Spoon Boy was expressing a version of this idea: the only thing that’s certainly real to us is mental experience. The theme of reality versus dream runs throughout The Matrix, and Zhuangzi’s poem addresses a similar question, one philosophers have struggled to answer for millennia: how can we know what’s truly real when our senses deceive us? Know whether I was then a man dreaming I was aīutterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man. Soon I awaked,Īnd there I was, veritably myself again. I was conscious only of my happiness as aīutterfly, unaware that I was myself. Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly,įluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposesĪ butterfly. His name was Zhuang Zhou (also known as Zhuangzi) and his poem "Butterfly Dream" goes like this: The scene is a reference to a poem written by a Chinese philosopher who lived during the 4th century BC. (Google is handy for extracting meaning from cryptic movie scenes you can’t decipher on your own.)
When I first watched this scene 20 years ago, I had no idea what Spoon Boy was talking about.īut at some point between now and then I learned. Spoon Boy : Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself. Spoon Boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. After doing the impossible, the bald-headed child hands the spoon to Neo and tells him something. While there, he encounters a gifted child who bends a spoon with his mind.
There is a famous scene in The Matrix where Neo (Keanu Reeves) visits the Oracle, a wise, mysterious, and powerful figure who can see the future.
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