This conversation occurs in the “Enter the Matrix” video game:
O: Niobe
N: Do I know you?
O: You know me though you just may not recognize me.
N: Are you telling me that you are the Oracle?
O: I know this may not be easy for any of you, change never is. I wish the face you remember was still the face I was wearing but that face is gone. [A different actress had to be used due to the untimely death of Gloria Foster.]
N: If you are the Oracle tell me if I believe you are.
O: You don’t right now but you will.
N: Are you going to tell me something to make me believe you?
O: Come on Niobe, you know I can’t do that.
N: Why not?
O: Because I cannot make you do anything.
N: At least you sound the same.
O: As I said, you may not recognize the face but who and what I am underneath remains the same.
N: Can I ask what happened?
O: The Merovingian warned me that if I made a certain choice it would cost me. He is, among other things, a man of his word.
N: What was the choice?
O: The same one you yourself will have to make, the choice to help Neo or not.
N: Then Neo is still alive?
O: Yes, he touched the Source and separated his mind from his body. Now he lies trapped in a place between your world and ours.
N: Can we free him?
O: Trinity can, but she will have to fight her way through hell to do it.
N: Can I help?
O: That’s why I called you. I cannot tell you what is going to happen. All I can do is hope that if given the chance you will find the courage to do what you can.
N: You once told me you knew everything you need to.
O: I do. I know everything from the beginning of this path to the end.
N: I don’t understand?
O: Even I can’t see beyond the end.
N: The end? Are you trying to tell me the world is going to end?
O: Yes, if we do not save it, it will end.
N: You mean Neo.
O: I mean we. The path of the One is made by the many. I have a role to play just as you have yours.
So what do we learn from this?
This transcript confirms several things:
The Matrix-within-a-Matrix theory is dead. Note how the Oracle makes reference to “your world and ours.” That is because the real world is the human world (“your world”) and the virtual world – the world within the Matrix and the Source mainframe – is the machine world (“ours”). This fits in perfectly with what the Architect tells Neo, making reference to Zion as outside the Matrix both in terms of its impending destruction and in noting that Trinity “entered the Matrix” – meaning that she was outside it – in order to save Neo’s life.
[BTW I don’t think that the Architect’s statements concerning Trinity represent an attempt on the Architect’s part to “influence” Neo to choose the left door. Actually the comments are evidence of the opposite intention. What the Architect is telling Neo is that Trinity will die regardless, whether in the Matrix or in the real world (when the sentinels take out Zion), and -- more importantly -- she was willing to sacrifice herself for others, just as the Architect is trying to get Neo to do, by urging him to choose the right door and refound Zion.]
Second, we learn that both the Architect and the Oracle see this as the end of the world. Of course the Architect sees it only as that – the end, whereas the Oracle sees that the world can also be saved. So although the world, as it has existed, is going to end a new beginning is possible. That new beginning depends upon the One. That new beginning does not represent a victory for either side: “I mean we.” So Neo holds the potential for reconciliation between humans and machine, something that the Oracle foresaw but the Architect did not.
Third, the Merovingian wants to prevent this new beginning. (Presumably, so does former Agent Smith.) This we pretty much knew already, but here is more evidence.
Fourth, somehow Neo was able to transcend the barrier between the machine world and the real world. This explains the two puzzling aspects of Reloaded that defenders of the Matrix-within-the-Matrix theory felt supported the theory. Neo must have gained the ability to transcend worlds after he entered the Source (Architect: “although the process has altered your consciousness you remain irrevocably human”) but did not actually exercise it until he “felt” the sentinels. Upon exercising this ability in order to halt the sentinels his “mind and body separated” and his consciousness became lodged in the “nether world” between machine and human reality. Presumably the same occurred to Smith/Bane, who as we have seen, also obtained the ability to transcend worlds and also was in a coma-like state at the conclusion of Reloaded. Perhaps this is where Neo and Smith duel to see who survives – i.e., the scene in the rain shown in the trailer at the end of the credits for Reloaded.
Fifth, may the reconciliation of machines and humans somehow involve all them eventually being able to transcend the barriers between two worlds, thereby granting machines access to human emotions and feelings and humans access to machine… what exactly? Logic and reason? Eternal life? Does this mean that machines may take over bodies on a rent-a-body basis? Or that humans will be able to live on past the death of their bodies? And will both machine/humans continue to enslave human bodies as a power source and/or as vehicles to experience the real world (sounds unlikely)? Or will humans continue to reside in bodies and machines continue to live in the mainframe but communication be opened between the two on a permanent basis (much more likely)? Or perhaps only the One will be able to freely enter both but in so doing Neo will force both to accept a new order that frees both machines and humans from dependence on the Matrix….
It certainly sounds as if the prophecy will be fulfilled, just not in the fashion that believers like Morpheus ever expected. Let the speculation begin!
[Update: 6/9/03 1:30 PST, introduced hanging indents]
1:33:01 PM 
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