The Gnostic Illusion: Problematic Realized Eschatology in The Matrix Reloaded

Abstract

While a Gnostic interpretation of The Matrix illuminates that film’s presentation of enlightenment and salvation, the sequel The Matrix Reloaded takes the inadequacy of the Gnostic worldview as one of its themes. The community of the enlightened is revealed to be in the thrall of dangerous illusions, and its saviour, who is effective only within the unreal world, lends paradoxical gravity to the discredited realm. The Zion community represents the failure of a realized eschatology to recognize binding relationships of dependence and to steer a sustainable middle way between the mental and the physical.