The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions: Cephalopod Robots and the Nature of Truth

This chapter highlights both movies that finished the original trilogy, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. Despite the slow and paradoxically action driven nature of the two movies, there are points that reinforce the themes of the Matrix: the multiplicity of Agent Smith speaks to ideas of autonomy and identity; we find two male/female archetypal pairs in the Merovingian and Persephone, and in the Oracle and the Architect; and we get a deeper look at the Sentinels. Nicknamed “squiddies,” the sentinels are search and destroy machines which eliminate rogue human life, that is, life that exists outside the dreamworld confines of the Matrix. They attack ships like the one run by Morpheus, and in Reloaded and Revolutions they are traveling en masse to make an attempt to destroy Zion, the large human city hidden deep within the earth’s crust. This chapter will contrast the squiddies with how modern robotic technology adapts cephalopod bodies and behaviors to create softer, stronger, more flexible robots and medical assistive devices, including prosthetics.