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Possible Matrix Reloaded spoilers.

After the oracle and Seraph left Mr. Anderson on the square, he is approached by (former) agent Smith who introduced himself to Mr. Anderson again, explaining what happened with more Smiths arriving and eventually trying to assimilate Mr. Anderson, taking from him what he wanted to take from Smith: Purpose. Mr. Anderson resisted the assimilation and started fight the many Smiths. My question is why Mr. Anderson started (and kept) fighting the Smiths in the first place? It was impossible for him to intrude into every Smith to destroy them from within (but he didn't seem to try that anyway); why didn't he just fly away immediately after resisting the assimilation? What was Mr. Anderson's goal in fighting the many Smiths? Eventually the Smiths almost overpowered Mr. Anderson again, telling him It is inevitable! It was following this that Mr. Anderson finally fled.

Did the filmmakers just wanted to include some good action scene even though it's a senseless fight from Mr. Anderson's point? Unlike the 1st and 3rd Matrix movie, the Matrix Reloaded doesn't seem to take itself quite serious at certain scenes to be honest.

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  • The script indicates that he was in a state of shock after his attempted assimilation. He then fought the Smiths as he repeatedly made attempts to fly off; horrorlair.com/movies/scripts/matrixreloaded.pdf (Scene 83)
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 9:15
  • @Valorum The script portrays it like permanent self-defense. But Mr. Anderson had multiple occasions to fly away or to fight the Smiths differently so that his way would be free.
    – John
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 9:22
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    He does try repeatedly in the (film) fight
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 9:23
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    @Valorum No, he grabbed a fence post and fighted the Smiths. This was one occasion where he already was in the air and could have flown away. Instead, he decided to keep fighting them.
    – John
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 9:24
  • I'll write up an answer in a bit but it's clear from the script that he needs to "focus" before he can fly and Smith isn't giving him the time to do so.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 10:37

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The scene isn't really a waste. Yes, it's an action scene in a movie known for action scenes, but there's some important things the scene establishes

  1. Smith is now able to assimilate... well, everything.
  2. Neo can't beat Smith as he is. He can defeat one Smith easily. Ten or so is doable. But Smith has dozens of himself by now.
  3. We see Neo is able to resist assimilation by force of will (much to Smith's shock)

So why does Neo stay and fight some more? Because Neo has been able to win solely by strength of will up until now, and Neo seems to think he can just power his way through it, only to face an overwhelming number of Smiths. We need to see Neo lose this fight for the sake of story tension, because Neo is virtually god-like.

We also see that #3 is important when

Neo has to willingly let Smith assimilate him to save The Matrix

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  • Still, it's hardly understandable how Mr. Anderson imagined to 'win' the fight. He didn't seem to try enter a Smith to destroy one from within (in case he'd be able to even do that now that Smith is changed). It seems continuation of the fight was pointless.
    – John
    Commented Dec 8, 2020 at 5:48

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