Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump 'red pill' reference slammed by The Matrix director
Lilly Wachowski did not appreciate the Tesla CEO and Ivanka Trump quoting her movie.
- Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Elon Musk is a fan of The Matrix. The Matrix co-creator is not a fan of Elon Musk.
Elon Musk may be a busy new dad, but he still has time to kick up controversy on Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted Sunday a reference to The Matrix, which drew a tweeted response from Ivanka Trump. None of it went down well with one half of the movie's creators, Lilly Wachowski.
"Take the red pill," Musk tweeted, along with the rose emoji, referencing the scene where Morpheus gives Neo a choice whether to take the red pill and learn the truth about The Matrix, or take the blue pill and carry on living his former life in blissful ignorance.
Take the red pill 🌹
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2020
Ivanka Trump tweeted "Taken!" in response and Lilly Wachowski, one part of The Wachowski siblings who wrote and directed 1999's The Matrix, replied, "Fuck both of you."
Fuck both of you
— Lilly Wachowski (@lilly_wachowski) May 17, 2020
She then shared a link to the LGBTQ non-profit Brave Space Alliance, calling for support.
Support @BSAllianceChi if you can. https://t.co/rrDPOaaYED
— Lilly Wachowski (@lilly_wachowski) May 17, 2020
What Musk meant by the quote is up for speculation. In politics , "take the red pill" can refer to shifting your political views to the right. The Red Pill subreddit, dating back to 2013, popularized the term in online forums related to Donald Trump or men's rights groups.
Musk has been busy on Twitter of late. Last week he jumped on to threaten to relocate Tesla's California headquarters and sue San Francisco's Alameda County over the county's shelter-in-place rules.
Frankly, this is the final straw. Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependen on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2020
Meanwhile, a fourth Matrix movie is in the works from Lana Wachowski, with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss returning as Neo and Trinity. Busy working on Showtime series Work in Progress, Lilly Wachowski wasn't involved with the newest instalment, but gave it her blessing. After a coronavirus-induced halt in production in March, filming is scheduled to continue in July.
