Unlike most of the sources on this list, the Wachowskis have openly acknowledged that elements of Ghost in the Shell were copied straight into The Matrix. They actually used Mamoru Oshiis 1995 anime classic to pitch the idea for The Matrix to producer Joel Silver, showing him the film on DVD and telling him that they wanted to do it with real actors - something they practically did shot for shot. Set in the year 2029 where the world is interconnected by a vast electronic network that infiltrates the lives of every citizen, the head of Public Security Section 9 is on the hunt for an elusive hacker who goes by the alias Puppet Master. The only access to this network is through cybernetic shells that possess consciousness and give the user superhuman abilities. From the digital coding Morpheus and the gang hack to get into The Matrix to the jacks situated on the back of their necks, the Wachowskis borrowed (if you can call it that) from Oshii, something the Japanese film maker does not like to discuss in detail. That didnt stop the Wachowskis from buddying their film with his, even going so far as to include side-by-side, scene-by-scene commentary as an extra on the DVD release.
