When I think about The Matrix some phrases come to mind. “Follow the white rabbit.” “Mr. Wizard! Get me the hell out of here!” “Ignorance is bliss.” “There is no spoon.” Just to name a few. While “ignorance is bliss” is actually a Thomas Gray quote, Cypher (Joe Pantoliano) saying it while eating what looks like a delectable steak is poignant. My family stopped referring to Déjà vu and started saying “There’s a glitch in the Matrix,” when we experienced the sensation. When a situation required mind over matter we would say, “Remember, there is no spoon.” I’m certain my family aren’t the only people who experienced this major shift in the way we thought of things and spoke to each other. Over the years I’ve run into people who use lines from the movie in similar ways. I still refer to an amazing game of Volleyball where I matrixed the sh*t out of a play so the person behind me could make the dig to keep us in the game. If I’m telling the story in person, I even try to move my body out of the way of the incoming volleyball for you! I will admit that when I recently told this story the person I was speaking to understood the reference, but his teenage and younger children immediately asked, “What does that mean?” Or, scenes! A popular meme used is the choice between a blue pill and a red pill, which originated in this movie.
For those who haven’t seen this amazing film dealing with the rise of AI and the inevitable fall of humanity to our robot oppressors, Neo (Keanu Reeves) is a hacker who has stumbled on a question. “What is the Matrix?” When seeking this answer, he meets Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who vets him and passes him on to Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). He discovers that the Matrix is a human virtual reality experience that no one realizes they are trapped in. The real world is a ruined, hollowed husk, where all of humanity now resides in a single city: Zion.
This movie won several Academy Awards including Best Film Editing for Zach Staenberg and John T. Reitz, Best Sound for John T. Reitz, Gregg Rudloff. David E. Campbell, and David Lee, Best Sound Effects Editing for Dane A. Davis, Best Visual Effects for John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, and Jon Thum, and most recently a 2022 “Oscars Cheer Moment” nomination for
Neo’s Bullet Dodging Backbend, which I think of every time I tell my volleyball story. The work they did in creating this amazing moments in film was honored a second time in the Oscars’ Best Visual Effects (2000-2020) tribute video, which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2c7HYXsThQ
When a movie such as this comes out and makes everyone who sees it look at things in a new way, I think change is inevitable. While humanity has still forged forward towards AI, no doubt hoping to avoid the multiple entertainment options that have told us the second we stop thinking for ourselves all is lost, I do see people acting with reservation. People who know that the bad things we imagine in stories and screenplays can, and in some cases, have come to pass.
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Cori Domschot
Cori is a writer, wife, and mother to two adorable kiddos.
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Conversation
Remember Bullet Time? Such an incredible innovation. Apparently it’s still used to some degree, but I daresay we either get far more artificial effects or pure stunts.
Though the stuntwork here is pretty darned influential as well, especially with the emergence of Chad Stahelski as a director. Is there a through-line from The Matrix to the overdue arrival of an Oscar for best stunts.
I don’t know. But my guess would be it’s a contributing factor.
I was a little less impressed than most when it first came out because I felt the philosophical themes were sort of old hat. But of course I have a Philosophy degree; it certainly brought the idea of skepticism about reality to the mainstream. To wit (and in the spirit of the column), we used to call that the “brain in a vat” theory. Now undergrad Philosophy professors just say “imagine the Matrix were real.”
Anyway, watching it again (and many many times since), I realize that my original coolness was misplaced. It’s masterful in the way it brings action, style, *and* philosophy together in a way that had never been seen before (and basically not since except in other work by these directors).