Agent Smith

**Agent Smith** is one of the major characters from *The Matrix* series.

## **Charactah Account**

Agent Smith is a program designed to protect the Matrix from redpills - humans who will try to reveal to anyone that the Matrix is a false reality - and Exiles, programs who will endanger it. After being 'destroyed' by Neo, Smith becomes an Exile that gains virus-like abilities and begins making endless copies of himself by taking over the bodies of the bluepills, other Agents, and even redpills. In his spare time he shills for general electric.

Initially, Smith appeared polite, professional, and merely serving his purpose as an Agent of the system. However, this is later revealed to be a facade to hide the resentful, self-serving monster within.

While interrogating Morpheus, Smith went as far as comparing humanity to a virus; a disease organism that uncontrollably replicates and inevitably destroys its environment, only to move on to another and repeat the process. Although since this was stated in the presence of the other Agents, he may have just been reiterating his fellow Agents' general apathy towards humans while toning down his own excessive hatred towards them. Ironically, Smith himself would later manifest as a self-replicating virus which spread throughout the Matrix, his only stated purpose, as mentioned by The Oracle, being to destroy the world he inhabited.

## **Appearance**

### **Comics**

* The Matrix Comics 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

### **Movies**

* Space Jam: A New Legacy
* The Lego Batman Movie
* The Matrix
* The Matrix Reloaded
* The Matrix Resurrections
* The Matrix Revolutions

### **Video Games**

* Enter the Matrix
* LEGO Dimensions
* The Matrix Online
* The Matrix: Path of Neo

## **Trivia**

* The name "Smith" is explicitly attributed (as "IS 5416" on the license plate of Smith's car ) to a passage in the Old Testament: *Isaiah 54:16*
* Smith's gradual "humanization" was a process that mirrored and balanced Neo's own increasing power and understanding of the Machine world.
* In *The Matrix*, Smith explains his disgust for the *viral* and *cancerous* nature of humans. Ironically, he himself later shows the same traits, replicating himself and consuming all life within the Matrix.
* Smith's ability to replicate himself is reminiscent of a computer virus or worm, as such malicious programs self-replicate to spread and infect other programs.
* The wall next to Smith shows a graffiti MUZA 25 19 before he hands over his "gift" for Neo, which has been interpreted by some as a comment on Smith's new found freedom.
* Agent Smith was played by Hugo Weaving in the original trilogy. Weaving is otherwise best known for his portrayal of the Elf lord Elrond in *The Hobbit* and *The Lord Of The Rings* Trilogies. This is given a subtle nod in *Lego Lord of the Rings* where Smith makes a cameo in that game as an easter egg.
	+ Smith later played the role of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull in *Captain America: The First Avenger* by Marvel. Coincidentally, Dr. Erskine's flashback to him featured Schmidt with multiple versions of himself, similar to Smith, and at one point in the climax, he even fought Captain America with similar stunts to *The Matrix* (although in that case, it was due to an imbalance of gravity caused by the plane descending from altitude). In addition, his last name, Schmidt, is the German equivalent of "Smith."
	+ Ten years after *The Matrix Revolutions*, Weaving reprises his role as Smith in a General Electric advertisement.
	+ Hugo Weaving confirmed in an interview with timeout.com that he will not be reprising the role of Agent Smith in *The Matrix Resurrections*, citing scheduling conflicts with *The Visit* at the time the movie's filming period was announced. It has been announced since then that Smith will be featured in the film, with Jonathan Groff playing the role, with Hugo Weaving reprising the role through archive footage from the original trilogy.
* Though Smith speaks with an American accent, in *The Matrix*, he pronounces two words out of line with an American accent (probably due to Hugo Weaving slipping up on the accent). Both of these can be heard in the scene in which Smith compares humans to viruses. First, he pronounces "mammals" and "mammal" with a harsher sounding "ah" for the "a" instead of the softer "aa" as is heard in American accents. Secondly, he clearly enunciates the "n" in "environment", which is often not heard very clearly in American accents.
* Despite being the main antagonist, Smith is the reason the war between Zion and the Machines was able to end: for if he never consumed the inhabitants of the Matrix, Neo would never be able to make the deal with the Deus Ex Machina to call off the war in exchange for stopping Smith.
* Smith does share certain qualities with Neo. Both are major characters. Both have been killed and resurrected only to be seemingly killed for good in the third film. They also share similar abilities and clothes style.
* Smith made two appearances in Lego, firstly as an Easter egg in *Lego Lord of the Rings*, and secondly in *The Lego Batman Movie* and the respective *Lego Dimensions* story pack. His cameo in the former was a reference to how Hugo Weaving, Smith's actor, also portrayed Elrond in *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy by Peter Jackson.
* Smith's line of "Mr. Anderson, welcome back! We *missed* you" just prior to his final battle with Neo was given a slightly different delivery in the teaser for *The Matrix Revolutions*.
* Agent Smith has had his glasses either willingly removed or otherwise forced off of him at least once in the movies, the only exception being *Reloaded* (not counting when the Smith copy that resulted from Smith overwriting Bane's consciousness reintegrated with Bane's body).
	+ In the first movie, Smith willingly removes his sunglasses twice:
		- The first time when trying to convince Neo to aid the Agents in tracking down Morpheus.
		- The second time was when trying to get personal with Morpheus in order to extract the access codes to Zion's mainframe.
		- Likewise, he had his sunglasses forcibly removed three times in the movie:
			* The first time was during his bathroom fight with Morpheus where Morpheus knocked them off as a result of headbutting him while pinning him to the floor.
			* The second time was during his fight with Neo in the train station, where Neo used a roundhouse kick to the face that partly shattered his sunglasses and had Smith remove them as a result, infuriating him enough to personally vow to Neo that he will definitely enjoy watching him die as a result.
			* The third time was shortly after Neo becomes The One, where he knocks Smith across the room and sends his sunglasses flying off him as a result.
	+ In the third movie, Smith willingly removes his glasses once, shortly after rewriting The Oracle's code, when the resulting Smith clone proceeds to yank his own sunglasses off, presumably as a consequence of his foresight coming into play.
		- Likewise, Smith also has his glasses forced off once, during the final battle with Neo, where one of Neo's kicks proceeded to force his sunglasses off him.
* Smith referred to The Oracle as his "mom" just prior to assimilating her after she called him a bastard for assimilating Sati. The Oracle was deemed by The Architect as the mother of the Matrix.
* In *The Matrix Resurrections*, the rebooted Smith - in the imposed persona of Tom's business partner - is now a heavy smoker, something which neither he nor any other Agent ever did before. This appears to be a small lingering effect from when Smith briefly possessed The Oracle herself at the climax of the third film, as she was also a heavy smoker.
* *The Matrix Resurrections* is the only Matrix film where Agent Smith is not the main antagonist.