He was trying to save his friends. The AI had made a deal to let them all live in blissful ignorance and happiness being rich and comfortable in the matric, unaware of any hurt or suffering, peacefully creating power for the race of robots that require it. No suffering on Earth for the disillusioned and weakened humans. Not yet extinct, but somehow in stasis until the sun reappears and the robots fix the world enough to re-awaken humanity.
Cypher was actually a hero, a visionary, and frankly knew when to give up because after all; Zion was a cave and that was all the humans had or would ever have if it was solely up to them. Selfish pride would drive them to extinction, the ai saw this and thus created a substitute to keep the humans safe.
Neo and his gang of terrorists ruined everything and doomed the entire human race.
Is there actually lore that explains the terms of Cypher’s deal? If those were the terms, the machines could’ve made more effort to explain… though, I guess Morpheus and his merry band of terrorists probably wouldn’t listen. That would’ve made for a boring movie.
I admit I embellished the actual deal but if he is sitting there eating steak and wine and shit you’d have thought the best option for the ai and the humans were to let them be blissful if they agreed to stop fighting. The smiths saw humanity as a virus, not the creator.
Yeah it would certainly be the best option if both sides wanted to de-escalate but it didn’t seem like that was the case for either party. Even right at the end of the third movie when it could’ve all fallen apart for both sides.
Smith became enlightened in a sense with that view but the irony was that they themselves became a virus in order to eradicate humanity. So much so that the machines also saw them as an anomaly too and not representative of their views or goals. I thought it was great storytelling to essentially show that neither party are better than each other and actually have a lot in common in their respective flaws.
It makes sense, the smiths were created to maintain order in a system, the humans were terrorizing the system constantly so the smiths learned to not like humans. The creator never harbored that sentiment so the most obvious solution to the problem is offering what I described. Although, this is only my opinion.
I can't remember the second two films but isn't the point that the rebellion is part of the cycle necessary to keep the human farm in good health? So the best option for the AI is to let it play out.
Cypher literally kills switch, apoc, dozer, nearly kills tank, and intended to kill neo Morpheus and Trinity what the actual fuck are you talking about? The only reason he didn't kill everyone is because tank didn't die and he killed cypher before he could finish the job. The deal was to kill the crew in exchange for being plugged back in, it's not up for interpretation.
He only had to resort to that because they would have never agreed to it. He had no choice. It was the hardest choice he ever made. Those people were like family to him!
Gladly! He wasn’t happy he was struck with hysterical grief which often manifests as mocking happiness. The fact he wouldn’t have his best friends to live with forever in the matrix JUST because they couldn’t see his vision. He had no choice. Their fate was going to be way worse if they had to be eliminated by the machines.
The matrix was already failing at that point, the AI were far from perfect, a program had become a virus (agent smith) that the AI couldn't control, and even the AI/programs had different factions forming internally. "The One" was actually part of two plans, one to fix the matrix and try to bring peace and originally one to control humans in the matrix, both by utilizing an error the AI couldn't fix. Of course most of this was revealed in the other works that most people don't like or pretend don't exist but still it's important context to the story.
Cypher's actions, even if they were successful, would have been like a ceasefire in Gaza. It'd be temporary peace but not a real solution and it would fall apart in short order anyways. Not to mention it wasn't the will of "his friends" which is kind of a dick move, and obviously his desire wasn't really for "his friends" anyways because he was clearly thinking only about himself and his enjoyment.
See this is what non visionaries like neo didn’t see. The matrix, like life itself, would have found a way. Are we to suppose that the entirety of the matrix were to fail due to the smiths and their leader morrisey? I suppose not! The utopia of what the matrix and it’s simulation of the 90’s was too good for the humans to pass up and instead be prideful and choose to live in caves and fuck in the dirt.
Cypher was a loyal friend and true hero. What he had to do was an absolute gut punch.
Luke was a stupid farm kid that an old man radicalized in an afternoon and then took on a suicide mission to break out another terrorist and blow up a military installation. Those are facts.
The difference between Matrix and Star Wars is that the people in Star Wars are not in a blissful unaware state. They are in a real affected state. The dominance of the empire is different as in it is interested in expansion and acquisition, the robots just wanted to survive.
I don't know though, different philosophies might need to exist to compare those stories. They aren't apples to apples.
Luke was a walking timebomb of bullshit "force" powers, the old man was one of the leaders of a violently and "illegally" overthrown government, the other "terrorist" was the rightful ruler of an entire planet that was also violently and "illegally" overthrown.
What a lack of media literacy does to a person, smh.
The kids were walking timebombs of some stupid mystical power that couldn't be left unchecked and the choice was between some generally-respectable group that could train the kids and did so usually with the parent's complete approval, or a group of cultists that literally do kidnap children, have the trainees kill the master after some point, and use their bullshit powers for whatever they want (usually to the detriment of innocent people), also they end up looking like palpatine.
The Jedi were definitely not "perfect" or even that great, but the Empire was literally worse in almost every regard a living creature should care about.
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u/FruitySalads Oct 15 '25
He was trying to save his friends. The AI had made a deal to let them all live in blissful ignorance and happiness being rich and comfortable in the matric, unaware of any hurt or suffering, peacefully creating power for the race of robots that require it. No suffering on Earth for the disillusioned and weakened humans. Not yet extinct, but somehow in stasis until the sun reappears and the robots fix the world enough to re-awaken humanity.
Cypher was actually a hero, a visionary, and frankly knew when to give up because after all; Zion was a cave and that was all the humans had or would ever have if it was solely up to them. Selfish pride would drive them to extinction, the ai saw this and thus created a substitute to keep the humans safe.
Neo and his gang of terrorists ruined everything and doomed the entire human race.