Animals in The Matrix
A few years back, in anticipation of The Matrix Resurrections, I returned to the original three films in the science-fiction series. The first, which burst on the scene in 1999, is obviously the best. However, the second and third, which were released in 2003, have enjoyed a more positive appraisal in recent years. I have a soft spot for these, as I was too young to have seen the first in theaters.
During the rewatch, I was surprised by the limited screen time Anthony Wong and Jada Pinkett Smith have as Ghost and Niobe. I realized this was because Enter the Matrix, a 2003 video game starring the pair, had been a significant part of my fandom. The title earned mixed reviews but boasts an hour of exclusive, live-action footage. It’s too bad there doesn’t seem to be an easy means of playing the game now.
Rewatching the films, I also found myself wondering where the animals were. For those who don’t remember, in the franchise written and directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, the modern world is a computer simulation. Artificial intelligence has enslaved humanity, essentially using them as a battery source. What happened to the Earth’s nonhuman inhabitants after this battle between man and machine?
According to the Wachowskis, who answered the question in a 1999 chat transcript, which was posted to the Warner Bros. website, all the animals in the virtual world were simulations. This was confirmed by Phil Oosterhoose in The Art of the Matrix book. “A lot of people have asked if the animals in the Matrix are hooked up in pods,” he said. “Unfortunately, they are not. They’re all computer-generated images.”
However, this opens a bit of a plot hole. Why were humans suitable to be batteries, but not cows or chimpanzees? As an animal activist who is interested in the ways we distinguish ourselves from our fellow creatures, I was curious. Regrettably, after a good deal of online sleuthing, I couldn’t find a definitive answer to the question. I did, however, develop a theory.
In the 1999 film, Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne, explains: “The human body generates more bio electricity than a 120 volt battery and over 25000 BTUs of body heat. Combined with a form of fusion the machines had found all the energy they would ever need.” The problem here is presumably any large mammal could produce a similar amount of body heat as a human, if not more.
As it turns out, there is a widespread belief in The Matrix fandom that earlier drafts of the Wachowski’s script had the machines harvesting humans’ mental energy, but this was nixed as overly-complicated by studio executives. While I’ve found no evidence to back up this belief, it makes a certain amount of sense. At least, it makes more sense than the machines utilizing humans’ body heat.
Of course, it would be wrong to suggest animals don’t think. Even by anthropocentric standards of intelligence, most creatures are much smarter than we give them credit for. However, acknowledging unique human traits doesn’t undermine an animal-liberationist perspective. Animal liberationists just don’t view the lack of these traits as justification for violence and exploitation.
As the famous Jeremy Bentham quote goes: “The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" So perhaps, in The Matrix films, there is something unique or more fully developed in the human mind that powers the machines. This could explain the absence of animals from the virtual world. Maybe they make less efficient batteries.