Did you see The Lego Movie and have a lingering feeling that The Lego Movie was basically The Matrix with animated plastic blocks and more jokes? Let’s do a quick comparison of the major similarities. Spoilers follow.
In The Lego Movie the hero is Emmet Brickowski, a possible homage to the Wachowski brothers who made The Matrix. Emmet is a cog in the machine of the well snapped together universe in which he is a very average construction worker who moonlights as a double decker couch builder. He does his job, he goes home, he has no family and no friends.
Neo on the other hand is a computer programmer and is also a cog in the well programmed world that is the Matrix. Software is to the Matrix what bricks are to the Lego world. Each are builders within their universe.
Both Neo and Emett are thought to be special (Neo is The One, Emmett is The Special) and are told they are in a prophecy and are to be the saviors against a false world constructed by an powerful overlord. Both are in love with the woman who first introduced them to the realities of the world they live in.
Trinity vs Wyldstyle – Both are brooding, badass, masters of the false world and the real world. But they aren’t quite the one the prophecy spoke about.
Vitruvius vs Morpheus – Both are the holder of the prophecy who will help the hero destroy the oppressive overlord.
Lord Business vs The Architect – Both are the designers of their worlds and fight to keep the order that they’ve created in the face of an uprising.
Mr Smith vs Bad Cop – These guys both enforce the rules of the subjugated. They make sure the oppressive system stays intact and hunt down the chosen one.
Micromanagers vs Sentinels – Big flying machines with tentacles that destroy and do the will of the enforcer and the overlord.
Zion vs the Cloud World – Both are places where anything goes and the spirit of the individual isn’t stifled by the world that they escaped from. Both are invaded by the bad guy’s hencheman (Mr Smith/Bad Cop) with the help of multi-armed machines (Sentinels/Micromanagers)
Other similarities, the teams must both break into an office building where a security system must be disabled, but isn’t until the last second. The heroes in both have awesome ships that carry them through the world outside the Matrix/Lego land.
There are other things in the Lego Movie that don’t directly tie back to The Matrix, but the majority of the story and characters have corresponding characters in the Matrix.
Both movies are also put out by Village Roadshow Pictures and Warner Bros.
