Matrix, She re-wrote
An new appreciation of the film Stranger Than Fiction
Copyright (C) 2011
There is a glitch in your copy of the The Matrix final series (1999, 2003, Director: Andy and Lana Wachowski). The Machine City can't shutdown: there are hidden programs on the run. And there is an update available: Stranger Than Fiction (2006).
What happens to the characters that are killed off when a movie series finishes? What's next for them? Watching Stranger Than Fiction (2006) (Director: Marc Forster) gave me the strangest impression I was coming home again to the next generation of the ones that didn't get to ride off into the sunset. In High School we were once asked to write what happened to Raskolnkov and Sonia after the events in Crime and Punishment. For me, watching Stranger than Fiction was like a delicious glimse into the new lives and identities of Mr. Smith and the Oracle after the events in the Matrix series. Does the Machine City have a witness relocation program? Were their deaths taken off screen? Where are they now and how are they adjusting to private civilian life?
Taken at face value, Stranger than Fiction is a difficult film to appreciate. So much information is missing that its nearly impossible to comprehend where its coming from and where its going. You know what its like to arrive late to a party. You can feel the lack of emotional investment when you start a series near the end. Now imagine that you open a book to find only the Afterward, with no beginning, middle or end.
There a glitch in The Matrix, series. A continuity error big enough to demand a new ending. There's a possibility it might not have been the end. The Matrix, as a series of Matrices, could still be in development by some former insiders. There's a fan base that refuses to fully wake up, still waiting and dreaming at the possibility of some convert renewal. There are some loose agents that could be working and not all copies of the source material were accounted for.
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The Matrix, as it appeared in its 1999 version, was a perfect beginning that both changed everything and nothing. It was setup for renewal. It didn't need to tell us how it was going to end. It ran full out and left nothing behind. Nothing was shown that wasn't used. Nothing was left to chance. The piece was an end in itself. The narrative lived like there was no tomorrow. The Matrix, as it appeared in its 1999 version, was timeless, having its own good time. Change at that time was simple: a zero went to the One. There was only The Matrix and there was only one audience and there were only three kinds of minds: those that were seeing it first, those that were seeing it again and again, and those that were born after and never got the chance. In the 1999 Matrix it never got old.
The successor films, by their very production, both introduced and dealt with the realities of change and progression and aging and replacement and living in, out and along-side the Matrix. The audience and players of the successor Matrix after the One were more sophisticated, having histories and prior lives and new roles and parts. The Matrix successors introduced and encountered Divergence from the One Matrix, allowing for mistakes and errancy and fallibility and personal flawed motivation and self-centered agendas. The Matrix became multiple personality,and multi-time-zone, a more interesting, complex but less tidy universe.
Just as the Matrix film series was revealed to be playing out over time, the production, development, logistics and practical demands necessarily introduced delays and latencies: it had to become apparent that nothing worthwhile happens overnight. As the Matrix neared its end, the Matrix and its audience had to wait, and the narrative begin to show the device of 'the wait'; that waiting and passing the time were a part of practical life when one knew that something better was coming.
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The truth that real life intrudes, that people have other lives when their off-camera, that life goes on, that things change in ways unexpected while we're living our own, that people and events become synchornized and unsynchronized and coupled and uncoupled in the background to our story: this is the spark that enlivens a new consciousness.
In the film Stranger Than Fiction, a writer struggling to finish her new-life-story, begins to perceive connections, correspondences, coincidences, feedback and ultimately creative cross self pollination between her working and her work, between the life she is living and the life vicariously lived. As the writer convergences on her masterpiece, the masterpiece begins to draw inspiration from her world, and her world begins to resemble her masterpeice. The truth is that things don't always work out the way we planned and expected. The fiction is the one that we alone create.
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Which brings us to the strangeness we encounter when we watch Stranger Than Fiction, and the glitch in the Matrix series which necessitated it. As we have said, there is a difficulty embracing Stranger Than Fiction at first because it is pure afterward and epilog. It is appropriate that, just as the The Matrix of 1999 is pure beginning (once upon a time), Stranger Than Fiction is pure home stretch material (and they all lived ever after): the satisfying tidy-up of the loose ends where the unjustly treated plot devices get to come in from the cold. The glitch in the Matrix, series, is that practical expediencies in the making of the series forced premature bad ends on good characters of good name and potential without any recompense. Stranger than Fiction exists as a compensating forward story to undo and properly credit and close out the fore-ordained destinies of Matrix characters which were allowed to be cheated and robbed as a plot emergency.
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There is a kind of story-telling that occurs once in a generation, and is so mythic and inventive and self-productive that it forms a perfect perpetual entertainment machine. Once in a generation a story-teller will hit upon a complete story universe that captures the minds of modern culture, that is so rich with potential that it demands successor episodes and practically sells itself. The creative mind behind the francise puts themselves in conflict. On the one hand, universe building is hard work and should an author happen on the right combmination of persons, places and things, its a creative and monetary goldmine to play out enough sequels and episodes to secure long term syndication package. On the other hand, true story tellers play fair with their audience: they don't leave out parts of the story on purpose, they don't add filler material not part of the original story, they don't unnecessarily prolong or elaborate a period of the story just to stall for time; honest story tellers actually have a story to tell, with a beginning, middle and end, and go about taking the audience through it. It is within this contract of the audience buying a epic series that spans time and space, that various difficulties can arise within the fulfillment of that creative vision that lead to a fan fiction.
Consider, for example, Star Trek the original series. Billed at the start of every episode as a five year mission, the series was cancelled prematurely after three seasons. This unfulfilled promise, this unexplored potential, this unfair treatment of money over creativity, this untimely death, creates within the audience a space of controversy and grievance and grist and what-might-have-been, which prevents the series from being canonized and creatively closed and allowing everyone to move on. This unexplored mental space in the minds of a generation has prolonged the topicality of the Star Trek universe way beyond what is typical for a series that runs its course. When a creative and generative series is allowed to complete, the fans reach closure and move on. Further, both authors and fans accept that the series is past, and open up their hearts and minds to next series that substantially recovers that same space. For examples, if the castaways of Gilligan's Island never returned home, there might not be room in viewers hearts for Lost. Which brings us to the introduction of artificial unfairness as a plot device. Is it fair or right for Gilligan to always be self-defeating. Shouldn't he just once be allowed to succeed and be the cause of their rescue rather than the contining cause of their abandonment. The fact that the writers artificially sacrified Gilligan's good name would be a cause of fan unrest and a hardening of their hearts against castaway shows if Gilligan were never allowed to succeed in the end. It is the absence of eventual closure, and recompense for the artifice and plot device which prolonged, that is the trigger for later creative works to bring that long sought release and restoration. Another example of retroactive restitution is the change that George Lucas made to Han Solo's behavior in later editions of episode 4 of Star Wars. In the early version of Episode 4, Han Solo fires first in the bar fight. In later versions of episode 4, an alternate ending to that scene has the alien drawing first, to amend any smerch on Solo's character. A useful example comes from the The Fugitive series, which by device continually frustrated a good man from reaching the one-armed man, through no fault of his own in effort or creativity. In the hearts and minds of the audience which faithfully followed the Fugitive year after year, it simply isn't right that his final recompense might be omitted or denied for reasons of money or schedule. Should the Fugitive never have been cleared by end of series run, the audience out never allow or accept another series of similar premise in the future.
A final example of a compensating and credit giving work is the film Galaxy Quest. Galaxy Quest stands in relation to the Star Trek series as Stranger Than Fiction stands to The Matrix Series. Galaxy Quest answers, fulfills and illuminates another backstory to the main series story: that the fans power of belief influences both the future direction of the series and the direction of our technology futures. Galaxy Quest helps us realize that no series is complete, no story universe is completely closed, when the story potential and story impact live on in the hearts and minds of the adults that were children of the last generation.
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We return to the curious construction of Stranger Than Fiction. Our initial discontent with the film is not a matter of poor effort or technique; rather the film is too cleverly composed to be a case of bad screen writing. Rather, Stranger than Fiction is obviously methodically crafted to some end or reason; clearly designed as a response to something. However, not only is Stranger Than Fiction following some incomprehensible plan, it is also situated with a completely new and unrelatable story universe, with no trace of history or predecedent or backstory.
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When a flaw exists within a software program, enterprising virus writers construct a new virus in the analog of the flaw to exploit the unfilled potential. When a flaw exists within a software program, the manufacturer will issue a patch or update. The arrival of a new patch or update not only provides the new ending or new path that was previously missing. The arrival not only provides a better solution. The arrival of the patch reveals that some weakness or incompleteness was actually there all along, but unrecognized or unacknowledged until this moment. Such flaws are by their nature overlooked, being a lacking or undefined situation newly identified through a need or opportunity. The point being that, when a complex system misses something or allows for a new unexplored combination, such cases are only brought to our attention after someone else notices the potential or opportunity and makes the effort to exploit it.
In this sense, fan-written alternate endings are an attempt to complete by analogy a missing possible outcome in the play out of the creative series. When a fan-written alternative ending becomes popular enough, it demonstrates to the author the legitimacy and potential and unfilled creative vacuum in the series canon. Should the doorway of this unexplained and unfilled possibility provide access to a sufficiently large time and space, it behooves the owners of the francise to issue an epilog or sublicense the niche to a staff writer they can trust. The francise owner must balance the official message that the series is complete while still overseeing the filling of the void by an insider.
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What is the relationship between Stranger Than Fiction and The Matrix, series? What do the elements and manner of Stranger Than Fiction reveal about previous unfulfilled potentials of The Matrix creative universe, which was previously thought to be closed and complete? It what ways were the characters fulfilled here in Stranger Than Fiction where they were not in The Matrix series? Looking back at these characters during the production of the Matrix, were they in some sense denied or short-circuited or unjustly shortchanged in the process?
Stranger Than Fiction is the untold afterstories of the characters lost or omitted or shortchanged during the production of The Matrix. Stranger Than Fiction is story behind the making of the original story, the story about how the truth of deadlines and budgets and pressures forced the story into the mold we know it today. Stranger than Ficton is the realization that our beloved The Matrix series might have been otherwise were it not for a single external event beyond reason. And finally, Stranger Than Fiction is the realization that this life-changing influential event, in this case the untimely death of a crucial cast member, might itself have been preventable, calling the The Series itself into existential doubt. The canonical complete Series can't be entirely complete without admitting the possiblity that the Series fell short of its goals, and could have been, might have been more than it was.
The Matrix of 1999, of the first complete film, established the seeds of the mixed and conflicted natures of two key secondary characters: Agent Smith and the Oracle. Both were created of two minds and split personalities: bringing cookies on one hand and dealing life-or-death situations in the other. Both were in the untenable position of being part of the system, being the system, yet working at cross purposes resisting the system, sowing the seeds of its demise and hastenng the day when their function and they would be eliminated.
Stranger Than Fiction can be seen as the alternate character ending for the forced and strange and unnatural and uncharacteristic behaviors of the side characters from The Matrix Parts 2+3. What would have happened to these archtypes had they been free to tell the truth.
The character Crick in Stranger than Fiction is an analog or proxy for Agent Smith. Both are by the numbers, enforcers of the inevitable laws of the system. What is fulfilled for Mr. Smith is the development of his own personality, his own likes and wants and aspirations. What is fulfilled for Mr. Smith is his comedic destiny and his own potential for coupling and completion.
The character Ana in Stranger Than Fiction is the baking side of the Oracle, the nurturing, healing, funny, non-violent heckler throwing a monkey wrench into the works.
The character Eiffel is the smoking author side of the oracle, fatalistic, harsh, handing out life or death situations, putting others in situations where they have no choice. The is the writer of their fate, but she's learning that true fate isn't written in advance.
The executive secretary to Eiffel is the bodyguard and insurance policy, the continuity and survival and finishing side she only developed after her untimely death.
Prof. Hilbert is the teaching and coaching side of the Architect, and the author oracle's biggest fan.
The existence of the Matrix, the series, as we have it, and the existence of the film Stranger Than Fiction, would not be, were it not for the unscripted passing of Gloria Foster in 2001 during production. Ms. Fosters absense, her unfilfilled destiny, her unsatisfying story death off screen, her now executioner Smith, and her uninvested replacement, all were expedients for the sake of driving and contining the committed three part schedule. Were it not for the fact that parts 2 and 3 were green-lit and produced back to back, we might have stopped the story after part 2 without resorting to replacements or executions.
Would we have seen the Agent and Oracle develop and individuate and personify their characters. Would we have had the time for their personal stories. Would the pressure and deadline for a fixed two part conclusion not have been driving, we might have seen another side to these characters. We might have seen them grow. We might have seen them agonize or rejoice in their decisons, choices and actions. We might have seen them learn to reconcile their two sides and their two roles. However, pressure and commitments and action and an untimely death, all practical realities in running a practical business, sacrificed their stories to get the job done. The fixed forced nature of parts 2 and 3, the truth in this case, triggered not a strangness but a safe predictability to their fictitious lives.
The strange truth of the matter is that it didn't have to be this way and yet this was the only way it could be worked so that the whole complete quadrology could be made at all.
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What have we learned? That we can appreciate all four films and accept them in context for being what they are and why they are and how they are. We can appreciate the craftsmanship and attention to detail and the surpising challenges of time and continuity. We can stop questioning why the films are constructed as they are. We can accept change and forgive the lack of change. We can trust that the fans and the generations will ensure that the full and complete story will be told. And its reassuring and just to know that through the strange truth of fan belief and devotion and attention to perfection, all of the character promise and potential and seeds of destiny will be realized and explored and exploited eventually. We have our day jobs and we come home to our families. We all have other lives. Life goes on. We mix and mingle truth with fiction and fiction with truth. Life is a business and the business of life is what's new and what's surprising. And true.
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