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Architect (The Matrix)
Encyclopedia
The Architect is a fictional character in the last two films of the Matrix trilogy
, created by the Wachowski brothers. The character is played by Helmut Bakaitis
. He also makes an appearance in the MMORPG
The Matrix Online
.
The Architect turned to a more intuitive program designed to understand human nature and psychology to augment the framework of the next Matrix. This time, the power of choice was added to the programming, where humans would be allowed the power to choose, even if the person was only aware of the choice on a vague, unconscious level.
This version of the Matrix worked, except for approximately 1 percent of human minds. These humans were apparently bodily ejected from the power plant. Some of these humans survived to form Zion.
The Architect noted that the Matrix was not as perfect as he would have wanted. The choice-programming that stabilized the first iteration of the Matrix was also causing its destabilization. In approximately 100 years time, a reload of the Matrix would be required.
There was also the matter of Zion, which could not be allowed to grow too large with rejected humans, lest its people would rise up to become a new threat to the Machine City.
One significant anomaly appeared two-thirds into the Matrix first cycle. A man was born with control of additional Matrix programming that actually belonged with the Source. The Architect tried to remove this anomaly, to no avail. However, he would find a way to work with this human and return the critical Source code he carried for the eventual reloading of the Matrix.
In each of the first five cycles of the Matrix, the Anomaly, known to the humans as The One, would manifest itself within the Matrix and eventually find the Architect and his hidden lair. There, the Architect (who is also bound by the choice-programming within his own creation) presents The One with two doors of exit. One door leads to the Source. The second door returns to the Matrix proper. The Architect tells the One that, while they converse, Zion is about to be utterly and totally destroyed. He states that the function of The One is to save humanity. Given that the only remaining humans (after Zion's destruction) remain in the Matrix, failure to enter the door to the Source will lead to an eventual catastrophic system crash of the Matrix, killing its human inhabitants and effectively annihilating humanity as a race. The Architect offers to The One a token number of humans who he can use to rebuild Zion. In each of these cycles, The One enters the door to the Source, the Matrix is reloaded, and Zion dies and is reborn at The One's mentorship.
The Architect delivers the usual speech and threat, but can already see that this One will not comply as the others. Neo leaves the Architect to save his love, and leaves the future of the Matrix in doubt.
The Oracle tells Neo more about the Architect at their final meeting. She says that the Architect's purpose is to balance the equations of the Matrix, but her purpose is to unbalance the same equations. She also tells him that he can't see past the equations of things as part of his purpose which limits his ability to view things. She tells Neo to head to the true location of the Source, the Machine City, to save not only humanity, but the Machine world as well.
After Neo's destruction of Smith, the Machines gather Neo's body and successfully reload the Matrix. The Machines also oblige the truce that Neo bartered, calling off the attack of Zion and leaving the two worlds at peace.
The Architect meets the Oracle and speaks of her "dangerous game" that she played, and acknowledges that the truce will be honored, although he doubts how long it will last.
, Neo
meets the Architect face to face in a large oval-shaped room with two doors, whose walls are covered with television monitors. (A close-up of these monitors is briefly seen early in The Matrix
, but is not identified as such at the time.) Taking the form of a cold, humorless, white-haired man in a light gray suit, he is a computer program that created the Matrix and now oversees its functioning. His artificial nature is more readily apparent than that of other programs personified as humans. The Architect is extremely mechanical in his actions, in that he speaks in long logical chains of reasoning, utilizing several connectors (discourse markers) such as "ergo", "concordantly", and "thus", and has little variance in his tone of voice. He also has little facial expression beyond smirks and glares, but does exhibit emotion on limited occasions, such as regret, annoyance and arrogance.
The Architect's first attempt at a Matrix was a utopia
, but it failed miserably and many human lives were lost when the inhabitants refused to accept it. The Architect then redesigned the Matrix to reflect the darker side of human nature and history, but the dystopian version failed too. The solution to this problem was discovered by the Oracle
: a version of the Matrix that gave humans the unconscious choice of accepting it. This version was accepted by nearly 99% of all test subjects, so that the Matrix was rewritten to allow subjects to choose subconsciously whether they wanted to be a part of it. The small percentage of humans that did not accept the Matrix would inevitably increase and become a threat to it. Despite this problem, this threat was expected and consequently could be controlled to some extent.
In The Matrix Revolutions
, the Oracle explains to Neo that the true purpose of the Architect is to balance the mathematical equations that make up the programming of the Matrix, and he is unable to see the world as anything beyond a series of equations. It is also because of this that he is unable to comprehend choice and free will and cannot see the results of such choices as they are no more than variable factors in an equation to him.
of the Matrix "Prime Program", which gave him his outstanding powers over the Matrix, but also with a profound attachment to humanity that would later motivate him to fulfill the prophecies being spread by the Oracle. Every time the free humans had grown strong enough to start threatening machine hegemony, The One would be born into the Matrix.
As the prophecies were fulfilled by The One, the machines would begin building an army to destroy Zion
. Under the guidance of the Oracle, The One would find his way to the machine mainframe, also called The Source, convinced that his actions there would end the war on behalf of the humans. Because the Architect resides in a room that lies on the path to the Source, the One would invariably encounter him along the way. During this encounter, the Architect would reveal his influence over the preceding events and the reason the Matrix had been designed to allow a small percentage of its inhabitants to escape. He would then present The One with a choice, symbolized by the two doors in his office:
The machination of the Architect and the Oracle were successful in maintaining the status quo
in that, until Neo, all incarnations of The One had chosen to cooperate with the Machines in order to preserve humanity.
, The Architect offered Neo the same choice he offered his five predecessors. Unlike previous Ones, Neo was experiencing his programmed attachment to humanity in a specific way: in his love for Trinity. At the same time Neo had met with the Architect, Trinity was in the Matrix being chased by an Agent in a reenactment of a nightmare
Neo had that ended with her apparent death.
Presented with a choice between the destruction of humanity or losing Trinity, Neo saw no choice. His love for her led him to choose to attempt saving her, even though the Architect had asserted that her death was certain and his attempt to save her would mean doom for all humanity.
During their conversation, Neo claims that the machines cannot allow humanity to be destroyed as they are using them for power and thus could not survive if they were killed. In response, the Architect, although his face remains unmoved, states in a grave voice: "There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept".
The Matrix (franchise)
The Matrix is a science fiction action franchise created by Andy and Larry Wachowski and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The series began with the 1999 film The Matrix and later spawned two sequels; The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, both released in 2003, thus forming a trilogy...
, created by the Wachowski brothers. The character is played by Helmut Bakaitis
Helmut Bakaitis
Helmut Bakaitis is an Australian director, actor and screenwriter.Bakaitis was born in Lauban, Silesia, Germany to Lithuanian parents...
. He also makes an appearance in the MMORPG
MMORPG
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
The Matrix Online
The Matrix Online
The Matrix Online was a massively multiplayer online game developed by Monolith Productions created by Richard Carroll. It was the official continuation of the storyline of the Matrix series of films. The game began closed beta-testing in June 2004 which was then opened for people who pre-ordered...
.
Constructing the First Matrices
The Architect created the first Matrix as a utopia for the humans whose minds inhabited it. However, the human minds rejected this first attempt as a perfect world and beta 1 of the Matrix crashed. A second attempt added "vulgarities" of human nature and a basic cause and effect, but this beta was also a failure.The Architect turned to a more intuitive program designed to understand human nature and psychology to augment the framework of the next Matrix. This time, the power of choice was added to the programming, where humans would be allowed the power to choose, even if the person was only aware of the choice on a vague, unconscious level.
This version of the Matrix worked, except for approximately 1 percent of human minds. These humans were apparently bodily ejected from the power plant. Some of these humans survived to form Zion.
The Architect noted that the Matrix was not as perfect as he would have wanted. The choice-programming that stabilized the first iteration of the Matrix was also causing its destabilization. In approximately 100 years time, a reload of the Matrix would be required.
There was also the matter of Zion, which could not be allowed to grow too large with rejected humans, lest its people would rise up to become a new threat to the Machine City.
One significant anomaly appeared two-thirds into the Matrix first cycle. A man was born with control of additional Matrix programming that actually belonged with the Source. The Architect tried to remove this anomaly, to no avail. However, he would find a way to work with this human and return the critical Source code he carried for the eventual reloading of the Matrix.
A New Matrix
Together with the human intuitive program (which could be considered the "mother" of the Matrix as the Architect could be considered the "father"), the concept of the Prophecy was formed. The intuitive program (known to the humans as the Oracle) would tell of this story to the small members of a human resistance that periodically infiltrated the Matrix, who would find the anomaly and help him to find the Architect's hidden room deep within a fortified building. There, the Architect would use his measures of control to keep the Anomaly, and in turn both Zion and the Matrix, in check.In each of the first five cycles of the Matrix, the Anomaly, known to the humans as The One, would manifest itself within the Matrix and eventually find the Architect and his hidden lair. There, the Architect (who is also bound by the choice-programming within his own creation) presents The One with two doors of exit. One door leads to the Source. The second door returns to the Matrix proper. The Architect tells the One that, while they converse, Zion is about to be utterly and totally destroyed. He states that the function of The One is to save humanity. Given that the only remaining humans (after Zion's destruction) remain in the Matrix, failure to enter the door to the Source will lead to an eventual catastrophic system crash of the Matrix, killing its human inhabitants and effectively annihilating humanity as a race. The Architect offers to The One a token number of humans who he can use to rebuild Zion. In each of these cycles, The One enters the door to the Source, the Matrix is reloaded, and Zion dies and is reborn at The One's mentorship.
The Sixth One
On the sixth iteration, Neo, the sixth Anomaly, appears on schedule before the Architect. The Architect is surprised that this One, unlike his predecessors, is quicker of thought. This sixth Anomaly possesses the same dispensation for protecting humanity as the others, but unlike the other Ones has a deep attachment to one human: a Zion resistance member named Trinity.The Architect delivers the usual speech and threat, but can already see that this One will not comply as the others. Neo leaves the Architect to save his love, and leaves the future of the Matrix in doubt.
The Oracle tells Neo more about the Architect at their final meeting. She says that the Architect's purpose is to balance the equations of the Matrix, but her purpose is to unbalance the same equations. She also tells him that he can't see past the equations of things as part of his purpose which limits his ability to view things. She tells Neo to head to the true location of the Source, the Machine City, to save not only humanity, but the Machine world as well.
After Neo's destruction of Smith, the Machines gather Neo's body and successfully reload the Matrix. The Machines also oblige the truce that Neo bartered, calling off the attack of Zion and leaving the two worlds at peace.
The Architect meets the Oracle and speaks of her "dangerous game" that she played, and acknowledges that the truce will be honored, although he doubts how long it will last.
Character
Near the climax of The Matrix ReloadedThe Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...
, Neo
Neo (The Matrix)
Thomas A. Anderson is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Matrix franchise, as well as having a cameo in The Animatrix short film, Kid's Story. He was portrayed by Keanu Reeves in The Matrix Trilogy and The Animatrix. Andrew Bowen provided Neo's voice in The Matrix: Path of Neo...
meets the Architect face to face in a large oval-shaped room with two doors, whose walls are covered with television monitors. (A close-up of these monitors is briefly seen early in The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
, but is not identified as such at the time.) Taking the form of a cold, humorless, white-haired man in a light gray suit, he is a computer program that created the Matrix and now oversees its functioning. His artificial nature is more readily apparent than that of other programs personified as humans. The Architect is extremely mechanical in his actions, in that he speaks in long logical chains of reasoning, utilizing several connectors (discourse markers) such as "ergo", "concordantly", and "thus", and has little variance in his tone of voice. He also has little facial expression beyond smirks and glares, but does exhibit emotion on limited occasions, such as regret, annoyance and arrogance.
The Architect's first attempt at a Matrix was a utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
, but it failed miserably and many human lives were lost when the inhabitants refused to accept it. The Architect then redesigned the Matrix to reflect the darker side of human nature and history, but the dystopian version failed too. The solution to this problem was discovered by the Oracle
Oracle (The Matrix)
The Oracle is a fictional character portrayed by Gloria Foster and Mary Alice within the Matrix series of films created by the Wachowski brothers...
: a version of the Matrix that gave humans the unconscious choice of accepting it. This version was accepted by nearly 99% of all test subjects, so that the Matrix was rewritten to allow subjects to choose subconsciously whether they wanted to be a part of it. The small percentage of humans that did not accept the Matrix would inevitably increase and become a threat to it. Despite this problem, this threat was expected and consequently could be controlled to some extent.
In The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Revolutions
The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction film and the third installment of The Matrix trilogy. The film was released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film was written and directed by the Wachowski brothers and released simultaneously in sixty countries on November 5,...
, the Oracle explains to Neo that the true purpose of the Architect is to balance the mathematical equations that make up the programming of the Matrix, and he is unable to see the world as anything beyond a series of equations. It is also because of this that he is unable to comprehend choice and free will and cannot see the results of such choices as they are no more than variable factors in an equation to him.
Function
With the new Matrix in place, a system was enacted to control the inhabitants who refused to accept it. While the Oracle was able to guide the actions of the humans who left the Matrix through prophecy, it was the Architect who programmed The One that would fulfill these prophecies. The One was made carrying not only the source codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
of the Matrix "Prime Program", which gave him his outstanding powers over the Matrix, but also with a profound attachment to humanity that would later motivate him to fulfill the prophecies being spread by the Oracle. Every time the free humans had grown strong enough to start threatening machine hegemony, The One would be born into the Matrix.
As the prophecies were fulfilled by The One, the machines would begin building an army to destroy Zion
Zion (The Matrix)
Zion is a fictional city in The Matrix films. It is the last human city on the planet Earth after a cataclysmic nuclear war between humankind and sentient Machines, which resulted in artificial lifeforms dominating the world.-History:...
. Under the guidance of the Oracle, The One would find his way to the machine mainframe, also called The Source, convinced that his actions there would end the war on behalf of the humans. Because the Architect resides in a room that lies on the path to the Source, the One would invariably encounter him along the way. During this encounter, the Architect would reveal his influence over the preceding events and the reason the Matrix had been designed to allow a small percentage of its inhabitants to escape. He would then present The One with a choice, symbolized by the two doors in his office:
- He may return to the Source, at which point the Matrix source code would be reinserted into the program, allowing for the system to reboot. Zion is still destroyed and people are still trapped in the Matrix, but the One would be allowed to select seven males and sixteen females (making a total of twenty-three23 (numerology)The 23 enigma refers to the belief that most incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23, some modification of the number 23, or a number related to the number 23.-Origins:...
individuals) from the Matrix to be freed so that they could found a new Zion. The One would then die, and a prophecy of his return would be spread, continuing the cycle. - He may refuse to cooperate and return to the Matrix in an attempt to save Zion. This would lead to a massive system crash, killing all of the inhabitants of the Matrix. Combined with the inevitable destruction of Zion, this would ultimately mean the extinction of humanity.
The machination of the Architect and the Oracle were successful in maintaining the status quo
Status quo
Statu quo, a commonly used form of the original Latin "statu quo" – literally "the state in which" – is a Latin term meaning the current or existing state of affairs. To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they presently are...
in that, until Neo, all incarnations of The One had chosen to cooperate with the Machines in order to preserve humanity.
The Matrix Reloaded
In The Matrix ReloadedThe Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science fiction film and the second installment in The Matrix trilogy, written and directed by the Wachowskis. It premiered on May 7, 2003, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, and went on general release by Warner Bros. in North American theaters on May 15,...
, The Architect offered Neo the same choice he offered his five predecessors. Unlike previous Ones, Neo was experiencing his programmed attachment to humanity in a specific way: in his love for Trinity. At the same time Neo had met with the Architect, Trinity was in the Matrix being chased by an Agent in a reenactment of a nightmare
Nightmare
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear or horror, but also despair, anxiety and great sadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror...
Neo had that ended with her apparent death.
Presented with a choice between the destruction of humanity or losing Trinity, Neo saw no choice. His love for her led him to choose to attempt saving her, even though the Architect had asserted that her death was certain and his attempt to save her would mean doom for all humanity.
During their conversation, Neo claims that the machines cannot allow humanity to be destroyed as they are using them for power and thus could not survive if they were killed. In response, the Architect, although his face remains unmoved, states in a grave voice: "There are levels of survival we are prepared to accept".
The Matrix Revolutions
In the final scene of the film the Architect joins the Oracle, commenting that she "played a very dangerous game", referring to the Oracle's role in guiding Neo as he defied the Architect's system of control. He then promises her that the humans who desire release from the Matrix will gain it. When she asks if he will keep his word he replies, "What do you think I am? Human?".Trivia
- The character has been parodied by George CarlinGeorge CarlinGeorge Denis Patrick Carlin was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, actor and author, who won five Grammy Awards for his comedy albums....
in the comedy film Scary Movie 3Scary Movie 3Scary Movie 3 is a 2003 American science fiction comedy film, which parodies the horror, sci-fi, and mystery genres, directed by David Zucker. It is the third film of the Scary Movie franchise, as well as the first to have no involvement from the Wayans family...
. - The character has been parodied by Will FerrellWill FerrellJohn William "Will" Ferrell is an American comedian, impressionist, actor, and writer. Ferrell first established himself in the late 1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in the comedy films Old School, Elf, Anchorman, Talladega...
in the MTV matrix spoof - The character has been parodied in the cartoon South ParkSouth ParkSouth Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
as being the entity that represents Walmart.