That line sticks with me. The Wachowskis are attempting to explore what sci-fi folks have been writing and making movies about for decades. From the jedis in Star Wars to the replicants in Blade Runner, these folks have tried to mesh science, society and spirituality in interesting ways and in the case of Reloaded, The Matrix is a real world, a postmodern world.

The Matrix is the consequence of modernity: architecure, technology, external power, etc. The world appears real but it only reflects what people project or perceive. Neo is not a program. He can choose and it is choice that is not pre-destined or predetermined. I think the movie also speaks to people's level of programming or conditioning, how far down the rabbit hole they go before they stop (awareness). Zion is the most awake. At the top are the "batteries' fueling The Matrix.

Morpheus believes that Neo has transcended all of that. He is the (chosen) One, the force that revolves around it all.

>had
>a "real" goal to "free" humans from the control of the
>machines, but now that the "liberated humans" are STILL in
>the matrix, whats the point????

The only real way to be free is to free the mind. That's what Neo was able to do. He was able to liberate himself and transcend his programming. Remember when Neo was just a guy with a regular name, working a regular job but inside his head was a thought that everything was an illusion? I don't think that illusion was physical. This is what so many sci-fi books and movies are trying to explore: the condition of postmodernity, a world that exists to maintain the a status quo, layers upon layers of conditioning or programming and the protagonist who attempts to free his mind/spirit.

Neo represents some kind of quantum phenomenon, his life is a process of manifestation growing exponentially in each cycle, getting stronger gathering steam. His reality has transcended even Zion. This is part sci-fi, part Tao and Buddha, and even part Christianity. It's all that in a postmodern world where nothing is as it seems.

The next step is the void, emptying out all the mess and I hope starting again.