A good sequel to The Matrix would be one in which it turns out the movie The Matrix was itself part of the illusion, inserted into our world by the machines. What better way to lull people to sleep than to feed them dreams of rebellion? The only problem is that it'd be a little too on the nose.

Corporations today love selling stories about fighting back against big business. Superhero satire The Boys makes a big deal about Vought International being an evil irresponsible corporation that manipulates the public. The Outer Worlds, a video game released this past October, tasks the player with righting centuries of corporate greed and mismanagement with giant hammers and shrink rays. The sitcom Superstore has spent the better part of two seasons showing its retail workers being exploited by their parent company and fighting to unionize.

Even Disney is on board. The villain of The Incredibles 2 is an evil billionaire controlling people via ubiquitous screens that hypnotize them (yeah, the symbolism isn't exactly subtle). As trends go, this is about as insidious as they get.