The Matrix movie is an action film about artificial intelligence keeping humans in a simulated environment and the war between humans who have escaped from the simulation and the machines. But what exactly is this movie trying to tell us?

Before reading this, I suggest you also take a look at my article about artificial intelligence titled "Artificial Intelligence and Humanity".

In the following part of this article, I will provide information from The Matrix movie. If you haven't watched it yet, I recommend watching it before reading this.

What is The Matrix?

The Matrix is a program created by machines in which human bodies are imprisoned, and their minds are connected to a shared simulated environment.

The machines use human bodies as an energy source. People connected to the Matrix are unaware that they are living in a simulation. The Matrix we see in the movie is its fifth version, meaning there was more to the story before the movie. The events before The Matrix are depicted in the anime series Animatrix.

Up to this point, I've mainly talked about artificial intelligence imprisoning humanity. However, what the movie really wants from us is to question reality.

The first scene of the movie starts with a message on a computer screen: "Wake up, Neo... Follow the white rabbit." The doorbell rings, and Neo looks at the door, handing his client an illegal software hidden inside a book titled "Simulacra & Simulation". This book, written in 1981 by a French author, is a philosophical work about reality, symbols, and the relationship between society.

Within the same book, on the page containing the disk, we see the title "On Nihilism". Nihilism is a philosophical view that argues that everything is devoid of meaning and value. It is also known as a belief in nothingness. The fact that Neo is also in a search shows that he has a nihilistic perspective in the movie.

In the following scenes, the concept of reality is frequently brought up throughout the film. When Neo starts to fully understand the difference between the Matrix and reality, he begins to intervene in the laws of physics in the Matrix, i.e., the virtual reality environment.

This film, along with its action scenes, conveys this subject to the audience in a very engaging way. However, many viewers, including myself, initially watched this film only as an action movie. Some films make sense when watched a few more times. The Matrix is definitely one of those movies that should be watched repeatedly.

In short, as I mentioned at the beginning, this movie was made to make the audience question reality.

I also want to share something else about the movie: For The Matrix, the Wachowski siblings requested a budget of over $80 million from Warner Bros. However, Warner Bros. only gave them $10 million. The Wachowskis took a huge risk and used that money to shoot only the first 10 minutes of the film. After Warner Bros. watched the first 10 minutes, they liked the project and funded the full budget requested.

After reading this, I recommend rewatching the film series.