As you can see, we’ve had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you’ve been living two lives. In one life, you’re Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a Social Security number, you pay your taxes, and… you help your landlady carry out the garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo, and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not. I’m going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Anderson. You’re here because we need your help. We know that you’ve been contacted by a certain individual: A man who calls himself Morpheus. Now, whatever you think you know about this man is irrelevant. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous man alive. My colleagues believe that I’m wasting my time with you, but I believe you wish to do the right thing. We’re willing to wipe the slate clean. Give you a fresh start. And all that we’re asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (smirking) Look, I’m not saying Keanu’s a bad actor. But come on — the idea that a functioning illiterate can be the One? He can’t even read the fucking manual. How’s he gonna crack a secret Masonic cipher or jiggle through government mainframes if he can’t read a line of code?
Morpheus: (calm) The Matrix is written in a language of perception, not paragraphs. Reading code is one thing; seeing the pattern behind it is another.
Cypher: (snorts) Cute. So now “seeing patterns” replaces years of training, typing, debugging? You’re telling me a guy who supposedly “can’t read” is going to reverse-engineer centuries of encrypted systems by intuition and vibes?
Morpheus: (tilting his head) Neo does not learn to bend the Matrix because he memorizes commands. He bends it because he understands—instinctively—what is real and what is projection. That understanding is not literacy; it’s comprehension on a different level.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (arms folded) That’s just mystical fluff. People like neat evidence. Show me him with a terminal, fingers flying, black screen reflecting in his sunglasses. Otherwise it’s theater.
Morpheus: (soft smile) You ask for a show and mistake the show for the power. Neo’s fingers on a keyboard are incidental; his choice, his willingness to accept the rules and then not obey them — that is what makes the impossible possible. You want proof? Watch him disconnect. Watch him choose.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (leans in) So you admit it’s about choice. Fair. But choice doesn’t decrypt things. Choice doesn’t know the syntax of a backdoor exploit.
Morpheus: Choice rewrites the syntax. A backdoor is only a door because someone believes the wall exists. Neo doesn’t need to know the exploit; he needs only to understand that the exploit is a belief that can be unmade.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (rubs his temple) Or he could just, I don’t know, read a manual like the rest of us.
Morpheus: (eyes steady) Manuals teach how to operate the Machine. They cannot teach you how to transcend it. Keanu — Neo — is not convincing you because he reads English better than you. He convinces you because he shows what happens when a person stops being limited by assumptions. That, Joey, scares you.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (a slow grin) Scares me? Nah. I prefer my fears rational and verifiable. Mysticism has terrible customer support.
Morpheus: (laughs once) Then perhaps the Matrix will put you on hold until you accept music from outside their playlist.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (shrugs) Fine. Let him be the hero on the silver screen. But when it comes to real hacking? I’ll take credentials and caffeine over prophecy and a red coat.
Morpheus: (turns to the window, looking out at the falling code) Credentials and caffeine can open known doors. Neo opens doors we did not even know were built. That is why he is the One — not because of how he reads, but because of what he sees.
Cypher / Joey Pants: (muttering as he walks away) I’ll see it when he uploads the patch notes.
Morpheus: (quiet) He already did. You just refuse to download them.
End scene — the argument unresolved, the green rain continuing to fall.
