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There are four iconic characters from The Matrix. Three are heroes: Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus. The other is the villain, Agent Smith. Despite appearances, Smith is not human and would be insulted if someone insinuated so. He’s a program of the Matrix, an agent designed to destroy infiltrators from the human rebellion.
Smith always comes back no matter how many times he’s thwarted. Smith is played by Hugo Weaving throughout the original trilogy. Weaving’s performance is one for the ages. It’s easy to understand why he became Hollywood’s go-to villain actor for more than a decade afterward. Weaving delivers countless amazing line reads, but some really stand out.
10 “I’m Not So Bad, Once You Get To Know Me”
Smith is separate from many other Artificial Intelligence villains, like HAL 9000, Skynet, or even the machine masters he initially serves. This is because he’s not a creature of logic. He’s full of rage and anger. Once he’s free of his programming, he decides to spread that anger in the most literal way. He assimilates every being in the Matrix into himself.
In Revolutions, he confronts the Oracle’s bodyguard, Seraph, and a young program, Sati. Before Smith assimilates them, Sati tells Agent Smith she’s heard that he’s a bad man. Smith gives her false reassurance with the above quote.
9 “Because Of You, I’m No Longer An Agent Of This System. A New Man, So To Speak”
Once Neo revived himself as the One, he was able to destroy Smith, or so it seemed. All it really did was free Smith from his mission. Despite his disdain for the Matrix, the newly unshackled Smith chose to stay there as an exiled program. He decided to remake the digital world into his own personal realm.
When the reborn Smith first confronts Neo in The Matrix Reloaded, he describes himself as a “new man.” He emphasizes that he’s no longer Agent Smith – just Smith. Like Neo himself, Smith has created a new identity for himself after his rebirth.
8 “I Believe That, As A Species, Human Beings Define Their Reality Through Misery And Suffering”
Agent Smith gets three successive monologues during his interrogation of Morpheus. The first is the least memorable, but only because the following two are transcendently good. Smith delivers some world-building, explaining to Morpheus that the first Matrix was a paradise. The imprisoned humans were unable to accept this world.
So, the system was reimagined into a recreation of the late 20th century. Smith explains that some machines think that simple code was unable to capture humanity’s paradise. Smith argues it’s because humans need suffering. This provides the first glimpse into his misanthropy (of which there’s plenty more to come).
7 “It Seems That You’ve Been Living Two Lives. One Of These Lives Has A Future, And One Of Them Does Not”
When Smith interrogates Neo, he first behaves as a simple government agent. He’s intent on arresting Neo for simple cyber crimes. Smith is willing to cut Neo a plea bargain if he informs on Morpheus. Smith’s description pointedly draws a dichotomy between Thomas Anderson and Neo. “In one life, you’re Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company. You have a Social Security number, you pay your taxes, and you help your landlady carry out her garbage.”
“The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo. You are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for.” When Smith says that only one of Neo’s lives has a future, he doesn’t know how right he is.
6 “Tell Me, Mr. Anderson… What Good Is A Phone Call If You’re Unable To Speak?”
One of the most frightening moments across all four Matrix films is the culmination of Smith’s interrogation of Neo. Neo refuses the Agents’ offer by flipping off Smith and demanding a phone call. Aware he’s not going to get Neo’s cooperation willingly, Smith rearranges the coding of the Matrix to remove Neo’s mouth.
Smith taunts Neo with the above quote, and leaves him unable to scream as the Agents implant a spy drone in his body. The scene is the most overt hint about the truth of the Matrix, but it’s fully unveiled.
5 “You Hear That Mr. Anderson? That Is The Sound Of Inevitability. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson”
Even as Neo and Smith become more acquainted and their destines inextricably bound, Smith never calls his enemy by his chosen name. He sticks with “Mr. Anderson,” and sometimes “Tom.” At first glance, this could just be the formality of an AI, but it should be clear that Smith isn’t a typical AI. It’s an act of spite. Considering the trans subtext of The Matrix, Smith is deadnaming Neo every time he addresses him. This makes Neo’s defiant retort – “My name… is Neo!” – all the more awesome.
4 “Only A Human Mind Could Invent Something As Insipid As Love!”
The Matrix is a love story. This becomes clearer with every subsequent movie. Neo and Trinity’s romance is the ultimate through line of the Matrix series. Given his thoughts on humanity itself, it isn’t surprising that Smith is unimpressed by an important emotion. Agent Smith clearly doesn’t feel love himself. Yet, he’s wrong that love is insipid. It was Trinity’s love for Neo that revitalized him, and allowed him to first defeat Smith. In the end, it’s the product of a human mind that spelled Smith’s doom.
3 “The Best Thing About Being Me… There’s So Many ‘Me’s”
Smith was envisioned as simply the villain of the first The Matrix. He was too good a villain, and Weaving is too good an actor, not to bring back. Reloaded sees Smith create an army made from identical clones of himself.
This seems like acknowledgement of the decision to revive. Even if one of him is destroyed, there’ll be more waiting in the wind. In Reloaded, Smith confronts Neo and Morpheus on their way to the Architect. He makes this very point after Morpheus puts a gun to his head.
2 “Human Beings Are A Disease…And We Are The Cure”
Smith’s most ruthless and most memorable dialogue comes earlier in his interrogation of Morpheus. With a leader of the human resistance in his custody, Smith takes the opportunity to explain the reason for his virulent misanthropy. He argues that, during his time in the Matrix, he’s realized that humans are not really mammals.
“You [humans] move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease… and we are the cure.”
1 “I’m Going To Be Honest With You”
“I hate this place. This zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink, and every time I do I fear that I have somehow been infected by it. It’s repulsive! Isn’t it? I must get out of here. I must get free.”
With these words to Morpheus, Smith evolves. He’s not just a tool of the system or an avatar of the machine’s evil, but a character in his own right. He’s a malevolent and misanthropic character. Tellingly, Smith removes his earpiece before expounding on his motives. These motives don’t make him any more sympathetic, but they do give Smith pathos. His desire to be free of the Matrix also makes him a parallel of fans’ heroes.
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