MATRIX RELOADED
TESLA CEO Elon Musk tweeted to his 34 million followers on Sunday to "take the red pill."
The choice of whether to take the "red or blue pill" was spawned in the iconic 1999 film The Matrix - and has political connotations.
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What is the red or blue pill in the Matrix?
The Matrix character of Morpheus, played by Laurence Fishburne, explains the difference between the two pills to Keanu Reeves' Neo.
"You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe," says Morpheus.
"You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
The Matrix takes place in a dystopian future in which humanity is unwittingly trapped inside a simulated reality, and it's up to Neo, a hacker, to save the day.
Neo had found out he was living in a simulation and was given the choice between the two pills.
Roger Ebert wrote two decades ago that The Matrix "is a visually dazzling cyberadventure, full of kinetic excitement, but it retreats to formula just when it's getting interesting."
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"It's kind of a letdown when a movie begins by redefining the nature of reality, and ends with a shoot-out.
"We want a leap of the imagination, not one of those obligatory climaxes with automatic weapons fire."
The movie spawned two sequels, and a fourth film is in the works.
What did Elon Musk tweet about the red pill?
It is believed that Musk tweeted "take the red pill" to protest the continued coronavirus lockdowns.
Conservatives have praised the comment, and First Daughter Ivanka Trump retweeted it with the reply, "Taken!"
Others have blasted the tweet, including Matrix co-director Lilly Wachowski and Sandy Garossino, the mother of Musk's girlfriend Grimes.
Wachowski wrote "f**k both of you," alluding to Musk and Ivanka Trump.
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She also shared a link to Twitter recommending her followers to support Brave Space Alliance, a Chicago-based organization created to"empower and elevate queer and trans voices... in key decision-making processes that impact the LGBTQ community of Chicago at large."
Garossino also responded on social media, saying that Musk was promoting a misogynistic men's rights movement that trivialized feminism.
"If your partner went through a challenging pregnancy and childbirth in the last two weeks, and you were over 16 years old, would you be blaring MRA bulls*** on Twitter right now?" she wrote Sunday.
Grimes, a singer, had recently given birth to Musk's child.
"Taking the red pill" has become an internet phrase used by the far right to signify a political awakening.
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The phrase seemed to surface around 2013 on a misogynistic subreddit, according to Business Insider.
Musk has taken an increasingly anti-government stance after coronavirus forced the shutdown of his Tesla plant in California in March.
He would file a lawsuit against Alameda County following the closure.
He would tweet "FREE AMERICA NOW" and called quarantine stay-at-home orders "fascist."
The California factory reopened for pre-production earlier this month with Musk practically daring local authorities to arrest him.
The company met a deadline to submit a site-specific plan to protect worker safety.
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The plant in Fremont, a city of more than 230,000 people, employs about 10,000 workers.
The billionaire threatened to move Tesla’s manufacturing operations and headquarters from the state.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has said he's urged local leaders to follow the state's approach in dealing with rogue operators by seeking “not to be punitive at first."