\n Published on
\n 01\/12\/2025 – 11:11 GMT+1\n <\/p>\n
Since its release in 1999, The Matrix has seen one of its most iconic scenes hijacked by various groups which have actively missed the point. <\/p>\n
You know the one we\u2019re referring to: Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) offers Neo (Keanu Reeves) a choice. <\/p>\n
“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe,\u201d explains Morpheus, describing the return to a state of blissful ignorance. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes,\u201d he counter-offers, referring to Lewis Carroll in order to clarify that whoever picks the second option will wake up to a new reality.<\/p>\n
What was originally a way of breaking free from the shackles of simulated reality has become a rebranded metaphor for causes that couldn\u2019t be further removed from the film’s original meaning. Whether it\u2019s the incel movement, misogynistic online groups that are part of the “manosphere<\/a>“, anti-feminist online communities or the alt-right and QAnon, the blue pill \/ red pill image has been co-opted to suit various ideologies including breaking free from liberal viewpoints or \u201cfeminist culture\u201d\u2019s so-called \u201cindoctrination\u201d.<\/p>\n Thus, being \u201cred pilled\u201d frequently pops up as an espression to refer to someone who has \u201cwoken up\u201d to supposedly secret societal truths.<\/p>\n Lilly Wachowski, one half of The Matrix\u2019s directing duo alongside her sister Lana Wachowski, recently sat down with Caleb Hearon on his podcast \u201cSo True with Caleb Hearon\u201d and addressed the many misreadings of the film. <\/p>\n Wachowski said she\u2019s unbothered by conservative misinterpretations and explained how important it is to separate oneself from films once they are released. <\/p>\n \u201cYou have to let go of your work. People are gonna interpret it however they interpret it,\u201d Wachowski said. \u201cI look at all of the crazy, mutant theories around The Matrix films and the crazy ideologies that those films helped create and I just go, \u2018What are you doing? No! That\u2019s wrong!\u2019 But I have to let it go to some extent\u2026 You\u2019re never gonna be able to make absolutely every person believe what you initially intended.\u201d <\/p>\n Wachowski previously explained that the \u201coriginal intention\u201d of The Matrix was to be a transgender allegory – which seems ironic considering the nature of the groups that have latched onto the film.<\/p>\n \u201cRight-wing ideology appropriates absolutely everything,\u201d continued Wachowski, adding: \u201cThey appropriate left-wing points of view and they mutate them for their own propaganda, for their own to obfuscate what the real message is. This is what fascism does. And so, of course, that\u2019s going to happen.\u201d <\/p>\n