Fans of classic 90s film are only just finding out about about its link to bizarre 9/11 conspiracy-Joel Harley-Entertainment – Metro

Fans have taken the events of The Matrix to mean that we could be living… in The Matrix (Picture: Shutterstock)

Fans of the 1999 classic The Matrix have just discovered its strange link to a conspiracy surrounding the events of September 11, 2001.

In The Matrix, if you haven’t seen it already (see it already), Neo (Keanu Reeves) discovers that the world as we know it is but a simulation – with a race of machines keeping humanity ‘plugged in’ and distracted as we power their dystopian world.

Neo realises the truth after being approached by guru and mentor Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) who offers him a choice – escape the Matrix, or forget everything, and stay plugged in and subservient to the machines.

The rest is cinematic history, and Neo takes the red pill to escape the simulation and lead a re-loaded humanity to revolution and resurrection.

Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski, The Matrix became an immediate hit, spawning three sequels and influencing sci-fi and action cinema for decades to come – including news of a planned fifth film in the franchise.

Its deep lore and religious symbolism captured audiences’ imagination then and continues to do so today, with a gathering of Reddit users recently discovering the film’s link to a national tragedy and subsequent conspiracy theory…

Keanu Reeves starred opposite Carrie-Anne Moss in the sci-fi classic (Picture: Shutterstock)

One particular scene shows a close-up of Neo’s passport. Zooming in, the expiry date can clearly be seen as September 11, 2001.

Yes, that September 11, 2001.

And many took it as proof to mean that The Matrix is real, and that we’re all living in it…

Fans spotted a chilling clue amid a recent re-watch of the film (Picture: Warner Brothers)

‘Means we’re living in a simulation. Some call it the Matrix. No one can be told what it is. You have to see it for yourself. Oh crap, I gotta go. I just saw a couple of black cats go past me,’ wrote verstohlen on a duly shocked Reddit thread.

‘This means that the matrix exists and the matrix movie is just a sick joke the matrix itself is playing on us. Kidding but honestly it’s probably 99.99% true,’ said timelapseninja.

‘It’s all linked, the simulation can’t help but leave clues,’ said lonelysherbert69.

‘That’s the date the simulation began….’ agreed Usual_Arugula7670.

It’s The Matrix’s world… we’re all just living in it (Picture: Shutterstock)

However, others took a more pragmatic view.

‘I don’t think that’s the point of this post. I think they’re just pointing out how crazy it is that one of the highest-rated movies of all time shares such a strange coincidence that coincides with one of the greatest tragedies of our time,’ said Sandlotje.

‘Crazy that movies around that time referenced dates around that time,’ joked corybomb.

‘There is another movie. Enemy of the State with Will Smith. I vaguely remember but Gene Hackman character also was born on 9/11 when they looked into his ID in the movie,’ pointed out OrangeSlicer.

The theory has been backed up by scientists (Picture: Shutterstock)

The theory that all of human life exists within a simulation is a bizarre one, but not without its proponents in the scientific world.

Back in 2016, NASA scientist Rich Terrile theorised that humanity could be – nay, likely is – living within a simulation created by our future selves.

‘Quite frankly, if we are not living in a simulation, it is an extraordinarily unlikely circumstance,’ Terrile said.

‘Even things that we think of as continuous – time, energy, space, volume – all have a finite limit to their size. If that’s the case, then our universe is both computable and finite.

‘Those properties allow the universe to be simulated.’

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