Matriculated

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This article is about the short film; for the act of enrolling as a college or university student, see Matriculation.

The robot and the human with the great divide between them.

Matriculated is an animated short film set in the world of The Matrix and is the last of the nine films of The Animatrix, a collection released in 2003. Each of these films explore elements of the Matrix series, some directly figuring in the live-action trilogy of films (and related video games) and some unique to The Animatrix. The short film has a running time of 16 minutes.

The title of the film has a dual meaning, referring both to the insertion into a virtual reality matrix and to the literal matriculation which the film's main character, an AI robot undergoes within the educational environment of that matrix. The film was written and directed by Korean American director Peter Chung, creator of the anime Æon Flux. It bears a strong visual resemblance to that anime.

[edit] Plot synopsis

The film deals with a group of above-ground human rebels who lure sentinels and other hostile intelligent machines to their laboratory in order to capture them and insert them into a "matrix" of their own design. Within this matrix the humans attempt to teach the captured machines some positive traits of humanity, primarily compassion and empathy. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop free will in the intelligent machines to allow them to overcome their original automatic "search and destroy"-style programming. The rebels' hope is that, once converted of its own volition (a key point discussed in the film), an "enlightened" machine will assist Zion in its struggle against the machine-controlled totalitarianism which currently dominates the Earth and keeps the "bluepills" enslaved in the dream reality of the Matrix.

As very little exposition is actually given to describe the logic behind the film's plot, the events are subject to different interpretations; indeed, the only explanation as to the purpose of the rebels' experiment is given in a brief philosophical debate between two characters, which also can be interpreted in different ways.

The film opens showing a female human (who resembles Chung's character of Æon Flux) and a small primate in a glass jar, both of them sitting near a blue fire beside a body of water. The implication is that these are scouts whose duty is to attract the attention of hostile machines.

The woman, listed in the credits as "Alexa," (she is un-named within the film itself) wears a transparent face mask and has an attached breathing apparatus, which suggests that the air on the ravaged surface (at least in her location) is poisonous. She appears inattentive and depressed, sighing and unobservant of the water. The primate appears to be a Senegal Bushbaby (its name is later mentioned as being "Baby"), one of the smallest members of the order of primates.

Regarding the bush baby, one interesting possible connection or influence is that in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey a young girl is asked by her father what she wants for her birthday: she answers, "A bush baby." That film also dealt with the development and evolution of human consciousness when pitted against an outside, mechanistic force. The bush baby is most likely used in both instances because it is among the smallest of the primates, the taxonomic order to which man also belongs; the implication and reminder is that, for all his intellect, man is only a more developed ape.

It is shown that the bush baby's vision is somehow linked to a monitoring station at the rebels' laboratory. When the bush baby (and the monitor at the lab, by proxy) see a disturbance in the water, Alexa is told through her headset to "Wake up." These are the first spoken words in the film, and though brief, would appear to be significant. The act of "Waking up" is a thematic element of the Matrix series, and the phrase has occurred frequently in the live-action films, being written on Neo's computer screen by Trinity in The Matrix (Neo's first contact with the Zionists), and is also the title of a Rage Against the Machine song which plays during that film's credits - as well as being a reference to the plight of bluepills who can't "wake up" from the simulated dream of the Matrix.

Alexa then attracts the attention of and lures two "runner" machines over and through a labyrinth of pipes which leads to the rebels' laboratory.

The distinction should be made here that "runners" are distinct from sentinels, which have been specifically identified as the squid-shaped robots which are the prominent hostile machines featured in the live-action Matrix films. Thus, runners should not be called simply another "type" of sentinel. A runner is depicted as a type of pluriform robot capable of changing from an insectoid form, which seems to be their preferred mode for reconnaissance, and a more battle-oriented form in which the lower limbs resemble tentacles and the upper ones are long, clawed arms. In this second form, a runner very approximately resembles the robot Johnny 5 from the film Short Circuit. As with the other artificially intelligent machines of the world of The Matrix, the runners are hostile towards the human race - that is, humans who are "awake" and in the real world..

Before reaching the laboratory, one of the runners releases a homing beacon which attracts the attention of sentinels and other hostile machines to its position, unbeknownst to the humans within the building. It is difficult to determine if this beacon was dropped by the same runner which the film is largely concerned with; if so, this is a tragic example of dramatic irony. Inside the lab, the two runners discover the bush baby (still presumably hooked up to the laboratory's monitoring system) suspended from the ceiling in front of them, and a door with a key in front of it. While one robot examines the bush baby (not appearing to want to harm it), the other analyzes the key and then unlocks the door. This is reminiscent of Morpheus' telling Neo that he could "show him the door," but it was up to Neo's free will to open it for himself.

The door opens and a larger robot emerges. It is implied that this machine is now loyal to the human rebels; from this scene onwards the "allegiance" of the intelligent robots can be determined by the color of their optical nodes - red "eyes" indicate a still-hostile mentality, and green indicates a machine that has developed free will.

The larger robot attacks the two runners, which adopt their battle-ready forms. The large robot succeeds in destroying one runner before being destroyed in turn by the other. For a brief moment, the surviving runner examines its fallen comrade (identical to itself), possibly (and intriguingly) suggesting a mechanistic meditation on mortality. Just then, the runner is incapacitated with an EMP blast fired by Alexa.

While the injured runner is being repaired and prepared for its "matriculation," Alexa debates with a scientist about the benefits of reprogramming the machine as opposed to letting it "convert" on its own. They discuss whether the machine would react differently if it knew the simulated matrix they intend to plug it into was designed by humans:

This brief discussion encapsulates a handful of philosophical motifs of the Matrix series: the argument of free will versus fate (in this case free will versus predetermined programming); and the question of how an apperceptive being can determine if reality is truly "real," since dreams are just as convincing as waking experience when one is in the dream state.

Regarding the encouragement of the machine's "free will," the scientist adopts a moralistic outlook, saying that it should be up to the intelligent robot to make its own decisions, as any self-aware creature should be allowed to do. Alexa would be more "practical," simply reprogramming the machine to serve the rebels' own cause, out of fear that it might refuse this option if left to its own decision.

The two then debate the nature of reality - specifically, how the mind can "know" that what it experiences is real. This branch of philosophy is called ontology. The scientist posits that reality is determined in part by one's skepticism of it. He somewhat playfully states that, "Dreaming lets you know that reality exists." Alexa employs solipsism, saying that the only thing she knows to truly exist is her own mind - she questions whether anything else can be categorically proven to be "real." This evokes Descartes' maxim: "I think therefore I am," which the philosopher prefaced by saying that only the act of doubting reveals a thinking mind.

These arguments are not definitively concluded either way, but they frame the scenes to come.

As the rebel group prepares to enter their own version of a virtual matrix (similar to the Constuct program used aboard the Nebuchadnezzar in The Matrix), they prepare the bush baby for insertion as well. This is the first incident in the Matrix story-line where a biological being besides a human is shown being "plugged in."

The group, including the runner, is then plugged into the matrix. As the runner awakens, it sees itself in a large gold chamber with the group of humans, now in their stylized residual self images. This digital setting, filmed with CGI, is brightly illuminated and appears to be exclusively metallic. Before it can react to its new surroundings, the runner watches as all the humans run off into archways which close behind them. The bush baby also appears, in a way which is significant: it clutches its stomach and makes noises as though in pain and discomfort, managing to hobble out of the chamber before the runner can catch it. It would seem that the bush baby has possibly had a premonition that something ominous is about to occur; referring to the runner's having dropped a homing beacon that is drawing sentinels towards the laboratory; as well as to its own imminent, painful death. This is conjecture, however, and the nature of the bush baby's pained expressions and behavior is uncertain. (It has been suggested that the creature is actually laughing and the sound of its bizarre laughter is merely misinterpreted as cries of pain - this is hogwash.)

The runner pursues the humans, when it has its head trapped in a wall. On the wall's other side, its head is seen to be positioned at the center of a series of concentric circles which appear similar to the device on Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies cartoons - the cartoonish music that is playing and the movie theatre-type room in which the runner now finds itself would seem to confirm this. While it examines its bondage, the runner has its outer skin peeled off by an unseen force, revealing an under-"musculature." The runner's "skin" rolls into a ball which falls into a conic basin, just out of the runner's reach, and drops through a hole, disappearing.

Again, through an unseen influence, the runner has its form altered into that of a simulated humanoid. Whether this transformation was done by the runner's own volition or by the programming of the matrix is uncertain, but it would appear to have been done in an attempt to make the runner empathize, at least on a physical level, with the humans which it heretofore had been programmed to destroy, by being made to resemble them. That its humanoid form appears female is compelling.

These images and the remainder of the dream sequence within the simulated matrix continue to be highly symbolic, using psychedelic images that are open to numerous interpretations. It would seem that the rebels have tried to place the runner within a totally alien environment in which it has to act more on instinct than with calculated reason. For instance, upon becoming humanoid, the runner sees a black centipede-looking creature crawling on its arm; it plucks this off and places it in a nearby jar of liquid. The centipede seems to represent the malicious qualities of the belligerent machine programming, and will later prove significant.

In the next sequence, the now-female runner and another rebel are pitted at opposite ends of a chasm filled with hubs of light. This scene is somewhat mindful of the laser-disc game sequence in Tron. Significantly, the ball thrown by the rebel appears to be the same one which was made earlier from the runner's sloughed skin. This ball cracks a crystal cube which the runner later places in a square-shaped hole in the floor of a room it has been shut into. When it does this, the centipede-creature crawls into the cracks of the cube and begins to expand throughout the rest of the room, growing rapidly in fractal-shaped black shards which fill the room and break it apart. One of the humans tries to push his way into the room in an attempt to save the runner, offering it his hand. The machine hesitates but does in fact eventually reach out to take his hand. However, it doesn't reach the human in time and is drawn into the black, grim chaos generated by the centipede. As it is drawn in, the machine screams in panic, illustrating at least one step taken towards its development of true sentience: the instinct for self-preservation.

After being apparently drowned or suffocated in an oily-looking sea, the machine emerges, being pursued by intimidating objects resembling grubs or lampreys. Alexa appears in her golden residual self image that approximates a kind of spiritual manifestation. She offers the machine her hand, which it takes, symbolically achieving empathy. The blackness and the pursuers then fade away. Alexa and the runner join in a moment of communion, the machine examining its surroundings now with a sense of calm and wonder. A close-up shows the runner's optic nodes changing from red to green. The two (as well as the bush baby) travel as beams of energy, passing through a frightening landscape which may be a representation of the machine "soul" or mentality, into a gleaming, crystalline vista which seems to represent human conscience. The runner appears to revel in this environment, before the program ends.

The rebels awaken as the lab is attacked by sentinels and other hostile machines responding to the homing signal, before the runner can be evaluated in the "real world" as to the effect of its matriculative lesson. However, one clue as to its successful conversion is the fact that when Alexa manages to pull it out of the matrix, the color of the runner's eyes in the waking world also change from red to green.

The humans and their converted machine allies are all destroyed while the runner watches, not assisting either side in the battle even though Alexa pleads with it to help her. It would appear that the runner has in fact gained free will, but is unsure as to what to do with it. (Who can blame it?) When it sees Alexa being carried by a machine and determines that she is either dead or dying, the runner finally decides to act and attacks the machine, destroying it. It is implied that this model of runner is more advanced and powerful than most of the machines that have been developed thus far.

After the battle ends, it is seen that all the humans (and Baby) and both the antagonistic and the converted machines have been destroyed; only the runner is still active. It then decides to save at least one of its human teachers and attempts to join itself and Alexa in the matrix. It is shown that the runner scrutinizes Alexa, apparently in an attempt to capture her physicality and make its own version of her residual image. The runner does not appear to understand the significance of Alexa's condition, however - namely, that her body was mortally damaged and that it is not appropriate to keep only her brain alive within the matrix; she should be dead. (See Rautavaara's Case.)

In the matrix, the runner, in its residual self image form, reaches out a hand to Alexa, as had been previously done for it - truly depicting its grasp of empathic behavior. Behind the runner, there is a roiling blackness which Alexa appears to notice, though the runner does not. The implications of this are vague. Alexa suddenly comes to and realizes what the runner has tried to do and screams in horror. She then shudders, looking disconsolate, and wraps her arms around herself as her residual self image evaporates.

In the last scene of the film the runner is shown sitting near the blue fire by the shore depicted in the film's first scene, apparently continuing the work of the humans, desiring to do so of its own free will.

[edit] Voice actors

• Melinda Clarke — Alexa
• Dwight Schultz — Nonaka
• Rodney Saulsberry — Chyron
• James Arnold Taylor — Raul
• Jack Fletcher — Sandro
• Olivia d'Abo — Rox

[edit] See also

• Simulated reality