The Matrix: Construct Scene
The Matrix: Construct Scene Lyrics
Neo opens his eyes, and the camera pans out to reveal him against an immaculate white background. He looks around, and sees Morpheus.
MORPHEUS: This is the construct. It's our loading program. We can load anything, from clothing, to equipment, weapons, training simulations. Anything we need.
NEO: Right now, we're inside a computer program?
MORPHEUS: Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different, the plugs in your arms and head are gone, your hair has changed. Your appearance now is what we call 'residual self-image'. It is the mental projection of your digital self.
Neo touches one of the two Chesterfield-style chairs the two now stand by. There is a 50s-style television set facing them.
NEO: This... this isn't real?
MORPHEUS: What is 'real'? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know.
Morpheus picks up a remote and turns the television set on. It shows the world Neo remembers
MORPHEUS: 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 switches the television off and reclines in his chair.
MORPHEUS: You've been living in a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it exists today.
He switches the television on, and it shows a nightmarish, barren dystopia. The camera zooms all the way into the screen, then zooms back out again, and we see that Morpheus and Neo are now in the same dystopia.
MORPHEUS: Welcome to the desert of the real.
MORPHEUS: This is the construct. It's our loading program. We can load anything, from clothing, to equipment, weapons, training simulations. Anything we need.
NEO: Right now, we're inside a computer program?
MORPHEUS: Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different, the plugs in your arms and head are gone, your hair has changed. Your appearance now is what we call 'residual self-image'. It is the mental projection of your digital self.
Neo touches one of the two Chesterfield-style chairs the two now stand by. There is a 50s-style television set facing them.
NEO: This... this isn't real?
MORPHEUS: What is 'real'? How do you define 'real'? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain. This is the world that you know.
Morpheus picks up a remote and turns the television set on. It shows the world Neo remembers
MORPHEUS: 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 switches the television off and reclines in his chair.
MORPHEUS: You've been living in a dream world, Neo. This is the world as it exists today.
He switches the television on, and it shows a nightmarish, barren dystopia. The camera zooms all the way into the screen, then zooms back out again, and we see that Morpheus and Neo are now in the same dystopia.
MORPHEUS: Welcome to the desert of the real.
We re-enter the white background.
MORPHEUS: What is the matrix? The matrix is a computer-generated dreamworld, built to keep us under control, in order to change a human being into this.
He holds up a battery.
NEO: No. I don't believe it... it's not possible.
MORPHEUS: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.
NEO: Stop! Let me out! Let me out! I want out!
We cut back to Morpheus's ship, from whence the construct is generated. Neo's eyes snap open and he thrashes against the chair, trying to rip the cable from the back of his neck.
NEO: Get this thing out of me!
TRINITY: Easy, Neo. Easy.
Dozer holds him while Trinity unlocks it. Once it's out, he tears away from them, falling as he trips free of the harness.
NEO: Don't touch me! Get away from me!
On his hands and knees, he reels as the world spins. Sweat pours off him as a pressure builds inside his skull as if his brain had been put into a centrifuge.
CYPHER: He's going to pop!
MORPHEUS: What is the matrix? The matrix is a computer-generated dreamworld, built to keep us under control, in order to change a human being into this.
He holds up a battery.
NEO: No. I don't believe it... it's not possible.
MORPHEUS: I didn't say it would be easy, Neo. I just said it would be the truth.
NEO: Stop! Let me out! Let me out! I want out!
We cut back to Morpheus's ship, from whence the construct is generated. Neo's eyes snap open and he thrashes against the chair, trying to rip the cable from the back of his neck.
NEO: Get this thing out of me!
TRINITY: Easy, Neo. Easy.
Dozer holds him while Trinity unlocks it. Once it's out, he tears away from them, falling as he trips free of the harness.
NEO: Don't touch me! Get away from me!
On his hands and knees, he reels as the world spins. Sweat pours off him as a pressure builds inside his skull as if his brain had been put into a centrifuge.
CYPHER: He's going to pop!
Vomiting violently, Neo pitches forward and blacks out.
About
Genius Annotation
The Matrix, first released in 1999, combined some disparate influences (cyberpunk, kung-fu, sci-fi, dystopian fiction) in a cohesive way, and is an established part of the pop culture canon.
This scene offers a look at the human cost of being confronted with the desert of the real.
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- The Matrix: Construct Scene
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