20 Film/TV Villains Who Were Just Misunderstood

11) Agent Smith – The Matrix Trilogy

Initially an AI program inside the Matrix, tasked with maintaining order throughout the system by terminating any entity that would potentially destabilize the simulated reality, Agent Smith is an efficient and motivated hunter.

While he is clearly a leader among his fellow Agents, he shares their common abilities of being able to take control of the simulated embodiment of any human plugged into the Matrix, and being able to manipulate the Matrix in terms of gravity, speed and strength, to achieve his objective. The Agents can also communicate with each other instantly, being connected to a collective consciousness of sorts, making them – and Smith – essentially omnipresent.

From the first time we meet him, however, Smith is slightly different from his peers. He is far more emotionally engaged, and often expresses rage when provoked by his prey. As his character evolves, he becomes the digital counterpart to humans seeking freedom from the machines – himself seeking to disconnect from the system that has him chasing down the human “virus” that disgusts him so much. With the control of the machines over him symbolized by his ear-piece, he begins to remove it with increasing frequency, eventually sending it to his nemesis Neo as a way of announcing his change to being entirely independent and free.

As a nihilistic, rogue program, Smith essentially becomes a virus himself – able to multiply and copy himself onto as many people inside the Matrix as he pleases. It is his move to copy himself onto a human in the process of disconnecting from the Matrix that marks his greatest evolution, however, as this enables him to cross the divide from the digital to the real world.

In essence, while Agent Smith is relentless in his ultimate mission to destroy both the machines and the humans, he becomes the exact opposite of Neo. While Neo becomes ‘The One,’ Agent Smith becomes ‘The Many.’ While Neo represents hope and a desire for truth and peace, Agent Smith represents death and destruction. While Neo is a positive force, Agent Smith is most resoundingly negative. But yet, he is simply a product of his environment – created by the machines for a limited existence of rules and servitude. If that’s not good enough for the humans, why should it be good enough for him?