The Matrix

The Matrix is an American science fiction action franchise created by the Wachowskis, beginning with the film The Matrix in 1999, which follows a computer programmer named Neo who discovers that the world he knows is a simulated reality generated by machines to pacify humanity while using human bodies as an energy source. The original film's bullet time visual effect, in which the camera appears to move around action frozen in time, became one of the most imitated techniques in film and advertising of its era, and the series continued through two sequels released together in 2003, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, and a fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, in 2021. The franchise has expanded into an anime anthology film, The Animatrix, comic books and video games, and its central concept of a false reality concealing a harsher truth, along with its red pill and blue pill imagery, has become a widely used metaphor far beyond the films themselves.