The Matrix is both a one-of-a-kind movie and an amalgam of countless pieces of pop culture influences. Released in 1999, the Wachowskis' game-changing piece of accessible-popcorn-blockbuster-cum-dense-difficult-science-fiction stars Keanu Reeves as a man who realizes the world is not real, and Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss as chief players in the resistance force trying to wake us all up. Bullets are dodged in reality-bending slow motion, kung fu knowledge is downloaded via grimy technology, and white rabbits are chased as far down the hole as they can go. The Matrix is one of our great, original, culture-shifting pieces of mass culture.
If you're in the mood for more works like this, we've got you covered. Grab the nearest phone, watch out for any pesky agents, and enjoy seven movies like The Matrix that offer similar pockets of genre-blending, inventive action, sci-fi philosophizing, and cyberpunk cool.
Akira
A foundational work of cyberpunk, science fiction, and anime film, Akira is an essential watch. With a bold, horror-tinged visual language, thematic explorations of the corruption of humanity via technology, and some out-and-out dope-as-fuck style, it's not hard to see the DNA of Akira not only in The Matrix but in many other pieces of postmodern pop culture since its 1988 release. Buckle up and enjoy the wild ride.
Dark City
Coming out just one year before The Matrix, Dark City is short-term prescience, exploring the ideas and aesthetics later calcified into a bonafide hit by the Wachowskis the next year (or: Dark City is the underground mixtape; The Matrix is the major label debut). Combining a melange of influences from noir to German expressionist horror to hard sci-fi, Dark City posits the terrifying idea that we are not in control of our own fates, and that life is merely a simulated plaything for an unseen shadowy class to dictate. Can you break free and find the truth? And what will happen to your sanity along the way? Rufus Sewell, Jennifer Connelly, and Kiefer Sutherland all give startling performances in this underseen thunderstorm of a flick.
Fist of Legend
Jet Li's Fist of Legend, itself a remake of a previously iconic martial artist's vehicle (Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury), was so influential on the Wachowskis while conceptualizing The Matrix that they paid homage to a sequence wholesale — the Neo/Morpheus training sequence in a Matrix-coded dojo directly references a similar Fist of Legend sequence. Additionally, fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping was hired for The Matrix on the strength of his work in this film, making this film directly responsible for the proliferation of intense wire-fu martial arts sequences in mainstream cinema. Come pay your respects to the altar of Fist of Legend, an incredibly influential work on the history of The Matrix (and a slick action flick in its own right).
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Another essential work of cyberpunk, sci-fi, and anime, Ghost in the Shell is such a direct line of influence on The Matrix that, per an Animatrix special feature, the Wachowskis pitched it to producer Joel Silver by telling him they wanted to "do that for real" (further invalidating the need for that ghastly, whitewashed live-action remake). In just 82 minutes (gotta love a shortie), masterful animation director Mamoru Oshii finds astonishing imagery, dope action sequences, thrilling neo-noir influences, and philosophically muckraking views on the convergence between humanity and artificial intelligence. Just a powerful piece of work.
Inception
And it's not just because the two share a bwwwwaaaamp-heavy score. Christopher Nolan's mind-bending Inception is another postmodern genre-blending masterpiece, fusing the tropes of heist, secret agent, and science fiction pictures to craft something bold, entertaining, and yes, reality-questioning. That infamous scene where Joe Pantoliano's Cypher decides the fake world of the Matrix is better than the real world because a tasty steak tastes like a tasty steak no matter its "truth" is essentially the philosophy behind Inception's infamous ending shot, a jolt of brain-breaking ambiguity in a genre usually founded on hard cuts and lessons. From its surreal action sequences to its characters' abilities to bend "reality" to their will, Inception takes the baton from The Matrix and runs down the eternally rotating hallway with it.
Strange Days
Another humdinger of ideas and genres, Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days is a strange but devastatingly effective ride. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Basset tear up the screen as our heroes hellbent on surviving and even changing a dystopian, technocratic nightmare version of Los Angeles all the way in the future of 1999 (the release year of The Matrix, don'tcha know). Bigelow's visual language and sense of tactile production design feels like her own Near Dark by way of Blade Runner; a pleasingly grimy, scorched-earth rendering of what may happen to our environment if unchecked technological progress trumps any other facet of basic, livable humanity. If you're in the mood for a politically radical, action-packed, noir-soaked, hard sci-fi movie from prominent female directors, there's Strange Days, The Matrix, and... um... well, they really stand alone, these two pictures.
Tron
Like The Matrix, 1982's Tron had such a highly specific vision that its filmmakers had to revolutionize special effects just to get the movie done. Director Steven Lisberger spent beaucoup Disney dollars on unprecedented computer-generated imagery, the effects of which were combined with live-action elements and traditionally hand-drawn animation to bring the dangerous, wild world inside of a video game to life. Beyond Tron's mutual status as a special effects benchmark in cinema, it shares The Matrix's concerns with the architects of "reality," the sentience of machines that want to harm us humans, and the fundamentally sappy idea that one person can change what feels unchangeable. Whoa, indeed.