‘The Matrix Resurrections’ Is the Anti-sequel Sequel ‘The Matrix’ Changed Everything, but the Little Details Made It Even Greater Dick’s story “We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” Dick’s story about the possibility of memory implant technology (which is ultimately less ambiguous than the movie’s take on the subject) does not contain the red pill. Such notions were first approached in the film’s source material, Philip K. Verhoeven and his screenwriters’ intention in presenting us with this prickly ambiguity was, presumably, to craft a probing speculative narrative that inspires us to consider how blurry our sense of reality may become as technology advances to a point that can make absurd fabrications seem real. Quaid pretends to take the pill to assuage his enemy, but then whoops his ass, spits the pill out, and continues his fact-or-fiction odyssey in a way that is, by design, never resolved. If he refuses, he is told, he will be stuck in a “permanent psychosis,” strapped down in a chair and lobotomized in the actual world as his consciousness remains trapped within his exciting-yet-horrifying fantasy. In Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 sci-fi epic Total Recall, protagonist Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is offered one in order to snap out of a professionally induced dream state. The red pill was first presented to us 31 years ago. Beyond once again entertaining us in a singular way, Resurrections stands as a chance to reflect on the metaphorical chaos its predecessors inadvertently wrought. But promotional material for The Matrix Resurrections, out this week- the trailer, the posters, the music-has pills, both red and blue, everywhere. Wachowski’s only semi-direct response to how the pill has been co-opted for two decades by misogynistic and reactionary internet communities (and eventually by professional conservative media) is still just that terse response on social media. For 22 years, there has been a semiotic battle over how to define the ideological import of the thing that Morpheus handed to Neo so that he could free his mind and fly. Wachowski is a prestigious transgender filmmaker whose largest work has become one of the defining cultural and political texts of the 21st century.īut this rhetorical clash between three very different, very famous people was only the latest occurrence in a long and still-active war of signifiers. Ivanka Trump is a member of the family who was in the White House at the time and remains at the heart of the Republican Party. What, really, did the red pill signify anymore? What was it supposed to be telling us about the world? Musk’s Twitter feed is typically defined by his anti-tax, anti-regulatory libertarianism, or by his often overbearing-read: relatable-desire to be loved for posting clever memes. The pill’s symbolic journey has been long and gnarly, and has led to more confusion than clarity. The widely viewed Musk-Trump-Wachowski social media dustup, a collision between celebrities of the industrial, political, and entertainment variety, traveled into territory where those three camps tend to get pretty muddied. The way they were tossing her symbol around was likely a lot different from what she and her sister, Lana, had in mind when, more than two decades earlier, they composed the indelible scene in which Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) has to choose between taking a blue pill, which would cause him to remain who he is in a fabricated reality, or a red one, which would officially transform him into Neo-the chosen one, who alone could take down the grand enslavers and illusion makers. “Fuck both of you,” she replied to Trump. One of the two directors responsible for The Matrix-the film in which the modern concept of the “red pill” originated-Wachowski didn’t appear very pleased with these people, neither in general nor in regard to how they were continuing the strange legacy of her metaphor. Less than an hour later, Lilly Wachowski chimed in. She quote-tweeted him cheerily: “Taken!” she said. That hunch was then affirmed by the enthusiastic response of Ivanka Trump, whose father became president at least in some minor part because of forces associated with the symbol that Musk was evoking. In May 2020, Elon Musk tweeted “Take the red pill.” It was unclear precisely what he meant, but those with enough cultural context had a decent idea of what he was trying to say.
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