_The Matrix_ Trilogy
Background
After a prolonged war against rebellious machines, the human race was at last subjugated. Grown now instead of born, humans are produced in huge fields and plugged into generators that absorb their body heat and electrical impulses to power the machine world. In the meantime the human consciousness is uploaded into a computer program known as the Matrix, which resembles the peak of human civilization. Only one human settlement remains free of mechanical rule—the fortress city Zion , near the core of the planet. Here, rebel humans organize and attempt to free the minds of select individuals in the Matrix to increase the impact of the force fighting against the machines.
To guard against rebel humans inside the Matrix, programs called “Agents” are developed. Resembling secret service agents, the Agents have superhuman speed and power. Every human who has ever fought one has died. One such program, Agent Smith, finds himself feeling trapped by this artificial world, however, and his motivation for destroying humanity becomes his escape from the Matrix rather than service to his creators. He captures Morpheus, a charismatic rebel leader, and attempts to secure the access codes to Zion . But Morpheus has already freed Neo, a human believed to be “The One” who will defeat the Agents and liberate humans from the Matrix. Neo saves Morpheus and destroys Smith after gaining full use of his powers.
But Smith does not delete himself as protocol dictates. Instead a part of Neo rubs off on him, and he uses it to free himself from the control of the Matrix's governing protocols. Now an errant program within the system, Smith copies himself onto other humans, Agents, and any program within the Matrix. He is now a computer virus, and before long he assimilates all of the fake world and manages to even find his way into the real world through the shell of a human named Bane. Faced with the prospect of Smith conquering the machine world, the machine king works with Neo to destroy Smith—Smith copies himself onto Neo but Neo is plugged in directly to the machine king, who deletes Smith.
Analysis
The Matrix trilogy is full to brimming with religious symbolism, and if Neo is the messiah then Smith is most certainly antichrist. “He is you,” the Oracle says to Neo at one point. “Your negative.” Smith, by the end of the trilogy, is evil incarnate, consuming everything in order to achieve his ultimate goal of total dominion, but one warrior of light is able to break his power through self-sacrifice—the religious ties are self-explanatory. The links with Armageddon shine through: those humans who have already been freed from the Matrix have experienced the “rapture”; Smith dominates the rest of the humans and rules for a brief period; the savior returns and the final battle begins. The world is then allowed harmony and happiness. “Just how long do you think that this peace will last?” the Architect asks the Oracle after all is finished. “As long as it can,” she replies. Another note: Smith provides excellent insights onto the nature of human existence. “The purpose of life is to end,” he says, summing things up very nicely. He identifies the mortality we unconsciously accept and require as part of the natural order.