This is essentially the epistemological nightmare evoked by Descartes — might we not be deceived by an all-powerful evil demon who manipulates the course of our experience? Our experiences could in principle remain precisely the same though we had been matriculated in the Matrix overnight. So how do we know that what we take to be reality is reality? How are we to rebut the sceptic who questions whether things are really as they seem? This old question is given dramatic life by the film: even the most resolutely unreflective person might start to wonder, and then he has philosophy on his mind.

But the film also raises a less well-known problem: what is the value of not being deceived — why does knowledge matter? Cypher, the traitor of the story, argues that he doesn’t care if his beliefs are all false, so long as he is having enjoyable experiences. An illusory steak tastes as good as a real one, he points out. Why sacrifice your life to have knowledge? What has knowledge done for you lately?

As Nietzsche remarked, there is no pre-established harmony between knowledge and happiness, so we can’t justify knowledge by pointing to its happiness-making consequences. Cypher wants to know why he should fight for something that may make him unhappy; yet that is what his heroic comrades are intent on doing.

Plato, who thought knowledge the supreme value, would be on their side. He described the ideal life as dedicated to the removal of delusion, culminating in knowledge of the Forms, those abstract, unchanging, universal, luminous entities it was our duty to discover and love. Yet Plato never really explained why knowledge matters so much, optimistically assuming that somehow it must always coincide with happiness. Life in the Matrix is like life in Plato’s cave — a world of unreal shadows and false opinions — but it doesn’t follow that it is a life of misery.

The Matrix does something unusual, bringing together deep philosophical problems and the apparatus of martial arts and special effects — the high brought low, or vice versa. It thereby achieves something not to be underestimated in today’s culture: it makes philosophy cool. Philosophy already was cool, of course, but I mean that it makes it cool for the kinds of people who like martial arts and special effects (among whom I count myself). These days if I want to bring up the topic of scepticism with my students I just have to mention The Matrix and they are all ears.

Philosophical purists may weep and gnash their teeth, but the fact is that movies are the most powerful cultural influence we have today. Nor is there anything unintelligent about the way the makers of the film handle the philosophy. It seems to have been made expressly to explore the issues of how appearance relates to reality, how knowledge is possible, and what we would lose if we entered a permanent dream world — as well as how to dodge bullets, blow up predatory machines and dress apocalyptically.

The film also reinvents religion, updating the messiah myth (or fact, depending on your views). It may also have the effect of making religion seem cool. Neo is the handsome and charismatic Christ-figure, diffident at first, but maturing into his divinity, who blasts the evil ones, known as the Agents, eventually gaining control over the events of the Matrix — the guy performs miracles. Morpheus plays the role of a black John the Baptist, Cypher is a weaselly Judas Iscariot, Trinity may be God Herself (she does resurrect Neo after a particularly vicious run-in with the Agents). This is the New Testament story for people raised on video games, Star Wars, and extreme fighting. Jesus Christ with cool shades and a beltful of guns. I’m not saying this is a good way to recast the central characters of Christianity, but it’s hard to deny its cultural impact. And there can be no doubt that the movie benefits from the religious resonance that runs through it.

In the end, it may be said, The Matrix is just a movie. True, but then the Bible is just a book.

COLIN MCGINN

Colin McGinn is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University, New Jersey