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The Matrix Trilogy is one of the most complex and layered stories in film history, rife with hidden symbolism and open to endless speculation, and the ending of the franchise is no different. The Matrix follows the adventures of Neo, a young hacker who discovers that his reality is actually a simulation controlled by a species of sentient machines, and that humanity is embroiled in a desperate war for their freedom. After finding out that he can manipulate the internal coding of the Matrix for his own purposes, Neo discovers that he's actually "The One," a prophesied messiah destined to save humanity and end the war. Unique and inventive at the time of its release in 1999, The Matrix went on to inspire two sequels and a wealth of spin-off material that expands on the universe within.

The two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, were released a few months apart in 2003, and both received a fair amount of success at the box office. However, the sequels were met with mixed reactions from critics and audiences, who cited their overemphasis on action and special effects as being detrimental to the story and world-building. The Matrix Revolutions, in particular, was heavily criticized for the on-the-nose religious symbolism and the convoluted nature of its plot.

Alongside these criticisms, the ending resolution of The Matrix Revolutions has been surrounded by intense debate and speculation to this day. In it, Neo sacrifices himself, along with the help of the machines, in order to defeat Agent Smith and save the Matrix one last time. The logistics of this sacrifice, as well as the perceived meaning in a saga so heavily defined by religious symbolism, have been disputed for years since the film's release, despite the movie itself spelling everything out. While the meaning of Neo's sacrifice may not have been bow-tied and handed to the general audience, there's certainly more than enough evidence in the franchise to provide an explanation for Revolutions ending, as well as the consequences it may have on The Matrix 4.

Why Neo Had To Die In The Matrix Revolutions

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In the climax of The Matrix, Neo is seemingly killed after an intense fight with Agent Smith, a program created by the machines to police and control the Matrix. However, because of the Oracle's message that Trinity would fall in love with The One, her love revives Neo and he, in essence, conquers death, embracing his newfound skills as the prophesied hero and defeating Agent Smith with ease. While it appears that Smith dies in a brilliant explosion of light, Neo (as well as the audience) discovers in The Matrix Reloaded that Smith has returned, with the ability to assimilate programs and people currently residing in the Matrix. This is a huge problem, one inadvertently created by Neo as his defeat of Smith in the first film actually imprinted part of Neo's being onto him, giving him a sliver of Neo's Matrix-warping abilities.

In The Matrix Revolutions, Smith's abilities are pushed to their limit as he assimilates more and more victims, including Seraph and, inevitably, The Oracle. During the midst of the siege of Zion by an army of Sentinels, Neo travels to the Machine City to warn them that Smith is taking over the Matrix, and that the only way to defeat him is for them to work together. The machines allow Neo to jack into the Matrix one last time, where he and Agent Smith engage in one final battle. Neo quickly realizes that he and Smith are evenly matched, and he allows Smith to assimilate him. It's here that Neo's Christ parallels come full circle, as he sacrifices himself by instructing the machines to surge his body with energy in the real world, causing the connection between him and Smith to become a dangerous conduit that destroys the both of them as well as all of Smith's clones.

While this causes the desired effect and defeats Smith, as a result of The One's connection to the Source, Neo's death also causes a total reboot of the Matrix. This time however, because of the alliance forged between Neo and the machines, the movie implies that there will be a lasting era of peace, one in which humans will be able to choose to leave the Matrix if they so desire.

What The Architect And The Oracle's Fight Was Really About

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At the climax of The Matrix Reloaded, after being told by The Oracle that he must find "The Source" of the Matrix in order to save humanity, Neo (along with the help of Trinity, Morpheus, and the Keymaker) makes it to a room that he believes is a pathway to The Source. While technically correct, Neo receives a shock when he steps inside and meets The Architect, a collectivist program created by the machines to design and shepherd the Matrix. There, Neo discovers that his destiny as The One isn't as unique as he initially thought, as "The One" is merely a coding anomaly within the Matrix. Not only this, but the Matrix as he knows it is just one out of a series of different cycles, making him the sixth anomaly within the sixth version of the Matrix.

Neo also discovers the true purpose of his destiny, as The Architect reveals that in the previous cycles, the city of Zion is destroyed by the machines to keep the human resistance from growing too large. Therefore, each version of The One has been presented with a choice: become one with The Source and choose a handful of humans from the Matrix to repopulate Zion for the seventh reboot, or return to the Matrix, which will inevitably suffer a system-wide crash that would in theory kill every human still connected to the simulation. Each of the previous versions of The One chose to return to the Source and reboot the system; however, Neo's love for Trinity became an unpredictable variation in the anomaly, causing Neo to choose to return to the Matrix and forge his own path.

As The Oracle is a program just like The Architect, one would assume that they both see a lot of the same things. However, since The Oracle was created as a human-intuitive program designed to understand humanity, she doesn't see the world in the same black-and-white binary as The Architect. This is the crux of their conflict: The Architect, by nature of his existence as the creator of the Matrix, believes in the inevitability and the rigorous structure of choice. The Oracle, on the other hand, understands the nuance of human behavior as a result of being so close to them, and urges Neo to choose his own path, advice that becomes integral in Neo's success at the end of The Matrix Revolutions.

Who Was The Little Girl With The Oracle

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The inclusion of Sati in The Matrix Revolutions was one that confounded a lot of people upon the movie's release, as the film itself doesn't offer many straightforward answers regarding her importance. However, there's a lot of key dialogue and interactions with other people throughout the franchise that contextualizes who she is and why she's important. First of all, when viewers first meet her at the beginning of the third film, it's during Neo's forced imprisonment in Mobil (an anagram for Limbo) Ave., the plane of reality between the Matrix and the Machine City. After meeting the little girl, she introduces Neo to Rama-kandra and Kamala, Sati's parents as well as two programs trying to smuggle her into the Matrix through a deal with The Merovingian.

Since Sati is a program without a purpose, she's marked for deletion. When Neo asks the two parents why they want to save her so desperately, they respond by telling Neo that they love her, or rather that they feel a strong connection to her that they define as love. They successfully get her to The Oracle, who takes her in, believing that she will be extremely important in the future for both the humans and the machines. She and The Oracle are both assimilated by Smith halfway through the film, but after the Matrix is rebooted at the end, the two of them are seen resurrected and sitting on a bench together.

In keeping with the Buddhist symbolism in the movie, Sati's name translates to "mindfulness" in Pali. It is also a practice used to gain wisdom and awareness of the world, something that, according to Buddhist teachings, alleviates suffering, which is the ultimate goal of Buddhism. Sati in The Matrix Revolutions represents the profound effect that Neo's presence has on the rest of the system. Since Neo is the first incarnation of The One to experience an intimate love for a singular human being, through his connection to The Source, this emotion begins to ripple outwards and change the very nature of the programs within the Matrix, which is what causes Rama-kandra and Kamala to feel "love" for their program daughter. Because of Neo's sacrifice, the nature of the Matrix is transcended, with the suffering of the war seemingly coming to an end and a tentative peace forged between the machines and the humans. Sati is the first program borne out of a hybridization of human emotion and programming, an indication that we may see more creations like her in the future of the Matrix.

What's Next For The Matrix And Freed Humans?

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While The Matrix Revolutions ends with a tentative peace established between the humans and the machines, there's evidence to suggest that this may not always be the case. During their meeting at the end of the movie, when asked by The Architect whether or not she believes the peace that Neo died for will last, The Oracle responds with "for as long as it can," indicating that she herself is uncertain whether or not the new status quo can be maintained. That may certainly be the case, as not everyone in Zion believed in the prophecy of The One, so Neo's sacrifice might not do much to sway those who are already committed to their hatred of the machines.

The Matrix Online, a licensed MMORPG that the Wachowski Sisters have previously confirmed as canon, already gave fans a semi-cynical continuation of the ending of The Matrix franchise. While the peace between humanity and the machines lasts for a while, several militant and extremist organizations sprout up in the aftermath of Neo's sacrifice. Some of them, such as the E Pluribus Neo faction, demand that all humans be released from the Matrix into the real world, sometimes forcibly. On the other hand, the Cypherites believe that humanity should be reinserted into the Matrix to maintain a blissfully ignorant status quo. In the midst of these conflicts come the appearance of new Agents, militant rebels from both the machines and the humans, as well as the ever-constant scheming of The Merovingian.

How Neo Can Return In The Matrix 4

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Even though the Wachowskis confirmed back in 2004 that The Matrix Online was a canon continuation of the story, whether or not it's retconned by The Matrix 4 remains to be seen. And due to the fact that both Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves have both been confirmed to return, signs seemingly point to The Matrix Online being quietly decanonized, as the first major story arc of the game involves several different factions rushing to collect leftover fragments of Neo's "residual self-image."

As of right now, several major theories abound as to how Neo could potentially return in The Matrix 4. Since The One is part of The Source, and because the machines never return Neo's body back to Zion, there's a possibility that Neo could once again return, this time as part of the physical manifestation of The Source. There's also the idea that Neo didn't exactly die at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, and that he merely transcended the physical plane the same way that he transcended the regulations of the Matrix at the end of the first film. This is plausible due to The Oracle's reveal that Neo's powers extend beyond the simulation of the Matrix.

However, a popular theory regarding Neo's return is that The Matrix 4 might see him mentoring the next incarnation of The One in the seventh cycle of the Matrix. In a similar way to how Morpheus exposes Neo to the truth of reality in the first film, Morpheus and Neo could switch roles, with the latter taking on a similar position for a new generation of leads in the next movie. And if rumors of a potential casting for young Morpheus are to be believed, then there's even the possibility that in this next cycle of the Matrix, Morpheus, not Neo, might be The One.

What The Matrix Trilogy Was Really About

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Above all else, the true culmination of The Matrix franchise is about the inherent value of free will among sentient life. In the first movie, Thomas Anderson (aka Neo) discovers that his entire life has simply been the simulation of decision-making; all of his choices have been made for him by the machines. 1999's The Matrix ends with him rejecting this, and choosing to accept his destiny as The One, which he believes allows him to forge his own path. However, The Matrix Reloaded ultimately subverts this belief, as Neo once again discovers that his destiny is not his own: The Prophecy of The One is merely a role that the machines designed that Neo must fulfill.

The Matrix Revolutions, in turn, rejects The Architect's binary choice and has Neo forge his own destiny, one in which he saves everyone simply by creating a third option. The franchise presents The One as a Christ-like messianic figure, and it may seem like Neo's sacrifice at the end of the final film brings him full circle as the ultimate Jesus parallel. However, Neo's arc is a combination of Christ allegory as well as Buddhist teachings. While he does sacrifice himself for humanity in a method similar to Christ, unlike Jesus, the nature of his sacrifice is not a predestined plan that he resigns himself to. Through Neo's sacrifice, he transcends the idea of predestination and the two "lesser evils" provided to him by The Architect, ultimately saving the world by simply choosing to.

This is a decision that creates massive repercussions for the rest of the world. The machines, forced to exist in a binary "evil" connotation, are allowed to forge a tentative peace with humanity. Humans are given the freedom to leave the Matrix for the first time in over a hundred years. Even programs have started to experience a tentative form of freedom, evidenced by Sati's existence. Neo's sacrifice breaks the shackles of an arbitrary concept of "purpose" and allows everyone to finally experience free will, establishing a new status quo for The Matrix franchise.

The Matrix 4 (2021)
Release Date: May 21, 2021