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. This may be due to having spent decades as their prisoner, but his hatred is still very extreme. 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. Megatron formed an army of separatists, the Decepticons, while Prime formed his own army, the Autobots. Megatron's forces, while less noble, were more ferocious warriors. Prime eventually made the decision to launch the All Spark into deep space. When Bumblebee stalled him long enough for it to be launched into space, he tore off Bumblebee's arm and crushed his voice box, then took off into space after the All Spark.
UK Transformers Comic
The All Spark had not been blindly launched into space, however - its trajectory was leading it directly towards the Alkaris Anomaly, a wormhole that could potentially transport the cube to any one of an infinite number of locations in the universe. Megatron was fully capable of catching up to the cube before it would enter the wormhole, but as he passed Cybertron's moon, he found himself ensared by an Autobot tractor beam of remarkable strength that pulled him down to the moon's surface. Enraged by the ignominity of it all, Megatron turned his weapons on the Autobots responsible, but quickly calmed down enough to realise that this was only playing into their hands, and instead ordered Devastator to take his place the in the battle. Megatron swooped back into space, hot on the All Spark's heels, but was unable to stop the cube from falling through the anomaly. Determined to have the All Spark's power, Megatron chose to enter the wormhole himself, only to be spat out in some far-off star system, with no trace of the All Spark. Prelude: Megatron
"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 eventually succeeded in tracking 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, Megatron caused panic in the Autobot ranks forcing even them to call for a tempoary retreat. He blasted Jazz away when the diminutive Autobot attempted to attack, then threw him into the air before crushing him on top of a tower with his clawed talons. Jazz vainly fought on, doing little damage to Megatron before the Decepticon leader killed the Autobot by tearing him in half.
As the human boy ran off with the All Spark, Megatron ordered the Decepticons to attack. At that moment, Optimus Prime appeared and challenged Megatron. Millennia in the ice had done nothing to lessen the animosity Megatron felt for his brother, however. Barely managing to growl out Prime's name, he transformed and flew at Prime at full speed. The Autobot leader leapt and grabbed a hold of Megatron, who slammed him into a building before flying right through a skyscraper. Both leaders landed in the middle of an intersection, but Megatron was the first to recover and leapt upon his brother, snarling that the humans were undeserving of life. Optimus Prime replied that they had the right to choose for themselves before he threw his brother off. Megatron declared that if Prime wished to defend them, he should die with them, forming his Fusion Cannon. Before he could fire, the Autobot leader drew his ion blaster and fired, hitting Megatron. The Decepticon leader shrugged off this attack, spun around from the momentum and fired his cannon, throwing Optimus Prime into the side of a building.
Megatron persued the young human who had removed the All Spark from Hoover Dam, destroying everything that stood in his way. The boy ran to a dilapidated building that was the designated coordinates for a human military evacuation team, and Megatron smashed his way through, yelling that he could smell the human maggot. Following him to the roof, Megatron offered that if the human gave him the All Spark, the boy may live as his pet. The Decepticon leader relished the human's defiant refusal and destroyed the ledge the human was standing upon, sending the boy tumbling to the ground.
Unfortunately, the human was caught by Optimus Prime, who then tried to escape down the side of the building before Megatron tackled him and sent all three slamming into the pavement. As a nearby human bystander attempted to run, the Decepticon expressed his disgust at the insect's proximity and flicked him away. Protecting the young boy, Prime declared that their war would end here and it was now just between the two brothers. Megatron declared that Prime's defense of the "weak" was the real reason he would lose. Despite Optimus Prime's best efforts, Megatron was the stronger warrior, pounding the Autobot leader with devastating blow after devastating blow until he collapsed. The Decepticon leader turned his attention back to the human boy, but was suddenly attacked by the human fighter jets and Captain Lennox's ground soldiers firing sabot rounds. His armour a damaged, shattered mess, Megatron ignored the punishment and focused on the human boy. As Optimus Prime ordered the boy to place the All Spark into his chest, the human instead pushed it into the now-exposed spark in Megatron's chest overloading him with energy and extinguishing the Decepticon's life force. Optimus Prime stood over Megatron's lifeless shell, watching the light flicker out of his brother's optics, he remarked somberly, yet remorsefully that Megatron had left him no choice, and removed a shard of the All Spark from his brother's spark cavity.
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 right arm: The right fist is supposed to launch out of the right arm. However, the spring for the launching mechanism was left out (possibly for safety reasons). One must either find a compatible spring or steal the spring in his left arm fusion cannon, then place it in his right forearm. The right fist should now launch properly.
- 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.
Battling Robots Bubble Bath
- Megatron (2007)
- Megatron's torso attaches to the bottle of bubble bath. His elbows bend, and his arms have a punching gimmick, to allow him to battle the forces of good. Pushing a lever on either side makes the respective fist punch forward. He's removable, though not as easily held without the bottle below his waist. Like many pieces of Megatron merchandise, this "figure" uses the older head design with blue eyes. The blue eyes are also the only spot of paint on him, unlike the elaborately decoed Prime.
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.
- Early script drafts featured Megatron consuming the sparks of his fallen foes, but this didn't make it into the final film. The novelisation of the movie, on the other hand, sees him chow down on Jazz; similarly, although not outright stated in dialogue, his animalistic pouncing on the fallen bodies of various characters (including Optimus Prime, Starscream, Jazz and the Decepticon Create-A-Bot) in the Movie Nintendo DS games, following by what appears to be rooting around in their innards, seems to suggest he's doing the same there. In the Autobots version of the game, it is also noted that Megatron "took the spark" of his and Optimus' father - presumably, this is a reference to his cannibalistic practises.
- The Megatron computer generated model consisted of 2411 individual pieces, 433,949 polygons, 8924 rig nodes, and 1437 texture maps. The pieces combined gave a volume of 10,325 cubic feet.[1]
- Megatron from Transformers Animated has apparently stolen this Megatron's head.
- Despite his hatred of humans, Megatron is the only Decepticon in the movie who doesn't speak Cybertronian. In fact, he speaks fluent English upon reviving, depite the fact that Modern English came into existance around the Sixteenth century, when he was presumably frozen in the ice. Curious.
References
- ↑ Robertson, Barbara (2007). Heavy Metal. Computer Graphics, 30(7), 12-17.
