Philosophy in The Matrix

The Matrix is an action packed movie trilogy. But that’s not all it is. The Wachowski brothers also managed to load this trilogy up with lots of philosophical ideas and references. So many in fact that a lot of philosophy papers have been written that analyze these movies. An hour long documentary was also made called Return to the Source – Philosophy and the Matrix which I encourage anyone who is interested to watch. It does a great job at pointing out and explaining many of the philosophies throughout the trilogy.

I am not going to say exact philosophical references made in this trilogy, but instead list off some quotes and events to let you think about them.

"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."

"What is real? How do you define real? If you are talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

"Do not try bending the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth....there is no spoon. Then you'll see it's not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.”

"The matrix is a system, and that system is our enemy. But when you are inside.....you see the very minds of the people we are trying to save, but until we do, these people are still a part of this system.....most of these people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of the are so inured, so hopelessly dependent upon the system that they would fight to protect it."

"What are you waiting for? You’re faster than this. Don’t think you are, know you are… Stop trying to hit me and hit me!"

When Cypher tries to get plugged back into the matrix.

The way Neo went about defeating Agent Smith.

The fact that the Architect was unable to create a perfect world.

These are just a few of many references. Feel free to add more in the comments.

Interesting read
http://www.onwardoverland.com/matrix/philosophy.html