Believe the unbelievable.

Set in the 22nd century, The Matrix tells the story of a computer hacker who joins a group of underground insurgents fighting the vast and powerful computers who now rule the earth.
In The Matrix, consciousness is carried by machines — a plane of “simulated reality”. The story fights on E8/E10/E13 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing control, reality, freedom, identity, technology.
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Pixels (2015)E8/E13 · rare rung · technology
Alien: Covenant (2017)E8/E13 · rare rung · technology
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)E8/E13 · rare rung · technology
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)E8/E13 · rare rung · technology
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)E8/E13 · rare rung · technology
Underworld: Awakening (2012)E8/E13 · rare rung · identity, technologyThe same preoccupations examined at another scale — one mind versus a nation.
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)E4/E9/E11 · rare rung · control, identity
WarGames (1983)E12/E14 · rare rung · control, technology
Braveheart (1995)E9/E12 · rare rung · freedom, identity
The Animatrix (2003)E9/E12 · rare rung · identity, technology
Impossible Things (2021)E11/E12 · rare rung · control, technologyOther films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Dark City (1998)alters at E0 · same rung · rigorous
Bedazzled (2000)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
The Thirteenth Floor (1999)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)alters at E0 · same rung · loose
Terminator Genisys (2015)alters at E0 · same rung · looseOther films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Tron (1982)consciousness in machines · digital grid
I Am Mother (2019)consciousness in machines · post‑apocalypse bunker
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025)consciousness in machines · AI nuclear apocalypse
Transformers One (2024)consciousness in machines · machine planet
BLAME! (2017)consciousness in machines · net-city dystopia
Transformers: Beginnings (2007)consciousness in machines · mechanical warThe same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
A Minecraft Movie (2025)consciousness in monsters · control, freedom
Morbius (2022)consciousness in monsters · control, identity
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)consciousness in animals · control, identity
The Signal (2014)consciousness in aliens · control, identity
Night Carnage (2025)consciousness in aliens · control, freedom
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)consciousness in animals · identity, technology