As someone who just watched this movie for the first time on Friday, I felt as though The Matrix posed more questions than it answered, in similar ways that Inception did. It all comes back to choosing what we believe is our reality, and what we have control over, versus what our dreams or fantasies are. Neo chose to believe that his reality should be the one where he had to fight in order to save the world, despite his doubts about why he was chosen and if he would be able to live up to the task. He chose to believe in something that was difficult for Cypher to cope with, which is why Cypher betrayed Morpheus and his crew. Cypher did not want to believe that there was little hope of survival and living under constant threats. In his confession scene with Mr. Smith, we learn that he would much rather have the “fantasy” word once again become his reality. He decided that ignorance is bliss and he could enjoy his life more freely without consciously knowing that other people were constantly influencing him in what he felt were acts of his own free-will. This seems a very relatable struggle for many of us on a day to day basis. What does our personal reality consist of? Do we choose to acknowledge the hardships we see others struggle or does the ability to compartmentalize allow us to keep our fantasy world existing despite the wrong doings we witness in the world?

On the other hand, an argument could be made that education and the pursuit of knowledge is the equivalent of our “red pill” in the real world. We try so hard to understand everything that happens around us, and keep going deeper into the rabbit hole, out of sheer curiosity to explore the world. We know that the steak we eat is not just delicious without reason, but the way our brain perceives olfactory chemicals being emitted by our food and taste chemicals binding to our taste buds. I think everything can keep its wonder, despite how harsh reality seems at times, if we allow ourselves to keep an open mind and be amazed by what we know rather than turning a blind eye and opting to feel disillusioned.