Religion in the Movie "The Matrix"

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Religion in The Matrix
Summary
In Morpheus’ words to Neo on his arrival to his complex, he tells him that:
“You are here because you know something, what you know you cannot explain, but you can feel it. You felt it your entire life, but there is something wrong with the world. You do not know what it is, but it is there like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I am talking about?”
This statement sets the precedent for the entire film, The Matrix. Having been produced in 1999, it is fair to say that it was the greatest movie to cap the 20th Century considering that the call it gives humanity to stop being slaves to the system to opt to become the best version of themselves. Nonetheless, a summary of the entire film would come in handy with subsequent deductions being made on the relationship between the movie’s major message of seeking self-awareness and enlightenment relative to today’s religions with a precise focus on Buddhism and Christianity.
The major character in the movie is Keanu Reeves who lives a double life; in the day he is a software programmer at a major company and goes by the name Thomas Anderson while in the night, he is a hacker referred to as Neo. For the past two years, Neo has been in search of Morpheus and even for the longest time possible, he has been keen to decode the matrix. Trinity, who works under Morpheus is sent to warn Neo of an incoming threat to his life and if he wants to know the matrix, he has followed her to Morpheus’ place. Morpheus then offers him the choice of two pills. Taking the red pill implies that Neo has the chance to understand the delusions society has been fed over the years while taking the blue pill means that he is fine to continue with the slavery that arising from the prevailing systems in society. Neo takes the red pill and says he want to know the matrix. He is awakened from the dream and submerged in a jelly-filled pod. His emergence from the pod insinuates a re-birth. When he is lifted from the pod using a hovercraft, he meets Morpheus, Trinity, and the rest of the team on the ship.
He is informed that the year is 2199 and the development of artificial intelligence in the 21st century has led to the emergence of a war between humans and computers where the latter has won. Most people have been plugged in the matrix and their ignorance has elevated their docility. On the other hand, the rebels have been freed from the matrix and ignorance thereof. Nonetheless, the matrix has deadly programs referred to as agents whose primary role is to hunt the rebels and none of the rebels have survived their attack. However, their insidious nature reveals that their mission is to go beyond decimating rebels and destroying the world. This evidence is apparent when Agent Smith captures Morpheus and in his narration compares human beings to a virus. In the process of saving Morpheus, Neo is captured and shot to death. Miraculously, he rises from death and that is when Morpheus is convinced that he is the One. The Oracle had prophesied the reincarnation of the “man who had the power to change the program, to remake it as he saw it fit, and it was he who freed the first of the rebels” (Sanders 208). Neo had proved beyond doubt that he was the one.
One of the most prevalent themes in this movie is that of human beings taking on the path of reaching their transcendental self with more related settings being apparent in Buddhism and Christianity. Pursuing the path, which is more of being interested in the process rather than the outcome, acquaints one to the challenges and manner of overcoming them. Holiday (2014) comes forth representing this entire scenario as the obstacle and it is in this impediment that human beings will realize that it is also the way. In the quest to illustrate this form, The Matrix, Buddhism, and Christianity illustrate the individua...