Neo's Ship (Full Sail Assignment)

Mr. Thomas Anderson used to be a programmer for a “respectable” software company until he was informed of the fact that everything he knew was a big, elaborate hoax. He realized that the world he lived in was an immense computer program controlled by several million lines of green-character coding called the Matrix. It was this new knowledge that started a chain of events that led to him being freed from his computer written prison and become the hero that saves the entire human race from extinction. His name was Thomas Anderson, that day he became who you probably know him as, Neo.

The path to greatness and heroism is paved with many treacherous and dangerous missions. At any point in time it may be called upon you to give your life to protect what you fight for. What isn’t typically explained in these stories is that, even heroes must accomplish the same mundane tasks that the most common of people perform on a daily basis. Today is a day like that for Neo.

It was a day like any other when Morpheus came in to the Nebuchadnezzar’s hull and asked where Neo was. After being informed that he was in his quarters doing yoga, Morpheus set about to give him his task for the day. He knocked at the door and Neo answered. He explained that the ship was in complete disarray, the Matrix feed room was disgusting, the cockpit was covered in filth, and that the mess hall actually wasn’t all that bad. His urgency fueled Neo to promptly finish his downward dog stance and get on the task of cleaning this ship.

He began with the Matrix feed room. He looked around the room and there was dirt, dust, and grime on everything. The chairs were covered with a thick film of grease and the matrix monitors had smudges all over the screens. He looked around the room in disbelief and said only one word in his monotonous whisper, “Whoa.” He got to it, scrubbing the seats and wiping down the screens. He put an enormous amount of elbow grease in to the tedious back and forth motions that come with ensuring that everything had the right amount of shine. He didn’t seem to be getting very far despite his many hours of tireless effort. He stepped back to examine his incomplete work. It looked as though nothing had been done. He threw his head back in disgusted frustration and with a loud, exasperated cry he drew his nine millimeter and fired it loudly in to the air until the clip was emptied. The noise got the attention of Trinity who was in the next room eating noodles. She ran in to see what all the noise was about. “What on earth is going on in here?” she exclaimed angrily. Neo composed himself and calmly responded, “I know kung fu.”  She shook her head in confusion at what was just said, but this was Neo, he made his own kind of sense. He stared at her with a steely gaze of determination until she finally became uncomfortable and left the room.

Neo realized that he had to tackle this task from a different angle. So, with the help of frantic techno music playing in the background, he jacked in to the Matrix in search of the oracle. In a seconds time he was clad in all black with his signature trench coat and sunglasses. He looked around to make sure no one was watching him and he pushed off from the ground and flew over the endless cities that stretched out in maze-like patterns throughout the Matrix. He flew in through the oracles window and landed in her living room. From the surprised look on her face, no young man had been coming through her window in a long time. She relaxed a little and said, “I know why you’re here.” Neo’s jaw tightened at the thought of his unclean ship. “There is a special sort of mindset that you must have,” the oracle continued, “If you wish to complete this task. You must believe in yourself. You already know you are The One but you must believe you can become more.” With the slightest of nods Neo acknowledged the oracle’s wise words. Armed with his new mindset and a couple of new quotes for movie critics to make fun of, he flew out of the oracles room and started towards his exit. He landed a block away from a ringing telephone. He picked up the phone and was instantly back in his decrepit Matrix feed room.

He stood in the center of the room and looked around, “Something’s different.” He said in his signature cool monotone. He saw the room in thousands of lines of green code and knew what he had to do. He lifted his hand to the room and in a loud declaration shouted, “My name is Neo!” Instantly, a white ball of healing code lines eradicated all of the dust, dirt, grime, and insects. “It is done.” He declared with a huge sense of accomplishment. Morpheus walked in to the room and his eyes grew wide with amazement. Neo smiled a cocky half smile and as he walked past he put his hand on Morpheus’s shoulder and said, “I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end, I’m here to tell you how it’s going to begin.” With that, he left Morpheus standing there, in his newly cleaned ship, trying to understand what he meant.