why neo and agent smith...(spoiler)

This is my theroy on why neo had to die. Scence smith was neo's opposite, the only way he could defite him self would be to kill himself. When smith was trying to copie neo, neo said, "your right it is inevitable"(sorry about spelling) because once neo was inside smith he could destroy him like in the first movie.

your theory is correct. the key though is not that neo kills smith, but that neo's death causes smith's death.

Originally posted by morpheus_5
This is my theroy on why neo had to die. Scence smith was neo's opposite, the only way he could defite him self would be to kill himself. When smith was trying to copie neo, neo said, "your right it is inevitable"(sorry about spelling) because once neo was inside smith he could destroy him like in the first movie.


youre stating all the obvious things

But, must we assume, Neo is dead?

Just think about that.

im afrad so

I thought it was pretty obvious what happened in the last scene. The important fact is not that Neo died (which I tend to believe that he did in fact die, but it is actually irrelevent) but that he managed to persuade/allow Smith to copy himself into him.

The key point to keep in mind is WHERE Neo was physically in the real world. Although Smith had no way to know it, Neo had managed to get himself into the machine city of O1 and jacked into the Matrix under the pervue and as a Peace agreement with the Architect.

By continuing to fight even after it was clear that he couldn't defeat Smith, he aggravated the alter-ego Smith so much that Smith went ahead and copied himself onto Neo even though while he was doing so it occurred to him that it might not be a good idea.... Once he had copied himself onto Neo, the Architect was free to do whatever hacking (or virus signature scanning, or just plain killing--whatever you interpret the computer equivalent of what happened next) was necessary to destroy Smith.

I thought this was probably the most elegant ending possible really. Granted there is the Christological symbolism of the Messiah dying to save the world, but this ending was more than just symbolic...it was a physical TRAP.

P.S. On the topic of if Neo died, recall that in Reloaded Neo stated that Smith attempting to copy onto him felt like dying...since Neo allowed Smith to complete the copy, and then the Neo-Smith exploded, I'm pretty certain that Neo died as well. Further postulation about a continuance of "The One" (version 7.0, for example) is valid if Neo v.6 is dead or not.

I don't know if Neo died and so Smith died, or where Neo was mattered in the least, I think mainly what defeated Smith was the Pure Matrix code Neo carried as the One. This caused the matrix to re-set some how through Smith, and since in the pure Matrix, there should no longer have been a Smith, he went nuclear. However the one thing here I didn't care for in this movie was this; the last minute addition or explanation that a Smith copy retains pretty much all of the knowledge and abilities of the person or program he overwrote. I mean this explains why Neo or the Oracle are such prizes for him, and the "Cookies need love" line was classic, but it just felt tacked on. I mean he had about 300 copies in Reloaded but we never learn this fact, but in Revolutions we see it occur 3 seperate times.

I didn't think Neo died per say. Like the Oracle's change, I believe that 'the one' would come back a different person because of his choice or once the matrix is re-set. My thought is that since he was at the source, he was able to download himself and part of Smith once he got copied. So all he needed was to destroy one Smith to kill them all.