The Matrix

For a movie about perception of reality, I had not realized how much the movie spoke about destiny. Seriously, the film is filled with it.

I found it interesting that there are several competing "destinies" for Neo. Most obviously, there is the one believed by Morpheus, that Neo is The One, who will be the salvation of mankind from The Matrix. There is also the destiny that the machines have in mind for him. In their consciousness, Neo is an anomaly, a problem who's only ineveitable end is eradication at their hands.

Throughout the story, these two destinies conflict and converse, as Neo himself seeks to find out what he is destined to be, or even if he can or ought to make his own destiny. Neo says that he doesn't believe in fate "because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life," but

"You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

And then there's the part where shortly after being introduced Morpheus says to Neo: "You see, you may have spent the last few years looking for me, but I've spent my entire life looking for you." If that's not the gospel, I don't know what is. The only difference is, where Morpheus was looking to Neo for salvation, God is looking to us to give salvation. But the pursuit is definitively his to begin with.