“The Matrix – pop-culture juggernaut still lands a thrilling punch. Keanu Reeves’ first trip down the rabbit hole is as electrifying as ever.

“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.” With these words in the Wachowskis’ 1999 sci-fi classic The Matrix issues a wakeup call to computer hacker Neo (Keanu Reeves). The red pill will show Neo harsh reality, because everything he thinks he knows is false. And that applies to us too: all of us consumers placidly sucking up the trance-inducing pap from the corporate-political complex of the state. The red pill and the blue pill was the meme The Matrix gifted to pop culture at the dawn of the online age: it often seems as if no discussion of “reality” – nor any conspiracy theorist blogger – can get very far without invoking the sacred pills. Slavoj Žižek mischievously said he wanted a third pill, one that shows the reality within the illusion, not behind it. The Matrix still stands up as a fiercely exciting and discombobulating futurist drama, which pioneered breathtaking “bullet-time” action sequences inspired by Asian martial arts.” - The Guardian

Directors: Larry Wachowski, Andy Wachowski USA, 1999. Age limit: 15 years old. Language and subtitles: English. Actors: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran m.fl.