French critic and theorist Jean Baudrillard died on 6 March 2007 following a long illness. Born 20 June 1929 in Reims, France, he was best known for his theories about “hyperreality,” the manufactured nature of reality.
Hyperreality postulates that in our world, simulated feelings and experiences have replaced the real thing. This hyperreality in which we exist—where shopping malls, amusement parks, and mass-produced images from the news, television shows, and films dominate—is drained of authenticity and meaning. Since illusion reigns, he suggested that people give up the search for reality. “All of our values are simulated,” he said. “What is freedom? We have a choice between buying one car or buying another car? It’s a simulation of freedom.”
This idea was picked up by the Wachowski brothers, who included references to Baudrillard’s work in their Matrix trilogy. In The Matrix, Neo opens Baudrillard’s book Simulacra and Simulation, which turns out to be only a simulation of a book, hollowed out to hold cash and computer disks. Late in the film, Morpheus refers to the real world outside of the Matrix as the “desert of the real,” a direct reference to Baudrillard’s work. In the original script, Morpheus referenced Baudrillard’s book specifically.
Baudrillard later said that the movie references to his work “stemmed mostly from misunderstandings.”