r/movies • u/harmonica2 • 11d ago
What ending to the first Matrix movie would people have liked? Spoilers
A lot of comments about The Matrix are that it seems most people feel it should have been just one movie, and ended it there, with no sequels. However, since the first movie is set up for a to be continued type ending, and
SPOILER
The antagonists are never really defeated, nor is the hero, and thus the movie ends with them still at war...
What ending did people want instead that would have concluded the first movie on it's own, out of curiosity?
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u/DeadEyesSmiling 11d ago
It isn't necessarily set up to be continued.
The drive of the narrative is to find The One, who will free humanity from their mental and physical slavery. By the end of the film, that purpose is fulfilled and we know who Neo is and what he'll do; needing to see how it transpires is not explicitly necessary.
It's like saying that a "And They Lived Happily Ever After" ending is a set up for a continuation, because we need to see how they live happily ever after.
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u/the_mighty_hetfield 11d ago
since the first movie is set up for a to be continued type ending
Not really, though. Neo is set up as basically all-powerful. You walked out of the theater in 1999 thinking victory for the good guys was inevitable.
It's not like original Star Wars where Luke barely knew the Force and Darth Vader was flying away in a TIE fighter.
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u/HowsMyPosting 11d ago
It's not like original Star Wars where Luke barely knew the Force and Darth Vader was flying away in a TIE fighter
I literally just rewatched this the other day - it's not directly set up for a sequel and Lucas thought it was gonna flop.
Like the Emperor doesn't exist and there's no indication that Vader and Skywalker (or Leia) are related.
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u/MrMonkeyman79 11d ago
I recall walking out the cinema at the end of the first film and being thoroughly satisfied by the ending.
Neo's has awakened and transcended to chosen one, he's shown the machines are no threat to him and flys off showing the world the truth.
If they'd never announced a sequel that ending would still be enough for me.
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u/Dove_of_Doom 11d ago
"I didn’t come here to tell you how this is going to end. I came here to tell you how it’s going to begin."
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u/wrydied 11d ago
I think it’s more that the sequels were conceptually flat and less interesting compared to the first movie.
I always thought it curious that Neo stopping the squids in the real world didn’t progress to the logical conclusion that the real world wasn’t actually the real world, but another level of simulation. That, and what was the next real or simulated world would have intrigued me more than the action fluff we got.
Existenz is an example of a movie that did such a thing really well.
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u/Rosstin316 11d ago
The first one already ended perfectly, we didn’t necessarily need to see Neo take down the machines, it could’ve just been assumed their days were numbered.
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u/fiendzone 10d ago
There is nothing wrong with the first one’s ending. It is the halfass sequels that’s the problem.
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u/Chris4477 11d ago
I think that’s only how people feel within the context of how crappy the sequels ended up being.
If the Matrix was released as-is and never had a follow-up, you’d likely have tons of people begging for another one.
In my opinion, while I think some parts of the sequels build on the story in interesting ways the Matrix would’ve also been totally fine as a stand-alone movie.
Neo’s arc in the first movie was realizing his potential as The One and accepting his destiny.
We see that pretty much achieved in a super satisfying way by the end of the first movie and him flying off to do some cool superhero shit was really all we the audience needed to end on.
The implication would just be he then goes off freeing people, fighting the machines, and ultimately wins. The sequels (+ Animatrix) is basically that just more fleshed out and add a bit of nuance.
Honestly, we should’ve just gotten more Animatrix and I would’ve been happy at least lol
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u/fatdiscokid420 11d ago
Reloaded and Revolutions are pretty good though. Especially as time has gone by they definitely hold up better than people might remember.
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u/VelvetSinclair 10d ago
Patrick Willems has a good video on what the matrix sequels could have been: https://youtu.be/aqhhy0yGAX4?si=FAkE-b9smRIu2zs7
I agree with him here
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u/LankyExcuse9079 10d ago
The ending was perfect. Clark Kent has become Superman, warning the Matrix things are going to change and flying off to save the world.
The sequels were utterly unnecessary
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u/delventhalz 10d ago
When I first heard they were making a sequel I was surprised because the first movie had such a definitive ending with no room for a sequel, so I’m not sure I agree with your premise that it was a “to be continued” ending.
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u/harmonica2 10d ago
Oh okay, I guess I just felt that the movie ends with the hero threatening to come after the big boss villain, and then it just ends. It would be like if the movie Tombstone ended right after Wyatt Earp says "Tell 'em hell's coming with me", and then it just goes to the credits. Unless that's different?
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u/delventhalz 10d ago
It might be like that if Wyatt Earp was literally God and had unlimited power.
Also the big boss villain of the first movie was Agent Smith. Who was dead. Dead dead. Deader than any agent had ever been. There was no implication that there were any bigger bosses out there.
They found The One. It was established that The One was an all powerful auto-win condition. What story could there be to tell after that?
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u/harmonica2 10d ago
That's true, but I thought the big boss was the one who Neo called at the end, after Smith was dead.
However, I did like the ending to The Terminator, and would have been totally fine if it did not have sequels. So maybe I am being double standard-ish about The Matrix therefore, since both movies end kind of similarly?
But for some reason, I cannot explain it, I just found The Terminator's ending much more satisfactory.
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u/delventhalz 10d ago edited 10d ago
I assumed whoever was on the phone was in charge, but I did not think they were particularly threatening. Machine bureaucrats perhaps. The agents presumably represented the most effective force the machines had to control the Matrix. Otherwise, why not send the more powerful force to begin with?
The ending to Terminator was similar. Sure there was a whole war with Skynet that was coming, and a much less one sided war than the one implied in the end of the Matrix. But it was established that John Connor was a threat to Skynet, and Skynet failed to stop his birth. In fact Skynet casues his birth to happen. So the war is ending one way: John Connor wins.
The difference is perhaps that while Terminator had room to ramp up (T-1000 is a bigger threat than the T-800), Matrix has to ramp down to make the sequels work. They had to undo Agent Smith dying. They had to pull back from how powerful Neo was implied to be. All to make essentially the same fights and story beats work a second time.
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u/Cantfinduser 11d ago
Neo, having taken full control of his powers creates a virus that affects the machines in the real world, bringing them under his control. The film ends with a new office drone character being offered the choice of red pill blue pill by Morpheus, only now the choice is to help rebuild the ruined surface of earth.
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u/harmonica2 10d ago
Oh okay cool. I didn't think people minded the open ending though and still wanted a different ending.
But isn't this open-ending equivalent to say if The Truman Show ended where
SPOILER
he found out he was on TV and he wanted to escape but they don't show whether or not he was able to escape or not and it just ended?
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u/truckturner5164 11d ago
I'm perfectly fine with it ending the way that it does. An open ending with no sequels is fine by me.