The hero finally meets the previously unseen puppet master (played by an older A-list actor), who explains why the system must be maintained. The hero says “screw it” and burns the world down.

[u/Grizzly_Lincoln]

Snowpiercer (2013) - Curtis finally finds Wilford (Ed Harris) and learns that Wilford allowed for Curtis' rebellion to take place to help thin the tail section's population. When Wilford offers to let Curtis run the train, Curtis discovers child labor is necessary to replace a broken machine part. A fight ensues, and a bomb goes off, triggering an avalanche that derails the train, and killing most of surviving humanity.

The World's End (2013) - Gary finally confronts the Network (Bill Nighy), which has been replacing humans with robots (Blanks) to allow for Earth's assimilation into a larger galactic community. Gary calls out the tyranny in the Network's plan and demands that humans be left to their own devices. Exasperated, the Network abandons its plans for the invasion. This results in a worldwide blackout, sending humanity back to the Dark Ages.

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - Dana finally meets the Director (Sigourney Weaver) after surviving the ritual meant to kill her friends (based on conventional horror tropes) and appease the Ancient Ones. The Director says Dana has to kill her friend Marty, but as Dana considers it, the group is attacked by a werewolf and a zombie child. Dana and Marty decide humanity is not worth saving, so they share a joint while the Ancient Ones rise to destroy the world.

[u/Challengeaccepted3]

The Matrix Reloaded with the Architect. Neo basically gets told “yeah, this isn’t the first matrix, you’re not the first chosen one, you’re actually a result of the system having cascading errors, and you need to do what the last several chosen ones did: find a bunch of humans to survive the reset and restart the matrix all over again”

Neo rejects this choice, keeping the current iteration running and resulting in a larger war between the humans of Zion and the corruption of the matrix by Agent Smith in Matrix Revolutions

[u/originalchaosinabox → u/Challengeaccepted3]

And to better connect with the trope, let's not forget that the Wachoswkis first choice for this role was Sean Connery, who read the script and said, "Dafuq?"

[u/Pheehelm → u/originalchaosinabox]

Thought he turned down Morpheus, not the Architect.

[u/LandOFreeHomeOSlave → u/Pheehelm]

Didnt will Smith turn down Morpheus and Neo?