matrix defenseとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From the plot of the film The Matrix (1999), whose protagonist is woken from an illusionary simulated world into the dystopian reality.

固有名詞

the Matrix defense

1. (US, law) A legal defense in which the defendant claims to have committed a crime in the belief that they were not in the real world, but in a simulated reality.
   • 2012, C. Stephen Jaeger, Enchantment: On Charisma and the Sublime in the Arts of the West, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 41:

     There is now a legal strategy called the "Matrix defense," which has been an effective form of insanity defense. The film evidently had a part in inspiring Lee Malvo, the Washington D.C. sniper, and it has been mentioned in connection with the Columbine High School killings, which happened less than a month after the release of The Matrix.