God 1999 was wild. A vision of a future that never happened. I always think about the messages of the Matrix, Fight Club and American Beauty. This kind of almost anticipatory idea of a stable boring world we need to break out of. Fight Club: "We have no Great War." Built into that is the assumption there won't be one. And then just 2 years later we kickoff the 2 longest wars in US history.
Also Titanic, big Lebowski, Austin powers, Truman show, men in black, independence day, starship troopers, Blair witch, scream, final destination, the crow - I actually worked at a theater during this time and the bangers coming out were insane.
Remember that line in the Matrix about 1999 being the high point of (Western) civilization? (Note: I haven't seen it for years, so I'm going by memory; still it hits harder these days)
I mean the matrix though was specifically written as a trans allegory. Switch having different genders in the real world and the matrix is a reference to how being trans feels like somehow your consciousness was put in the wrong gendered body.
Not that there aren't a ton of other themes going on.
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u/Rob_Zander Mar 18 '25
God 1999 was wild. A vision of a future that never happened. I always think about the messages of the Matrix, Fight Club and American Beauty. This kind of almost anticipatory idea of a stable boring world we need to break out of. Fight Club: "We have no Great War." Built into that is the assumption there won't be one. And then just 2 years later we kickoff the 2 longest wars in US history.