Released way back in 1999, "Matrix", starring Keanu Reeves and directed and written by the famous Wachowski sisters, is a film that was so successful that it grossed over $450 million at the worldwide box office. Three years later, the film was given a sequel, "Matrix - Reloaded", which grossed over $740 million, and the trilogy closed with "Matrix - Reloaded"."The Matrix Revolutions" in 2003, which made nearly $430 million at the box office.

Overall, the story follows programmer Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves), who goes by the codename Neo in his hacking activities. He is plagued by dreams in which he finds himself wired against his will in a futuristic digital computerized environment. As time passes, he begins to wonder about reality. As he meets Morpheus (LaurenceFishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), he begins to understand that he is a victim of the Matrix, an artificial system that imprisons people's minds, creating the illusion that they live in a real world, but in fact live only an illusion of reality.

Despite the science fiction plot, is "Matrix" just an entertainment movie or does it have philosophical concepts, can it make us reflect and learn something from the ideas presented? Understand in this article what we can learn from the feature film "Matrix" and how we can get out of the Matrix.

What is Matrix in philosophy?

According to Morpheus, a character in the movie "Matrix", the "Matrix is everywhere [...], it's the world you believe to be real so you don't realize the truth. [...] That you are a slave. Like everyone else, you were born into captivity. You were born into a prison that you can't see, smell or touch. A prison for your mind".

According to this explanation presented by the character, the Matrix is a psychological prison, so to speak, it is the condition in which we put ourselves when we accept the rules and conventions imposed socially, which standardize us and make us adopt a socially accepted behavior, taking away from us the opportunity to develop our own identity and personality.

Although it takes on new contours in the film, this idea is old-fashioned in philosophy and can be related to Plato's myth of the cave. Written in the book "The Republic", this story developed by Plato describes the existence of a cave inhabited by people who are born with their hands tied to a wall and the only thing they can see is a pile of shadows projected onto it.on the wall in front.

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These shadows, according to the myth, were produced by a fire at the back of the wall to which the men lived chained, so free men passed by, and animals and other objects, but the chained men did not see them, they only saw their shadows and heard their dreams, so all they knew was that. That was their world and they were chained to that reality, withoutknow the reality, in fact.

One day, one of the men who had been trapped in the cave manages to free himself and leaves that space. Initially blinded by the sunlight, which he had never seen before, little by little his vision becomes accustomed to the brightness and he begins to understand, little by little, that the world is not that jumble of shadows and that things really exist: they have smell, color, shape, there are other people, animals, objects... And thenthis man is faced with an extremely important decision: to live the freedom he has won and leave the old world that imprisoned him (and his old companions) behind, or return to the cave and try to explain why everyone should leave, at the risk of being called crazy.

The myth of the Matrix, in short, has been extensively addressed by philosophy and is nothing more than the description that there is a world and a reality that we know and to which we have been molded since birth, but that it is possible to leave this psychological prison through an individual path, self-knowledge and deconstruction of what is known as reality to free oneself and live frommore free and unique way.

What is the message that the Matrix movie wants to convey

When Neo, the main character in "Matrix" asks Morpheus how it is possible to leave the Matrix behind, to abandon this way of life, Morpheus tells him that this is an individual path and that leaving the Matrix is a decision that is up to each person. And perhaps this is the main message of the movie Matrix: to leave behind the concepts that the world tries to make us assimilate with truthfrom birth is a task that each of us must do for ourselves.

It is, simply speaking, a description of the process of self-knowledge: trying to understand what is good or true for yourself, instead of accepting what the world preaches and imposes and, from there, understanding the path to happiness and self-knowledge, always trying to improve as a human being and finding ways to live in a more pleasant, more positive and less stuck way.to what the system, life, the world and society expect from us.

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Moreover, Morpheus reinforces this characteristic of the journey of self-knowledge as something individual by saying that the Matrix has already been so assimilated by people and seems such a comfortable situation that they even refuse to accept that this is an illusory world, and that some individuals are so used to this illusory reality that they will even defend this system if it is threatened.

A relatively simple example: most of us work 8h a day. A quality night's rest requires 8h of sleep. Considering that our day-to-day obligations such as showering, eating and going to work take up another 4 or 5h, that leaves us 3 or 4h in our day to do whatever we want, extremely tired and exhausted. We are trapped in this system whereWe have only 15% of our life time to do whatever we want, while we dedicate almost 35% of it to making someone else rich who makes money because of our labor. We are stuck in what seems like reality, but having only 15% of our life to do whatever we want seems like a good reality?

The Matrix and the world today

Besides the example mentioned above, there are many other demands and conditions imposed by the system that make us live in a reality that only seems to be reality, but that, in fact, is a simulacrum, a condition that we are stuck in and that we keep living, not because we think it is right, but because society asks it of us.

Another good current example from the Matrix is the use of social networks. Check the number of hours you invest in using social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and think: is all that time using social networks really good for you or are you using the networks only because everyone else is using them and it seems like an easy and simple escape from reality?

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One more example from the Matrix: you, who have graduated or are graduating from college, are you really prepared or preparing yourself to do something you love? Do you really love your job or what you want to work with, or are you just graduating because that's what today's world demands from those who want better financial conditions to live a more comfortable life?

How many Netflix series did you watch because they really seemed interesting, and how many did you watch only because everyone else was watching them and you didn't want to be left out?

The Matrix imposes so many external stimuli on us that we end up incorporating these stimuli as if they were our own wills, things that we really want, so we forget to understand what OUR reality is, what is real for us and what makes us really happy.

How to get out of the Matrix?

As Morpheus explains to Neo, there is no exact answer to this question. Yes, the Matrix imprisons us all, but getting out of it is an individual process of self-knowledge.system, the world, and the Matrix.

You are the one who defines your journey of self-knowledge, but you can start this path by analyzing your daily life, your activities and your relationships, and then ask: what do I do because I really like and love it, and what do I do because it is what the world and other people expect from me? From this, filtering becomes a possibility.

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Of course, we live in a capitalist system, which requires us to work and have money to pay our bills and survive, so don't understand leaving the Matrix as giving up work and living an alternative life in the bush - unless, of course, that is what you really want. Leaving the Matrix does not necessarily mean abandoning the world and the obligations of the real world,but make peace with them and take more care of yourself, taking your time to do what you truly love to do.

More than just a movie, "Matrix" presents concepts and reflections that are very necessary for us, showing that cinema is not pure entertainment, since it can make us rethink life and the way we live it. And you, are you aware of the Matrix and how it is possible to get out of it?