Essay: The Matrix - Genre and Social Commentary (CMNS130A/B)

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the science fiction film "The Matrix" (1999), focusing on its characteristics as a work of genre fiction and its incorporation of social commentary. The paper delves into the film's themes, allegories, and literary devices, examining how these elements contribute to its commentary on societal issues. The analysis explores the movie's philosophical and spiritual connotations, drawing parallels to ancient concepts and quantum science, and the film's reflection of the hypocrisies and ordeals of the real world. Furthermore, the essay highlights the film's pioneering use of Virtual Reality (VR) and its profound psychological impact on viewers. The essay also discusses the film's unconventional approach within the science fiction genre, its depiction of a consumerist world, and its exploration of post-9/11 themes. The paper concludes by summarizing the film's significance as a thought-provoking work that prompts questions about reality and human existence.

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The respective paper is a comparison and contrast of the path breaking science fiction
movie “The Matrix” (1999) which has become and remained successful for a considerable long
time in the genre of science fiction. The paper compares and contrasts the themes, allegories and
literary devices to provide examples of social commentary by masquerading them within the
common characteristics of the genre. The paper intrinsically and extrinsically deals with the
central idea and perceptions of the movie.
The movie “The Matrix” (1999) that has been directed by Andy and Larry Wachowski is
considered to be a masterpiece in the world of science fiction ever produced by Hollywood. The
movie can be called an overtly perfect cinematic blending of spiritual, scientific, philosophical
and literary impression. The film “The Matrix” had been nominated for different prestigious
national and international Academy awards. The film has also won four Academy Award Prizes
which is given annually at the United States by the institution Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences. The categories of the award that the film acquired were “Best Editing”, “Best
Effects” and “Visual Effects editing”, Best Effects and Visual effects and Best Sound. The movie
had been famous and controversial at the same time as it has certain religious and spiritual
connotations as well.
The movie “The Matrix” (1999) is best understood if the movie is watched, experienced
and felt. The movie can never be understood well if it has not been watched at least once in the
lifetime. As the movie has more of perceptions through its brilliant audio- visual and
cinematographic editing, it is a visual treat that provides its viewers with diverse ideas and
perspectives regarding what science fiction can be, its scope and limitations. The mentioned
movie has been made by the respective directors by taking inspiration from dime-a-dozen factors
and aspects, which is a pretty interesting factor to be noted while investigating the movie. The

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movie is loosely based on the 1975 science- fiction novel “Ignorance” where the author Unger
discussed the possibility of a Mephistophelian scientist who utilizes computers to entrap human
minds in order to exploit them. The storyline of the movie is somewhat based on the fact that
science can turn foul if situation demands so. Even though it is a fiction movie, it compels people
to think about what is in store for them in future with such herculean growth of science and
technology with degradation of conscience and morals. The parallel world shown in the movie is
highly reflective of the hypocrisies and ordeals of the real world of scientific boom that is
catalyzed by the imperialistic development across the globe with profit orientation and
consumerism ruling the psychology and transgressing it (Knutson & Huettel, 2015).
The Matrix is an important movie in the genre of science fiction because it brings in the
elements of Virtual Reality (VR) for the first time so significantly in any film or visual literature
in such apt and appropriate way. Even though the concept of Virtual Reality has always been
iconoclastic and skeptic for the rationalists and science enthusiasts, the awestruck effect of
Virtual Reality on human minds psychologically and psychosomatically is a reality by itself
which has been experienced by many. The sensory perceptions of human mind and body are
highly “simulated” where the “reality” shown in the world of virtual reality becomes
indiscernible from the “real” reality where the very notion of real “reality” is questioned. Thus, it
can be said that the movie has an in- depth psychosomatic effect on its viewers and audience,
which is icing of the cake in the case of movies that fall in the genre of science fiction and
fantasy (Steinicke, 2016). According to certain film critics, the impact of the movie is so
gripping that a viewer can either love or hate the movie, but cannot ignore it. The phenomenon
shown in the movie has become a cultural overtone in the contemporary times among the literary
connoisseurs and science fiction enthusiast millennial.

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Beginning as a quintessential paranoiac fantasy based on the consumerist and hedonist paradise
of America (California), where the protagonist, even after living in idyllic paradise of a city like
California, suddenly out of blue, starts suspecting the world where he lives is fake and a “make-
believe spectacle” to convince him that he lives in a real world and all people around him are
actors of a gigantic stage. Even though the beginning of the movie seem to be quite predictable,
the storyline of the movie, which questions the idea of “reality” is convincing and also has a
plethora of religious and spiritual connotations, which is why it has been established as a class
apart work in the genre of science fiction (Ford, 2016). Dating back towards Indian Buddhist
sage Nagarjuna’s theory of nothingness and perceived reality, the movie has brought ancient
quantum science in modern science fiction world (Plate, 2017).
The story revolves around the fictitious situation where the tyrannical rulers, in order to
keep the humans in control and exploit their energy, the machines created a computer program
called the Matrix (in the parallel world, machines have successfully dominated the humans). In
this program, the humans live and interact with each other just like the real world known before
the war between humans and machines, except the fact that the interaction is not real. The
program Matrix cannot keep track on all the thoughts going on in the mind of the humans.
Therefore, the freethinking humans, who think that there is something wrong with the order of
the world, become released from Matrix by rebels. The rebels are group that seek to crack the
network and programming of Matrix to free all of mankind. One of such rebel fighters, led by
commander Morpheus has been searching for the “chosen one”, the savior who would crack the
programming of the Matrix and save the humankind (the protagonist) (Stucky, 2016). The movie
is convincing as a science fiction because of it’s in- depth and multidimensional nature of human
psychology, science and anthropocene (Marcus, 2013). With commendable and compelling

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visual and metaphorical connotations and Lacanian interpretation of “the other”, which denote
constitutive alienation of the subject in a symbolic order, where the “other” pulls the strings and
things happen to the subject which is passive, is commendable (Zizek, 2015). The film is
unconventional in the genre of science fiction because the film has highlighted philosophical and
spiritual questions in the mechanized and consumerist world. Certain critics argue that the film
has depicted the “new horror subgenre” which has emerged after the atrocious attack of 9/11.
However, surprisingly, the movie has all such elements present in it and it was released before
the 9/11 massacre. New horror cinema is a depiction of a series of social and political events that
evoke skepticism and distrust about structuralism and establishment in the mind of the audiences
post the incident of 9/11. The reality of a new kind of “post modern” and “post colonial” terror
has risen in the literature with the mentioned kind of sub genre. In the movie, the reality of terror
is transcended into a fictional universe of horror. The movie has all the elements of post
structuralism, post colonialism and post modernism ahead of time with a touch of ancient
wisdom and ancient esoteric science that might be hard to decipher and therefore, require a
special kind of audience. It is true that the movie is a science fiction but it is not only a science
fiction, It is also a social message sent to the greater audience about the future of the mankind
which has already become the slaves of machines (Marcus, 2013). The movie has also gone
through the psycho-social and spiritual conflict that the individuals go through in the so called
“New World Order”. The movie is captivating, thought provoking and enigmatic as it questions
the readers about existence and whether reality is in real or not. Such in- depth philosophical
questions which utilizes the theory of quantum physics and astrophysics has made the movie
unique, remarkable and unconventional than any other typical science fiction movie that emerges
from here and there in the Hollywood zone. The movie has described “madness” as a social

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exclusion from the Big Other, on which Lacan has said “ A madman is not only a beggar who
thinks he is the king, but also a king who thinks he is a king”, which is, a systematic collapse
between symbolism and reality, questioning what reality is ultimately.
The respective paper concludes to be a comparison and contrast of the path breaking
science fiction movie “The Matrix” (1999) which has become and remained successful for a
considerable long time in the genre of science fiction. The paper concludes by successfully
comparing and contrasting the themes, allegories and literary devices to provide examples of
social commentary by masquerading them within the common characteristics of the genre. The
paper has intrinsically and extrinsically dealt with the central idea and perceptions of the movie.

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References:
Ford, J. L. (2016). Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: the dialectic of myth-making in
contemporary cinema. Journal of Religion & Film, 4(2), 1.
Knutson, B., & Huettel, S. A. (2015). The risk matrix. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences,
5, 141-146.
Marcus, A. (2013). The history of the future: Sci-fi movies and HCI. interactions, 20(4), 64-67.
Plate, S. B. (2017). Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-creation of the World. Columbia
University Press.
Steinicke, F. (2016). The science and fiction of the ultimate display. In Being really virtual (pp.
19-32). Springer, Cham.
Stucky, M. D. (2016). He is the One: The Matrix Trilogy's Postmodern Movie Messiah. Journal
of Religion & Film, 9(2), 7.
Zizek, S. (2015). Matrix. İstanbul: Encore Yayınları.