Why does Agent Smith need to kill Neo and Morpheus in the Matrix?

Question

In The Matrix Agent Smith is concerned about Neo and Morpheus getting out of the Matrix. The conversation between agents:

(Rooftop)

Agent Smith: Damn it!

Agent Brown: The trace was completed.

Agent Jones: We have their position.

Agent Brown: The sentinels are standing by.

Agent Jones: Order the strike.

Agent Smith: They're not out yet.

_{The Matrix transcript (source)}

Why is Agent Smith so concerned with killing Neo and Morpheus in the Matrix when a strike on them out of the Matrix would kill them all the same as if they were killed in the Matrix?

Consider that Agent Smith is still an agent of the system (not unplugged) especially when just killing them would be enough.

So what has Agent Smith so riled up that he needs to kill them in the Matrix?

Answer 1

The agents do not need to kill Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity in the Matrix -- they can either kill them in the Matrix themselves or order a sentinel strike. Agent Smith is expressing frustration in the quoted lines because it is easier to kill them while they are in the Matrix -- not only can the machines attack them both in the Matrix (with agents) and in the real world (with sentinels), but humans plugged into the Matrix are more vulnerable in the real world because they cannot use EMPs against the sentinels in the real world without killing the humans plugged into the Matrix. Once the humans escape the Matrix the agents cannot attack them, and the sentinels will have to try to kill them while defending against EMPs; moreover, the hovership would be more free to maneuver to escape the sentinels since it would no longer need to stay at broadcast depth.

Agent Smith is also frustrated that Morpheus had escaped capture. The agents had been interrogating Morpheus in order to acquire the access codes to the Zion mainframe (which would allow the machines to more easily destroy Zion). The sentinels could possibly be ordered to capture Morpheus instead of kill him but, again, if Morpheus and his crew have escaped the Matrix then it is much harder for the sentinels to kill them and even more so to capture them. It is much easier to capture Morpheus and his crew while they are still in the Matrix since either the agents can capture them or the sentinels can attempt to capture instead of kill while the hovership is unable to use its EMP.

Answer 2

TLDR

• Smith does not need or want to kill Morpheus (in the matrix, or the real world); he needs to catch him.
• Smith is "so riled up" to catch Morpheus because he sees this as his only way out of the matrix.
• Smith would kill Neo or Trinity to accomplish this, but almost certainly not at the expense of letting Morpheus escape.
• It is not absolutely clear that the point of the strike would be to kill the humans (at least not Morpheus); it could also be a "plan B" to try and keep Morpheus plugged in.

Reasoning

Like many a good Matrix-universe question, I wasn't sure if there's a direct, succinct, satisfying, explicit canonical answer (disclaimer: the games are a blind spot for me, and I think there are a few comics I haven't seen).

I started with the exchange you quote and worked my way out (without knowing for sure where it would lead), so I'll preserve that process below the rule to show my math.

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The script (numbered shooting script, March 29, 1998 -- may differ slightly from actual dialog) has a smidge more context, here:

169 EXT. ROOFTOP - DAY

We rush at the roof access door as it suddenly slams open and the three Agents charge out. But Neo, Trinity and Morpheus are already gone.

AGENT BROWN

The trace was completed.

AGENT JONES

We have their position.

AGENT BROWN

Sentinels are standing by.

AGENT JONES

Order the strike.

Agent Smith can't stand listening to them. He moves to the edge of the building, looking out at the surrounding city.

AGENT SMITH

They're not out yet.

They aren't all unique to this scene, but it suggests a few things:

• Machines outside the Matrix keep the agents in the loop, presumably via their earpieces.
• At least in this case, one or more agent has command-control authority over the sentinels. I don't recall if it's clear from the actual scene--either they all have this authority and Jones actually initiates the strike, or Jones is telling Smith, suggesting Smith alone has this authority.
• Whatever agents are (the consciousness of a machine connected to the matrix? programs? [I'm not sure if there's a "difference" between these...]), we can't safely reason about them as a homogenous group.
• At minimum, Smith's thinking (and maybe motives) at this point differ from the other agents. They may be diverging, or Smith may be fundamentally different.

Moving beyond this scene, I think we can infer a little bit more. I'll focus on the strike, first:

• After thinking through it, the machine/agent objective of the sentinel strike is uncertain. The obvious purpose is just seek-and-destroy, but it could also be a last-ditch attempt at keeping Morpheus in the matrix where they can continue trying to break him. Both cases are predicated on reaching ship before everyone is out of the Matrix (or the humans would just use the EMP).
• The Nebuchadnezzar doesn't detect the sentinels and sound an alarm until scene 181, immediately after Neo kills Smith in the subway station and Smith hops off the train in a new host. In scene 182, Morpheus says they have 5-6 minutes, and the sentinels finally land on the ship in scenes 199/200, while Neo is running up the fire escape.
• If Jones initiated the strike in scene 169, it took a long time (the entire duration of the subway scene) for the sentinels to get close enough for the hovercraft to detect them plus additional time to reach the ship.
• If the strike is predicated on reaching the ship before everyone is unplugged, it seems like the sentinels would hold for the order as close to the ship as they can get without being detected.

This seems like reasonable support for seeing the strike as Smith's call, and for assuming that Smith doesn't call the strike until Neo kills him. Let's dig into what Smith might be up to, here.

• Smith says "They're not out yet" after Jones suggests ordering the strike, but the fact that they aren't out yet probably isn't the reason not to order the strike; the strike would be pointless if they were. I don't think Smith is directly responding to the suggestion.
• After Jones (presumably) suggested ordering the strike, the script also says "Agent Smith can't stand listening to them". Brown and Jones aren't chattering incessantly, so this reaction is probably about what they're saying and what it means. If the strike is a risky "plan B", proposing it indicates Brown and Jones have rationally concluded it is more likely to succeed than "plan A".

Next, let's turn to the elephant in the room--the subway scene. The next 2 scenes after Smith's statement are worth reading in their entirety:

170 INT. SUBWAY STATION - DAY

An old man sits hunched in the far corner of the station, shadows gathered around him like blankets.

Mumbling, he nurses from a bottle of Thunderbird when -- A PHONE begins to RING. Neo leads Trinity and Morpheus bounding over a set of turnstiles towards the ringing phone inside a graffiti- covered booth.

NEO

Let's go! You first, Morpheus.

Morpheus gets in and answers the phone. Lost in the shadow, the old man watches as Morpheus disappears, the phone dropping, dangling by its cord. His eyes grow wide, glowing white in the dark.

171 EXT. ROOFTOP - DAY

Agent Smith stares, his face twisted with hate. He will never be free of the Matrix. He starts to turn from the edge of the building when he suddenly hears it, his head whipping back around, staring􏰀--

Heh! We actually get a fairly unambiguous clue. Smith's goal up to this point is getting the code from Morpheus, and his motive is freeing himself from the matrix. This suggests:

• Smith does not actually need or want to kill Morpheus (in the matrix, or the real world); he needs to catch him.
• Smith would kill Neo or Trinity to accomplish this, but probably not at the expense of missing a chance to re-catch Morpheus.
• Smith is probably unwilling to order the strike because he's overconfident or in denial about his ability to keep Morpheus from getting out, relative to the risk of losing Morpheus in the strike.

As soon as Morpheus escapes, I think Smith's goal and motive both become vengeance.

Note: The Morpheus interrogation scene is also good reading here--it touches on many of these issues--but I managed to answer the question at hand without working out that far.

Answer 3

If they log into the Matrix, their consciusness 'leaves' the real world, making their bodies "still". That is, "a strike to them out of the Matrix would kill them" is true, but if they weren't in the Matrix they would be able to evade that strike (with an EMP or whatever). In case they were logged to the Matrix, they couldn't 'shoot' an EMP because it would kill all communications hence the 'mental link' of those connected, killing them instantly.

Answer 4

There are several reasons for this to take place in this way.

In order for Neo to complete his purpose and become the One, allowing the machines to destroy and rebuild Zion, he needs to complete a defined set of actions, one of which involves him being shot in the Matrix and then being "reborn" as the One.

That cannot happen if he is killed by sentinels in the ship too early.

Therefore, this could have been programming that Agent Smith wasn't aware was present that prevented him from giving that strike order. This same programming may have made the sentinels in the ship slow down and delay actually killing the crew members making sure that there was just enough peril to not cause any suspicion but always with the aim of letting Neo re-enter the real world as the one.

Alternatively, this could indicate the start of Smith becoming an independent program, gaining feelings and emotions meaning that he wants to see Neo die at his hand rather then just watch him blink out of existence.

Finally, and I think the main reason he wanted them alive: The main aim of the mission was to get hold of Morpheus to try and unpick his brain and get information. If Morpheus, Trinity and Neo can be caught and reimprisoned, then all the sentinels need to do is kill any free crew members, keeping the 3 trapped in the Matrix for interrogation and removing the ability for the humans to unplug them and kill them. However if the 3 escape the Matrix, then the sentinels can kill them instead as an insurance policy.

Neo: What are they doing to him?

Tank: Breaking into his mind. It’s like hacking into a computer, all it takes is time.

Neo: How much time?

Tank: Depends on the mind. Eventually it will crack and his alpha patterns will change from this to this. When it does, Morpheus will tell them anything they want to know.

Neo: Well, what do they want?

Tank: The leader of every ship is given codes to Zion’s mainframe computer. If an agent got the codes and got into Zion’s mainframe, it could destroy us. We can’t let that happen.

Neo: Trinity?

Tank: Zion’s more important than me or you or even Morpheus.

Neo: Well there has to be something that we can do.

Tank: There is. We pull the plug.

Trinity: You’re going to kill him? Kill Morpheus?