Red pill and blue pill

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Red and blue capsule pills, like the ones shown in The Matrix (1999) Red and blue pill.jpg
Red and blue capsule pills, like the ones shown in The Matrix (1999)

The red pill and blue pill represent a choice between the willingness to learn a potentially unsettling or life-changing truth by taking the red pill or remaining in the contented experience of ordinary reality with the blue pill (i.e. the reality principle or the pleasure principle [1] ). The terms originate from the 1999 film The Matrix .

Contents

In The Matrix

In the film The Matrix, the main character Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus (played by Laurence Fishburne). Morpheus says "You take the blue pill... the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill... you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." It is implied that the blue pill is a sedative that would cause Neo to think that all his most recent experiences were a hallucination, so that he can go back to living in the Matrix's simulated reality. The red pill, on the other hand, serves as a "location device" to locate the subject's body in the real world and to prepare them to be "unplugged" from the Matrix.

Neo takes the red pill and awakens in the real world, where he is forcibly ejected from the liquid-filled chamber in which he has obliviously been lying. After his rescue and convalescence aboard Morpheus's ship, Morpheus shows him the true nature of the Matrix: a detailed computer simulation of Earth at the end of the 20th century (the actual year, though not known for sure, is suggested within the original movie to be approximately 200 years later, though it is revealed through sequels The Matrix Reloaded , The Matrix Revolutions and The Animatrix that at least 700 years have passed). It has been created to keep the minds of humans docile while their bodies are stored in massive power plants, their body heat and bioelectricity consumed as power by the sentient machines that have enslaved them.

Later Matrix films

In a 2012 interview, Matrix director Lana Wachowski said: [2]

What we were trying to achieve with the story overall was a shift, the same kind of shift that happens for Neo, that Neo goes from being in this sort of cocooned and programmed world, to having to participate in the construction of meaning to his life. And we're like, "Well, can the audience go through the three movies and experience something similar to what the main character experiences?" So the first movie is sort of classical in its approach. The second movie is deconstructionist, and it assaults all of the things that you thought to be true in the first movie, and so people get very upset, and they're like "Stop attacking me!" in the same way that people get upset with deconstructionist philosophy. I mean, Derrida and Foucault, these people upset us. And then the third movie is the most ambiguous because it asks you to actually participate in the construction of meaning...

Lana Wachowski, Movie City News, October 13, 2012

In the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections , the Analyst uses blue pills to keep Neo's true memories suppressed in the guise of therapy sessions. Later, Neo takes another red pill before being freed from the Matrix once again by Bugs and her crew. In Trinity's case, she does not have to take the red pill again because of the way that Sati is freeing her from the Matrix. The red pills also allow friendly programs to leave the Matrix, as seen with the program version of Morpheus.

Analysis

An essay written by Russell Blackford discusses the red and blue pills, questioning whether if a person were fully informed they would take the red pill, opting for the real world, believing that the choice of physical reality over a digital simulation is not so beneficial as to be valid for all people. Both Neo and another character, Cypher (Joe Pantoliano), take the red pill over the blue pill, though later in the first Matrix film, the latter demonstrates regret for having made that choice, saying that if Morpheus fully informed him of the situation, Cypher would have told him to "shove the red pill right up [his] ass." When Cypher subsequently makes a deal with the machines to return to the Matrix and forget everything he had learned, he says, "Ignorance is bliss." Blackford argues that the Matrix films set things up so that even if Neo fails, the taking of the red pill is worthwhile because he lives and dies authentically. Blackford and science-fiction writer James Patrick Kelly feel that The Matrix stacks the deck against machines and their simulated world. [3]

Matrix Warrior: Being the One author Jake Horsley compared the red pill to LSD, citing a scene where Neo forms his own world outside of the Matrix. When he asks Morpheus if he could return, Morpheus responds by asking him if he would want to. Horsley also describes the blue pill as addictive, calling The Matrix series a continuous series of choices between taking the blue pill and not taking it. He adds that the habits and routines of people inside the Matrix are merely the people dosing themselves with the blue pill. While he describes the blue pill as a common thing, he states that the red pill is one of a kind, and something someone may not even find. [4]

Literary and philosophical allusions

The Matrix, and its sequels, contain numerous references to Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its 1872 sequel Through the Looking-Glass . [5] The Alice in Wonderland metaphor is made explicit in Morpheus's speech to Neo, with the phrases "white rabbit" and "down the rabbit hole", as well as the description of Neo's path of discovery as "Wonderland". The concept of the red and blue pills has also been speculated to be a reference to the scene in Alice in Wonderland where Alice finds a cake labelled "Eat Me" and a potion labelled "Drink Me": eating the cake makes Alice grow to an enormous size, while drinking the potion makes her tiny. [5]

The Matrix also makes references to historical myths and philosophy, including gnosticism, existentialism, and nihilism. [6] [7] The central concept of the film has been compared to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, [8] [9] Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly", René Descartes's skepticism [10] [11] and evil demon, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, Robert Nozick's "experience machine", [12] the concept of a simulated reality and the brain in a vat thought experiment. [13] [14]

The Wachowskis asked star Keanu Reeves to read three books before filming: Simulacra and Simulation (1981) by Jean Baudrillard, Out of Control (1992) by Kevin Kelly, and Introducing Evolution (1999) by Dylan Evans. [15]

Red pill as transgender allegory

Fan theories have suggested that the red pill may represent an allegory for transgender people or a story of Lana and Lilly Wachowski's history as coming out as transgender. [16] [17] During the 1990s, a common transgender hormone therapy for trans women involved Premarin, a maroon tablet. [18] Lilly Wachowski stated in August 2020 that the filmmakers had intentionally included transgender themes in the film. [19]

As political metaphor

The concept of red and blue pills has since been widely used as a political metaphor in the United States, where "taking the red pill" or being "red-pilled" means becoming aware of the political biases inherent in society, including in the mainstream media, and ultimately becoming an independent thinker; while "taking the blue pill" or being "blue-pilled" means unquestioningly accepting these supposed biases.

The concept is also used among leftists to refer to members of the alt-right and others who subscribe to right wing beliefs. [20] [21]

The first known political use of this metaphor was in the 2006 essay "The Red Pill" by University of Colorado sociology professor Kathleen J. Tierney, in which she argued that those who felt that the U.S. government had a poor response to Hurricane Katrina should "take the red pill" and realize that "post-September 11 policies and plans have actually made the nation more vulnerable, both to natural disasters and to future terrorist attacks." [22]

The metaphor was then popularized in a different context by neo-reactionary blogger Curtis Yarvin. [23] He first used it in a 2007 blog post written under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug, and titled "The Case Against Democracy: Ten Red Pills"; in it he argues that trying to convince a Westerner that democracy is bad is like trying to convince "a Catholic in 16th-century Spain... to stop believing in Catholicism", but he then offers ten "red pill" arguments (along with their "blue pill" counterparts) to make a case against democracy. [24]

In some parts of the men's rights movement and the manosphere, the term "red pill" is used as a metaphor for the specific moment when a person comes to believe that certain gender roles they are expected to conform to, such as marriage and monogamy, are intended for the benefit of women alone, rather than for mutual benefit. [25] [26] In 2016, a documentary titled The Red Pill , about the men's rights movement, was released.

In 2017, political activist and commentator Candace Owens launched Red Pill Black, a website and YouTube channel that promote black conservatism in the United States. The term is used as a metaphor for the process of rejecting previously believed leftist narratives. [27]

Black pill and white pill

The metaphor of the "black pill" was first popularized by the incel-related blog Omega Virgin Revolt. [28] In this parlance, being red-pilled means believing concepts like male oppression and female hypergamy, while being black-pilled means coming to believe that there is little that low-status or unattractive men can do to improve their prospects for romantic or sexual relationships with women. [29]

This metaphor was extended to political matters, where, after being red-pilled (recognizing, and then rejecting, the dominant political narratives), one can then become either black-pilled (pessimistic or apathetic about the future), or white-pilled (hopeful about the future or believing change is possible.) This metaphor has been embraced by commentators including anarchist Michael Malice, whose 2022 book The White Pill advocates the latter point of view. [30] Malice defines the term as, “It is possible that we will lose, it is impossible that we must lose.”

Other uses

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Matrix</i> 1999 film by the Wachowskis

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the Matrix film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, and depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix.

Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are American film and television directors, writers and producers. The sisters are both trans women.

<i>The Matrix Reloaded</i> 2003 film by the Wachowskis

The Matrix Reloaded is a 2003 American science-fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the sequel to The Matrix (1999) and the second installment in the Matrix film series. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Gloria Foster who reprise their roles from the previous film, while Jada Pinkett Smith was introduced in the cast.

The Animatrix is a 2003 American-Japanese adult animated science-fiction anthology film produced by the Wachowskis. The anime compiles nine animated short films, detailing the backstory of The Matrix film series, in addition to providing side stories that expand the universe and tie into the film series.

<i>The Matrix Revolutions</i> 2003 American sci-fi action film

The Matrix Revolutions is a 2003 American science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the third installment in The Matrix film series, released six months following The Matrix Reloaded. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Jada Pinkett Smith, Monica Bellucci, Lambert Wilson, and Mary Alice who replaces Gloria Foster as the Oracle following Foster's death in 2001.

Neo (<i>The Matrix</i>) The Matrix character

Neo is a fictional character and the protagonist of The Matrix franchise, created by the Wachowskis. He was portrayed as a cybercriminal and computer programmer by Keanu Reeves in the films, as well as having a cameo in The Animatrix short film Kid's Story. Andrew Bowen provided Neo's voice in The Matrix: Path of Neo. In 2021, Reeves reprised his role in The Matrix Resurrections with what Vulture calls "his signature John Wick look".

<i>Enter the Matrix</i> 2003 video game

Enter the Matrix is a 2003 action-adventure video game developed by Shiny Entertainment and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand name. It was the first game based on The Matrix film series. Its story is concurrent with that of the film The Matrix Reloaded and features over an hour of original footage, written and directed by the Wachowskis and starring the cast of the films, produced for the game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agent Smith</span> Fictional character in The Matrix film series; antagonist

Agent Smith is a fictional character and the main antagonist of The Matrix franchise. The character was primarily portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the first trilogy of films and voiced by Christopher Corey Smith in The Matrix: Path of Neo (2005), with Ian Bliss and Gideon Emery playing his human form, Bane, in the films and Path of Neo respectively. He also makes a cameo in the anime film The Animatrix (2003), voiced by Matt McKenzie. Jonathan Groff and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II portray Smith in The Matrix Resurrections (2021), the latter playing Morpheus in a dual role.

Morpheus (<i>The Matrix</i>) Fictional character in The Matrix

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The Matrix is an American cyberpunk media franchise consisting of four feature films, beginning with The Matrix (1999) and continuing with three sequels, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, and The Matrix Resurrections (2021). The first three films were written and directed by the Wachowskis and produced by Joel Silver. The screenplay for the fourth film was written by Lana Wachowski, David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon, was directed by Lana Wachowski, and was produced by Grant Hill, James McTeigue, and Lana Wachowski. The franchise is owned by Warner Bros., which distributed the films along with Village Roadshow Pictures. The latter, along with Silver Pictures, are the two production companies that worked on the first three films.

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