10 Movies That Aren't About What You Think
7. It's About Trans Identity - The Matrix
The Matrix is a fascinating film to re-evaluate in retrospect, given that director siblings Lana and Lilly Wachowski both came out as transgender women years following the movie's release.
More to the point, Lilly flat-out stated in 2020 that the film was always conceived as an allegory for the trans experience, saying, "That was the original intention but the world wasn't quite ready."
Fans have pointed to the story's parallels with the trans community, from red pills resembling red estrogen pills, to Morpheus' description of an awareness of the Matrix's artifice as reflective of gender dysphoria. And further still, the original script had the character of Switch (Belinda McClory) be a woman in the Matrix and a man in the real world, though this fascinating idea was cut during development.
The Matrix can obviously just be enjoyed as a technically robust action film spiced with pop philosophy, but its creators evidently intended for it to mean so, so much more than that.