Almost every name in The Matrix means something, from Neo being an anagram of "one," to Trinity and Zion being obvious Biblical references, to the name Morpheus pointing out that Laurence Fishburne in a trench coat is goddamn dreamy.
Then there's Cypher, Morpheus' treacherous crew member, played by Joe Pantoliano.
Warner Bros.
Whose name might as well have been Villain McTraitorface
In the first movie, Cypher kills half of Morpheus' crew in one fell swoop, which you should really should've expected from a guy named after the devil.
Movies and TV have been using variations on the name "Lucifer" for years. There's Bill Cipher in Gravity Falls, Louis Cyphre in Angel Heart, and Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, (that means "the Cipher" in French). Sure, Matrix's Cypher could have been named after an old word for "zero," making him the binary opposite of Neo ("the one"). But that's the advanced theory. Maybe the real explanation is that he's just another bad guy named after the devil. But that would imply that The Matrix seems a lot smarter than it actually is, and that can't be true ...
Matt Cowan is a columnist here at Cracked, as well as the most prolific children's book author not on the scene today. You can find some of his pop culture mashup T-shirt designs here. Tara Marie writes a lot. You can follow her on Twitter and see what comics she thinks you should be reading at Comics Alliance.
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