10 Most Infuriating Movie Cliffhangers

9. To Be Continued - The Matrix Reloaded

Matrix Reloaded Ending
Warner Bros.

We all knew that The Matrix Reloaded was going to leave us on some sort of a cliffhanger given that The Matrix Revolutions was due for release just 6 months later - the problem is that this cliffhanger set up something that The Wachowski's just couldn't manage to live up to. The final scene of Reloaded features Neo discovering that he has powers outside of The Matrix, and we then find out that Agent Smith has managed to come aboard the ship via the body of one of Zion's resistance fighters, Bane.

This is an interesting enough cliffhanger that is extremely annoying in retrospect because Revolutions just didn't engage with the questions it raises in a satisfying way; firstly, we never really find out why Neo has powers outside of the Matrix (the twist should have been that Zion is just another Matrix), and the Bane angle doesn't play out in particularly exciting fashion - it's hardly a major point of the film.

Cue mass groans at the "to be continued" message that popped up at the end of The Matrix Reloaded and the damage to the franchise was massive and costly.The excitement for The Matrix Reloaded saw the film take a gigantic $742 million worldwide but just over half of those fans were enticed enough by the ending to come back six months later, taking home just $427 million worldwide in comparison.

 
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