Pills, Pills, Pills - a Matrix Resurrections lookback

Did I like the Matrix Resurrections? No, not really, but that is mostly a matter of craft. It wasn't elegant in any way - plot, action, characters, shots - but more a lump-sided mix of ham-handed explanations and confusing scene changes. Nothing was done in a way to make someone say "wow, I want to learn how to do that."

But it turned out everyone wanted to argue about ideology anyway.

One form of media commentary I do not like is "here is how I fixed this movie," where the critic says all you need to do is rearrange some scenes, cut one character, add another, rework this expository monologue, and other "minor" changes. A movie is a $10-$100 million work of dozens or hundreds of artisans that required hours of lighting adjustments to capture several takes before a scene, or even one shot, is done. What I value is "how is the director translating a blunt statement of theme or plot, into the infinite subtle choices of wording, lighting, set-dressing, costumes, and delivery." 

Don't tell me what you would make the second hour about, tell me what images you are filming to convey this idea, how you are framing them, how long you're holding that shot, what sound is in the background... you get the idea. 

I say all that, to preface that "Matrix 4 would be better if I could do one small change."

 

I know this, because I misread the original trailers for M4R, and was excited, and then disappointed when I saw the movie to realize I had gotten it wrong. All I suggest is:

#0099CC to #FF0000

Which is to say, the movie has repeated imagery of pills flooding out of every orifice. Not just one pill as we saw in the first scene, but thousands of pills coming out of every desk, facet, and prescription bottle. 

In the actual movie, those are blue pills. It would be better if they were red pills.

What does this flood of blue pills mean? In the first movie, the blue pills were the "wrong" one, choosing to remain in a pleasant illusion instead of facing the horrifying truth. What would it mean to be overloaded by a chaotic flood of... pleasant illusion? I can imagine some possibilities, but M4R doesn't do any of those and that doesn't seem a major cultural feature right now. It's just imagery of something "wrong."

(Edit: It occurs to this author that the blue pills might be intended to stand in for medications like Prozac. That would be a reference to the sub-cultural trend to see medications as just dumbing and numbing us so we didn't see what was being done to us. However, that metaphor is well out-dated by now. That's RFKJr shit; the sort of audience the Wakowskis are pandering to are much more pro-medication. Lana even explicitly acknowledges the metaphor of "red pill = hormonal transition. So that seems an unlikely interpretation.) 

 

So. Why would a flood of red pills be any better?

Because the red pill is the "correct" choice in the first movie. It is the one our hero is supposed to take, the good pill. And the proper progression on that is Sorcerer's Apprentice stuff; the "good" thing you want becoming an uncontrollable deluge. The enemy has turned your own tools and goals against you, in overwhelming numbers. And the hero must learn to defeat an evil that comes cloaked in his own colors. That is what I was excited about when I color swapped the trailer in my mind.

SHIELD is HYDRA. In Never-ending Story II, he can make any wish but they drain his memories. Happy Gilmore must defeat crude entryists in the sequel. This is basic sequel stuff. Darth Maul has TWO lightsabre blades. Grievous has... four! (Edit: In fact even this movie already does this with "bullet time.")

So, what would being drowned in red pills mean, anyway? How is that a better interpretation than blue pills?

Nominally, the "red pill" represents truth, or harsh truth. But is it really? It's not like any object within the Matrix appears differently. It's not the red pill that makes Neo see the ones and zeroes streaming.

The red pill is a new perspective on the truth. You see the same shadows on the wall but you understand them as an illusion generated by a deeper reality. It's not about a pure lie or fantasy, it's about finding new ways to interpret existing reality. Since 1999, we've come up with a new word for this.

It's a "take."

That's literally what happened, right? Someone on the internet adopted "red pill" as meaning a harsh but true interpretation of things, and that got adopted as a view on sexual relations, and an entire culture of misogynists called themselves "redpillers." But all they had was a take on what women really wanted. And it was not a take that made them happier, but rather even more miserable.

So if we interpret "red pill" to mean "a take", what does an overwhelming flood of red pills mean in our current media environment?

From Vengeance (2022) "Everyone will have a different take, because that’s how it works: if you don’t have a new take, you don’t have a voice, you don’t exist."

 

 

 

And that's what the media environment now is. We aren't given lies, we are stuffed full of truths, or rather takes. Everyone is addicted to a never-ending flow of perspectives on truth. It's like the Starship Troopers motif of propaganda ads that say "Do you want to know more?" You don't have to hide anything when you've covered the entire yard in bullshit.

 

I lied earlier. Changing this theme from blue to red would have exponential repercussions for the rest of the film, and I do not have the craft to fix all of those. This blog post is not a replacement for the artistry it would take to make a movie like this. This blog post is only one take among many.

But some takes are more true than others.