Megatron (aka Galvatron) is the leader of the Decepticons and is the Main antagonist of the first film, the Secondary antagonist in the next two films, the tertiary antagonist in the fourth while reborn as Galvatron, and the Secondary in the fifth. He is the brother of the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime.
Biography
Megatron grew up to become Lord High Protector of Cybertron, while his brother, Optimus became the head scientist of the Cybertronian scientific division. Eventually, Megatron came across The Fallen, who corrupted him and convinced him that the AllSpark should be his. Megatron and his followers attempted to seize the AllSpark but were stopped by Optimus and his Autobots, and the Cybertronian War began.
At the end of the war, Megatron captured and interrogated Bumblebee, severely damaging his vocal processor. However, before Megatron could kill Bumblebee, the Autobots launched the AllSpark into deep space. Megatron followed the Cube across space in his jet mode, eventually crash-landing on Earth in the Arctic. However, he froze into the ice before he could search the planet for the AllSpark.
Millennia later, in the year 1897, Captain Archibald Witwicky, the leader of the National Arctic Circle Expedition, discovered Megatron buried deep in the ice. Accidentally triggering Megatron's navigation system, Witwicky was blinded by a burst of light from Megatron's eyes, which imprinted the coordinates of the AllSpark's location on his glasses.
Megatron in Hoover Dam
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. There, he remained in cryo-stasis for another 72 years, during which time, many modern devices (by Earth standards) were reverse-engineered from his frozen body.
In 2007, Frenzy infiltrated Hoover Dam and shut down the power systems, while Starscream attacked the external power lines, causing Megatron to thaw out. Once again online, the leader of the Decepticons informed the humans of his true name, before randomly killed a few of them while destroying his former prison. The Sector Seven personnel tried to subdue Megatron with liquid nitrogen, causing the Decepticon leader to fly off after the AllSpark again. He met up with Starscream for the first time in thousands of years on the outside and immediately demanded to know where the Cube was. Upon learning that the humans had moved the AllSpark, Megatron berated Starscream for yet another failure.
After Starscream and Brawl's opening attacks in Mission City, Megatron arrives. The Autobots were so panicked by the sight of their long lost nemesis that Ratchet called for a temporary retreat. Megatron blasted Jazz away when the diminutive Autobot attempted to attack, then took him to the top of a tower. Jazz vainly fought on, asking if Megatron wanted a "piece," but doing little damage to Megatron. The Decepticon leader killed the Autobot by tearing him in half, callously declaring that he wanted "two" pieces.
As Sam ran off with the AllSpark, Megatron ordered the Decepticons to attack. Devastator attacked Lennox's men, while Starscream and Blackout fought Ironhide and Ratchet for the AllSpark. At that moment, Optimus Prime appeared and challenged Megatron. Barely managing to growl out Prime's name, Megatron transformed and flew at Prime at full speed. Optimus leaped 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 leaped upon his brother, snarling that the humans were undeserving of life.
Megatron as he appears in the first film
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 "join them in extinction," 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 pursued Sam, who had removed the AllSpark from Hoover Dam, destroying everything that stood in his way. Sam ran to a dilapidated building that was the designated coordinates for a human military evacuation team, and Megatron smashed his way through, yelling out to him. Starscream destroyed the helicopter intended to take the AllSpark, and Megatron burst through the floor, inquiring if it was courage or fear that compelled him. Finally cornering him on a ledge, Megatron offered that if the human gave him the AllSpark, the boy might live as his pet. The Decepticon leader relished Sam's defiant refusal and destroyed the ledge the boy was standing upon, sending him tumbling to the ground.
Sam 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 his 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. Though lusting for the AllSpark, Megatron decided to indulge his brother's obvious death wish, declaring that only he was in this fight. Despite Optimus Prime's best efforts, Megatron was relentless, matching the Autobot leader with blow after devastating blow until he collapsed. Adding insult to injury, Megatron informed Prime that his defense of the "weak" was the real reason he lost.
Megatron and the AllSpark are destroyed
Megatron turned his attention back to Sam but was suddenly attacked by fighter jets and Captain Lennox's ground soldiers firing SABOT rounds. Optimus took this chance, striking Megatron and knocking him down. His armor damaged, Megatron ignored the punishment and focused on Sam, growling that he would kill the boy and that the AllSpark was his. As Optimus Prime ordered Sam to place the AllSpark into his chest, the boy instead pushed it into the now-exposed spark in Megatron's chest, overloading him with energy and extinguishing the Decepticon's life force. As 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 AllSpark from his brother's spark cavity.
Megatron's body was dumped into the Laurentian Abyss at its deepest point, along with the remains of the other Decepticons, where the near-freezing temperatures would, hopefully, keep them dormant indefinitely.
Megatron as he appears in Revenge of The Fallen
Two years later, Ravage, Scalpel, Mixmaster, Scrapmetal, Rampage and Long Haul discovered Megatron's body at the bottom of the Abyss, now covered in barnacles, starfish, and octopi. After the Constructicons used parts from scrap metal to repair Megatron's body, Scalpel struck Megatron's spark cavity with an AllSpark fragment, reviving the Decepticon leader. Megatron flew up to the surface, striking a submarine on his way, before journeying into space to find the Nemesis. On the ruined ship, Megatron met up with Starscream and chastised his subordinate for leaving him to die on Earth. Starscream defended his actions by saying that he had to take care of the hatchlings, who were dying without Energon, and someone had to take command in Megatron's absence. Furious, Megatron bashed Starscream into a wall containing protoform sacks and told Starscream that even in death, there is no command but Megatron's. Megatron met up with The Fallen, who was weakened and in a life support chair. Megatron told his master he had failed and allowed the AllSpark to be destroyed, but The Fallen told Megatron that the knowledge of the AllSpark had instead been transferred to the human boy who killed him, Sam Witwicky. With the knowledge within Sam's mind, they could find another Energon source, hidden away from The Fallen eons ago. Already eager to avenge himself, Megatron begged The Fallen for the chance to strip the flesh from Sam, but The Fallen asked for patience. Before they could act, Megatron was to kill Optimus Prime, who was the last of the Dynasty of Primes, which made him the only one who could kill The Fallen. Megatron knew that Optimus would protect the boy, and ordered him captured.
Megatron and his master aboard the Nemesis
Megatron sprang a trap, dispatching Grindor to take Sam Witwicky, Mikaela Banes, and Leo Spitz to him at an abandoned factory. Although Megatron would have rather killed Sam slowly and painfully, Sam had valuable information as to the Energon source's location in his mind, which he had received from his own AllSpark fragment. Megatron held the boy down while Scalpel performed several invasive probes of Sam's mind. Scalpel's probes confirmed The Fallen's claims, and Scalpel declared that they needed Sam's brain on the table, something Megatron had no objections to. Just as Scalpel was ready to dissect Sam's brain, Optimus and Bumblebee burst in to rescue the humans.
Sam and Megatron meet for the first time in two years
Megatron attempted to attack Optimus but was instead shot out of the factory. Optimus drove Sam to a forest, with Megatron in hot pursuit. The Autobot and Decepticon leaders transformed and battled as Sam fled. Optimus was easily dominating the fight, trash-talking Megatron all the while, forcing Megatron to call his Decepticons for help. Starscream and Grindor arrived to aid their commander, as Megatron told Prime that Sam could lead them to another Energon source. Kicking off his mouth plate and blasting him, Megatron asked Prime if one boy was worth the future of the Cybertronians. Prime replied that the Decepticons would never stop at killing just one, then took on all three Decepticons. Surprisingly, he was winning, stabbing Megatron multiple times and knocking off Starscream's arm. As a weary Prime tore Grindor apart, Megatron stabbed him in the back and blasted through his spark: Prime fell, mortally wounded. As Megatron moved for the boy, the rest of the Autobots arrived and provided enough cover for Bumblebee to spirit Sam away. Already injured from the battle with Prime, Megatron and Starscream were forced to retreat.
Megatron punishes Starscream for his failure
With Prime dead, Megatron was quite pleased, until Starscream informed him that the boy had escaped. Furious, Megatron smacked his lieutenant with his own severed arm and ran his treads on him for a moment for losing track of "a single insect," but Starscream countered that he was one of seven billion, and could be anywhere. Considering the situation, Megatron decided it was time to end their secret war, and that if they couldn't find the boy, they would have the humans bring him to the Decepticons. Soundwave used his scanning abilities to locate the boy's parents, the rejuvenated Fallen broadcast a message to deliver Sam to them across the planet. Megatron himself broadcasted The Fallen's message by rewiring the Empire State Building's radio tower.
Megatron then flew to Egypt, where nineteen thousand years before, The Fallen had built a Star Harvester to harness the Sun for Energon. Starscream informed him that the humans had brought Prime's body with them, and Megatron surmised the boy's intentions. Commanding the rest of the Decepticons to begin their assault, Megatron ordered Devastator to destroy the pyramid that was built over the harvester, while he himself chased Sam for the Matrix of Leadership, which would activate the harvester. Megatron almost killed Sam, but was overwhelmed by human gunfire, and flew off.
Megatron's tank mode
The Fallen managed to take the Matrix and activate the harvester, but it had already been used to resurrect Optimus. Optimus combined with Jetfire and destroyed the harvester, knocking Megatron off the pyramid while Prime went for The Fallen. Quickly recovering, Megatron attacked Optimus from behind, leading to a two-on-one match with Megatron and The Fallen battling Prime. This one went better for Optimus than the last one, as he used Megatron's own cannon to blast half his face off and then severed the arm. Finally, Optimus used his afterburners to send Megatron hurtling through some ruins, ending his role in the battle. Megatron was so damaged he could barely call out for Starscream's assistance, but it soon mattered little as Optimus Prime killed The Fallen. Horrified at the loss of the power behind the Decepticons, Megatron acknowledged Starscream's advice that they should flee, but vowed that this wasn't over.
Megatron as an exile
As he appears in Dark of the Moon movie.
After The Fallen's death, Megatron spent the next three years hiding out in the plains of Namibia, Africa in exile. There, still visibly bearing the scars of his latest battle with Optimus Prime, he spent most of his time sitting on a ramshackle throne of junk, with only Starscream, Soundwave, Laserbeak, and the diminutive Igor to command. Megatron regularly went out to find food for the Hatchlings that lived in a collection of oil drums at the camp, occasionally scaring the local wildlife with his roaring and bellowing. Starscream expressed his concern for his master's wounds, but Megatron was less than concerned with those. Laserbeak returned after observing Shockwave's fight with Optimus and told Megatron that the Autobots had discovered a fuel cell from the Ark, which had been thought lost. Megatron then announced that the humans that were working for him had served their purpose, and ordered Laserbeak to summarily execute them. After Sentinel Prime betrayed the Autobots, Megatron and Starscream traveled to Washington D.C., where Megatron outlined his scheme to his second-in-command. Apparently, Sentinel was supposed to rendezvous with Megatron there on Earth, but the circumstances caused them both to be deactivated, and Sentinel was the only one who knew how to activate the Space bridge.
Megatron and Starscream in Washington D.C.
However, Megatron had a contingency plan: since they already had the Pillars on the Moon and Optimus had recovered the Matrix of Leadership, he merely needed Optimus to revive Sentinel, so he could activate the Pillars. And so arrived that moment, and Megatron blasted the President Lincoln statue off his stone throne and used the remains as a seat. Optimus arrived to stop Sentinel but was too late. Megatron watched this happen, after which he declared, "Here we are. Fight us now."
Soon, they traveled to Chicago, Illinois, where Sentinel and Megatron planned to start their global takeover. They set up their base of operations on the Jewelers' Building. Human Dylan Gould, who was working for the Decepticons, came with Carly Spencer to watch, but Megatron ordered him to leave. After the Decepticons successfully occupied Chicago, Megatron stated that this was the world that he promised, that this way Cybertron would be restored. Sentinel, feeling his partner was getting too chummy, violently reminded Megatron of his place. Sentinel did not work for Megatron, Megatron worked with Sentinel. Sentinel warned Megatron to remember the difference.
Megatron and Sentinel after taking Chicago
Much later, Dylan shouted to Megatron that the Autobots who were seemingly destroyed by Starscream were still alive. Megatron ordered the bridges to be raised and all Decepticon ships to find the Autobots. Sentinel took control of the Decepticon forces in the fight against the Autobots, and so as the battle raged Megatron lay in another throne of junk, sulking. That is until he was goaded by Carly to return to battle and kill Sentinel for usurping him. That is what he came close to doing : he intervened in the battle just before Sentinel was about to deal the fatal blow to Optimus, and severely wounded Sentinel. Megatron realized how far he had fallen in power within the past few years and had decided to once again take his rightful place at the top of the command chain.
Megatron's final death
He decided to make a truce with Optimus, as long he could remain in charge of his Decepticon forces saying, "After all, what would you be without me, Prime?" Just as Megatron was about to shoot, Optimus shoved Megatron to the ground, smashed Megatron's head with an energy ax and tore it off his body, killing the tyrant once and for all.
Megatron in Galvatron's body in Age of Extinction movie.
After his death, the humans took his head and used it to build Galvatron but they ended up giving Megatron a new body, now calling himself Galvatron. He then went rogue and kills several scientists as he tried to get the seed so he could use it on the biggest city, turning it into metal, and rebuilding his army of Decepticons but his plan fails as Stinger and several drones are killed by the Autobots. Then, after Optimus kills Lockdown, sets off the latter's grenade, and killing his drone army -, he manages to escape and swears to defeat Optimus another time before he takes Lockdown's ship into space, saying "I am reborn." Following the battle, he lost the ship and traveled alone.
At some point after the battle of Hong Kong, Galvatron reverted back to Megatron and got a new alt mode in the form of a new Cybertronian Jet and Barricade is his only soldier alive and free. Over the following year, he visited all the locations of the rising Horns of Unicron. He then kidnapped a pair of CIA officers and contacted the TRF, telling them he wanted to meet to negotiate. He asked for the release of several high class Decepticon prisoners, freeing Mohawk, Nitro, Dreadbot, was turned down when he tried to get back Berserker, so he called for Onslaught instead. Megatron then took his crew after Cade Yeager and the Autobots who were in hiding in the Scrapyard. The place was deserted, but Megatron found the decapitated head of Starscream and told him that the end was near. Megatron was then attacked by Hound, who had stayed behind to fight. Megatron beat the Autobot down and he and the rest of Megatron's Crew went in pursuit of the Autobots once again.
They followed their prey to a abandoned town, where the Autobots launched a new offensive, and then, Grimlock showed up, eating up Dreadbot and blasting fire. After Drift and Crosshairs killed Onslaught, Nitro and Megatron retreated, leaving Mohawk behind to die.
When Yeager and Bumblebee went to England to meet with Sir Edmund Burton, Megatron and his remaining forces followed, knowing Yeager would lead them to the Staff. Yeager was subsequently joined by Viviane Wembly, and successfully located Quintessa's staff in the knight's ship at the bottom of the ocean. Quintessa had, in the intervening time, also placed Optimus Prime under her control and sent him to obtain the staff, but when Bumblebee helped Prime break her control, Megatron seized his opportunity, streaking in, blindsiding the disoriented Prime, and snatching the staff away. He proclaimed to his nemesis that he had turned his back on Cybertron for the last time, and would watch Earth die. As Cybertron arrived in Earth orbit, the Decepticons headed for Stonehenge, where Megatron activated the portal through which Unicron's energy would be drained. When Burton and the British military attempted to stop them, Megatron fatally wounded Burton with a single blast.
The Decepticons proceeded to relocate to Cybertron, where Megatron delivered the staff to Quintessa and led the defense of her ignition chamber against the joint forces of the Autobots, humans, and Dragonstorm. His forces held the line until Sqweeks destroyed their gun emplacement and Optimus arrived and slew Infernocus. He and Nitro fell back as the Autobots broke through the defenses and arrived to thwart their plan, and soon engaged all the Autobots together. As he prepared to deliver a killing blow to Hound, he was briefly frozen by Hot Rod's time slowing gun and blasted by Hound. He was then tackled by Bumblebee and when he prepared to blast the small Autobot, Optimus Prime intervened, slicing his fusion cannon arm off. Megatron, despite his injury, managed to subdue Optimus and attempted to sway him by reminding him of how they had once been "brothers", but Optimus retorted that it had indeed only been once, and kicked him through a wall, sending him plummeting through the air. Quintessa was defeated and her plans foiled, but Megatron presumably escaped to fight another day.
Megatron at Universal Studios
Trivia
- The prototype photographs on the back of Leader and Voyager class Megatron' packaging show him with a completely different head based upon an earlier version of CGI design (seen on the right) that was dropped after much negative fan reaction.
- According to The Movie Guide, Megatron is one of the few Transformers capable of space travel without reverting to a Protoform. This explains how he was capable of chasing the AllSpark "immediately" after its launch.
- The earliest concept designs of Megatron gave him a look very much inspired by his Generation One counterpart. Unlike the Cybertronic jet is seen in the first movie, this Megatron was intended to transform into an army tank.
- According to The Quest for the AllSpark paperback's opening paragraph, "...Most revered were Optimus and Megatron. They were twin brothers of the Prime dynasty." (This implies that Megatron may have also had the surname "Prime" at one time.) Similarly, in the Autobots version of the same DS game, it is noted that Megatron "took the spark" of his and Optimus' father. However, in the twelfth issue of Titan's Revenge of The Fallen comic, "Barricade" informed readers that Megatron and Optimus weren't related, the term "brother" was just because they'd known each other for so long.
- Early script drafts and a children's picture book featured Megatron consuming the sparks of his fallen foes, but this didn't make it into the final film due to time constraints. The novelisation of the movie, on the other hand, sees him chow down on Jazz in the final battle; 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.
- Despite his undeniable hatred of humans, Megatron is the only Decepticon in the movie who doesn't speak Cybertronian for the majority of his dialogue. In fact, he speaks fluent English upon reviving, despite the fact that Modern English came into existence around the Sixteenth century, when he was presumably still frozen in the ice. This could suggest that he still was somehow conscious when he was studied by Sector Seven (which he also overtly states upon awakening in the non-canon IDW comic adaptation). This would explain why his first action after thawing was declaring his name—imagine being frozen for generations being referred to as "N.B.E. 1," or even worse: "Mega-Man" and "Ice-man."
- 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]
- The Milton Bradley Transformers Battling Card Game depicts a couple of unique attacks for Megatron's original form; one card gives him a pair of forearm-mounted blades as an "Arm Sword," and another shows him firing a swarm of missiles from his chest in a "Missile Attack."
- It was decided that Megatron would not be renamed Galvatron in Revenge of The Fallen for the sake of the general audience.[2]
- While Revenge of The Fallen: The Movie Universe and the comic adaptation create the idea that Megatron is a Triple Changer that alternates between his robot, jet, and tank modes, there is absolutely nothing to support this in the movie. Throughout the entire film, he only transforms into a winged tank portrayed by the Voyager figure and is more than capable of flying in said mode. Of course, whether or not his flying tank mode is considered a third mode is up to interpretation.
- According to his bio on the Hasbro sticker sheets, Revenge Megatron weighs in at 5.7 metric tons, is 35 feet tall, uses an 'Ion-fused chain whip' for his primary weapon, has a 'Strength power level' of 10, and changes into an 'Interstellar jet.' The mention of a chain whip and a jet mode seem to indicate the card's stats were based on his original form, rather than his Revenge of The Fallen tank mode. The card also surmises that Megatron's might will 'make the Earthquake, and the stars fall from the sky.' The two-disc special edition of the Revenge of The Fallen DVD also gives him a height of 35 feet.
- In Revenge of The Fallen: The Movie Universe, it states Megatron possesses an internal self-regenerating dark matter power core which is possibly of alien origin.
- His weatherbeaten Mack tanker truck mode and Cybertronian sawed-off shotgun as seen in Dark of the Moon are fairly straightforward nods to the 1981 film Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
- Early concepts for his Dark of the Moon design called him Cyclonus in an attempt to curb leaks and spread misinformation.
- Megatron's story was altered significantly twice during the development of Revenge of The Fallen and Dark of the Moon: the climax of the second film would have revealed Megatron served The Fallen under the pretense of becoming a Prime, which Optimus exposes a lie, explaining Primes are born, not made. An angered Megatron refused to aid The Fallen in his final battle and returned to the Nemesis via The Fallen's space bridge to raise an army of hatchlings. In the film he is removed from the battle by having Optimus disfigure him with his own cannon, forcing him to hide as a truck in Africa. Megatron would have survived Dark of the Moon, with Optimus accepting the truce after helping kill Sentinel, with Megatron returning to Cybertron and leaving the possibility open to a fourth film. On screen, Megatron's offer comes across as less than sincere, allowing Optimus to finally tear his head off.
- Although Megatron uses Fusion Cannon in both previous films, in Dark of the Moon Megatron's weapon changes to a Fusion Shotgun.
- Megatron is the only character to have appeared in all three movies to have received a distinctly different body design and alternate form for each film. Each subsequent change having an in-story reason as well (brought back from the dead and repaired in Revenge of The Fallen, and being forced into hiding due to injuries he sustained at the end of the former-mentioned film in Dark of the Moon).
- According to most people at Universal Studios, he hates when people take selfies, believing only 14-year old girls do such nonsense.
References
- ↑ Robertson, Barbara (2007). Heavy Metal. Computer Graphics, 30(7), 12-17.
- ↑ Roberto Orci answers fan questions on the TFW2005 boards.