8. The Matrix Is Suspiciously Similar To A Comic Book Called The Invisibles
The Matrix was - and still is - one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. Though it might've lost a fair amount of its reputation through its association with those ill-judged sequels that nobody liked, the original flick is a balls to the walls geek party, complete with cool music, cool characters, cool gun fights, and some seriously cool ideas. And on the surface, at least, it appears to a genuinely "unique" idea. How did somebody think all that up, right? Granted, the Wachowskis have always been really open when it comes to acknowledging their influences, and have asserted on a number of occassions that
The Matrix is a sort of hybrid of their favourite nerdy things: anime, cyberpunk, kung-fu movies. You know, that sort of stuff. What we don't remember, though, is them having ever mentioned
The Invisibles, which is basically what the
The Matrix would have been if it was a comic book and released in 1994. We're not kidding. Both
The Matrix and
The Invisibles (written by Grant Morrison) are based around the idea that reality is actually an illusion, and both centre on groups of people who know this terrifying fact. That's not all: both stories begin with a character like Neo, who eventually becomes the Messiah, and must learn to use his powers to bend reality and perform awesome moves and stuff. The final nail in the coffin? Both groups are led by a bald guy with dark, round glasses. There's even a bit in
The Invisibles where that guy, like Morpheus in
The Matrix, is captured by the baddies and tortured by somebody who is masquerading as a government agent (Agent Smith, hello?). And just like in
The Matrix,
The Invisibles focuses on this group as they try to expose the world for what it is. Though, in the case of the comic, it's that reality is ruled by, uh, insect-monster creatures. The important thing, we guess, is that you know when to
stop stealing - in this case, insect-monster creatures was absolutely the right time.