Get Smart (2008)
Directed by Peter Segal
No — Get Smart is not woke, scoring 9 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Get Smart arrives from 2008, an adaptation of a 1960s television spy spoof, directed by Peter Segal and starring Steve Carell as the eager analyst Maxwell Smart, promoted to field agent once KAOS compromises the identities of everyone more qualified.
Consciousness Markers
The cast is business-as-usual Hollywood: a white male lead, a white female co-lead, and non-white actors such as Dwayne Johnson and Terry Crews in supporting roles, without any commentary on their presence. Diversity exists but is not foregrounded or thematized.
Agent 99 (Hathaway) is written as competent and superior to the bumbling Max, a mild reversal of the damsel trope, but she is still primarily the romantic foil to the male lead. No discernible feminist thesis.
A broad action comedy that aims only to amuse; it has no activist thesis to preach and delivers no moral lectures to its audience.
No LGBTQ+ themes. The film's only same-sex kiss is a slapstick distraction gag between Max and Agent 23, played purely for comedy and carrying no thematic weight.
Race is simply not a subject of the film. Villains are generic Eastern European terrorists and the narrative makes no comment on racial dynamics or identity.
No environmental content whatsoever; the plot concerns nuclear terrorism and world domination, not ecological concerns.
No class critique. The villains seek a $200 billion ransom, but this is a stock supervillain scheme rather than a commentary on capitalism or wealth.
No body positivity themes. There is a joke premise about Max's analyst weight loss, but it is played as a throwaway gag rather than a message about body acceptance.
No exploration of neurodivergence. Max is simply clumsy and overeager, treated as a comic personality trait rather than any depiction of neurological difference.
A straightforward adaptation of a 1960s spy spoof; it makes no revisionist claims about history or historical figures.
Why it received this score
Get Smart arrives from 2008, an adaptation of a 1960s television spy spoof, directed by Peter Segal and starring Steve Carell as the eager analyst Maxwell Smart, promoted to field agent once KAOS compromises the identities of everyone more qualified. Anne Hathaway is Agent 99. The plot involves nuclear terrorism, a ransom of two hundred billion dollars, and a bomb rigged to the final note of Beethoven's Ninth. The film wants nothing more than to amuse, and it pursues that goal without a thesis attached to anything.
The progressive gestures are faint and mostly structural. Agent 99 is written as competent, patient, and plainly superior to her bumbling partner, which gently reverses the usual arrangement, though she remains the romantic destination and little else. Dwayne Johnson and Terry Crews appear in supporting roles, and the film never remarks on their presence, which reads as either integration or indifference depending on the mood of the viewer. A same-sex kiss serves as a slapstick distraction during a car chase, carrying no weight beyond the gag. Max's analyst physique and later weight loss are played for a throwaway laugh, never for a message.
Everything else is absent. Race is not a subject. Climate is not a subject. Class is not a subject. There is no neurological difference on display, only clumsiness treated as a comic trait. The villains are generic Eastern European schemers chasing world domination, a plan as old as the medium itself. The film lectures no one, and it seems content with that arrangement. A sommelier would call this vintage clean, unremarkable, and entirely free of the modern additives.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Part of
Synopsis
When members of the nefarious crime syndicate KAOS attack the U.S. spy agency Control and the identities of secret agents are compromised, the Chief has to promote hapless but eager analyst Maxwell Smart to field agent. He is partnered with veteran and capable Agent 99, the only spy whose cover remains intact. Can they work together to thwart the evil world-domination plans of KAOS and its crafty operative?
Questions about Get Smart
Is Get Smart woke?
No — Get Smart is not woke, scoring 9 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Get Smart have any woke elements?
Very few. None of the 10 markers reaches 30, the level where a marker counts as present; the highest is Representation Casting at 22.
How does Get Smart compare to other 2008 movies?
It ranks #102 of the 212 films from 2008 we've scored; their average is 12. The wokest is Milk (68).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.