»can someone please explain this to me...«

If agent Smith exists only in the matrix and probably couldn't get to the program world (Merovinchian place), how is he a threat to the real machines? Couldn't the machines isolate the matrix so that Smith and his buddies are trapped in the matrix? Why does Neo have to confront Smith if the matrix is gone and the minds of the people there are not there anymore (there is noone to save like Neo promised in M1)?

Some things just don't make sense to me, so please tell me what I have missed.

[quote="random_dude"]If agent Smith exists only in the matrix and probably couldn't get to the program world (Merovinchian place), how is he a threat to the real machines?quote]

Smith didn't delete everybody. Had that been the case, the fields of humans would have been dead and the machines' power source gone. Perhaps he had a whole city of Smiths which is why the machines realised the threat and let Neo intervene.

Pratum

so where are the minds of the humans in originally in the matrix? somewhere in limbo? if he wanted to, he could have as easily waged nuclear war in the matrix world and killed everyone like that. remember, the architect was talking about some level of existence if the matrix shut down or a system crash happened (M2) ... if that was the case, the machines had stored enough energy (or are using a different backup source) to create a new matrix. how do you think the first matrix was created ... they had to have some power source to keep them running.

random_dude wrote:

How is he(Smith) a threat to the real machines? Couldn't the machines isolate the matrix so that Smith and his buddies are trapped in the matrix?

Here is MY take:

After Smith's interaction with Neo in at the end of The Matrix(M1), he became a "virus". In becomming a "virus" he became "unpluged". Since he was "unpluged", The Machine World no longer had any "access" to him.

Now, to contiue on the "virus" notion. As stated above, Smith became a "virus". A virus is definately a threat to hardware(The Machine World/The System) because a "virus", if left unchecked, could potentially do the following:

a) render ALL of YOUR files/software(The Matrix) unusable. Smith, in effect, did this.

b) After the above is done, render YOUR hardware/hard-drive(the part of The System which contains The Matrix) unusable. Neo prevented this step from happening because he "cleaned" Smith. Therefore, the next step could not be done.

c) After the above is done, render YOUR system(The Machine World/The System) unusable.

random_dude wrote:

Why does Neo have to confront Smith if the matrix is gone and the minds of the people there are not there anymore (there is noone to save like Neo promised in M1)? Some things just don't make sense to me, so please tell me what I have missed.

Again, MY take:

The Matrix still exists and so do the minds of the people who were still connected at that time. What Neo did is act as an anti-virus software for The Matrix. He "cleaned" out the "virus" that was Smith.

Minds will begin to come back just as they were before Smith's infection until The Matrix is fully "repopulated" again. It will be as if the infection never happened.

Besides, if all the minds were actually "deleted" from The Matrix after Smith was "cleaned", why would The Architect and The Oracle come to an agreement concerning freeing the other minds who want to come out.

That one interaction says that the minds are still there after what has just transpired.

As I stated above, this is MY take.


What is the Matrix