"Choice. The problem is choice." The Matrix Reloaded ends by, once again,
undermining everything we thought we knew about the world. Neo is, we learn, not The One — "This is the sixth version." "Five before me?" "You’re lying! This is bullsh—" he’s merely one in a series
of "systemic anomalies," an eventuality the machines
have already planned for. "The prophecy was a lie. The One was never meant
to end anything. It was all another system of control." This choice was, to put it
lightly, controversial when The Matrix Reloaded
was released in 2003. But fan disappointment was part
of the project from the beginning: the Wachowski sisters made
a conscious decision to subvert the message of their popular
and acclaimed first installment. "A world without rules and controls,
without borders or boundaries. "The second movie is deconstructionist, and it assaults all of the things that you thought to be true
in the first movie." But what does that mean, and how does it explain
the film’s frenzied conclusion, with Zion on the brink
of extinction and Neo in a coma? Let’s dive into The Architect,
the problem of choice, and the ending of The Matrix Reloaded. [Music] "You’re watching…" "The Take." "Thanks for watching,
and be sure to share and subscribe!" For all its mind-blowing reveals
and philosophical questioning, the first Matrix movie
is ultimately a typical hero’s journey. Thomas Anderson,
a seemingly ordinary man, discovers that he is a long-prophesied
hero who will free the human race. "When The Matrix was first built,
there was a man born inside... who had the ability to change
whatever he wanted." But this isn’t a story
about just any hero; it’s one about a mythical,
even religious figure. "The Oracle prophesied his return… and that his coming would hail
the destruction of the Matrix, end the war…
bring freedom to our people." Accordingly, The Matrix ends with Neo
literally dying and coming back to life, imbued with the powers
of the savior of humanity. "He is the One." And when The Matrix ends,
he can manipulate The Matrix at will, can stop bullets with his mind,
rewrite code while jacked in, and force the once-unbeatable
agents to run from him. He’s a literal superhero. "He’s doing his Superman thing." At the beginning of The Matrix Reloaded, the Wachowskis take pains
to show us how powerful Neo has become in a fight against
the previously invincible agents. "Hmph. Upgrades." By the end of the fight, Neo
is literally hovering above The Matrix. He is now seen as a higher being. "You got me out, you saved me!" For the humans of Zion,
Neo is almost a god. "Neo, please, I have a son,
Jacob, aboard the Gnosis. Please, watch over him." Even skeptics like Link
have come around. "After being on that ship
and seeing Neo do the things he can do, I gotta say... I’m starting to believe him too." Neo’s abilities make creating stakes
in The Matrix Reloaded difficult for the Wachowskis— after all, he can emerge victorious
in practically any scenario. The movie’s biggest action sequences
have to aggressively sideline Neo, whether by putting him
500 miles away from the city, "You're not gonna believe this, but
you’re all the way up in the mountains." "Really?" or by forcing the resistance to complete
several objectives simultaneously— unlike Smith, Neo can’t
be in two places at once. "Neo could take them both
out easier than we could." "There’s no time." Still, for all that The Matrix tells us that The One is an unbeatable,
invincible savior, the characters in The Matrix Reloaded
spend a lot of time undercutting Neo’s apparent omnipotence, reminding us that, when it comes down
to it, Neo is still flesh and blood. First, the agents decide to fight him because, after all, they’re not
bound by being human. "Do we proceed?" "Yes. He is still… only human." When Neo fights The Merovingian’s goons,
he wins—but he bleeds. "You see? He’s just a man." And in the biggest single
fight of the movie, Neo reaches his limits: Though he manages to fend off hundreds
of copies of Smith in an epic brawl, he eventually gets worn down and tired, because that’s what
happens to human beings. "Are you all right?" Why does this matter? The Matrix Reloaded ends with Neo
confronting a vision he’s been having since the beginning of the movie:
Trinity dying. "Still can’t sleep?" As Zion leader
Councillor Hamman points out, Neo’s difficulty sleeping
is an indication that he’s not become some kind
of perfect deity or machine. "It’s a good sign." "Of what?" "That you are, in fact, still human." Near the end of The Matrix Reloaded,
the two sides of Neo— the invincible, unmovable hero
and the anxious, scared human— collide, when he’s forced to choose
between his god-like duties as The One and his personal
commitment to Trinity. "There are two doors. The door to your right leads
to The Source and the salvation of Zion. The door to your left leads
back to The Matrix— to her, and to the end
of your species." The Matrix Reloaded is
about the problem of choice. The first Matrix already raised central
questions about fate versus free will. "And don’t worry about the vase..." "What vase?" [Vase shatters] "Would you still have broken it
if I hadn't said anything?" In their first conversation together, Morpheus asks Neo
how he feels about fate. "Do you believe in fate, Neo?" "No." "Why not?" "Because I don’t like the idea
that I’m not in control of my life." The concept of choice in The Matrix
trilogy is most famously embodied by the red and blue pills— representations of two potential
approaches to life that Neo (and all of us) can take. "You take the blue pill,
you wake up in your bed and believe whatever
you want to believe. You take the red pill... and I show you how deep
the rabbit hole goes." On one level, the red pill is a symbol
for what The Matrix is all about— rejecting a reality where
you’re not in control, and deciding to free your mind. And even as Neo turns out to fulfill
the prophecy of becoming the One, The Matrix emphasizes that
he still has to choose his destiny. "Being the One is just
like being in love. No one can tell you
you're in love. You just know it." By the beginning
of The Matrix Reloaded, though, the balance has shifted
back toward the weightiness of fate. "It is our destiny." Neo’s fixed identity as the One has replaced Thomas Anderson’s original
identity as a slave of the system. Accordingly, that idea of himself
overrides his own judgment. He’s sitting around, waiting
for The Oracle to call and tell him what to do. "I just wish… I wish I knew
what I’m supposed to do." When that does happen
and he meets with The Oracle, Neo seems to be given
the next step of his destiny: going to The Source. "The machine mainframe." "Yes. Where you must go. Where the path of The One ends." For much of The Matrix Reloaded, we might expect that this
is the natural arc of the film— Neo will make it to The Source, and in doing so, he’ll somehow
gain the power to end the war between man and machine. And if this were how the movie went,
that would pretty much deliver the same uplifting emotional
journey of the first film. "That's why I have to go." "Why?" "Because I believe in something." Many, if not most of the other
characters in The Matrix Reloaded see their fate as being somehow
tied to Neo’s quest for The Source, and to the destiny they believe he has. "It is my purpose. It’s the reason I’m here. The same reason we’re all here." In the first Matrix, leader
Morpheus is driven by faith in the One and the Oracle’s prophecy. But in The Matrix Reloaded,
we (and the other characters) double down on his fundamentalism. "I believe this night holds,
for each and every one of us, the very meaning of our lives." Even The Oracle, who has
set Neo on this path, seems to have placed her faith in him to
a greater degree than she already did. "You’ve made a believer out of me." But in committing themselves to their sense of fate,
destiny, and purpose, they also commit themselves
to seeing the world the same way the movie’s villains do. "She is going to die
and there is nothing you can do to stop it." Take Smith, whose crusade of trying to homogenize and overtake
the entire Matrix comes from his desperate obsession with purpose. "There’s no escaping reason,
no denying purpose— because as we both know,
without purpose, we would not exist." Or The Merovingian, who dismisses
the possibility of making any choice, "Choice is an illusion created
between those with power and those without." and believes all things are determined
solely by cause and effect. "Causality. There is no escape from it. We are forever slaves to it." So the human characters are,
we might say, thinking like programs. But that blind faith in destiny
which unites the humans and their computerized counterparts crumbles when The Architect
confronts Neo with his true purpose: "You are here because Zion
is about to be destroyed." The Architect embodies
a traditional idea of God: he’s an old white man with a beard
who built the world, and he spends most of his time
watching humans from a distance. His comprehensive, algorithmic
knowledge of humanity allows him predictive power
that approaches the supernatural. "You can’t make me do anything,
you old, white prick!" So it’s fitting that this godly figure here serves as a representation
of external meaning — of the way that people seek purpose from something or someone
outside of themselves— something they don’t have to choose. "Failure to comply with this process will ultimately result in the extinction
of the entire human race." In the first Matrix, Neo originally
expected to be told if he was the One or not. Then, throughout The Matrix Reloaded, Neo waits for someone
to tell him his purpose. But when that happens, his purpose turns out to be letting
thousands of people die, including Trinity— something The Architect explains
in dispassionate, obtuse language. "This will be the sixth
time we have destroyed it… The function of The One is now
to return to The Source, allowing a temporary
dissemination of the code you carry, reinserting the prime program." The supposed "end of the war"
the prophecy foretells is, in fact, a reboot — a way of simply going
through the cycle again. "After which you will
be required to select from the Matrix 23 individuals… sixteen female, seven male,
to rebuild Zion." Yet something gets in the way of
the machine’s business-as-usual restart and their mechanism
for controlling the One — the unexpected twist
of Neo’s love for Trinity. "Your five predecessors were, by design,
based on a similar predication. While the others experience this
in a general way, Your experience
is far more specific… Vis-à-vis... love." "Trinity!" Even facing the impending
destruction of Zion and the likely extinction
of his species, Neo renounces
the supposedly rational decision— his love is too strong. So in the end, Neo embraces
radical free will — not only won’t he follow
his given destiny, but he also rejects the limitations
of the choice given to him entirely. "As you adequately put,
the problem is choice." While the Architect presents
like an all-powerful god, this overlord is really just
part of another, larger system— The Architect was created
to fulfill a specific purpose by the machines, who were in turn
created by modern humans. "You are the eventuality
of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts, I've been unable to eliminate
from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision." So by rejecting this fake God, Neo must grapple with
the revelation that there is no Source, no Central Authority or Deity, that can confer ultimate
meaning on his existence. And the purpose he chooses
for himself is simply saving Trinity. The word "existentialist"
gets thrown around a lot in pop culture, but this film’s arc is, literally,
the process one goes through as an existentialist— acknowledging the lack
of an external source of meaning, and (after overcoming
the crisis of that loss) embracing the opportunity to create
meaning and values in your own life. "Neo goes from being
in this sort of cocooned and programmed world
to having to participate in the construction
of meaning to his life." In fact, the Wachowskis ground
The Matrix in the work of proto-existentialist
Arthur Schopenhauer. "When we wrote The Matrix trilogy, we had above our wall this amazing
Schopenhauer quote, that was: The fundament upon which all
our knowledge and learning rests is the inexplicable." When asking what to do in the face of a fulfilled
or otherwise ignored purpose, there’s a surprising place
to look in the Matrix trilogy: computer programs, creatures
of the machine world that should ostensibly
be the enemy of humanity. Like Neo, these programs
were built to do one specific thing: "See those birds? At some point,
a program was written to govern them. A program was written
to watch over the trees, and the winds, and the
sunrise and sunset." But our understanding
of the world in The Matrix is complicated by these programs’
fear of death and the choices they make. "Usually a program chooses
exile when it faces deletion." The programs that are visible
to humans in The Matrix— programs like Seraph,
The Merovingian, and even The Oracle— are those who have consciously
chosen to ignore their purpose, or who have merely outlived it. Even The Merovingian’s bodyguards
have, like Neo, lasted longer than they were originally intended. "They come from a much older
version of The Matrix. But like so many back then, they caused more problems
than they solved. My husband saved them because they’re notoriously
difficult to terminate." These programs have been
given a new reason to live by The Merovingian, but absent his leadership, they would
be in the same position as Neo— lost, looking for what gives them purpose. Neo emerges from his meeting
with the Architect determined to have it all his way: not only does he catch Trinity
as she falls through the air, he pulls the bullet out of her,
then restarts her heart. "I’m not letting go. I can’t." It’s the same thing Trinity did for Neo
back at the end of the first Matrix, and it indicates the Wachowskis’
broader perspective on Neo’s abilities: The power of The One is less
about completing an assigned destiny within the set parameters of a war, than it is about ignoring
those rules altogether and doing what you want
because you want it. "I love you too damn much." At the end of the movie,
everyone is in a state of despair. Zion is facing down
a massive army of sentinels. Neo is reevaluating
his existence as The One. And poor Morpheus has to question the story upon which
he has built his entire life. "Everything was done
as it was supposed to be done. Once The One reaches The Source,
the war should be over." Eventually, with the destruction
of The Nebuchadnezzar, everything Morpheus thought
he knew has been taken from him. "I have dreamed a dream,
but now that dream is gone from me." Now what? If there’s another ending
comparable to The Matrix Reloaded’s, it might just be that of Angel,
the spinoff of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The series ends with
Angel’s assembled crew, full of characters who have
rejected their original purposes, choosing to continue
to fight for good and justice, even in the face of overwhelming odds. "And in terms of a plan?" "We fight." For a moment near the end
of The Matrix Reloaded, that’s what the film seems to be
leaving us with — the act of continuing to fight, rather
than the ability to win, is the point. From there, though, the movie pivots—
there is a chance to overcome the enemy. "Something’s different." The crew of The Nebuchadnezzar
are attacked by sentinels, forcing them to abandon ship. But Neo, now more deeply aware
of his connection to The Source and of his abilities as The One — not to achieve some singular purpose, but as tools to let him
achieve what he wants — is able to shut them down,
outside of The Matrix. "I can feel them." How exactly Neo
accomplishes this feat, what it will enable
him to do next, and what will happen
now that he’s been connected to Bane (a living man overwritten
with the Smith program) are questions for our next video. "It’s the question
that drives us, Neo." Ultimately, Reloaded
is a transitional movie, leading in to the more
explicitly spiritual themes of The Matrix Revolutions. "I see death, and you
are all that stands in his way." By the end of The Matrix Reloaded, everything the resistance fighters
thought they knew has been undercut. "What are we gonna do?" "I don’t know." And likewise, the Wachowskis
have unleashed a philosophical tremor on the viewers, capable of shaking up and toppling
whatever you took away from the first movie. "Some people get very upset
and they’re like, stop attacking me, in the same way people get upset
with deconstructionist philosophy. I mean, Derrida and Foucault,
these people upset us." The first Matrix flatters us, and asks
us to identify with its hero. But once the hero loses
his center of gravity, we lash out accordingly. Are people capable of moving past
this kind of existential crisis? Can the revolutionaries who have
long viewed all machines as enemies in a black-and-white
"us versus them" mentality, learn to work together with programs— people who are not
even technically people? "I suppose the most
obvious question is… How can I trust you?" The Matrix Reloaded answers
with a resounding "maybe," leaving the answer up to us. "Bad news is there's no way
if you can really know if I'm here to help you or not. So it's really up to you." Judging from the original
reception of the movie, it seems like many fans
may have ignored that message. Will it continue to be rejected? "Let us hope that I was wrong." If you’re new here,
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