Between Trauma and Tragedy

Abstract

This chapter evaluates the Matrix Trilogy and V for Vendetta, analyzing the incapacity to compose a credible and coherent narrative about revolutionary change based on the idea of a political helplessness believing that there is no alternative to liberal capitalism. The first film in the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix, treats the individual’s liberation from an oppressive system, while the sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, elucidates and overcomes the predicament in which radical politics finds itself caught in the present age. The final film, The Matrix Revolutions, affirms the liberal individualistic ethic of free choice and thus a politics based on contracts. V for Vendetta, however, sparked much debate about concerns such as the ethics of resistance against the existing sociopolitical order, the dangers of an increasing fascism, terrorist violence as an instrument of revolution, the miraculous character of revolutionary upheaval, and the multitude as the agent of extensive political change.