After over twenty years since the original debut of the Matrix trilogy, the monumental series has returned with The Matrix: Resurrections. Since the originals however, there has also been talk of the meaning behind the renowned films. -- piper stuip, 8th grade
After over twenty years since the original debut of the Matrix trilogy, the monumental series has returned with The Matrix: Resurrections. Since the originals however, there has also been talk of the meaning behind the renowned films.
The transgender allegory behind the films was a speculation among some fans of the movies until a recent interview with co-creator Lilly Wachowski in August of 2020, in which she confirmed all suspicions about the allegory to Netflix.
“That was the original intention, but the world wasn’t quite ready,” Lilly Wachowski says. “The Matrix stuff was all about the desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view.”
The Wachowski sisters themselves both came out as trans women: Lana in 2010, and Lilly following suit in 2016.
“For years, I couldn’t even say the words ‘transgendered’ or ‘transsexual’” said Lana Wachowski in an interview with The New Yorker. “When I began to admit it to myself, I knew I would eventually have to tell my parents and my brother and my sisters. This fact would inject such terror into me that I would not sleep for days. I developed a plan that I worked out with my therapist. It was going to take three years. Maybe five. A couple of weeks into the plan, my mom called.” Leading her to come out sooner.
“My biggest fears were all about losing my family. Once they accepted me, everything else has been a piece of cake.” She says, “talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience.” The sisters are fortunate to have each other as support systems throughout their transitioning, and as they go on to co-produce even more projects.
The transgender allegory behind the films was a speculation among some fans of the movies until a recent interview with co-creator Lilly Wachowski in August of 2020, in which she confirmed all suspicions about the allegory to Netflix.
“That was the original intention, but the world wasn’t quite ready,” Lilly Wachowski says. “The Matrix stuff was all about the desire for transformation but it was all coming from a closeted point of view.”
The Wachowski sisters themselves both came out as trans women: Lana in 2010, and Lilly following suit in 2016.
“For years, I couldn’t even say the words ‘transgendered’ or ‘transsexual’” said Lana Wachowski in an interview with The New Yorker. “When I began to admit it to myself, I knew I would eventually have to tell my parents and my brother and my sisters. This fact would inject such terror into me that I would not sleep for days. I developed a plan that I worked out with my therapist. It was going to take three years. Maybe five. A couple of weeks into the plan, my mom called.” Leading her to come out sooner.
“My biggest fears were all about losing my family. Once they accepted me, everything else has been a piece of cake.” She says, “talking about my art frustratingly tedious and talking about myself a wholly mortifying experience.” The sisters are fortunate to have each other as support systems throughout their transitioning, and as they go on to co-produce even more projects.
“Neo has dysphoria. The Matrix is the gender binary. The agents are transphobia,” writer Andrea Long Chu sums up the concept in the simplest choice of terms in her book, Females.
In The Matrix, Neo is referred to as ‘Thomas Anderson’, even after he has stepped into the real world, ditching the name, the Agents continue to call him by this name, even though he proves to dislike it. His name in the Matrix could very well be a metaphor for a dead name. Thomas Anderson is the person the Matrix created, the name they assigned him, made him believe he was. While “Neo” is shown to be his true self, he seems to feel the most himself when being seen as Neo.
This metaphor also plays out in the most recent film, Resurrections, when Trinity is seen in the Matrix. She is referred to as “Tiffany.” This name is frequently used as a weight on her accepting her true identity throughout the movie. Like when Neo comes to find her at her motorcycle shop, he refers to her as Trinity, she tells him he shouldn’t call her that. The name is often used to lure her back when she gets too close to Neo. And near the final scene, it seems that she doesn't plan on leaving the Matrix, allowing herself to be pulled away by her husband and kids, (the average, nuclear family), but at the last moment, she resists, and she declares that Tiffany is not her name.
For a long time, many trans folks have used the internet as a form of escapism. To push away from their day to day lives to live freely as their true selves, living a double life through the comfort of these anonymous online spaces.
This can be applied to Neo’s daytime vs. nightlife activities. While the sun is out, he works in an office, making standard income, lives in an average home and does things we all deem as average person things. However in the evening, Neo is a hacker, he goes to underground bars with other hackers, too, which is also how Trinity comes to find him. While still held captive by the Matrix, Neo searches for these spaces, he is deliberately looking for others who feel that there is something wrong with the world, others who are trying to make sense of it all.
The Agents, although said earlier, in the context of the allegory, are an obvious metaphor for transphobia. They feed the people of their world lies and worries to prevent them from leaving their world. Dramatize the loss of routine, promising a world without stability. It brings fear upon those given the chance to leave, which may convince them to take the blue pill in the end. To choose ignorance over truth.
They shelter the occupants of the Matrix with the luxury of programmed steak, nine to five jobs with well enough pay, maybe a family and friends. And for some, this is enough. Even when given the chance to leave, as seen in the end of Resurrections, they choose to stay. They feel enough in what they were given at birth.
However, to those like Neo, Trinity, and others who later leave, they can’t help but feel like something is off. And no matter if they try and avoid it, no doubt it will meet them again in the end.
Although it's a small detail that does not contribute much to the overall metaphor, it is to be noted that the color of the pill Neo takes to find the truth is red. At the time the first movie was written, the 90’s, the estrogen prescription that trans women and trans feminine who decided to transition took was also the red pill.
When you really dive deep into examples of allegories and metaphors hidden in film and other sorts of media, factors of it become more and more blatantly obvious.
There were moments in the films where it was put blatantly in words right in front of us, towards the end of the first movie, Neo makes a call. He warns the machines he will free all their prisoners in the end.
“You're afraid of us,” he says finally. “You're afraid of change.” Before the camera pushes out between an “M” and an “F”, (quite literally) making room between the binary.
“I’m glad it has gotten out.” Lilly Wachowski says. “They come up to me and tell me these movies saved my life.”
For decades these films have been meaningful to trans folks everywhere. Whether they’re out in the open or still in the closet, the Wachowskis have created this concept that provides comfort and familiarity to many.
Allegories in cinema are a lot more common than we see, confirmed or not these stories behind stories provide a space to create your own analysis and maybe find something in it that can help you, yourself figure at least some of it out.
Lilly says, “I’m grateful I can be throwing them a rope to help them along their journey.”
There were moments in the films where it was put blatantly in words right in front of us, towards the end of the first movie, Neo makes a call. He warns the machines he will free all their prisoners in the end.
“You're afraid of us,” he says finally. “You're afraid of change.” Before the camera pushes out between an “M” and an “F”, (quite literally) making room between the binary.
“I’m glad it has gotten out.” Lilly Wachowski says. “They come up to me and tell me these movies saved my life.”
For decades these films have been meaningful to trans folks everywhere. Whether they’re out in the open or still in the closet, the Wachowskis have created this concept that provides comfort and familiarity to many.
Allegories in cinema are a lot more common than we see, confirmed or not these stories behind stories provide a space to create your own analysis and maybe find something in it that can help you, yourself figure at least some of it out.
Lilly says, “I’m grateful I can be throwing them a rope to help them along their journey.”
