10 Movies Ruined In Their Final Shot

The Matrix Reloaded certainly didn't live up to the peerless brilliance of its predecessor, but it's still a worthy, ambitious follow-up jam-packed with eye-melting action sequences and a welcome dose of nutty pop-philosophy.

But then that damn cliffhanger ending happens.

Though anyone even remotely following the film's production knew that the sequel, The Matrix Revolutions, was due to release just six months later and Reloaded would almost certainly end on a cliffhanger, did anyone quite expect... this?

At the end, Neo (Keanu Reeves) demonstrates he now possesses supernatural abilities outside of the Matrix and falls into a coma, before the final shot reveals that the Agent Smith-possessed Zion survivor Bane (Ian Bliss) is now onboard the same ship as an unconscious Neo.

The "To be concluded..." closing title card left more fans bemused and irritated than excited to see the next film, as this wasn't quite the thrilling cliffhanger the Wachowskis thought it to be.

That's not to say it didn't have potential, but that final shot only became worse in retrospect when Revolutions failed to explain Neo's powers outside the Matrix, while the Bane subplot was dealt with fairly quickly and in relatively unremarkable fashion.

As some fantastic think-pieces have elucidated over the years, fans came up with their own elaborate fan theories during the intervening six months, many of which were far more interesting than what the Wachowskis gave us in their third installment.

Hopefully the impending fourth film, The Matrix Resurrections, won't suffer the same fate.