The year “The Matrix” came out — 1999 — already had a sci-fi ring to it. It was the year Prince had imagined as the run-up to the apocalypse, a premonition that would be echoed in the Y…
” came out — 1999 — already had a sci-fi ring to it. It was the year Prince had imagined as the run-up to the apocalypse, a premonition that would be echoed in the Y2K jitters. And 1999 is just such a cool number; it’s like the other side of the coin from 2001. With its row of nines poised to turn over, it sounded like the future embedded in the present, and that’s kind of how 1999 felt. We knew we were moving into the 21st century and we thought we had a good idea of what that was about.
It had already begun to change our movies, our day-to-day communication, our shopping , maybe our souls. And “The Matrix,” heralded by raindrop streams of phosphorescent green computer coding, tapped into all that without necessarily coming out the other side of it . It was a movie about unplugging from fake reality and plugging into real reality.
When “The Matrix” came out, there was a lot of chatter about what the Matrix was. What did the Grand Metaphor Of It All actually refer to? Some said that it was the Internet — which at the time I thought was an overly literal-minded reading, though it’s one that holds more water 20 years later.
Yet with two decades’ hindsight, the most telling dimension of the Matrix is that it exists, fundamentally, as a conspiracy: a virtual reality designed to hallucinate us into being good drones. The enduring legacy of “The Matrix” as a movie may be the perception that we’re living a lie — until we take the red pill and wake up, just like Neo. “Red-pilling” became a phrase in the culture, one driven by the shadow world of information on the Internet.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Thursday Box Office: ‘Sing 2’ Soars, ‘Matrix 4’ Struggles, ‘King’s Man’ FlopsSing 2 continued to play as the viable counterprogramming to Spider-Man: No Way Home just as Sing did likewise to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Read more »
New Movies to Watch This Week: ‘Matrix Resurrections,’ ‘A Journal for Jordan,’ ‘Don’t Look Up’Holiday movie season is upon us — though the release schedule has never been more confusing, with some blockbusters heading directly to streaming, others in theaters only and various independent fi…
Read more »
Matrix 4 Star Jessica Henwick Almost Quit Acting Before ResurrectionsPrior to appearing in TheMatrixResurrections, Jessica Henwick almost considered quitting acting altogether: 'I was in a weird space and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. I think I was going through a quarter-life crisis.'
Read more »
Box Office: Why ‘Sing 2’ Is Soaring While ‘Matrix 4’ Is Bombing'Sing' was popular five years ago while 'The Matrix' was popular two decades ago.
Read more »
The Matrix Resurrections Star Jessica Henwick Said Rian Johnson Was Obligated to Cast Her in Knives Out 2Jessica Henwick is gearing up to have a big year. The Game of Thrones and Iron Fist alum is [...]
Read more »
Jessica Henwick on 'The Matrix Resurrections,' Lana Wachowski, Rian Johnson’s 'Knives Out 2,' and the Russo Brothers ‘The Gray Man’We spoke w/ JessicaHenwick about TheMatrixResurrections, LanaWachowski, rianjohnson’s 'Knives Out 2,' and the Russo_Brothers ‘The Gray Man’
Read more »