14 Best Monologues From The Max Payne Video Games
2. "There Are No Choices. Nothing But A Straight Line..."
...the illusion comes afterwards, when you ask "Why me?" and "What if?". When you look back and see the branches, like a pruned bonsai tree, or forked lightning. If you had done something differently, it wouldn't be you, it would be someone else looking back, asking a different set of questions."
The metaphors don't get much more bloated and philosophical than this. It's a fitting monologue that comes up at a fitting time: a cutscene before the last level.
It's safe to assume Max was at the point of looking back and asking himself questions, after everything he's been through in that one night, but switches to see it differently, to see there's no point in it.
If nothing else, it gets people thinking.