Allegory of the Cave
"The Matrix" (1999), directed by the Wachowskis, makes references to historical myths and philosophy, including gnosticism, existentialism, and nihilism. The film's premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the Cave, Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly", René Descartes's skepticism and evil demon, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the "Ding an sich", Robert Nozick's "experience machine", the concept of a simulated reality and the brain in a vat thought experiment. "The Matrix" directly references Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel "Alice in Wonderland" with the "white rabbit" and the "down the rabbit hole" phrases, as well as referring to Neo's path of discovery as "Wonderland".