Posted by afaurote at ip-66-170-41-210.adamswells.com on May 17, 2003 at 21:08:33:
In Reply to: The way I took this was... (Matrix *spoilers*) posted by Kiss It on May 17, 2003 at 19:01:19:
Ok. Agent Smith is a computer program, but when he answered the phone using a human conduit, he came out in control of that human. This plays along with people's theories that "real world" is another matrix, or part of the same one. I have a slightly different theory.
The Architect talks about how the One is a sytematic anomoly. It's a part of the matrix to have a human every so often help clean things out. They get to choose new founding members of Zion and start the cycle over. So basically, it's another computer program with a human host.
At the end, Agent Smith survives the attack on the human city because he can communicate with the machines. He's one of them, it makes sense that he could communicate with them. After talking to the Architect, Neo realizes that he, too, is part of the machines. He's human, but he's one of them, too. That's why he can control them. That's why he can do what he can in the Matrix so much better than anyone else. He's literally a part of it. But he's got human instincts and such, so he's got the Agents beat, too.
This also plays into the Wachowski's theme of burying philosophy and religion into the story. Neo is both man and machine much like Jesus is both man and God. Kind of an interesting version of Deus Ex Machina and further commentary on human dependency on technology.