The Matrix star Joe Pantoliano defends Cypher's decision to betray Neo and work with the Machines in the hit 1999 film. Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix stars Keanu Reeves as Neo, a hero destined to lead humanity to victory against an army of machine overlords. Pantoliano's Cypher is one of several crew of Morpheus' (Laurence Fishburne) ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, but he infamously betrays the entire crew after being offered a tasty deal by Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving).
Now, more than two decades after the release of The Matrix, Pantoliano stands by Cypher's decision to betray Morpheus and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzer in a recent interview with AV Club. According to the actor, Cypher just did the most human thing in the hopeless situation within which he found himself. Check out Pantoliano's full comment below:
“Cypher chose to take the red pill just like everybody else in the story. But Cypher, unlike the other characters, he was the most human because he had doubt where they didn’t. They followed their leader blindly. And then he’s given an opportunity to go back, he was giving up.
“He didn’t think that Neo was the guy. He was betting that he was the next One because he had gone through six Ones, they all were killed, right? And so then he gets an opportunity by the Machine, by the “Corporations” that he could go back and choose to be whoever he wants to be and not have a memory of murdering the people he loved. So who wouldn’t take that deal? He bet on the wrong horse.”
Cypher's Betrayal In The Matrix Explained
Like Neo, Cypher, at some point before the main story begins, takes the red pill, which allows him to be "unplugged" from the Matrix. Once unplugged, a person realizes that they've been living in a fake reality and serving only as a power source for an artificially intelligent population of machines. The "desert of the real," as Morpheus calls it, is essentially a dystopian wasteland, with Earth's biosphere having been devastated by the First Machine War, meaning unplugged humans have to live underground.
While living life unplugged from the Matrix means living in reality, there's no question that reality in the film is very unpleasant. Cypher has evidently had enough of living in fear and fighting what seems to be an unwinnable fight. The last hope for humanity, after all, is based on the idea that eventually the "Chosen One" will emerge, leading the surviving humans to victory against the Machines. While Morpheus wholeheartedly believes that Neo is The One, Cypher very reasonably doesn't believe this, thus making resistance seem truly futile.
Cypher's lack of faith leads to him taking Smith's deal to start life anew in the Matrix as a rich man with no memory of his unplugged life. As a viewer it's easy to criticize Cypher's betrayal of Morpheus, but from a character perspective, it's not hard to understand why he makes it – the fate of the resistance seemingly depends on one man who exudes no real "The One" qualities. Pantoliana's most recent comment speaks to why the The Matrix remains such a classic, with even slimy characters like Cypher raising interesting moral dilemmas.
Source: AV Club
