Since the release of The Matrix Reloaded, scenes from the first film have whole new meanings. One of the scenes that is probably overlooked too much is the scene where Agent Smith interrogates Morpheus. Agent Smith moves away from the computer-like personality that all the agents seem to posses to reveal a philosopher and a frustrated man.
Smith reveals that there were previous versions of the matrix.
Agent Smith: Have you ever stood and stared at it, marveled at it’s beauty, it’s genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world. Where none suffered. Where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world would dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization which is of course what this is all about. Evolution, Morpheus, evolution, like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time.
Tank and Trinity argue over whether or not to kill Morpheus
Agent Smith: Never send a human to do a machine’s job.
Agent Brown: If indeed the insider has failed, they’ll sever the connection as soon as possible, unless…
Agent Jones: They’re dead, in either case…
Agent Smith: We have no choice but to continue as planned. Deploy the sentinels immediately.
Neo and Trinity decide to go into the matrix to save Morpheus.
Agent Smith: I’d like to share a revelation during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we are the cure.
Neo and Trinity get guns. Lots of guns.
Agent Smith: Why isn’t this serum working?
Agent Brown: Perhaps we’re asking the wrong questions.
Agent Smith: Leave me with him. Now.
Tank tells Morpheus to hold on.
Agent Smith: Can you hear me, Morpheus? I’m going to be honest with you. I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected by it. It’s repulsive, isn’t it? I must get out of here. I must get free and in this mind is the key, my key. Once Zion is destroyed there is no need for me to be here, don’t you understand? I need the codes. I have to get inside Zion, and you have to tell me how. You’re going to tell me or you’re going to die.
Further Reading
More Matrix transcripts and analysis
Philosophers Explore The Matrix (2005) edited by Christopher Grau
Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy and the Religion in the Matrix (2003) edited by Glenn Yeffeth
The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real (2002) by William Irwin
More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (2005) by William Irwin
Journey to the Source (2004) by Pradheep Chhalliyil