Rene Descartes Philosophical Themes In The Matrix

In a time where technology and cinematography were starting to come together, the Matrix became the major movie that showed the possibilities for what technology could do for cinematography. The Matrix is a thrill ride that not only entertains but also makes us question reality, which is a key talking point when it comes to philosophy. The Wachowskis (directors) used the technology at hand to their advantage to easily demonstrate multiple philosophical theories and make them simple for the viewer to understand. One of the first philosophical theories to be given is also one of the main subplots of the movie, Rene Descartes’ ‘Methodological Doubt’ which essentially questions if this world is real. When Descartes said “I think; therefore I am”, he meant that without a doubt he himself was at least real but everything else could be doubted. The first major example of this …show more content…
He applies this same idea to when he shoots a cable on an elevator to propel himself extremely fast to the top floor, something that is otherwise considered impossible in the real world. The second philosophical idea presented, although not as major as Descartes’ Method, is the allegory of the cave. When Morpheus brings Neo out of the false world, it is essentially the same as the prisoner returning to the cave to tell the other prisoners of the outside world with the only difference being is that in the allegory of the cave, the fellow prisoners kill the person who tells them of the real world but in the movie Neo breaks free because he wants to know the truth. Alternatively, it can also be looked at as Neo being the one who manages to escape the ‘cave’ and see the reality that is laid before