Did Morbius Sneak A Matrix Reference Into The Movie?
Contains spoilers for "Morbius"
As the newest entry into Sony's Spider-Man Universe – which does not yet actually have a Spider-Man — "Morbius" aims to grab audiences with Jared Leto's living vampire, Dr. Michael Morbius. Armed with echolocation, flight, and extraordinary strength, he becomes an antihero torn between his bloodthirsty instincts and his doctorly desire to save lives. "Morbius" tells his origin story: For their whole lives, Morbius and his friend Milo (Matt Smith) have suffered from some sort of deadly blood disease, so he turns to vampire bats for a cure. Because they ... drink blood? Something like that.
Although his experimental DNA splicing works — if turning himself into a superhuman with a lust for blood counts as working — he can only sustain his healthy body by regularly drinking blood. Without this gory sustenance, the living vampire is put on a fast track to becoming a dead man. Conveniently, Morbius already created a totally viable synthetic blood a few years back, so he doesn't have to taint his lips with the real stuff.
To avoid mixing up the two, the synthetic stuff is a light blue. You see where we're going with this.
Will Morbius drink the red blood or the blue blood?
The red pill, blue pill choice is a cultural mainstay by this point, so Morbius continuously referring to the two blood types as "the blue" and "the red" seems like an obvious nod to the classic sci-fi film. Usually, the red pill signifies learning an uncomfortable truth, while the blue pill keeps the chooser complacent in ignorance. Neo (Keanu Reeves) takes the red pill, and reality reveals itself to him. Morbius, meanwhile, takes the blue.
Morbius is resisting drinking real human blood, "the red," in favor of sticking with the blue, but he knows that eventually he'll have to give in to keep himself alive. However, as we see with his friend Milo, the red brings out a dangerous bloodlust in these living vampires, while the blue allows Morbius to control his urges. So what is the uncomfortable truth found in the red blood? This reference implies that Morbius is denying his true nature by drinking synthetic blood. It then follows that he'll eventually have to face that new side of himself.
That's a problem for tomorrow's Morbius, however — if he even gets a sequel.