In 1999, Larry and Andy Wachowski wrote and directed an American science fiction action film called The Matrix. The film depicts a future where many humans might perceive it to be real, but is actually a simulated reality. The Wachowski brothers make many explicit references in their film based on the work of French sociologist Jean Baudrillard. In Jean Baudrillard's essay titled "Simulacras and Simulations", he mentions in his essay how society has replaced all reality and meaning with the representation of symbols and signs. Baudrillard begins with an example from Borges's tale, "the cartographers of the Empire draw up a map so detailed that it ends up covering the territory exactly (but where, with the decline of the Empire this map frays and finally becomes ruin)” (365). He explains how an impeccable map rots while the territory on the map remains. He goes on to explain that “it is the map which generates the territory and if we were to revive the fable today, it would be the territory whose shreds slowly rot on the map” (366). This story is to show that our modern society plays the role of the map which self-destructs and that the territory represents the simulation. He specifies that simulation is “the generation by models of a reality without origin or reality: a hyperreal” and “the hyperreal: the simulated generation of difference without any distinction between the real and the imaginary” (Course slides 3/ 6/12). One very obvious scene in particular that clearly shows the existence of Baudrillards' argument embedded in the film is at the beginning of the film, where Neo opens a copy of Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulation". The place where Neo keeps his black market software......middle of paper......with his own twist.Works CitedBaudrillard, Jean. “Simulacra and simulations”. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 365-77. Print.Vartan P. Messier. “Baudrillard in The Matrix: hyperrealism, Hollywood and misused references.” The cinema review. 2004-2006The Film JournalWikipedia “Watergate Scandal”Jim Rovira, Drew University. “Baudrillard and the Matrix trilogy” Subverting control mechanisms: ©2003IMDB “The Matrix” < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/synopsis>Sparknotes < http://www.sparknotes.com/film/ matrix /section1.html>