Unlike his superiors, Christolph Smythe does not come from the military. He's an engineer, and wears glasses thick enough that his co-workers have been known to speculate that they could stop bullets. He holds the position of Communications Director at the Sector Seven High Arctic Base, meaning he's the go-to man for communicating with Sector Seven's Ghost 1 spacecraft.
History[]
Ghosts of Yesterday[]
When the Ghost 1 went missing soon after launch, Smythe and his technicians rigged up a transmitter based on the same source of technology as the spaceship they were trying to reach—the frozen body of Megatron which they knew only as the "Ice Man". They managed to get two-way communication going, only for Ghost 1 captain Walker to tell them "the Ice Man has a family."
After Colonel Kinnear left the base to deliver the Ice Man to Nevada, Nolan had Smythe round up everyone to try to come up with a way to get the ship back to Earth from wherever it was. Minutes later, the news came through that Kinnear's convoy had gone missing, and Nolan left Smythe in charge the base while he went to find it. Smythe told the Ghost 1 crew that there was a chance they could make it back through the wormhole they'd gone through, however he also passed on a code detailing the procedure for hostile alien contact—they should do everything possible to make sure the Decepticons didn't find Earth, up to and including self-sacrifice.
Sometime later, Smythe contacted the Ghost 1 again, to let them know the wormhole was dangerously close to collapse. By that time, Walker had already made up his mind on a course of action, and had the transmitter turned off. Smythe decided to tell them to use the wormhole as soon as they could, though it would likely mean him losing his job, however the message went disregarded, and the crew sacrificed themselves to save Optimus Prime's life.