Tools of Characterization
Characterization in The Matrix
Actions
People always say it's what we do that defines us, and that's as true as ever in The Matrix. It's easy to tell what someone's like by looking at what they do because, well, what they do is a large part of how we define what they're like.
Cypher betrays Morpheus and everyone else so he can forget the real world and live in the Matrix. Cypher is selfish, scared, and uncaring. Trinity goes back in the Matrix with Neo to save Morpheus. Trinity is brave, loyal, and willing to risk her life for others.
We could go on… but you get the point. It's just not very interesting. So instead, let's take a look at some of the subtleties that give us hints of character.
Cypher is a great example of subtle characterization through action because it's not always clear he's a bad guy. For a while it appears that he is just another member of the team. But we get a couple clues like when everyone is watching Morpheus and Neo training inside the construct.
On the one hand, you have Mouse. We can see Mouse getting really into the action. He biting his lip and throwing punches right alongside Neo, because he is impressed by Neo's ability to bend the rules of the program. Mouse is a believer, innocent and hopeful. He's rooting for Neo not just to beat Morpheus, but also to be The One.
Then we have Cypher, who's also watching passively enough. When Neo fails the jump he says:
CYPHER: Everyone fails the first time.
But then adds:
CYPHER: Right Trinity?
Trinity, of course, has already walked away disappointed. Like Mouse, she is hopeful that Morpheus is right and that they have found their savior.
Cypher's comment is a jibe at Trinity because of Neo's failure. Sure, everyone misses his or her first jump, but everyone up to this point hasn't included "The One."
Cypher's disbelief, or at least his unwillingness to believe, is also observable when he talks to Neo when Neo can't sleep. Again, there's nothing overt about Cypher's true character here. He sympathizes with Neo about how nuts it is that people think he's some kind of hero sent to deliver them, and he advises Neo to run if he sees an agent.
In context it sounds perfectly normal, just Cypher being Cypher. But looking back and knowing more about Cypher's character, we can see all these small actions at hints to his true thoughts. Cypher can't believe in The One; he doesn't want to. If Neo is The One then everything Cypher's doing is horribly wrong. Well, it kind of is anyway…but that's Cypher for you.
Clothing
Remember meeting Morpheus for the first time? Of course you do, how could you not?! He's dressed in a slick leather trench coat and uber-reflective shades. He looks like a boss. Or a god?
Before they enter the room Trinity tells Neo to be honest because:
TRINITY: He knows more than you can imagine.
As if he were some kind of omniscient being. By the end of the movie it's easy to forget this. We're used to the real world Morpheus who looks so different. Seeing him leaning over Neo for the first time is strange. In his normal clothes it's almost as if he's a totally different person. Or maybe this is the first time we see him as a person at all: the man behind the shades.
Neo's clothing, on the other hand, moves his character in the opposite direction. He goes from a normally dressed hacker/programmer to the same shaded trench coat get up that Morpheus wears in the Matrix. These clothes distinguish them as people of power when they're inside the Matrix, and also to the eyes of the viewer.
If Neo were to re-enter the Matrix without being trained, he would not have been able to wear those clothes. It wouldn't have looked right. But once he masters Matrix manipulation, he earns the privilege of slick don't-mess-with-me attire.
Names
Well, you may have noticed that people in The Matrix have some pretty strange names. It's not every day you meet a guy named Agent, last name Smith. So, let's start out with some minor characters, shall we?
The Gang
First up we have Mouse. He is energetic and wiry and talks fast. He is always excited and is innocent. So he's like a Mouse. Simple enough.
So how about Tank and Dozer? They are burly men and tanks and bulldozers are large, heavy-duty type vehicles, but it gets a little more interesting. Think about their role in the Matrix. Tank is an operator and Dozer drives and dishes out the gruel. Compare them to people like Trinity, Neo, Apoc, Switch, and Morpheus. In the real world, we'd take Tank and Dozer in a fight any day, but they aren't the ones kicking butt in the virtual world. Their names seem to be a reminder that the Matrix has nothing to do with one's physical strength—the largest members are left with the more technical jobs.
Next on the list: Switch. Her name is particularly interesting because it doesn't seem to have any particular meaning in the movie. Of course, looking at all the other names (like we're doing) this should be pretty surprising because every name seems to have a carefully crafted purpose. With Switch, however, that purpose has since faded. Switch was originally intended to switch genders when entering the Matrix.
In the real world she was a male but her residual self-image in the Matrix was female. However, for whatever reason (maybe things were already complicated enough...or maybe they didn't want to pay two actors), Switch's role was homogenized. This is especially interesting given both Wachowskis, years after the movie's release, have made public their transsexuality and both now identify as female (they went by Larry and Andy during their time working on The Matrix, but now go by Lana and Lilly).
Apoc's name is a bit more obscured. It's probably taken from the word apocalypse, the biblical notion of an event that will start the end times. There may not be much evidence to support this idea as Apoc plays a minimal role in the movie, but in the original script Neo asks Apoc if he wrote the Four Horsemen virus. The Four Horsemen, typically thought of as representing Death, War, Pestilence, and Famine, are biblical harbingers of end times and will ride during the Apocalypse. We never find out what the Four Horsemen virus does, but it sounds even nastier than that other horse virus.
The Oracle. She's an Oracle. Well...close enough anyway.
The Big Bad
Agent Smith doesn't have the most interesting name, but maybe that's the point. He's sort of a bland, generic program built for a single purpose, to keep order and control inside the Matrix. We could talk a bit more about it but you'll just have to watch the second two movies for yourself.
Our Heroes
Trinity's name is a reference to the holy trinity: the father, son, and Holy Spirit. If Morpheus is the all-knowing father and Neo is the son (mankind's savior) that makes Trinity the Holy Spirit, the one who lives inside of us when we believe in God, who is really just one, not three, but is also three, not one... you know, the whole thing's kinda confusing, so we'll leave the explaining to Dozer and fellow theologians. At any rate, Trinity is an allusion to the Christian trinity.
Then we have good ol' Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. In Greek mythology, Morpheus could appear in any form, usually a human one, in peoples' dreams as a messenger from the gods. In The Matrix Morpheus also appears to people as if out of a dream. Morpheus seems to be a myth of a man, an enigma too great to be real… when in reality, it is the world itself that is not real. The Matrix is a very literal dream world and Morpheus visits it bringing messages of truth to those trapped inside.
The Opposites
Finally, let's talk about the most interesting names, Neo and Cypher. Okay, so Neo is The One and Neo is an anagram for the word "one." He is The One because there is only one The One. He is chosen, special. He is the one that matters most to the fate of humanity.
Cypher is a homophone of cipher, which is a kind of code, a way to encrypt something, like the Matrix. And it's Cypher's job to read the code and understand it. But Cypher's name is much more than that. Cipher is also an archaic word meaning "zero". So Cypher is the antithesis of the one; he is Neo's opposite. Neo will try to save mankind while Cypher tries to destroy it.
Hmm, but this talk of ones and zeros reminds us of something else: binary. Computer code is created through the use of only two numbers, one and zero, and transistors only have two positions, on and off.
Neo and Cypher may be opposites, but the Matrix is all about opposites and binary decisions (see Themes). Really, we can't have one without the other. What would "1" be without a counterpart with which to distinguish it? A computer code made solely of ones would be impossible.
If Cypher had never betrayed Morpheus, maybe Neo would have never realized his true identity (or, in a less deterministic way to think about it, maybe Neo would have never had ample opportunity to rise to the occasion and take on this identity). They are both an integral part of the system, working against each other not in a counterproductive way, but in a productive one.