Agent Smith
Agent Smith is a male movie villain who features in The Matrix.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Agent Smith was a male Agent program that came to operate within the Matrix. He was programmed to keep order within the system by terminating any human that attempted to bring instability to the simulated reality. In addition, he was charged with the elimination of rogue programs that no longer served a purpose to the Machines. Potential threats to the stability of the system typically took the form of Redpills and defunct programs.
Smith alongside Agent Jones and Brown attempted to apprehend Trinity at the Heart O' The City Hotel having tracked her phone call to Cypher and cut the Hardline to prevent her from escaping there. Smith displayed irritation that the Law Enforcement who had arrived at the Hotel had gone ahead without the Agents in apprehending Trinity.
Upon reviving, Neo came to realizes his power as the One and subsequently defeated Smith by entering his body where he destroyed the code from within the program.
Revolutions
Though seemingly destroyed, he came to survive the encounter with Neo and came to be greatly altered as a result. This was because the system attempted to balance itself and had Smith being set up as Neo's opposite. As a result, he came to be 'unplugged' from the system and thus no longer an Agent but a 'free man'. Largely because of Neo's role in 'freeing' him, he also began to set the pieces to unveiling his return. Driving towards the building where the Crisis Meeting was occurring while deliberately parking in front of the door with the headlights operating at full blast to obscure his identity, he then anonymously made contact with the doorman, Corrupt, inquiring if Neo was inside. When Corrupt claimed ignorance, Smith then supplied a package namely his discarded earpiece which was intended for him, cryptically stating that it was to return the favor for "setting [Smith] free" before departing just as Agents Johnson, Thompson, and Jackson raided the area. He and another Smith clone then proceeded to secretly observe the ensuing fight, having apparently predicted Neo would ultimately win against the upgraded agents. One of Smith's clones also proceeded to ambush Bane and assimilate him just before he could successfully jack-out, with the resulting clone also taking the opportunity to infiltrate the real world. Eventually, Smith encountered Neo at the park shortly after the latter had met with The Oracle, his presence causing the crow-like programs to disperse. After revealing he was the anonymous deliveryman that arrived at the Crisis Meeting, he then revealed his survival and his status as no longer an Agent of the system, and thus no longer bound by it. However, he and his clones then tried to kill Neo via assimilating him, citing that he nearly took away his purpose, although this ultimately failed, resulting in a massive brawl in the park that, combined with Smith's constantly replicating to give himself more of an edge against Neo, forced his quarry to escape. However, he and his clones were undaunted, simply going back through the city due to anticipating that they will encounter each other again. True to Smith's predictions, he encountered Neo at the hallway immediately preceding the source and blocked the doorway just as Neo, Morpheus, and Keymaker were about to arrive. He also makes clear he had been expecting Neo's arrival contrary to Neo, and also cryptically implies his desires were aligned with Neo's, or more specifically, that he "wants everything." When Morpheus sarcastically asked in a threatening manner if a spent bullet from his gun counted regarding "everything", Smith cooly encouraged Morpheus to go ahead and shoot him, citing that his best feature at this point is that there's "so many of [Smith]." As if on cue, all the doors burst open and unveiled several Smith clones, with Smith taking the opportunity to deck Morpheus. His various clones also attempted to assimilate Morpheus while quoting the adage "can't beat them, join them", although Neo interfered and prevented them from doing so. After the power went out thanks to Trinity hacking the power grid, the Smiths, infuriated at this turn of events, attempted to use their Desert Eagles on the three as Neo flew Morpheus and Keymaker into the Source room. Although Neo successfully closed the door on them, the Smiths ultimately succeeded in killing The Keymaker.
Resurrections
Though destroyed, Smith was resurrected when the Analyst came to revive Neo where due to their shared connection the program was restored. Subconsciously, Neo would use elements of Smith's program to create a new intelligence who was given the name Morpheus. To avoid deletion, a new outer shell was created for the original Smith until he was found by the Analyst. He turned the shared bond with Neo into a chain that resulted in the rogue program becoming an amnesiac as a result. This meant that so long as Neo's memories were wiped then so was the case with Smith where the pair came to believe that they were ordinary people in this new world generated within the Matrix. In this reality, Smith was led to believe he was Neo's business partner who he called 'Tom' where they thought the Matrix was simply a game their company had made with the Smith program simply concerned about making a profit from their venture. This remained the case for many years until Neo began to encounter people that revealed the Matrix was real and that his memories had been altered.
Overview
Personality and attributes
On the surface, Agent Smith appeared polite and professional where he performed his duty as an Agent of the system. However, this hid a persona that was resentful of his purpose and came to be a self-serving monster.
He believed that that an individuals existence stemmed on their purpose and that there was no escape from reason. As such, he did not believe that any person was truly free. This was because without purpose they would not exist.
Smith was shown to hold a low opinion of humans. He compared mankind to a virus stating that it was a disease organism that uncontrollably replicated and inevitably destroyed its environment only to move on to another and repeat the process. In one case, he had said that one should never send a human to do a Machine's job.
According to him, concepts such as freedom, peace, love and truth to be illusions with them being temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that was without meaning or purpose. He displayed his reasoning for his hunt to destroy Zion as he expressed a desire to be free from the Matrix. Once eliminated, he had no further need to be in the Matrix which was why he was adamant in hunting down Redpill humans.
His enmity was to the point that he said he was going to enjoy watching Neo die.
The encounter with Neo led to Smith being turned into Anderson's opposite and negative with this being result of the equation in the Matrix trying to balance itself out.
Powers and abilities
Agent Smith was a program among the machines who was installed in the virtual world of the Matrix. Over there, he operated as an Agent giving him greater control over this world and had a number of abilities. These included superhumans strength, the ability to leap enormous distances, superhuman speed and the capacity to possess any human that had not been freed from the Matrix. Smith could also affect the physical characteristics of some of those trapped in the Matrix such as sealing a person's mouth so that they could not speak. His position allowed him to command several Agents in the field and he could also authorise Sentinel strike against targets in the real world.
Later on, he was nearly deleted by Neo but instead of being killed he became linked with the human. This enabled him to resist being sent to the Source that was the Machines' mainframe where obsolete or malfunctioning programs were deleted. No longer an Agent, Smith was liberated from the Machines' control and existed as a renegade program that manifested himself akin to a self-replicating computer virus compared to his original Agent-based ability to inhabit a single body wired into the Matrix. Smith gained the power to copy his physical form onto any entity in the Matrix by phasing his hand into their body and spreading a black liquid that transformed them into a copy of himself resulting in an ever-growing army of Smiths connected by a single consciousness. By copying himself onto a human redpill in the process of disconnecting from the Matrix, Smith overwrote their consciousness and took control of their body in the real world.
Notes
- Agent Smith was created by The Wachowskis where he was portrayed by actor Hugo Weaving in the setting of The Matrix.
- In 2008, Empire Magazine came to [list the character as being the 84th Greatest Movie Character of All Time.
In other media
Films
- In The Lego Batman Movie, Agent Smith appeared in the setting of the 2017 animated film where he was voiced by an uncredited actor. He was shown as one of many villains from different franchises that were imprisoned in the Phantom Zone.
Video games
- In The Matrix: Path of Neo, Agent Smith appeared as a boss character in the setting of the 2005 action-adventure video game where he was voiced by actor Christopher Smith.
- In The Matrix Online, Agent Smith appeared in the setting of the MMORPG video game.
Appearances
- The Matrix:
- Matrix Reloaded:
- The Matrix Revolutions:
External Links
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