Agent (The Matrix)
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Agents are a group of characters in the Matrix series. They are sentient programs, displaying high-level Artificial Intelligence, and are representatives, or "Agents", of the main antagonists within the Matrix fictional universe. In practical terms, they are guardians within the computer-generated world of the Matrix, guarding it from anyone or anything that could reveal it as a false reality, most often Redpills. Agents also hunt down and terminate any rogue programs, such as The Keymaker, which no longer serve a purpose to the overall Machine collective. They appear physically human, but it becomes apparent after observing them for only short periods that they are not. They have a tendency to speak and act in highly precise and mechanic ways.
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[edit] Physical aspects
Agents wear dark green/black business suits, lined with a yellow material, black dress shoes, square sunglasses with a red tint, and a communication earpiece to inform them of any disturbances within the system. These features are copied from the attire for plainclothes agents of the United States Secret Service, which investigates computer fraud in the US, as well as those of the Men in Black conspiracy or the stereotypical G-Man/FBI official. They have sideburns, and their hair is slicked back. Matrix Agents carry Desert Eagle handguns in shoulder holsters that are concealed beneath their suits. In addition to proficiency in the use of firearms, all Agents are masters of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat.
Agents are programmed to be extremely agile, allowing them to perform superhuman feats such as leaping incredible distances. They can briefly move at speeds fast enough to dodge bullets from a gun, at least in most circumstances; a shot from a gun in contact with the Agent will hit its mark, and they can't dodge rapid-fire such as that from a “Minigun” as seen in the original Matrix. They also seem to be impervious to pain, or at least have an extremely high tolerance for it; for instance, when Neo shoots one Agent with the aforementioned minigun, he shows no visible reaction to several bullets ripping through his arm, going down only when he suffers a head shot.
Agents also have superhuman strength. One is observed tearing a car's roof off with one hand, and they can also generate enough power in their punches and kicks to punch through solid concrete. Agents also seem significantly less fazed by punches and kicks than a normal human being would be, although a sufficiently strong attack to a vital body area can still stagger them.
Agents do not seem to have bodies of their own in the Matrix; instead they gain physical form by taking over humans in pods directly connected to the Matrix (Zion rebels broadcasting from hovercrafts are not susceptible to possession). When this host has served its purpose, they can possess someone else, leaving the person somewhat disoriented, as demonstrated in one of the Matrix graphic novels [1] as well as Enter The Matrix. Even if the host is killed, they can simply transfer themselves into another body to continue their operations. Thus, even on the rare occasion that Zion rebels are actually able to "kill" an Agent, they only destroy the body it is in, and the Agent-program will "body-hop" to a new human host nearby, making it very difficult for humans to destroy an Agent permanently. This makes heavily populated areas of the Matrix (i.e. marketplaces, the freeway) extremely dangerous, because anyone in the surroundings could be overwritten by an Agent.
Even so, they have a weakness. Agents, (including Smith initially), can only act within the boundaries of the Matrix, and as a result, they must obey the laws of physics set within the matrix world. Thus, while they can perform feats of incredible strength or have an inhuman endurance, they cannot walk or charge through walls or stop bullets with their hands, and can jump long distances but cannot fly, unlike Neo.
[edit] Known Agents
First seen in The Matrix:
First seen in The Matrix Reloaded:
Other:
[edit] Interaction with Zion infiltrators
All these abilities make Agents extremely dangerous opponents, virtually impossible to eliminate permanently. All Zion hovercraft crewmembers know that, upon encountering one, they should simply run away and try to escape, not only from the Agent, but from all nearby humans who could be potential hosts. According to Morpheus, in the time before Neo was freed from the Matrix, every human that had stood their ground against an Agent was killed. Morpheus and Neo fought Agent Smith in the first movie of the trilogy, and both were defeated by Smith, but were not killed. Once Neo could harness his abilities as the One, Agents posed no threat to him, and he could defeat a trio of Agents with ease. It is implied in the game Enter the Matrix that one of the main reasons for Neo being able to defeat Agents was his ability to focus enough to move quickly for far longer periods than normal rebels; this is the main cause of a player character's difficulty in fighting Agents, since when the player is outside bullet time the Agents are able to dodge and counter all hand-to-hand attacks.
Morpheus has been fortunate enough to stand against two Agents (Smith and Johnson) during the trilogy and live to tell the tale, though he was defeated soundly by Smith (who was probably limiting the lethality of his attacks, as he wanted to capture the high-ranking infiltrator alive), and only overcame Johnson due to the nature of the encounter: he did not need to wear down his opponent, merely fling him from the top of the speeding semi on which they were fighting. Even so, he nearly suffered the same fate himself, and was only given the chance to turn the tables by the unexpected arrival of Niobe on the scene.
Niobe has defeated an Agent, but like Morpheus, there were extenuating circumstances: the encounter took place onboard a cargo plane in the skies above the MegaCity; Niobe lowered the rear cargo ramp and knocked Agent Johnson from the plane.
Ghost has also defeated a single Agent during a raid on a nuclear power plant, again by making use of unique circumstances of the encounter. Agent Johnson challenged him in the control room of the plant; he then damaged one of the high-voltage servers with small arms fire and threw his opponent into it, electrocuting him.
Trinity is the only other character to have 'stood' against an agent and lived. When an agent was distracted by taunting Neo before killing him, she placed a handgun to his head and shot him. If Morpheus is to be believed, and no other human before had survived against an agent, this would mark the first cannonical time that an Agent was 'defeated.'
[edit] Agents Jones and Brown
In the first Matrix movie, Agents Jones (Robert Taylor) and Brown (Paul Goddard) are credited as Agent Smith's "sidekicks". Smith appears to be the leader of their Agent unit, and is seen giving them orders (such as "Find them and destroy them!") which they obey. However, Smith is given at least one order (or at least a forceful suggestion) by Jones ("order the strike"), and there appears to be some resentment or disagreement between the three at times.
Jones and Brown undergo little character development, and do not appear in the sequels, though they are occasionally seen in The Matrix Online. They are mostly silent but brutal accomplices to Smith, for instance holding Neo down so Smith can insert a probe through his navel.
Brown's significant scenes include chasing Trinity across the rooftops in the opening sequence. He attempts to shoot her but misses several times. Brown is also present in the scene where Morpheus is interrogated, injecting a truth serum into Morpheus's neck. Brown is ordered by Smith to check Neo for life signs after Smith has shot Neo: Brown pronounces Neo dead. He is last seen fleeing from Neo along with Jones after Smith's destruction.
Jones is less prominent than Brown in the first movie, though he shoots and almost succeeds in killing Neo. He stands above the stricken Neo, uttering the line "Only human," before being shot himself by Trinity. From this it seems Jones holds humanity in the same contempt as Smith. Jones is seen holding Brown back when Neo is about to destroy Smith in the end of the film, and he is last seen running away from Neo, along with Brown.
[edit] Upgraded Agents
The Matrix Reloaded introduced Agents Jackson, Johnson and Thompson. Their abilities have been upgraded, making them stronger, faster, and larger; they are able to block some of Neo's blows. In The Matrix: Path of Neo, the upgraded Agents recover from violent physical injuries in a relatively short time. However, an unarmed Neo is still able to defeat them easily. Their enhanced physical prowess may also have come at the expense of some degree of intelligence; Agent Johnson is defeated three times during the trilogy, and their weapon accuracy is reduced.
The upgraded Agents continue the use of very plain, common, usually Anglo-Saxon names to avoid drawing attention to themselves. All three of their names end in 'son', possibly to reflect the fact that they are new models.
[edit] Rogue Agents
A rogue Agent can be a very dangerous program. When Smith, the strongest of them all, was destroyed by Neo at the end of The Matrix, his programming instructed him to return to the Source, the Machine mainframe computer, to be destroyed or stored. However, because of Neo's attack, something changed in Smith that allowed him to defy his programming. The change in Smith also disconnects him from the system, setting him "free" from his duties, in effect. This change makes Smith an "Exile" program without purpose. Smith's programming also takes on some of Neo's abilities as The One, such as the ability to withstand dramatic damage, and fly. However, since Smith is not in truth a complete autonomous being with the ability to choose a new purpose for himself, Smith becomes sociopathic. The rogue Smith begins to behave like a virus himself, making copy after copy of himself using humans and other programs in the Matrix, all of them with one purpose based on his old Agent programming, which was now corrupted. The copies would have the memories and special abilities of any assimilated programs, such as the Oracle's ability to see the future. Smith's ability to copy himself onto others may be a sort of corruption of his original ability to move from host body to host body before Neo's attack. No one, not even other Agents, were immune to his attacks; if Smith possessed an Agent's body, the Agent could simply take over another one (as seen in Reloaded), but this was nullified when Smith took over every human and program in the Matrix.
[edit] Other Agents
Many other agents have appeared in the Animatrix, the Matrix console games and the Matrix comics. Agents Ash, Bird, Finn, Fine and White are the only agents named there, but other unnamed have appeared as well.
Agent White also appears in The Matrix: Path of Neo as a replacement for Smith after he was destroyed by Neo. White appears in only one section of the Redpill Rescue level called The Security Guard. He appears much like Agent Brown but has his own personality.
The Animatrix story World Record featured a different style of Agent wearing full-length trenchcoats instead of the usual dark suit.
[edit] Online
The Agents live on in the film's continuation, the MMORPG The Matrix Online. In line with the brokered truce created by Neo at the end of The Matrix Revolutions, Agents were no longer assigned to kill redpills on sight, instead they guard various areas of the Matrix that are still restricted to the awakened. However, the Agents recently reverted to their original programming with the collapse of the Truce.
[edit] Impostor Agents
Red-Eyed 'Impostor' Agents at the start of The Matrix Online storyline during chapter 1.1.
These 'agents' impersonated system representatives and begun widespread sabotage and assaults on the awakened redpills in an attempt to stress/break the truce agreement. All three major organizations (Zion, The Machines and The Merovingian) were quick to deny being responsible for the attacks and the impostor were soon declared a fourth group onto themselves.
It was soon discovered that these beings were not agents at all but rather were using some kind of disguise technology to try and implicate the machines for their actions. However, glowing red eyes and lack of system issue firearms were definite flaws in the plan.
It is revealed in a "Report to the General" document that the Red-Eyed Agents are the General's commandos, taking into consideration that programs could get access to other shells (like the way the Oracle changed appearance in the movies), made occasional documented reports to the General in various Zion and Machine critical missions, and also hinted that their disguises were malfunctioning.
[edit] Agent Gray
Gray was one of several Agents trapped in the Matrix during the infestation known as Smith. His program was overwritten with new code, executing instructions which conflicted with his primary architecture. When Smith was defeated and Smith's program was withdrawn from the system, Gray was freed, but his ordeal was not yet over.
The Machine Civilization is run by cautious protocols, and there was still some chance that the Smith code had found a place to shelter within the system, or within an RSI. Agents that had been exposed to Smith were quarantined within the Matrix during the reset — something that is usually never done. Bluepills have their connections to the system attenuated so they never notice the event, and Exiles can seek shelter in a construct, but Agents have no such recourse. Those trapped in the system during the reset were literally turned inside out as their code was deconstructed and recompiled with a vicious error-checking routine.
Even afterward, he has not been allowed to return to the Source, instead relegated to a buffer system created during the reboot — a gateway construct which acts as a Machine analog to the Merovingian's Mobil Avenue Station. In some ways he is almost an Exile, but for the fact that he believes he will eventually be able to return to the Source.
Due to his current situation, Agent Gray was selected to act as recruiter and Controller for human beings that the Machines believe can assist them in controlling the Matrix. Like all Agents he is normally dispassionate and aloof, with a precise manner of speaking, but his forced dealings with humans have left him with somewhat more understanding of them than most Agents.
When dealing with humans, he uses many euphemisms, as he has found that humans often prefer not to say what they really mean. Death is “cessation of awareness.” Stealing is “expeditious acquisition.” He addresses humans by their gender title and bluepill last name (e.g. "Mister Anderson"), and seems to have a foolproof way of knowing this information about every human he speaks to.
Though Gray resented his assignment greatly at first, he has come to appreciate the fact that he is better at dealing with humans than most other machine Agents. Although he does not enjoy interacting with humans, the fact that he is efficient at it gives him a sense of pride.
Agent Gray is voiced by John Patrick Lowrie.
[edit] See also
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