It has been quite a long time since Hugo Weaving’s Agent Smith was one of Hollywood’s most frightening villains in 1999’s The Matrix. Sure, he appeared in both lackluster sequels The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, but Smith wasn’t nearly as effective in a cinematic world that ceased bearing any resemblance to our own.
But not everybody can be solely concerned with putting people in the hospital all the time; sometimes they also need to worry about the medical care that goes into these hospitals, as General Electric shows us in their new commercial for “Agent of Good: Connected Hospitals.” Essentially, GE is showing us that they’re finally making their hospitals more effective by coordinating their electronics to all work together, which is something that a layperson might have already assumed about one of the largest corporations on the planet. And they chose to show off this new technology by relating it to one of the most anti-humanity villains ever to grace cinema screens. Are we supposed to be looking for conspiratorial undertones here, or just enjoying the pop culture references for what they are?
And honestly, it’s a wildly well-crafted ad, taking advantage of multiple Smiths in almost every frame, and Weaving’s no-bullshit tone lays out GE’s improvements in understandable, though understated. ways. As a plus, the clip was directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), so while it doesn’t necessarily have the visual flair of the Wachowskis, it isn’t far off.
GE is no stranger to celebrity cameos, as they brought in Knight Rider’s KITT and KITT’s voice William Daniels in last year’s ad for their locomotive, which you can see below.
