Westworld has a history of being compared to the movie The Matrix, especially after it became clear that the hosts were becoming sentient. Like Westworld, Matrix is about a group realizing that they have been living in a reality created to control them.
Westworld and The Matrix take place in different settings, but there are some interesting parallels between the two. In the sci-fi Matrix films, Keanu Reeves plays the lead character Neo, who becomes interested in the Matrix, a computer simulation used by machines to enslave and pacify humans who are used for energy.
Neo doesn’t know this, as he’s connected to the Matrix, but when he is freed, he sees everything he had ever known since birth was not real. Sound familiar?
The correlation between hosts breaking from their narratives and freeing themselves from Delos and Neo disconnecting from the machine enslavement of the Matrix is an easy enough connection to make. But I think that Westworld and The Matrix resemble each other most through Maeve’s narrative. Maeve’s resemblance to Neo in character arc and plot is what stands out the most as two stories with similar trajectories.
Now, let’s go into the 5 ways Maeve and Neo are one in the same!
Maeve and Neo risk it all to find the truth
It all started with the dreams that were from a past life coming back to haunt Maeve. But eventually, she began to question her reality when she realized she was re-living the same day and not even an injury could stop her from waking up unharmed, ready to head to the Mariposa.
So, she had someone stab her to test her hunch that something wasn’t right. If her intuition had failed her, she could have died! Nonetheless, Maeve bravely followed her instincts.
Neo doesn’t have nearly as dramatic a call to action, but he’s willing to follow the White rabbit to Morpheus, someone off the internet that could have been a serial killer, to discover the Matrix. Lucky for Neo, Morpheus ended up being the real deal. But trusting complete strangers, like Trinity and Morpheus, was a risk he was willing to take to find out the truth about the Matrix.
They both chose their awakening
Maeve’s progression to sentience takes her to the Mesa, where Felix and Sylvester are tasked with patching up her stomach wound. Maeve wakes up right on the operating table and later forces them to adjust her attribute settings.
More from Winter is Coming
- For All Mankind finally gives us information in Episode 405, “Goldilocks”
- Watch a stunning VFX breakdown of The Wheel of Time season 2
- Of course Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) thinks Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen) should rule Westeros
- Confirmed: The Last of Us season 2 will air in 2025
- Final season of Star Trek: Discovery will have “a lot of action, a lot of adventure, a lot of fun”
Her awakening was finally witnessing that there are people who manage Maeve’s world for a living. But the stab wound was a result of her egging on one of the Mariposa patrons. Maeve made the decision, and when she was in the Mesa, she brought herself back online.
Neo, on the other hand, swallowed a pill. The red pill disconnected him from the Matrix, and he woke up in his true form plugged into a machine while wading in a tub of goo. Neo’s reality becomes clear in that tub.
All this time his life had been a lie simulated by a bunch of machines. He could have chosen the blue pill and would have ended up back at his 9 to 5 with no recollection of what happened, but like Maeve, he decided he wanted consciousness.
They both have superpowers
Maeve’s powers evolved into nonverbal commands on the hosts in the Shogun world, forcing the Shogun’s army to either kill themselves or kill each other. During a destitute situation, Maeve was able to tap into a power she never knew she had and she called this ability a new voice.
For most, this immediately conjured a mental image of the famous bullet scene in The Matrix where Neo puts up his hand causing bullets racing towards him to drop to the floor.
What’s impressive is that both Neo and Maeve had no idea that they were capable of such greatness. Even though Neo had been training for something like this all along, he cocked his head to the side in amazement at his new found power. For Neo, his talents were validation that he was the chosen one, but that’s just another way of saying Neo found a new voice.
Their new reality involves fighting their oppressor
Now that Maeve is free from her usual post as Madam at the Mariposa, life has a new meaning in Westworld. Her first mission is to find her daughter, but there are also new rules in how she mobilizes within Westworld.
Maeve may fear no host, but she is wary of human encounters. For the most part, coming across Delos staff meant that Maeve and her team had to put up a fight. She may have freed herself from the humdrum of working the brothel, but she is well aware that the humans are still the threat.
Neo and Morpheus’ team also are also vigilant of the machines that have control of the real world during their time spent on the Nebuchadnezzar. They avoid all sentinels even if it means hiding the ship and cutting the power. Neo’s new objective becomes recruiting people and re-entering the Matrix which forces him to fight the agents.
They both almost die and come to their own rescue
You can almost bet if the label of the chosen one is placed on a hero, there will be a life or death moment of hopelessness that will require the hero to save themselves. Neo is shot by Agent Smith too many times to count, and in the very last minute, when it seemed all hope was gone, he regained consciousness to save the day.
The same can be said of Maeve who was near death. After Ford activated Maeve’s core functions, she was able to come to her own aid. But I think the reoccurring idea is that their growth is reflected in their strength to survive. They no longer need to depend on someone else to rescue them.
Neo and Maeve align so well that you have to consider whether Maeve is a character modeled after the archetype of the chosen one. After all, Dolores may have seemed like the most likely one to become the savior of hosts, but now she seems to be on a darker mission. I think that Dolores’ frigid approach at rationalizing her goals to dominate humans is more in tune with Agent Smith.
Will Maeve’s new ambition be to save the hosts from the human world in season three? Don’t be surprised if Maeve completes the Neo arc in the coming seasons and becomes the resistance.
What do you think of the Neo/Maeve comparison? Share your thoughts below!