The Matrix is one of the biggest media franchises in history, and has been so frequently referenced in pop culture since it's inception, that it's hard to find works after 1999 that don't make at least one reference to this series.
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Anime & Manga
- Duel Masters: In the English dub, Shobu nicknames Kokujo "Matrix-boy" because of his black leather outfit.
- Episode 9 of Excel♡Saga has a parody of the famous bullet-time scene rendered in intentionally bad CG.
- The Hollywood episode of Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, among the countless movie references, includes a parody of the bullet-time scene combined with a parody of the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy shoots the swordsman, only this time it's Indy/Sasshi who is getting shot.
- In Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Stocking cuts down a truck with her sword just like Morpheus.
Fan Works
- In Captain Proton and the Planet of Lesbians, Queen Sapphia gives the "We marveled at our own magnificence as we gave birth to A.I." speech, before clarifying that she's actually referring to artificial insemination.
Film — Animation
- In The LEGO Batman Movie, Agent Smith and his clones are inmates of the Phantom Zone.
- At one point in The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, Rex Dangervest drops the title of the film. When Emmet asks what it is, Rex tells him that it's a movie that older people get to watch.
- Shrek: The scene where Fiona fights Robin Hood's merry men contains a parody of the bullet-time scene. Even when everything's standing still, she still has time to adjust her hair.
- In Space Jam: A New Legacy, Granny and Speedy Gonzales are fighting for the human resistance inside The Matrix.
Film — Live-Action
- Barbie (2023): The "blue pill, red pill" scene is parodied when Weird Barbie gives Barbie the choice of high heels (and continuing to live her glamorous life in Barbie Land) or Birkenstock sandals (and explore the real world to discover the truth about the universe).Barbie: (without hesitation) The first one. The high heels.Weird Barbie: You have to want to know, okay? Do it again.
- Kim Possible at one point has Kim fighting her grandmother Nana with bo sticks, similar to Neo and Morpheus' kung fu training program, and also taking place inside a dojo to boot.
- In Limitless, Eddie tells his bodyguards not to wear matching suits because this isn't The Matrix.
- Ultraman Dyna: The Return Of Hanejiro has Shin Asuka fighting Casa Madara halfway through, in a wire-fu assisted, slo-mo laden fight lifted directly from the Matrix films (the movie is from 2000, a year after the first movie). Casa Madara even wears sunglasses during the entirety of her screentime, and pulls a scorpion kick on Asuka during their fight.
- Julie, the host of Ultraman Justice from Ultraman Cosmos vs. Ultraman Justice: The Final Battle, a mysterious woman in a long black leather coat who is more than what she seems is blatantly modeled after Trinity. She also gets to perform a 360 spinning kick on a bunch of thugs in a manner reminiscient of Neo doing the same during the burly brawl fight.
Literature
- The Dresden Files: The novel Ghost Story quotes the Matrix with "There is no spoon."
- The Tuning Station: When Ted and his Alternate Universe self Chris find themselves together in a featureless gray plane, Chris comments, "This kind of looks like The Matrix." Ted says, "We're not even close to that kind of technology." Chris says, "Whoever or whatever is behind this place would have to be far more technologically advanced than we are."
- In May the Best Man Win, Jeremy calls The Matrix the most influential trans film. He and Sol make posters of themselves in black dusters and capes to promote their candidacy for Homecoming Court.
Live-Action TV
- Angel: In the third-season episode "Birthday", Cordelia goes into a coma as a result of the visions she's been having, and Skip, a demon who is her guide to show her what will happen to her, or so he says, brings her to a place that looks like a mall (to make her feel comfortable). He explains it's the idea of The Powers That Be, and admits it's a construct of a mall, comparing it to the Matrix, which he gushes about until he sees it's not making Cordelia happy.
- In an alternate opening of The Office (US) Grand Finale, Jim tricks Dwight into thinking he is in the Matrix.
- Tokyo Vice: In the seventh episode, three of Sato's henchmen discuss the movie, as well as which pill they'd take.
- The finale of Ultraman Ginga EX have the heroes taking on Chibull's minions, the chiburoids, and at one point an entire group of chiburoids get knocked down with the accompanying sound effect of a bowling ball striking pins, much like the second Matrix's infamous burly brawl.
Professional Wrestling
- In her first WWE run, Gail Kim had a gimmick of a Matrix character complete with the shades and black leather clothes and Matrix Raining Code during her entrance.
- Trish Stratus and others often dodge attacks by bending over backwards. They call it the Matrix move after the bullet time scene where Neo dodges bullets by bending over backwards.
Sports
- Japanese figure skater Kaori Sakamoto portrayed Trinity in her long program
from the 2019-2020 competitive season, which was set to The Matrix soundtrack. The sparkling green beads on the right side of her costume were arranged vertically to evoke the Matrix Raining Code. Her jumps represent the moments where Trinity bends the rules of gravity when she's connected to the system.
Video Games
- ANNO: Mutationem: An achievement for completing several Hacking Minigames is titled "You Are The One", illustrated with a few Agent Smiths.
- Civilization: Beyond Earth: The achievement for maximum Supremacy affinity is "The Sound of Inevitability".
- Gene Troopers has Keysha, a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Trinity, as your main partner.
- In the what-if mode of Spider-Man (2000), both Spider-Man and Fake Spider-Man (Mysterio) jump in Bullet Time.
- Spyro: Year of the Dragon's Fireworks Factory is a big homage to The Matrix, with Greta (the main NPC of the level) taking down every mook she sees with judo and karate, jumping a huge gap by "fweeing her mind" and taking out a room full of enemies while in Bullet Time.
- In the final chapter of Conker's Bad Fur Day and it's remake Conker: Live & Reloaded, Conker and Berri start a shoot out at the Feral Reserve Bank with the traditional shades.
- In Daxter, there are two dream mini-games based on the first two films.
- In Changed, the transfurs can sometimes be compared to how Agent Smith infects people, most notable being the male dark latex, which seems to be made out of the Mutagenic Goo seen when one is infected by the virus.
- In Injustice 2, the Joker says to Firestorm that he has swallowed the red pill.
- Submachine: The opening to The Loop contains the phrase "There is no spoon". The phrase doubles as a nod to a spoon that is found in The Basement.
- Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Matrix posited as the in-universe creation of Zane Lofton, an edgelord from Hypnospace Outlaw who grew up to be a similarly edgy Manchild. Zane's use of the Matrix allusions as a stepping stone for his typical crass content similarly jabs at the film's copious history of misreadings from people who missed the trans allegories.
Web Animation
- The Matwix is a thought out parody of the first film based on Looney Tunes.
- Red vs. Blue: Family Shatters: A series of promos for The Matrix Resurrections recreate and play off scenes from The Matrix. There's One commenting "Whoa, deja vu" when she sees East and Phase walk by, One claiming to Raymond that she knows kung fu, East and One leaping at each other in a slo-mo Orbital Shot, and West dodging tennis balls Neo-style.
Western Animation
- In The Boondocks, Riley called Huey "Morpheus".
- Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur: In the episode "Teacher's Pet", a stream of binary code flashes across the screen when the Rat King mentions "getting lost in the Matrix" during his villain song.
- In ReBoot, Bobzilla yells at Enzo Matrix to stop trying to hit the user and hit the user.
- Samurai Jack: The Guardian from "Jack and the Travelling Creatures" resembles a blue Morpheus. He even says to Jack "You ain't the one."
- The Simpsons:
- The Couch Gag for "Insane Clown Poppy" and "The Blunder Years" parodies the bullet-time shot.
- In "Lisa the Tree-Hugger", the bullet-time scene is parodied when while Bart, dressed as a ninja, is hanging menus for a Thai restaurant on apartment doors.
- In "New Kids on the Blecch", the members of N Sync do a "Matrix" move where they stand in mid-air while the camera rotates. Chris is unable to hold his pose and falls to the floor.
- In "Weekend at Burnsie's", Homer gives a speech on the benefits of medicinal marijuana, saying it's good "whether you suffer from glaucoma or or you just rented The Matrix".
- In "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner", posters for A Matrix Christmas and You're in the Matrix, Charlie Brown are outside the Springfield Googolplex.
- In "Kill Gill, Volumes 1 & 2", one of the stars of Krusty's ice show is "Matrix Poochie".
- In the third story from "Four Great Women and a Manicure", Homer tries to audition for the lead in Macbeth, but he instead reads from the screenplay for The Matrix Reloaded.
- Teen Titans Go!: In the episode "BL4Z3", Robin gives a blue pill/red pill decision to the Titans, but with jellybeans. They choose jellybeans.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003): When the Turtles are trapped in virtual reality where they can be injured, Leonardo manages to use his willpower to call the simulated Shredder's Sword of Tengu to his hand and defeat him. Donatello nicknames him Neo.
