Words are inadequate

My first question is to how, precisely, those programs of ghosts and werewolves and whatnot were simply earlier matrix programs if they were still referred to, even if only in whispers, in the current Matrix. Why would rumors of them persist- surely, there weren't that many of them spared, were there? Unless, of course, they were just another manifestation of the whole 'hostile world' the Matrix was supposed to project, in which case, my compliments to directors.

Well, they were still there, working for the merovingian. So technically, they still exist in the world, and rumor of them could have spread over the years. I get the impression he rescued a few dozen each of the dobermen and vampires. (lead by cujo and vlad, respectively). Also, thining about it... They don't kill everyone in the matrix, and then restock it, everytime this happens. It'd take them decades to build the population back up again. They've already established they can wipe memories, and, presumably then, implant them too. Cypher was assured that he'd have no memory of not being in the matrix, and would have his dream life. But the human mind is a complicated thing - after all, they learned they couldn't just impose what they wanted, they had to trick us into staying, and give us a choice, even if we didn't know it. So I suspect we have deeply buried memories of the previous attempts. Hence the memories of the garden of eden. And memories of times when vampires, werewolves, and ghosts *did* roam the world. After a while, it'd just be a collective unconcious thing. People who were alive during a reset would have nightmares about the previous version, and it would get into the culture. So even though we weren't alive a hundred years ago during the last reset, the authors who wrote the books that spark the legends were, not that they knew it...

Also, one thing that didn't strike me until long after I'd left the theater- whatever happened to Smith had some pretty enormous effects- it actually enabled him to leave the matrix.

Yea. Smith, in a way, got what he wanted. Out of the matrix. Except he was thinking, back to the machine world.

Another question- if the floor is one that 'no elevator can reach', then how do they get there?

I figured the keymaker took them there through the programmers corridor off screen.

Also- the councilor mentions that he's been free since he was eleven. If Zion's been destroyed five times over the past century, wouldn't someone of his age remember it?

No, it's been much longer than a hundred years. It's been a hundred years since the last time.

Remember, they kill everyone not in the matrix, and destroy the city. Then free 23 people, who think, as Morpheus explained, that "a person arose who could control the matrix, and freed the first of us." They then "found" zion, not knowing about the previous attempts, and begin the rebellion, leading to the factors that create the prophesied next "One". It took a century this time. Hume has probably been alive for about half the time the current Zion has existed; might possible have even known some of the founders.

It adds irony to his little talk about co-existing with zion's machines. I bet the machine-world arranged for the previous 23 to stumble across caches of carefully selected technology that would allow them to survive in the wrecked world...