The Matrix Reloaded Ending Explained: Who Is The Architect? Is Neo Killed Architect? Spoilers!
Matrix Reloaded presents one of the franchise’s most complex reveals with the introduction of The Architect, but its inclusion makes perfect sense. The first of two sequels to the original film, Matrix 2 expands the myth of the series with the first official presentation to the public of Zion’s Underground City, as well as the shocking return of iconic Hugo Weaving villain, Mr. Smith.
The film also reinforced the highly influential style of action that made the first film so memorable, a move that paid off in light of the film’s $741 million in worldwide revenue. The move paid off as the film grossed $ 741 million worldwide, leading to the release of a final sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, just six months later.
Matrix 2 Ending Explanation: Who Is The Architect? Is Neo Killed Architect?
The war between humans and machines intensifies as the Sentinels begin to drill towards Zion, and what we soon learn is that the Matrix’s natural cycle is nearing its end as well. Meanwhile, the increasingly powerful Neo has dream visions of Trinity’s death, which is a bad thing. When he goes to the Matrix and consults the Oracle on this, she tells him that he must reach the “Source” of the Matrix which results in a lot of fights, a piece with an orgasmic cake and a chase. epic on the highway, all to get it there.
When Neo arrives at Source, he meets the Architect aka the program that designed and created the Matrix. The Architect drops a bomb on Neo: he is not the first Unique, he is the sixth incarnation of the Matrix, and his arrival at this stage is entirely intended. He explains, with his unique verve, that the Matrix is an inherently flawed system.
It’s such a complex program that it eventually breaks down every 100 years or so and needs to be recharged. As the Unique, Neo has a difficult choice to make: be an accomplice in reloading the Matrix, let Zion be destroyed by the machines, and choose a selection of people to free to repopulate Zion, thus perpetuating the existing system.
Or do nothing and let the Matrix crash, killing all humans connected to it, which, coupled with the destruction of Zion by the machines, would spell the end of the human race. Neo effectively chooses the second option. He returns to the Matrix to save Trinity, who is about to experience the death he has dreamed of, snatching some bullets from her guts.
And they disconnect to go back to the real world. The Nebuchadnezzar is attacked and destroyed by Sentinels, until Neo takes out his trump card: his powers now pass into the real world, and he is able to destroy a handful of Sentinels with his mind, which plunges him into the real world coma.
And then comes the cliffhanger. While all of this is going on, Agent Smith is losing control. After his encounter with Neo, it turned into malware and is no longer part of the system. In fact, he’s become a virus, out of control software that replicates and duplicates itself by sticking its hand into people’s chests and turning them into versions of itself.
One of those people was Bane a member of the Zion Resistance, and when Bane is returned from the Matrix to the real world, it is not his consciousness that is uploaded, but that of Smith, hidden in Bane’s body, now in a coma on the bed next to Neo. The end of Matrix Reloaded is a celebration of choice, in which Neo rejects the paths traced for him by the One and decides to forge his own.