The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski hits out at Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump

The Matrix director Lilly Wachowski has criticised Elon Musk and Ivanka Trump after they referenced the iconic sci-fi film on Twitter.

On Sunday, Tesla boss Musk, 48, tweeted “Take the red pill” in a nod to the first film in Lilly and sister Lana Wachowski’s film franchise, which starred Keanu Reeves as Neo.

In a pivotal scene from The Matrix, which was released in 1999, Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus tells Reeves’ character that he has been living in a computer simulation.

He is then asked to either take a blue pill, which will make him forget this and return to normality, or a red pill, which will allow him to enter the simulation and discover more about The Matrix.

The phrase is now commonly used online by the far right and men’s rights activists, in order to refer to a political awakening.

Trump, 38, then retweeted Musk’s message, adding “Taken!”

Quickly signalling her disapproval of the pair co-opting her film, the director responded with: “F*** both of you.”

She then shared a link encouraging donations to the Brave Space Alliance, an LGBTQ centre on the South Side of Chicago.

The Wachowski sisters followed up the 1999 film with The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions in 2003.

Warner Bros has since confirmed that a fourth film is in development, scheduled for release in 2021, with Lana directing and Reeves and co-star Carrie-Anne Moss returning.

Musk, who recently welcomed a baby with his girlfriend, the musician Grimes, has been an outspoken critic of the coronavirus lockdown in the United States, which has shut down his Tesla plant in Alameda County, California.

Last week, he claimed he would resume production in defiance of California’s lockdown rules, saying: “I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”