"The Matrix" and "Alice in Wonderland" Parallels

In the beginning of the movie, Neo gets woken up by his computer sending him a direct message instructing him to “Follow the white rabbit.” Neo then hears a knock on the door from one of his clients and a woman with a rabbit tattoo. In another scene with Morpheus (the man from the real world trying to recruit Neo) offers Neo a choice: to join them in the real world, or to forget what they’ve told him and continue is fake reality. But the phrasing of which Morpheus presents the choices to Neo alludes to the story of Alice in Wonderland:



“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

By repeating the word “rabbit” and including “Wonderland” and “rabbit hole,” the viewers draw on their personal experience of their knowledge of Alice in Wonderland and subconsciously compare Neo’s journey to that of Alice. Even as Morpheus holds out the two pills in separate hands, the idea that “one will make you forget, and one will make you see the truth” compares to “one will make you bigger and one will make you smaller,” when Alice meets the caterpillar. This point in the story of The Matrix signifies Neo entering a strange and unfamiliar world. Although Alice eventually wakes up from her dream in Wonderland, when Neo wakes up, there is little that is familiar to comfort him. Instead, for Neo, Wonderland is the real world. This technique of parallel editing enables the viewers to draw from personal experiences to help convey the message of the movie to each viewer. The effect of paralleling The Matrix to Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass and Alice in Wonderland is that the viewers question reality as definite instead of indefinite; The Matrix compels the viewers to consider “Wonderland” as a reality we’re not supposed to wake up from.



Overall, The Matrix contains thought provoking and somewhat philosophical ideas about reality in addition to over the top costumes, set designs, and stunts that make this action-packed film a classic and cult film.