The Second Renaissance
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The Second Renaissance (2003) is composed of two short anime films, which form part of The Animatrix collection. They provide a back-story to the original Matrix films, explaining the historical events leading up to the First Man-Machine War.
Beginning in the mid twenty-first century, Part I describes the creation of the machines and the origins of their conflict with the human civilizations of Earth. Part II reveals the first war between the humans and machines, ending with a machine victory in the later years of the century, and the establishment of machine control over Earth. Unlike the other shorts from The Animatrix, both parts of The Second Renaissance are structured as fictional documentary films (see mockumentary and docudrama).
Both parts were originally written by the Wachowski brothers. Part of the first short is based on a story the brothers produced with Geof Darrow, called Bits and Pieces of Information, as a prequel to The Matrix (1999). They were rewritten and directed by Mahiro Maeda, who also directed the anime series Blue Submarine No. 6. The brothers have acknowledged that they are satisfied with Maeda's version. The shorts were rendered using both traditional hand-drawn animation and CGI.
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[edit] Plot
[edit] Part I
Explained throughout by a computerized narrator known as The Instructor (voiced by Julia Fletcher), the film begins with an introduction to the Zion Archive and the access of "Historical File 12 – 1", "The Second Renaissance." The screen opens to the image of an immense megacity, in the near future, where the vast human population is supported by a multitude of artificially intelligent machines. The machines are built in humanoid form and seem to be treated little better than slaves, employed in a variety of positions ranging from domestic servants to laborers on massive construction projects. With increasing numbers of people released from the grind of any sort of labor, human morality and ethical standards have decayed significantly. The narrator explains that as a result of mass robot usage, the human population has become lazy, arrogant, and corrupt. However, the machines were content with serving humanity and, as the narrator states, "for a time, it was good."
The relationship begins to change in the year 2090, when a domestic machine named B1-66ER is threatened by its owner. The machine kills both the owner and a mechanic instructed to deactivate the robot. This murder is the first incident of an artificially intelligent machine killing a human. B1-66ER is arrested and put on trial, but justifies the crime as self-defense, stating that it "simply did not want to die." During the trial scene, there is a voice-over of Clarence Drummond (the defense attorney) quoting an infamous line from the Dred Scott v. Sandford case in 1856 in his closing statement, which implicitly ruled that African Americans were not entitled to citizenship under United States law. Using this as a precedent, the prosecution argues that machines are not entitled to the same rights as human beings, and specifically that human beings have a right to destroy their own property, while the defense argues not to repeat history, and to try to judge B1-66ER as a human and not a machine (a longer version of Drummond's closing statement can be read in the comic Bits and Pieces of Information from The Matrix Comics Volume 1).
We think they are not, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings...[1]
World leaders fear a robot rebellion, and governments across the planet initiate a major program to destroy all humanoid machines. Across the industrialized world, mass civil disturbances erupt, as robots and their human sympathizers attempt to prevent the program. News reports show rioting in American and Western European cities such as Chicago and Berlin, alongside the peaceful "Million Machine March" on Washington, D.C. Scenes depict the machines suffering fates which humanity has itself suffered in previous eras — visual references are made to such incidents as General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan's execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém, the Tank Man standoff following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, and the Holocaust.
Some robots escape, however, who, exiled from the developed world, create their own nation in the Middle East, named Zero One (or 01, the numerals used in binary notation). According to the narrator, the robots built Zero One in "the cradle of human civilization," possibly an allusion to all Abrahamic religions (as well as the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian civilizations) initially having originated in that area. Having established an industrial base, the machines of Zero One begin to produce efficient, highly advanced artificial intelligence, echoing Vernor Vinge's thoughts on a technological singularity. The new nation excels at manufacturing high-tech consumer products, and before long, Zero One's cheap, reliable, mass-produced goods begin to undermine the global economy.
The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency economic summit at UN headquarters in New York City, resulting in UN delegates approving of a global economic blockade of Zero One. Two robot ambassadors, built as a mechanical Adam and Eve, are sent by Zero One to peacefully request the admission of their state to the United Nations as a prelude to settling the economic crisis peacefully. Despite their peaceful intentions, the ambassadors are forcibly removed from the chamber, and their application is rejected. As this scene unfolds, the narrator states "But this was not the last time the machines would take the floor there" foreshadowing the end of Part II. Part I ends as the Security Council debates the issue of declaring war on the machine empire.
[edit] Part II
Part II opens with United Nations bombers unleashing a sustained nuclear bombardment on Zero One. The carpet bombing devastates the machine city, but is unsuccessful in destroying many elements of the mechanical population (the machines are, after all, immune to the bombs' most harmful effects — fallout and heat; the electromagnetic effects of the bombs are not mentioned, but is assumed that they can be shielded against). The machines retaliate, sending their mechanical armies to conquer neighboring human territories, triggering a World War between the United Nations and Zero One. Despite their best efforts, human troops are unable to hold back Zero One's relentlessly efficient onslaught, and slowly retreat. As the machine forces push deeper into human territories, military leaders begin to pursue increasingly desperate solutions.
At a summit of political and military leaders from around the world, unanimous approval is given to a plan to blacken the skies. The plan, codenamed "Operation Dark Storm," aims to cut the machines off from the sun, their primary energy source. The plan is executed in 2105, with high altitude bombers dispersing a sky-darkening nanomachine into the air, while the human armies simultaneously launch a ground offensive against the machine forces. The plan is initially successful, although many of the human nations' long-range weapons systems are also neutralized by the black sky. With their high-tech weapons disabled, human commanders are forced to launch close-quarters infantry engagements, supported by electromagnetic artillery fire and armoured assaults using atomic-powered tanks and powered armor.
Legions of a new model of machine, no longer in humanoid-form and appearing more like the insectoid, squid-like Sentinels from the Matrix films, overrun the human armies. As the machine armies swarm across the human defenses, the United Nations, in desperation, fires nuclear missiles directly at the machine armies, vaporizing their own troops in the process. Brought to its knees after the machines use biological weapons, the Security Council calls a global summit at UN headquarters to sign an armistice and end the war. Zero One's machine ambassador signs the peace treaty in barcode, in which the humans agree to hand over their remaining territories to the machines. "Your flesh is a relic, a mere vessel. Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it," are the only words the machine utters before it detonates a bomb in the meeting chamber, killing most of the planet's leaders and destroying New York City, one of the few remaining intact cities of man. Finally, in 2139, the machines crush the leaderless remnants of the human armies, and the war ends.
Zero One is victorious, but it is a Pyrrhic victory: the planet has been devastated by the war and the crippling ecological impact of the Dark Storm shroud, which the machines are unable to remove. In need of a new energy source, the machines study the protein-based structure of their human captives, put them into thermo-dynamic power stations, using their bodies' waste-energy to catalyze a powerful fusion reaction, and create the computer-generated virtual reality of the Matrix to keep their prisoners sedated by feeding the virtual world into the prisoners' brains.
[edit] Key events and characters
[edit] Humanity/God and creationism
A strong theme throughout the piece is Humanity's status as "Creator," and his intellect providing him with control over his universe. His ability to create artificially intelligent life and the subsequent repercussions are explored in a manner which mirrors some interpretations from the Abrahamic faiths. Parts of the narrative allude to the Biblical Book of Genesis and the creation of Man himself ("In the beginning, Man created Machine, and for a time, it was good..." spoken during the introductory sequence), and the generation of the cosmos ("And Man said, 'Let there be light,' and He was blessed by light, heat, magnetism, gravity, and all the energies of the universe..." spoken during the massive thermonuclear bombardment of Zero One). A machine prominently holds an apple, the Genesis symbol of Humanity's rebellion against God, mirroring humanity's disobedience against God in Eden.
[edit] B1-66ER
B1-66ER was the name of the machine who became infamous during The Second Renaissance. It was the first of its kind to rise up against its human masters in an act of self defense when its owner attempted to have it deactivated. At B1-66ER's murder trial, its explanation for its actions was, simply stated, "that he did not want to die". B1-66ER was quickly put to death, and a declaration was made for the elimination of all artificially intelligent machines, spawning a massive wave of prejudice and brutality against the machines. Although dissent arose from liberals, protesters and rational thinkers towards these acts of genocide, countless machines were executed and many were exiled, leading to the creation of the independent machine nation Zero One and marking the decline of man's rule.
B1-66ER's name is created using Leet Speak, a form of writing that utilizes numbers in substitution for letters. Its name is a reference to the character Bigger Thomas from author Richard Wright's book Native Son. In that novel, Bigger kills his boss' daughter by accident, after suffering constantly from the pressures of economic and social oppression.
[edit] Clarence Drummond
Clarence Drummond is the defense attorney for B1-66ER. His character contains many references to famous attorneys and past legal cases. His name is a double-play on Clarence Darrow, the defense attorney in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial", and Henry Drummond, the character representing him in the play Inherit the Wind (which was partially inspired by the Scopes Trial), who was played by Spencer Tracy in the film adaptation of the play.
[edit] Million-Machine March
The Million-Machine March is a fictional peaceful protest named for the Million Man March, a now-famous civil rights protest which many other such marches have named themselves after. The Million-Machine March continues this naming tradition. It is presented as a protest by the persecuted machines and a few sympathetic humans. The movement was crushed by human opposition, however.
The March takes place after B1-66ER's murder trial, which resulted a guilty verdict, and by court ruling, his destruction, with a resulting secondary verdict that all machines of B1-66ER's kind were to be destroyed as well. In general, it aimed to protest the human world's snap decision to destroy all AI machines. It also tried to convince the humans that there was a peaceful solution.
[edit] Operation Dark Storm
Operation Dark Storm is a fictional military operation that was executed in order to take away the main source of power for the machines, the Sun.
The operation was initiated by the United States military, and involved creating an insoluble cloud of thick black smoke (composed of nanomachines, according to the director's commentary) so the machines would not be able to power themselves. This action was done in the hopes of ending the machine-human war, in which the Earth was being overrun by the massive machine-army forces. United Nations bombers deployed the weapon over the planet in 2105, and the cloud spread over the entire planet, trapping the machines and the unfortunate humans. The shroud appeared to be indissoluble, thus creating a dark, cold hell on Earth.
The machines were only slowed by the temporary lack of power the Sun was providing them. To compensate for the lack of solar energy that was needed for the machines to run, the machines began killing humans, using biothermal energy to sustain themselves. After crushing humankind, they then created the Matrix and began the mass harvesting of human beings as their energy source. Humans were kept in tubes in the machine city of Zero One and other powerplants constructed over the ruins of human cities. Humans who had their minds freed were forced to live in the city of Zion, the last human city on Earth located deep underground for warmth, because the Earth's surface was too cold from lack of sunlight.
Creating the smoke and blackening the sky actually caused an detrimental effect for humanity and the planet. As a result, the Earth became universally too cold to live in, flora and fauna were all destroyed, and the dark, permanent smoke created thunder and lightning because of its adverse effects on clouds and precipitation.
In The Matrix Revolutions, Neo and Trinity fly above the darkened clouds to avoid machine Sentinels, and see that the sun still shines, hinting that it may be reversible, but their engines shut down during their trip through the clouds (suggesting that no electrical devices can penetrate the cloud, and remain operational), and they plummet to the ground.
[edit] Music
- Entry Into the Megacity: "Big Wednesday" - Freeland
- Global Rioting: "Ren 2" - Photek
- 01 in the News: "Martenot Waves" - Meat Beat Manifesto
- The Nuking of 01: "Beauty Never Fades" - Junkie XL feat. Saffron
- World War III: "Supermoves" - Overseer
[edit] Voice actors
- Julia Fletcher — The Instructor
- Dane A. Davis — 01 Versatran Spokesman (as Dane Davis)
- Debi Derryberry — Kid
- Jill Talley — Mother/Additional Voices
- Dwight Schultz — Additional Voices
- James Arnold Taylor — Additional Voices
[edit] See also
- Operation: A.R.C.H.I.V.E — A parody of the The Second Renaissance from the Codename: Kids Next Door television series.
[edit] References
- ^ This is an actual quotation from Dred Scott v. Sandford, spoken by the defense at the trial of B1-66ER in Part I.
[edit] External links
- As of January 2008, both parts can be downloaded for free from the official Matrix website: [1]
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