Why The Oracle Tells Neo He's Not THE ONE in The Matrix

Today we offer our theory as to why the Oracle tells Neo that he's not The One during their first meeting in The Matrix.

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[GenerationFilms]

Is it a matter of free will or fate that before long Warner Bros will destroy this video with a copyright claim?

[Forscythe]

If Neo was a real hacker, he would never have accepted her cookies.

[zeroone]

I always interpreted this as the Oracle telling Neo he WAS the one, but Neo (and most of the audience apparently) is misinterpreting it. She clearly says he has the gift, but appears to to waiting for something, i.e. he is the one, but his powers have not awaked yet.

[operationangel]

This reminds me of a quote from Futurama: “If you do things right, people won’t be sure if you’ve done anything at all.”

[KaryonTheirStory]

“You’ve had 2 decades to not be spoiled”
Well put

[anonymousrex]

I've always thought of the Oracle and Laplace's demon in the matrix... she has the ability to see how everything is moving and make predications about how everything will play out as a result. They have additional conversations that add to this concept about Neo being the one in the second movie as well. They specifically talk about the concept of what a "choice" really is... they talk about how people have already made their choices and it is really more about understanding them. The merovingian also talks about the difference between free will/choice and causality in his little speech. What this all boils down to is that causality really does reign supreme and the "choices" people make were already pre-determined by the person's previous experiences, personality and so on. The architect also discussed how they had to create the current version of matrix by coming up with a system that caused the vast majority of people to choose to accept the matrix as is on some level so they would not try to escape.

[osaasd]

I always felt that the concept of "The One" in Matrix and the Nerevarine in Morrowind were quite similar. Both were about the dichotomy between free-will/determinism, being/becoming and the question of fulfilling prophiecies. Just as the player had to do certain things in Morrowind in order to fulfill the prophecy and be considered a Nerevarine, Neo had to do his work in order to become the One. I prefer this reading as being the One isnt given to Neo upon his birth but something he attains through his actions, the help of Morpheus and the love for/from Trinity

[tonilafountain]

Clairvoyance is just awareness of a recurring pattern, and as a program she is aware of human action patterns. She was verifying she had Neo's behavioral pattern.

[cjperry]

I haven't watched this video yet..

She didn't tell him he wasn't the one.. if you watch the scene, she asks him if he thought he was the One, he says no, she says "sorry kiddo, you've got the gift, but it looks like you're waiting for something" and when he asks "what?" she says "who knows, another life maybe.."

Neo died, "came back to life" and then had the "powers" of the One..

She never told him he wasn't the One, and didn't even really agree when he said he wasn't..

[NickCombs]

The only paradox is that we've evolved to function through an idea called free will that contradicts all evidence of causality, because it's necessarily that causality that brought us to this conundrum.

The only open question for me in the story of the Matrix is whether the Oracle actually has enough processing power to predict outcomes so far down the chain of events to the conclusion of the trilogy. I wonder what odds she was playing with.

[unicornmadness]

The first 40 seconds of this video had me laughing so hard my sister slapped me in the back of my head because she was trying to sleep.

[Yemith_Gaming]

The anwser is simple. He wasn't the one. When he was asked. He became the one, once he took a bite of the offered cookie, intruducing the one's code. Just like the way the merovingian, the code was intruduced via food. She continued to update and manipulate Neo by offering candy and cookies when she saw him. It's likely how she knew about his dreams either she implanted it into his brain or like a tracer program she should read his code while in the matrix.

[jpaior]

Brilliant video guys.
Bringing it all back to your roots, with a deep level interpretation essay.

So much better than the “facts list” vids that are so temping to make. (To feed the algorithm).

[rogermoogo]

Wow, this guy's reviews are really next level and in-depth. The thinking that goes behind this Movie is Incredible

[jonathanrivlin]

We cannot control what fate throws our way, but we can control how we meet that fate.

[ggrzz]

I still like the theory that trinity was given something (like neo was giving the cookie to attract him to trinity). That code was then uploaded to neo when they kissed.

[ericlondon]

One major point that even the new 2021 movie may not had addressed : Is the "real" world in the Matrix movies just one more 'layer up' of yet one more "matrix" shell reality ? ( How did Neo in the assumed real world kill a sentinel ?, How did Agent smith really infect that one 'real' human ?...etc. ) The whole humans used as batteries that sounds impractical may be due to being just another 'layer' in the matrix .

[cartho]

I always thought of it as Neo is the One but the Oracle tells Neo he isn't so that he doubts himself and actually thinks his way through everything. Without that reassurance that he's this all powerful human he keeps his humanity and is able to win.

[buddygrimfield]

The philosophical dilemmas which give such a subjective view of really all of the major (and even most if not all of the minor for that matter) characters are my favorite aspect of the films. Even more so than the action/effects. Thank you for making a video which explores them in earnest! Well done.

[brianguayartist]

I really enjoy this analysis. I think you are right about the Oracle guiding the gameplay to get Neo back to the beginning of the game. I would like to point out that the choices made in the game are in fact already made prior to entry. Like the story of any video game, the path of the hero is predetermined before you turn on the game. But there does seem to be a limbo between each version where the characters decide how the story will pan out. From version 5 to version 6 the biggest change was that Trinity decided that she loved Neo and was going to save him from his perpetual cycles in a game he was never suppose to win. Or maybe more to the point the Oracle eventually decided to help her save Neo. Thus rewriting version 5 into version 6.
Allowing Trinity to take that extra shift at the beginning of movie one that allowed for the story of the previous game to be rewritten.

Cypher: You weren't supposed to relieve me.
Trinity: I know, but I felt like taking your shift.

Trinity's choice to connect with Neo is the catalyst that sets it all off. A choice that I theorize was thwarted by the Oracle in the past because it always lead to the end of the Matrix. Something the Oracle didn't believe in til then.
But that's one take. Any thoughts from others out there?