The Tinkers

Okay, okay, we get it. The Matrix is philosophically complex, critically acclaimed, and has greatly impacted the movie industry, but what about the little guy? The everyday viewers?

Well, the people who made The Matrix a big success in the first place (by buying tickets to go see it) have continued to embrace it in just about every possible fanboy (or girl) way there is. Cosplay? Check. Classy fan art? Check. Um, other kinds of fan art? Check. Car commercials featuring Morpheus as an opera singer? Yes indeed. Slash fiction featuring Neo and Smith? Of course!

The Tellers

Aside from all the fun artsy stuff of inspired fans, there are also those who are obsessed with archiving and explaining the world of The Matrix for the understanding and enjoyment of all. Mostly we're talking about the Wiki page Matrix Wiki, which we'll surely be linking to a few times throughout this guide.

This is a one-stop shop of sorts for all your Matrix needs. Need to know the New York State Appellate Court's ruling against B166-ER, which led to the formation of the first machine state, 01? (We swear, Matrix novices—this will make sense soon).

The Thinkers

So we've already briefly mentioned the philosophy that influenced The Matrix. With this movie it's a two-way service tunnel. The movie has inspired numerous academic papers and lectures dealing with the philosophical contents of the film.

There are some in-depth looks at The Matrix itself by philosophers like Chalmers and even an hour long documentary spanning the trilogy and just about every religious and philosophical subtext there is (and which we highly recommend).

After all, philosophy consists of asking questions, which is often done through creative hypotheticals called thought experiments. And what is science fiction like The Matrix other than a series of incredibly entertaining thought experiments?!