The Matrix Facts About Agent Smith:
Agent Smith was the primary supervillain of the acclaimed movie trilogy The Matrix. With another Matrix movie in the works, it is time we pay a visit to the old mythos for old times’ sake and know a little bit about the trilogy’s original big bad wolf.
1. The Mega Smith
The Wachowski Brothers are a very dedicated duo. If they are creating a universe, they ensure that everything that is associated with their universe is top-notch. The Wachowskis did not just stop with the movies. There were several games under development revolving around the Matrix. One particularly ambitious game was Matrix: The Path of Neo, released in 2005. The game is famous for one reason – the ending. In the movie’s ending, Neo sacrifices himself to destroy Agent Smith from the inside. But in the game, all the Agent Smiths come together and pool up all the nearby building materials to form one gigantic Mega Smith. It was a fitting end to a video game. The Wachowskis were right to assume that the movie’s official ending would have made for a very bad game ending.
2. Became what he was designed to destroy
In one iconic scene in The Matrix, Agent Smith converses with a captured Morpheus on the nature of the human collective. Smith claims that humans are not mammals. In essence, mammals are beings that achieve a balance with the environment, living in a state of equilibrium with the ecosystem. Humans just keep on multiplying over and over again until the entire ecological balance gets off track. Smith compares humanity to another life form with similar characteristics – a Virus. In the second Matrix movie, Agent Smith has bent the rules of his programming and now forcible turn anyone he finds into him-self. He replicates him-self until he is the dominant life form within the vicinity. By the third Matrix movie, Smith becomes the very thing he despises – a virus, just like he explained humanity to be.
3. He was jealous of humans
Within the Matrix, Agent Smith was one of many digital guardians created to serve the digital universe. They were artificial constructs made out of binary codes. Their purpose was to protect the Matrix at all costs. Agent Smith had secretly achieved sentience, being able to bend the rules of his programming secretly without anyone’s knowledge. His view of the world had changed since he thought differently than he was programmed to. Agent Smith wanted to understand humans. He wanted to know why the Architect wanted to preserve humanity rather than just destroy them since they are their greatest enemies. In his fight against Neo, Smith questions why is Neo ready to fight him to death when he knows he cannot win this battle. Agent Smith, for all his intelligence, could not understand the human spirit. And anything we do not understand, we get scared of.
4. Not Neo but Agent Smith could be the One
The One is being powered by the collective doubts and skepticism of all the human beings about the reality of the universe. This pent up energy would one day become so strong it would channel itself into a human and make him or her The One, essentially making that person a God. Neo is The One within the Matrix. But a recent theory claims that it was Agent Smith who was The One. This theory convincingly proves that Agent Smith fulfills the prophecy better than Neo. The one primary power of The One is that the rules of the Matrix do not apply to him. Neo, even within the Matrix, had to follow its rules. He could still be hurt and get killed. Agent Smith could do whatever he wishes within the Matrix. The rules never applied to him. It was his end that stopped the war and saved humanity in the end and not Neo.
5. The Blacksmith
The Matrix has a lot of hidden references that are still being uncovered. One of them is associated with the color of the suit Agent Smith is wearing during and after the first Matrix movie. Agent Smith wears a dark green suit, which is the tone of the entire movie when he is an Agent. But once he rebels and goes rogue, the color of his suit changes to Black. The license plate of Agent Smith’s car in The Matrix Reloaded reads IS5416. In the Bible, Isaiah says in verse 54:16 that:
“Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon for its purpose.”
6. He did not die at the end of Matrix Revolutions
In the year 2005, Agent Smith reappeared again in the Massively Multiplayer Online game called The Matrix Online. The game was blessed by the creators of the movie series – the Wachowski Brothers as the official sequel to The Matrix Revolutions. It is revealed that Agent Smith survived the battle with Neo. Agent Gray had a portion of Agent Smith’s essence within the game. A human being called Shane Black started turning everyone else into Agent Smiths. An army of Agent Smiths would later appear for a third time within the game and pledged to take down the Matrix and destroy Zion. Unfortunately, the game as shutting down before their plan could be brought to its end.
7. He is the Many
The One is the prophesized savior of the Human Race. He channels the collective skepticism of all mankind and is virtually a God within the confines of the Matrix. Like God has his anti-thesis in all religions and mythologies, so does The One. A theory claims that Agent Smith is also part of the prophecy. He is the polar opposite of Neo. In other words, he is the prophesized enemy of The One termed The Many. Neo channels the powers of the collective whole of humanity. His destiny is to save Zion and end the war. Many have a different role. His job is to fight The One and to stop him from halting his plan to destroy Zion.
8. He actually won the fight
This might get a little controversial. But we believe that it was Agent Smith who won the final fight between him and Neo and not the latter. There are multiple reasons for stating it. The one reason we will cite is that Agent Smith was designed to fulfill one purpose – save the Matrix and stop The One. His job had always been to fight The One aka Neo and stop him from shutting down the Matrix. All this while, Agent Smith believed that he was actually acting out and going against his programming. What he was doing was all part of his code and design algorithm. When he assimilated Neo into his collective at the end of the battle, his purpose was fulfilled and the Matrix sent a self-destruct code to take him as well as Neo down.
9. Hello Mr. Anderson
Neo’s original name before he got out of the Matrix was Thomas Anderson. Everyone calls him Neo after he joins Morpheus’ crew. Within the Matrix, all the Agents refer to him as either The One or as Neo. All except Agent Smith that is! Smith still calls Neo by his original name – Mr. Anderson. In fact, Agent Smith calls Keanu Reeves’ character as Neo only once in each Matrix movie. The first time was during the initial interview where Neo has his mouth melted off. In the second movie, it was during the time when Neo delivered the package containing Smith’s earplug. The third time was in Matrix Revolutions when there as a package sent by Agent Smith to Neo.
10. The only machine that became a human
Any sentient machine has the power to think, act, and react at speeds much faster than any human could. The only thing that separates a man from a machine is the emotional element. Humanity can feel pain, sorrow, joy, grief, agony, and excitement. A machine can never interpret those emotions since it cannot be translated into a binary form. Agent Smith was the first-ever machine to feel those emotions. He transferred himself onto Bane, a member of the wrecked Caduceus ship’s crew. For the first time, Smith experienced a flurry of emotions like pain and happiness. He was curious to learn more. When Neo realized it was Agent Smith within Bane’s body, he was taken aback.
