The story behind one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made, which you may not know 

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction action film. It is considered one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made.

When I say Matrix, everyone pictures Neo (Keanu Reeves) in bullet time dodging bullets.

But the story is so much more and just revolutionary once you see the 3 sequels and an animated movie called the Animatrix which serves as a prequel.

The story goes that mankind invented humanoid robots and AI to serve as servants. As time passes the human masters mistreat their servants and the world on a whole is in crisis.

In 2099 a robot murders his master’s family and two dogs in self-defense. This is the turning point of the story. After much discussion the robot is allowed to stand trial where the judgement is that robot are possessions and not entitled to the same rights as citizens. Citizens are allowed to destroy their robots as they are possessions. During the trial scene, a voice-over of the defense attorney Clarence Drummond (whose name is a dual reference to Clarence Darrow and Henry Drummond from Inherit the Wind) quoting a famous line from the Dred Scott v. Sandford case in his closing statement, which implicitly ruled that African Americans were not entitled to citizenship under United States law, is heard:

"We think they are not, and were not intended to be included, under the word 'citizens' in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings..."

This starts a great civil unrest with riots all over demanding robot rights and protection. The governments of the world decide that robots are no longer feasible and initiate a purge. Robots are destroyed en masse akin to genocide.

However surviving robots flee to Mesopotamia and establish a country of their own called zero one.

Soon the machines industrial capabilities far outpace that of humans and machines control the global economy. Every house and family has a machine-made product in their home. The machines also shed the humanoid form and take more refined shapes of like the cephalopods/squids that we see in the film.

The UN meets to address this alarming chain of events where economies have crashed, and everything is now machine produced. Zero one sends a representative and asks for recognition as a country. But this is denied, and the UN decides to destroy 01 through nuclear bombardment so that they may once again regain their economies. This starts the man – machine war that sets the narrative for the rest of the series.

This is where the story is unique that it portrays the humans as evil and the machines as peaceful beings just existing. In countless stories like the Terminator, I-robot and even a storyline in Star Trek (the borgs) we are led to believe that AI becomes self-aware, turns evil and obliterates the Earth. Here it is just the opposite.

However, nukes have less effect on 01 and soon 01 exterminates most of the human population using its superior technological capabilities and soon most of the Earth is conquered by the machines. A peace treaty is held in New York in a last-ditch effort to stop the war. But the representative of 01 demands that Earth be handed over to the machines and detonates a nuke which destroys the last of humanity’s leadership and organized structure.

In a last-ditch effort, the surviving humans initiate operation ‘dark storm’. They launch nanite warheads into the atmosphere permanently blocking out the sun. Ecology collapses.

By this time other sources of fuel are exhausted, and the machines rely solely on solar power. Humanity considers this a tactical win and waits for the machines to run out of power.

All throughout our existence we have depended on machines to survive. Fate, it seems is not without a sense of irony.

The human body produces 25000 BTU of body heat in its lifetime. This is nearly equivalent to a 100V battery. The machines decide to harness this energy and combined with a form of fusion; they had all the energy they needed. Humans are captured in vast numbers. Their body is grafted with plugs and a main plug grafted at the base of the neck. This main plug is hardwired to the neuro-interactive simulation called the Matrix. The Matrix is a neuro interactive simulation showing the world as it was in the end of the 20th century. Every human being is connected to the Matrix and their lives are just an illusion. It is the world that has been pulled over their eyes to blind them from the truth that they are slaves born in a prison that cannot be touched, seen, heard or felt. A prison for the mind to keep humans subdued, essentially turning their bodies into batteries.

There is a prophecy that one individual known as ‘The One’ will awaken and destroy the Matrix and end the war, bringing peace to mankind. This anomaly will free the first human minds ‘red pills’ from the Matrix, and this is the story of man vs machines with a unique twist. Freeing as many ‘red pills’ while the machines try to prevent this by employing digital sentients called agents who kill the ‘red pills’ is the theme of the matrix.

What a concept, script and execution...