This video claims the Matrix is a metaphor for coming out as trans – and it might blow your mind
Perhaps you had your mind blown when the Matrix came out in 1999 by the suggestion that nothing in this world is real.
Well now a film critic has come out with a whole new theory, based around the idea that the film is one big metaphor for coming out as transgender.
Film Runner, a YouTube film critic, explains his theory in a new video.
As well as pointing out obvious parallels such as the fact that Neo is reborn, he points to ideas such as that ‘authority’ figures in the film always only refer to Neo as Mr Anderson, while his “friends use the name he has chosen for himself”.
He also notes that, when Matrix co-creator Lana Wachowski came out as transgender publicly in 2012, she said she had tried to end her life by jumping in front of a train, and that Neo, in his final fight with Agent Smith in the film frees himself by narrowly avoiding being hit by a train – killing Smith in the process (sort of).
Film Runner adds: “In his final speech, he tells the machines, and by extension gender normative society at large, that he doesn’t seek vengeance or want to destroy them. He says that while they may be afraid of him – and bigotry is always based on fear – they don’t necessarily have to be enemies. But it’s up to them to choose.”
Accepting a GLAAD Media Award for her Netflix series Sense8, Lilly Wachowski made her first public appearance since coming out as transgender, earlier this month.
The director of the Matrix trilogy and sister of Lana Wachowski, who came out as trans four years ago, released a statement last month coming out.
Titled ‘Sex change shocker – Wachowski brothers now sisters!!!’, the statement suggested that the Daily Mail had pressured her into revealing her gender identity, an accusation the Mail denied.
Check out the full theory, courtesy of Film Runner, below:
