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Oracle (The Matrix)
Encyclopedia
The Oracle is a fictional character
portrayed by Gloria Foster
and Mary Alice
within the Matrix series
of films created by the Wachowski brothers. The character also appears in the video game Enter the Matrix
and the MMORPG
The Matrix Online
.
, which she uses to advise and guide the humans attempting to fight the Matrix's system. Later, she is revealed to be a sapient program
who is integral to the very nature of the Matrix itself. Whether her power of prediction is deterministic
or not is a concept given much treatment in all three films. She herself claims that she lacks the ability to see past her own choice, explaining that no one, including herself, can see past a choice they do not understand. It becomes clear in the films that her power cannot be used to predict the ultimate actions of Neo
, who possesses genuine free will
when he defies the Architect
.
Her power of foresight, on the other hand, is probably not a foresight based on knowledge of a pre-determined future, but rather a calculation; The Architect revealed the Oracle to be "a program designed to investigate the human psyche"; thus, allowing the Matrix to become more accustomed for the majority of the human population to accept. She exhibits a trait for predicting events directly relevant to the nature and/or programming of the Matrix, and natural human responses according to her knowledge of them; this is most clear in her prediction of Neo's choice between Morpheus' life and his own. While the Oracle knew that the Agents would be searching for Morpheus as he was searching for 'the One', and seeing Cypher's actions and reactions (such as his conversation with Agent Smith), she predicted the most likely event. Another example is her prediction about Neo's choice in the second movie, The Matrix Reloaded
; she had existed throughout five versions, and regardless of the One's ability to exhibit free will, she had experienced a series of events that had and would occur and push the One to the Source.
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The Oracle is played by Gloria Foster
in The Matrix
and The Matrix Reloaded, and by Mary Alice
in The Matrix Revolutions
and Enter the Matrix
, one of the franchise's video games. In The Matrix Revolutions and Enter the Matrix, it is explained that Kamala and Rama Kandra, the parents of Sati, traded with the Merovingian, giving the Oracle's termination code in exchange for their daughter's passage into the Matrix as an Exile via the Trainman. In reality, Mary Alice played the Oracle because Gloria Foster died of complications from diabetes before her role in Matrix Revolutions was shot.
In the third Matrix movie, the Oracle hints at her true purpose, which is to bring imbalance, rather than balance, to the equations that form the Matrix. In that she is opposed to her counterpart, the Architect, who brings balance to the equations that form the Matrix.
The Oracle's purpose is to aid The One
and the humans following him by means of the Prophecy (predicting the victory of the One and the fall of the machines), not in order to bring down the Matrix, but rather so that they can voluntarily disconnect themselves from the system, ensuring its stability while preventing its destruction. The role of the Architect is then to reunite the One with the Source and bring about the destruction of Zion
. The pair together ensure that the Matrix is rebooted and the population of Zion starts over when necessary, thus bringing the cycle of the Ones full circle and ensuring control over the humans for one more cycle.
This Yin-Yang relationship itself is a form of balance between opposing forces, so it becomes obvious that the Architect and the Oracle are the two balancing forces of the Matrix itself: the fallible human factor and the logic of the machines. This idea is even hinted in the films as the Oracle is wearing yin-yang earrings throughout the third film. This process of balance between opposing forces is even more realized in the conflict between Smith and Neo at the end of the third Matrix movie, wherein they annihilate one another, suggesting a collision between matter
and anti-matter.
In the first Matrix movie, Agent Smith revealed that the first Matrix was a failure because it was too perfect for humans to accept. This has been revealed in The Matrix Online continuity as the Paradise version of the Matrix. The Architect confirms this (and his own responsibility for its creation) in the second movie, Reloaded, adding that he also created a second failed Matrix based on human history and nature (as he perceived it without the Oracle), which has come to be known as the Nightmare version of the Matrix. By including the Oracle, whose investigations into the human psyche yielded the answer to creating a functional simulation that humans would accept, a stable System was created with the third version of the Matrix, while the Prophecy of the One made to ensure its continuity in cycles.
In the final two films, the Oracle succeeds in unbalancing the Matrix (seeing the simultaneous rises of both Neo and Smith) to the extent that it is almost destroyed. In so doing, she manages to bring about a resolution in which the machines and the humans can coexist in peace. The Architect tells her she "played a very dangerous game" helping the humans, to which she replies that "change always is [dangerous]". When asked whether Neo will return, she says she suspects that they will see him again, indicating that he may still be alive, or that he may be reincarnated.
before the game's cancellation in mid 2009. The Oracle helped redpill
s who needed guidance during missions. The General had tried to kill her with kill code bullets, but she was rescued by the Kid.
In April 2008, shortly after the game's third anniversary, the Oracle was killed by a man calling himself Halborn, a human jacked into the Matrix with no RSI, and thus represented by a wire frame. In ways still unknown, he had acquired powers that greatly exceed that of an Agent. He killed the Oracle in retaliation of her refusal to disclose the location of the Biological Interface Program, Halborn's ultimate goal.
Before cancellation, Zion had been attempting to find a way to 'revive' the Oracle. A figure that appears to be a younger Oracle appeared before The Kid and his operatives.
It was revealed that the Oracle was responsible for the Biological Interface Program, and that both Neo and Trinity were a part of that program.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
portrayed by Gloria Foster
Gloria Foster
Gloria Foster was an American actress, most known for her stage performances portraying an array of African-American characters, including her acclaimed roles in plays In White America and Having Our Say, winning three Obie Awards during her career.In films, she was perhaps best known as The...
and Mary Alice
Mary Alice
Mary Alice is an American actress.Alice was born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Mississippi, the daughter of Ozelar and Sam Smith. In 1987 she received a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Fences...
within the Matrix series
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...
of films created by the Wachowski brothers. The character also appears in the video game Enter the Matrix
Enter the Matrix
Enter the Matrix is the first video game based on The Matrix series of films. It was developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Atari and WB Interactive for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube game systems, and for the PC. It was published in Japan by Bandai...
and 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...
.
Overview
In the first film, she is a mysterious but powerful figure, incongruously depicted as a cheerful old lady who enjoys smoking cigarettes and baking cookies. She possesses the power of foresightForesight
Foresight or forethought may refer to:* Foresight , ability to predict or plan for the future* Foresight , management planning principle* Foresight , European planning mechanism for public policy...
, which she uses to advise and guide the humans attempting to fight the Matrix's system. Later, she is revealed to be a sapient program
Computer program
A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...
who is integral to the very nature of the Matrix itself. Whether her power of prediction is deterministic
Determinism
Determinism is the general philosophical thesis that states that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given them, nothing else could happen. There are many versions of this thesis. Each of them rests upon various alleged connections, and interdependencies of things and...
or not is a concept given much treatment in all three films. She herself claims that she lacks the ability to see past her own choice, explaining that no one, including herself, can see past a choice they do not understand. It becomes clear in the films that her power cannot be used to predict the ultimate actions of 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...
, who possesses genuine free will
Free will
"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
when he defies the Architect
Architect (The Matrix)
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.-Constructing the First Matrices:...
.
Her power of foresight, on the other hand, is probably not a foresight based on knowledge of a pre-determined future, but rather a calculation; The Architect revealed the Oracle to be "a program designed to investigate the human psyche"; thus, allowing the Matrix to become more accustomed for the majority of the human population to accept. She exhibits a trait for predicting events directly relevant to the nature and/or programming of the Matrix, and natural human responses according to her knowledge of them; this is most clear in her prediction of Neo's choice between Morpheus' life and his own. While the Oracle knew that the Agents would be searching for Morpheus as he was searching for 'the One', and seeing Cypher's actions and reactions (such as his conversation with Agent Smith), she predicted the most likely event. Another example is her prediction about Neo's choice in the second movie, The Matrix Reloaded
The 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,...
; she had existed throughout five versions, and regardless of the One's ability to exhibit free will, she had experienced a series of events that had and would occur and push the One to the Source.
Gloria Foster
Gloria Foster was an American actress, most known for her stage performances portraying an array of African-American characters, including her acclaimed roles in plays In White America and Having Our Say, winning three Obie Awards during her career.In films, she was perhaps best known as The...
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...
and The Matrix Reloaded, and by Mary Alice
Mary Alice
Mary Alice is an American actress.Alice was born Mary Alice Smith in Indianola, Mississippi, the daughter of Ozelar and Sam Smith. In 1987 she received a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her work in Fences...
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,...
and Enter the Matrix
Enter the Matrix
Enter the Matrix is the first video game based on The Matrix series of films. It was developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Atari and WB Interactive for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube game systems, and for the PC. It was published in Japan by Bandai...
, one of the franchise's video games. In The Matrix Revolutions and Enter the Matrix, it is explained that Kamala and Rama Kandra, the parents of Sati, traded with the Merovingian, giving the Oracle's termination code in exchange for their daughter's passage into the Matrix as an Exile via the Trainman. In reality, Mary Alice played the Oracle because Gloria Foster died of complications from diabetes before her role in Matrix Revolutions was shot.
In the third Matrix movie, the Oracle hints at her true purpose, which is to bring imbalance, rather than balance, to the equations that form the Matrix. In that she is opposed to her counterpart, the Architect, who brings balance to the equations that form the Matrix.
The Oracle's purpose is to aid The One
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...
and the humans following him by means of the Prophecy (predicting the victory of the One and the fall of the machines), not in order to bring down the Matrix, but rather so that they can voluntarily disconnect themselves from the system, ensuring its stability while preventing its destruction. The role of the Architect is then to reunite the One with the Source and bring about the destruction of 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:...
. The pair together ensure that the Matrix is rebooted and the population of Zion starts over when necessary, thus bringing the cycle of the Ones full circle and ensuring control over the humans for one more cycle.
This Yin-Yang relationship itself is a form of balance between opposing forces, so it becomes obvious that the Architect and the Oracle are the two balancing forces of the Matrix itself: the fallible human factor and the logic of the machines. This idea is even hinted in the films as the Oracle is wearing yin-yang earrings throughout the third film. This process of balance between opposing forces is even more realized in the conflict between Smith and Neo at the end of the third Matrix movie, wherein they annihilate one another, suggesting a collision between matter
Matter
Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...
and anti-matter.
In the first Matrix movie, Agent Smith revealed that the first Matrix was a failure because it was too perfect for humans to accept. This has been revealed in The Matrix Online continuity as the Paradise version of the Matrix. The Architect confirms this (and his own responsibility for its creation) in the second movie, Reloaded, adding that he also created a second failed Matrix based on human history and nature (as he perceived it without the Oracle), which has come to be known as the Nightmare version of the Matrix. By including the Oracle, whose investigations into the human psyche yielded the answer to creating a functional simulation that humans would accept, a stable System was created with the third version of the Matrix, while the Prophecy of the One made to ensure its continuity in cycles.
In the final two films, the Oracle succeeds in unbalancing the Matrix (seeing the simultaneous rises of both Neo and Smith) to the extent that it is almost destroyed. In so doing, she manages to bring about a resolution in which the machines and the humans can coexist in peace. The Architect tells her she "played a very dangerous game" helping the humans, to which she replies that "change always is [dangerous]". When asked whether Neo will return, she says she suspects that they will see him again, indicating that he may still be alive, or that he may be reincarnated.
Online
She made frequent appearances in Debir Court in The Matrix OnlineThe 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...
before the game's cancellation in mid 2009. The Oracle helped redpill
Redpill
The term red pill and its opposite, blue pill, are pop culture terms that have become a common symbol for the choice between the blissful ignorance of illusion and embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality ....
s who needed guidance during missions. The General had tried to kill her with kill code bullets, but she was rescued by the Kid.
In April 2008, shortly after the game's third anniversary, the Oracle was killed by a man calling himself Halborn, a human jacked into the Matrix with no RSI, and thus represented by a wire frame. In ways still unknown, he had acquired powers that greatly exceed that of an Agent. He killed the Oracle in retaliation of her refusal to disclose the location of the Biological Interface Program, Halborn's ultimate goal.
Before cancellation, Zion had been attempting to find a way to 'revive' the Oracle. A figure that appears to be a younger Oracle appeared before The Kid and his operatives.
It was revealed that the Oracle was responsible for the Biological Interface Program, and that both Neo and Trinity were a part of that program.