Hermeneutic Codes

In order to make our film convincing and true to its genre we have studied the hermeneutic codes and linked them to a film that is the same genre as our final project


Discuss how the Hermeneutic codes have been used in the opening sequence in a Film of your choice
The Matrix, 1999

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction thriller starring Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss. It’s directed by the Wachowski brothers. It is a story about the human race roughly 200 years in the future who live in a dystopian world under the rule of machines and AI.
The film starts with a telephone conversation that reveals two people speaking about one man. The audience is told that “they” are going to kill him, the man is refereed to as “the one”. This is a classic example of how only half truths are revealed to the audience, it poses more questions which causes the audience to want to know the answers.
This then leads to a sequence where the women on the phone is surrounded by police officers. This poses more questions as the audience is not sure why this women is being arrested. A snare is used after this which lets on a small snippet of information regarding the women. Outside the building where the women is, a car parks outside with the rest of the police squad cars, a man gets out and questions the leading officer there as to why they have pursued the women. The leading officer replies by saying “I think we can handle one little girl . . . [my men] are bringing her down now.” The man in the suit replies to the leading officer, “No lieutenant, your men are already dead.” This is a snare as the audience is shown that this women is a dangerous person, but not told why, an example of how only some information is reveled in the narrative and a good example of a snare.
An action sequence of the squad the leading officer sent up is then shown being overcome by the one women. This reveals how dangerous she is, another small snippet of information. She then speaks on a phone to a different character, she states how “the line was traced” and that she “needs to find another exit”, to which the man gives her the location of a phone.
The audience is unaware of what exit she means or who traced the phone line. This is an example of equivocation, truths being revealed through the narrative, but with the use of snares to ask more questions.
Another action sequence after this is shows the woman escaping the building after she defeats the group of officers. One part shows the woman and one of the men in suits jumping over the roofs of two buildings between the street; a super human feat. This asks more questions as the audience wonders how it is possible for a human to do this. This is a half truth, the woman and man are show to posses these abilities but it is not revealed how they are able to do them. It is also shown how only these two can do this as the other police officers stop at the edge of the building, one of them says, “That’s impossible”
The next sequence shows her running down a street and seeing the phone booth mentioned earlier to her by the man on a phone. A rubbish truck on the street she is running on. It stops in a dramatic skid and stops in a position where both are pointing at the phone booth. The woman looks at the phone booth as the rubbish truck starts to accelerate towards it. She rushes into the phone booth and and answers just before the truck smashes into the booth. As it pulls away the men in suits emerge and it is revealed that her body is not in the crumpled phone booth. One of the men in suits talks about how they have found the name of their next target, Neo and that a search for this person has already begun. This is a snare as only half truths are revealed.
Overall the use snares and partial answers causes lots of questions to be asked. This causes the audience to watch the rest of the film as they want to know the answers to these questions, this is the hermeneutic code.