Be thrown back in time to 1999 with the presentation and discussion of blockbuster “The Matrix” as a case study in the critical study of religion. One part will focus on how the film dramatizes themes found in early Christian Gnostic writings. The second part will examine Qanon’s appropriation of the film’s device of a choice between the “red pill” and “blue pill” as well as how this appropriation is connected to real-world expressions of violence when believers submit to the messianic fervor of a conspiracy theory.