| “ | I happen to be humanity's last great hope. | „ |
| ~ Cale Tucker. |
Cale Tucker is the main protagonist of the 2000 Don Bluth animated science fiction film Titan A.E.. He is one of the last remaining human beings in the universe who joins his friends in battling a hostile alien species called the Drej.
He was voiced by Matt Damon - who also portrayed Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting, Jason Bourne in the Bourne series, Max Da Costa in Elysium, Spirit in Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Mark Watney in The Martian - as an adult, and Alex D. Linz - who also portrayed Max Keeble in Max Keeble's Big Move and Alex Pruitt in Home Alone 3 - as a child.
Film Role[]
In 3028 A.D., humanity has mastered deep space travel and interacted with several alien species. A human invention called "Project Titan" alarms the Drej, a pure energy-based alien species who attack the planet Earth after breaching the Global Defense System. As the Drej start to attack the Earth, Professor Sam Tucker, the lead researcher for "Project Titan", sends his son Cale on one of the evacuation ships with his alien friend Tek while Tucker and other members of his team fly the Titan spacecraft into hyperspace. When the Drej mothership destroys the Earth with an energy beam, the surviving humans become nomads, generally ridiculed by other alien species.
15 years later, Cale now works at a space dock and he's constantly picked on by alien co-workers because his race is an "intergalactic joke". One day, when he gets into a fight with two co-workers, Captian Joseph Korso helps him out of that scrap and asks Cale if he want to go on an adventure. Cale refuses and Korso releases the alien co-workers because Cale "doesn't need any help". He's then chased to the lunch room and without warning, some Drej soliders burst through the door and start shooting everything in their path to find Cale because the ring his father gave him leads to a ship called the Titan. Once the Drej find that ship, they will destroy it. Cale then accepts Korso's offer and they grab a ship to escape the Drej. However, the ship's windshield cracks and the two young men are briefly trapped in the airless vacuum of space. Thankfully, Akima saves them and Cale then wakes up in a room where he's naked and being healed after he was shot by the Drej. Cale is on Corso's ship and is introduced to Akima, Gune, Stith, and Preed.
With Cale's ring, they set out to find the Titan an save humanity. On the broken moon Sesharrim, Cale and company encounter and meet the Gaoul, a sentient, wise, and reclusive alien race of owl-like creatures that lead them to a clue to the Titan's location. Then the Drej came and after chasing them through the water, Cale and Akima are taken prisoner. Cale then learns that the Drej are trying to make the human race extinct because of "what the will become".
At the Drej's main ship, they use Cale's ring to find the exact loction of the Titan. Cale is then thrown in a prison cell and Akima is jettisoned. Cale tries to break out but to no avail. Later, he uses his fingers to get out of the cell, sneak past the guards, steal one of there ships and find Korso and company. They at first don't recognize him and try to shoot him, but after he sends a transmission that it's him, the let him aboard. After reuniting with Akima and the crew, they continue the course to find the Titan and Cale and Korso start to get along. That night, Cale has a dream where he's killed by the Drej. He wakes up, relieved to be alive, and goes to talk to Akima, only to find her practically naked (but she was covered by a towel). After she changes, they go to the storage room and get some food and they were going to go back to their rooms when they heard Corsos talking to the Drej.
It turns out that they were working together to find the Titan and destroy it. Cale and Akima were going to tell the others but Preed catches them and threatens to shoot them. It's revealed that Korso lost all hope in humanity after Cale's Dad was totured and killed by the Drej for not telling them where the Titan was. Distraught, Corso chose the "winning side" and agreed to find and destroy the Titan. Cale and Akima manage to escape, but Akima is wounded by Preed. The people of New Bangkok then heal her and later Cale has a plan to reach the Titan before Korso and the Drej do. He spots an abandoned ship and with the help of Akima and the people of New Bangkok, they fix it and make it ready to fly. They then reach the Ice Rings of Tigrin, with Corso and Preed right behind them. But after some hazardous manuvers, Cale and Akima momentarily escape them and reach the Titan. Cale's ring then activates a message from his Dad, who apologizes for not keeping the promise he made to Cale to seem him again when he was a kid. He also tells him that the Titan had the power to create planets, but the power cells were drained after it escaped the Earth.
Korso then destroys the message and before he plan could be fulfilled, Preed double crosses him because the Drej agreed to let him live if he kills Cale, Akima, and Korso before they arrive. However, with quick thinking, Korso snaps Preeds neck, killing him almost instantly, and then goes after Cale. They are then seen hanging on a ledge, and Cale tries to save Korso, but Korso lets go and grabs a rope to save himself. The Drej get closer to the Titan, and send out some troops to kill Cale and company, but Cale has a plan to end all this senseless violence.
Because the Drej are made of pure energy, Cale can use that energy to restart the Titan's power system. However, one of the reacters is stuck, and Cale has to go fix it. Akima and Stith will hold off the Drej with the Titan's guns, however, when one of the ships is shot down, it traps Cale. Korso the appears with a gun, and instead of killing Cale, he sets him free and helps him fix the jammed reactor. Korso then finishes the job as Cale activates the Titan's power system. With the help of Drej energy, Cale made a new planet which he called Bob. Akima then laughes and kisses Cale and it's possible they get married and spend the rest of their lives on the New Earth.
Trivia[]
- In the teaser trailer for Titan A.E., Cale says that his birth year is 3023. This would mean that he was 5 in the prologue and 20 in the present setting of the film.
- Cale has a tattoo on his right shoulder that resembles the band Toto's logo.
- The whereabouts of Cale's mother is not revealed in the film. However, according to the film's novelisation, she had passed away.