Does The Matrix Make Sense?

[Mesh]

I rewatched it last week (and I've now seen it a total of two times).  I was telling a friend how much I admired it as hyper-creative sci/fi-adventure.  But he found it to be "full of holes," and pointed out the question as to why the rebel characters had to make it to certain points in the Matrix (phones, usually) in order to "beam back" into their real selves onboard the Nebuchadnezzar (in similar fashion, btw, to the way the thieves in Time Bandits get around in time).  Was that a logical flaw for you?

Are there other potentially huge logisitical problems with The Matrix?  What are they?

I want it to be a good, sensible alternate world...but I feel like it must be illogical in certain ways....help?

[MacGuffin]

But he found it to be "full of holes," and pointed out the question as to why the rebel characters had to make it to certain points in the Matrix (phones, usually) in order to "beam back" into their real selves onboard the Nebuchadnezzar (in similar fashion, btw, to the way the thieves in Time Bandits get around in time).  Was that a logical flaw for you?

They have to make it to phone 'hardlines' in order to get out. Which is why they can't use their cell phones. In the opening Trinity says "They cut the hardline. I can't get out." Those secure phone lines act as their portals.

[Victor]

i get how they can call each other on their special cell phones, but when neo steals the dudes phone while he's running, how can an ordinary cell phone in the matrix make a call to the real world? heh. dont make no sens-*click

[Sleuth]

I don't think it has to do with "special cell phones" at all.  They were just cell phones.

[MacGuffin]

i get how they can call each other on their special cell phones, but when neo steals the dudes phone while he's running, how can an ordinary cell phone in the matrix make a call to the real world? heh. dont make no sens-*click

What makes you think their phones are special? After he steals the phone, Neo dials in a number. The number would be special to them, not the phones.

[Victor]

but if its some number that you could call on any old phone at any old time, then the agents could easily know how to hack into the nebucanezzer.

[Ghostboy]

Try suspension of disbelief....

[Sleuth]

I thought it was suspension of belief

[Victor]

no cuz suspension of belief would be disbelief

[MacGuffin]

but if its some number that you could call on any old phone at any old time, then the agents could easily know how to hack into the nebucanezzer.

I'm sure they changed the number after it was traced in the opening of the film. But I think it has more to do with receiving a signal than what the actual phone number is. Anyway, the ship is sending out a pirate signal and constantly moving, so the Agents can't find them. Which is why at the end they finally are able to locate them when Cypher takes the ship over and the Agents have Morpheus captured. They trace them that way.

[Mesh]

They have to make it to phone 'hardlines' in order to get out. Which is why they can't use their cell phones. In the opening Trinity says "They cut the hardline. I can't get out." Those secure phone lines act as their portals.

I understand how the phones are used as plot devices.  What I'm asking, though, is "Does it makes sense that Morpheus's rebels would need to get to such portals, seeing that they're all trained to some extent in defying the rules of the Matrix?"

Also, I wanted to know if any of you find other plot elements logically problematic, i.e. does the film The Matrix play fairly by its own rules?

Ghostboy:  "suspension of disbelief" is a weak-ass copout, far as this thread's concerned.  Try again.

edit:  I made this thread because I want to think The Matrix is a solid piece of sci/fi that will hold under rigorous logical inquiry....I want you film nerds to try and shoot holes in the film's logic while others play defense....and I'll contribute where possible...

[Sleuth]

But you're suspending your beliefs as in you are going to put them on the side for the 2 hours that you sit down to watch the movie and accept certain things in it

[MacGuffin]

I understand how the phones are used as plot devices.  What I'm asking, though, is "Does it makes sense that Morpheus's rebels would need to get to such portals, seeing that they're all trained to some extent in defying the rules of the Matrix?"

Yes. Those 'defying the rules' are used inside the Matrix. The portals are used to send the team in and out of the Matrix, using the spikes in the back of their heads. "The mind makes it real" and they need to jack into the mind to enter the Matrix and exit back to reality.

[Mesh]

But you're suspending your beliefs as in you are going to put them on the side for the 2 hours that you sit down to watch the movie and accept certain things in it

But that's utterly beside the point of this thread.  My personal opinion is that outstanding sci-fi does not require its viewers to suspend disbelief, i.e. the rules the film lays down are followed by its characters and the plot makes sense with respect to said rules.

[Sleuth]

But then you wouldn't have asked in the first place.  The Matrix makes sense to me.

And about the whole suspension thing, I want to know how to use the lingo correctly.