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When Morpheus first fights Agent Smith, he calls himself "A Smith. Agent Smith"

Does this imply that there are other copies of the Smith program in different roles other than agent? Are agents all duplicates and each trio of identical agents are assigned to different regions? Did Smith forget he hadn't started cloning himself yet?

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    Maybe his first name is Agent and he's announcing his initial. My name is F. Valorum
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 25, 2023 at 16:33
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    "Agent"? I thought it was "Angus"...
    – FreeMan
    Commented Aug 25, 2023 at 17:02
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    I don't think Hugo Weaving was purposefully saying "a Smith" there. It makes no sense contextually for him to say that, so the more likely explanation is that he didn't enunciate the word "Smith" as clearly as he could have, perhaps because he was beginning to exhale just as he said that. Even in the next two films, where there are multiple Smiths, Smith doesn't refer to himself as "a Smith."
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Aug 25, 2023 at 17:35
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    youtube.com/watch?v=HI0-QmpCKEA&t=190s I don't believe he is saying 'a' either: it's just a noise resulting from the context.
    – Peter
    Commented Aug 25, 2023 at 20:29
  • Why not because, yes, there are several, perhaps many 'Smiths.' Isn't that a common theme in 'men in black' movies?
    – Robbie Goodwin
    Commented Aug 26, 2023 at 19:20

2 Answers 2

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In this YouTube clip of the scene (mentioned by Peter in a comment), you can see that after their initial flurry of blows, Morpheus has Smith pinned down on the floor. Morpheus is on top of Smith, and Morpheus's right hand is at Smith's throat with his thumb pressing in. Smith has been expending vigorous effort and now something is pressing on his windpipe.

He begins speaking with a tiny grunt of breath - "(uh) Smith." It's a small breath, not the word "A".

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The Shooting Script in The Art of the Matrix (Scene 117, "Int. Room 608 - Day") provides some additional evidence for the ~mis-enunciation hypothesis:

AGENT SMITH
The great Morpheus. We meet at last.

MORPHEUS
And you are?

AGENT SMITH
Smith. I am Agent Smith.

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    This is also confirmed in the 1996 and 1997 drafts as well as the official shooting script book; i.sstatic.net/hjm0N.png
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 26, 2023 at 6:41

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