Matrix defense
The "Matrix" defense is a legal defense based on the premise of the film franchise "The Matrix", in which reality is a computer generation and the real world is different from what reality is popularly perceived to be. A defendant using this defense claims that they committed a crime because they believed that they were in a simulated world (the Matrix), and not in the real world. A defendant could allege they never intended death for their victim because they believed the victim to be alive in the other reality. This is a version of the insanity defense  and considered a descendant of the "Taxi Driver" defense of John Hinckley, one of the first defenses based on blurring reality with films. Regardless of whether the defendant believes that they were living within a simulated world, this defense has been used successfully in cases where the accused were sent to mental-care facilities instead of prisons: