Movies - Merovingian

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	Movies - Merovingian

The Merovingian is a character (played by Lambert Wilson) in the movies The Matrix Reloaded
and The Matrix Revolutions
. He is a powerful and dangerous program with the persona of an elitist and bourgeois, mannered French gourmet and powerbroker who enjoys fine pleasantries and scintillating banter. He is married to Persephone, who resents his philandering. The Merovingian is the leader of a group of Exiles, employs The Twins and others as his henchmen, holds the Keymaker prisoner, and controls the Trainman.

However, even though the Merovingian has many guards and is thus considered powerful, it is unknown if he has fighting capacity. This is not likely, since the only time when he was face to face with Neo, he fled (in The Matrix: Reloaded, after Neo dispatched his guards).

Trivia and Speculation on the Merovingian's Origin and function

The Merovingian was named for the Merovingian dynasty of Frankish kings.
When The Oracle
speaks to Neo
of "vampires, ghosts, and werewolves," she is foreshadowing his encounter with the Merovingian and his entourage, which includes programs that appear to be ghosts, vampires, and werewolves, such as The Twins
, who can alter their bodies at will to become incorporeal. These henchmen are likely programs that the Merovingian had saved from an older version of the Matrix where they were used to control humans. However, according to Persephone, these monsters created more problems than they solved.
The Merovingian states that he has survived all of Neo's predecessors. Persephone
also reveals that the Merovingian used to be "like Neo" when she speaks of his past when she fell in love with him.
Speculation exists that the Merovingian is some sort of vampire, or even a previous One. (Note that the floor number of the Merovingian's restaurant in The Matrix Reloaded is 101, a number that appears throughout the Matrix movies in places where Neo frequents). However, Lambert Wilson explicitely stated in an interview that he is not.
Another theory is based on the number-play seen throughout the trilogy (i.e. Trinity is first seen in room 303, and Neo in room 101): The Merovingian's restaurant is named "Le Vrai" (which means "The True" in French), and the initials "LV" appear on many of its walls. However, "LV" is also Roman numerals for "55", which given the previous number-play scheme could refer to "5". The Architect told Neo that there had been 5 "Ones" before Neo. Also, when the Merovingian is first seen at his table, he has 5 glasses at his seat, while Persephone (perhaps his analog of Trinity) has three chocolates on her plate.
There is also speculation from fans that the Merovingian was intentionally created by the Machines as yet another "form of control"; in this case being a program created specifically to contain and control rogue programs within the Matrix. Also, symbolically, the Serpent from the Bible. He represents an alternative to the pious aspects of Machine life/culture.
Based on the allusions in the movie of Persephone (in Greek myth, the kidnapped wife of Hades, god of the underworld) and the name of his nightclub, Club Hel, the information in the movies appear to support the Merovingian's origin as one of the major elder influences of the Matrix's creation. Perhaps the Merovingian was the program that added cause-effect elements to Matrix beta 2 (the second version of the Matrix described by the Architect
that also resulted in failure) to bring a level of simulated choice in order to keep human minds from rejecting it. This is further supported by the Oracle's
comment to Neo that the Merovingian is "one of the oldest of" programs such as she. Since the Oracle was key in creating a successful Matrix, this justifies the Merovingian's actions in trying to kill the Oracle: He may be jealous.
The Merovingian's speech that there is "no free will in the world, only lines of causality" closely mirrors the works of the philosopher Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes said that there are only lines of cause and effect in life, and the best one can do is enjoy oneself in life with material pleasures, which the Merovingian does in abundance. This is interesting because Neo and Morpheus seem to represent Socrates in the Matrix trilogy; the Matrix itself could be viewed as a modern-day version of Plato's allegory of the Cave, in which Socrates (in this case Neo) urges people to break out of the Cave that they think is the real world (the Matrix) to be free in the Real World. Hobbes was a major critic of Socrates' works and believed in the exact opposite of his teachings.

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