Megatron (Movie)
| The name or term "Megatron" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Megatron (disambiguation). |
- Megatron is a Decepticon from the Movie continuity family. He is often refered to as Lord Megatron. Known to humans as both "The Ice Man" and "The Mega-Man" and more formally as N.B.E. - 01
The brother of Optimus Prime as well as former Lord High Protector and co-ruler of Cybertron, Megatron is vicious and extremely powerful, single-minded in his goals, straight forward and brutally direct in his attempts to seize those goals. He is all "blunt force" in contrast to Starscream's penchant for deceit and trickery. On the downside, Megatron tends to become so obsessed with the object of his desires that he can ignore "secondary" matters and glaring flaws in his plans (otherwise, he likely wouldn't have melted into ice-cold arctic water after being white hot from re-entry and spent millions of years as a popsicle).
While some merely dislike or disregard organics, Megatron feels a violent hatred towards them and seems to view them as only slightly above a virus, with him as the cure. If there was no All Spark, it is not that big a stretch to think he'd have come here anyway, just to cleanse one more planet of its infection.
Fiction
Official Movie Prequel comic
Megatron once ruled Cybertron side-by-side with Optimus Prime. For generations, the two ruled in peace. Megatron was firm, but Prime was fair, creating a nice, even balance. Sadly, he got a jonesing for the All Spark and the war started. When Bumblebee stalled him long enough for it to be launched into space, he tore off Bumblebee's arm and crushed his voice box (but in the friendliest way). He then took off into space after the All Spark, eventually pulling a Skyfire.
"The Ice Man" may defrost if some dedicated humans can't prevent it.
Transformers (2007 movie)
- Voice actor: Hugo Weaving (English)
 Spoiler warning: Plot details follow. of the next episode/issue in the series or 30 days after release, whichever is sooner |
Megatron followed the All Spark to Earth, where he successfully crash-landed in the Arctic Circle and was frozen solid for thousands of years. In 1897, some 100 Earth-years before the arrival of the other Transformers, he was discovered by an explorer named Archibald Amundsen Witwicky. Captain Witwicky accidentally activated Megatron's navigation system and caused the coordinates of the All Spark to be etched onto the explorer's glasses. Megatron remained imprisoned in the Arctic, until the 1930s, when he was dug out by the United States government and moved to a secret Sector Seven stronghold inside Hoover Dam.
In the present day, having searched the galaxy for the All Spark and being drawn to Earth, the remaining Decepticons learn of Witwicky's glasses. Through the Internet, they determined the location of both Megatron and the All Spark inside Hoover Dam. Frenzy infiltrated the dam and shut down the power systems, while Starscream attacked the external powerlines, resulting in Megatron's thawing out. Once again online, Megatron declared his name (to clear up all that N.B.E.-01/Ice Man nonsense) before jetting off after the All Spark again. He met up with Starscream on the outside, and berated him for his failure to secure the All Spark.
Upon arriving in Mission City, he killed Jazz by tearing him in half, then ordered the Decepticons to engage. At that moment, Optimus Prime appeared and challenged Megatron. Millennia in the ice had done nothing to lessen the animosity between the two, and flew at Prime at full speed. After crashing threw a building (with Prime barely holding on), Megatron declared that if Prime wished to defend the Humans, he would "join them in extinction". After temporarily dispatching Prime with his cannon, Megatron persued a particular human who removed the All Spark from the dam. Unfortunately, this human was saved by Optimus Prime. Prime declared that their war would end here, and the two brothers engaged in a vicious battle. Megatron was the stronger warrior, but humans fired at Megatron, causing his armor to crack. Prime ordered Sam to ram the All Spark into his chest, but the human rammed the All Spark into Megatron's chest instead, through a wound Captain Lennox had just created with a sabot round, extinguishing his spark. As Prime stood over his brother's lifeless shell, he somberly, yet remorsefully, remarked that Megatron had left him no choice, and removed a shard of the Allspark from the cavity that once housed a spark.
Megatron's body was dumped into the ocean at its deepest point, along with the remains of the other Decepticons.
Transformers The Game
- Voice actor: Frank Welker
He'd like to see the entire planet burn beneath his feet. Unfortunately, this means toasty tootsies but he's willing to make the sacrifice.
Toys
Transformers (2007)
- Megatron (Leader, 2007)
- Japanese ID number: MD-07
- Leader class Movie Megatron transforms into a silver Cybertronic assault jet. He is quite accurate to the CGI design... except for the giant mass of legs attempting (but failing) to hide under the wings.
- In robot mode, Megatron's sculpt is quite accurate, or as accurate as a toy based on his CG design can be. However, his paint decoration is quite inaccurate, with blue highlights on various parts of his body, possibly to allude to his pre-frozen state and to give a relatively monochromatic figure more color. More confusing is his jet black face, which obscures the sculpt's details and is inaccurate to the movie appearance's gunmetal.
- Megatron's right fist disconnects at the wrist to become the spiked end of the extendable "chain whip" weapon concealed within his forearm (perhaps in homage to G1 Megatron's own flail weapon); pressing the black switch on the arm pulls the chain taut for a whipping attack. His arms also link together at the wrists to form a "fusion cannon," with the pod on his left forearm concealing the weapon's Automorphing twin barrels, exposed by pulling a switch. His other automorph features include his wings folding up as his vehicle nosecone is moved into place, and his feet unfolding as his knees are straightened. Finally, pressing the button on his waist activates a small friction motor, which moves various torso plates and blades on his back into place, accompanied by a metallic shrieking sound and flashing yellow lights.
- Megatron's instructions summarily fail to actually tell the reader about how his gimmicks work. The whipping-action black switch for his flail is not mentioned; they do not detail how to connect the arms for fusion cannon mode; and the fact that the cannon is on a slider, allowing it to be centre-aligned, rather than sitting off to one side, is also omitted.
- There is a significant assembly error in Megatron's arms: The right fist is supposed to launch out of the right arm, while the left arm fusion cannon is supposed to slide into position normally without requiring the user to hold it in position. However, the spring for the launching mechanism was placed in his left arm instead of his right arm, which essentially neuters the gimmicks of both arms. By switching the spring from the left arm to his right arm, the right fist should now launch properly and the left arm cannon should now Automorph correctly.
- There is also an error in Megatron's legs, in that his left and right hip joints have been swapped for reasons unknown. Switching them allows for a slightly smoother transformation.
- In addition to that, both of Megatron's hands have a finger misassembly. Two pieces are moulded to have two fingers, while one is obviously supposed to be a thumb--however, this thumb is on the 'outside' of his hands instead of the inside. The prototype on the packaging's stock photos show the correct assembly.
- Geez, Hasbro.
- Megatron (Legends, 2007)
- Legends class Megatron is the smallest mainline Movie Megatron toy, and boy does it show. Even with Megatron's relatively simple transformation sequence, the sheer simplicity of the Legends class toy means that in vehicle mode he is basically his robot mode splayed out, and again, boy is it obvious. His robot mode is passably accurate, if by accurate one means he is now a hunchback with wings for legs and Dustbusters for hands.
- Megatron (Voyager, 2007)
- Japanese ID number: MD-14
- Voyager class Megatron transforms into an ice-covered version of his cybertronic jet, with transparent blue plastic forming large portions of his vehicle mode, such as parts of his wings. This ice design is carried onto his robot mode, with his legs, shoulders and chest having some kind of 'ice' plastic covering them. With a significantly different transformation sequence compared to his earlier Leader class toy, his chest frost lowers and his shoulders raise to robot mode position when you bring his lower body forward thanks to Automorph technology. He also has his fusion cannon in its entirety on his left arm. His wings feature flip-out "ice blade", and pulling on a piece in the back of his jet mode brings them forward like pincer claws.
- Something interesting to note is that his feet are entirely spring-loaded, which means his foot and the two "rear toes" on each feet automatically close up when he's not standing up. Surprisingly, this helps a lot with the posing as the feet's parts automatically position themselves for the perfect balance.
- Allspark Legends (Multi-pack, 2007)
- A Toys R Us exclusive, this six-pack of Legends class figures contains unmodified toys of Optimus Prime, Jazz, Bumblebee, Megatron, Starscream and Barricade.
Fast Action Battlers
- Fusion Blast Megatron (2007)
Robot Replicas
- Megatron (2007)
A non-transforming, detailed version of Megatron. It may or may not come with his fusion cannon.
Attacktix
- Battle Masters Megatron and Scorponok (Battle Master set, 2007)
Merchandise
- Megatron Burger King free toy (2007)
- A non-transformable version of Megatron, cast primarily in gray plastic. The toy's entire "gimmick" is that both rotate at the shoulder. Due to the strict protocols of making a fast food premium, Megatron's sharp and deadly design was forced to be smoothed out. This had the unfortunate effect of making his sculpted details meld together and looking less like a killer robot and more like a melted clay man. The toy appears to use the earlier render head render of Megatron's, but due to the vague detail and paint job, may also not be.
The toy also comes with a purple plastic decepticon base and and a lenticular motion card with a surprising amount of frames of animation. These two pieces may in fact be the better part of the package.
Trivia
- The prototype photographs on the back of Leader and Voyager class Megatrons' packaging show him with a completely different head based upon an earlier version of CGI design.
- According to The Movie Guide, Megatron is one of few Transformers capable of space travel without reverting to a protoform. This explains how he was capable of chasing the All Spark immediately after its launch.
- According to a line of dialogue from the Autobot version of the Movie Nintendo DS game, Megatron "took the spark" of his and Optimus' father. Who that was and what that means remains a mystery.
