Did the Matrix Make People Kill?

In my opinion, I don’t think it is possible for a film to make people murder other innocent people. I think the people who have blamed the Matrix have just used the film as an excuse to get away with what they have done. When the Matrix was released in April 1999, over 100 million people went to the cinema to watch it and so making it one of the biggest film franchises ever. If it was the reason for making people kill, I think every person who had seen it after its release would have had murderous thoughts but this wasn’t the case. However more than 6 people, out of over 100 million, found this to be true and found it to have a darker, more sinister effect on them than anybody else.

For example, Joshua Cooke from Fairfax in Washington DC was arrested for the killings of his adoptive mother and father. It was known to family friends and neighbours that Joshua’s parents were high-achieving people (one of the only black families in the neighbourhood) and Joshua failed to meet their standards after being refused to join the Marines and also dropping out of university. Many claimed the parents put too much pressure on Joshua and his sister to do well in all that they did. However, in court, Joshua’s lawyer claimed he was influenced by the film, The Matrix, and that he thought everyone was living in a virtual world (‘the Matrix’.) His lawyer told the courts he truly believed in the Matrix and that she had ‘unmistakable evidence’ to prove how influential the film was to him. This evidence included; posters, a trench coat similar to that of ‘Neo’ in the film, movies and also a 12-gage shotgun, which he used to shoot his mother twice and his father seven times. This shotgun was, apparently, an exact replica of that used in the film. Those close to Joshua were sceptical to his lawyer’s claim, they didn’t realise or else didn’t know how obsessed he had become with the film and therefore didn’t believe the film was to blame. After these claims were made, Joshua’s mental state was questioned and tests were done. In doing this, doctors and psychiatrists failed to prove insanity and Joshua was forced to plead guilty. After Joshua had been sentenced, his lawyer found mental health problems were genetic within his birth family and that his mother, father and also his brother all suffered from certain forms of schizophrenia.

When Warner Bro’s film company found out about the link between the murders and their film, The Matrix, they described it as ‘disturbing’ and ‘irresponsible’. However, Joshua’s lawyer refused to admit she believed that the film had made him murder his parents but instead admitted she believed the film was more than entertainment to him.

After this case became nationwide and even worldwide news, people began to study The Matrix a lot more closely and began to realise that questions raised by the film could affect peoples minds and so could have affected the content of Joshua Cooke’s delusional system meaning if someone was already in an illusional state it could severely disturb them. Another case of this was found with Tonda Ainslie who killed her best friend. Luckily, the police were undercover in the area, heard gunshots and caught Tonda on her way to her next murder victim, who happened to be her best friend’s boyfriend. Tonda openly admitted murder and acted completely calm with the police telling them she had to kill someone before someone killed her. Tonda Ainslie had a history of psychological trauma and appeared to have an obsession with The Matrix. Her best friend’s boyfriend described her as a ‘flake’ meaning she was unstable, weird and unusual, ‘moving in dimensions other people wouldn’t