Genre Analysis of The Matrix: Science Fiction and Social Commentary

This essay provides a comprehensive genre analysis of the film "The Matrix," examining its science fiction elements, philosophical allusions, and social commentary. The analysis delves into the film's portrayal of virtual reality, the concept of "the One," and the themes of anti-utopian fiction. The essay explores how the film uses extensive intertextuality, modern graphics, and special effects to widen the view of the sci-fi genre. It also discusses the incorporation of artificial intelligence, pseudo-sophisticated intellectualism, and the concept of the "big Other." Furthermore, the essay examines the film's paranoiac twist, the role of Neo as the savior, and the ultimate conclusion of the virtual world resulting in the multiplication of realities. The essay utilizes academic sources to support its arguments and explores the film's influence on the industry of cinematography.

Running head: GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
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Author Note

1GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
The Matrix (1999), directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski, is a movie that contains
the fusion of literary, philosophical and spiritual allusiveness and is recognized as one of the
most exclusive and influential film of the genre fiction. Through the magnification and
exploration of genre fiction, the move has opened a new era in focusing and magnifying such
genre in the industry of cinematography. The Matrix, centralizes on the notion of reality
perceived through the computer generated interactive world and projects the meaning of the
‘actual’ reality (Zizek). The movie reflects the genre of science fiction through the world
created by a computer program called Matrix. In this world, the humans live and
communicate with each other the way they live and interact in the real world. These concepts
are introduced in the movie giving birth to anti-utopian fiction, the dimension where every
worst fear are brought in the reality through the computer generated interactive world. The
vision of science fiction in the movie has grabbed four Oscars (Zizek). The sequels of the
movie were released in the year 2003, that is, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix
Revolutions. The paper focuses on the deliverance of an in-depth analysis of the genre fiction
revealed in the movie through the use two elements, namely, Science fiction and action.
The Matrix widens the view of the sci-fi genre through various ways, for example, the
use of extensive intertextuality, provided with modern graphics and special effects. In
addition, it projects the modern cinematography and new filming techniques (Zizek). The
matrix through the employment of artificial intelligence machine and after-effects of
experimental techniques like nuclear testing and genetic engineering facilitates the viewers
with the insights of future. The movie incorporates the traits of pseudo- sophisticated
intellectualism provided with refined psychoanalytic and philosophical conceptual
distinctions (Zizek). The idea of the protagonist or the hero living in an artificial world, a
controlled and manipulative dimension magnifies the trait of fiction and further the movie,
The Matrix, is recognized as the spark of introducing the virtual reality with a prevailing

2GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
factor of fiction in the of film industry. Virtual reality marks the simulated experience of
reality that tends to bring the notion of ‘real’ reality provided with the consequences that are
undermined in the very essence of ‘real’ reality. The fantasy of every individual is the fictious
space that is explored in the movie is constructed with the realistic feature of the real world
resembling the real life and the real life is deprived of the actual inertia and weight of the
materiality.
The falsity of The Matrix is majorly noticed in the designation of the character Neo as
“the One”. The One signifies the authoritative element of one of the Master-Signifier. In Ihe
Matrix, the One is identified as the one who is able to view the reality even in the framework
of falsified reality (Zizek). Neo is the One who sees through the codified virtual dimension
and its dynamics in order to unplug the error and threats. The One has the power to
manipulate and suspend the rules such as ability of flying in the air, or the power of stopping
the bullets. The One himself becomes the virtualization of the reality in the dimension of
falsified dimension of reality, that is, the artificial construct of the reality where the rules can
be suspended provided with the paranoiac elemental notion that the One can deal the
resistance of the Real (Constable). The impossibility such as walking through thick walls is
projected and embraced by the One in order to decrease the failure of will of the subject
(Zizek). However, the movie does not delve deeper much yet it retains the crucial scene
through the psychoanalytic views of philosophies. The Matrix, focuses on the specifications
of falsity through the employment of the technologies thereby, the movie successfully
incorporates the fantasmatic falsity, for instance, the functioning of time machine is
impossible but in the paradigm of fantasmatic scenarios the idea of time machine is ‘true’.
These experiences are consistent throughout the movie provided with witness of the fact that
reality is fictious (Constable). However, at the end of the movie, the agent of the Matrix,
Smith, provides a Freudian explanation, in which the first Matrix is recognized to be the

3GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
perfect human civilization of the world. Following it, some believed, the lack of progress in
the technology and programming language is identified as a barrier towards developing an
ideal human world. According to Freud, it is the human misery and sufferings through which
reality is defined. The ideal world is felt through dreams and is designed by human’s
cerebrum that keeps on waking up (Zizek). Thereby, the Matrix was re-constructed and was
considered to be the peak of human civilization. The trait of horror is incorporated as the real
element of the reality in the world of virtual reality. The genre of science fiction horror
facilitates the reflex actions caused due to the catastrophic destruction that involves the
themes of paranoia, survivalism, ideologies and devastation (Constable). The reality of terror
is synchronized through the exercise of the Matrix. With the help of Matrix one is transported
to the fictional world of the horror.
The Matrix delivers the virtual symbolic order of the network that constructs the
reality for the people. The concept of “big other” is the constitutional trait of alienation of the
subject (Constable). It accounts on the subject in the symbolic order that never dominates the
effects of the actions. Following it the separation takes place when the subjects understands
the magnitude of the big Other that is present in itself inconsistently, that is further recognizes
as the virtual, barred or deprived away from the particular thing. It further leads to fantasy
that attempts to fill out lack of the ‘Othe’r. Therefore, it is concluded that paranoia and
fantasy are synchronized to each other (Zizek). Following it, The Matrix involves the
paranoiac twist in the scenes revealing that the ‘big Other’ is exposed in the reality of existing
computer. And the belief that emphasizes that there has to be the presence of the Matrix as
things are not rights, situations are devastated, and even opportunities are missed. The
problems and the horrors or the turmoil is what the movie exposes as the idea of true reality.
The fundamental fantasy is staged through the final inconsistencies that concerns the
liberation of humanity revealed by Neo in the final scene. Following it, due to Neo’s

4GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
intervention, the Matrix undergoes system failure. On the other hand, Neo simultaneously
addresses people caught in the Matrix as the Savior (Kilbourn). He is the One who
concentrates to teach them how to free themselves from the flaws of the Matrix (Constable).
The capabilities are that they were able to break the physical laws, suspend the rules like
bending metals and flying in the air. The fundamental fantasy is projected through the
miracles which are possible to exercise within the virtual reality of the space that is sustained
by the employment of the Matrix (Zizek). According to the Adornian theory, it is said that
one should claim these factors of inconsistencies as the film’s moment of Truth (Zizek). The
inclusion of antagonism couples up the factors that is reality and pain, freedom and system.
The film, however, locates itself through the series of actions centralized through science
fiction mode reality. Thereby, people when wake up from their dream or from the immersion
towards the Matrix controlled virtual reality, the awakening is viewed as the horrific reality
of the fantasy. It leads to the insights of the Matrix through the juxtaposition of the two
elemental aspects of perversion (Zizek). The Matrix or the two sides of perversion is, one, the
diminishing of the reality to the exposure of virtual dynamics controlled by the arbitrary rules
that can be unfollowed or suspended, and the other is the concealment of the truth of the
liberation and the minimizing of the subject to an instrumental passivity.
However, the movie, The Matrix, sets no ultimate reality. It is rather the infinite series
of virtual realities that are mirrored on conditions and situations among themselves, which is
viewed as quite ideological. In conclusion, the multiplication of the virtual world would
result in the multiplication of realities, something that resembles the paradoxical danger and
horror portraying the rise of nightmares. The genre fiction of this movie is defined through
the exercise of the Matrix, through which the perversion of the two realities of the world are
explored.

5GENRE ANALYSIS OF THE MATRIX
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