> "Whoa, there's something unexpected. I always took the fact that Neo's
> voluntarily choosing the Matrix (where he can exercise more power than in
> the decayed and destroyed real world) over reality was a comment on
> bourgeois navel gazing: "Let me have all the imaginary power I can get in
a
> make-believe world, just so long as I don't have to live in the real one."
> To quote the Dead Kennedys, "Drug me, drug me, drug me-me-me!" Any other
> takes on this?
>
> Todd
> I don't remember exactly the dialogue for the very last scene, but I do
> remember Neo zooming up into the "sky" and making some comment about now
> having freedom, and my almost choking on my popcorn at his statement.
Where
> does he talk about destroying the Matrix?
>
> Todd
First of all, Neo does choose the real world when Morpheus offers him the pill that will help the freedom fighters locate his pod and extract him from his dream state. When he returns to the Matrix it is on different terms, for he now knows it's a computer simulation and so must learn how to bypass it's "natural" laws of gravity, speed, body awareness, etc, which of course he does, coming back from the "dead." That last shot of him flying (to the strains of Rage Against the Machine) lets us know that he's figured the system out, and that he's pretty much invincible, but he'll need reinforcements if the Matrix is to be destroyed, which explains his pep talk about freedom at the end.
The next installment, "The Matrix: Reloaded," from what I know, the machines redo the Matrix's program in order to contain Neo and stop him from freeing more people. Apparently "Reloaded" takes place mostly in the Matrix, whereas the final chapter, "The Matrix: Revolutions" takes place primarily in the real world.
DP