A Tough Pill to Swallow: The Weaponization of The Matrix’s Red Pill

Written by Matti V.

Rebel leader Morpheus extends a single pill in each hand to Neo.

“You take the blue pill . . . the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill . . . you stay in Wonderland . . . and l show you how deep the rabbit hole goes,” says Morpheus. 

Neo curses, snatching the blue pill. Imagine if Neo, the hero of the 1999 dystopian film “The Matrix,” were to reject the red pill and all of its effects, abruptly ending the film. It may seem unthinkable, but we all need to reject a certain modern-day “red pill” given what it has come to represent. In the film, the blue pill represents a return to the matrix, a false reality that enslaves its inhabitants. The red pill represents enlightening yourself to the truth and rejecting the matrix. 

Under the pretense of alleviating matrix oppression, a new, tampered red pill has been developed and marketed by the far right and Incels as an entry ticket into their ideologies. Incel stands for “involuntarily celibate,” a group of men who prescribe “absolute male supremacy” as the cure to the growth of modern feminism. It is evident The Matrix has been opened to many interpretations over time, but Incels and the political right have undoubtedly laced the Wachowski sister’s original intentions with the film with their own radicalist drivel. The “red pill,” which originally represented enlightening yourself to the truth of tyrannical machines imposing thought slavery, is now a euphemism for the Incel and far-right agendas, not for swallowing the hard truth. 

In 2012, Reddit forum TheRedPill (TRP) was released “with the aim of providing men with a ‘sexual strategy’ to defeat what Incels describe as a manipulative ‘feminist culture’ that solely empowers women.” Incels, diagnosing themselves as “red-pilled,” reject the notions of modern feminism; most notably, the Incel ideology ignorantly positions men as the oppressed class as opposed to women (Marwick and Lewis, Alice and Becca). The Incels’ preconception of the matrix is a world where women are not subjugated to the supreme rule of men and have free will over their lives and bodies. In The Matrix, Neo says to Morpheus he doesn’t believe in fate because he doesn't like the idea that he is not “in control of [his] own life.” Incels, like Neo, try to bend reality into their ideal worldview using the red pill, but the Incels’ is one which denies women of self-autonomy and agency. 

The Incels’ addiction to red-pill philosophy is not limited to the online world, however, and has spread like a virus, ultimately leading to violence: “Plymouth gunman Jake Davison spoke of ‘consuming the black pill overdose’ in YouTube videos before his August killing spree — the Incel community's own term for nihilistic red pill extremism” (Taylor, 2021). In fact, the FBI has listed “red pill” as a key term in their domestic terrorism guide for Incel Violent Extremism and in their significant literature and terminology guide for Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism. To white supremacists and the alt-right, the red pill “means acknowledging that Jewish elites control the culture and are accelerating the destruction of the white race.” Ultimately, Incels and the alt-right, a far-right, white supremacist group, abuse the red pill in their misguided attempts to incite and rationalize acts of violence.

The red pill has been used in attempts to make far-right interests digestible. Lilly Wachowski, the co-director of The Matrix, responded to presidential adviser Ivanka Trump’s support of Elon Musk’s tweet that urged his followers to “take the red pill” — with a short and sweet “F — both of you.” Wachowski’s not quite dignified, but effective response to the political right’s weaponization of her allegory emphasizes that the radicalized side-effects of the film contradict Wachowski’s intentions. Further, Musk’s tweet could reasonably be understood as an “addendum to his POTUS-backed attempts to reopen a major Tesla factory” (Rao, 2020). Musk uses The Matrix’s red pill to alleviate his capitalistic withdrawal, whereas Lilly Wachowski has said so much of The Matrix was “born out of a lot of anger and a lot of rage, and its rage at capitalism and corporatized structure and forms of oppression.” 

Even so, today's red-pill dealers are itching with corporate greed. Andrew Tate is a suspected human trafficker, businessman, and controversial social media influencer,  who likes to present himself as the Morpheus for young men, and an embodiment of the red pill ideology. Tate created an app called the “Real World Portal” — an app with evidence to suggest that it is an “illegal pyramid scheme” that charges members “$49.99 a month to join.” The term “real world” originates in The Matrix, and is the reality of freedom the red pill opens its users to. Tate’s app inducts his impressionable young male audience into a digital world that “encourages misogyny, including members of the app sharing techniques on how to control and exploit women,” says McCue Jury & Partners, the firm representing four British women who have accused Tate of both physical and sexual assault. For the low price of just $49.99, Tate generously offers an escape from today's matrix, a matrix which he says will force you into a job earning “menial pay” in exchange for “your soul,” “your sanity”,  and “student debt.”  But what Tate suggests you do instead, is profit from the same system and join the top 1% without making any real effort to challenge the people in power who maintain the system. Tate’s philosophy is so simple-minded it can best be described as “if you can't beat them, join them.” 

The trans community, opting for an inclusive perspective, has embraced The Matrix as an allegory for the trans experience. Lilly Wachowski, a trans woman herself, has said that The Matrix films have always been meaningful for trans people,” noting that a number of trans people “come up to [her] and say these movies saved [their lives].” The references in the film itself may not be explicitly clear to cisgender viewers, but they are far more concrete than any far right or Incel hallucination. The series references “deadnames,” through people who have one name within the matrix and another in the real world (A “deadname” is the term for a trans person’s pre-transition name). The far-right’s ideologies are not supported by the films’ plots, whereas the trans community’s message of free expression is uplifted subtly throughout the film. The far right, however, is still blind enough to think The Matrix somehow represents their discriminatory rhetoric. When you consider that they have resisted the practice of gender-affirming care through trans health bills and spew anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, their interpretation of the film is even more fragile. 

The fact that two separate interpretations of the Wachowskis’ film contradict each other so blatantly points to a danger in the interpretation of art. The Matrix undoubtedly appeals to teenage boys, it has fast-paced action scenes, weapons, futuristic gadgets, robots and a cyberpunk aesthetic. It makes perfect sense why Incels and the far-right would appropriate the film, given it has such an appeal. They can relate to Neo, the main character, because prior to leaving the matrix, he is a lonely man leading an isolated life, detached from his surroundings. According to reporting in the BBC and elsewhere, Incels “go to the message boards out of loneliness,” and are told they have lost the genetic lottery and  “there’s almost nothing they can do about it.” They see the red pill as their only escape, they feel they must marginalize women to feel any sense of power and control over them. But under all of this, they will never be able to see The Matrix as a film that champions individual expression and inclusivity. 

The red pill of the Incel and far-right community is strikingly misformulated. Although Incel and far-right marketing tactics would seem to suggest that their red pill induces free-thinking, it has the exact same effects as the blue pill they claim to so staunchly oppose. It enforces uniform thought on all of its patients, just like the blue pill — which sends you back into the matrix, never to question if you are being lied to. To swallow their red pill is to conform to their thought without resisting. These communities are not making the effort to have meaningful discourse, in fact, they favor echo chambers, where they are never challenged and can warp reality, dodging facts in bullet time. 

As a man, I wish I could say the red pill is not something to be worried about. But this thinking spawns in online spaces and then it infiltrates locker-room talk, everyday conversation between men, before it can guide the actions of men. The political right is no different story: their rhetoric has spread from the internet into acts of violence. Knowing that The Matrix has been used as a thoughtful criticism of dangerous capitalist power structures, and has been used to express the experiences of the trans community, it is time we reclaim the red pill for good. The red pill I want to take represents change, the exploration of individuality, and free thinking through inclusive discourse. That is the pill I will gladly swallow.