Megatron (Transformers Film Series)

"Is the future of our race not worth a single human life?"

- Megatron

"It feels good to grab your flesh! I am going to kill you slowly, painfully, but first, we have some delicate work to do. How could I snap your limbs off!"

- Megatron before torturing Sam

"Then we will force them to find him for us! It's time for the world to know about our presence. No more disguises. NO MERCY! The time has come for my master's arrival."

- Megatron to Starscream

Megatron is the main antagonist of Transformers and the secondary antagonist of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Megatron was not always the viciously powerful and brutally direct leader of the Decepticons: he was once brothers-in-arms with Optimus and a student of Sentinel Prime, appointed to be Cybertron's Protector and commander of its Defense Force. But Megatron resented his comrade, knowing he was a Prime and therefore Sentinel's favored son. This anger allowed The Fallen to ensnare him and led to the revival of the Decepticons. Even without The Fallen though, it's not hard to imagine Megatron would have erupted Cybertron into war to rid himself of Optimus.

IDW Publishing Prequel Comics
The back story of Megatron is told in both Transformers: Defiance and issue #1 of the Transformers: Movie Prequel comic. In the comics, Megatron is revealed to have co-ruled Cybertron together with Optimus Prime, serving as Lord High Protector. Megatron and Optimus learned of an alien force coming to their planet for the All Spark, just as a mysterious artifact was unearthed. Megatron is gravely injured, but the artifact (containing the Fallen) awakens and heals him, swaying him with promises of power. Megatron soon desires power over the All Spark, and under the Fallen's influence, forms the Decepticons, sending the bulk of his soldiers in a craft, the Nemesis.

The Autobots attempt to hide the All Spark, but Megatron sees through the ruse and launches a full-scale attack, during which the All Spark is launched into space. Megatron almost catches up with the All Spark as it lands on Earth. In his reckless desire to possess it, Megatron pursues it right into Earth's atmosphere and falls into the icy waters, resulting in his being frozen in stasis lock. In the late 19th century, Captain Archibald Witwicky discovers the Decepticon during an Arctic expedition. At the turn of the 20th century, a crew of men later take his body — dubbing him the "Ice-man" - and keep him in storage up until the present day, eventually relocating him to Hoover Dam in Nevada.

Transformers
"You fight for the weak. That is why YOU LOSE!"

- Megatron taunting Optimus Prime



Megatron appeared as the main antagonist in the live-action Transformers film.

In the live-action film, Megatron was the cause of Cybertron's destruction when Decepticons and Autobots have started a war that has destroyed much of Cybertron. The All Spark was fought over by both sides until it was lost in space, then landed on Earth at an unknown time, then humans found the cube and a human organization that investigates extraterrestrials called Sector 7 kept the All Spark in its' base for over a century. Megatron followed the All Spark to Earth, but crash landed in the Arctic where Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of men were. Captain Witwicky fell in an arctic hole and found Megatron who was frozen. But when Captain Witwicky touched the tip of Megatron's fingers, he also re-activated Megatron's navigation system, and Megatron (still frozen) flashed his eyes that imprinted the All Spark's location onto Captain Witwicky's eye glasses. The Decepticons and Autobots searched for the eye glasses when they found it on the web site eBay. Sector 7 took Megatron who was still frozen to the same base where the All Spark was.

When Decepticons Frenzy and Starscream freed him, he rose again and went into Mission City fighting the Autobots. Decepticons Blackout, Brawl, and Starscream where also in battle against Autobots Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet, and Jazz. He killed Autobot officer Jazz by ripping him in half, then Optimus Prime came in and battled Megatron. At one point, there was actually a conversation where Optimus Prime and Megatron fought over their opinion of the human race. Megatron believed humans don't deserve to live, while Optimus believed that humans deserve to choose for themselves. Hearing this, Megatron ordered Optimus to join the human race in extinction.

Optimus could not defeat him and for a period of time, Megatron was able to chase Sam Witwicky when he carried the All Spark that gotten much smaller because of Autobot Bumblebee touching it. Megatron stalked him through a tall building, with Starscream destroying the helicopter that was supposed to carry Sam. Megatron nearly kills Sam Witwicky by knocking him off the building but Optimus rescues him. Blackout was about to aid Megatron in battle with Optimus, but was destroyed by the US Military. The Air Force then blast several missiles and human soldiers use guns to shoot bullets at Megatron. Despite suffering damage, Megatron could not be killed by human weaponry, with the human race determined to destroy him fail. Then, Sam Witwicky pushes the All Spark into Megatron's chest, and the Decepticon is finally destroyed.

The war ends with Megatron, Blackout, and Brawl dumped into the Laurentian Abyss while Autobots and humans unite.

The Reign of Starscream
In a flashback in the movie sequel comic Transformers: The Reign of Starscream, Megatron's negative relationship with Starscream is shown to be a result of Starscream failing on a mission.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
"Even in death, there is no command but mine."

- Megatron to Starscream after finding out he took over the Decepticons in his death

Megatron returns as the secondary antagonist in the sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen .

In the film, Megatron was resurrected by the Constructicons Long Haul, Rampage & Mixmaster  and Ravage using a stolen piece of the All Spark. It appears Megatron is the apprentice of The Fallen who is the true leader and founder of the Decepticons. It actually turns out that the reason why Megatron is so ruthless and power-hungry is because the founder of Decepticon corrupted him into serving him, thus making the Fallen responsible for the war between the Decepticons and Autobots that destroyed much of Cybertron. Megatron is not as strong as in Revenge of the Fallen as he was in the 2007 movie because his original body parts are unusable since he was killed off by the AllSpark before being brought back to life. Instead, his original body parts are replaced by a weak Decepticon, Scrapmetal (called "ze little one" by The Doctor). Upon being resurrected, Megatron then orders Grindor to capture Sam as the human had some important information from another piece of the All Spark. Grindor then captures Sam and his friends and brings them to an abandoned factory, Megatron then starts to interrogate Sam until Optimus and Bumblebee arrived to save Sam and his friends. Megatron then chased Optimus and Sam until he caught up with them, Megatron and Optimus battled each other, at first Optimus gained the upper hand unlike in the first movie where he could not do anything to harm Megatron. Megatron called upon Starscream and Grindor. Despite being outnumbered, the Autobot leader managed to fight all three Decepticons, severing Starscream's right arm and killing Grindor by ripping his head apart. Megatron then caught Optimus off-guard and stabbed him in his spark chamber, killing the Autobot leader. He and Starscream then retreated when Autobot reinforcements arrived.

With Optimus now dead, Megatron was quite pleased until Starscream informed him that they lost Sam. Furious with his lieutenant's failure to capture a single "insect" before brutally beating his lieutenant Starscream then replied that there were seven billion insects on the planet and Sam was just one among them and that he could be anywhere. Megatron then decides to force the humans into finding Sam for the Decepticons and also decides to come out of hiding and reveal their existence to the Earth. He then broadcasts a message from the Fallen by using the Empire State Building's radio tower. He and the Decepticons then head to Egypt where the Sun harvester, a machine used to harvest energon out of suns hidden in a one of the pyramids of Giza. Starscream then informs Megatron that Autobot's human allies have brought Prime's body. Megatron then realizes that Sam has the Matrix of Leadership and can revive Optimus with it. Megatron tells Starscream that they cannot let Sam get to Optimus and then he order the Decepticons to begin their assault.

Megatron then takes part in the battle against the Autobots and then he nearly killed Sam but then he was suppressed by human firepower and was forced to retreat. Megatron is then seen on top of the pyramid when a revived Optimus (with parts given to him by Jetfire) destroys the Sun Harvester and knocks Megatron and the Fallen off the pyramid. Megatron then battles Optimus but then gets half of his face blown by his own fusion cannon and then Optimus severs Megatron's right arm with his energon swords and using his afterburners to send Megatron hurling through the ruins. Megatron, being severely damaged, call outs to Starscream for help and then watches helplessly as the Fallen is killed by Optimus. Seeing this, Starscream suggests that he and Megatron retreat, to which Megatron agrees, vowing that "This isn't over".

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
"Cybertron... you are saved, at last."

- Megatron



Megatron returns and is once again the secondary antagonist of the film.

Greatly weakened by the injuries he sustained fighting Optimus Prime in Egypt, Megatron was revealed in Transformers: Dark of the Moon to be hiding in the African Savannah along with Starscream, Soundwave, Igor and Laserbeak. Unable to challenge Optimus directly, Megatron arranged for Shockwave to reveal to the Autobots the location of the lost Autobot vessel the Ark and it's pilot, Optimus' mentor and former Autobot leader Sentinel Prime, on Earth's moon. Unknown to Optimus, during the war on Cybertron Megatron had convinced Sentinel to betray the Autobots under the pretense of ending the war for the sake of preserving their homeworld, should his plan with The Fallen failed. Once Sentinel's treachery was revealed however, Megatron himself was betrayed by his alleged ally as Sentinel overthrew him and seized command of the Decepticons for himself.

During the Decepticon attack on Chicago at the film's climax, Sam's girlfriend Carly pointed out to Megatron that as long as Sentinel was around, he would be less than nothing (said that Megatron that in the end, he will became the Sentinel's b*tch). There's a possibility that it's also means Sentinel will killed him later and reduced him into scrapheap as well. This goaded Megatron into attacking Sentinel just as he was about to finish off Optimus. With Sentinel incapacitated, Megatron proposed a truce with Optimus, arguing that they would be nothing without each other. Optimus however found no agreement in the truce and promptly decapitated Megatron with his energon battle axe.

However, in the film's novelization, after Sentinel Prime is killed, he instead asks Optimus to let him leave Earth and return to Cybertron's remains, saying that he is tired of the war. Optimus is initially skeptical, but after Megatron offers to let Optimus shoot him with Sentinel Prime's gun as an alternative, he allows the badly damaged Decepticon to leave, ending the war.

Transformers: Age of Extinction
Main article: Galvatron

"That is why I have no fear!"

- Galvatron

Megatron is the secondary antagonist of Age of Extinction, and is now known as Galvatron.

KSI salvages Megatron's severed head, where CEO Joshua Joyce having them using it to create a new Transformer that intended to resemble Optimus Prime. However unknown to any of the humans, their tampering re-activated Megatron's spark within, and he began to influence the humans to create and entire army of Transformers so he would eventually hack them and rebuild his Decepticon army. He also learned of an ancient Cybertronian weapon called a "seed" which could cyberform an entire city on it's own which he desired to replicate into more but found himself under human control and renamed Galvatron.

Humans' control over himself didn't last long, however, as Megatron later freed himself permanently, but not before reformat other artificial transformers so they became his new army. However, the new Decepticon army was destroyed and Galvatron was forced to retreat with his remainning minions. He took over Lockdown's spaceship and his remaining army and claimed that he and Optimus will meet again one day.

Transformers 5
Galvatron is set to return in Transformers 5, though it is unknown if he is set to the secondary antagonist, or the main antagonist.

Games
''NOTE: The games are in a different canon compared to the movies. Each campaign is also in a different canon.''

Decepticon campaign
After Blackout and Starscream destroyed Hover Dam's freezing system, Megatron awoke before thawing out of his icy prison. He then demolished Mission City with his fire power alone in order to draw Optimus Prime out, which was successful. The Autobot leader rose from his shadows and battled his brother to the death, and though he put up a valid fight, Megatron brutally murdered the crippled robot by slamming his mace into his "skull". With Prime dead and Allspark within his cold hands, Megatron merged the Allspark into his own chest, somehow granting him universally unstoppable power. The game fades out as Megatron, who is using the Lincoln Memorial as his throne, orders the remaining Decepticons to finish Earth (which is now just a fiery wasteland) off before continuing on to the next galaxy.

Autobot campaign
When Bumblebee arrived at the Hover Dam, Megatron was already awake yet incapacitated by the block of ice around him. Bumblebee managed to retrieve the Allspark even with an angry Megatron firing upon him, yet the Decepticon commander still broke out and re-established his reign over his military. Megatron tried to take the Allspark from Sam, but was stopped and killed by Optimus Prime once he got a hold of the spark and shoved it into Megatron's chest, saving Earth.

Decepticon campaign
The Decepticons finally managed to resurrect their fallen leader where he then took back control over them. His first mission in his new, stronger body was to, of course, find and kill Optimus Prime who was residing in a city block with a squad of Autobots protecting him. The one who gave him such a task was his enigmatic master, the Fallen, as the two planned to harvest the sun's energy via a primordial device built by the ancient Transformers and use the overwhelming power to become gods. After defeating Prime, the Decepticons were successful on recovering the Sun Harvester. However, the Fallen unwittingly betrayed Megatron and hogged the sun's energy for himself, becoming an omnipresent deity capable of anything. Despite the Fallen's power, Megatron used his rage and murdered his traitorous former master before taking the power for himself, raising an army of brand new followers, and seemingly succeeded his goals in universal conquest.

Autobot campaign
In the Autobot campaign, Megatron still escaped his watery grave and attempted to recover the harvester with the Fallen in Cario. Megatron and a supporting Starscream then ran into Optimus and Jetfire, where the four then had a brawl. Though Megatron and Starscream were defeated, it ultimately ended up in the death of Jetfire. However, the Decepticons were still unsuccessful, as in the film, as Prime used Jetfire's shared power to kill the Fallen and save Earth yet again.

Dark of the Moon
As the Dark of the Moon game is the apparently canon prequel to its film adaptation with the same name, it takes place three years after Revenge of the Fallen where Megatron retreated to a Decepticon barrack housed in a missile silo. He led several Decepticon invasions and raids on Autobots bases before confronting the Autobot officer Warpath and scanning a new vehicle mode. Afterwards, Megatron faced Optimus Prime himself, and finally defeated his heroic brother. However, instead of killing him, the Decepticon commander simply locked Prime in a cryo chamber before thawing out the Decepticon assassin known as Shockwave from his icy prison. With one of his best warriors under his control, Megatron commanded Shockwave to invade a Chernobyl nuclear plant before constructing a camp in Africa, setting up the events of the film.

Trivia

 * Despite his hatred for humans, Megatron is the only Decepticon to only fluently speak English instead of Cybertronian, which almost all other Decepticons do at the beginning of the first film.
 * Megatron scans and transforms into a trucker in the third film in order to blend into the human's every day lives. This can notably be compared to Optimus's trucker vehicle mode.
 * Megatron is voiced by Hugo Weaving in the first three films who also played Agent Smith from The Matrix franchise, Red Skull from Captain America: The First Avenger & Metal Beak from Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole.
 * As Galvatron, he is voiced by Frank Welker, who also voiced Megatron's original incarnation as well in the video game adaptations of the film series.
 * In the second film's old script, Megatron was promised to become a Prime by the Fallen only to be betrayed, as Optimus states primes are born, not made. Megatron then wipes himself off the radar where he goes back to the Nemesis and raises his hatchlings, enraged. This conclusion was instead used in the Decepticon campaign of the Revenge of the Fallen console games. However, it is slightly altered as, after the Fallen's betrayal, Megatron murders the Fallen himself before nurturing his hatchlings.
 * Megatron was originally going to named Galvatron after his resurrection in the second film, but he eventually retained his original name to avoid confusion.
 * Galvatron, however, appeared in Age of Extinction, where he appears as a human-made Decepticon designed by Joshua Joyce whom made from Megatron's remains. This practically explain why Joshua ended up revived him in a new body like his other incarnation whom evolved/revived with Unicron's influence.
 * There were originally going to be scenes and mentions of Megatron actually eating the sparks (hearts) of his fallen foes, but was cut for time issues. He also apparently injests the innards of his enemies in the DS version of the game and such an action was performed by him in a book based on the first film.
 * Elements from Megatron's appearance, especially in the first movie while his alt-mode is a cybertronian jet, are added into his Transformers Prime version.
 * As Galvatron, he bears more resemblance to Nemesis Prime than most of his incarnations, as both robot villains are evil "clones" of Optimus Prime.