The Truth Hurts: A Glance at Wachowski’s “The Matrix”

The film “The Matrix” delves into concepts such as the freedom of choice and the concept of reality. In the scene pictured above, the main character (Neo) faces the hero’s call to adventure; a choice: to experience the truth or to forget everything that is currently putting a halt to his life. The blue pill symbolizes blissful ignorance, normalcy. The red pill is a symbol of truth and the freedom that comes with knowledge. Neo chooses the red pill and learns the horrific truth about the Matrix in which he lives. He accepts that his whole life has been a lie extremely well, all things considered. In the end, he defeats the agents and ultimately gains control of the Matrix.

What would you choose, the red or blue pill? Personally, I would choose the red pill and I believe most other people would as well. Humans as a collective have a tendency to be extremely curious. There’s a need to know things, even if it might backfire. If someone offered me the information I had been subconsciously searching for, I would take it. However, if I knew that the information was that my whole life is a lie, I wouldn’t take it. See the irony here? I wouldn’t know that I didn’t want the truth until I actually learned the truth. This leads to the idea of regret. After taking the red pill, would you still want to know? Neo takes this information in stride and defeats the evil agents. The film also considers the other path, one of someone who takes the red pill but comes to regret it. One of the characters, Cypher, has been freed from the Matrix only to realize he made the wrong decision. If I knew that taking the red pill would take away my friends, family, home, and even food, flushing me down a waste bin and leaving me to live in a run down ship with only slop to eat and death constantly at my throat I would want to go back also. However, I would not murder my new friends to get there as Cypher attempted. Is it better to live a blissful lie of a life than a gruesome life in which I know the truth? At that point, is it really even freedom? Unless you are The One, of course.