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The following contains spoilers for

Half-way into one of the action sequences in the new Matrix movie, it occurred to me that the action sequences last long enough for the previous sets of symbols to sink in before introducing the next set. That's when I started becoming a little frightened.

It sounds odd to say that, but the film deals in symbols and philosophies on a very low level. For those unfamiliar with computer programming, the lower the level the deeper the influence. I can, in the high-level database language I write, crash a system. I can't rewrite the computer's basic functionality. In human terms conscious thought can filter down and become a deeper level of our code, but it's faster to work on the symbolic level and have the connections well upward.

Within the movie, I caught references to Christian and Jewish mythologies and scriptures -- including the eternal question: Was Judas the most faithful apostle? Neo and Morpheus now dress like priests, specifically Jesuits. Neo -- both the one and the new -- loves Trinity, and in one startling bit of intercutting, this trinity manages to represent Eros, Philia (sic?), and Agape. There's also another trinity operating -- The Architect (who wears a white suit and sits in a room with all the possible reactions of Neo projected around him, as blatant an example of the Father as I've seen depicted), Neo, and the Oracle (her connection to the holy Spirit is clearer when it's remembered that the holy Spirit is often seen as an aspect of Wisdom which is feminine in Greek).

There are also references to Celtic mythology, Brave New World, Alfred Hitchcock, Freudian theory, Calvinism, and Jungian archetypes. When I was talking to

jerminating earlier this evening, I said that I couldn't find any references to Hinduism. But Neo's tested by his ability to fight, both by the "good" and the "evil" of this universe, which leads me to ask if it's a reference to ideas of caste put forward in the Bhagavad Gita. Neo's way is the path of the warrior. What paths did his predecessors choose?

As a programmer, I had some interesting moments as well. When the Oracle was speaking about understanding why the choice was made, I kept seeing Procedure code. It was inexplicable to me. I assumed that it had to do with the fact that I've been programming this week for the first time in ages. Instead the scene with the Architect makes explicit what I was intuiting. He refers to Neo as an anomaly in the code, a flaw in the system. The Oracle found that the denizens of the matrix can be kept happy by having the illusion of choice. It works in 99% of cases. Neo, Morpheus, and the inhabitants of Zion are the one percent.

In taking care of some legacy code a few years back, I came across a call to a procedure that was completely commented out. It was buried so deeply that the line would almost never be tripped. I deleted the procedure entirely and commented out the line of code. The program wouldn't run at all. When I restored my backup, I inadvertently uncommented the procedure. I crashed my computer. It took IT an hour to put me back to where I'd been. The procedure had to exist; the call to it had to exist; it did nothing except let the program run.

The heavy Calvinism that runs through the movie disturbs me more than anything else. Though considering how Neo and Morpheus are dressed and the Architect's mention of the fatal flaw, Augustinianism is probably closer to the truth. All the influential characters at one point or another mention that they have a purpose, that there's a grander purpose to it all, and that choice is an illusion. The Oracle, in admitting that understanding why the choice has already been made is important, holds out some hope that humanity has an influence on the inevitable outcome. Or maybe it's a hope that some individuals within the plan may become enlightened enough to see the purpose and consciously help it along.

Most of all, I think that the Wachowski brothers were influence by Arthur Koestler. They put the ghosts in the machine and explained the origins of parapsychological phenomena. Several times, I found my mind returning to exerpts from Bricks to Babel.

There are doors and keys throughout. Doors that will only work for one person; keys that change the destination on the other side of the door. Persephone, in helping the key maker to escape, is shown opening multiple doors (7?) down a long hallway in the most blatantly Freudian moment in the movie.

Her husband, the Merovingian, lets loose with the foulest stream of French I've ever heard (I hadn't realized that I knew that many swear words in French). But more significant to me is the fact that this avatar of deep code chooses as his favorite language one that has no direct synonym for mind. Brain, intellect, psyche, persona, personality can all be defined, but there's nothing in French that gives the equivalent feel to the English word mind.

It worries me that Neo chooses what I believe to be the wrong door. He's capable of Eros and possibly Philia, but seems to stumble on Agape.

Thanks to his choice, we are left at the end with only a few people surviving the destruction of Zion. I don't know if it's the required 23. It certainly seems heavy on the males. Neo's unconscious and the only person to survive Zion's destruction -- who is also unconscious -- is the man who tried to assassinate Neo earlier.

The movie is brilliantly done. I am worried that by working on such a deeply symbolic level that it's acting as a meme -- an extremely pessimistic one. Koestler and his wife ultimately chose to take their own lives. I've often said that if I didn't believe I had free will, I'd kiss the railroad tracks. In that context after all, my suicide would be predestined.

Several times the filmmakers imply that we are living in the Matrix. We're all part of a complicated illusion.

I'm scared.