Seraph asks the Oracle, “Did you always know?”, and the Oracle says she didn’t know, but that she “believed.” This is the last line of the movie, and it is no coincidence, because it is perhaps the most important line out of all three movies: the Oracle is the first machine or program to make a choice that traditional machines and programs wouldn’t understand: a choice based on hope/faith, and a choice that the Oracle herself therefore could not see beyond.
Not only does the period of time covered in the movies represent the complete disruption of Matrix/Zion cycles in the timeline of machines and humans, it also represents a point in time where machines evolve one step closer to being able to understand human irrationality. It is totally unlike a machine or program to risk its entire existence over a gamble that carries such poor odds of working out, since so much of the Oracle’s plan depends on the irrational choices she counts on others to make.
Neo won a victory for both humans and machines, winning a deal to allow Zion to survive and allowing people the conscious choice of peacefully rejecting the Matrix in favor of a more brutal but "real" reality in exchange for eliminating the Smith virus. But the Oracle also won a victory for both humans and machines by bringing them one step closer to an understanding that would make the 100-year Matrix cycle unnecessary. Remember that the only purpose for the One is to encapsulate all anomalies within the Matrix that result from human choice that the decision makers themselves don't understand. Once machines are able to fully grasp the irrationality of humans making decisions they don't even understand, machines will no longer need The One because those irrational decisions will not be anomalies. Machines will also therefore no longer need Zion (to train the One), and rejection of the Matrix would no longer occur.
Oracle: You have to. Neo: Why? Oracle: Because you're The One. Neo: What if I can't? What happens if I fail? Oracle: Then Zion will fall. |
At first it doesn't make sense that Zion would be destroyed just because Neo can't understand why he wants to save Trinity. But this is because the Oracle is the only way Zion can be saved - only through her insanely powerful "baking noodle" guidance does everyone end up doing what needs to be done in order for both Zion and machines to survive (see Oracle: Baking Noodles).
It's interesting to note that machines purge the Oracle at the beginning of the Analyst's Matrix, despite the fact that she can see further into the future than the Analyst can. When the Oracle can't see beyond an irrational choice, she can figure out why the choice is irrational, and usually deduce what the choice was. The Analyst can't seem to even do that much, because if he could, he would have foreseen Trinity in Simulatte making her choice. His vision would have ended at the point when Trinity was at the Simulatte doorway, ready to exit the coffee shop, deciding to finally embrace her true identity. The Analyst never would have agreed to have Trinity come to Simulatte and speak with Neo if he had known how it would turn out.
Having this unique and incredible talent to see far into the future is obviously not something Machine society valued. Her value to them simply had to do with the fact that she could generate power for machines without entire crops being lost. In fact, machines place so little value on preserving "the eyes of the Oracle" that the Oracle is purged, even knowing that she is not passing her "vision" on to any other machine or program.
It's easy for outsiders of a society - Zionists, Ionists, or even ourselves (the audience watching M4) - to see the horrible tragedy of squashing out of existence the incredible and invaluable sentience of the Oracle. But seen from within machine society, the Oracle would be analogous to a dangerous far-left or far-right non-governmental entity that has more power to influence society than the government and press combined. This isn't just a theoretical, potential danger. It is a proven danger, already responsible for almost making the entirety of machine and human civilization go extinct, and ultimately, responsible for causing a giant exodus of humans from the Matrix, finally leading machine society to war over scarce energy. There isn't a society anywhere, anytime that wouldn't want to snuff out of existence a person/organization like the Oracle, if given the opportunity.
Oracle: You'll remember you don't believe in any of this fate crap. You're in control of your own life, remember?
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What must seem so funny to the Oracle as she says this to Neo is that free will and fate do not conflict with each other as they exist in the Matrix.
Imagine that you ask a couple of children to pick one ball out of a bag full of multi-colored balls. Alice picks a green ball, and Mitch picks a blue ball. As you witness these choices, you would think that free will determined the outcome. But if you move time in the opposite direction, rewinding through these choices, it would appear that Alice and Mitch were fated to choose green and blue balls. As you move time forward and backward, it seems that there is only one possible way the balls could have been chosen by Mitch and Alice. If you were the Oracle and these choices hadn't been made yet, you would still be seeing the world "without time," and therefore you could still see that these choices have already been made.
Therefore, from the Oracle's point of view, all that is left is to understand each choice that is made. The Merovingian supports this idea by saying that the "why" of things is all that matters. However, the Merovingian comes to the conclusion through different reasons than the Oracle (see Merovingian: The Power of Why).
Despite seeing choices already made before they happen, the choices are still being made. Strangely, the Oracle's vision that seems to "fate" events to happen from her point of view does not contradict the idea that people are still exercising free will from their point of view.
| Back to Oracle |
 Oracle: Choice |
 Oracle: The Believer |