»Please explain me the ending of Matrix: Revolutions.«

I am sorry if this has been asked before.
I watched the three Matrix parts, but did not understand the ending of Matrix: Revolutions.
If you remember, what I am talking about is the part when Neo reached the Machine city and talked to the Machine "God". Then, he plugged into the Matrix and fought the agent Smith for the final time. Then, after a long battle, he decided to surrender to Smith. Smith used his power and turned Neo into another clone of himself. Neo lost, Smith won.
So my question is, if Smith won, why did his victory cause the destruction of the Matrix? And even if Neo was victorious, and managed to defeat Smith, why would Smith's defeat cause the destruction of the Matrix? It's not like Smith RULES the matrix. He is Just an agent out of control, a virus inside the Matrix, so basicly his destruction isn't supposed to do ANYTHING.
And why has the "machine God" keep his promise to Neo and freed the humans? He and the machines need humans to survive. What he did was free the humans without any logical reason.
Damn... that ending is messed up.

its been so long since my last time here. at any rate, the ending of the third matrix film has been explained over and over in great detail.

in all honesty the only ones who do not "get it" are the ones who were not pay attention.

i recommend hitting up the "search" function my friend.

"everything that has a beginning, has an end".

Fallen_Archangel wrote:

Damn... that ending is messed up.

No, I think you've just interpreted it incorrectly, mon frère.

Okay, here's a breakdown of what happens:

1. - The Machine Mainframe (a.k.a. 'The Source):

This is the machine city. This is where Neo travels to.

The Matrix is a computer program. Like Windows or Linux, it is a program on which other applications and programs can be run. But it didn't materialise out of think air. The machines created this program as a place to keep human beings, and it is a place where renegade programs from the machine mainframe (such as Sati) choose to dwell when they are targetted for deletion in the machine mainframe.

The machine mainframe must obviously run on its own operating system in which programs are scurrying about carrying out their functions. The machine mainframe is connected to the Matrix, and links such as Mobil Ave station or the Architect's chamber link the two worlds together.

2. - The Threat Of Smith:

Having taken over the Oracle, the Smith that contains the Oracle has assimilated her abilities. Being the co-creator of the Matrix, the Oracle's abilities over it are at least equal to Neo. It is also able to see into the future, and apparently sees the end of Neo.

Smith, in his virus-like behaviour, has almost finished consuming the Matrix and is about to cross the barrier into the machine mainframe. Once Smith infects the machine mainframe, you can imagine what this entity who is hell-bent on oblivion would do. The machines know that Smith is a threat and that they have no program (think anti-virus software) to detroy him.

That's where Neo comes in.

3. - The Deal:

Neo tells the machine world that he will destroy the threat of Smith in exchange for peace. First and foremost, this means an end to the seige of Zion. That's obvious. Secondly, this means that "the ones who want out" (i.e. the 1% who don't accept the program and choose the red pill) "will be freed" without being chased down by Agents. This leaves humans with the choice to live the life they want, either in the comforts of the Matrix, or in the desert of the real.

Initially, the Deus Ex rejects this due to its own arrogance, reminiscent of the arrogance humans once showed towards their machine slaves as seen in The Second Renaissance.

But it knows better than anyone that Smith is the greatest threat to their existence that they have ever faced.

4. - Cosmic Rebirth:

Understand that Neo did not 'loose' and that Smith did not 'win'. If anything, it was the other way round. Death does not necessarily mean defeat.

If you think back to The Matrix Reloaded, you will recall the Oracle giving us one crucial piece of information about how programs are deleted. They can only be deleted at the Source (machine mainframe).

Do you remember where Neo is jacked in from when he fights Smith? He's jacked in at the Source.

When Smith assimilates Neo, he connects himself to the Source without realising that this is where Neo is jacked into (hence him screaming that "it's not fair!"). Once Smith has inadvertantly connected himself to the Source, the Deus Ex Machina - using Neo as a sacrificial conduit - pumps Neo (and hence Smith) full of energy, destroying them both. Insert references to Neo absolving the sins of the world through sacrificing himself here.

With Smith gone and with Neo having returned to the Source and having made a deal with the machines, the Matrix can be rebooted and reborn. The arrangement has changed. No longer will the rebels be hunted down, no longer will their potential free minds be targetted, no longer will there be assaults lead against Zion, and no longer will there be any war...until someone (most probably the humans) start it.

And why should the Architect keep his word? Well, he is a logical program. He has no reason not to

I hope that makes it clearer now.

Let me say Max that that is one of the most consice and clear explainations of the resolution of Revolutions that I have seen. Fallen cannot be faulted for asking what heppened in the end despite countless explainations. After all, none of us is CERTAIN what happened in the end and under the right circumstances any given explaination can seem as vaild as any other. Some believe Neo and Smith are dead, others believe Smith is dead but Neo is alive (and MxO would appear to bear out that at least Neo's residual self image---or something--has survived) and still others say that both Neo and Smith live. Some say the energy that deleted Smith came from Deus Ex Machina. Others say the enery didn't come from Machina, but rather, came from Neo himself. Since the Wachowski's have not seen fit to give greater detail we are all left to create conjecture. While most of us have come to general consensus on a lot of things the sheer number of unanswered questions can leave even the most astute fan wondering what REALLY happened in the end. Once again, excellent job Max for articulating so fully the general concensus of what happened. I believe your assessment speaks for most of us who have studied the story.

max314 wrote:

Do you remember where Neo is jacked in from when he fights Smith? He's jacked in at the Source. When Smith assimilates Neo, he connects himself to the Source without realising that this is where Neo is jacked into (hence him screaming that "it's not fair!"). Once Smith has inadvertantly connected himself to the Source, the Deus Ex Machina - using Neo as a sacrificial conduit - pumps Neo (and hence Smith) full of energy, destroying them both.

Thank you so much, not just for the whole thing (which was brilliant, by the way), but especially for this specific part about Neo being plugged into the Source. I can't tell you how many people have asked why Smith couldn't have been deleted via any of the people he took over. Why only through Neo? After all, all the other people are plugged into the Matrix, right? Why can't Deus just destroy Smith through any one of the bluepills still plugged into the power plant?

Well, right...and wrong. Yes, they're all plugged into the Matrix. No, they're not plugged into the Source. For whatever reason, people don't seem to realize that people can't HANDLE being plugged into the Source. After all, when Neo touched the Source at the end of Reloaded in order to stop the Sentinels, it almost KILLED him. If the One can barely handle touching the Source, then your average bluepill is DEFINITELY not going to be able to survive. The Source is a place of raw power, and I suspect that just as much as its power to destroy is made known in the films, it is probably used to create as well. The creation story for programs--from the Source you came, and to the Source you shall return.

No, it was necessary as you stated that Neo accomplish this at the Machine City, where he could plug directly into the Source. This was the choice he had to make that the Oracle did not even understand. That is why she only saw darkness spreading. She could not see past Neo's choice. She only knew the choice SHE would have to make, and she didn't understand that choice either (or else she would be able to see past the darkness spreading). She trusted her intuition that it was the right choice, and because of her faith in Neo, essentially sat in the back seat and let Neo take over the wheel. She believed in him enough to put her life in Neo's hands and be in the same boat with all of humanity. She didn't KNOW that he would succeed, but she BELIEVED he would. She was willing to go as far as Neo was to achieve peace, and together they made it happen.

Okay Whats really sickining is knowing how fake the matrix was! Good Story but damn Why not revise it? Or Muth**** Let's give our whole plot twist away for tha next 10 MF'ing years!
People... This shit is real... But says nothing about today! Y? b/c in tha next 15-25 years we will no longer need vehicles! just tha fabric of time and space! what Our god has created will undoubtedbly be interrupted by tha very thing he created! It already has been.. Humans are not god yet we are foresears of what he created! The Earth Planets animals... Flying debree and of coarse hell... We have seen movies and yes they DO come True!
It is not Irronic that humans can forsee tha future... Its a trait that god has and we are part of him... We live in a 9 dimensional world which has endless possibilities which The Newest High breed of Homo Sapiens have created a means of Transportation in a 6th Dimensional Time Machine... The Internet... Send A Machine to do your dirty work! Any where in tha galaxy!
Ha They're smart enough to turn on You!

Nope not if they're are powered by Entities in the 6th dimension... What if They made a movie about the real meaning of the matrix and What God has in plan for everyone who gave/lived their life on it! The choice they handpicked when they screwed up!
This is some real life shit that's gonna happen pretty soon! We will interact with Angels And Demons on Earth.. Where battle of his kingdom takes place! it's all in the movie!

Think About life and how it will be in the next 15 years... Its inevitable! U think u see weird people... way to u see interstelar demons that are pissed cuz u got what they use to have!
We will not know what hit us b/c we will have caused our own demise by messin with nature!
And if u think we are the only ones who are genetically and enviormentally intelligent than ur wrooooong again... Please we are Humans....
Look it up in tha bible!... We're the only Creature-"Creation"- That has the knowledge and power indued from The Creator of Everything! It's a sixth scense of the future of time... What we mathemattically equate, with errors, and turn of envents... but I could ramble and ramble
U do tha math!
Ck
p.s. There will be anotha movie watch!

PS3-Murphy's Law- Star Wars- Murphy's Law- Probably Death!- I'm not God.... Sheesh... justa smart Told ya so Naoh whole bunch of nothin type person ! hahaa

Feral Boy wrote:

Well, right...and wrong. Yes, they're all plugged into the Matrix. No, they're not plugged into the Source. For whatever reason, people don't seem to realize that people can't HANDLE being plugged into the Source. After all, when Neo touched the Source at the end of Reloaded in order to stop the Sentinels, it almost KILLED him. If the One can barely handle touching the Source, then your average bluepill is DEFINITELY not going to be able to survive.

With that logic then you can apply the blue pills died from Smith's "takover" since the ONE said it felt like "dying". If It felt like that to him (and he is mentally stronger than any red or blue pill) how can you expect those unaware blue pills to resist that same "dying feeling"?

Hence it's logical to say they were dead or dying bt the time the super Brawl started.

And their avatars exploding sealed their deaths. Especially since previous film logic showed that an exploding avatar meant death to the host. Which is why there was nothing whee each smith stood..

Because there was nothing left to be there period.

However it is debatable whether Smith actually got to kill anyone. And Neo could say that only because he knew what dying actually felt like, having been through it and all.

As for blue pills, actually plugging in at the Source, hehe, it's not like one of them is going to be awakened and invited to Machine City to take one for the team is it?

Stewart-18 wrote:

Feral Boy wrote: Well, right...and wrong. Yes, they're all plugged into the Matrix. No, they're not plugged into the Source. For whatever reason, people don't seem to realize that people can't HANDLE being plugged into the Source. After all, when Neo touched the Source at the end of Reloaded in order to stop the Sentinels, it almost KILLED him. If the One can barely handle touching the Source, then your average bluepill is DEFINITELY not going to be able to survive. With that logic then you can apply the blue pills died from Smith's "takover" since the ONE said it felt like "dying". If It felt like that to him (and he is mentally stronger than any red or blue pill) how can you expect those unaware blue pills to resist that same "dying feeling"? Hence it's logical to say they were dead or dying bt the time the super Brawl started.

Neo didn't say he was dying, he said it felt like dying. When he allowed Smith to take him over completely, it did not kill him, nor did it kill anyone that Smith took over. The reason, from a writer's standpoint, of having Neo say it was for a couple reasons. First of all, it looks back to Neo's death at the end of M1. Secondly, it looks forward to Neo's death at the end of M3. As a bit of foreshadowing, it connects the two events and shows that even though Neo may have delayed his death, it was still inevitable. Both the Path of the One AND the Path of Neo end at the Source, but the Path of Neo takes a little detour first and picks up Smith along the way, whereas the previous Ones didn't do so.

Stewart-18 wrote:

And their avatars exploding sealed their deaths. Especially since previous film logic showed that an exploding avatar meant death to the host. Which is why there was nothing whee each smith stood.. Because there was nothing left to be there period.

The game The Matrix Online reveals that everyone who had been taken over by Smith survived, so it wasn't just the Oracle, Seraph and Sati. So on that count you are incorrect. I'm not sure what you mean when you refer to an "exploding" avatar, unless you're simply making a general observation that when you kill an agent, it also kills the host bluepill. But since Smith was unlike the agents at the time he copied himself, the rules are not the same. The copying method is different, and therefore a different outcome is possible.

Quote:

The copying method is different, and therefore a different outcome is possible.

Also, the way he was destroyed was much more personal.

Quote:

Both the Path of the One AND the Path of Neo end at the Source, but the Path of Neo takes a little detour first and picks up Smith along the way, whereas the previous Ones didn't do so.

*chuckles*

There's consequences for every choice. The movies show us the consequence of the choices of the previous "Ones".

Feral Boy wrote:

Neo didn't say he was dying, he said it felt like dying. When he allowed Smith to take him over completely, it did not kill him, nor did it kill anyone that Smith took over.

Also, one should not forget that Neo and Smith have a special relationship,... they are opposites.
Neo's path, and thus his personality, is a striving for The Truth. Smith's path and personality is the opposite. Being taken over by Smith, would mean the "death" of what Neo represents. The striving for truth would be no more.

A bluepill, content in the delusion maintained by what Smith used to be, has very little of Neo's striving. How can we know if it exeriences being taken over by Smith as Neo does?

Feral Boy wrote:

The reason, from a writer's standpoint, of having Neo say it was for a couple reasons. First of all, it looks back to Neo's death at the end of M1. Secondly, it looks forward to Neo's death at the end of M3. As a bit of foreshadowing, it connects the two events and shows that even though Neo may have delayed his death, it was still inevitable.

I agree.
From external (-> being shot) to forced internal (-> "hostile take-over") to deliberate internal (-> surrender)... Standing upon the edge of The Truth changes the quality of "inevitable" and "death" quite a lot!

Feral Boy wrote:

Both the Path of the One AND the Path of Neo end at the Source, but the Path of Neo takes a little detour first and picks up Smith along the way, whereas the previous Ones didn't do so.

Hm,.... I understand what you mean. But how about: The previous Ones took the detour Matrix and thus their path didn't really "end" at the source; whereas Neo found the direct access, and his path truly did end there?

Feral Boy wrote:

The game The Matrix Online reveals that everyone who had been taken over by Smith survived, so it wasn't just the Oracle, Seraph and Sati.

thematrix.rumbaar.net...

intell wrote:

Also, the way he was destroyed was much more personal.

Very much so. And tozy elaborates on that quite nicely.

tozy wrote:

Also, one should not forget that Neo and Smith have a special relationship,... they are opposites.

Ah, isn't that cute? They have a relationship! Smith and Neo sittin' in a tree...
Ahem. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

tozy wrote:

From external (-> being shot) to forced internal (-> "hostile take-over") to deliberate internal (-> surrender)... Standing upon the edge of The Truth changes the quality of "inevitable" and "death" quite a lot!

I like that. Neo had to come to the point where he really was ready to play the role of messiah. Being as rebellious as he is toward the system, I suppose the only kind of messiah he was willing to be was one that wasn't a type of control measure. He played his hand, and the Deus folded!

tozy wrote:

Hm,.... I understand what you mean. But how about: The previous Ones took the detour Matrix and thus their path didn't really "end" at the source; whereas Neo found the direct access, and his path truly did end there?

I like that better. In fact, it speaks to everything the Oracle was trying to accomplish by attempting to END the cycles. And by the way, that link to the Sentinel was the very thing I was thinking of when I mentioned that nobody got killed.

Now for a very important question for tozy. When are you gonna come out with Part 2 for your totally awesome "Matrix Universe" essay?

Feral Boy wrote:

Ah, isn't that cute? They have a relationship! Smith and Neo sittin' in a tree...

"Like two birds perched on the same tree, intimate friends, the ego and the Self, dwell in the same body. The former eats the sweet and sour fruits of life, while the later looks on with detachment." - Mundaka Upanishad....

Feral Boy wrote:

Neo had to come to the point where he really was ready to play the role of messiah. Being as rebellious as he is toward the system, I suppose the only kind of messiah he was willing to be was one that wasn't a type of control measure. He played his hand, and the Deus folded!

My take on this: matrix-explained.com...

Feral Boy wrote:

Now for a very important question for tozy. When are you gonna come out with Part 2 for your totally awesome "Matrix Universe" essay? starhtml.de... You think you can start something like that and not finish it? Think again!

Hehe,... thanks for the kudos, Feral. (We should make you our marketing manager... )

We have started writing part 2, but it is gonna take some time....

Tozy, in regard to that link to your de-limited spirit thread, that sucker still goes over my head. But for some strange reason I think I'm understanding your Matrix Universe webpage, which pretty much deals with the exact same material. Go figure. It could be that I'm a visual person, and I like all the pretty pictures.

And speaking of your Matrix Universe website, I'm very glad to hear that you're working on it. Even though you're not finished with it, I rate it personally as being up there with Brian Takle's essay as far as how much it is helping me to understand aspects of the Matrix mythology that are foreign to me. Don't stop!

We won't.
And we will eventually arrive at the first post in the de-limited spirit-thread; in fact, this post is an excerpt of part 2.
But hopefully, by then, we will have given the reader enough background information to make it more plausible.

The Second Ren. (part 1) is more of an overview, whereas the trilogy (part 2) goes into detail. It is quite a challenge to put these very complex and abstract spiritual concepts into a few sentences and pics...

Again, thanks for your interest!

when i first saw the film i over complicated it. I remembered when the Oracle was going on about balancing equations ect so I thought Smith is there because Neo is unbalanced (N=1 S=0) so they made smith (N=1 S=1) but when Neo died (N=0 S=1) the equation was unbalanced so they deleted Smith to even it out (N=0 S=0). it works but its way to complicated. just thought i'd share

I'm glad you said you used to think so because some people still think that is the point

The fact is that there's more to the equation. Things can not be left unsettled.

SEE 7/7.