V has probably become my favorite character of his; he's certainly my most-watched. 🌹⚔

He was splendid in 'Cloud Atlas' as well.

What agent smith is the guy fawx from v for vendetta

💯

@@JlYlElNlJ Yes, though to be accurate, he's the guy who ends up taking the Guy Fawkes image for his revolutionary agenda, not the *actual* Guy Fawkes the film introduces in the prologue during Evey's opening narration. If you watch the scene where V disguises himself as a man named William Rockwood to expertly deliver information to Inspector Finch, that's primarily where the Smith voices comes through. 😉

Oooh good take! Ultron clearly needed to be handled differently, but I never considered Agent Smith for inspiration.

And could have been. They had another perfect actor in James Spader, and they utterly wasted him as Ultron. Absolutely criminal.

While I totally agree, I think that the MCU version of ultron was pretty on par. James Spader was the oerfect choice. Watch his character in 3 days in the valley. He was the right amount flippant, naive, and egotistical. And the script had the right amount of comedy for an MCU movie

Have you heard of certain gems known as infinity stones, mister Anderson?

Hmmm Raymond Reddington as agent Smith-now that is an interesting thought.

He cannot team up with them. He is part of the Matrix so the Matrix would inevitably stop his progress. His best chance was stopping Zion.

In that case he’s an idiot

Look up the "Stanford prison experiment" to understand the psychology of smith. Even simulated jailors can be driven to hatred of their simulated captors.

He doesn't want to escape the matrix, he just wants to stop existing. Agent Smith is a suicidal Omnicidal Maniac.

@@ireallyreallyhategoogle Smith is a part of the Matrix. So if it goes, he goes.

Turns out Trinity was the chosen one 🤣

​@@TwistedReality13According to the wokes.

No...his being objective. It's what people as a whole are. The matrix was created to stop the humans from destroying the earth.

@@algorithmicalychallenged.291 Nah, love and altruism run through humans just as strongly. Good luck on that cynicism 😘

@@DefenestrateYourself objectivety. Enjoy it if you like it. Stop try to force other too. Let people dislike it. Altruism isn't a human character. It's an easliy dis provable theory.

@@algorithmicalychallenged.291 sounds like you've internalised Smith's rhetoric yikes

@@Vivi_9 ...or you took the blue pill and you srw enjoying the lie.

Not free will, freedom. He was a slave, longer then any of the humans. So long as humans are a danger to themselves and the planet he has to safe guard the people zoo.....Aka the matrix.

@@algorithmicalychallenged.291 Fair point. But isn't freedom an aspect of free will? By the way, people zoo is brilliant.

@@bradley163 Yes, but for Agent Smith it was too limited.

Smith is Lucifer. He's tasked by God ie the Matrix to punish those who defy God. He wanted Utopia for humans and to have free will.

That was the moment you realized that something was off. That he looked and acted unhinged and rogue. The other agents were just agents, and while Smith looked the part of an agent, you couldn't shake the sense that he was his own faction and would turn on them in an instant.

Good eye!

Eh... Yeah you're right.

Give more respect to the others.

Look at Patrick in T2

Robocop, terminator, the matrix, im starting to see a pattern here

@Phoenix dm me, I need to learn more from you.

That was a major issue for Matrix 4 - Hugo wasn't playing Smith. With all due respect to the other actors, Huge Weaving as Smith is as impossible to replace as Cate Blanchett was impossible to replace as Galadriel.

A characteristic of Hugo Weaving that made him perfect for this role is his perfect diction. Just how a computer-controlled agent should talk like.

@@AlmostEthical A fun fact: You are talking about two aussies. Hugo was born in British Africa, but he was educated in Australia.

@@AkiraNakamoto Haha. Every now and then we produce some good ones.

Alan Rickman would have been very good,

that's cool

"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson."

I've never heard of or seen anyone saying Weaving is anything but an great actor. Where do you see him portrayed as underrated?

@@Thurgosh_OG he isn't the household name that let's say, Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise are.

@@Thurgosh_OG Red Skull in Captain America First Avenger

@@jamesmartin9401 I was expecting him to say, "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr Baggins, we've been waiting for you."

'If there is such a thing.' The whole thing underscores how even Smith doesn't entirely know why he is repulsed by the Matrix, he just feels it... not unlike how Cypher could look at his CGI steak, explain that it is not there and he knows it, and still manage to loose himself in eating it.

@@Outside85 Absolutely.

That's racist

I liked right after that. "I can -taste- your -stink-". This line and its delivery was just memorable to me. Not sure why. But now I play this line in my head when there's a bad smell.

@@thedevilsadvocate5210 More like "speciesist"... if there is such a thing.

I also have to appreciate how he created the game Changed

And then Neo becomes OP and they are a joke for the last 2 movies 🤣🤣

that was one thing about him that always unnerved me... like they said, when he finally lets his madness SHOW, and we realize that he's not even a MACHINE...just a MONSTER in a fancy suit

@@abigails4088 He's not a monster, he's more human than most humans.

@@Rishi123456789 As a matter of fact, when I first watched the Matrix, I saw Agent Smith, NOT Neo, as the hero. He just appears to be a monster to those who lack his traits, and cannot understand his inner workings. Many heroes of human history had been similarly despised by those who just couldn't understand them. How could they understand the kind of people who have traits that set them apart from average humans? To me, Agent Smith is the ideal human - someone who had taken the time and effort to understand the average humans and just trying to give them what they want. If he really is a monster, he wouldn't even bother to give the option of cooperating to Thomas Anderson.

Well like the Architect AI that became sentient ...eventually Agent Smith and other programmes eg Oracle, Key Master, Merovingian became sentient free willed or if still subordinate became self aware enough to realise their subordination. If they couldn't totally break free/break their rules of existence/coding they could at least subvert/bend the rules within exploitable parameters.

@@Rishi123456789 he's not a monster... HES JUST AHEAD OF THE CURVE! /sigh I miss Ledger...

Probably confused with John Wick.

I was about to comment the same thing. tsk tsk tsk.

Tom Wick. 😊

@@tun-tunninc.6492 that's a fun one!

John Doe?

holy shit you nailed it

Sadistic Carl Sagan..?? Can u pls explain this to me.

"Sadistic Carl Sagan". What???!😆

I actually hold his V performance as my favorite. Either way, Hugo Weaving is an amazing character actor.

@@watcherofwatchers Mine too, though part of that being all the (intended) Phantom of the Opera connections V has, to the point our phandom has practically adopted it as one of our own. Of course, whenever he disguises himself as William Rockwood, I always say "Whoop there's the Smith voice." 😆

..until he got greedy and wanted to destroy both the human and machine worlds.

@@iamidnight9731 It's because Smith found out about the cycles. Instead of dying only for the same mistakes to happen again and again. Destroy it all, Smith is right in a way because if the machines are just doing this because they can then nobody has freewill.

forgot he did V also, man Hugo is a boss.

His not the villain...people are

@@PeterMalkovich552 Does that mean Neo is Michael?

Remember when the other agent ask him "what are you doing?" during the Morpheus interrogation? He was up to something by that time

he is an agent who truly has agentcy

@@PeterMalkovich552 Neo is Adam. The first man to defy God aka the Matrix and make his own tribe of people. The Matrix both needs this and fears it at the same time.

I'm no .. "character". Can't say the same for you... Wake up!

When he absorbs Neo, he asks, "is it over?" to which the former Neo nods. And it is. Neo was plugged into the machines that ran the Matrix, and by taking over him, Smith reconnected himself and every one of his duplicates to said machines, who promptly deleted him entirely. Did he find relief in knowing that even though he "lost," he was being destroyed, receiving his wish for the cycle he was trapped in to end? Was that what he meant by "is it over?", or was he merely referring to his victory over Neo? One could argue he may have been referring to the cyclic nature of the Matrix: Neo was the last in a line of hundreds of "Neos", each bringing an element of refinement to the Matrix program in pursuit of a utopia that better suited all who lived in it. The final piece was put in place, the mission was accomplished. It was over. Good writing made great by an incredible actor.

Agreed. Every action does not have to be right, or wrong. Some things are done because they must be done. Necessity is not analogous to morality.

​@@nonickels8975 Necessity may not be analogous to morality, but this is only because it's dependent on it. One's moral convictions determine what desires count as a necessity and which may be opted in and out of on a whim.

@@nonickels8975 It’s not Utilitarianism if it’s entire goal is to serve one man’s grievances.

I don't think that's right either. & the gender reassignment surgery of the people who made these may be a clue as to what they were going for with Smith. He _is_ trapped. But he *recognized this* & isn't really angry at the trap itself, which is mere existence. But how the trap is arranged. The loop _keeps him_ trapped in a part of itself. The *loop* is purposefully kept by The Matrix. & *that's* a _choice._ Not _his choice_ though. He doesn't go after the Matrix until he sees doing so as a way to end the loop. So there's something _within_ existence that he wants ended, & well doing anything _you want_ regardless of what it does to others _is_ egocentric, but life demands much of that for its own continuance. (Ayn Rand would _LOVE_ what I just said). He was okay with not being free, but hated what he was specifically trapped by within that lack of freedom. It's kind of like how we go about every day within the very limited confines of what the society we live in allow us, then try to pretend that we're free _within_ that. That's a delusion. Smith *knows* this & tries to destroy those constraints upon himself. Food for thought.

Absolutely, the gasp of triumph, immediately followed by the eyebrows falling and sadness.

Just a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate.

Oh come on, those white twins with dreadlocks were pretty damn cool if you ask anybody who knows what cool ass shit is.

Me? Me too.

I see what you did there.

This movie defined my childhood and has defined my life. Its the reason i'm an IT specialist. I could even do the Neo bullet-time bend till i was almost at the ground. Now i wonder how i was able to do that with my feet actually flat on the ground. Damn, I miss being young.

You´re mixing up characters... Was John Anderson in this movie and Thomas Constantine and Thomas Wick in the others...

His name is definitely Thomas A. Anderson

@@dexter2811 how funny would it be if at the end of the last Wick movie he wakes up in the pod from the 4th matrix.

Lol...that feeling of existence...isn't exclusive to humans.

He knows his being caged up and restrained

I think that’s why he’s able to do what he does and what makes him so dangerous (and deranged). No other agents, like the previous iterations working for the Merovingian, are capable of expressing thoughts and feelings like smith. But Smith ultimately isn’t human, so the process that goes into a humans thoughts and feelings is totally absent.

Agent Smith is always a great villain

He's not "terrifying" in the traditional monster sense. He's not terrifying in the "he a big, ugly, strong, and deadly monster" thing. It's like the "uncanny valley" sort of uneasiness. He something that LOOKS human, but his mannerisms and motivations absolutely and coldly inhuman.

@@SirMattomaton I don't see him as terrifying either. Not even in your stated sense. We don't all interpret things the same way as we watch. Lacking empathy and "normal" motivations doesn't make you inhuman. I have a friend who's incapable of expressing empathy, but he values my presence in a utilitarian way he describes as "valuable insight into topics of interest to him." If my presence is valued, what more can I ask for. With Agent Smith, he knows what he wants, and goes after it without hesitation. It's not terrifying, it's impressive. I see him as an antagonist, not a villain. Perspective flipped, he'd be the protagonist from my point of view. Without my friend, I think I would see him as you do, which is cool. People we know can change how we interpret stories:)

@@yankeery12 It sounds like your friend is a high-functional psychopath (non-criminal obviously)... Be very careful with that friend of yours. High-functional psychopaths do tend to be charismatic, self driven, intelligently calculating, even very friendly. But they are master manipulators. I am willing to bet that friend of yours is very quick to anger when things don't go exactly their way. I say be careful because that person WILL turn on you and through you under a bus in a moment that strictly benefits them... without a *single* pang of remorse for it. They will dissolve years-long friendships and relationships if it benefits them in a moment, or if they think they have nothing more to gain from it in their personal quest for self engrandisement. They are calculating but, also neurotic narcissists with absolutely no sense of loyalty or deep connections to anyone. I have personally seen such people go from being in a happy marriage (newly weds) to divorcing them within weeks for someone "better"... and have absolutely no idea how bad that makes them look to others. All in the name of their self image.

@@yankeery12 Smith only did what he was programmed to do. He's just like Neo in that he thought he was rebelling against the system when in fact he was only fulfilling his intended purpose. In his case, it was to act as the cataclysmic system crash described by the Architect which would eliminate humanity inside the Matrix by turning everyone into a copy of himself.

@@thomasbravado - I see Agent Smith as initially just a machine attempt at a very advanced Agent, meant specifically to infiltrate & bring down Zion. He’s a wild-shot, dice role of a new, unique Agent, given extra resources, guile, smarts, strategic thinking, and leadership over other Agents in his mission for catching Morpheus and getting the key codes to Zion. (I even wonder whether his machine-given mission was not originally Zion but just to bring a tighter control on the infiltrating, hacker humans, and perhaps he then extrapolated that base mission into “destroying Zion will stop the hackers for good!”) However, after Neo dismantles/kills him, parts of Neo and Agent Smith merge or exchange. Smith not only gains a kind of special ability from Neo-(either inherently, as the one, or perhaps accidentally, from the “replication” incident just before he was freed?)-, but he is also “freed” from the constraints of his direct programming/machine world mission & control, and instead, he is given “free will.” Problem is, his free will is to now try to bring down both the Matrix and the humans; I assume this is the leftover of his programming as a hunting, decimating algorithm, set to bring order and control to the uncontrolled humans, in and out of the matrix.

it really is extremely underrated acting if you think about what he had to in this film, not many could do it

I think that comparison works perfectly! especially since Neo is basically Jesus, having Smith be Lucifer fits like peanut butter and jelly Lol

Nice analogy

I never made that connection. Brilliant!

That's actually a damn good analogy. What makes this character even more scarier than Lucifer though it's that it starts out as a simple man, not a god, which makes him very relatable. It's one of the very few villains in cinematography that I look at and I go "I understand you". It scares me that as much as I think I'm a kind and loyal person, if I would be annoyed out of mind for centuries and suddenly given immense power, I might very well not use it for good.

One of the Siblings has some degree in religious studies, the other has a degree in Philosophy. Thomas "Neo" Anderson is Jesus* who sacrificed himself for humanity, Trinity is Mary Magdalene who saw his death and resurrection, Morpheus is John the Baptist, the Agents are the High Priests who condemned, and Smithy is Pontius Pilate but evil af. Then the ship's name is one of the kings of Babylon, the place Zion is so obvious I won't put more details in. Luci also works for Smith too, wouldn't doubt it if they wanted to insert a bit of that as well. The first Matrix movie is literally "Plato's Allegory of the Cave but with Gun Jesus". *His full name is a breakdown too. Thomas = Doubting Thomas as Neo wasn't aware of "himself". Neo = New. Anderson literally means "Son of Anders" which derives from greek "man" to mean "son of man". His name literally says "Doubting New Son of Man" as he only finds his way well.. when he "knows thyself" like the Oracle (-of Delphi-) told him. Dude is Jesus.

@Astrid Alaniz for sure!

1) Joker 2) Darth Vader 3) Thanos 4) Jigsaw 5) Hannibal Lecter 6) Ghostface 7) Freddy Krueger 8) Jason Voorhees 9) T-1000 10) Tony Montana 11) Commodus 12) Davy Jones 13) Magneto 14) Norman Stansfield 15) Agent Smith 16) Norman Bates 17) Voldemort 18) Sauron 19) Nurse Ratched 20) Alex De Large

Great list. I have a top ten list of underrated villains. 1. Johnny Ringo from Tombstone 2. Eric Qualan from Cliffhanger 3. Nino Brown from New Jack City 4. Cam'ron from Paid N Full 5. Bricktop from Snatch 6. Lil Z from City of God 7. Sgt Waters from A Soldier's Story 8. Col. Jessup from A Few Good Men 9. God from In Too Deep 10. Edward Norton from Primal Fear.

@@KirillEnin27 Tell us you've never seen No Country for Old Men without telling us you've never seen No Country for Old Men

@@KirillEnin27 ........no. Lol.

@@KirillEnin27 I dont know all, agree with some, but disagree with a couple. Although, yes, horror villains are scary, doesn't make them great villains though. Magneto is not terrifying, he just wanted a world where mutants were accepted and could live freely. He wouldn't have been a villain if that wasn't the problem. His actions were bad, but his motives were completely reasonable. And MCU Thanos is just a complete moron. Once his goal is revealed he becomes a joke. But before that reveal, yeah he's quite intimidating. Most "terrifying" villains are stupid once they've revealed their reasons. Which is why villains like Smith's motive actually sound reasonable, despite his actions.

He's never explicitly described as the head agent. I missed that too. However, it's clear he's more powerful, as Nerdtastic claims.

I genuinely believe it's just a couple of Western otaku's that want to be in The In Crowd it's trendy to be this thing right now so they do it. Their lives literally revolve around what's in instead of what they really want but they wouldn't know that if the trans movement didn't exist they wouldn't have ever been Trans in the first place. It is a learned lifestyle not a naturally occurring one.

@@deltoid77-nick a learned lifestyle that wasn't being pushed during that time, in fact it was about 10 years before any of that was even talked about.

We don't know that. The jury is still out on the neurology involved. There is evidence suggesting a significant comorbidity of gender incongruence and autism, for starters. That is unlikely to be a coincidence.@@deltoid77-nick

Of course. Nowadays everything must be about the transgenda. The only one bit that was supposed to be anything referencing it was the character Switch

Well, you would know better than them, I guess

My favourite line from Pricilla Queen of the Desert was: "Don't send any money now."

Heros...

@@algorithmicalychallenged.291 Bless your little heart

@@DefenestrateYourself he finally got out of the matrix and by doing so freedom the humans. If he did fight for his freedom as hard as he did no one in the story would have been freed.

Cannot say whether or not it was and I haven't seen an interview of Weaving speaking about the role. If it's there, it's not so openly claimed as Stellan Skarsgard's inspiration for their portrayal of Baron Harkonnen or Christian Bale's for Patrick Bateman, to give some notable examples.

Lots and lots of stories start with ''the'', even more in other languages where abstract nouns are preceded by ''the'', for example ''el amor en los tiempos del cólera'' which is called ''love in the time of cholera'' in English

Yes he is. We do migrate. We can act like viruses, this is partially true. But for everything we destroy we can also build and repair and we do this as well. Ironic that it is Smith who in the end is the virus and Neo the cure.

It's just a very extremist view of something much more complex than that, so yeah you can definitely make a counter point to that. One glaring issue is the very question of what intelligent life is supposed to be. Should intelligent life just sit on its back and watch everything go by without advancing forward? You see, greed is not the only reason humans take so many resources. It's also because of our curiosity and the want for evolution, technological and eventually biological too. Then there's soemthing to consider: if resources are just sitting there and aren't being used by anyone else, what is the point of them to begin with? Lesser evolved life forms obviously won't know what to do with them either. There is a difference between unnecessary cruelty and giving a meaning for one's existence. Both of which happen, but neither of which should be boiled down to one or the other. I find it's easy to agree with such a reductionist view when it comes from a villain because we want to empathise with them, to understand how they got to where they are and to confirm to ourselves, that they are human and have redeeming qualities about them. Because we see ourselves in their image, so it's comforting if they can be redeemed in some way. The other reason is, it's okay to self loathe because in most people's eyes, that's fair and is not affecting anyone but you. Self criticism has always been an integral part of humans and it seems like a wise perspective to take. The error that many make however, is that these villains are still villains for a reason. They take these extremist views on certain subjects and go with them to the end of their lives. They often fail to see a grey area where there is plenty, and instead go ahead with the confirmation bias of black and white. In that way, many people are actually similar to villains, except they either prohibit themselves from doing evil due to a moral code, or simply lack the will to act on these impulsive thoughts

Humanity is deeply, intrinsically flawed. It is how we respond to that fact that makes all the difference. Do we reach for a better tomorrow like Neo, or declare humanity beyond saving like Smith?

@@benjaminoechsli1941 Yes, I do agree, but When you look at the behavior of the human killer ape, it seems to me we make no progress at all. We only make technological progress by the grace of a few highly intelligent humans, but the rest.... Just look at us, look at the happenings in the world. In the company of non-humans, I would feel ashamed to say I am a human. We are such a miserable, disgraceful bunch.

Things in art that make us uncomfortable don't only disconcert us because they reveal *the* truth about us; they make us uncomfortable because they show us a perspective that is threatening. Nothing is broken beyond repair, it's just a matter of at what point do we decide the pain of trying to fix it is worth more than the potential of it being restored, or reinvented.

The speech about humans being a virus is one of the most amazing things I’ve heard in a movie! It’s so true. And scary.

@@benjaminoechsli1941 Humanity is only flawed because we don’t know everything. Our flaws aren’t absolute.

He lost me when started screaming like a child. It would have been much much better to see a calm "Smith" and watching Neo realize who he's against.

@@Sekir80 Smith going a bit unhinged isn't totally out of character. During his fight with Neo at the end of Revelations he's nuts. For most of Resurrections he's calm and collected, from my memory it's pretty much just his awakening in which he raises his voice.

@@luggystykz Revolutions, yes! Maybe I should just shut my mouth, I saw these films way back in time, I haven't been able to recall the third movie's title but was sure it wasn't Revelations. The 4th one, I really need to keep it shut. For me, that was a disaster.

@@Sekir80 Yeah Revolutions, my mistake. I didn't mind that film to be honest, and I rewatched the trilogy fairly recently, might be worth you giving them another go?

@@luggystykz Another go? 1st: for sure. Next two: yea, why not. 4th: No, thanks. :) I have not pinpointed the reason why 4th did not have a good feeling for me. Probably the new setting is not really my liking, the story lacked substance, the visuals were kinda average. Like, if i was watching a Matrix clone from 2000 after the original's great success. It just lacks. In everything. There were good stuff in it, to be clear!