The Matrix, while an utterly nihilistic movie, is
not a movie endorsing the most extreme end of nihilism. Rather, it borrows heavily from
the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, who also, it seems, could not live with pure
"nothingness," but had to posit something in its place, i.e., the
"ubermensch" or "superman" (more literally "overman"). Neo
is the ubermensch, "the One" who will bring about the next stage of human
evolution (in the most base interpretation of Nietzsche) or transcend the boundaries of
known mankind. Nietzsche (in Thus Spoke Zarathustra) tells of the "lastman," a
lowly, base, non-excellent, self-satisfied, herd animalistic hominid. Nietzsche could see
such a creature developing in all industrialized nations in the political form of
radically egalitarian, leveled democracy.
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