I am not looking for philosophy unless absolutely necessary.
What I am looking for is an explanation of the final fight between Neo, Smith, and how it ended. Why doid Neo being killed by Smith mean that Smith LOST?
-Joe
I think that when Smith “assimilated” Neo, it gave the Matrix a way to get at Smith and erase him. That’s my best guess, at least.
Let me dredge up my repressed memories…
[spoiler]Smith wanted to escape the Matrix just like the humans, but his hope was to infect the Zion computer system.
When Neo was killed, it reset the Matrix (since the Matrix required a Neo every so often to keep the system working) and Zion was destroyed again. That meant Smith’s avenue of escape was gone, and he was still trapped within the Matrix.
Of course, the sequels never happened. They’re like Highlander 2, or Star Trek V.[/spoiler]
Hmm, okay, how’s this?
Here is what happens when writers/directors with a halfway-decent idea try to stretch it into more movie(s) than they have plot for and paint themselves into a corner…
Sorry - beyond that, I got nuthin’…
It was a literal deus ex machina
Or maybe a Deus et Machina
To tel the truth, I got lost in the Christ symbolism at the end. Maybe it made some sort of mystical sense.
Something (exactly what is not explained) happened when Smith assimilated the Oracle, allowing him to see the future as she does. Smith continued to spread until he’d pretty much assimilated every character in the Matrix and risked crashing the system. Neo offered to defeat Smith in exchange for stopping the machine invasion of Zion and the system reluctantly agreed. Of minor interest and quite separate from all the pseudo-mystical crap, humans had been brought down by the machines they created and the system was on the verge of being brought down by the programs it created. Smith defeated Neo but somehow assimilating him caused another something to happen (again unexplained) that destroyed Smith for good.
That’s just a rough list of what happened. How and why are buried under layer after layer of nonsensical semi-religious highly-symbolic crap. I get the impression it’s a mystery even to the Wachowski brothers.
Fake Interviewer: But what did it all mean?
Wachowski: It meant $600 million, that’s what.
And THAT’S what I’m wondering about.
-Joe
So did Neo turn into a cat?
My guess goes something like this: Smith, as a program and for some strange reason, by this point exists only to attack Neo. The whole assimilation of the Matrix (occupants?) is to get to Neo. Once Smith finally succeeds, the purpose of the program is served and it ends, thus relinquishing Smith(the program)'s hold on the Matrix.
To be pseudo-mystical about it: In order to defeat Smith, Neo had to let him win.
“Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you ever imagined!”
“Whoah.”
That’s kinda what I saw.
- Smith exists to destroy Neo.
- Neo destroyed, Smith needs not exist.
Makes up as much sense as anything else. :smack:
That makes some sense. Now, why did the climactic fight have to look like a scene out of Dragon Ball Z? 
So if Neo was destroyed, how did he ultimately go on? Doesn’t that make a logic loop?
Nice.
My best guess:
The Architect told Neo that he was was the result of an unbalanced equation in the programming of the Matrix. Smith was the other side of that, the negative. When Smith assimilated Neo it balanced the equation, thus cancelling out both of them.
Yeah, and who deleted Smith since he took over the Matrix.
It just sounded like the best explanation at the time.
All the explanations make as much sense as its possible to have in this movies but one small detail is still unexplained. After smith assimilates neo we get a shot of the machines doing something to his body through those cables they had hooked into him so i think it was just that neo let himself be assimilated so the machine could destroy smith by putting something into him through his body, a virus maybe.
Smith was a program; he just ended when he completed his objective.
Or maybe Neo, leet Matrix hacker dude that he was, once he became entangled with the Smith program, was able to subvert it and remove it from the system. Sort of a Trojan horse attack.
Or whatever.
Neo sacrificed himself. For our sins. That’s all you need to know.
When Smith assimilated Neo, he was able to go inside Smith and destroy him with that good guy essence that all movie heroes have. Hell, it makes as much sense as Neo coming back to life from a kiss.
Don’t look for any story beyond the symbolism, because there is none. That’s what happens when drunk frat boy nerds get unlimited money to masturbate philosophic on the screen.