The Matrix Page #7

36.

35 CONTINUED:
35

MORPHEUS:

Rest, Neo. The answers are

coming.

36 INT. NEO'S ROOM 36

Neo wakes up from a deep sleep, feeling better. He beginsto examine himself. There is a futuristic IV plugged intothe jack in his forearm. He pulls it out, staring at thegrafted outlet.

He runs his hand over the short hair now covering hishead. His fingers find and explore the large outlet inthe base of his skull.

Just as he starts to come unglued, Morpheus opens thedoor.

NEO:

Morpheus, what's happened to me?

What is this place?

MORPHEUS:

More important than what is when?

NEO:

When?

MORPHEUS:

You believe the year is 1997 when

in fact it is much closer to 2197.

I can't say for certain what year

it is because we honestly do not

know.

The wind is knocked from Neo's chest.

MORPHEUS:

There is no reason for me to try

to explain it when I can simply

show it. Come with me.

37 INT. HOVERCRAFT 37

Like a sleepwalker, Neo follows Morpheus through theship.

MORPHEUS:

This is my ship, the

Nebuchadnezzar. It's a

hovercraft.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

THE MATRIX - Rev. 3/9/98 37.

37 CONTINUED:
37

MORPHEUS (CONT'D)

Small like a submarine. It's

cramped and cold. But it's home.

They climb a ladder up to the main deck.

38 INT. MAIN DECK 38

Everyone is there.

MORPHEUS:

This is the main deck.

most of my crew.

You know

Trinity smiles and nods.

MORPHEUS:

The ones you don't know. That's

Mouse, Cypher, and Switch. Those

two guys are Tank and Dozer.

The names and faces wash meaninglessly over Neo.

MORPHEUS:

And this, this is the Core. This

is where we broadcast our piratesignal and hack into the Matrix.

It is a swamp of bizarre electronic equipment. Vines of

coaxial hang and snake to and from huge monolithicbattery slabs, a black portable satellite dish and banksof life systems and computer monitors.

At the center of the web, there are six ecto-skeleton

chairs made of a poly-alloy frame and suspension harness.

Near the circle of chairs is the control console and

operator's station where the network is monitored.

MORPHEUS:

You want to know what the Matrix

is, Neo? The answer is righthere.

He touches the back of Neo's head.

MORPHEUS:

Help him, Trinity.

Neo allows himself to be helped into one of the chairs.

He feels Morpheus guiding a coaxial line into the jack atthe back of his neck. The cable has the same kind of

cerebrum chip we saw inside the plant.

(CONTINUED)

38.

38 CONTINUED:
38

MORPHEUS:

This will feel a little weird.

There are several disturbing noises as he works theneedle in.

We MOVE IN as Neo's shoulders bunch and his face tightensinto a grimace until a loud CLICK fires and his ears poplike when you equalize them underwater.

He relaxes, opening his eyes as we PULL BACK to a feelingof weightlessness inside another place -39

INT. CONSTRUCT 39

Neo is standing in an empty, blank-white space.

MORPHEUS:

This is the Construct.

Startled, Neo whips around and finds Morpheus now in theroom with him.

MORPHEUS:

It is our loading program. We can

load anything from clothes, toweapons, to training simulations.

Anything we need.

Morpheus walks past Neo and when Neo turns he sees thetwo leather chairs from the Hotel Lafayette set up infront of a large screen television.

Sit down.

MORPHEUS:

Neo stands at the back of the chair as Morpheus sits.

NEO:

Right now, we're inside a computerprogram?

Morpheus smiles.

MORPHEUS:

Is it so hard to believe? Your

clothes are different, the plugsin your arms and head are gone.

Look at your hair, you were bald a

moment ago.

Neo touches his head.

(CONTINUED)

39.

39 CONTINUED:
39

MORPHEUS:

It's what we call residual self

image. The mental projection ofyour electronic self. Wild, isn't

it?

Neo's hands run over the cracked leather.

NEO:

This -- This isn't real?

MORPHEUS:

What is real? How do you definereal? If you're talking aboutwhat you feel, taste, smell, orsee, then real is simplyelectrical signals interpreted byyour brain.

He picks up a remote control and clicks on thetelevision. On the television, we see images of theTwentieth Century city where Neo lived.

MORPHEUS:

This is the world you know. The

world as it was at the end of the

Twentieth Century. It exists now

only as part of a neural-

interactive simulation that we

call the Matrix.

He changes the channel and we see a very different cityas we enter the television.

MORPHEUS:

You have been living inside adreamworld, Neo. As in

Baudrillard's vision, your wholelife has been spent inside themap, not the territory. This is

the world as it exists today.

In the distance, we see the ruins of a future cityprotruding from the wasteland like the blackened ribs ofa long-dead corpse.

MORPHEUS:

'The desert of the real.'

Beneath us, the water is gone.

(CONTINUED)

40.

39 CONTINUED:
(2) 39

We TURN AND DESCEND, SPIRALING DOWN TOWARD the lake bed

which is scorched and split like burnt flesh, where weFIND Morpheus and Neo. Neo clings to the chair, tryingto get his bearings.

MORPHEUS:

We have only bits and pieces of

information. What we know for

certain is that, at some point in

the early Twenty-first Century,

all of mankind was united in

celebration. Through the blinding

inebriation of hubris, we marveled

at our magnificence as we gave

birth to A.I.

NEO:

A.I.? You mean artificial

intelligence?

MORPHEUS:

Yes. A singular consciousness

that spawned an entire race of

machines. I must say I find it

almost funny to imagine the world

slapping itself on the back,

toasting the new age. I say

almost funny.

He looks up and his sunglasses reflect the obsidianclouds roiling overhead.

MORPHEUS:

We don't know who struck first.

Us or them. But we do know it was

us that scorched the sky. At the

time, they were dependent on solar

power. It was believed they would

be unable to survive without an

energy source as abundant as the

sun.

As we DESCEND INTO the circular window of his glasses,

there is a flash of lightning.

MORPHEUS:

Throughout human history, we have

been dependent on machines to

survive. Fate, it seems, is not

without a sense of irony.

41.

40 EXT. FETUS FIELDS 40

On the flash, we PULL BACK from the darkness which

reveals itself to be the black eye of a fetus.

MORPHEUS:

The Machines discovered a new form

of fusion. All they needed was asmall electrical charge toinitiate the reaction.

The fetus is suspended in a placenta-like husk, where itsmalleable skull is already growing around the brain-jack.

MORPHEUS:

The human body generates morebioelectricity than a 120-voltbattery and over 25,000 B.T.U.'sof body heat.

The husk hanging from a stalk is plucked by a thresher-

like farm machine.

MORPHEUS:

There are fields, endless fields

where human beings are no longerborn; we are grown.

We RISE UP, the field stretching in every direction tothe horizon, lightning tearing open the sky as aharvester sweeps past us.

A40 INT. POWER PLANT A40

From the yawning black of the waste port, we begin toPULL BACK as it snaps shut.

Red amniotic gel flows into the pod below us, poolingaround a tiny newborn that suckles its feed tube.

MORPHEUS:

For the longest time, I wouldn'tbelieve it. But then I saw the

fields with my own eyes, watchedthem liquefy the dead so theycould be fed intravenously to theliving and standing there, facingthe efficiency, the pure,

horrifying precision, I came torealize the obviousness of the

truth.

Still PULLING BACK, we see the image of the power plantnow on the television as we return to the white space ofthe construct.

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