Deus Ex Machina (The Matrix)

Deus Ex Machina is the "god" of the machines in the Machine City of the Matrix series. He is portrayed by Henry Blasingame and voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.

Bio

While Deus Ex Machina is never explained on screen, it seems to be the collective sentience of the Machines. The Oracle does however prophesy that the path of the One ends at the Source, at which point the war will be over. Neo's path indeed ends at this final meeting place, thus ending the war. Deus Ex Machina is implied to be the Source, or as Neo calls it (in Matrix Reloaded), "the Machine mainframe".

Neo appears before Deus Ex Machina in the Machine City nearing the end of Matrix Revolutions. It communicates with him by causing hovering robots to form a speaking face. He is able to cut a deal with the machine: Neo will defeat the destructive rogue program Smith and the machines will accept a truce with Zion. The dialog is as follows:

Neo: I only ask to say what I've come to say. After that you can do what you want, and I won't try and stop you.
Deus Ex Machina: Speak.
Neo: The program Smith has grown beyond your control. Soon he will spread through this city as he has spread through the Matrix. You cannot stop him. But I can.
Deus: We don't need you! We need nothing!
Neo: If that's true, I've made a mistake and you should kill me now.
Deus: What do you want?
Neo: Peace.
[...]
Deus: And if you fail?
Neo: I won't.

Neo is then jacked into the Matrix by the Deus Ex Machina. After an epic battle throughout the Matrix, Neo submits to Smith and Smith copies himself into him. Now directly connected, the Deus Ex Machina sends a surge through The New Neo-Smith which then destroys him and all of the Smith copies which are all connected, returning them to their original personas of either programs from the machine world (such as the Oracle and Sati) or human Bluepills.

Besides the somewhat literal meaning of the entity's name, (Deus ex machina can mean "god of the machines") the name alludes to a theatrical expression used for cases where an author uses some improbable (and often clumsy) plot device to work his or her way out of a difficult situation.

The being itself is a plot device to ensure that Neo has some measure of saving the Matrix and the real world at the same time. Had it not been for this intervention, Neo likely would have been unable to negotiate peace with the Machines, and would, along with the other Zionites, have eventually been killed by their defenses.

Background

The designers of the Deus Ex Machina decided that just as the machines were the opposite of the humans, their god should be likewise. They said in an interview that since when humans imagine God they imagine an old man with a long bushy beard, the machine god has the face of a baby.

See also

• Simulated reality

External links

pl:Deus Ex Machina (Matrix)