The Ending of “The Matrix” Changed Many Times Over
A Revision History From Development to Post-Production
After Neo is shot and seemingly killed by Agent Smith, Trinity confesses her love for him and claims that he cannot be dead. In a fairytale-esque way, Neo miraculously revives and now has God-like powers, with Morpheus noting that he is “The One.” Neo proceeds to obliterate Smith – an act thought to be impossible – before returning to the real world. Some time later, he makes a call to the Agents, vowing to show the people what the Agents don’t want them to see. In the final scene, which I will refer to as the “First Flight,” Neo exits the phone booth and looks up while in public. We then see him flying up into the air and whisking past the camera.
This is how The Matrix, as we know it now, ends. But it’s not how it always ended.
From the beginning of the film’s development in 1993 up until late into post-production, the ending had been subject to change in ways both major and minor. As a result, The Matrix vacillated between being a completely self-contained feature and an open-ended episode of an ongoing storyline meant to be resolved in a sequel.
To illustrate this, I am going to outline the revision history of the ending, analyzing how it was changed through the use of available scripts and BTS materials.
Table of Contents1994: Smith and The Matrix destroyed via EMP; Neo and Trinity Kiss
1994-1995: Neo Visits Zion
1997: Neo Telefrags Smith and promises to ‘make some changes’
The First Draft (1994)
Smith and the Matrix are destroyed via EMP; Neo and Trinity Share a Kiss.
The First Draft of The Matrix is similar to the final film in terms of overall narrative structure but quite different when it comes to actual plot and character beats.* The gist is that Neo was just a teenage hacker that got recruited by Morpheus to help liberate humanity, and the concept of The One did not yet exist. Consequently, the ending of the movie bears little resemblance to what we saw in theaters, at least insofar as it doesn’t lead to Neo dying and then resurrecting as a God-like being.
*See my article on Medium for a deep dive into the particulars of the First Draft.
Instead, Neo remains just a normal soldier, who decides to take up the fight. He frees a kidnapped Morpheus before Agent Smith can get him to give up the location of Zion, which in this draft is an ‘underground society’ that houses the human resistance. After Neo defeats Smith, Trinity rescues him and Morpheus via hovercraft before they are obliterated by an “EMP Missile” that destroys Smith and The Matrix. The film ends with Neo sharing a kiss with Trinity, as Morpheus watches.*
*I cannot go much more in-depth on the subject, unfortunately, as only a synopsis of the First Draft script was available to study.
This ending functions as a definitive conclusion to the movie’s plot. There is no First Flight sequence, no voiceover, no indication of any setup for a sequel. With The Matrix destroyed and the enemies of humankind vanquished, the story as presented cannot continue. Thus, it stands to reason that The Matrix was at the very beginning of development conceived and written as a singular, standalone film.
1994-95: Neo visits Zion
Early script drafts, none of which are unfortunately available for reading, purportedly included an ending that took Neo to the underground city of Zion, which is only mentioned in dialogue throughout the final film. It is unknown, as to how many drafts had included the ‘Trip to Zion’ and the exact plot details about what it entailed are scarce. Much of the information about it comes courtesy of producer Joel Silver.
Here are some quotes:
“…I read [The Matrix] very early on. It even went further than the movie as it exists. They travel to Zion; you see another act of what will be the first act, I guess, of the sequel. It was a staggering read.”1
“"In the first version of the script," producer Joel Silver recalls, "you actually saw Zion. But they didn't have the time or the money to do that. If the first film hadn't been successful, nobody would have seen the rest of the story. But the boys had it in their heads. So when the studio said, 'Let's make a sequel,' they had already planned a lot of it."”2
"Actually the first script ended further than the movie - you actually went to Zion (the last remaining human city), which we really felt we just couldn't do. We had too much story, so we just backed up a little bit. But we knew that the story continued."3
Silver’s statements allow for several inferences.
First of all, the Trip to Zion was scrapped for budgetary reasons and/or to prevent narrative overcrowding. In effect, there simply wasn’t enough of it in the picture or it wasn’t important enough narratively to justify realizing it visually. This could also be taken to mean that Zion had been already been reconceived in this context as a full-blown city filled with thousands of people.
Second, the Trip to Zion was something of an epilogue set after the main conflict of The Matrix has been resolved. Likely then, this would tease or set up a new Zion-related storyline to be explored in the next film.
This raises a lot of questions, such as: “Did Neo destroy Smith and/or become The One in the draft that Silver had read? Did the ‘First Flight’ sequence occur or was the Trip to Zion sequence meant to take place instead of it? And what draft exactly is Silver referring to when he claims it was ‘the first version of the script’?”
The last question in particular is one I am interested in.
The First Draft Synopsis makes no reference to the appearance of Zion at the end of the picture. Neither does Zion appear at the end of the available April 1996 Draft, which also ends with a version of the First Flight scene.
Assuming that Silver’s claims about Zion are true then, one can conclude that Zion appeared in at least one draft in-between the First Draft and the April 1996 draft, but was removed from the screenplay early into development. Given that Silver had acquired The Matrix screenplay approximately at the beginning of January 1995 alongside another Wachowski script called Assassins, it is likely then that the “first version” he had actually read was a late-1994 or early-1995 revision.4
Therefore, it is logical to refer to these in-between scripts as the 1994-1995 drafts. These drafts - again, assuming Silver was not merely spinning a yarn – were evidently more open-ended than what we see in the final film. So, we can infer that at some point during 1994-1995 the Wachowskis had begun to approach The Matrix as a multi-part story and so planted kernels for a sequel that focused on Zion.
1996: Neo Revives, Smith lives
The April 8, 1996 Draft is one of the few early drafts of The Matrix available in its entirety on the internet. Like in all subsequent drafts, the story now revolves around 30-something corporate drone and hacker Thomas Anderson/Neo, who comes in contact with the mysterious terrorist Morpheus, who reveals to him that he lives inside a simulated reality called “The Matrix.” He believes Neo to be the second coming of “The One,” a God-like being who can control the Matrix and whose arrival will bring about the end of the liberation of humanity from the system.
Though the key story beats of this draft may be familiar, it has numerous differences in terms of plot and lore from the final cut, especially when it comes to the ending.
The following breakdown should illustrate what I mean.
Breakdown of the 1996 ending:
As in the released film, Neo ends up running to a hotel room in a desperate bid to escape the Agents and port back to the real world. Smith shoots and seemingly kills him, then the Agents make their way to the Elevator. Trinity urges Neo to wake up and tells him she won’t let go but does not confess that she is in love with him, nor let him know what The Oracle had told her, as the subplot about what Trinity learned from the Oracle is not present.
Neo suddenly revives. However, he does NOT exhibit any God-like powers, such as being able to see the Matrix for what it really is. In turn, there is also no confirmation from Morpheus that “He is the One.”
Agent Smith notices Neo rise just as the elevator doors close. Neo shows him the finger - perhaps in a callback to the interrogation room scene from earlier - before diving for the phone and porting back to the real world. Thus, Smith lives to fight another day.
Despite not having confessed to being in love, Trinity still kisses Neo after he ports back and the Sentinels have been taken out by Morpheus’ EMP.
The 1996 version of the First Flight has a shorter and more ambiguous speech from Neo to the Agents. He tells them that he’s “decided to make a few changes” but doesn’t promise to reveal the true nature of reality to the public. Moreover, he doesn’t fly out before a crowd but rather after passing by a little boy and his mom. The boy sees Neo take off and tells his mom: “That man flies!”
Analysis:
The differences here from the actual film are quite radical, at least in the sense that there is really no real closure to Neo’s story, no firm confirmation at the very end that he has indeed become “The One.” Aside from his revival and the final reveal that he can fly, the audience receives no indication that he has any other powers or can bend reality to his will, as he demonstrates in the theatrical film by stopping bullets, obliterating Smith from the inside and seeing everything in code.
The logical takeaway is that while Neo has evolved, he has not yet fully awakened, meaning his story was intended to continue. We can thus assume that Neo’s journey to fully awaken would’ve been the main focus of future Matrix installments.
This is supported by both Smith’s survival, which left his conflict with Neo unresolved, and the 1996 version of the Final Speech, which makes clear that Neo isn’t done fighting the Agents and hasn’t yet become so powerful that they are not a threat to him. Notably, he promises the Agents that he will 'make some changes' rather than outright show humanity that they live in a false reality, leaving it unknown as to what exactly the future will hold. That is, the audience doesn't know exactly he plans to do next, leaving various possibilities open for a future film.
* It is not a reach that Smith was now being viewed as a long-term villain and possibly the main antagonist of the series.
In effect, the ’96 draft ending functions as a cliffhanger that suspends the narrative action and promises audiences resolution in a future chapter. The Wachowskis were evidently thinking of making The Matrix an ongoing, serialized story, but at this point their plans for future installments were contingent on Neo NOT becoming The One at the end of the first movie. From this, it follows that they did not have in mind the chain of narrative events that would compose The Matrix Reloaded (2003) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003). That is to say, their plan for the Matrix series will had to have been changed to accommodate Neo becoming The One at the end of the first movie.
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1997: Neo telefrags Smith, promises changes
I’ve managed to find three virtually identical drafts of The Matrix, which I shall refer to collectively as the “1997 Drafts” from this point forward, on the internet:
June 3, 1997 Draft [web text transcript, no page numbers]
August 26, 1997 Draft aka “The Orange Original” [scanned .pdf, 131 pages]
an undated Draft said to have belonged to actor Hugo Weaving [scanned .pdf, 128 pages, reproduces the August 1997 draft’s text word-for-word but has capitalized screen directions and different formatting in addition to handwritten notes from the actor.]
Alternate Smith Death
In comparison to the 1996 Draft, the 1997 Drafts provide a considerably more enclosed narrative, with an ending that is very similar to that of the Theatrical Film. After Neo is shot, Trinity confesses her love and tells him about the Oracle’s prophecy. Neo then revives as The One, stops the Agents’ bullets and kills Smith in a demonstration of his new God-like power.
The manner of Smith’s death is slightly different from the final film: Neo teleports inside Smith before ABSORBING him, in a manner that is explicitly equated to how Agents jump inside and then take over a human body. This ability can be described as a form of “telefragging,” a term used in videogames such as the popular shooter Doom, to designate killing an enemy by teleporting to the location that they currently occupy. Given the videogame influences of The Matrix, I believe the manner in which Neo offs Smith in this draft was an intentional reference.
First Flight
The First Flight Scene is mostly similar to the 1996 draft version. But there is no longer a little boy that sees Neo take off after calling the Agents and stepping out of the booth. Rather, Neo flies by the audience/the camera “like a speeding bullet.”
Only the first two passages of Neo’s final speech are changed.
Rather than acknowledge that he knows they are still after him, Neo informs the Agents that he can ‘feel’ them and speculates that the reverse is true, suggesting some sort of newfound link with the sentient programs.* The change was likely made to reflect the fact that Neo has fully become The One in the revised 1997 ending, developing a stronger connection to – and mastery of – the system.
*The connection could explain Neo’s power to move inside Agents, much as they can move inside any human ‘software’ still hardwired to the Matrix. I also have to wonder if Neo possibly being connected with the Agents in this way was the kernel of the idea to have Smith become Neo’s “opposite” in Reloaded and Revolutions.
Nonetheless, the Wachowskis curiously leave the last two dialogue passages, wherein Neo lets the Agents know that he will keep breaking their rules and make a few unspecified changes to the world, completely unaltered from the ’96 draft:
“I know you’re real proud of this world you’ve built, the way it works, all the nice little rules and such, but I’ve got some bad news.I’ve decided to make a few changes.”
This part of the voiceover – which maintains a certain amount of narrative ambiguity about a potential sequel - is at odds with the fact that the Agents are no longer really a threat to Neo. In other words, it doesn’t make a lot of sense now that Neo’s full awakening has been moved up from a future installment to the ending of the first movie. I believe the Wachowskis had recognized this, given how much the Final Speech will have been revised in the 1998 Shooting Script.
One can infer from all this that by June 1997 the Wachowskis had made the decision to condense the story of Neo’s awakening to one film, rather than have it unfold over the course of multiple serialized installments. And so, what once was intended to be a gradual process became an instantaneous transformation. They were still likely interested in making a sequel, but had not yet reconciled the final scene with the major revision to Neo’s story arc, retaining the final parts of Neo’s message to the Agents from the earlier, less conclusive iteration of the story.
The Shooting Script
There are at least two versions of the Shooting Script. The first is dated March 29, 1998 and can be found on the internet. The other is dated August 12, 1998 and is included in the official Art of the Matrix (AOTM) book.
The two versions appear to be identical text-wise but have some formatting and pagination differences. I will primarily use the March Shooting Script as a reference point going forward though my findings will apply to both.
Differences from the 1997 Draft Ending:
As previously mentioned, Smith’s death is now changed to an EXPLOSION that occurs after Neo dives into his body. Here are some relevant excerpts:
Agent Smith gets up, bracing himself as Neo charges him and springs into a dive. But the impact doesn't come. Neo sinks into Agent Smith, disappearing, his tie and coat rippling as if he were a deep pool of water.
Source: The Matrix Shooting Script, p. 123.
Neo BURSTS up out of him. And with a final death scream, Agent Smith EXPLODES like an empty husk in a brilliant cacophony of light, his shards spinning away, absorbed by the Matrix until--
Only Neo is left.
Source: Ibid.
I’ve found no information, as to why the change was made.
Perhaps the Wachowskis reasoned that having Neo disappear, then reappear and absorb Smith would’ve come off as confusing to the audience? Nonetheless, it makes for a splashier and less ambiguous end to Smith’s character.
But the bigger change occurred to the final speech, which is considerably longer and provides a different mission statement. The first two passages of the Final Speech are identical to that of the ’97 drafts, with Neo discussing his new power to sense the Agents. The third block, however, sees the beginning of a new and very different text. Here, Neo basically lets the Agents know that he’s no longer afraid of them and that he doesn’t even see the need to fight them anymore.
“You won't have to search for me anymore. I'm done running. Done hiding. Whether I'm done fighting, I suppose, is up to you.”
Source: The Matrix Shooting Script, p. 125.
In the fourth and fifth passages, he then discusses the potential of the human mind for transformation and evolution inside the Matrix, comparing it to a “chrysalis,” the intermediate stage that results in a larva metamorphosing into a butterfly.
This builds on the idea that you cannot defy the simulated laws of physics in the Matrix until after you recognize that you can actually defy them in the first place, as I elaborate on in my article on how superpowers in The Matrix work.
“I believe deep down, we both want this world to change.
I believe that the Matrix can remain our cageor it can become our chrysalis, that's what you helped me to understand. That tobe free, you cannot change your cage. You have to change yourself.
When I used to look out at this world, all I could see was its edges, its boundaries, its rules and controls, its leaders and laws. But now, I see another world. A different world whereall things are possible.
A world ofhope. Ofpeace.”
Source: Ibid.
Becoming truly “free” is thus equated to gaining awareness of the fact that you live inside the Matrix and so realizing that you can break the limits of what should be rationally possible. Neo doesn't state this explicitly, but one can infer that he wants to change the world itself by awakening en masse the individual minds that populate it. In other words, he wants for ALL inhabitant the Matrix to become actively aware that they live inside a simulation and so demonstrate superhuman powers that bend or break the (simulated) laws of physics.
In the 6th and final passage, he implores the Agents themselves to similarly free their minds, and help achieve this outcome. Given that Neo describes this potential new world as one of “hope” and “peace,” his words could be taken to mean that he doesn’t wish to destroy the Matrix, but to transform it into a place where Agents and humans can peacefully co-exist.*
“I can't tell you how to get there, but I knowif you can free your mind, you'll find the way.”
Source: Ibid.
*The idea of peace between the redpills and the Agents may very well have been the kernel of the conclusion for the Zion/Machine war storyline in The Matrix Revolutions. Unfortunate-ly, the part about everyone being aware of the Matrix would never come to pass.
Thanks to these revisions, the Final Speech now makes a lot more sense as a follow-up to the narrative development of Neo becoming The One at the end of the first movie. On the one hand, it reflects the fact that Neo is now essentially omnipotent. On the other, it leaves a certain amount of ambiguity, as to what exactly could happen in the future. Even though it is strongly implied that Neo now seeks to awaken the world, it is never explicitly stated just what steps he plans to take to accomplish this, leaving open various storytelling possibilities and directions for a follow-up.
In terms of writing then, the Wachowskis have fully reconciled the First Flight scene’s events and voiceover with the decision to make Neo’s full awakening a one-film storyline, providing the audience with a strong sense of closure, while simultaneously raising the possibility of another story to come in the future.
I doubt, however, that any direction for a sequel had been settled on at this point, given that the initially intended overarching storyline had been used up, and at least some changes to the plot were bound to occur in the course of editing.
The Theatrical Film (1999)
The 1998 Draft essentially represents The Matrix as seen in theaters, with an almost 1-to-1 correspondence between script and screen. Reportedly, everything in the Shooting Script was filmed, though changes were made in post-production.
Most of the editorial alterations were minor, with two notable exceptions: the excision of the predecessor subplot, which I already covered in an earlier article, and the revision of the First Flight scene, which I will now focus on.
First and foremost, there is a clear change to the narrative action during the trace scene that leads up to Neo’s first flight.
The Shooting script describes the Trace Program progressing as Neo speaks, indicating that it is not interrupted. At no point does the script inform the reader of the “Carrier Anomaly” message popping up on-screen or the numbers freezing and the words “SYSTEM FAILURE” appearing, as occurs in the final cut.
Story-wise, this change signifies that Neo has become capable of crashing the Agents’ trace program. By adding this plot point, the filmmakers reinforce the notion that the Agents are no longer in control of the system, while arguably foreshadowing what Neo is going to do to the Matrix itself.*
*Not to mention, this creates an evident contrast with the opening, wherein the Agents successfully traced Trinity’s phone call to Cypher.
Next, there is yet another version of Neo’s voiceover.
The actual in-film speech goes like this:
“I know you’re out there. I can feel you now. I know that you’re afraid. You’re afraid of us. You’re afraid of change. I don’t know the future.
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.
I’m going to hang up this phone and then I’m going to show these people what you don’t want them to see.I’m going to show them a world without you, a world without rules and controls, without borders or boundaries, a world where anything is possible.
Where we go from there is a choice I leave to you.”
Rather than emphasize of the potential of the mind for change and cryptically hint at the ways he could change the world, here Neo clearly and unambiguously establishes that his plan is to reveal the nature of the Matrix to the people after hanging up his phone. His overall attitude seems more militant than in the Shooting Script.
And rather than describe the transformed Matrix as one of hope and peace, he refers to it as a “world without you,” a world without Agents and/or the Machines, who are associated with an opposition to change. In effect, he wants a world where awakened humans have successfully revolted and toppled the system.
*On a minor note, the 1999 version of the speech lacks the line, where Neo discusses that the Agents could possibly ‘feel’ him in return, even though this line was present in the Shooting Script. This could be taken to mean that, while Neo can feel the Agents, they cannot feel his presence in turn.
Finally, when Neo exits the phone booth, the cinematography emphasizes his being surrounded by the average, oblivious citizens of the Matrix (aka the ‘bluepills’), from whom he stands apart. Only after looking around at them does Neo take off.
This is different from the Shooting Script, which makes no mention of a crowd of background people/extras when Neo exits the phone booth, suggesting that the scene was initially intended to play out with Neo flying up in an empty area, unseen by anyone else. I believe that, as the voiceover was changed, the crowd of people was added during filming or post-production in turn to illustrate the point. The crowd we see represents the ‘people’ that Neo described on the phone.
AnalysisThe presence of the crowd works together with the new voiceover to considerably alter the narrative meaning of Neo’s First Flight from the shooting script, where it does not have much narrative significance beyond displaying Neo’s evolution to the audience. In the Theatrical Film, the act of flying delivers on Neo’s promise to the Agents to show the people/bluepills what the Agents and/or The Machines don’t want them to see: that the world they inhabit is really a simulation, a world “without rules or controls… where anything is possible.”
Even though Neo claims that he doesn’t know the future, his action provides a fairly concrete idea of what the story’s logical outcome should be. By publicly displaying his God-like powers, Neo begins a mass awakening and/or revolution that will result in all the bluepills being unplugged/freed from the Matrix.
This would inevitably lead to the system’s destruction and so to the downfall of the Machines, who are dependent on the energy supplied by the Matrix.
Rather than an open ending that sets up a sequel then, the final version of the First Flight sequence functions as a definitive ending to the story the film is telling – Neo’s journey to become the One and liberate humanity by exposing the Matrix. This suggests the Wachowskis at this point had given up on making The Matrix a serialized narrative and decided to bring its story and world to a close with the first movie.*
*According to Phil Oosterhouse, the change to the Final Speech occurred following a test screening because “test audiences didn’t know the word “chrysalis.””(AOTM p. 271) Based on this, one could speculate that the other changes outlined here may have similarly occurred in response to feedback from the same test screening. Perhaps, audiences felt confused by the final scene, leading to revisions that clarified things and provided full closure. This also means a version of the ending that fully corresponds to the shooting script exists but has not been made available to the viewing public.
Thus, The Matrix more or less went back to where it started, becoming a self-contained film with a beginning, middle, and end, and no real room for continuation.
Ironically, neither The Matrix Reloaded, nor The Matrix Revolutions (2003) would follow through on the world-changing consequences of the released film’s final scene, effectively adding the first installment’s definitive conclusion to the pile of scrapped endings accumulated over the course of its revision history.
But that is another story…
But what do you think?Was The Matrix a better movie for being self-contained and definitive? Would it have been stronger if it had indeed ended with more setup for a sequel, such as with Smith surviving? Were the sequels we got organic followups to these events? Please,
This article is part three of an in-progress multi-article retrospective on The Matrix series. If you enjoyed this entry, please check out the others:
Part 1: ‘A Deleted Subplot From The Matrix Directly Contradicts Its Sequels’
Part 2: ‘Neo Was a High Schooler in Earliest Matrix Script (And Other Reveals From the 1994 First Draft)’
James Mottram, “Hot-shot producer Joel Silver reveals the secrets of The Matrix to UK’s EMPIRE magazine,” Empire Online, https://www.matrixfans.net/matrix-goes-anime/.
Richard Corliss, “Unlocking the Matrix,” Time, 12 May 2003. content.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1004809,00.html
Empire (UK), August 2002.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, 01 Jan 1995, 71.