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The Matrix: Resolutions
Slappy White writes "For six months, Matrix message boards were aflame with speculation, theories, predictions and outright psychotic guessing about Revolutions. Now the film is here, and this article has a humorous roundup of some of the popular theories, both those that were close and others that were, shall we say, a little off the mark." I still haven't seen this film, so I'll refrain from passing judgment, but I'm ever so happy the matrix-within-a-matrix theories were unfounded. Update: 11/09 02:38 GMT by CN : Some folks who've never seen the Twilight Zone or even the Simpsons' Treehouse of Horrors thought that was a spoiler. If you're one of those people, I'm very sorry.
well as i said there's no more text in this posting. just thank you for the spoiler, CN!
The worst thing in Revolution theory - they did not told us HOW EXACTLY can Neo stop machines in real world? They say something... "He is the one - so it's obvious" - but it is really not obvious. I suppose that there will be no Matrix IV, V or VI (they told us so), but there can be something like "Neo", "Neo Reloaded", "Neo Revolutions" movies ;-)
To me, Revolutions has come the closest to accomplishing what the first Matrix did. The plot was so much better, flowed nicely, and the dialog was easy to understand yet had those hidden philosophy messages which is what made the first movie so successful.
The special effects were amazing as well.
What got me was the amazing ending. It was unexpected in someways, but totally made sense when you consider everything that happened in the movie.
Also there still is enough unanswered questions that another trilogy could be created if they ever wanted to. They will probably wait 10-20 years before doing another trilogy if they ever wanted to.
I disagree. The matrix within a matrix theory was well founded, but it proved wrong. These are not the same thing. If I told you I have a ripe strawberry in my hand, you would have the well founded belief that it is red, because ripe strawberries are red. But if it were blue, it doesn't mean that your belief was unfounded, at least until you saw the strwbrry.
Logic, macros, and more
Unfortunately Carrie-Anne Moss's Restraining order against me extends to all movie theatres and video stores in the Tri State area. Now I'll never know the ending!
Where's the theory that it's all real, the machines wised onto the fact that people were catching on, and modified the Matrix to make the last movie crap and therefore spoil the franchise, ending the crusade for enlightenment?
Well, that's my theory anyway, nothing else makes a lot of sense. Back to sleep, folks.
I guess 4 days was too long to wait to see the movie before slashdot would post spoilers on the front page.
When it comes to X-Men, Matrix or Star Wars, yes 4 days IS too long. You cheap motherfucker. Go catch a Matinee.
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
This is what the above website has to say on the subject:
Great. That says nothing. Absolutely nothing. As I say in my review, the Oracle's comment is an observation, not an explanation. It's like saying that the reason a car will not work is because it will not go. He has a connection with "the source" - and?Lest anyone think that this is a message backing the Twin Matrix theory, it isn't that either. I thought it was fairly obvious what Revolutions was trying to do: it was leaving all of these questions open. There's room in Revolutions for most of the explanations people came up with. Unfortunately so many people wanted a nice tidy ending with Neo and Trinity living happily ever after and everything "explained" that they've kind of missed it all.
I think it's a good sequel. But then I wanted something other than the usual Hollywood mindless happy endings. YMMV.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Neo: Never. I'll never be assimilated. You've failed, Agent Smith. I am the One, like all the ones before me.
Agent Smith: So be it... One.
[rays come out of his hand, electrocuting Neo. One of the Agents turns into the Oracle, she comes, and throws Agent Smith into space, and dies. Oracle dies in Neo's hands...]
[Fade away]
[Drum music in Zion, Zionites having a rave party using Sentinel parts as percusion instruments.]
[Neo burns the body of Trinity, and she appears in yellow vapor form, as well as the Oracle, the Architect and even Tank]
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
I can't figure out what people are complaining about. It was a great movie, particularly if you consider all three movies to be one story. Granted, you have to like that sort of movie and you have to actually have an attention span, but if you do you should enjoy it. Basically if you like anime movies like Akira or the Gundam Wing series or Marvel's X-men comics (lots of action and some heavy pontificating) it should be right up your alley. I really enjoyed it.
Maybe folks are complaining about the ending. (no I'm not going to give it away) It was surprising and very non-traditional but really good too. I thought it was a great close to the story arc. Leaves future sequels as a possibility too.
I was disappointed at first with Revolutions.
However, last night I watched Reloaded again.
You have to pay great attention during Reloaded to find your answers to the Matrix. They dont make sense if you've only seen movies 1 and 2, but they do if you've seen all 3. In particular, listen to what the architect says.
While some may say reloaded is about reloading the Matrix....note that the Matrix never did get reloaded....but something the architect says makes me think different. And it explains Neo's sudden ability to interact with the machine world outside of the Matrix.
www.atacomm.com - The Leader in VoIP Product Distributi
Hear, hear.
:-P
Cowboyneal, please use your update:ly powers to axe that line before you piss off everyone.
After all, some people haven't read the article yet.
-the "Trainman" was the gyrocopter guy from Mad Max
-the face from Tron
-the "face ship" modelled after the ships from Buckaroo Banzai
-Robotech/Macross mecha
-in the club... "CYPHERMEN" from THE INVISIBLES
-Monica Bellucci is a fox.
-in the Matrix... the programmers are all from India
-the "Merovingians" were a line of kings in Southern France before the Middle Ages who believed themselves to be direct descendants of Jesus Christ. the Catholic Church wiped them out along with the Cathars, Gnostics and the Templars.
-everyone needs to read THE INVISIBLES
-there was more but I forgot it on the way home.
. SLASHDOT: Home of the vicious nerd.
With it set up like that, neither matrix could exist without the other, and yet each would be equally unreal. The origin of either would be inexplicable, just like our current inability to explain the existence of the Universe.
I agree wholeheartedly. The ending was unexpected, but it was the obvious choice in retrospect. I guess a lot of sci-fi geeks expected a geek ending to a geek movie, with machines being blown to bits :) and sun in the sky. In other words, a totally unrealistic, feel-good, hollywood ending. When it didn't happen, people felt betrayed. Even more so since the ending is far from happy.
The universe in which the robots and humans reside is a *simulation* (not another matrix, but a simulation). The robots are vaguely aware of this, and have developed methods which allow them to manipulate the *real* universe a little. This manipulation is how they are able to program "people" and how agent smith is able to download himself into that guy. There would have been a great sub-plot about how the robots discovered this -- through their disection of humans (in the animatrix) they discover the biological equivalent of DEBUGGING facilities in humans. They discover strange indecipherable messages in biological processess. Even a monkey for a directory could have made this a memorable scene.
In retrospect, the point of the second movie would have been to demonstrate that the robots could program humans -- with food. With cookies, with pills, etc etc.
And finally, Neo, while not aware that the "real" universe is also a simulation, is able to manipulate it slightly as well -- this is why he can make shit blow up, and see without eyes.
Hollywood, I am your messiah and I'm unemployed :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
The makers of the Matrix have said for years that it is NOT a matrix-within-a-matrix.
This is fairly common knowledge, and not, imho, a spoiler.
.
Anybody else see it as just straight biblical allegory? I'm not even a Christian, and it seemed rather blatent (even heavy-handed) to me.
Neo - Christ
Smith - Anti-christ
Machine ruler - God
So when Neo becomes able to do all that stuff in the real world, its like the miracles of Jesus. He can do it because he has "a connection to the source" --- in other words a connection to the divine. When he's fighting Agent Smith, Smith loses when he finally calls Neo "Neo" (instead of "Mr. Anderson" has he had been doing up to this point). That means he acknowledges Neo's status (accepts him as their savior) and is thus destroyed. Of course, Neo dies (sacrifices himself for his race) in a very cruxification-like scene (complete with cross-shaped light right before the end). All that stuff at the end about Neo potentially coming back is an allusion to the messiah.
Or it could be something else entirely. To tell the truth, I don't care. The last two movies are pretty crappy (though I loved the first). The dialogue was truely bad --- those writers need to be shot, and the plot seemed very strained --- a lot of going from A to B because C said to.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Still, there are some holes in Revolutions that are pretty gaping. I think they got pressure from the studios that it was too long, or to make a marketing gimmick out of it like so: 1) cut out the philosophical stuff, leave all of the formulaic rah-rah machine/zion battle (notice a lot of other scenes that feel like they just end too quickly, like when Neo gets to cry for like 2 seconds when Trinity dies; 2) give it all back in the super-extended-directors-cut-special-edition DVD, which will probably come out after everyone's bought the regular-super-special-edition of the trilogy. Everybody (almost) wins.
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
i just got back, and while i wasn't as disappointed as most seem to be, i still walked away only thinking it was 'okay'.
after i saw reloaded, i thought that there were a lot of interesting possibilities. we had seen bane who was clearly smith, and we had seen neo take down a sentinel in the real world. a few possibilities, in order of preference:
1) neo became part machine as smith became part human, part of their meld
2) neo is the messiah, which translates to 'all worlds'
3) the real world is infact another matrix
#1 is a stretch, but it's believable in the world we're described.
#2 seems lame, as everything would be at face value and simply handed to us in reloaded
#3 breaks the movie's own rules. if they did that, however well they did it, it would effectively make anything able to be rendered invalid with a thought. 'oh, oops, another matrix!' it would be difficult, for example, to feel anything if a character was killed off. this would be similar to superman suddenly NOT being affected by kryptonite, which is a rule of that world.
i can look past some silly stuff. for example:
- morpheus gains 30lbs in an hour's time
- people start calling each other by nicknames ('merv', 'trin') in an hour's time
- the young indian girl and the trainkeeper seem to have no real purpose
- they should have selected someone other than an elderly african-american woman to be the new oracle
- sentinels weren't able to be shot at in previous movies; only emps worked
- for that matter, sentinels never relayed back to other computers when they found a ship
- the twins seemed to die pretty easy in that explosion
etc, etc, etc. all forgivable.
what i would have liked, however, are 2 key things:
1 would be the 'meld' explanation, having neo only have increasingly powerful machine abilities as smith has increasingly powerful human abilities. this would be another 'character learns his strengths' part of a movie, which is always very entertaining.
2 would be monica belluci being the mother of the matrix. the architect scoffed when neo asked if she was, and we can now unfortunately presume that it's just because he doesn't respect her terribly much or doesn't like her being referred to as 'the oracle'. it would make sense that monica belluci be the mother, having gone against the merovingian to help the good guys in reloaded, etc.
i would have also liked werewolves (vampires got enough coverage) to be better explored.
i feel like the whole architect scene in reloaded split the audience into 3:
1) people who don't really care, and just want to enjoy the story.
2) people who are turned off by all of that over-their-head mumbo jumbo
3) people who see potential depth and are intrigued
the people in group 1 will be the people in group 1 no matter what happens. the people in group 2 have been pissed off, and the people in group 3 are set up to be disappointed. in this way, i feel the movie delivered. why split the audience at all, then? why the semblance of complexity when there isn't any? if they had kept the end of reloaded simple, group 1 would stay the same, group 2 wouldn't be pissed and fall into group 1, and group 3 would accept that the movie has become more simple and be surprised if revolutions was anything but simple.
i don't know where i'm going with the rest of this, just dumping some thoughts. if i get some responses, i'm sure i'll have others.
which alot of the fighting effects came from.
1. The flying scenes.
2. The twins when they power up.
3. Kung fu and the visible impact waves.
4. People crashing through walls.
The only things missing from the film ?
1. Vegita
2. Kama Kama haaa.
3. Spirit Bomb
4. King Kai . Oh wait.....the Oracle...lol.
If DBZ is being made into a movie I recommend the Wachowski brothers.
yes, so long as:
1. you don't expect them to be the best thing ever like many people (stupidly) did.
2. your life doesn't revolve around you having a perfect understanding of The Matrix and it all being perfectly plausible.
3. you can enjoy a film even if it doesn't tell you exactly what you want to hear and show you exactly what you want to see.
Simply put, the Matrix-In-A-Matrix theory is dramatically untenable. It undermines any possible resolution in the films because there can always be another Matrix enclosing the last, another dream to wake up from, as it were.
For the movie to work dramatically, there needs to be some sort of possible conclusion, either to be achieved or frustrated. Setting the first two films in some sort of "higher-order" Matrix undercuts this in two ways: first, it tells the audience "hey, you know those first two movies? well, it turns out that nothing that happened in them counts, there's no real payoff, sorry about that", thus abusing the audience's investment in the fantasy world; second, it not only leaves open, but implicitly nods to the possibility that the second Matrix is in fact fraudulent as well, and that no matter how many times our heros "wake up", they'll still wake up in (another) Matrix. So the possible conclusion necessary for the narrative in the movie to function properly disappears, and all we're left with is bad acting and gee-whiz special effects.
I guess I'm in the minority here in that I find the pseudo-philosophical ruminations* of the Watchowskis tiresome and adolescent, but even I recognize that they know how to spin a good yarn, and they wouldn't ruin the dramatic structure in such an obvious way.
(*"But, like, dude, they talk about Plato on their website, and that "desert of the real" line is like, from some French post-somethingorother dude, and besides, it's so, you know, eastern." Exactly.)
I'll talk out of my ass. I haven't even seen Reloaded, let alone Revolutions, but here's what I can tell based on watching the first movie and reading the published spoilers of the second and third:
Neo can pick up the machines' communication by using his "data jack" as an antenna. Because he is The One, he can understand the Japanese-designed protocol that the machines speak to each other and can jam their control programs.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Or, hell, why bother to send robots there in the first place? Why not just drop a damn nuke down the hole? Or pump it full of nerve gas?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
M3 was a vast improvement. They ditched a lot of the Hollywood nonsense and that's what's peeved a lot of viewers. People expected:
- Explanations for issues raised in M2 - but they didn't get them.
- A happy ending with Neo and Trinity going off into the sunset hand-in-hand - nope, spectularly opposite yet still a victorious ending
- for it to continue the language of Hollywood as happened in the second film - there were a handful of cases, but by and large it was a fairly un-Hollywood like production
Anyone who went in saying "I know why Neo has powers in the real world and how Agent Smith is able to enter a body in the real world" left Revolutions without a new explanation, or thinking they'd been told they were wrong and it's just what's is is is. Insofar as that happened, it's a bad movie, the fact the questions were not being answered could have been more emphasised.There was precious little in the good-guys vs bad-guys stuff. The line between the two opposing forces - the machines and the humans - is blurred, a new life form is inserted (or rather seperated) into the equation, and only a computer virus continues to be unambiguously necessary to defeat.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The Bad Guys lost!
The only "Bad Guys" that lost were the Smiths. The machines didn't 'lose', they pulled a Minbari: they had humanity cornered and doomed, then they surrendered and buggered off without an explanation (well, the audience knows the reason, but the Zionites don't).
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
I've seen a lot of complaints from people who just didn't like how things were resolved. They didn't have specific complaints about the storytelling, dialogue (which itself is fodder for snide commentary), action or anything but how the story played out. Specifically, they had their own ideas of how things should work out (such as the Matrix-in-a-Matrix) and when these things didn't come to fruition they became horribly disappointed and jaded.
I'm not saying that everyone who hated the movie is like that -- some of them have valid complaints -- but many of the detractors, especially on the Matrix fan boards, have been citing the fact that events didn't work out how they wanted.
STOP MISUSING APOSTROPHES, YOU MORONS!!!
When the trainman jumps across the train lines, check the destination on the train, it reads "LOOP". The lines on the train station are looped, and Neo returns to the same place after trying to get out.
Just my 2 cents.
The whole plot about the purpose of having humans in pods "generating" electricity for the machines was never explained.. The laws of thermodynamics do not allow for this, and that is why the movie seems to not be closed completely for me...
:)
I believe there was another purpose for the matrix.. that purpose being for the humans and machines to live on earth in peace. The arthitect was trying to balance an equation which couldn't be balanced, and the oracle trying to unbalance it.. It was a power struggle between the programs within the matrix, and a freedom struggle by the humans.
But the idea that the humans were generating electricity is proposterous. I have said it since the begining of the Matrix series.. and I'll say it again. The laws of physics do not allow humans to generate enough electricity to even grow plants to feed themselves, much less have excess power to power the machines. There MUST be some alternative source of power... At maximum, if the power extraction worked at 100% efficiency, and plant growing worked at 100% efficiency (that is, ALL electricity produced was converted to light which grew plants) then there would be exactly enough food to go around for the people that were already alive. There would be no way to reproduce, and no way to have excess electricity.
I have heard arguments that the machines figured out quantum physics, etc.. but if they did that, why not have nuclear power generators? Why not have solar pannels in space? why not move to Mars? These questions all prove that humans were not needed to generate electricity...
Others tell me that is just a plot hole that I have to deal with, but if it is, then somebody didn't even attempt to do their homework. There are THOUSANDS of ways more efficient and easier to generate electricity without the sun than to harvest humans in pods. Yet so many people still think that is why the humans were inserted into the matrix. bogus.
That being said, where are all the machines in the real world? There are sentinels and crop growers, but these were all there to maintain the matrix. What about all the other mahcines that roam the world? Did they still exist? Or did the machines insert every program into the matrix so humand and machines could occupy the world together without conflict?
I think the whole idea they are trying to get across is theological. There are 2 worlds, the physical world, and the machine world (matrix). Just like before christ, there were 2 worlds, the supernatural (god[s]) world(s), and the natural (human/physical) world.
I believe there will be some more matrix movies.. not necessarilly named "matrix" but something else. I think the era of the matrix is ended in Revolutions, which is why the title is named such...
These are just all IMO... Please comment and argue and disagree
Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
But is the "The Source" 'Open Source' or 'Closed Source'?
They don't say that. They say "The powers of the one extend beyond the Matrix." That makes sense. Assuming The Matrix is in the air (and as such hackable to the Freedom Fighters), Neo's expanded brain power (Ability to see beyond the Matrix) may very well enable him to connect with the Machines in general. Nobody really explained in Dune: Messiah why Paul could see when _he_ was blinded other than his "special" powers as Kwizatz Haderach, but nobody seemed to complain there....
Karma: Non-Heinous
I've already seen it twice. I saw it the first time and was so dissapointed, upset, pissed, angry, whatever that I vowed never to give the WB another cent. Then of course, some friends went to see it again the next night so I tagged along deciding that I needed to give it another chance and to see if I missed anything.
After seeing it twice, yeah there was some stuff I missed. Yes I liked it better/hated it less the second time around. I see so many people commenting that "if you didn't like it you didn't get it" and I'm here to say that I didn't like it, but I sure as hell got it.
I just think it could have been so much better. The Matrix Trilogy could have been the sickiest Sci-Fi of all times. Serious. It had that much potential. The first Matrix was already in my top lists of movies. It totally got me by surprise (as it did to everyone) and made me leave the theater in pure wonder. I remember walking down the street and just wondering - "Can I run a little faster than I think I can? Or jump just a little higher?"
This launched me into a quest where I bought tons of philosophy books and read tons of stuff online and I was happy.
With the announcement of the trilogy (and sorry but if anyone believes that this was always a trilogy from the beggining you're smoking crack) I figured that we were going to go from Matrix 1/Philosophy 101 to Matrix 2 and 3 and Philosophy 405! Instead I was dissapointed.. because Matrix 2 and 3 were basically just stories. They kind of hinted at going deeper (think Plato and his cave analogy and the Matrix in Matrix which everyone was expecting) but really only skimmed the surface.
I'm not mad that the machine war ended, I kind of expected that. But I also expected the Matrix in a Matrix theory. And if it had ended like that, the ending would have been more open than it is now! Imagine a Neo telling everyone that they're still in the Matrix. Imagine them getting out of that Matrix. Then imagine them asking "How do we know we're not still in the Matrix" and then just ending it! That's about as open ended as you can get! So saying that I didn't like the movie because it wasn't wrapped up all nicely is weak.
Going from that, the whole scene with the Trainman...it could have led to a whole slew of new ideas but instead it didn't fit the movie at all and had it been removed no one would have noticed or missed it. That scene could and should have talked more about what it is exactly to be a machine and to be human. Maybe we are exactly the same things. Maybe we do work in exactly the same way. Maybe we find out that the machines had been integrating biological components in themselves for years and thus became more "human." Maybe we find out that humans had been integrating more mechanical components in themselves for years and become more "machine."
Maybe we find out that once you leave this Matrix and go a level up to the level of Zion and go a level up past that we find out that the Oracle, Architect, etc all of them were actually just players in the game. They didn't create the Matrix either but just existed in it just like us and just added another level to it and they don't know how far up it goes either. Maybe we find out that the more levels up you go, the wackier the story gets and it just never ends.
The WB gave me months for my mind to wander with ideas. They had years while they were building this. I just expected a whole lot more and got a whole lot less. Did I expect to much - yup. Should I have set my sights lower - yup. But in all honesty I think they just lost sight. Someone said it before, they got all this money this time around and completely lost the art of story telling in the process.
Go watch Bound if you don't know what I mean. That movie had the lowest budget out of anything they've ever done and I still think it was completely SICK and love it and would put it right below Matrix. It's just a story but the way it's told is awesome.
Now lets examine the huge p
Just my theory here. Think of Smith as a viral network. It absorbs a person or program and adds it to the network, becoming more powerful in the process. The machines need to hack that network and destroy it but they can't because it is no longer connected to them. Neo and the machine mind agreed to work together to destroy smith. When Neo entered the matrix to confront smith he did it by connecting through the machine mind. At the end of the fight Neo lets himself be absorbed by Smith and becomes part of the Smith network. Smith thinks it has won but doesn't realize that Neo is connected to the Machine Mind. Just before Smith dies you see the cables into Neo light up. The Machine Mind is now connected to the Smith Network via Neo and can destroy it from the inside. The Oracle was the key to Neo realizing that he had to lose the fight to defeat Smith. She knew the Smiths were coming to "assimilate" her but stayed there and let it happen. The Smith that Neo fought was the one who had been the Oracle, this is provable because (a) it said the others were letting it fight him because it had forseen itself winning and (b) when the smiths died it was her body lying there. At the end of the fight the oracle/smith said that had forseen Neo was lying there while it said "Everything has to come to an end", but it seemed confused by this. This was a message for Neo from the Oracle. He understood that he had lose the fight and let Smith absorb him into the network thus giving the machine mind the backdoor it needed. This also fits the messiah theme, he let himself die in order to save humanity
Movie #1
What if what you think is reality is not real?
How would you be able to tell?
Movie #2
What if the person you think you are is not who you are?
Why do you choose what you choose?
Is there a choice?
Can I choose to have really long fight and rave scenes instead of looking at those questions?
How many useless characters can I fit in one movie?
Movie #3
How about if everyone talks about love and we blow shit up?
What if I focus on visual effects rather than story? Will anyone who matters notice?
If I'm out of ideas, can I rip off other movies?
Can I end a series while still making sure that I have an opening in case I need to make another movie to bring in more cash?
It's because he's part of the source. It's understandable why you'd miss the two lines of dialog where he asks the question you asked and the oracle gives the answer I just gave you considering how every explaination was just a side note between action and reaction shots.
And since he's part of the source, the "real" world (where the escaped humans hang out) isn't really the real world since he can only control what the source controls. Point for "matrix in a matrix" theorists.
I think what's mildly ironic is that the reason people hated Vanilla Sky is because the last 15 minutes they pretended the audience was full of morons and explained everything.
Matrix: Revolutions didn't do that. They gave short stark answers which answered the questions but in a way that left it open for interpretation.
What did Agent Smith do the the Oracle? You get all of 3 seconds of seeing her lying on the ground where the Agent Smith that took on Neo used to be standing. Sure they could have gone into extensive dialog about why he needed her to defeat Neo OR they could leave it open.
They did that with everything. The answers are all there. They just don't spell it out for you. If they had they'd just be wasting time repeating Matrix 1 and 2.
Personally, my theory is that they knew all the neat questions and how to "show" them as is good story telling but couldn't "show" the answers even if they really knew them. That's the standard problem with philosophy. Most of the great writters have a brilliant ability to ask deep questions in interesting ways but they never give you an answer. They just send you back down the mountain to seek it out yourself.
I'll definitly be picking up the DVD when it comes out. I think people went in with a mindset that is was all action and "sucked" and so, like you, weren't paying attention when answers where offered.
Reloaded was the same way. I went in for the action and picked up much more detail when I got the DVD and watched it more closely.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
They ask questions, that is okay.
But when they have Neo actually affecting reality, those questions HAVE to be answered.
In the first movie, Neo did not affect reality, only the illusion. So the questions were okay as they were left.
Once Neo kills machines in the real world by thinking at them, HOW he does that needs to be answered.
I'm glad you're pleased with movie #3. Many three year olds are pleased watching hour after hour of Barney.
Draw your own conclusions from that.
Here's my little "what I might have done" twist on things:
a) The Merovingian would turn out to be in fact a previous version of the one, from "a much older version of the Matrix". Neo is the Matrix 3.0's one, this guy was from an older one. In fact he has better insight into this Matrix than Neo does, as an outsider. He's just decided there's no point to all this.
b) The reason he has is that no one is in fact unplugged - Zion is a spilloff Matrix for the people who must fight the system. In this matrix, the unease they still feel is masked by their fight to save the world, and they are thus rendered harmless. They also remove other disruptive elements from the Matrix, in essence being very unwitting house cleaners. This explains a point never addressed at all - when the one supposedly "work up" and freed the first people, how did they rebuild themselves from the physical state Neo started in? He needed extensive medical help to function again - the first people would have had none. Simple answer - no one has ever really woken up and formed Zion. If someone did wake up, they died. That machine that unplugged them, also took their head off for good measure.
c) Neo, like the previous ones, is in fact a program himself. He has no awareness of this, and his sentient mind fully believes he is human. The Merovingian knows he is a program, and that is a further reason the fight is of little interst to him. Neo, the new one, has no such insight and in any case is built so he will fight for humanity. This is part of his function as the one program. He is "seeded" into the Matrix to bring about a necessary reprogramming, as the system has built to a point of instability where matters must be restarted now in order to maintain full control. (Think Windows box - saving work and rebooting, because you can tell it's about to go unstable on you.)
d) However, the One has a couple unintentional side effects - a) it overwrites a part of an agent program, creating a virus and b) develops a deep relationship with Trinity. Now the @#$@# has really hit the fan, and data corruption begins to take place.
e) The Merovingian, interested in his own existance and well versed in the Matrix, is now under threat from the virus program. He is compelled to prepare for war. He check codes and prepares to isolate certain sections of the Matrix he controls, but then he stops. An amused, ironic smile comes over his face, and he turns toward a door, fishing out a key.
f) Smith the virus corrupts the system - the Matrix more easily, but subtle effects begin to seep into the more heavliy shielded "real world" environment. Initially Zion appears to be helped by this, since the real world programs like the sentinals are not prepared for this kind of attack and are the first things to fail. No one understands it but the conclusion is Neo somehow did it. Big party starts, but then odd things happen - lights begin to behave sporadically, computer systems begin to show flashes of Smith's face, and the weaker people mentally begin to show faint signs of Smith's personality. Neo, as a program, also comes under attack sooner than the human minds but is better able to protect himself. He contacts the machines directly using his still not understood powers and proposes the deal. It is accepted and he enters the Matrix, to deal with the virus at its source.
g) Big fight. Neo holds his own against one of the Smiths (movie fight was OK here, except after crater impact Neo shows brief program characteristics as he rewrites routines to repair and strengthen himself, and gets up stronger). Both programs are rewriting themselves as they fight, and as the Matrix becomes more and more tasked action outside Smith and Neo slows down.
h. (In reality humans aren't power sources BTY - their brains are the hardware of the Matrix. The brainpower not being used in their Matrix existance is used to power the system - the brain being the one thing beyond the machines to duplicate. As their
"I object to doing things that computers can do." -- Olin Shivers, lispers.org
The answer is that writers-directors did not know enough philosophy to answer those questions. So they didn't.
Instead, they fell back on CGI effects and hoped that those lesser educated individuals would be sufficiently satisified with those to pay the ticket prices.
There are no deeper questions unanswered. It is a badly done movie where the writers-directors focused more on visual effects than on content.
As was noted in the into to that article, any movie you thought you'd be seeing would have been better than the one they produced.
From the latter article I reference above:
"The Wachowski Brothers' vision for The Matrix is one that extends far beyond the theatrical trilogy, and the world they have created is so rich that we've chosen to tell inter-connected Matrix-related stories in multiple mediums," said Joel Silver, producer of the Matrix films. "Our goal in collaborating with Ubi Soft is to create a multiplayer online game that reflects the trilogy's highly stylized storytelling and innovative action, taking fans beyond the boundaries of the movie screen and into a 'persistent world' where they can fully explore the vast realm of the Matrix."
Revolutions wasn't supposed to give you the answers to everything. In fact, at the same time that Reloaded came out, a video game called Enter The Matrix came out, which contains some information pretaining to the Oracle and the family (father, mother, child) you see at the beginning of Revolutions in the train station. You learn who the family is, and, more importantly, what deal the father made with the Mero (french dude) in Reloaded (yes, he's in Reloaded, being led away from the table when Nero, Morpheus, and Trinity approach the Mero in the Resturant in Reloaded). In Revolutions, you only learn of the father's side of the deal. You never learn what the Mero got in return.
I've seen the movie and was dissapointed that it didn't answer my questions and I would probably have to play Enter The Matrix and The Matrix Online in order to grasp some of the answers I was expecting. I'm not a game-playing person and don't necessarily want to play the games.
If you realize that Revolutions isn't going to answer your questions and just sit back and enjoy it, it is actually a good movie. The more I think about the movie (I saw it Wednesday morning), the more I realize that it wasn't nearly as disappointing as I first thought.
I just wish it answered more questions, and, therefore, didn't force me to play the video and on-line games to fully grasp everything.
I would put a restraining order on her.
The girl next to me at work sent this. I think her friend, whos name I don't know, compiled it.
"So disappointing they may as well have bussed in Ewoks to save Zion."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM
"Too bad the Wachowski brothers marry their mind-blowing visuals to some of the worst war movie clichs ever written."
-- Sean O'Connell, ECLIPSE MAGAZINE
"Though visually spectacular, 'The Matrix Revolutions' is a disappointing climax to what had previously been one of the great movie series of recent years." - Peter Sobczynski, CRITIC DOCTOR
"The Wachowskis... lean so heavily on concepts and designs from Aliens... that you half-expect to hear Bill Paxton wailing 'Game over, maaaaan!' in the background."
-- James Sanford, KALAMAZOO GAZETTE
"It's actually at its best when it's the most pretentious. Its loud and repetitive action sequences are impressive enough, but we've seen them all before."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS
"For all the ponderous philosophizing found in Reloaded, Matrix Revolutions is surprisingly straightforward and more than a little cheesy."
-- Bill Pearis, CITYSEARCH
"Theres a warmed-over feeling that permeates what should have been the defining film of the trilogy."
-- Rebecca Murray, ABOUT.COM
"Please someone, get me the blue pill. I want to forget that this ambitious and noteworthy series is ending so weakly."
-- Nell Minow, MOVIE MOM AT YAHOO! MOVIES
"A mixture of frantic but empty action and solemn, even more vacuous philosophizing that ends up simultaneously pretentious and puerile."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
"While superior to Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions still can't quite justify turning a stand-alone classic into a misguided trilogy."
-- Alex Sandell, JUICY CEREBELLUM
"The final chapter in the Wachowski brothers' trilogy about stylish sunglasses, leather trenchcoats, freshly baked cookies and Wire Fu."
-- Jon Popick, PLANET SICK-BOY
"After all is said and done, I wish they would have left the trilogy to one."
-- Danny Minton, KBTV-NBC (BEAUMONT, TX)
"Seems like Matrix Reloaded with a little tweaking."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE
"With The Matrix Revolutions, the Wachowski brothers have managed to pull off something nearly impossible. They've made a movie about the end of the world that leaves us entirely indifferent to the outcome."
-- Chris Vognar, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"The Matrix Revolutions sucks."
-- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
"Reloaded was certainly a lumpy, gaseous treatise of a movie, but viewers of Revolutions may find themselves looking back on it fondly."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES
"There's relatively less of the clunky alternation of big action and static speechifying that stalled Reloaded. But there's also less storytelling fervor from the Wachowskis."
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Better than Reloaded, but the thrill is gone."
-- Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
"How did something that started out so cool get so dorky?"
-- Manohla Dargis, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"Louder, longer, more expensive and dumber than its predecessors, Revolutions is a mediocrity that will provide escapism only to those who head for the theater exits."
-- Colin Covert, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
the emotional impact of this movie is zilch."
-- Paul Clinton, CNN
"The Matrix trilogy is so named for a reason: The most compelling aspect of the movies is that way-cool space. Revolutions spends too little time there."
-- Leigh Johnson, HOLLYWOOD.COM
"The Wachowskis have served up passable entertainment... but they fail to deliver on their own mythology."
-- Laura Clifford, REELING REVIEWS
"Visually stunning but a huge disappointment. The resolution sucked! "
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM
riding round the world on an old motorcycle
But it's also said they have "a form of fusion." That would lead me to believe that they know of nuclear technology. They at least have to fake the existence of nuclear technology for the humans, as isn't it a nuke plant that Niobe & crew infiltrate in Reloaded?
It doesn't even have to be nukes. Very large conventional explosives (think MOAB) would probably do the trick, too. Even if you can't kill all the humans with the blast, at least you can bury them and prevent them from ever leaving the cave.
The answer is, the machines didn't use nukes or gas or anything because the writers are dense. It's the same reason the aliens in Independence Day didn't just pelt the next planet they want to invade (Earth) with neutron bombs (or even nukes) from space a hundred years before they arrive. And, why did they need to use the human's satelites in order to communicate with each other? Answer, because it's a lot more exciting to see space ships fighting F-15, and hordes of squid robots fighting 'Mechs.
Oh, and those 'Mechs were the stupidest thing I've ever seen. You've got all this metal and armor...but none of it is protecting the freaking pilot. Also, if the Mechs are only going to be on flat ground....why use legged machines? Isn't that just another easy point of failure? How about treads instead.
Finally, in the first movie, the EMP was "our only weapon against the machines." So, now, sixth months later, they realize, "oh, machine guns can blow them up, too." Huh? And since the EMP is so incredibly effective, lets make sure they're only on our ships, and let's not keep any around the perimeter of our base.
Plot holes abound.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
I was hoping that Neo would wake up in bed between Bob Newhart and the woman who played his wife on his first series.
Personally, I subscribed to the theory that the ending might actually be...... good! I guess that was the most nutso theory of all.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
I enjoyed all three movies. Far and away my favorite was the first. Reloaded and Revolutions were pretty good. If anything Revolutions tied up the story too tightly - and we are all so used to being left guessing.
Two comments: First, this movie felt like a two hour conclusion, with no introduction, no rising action. It was as if it was literally the resolution of the second movie.
Second, A lot of the griping I've read is of the "it would have been better if" variety. Movies are frusterating in this respect - after the first movie in a series, everyone has preconceptions of the way the story will flow.
-- $G
I didn't like the movie at all, mostly because of 3 reasons. There where others too though. 1. The machines keep their promises. Why? I'd just say, "Nice, Neo's dead... kill the humans now" What do they have to gain from the peace now that Neo is gone and he did his part? 2. The swarms of things flying all over. Why did they fly in packs so they can be hit all the time? If they dispersed how it's logical they would have been more effective in killing those APUs. None of them managed to notice the missles very easily. If they are such advanced machines could they not figure out "Oh.. missles, let's go after what shot them" And with all those thousands of machines noone saw those people with the rocket launchers? None of them shot at the resuply people? Well.. not quite true... one or two did, but still. Anyone knows that you want to go for the resuply lines first. I have more complaints about the machines.. but i'll stop there :)
3. Why did they not keep EMPs? I mean... Zion put them all on ships. why not put say... 30 of them inside the dome.. and just keep detonating emps once in a while to kill the drones. Whatever is left.. they could have kept all their ships back and destroyed, or those APU things could have handeled them. Why did they waste all their ships?
Just 3 major observations.. there are more. like that entire huge gate, it was held by 1 chain.... that's not really plausible.
I really wanted to see them introduce two new characters - The Postgres and The MySQL, who team up to defeat The Oracle. Now that a lot of geeks would've been able to relate to.
sic transit gloria mundi
You nailed it.
I'll go even further and say that things were explained. These movies are the most intellectual action movies that have ever been released, and I doubt we'll have the opportunity for such things to be made ever again.
The Oracle said the power of the One reaches to the Source. This is why he can feel anything connected to the Machines, including Smith in the real world. That seemed obvious.
Smith entering Bane is less obvious, but I figure if they can download training programs or connect to a virtual reality, programs can also hijack a brain through those same ports.
As for how Neo actually destroyed Smith, it is implied, not explained...things aren't spelled out for the idiots. You can draw endless conclusions. The Oracle said Smith is Neo's opposite, his negative...1 + (-1) = 0. Or you can say once Neo was destroyed, the equation had to "rebalance" itself again, killing Smith.
Hell, look up what the name Sati means and find out the deeper meanings of that ending.
But people don't look at it that way. The thing I find most interesting is that most reviews say it's better than Reloaded, yet give it a worse rating than Reloaded (RottenTomatoes has Reloaded at something like 76%, compared to the 36% of Revolutions).
People just didn't like that it wasn't a Hollywood ending. I will say that this movie has the most hidden religious and philosophical imagery I've ever seen...it's all way more subtle than Reloaded (who noticed the glowing cross and wings when Neo was killing Smith? Who noticed the Fibonacci sequences in the intro, and the reveal of the Machine City? Who noticed that bizarre "goathead" symbol in the Matrix code when the intro finished?).
"Sufferin' succotash."
This was kind of the theory I had, but I do still have one question (maybe I missed something) but why did agent Smith say the Oracle was his mother (right before he assimilated her, she said something like, "you son-of-a-bitch" and he said, "you would know Mother".) Was she responsible for creating agent Smith (would make sense, since she said she tries to "unbalance" the equations, while the Architect tries to "balance" the equations.)? Also, from the first movie when agent Smith is interogating Morpheus he states he wants to escape the matrix (literally? or figuratively?) I got the impression his job would be done and he would cease to exist (he would be free) if Zion was destroyed, which was why he wanted the access codes. At some point I will have to go back and review a few scenes (especially the one in the second movie with the Architect) and see if anything is more clear.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Did you notice the glowing cross and wings when Neo was being charged full of energy from the Source?
"Sufferin' succotash."
The Lone Gunmen?
--
"Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
Because it's a lame plot device. It's called a deus ex machina; literally "god from the machine".
It's funny you mention that. Guess what the name of that big spiky machine at the end is? Its name, though not mentioned in the movie, is the Deus Ex Machina.
"Sufferin' succotash."
Just got back from seeing the movie. First of all, the movie kicked ass. It beat the shit out of the second one. So why does everyone hate it?
The reason is pure, flat out, in your face, ignorance and hypocrisy. Ignorance is not knowing what the deal was after seeing the first movie - filled with symbolism and blatantly obvious references to the culmination in Revolutions that pissed everyone off. It is proof that they hate without knowing, which brings us to hyprocrisy.
The story ended with a definative answer to the deeper questions asked throughout the trilogy, and people hated the answer that was provided. They hated it because of prejudice and intolerance, which is exactly why they claim to hate that answer in the first place.
As well put by the movie, the two most important things in human experience are belief and choice. Don't let anyone take either away from you. See the movie and decide for yourself.
who are those slashdot people? they swept over like Mongol-Tartars.
My take was that by letting Smith take over him, Neo was then a part of every Smith. Neo then destroyed every Smith from the inside.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
Ok, first of all, let me just feed my ego and post this link. This is the post that I made on the subject right after Reloaded, and in it I pointed out that they *would* do the god, Christ, and reunification of man and machine plot. There, now I feel better. :)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=65437&cid=60 36 019
That being said, let me just point out the main reasons this Trilogy has been ruined as a major piece of sci-fi. Note that I didn't say it made the thing sucked completely and horribly; there is a difference. The series is still awesome for what it offers, but there were many (including myself) who had expectations of sci-fi (logical) purity. Those expectations simply weren't met.
Some will argue that the Trilogy put forth the ultimate in depth and philosophy, and that the reason so many complain is because they aren't smart enough to get it. This is utter crap. People who believe this have missed the boat, and I encourage them to read something like "The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect" in order to see what true sci-fi is.
In my view the difference is this: while true sci-fi asks you to believe something extraordinary, it takes great care not to break the rules that it lays down for itself. And once you accept the principle thing they are asking you to believe, you can then pursue the rest of the story as if it is more or less true science. *THAT* is, in my opinion, *true* sci-fi.
My contention, and the contention of many others, is that this Trilogy is nothing more than a collection of very cool concepts drawn from mythology and philosophy, wrapped up in an attractive action/marital arts/special effects shell. Again, this is a winning combination if you accept it for what it is, but it should *not* be mistaken for true sci-fi genius. Here's why:
1. The energy source issue is lame at best. It just doesn't work. You can keep a human vegetable alive for years with very little going on in their brain. THEY DON'T NEED THE MATRIX to keep bodies alive. If you grow humans and make them into idiots with a minimal amount of brain activity, you can just feed them for decades and they will produce all the power that they would in the Matrix. The fact that they are living out a 9-5 job in the Matrix isn't going to generate the machines any more juice than just keeping them alive. Hell, even if it DID generate more energy, would it be so much that it offset the expenditure of maintaining the Matrix? I think not. Either way, this power source issue is the ENTIRE reason for the movie. Without the use of humans as batteries there is no Matrix, no Neo, no Zion (read on to see why there would be no Zion). The entire Trilogy rests on the energy issue, and it doesn't hold water.
2. The second major problem lies in the fact that you can't build a f*cking city that deep inside the earth. Ask any scientist who's versed in the matter; it's not possible. Again, they are asking quite a bit of the viewer in this regard.
3. They never covered how Neo, a flesh and blood human, is able to exert control over machines in the real world. You see, what they did was switch everything up on us. This started as a sci-fi movie - the scorching of the sky, the underground city, and the war vs. the machines. This was the plot originally, and I think it was a good one. The fact that there was a false reality where the computers kept humans was very cool, and the fact that you could do cool shit while in the Matrix was cool. But the whole thing was laid out as science. Morpheus asks if Neo thinks he's breathing air in the simulation. Logic guided that. The fact that you have to "believe" about the jump program, again, guided by logic. At that point, they hadn't broken their own rules (even though the initial things they were asking you to believe were massive). The problem, however, is that they ended up, in the third movie, with Neo as a Christ figure who could blow up machines with a mere thought. Huh? How so?
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
Yeah, subtle like a brick to the head.
Let's start out with Smith-in-hijacked-human-body refering to Neo as some kind of Messiah. Of course the term Messiah, combined with the facts that Neo had just been horibly blinded, if he was really blind he was going to get his ass-kicked, and although Neo dying was a possibility it was way too early for it to happen, immediatly led to the conclusion, "He's going to be able to see with his new and improved real-world mystic powers, just like Paul in Dune." Sure enough, when all seems lost, Neo suprises Smith-3749 with his ability to see, and proceeds to kick his ass.
Having already set up the messianic theme, it was pretty damn obvious when Neo assumes the crucified position during the final fight. Oh look, he's sacrificing himself to save humanity, just like christ! Oh my! Not only is he in a crucified pose, he's got a big glowing cross superimposed on him! And now he's got giant glowing angel wings! And now he's dead and being carried away by a god-like figure, and look! More glowingness and angel wings!
The only way they could have been any more obvious was if the Oracle had extended her final speech a little bit, from "I think we'll see him again someday," to, "I think we'll see him again someday, in three days when he rises again!" I started to groan about the point the blatantly obvious cross of fire was superimposed over Neo, and had a hard time paying serious attention to the rest of the movie while i gagged on the over the top christian imagery.
As for the rest of what you said, i mostly agree. The theme behind Neo's destruction of Smith was pretty clear, but i really would have liked to have known more details. Was it a fundamental incompatibility between the two "Ones," like a matter-anti-matter reaction? Was it Neo acting from within the Smith collective? Was it the Machine acting on the Smith collective with Neo as a conduit? (That last seems possible given the behavior of the machines in the real world when Neo was taken over, need to watch a few more times to be sure.)
The bit that annoyed me was that it wasn't apparent that Neo actually took any action once he sacrificed himself. Although someone else has pointed out that this is consistent with the passive nature of christ, it doesn't really fit with what i expected of Neo, christ figure or not. It was clear after the first half of the fight that Neo wasn't going to win by physically beating Smith, but it didn't have to be through total passivity, there was a lot of middle ground that could have been covered.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Neo was told by the Architect that his role was to fully express the instability in the matrix and at the architect's cue, to enter the door and share his code with the source. Both losing Trinity and his defiant self, but saving humanity.
Neo would have none of this
So in the end, he joined directly with the source, lost Trinity and himself, and saved humanity.
It turns out that the Architect and the Oracle are much more similar than at first glance. The architect is an old-school architect that plans everything out before-hand and forces everyone into this "perfection". The Architect generally hates choice as it is too complex to adequately design for during the design phase.
Humans generally hate being forced and like to think that they have free choice. Some people hate being forced so much that they can't stand being forced into something nice and generally pleasant for them. These people are the remainder of the equation that the Architect can't abide. With the architect alone, the matrix consistently failed because of these people that couldn't stand to be forced. It is the Oracle control mechanism that works for this last remainder.
Neo did exactly what he was supposed to, but only because he was manipulated by the Oracle into thinking that it was his decision. The Oracle pulls, the Architect pushes.
It is the Oracle that is guiding the changes in Neo from one version of Neo to the next. She influenced Trinity's feelings for him and she influenced his development. She was designed to create a workable Matrix (because the Architect couldn't do it on his own), but she is also fighting for power against the Architect. At the end of the third movie, she holds a great deal more power than ever before. She has changed the fate of Zion and the way in which the one passes his hidden bits to the source (much to the displeasure of the Source having to physically make an agreement with the human).
Further, I think the Matrix proves deeper than what we are shown and I think that Smith's monologue to a drugged Morpheus in part 1 reveals it. He talks of how the first Matrix was a utopia that was a failure because humans define their existance through misery. He says that this human problem lead to the present Matrix. The present Matrix is not particularly miserable, perhaps unpleasant in areas, however, Zion and the real world are a very unpleasant reality (destroyed world, perpetual hiding, constant fear of attack and death). I also assert that the Matrix and Zion/real world are actually inside another Matrix. For the people that don't like being told what to do even if it is pleasant. For these people, the machines have created a truly deplorable place, but one of their own choosing.
The humans that can't take the Architect's grand lovely Matrix have their very own hell-hole of "truth" and "reality".
Many of the programs are aware of this and look down on the sheep and the masochists.
The strongest evidence for this higher level Matrix however, is the Oracle's power. She can "see" the future. This of course is drivel, that is, unless there was a higher level of abstraction above the Matrix that was shaping and guiding the Matrix beneath it. The Oracle has access to this higher-level Matrix and that is how she can predict what is going to happen.
Because she is a comparative God that lives within the Matrix, she is far more powerful than what she appears and that is why her powers are of such a lustful nature to the Frenchman. She does after all, have her own angel.
Whatever lies above the Matrix is unknown. This higher-level Matrix explains away the whole "human battery" thing, but not the stupidity in which the "real humans" accept it.
For me, Revolutions was as much of a teaser for the next movie as anything. The revolution brought us back to almost the same place (except that Zion doesn't need to be rebuilt, but rather continues). The one has fullfilled his designed role (in a slightly different way than normal) and the cycle is set to repeat. Along with the Oracle, I expect to see Neo again some day.
relativePositioning
"I'm a loner Dottie, a rebel."
- Pee Wee Herman
Interesting comment. Essentially you are saying that even though Neo went through the door that the Architect didn't want him to go through, the end result was the same. However, this is not the case as there is peace between humans and machines, where in previous versions of the matrix the machines end up destroying Zion. I think what you mean to say is there is "balance". But you can use this idea to explore the theme more deeply.
Drawing a conclusion from this line of thought, the Architect would have preferred if Neo went through the door that he wanted him (Neo) to go through because the desired outcome would have been achieved through predictable (i.e. safe from the machine's point of view (The machines are deterministic also and exist in a deterministic reality) rather than the unpredictable unknown outcome that Neo chose by going through the door that he wanted to go through. Neo went through the door he did because of his love for Trinity, and love (at least from the movie's perspective) is filled with unpredictability and unknowns.
The big threat to the machines is the Agent Smith program invading their own (the machine's) systems. This is another unknown that the Architect must be aware of but does not discuss with Neo. This is why the matrix would need to be either reloaded or destroyed. It is interesting -- nowhere in the Architect's speech does he say that the machines will destroy the matrix as Neo refers to a couple of times - (and hence kills their human batteries power source), but instead refers to a system crash that kills the humans. I will post the discussion Neo had with the Architect at the end of this comment.
Perhaps this is why the machines have to kill all of the humans in Zion (rather than keep around a few to regrow new batteries with) -- because the Agent Smith program is capable of invading human brains now, a la Bane. Remember - in previous versions of the matrix they successfully destroyed Zion five times before, but they still have their human battery farms each time. And the Architect tells Neo that if he goes through the door, he wants him to to choose a few humans to rebuild Zion with. A necessary but predictable evil that the machines know how to deal with. However, they do not know how to handle an Agent Smith program that wants to claim the matrix as his own. This is useless for the machines because the reality that Agent Smith wants to create (all humans in his own image/reality) is just as incompatible with humans as the perfect matrix was.
Remember when Agent Smith meets with the Oracle, he says "hello mother". Remember, the Architect refers to the "Oracle" in passing as the "mother" of the matrix. The Oracle is the mother of "choice."
Hence, Agent Smith represents "choice", more specifically "choice gone wrong", or from the perspective of the machines "control gone wrong". Agent Smith is all about control. Neo, on the other hand represents "ability to choose". Agent Smith wants to defeat "ability" to choose. However, Neo sees this at the end, and realizes that by "choosing" to loose and let Agent Smith kill him (if that's what he does), he actually wins the battle because the battle is about choice, and not strength. Agent Smith "chose" to win. He didn't have to, but the arrogance of ultimate control (power) seduced him in making the decision to. Thus achieving control over choice, or put another way, having ultimate control is having ultimate choice, while Neo, by giving up choice (to win) obtained ultimate control.
You could say that Agent Smith was "blinded" by his "arrogance", while Neo was blind could "see".
It's interesting that when Blade Runner first came out, everybody dissed it as mediocre, but time has proven the critics wrong. I suspect the same thing might happen here.
And the Hollywood ending everybody is whining about not having? -- it's hidden.
As I was thinking this through as I was posting, all my dominoes may not be lined up perfectly -- I will let other posters clean it up for me.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
My take (and forgive me if everone realized this already) is that Neo is simply fulfilling his purpose, the same purpose that he delayed by choosing the other door in the Architect's room. The Architect was very clear that if Neo didn't choose to return to the Source, everyone in the matrix would die. Neo and Smith are linked, and Neo has to do this to get rid of Smith, to "rebalance the equation" (or whatever you want to call it). Trinity's death (yet again proving the Architect right, come to think of it) probably helped him realize the inevitability of his choice. Neo is vindicated, however, by delaying the inevitable long enough to broker a peace between man and machine, something the Architect didn't think possible (or useful, maybe).
Of course none of this answers your inquiry as to the actual mechanism by which Neo neutralizes Smith. It's likely the same way he could have restored stability by returning to the source in the first place (before Smith grew completely out of control, which as the Architect said, would lead to the destruction of the matrix). So I guess it would be some combination of options 2 and 3. Exactly how it happened I couldn't guess, but using the somewhat silly analogy to an unbalanced equation, perhaps it's analogous to cancelling terms. A philosophical interpretation that I read elsewhere suggested that by assimilating Neo and all that he represents, Smith lost his "the purpose of life is to die" belief and became enlightened himself.
I was confused as to how exactly Smith was stopped.
Right before Smith absorbs Neo, the Oracle talks to Neo from within Smith. That tells neo that even if smith absorbs you you can survive in him.
So Neo lets Smith absorb him, and then he does the same thing he did in the first movie after the "sleeping beuty" bit when he leaps into Smith: He destroys him from within.
And since all of the Smiths are connected, he destroys them all.
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and sabotage them from within.
You can't take the sky from me...
I thought it was a great movie. Good vs evil, faith vs. freewill, love vs. hate, etc. Plus great visuals and humor. I will be purchasing the DVD on the day it's available. I was mesmerized. I hear a lot of disappointment in the reviews, I think, because there wasn't a 'somebody gets a medal' ceremony in the end. I actually went to the film expecting to be disappointed. It did not happen.
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.