Almost immediately upon its release in 1999, The Matrix changed pop culture forever. Red pills, blue pills, and bullet time entered our vocabularies almost instantaneously. The Matrixs impact was so great that, invariably, its influences seeped into some of our favorite movies and TV shows, too.
From playful jabs to full-on parodies, The Matrix has been referenced endlessly across the 21st Centurys entertainment landscape. Netflix mega-hits, British cult comedies, and one of Keanu Reeves other big action heroes have all had The Matrix in their sights and were here to count down 20 of the very best Easter eggs, homages, and references to The Matrix from the world of movies and television.
Even Netflixs surprise sensation squeezed in a reference to The Matrix. After the fifth episodes climatic tug-of-war, Player 212 asks The Old Man how he managed to get the upper hand. Player 212 makes pointed reference to the way The Old Man leaned back during the game. In her mind, at least, its a reference to something from pop culture, but she cant quite put a finger on where from.
Ali, helpfully, pops up with the answer: it was reminiscent of Neos slow-motion ducking and diving to dodge bullets in The Matrix, specifically the scene on the rooftop with Trinity.
You might have memorized every scene from every episode of The Office, but you might not have seen this. The Offices series finale has a cut opening scene all based around Dwights love of The Matrix and acts as one of Jims most elaborate pranks.
It begins with a callback to The Matrixs black cat dj vu and spirals out into a grab bag of Easter eggs and references, from Neos office escape to Hank playing Morpheus 'brother'. In a surprise and hilarious twist Dwight opts for the blue pill because hes just been promoted to manager.
For a certain generation, Scary Movie was the poster child when it came to keeping its finger on the pulse and skewering pop cultures hottest acts.
Predictably, given it released a year prior to Scary Movie, The Matrix ended up on its hit list. This extended fight sequence sees Cindy take down Ghostface with a series of moves plucked from The Matrix, including a 360-degrees kick and a Bullet Time Riverdance. You do you, Scary Movie.
It also features one of the movies best visual gags, as Ghostface leans back and dodges a dish thrown at him by Cindy only to pull out his back and remain frozen in the excruciating position.
Springfields favorite family has lampooned The Matrix multiple times since the 1999 classics original release, but no moment is quite as funny as N-Syncs guest appearance on The Simpsons "New Kids on the Bleech."
In the season 12 episode, the N-Sync lineup help motivate Barts new boy band to help save the day with their own dance routine. It all ends this being 2001 with a Matrix freeze-frame. But theres a hitch: band member Chris Kirkpatrick cant defy gravity for long and falls flat on his face. Doh.
You seemingly couldnt head to the cinema in the early 2000s without a movie spoofing The Matrixs iconic fight scenes and Shrek is no different.
Towards the end of their journey home, Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona are badgered by a sleazy Robin Hood. Fiona, though, has no time for the all-singing, all-dancing shenanigans of the archer and his Merry Men, taking them all out in a sequence that sees Fiona ape Matrixs Bullet Time. As the camera pans 360 degrees, Fiona finds time to flip her hair back in mid-air before delivering the final blow. Neo, eat your heart out.
Aside from Neo, Keanu Reeves most trigger-happy hero is undoubtedly hitman John Wick. While the two thankfully wont ever get into a shootout, John Wick 3 includes a pretty unsubtle nod to one of Neos most iconic lines.
During the siege on The Continental, Ian McShanes Winston asks John what he needs. His reply? "Guns. Lots of Guns." Theres a reason why that line is delivered with almost a knowing wink from Reeves; its echoing the exact same line Neo said to Trinity in The Matrixs lobby scene.
Spaced was a cult classic British comedy written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson as a pair of down-on-their-luck twentysomethings who pretend to be in a relationship so they can share a flat. The series, directed by Edgar Wright, was filled with so many Easter eggs that pop culture obsessives would often wear out their VHS tapes after going frame by frame.
One of the more on-the-nose nods comes when a pair of Agents asks Daisy to come with them. It escalates into a Matrix-esque fight scene, including Daisy pulling out Neos cheeky come and get me hand gesture.
If theres one thing Keanu Reeves is best known for saying through his career, its Woah. Its Neos own mind-blown inflection, though, that gets the parody treatment in the end-credits sequence of Pixars Toy Story 4.
There, Reeves voices Canadian daredevil Duke Caboom and asks Ducky and Bunny whether they really have laser eyes. After all, the plushy duo have a knack for embellishing their tall tales. When they reply that they do have laser eyes, out comes Keanu Reeves iconic line. This scene mirrors Neos woah in The Matrix after he sees Morpheus leap a building in a single bound.
Batmans nemesis has been around for 80 years and, in that time, has thrown together a motley crew or two to take on The Dark Knight. But all pale in comparison to the gang brought together by the Crown Prince of Crime in the Lego Batman Movie.
Joker helps break several villains out of the Phantom Zone to help with his sinister schemes during the movies runtime. Chief among them is Agent Smith, who accompanies the likes of Sauron, the Daleks, and Voldemort in Jokers misadventures. Talk about bad influences.
Space Jam: A New Legacy was a slam dunk for Warner Bros. fans, remixing and reworking some of the studios most famous properties as a backdrop for an all-star basketball game like no other. When LeBron James is forced to reform the Tune Squad, he and Bugs Bunny chance upon Granny and Speedy Gonzales in The Matrix. I cant believe I just had to type that sentence.
As law enforcement closes in, Granny and Speedy Gonzales as Trinity and Neo respectively whip out a few of The Matrixs most gravity-defying moves, while Speedy Gonzales declares that "Neo aint got nothing on me."
Kung Pow! Enter the Fist is a martial arts parody that spoofs some of the greats of Hong Kong cinema. It also finds time to have fun at The Matrixs expense during a fight scene between the movies lead The Chosen One and a cow. Yes, you read that right.
Following a hilariously brutal bovine beatdown, the cow gets the upper hand and shoots milk out of its udders. The Chosen One, sensing danger, suddenly channels Neo and dodges the dairy in trademark Bullet Time fashion. Udderly wonderful if we do say so ourselves.
This Easter egg in a galaxy far, far away has been hotly debated ever since it was uncovered in 2015. While on the hunt for Zam Wesell, Obi-Wan and Anakin find themselves at a bar and Ewan McGregors Jedi Master is offered some death sticks. Its here where things start getting very weird.
The actor of the death stick-dealing character is Matt Doran, who also plays the man who built the iconic Woman in the Red Dress Program in The Matrix. Incredibly, the woman who plays the Woman in the Red Dress Fiona Johnson appears seconds after the death sticks scene in Attack of the Clones, trying to get Anakins attention in the same way she grabs Neos attention. Fans believe its an extremely deep-cut nod to The Matrix by George Lucas, but youre free to go down the rabbit hole yourself and make your own minds up.
When we first see Neo sleeping at his computer in The Matrix, a song can be heard blaring from his headphones: Dissolved Girl by Massive Attack. That also plays during the party Dolores attends during the season three premiere of HBOs trippy sci-fi series, Westworld.
Immediately following that moment, a man in a tuxedo is seen talking about how the entire world could be a simulation. Sound familiar? While the shows creators have never outright confirmed the Easter egg, its almost certainly a cute homage to a franchise in The Matrix that helped pave the way for high concept shows such as Westworld.
Community is a hotbed of pop culture references, Easter eggs, and deep cut sight gags that only diehard fans would get. In true Dan Harmon fashion, Communitys Matrix mention comes within an episode that is a full-on parody of G.I. Joe.
Here, "Wingman" AKA cocky lawyer Jeff Winger, now in 80s animated form compares his power to that of The One: "I am Neo in the third act of The Matrix. I'm also Neo in the first act of the second Matrix," Winger said. In typical Jeff fashion, he admits he "didn't get around to seeing the third one." So we have no idea if Wingman has the ability to jump into someone and kill them a la Neo at the end of Revolutions.
Chidi is, as the kids say, a 'big mood': a swirling pit of anxiety and indecisiveness with a crush on Carrie-Anne Moss Trinity. When the philosopher meets his idol, Hypatia of Alexandria (Lisa Kudrow), he freaks out and says he says that he had a poster of 'her' on his bedroom wall in high school. Except it was a poster of Trinity which Chidi saying thats how he imagined 'Patty' would look like. Even in the afterlife, Chidi is clearly a massive Matrix nerd.
The Matrixs analog-heavy technology and use of green text/code on black screens is now pretty much accepted as pop-culture shorthand for hacking or jumping in and out of a simulation.
Its no surprise, then, to see it make its way into Futurama, a sci-fi series set in the year 3000. In the episode "A Head in the Polls," Bender has a nightmare in binary, naturally. The numbers 0 and 1 fill the screen in Matrix-esque green code, before the bending robot wakes up screaming that he "thought he saw a two." Fry reassures him that theres "no such thing as two." Some hardcore Matrix fans might well wish that was the case.
This is probably the most shoehorned-in Matrix reference on this list. In this 2002 action horror, Spoon (Darren Morfitt) has a last stand against a pack of werewolves alongside his fellow soldiers. He manages to take one down in the kitchen, throwing literally everything but the kitchen sink at the beasts.
Spoon is eventually killed and his carcass ripped to shreds. Upon discovering him, the soldiers remark that "there is no Spoon." Brilliant.
The Matrix may not have revolutionized fashion in the way we hoped indoor sunglasses and leather coats have gone the way of the fashion dodo since 1999 but its sartorial impact still lives on through jokes such as these.
When the eponymous Grace (Debra Messing) walks into Wills office, he jokes that "everybody from The Matrix called. They want their coat back."
Samuel Jackson shows up in Team America: World Police (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) and attempts to stop Chris and the other members of Team America from storming Kim Jong-Ils peace conference.
During the ensuing fight scene, Samuel L. Jackson tells Chris to "Stop trying to hit me and hit me," a knock-off of Morpheus line to Neo while hes attempting to teach him kung-fu. Chris duly obliges, splitting his head open and killing him, a joke that only Trey Parker and Matt Stone could get away with.
After Cartmans prank on Butters (who believes hes playing on a VR headset but is instead committing crimes in real life), he shows up in Butters hospital room dressed as Morpheus to convince him that hes still in the VR world. The parallels to Morpheus taking Neo down the rabbit hole are obvious except only one of them is a foul-mouthed 10-year-old from Colorado.
Need a catch-up on everything that's happened in The Matrix so far? Then be sure to check out ourThe Matrix explainedrecap. And for something new to watch, check out our picks of thebest sci-fi moviesof all time.
Read more:
The 20 best Matrix references in other movies and TV shows - GamesRadar+
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Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero