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Scabbed Angel

The Matrix is a ripoff

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Err... this post was almost done and I delete it... anyway I was watching another movie and noticed a number of similarites to the Matrix. I am a fan of the Matrix, so I am not dissing it, there were just a number of large similarites between it and the movie a re-watched yesterday.

If you did watch it, perhaps you'll see what I mean. If you didn't and you like the Matrix (plot-wise, not the tech part of it) check this movie out. If you haven't seen it and didn't like the Matrix, see it anyway, its awesome in a dark, brooding sort of way.

Dark City.

Here are my points of comparison, I had a whole plot summary and shit, but hit "undo" in the browser by accident, and I'm to lazy so I'll just write my observations and anyone who has seen the movie can fill in the rest.

Dark City had "The Strangers" which were in control of this unreal world and could manipulate it and mankind for so they could surive. They were using humanity to find a lifesource because their race was dying, and they needed to find the "soul" in hopes for survival. The Dark City was the environment that the Strangers had the humans to study them and would change it at will every midnight. The Strangers were the bodies of the dead reanimated by squid looking alien machines.

The Matrix had "The agents" which could also manipulate the surrounding of the people. They were the form of the machines in Matrix program, needed humanity for survival as bio-batteries. They could change at will however. The agents were the program front of the machines... the sentinals also were squidlike, but did not live in the bodies, because the agents were program representations. Same concept.

Dark City - Had John Murdock. He was the only one who shared the Strangers' powers and was hunted by them. He could use his mind to manipulate surroundings and needed to learn his powers in time, while under a sort of mentor (the Doctor)
The Matrix - Had Neo. He had powers to manipulate the Matrix and also needed to learn to master this power with a mentor (Morpheus)

Dark City had the Doctor calling Murdock to warn him that the Strangers were coming for him because of his "gift"
The Matrix had Morpheus calling Neo to do the same thing. Only difference is Neo was guided as to where to go.

Both have a girl that has the faith in that helps them complete different goals in the plot... Neo back from the dead... Murdock... well... the end of the movie, I'd rather not give it away.

...any case, there are many more examples, but those are the strongest points I feel, and this post is getting too long anyway. Just an observation. It may not be a ripoff... but then again... there are a lot of important similarities regarding basic and detailed aspects of the plot. Just kinda shocked me, cause I've see both a dozen times and it never dawned on me before. Feel free to discuss and bring up any points/counterpoints if it suites your fancy.

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Both movies came out in 99. The Matrix script was written and widely available circa 96. I think you mixed up your order of causality.

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I checked, and Dark City came out in 1998, while Matrix was released in 1999.

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I haven't seen Dark city, but I KNOW the matirx has a HUGE thing in common with The Terminator. Machines crushing humanity, and small pockets of humanity fighting back for survival. but that's only pretaining to the future from the terminator. The matrix has no time travel thankfully.

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The matrix takes influences from a lot of places. From what I understand the writers were influenced by movies like The Thirteenth Floor, various books like Neuromancer and 1984, and of course philosophy such as Plato, Descartes and even the Bible.

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i got an earful this past week from a kid who is convinced that the matrix is a rip off of tron. i've never seen it but the way he described it made me curious so i'll have to check that out.

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Nothing in the Matrix is overly original, even the bullet-time stuff has been done before just not to that degree or quality. We were just talking about this on another forum and Lut was saying there was an old "Outer Limits" episode that had a really similiar storyline. Everything's been done, there are no original storylines left. :p

I would recommend you see "NARC". It was pretty damn good.

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fraggle said:

The matrix takes influences from a lot of places. From what I understand the writers were influenced by movies like The Thirteenth Floor, various books like Neuromancer and 1984, and of course philosophy such as Plato, Descartes and even the Bible.


Interesting. I am reading Neuromancer right now and I was thinking the same thing...

It seems like the Matrix is a ripoff of lots of stuff. In fact, I can't find anything about the Matrix that's really original. Or at least that would be plot important. I made a mistake when that movie came out. I said "it does rip off good stuff, so i'll give it a chance". I gave it a chance, and it was still bad. First of all, get some people that can act. I kept expecting Keeanu Reeves to say "woah...this is MOST unheinous" throughout the Matrix because he can only act as two people. Keeanu and Ted. They also need some people to write good dialogue and not fill it with psuedo intellectual bullshit. The story, as ripped off as it may be, is still a pretty good one. The execution however, was terrible. The whole series falls under "merely okay" i think. If they'd change a few things then they would be damn good movies.

Sorry about going off on a "Matrix Review", but I havent vented my opinions on it yet.

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There is hardly any original sci-fi movies in recent years. The Matrix is no exception. The Wachowski brothers even admitted that they've got their ideas from a couple of other films, most noticeably Ghost in the Shell by Mamoru Oshii.

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The Matrix is totally a ripoff of the New Testament. Neo is just a teched-up version of that Christ guy.

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The Matrix is first and foremost a style movie - all black leather coats and shades worn by beautiful people in beautiful poses accompanied by suitable music and stylish camera work.

Most of the themes and ideas have been pulled from elsewhere. If you spend any time thinking about it, despite all its pretentions, you can pretty quickly start picking holes in its internal logic.

Doesn't mean it’s not a good movie. In fact I think in many ways its a great movie. But it is just a movie.

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The Matrix isnt really a ripoff. Meaning that they stole all their ideas from another movie. It just takes ideas from different movies and books. Hell, Im sure that long before the movie was made, we all had similar thoughts about the world being "false".

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Rellik said:

We were just talking about this on another forum and Lut was saying there was an old "Outer Limits" episode that had a really similiar storyline.

"Feasibility Study" was the name of the episode, and although it was low-budget TV show I still think the story was much more effective and creepy, especially what they have to do in the end.

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Why are we complaining about the Matrix when we could be complaining about the hundreds of other movies out there that are cleches from other movies of the past?

My biggest problem with Hollywood right now is the whole damned Black & White team thing. If you notice its everywhere. There's alot of good movies that have been made, that were ruined because they stuck the black guy in there, who, by the way, is always the comedian. Don't get me wrong, I'm not racist, but god damn there could've been really good movies out there.

For example, Dungeons & Dragons the movie. Okay, the movie was okay, but it could have been a hell of alot better if they would have took that stupid comic character "Snails" out of the movie (the black comedian who always makes a stupid joke in a serious moment, ruining the mood). Bah.

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monochrome said:

i got an earful this past week from a kid who is convinced that the matrix is a rip off of tron. i've never seen it but the way he described it made me curious so i'll have to check that out.


I don't think it is, as Tron is about a group of people who get trapped inside a computer and have to escape (and bring down a bad guy at the same time). It was one of the first films about computer paranoia, though.

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The Ultimate DooMer said:

I don't think it is, as Tron is about a group of people who get trapped inside a computer and have to escape (and bring down a bad guy at the same time). It was one of the first films about computer paranoia, though.


Tron rules.

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People have been copying notions since the beginning of time. If you were going to judge everything this way, Shakespeare would be a ripoff too.

Originality in application not concept is the important thing.

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i dont really see much of a similarity between the 2. dark city was an alien race who was dying out. they needed to find a new way to exsist and were studing humans and their minds. however they also where breeding them in some sort of system, impression i got anyway. this backfired when they created a human with their abilities. the city was built on a very massive space craft. A machiene the aliens used allowed them to change the city. the aliens seemed to share more in common with borg than the matrix. they were a collective, one reason they seemed to be dying.

The matrix is about a human made system that has taken control and enslaved humanity for power. however u get a different lesson from matrix. The matrix seems to take delite in what it does. I dout they really need humans to survive at all. they seem to do it mainly as a means of boosting its ego. It takes delite in the tought that it is supperior and control the humans. this is eveident because the have allowed humans to escape and every hundred or so years destroy zion and rebuild it. as if saying to humans "we rule and u cannot escape" surly they would have cleared the skies had they wanted to.

similarities between the 2 are basic

humans are controled and most dont know it.

time period is not shown well. matrix could be thousands but no less than 600 years in the future.

dark city could be any time after the 1940-1950's eras, as that is the era reflected. however the aliens admit they have experimented with many time periods. the scientist used by them hints that those humans were removed in the near future, given his skills.

differences
dark city - the hero was able to control the alien system and had all the powers, and even more power than the aliens them selvs.

matrix-neo is a powerful human, however does not have all the powers of the agents and does not control the system in anyway.

matrix is a man made controling entity
dark city is run by aleins who hav captured a population of humans (i dout they capture the whole race, just what they needed)

as u see there are few, if any, real ripping off here

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boris:
The Matrix is a rip off of the real world.


I second that, if you look around yourself you will notice it.

Why do you think some people have powers that the others dont have? We will normally ignore the things we dont understand.

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if the matrix movies were nothing but fight scenes, they would be GREAT. but instead they're full of this mish-mash of shallow stabs at philosophy and the poorest dialogue and characterization possible. the wachowski brothers somehow managed to take all the really cool stuff they ripped off/were inspired by and make it suck. oh well. soon enough the punisher movie will be out and god will stop punishing me.

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Hope i didn't offend anyone. As i said, i really like the Matrix, just the parallels in the stories seem a bid coincidental. Just a thought that I wanted to get others views on. Perhaps it was inspired, in the end, I don't care, they're both great movies in my eyes. If anyone liked the Matrix and the Crow, Dark City is a great movie, because as stated, its a lot like the Matrix, and directed by the director of the first Crow, not all the shitty sequels.

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pregnant with worms said:

soon enough the punisher movie will be out and god will stop punishing me.


You goddamn right.

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Scabbed Angel said:

Hope i didn't offend anyone. As i said, i really like the Matrix, just the parallels in the stories seem a bid coincidental. Just a thought that I wanted to get others views on. Perhaps it was inspired, in the end, I don't care, they're both great movies in my eyes. If anyone liked the Matrix and the Crow, Dark City is a great movie, because as stated, its a lot like the Matrix, and directed by the director of the first Crow, not all the shitty sequels.


I second that about the Crow sequels. Heh. They were attempting to be a little too artsy, methinks. And without Brandon Lee they sucked anyway. Heh, I imagine if Brandon Lee was still alive he would have been cast in The Matrix. It certainly would have given it more style-points. I must admit that is a part of what I liked about The Matrix: the presentation.

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