How The Matrix inspired a virtual experience that you can feel in real life
- Steve Zhao’s favourite film helped him develop virtual reality gaming experiences for his company, Sandbox VR
- He was inspired to create a simulation so immersive that if has an effect on how people really feel
Set in a parallel near future, science-fiction classic The Matrix (1999), by sibling directors Lana and Lilly Wachowski, stars Keanu Reeves as a man on a mission to free the human race from a computer simulation that uses humanity as an energy source for machines that control the world.
Steve Zhao, chief executive of Hong Kong-based Sandbox VR, which provides immersive group virtual-reality-gaming experiences, explains how it changed his life.
When I first saw The Matrix, I was in high school and studying computer science. The film took something I was learning about and put it into science fiction. It was a captivating experience.
I was impressed by the fact that if you die in the matrix, you die in real life. It’s a simulation that’s so real and so immersive that what you experience affects real life.
I would play games such as Super Mario, where you look into the screen and you’re far away from the game character. But The Matrix was the first time I felt it was possible to make yourself the main player. That was eye opening. There was so much more you could do. You could embody the character itself. It planted an idea in my mind – and in a lot of other people’s.