The Matrix - Influences

Influences

The Matrix is arguably the ultimate cyberpunk artifact.

The Matrix draws from numerous earlier works in the science fiction and action genres, and the film can also be seen as belonging to the epic genre. The movie makes numerous references to recent films and literature, and to historical myths, religions and philosophies. The Matrix's premise resembles the Ancient Greek aphorism "know thyself", Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, Calderón de la Barca's Life is a Dream, René Descartes's evil genius, Kant's reflections on phenomena versus the Ding an sich, Edwin Abbott Abbott's Flatland, George Gurdjieff's The Sleeping Man, and the brain in a vat thought experiment.

In The Matrix, a copy of Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and Simulation is visible on-screen, and Morpheus quotes its phrase "desert of the real". The book was required reading for the actors prior to filming. However, Baudrillard commented that The Matrix misunderstands and distorts his work.

In Postmodern thought, interpretations of The Matrix often reference Baudrillard's philosophy to demonstrate that the movie is an allegory for contemporary experience in a heavily commercialized, media-driven society, especially of the developed countries. The influence of the matrixial theory of Bracha Ettinger articulated in a series of books and essays from the end of the 1980s onwards was brought to the public's attention through the writings of art historians such as Griselda Pollock and film theorists such as Heinz-Peter Schwerfel.

There are similarities to several works by science fiction author Philip K. Dick, as well as cyberpunk works such as Neuromancer by William Gibson. The film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel.

Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence. Producer Joel Silver has stated that the Wachowskis first described their intentions for The Matrix by showing him that anime and saying, "We wanna do that for real". Mitsuhisa Ishikawa of Production I.G, which produced Ghost in the Shell, noted that the anime's high-quality visuals were a strong source of inspiration for the Wachowskis. He also commented, "... cyberpunk films are very difficult to describe to a third person. I'd imagine that The Matrix is the kind of film that was very difficult to draw up a written proposal for to take to film studios". He stated that since Ghost in the Shell had gained recognition in America, the Wachowskis used it as a "promotional tool". Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was another science fiction film that helped inspire the visual style of The Matrix.

The film makes several references to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The pods in which the machines keep humans have been compared to images in Metropolis, and the work of M. C. Escher.

Reviewers have commented on similarities between The Matrix and other late-1990s films such as Strange Days, Dark City, and The Truman Show. Comparisons have also been made to Grant Morrison's comic series The Invisibles; Morrison believes that the Wachowskis essentially plagiarized his work to create the film. Comparisons have also been made between The Matrix and the books of Carlos Castaneda. In addition, the similarity of the film's central concept to a device in the long-running series Doctor Who has also been noted. As in the film, the Matrix of that series (introduced in the 1976 serial The Deadly Assassin) is a massive computer system which one enters using a device connecting to the head, allowing users to see representations of the real world and change its laws of physics; but if killed there, they will die in reality.

In 2003 Gothamist.com has suggested that "the Matrix films could be read with a whole new subtext with the news of the dominatrix ": Temet Nosce.