Barricade

"To punish and enslave..."

- Barricade's twist on the police force motto

Barricade is a major antagonist from the Transformers franchise and a high ranking member of the Decepticons. He ironically transforms into a police car despite being a Decepticon.

Transformers 2007 film
"Where is the eBay item 21153!? Where are the glasses!?"

- Barricade interrogating Sam

After being active on Earth for some time, Barricade arrived to pick up Frenzy at the airport after his attempt to hack into the U.S. military network on Air Force One failed. Using data that Frenzy had acquired, they both learned of Sector Seven, "Project Iceman", Captain Archibald Witwicky and the discovery of the entombed Megatron. The two were able to use the internet to learn one of Witwicky's descendants, Samuel Witwicky, whom his username known as ladiesman217, and a pair of glasses that Megatron had accidentally marked with the location of the long-lost All Spark. Frenzy declared that they need to find Sam, and Barricade moved out to search for him.



Later, Barricade confronted Sam regarding his recent eBay auctions while the human was fleeing Bumblebee, whom the human mistakenly believed was out to harm him. Sam fell for Barricade's ruse, and requested the "officer's" help, only for Barricade to ram him several times and transforming before him. As Sam fled, Barricade knocked him onto the hood of an abandoned car, then violently demanded information on eBay item 21153. Sam and Mikaela Banes, who had been drawn into the encounter, managed to escape him when Bumblebee convinced the boy to trust him, and Barricade transformed and pursued both the Autobot and two humans to a junkyard. After temporarily losing and then regaining their position, he charged into battle, activating his mace/rotating blade, and dispatched Frenzy to chase down the humans. However, his battle with Bumblebee ended because Barricade had taken heavy damage. Considering the fact that Frenzy was decapitated, he got off lucky.

Evidently though, he recovered, and was back into working order when Frenzy (who had survived and infiltrated Sector Seven's base) transmitted both Megatron and the All Spark's location to his fellow Decepticons. When the humans fled with the All Spark, Barricade joined in the pursuit along with Devastator and Bonecrusher. Devastator soon broke off on an alternate route, while Barricade and Bonecrusher hit the freeway, making contact with the Autobot/human convoy. Barricade attempted to clear some room for the two Decepticons by activating his sirens; Bonecrusher simply rammed everything in his way. Sam recognized Barricade, and warned that they were in danger. Optimus Prime, Ironhide, and Ratchet aligned to block their access to Bumblebee, who contained the humans and the All Spark.

Bonecrusher went on the offensive that ended up fighting the Autobot leader, and Barricade, being outnumbered 3 to 1, did not continue to pursue the others.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Despite being absent in the second film, Barricade made an appearance in the third film. He was one of the many Decepticons seen in the invasion of Chicago. Eventually he, Soundwave, Shockwave and many others rounded up most of the Autobots and held them prisoners. With some motivation from Dylan Gould, Soundwave decided to execute the Autobots. Soundwave shoved Que/Wheeljack in the center of the circle where he was shot and killed by Barricade. When the NEST reinforcements arrived, he was attacked and blinded by the snipers while confronting at a fellow Decepticon. Unfortunately, a soldier placed a boomstick on his leg created by the Autobots, cripping him and was finally killed by the human soldiers for good.

Trivia

 * In one original draft of Transformers, Barricade & Frenzy were originally meant to be a single character named Soundwave, transforming into a Humvee instead of a police car but was dropped due to that Soundwave hardly resembles his original incarnation.
 * Ironic though, he encountered Soundwave in the comic adaptations of Revenge of the Fallen, mutually dislking the latter & in the third film both being voiced by Frank Welker, killing an Autobot together.
 * Barricade's design is loosely based from Autobot Prowl, an Autobot from the original Transformers who transforms into a police car.
 * Also in one original draft of Transformers had Prowl to appear as part of the original Autobot line-up but was dropped & changed for Barricade after the writers though of an idea of an authoritarian figure on him.
 * Ironically, some of his toy's color schemes bears a similar color to the said Autobot.
 * Barricade was originally meant to appear in Revenge of the Fallen but was dropped & forgotten. He was originally meant to reappear reformatted under the name Sideways but was dropped due to Hasbro's request.
 * Some fans however believed that Grindor was originally meant to be Barricade but was dropped.