The movie "The Matrix" is about humans in the future who believe they live in a real world, but it it actually a fake world,created by the Matrix. In the real world, which only a few people know about, there is a struggle for freedom between the humans, essentially rebels, and the AI, which controls machines. Throughout the movie, many things connected to the idea of freedom, some more obvious than others. These parts of the movie were expressed by many of the quotes we learned in class.
There were many parts in the movie where the idea of freedom came into play. For example, most humans, who believe they live in the normal world, are actually trapped by the machines in order to use the humans as a source of energy. The humans outside of the Matrix want to free the humans from slavery and a fake life. These both connect to freedom because the humans are caught believing that they are free when they actually aren't, and the humans outside of the Matrix need to free them. This also relates to a quote we learned in class, "You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free" - Clarence Darrow. This relates to the situation in the film because even the people outside of the Matrix aren't really free- they're still in constant danger from machines looking to destroy them, and so they can't do all that much, but if they were able to free the other humans from the Matrix, they would be able to destroy the machines and be free from their rule.
Another part of the Movie where freedom is very evident is inside the fake world of the Matrix. Even though it might seem normal and fair, it is still controlled by "Agents", which are "people" in the Matrix with exceptional abilities that are unnatural. For instance, close to the start of the movie, Thomas, the main character, is taken to prison by Agents for commiting numerous computer crimes, but the Agents restrict his freedom beyond legality- not allowing Thomas to use his phone call, which you are supposed to have to give according to the law. In this way, this part of the movie connects back to freedom because inside the Matrix, freedom still isn't a given, the Agents keep a tight hold on even the fake people inside the Matrix. A quote that we learned in class that relates to this is "None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free" - Goethe. This relates to this part in the movie because the humans inside the matrix, who usually think they're free only realize that they're controlled more than they had thought once something happens to them. They believe they're free inside the Matrix until something or other happens and they realize that they have less control over their life than they thought. This is exactly what happened to Thomas in the film. Thomas is thinking he's free when he's controlled even inside the Matrix.
Freedom in "The Matrix" is a very important idea. Wether it's believing that they are free, or trying to free others, or faking freedom for someone, freedom is very prevelent in the film. When watching the film, I was enticed to consider some freedom questions, because of the nature of the film, which I think makes people ask questions. One question I had was "Can fake freedom, freedom you think you have, be real freedom for you, as long as you believe your fake freedom is what freedom is?" I aksed this because in the film, most humans live a normal life in the 1990's, doing everyday things and getting on with their life. That is the freedom they've known for their entire life, but, of course, it isn't real freedom. This is just one of many interesting questions. For this one, I think fake freedom can be a real freedom, because even though it was a fake freedom, the normal people could still think they were doing everything on their own impulse, because nothing else showed otherwise- so as long as they believed their "freedom" was real freedom, it was essentially their belif of freedom, no matter how twisted and false it was in the real world. Overall, the idea of freedom and the nature of the film raised many questions about freedom.
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