From television to classical mythology, from cyberpunk to Oriental philosophy, The Matrix is stacked with references. Which are verifiable and which are coincidental we may never know.

Fans of the movie will be puzzling its subtexts and secrets for years to come - even until the Matrix becomes a reality.

Wrong number

At the beginning we zoom into the number 555. In numerology, this number corresponds to the Messiah, or the chosen one.

When the cops bust in on Trinity's apartment in the opening scene the number on her door is 303. Neo's apartment is number 101.

The book of nothing

Neo hides his money in a book titled Simulacra and Simulation. This is a genuine work by Jean Baudrillard, that deals with issues of real versus simulation (in an early draft of the script Morpheus explicitly refers to the author). When Neo opens the book, we see the chapter, 'On Nihilism', referring to the theory that everything tends to level down into nothingness, as humanity and civilisation have in the period leading to the creation of the Matrix in 2197.

The answers are coming

When Neo is meeting with the Oracle, the music playing in the background in her apartment is Duke Ellington's I'm Beginning To See The Light.

Nebuchadnezzar

Morpheus names his hovercraft after King Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered Jerusalem and built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon as a gift for one of his wives (an early synthetic reality in an arid wasteland). The king dreamt of a tree that touched the sky being bound with iron.

Daniel interpreted this to mean that the king would be cast out of his kingdom for seven years. This came true, and when the king returned from the wilderness he accepted the Hebrew God.

You shall know my name

In Roman mythology the god Morpheus was responsible for shaping dreams. His name literally means 'he who forms'. If Neo, meaning new, is 'the one', ie, the saviour of humanity, and therefore a new Messiah, then Morpheus may be seen as John the Baptist, and the treacherous Cypher as Judas. Trinity's name is a living warning of the catastrophic backstory to the Matrix. Trinity, New Mexico was the site of the first nuclear weapon test.

We are the cure

Agents Smith and Jones share the name of their counterparts from the movie Men In Black, ie, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Down the rabbit hole

Neo is told to "follow the white rabbit" that will lead him to Morpheus. In Alice in Wonderland Alice follows a white rabbit down a tunnel to a secret world. Neo's friend, Dujour, has a white rabbit tattooed on her shoulder and she leads him to the club and Trinity.

Morpheus tells Neo "I imagine, right now, you must be feeling a bit like Alice tumbling down the rabbit hole?" In Through The Looking Glass, Alice's conversation with Tweedledum and Tweedledee pertains to Neo's predicament. The twins tell her that she is inside the Red King's dream and that if he stopped dreaming she'd be nowhere: "You'd go out - bang! - just like a candle!" they say.

Lewis Carroll's books have been read as philosophical allegories about the nature of reality.

In the Oracle's waiting room, the television is showing Night of the Lepus, a movie about giant mutant rabbits.

All I am offering is the truth

Morpheus offers Neo a blue pill and a red pill. The blue pill induces memory loss, just as the waters of the river Lethe did in Hades, the underworld (ie, Matrix) in Greek mythology. The souls of the dead were all required to drink Lethe, and in The Matrix humanity floats in baths of liquid. The waters of forgetfulness...

Cityspeak

Tank tells Neo about Zion, the last human city at the centre of the Earth. Historically, Zion is the hill on which King David's palace was founded, and is the New Jerusalem spoken of by Christ.

The final line of the Old Testament Book of Joel is "The Lord dwells in Zion!" Joel Silver produced The Matrix.

All the references to street corners (ie, Wells and Lake) are real intersections in Chicago, the Wachowski brothers' hometown. That subway train has signs for 'Loop', another reference to the Windy City.

Off To see the Wizard

Just before Neo is shown reality for the first time, Cypher says "Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, cos Kansas is going bye-bye." In The Wizard of Oz a freak tornado whisks Dorothy from the black-and-white world of her 'real' life to the colourful dreamland of Oz.

The Emerald City in Oz also evokes the fabled city of Zion that Tank speaks of.

When Neo calls to be extracted from the Matrix, he says "Mr Wizard, get me the hell out of here." Maybe he's remembered Cypher's words and is sardonically referring to the Wizard of Oz.

Say "Ahhhh"

The Oracle gives Neo a cookie. In ancient Greece the Delphic Oracle was also a woman, and candidates for her advice were given a barley cake mixed with honey to eat.

Into the bullet-time

During Neo's initiation and Kung Fu training, Morpheus tells him, "Do you believe that my being faster or stronger has anything to do with my muscles in this place?...Free your mind." Neo eventually learns to fly and move at superhuman speeds. There are reports of holy men with similar abilities: Tibetan lamas moving extraordinarily fast, Indian fakirs who levitate. In Carlos Castaneda's books, the shaman Don Juan says, "A brujo (witch) can move a thousand miles a second...He can deliver a blow to his enemies long distances away." Elite Ninjas are also credited with similar powers, eg, the so-called 'vibrating death palm'.

You are number 6

As Neo runs through the old lady's apartment when he's being chased, a television shows an image of a man in a black suit coat. He is one of the Number 2s from The Prisoner, a TV show about a prison disguised as a village, monitored and controlled from behind the scenes.

Ironically, Agent Smith tells Morpheus that he feels confined by The Matrix: "I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer."