This week, 15 years ago, a movie called The Matrix hit theaters and forever changed what the collective moviegoer knew was possible in the cinema. It was a smash hit at the box office, gained enough critical acclaim to win four Academy Awards, and innovated a number of cinematic techniques that would later become mainstays in Hollywood action filmmaking. In short, it pretty much changed everything about the way movies are made.

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It was so successful, in fact, that it changed pop culture as well. Bullet time -- the iconic slow motion cinematic technique that the filmmakers used to highlight a character’s heightened perception in the Matrix -- became the focal point of parodies at the MTV Movie Awards and Saturday Night Live, as well as a gameplay mechanic in video games like Max Payne.

The film also brought international attention to the brilliant Hugo Weaving and put Carrie-Anne Moss on the map (in an empowering role which some people say is every bit as awesome and cool as Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley). Even now, 15 years on, Laurence Fishburne is reprising his role as Morpheus in Kia commercials and people are quoting inside jokes and references to the film. “Hey JP, how much do clothes cost in the Matrix?”

JP in Grandma's Boy (2006)

Morpheus asks Neo to make a choice

An example of the Wachowskis' comic book inspired framing

It is difficult to imagine a world without the influence of The Matrix. Though the times have changed and the world that we live in today is very different than the one the film portrayed in 1999, The Matrix’s central themes of control, slavery, and oppression seem more relevant than ever. Like a fine wine or Kate Beckinsale, The Matrix seems to be improving with age.A big part of that constant improvement is the ideology of the film, which is remarkably simple and familiar. I’d venture a guess that it’s the reason that it can be made to apply to an ever-changing and progressing world like the one we live in now. If you were to boil down The Matrix into a single concept that really drives the plot, it surely must be that knowledge is power. A familiar trope, certainly, but it applies doubly in The Matrix, and triply to us. Knowledge is the key that grants power to characters in the Matrix. Leaping from building to building like Trinity or dodging bullets like Neo is only possible because they know that the world they perceive as real is anything but. Prior to obtaining that knowledge, they were powerless to fight back against the injustice and oppression they were subjugated to by the machines. Hell, they weren’t even aware of it, save for a nagging suspicion that something might be awry. Obtaining knowledge is the single most important thing that Neo must do and it’s why Morpheus harps on it in every other scene: “Free your mind.”In many ways, we face similar challenges on a daily basis. The fight may not be against a sentient race of machines who have enslaved humanity, but maybe instead -- in this editor's view -- the corporations who have implemented practices of collecting private information about their users to sell for profit, or the government that breaks the very law it is meant to uphold by wiretapping its own citizens and spying on foreign diplomats. Maybe the goal isn’t to destroy the system, as it is for Neo, but maybe to change it for the better. Now, is it simply a coincidence that both these things were revealed to the public by hackers, or is it what Morpheus calls providence?It is these philosophical ideas that The Matrix poses, of which that was just one example, that add an incredible amount of depth to what can otherwise be understood and certainly enjoyed on purely a surface level. The Matrix is a beautifully shot movie. The pulpy, film noir lighting and green tinted visual style of the Matrix provides a heavy contrast to the blueish, bright whites of the real world. If you want to, you can ignore the fact that Neo represents free will ("I can only show you the door, you must walk through it") and Agent Smith represents fate ("It is inevitable") and just marvel at the awesomely choreographed flurry of punches and kicks that they throw at each other, or absorb the wildly creative comic book inspired frames of its brilliant cinematography. It’s an awesome movie in that right alone.But what makes The Matrix truly special is that it seems to grow alongside us. It is not often that you can go back to a movie after years away from it and learn something new or see something differently than you did before. And to be able to do it multiple times over 15 years, well, that speaks volumes about the content of the movie. Yet, the movie itself never actually changes. The cuts stay the same as do the characters and shots. The story is forever frozen in the formal elements of filmmaking, and, ignoring special features and director's cuts, won't ever change. Yet, the meaning we imbue the movie with changes and evolves and the flick stays as relevant as ever. We are the ones whose ideals and morals and perspective change with time. And in that truth The Matrix's prime metaphor continues to present itself: "Try to realize the truth: There is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is you who is bending." The Matrix still has us.

Sean Finnegan is an associate producer at IGN. He probably made most of the videos you hate. Follow him on Twitter