The Matrix Resurrections

I honestly can't tell if I'm really smart or really stupid about The Matrix Resurrections. The trailer dropped Thursday and I've seen it at least 10 times by now. I'm surprised that I have figured things out so easily (which means I'm probably dead wrong) but there are a lot of things to cover, so I'm going to just dive right in. 

1. Why are some characters being played by the original actors but not others?

There's a two-fold answer to this one that makes a lot of sense. One has to do with time, and the other has to do with the world that The Matrix built initially. In the actual world, both Laurence Fishburne and Hugo Weaving are now 60. They also had a hard time getting into Wu Ping shape to start with--I mean, they did it, but I think injuries would make either one a poor choice to reintegrate into this world. Meanwhile, Keanu has been doing more action-oriented things than the others, keeping in Wu Ping shape, honestly, by working continuously with Chad Stahelski for the last 7 years. In other words: Keanu's still in fighting shape and Fishburne and Weaving probably aren't. 

The second part has to do with the world that's been set up by the Wachowskis. In the first movie, we're shown the fields where "babies are not born, they are grown". This assumes that: the machines have a lot of genetic material to deal with, and it would make a lot of sense to use the same material over and over if it produces good crops, like using the best seeds. There's no reason they haven't found a way to replicate it. 

In other words: everyone in the Matrix probably has several clones at various stages of development. The way to make sure they don't run into each other is to spread them out within the Matrix itself. 

They've all been there before. 

If this is true, then the previous versions of the One may in fact have been versions of Neo--not just other people with the code, but that actual DNA. He's been suitably designed for this because the program required his existence, and he was chosen. Why not recycle to make things easier? Waste not, want not. 

(For those of you who question why the previous versions of Neo were more focused on humanity as a whole to save as opposed to being more attached specifically to Trinity, perhaps Trinity and Neo were never in proximity before, or maybe the Architect killed her early in the other iterations to ensure that the One would reboot the system properly.) 

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was chosen as a younger version of Morpheus, and it's pretty good casting. Jonathan Groff is almost certainly playing an upgraded, rebooted, reintegrated Agent Smith. 

2. Sati, Oracle, or Yes?

We have quite a number of new faces that are portrayed by women, so I have to ask the question: does the Oracle have a new face (almost certainly), and where is Sati? For those of you who don't remember, she was the child in The Matrix Revolutions that was created by two other programs. She was also able to control aspects of the Matrix and was a favorite of the Oracle. Many are assuming that Priyanka Chopra-Jonas is playing the Oracle...but I wonder if she's playing Sati. Or have Sati and the Oracle integrated into one program?

3. Memory is a tricky thing

If I'm right about the Neos being clones, this begs the question: why does this Neo appear to be more powerful than previous iteration? I posit that, just as interacting with the extra code by Neo going "inside" Agent Smith at the end of the original movie gave Agent Smith expanded abilities, "our" Neo's ability to trod the untaken path unwittingly changed the code that is somehow embedded inside him, and when this code gets attached to the newer version, it has some (or all) of that Neo's knowledge embedded inside the code. All this version has to do is unlock the memories. 

4. When are we?

This question would answer a lot of the others that are bandied about the Internet at the moment, such as "What about the truce that Neo's death brokered?" We don't know how long it's been--it's possible that it is the same time differential that it's been for us (22 years since the original). It could be 150 years. We don't know. I believe that Neo's existence is essential for the programs to operate properly...something the Architect didn't count on. 

5. Niobe 

This is the biggest question I have: where's Jada? We didn't see her in the trailer. 

I'm sure it's going to be terrific. I remember the scuttlebutt about why the latter two-thirds of the original trilogy was not as good as the first (original, still the best, and still my favorite movie of all time), and I remember hearing that originally, the Wachowskis had written the trilogy...and The Matrix was the second movie in it. So they had to drag out the material in the third into two very long parts. 

I can only hope that this is as good as we need it to be in this crazy time. Lana, girl, come through for us. 

The High Hiler Holy Day

Today is the High Hiler Holy Day. It is Memorial Day Sunday. 

It is the first Memorial Day Sunday that I have lived without my father. 

This. SUCKS. 

For those of you who don't know, the High Hiler Holy Day is so named because it is the annual running of the Indianapolis 500. I normally did not go to church on the High Hiler Holy Day. No, this is a day of deep celebration of my father's passion, open-wheel auto racing. 

In the good old days (read: the 80s), when they started airing it on television live instead of the time delay, this was the day that nobody had a diet. Our standard foods were: Terrell's Potato Chips, Terrell's Pretzel Sticks (the thin ones), Heluva Good French Onion Dip, cold cuts, cheese. There were variants, but that was the basic menu. 

There was also the obligatory nap. 

In the days B.P. (Before Prozac), this was one of two days a year that I could count on hearing "I love you, Kathryn" from my father. (The other was either Christmas or my birthday, which are 8 days apart. If I didn't hear it on the first one, I'd hear it on the second and vice-versa). My father, who didn't cry, would always choke up at Mary Hulman tottering out to say, "Gentlemen, start your engines." It was his "I coulda been a contender" moment. My father loved auto racing, and he was passionate about open-wheel specifically. He got very angry with the CART split, with USAC pushing the owners to create CART in the first place, about the mismanagement he saw even as Tony George (Chairman of the Board for the Speedway, grandson of Tony Hulman, the man who put the Indy 500 on the map) brought NASCAR to the Brickyard. 

Well, today would have been a helluva day for my father. 

I turned on the pre-race festivities, because of course I did. I hate that we don't have Jim Nabors singing "Back Home Again in Indiana". There are days that I think we should just have him on recording in perpetuity. I do not know the classical tenor who sang it today. It was absolutely note-perfect. Tone was gorgeous. And it doesn't measure up to memory. 

Then, the NBC (also, NBC!?! Apparently Disney sold away the rights and NBCUni/Comcast grabbed them) announcer team said, "And now, for the most famous words in auto racing...Roger Penske."

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Some background here. Roger Penske (a billionaire) is a team owner who runs normally three drivers in the IndyCar series yearly. He also runs a three-car team over in NASCAR. He was once a respected driver, but was more slick than gritty, in Dad's words. He never raced the Indy500 (proof, my father would say, that he wasn't truly a great driver). He also apparently bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from the Hulman-George family 18 months ago. We just didn't know because of the postponement of the race last year due to Covid. 

My father hated Roger Penske. I mean, deeeeeeeeeeeeeep loathing. He respected Penske, in particular his business acumen, but he hated the fact that Penske made racing far more about who had the best equipment. My father believed that, essentially, the cars should be an even playing field and the sport should be about the best driver. While it's true that the best drivers can take middling equipment and win (Hello, Michael Schumacher. Hello, Ayrton Senna.), that axiom has held less since our technological age melded with computers...you know, what my father did for a living. 

My father hated that Rick Mears and Al Unser (Sr.) both won their fourth Indy 500s driving for Penske, and is probably arguing with someone right now about the fact that A.J. Foyt will forever remain the best driver this country has ever produced. Foyt won with inferior equipment all the time until Penske began changing the name of the game. But even Foyt couldn't compete with what Penske can afford in this day and age. 

In order to compete with Penske in truly inferior equipment, you would have to be one of the two Great Ones of Open-Wheel Auto Racing (modern era), greeted above. I'm still praying for Schumi. 

So to see Roger Penske, kind of my father's personal Antichrist of Auto Racing, saying the words that brought my father to tears in the BP days? Yeah, that kind of blew my mind. 

The race itself? It was a fairly good race. It was a very safe race. And it resulted in another man getting into that inner circle of four-time winners. My father would have liked to see Helio Castroneves win his fourth Indy 500 not driving for Penske, as he had for his first three. 

But I watched it solo. 

I will probably watch the Indy 500 for the remainder of my days, and miss my father poignantly on those Memorial Day Sundays. 

I love you too, Dad. 

Why You Should Watch Babylon 5

I'm not going to belabor this. 

Those of you reading this, some of you may not like Science Fiction and you may not like the effects. At this moment I really don't care. Because in another rewatch of Babylon 5, I am bowled over by how prescient this little show that could was. To be honest, you don't even need to watch past Season 3 (although given how Season 3 ends, I'm pretty sure you're going to if you've invested at that point). 

It's as good a reflection of the problems facing America today as anything I've seen, and it was written more than 25 years ago. 

Yes, it's a slow start. Yes, Michael O'Hare sometimes comes across as wooden. Yes, Bruce Boxleitner might as well have "I am a Boy Scout" stenciled on his forehead. But the overarching storyline is terrifying in just how accurately J. Michael Straczynski (hereafter JMS) portrayed the human condition and how fear can twist us. 

Before you launch into a "your fave is problematic" diatribe...I know that JMS is problematic. Hell, he knows he's problematic. That does nothing to negate the fact that this work of his is the best thing he'll ever do and contains a story that does what Shakespeare did: highlight who we are as people. 

Warts and all. Maybe especially the warts. 

We can all sit around and hope for Gene Roddenberry's vision a better future (for those of you who don't know, Roddenberry=Mr. Star Trek) where we follow the better angels of our nature, but for the pragmatists among us, Straczynski has you covered. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" might also be one of JMS' mottos. 

I can pontificate about this for a long, long time. But I'll just say this: it's on HBO Max, and it's worth your time. 

PS: RIP Mira Furlan, a better actress than we deserved, and a life needlessly shortened by a disease we should have found a way to cure by now (West Nile Virus).