Agents (top: regular agents, Bottom: Upgraded agents)
“ Sentient programs. They can move in and out of any software still hardwired to the system. That means that anyone we haven't unplugged...is potentially an Agent. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone...and they are no one.
”― Morpheus explaining Agents to Neo[src]
Agents were programs whose primary function was to eliminate anyone or anything that could potentially reveal the truth of the Matrix to its inhabitants or cause harm to its system.
Abilities
“ Every single man or woman who has stood their ground, everyone who has fought an Agent, has died. I've seen an Agent punch through a concrete wall. Men have emptied entire clips at them and hit nothing but air.
”― Morpheus to Neo[src]
Impossibly fast, incredibly lethal, and absolutely fearless, Agents were the most dangerous entities within the Matrix. Agents possessed extraordinary powers to manipulate their surroundings, including superhuman strength and the ability to flawlessly dodge incoming bullets. However, Agents still had limitations, being "based in a world that is built on rules". Thus, they could not perform any actions outside the boundaries of their programming, such as walking through walls or flying;[1][2] Agent Smith's flight in his final fight against Neo was the sole exception to this, as he had essentially gained total control over the Matrix by that point.[3] Agents were programmed to keep order within the system by terminating troublesome programs and human avatars which would otherwise bring instability to the simulated reality.
Agents had the ability to take over the simulated body of any human that was a part of the Matrix, converting it into a copy of their own. If that body was killed, or an Agent needed to change its location quickly, it could assume the shell of any other human hard-wired to the Matrix in a matter of seconds. It was this power that allowed them to simultaneously be everyone and no one within the Matrix, in keeping with Morpheus' observation. This process was greatly aided by the Agents' instantaneous communication with each other via their earpieces.[1]
Description
An Agent's communications earpiece, a modified Telex ET 2 coiled earpiece.
Agents typically appeared as Caucasian males with brown hair, and dressed formally to greatly resemble and appear to possess governmental authority similar to Secret Service, FBI, NSA, CIA or MiB government officials. Their general attire were dark green suits with gold lining, dark green ties, communication earpieces, square sunglasses, and white dress shirts, creating an ordinary if somewhat out-of-place appearance.[1] In contrast is Smith's appearance upon his return as a virus after his apparent destruction, with his sunglasses more angular in shape and a black outfit instead of dark green.[2] Agents appeared to be human but collectively lacked a substantive personality, and so normally worked in a trio where one Agent had a more defined personality for discussions or interrogations of bluepills.[1]
Agents were also endowed with incredible agility, strength, speed, heightened damage resistance such that pain appeared more of an annoyance than a hindrance, and the ability to possess other bluepills connected directly to the system. The ability to possess anyone connected directly to the Matrix power plant made any human in the Matrix a potential Agent. As such, Zion operatives working within the Matrix could encounter an Agent at any time. The Agents seemed to be able to possess bluepills directly after they have spotted a potential target or person of interest, although the exact functions and limitations of this ability were ambiguous at best. An example of this ability is when a homeless man spotted Morpheus exit the Matrix through a public telephone, alerting Agent Smith to their whereabouts.
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Agent Jones dodging Neo's incoming fire during the rooftop fighting.
While redpills were not hardwired to the Matrix and so could not be possessed, Agents still posed a threat. Should a Zion operative be discovered by an Agent, their only option was to flee, it being common knowledge that everyone who stood their ground against an Agent had died. Agents were endowed with superhuman agility, allowing them to easily outpace the average redpill in hand-to-hand combat and avoid bullets, notwithstanding point-blank shots or weapons with extremely high rates of fire.[1]
An Agent's programming allowed them to bend or break the laws of physics just like trained redpills, albeit to a much greater degree. Should a redpill be fortunate enough to defeat an Agent, the victory would be short-lived as the Agent would simply possess another body or call upon their comrades, cultivating a fearsome reputation as relentless and nigh-invincible killers.[1]
Compared to redpills, Agents appeared to rely less on martial arts skills and more on their superior agility and reaction times, tending to favor more conventional punches and kicks. When necessary, they called on their extensive list of acrobatic skills and fighting moves, utilizing their superior speed and strength to overpower and outpace their enemies in combat.[1]
An Agent's Desert Eagle .50AE
An Agent's primary sidearm was usually armed with a Desert Eagle chambered in .50 Action Express. Their aim was incredibly accurate, demonstrated when Agent Smith was able to track and shoot Morpheus in the leg through a wall during Neo and Trinity's rescue mission.[1] When an Agent possessed a new body, their sidearm, clothing and general appearance was as carried over as well,[1] a procedure continued with the replication of each Smith clone.[2]
Agents were also tasked with the elimination of Exiles, rogue programs who had outlived their purpose within the Matrix but refused to return to the Source; The Keymaker and Seraph were notable Exiles. All Agents prioritized targets based on their potential threat level, as seen during the freeway chase when the Agents ignored the Twins in favor of focusing on eliminating the Keymaker.
History
Original Agents (from left to right) Brown, Smith, and Jones.
Agents came to existence when the machines defeated humanity during the early stages of the Machine War and their creation of the Matrix, and were old enough to witness the creation of the Paradise and Nightmare Matrix prototypes before its final design that was used for centuries. Their only goal was to protect the Matrix itself and the truth. Neo first saw Agents Brown, Jones, and Agent Smith. Of these, Smith had a more defined personality, and expressed hatred and contempt towards both humanity and his work within the Matrix.[1] He later became a virulent rogue Agent, disconnected from the system, psychotically choosing as his new purpose the destruction of the Matrix and Neo in particular.[2]
Upgraded Agents
Upgraded Agents (from left to right) Jackson, Johnson, and Thompson.
Six months after Neo's transfiguration into The One, the Matrix retrieved agents Brown and Jones back to the Source and deployed the Upgraded Agents Jackson, Johnson, and Thompson.
Upgraded Agents, unlike the original Agents, had a change of appearance: their suit jackets were lighter and had more of a grayish-green tone, they were bulkier, wider and taller in appearance, and their last names were two syllables long and all ended with "-son".
Upgraded Agents were deployed to defeat The One, whom they called "the Anomaly". Since Neo's powers far outmatched those of regular Agents, Upgraded Agents were allowed to bend the rules of the Matrix to a greater degree than the original Agents, possessing increased stamina and speed, more powerful punches and much faster reactions. Neo realized the nature of Upgraded Agents when Johnson blocked one of his lighter punches, but even still they were greatly outmatched. While these Upgraded Agents were quicker than previous iterations, they did not represent more of a threat to The One than their predecessors. For example, just as Agent Smith failed to hit Neo upon realizing he was The One,[1] so to did Agent Johnson failed to do so when he attacked Neo.[2] In both cases, Neo blocked all of the respective Agent's attacks with one arm behind his back and the other easily countering the blows without any real effort.
However, Upgraded Agents were a more serious threat to other redpills, being even more difficult to kill than typical Agents. Trinity was outmatched and nearly killed by Thompson while trying to save Neo and Morpheus, until she was saved by Neo himself. Even Morpheus, despite his best efforts and improved fighting abilities, was eventually overpowered by Agent Johnson and only caught him with a surprise attack after managing to save The Keymaker.[2]
Appearance and Design
The look and manner of Smith and his fellow Agents seem to be drawn from the common pool of paranoia and American pop culture. One influence appears to be the popular image of the Men in Black agents from the 1997 film, Men in Black, as well as the black suit-and-tie getup from the 1992 film, Reservoir Dogs, the 1994 film, Pulp Fiction, the 1980 comedy film, The Blues Brothers, merged with the depictions in media of federal law enforcement agents as ruthlessly efficient automata who carry out their duties with cold precision and General American Accent.
Agents wore dark, square, frame-less sunglasses with corners or smooth angles, dark green suit jackets with gold satin lining, matching dress pants, a dark green tie with a communication earpiece on the right ear, along with a tie clip, and a white dress shirt. Their choice of suit color was based off of the green encoding for the Matrix itself, further identifying themselves as programs. With the minor exceptions of African-American Agent Perry and female Agent Pace,[4] nearly all Agents appeared as Caucasian males,[1][3][2][4][5][6][7][8] in start contrast to the majority population of Zion which consisted of many diverse cultures and walks of life.[2][3]
Apart from Agents Smith and Jones, Agents simply showed blandness and apathy for the human race, although Smith had an obsession with destroying Neo and a general hatred of humans, especially their smell. Jones implied at one point that he, too, had a strong dislike of humanity, uttering "Only human" in a disgusted tone of voice, though his contempt for them was not as strong as Smith's.[1]
Other Agents had names like Brown, Johnson, and Thompson; common, innocuous, Anglo-Saxon names.[9]
Quotes
“ Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet; you are a plague, and we - are the cure.
”― Agent Smith[src]
Agent Thompson: The anomaly.
Agent Jackson: Do we proceed?
Agent Thompson: Yes...
Agent Jackson: ...he is still...
Agent Johnson: ...only human.― The Upgraded Agents discussing Neo prior to their fight[src]
“ Only human.
”― Agent Jones[src]
“ Tell me, Mr. Anderson... What good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?
”― Agent Smith[src]
“ Then you were meant for one more thing. Deletion.
”― Agent Johnson to the Keymaker[src]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 The Matrix
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 The Matrix Reloaded
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Matrix Revolutions
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Matrix Online
- ↑ The Animatrix
- ↑ The Matrix Comics
- ↑ Enter the Matrix
- ↑ The Matrix: Path of Neo
- ↑ It was mentioned in the Philosopher Commentary on the DVD collection that the names of Smith, Brown and Johnson may be endemic to the system itself, demonstrating a very 'robotic' mindset on the part of the Machines.