User:Larry Wumpus/The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 cyberpunk action movie by Andy and Larry Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne, and Hugo Weaving. Along with thematically-similar fellow 1999 release Fight Club, it is also the perennial favorite thing that has ever existed in the whole universe of some of the most utterly insane people on the internet for reasons explained below.

Story
Robots have enslaved humanity in a virtual reality system of which they aren't even aware. People that have escaped have formed a resistance group and search for a messianic figure called "The One" that can lead them to salvation from their robotic captors. Cue industrial music and slow motion martial arts.

Themes
At its core, the movie is basically just another archetypical hero's journey that Hollywood has obsessed over telling and retelling ad infinitum ever since Star Wars made all the money on planet Earth. What makes it clever is that instead of an evil empire or the legions of Hell (neither of which were really looming threats in the public consciousness at the time), it posits we are being oppressed by the very mundanity of our daily existence. The movie also makes an attempt at presenting a philosophy, although it never really goes much further than mere lip service. In this case, it's based around various postmodernist and transhumanist questions of reality, perception, and consciousness. It does this by having characters say things that sound profound, but are really either nonsensical or obvious to the point of uselessness.

Where the movie really "shines", however, is crafting an utterly impenetrable metaphor for crackpots, conspiracy theorists, pseudoscientists, and everyone else suffering from a persecution complex. The movie is the perfect narrative of special and unique snowflakes with totally far out ideas that are being suppressed not just by some evil organization, but by the total apathy of "regular" people. There's basically no way you can reason with anybody that is hardcore into this philosophy because they can say "you're just a pawn of the system, man" to absolutely any and every rebuttal of their ideas. They usually follow that up by urging you to "take the red pill and break free from the Matrix" (i.e. throw away all rational thought and believe absolutely everything they and their friends say regardless of context or evidence).

Groups urging you to "take the red pill"

 * Truthers
 * Men's rights activism