The Ending

Rating: Null/10 (6 November 2003)

Bullet point format for those with ADD. My apologies if spelling/grammatical mistakes hinders your ability to understand my points (if my comments are popular I may revise). Here I will bring up some points of interest about Matrix: Revolutions. Basically, I left the theater a bit disappointed, because I expected more plot twists. As I sit here writing (a few hours after seeing Revolution) I am decidedly in "LOVE" with this movie and the three films as a whole. Unfortunately, if you thoroughly understood the Matrix: Reloaded there will be no major surprises. Beware **SPOILERS** lie ahead. You will find no plot summary here. That being said, I will provide context for my points.
**I had to cut down my article from 2,500 words you can find it in the forums.
Mini-Table of Contents: I. To The Critics II. The Ending III. Interesting Points IV. Reasons to Love this Trilogy
**SPOILERS**
II. The Ending
+ I was disappointed with the ending at the theater. I felt that there should have been more, but it was everything I expected. Thinking about it more, the ending is not that important to me, but it provides more conclusion a few hours later. It seems as if everything anyone said through out the movie came true. In the first movie, Trinity reveals that the Oracle predicts that the one she will fall in love with will die. He did die, but then he came back to life in the first movie. The end? No. He dies again, for real this time (pending future movies that beat the dead horse). Agent Smith is always reminding Neo of the inevitableness of his fate and it all comes true when he copies himself over Neo in the final battle. The Architect has his was too, as the source in Neo is reinserted in the system and the matrix is reloaded.
+ To understand the ending, you must understand what the Architect said in Reloaded. I can sum it up here, but I am sure others can clarify more than I am able to. There have been several versions of the Matrix designed for humans to live in. Earlier versions have not been as successful in retaining humans (preventing them from waking up), until the Oracle made a suggestion. Choice is the keyword in the Matrix trilogy. The illusion of choice is what keeps people in the Matrix, but also out of it. Anyway, periodically the Matrix needs to be restarted, because the citizens that escape increase expontentially. Obviously, the more people that wake up, the more of them there are to dwell in Zion and to help others escape the Matrix. So, a pattern is established where the machines kill off Zion and restart the Matrix with 'updates'. As the Architect explains, Neo (the One) with the source code or key returns to the system and allows the machines to restart the matrix.
+ So what makes this matrix restart unique? Well there is Agent Smith that complicates things. In some ways he is a hero, by altering the pattern that the machines made. When Neo was standing before the Architect he was given a choice to help restart the matrix or return to save Trinity. Remember: Choice is an ILLUSION inside the matrix. Many critisized Reloaded for having Neo's powers extend beyond the Matrix, but many also did not pick up on the fact that Agent Smith had already transgressed that boundary. (Remember: the cutting scene when in Reloaded when Bane tries to stab Neo, but is interrupted... to recieve a spoon). Anyway, it was at this point that the Matrix was to be restarted. Either choice Neo made the Architect expected Zion to fall. In Revolutions, when Neo meets up with the Oracle again, she even states that he should have died after returning to Trinity. However, his powers had already melted into the real world with interactions from Agent Smith and he was able to survive conflicts with the squiddy.
+ In the end, Zion does not fall. Neo realizes that he can not beat Agent Smith, Smith is much better at fighting and can fly, because the two have become similar through various conflicts. On many boards it seems as if people are confused as to why Agent Smith dies after touching Neo. Remember what the Oracle says about rogue programs at the park in Reloaded. Programs that need to be replaced have two options, return to the source and be deleted or exile. Agent Smith chooses exile, but is tricked into returning to the source as Neo is "jacked in" at the source. In the end, you see the Oracle lying down in the same hole as Neo once was. You also see Sashi(?) sleeping as code sweeps across the streets, signaling a restart of the matrix. The matrix can restart now that Agent Smith has been taken care of. The fact that the Oracle is placed in the same position in the crater as Neo just after Agent Smith is wiped out and before the Matrix Reloads suggests that she is the first into the Matrix and the last one out.

+ There are no really big surprises in Revolutions if you understood Reloaded fully. Everything the Oracle said is true. She is a guide, she leads the One/Neo to the source, but allows him to make the choice. She is after the same thing as him, to save Zion and the human race. In the final scene after the Matrix has reloaded the Oracle talks to the Architect about the "ones who choose freedom" (or something along that line) and he reassures her that they (Zion) will be left alive. Those that believe the ending is narrow-minded with it's Judo-Christian ending must analyze the whole picture. One part is that, yes, there is death on Neo's part, but there is also life continues in Zion and rebirth and renewal occurs in the Matrix. Anyone who limits these ideals to the Judo-Christian religion is choosing to be ignorant.