The Saga of the Red and Blue Pills
The famous scene from the first part of the movie “The Matrix” — where Morpheus offers Neo a choice between two pills, blue and red — opens up a rather wide range of guesses, insinuations, and important philosophical questions before us. Morpheus tells Neo that it is impossible to explain what the Matrix is and that the One must see it for himself.
However, before we analyze this iconic episode of the trilogy in detail and from various angles, I would like to point out that the “saga” of the multicoloured pills is, first and foremost, a matter of choice, or rather, a question of freedom of choice, as well as a certain symbol or, if you will, a rite of initiation, after which there is no turning back for Neo, and he understands this perfectly well.
Something similar can be observed in the film “Total Recall” with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was also offered a pill in one of the episodes as a symbol of exiting the artificial reality and returning to real life. Choose the blue pill — and you will immediately wake up in your bed, living your usual, monotonous life (the life of a “battery”) and will never know about the existence of another reality, never unlocking your true potential.
If you choose the red one, you will enter the “wonderland”: all doors will open before you, and you will discover how deep the rabbit hole goes… The red pill is a confirmation of Neo’s serious intentions, that he is ready to go all the way and learn the whole truth about the surrounding reality and about himself. To find out how deep the abyss is and what will happen when he reaches the bottom… if the bottom exists in principle.
As I mentioned before, in our lives we are constantly making one choice or another. Starting from which shirt to wear and ending with the choice of profession, life partner, or the only correct course of action in an extreme situation. The difference between these two choices lies in the awareness of the consequences and the level of responsibility we take on by preferring one option over the other. If we wear a shirt that is not the color or size we wanted, nothing terrible will happen. If we choose the wrong profession or type of activity that we don’t truly want to engage in (and this happens all the time), then at the very least, we will waste years, if not decades, of our lives. And at most, we will be unhappy because we did not fully realize our potential. Not to mention extreme situations where a decision made in seconds can sometimes determine a human life.
In other words, the outcome depends on the significance of the choice, and the higher its importance and the greater the responsibility, the more difficult it is to make.
Honestly, I would probably think a thousand and one times and weigh everything before taking some unknown pills from the hands of a stranger (whom I see for the first time in my life). Even if this person had earned my trust at our first meeting. What if he plans to poison me or take advantage of my unconscious state for some unclear, only he knows what, purposes?
However, Neo does not dwell on such matters and eagerly seizes his chance to enter the “wonderland,” making the most of the choice given to him. In his case, curiosity (and perhaps knowledge combined with intuition) plus a love for experimentation take precedence, and the future Chosen One takes a small tactical step, but a very giant leap in terms of consequences not only for himself but for all of humanity. Those who take risks may ultimately lose, but those who don’t take risks will definitely never win. In any case, Neo has already lifted his foot over the abyss and shifted his body weight forward, so it’s too late to retreat…
It is also interesting to analyze the moment of why these capsules or pills are exactly these colours: red and blue? In my opinion, here we once again encounter a technique that the directors of “The Matrix” use almost everywhere in their film: namely, they skilfully manipulate various psychological stereotypes of humans, deftly and very professionally inserting them into the context.
Judge for yourself: people in real life tend to translate everything into duality: black-white, boy-girl, dawn-dusk, big-small, cold-hot, etc., thus setting themselves certain artificial limitations within which they exist. They forget that the truth, as a rule, lies beyond duality. True freedom is also somewhere out there. One of the main oppositions of human civilization is the struggle between the dark and the light, good and evil, constructive and destructive, spiritual and destructive forces.
By the way, about cold and hot. Cold water, which flows from our taps, is marked in blue. Hot water, accordingly, is marked in red. Blue is the color of stagnation, freezing, the absence of any movement, a stable movement from point “A” to point “B” without any events or adventures. Such stability can be observed, for example, in a swamp, in the vacuum of space, or in a cemetery.
In turn, the red spectrum (and colours similar to it: yellow, orange, bright cherry, etc.) is the complete opposite of stagnation. Red is the colour of adventure, dynamism, development, new thoughts and emotions, danger and risk (as we have already discussed), aggression, both with a positive and a negative “charge.” The blue colour symbolizes complete submission to circumstances and the current world view created by others, while red is a symbol of dissent, rebellion, and resistance to the System.
The episode with the red and blue pills can also be seen as a kind of test: Morpheus’s last hope that Neo is indeed the one he needs. The ultimate test for Morpheus, whether he made the right decision by betting on Keanu Reeves’ character and discarding all other options. A test for Neo, will he be ready to go much further than he usually does in his ordinary reality? Well, and finally, a test for all of us, the outside observers: are we ready to follow the heroes of the film into the realm of the unknown and incomprehensible, limited only by the imagination of the directors and creators of the film.
If Mr. Anderson had chosen the blue pill, it would have meant the complete collapse of all the hopes of the “forces of light,” and the triumph of the Matrix’s extensive agency network would have known no bounds. But we all know well that in fairy tales, as well as in most Hollywood blockbusters, good always triumphs over evil, so there could be no other scenario here by definition.
However, the main charm, the “cherry on top” of the Matrix trilogy, lies not so much in its innovation, extraordinary storyline, and undeniable cultural value of this masterpiece of world cinema. The main value of “The Matrix” lies in the very idea that underpins everything, and without which, to be honest, the birth of my book would also have been impossible: at best, the book would have had a completely different appearance and contained a radically different message on its pages.
I repeat, it was the very concept of the Matrix (in the global sense of the word), reinforced by yet another viewing of the Wachowski brothers’ trilogy, that sparked my personal epiphany, after which the idea of writing this book was born.
It is precisely thanks to this author (and I hope to all of you as well) that a new, wonderful world has opened up, and having come to know it, one no longer wishes to return to the Land of Ignorance. Only one thought flickers in the mind: what lies beyond the horizon, what view and perspective will be revealed to the “awakened” one who has crossed the threshold of the System. How and according to what laws should one build his life further in the new realities? And finally, what are the main advantages that will open up for a person who has stepped beyond the Matrix and has not looked back even once? This is roughly what the third and final part will be about.
The Book of Your Life
“Stepping outside the System is not an open, destructive war. It is the creation of an underground, far-reaching network of free people united by a single noble goal.”