Archibald Witwicky

Archibald Amundsen Witwicky is a human from the movie continuity family.

That be the smell of treasure, lads.

Captain Archibald Amundsen Witwicky led the National Arctic Circle Expedition in 1897.

He basically went bonkers after Megatron burned out his eyes, and spent the rest of his life in an asylum. He died August 13, 1938.

Archy's great-great-grandson Sam Witwicky thinks he is lame, and wants to eBay his priceless heirlooms to buy a car.

Fiction

IDW Transformers movie comics

... I didn't come all this way to 'leave well 'nuff alone!'Words that Witwicky would later regret

In 1897, Captain Archibald Witwicky led National Arctic Circle Expedition where they ship became frozen in the ice. Crewmember Danco noticed that their dogs were keenly interested in whatever lay beneath the frozen wastes and called Witwicky over to investigate. Despite Danco's well-founded caution in light the expedition's foul luck, Witwicky bravely dug into the ice, and what he saw underneath changed him. For the next three months, Witwicky filled one hundred and seventy-six pieces of paper with strange patterns and glyphs. By 1898, Witwicky was in a secure hospital in Boston, interviewed by two representatives of a group of weird people who were interested in his tales about a "devil man". The group managed to discredit Witwicky and sent his effects to his family. Prime Directive (IDW) issue 2

Witwicky spent the rest of his life in the most politically incorrect asylum in Louisiana, raving about taglines yet to be written and movies yet to be produced. Decades after his death, Archibald's descendant Ronald presented his son with the explorer's personal effects. The boy was not impressed with the junk from a "crazy man", and later sought to auction them off to fund the purchase of a car. Prime Directive (IDW) issue 3

Transformers: Beginnings

Voice actor: Patrick Viall

Transformers: Beginnings is a condensed, flash-animated retelling of the IDW Prime Directive Movie Prequel that is detailed above this section.

Transformers (2007) movie

Actor: William Morgan Sheppard (English) Hiroshi Arikawa (Japanese-language dub voice)

During the National Arctic Circle Expedition, Witwicky's ship became frozen in the water. As the crew chipped the ship free, he told his crew "no sacrifice, no victory!" (all the while standing and doing nothing to help). During the attempt, the dogs were attracted to a break in the ice, which Witwicky and a dog fell through. As he got his bearings, he came face to face with "a great discovery"...at which point said discovery used his navigational system to burn the coordinates of the All Spark into his glasses, which had the byproduct of rendering Witwicky blind and insane. Witwicky spent the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals, drawing strange symbols and ranting about an Ice man.

110 years after his discovery, his descendant Sam Witwicky tried to raise money for a car by auctioning off his equipment, including his compass, his telescope, and (for some bizarre reason) his glasses. Transformers

Trivia

• Archibald's middle name is a reference to Roald Amundsen, the leader of the first successful expedition to the South Pole, and not Mitchell Amundsen the film's director of photography.