Red pill and blue pill

The red pill and its opposite, the blue pill, are popular culture symbols representing the choice between embracing the sometimes painful truth of reality (red pill) and the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue pill).

The terms, popularized in science fiction culture, are derived from the 1999 film The Matrix. In the film, the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill. The red pill would allow him to escape from the Matrix and into the real world, therefore living the "truth of reality" even though it is a harsher, more difficult life; the blue pill would lead him to staying in the Matrix, living in a pretend comfortable world.

The Matrix makes references to historical myths and philosophy, including gnosticism, existentialism, and nihilism. The film's premise resembles Plato's Allegory of the cave,René Descartes's skepticism and evil demon, Kant's reflections on the Phenomenon versus the Ding an sich, Zhuangzi's "Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly", the concept of a simulated reality and the brain in a vat thought experiment.

Japanese director Mamoru Oshii's Ghost in the Shell was a strong influence.

...
Wikipedia