Architect (The Matrix)
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The Architect is a fictional character appearing in the last two films of the Matrix trilogy, created by the Wachowski brothers. The character is played by Helmut Bakaitis.
The Architect is first encountered by Neo appearing as a manicured, extremely articulate bureaucrat sitting in a large circular room whose walls are covered by television monitors in a pivotal scene at the climax of Matrix Reloaded, the second film of the Trilogy. He reveals himself to Neo as being the creator of the Matrix. A sentient computer program, he appears as a white-bearded old man (bearing a vague similarity to some Christian depictions of God, Sigmund Freud,Uncle Sam, Colonel Sanders, Norbert Wiener (inventor of cybernetics), and Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, plus diametrically opposed to the preferred shell of the Oracle, that of a black woman). In an extended period of dialogue, the Architect explains that his role is to "balance the equation" of the Matrix. In the third movie, the Oracle tells Neo that her purpose is to unbalance the equation.
The Architect's role
As alluded to by Agent Smith in the first film, the very first version of the Matrix created by the Architect was a failure, ironically because it was a utopia. Its human denizens refused to accept a world of complete perfection. Thus, the Architect modified the Matrix to bring it closer to what the machines understood about human nature. However, the Architect was again beset by failure, as humans resisted being forced into the Matrix against their will.
The solution to this problem was discovered by the Oracle, an intuitive program designed to investigate certain aspects of the human psyche. The Oracle noted that the fault of the earlier Matrix iterations was that they did not take into account the importance of choice; the Architect had merely overlooked this and created a system which was at conflict with the minds of its inhabitants, for whom choice was neurologically inherent.
The Oracle realized that a version of the Matrix that gave humans the choice of accepting it, even if this choice was a near subconscious one, was accepted by nearly 99% of all test subjects. So the Matrix was rewritten to satisfy this human neuro-imperative to choose: those who chose to accept this version of Matrix were integrated painlessly into the system, and those who chose not to accept were allowed to wake up and leave it.
However, as the Architect noted, those who did not accept the program, however few, would inevitably pose an "escalating probability of disaster". Those humans who woke up would gradually increase in number over time, as more and more humans were born into the Matrix, that tiny fraction who chose to escape would inevitably rage against the machines who had imprisoned them, hacking into the Matrix and freeing more individuals to bolster their numbers and eventually growing so numerous that they would, in the long term, pose a direct military threat to the existence of machine civilisation itself. This would take on the form of Zion, the last bastion of human resistance. However, as the inherent flaw of this system was predictable, though assiduously avoided, it was not beyond a measure of control.
In order to maintain any "measure of control" over humans without impinging upon their ability to choose, The Architect turned again to the Oracle. Prophecy was used as a means of making the actions of free humans more predictable; The Oracle propagated a Prophecy among the free humans about a man, The One, who would be born in the Matrix, able to do as he wished within it. He would free humankind from the Matrix and destroy the machines forever. The Architect then programmed The One that would fulfill this prophecy. He was made not only carrying the source code of the Matrix "Prime Program", but also with a profound attachment to humanity that would later motivate him to fulfill the prophecy set forth by the Oracle. Every time the free humans had grown strong enough to start threatening machine hegemony, he would be born into the Matrix.
Once The One emerged and began to meet the criteria of the Prophecy, the Architect would begin preparations to have Zion destroyed by a machine army. Subsequently, The Oracle would guide The One, through prophecy, to the Source (the machine mainframe) under the pretense that it would end the war in favor of the humans. The Architect, however, resides in a room that lies on the path to the Source, so the One would invariably encounter him along the way.
During this encounter, The Architect would reveal his influence over the preceding events and present The One with a choice:
- 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 from the Matrix twenty-three individuals (seven males and sixteen females) to be freed so they could found a new Zion.
- He may refuse to cooperate and return to the Matrix. Refusal would lead to a system crash, killing all of the inhabitants of the Matrix. Coupled with the destruction of Zion, this would spell extinction for the human species.
Consequently, while Morpheus and the rest of Zion believe the start of the resistance one hundred years ago to be the beginning of their struggle, in fact it was the resolution of the fifth iteration of the Matrix and the beginning of the sixth.
Thus, with the Oracle's help, the Architect was able to, for a time, maintain a large degree of control over the human species, despite having to cede a measure of control them, through use of the Prophecy and The One.
The Architect's conversation with Neo
The Architect offers Neo the same choice he offered his five predecessors. He informs Neo that the machine army is going to destroy Zion. Neo can choose to return to the Matrix, or he can return to the Source, choose a few select humans to restart Zion, and continue the cycle.
In the past, the Ones saw little choice-- an extremely high probability of death for all humanity by refusing to cooperate, or certainty of keeping humanity alive by returning to the Source. But, unlike previous Ones, Neo was experiencing his programmed attachment to humanity in a specific way: in his love for Trinity.
Thus, when presented with a choice between the destruction of humanity or losing Trinity, he saw no choice. His emotions led him to choose to attempt saving Trinity, despite the Architect's assertion that there was nothing he can do to save her, not to mention his predictions of doom for all humanity.
Despite the fact that the Machines need humanity to maintain their civilization, the Architect seems unmoved by Neo's choice: "There are levels of survival we are willing to accept." he states. Despite the fact that the One was technically capable of making the wrong choice, the Architect and his race were content to take their chances, having designed the system.
Consequences of the Architect's actions
The Oracle revealed in The Matrix Revolutions that the summary of Architect's role in the Matrix was to balance it, like an equation. Furthermore, when Neo asked her what Smith is, she tells him,
"He is you, your opposite, your negative, the result of the equation trying to balance itself out."
When the Architect programmed The One as part of maintaining control over the Matrix, he set the stage for the emergence of Smith as a growing threat against the Matrix and the Machine City. He told Neo that he was, "the eventuality of an anomaly....... the anomaly is systemic, creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations." These fluctuations appeared to affect Smith, even as Neo destroyed him in the first movie. In Matrix Reloaded, Smith stated,
"Then you're aware of it...... our connection. I don't fully understand how it happened, perhaps some part of you imprinted onto me, something overwritten or copied....... You destroyed me, Mr. Anderson. Afterward, I knew the rules, I understood what I was supposed to do.... but I didn't. I couldn't. I was compelled to stay.... compelled to disobey."
It is unclear whether the Architect directly acted in the interest of balancing Neo within the Matrix, or part of the code inherent to the programming of The One affected Smith. Regardless, due to the actions of the Architect, he was compelled to go against his original programming and driven to increase his power like a virus.
The threat that Smith represented would have been remedied if the Matrix was rebooted as before, but Neo refused to cooperate with the Architect, because of his feelings for Trinity. Consequently, Smith was allowed to grow stronger, leading to an escalating threat, not just to the Matrix but the Machine City, and ultimately, to the showdown at the end of the trilogy.
The Architect on Keeping His Word
In the final scene of the film he joins the Oracle and Sati, 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. The Oracle asks The Architect whether the truce with Zion will be kept, he replies, "What do you think I am.... human?", implying that deceptiveness is not characteristic of the Machines.
Cultural references
The name Architect is possibly a reference to an alternative name for the archetypal ideology of "God" in some traditions (particularly of note, the Freemasons, who refer to God, in one form or another, as the "Great Architect of the Universe"). The Architect character represents one of the Gnostic themes of the series.Deus Ex Machina?
It was confirmed that The Architect is not the Deus Ex Machina entity that appears near the end of Revolutions. They are separate entities.
| The Matrix series | |
|---|---|
| Films | The Matrix | The Matrix Reloaded | The Matrix Revolutions |
| The Animatrix | Final Flight of the Osiris | The Second Renaissance | Kid's Story | Program | World Record | Beyond | A Detective Story | Matriculated |
| Soundtracks | | | | | |
| Games | Enter the Matrix | The Matrix Online | |
| Characters | Neo | Trinity | Morpheus | Smith | Agents | Oracle | Architect | Niobe | Merovingian | Seraph | Minor human characters | Programs and machines |
| Locations | The Matrix | Mega City | Club Hel | Mobil Ave | Zero One (Machine City) | Zion | List of ships in the Matrix series |
| Cast and crew | Wachowski brothers | Keanu Reeves | Laurence Fishburne | Carrie-Anne Moss | Hugo Weaving | Jada Pinkett Smith | Owen Paterson | John Gaeta | Geof Darrow | Steve Skroce |
| Other topics | Matrix digital rain | The Matrix character names | The Matrix Revisited | The Ultimate Matrix Collection |
| Related topics | Bullet time | Cyberpunk | Digitalism | Martial arts film | Messiahs in fiction | Virtual reality |
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