Searching For a Sushi Recipe? Rewatch the Opening of 'The Matrix'
Those iconic green characters come from a cookbook.
Image: YouTube/Warner Brothers
Nothing screams 1999 cyberpunk sci-fi more than the opening sequence of The Matrix. Dripping green text known as “digital rain” perhaps makes the viewer think of technological dystopia, of a coded world. No need to be so serious, sillies! It’s just sushi!
Turns out that the inspiration for digital rain, which is a combination of backwards Arabic numerals, Latin letters and Japanese kana characters, comes from a Japanese sushi cookbook. This secret was hidden in plain sight, though it recently made its internet rounds after production designer Simon Whiteley was interviewed by CNET.
"I like to tell everybody that The Matrix's code is made out of Japanese sushi recipes," Whiteley said, crediting his wife, who is Japanese. Whiteley took one of her cookbooks, scanned the characters, and turned them into the iconic title sequence of The Matrix.
While the recipe might not be understandable in its green form, those who are craving sushi can find plenty of recipes at Genius Kitchen. Trust us, they taste a whole heck of a lot better than single-celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins and minerals.
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