Soundwave (Transformers Film Series)

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

Evil-doer
Full Name	Soundwave
Alias	None
Origin	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Occupation	Decepticon communications officer
Powers / Skills	Hacking Sonokinesis Falconry Animal taming Converting and getting information
Hobby	Listening to the satellite's communications. Reporting to the Decepticons. Posing as Carly Spencer's Mercedez-Benz SLS-AMG.
Goals	Revive Megatron (succeeded) Turn Earth into Cybertron (failed).
Crimes	Hacking Torture Terrorism Conspiracy Kidnapping Murder
Type of Villain	Technopathic Hacker

“	Yeah, I understand. No prisoners, only trophies!	„
	~ Soundwave to Dylan Gould and the Decepticons.

Soundwave is a recurring antagonist of the Transformers Cinematic Universe, serving as a minor antagonist in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Bumblebee. He is one of Megatron's loyal Decepticons and his communications officer.

He was voiced by Frank Welker in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon and Jon Bailey in Bumblebee.

Biography

Bumblebee

Soundwave had a cameo looking more like his Generation One counterpart in the prequel film Bumblebee fighting with Shockwave, Starscream and the Seekers back on Cybertron. It appears that in Megatron's absence, Soundwave is in command. Soundwave sicks Ravage upon Optimus Prime but off-screen, Prime escaped and headed for earth to regroup with Bumblebee.  

Revenge of the Fallen

Soundwave in space.

“	Soundwave acknowledges	„
	~ Soundwave's first words in the film upon awakening.

Soundwave was awakened after he receive a transmission from Wheelie, who was tailing Mikaela Banes and instructed him to obtain the surviving shard of the Allspark in her hands. While floating across space, he found a government satellite transmitting a conversation between NEST and the US military and began to hack it by releasing his tentacles all over it. He manages to acquire information from it such as the location of the other Allspark fragment in Diego Garcia and Megatron's corpse under the Laurentian Abyss. Waiting till nightfall, Soundwave formulated a plan by ejecting Ravage to attack the area. After the successful retrieval, he sends Ravage again to a cargo ship carrying construction vehicles passing by the Laurentian Abyss, which also had become successful. 

He remained in space, while hacking the satellite he is attached. After Megatron finally killed Optimus Prime and have decided to reveal the Decepticon presence on Earth, Soundwave issued the mobilization order to the Decepticons waiting at the Nemesis and then hacked the satellite to show the image of The Fallen giving a speech. He manages to track down Sam's parents in Paris and gave them a call, asking for Sam's whereabouts. Judy can't understand the Decepticon's language and dismissed the call, thinking it was a prank call from a pervert, thus making the Decepticons using them as hostages.

When the CIA manages to locate Sam's whereabouts in Egypt via security camera, Soundwave took the information and immediately gave it to the Decepticons, leaving Starscream in pursuit. Soundwave then blocked the satellites covering the Egyptian area, making things appear normal. He isn't seen again through the rest of the film.

Dark of the Moon

Soundwave in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

“	Soundwave reporting to Lord Megatron.	„
	~ Soundwave greets and honors his leader after Laserbeak returned.

After the events of the previous film, Soundwave left the satellite he is attached and landed on Earth, joining Megatron, Starscream and Igor in their exile on Africa. Soundwave obtained a minion named Laserbeak, a foul-mouthed Decepticon assassin that resembles a condor who can transform into numerous objects. After Laserbeak manages to inform Megatron that the Autobots have discovered the fuel cell of the Ark on Chernobyl and recovering a comatose Sentinel Prime, Megatron decided it was time to eliminate all of the humans who knew about the discoveries of the Ark to avoid their plans from failing again.

Soundwave then orders Laserbeak to kill them all, who does it in pleasure. He is working with Dylan Gould, a human who is allied with the Decepticons. Dylan then gave him as a "gift" to Carly Spencer, Sam's new girlfriend by posing as a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. After Sam and Carly tried to leave Dylan's party, Soundwave reveals himself by transforming into his robot mode, throwing Sam away and keeping Carly as a hostage. While Dylan then explained his relationship with the two Decepticons, Soundwave then took the pleasure to threaten Carly using his spiked tentacles but Dylan orders him to stop tormenting her after Sam surrenders. 

Soundwave was among the few Decepticons who took pleasure in invading Chicago and killing many humans in the way off-screen. After managing to receive a word from Dylan that the Autobots actually survived, he was one of the few Decepticons who manages to find them and manages to corner the Autobots Bumblebee, Sideswipe, Ratchet, Dino/Mirage and Que/Wheeljack, with Barricade, Shockwave and many others. When Dylan then manages to think of an idea of killing the Autobot hostages as a lesson of respect, Soundwave took this as a pleasure to which he concurred : "No prisoners, only trophies". He and Barricade took the pleasure in killing Que by shooting him, who pleaded badly for his life and afterwards was about to execute Bumblebee, only to be distracted by Wheelie and Brains' hijacking and crashing of a Decepticon ship. Bumblebee and the other Autobots then took this as an opportunity to escape and afterwards punched Soundwave, causing him to drop his weapons then shooting him in the leg, dropping his remaining gun. Bumblebee then finishes him off by throwing an uppercut on his chest and shooting him in the head, killing him. 

The Last Knight

Soundwave was mentioned by Vivian while she was being kidnapped by Hot Rod. 

Gallery

Images

Soundwave as a Cybertronian satellite.

Soundwave's Earth vehicle mode as seen in the third film, a Mercedes Benz SLS-AMG.

An early working design for Soundwave before being converted into Blackout

Concept art.

Soundwave's death.

Soundwave in Bumblebee

Videos

SOUNDWAVE Transform - Short Flash Transformers Series

SOUNDWAVE (DOTM) Transform Short Flash Transformers Series

Trivia

• Soundwave was originally supposed to appear in the first film, in a first attempt as a helicopter then a single character who is a size-shifting Humvee and a radio, but was dropped due to that artworks of him badly resembles his original incarnation.
  • Ironic enough, he encountered one of his earlier incarnations in the third film together killing an Autobot and was also voiced by the same actor. 
• Soundwave is voiced by the famous villain voice actor Frank Welker, who also voiced his original incarnation and many other Decepticons in the film series, even Barricade in the third film. Frank Welker also voiced him in the foreign versions such as French, Italian, German and Spanish-American versions. In Bumblebee, he is voiced by Jon Bailey.
  • Aside from this, his voice almost sounded like Doctor Claw.
• In the video games of Dark of the Moon, he transforms into a Mercedes-Benz GLK 350, particularly to hide his disguise as Carly Spencer's car and affiliation with Dylan Gould.
• In an original draft of Dark of the Moon, which is still seen in the junior novelization and comic adaptations, Soundwave killed Dino instead of Que and uses his corpse to taunt Bumblebee.
• Elements of Soundwave's tentacles are also used to that of his Prime counterpart.
• Opposing his original incarnation, this version of Soundwave had a mouth.
• During production, Soundwave was known as Breakdown in case of story leaks.

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