The Twisted, Stolen Legacy of the 'Matrix' Red Pill

In May 2020, Elon Musk tweeted “Take the red pill.” It was unclear precisely what he meant, but those with enough cultural context had a decent idea of what he was trying to say. That hunch was then affirmed by the enthusiastic response of Ivanka Trump, whose father became president at least in some minor part because of forces associated with the symbol that Musk was evoking. She quote-tweeted him cheerily: “Taken!” she said.

Less than an hour later, Lilly Wachowski chimed in. One of the two directors responsible for The Matrix—the film in which the modern concept of the “red pill” originated—Wachowski didn’t appear very pleased with these people, neither in general nor in regard to how they were continuing the strange legacy of her metaphor. “Fuck both of you,” she replied to Trump. The way they were tossing her symbol around was likely a lot different from what she and her sister, Lana, had in mind when, more than two decades earlier, they composed the indelible scene in which Thomas Anderson (Keanu Reeves) has to choose between taking a blue pill, which would cause him to remain who he is in a fabricated reality, or a red one, which would officially transform him into Neo—the chosen one, who alone could take down the grand enslavers and illusion makers.

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