When you say a movie was ahead of its time, it usually means you're stating that it missed its mark upon its release and bombed at the box office. However, later on, it found its audience and turned into a cult classic. The Matrix isn't that, it's more of a film that became a cultural phenomenon upon its release, and yet it predicted the kind of world we would be living in today. There are few films that can do that.

The 1999 sci-fi classic given to us by The Wachowskis has themes and cultural significance that carry a lot of weight in today's world, some for better, some for worse. Fans adored the film once it came out. Now people seem to find it incredible in its prediction of the 2020s and maybe even beyond. Taking the "red or blue pill" has more gravitas to it than it ever seemed and the fashion of The Matrix is still around to this day. The message at the core, in terms of what our true reality is, is all over the internet these days. With a fifth installment in the works, who knows what the franchise will further predict? Here are all the plot points that The Matrix (and its sequels) predicted for our so-called reality over two decades ago.

10 Action Heroes No Longer Needed Big Muscles

The 1980s saw big explosions and big muscles, with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and many other action stars kicking butt. However, by the mid-1990s, there needed to be a new symbol of action heroes, and although some of the names above were able to pivot a bit with their on-screen presence, the genre needed a recharged feel for its heroes.

Keanu Reeves as Neo in The Matrix

Keanu Reeves had been around for some time before the script for The Matrix ever got into the hands of his agent. He had been in great action films like Speed and Point Break but never got lumped into the role of being an icon of the genre. It was when he took on the role of Neo in The Matrix and returned for its sequels that his credibility skyrocketed. Neo is a badass, but he comes with a lot of intellect as well. He's a cross between the old wise man in a Kung Fu movie and Luke Skywalker. As we entered the new millennium, we started seeing action heroes use their heads a lot more. Something that still holds true to this day.

9 Meal Replacement Shakes

This is a weird one, but when Neo wakes up to the "real world," he learns that food isn't this lavish thing that humans have made this subculture out of; rather, it's disgusting. The breakfast scene consists of the whole crew introducing Neo to what humans eat. It looks like stale oatmeal, yet it has all the nutrients in it to help keep the body running.

We Love Protein Shakes

Not just the fitness culture and gym rats alike, but many of us concoct meal replacement shakes to help us get through the day. Some of these shakes are made up to look fancy and appealing on Instagram; others are just a bunch of protein and vitamins to keep us chugging along. Since the late 1990s, the human race has become very dependent on the protein shake industry. It feels like a small, unnoticeable thing in the film, but the comparisons to now and then are there.

8 Fashion Trends

With the original film being such a landmark piece of cinema, of course, parts of what made The Matrix so great was its influence on other forms of culture. Fashion is one of them. The leather clothes, the boots — all black everything. Chances are, we passed someone on the street and thought to ourselves that they had seen The Matrix way too many times.

Dark Leather Clad Is All the Rage

It's strange how most of these characters are all in black, and there is nothing about it that feels gothic. Neo and Trinity look like runway models in some German fashion show. The wardrobe of these characters is so generic when you think about it, and yet it becomes a supporting character in the film. Every year, there seem to be high-end clothing brands that release clothes that look like they were maybe in a deleted scene from the film. Celebs like Lady Gaga, Irina Shayk, and Bella Hadid have all been seen sporting something that makes them look like characters from The Matrix. The fashion of the film is part of what made the film a phenomenon.

7 EDM

A lot like the fashion, the music of The Matrix has aged pretty well. As a matter of fact, the soundtrack to the original and its sequels hit at a time when raves were growing and growing, showing us that in order to tear up a dance floor, sometimes we just needed a beat that was made on a computer and blasted through some loudspeakers.

The Era of the Rave

Raves were born in the 1980s, due to a surge of techno music being created in Europe at the time. By the 1990s, they were huge in America. The combo of heavy house music mixed in with techno beats made the cyberpunk aesthetic of The Matrix pop even more. This was not the birth of EDM music at all; no, that dates back to the late 1960s. However, the nightclub culture of people letting loose and rubbing up against one another to a crazy beat did seem very prevalent in the first film, as well as in the sequel with its over-the-top rave scene, and still mirrors how people party today.

6 Twitter and Elon Musk