Day 4: Uncomfortable Moment – MEET THE PARENTS

[Sandeep Gupta]

Presuming this one like all Week 3 classes will get Week 3 titles…

As I may have hinted earlier, I remember very little of this movie, and I had to google more minutes and a commentary to understand where the depth of this character was coming from. Apparently there is a legion of Cypherites on the internet who believe he is correct. Yikes. The whole movie is a dystopian fantasy in the first place, but two wrongs def dun’t make no wright.

For this assignment I will limit it to what I understood from just this scene which also connects to my recall — CYPHER did look envious of NEO when TRINITY brought him in. And neither from this scene nor from recall of the movie do I think Cypher’s disillusionment was ideological. It’s more that of low self-esteem and a repressed, unrequited longing for Trinity. That’s the evidence I see in the penultimate and ultimate expression of this journey finally ticketed by TANK. Penultimate being his taking liberty on Trinity. That rhymes with his earlier character. One that neither knew love, nor touch. This is not a forlorn lover. His repressed fantasy has come apart, and now he is neither the sole alpha nor very flattered that his ego has been battered by a timid college-boy. And so he destroys the world. Gives up MORPHEUS and destroys colleagues.

I am not sure this qualifies for his test. His journey does end with a thumped no.

I am also unable to see any depth in this character. He never showed any merit in the movie to all that he just declared he deserved. He only expresses his shallowness, his cluelessness, and that he never was one, leave aside being the one. The only thing that makes him engaging, one spectacle is king in this movie, two, all the characters we cared about are in jeopardy, three, we are desperately waiting for someone to somehow hit reset on the tension.

The movie and the scene are a little lost on me. It’s not quite Orwell, whose tales were a hypothetical, consistent premise, which we could relate to as a What-If. This is a worse than dystopian fantasy, one of What-Is — and what is by them, is all bad and bad. If one presumes this as a metaphor for the role-playing do-gooders who live in hardship and sometimes squalor to keep civilization, ones who are often hanging by a thread that can be disconnected by a dirty hand inside, it fails. Because there is no pristine civilization to be saved except this “liberated” sceptic-tank. And if Trinity is a trained one, and on top of that a woman, why is she dismissive of the threat Cypher poses and not try to de-escalate a situation jeopardizing three of her vulnerable colleagues? For that matter, how does a petty envious psyche of Cypher get through this program? So then it’s just a shootout between good-rogues and rogue-goodmen? $157.29 million says there’s more. I wish I knew, but at the moment, as far as I see so far, the only depth in this scene is spectacle, by 1999 standards. Help!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by  Sandeep Gupta. Reason: removed the lesson inaccessible line

[Trish Carothers]

Sandeep…Cypher = what a name and doesn’t he live down to it. He slipped thru the cracks…doesnt that happen? He’s the flawed dirty dog deceiver whose vision never gets past his smallness, never part of the group and their vision or purpose. That’s life. Maybe Cypher’s experience into awakening produced the creature he’s become…he can’t go back into his oblivious pod.

Why should or how could Trinity suspect the evil among them posing as their compatriot and friend? Surely you have experienced such a betrayal in Your life? Have you experienced a breakthrough so profound that it hanged your life and you could never and would never go bake to your pre-birth? It’s possible.

[Sandeep Gupta]

None of us have anything nice to say about Cypher, although funny, in different ways. You are right, one common factor may have been that except the supremely lucky we’ve all felt betrayal.

In re me, I have to say I am not one for the rebirth while one is still alive regardless of what people expect and I want to hold on to the entire life I was born with, with integrity … 😀

[Deb Johnson]

The Matrix – Insights:

Cypher is deceptive, unbelieving, and vindictive. He doesn’t believe in Morpheus or Neo and acts accordingly. Each previous scene is a building to this scene – his breaking point and most extreme betrayal. He’s in full villain mode in this scene; the way he casually gets on/in the face of Trinity and Morpheus and, his cold-blooded murder of Epoch and Switch. He also, explains, in detail why he’s doing this.

He also plays out one of the themes of the movie – belief, and unbelief. Cypher is cold and heartless because he doesn’t believe any of it. His last line is “No, I don’t believe it.” To which Tank replies “Believe it or not… you’re still gonna burn.”

It’s interesting that he plays a typical villain role, but he is not Neo’s antagonist. Therefore, Neo does not defeat him. Neo defeats the Matrix, which is his journey. Cypher is a part of the sub-plot which gives depth and suspense to the overall story.

[Karyn Laitis]

Week 3, Day 4–THE MATRIX–Cypher’s Meltdown

Chypher has a mega-exit! He was never to be trusted, which set up events for conflict. His cabin fever was reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s “The Shining”: Cypher is just done with everything and he doesn’t care who he takes down to prove his point. Ironically, he is ready to pull the plug on Neo-The One–challenging that if he was really “The One” divine intervention would save him, right? Wait for it…Ta Da–exit one Cypher.

Cypher’s ultimate willingness to take down everyone, including Neo, which was the true test of his character. When it got tough, Cypher was willing to support an elusive Matrix. This becomes a critical pivot in their characters’ journey. This allows the characters to adjust to a new level of commitment, amping up their game.