Continuing the topic of the upcoming film, I will now discuss what I consider to be the second most important aspect of the trailer (and the most important aspect of the story as a whole): colour. While I expect most people will focus on the red versus blue conflict, a conflict that is made abundantly apparent in the trailer, there is a less obvious significance of colour that seems to be missing from the trailer. I am speaking of the camera filters.
It is again at this point that I need to provide the spoiler warnings for what I am about to discuss. To make my points, again I will be making deeper dives into the story and especially things that reveal surprises regarding what is going on for people who have not experienced this story yet. So, if you have not yet watched any of these films, you have been spoiler warned!
I think it should have been obvious to most that the cameras in the first three films all had extensive use of camera filters throughout. However, just because something is obvious to me does not mean it will be obvious to others, so I will explain what I mean in detail. This will help frame the issue I find exists in the trailer for the upcoming film.
There are numerous colour theories that exist. Each purports slightly (and sometimes significantly) different relationships between particular colours and their meanings. For example, many people believe red relates to passion and anger, while blue relates to sadness and tranquility. In business environments, there is sometimes a workshop conducted where employees’ “true colours” are determined; I was identified as being strongly blue and gold in such workshops, meaning I was highly emotional and very organized, and very weakly orange, meaning I was an introvert.
The Matrix films, at least the first three films, use colours extensively in order to situate the audience. In particular, there are three important colours audiences should be intimately aware of: green, blue, and gold. Green is the colour of the mind, blue of the body, and gold of the spirit or soul. I will discuss each in detail.
The first colour, green, is fairly obvious to most audiences. Whenever the story is taking place inside the Matrix, there is ALWAYS a green filter on the cameras. It comes out strongly in the first three films, overshadowing everything in a bit of a nauseating undertone. I do not believe it is an accident that the famous falling gliphs are also green, now used as many people’s screen savers on their computers. Green is the colour of the mind.
The green filter is a que to the audience that whatever is happening is taking place IN the mind. The Matrix, a “neural-interactive simulation” as Morpheus refers to it, does not exist in the “real world” as such. Everything that happens inside the Matrix is like a dream. Fights, discussions, driving a car, all exist within the mind of those who participate in the simulation. In this way, there really is no gravity, nor any real air to breath in the Matrix. Due to these illusory limitations, those who are truly aware of the Matrix can break the rules of the Matrix, and perform amazing feats. This the the crux of the first film, where Neo escapes his limitations, and grows beyond the rules of the Matrix. This is made intimately clear at the conclusion of the first film as Neo literally flies into the air.
None of these things actually happen, at least not in the real world. Neo cannot actually fly in the real world. In fact, Neo cannot do exciting martial arts or other exotic things in the real world, at least not until later in the third film, but I will get to that in a bit. Everything that happens in the Matrix happens in the mind, and thus has a green filter on it. The main question people ought to consider is whether the green filter is coming from the Matrix itself, or whether the green filter is being imposed by the occupants of the Matrix by themselves. That is, is the green filter simply what happens when we peek into someone’s mind?
The second colour, blue, is much less obvious. Once I point this out, if you didn’t realize it was there, you might consider rewatching some of those previous films for it. Anytime the scene does not take place in the Matrix (with a couple exceptions in the third film), there is a blue filter placed on the camera. The crumbling remains of the great metropolises, the dank caverns of Zion, even the hovercraft engines are all blue. Blue is the colour of the body.
The blue filter is the que to the audience that whatever is happening is taking place IN the body. The body exists in the “real world.” The real world is the world we all inhabit, at least as far as we can tell. There is a very real theory that what we think is the real world is in fact simply another level in a possibly multilevel simulation: the simulation hypothesis. Interest and belief in this theory has certainly grown in the past 20 years since the Matrix movie was first released. However, if we assume that this world we inhabit is, in fact, the top level of such an idea, we can continue to discuss the idea of the real.
In the real world, in the films, all rules are rigidly enforced and all consequences are permanent. Gravity exists and we require air to breath. We require food to sustain ourselves, and our limited squishy bodies succumb to injury. As far as we know, leaving our body is a permanent and terminal activity. With the exception of what takes place at the end of the second film, all these rules seem to be enforced. Or so it seems. It is a fan theory that the supposed “real world” is simply another layer in the many layer simulation. I will discuss this idea in a future post, as it relates to the new trailer. For now, let us simply suggest the real world really is the real world (even saying it like that seems incredibly confusing and problematic, but let’s just run with it).
This leaves us with gold. As far as I can tell, there is no gold filter used in the first three films. This is not to say there are not cases where one might have been appropriate; instead those scenes where one might have been used, the scene is entirely computer generated and so it might not have made much sense. I am, of course, referring to Neo’s Sight in the third film. However, I will argue that this sight was present much earlier, and has been slowly developing/evolving throughout the second and third films.
Gold is the colour of the spirit or the soul. Gold is not used in the first film (as far as I can tell). At the first possibly appropriate point that it might have been used is when Neo first “sees” the agents at the end of the film, after he had died. The agents, to Neo, look like globs of green code, similar to the famous screen saver. Simply silhouettes of green code. This could mean one of two things: either the agents do not have souls, or Neo’s ability to see souls has not yet developed. I believe it is the latter; evidence to suggest Neo’s Sight is developing is seen through the second film.
After the defeat of Agent Smith, Neo flies away, and the second film begins. Early into the second film, Neo meets Seraph, and he sees something he has not seen before. The silhouette of Seraph is gold, not green. He does not know what this means. Shortly after their interlude, he begins a discussion with the Oracle, and establishes that both the Oracle and Seraph are “not human,” that they are both “program[s] from the machine world.” He made no reference to this after seeing the Oracle in the first film, because he did not yet have his sight. It took his death to begin that process and evolution in his character.
From this point onward, whenever the audience is allowed to see what Neo sees, all the sentient programs he encounters are silhouettes of gold. To my knowledge, they do not show him looking at humans, so it is unclear whether the same sort of event would occur with them. However, Neo clearly indicates the sentient programs are “not human,” and so we can conclude that the souls of machines look different to him. This raises other possible questions regarding his sight, such as a possible limitation on only seeing machine souls and not human souls. On some level this makes sense, as we definitely do not have the technology to see human souls at present. It is suggested that human souls are unmeasurable, which would seem to suggest an inability to see them (even with the use of technological aids).
Even if we conclude that Neo’s Sight only privileges him to see the souls of sentient programs, it is still a rather significant upgrade. His sight works for him within the Matrix, but not in the real world until the end of the second film, when he says, “Something’s different. I can feel them.” His ability has developed sufficiently that he can now use the ability outside the Matrix, and can sense the machines.
Into the third film, Neo and Trinity separate from the others in order to journey to the machine city. Bane stows away in order to confront Neo. But Bane, as is seen in the second film, is no longer really Bane; he is Agent Smith, now manifest in the real world. During his fight with Neo, he burns Neo’s eyes, effectively making him blind. But Neo’s blindness is only of the real world; Neo’s ability to see machines’ souls still operates, and he literally reveals to Agent Smith and the audience that he can see Agent Smith. Take note, however, that Agent Smith’s silhouette is quite different than all the other machine souls; Agent Smith’s soul is red and flaming, as if it were corrupted somehow. Perhaps Agent Smith’s soul is in conflict with Bane’s soul, fighting for control of the flesh and blood body that Agent Smith detests so much. No other machine’s soul looks like this, only Bane/Agent Smith.
From this point onward, Neo literally sees all the sentient machine’s they encounter. The audience is in a privileged position to share in Neo’s Sight, as they make their way to the machine city. He tries to share this with Trinity upon her death by describing the machine city as having “Lights everywhere. Like the whole thing was built with light.” Neo’s Sight suggests to the audience that the manner in which the machines manifest themselves is quite different than humans. That is, as is presented by the machine Deus Ex Machina, the machines are not as individualistic as human’s believe they are. Smaller sentient machines collectively make up larger sentient machines, as if the smaller ones could be considered the cells of the larger organism. In some sense, the machine city is a single conscious entity, much as it might be argued Zion could be as well. This leads into discussions of sociology, mob mentality, and group think, which I will not discuss here. I will simply argue that the machines’ societal structures are a bit different than the ones we are likely familiar with in our human world.
This leads me, “inexorably,” to the trailer for the upcoming film. The previous three films utilize these three colours, green, blue, and gold, extensively to situate the audience during the telling of the story. At all times, the audience should have a clear idea where the action is taking place, in the Matrix, in the real world, and in Neo’s Sight respectively. But the trailer seems to break all this. The opening, with Thomas Anderson having a discussion with what appears to be a psychiatrist, does NOT appear to have any filter. It is possible that the filter was removed specifically for the trailer, as a way to mislead the audience regarding what is happening, and especially where. Or, there is another possibility that I will suggest: there is an orange or gold filter in place.
I’ve been watching the trailer over and over, trying to see if it exists. The truth is, I am unable to tell with certainty. But it is interesting that the backgrounds and sun’s lens flares are so dominantly orange/gold in colour. Even the flesh on the actors does feel a bit more orangy than it should otherwise be. I think it is entirely possible that a gold or orange filter may be in use.
So, let us say for the moment that I am correct; what does this all suggest? I believe it might suggest that Neo is in none of the places I have described above. Not in the Matrix, not in the real world, and not using his special sight. He is somewhere else. It is even possible he IS someone else also. As for where he might be, I have one suggestion: he could be in “heaven.”
By “heaven,” I do not mean the Christian heaven from the Bible. I mean something like a special simulation created by the machines exclusively for Neo. After the events of the third film, Neo is dead. His mind is lost, but his body is still possibly recoverable. Perhaps, due to another as yet unknown to the audience conflict, the machines needed to resurrect Neo. Or perhaps the machines simply don’t think as humans think, and thought it was a good idea to resurrect him anyway. In any case, the machines might have created a special simulation to either contain or develop a new mind for Neo. A place to bring Neo back from.
It would be consistent with many of the things seen in the trailer. Younger versions of familiar characters, pushing Neo through something like the path he took previously in the first film. Redeveloping his cognitive abilities. Perhaps resurrecting the powers he had before. Of course Trinity would appear, even as a ghost created by Neo’s subconscious. In fact, as Neo’s abilities grew and manifested, Trinity’s appearance should be inevitable. Not that she really existed, because she should be dead in the real world. A ghost in the machine, created by Neo’s obsession with his lost love. It might explain those green gliphs falling down her cheeks at about half way through the trailer. She may not be real.
One last thing to think about, before I leave this discussion on the colour filters. During the trailer, at each moment that there is the text on the screen, look to the background. There you will find the usual green gliphs falling down, the trademark of the Matrix films. But also look below. What is that rising from the bottom of the screen? Golden gliphs rising from the bottom, as if fighting with the green one’s that are falling. Perhaps this is the real hint as to what is to come in the new film.