„In one early scene, Thomas Anderson (a.k.a. Neo, played by Keanu Reeves) opens a copy of Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation to a chapter entitled „On Nihilism.“ The book is hollow, serving as Neo’s hiding place for computer programs he sells on the black market. Curiously, „On Nihilism“ actually closes the book, it’s not a middle chapter as depicted in the movie. I believe this misplacement of the chapter serves as a device employed by the film makers to provide specific philosophical context for this complicated, intriguing film. While such widely divergent streams such as Christ imagery, eastern philosophy, and Greek mythology all inform the narrative and the characters, Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation is probably the best starting point for a philosophical and sociological approach to the movie’s content.
Baudrillard and Hollywood: subverting the mechanism of control and The Matrix – by Jim Rovira