In Descartes Meditations, he questioned and created something known as universal doubt, the argument for our existence, and the argument that the mind is more certainly known than the body. He mainly questioned the world outside of our body as well as the body itself. This thought provokes the notion that our own mind is more powerful and real than our body. If there is a deceiver than we are automatically means that the fact we are being deceived, means we exist.
In the Matrix, intelligent machines take over the world and enslave all humans. The machines realize that the humans generate never ending power and capture them and keep them in pods. The human’s in the pods are fed a virtual reality program called “The Matrix” into their brains that give them the experience of a human being in 1999.
Neo, a man prophesied to save the world and take control over the matrix, is released by fellow humans who are not captured and living in the pods. He is taken from the “dream reality” and the memory of his life he once had is shattered and he is renewed with a new sense of clarity. He then goes on to fight the Matrix and release human existence from the grips of the machines.
The Matrix and Descartes' ideas match up to explain the idea that this life we are living could easily not be what it seems to be. The ideas of what we have known all of our life not existing is detrimental to our brain capacity. The characters in the movie, exist with in their own world, so each pod person legitimately exists, their thoughts and ideas separate from their bodies. This movie creates a theoretical world where Descartes ideas exist and are reality. The real question The Matrix brings up is the Matrix a possibility for our civilization and could this altered reality be in motion right now? The perceptions The Matrix creates motions viewers to question if the body they perceive to be in actually exists, which is what makes this movie so mystifying and questionable to the existence of the life we know. Many of the questions about reality were addressed within the rules of the matrix making the false reality one that is malleable, this allows the viewer to assess the world they know with in themselves and on the outside.
