Shockwave (Movie)

The name or term "Shockwave" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Shockwave (disambiguation).

Shockwave is a Decepticon from the live-action movie continuity family.

Optimus Prime's most bewildering foe: the faceless!

Shockwave was left to watch Cybertron by Megatron long ago, arriving on Earth to hunt for the AllSpark shortly after Megatron. A peerless scientist with deadly efficiency and a cold devotion to logic, he is one of the very few who could rival Megatron. Shockwave is ready and willing to destroy the Autobots with his arm-mounted AstroMag Cannon.

“	Emotionless, coldly logical, utterly ruthless... killing is all Shockwave lives for.	”
—Optimus Prime, Dark of the Moon #1

Fiction

IDW live-action film prequel comics

"Your star burns! I require frozen treats."

Eons after the Dynasty of Primes were vanquished, Cybertron fell into dark times. The AllSpark had been buried somewhere within Cybertron and been dismissed as a legend, and the planet itself lacked a star to orbit. As energy became more and more scarce, Cybertronians segregated into tribes. Shockwave chose to rally behind Sentinel Prime, who claimed to be descended from Primus himself. However, he faced opposition from the non-believer Thetacons, and Shockwave joined Megatron, Optimus, and several others in repelling their attacks. Ultimately, Sentinel Prime won the day, as he and Wheeljack were successful in locating the lost AllSpark and harnessing a new sun to orbit. This, however, did not please Shockwave. Now that the war was over, he was dissatisfied, and he no longer knew his purpose. This shocked his old friend, Megatron, and Shockwave explained that it was the journey he enjoyed, not the destination. Plus, well, that new sun was kind of bright. Foundation #1

Later, Megatron detailed to Shockwave how he had eavesdropped on a conversation between Sentinel and Optimus, where Sentinel had tried to pass on leadership to Optimus, who refused, unable to accept he was also a Prime. At the outskirts of Thetacon, they encountered a Driller, a subterranean lifeform that had been brought to the planet's surface by the new energy flowing through it, which was attacking a group of Hatchlings and their protector Starscream. Shockwave was amazed by the creature and called it "magnificent". After besting it, he joined the Cybertronian Defense Force that Sentinel placed under Megatron's command, rooting out dissident Transformers. Foundation #2

After the war broke out he joined the Decepticons. As Starscream was asking what to do next minutes before the Nemesis went to space, Shockwave told him that they will obey Megatron's orders without any question. Foundation #3

Many years later, Shockwave and Starscream kept Megatron company in his citadel and exchanged worried glances over the crumbling sanity of their lord, Megatron. Foundation #1 Shockwave asked Megatron if he could kill Optimus Prime and Ironhide, but Megatron was disappointed by Shockwave's lack of vision. Foundation #3

Some time later, after the Autobots sent the All Spark into space, Megatron left Shockwave in charge of the Decepticons still on Cybertron as he went in search of his prize. During a battle with a team of Autobots, Shockwave heard the scream of the AllSpark when it was found by Sector 7. Leaving Dreadwing in charge of the Decepticons on Cybertron, Shockwave set out in an impossibly fast ship, swearing not to return without the AllSpark. He crashed in Tunguska, Siberia in 1908. He remained buried there in stasis lock, healing until Soviet Russia found him ten years later. Using stolen research from the U.S., who had found Megatron the same way, the Russians reverse-engineered his technology to invent nuclear power plants. Rising Storm #2 Frozen

Titan Magazines

While Starscream doesn't like or trust Shockwave, he respects his intelligence and, if he had to choose, would give the nod to Shockwave being his successor. #21's Star Screams

Revenge of the Fallen film

Quick, add him to the character list!

At some point during 2009, Shockwave was caught on film and the event was written up for a newspaper article. A newspaper page with the headline "Mysterious Robot Spotted" was discarded in Egypt, where it was sucked up by a rampaging Devastator. Revenge of the Fallen

IDW Dark of the Moon comics

The Russian facility holding Shockwave was seemingly abandoned for reasons unknown, and in 2011, the reawakened Megatron managed to track him down and free him. Shockwave was brought to Megatron's "base" in Namibia, where he was eager to get back to killing Autobots as soon as possible. Rising Storm #2

Shockwave and Astrotrain made their presence known on Earth near Dalian, China, where they quickly disposed of the Autobots Longarm and Salvage and stole material for a mysterious construction project.

Shockwave began following the exploits of Earth's stranded Transformers from afar, and derided its war's combatants as idiots after watching a skirmish in California. After contacting Astrotrain for an update on their project, he tracked Divebomb's radiation trail back to Starscream's current base of operations, in a junkyard on the outskirts of Mexico City. Blasting his way through the Decepticons unwise enough to try defending Starscream, Shockwave informed the treacherous air commander that Megatron had "requested his services." Before the conversation could go any further, Astrotrain radioed Shockwave with some bad news: the "brain unit" scrap drone that held the control software for the machine he was constructing had escaped. Shockwave charged Starscream and his followers with recovering the drone. Rising Storm #1

Shock blast!

Shockwave contacted an angry Starscream who thought he was promised the Autobots would be occupied. Shockwave countered that they were occupied, but, you know, with Starscream, leaving Shockwave free to leave a message for Optimus Prime at the NEST Headquarters in Diego Garcia. After killing Knock Out, Dune Runner, and other Autobots who stood in his way, Shockwave confronted the trembling humans left to fend for themselves. When Shockwave asked who was in command, Theodore Galloway told him that he was. Shockwave killed Galloway and the other humans save one, and he asked his question one more time. Rising Storm #3

After killing Jolt, he and Fearswoop left Diego Garcia, then he arrived in Philadelphia killing Elita-One in the process and shot down Wheeljack and Mirage. Enraged by the death of Elita-One and the other Autobots. Optimus Prime battled Shockwave destroying half of his face and body, Prime was about to kill Shockwave, till Shockwave's "pet" came to save his master. the badly damaged Shockwave returned to Namibia along Starscream and Soundwave. Rising Storm #4

Dark of the Moon film

Voice actor: Frank Welker (English), Miguel Ángel Ghigliazza (Latin American Spanish)

Plot details for Dark of the Moon (film) follow. Spoilers have expired, you may remove this tag

"We have worm sign."

Shockwave and his pet Driller attacked the Autobots when they were summoned to Chernobyl by the Decepticon agent Voskhod, presumably as an act of misdirection to ensure the Autobots did not realize the Decepticons actively desired them to find the fuel cell from the Ark located within the facility. During this moment he appears from Driller and says "Optimus", but quickly withdraws.

Later, Shockwave took part in the battle of Chicago, sending his Driller into the fray to topple a building and kill Sam Witwicky and the various humans inside. The beast was killed by Optimus Prime using his flight gear, and Shockwave, enraged by the death of his pet, opened fire on the Autobot leader, briefly disabling him and taking him out of the fight. He soon joined Soundwave and Barricade to round up the other Autobots, and executing Que in the process. Brains and Wheelie forestalled further Autobot death by taking control of a Decepticon gunship, giving the human soldiers the opening they required to block Shockwave's vision with parachutes, then shoot his eye out. Optimus Prime then came charging back into the fray, donning a set of knuckle-spikes and punching Shockwave so hard that his abdomen ruptured. Even this did not put Shockwave down, but Prime did not let up, pinning the Decepticon and tearing his dangling eye out through his throat, finally ending his life, while simultaneously using his cannon to shoot out one of the space bridge pillars set up in the city. Dark of the Moon

Games

Transformers: The Game (console)

Voice actor: Daniel Riordan

1% assorted Shockwave parts, 99% weapons.

Under the orders of Starscream, Shockwave attacked Tranquility in an effort to interfere with Optimus Prime's attempt to rescue Bumblebee from Sector Seven. Prime actually had a grip on the helicopter net that held Bumblebee, but the force of Shockwave's entry mode's impact knocked him off, allowing Sector Seven to get away.

File:Tf2007console shockwave turrent.jpg

Death Cannon OF LOGIC!

Landing in downtown, the triple-changing Shockwave adopted a helicopter and an artillery emplacement as his alternate modes, promptly transforming into the latter and lobbing explosives around the city. Prime, forced to cut off his rescue, charged in and pounded Shockwave until the goliath transformed and retreated to another position. Prime doggedly kept at Shockwave, following him every time he retreated, eventually defeating the Decepticon and saving Tranquility. Transformers The Game (console)

Later, when the Autobots returned to Cybertron, Shockwave appeared on the planet alongside (and presumably leading) an army of Decepticon drones. Optimus quickly defeated the drones and once more defeated Shockwave.

Shockwave is not a playable character in the game, appearing only as a boss character during the Autobot campaign. He also appears (but does not transform) as one of the enemies battled in the Autobot campaign's bonus level set on Cybertron, but what this implies about Shocky is debatable at best, given the level's questionable in-game continuity.

Transformers: The Game (PSP)

Voice actor: Daniel Riordan

He makes up for his loss of weapons by being the most awesome character in the game.

The massive Shockwave might look like he's purely about muscle and firepower, but he's actually remarkably shrewd and cunning. Coveting the position of Decepticon leader for himself, Shockwave has been working to oust Megatron for years. As you might imagine, he and Starscream don't get along very well.

When the Decepticons arrived on Earth in search of their lost leader, Megatron, Shockwave adopted a tank as his alternate mode. Shockwave was supposed to join Blackout in his attack on the SOCCENT Forward Operations Base in Qatar, but instead busied himself surrepticiously searching for leads to the location of the AllSpark. After receiving a communique from Frenzy, who informed him that the Autobots were on Earth and had discovered their own leads to the location of Megatron, Shockwave had Thundercracker airlift him to Qatar, where he helped Blackout take care of the last few military units opposing him. He relayed Frenzy's message to Blackout, then departed for the Arctic with Thundercracker, intending to investigate the site where Megatron's body was discovered.

In the Arctic, Shockwave and Thundercracker faced resistance from an Autobot unit in the area, but fought their way through them to discover that Megatron's body had been moved by Sector Seven. The trip was not a wasted one, however: after scanning a computer terminal in the cavern, Shockwave discovered that Megatron had brought an army of drones with him to Earth to help in the search for the All Spark. These drones were presently lying dormant all over the Earth, and Shockwave schemed to reactivate them so that they could serve him as his personal army. The signal required to reanimated the drones had to be broadcast from a great height, so Shockwave and Thundercracker quickly made their way to a rocket launch site, where Shockwave programmed the code into a rocket that subsequently beamed the signal down over the Earth from space. Drones sprang to life all over the planet, and began attacking the Autobots. Shockwave's control of his self-made army was short lived, however, as Autobots Trailbreaker and Hound successfully transmitted a virus that shut the drones down. Simultaneously, Shockwave received another message from Frenzy that the he had discovered the location of Megatron, and that the Decepticon leader was about to reawaken.

After the Autobots defeated Megatron and most of the other Decepticons in battle in Center City, Shockwave retreated back to Cybertron, as did Starscream. Back on their homeworld, Shockwave and Starscream faced off for leadership of the Decepticons, with Starscream ultimately claiming victory. Transformers The Game (PSP)

In contrast to the console version of the game, Shockwave is a playable character on the PSP.

Autobot Stronghold

Shockwave was used as the basis for an army of drone units, who were part of the constant attacks on the Autobot's LG Stronghold. For some reason, these drones had two Sparks. Autobot Stronghold

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - The Game

(Xbox 360/PS3)

Shockwave was frozen underneath a Russian facility after crashing to Earth thousands of years ago. His leader Megatron decided to find and release his assassin, since he was needed for the upcoming operation. The Driller woke from its slumber before him, and lashed out at the intruder Optimus Prime. After thawing out, he decided to kill the first thing his optic lay eyes on: Optimus. However, he was still a bit woozy from waking up and taking action so quickly, so he tended to make a few hiccups in his attacks, before finally waking up. Autobot reinforcements weren't helping Optimus, as they were dispatched quite easily. During their skirmish, Optimus Prime (with a little help from Autobot Ratchet) deduced his weak spot as the three cylinder-shaped generators mounted on his back. Optimus Prime was then able to take down Shockwave with his jetpack/machinegun upgrades, until the Driller decided to intervene, and blocked off the shots while retreating with its master.

Shortly after that, he met up with Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave in Nambia, Africa and was ordered to find a nuclear power plant found in Chernobyl...

Toys

Dark of the Moon

Cyberverse

File:DOTM Cyberverse Shockwave FusionTank.jpg

• Shockwave / Fusion Tank (Cyberverse Action Set, 2011)
  • Series:
  • Number:
  • Japanese ID number: CV19
  • Accessories:

Voyager Class toys

Observation: gun hose. Conclusion: awesome.

• Shockwave (MechTech Voyager, 2011)
  • Japanese ID number: DD05
  • Accessories: MechTech Battle Cannon/Particle Wave Blaster with rubber hose, arm-blade-thing

Part of the second wave of Dark of the Moon Voyager Class MechTech toys, Shockwave transforms into a purple Cybertronian tank. He has a large, detachable MechTech Battle Cannon on his right arm with a rubber tube which connects to his back, and a removable blade on his left arm. When a lever is pushed on the rear of his arm cannon, MechTech gearing opens up the cannon wider with more barrels and blades. C joint rungs are located on Shockwave's arm-blade, two on his AstroMag cannon, two more on his backpack, and two more on his feet. Other MechTech weapons can peg into Shockwave's palms, on the barrel of his cannon, and behind each shoulder blade.

Shockwave's stock photography depicts him in a much, much brighter purple while the MechTech lever on the cannon is bright red. Although partly cropped, his packaging photography on the box-front depicts and alternative placement of his gun hose in tank mode, plugging into the port on the side of his rear treads, which actually aligns better than the awkward frontal position depicted in the instructions.

Notes

• Transformers: The Game Shockwave was designed by artist Ken Christiansen.
• The "Attack Copter", "Recon Chopper" and "Stealth Chopper" Create-A-Bot vehicle modes from the Nintendo DS video games transform into robot modes bearing some resemblance to Shockwave. The Attack Chopper is the only one that can be customized to appear purple, though.
• The photo on the newspaper article in Revenge of the Fallen is of Palisades's statue of Generation 1 Shockwave, with something digitally added in the foreground.
• As a seeming attempt at disinformation, to hide the identity of the true villain of Dark of the Moon, Shockwave was promoted as being the movie's main antagonist. According to the very earliest promotional materials, Shockwave ruled over Cybertron while the Autobots and the Decepticons duked it out on Earth; something that would eventually prove to have absolutely no bearing on his role in the film, but which did get spotlighted briefly in the Rising Storm comic book prequel. Director Michael Bay described his as a "little bit more vicious" than Megatron. Given that live-action Megatron is psychotically violent, that sounds pretty vicious.
• Shockwave does not have the same form in IDW's Rising Storm and Foundation that he does in Dark of the Moon despite both being Cybertronian forms. His form in the comics is less skeletal in robot mode than his appearance in the film, and he also transforms into a Cybertronian jet, much like Megatron's original body, whereas he will apparently transform into some form of Cybertronian tank in the film. (Following the leader, maybe?) John Barber commented on his Twitter account that he isn't sure why Shockwave's appearance is different from that in the film, but that an explanation will be given in issue 4 of Rising Storm. While the issue doesn't explicitly show how he gets his Dark of the Moon body, Shockwave is indeed badly damaged by Optimus Prime. Possibly because of this extensive reconstruction, Shockwave doesn't transform in the film (or the video game prequel before it, which displayed him with his current body instead of the old, G1-esque one).
• Generation 1 Shockwave's original voice actor, Corey Burton, rejected voicing him for Dark of the Moon, explaining "[I] have practically no interest in that kind of mega-budget movie enterprise involvement" and that the inspiration for his Shockwave voice, David Warner, was being considered. In the end up, Shockwave's almost-entirely-wordless-snarl-based role would have been something of a waste of Warner; the role ultimately went to Frank Welker. There's a nice touch of symmetry in the casting, with Welker taking over a Burton-originated role not long after Burton took on a Welker-originated character in Animated Megatron.
• Hasbro's online bio for Shockwave claims he had spent decades trapped under Chernobyl, but this was not reflected in any actual media; both the video game and Rising Storm comics have him held at a Russian facility from which he is freed shortly before the film's events, and the film itself doesn't give any indication that his appearance at Chernobyl in its opening scenes is an "escape" of any kind.
• Shockwave's AstroMag cannon is a reference to the original Shockwave's toy mold being first released by ToyCo as the "4 Changeable Astro Magnum".
• Select ToysЯUs stores in the US had a promotion for a Shockwave poster with the purchase of any Transformers brand toy from June 5, 2011 to June 11, 2011.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Shockwave (ショックウェーブ Shokkuwēbu)

External links

• Transformers: The Game Shockwave concepts, vehicle mode renderings, robot mode and head concepts, final robot mode rendering and transformation animation guide on Ken Christiansen's blog.
• Transformers: The Game video interview with Daniel Suarez, featuring Shockwave footage