with the first matrix is that it's like too perfect. And that's why like people didn't accept it. Oh, you're talking about those. Yeah. So if you, no, but I think in the same sense, if you created a perfect reality for yourself, I don't think it'd be satisfying.

16:54Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. Totally. Yeah. It'll be an interesting, uh, you know, in the real world, obviously it doesn't work, you know, just pumping pure, you know, euphoria and, uh, happiness into yourself. Yeah. You start to reject it. Yeah. And plus at the end, I think the ultimate thing is that it's ultimately not real in the sense that it's not, you know, the actual world. It's something that's, um, either created or artificial or whatever. So. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be an interesting experiment. Not very ethical. Well, Tim, you can start it if you'd like. That's not a problem. Um, but yeah, the only thing that's left in this, uh, minute really is that Morpheus is just saying it's, the matrix is a system of control.

17:35To turn a human being into this. Into a Duracell. Into a Duracell. So do you think they got away with that? Into a copper top. Did they get away with that? They didn't show the logo. So it's clearly not. No, it's fine. I think, I think the symbol is definitely Duracell, but if it doesn't say Duracell, it's fine. I think they're okay, right? Yeah. I don't think they have a trademark for the copper and the black color. I don't think they have that. No. Probably not. So this was a, this was a moment when I remember watching the film when I was, you know, for the first time when I was 12. I was like, oh, this is making me just as panicked as Neo.

18:15I think, you know, the movie pretty much played me like a fiddle. And, um. Go get him, Neo. Yeah. And the music helped too. Like Don Davis' rising, uh, creepy choral. Helps as well. And then the little Duracell thing. I remember like when we were watching this with our, with our dad, which is the first time and our cousin Stan is like, my dad was like, oh, look at that. You know, like really like powerful image, right? It's really good. It's very good. Like they just put it into that little, that little battery. And Neo is gonna, is gonna start rejecting this. He's like, no, I don't believe it. I don't believe it. And, uh, and there we go.

18:57And there you have it. That's, that's our minute. I can't think of anything else. It's really, it's really just a combination of. Yeah. I know. This whole thing. I'm looking at the, yeah. But the thing is that, what do you think Neo is rejecting the most? Is it the concept of the. Can we get into that next episode? Cause I think that's. Yeah, sure. Let's do that. Let's give some meat to that other. Yeah. So we're not. Yeah. So like, oh, I'm. Vomit. Okay. Oh. Anyway, I'm Phil. You can, I'm gonna beg now. You're gonna catch us. You can catch us on, uh, the matrix minute dot one. Uh, not dot com dot one. Um, uh, Twitter at the matrix minute. Um, what was it? What else do we have? Uh, uh, and if you think, you know, we got something wrong or, uh, we missed something

19:43in these minutes because this one was a pretty short one compared to the last one. Oh, the last one. We might've skimmed over some cool details that you know about, uh, or, you know, that we missed. So you can, uh, on our Facebook page, if you go to Facebook, the matrix minute, uh, we post, uh, we'll post every time. We post things. I put effort into what I post. We post. We post every time it's a new episode. And, uh, let us know in the comment section. That's right. We would love to hear. And of course, if you don't feel like publicly commenting on the announcement post, you can always email us at ask at the matrix minute dot one. Look at you. Look at you. Very good. And Gary can be found. Yeah. I mean, if you want, I can, I can, I can vouch for you. Gary's gone. I'm still here.

20:23Gary's done. I just left. I was done. Bye guys. Uh, you can, uh, you can find our shows at duelinggenre.com. We're on Twitter at, uh, HP minute and at Bueller minute. And, uh, we also have a Facebook, Facebook pages, Facebook groups, um, Harry Potter minute and the listeners army and the safe Ferris society, which are little like closed group discussions about the content of the minutes. So you join us over there. Bloody hell. We keep forgetting to mention our group. Yeah. Wait, wait. Listen to too many things to mention. I posted in here that. The matrix minute group. You did. Yay. You did. It's awesome. We love that because otherwise. Yeah. We need to talk about that group more. Yeah. We'll do that next time. We'll do it next time.

21:03All right. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Thank you, Gary. There's honestly nothing. Thank you. For joining us. 1996 script. So that's cool. And I think, uh, we'll find out. Will you be back on Friday? We shall see. We have turned in. Yes. We haven't eaten Gary yet. He might escape the construct and go away. All right, everybody. Bye. See you later. Bye. Bye. Thank you.