Trans messaging

With directors Lilly and Lana Wachoski being trans, it won’t be surprising to hear that ‘The Matrix’ has quite a lot of trans messaging.

In the first movie, the character Switch, played by Belinda McClory, is somewhat androgynous in appearance, and was initially meant to be male in the real world, and female when they were plugged into ‘The Matrix’.

The red pill that Neo takes to learn about the truth that he has been in a simulation the whole time, which itself has some trans messaging, is also a nod to the fact that oestrogen pills were coloured the same.

Explaining the themes of the trilogy, Lilly said: “‘The Matrix ‘was all about the desire for transformation, but coming from a closeted point of view.”