It Ends Tonight: The Matrix Revolutions

A sample chapter from Matrix Revelations: A thinking fan's guide to the Matrix trilogy edited by Steve Couch (Damaris Publishing, 2003) due to be published on 11 December 2003. Click here for more information.

Everything that has a beginning has an end

So what was that all about then? The trilogy may have been brought to a conclusion, but not necessarily one that all the fans were happy about. Queuing to see the film a second time, I overheard some teenage girls discussing their expectations. One of them told the others 'I'll kill them if it doesn't have a happy ending.' It's debatable whether or not the Wachowskis can sleep safely in their beds - is the ending a happy one or not? The war is over, which is good. But the Matrix still exists, with lots of people still plugged in, which is bad. But the Architect says whoever wants to be free will be released, which is good. But Neo is dead, which is very bad. But the Oracle says that she suspects we'll see him again one day, which is . . . keeping the options open for a possible sequel. Loose ends of the story are tied up, although some are left ambiguously flapping in the computer generated breeze. It wasn't the ending some fans were hoping for, but maybe you can't see past the denouement you don't understand.

Producer Joel Silver has described The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions as being like two halves of the same movie,[1] and to a large extent Revolutions carries on where its predecessor left off. We see the crew of the wrecked Nebuchadnezzer on board another ship, the Hammer, but Neo is still in a coma after stopping the Sentinels in their tracks at the end of Reloaded. Much of what follows fits the expectations we might have had after Reloaded, but there are also significant developments to direct our thinking in a new way. As Morpheus and Niobe might have it, some things in this trilogy never change, but some things do.

A changed man

One significant change, which adds to the dramatic tension during the action scenes, is that it is quickly established that Neo is not all-powerful. The laid-back, almost bored facial expression that characterised his fight with the agents at the beginning of Reloaded is wiped off Keanu's face by his adventures in Mobil Ave train station. As he postures and threatens to get the Trainman to let him return to the Matrix with Sati and her family, he (aptly enough, given his location) gets nowhere. When the Trainman explains that 'down here I make the rules. Down here I make the threats. Down here I'm God', the Wachowskis make it clear that Neo's superpowers aren't always enough. Later, when Smith hovers in the sky and claims 'This is my world! My world!', the echo of the earlier scene is enough to make us doubt whether Neo has got what it takes to successfully slug it out. Meanwhile back in limbo, Neo decides that as the strong-arm stuff hasn't worked, he'll rely on his ability to travel large distances to get out of trouble. But following the train down the tunnel only brings him right back where he started. Where before we saw Neo speed hundreds of miles to rescue his friends, now he can't even make it more than a hundred yards and is dependent on others to rescue him. Although Neo's superpowers are still intact, he can't always rely on them to save the day. The message is clear: even the One can't be too sure of himself anymore. And the film is all the stronger for it.

But Neo's powers are still a formidable force, and they have grown. As revealed at the end of Reloaded, they somehow now function in the real world. It is unclear whether the real world is real, or whether it is just another layer of the Matrix[2], but if the former is true, how come Neo gets to be the One even when he's not plugged in? Early clues are given in his neural activity while comatose on the Hammer. For some reason, his mind seems to still be located in the Matrix, even though his body isn't connected. When Morpheus and Trinity are bringing Neo back after his rescue from the Train Station, Link doesn't recognise Neo's coding - something is different about Neo. Later the Oracle explains that the power of the One extends beyond the world of the Matrix because of his connection to the Source. It is never (I think) made entirely clear how this works, but the end result is that Neo's perception of the real world is radically altered. When Neo is blinded in his fight with Bane, not only does his new-found vision get him out of trouble, but it also proves superior - the golden image that he sees reveals Bane's true form - unlike the man on the hover craft, the man in the flame is wearing glasses. Like the blind seers of Greek mythology Neo doesn't miss his sight, because what has taken its place helps him to see more clearly. And finally, for the first time in the trilogy, Neo understands what he has to do.

A dark power rises

Neo isn't the only one with new powers to play with. As Neo has grown in stature throughout the trilogy, so too has his nemesis, Agent Smith. As The Oracle puts it to Neo:

He is you, your opposite, your negative. The result of the equation trying to balance itself out.

But just as Neo found it hard getting used to the idea that little old Thomas Anderson was actually the saviour of the world (well may you 'whoa', Mr. Anderson), so Smith doesn't find the accumulation of new selves entirely straightforward. Bane's self-inflicted wounds give some indication of mental disturbance (understandable in the circumstances - Bane later comments to Neo that 'it is difficult to think encased in this rotting meat, the stink of it filling every breath'), and when the Matrix-bound Smith has successfully assimilated the Oracle, his first reaction is to take off his dark glasses, look around and then let out the most maniacal evil laugh heard this side of a pantomime villain. Just as Neo has been on a journey of self-discovery, so his counterpart has travelled away from a place called sanity, and now appears to be seriously unhinged.

But if Neo is to be the saviour of the world, so Smith must take on a balancing role, as the Oracle explains:

Everything that has a beginning has an end. I see the end coming. I see the darkness spreading. I see death, and you are all that stands in his way.

Death is a he rather than an it, and Neo instantly realises who the Oracle means. The clothes may be sharper, but the Grim Reaper is still clad in black. The purpose of life, he tells Neo, is to end, and it looks like he intends to help everyone to fulfil their purpose.

The puppet-mistress

'Some things in this world stay the same, and some things change'. And some manage to do both at the same time. The Oracle is (enforced change of actress notwithstanding) arguably the most consistent and unchanging character throughout the trilogy. What has changed dramatically with every film is our understanding of who and what she actually is.

In The Matrix, the Oracle is a wise guide to the humans, telling them what they need to know in order fight the machines. She is an old, respected, standard bearer of the rebellion. By the end of Reloaded, not only has it been revealed that she is a program, but it is implied that she played a significant role in shaping the Matrix in its current form, earning the title of Mother of the Matrix. As a result, Neo and the others begin to doubt whether or not her guidance can be trusted - is she just another system of control, manipulating their decisions and usurping their free will?

The Matrix Revolutions reveals the Oracle to be perhaps the most significant character of the whole trilogy. Although the dramatic focus is on Neo, and as the One he carries the burden of ending the war, it is the Oracle who has plotted and schemed to bring the plan to fruition. Where we thought we were watching a battle between man and machine, between Neo and Smith, Zion and the Sentinels, the central conflict of the films turns out to be between The Oracle and the Architect. Just as Neo and Smith are in balanced opposition to one another, so too are the two powerful programs. His purpose is to balance the equation, hers to unbalance it.

Endgame

At the end of Revolutions, the Architect tells the Oracle that she has played a dangerous game, and it is clear that her 'game' has been costly, for her as well as for others. The Oracle's change of appearance is vaguely explained as being a consequence of her meddling in the affairs of the Merovingian. Although it does not appear that a new actress was the Wachowski brothers' original intention for The Matrix Revolutions, it was always part of the Oracle's lot to suffer for the cause. When Smith turns up mob-handed at her apartment, he rages at her and speculates as to why she is still there. She undoubtedly knew he was coming, so it must be a deliberate choice to wait for him. Smith's fury is for our benefit - to highlight the fact that the Oracle has chosen to be assimilated, even though by doing so she will make the last enemy more powerful than ever before. She meant it when she told Neo that she was prepared to go just as far as he was. She too was prepared to face death.

Once Smith has the Oracle's foresight, he knows that he will win the climactic battle with Neo. That's why all the other Smiths simply stand and watch - they know that the most powerful of their number, the Smith who was the Oracle, has got what it takes to win the day. Smith's moment of victory reveals why the Oracle was so willing to fall for the cause:

Wait, I've seen this! This is it, this is the end. I stand right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say, I say . . . Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo . . . What? What did I just say?

At the last, the Oracle proves to be too powerful a program even for Smith to keep under wraps. When Smith uses the name 'Neo' rather than 'Mr. Anderson' (Smith alone has consistently used Neo's old name throughout all three films), it becomes obvious that somebody else is doing the talking. Neo realises that it's time to stop fighting and let the final stage of the plan be carried out. But why didn't Smith, with the Oracle's foresight, know that his victory over Neo would be short-lived? The Oracle's much repeated saying, that we can't see past the choices we don't understand is perhaps the answer. We have already seen that Agent Smith couldn't understand why the Oracle was waiting for him, and his baiting of Neo throughout their final encounter makes it clear that he has no understanding of Neo's motives, either for fighting or for ceasing to resist. When the Architect talks about the Oracle's 'dangerous game', is he referring simply to the possibility of her failing to manipulate Neo and the others to her ends? Or could he have meant a possibility that the Oracle's power would prove insufficient to keep the sting in the tail hidden from Smith after her assimilation

The peaceful revolution

Both Smith and the Oracle tell Neo that they want the same thing that he wants, yet there is still a lot of fighting to be done. Everybody seems to want the war to be over, but there isn't a lot of agreement on how it should end. Many fans were expecting a triumph of the humans over the machines, and the end of the Matrix altogether. But within the film there seem to be at least three different approaches to resolving the conflict.

The first view, held by the majority of humans and machines (and, it would seem, disappointed reviewers) was to expect a decisive victory for one side or the other. Either Zion would hold and Neo would strike to inflict a crushing defeat upon the machines, or the free humans would be wiped out trying[3]. This point of view is well encapsulated by Mifune's rabble-rousing speech to his A.P.U. corps:

If it's our time to die, it's our time. All I ask is if we have to give these bastards our lives, we give them hell before we do.

This sense of hatred is echoed by Smith, who pursues a second way of ending the war. He seems to hate everything, human and machine alike, and for him the end of the war means not the end of one side or the other, but of both. It is made clear that he wouldn't be satisfied with assimilating everyone within the Matrix. Soon Smith will turn his attention to the Machine City itself. Having settled into his new role as Death, Smith seems determined to make a really thorough job of it.

And the existence of a loose cannon like Smith enables Neo to enact the Oracle's plan for a third way - peace between Zion and the Machine City. Does it say something for the times in which we live that many viewers were disappointed with this as an outcome? The solution of a peaceful settlement between age-old enemies is somehow seen as a let down, rather than an encouragement to our leaders - and us - to find ways of settling differences, to establish common cause rather than slugging it out to the bitter end.

The Oracle comments that change is always dangerous. The title of the film gives a clue that a simple military victory for one side or the other would never be enough. This is a film about Revolutions plural, rather than revolution singular, and the Wachowskis final solution offers more than a mere military victory. The Oracle is, and always has been, working towards something much wider-ranging, revolutionising the lives of everybody - human or program - living on earth or in the Matrix. In Reloaded we discovered the existence of an underground of programs who have outlived their purpose, and in Revolutions we are reminded that programs with no purpose, like Sati, must be deleted. When the Oracle asks the Architect about the fate of 'the ones who want out', it is arguable that she is just as concerned with programs as with humans. Hence, at the close of the film the focus is not on the survivors of the siege of Zion, but on programs who have been restored to the Matrix - the Oracle, Sati and Seraph. After the destruction of the Smiths, we see the Oracle lying on the ground where the champion of Smiths fell - all the programs he assimilated have been reinstated, and now thanks to the Oracle's actions, they can compute in safety. This second revolution has been gathering pace throughout the trilogy, even if most of us were unaware of it until the end.

Mecha-Messiah

It isn't clear how Neo effects his final triumph over Smith, bringing in the new age of harmony not only between man and machine, but for inter-machine relations too. Some would argue that Neo is able to shatter all the Smiths simply through the power of the One; others that because Neo and Smith are balanced opposites, when Smith destroys Neo, he also destroys himself. What is clear is that the machines need Neo to deal with the growing problem of Agent Smith. After Neo as been fully assimilated, the scene cuts briefly back to Neo's body in the Machine City. There is a movement of the leads connecting Neo, and a surge of light that seems to suggest something flowing from the machine world and into Neo, rather than the other way round. Whether it is Neo (drawing power from the source) or the machines (downloading something into Neo) that takes the initiative at this moment is open to interpretation. What is clear is that one way or another Neo has become a messiah for the machines as well as for humanity.

There is symbolism to back up this new depth to Neo's prophesied role. It can be argued that, as a human, Neo represent the creator of the machines, as it was the humans who 'gave birth to AI'[4]. When Smith assimilates Neo, Neo becomes another Smith, and therefore can now be considered to be machine as much as human. So the creator takes on the form of his creation. When he then dies in order to ensure the safety of the Machine City, saving all the machines and programs from destruction, the Christian parallels are reinforced further. We see Neo, back in the Machine City, spread-eagled in classic crucifixion pose. More than this, the parallel with Jesus is completed as the body is taken away. Where Jesus' body was taken away for burial by his followers and friends,[5] the faithful who bear Neo's body away are all machines. In each case, the messiah is carried away by those whose salvation he has ensured.

Will the real good guys please stand up?

The question of good and evil is a tricky one to answer. All along we've been expecting the triumph of good (the humans) over evil (the machines). But a viewing of The Animatrix gives us pause to consider whether we've got the labels the right way round. Way back in the Matrix pre-history that is told in The Second Renaissance Parts I and II, it seems that the machines only wanted to peacefully coexist, and it was the humans who were set on a master-slave relationship or nothing at all. By allowing the two sides to join forces at the last, perhaps the Wachowskis are questioning whether things are ever quite as simple as the terms good and evil suggest. The ultimate enemy in the films turns out to be Smith, who we have already said takes the role of death - an inevitable force of nature, rather than one of moral evil.

Matrix Revelations

We came to the cinema expecting answers. Do we get any? It seems that the message of the film is that belief is a good thing, and knowing yourself is more important than the details of what you put that belief in. When Morpheus, Niobe and Roland are explaining their actions to the Zion Council, Morpheus defends Neo:

Neo is doing what he believes he must do. I don't know if what he is doing is right . . . but I do know that as long as there's a single breath in his body he won't give up. And neither must we.

Neo's single-minded assurance of the path he follows is, it seems, its own justification. Morpheus recognises that we lack the necessary information to know what is the right thing to do, but affirms his friend's actions. Choice is everything.

The films are perhaps about how we face the trials of life and the prospect of death. Even before Neo acquiesces to Smith in order to destroy him, Trinity shows that death is not to be feared. Although both Neo and Trinity have snatched each other back from beyond the jaws of death before, this time it's for keeps, and Trinity is content with that. She tells Neo that she has done all that she can do and that it is time for her to die. Her dying moments, before kissing Neo for the last time, give her a chance to explain why she can be so content at the last:

I wished I had one more chance to say what really mattered, to say I love you . . . to say how grateful I was for every moment I was with you.

Trinity's life is not wasted, because of the love that Neo brought into it, because of the feelings and experiences that Neo and Trinity shared. Smith describes human existence as being without meaning or purpose, but the emotional weight of the film suggests that, as with just about everything that Smith says, we are not necessarily meant to agree with him. Neo's assertion of his choice to keep on fighting presents the thought at the heart of the trilogy: it's all about choice. Like the Existentialists of the twentieth century, the films assert that we give meaning to our lives by the choices that we make. If our choices lead to lives full of love and experience, if we have discovered ourselves and made the choice to grasp life and live it for all it is worth, that is purpose enough. In a world where we cannot be sure of anything - real or illusion, man or machine, victory or defeat - it is enough to know ourselves.

The Matrix Revolutions has been criticised for failing to answer the questions that were posed in the previous films. I think that the film does offer answers of a kind, but not necessarily the ones that everyone was hoping for. There is a world of difference between offering answers that we may find intellectually unsatisfying and offering no answers at all. Many of the loose ends of the films are left for us to tie together, but most if not all can be reconciled with a little thought. And if we still feel hard done by that all our questions aren't settled after a single viewing of the film, maybe we should remember that we were promised The Matrix Revolutions, not The Matrix Resolutions.

Footnotes

1. Empire December 2003 [back]

2. This is the subject of heated online debate. After a first viewing of Revolutions I took the view that Zion and the real world was real. I am now becoming persuaded of the opposite view. A number of small details across all three films - (for example, the fact that during their final fight Neo and Smith crash through a wall into the kung fu room from The Matrix - a room located in the Construct on the Nebuchadnezzer, rather than the Matrix itself) suggest that the Wachowskis, typically, have decided to hint and leave a trail of clues rather than provide a clear answer. [back]

3. Why do the machines need the war to end? Because since the events of The Matrix, Zion has been freeing an ever increasing number of people, and dangerously unbalancing the system, as we learned in The Matrix Reloaded. [back]

4. As Morpheus told us way back in The Matrix. [back]

5. Luke 23:50-56 [back]

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