12 Movies You Didn't Realise Were Just Ripping Off Video Games

9. The Matrix = The Entire MMORPG Genre

The Video Game: This one refers to an entire genre of video games: the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). An MMO has players connecting to a server with an avatar and username, where they're able to perform awesome, super-cool feats like flying, slaying monsters and so on that just aren't possible in real life. The Movie: The Matrix is all about a man, Thomas Anderson, who finds out he's been living inside the titular computerised simulation, and his real body is then "unplugged" in order that he might consciously exist outside of The Matrix. From this point, Anderson's experiences are very much akin to an MMO: he assumes only the name Neo, goes through training scenarios, connects to The Matrix, decks himself out in awesome outfits, and of course, defies the laws of physics, just as he cannot do in real life. The mechanics are different in fundamental ways, yes, but the movies hold a mirror up to this sort of gaming model as a whole, and considering that MMOs were very much a niche activity in the late '90s, the Wachowskis got there before anyone else was able to.