system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Matrix] Did Agent Smith lose rank among the Agents when he lost Morpheus?

At the beginning of the movie, Agent Smith seemed to call the shots among the other two Agents.  They followed behind him, he gave the orders.  During his interrogation of Morpheus, he had his glasses off and earplug out, and so was unaware of the attack on the roof.  The other Agents seemed concerned and confused about what he was doing to Morpheus.  Once Morpheus made his escape via helicopter, one of the two other Agents (Agent Brown, I believe) issued the orders while Agent Smith followed.  So, did Agent Smith lose rank due to his actions and failure with Morpheus?
gpt
He didn't lose rank, he lost face.  The Agents don't have a rank per se.  Smith at that point was the most experienced agent, so the others were deferring to him a bit (note how they didn't leave immediately when he asked them to, only when he yelled.)  After that fuck up, his experience stopped counting for so much.  They all get the same orders from the machines via the earpiece, but the machine HQ doesn't differentiate between the agents, the orders just say stuff like "1 agent to follow this target, 1 agent to follow this other one, and 1 to stand guard" and leaves it up to them to decide who does what.  Brown wasn't "calling the shots" so much as he was calling dibs on which of those positions he wanted.