Cyberpunk in "The Matrix"

About this book

Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Freiburg (Englisches Seminar), course: Proseminar "American Film Genre", language: English, abstract: It is the aim of this paper to show that The Matrix, written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, is a development of cyberpunk. On the one hand, The Matrix shares many basic ideas, typical features and motifs with cyberpunk, as we know it from the works of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and other cyberpunk writers of the 1980s. But on the other hand The Matrix’s cyberpunk also differs very much from other cyberpunk works. It not only differs, inmany cases The Matrix pushes ideas and motifs of cyberpunk further, taking them to another level. In this paper I will analyze themes, topics and motifs of cyberpunk in The Matrix, the way they are used and, most important, the purpose behind cyberpunk in the film. I will look at how and for what effect cyberpunk is used in The Matrix. In the introduction to his cyberpunk anthology Mirrorshades, Bruce Sterling writes that central themes of cyberpunk are “the theme of body invasion: prosthetic limbs, implanted cir…