Starscream (Transformers Film Series)


 *  NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Starscream from the Transformers live-action film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Starscream. 

"I live to serve you, Lord Megatron."

- Starscream's first on-screen line

Starscream is a recurring antagonist in the Transformers Cinematic Universe. He served as the secondary antagonist in Transformers (2007), a major antagonist in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon, and a posthumous antagonist in The Last Knight. He also appeard in the Universal Studios attraction Transformers: The Ride. He will appear in the 2018 prequel Bumblebee, presumably as the main antagonist.

He was voiced by Charlie Adler, who also played Cobra Commander in G.I. Joe Resolute and G.I. Joe: Renegades.

Biography
Over the centuries, he has come to believe both Optimus and Megatron have lost sight of what is best for the Cybertronian race, and simply pursue their own agendas. At some point, he came to the decision that, for the good of the species, a new leader must emerge, and he would be that leader. However, over time, he became as corrupt in his own way as Megatron, although he prefers subtlety and deception to Megatron's brute force. Now, what may once have been noble goals are buried under layers of self interest, transforming Starscream into that which he supposedly despised.

IDW Publishing Prequel Comics
The back story of the Transformers on ancient Cybertron is told in Transformers: Defiance. In this story, Starscream returns to Cybertron after encountering an enemy scout ship in the Eshems Nebula. After being repaired for minor damage by Ratchet, Starscream and Ironhide report to Optimus Prime and Megatron. Later, the planet is invaded by aliens from the Eshems Nebula and Starscream is among the defenders in the city of Metrotitan, near the temple at Simfur. In issue #2, he sides with Megatron in his decision to counterattack Cybertron's invaders and is among the fleet that attacks their ships.

Starscream also appears at the end of issue #3 of Transformers: Movie Prequel, where he, Blackout and Barricade destroy the Mars Beagle probe. In issue 4, he travels to Earth, gaining his F-22 alternate mode by scanning an experimental Raptor before shooting it down. The three Decepticons, detecting emissions similar to that of the Allspark, then stumble onto Sector 7's trap for Bumblebee, wiping out their military backup. Starscream then approves Barricade's plan to follow Bumblebee and see if he could lead them to the All Spark, tailing him from the air.

Transformers
Starscream is the secondary antagonist of the 2007 film. He commences his attack by firing at the Autobots and manages to strike Bumblebee's legs. He fights Autobots Ironhide and Ratchet almost killing them during the final battle. Because of him, Ironhide and Ratchet were unable to participate in the majority of the final battle. He also managed to be too much of a challenge for a fleet of F-22 Raptors that were not prepared for his surprise attacks.

But when his allies Megatron, Brawl, and Blackout were killed, he fled back to space. He actually had less than 5 minutes of screen time in the entire movie that ran for 2 hours and 17 minutes. However, in less than 5 minutes, he was able to put Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Ironhide out of battle by shooting at them, shot down the helicopter that was supposed to rescue Sam, destroyed an F-22 pilot and was able to easily escape other F-22s that were trying to shoot him down. It is likely that Starscream fired missiles at Megatron when he blended in with other F-22s. Starscream was overjoyed to see that Megatron was slaughtered by the efforts of Optimus Prime and Sam Witwicky. Starscream then flew away from earth and retreated back to space.

The Reign of Starscream
He appears in the official movie sequel comic called "The Reign of Starscream". In this story, Starscream leaves the battle in Mission City, where he finds Barricade alive, but damaged, and then goes to recover Frenzy's body from the Sector 7 base under Hoover Dam in hopes of gaining information on the All Spark. After recovering Frenzy, Starscream is confronted by Sector 7 forces commanded by Agent Salazar. After an unsuccessful attempt by Salazar to use L.M.-1 in battle Starscream kidnaps Salazar and leaves Earth for Mars. Salazar dies from decompression, much to Starscream's surprise, when they leave Earth's atmosphere.

Starscream barely makes it to the Nemesis on Mars before he runs out of power. His return is noted by the Autobot Cosmos, who alerts Arcee, Cliffjumper, Smokescreen, Camshaft and Air Raid. Aided by Thundercracker aboard the Nemesis, Starscream recovers and sends the information Frenzy had gathered back to Cybertron just as Hardtop spots the Autobots closing on the Nemesis.

In issue #5, Starscream sacrifices the sparks of Crankcase, Elita One, Grindcore, Signal Flare and Warpath to bring his new All Spark Cube online. Although the cube fails to function, Starscream does not have time to find out why, as Dreadwing makes his bid to overthrow the Decepticons using his army of drones. Ramjet and Divebomb side with Dreadwing, but Thundercracker and Stockade remain loyal to Starscream. Crosshairs beheads Ramjet and the Autobots are able to deactivate the drones as Starscream overcomes Dreadwing's remaining forces, including Divebomb. Dreadwing escapes to the Nemesis, but is followed by Starscream. Crashing on Mars, Dreadwing thinks he was free, but Starscream kills him before turning his eye to Earth.

Revenge of the Fallen
"You left me to die on that pathetic insect planet!"

- Megatron calling Starscream out as a traitor.

Starscream is first seen in Revenge of the Fallen pretending to greet Megatron back home and expressing relief that he has been revived. Megatron has gotten angry at Starscream for taking his leadership when Megatron was killed by the All Spark power, then Starscream (obviously unhappily) was back to second or third-in-command. Because of this, Megatron strangles Starscream who starts begging for release by using the hatchlings as an excuse, that they're inside the hatchling nest. Whether or not the excuse worked, Scream was released but only after enduring a few seconds of getting strangled. As Megatron claimed his intention to activate the Sun Harvester in order to acquire more Energon, Starscream came in holding a dead Decepticon hatchling as an example why they need more Energon fast, as the one he held died from not having any. Starscream then joined in the Decepticon assault on Optimus Prime in the forest battle. Within seconds of flying into battle, Starscream chased after Sam until Optimus immediately grabbed and kicked Starscream from getting to Sam. It seemed that he, Grindor and Megatron combined were too much of a match for Prime, until Prime got out his Energon swords, cutting off Starscream's arm and crippling him badly. Because Prime kills Grindor and Autobot reinforcements of Ironhide, Ratchet and Sideswipe show up, Scream and Megatron retreat, Megatron angrily blames Scream for losing Sam ("I can't even rely on you to swat a simple insect!") and physically hurts him terribly on top of a skyscraper for being useless. Starscream then fired missiles near Sam and tried chasing him during the end of the film.

When Optimus combined with Jetfire's parts faced The Fallen and Megatron in the film's climatic battle, Megatron questioned just where did Starscream go. Reasons could include Starscream is too much of a coward or he wants his two superiors dead for leadership woes, if not both. After Optimus shoots Megatron in the face with the latter's own gun before the former blasts him through an Egyptian temple wall, Megatron called out for Starscream to get to the battle already. Starscream reluctantly complies, then (eagerly) watches Optimus narrow down his competition for Decepticon leadership by ripping out The Fallen's face and crushing his spark with a squeeze, before uttering to Megatron now would be a good time to retreat because sometimes, cowards so survive.

Dark of the Moon
Starscream's first appearance was at when the three primary Decepticons Soundwave, Laserbeak and Megatron are meeting at Africa. Starscream being delighted that Megatron is rotting away mocks the burns on his face. Being unable to pulverize Starscream for the insults, Megatron only responds at Starscream to just shut up about it, calling him a gaseous sycophant. Later on, Megatron and Starscream invade Washington D.C. where Sentinel Prime unleashes hundreds of Decepticons to slaughter the humans in Chicago, Starscream compliments on Megatron's decision to ally with Sentinel Prime ("So impressive"). Sentinel extorts the Autobots to leave Earth in a spaceship called the Xantium. Starscream was sent to shoot it down, and the humans believed the Autobots were dead. However, it turns out that they did not hide in the spaceship and were in a rocket pod that was below the Xantium. Because the Autobots and humans were waging war on the impending Decepticon reinforcements from the moon, Starscream flew in to kill many human soldiers on Ospreys during the middle of the war, successfully killing at least dozens of NEST human men. Starscream was able to be extremely near Sam Witwicky, and this time, there was no Autobot around. Sam used Autobot Que's grappling hook to injure one of Starscream's eyes. As Starscream was blind and tried to kick Sam, while under fire from Lennox's NEST team, the brave human stabbed a boom stick at Starscream also given to him by Autobot Que. The boom stick kills Starscream and Bumblebee rescues Sam and Lennoz when they fell from a building Starscream exploded on top of. His last words were, "I'm gonna kill you.....", a case of verbal irony.

Age of Extinction
Starscream's head was seen on a card from Harold Attinger who was ordering a group of government agents that they must eliminate any trace of Transformers who were responsible for the Battle of Chicago. However, the shot that shows the card is not clear enough for viewers to see at the movie's speed.

The Last Knight
"The end is near, my old treacherous friend. What a shame you'll be unable to see it!"

- Megatron as he holds his fallen lieutenant's head.

Starscream's severed head was picked up by Daytrader who found it in Buffalo, New York adding it to his junk collection dropping it right next to Cade, though Cade not interested in it shoved it away. Later, Megatron holds Scream's head gloating his "old treacherous friend" will not live to see the Decepticons triumph.

Transformers: The Ride
"Just dropping in!"

- Starscream assures the humans "not" to panic.

In the Universal Studios attraction Transformers: The Ride which follows its own continuity separate from the movies, Starscream appears as a major antagonist. Starscream shows up near the end of the ride, after EVAC carrying the human passengers managed to outmaneuver Grindor, Sideways, Bonecrusher and Devastator. After Devastator used his vacuum mouth to suck in EVAC, EVAC turned on his shields to rip his way out of Devastator's face instead of getting eaten and while in the air, Starscream used a hook wire to grab EVAC, fly him around and throw him straight into a building where Megatron was waiting for them. As Megatron nearly starts tearing apart EVAC to death, Optimus barely managed to stop Megatron. As EVAC tried retreating, Starscream destroyed a NEST helicopter that was supposed to take EVAC's passengers to safety. Starscream proceeded to kill EVAC and the humans inside but is shot in the back by two NEST helicopters and he screeched in pain. Starscream in retaliation tried killing them with his gun on the spot, but changed his mind and transformed into his F-22 raptor mode and flew away to safety.

Victims

 * Multiple humans including NEST soldiers
 * Multiple U.S. Air Force airmen in the first movie, third movie, video games and theme park ride
 * Possibly numerous counts of human civilians off-screen
 * Possibly numerous counts of Autobots back on Cybertron off-screen
 * Stratosphere (in Dark of the Moon videogame)
 * Dino (in Dark of the Moon novelization)

Trivia

 * It has been suggested that, following his attack on the F-22 squadron over the city, Starscream was able to hide among the survivors and take part in the attack on Megatron, shortly thereafter. This theory is speculative; while it fits the character of the G1 Starscream from the 1980s, there is nothing actually on the screen to suggest it (except for the fact Starscream is nowhere to be seen following the strike and is later seen leaving Earth's atmosphere). (Roberto Orci was asked, but refused to give a definite answer.) In The Reign of Starscream, the first issue reveals that during the battle, he was highly tempted to fire on him, Whether this will be retconned is unknown.
 * This is the second incarnation of Starscream to have transformed into a Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, the first beng his Armada counterpart. Also, Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the succesor of F-15 Eagle, the alt mode of the original Starscream.

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Starscream (filmy)