US killers blame 'The Matrix' for shootings

independent ^ | 5/19/03

[knak]

Call it the Matrix Defence. WhileThe Matrix Reloaded, the second installment of the hit science fiction series, is breaking box office records around the world, lawyers around the United States are starting to use a novel excuse for people – especially young, mentally disturbed people – who commit murder.

Essentially the line is: I can't be guilty, because this isn't reality and we live in a computer-simulated world just like the one depicted in the film.

It is being used by Josh Cooke, 19, from Virginia, who calmly shot his parents in their family basement in February and then phoned police to say what he had done. In two other recent cases, one in Ohio and the other in San Francisco, defendants have been found not guilty by reason of insanity after claiming they thought they were living in the Matrix.

It is not unusual for violent criminals to identify with popular culture – bank robbers often take inspiration from heist movies like Point Blank, and there is evidence that the destroyers of the World Trade Centre were fans of Independence Day – but The Matrix appears to have a special hold.

The Matrix Reloaded took $93.3m (£59m) in the US in its opening weekend, the biggest to date for an R-certificate film – which requires an adult to accompany under-17s. It opens in Britain tomorrow.

[Prodigal Son]

Essentially the line is: I can't be guilty, because this isn't reality and we live in a computer-simulated world just like the one depicted in the film.

Well, we'll just have to sit these nuts down in a computer simulated electric chair and see what happens.

[JZoback]

Your honor, I should have taken the blue pill.

[AntiGuv]

This is series!!

Are We Living in the Matrix? [Oxford Prof Says There's 20% Chance]

[goody2shooz]

I saw the flick and was disappointed. It was too long.

Some scenes should have been shorter making the movie's plot tighter.

The plot was not helped by having a cave scene of half-naked people dancing that dragged on, and on, and on. Same thing for the Neo and Trinity love making; two or three shots interspersed with the cave dancing would have sufficed. More than that and I felt it was boring. And when Neo was fighting the Legion of Smiths, well four or five minutes would have been enough, not a total of 14 minutes!

Anyone else noticed that the movie could have been better edited?

[A_perfect_lady]

Well, it won't be a REAL prison cell they end up sitting in, right? It'll just FEEL real. REALLY real.

[green team 1999]

bump

[Captainpaintball]

Did you notice that Cornell West was one of the "elders of Zion"? I'm still angry about that. He would have been better in Return of the Jedi as an Ewok.

[A_perfect_lady]

I hate sex scenes in movies. That's usually when I get my popcorn refill. Sex is not a spectator sport.

[Khepera]

And here i was thinking that they put the sex scenes in to make the women happy. I guess thats not it. I dont like to watch them either.

[BenLurkin]

LOL!

Or a real electric chair either!

[goody2shooz]

No, not until you told me. I did a search for Cornel West and found another couple of sites about "The Matrix" and "The Matrix Reloaded".

Not many on this site are pleased about West's appearance in the film.

What I'm curious about; why would a black racist appear in a film when the hero is a white guy?

[Bigg Red]

And here i was thinking that they put the sex scenes in to make the women happy.

What? No, it's embarrassing to women.

[Khepera]

Well i got news for them it's embarrasing to men too so why do we have to be exposed to that all the time?

[harpseal]

I do believe this murderer is probably insane in that he really did not know right from wrong. There is no way he will ever be completely cured and execution would at least remove him permanently from society. No there is no way one can be absolutely convinced life is not an illusion but all one has to do is stub one's toe in the middle of teh night and the realization that we can not get out of it if it is an illusion will sink in very rapidly when the ability to think returns after the pain subsides.

[Cvengr]

I give this thread 50 posts before somebody quotes Salinger or "Catcher in the Rye".

[Lunatic Fringe]

What's sad is that there are juries buying into this crap....

[Cvengr]

STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING

Whose woods these are I think I know

His house is in the village though
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

[WorkingClassFilth]

"I give this thread 50 posts before somebody quotes Salinger or "Catcher in the Rye"."

"Sleep tight you morons!"

[mhking]

This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!