Why does Morpheus believe Neo is the One

Is it ever stated in any of the films or in the animatrix why Morpheus persued and was certain that Neo was the one before even meeting him.

He seemed to have made his decision that Neo was the One before setting him free but why?

Considering Neo's life before being introduced - He had a simple job, okay he was also a hacker (but who isn't nowadays), they never show him with any high moral standing or physical attributes, so why him?

Please use evidence from source material and not simply speculation

plot-explanation the-matrix

Best Answer

The Original Movie script (post adaptation) sheds some light on this:

I believed that all I had to do was point my finger and anoint whoever I chose. I was wrong, Neo. Terribly wrong. Not a day or night passes that I do not think of them. After the fifth, I lost my way. I doubted everything the Oracle had said. I doubted myself.

And then I saw you, on the Net, searching for me and everything changed. I felt this charge, this electricity through my whole body. I started laughing and tears poured out of my eyes, because I knew, I knew that you were the One.

As you allude to in the phrasing of your question, Morpheus doesn't know who the one is, but he believes it to be Neo; and for Morpheus, belief is everything. It can move Mountains.

Interestingly, Neo is not the first 'One' that Morpheus has discovered, and there have been at least 5 other candidates of his selection:

CYPHER I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. Now don't tell him I told you this, but this ain't the first time Morpheus thought he found the One.

NEO Really?

CYPHER You bet your ass. It keeps him going. Maybe it keeps all of us going.

NEO How many were there?

CYPHER Five. Since I've been here.

NEO What happened to them?

CYPHER Dead. All dead.

NEO How?

CYPHER Honestly. Morpheus. He got them all amped up believing in bullshit. I watched each of them take on an agent and I watched each of them die. Little piece of advice: you see an agent, you do what we do; run. Run your ass off.

It seems that Morpheus method of choice for initiating potential candidates is to remove the possibility of doubt that they may not be the one, and supplant it with absolute faith. Perhaps, as is proven to be true, The One cannot manifest their true potential unless they undergo 'a revelation', and this is only possible without doubt.

This blind faith could perhaps be a subterfuge by Morpheus to encourage The One, which would go some way to explaining why he appears shocked, dumbfounded even, when it emerges that Neo is infact The One.