The Matrix is a referential collage that became a transmedia brand

Evidence

A decade after Who Framed Roger Rabbit, another influential blockbuster would build a cinematic world out of references, though this time the concept of a dystopian reality being converted into a virtual fantasyland is the literal plot of the film. Borrowing its title from Gibson’s Neuromancer, The Matrix (Lana and Lilly Wachowski, 1999) delivers its critique of capitalism by setting its story in a future where humanity is enslaved by machines and pacified by a simulated reality. Both the film and the simulation within the film are built from a referential collage: cyberpunk novels, Japanese anime, Philip K. Dick sci-fi, and John Woo action are the most immediate, with spiritual and philosophical references also in abundance—Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation is an actual prop and source of dialogue. The film references at least eighty other films and television series, and, after the first film’s unexpected popularity, its brand expanded into a transmedia franchise of sequels, video games, animated shorts, and branding tie-ins. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 408

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the ‘brandscape blockbuster’ lineage as world-building through references, the chapter’s organizing concept.