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This Hero was proposed and approved by Heroes Wiki's Pure Good Proposals Thread. Any act of removing this hero from the category without a Removal Proposal shall be considered vandalism (or a "villainous" attempt to demonize said character) and the user will have a high chance of being | ||
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| “ | I am not a gun. | „ |
| ~ The Iron Giant after saving the two kids from falling. |
| “ | Hogarth. You stay. I go. No following. | „ |
| ~ The Iron Giant's last words to Hogarth. |
| “ | Superman… | „ |
| ~ The Iron Giant's last words and his most famous quote. |
The Iron Giant is the titular deuteragonist of the 1999 animated film of the same name, based on the 1968 novel by Ted Hughes.
He is a kind-hearted and sympathetic 50 ft. metal-eating robot who suffers from amnesia after crash-landing on Earth during the Cold War in 1957, whereupon he becomes friends with a human boy named Hogarth, who attempts to prevent the U.S. military from finding and destroying the Giant. Created for an unknown purpose, the Giant involuntarily reacts defensively if he recognizes anything as a weapon, immediately attempting to destroy it.
He is voiced by Vin Diesel, who also played Dominic Toretto in The Fast and the Furious series, Xander Cage in the XXX films, Riddick in the film series of the same name, Shane Wolfe in The Pacifier, Bloodshot in the 2020 film of the same name, and Groot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Biography[]
Not much is known about the Iron Giant's origins, but in 1957, he came to Earth and crash-landed off the coast of Rockwell, Maine. After terrifying a fisherman by the name of Earl Stutz who called the government upon his return to land, the Giant wandered into the town's nearby woodlands after eating a few vehicles and set his sights upon devouring a power station. He would have been shocked to death had nine year old Hogarth Hughes not been searching for the culprit who ate their TV antenna and shut the power down. The Giant continued to eat local pieces of machinery and later re-encountered Hogarth, befriended him and then proceeds to follow him home.
The Giant was seen by one of the train's engineers Frank Thomas after the train hit the Iron Giant who was trying to fix the railroad tracks that he was trying to eat earlier. This led to him being hunted down by an obsessive and paranoid federal government agent Kent Mansley hungry to advance his career, after following the train engineers' suggestion on where to find a phone. Kent leaves only to figure out that the BB gun that he was in possession of was Hogarths since Hog Hug was the only thing left of Hogarth's name on the gun. To try to get Hogarth to tell Kent about the whereabouts of the Giant, Kent rented the room that was for rent at the Hughes's residence.
Slowly, the Giant began to learn, through Hogarth's teachings, how to speak, about right and wrong, life and death, and some elements of culture, specifically Superman who Hogarth thought the Giant could relate to since Superman also crash landed on Earth and had to learn everything. After relocating the Giant to a Junkyard owned by beatnik artist Dean McCoppin, Hogarth spent much of his days having fun with the Giant while keeping his existence a secret. Nevertheless, Mansley called the army and General Rogard after interrogating Hogarth into revealing the Giant's whereabouts, but Hogarth and Dean were quickly able to disguise the Giant as another one of Dean's art projects.
A short time after, the Giant's automatic defense mechanisms activated when Hogarth pointed a toy gun at him pretending he was the evil robot Atomo and Hogarth was almost killed by the Giant's eye beams. The Giant didn't seem to understand what he was doing. Dean was quick to dismiss the Giant, calling him 'a big gun' and ignoring the Giant's stammered protests of 'No, I not gun.' After Hogarth left in pursuit, Dean noticed Hogarth's gun, realized why the Giant had attacked, and went to help.
Unfortunately, Mansley spotted the Giant rescuing two boys in danger and ordered that the army attack immediately. The Giant and Hogarth fled, resorting to flight after falling off a cliff, but in one of the attacks Hogarth was knocked unconscious after the Giant was hit by a jet. The Giant thought Hogarth was dead since Hogarth wasn't moving or responding and the Giant was distraught. When the army fired again, the Giant regained its memories (which also fixed the dent on his head in the process), activating as many weapons as possible and firing upon the army.
The seemingly only available option was to fire a nuclear missile from the USS Nautilus (SSN-571), according to Rogard and Mansley. Before it could be fired, Hogarth recovered and confronted the Giant. The Giant recognized his friend and returned to normal after Hogarth told the Giant that he didn't have to be a gun, and instead that he had to choose. After Dean tells Rogard that the Giant is not a killer and only acts defensive when seeing a gun as Rogard orders his men to hold their fire and is about to abort the missile launch, Mansley ordered that the missile be fired anyway, ignoring the fact that it was targeted on the Giant and thus everyone in Rockwell would be killed. This prompts Mansley to try and escape Rockwell in order to save himself, only to be stopped by the Giant and allowing Rogard and his soldiers to arrest Kent for his treachery.
Unfortunately, Rockwell was still in danger, as Hogarth explained to the Giant that when the missile falls, everyone will die. A saddened Giant looked upon the missile and made his decision by saying "I fix." After telling Hogarth 'you stay, I go, no following', mirroring one of the first things Hogarth said to him, he took off into space, heading straight for the missile. Bracing himself for impact, Hogarth's words of 'you are who you choose to be' rang though the Giant's head, and he said his decision to himself before the crash: 'Superman', meaning that he wanted to help people in danger like his hero, and not be a weapon to society.
Some time later, Dean had built a statue in the Giant's memory, which was erected in town, and Hogarth received a package from General Rogard which was the jaw bolt from the Giant, the only part the army could find. That night however, the bolt began tapping against the window as though trying to get out. Remembering that the Giant has self-repairing, Hogarth let it go free, saying 'see you later.' The Giant's parts were converging upon a glacier in Iceland, where the Giant's head, still active and smiling, is waiting to rebuild itself again and possibly return to Rockwell to see Hogarth and everyone else once more.
Personality[]
After losing his memories, The Iron Giant is shown to be an innocent, dense, harmless, and curious gigantic robot who has the mind of a child after crash landing on Earth (which is the result of a small dent on his head) and is attached to Hogarth after he saved him from being electrocuted. As the Giant is inquisitive around the boy, he begins to learn more of human life from him, as well as being gentle and friendly. The Iron Giant even idolized Superman after seeing his comics, even wanted to be like him. He is also shown to be sensitive as he gets deeply saddened after seeing a deer get killed by guns, especially since he found the deer a beautiful creature. The Giant even learns from Hogarth that people would eventually die when their time has come, but their souls never die.
Upon meeting Dean, the Giant initially thought he was a threat to Hogarth (because he thought Dean was taking Hogarth away from him when Dean actually just though the Giant was a threat, taking Hogarth with him out of concern), only for Hogarth to say to the Giant that Dean is okay, along with telling Dean that the Giant is harmless. The Giant easily trusts Dean and loves his yard full of scrap, because he needs to eat metal to live. Dean was initially on the fence about having the Giant in his home, especially since it's not easy having some unknown gigantic creature that's not from earth. Dean also doesn't like the Giant unintentionally eating his artworks, though the Giant eventually gets creative and wants to help Dean with art, even coming up with something that impressed Dean. After seeing that the Giant can do more than just eat his work, Dean eventually grew fond of the Giant and wanted him to help make more advanced artworks that he couldn't easily do alone.
Unfortunately, because his programming has suffered from amnesia, he unintentionally nearly causes harm to others, especially Hogarth, which is shown because he reacted to a toy gun. This means that although the Giant lost his memories, they can be temporarily triggered or even restored when he is being attacked. After nearly killing Hogarth through a toy gun triggering his memories, the Giant became sad and briefly felt like he was undeserving to be a hero. However, upon seeing two boys nearly fall to their deaths, the Giant still wanted to prove himself capable of helping others and saved the two from dying. However, when the Giant was seen from afar by Kent Mansley (who blindly believes he is nothing but a threat to mankind, not even caring about fully understanding anything), the latter blindly lies to the military that the Giant is attacking the town, which it isn't (as the Giant's barely even moving in town). This resulted in the military attacking the Giant, scaring him and keeping Hogarth in his hands to protect him, running away while being chased. After that, Kent lies to the military that the Giant killed Hogarth (even after Dean said the Giant is harmless and that Hogarth is safe with him), resulting in the Giant being attacked by the military, the air force, and the navy.
After being struck down by aircraft, the Giant is deeply saddened when Hogarth seemingly died from the impact, showing how much he cared about the boy. After that, when Kent foolishly orders the military to attack the Giant (even after Dean tells him that it will react defensively), the Giant regains his memories and returns to his once destructive self, activating all his weapons and instinctively attacking the military, even causing some destruction in Rockwell because of how he was created. However, when Hogarth regains consciousness, he manages to make the Giant remember him, even saying "You are who you choose to be." This calms the Giant to its normal state and makes him remember everything.
In order to prove himself harmless, the Giant presents Hogarth to everyone in town (including the military), making the general and his soldiers realize that Kent lied to everyone. Despite this, Kent refuses to admit that the Giant is harmless and foolishly tries to end it once and for all, ordering a nuclear to be launched at the Giant at once, foolishly forgetting that the Giant is still in town (and the missile is targeted there), meaning everyone in Rockwell will die because of Kent's foolish mistake. The Giant even looks at him sternly because of how bad of a person he is. Despite this, the Giant doesn't kill Kent and just stops him from leaving everyone to die from his paranoid move, letting the military arrest Kent for his actions.
Upon seeing everyone in danger because of the nuclear missile, the Giant was willing to give his life to save everyone, sadly telling Hogarth about the sacrifice he's willing to make. Right before colliding with the missile, he remembers what Hogarth said about people choosing who they want to be, and the Giant says "Superman", meaning he wants to use his powers for good and become a hero, just like the comic book character.
By the end of the film, while most thought the Giant died, it turns out that his body parts were only scattered across many places. As his head awakens, the Giant smiles as he starts rebuilding himself. What happened afterward was left a mystery, but it is presumed that after the events of the film, the Giant would finish rebuilding himself and try finding Rockwell to see Hogarth again. Furthermore, the people in Rockwell would be happy to see their savior still alive, except for Kent (who is likely imprisoned for his crimes and treachery).
Appearance[]
The Iron Giant is a slender and gigantic grey iron robot who is about 50 feet tall with glowing eyes that they will turn red if he turns aggressive or sees any weapon in his sight, e.g. a gun. He has many weapons in his chest and arms when he is in defensive mode, and has rocket boosters on his feet which allow him to fly.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Superhuman Strength: The Giant possesses tremendous amounts of physical strength, partly because of his enormous size. His titanic strength allows him to rip apart metal structures with his bare hands, lift boulders, uproot trees and even crush vehicles.
- Nigh-invulnerability: Made from an unknown alloy, the Giant's armor and suit renders him completely invulnerable to harm. Although he can still feel pain, his metal suit hands and all are like skin to him as he can feel something right in his hand. He has survived being hit by a freight train and can withstand machine-gun and missile fire along with multiple high-caliber rounds from tanks, artillery, and battleships. Perhaps the most impressive display of the Giant's invulnerability was surviving a head-on collision with a nuclear missile.
- Self-Repairing Function: Whenever the Giant is smashed to pieces, an antenna on his head sends out a homing beacon to the scattered parts, automatically repairing himself by making his pieces roll, crawl or move trying to get back to him. There appears to be no known limit to the beacon's range, and it can be detected as far away.
- Flight: The Giant's feet have rocket thrusters which allow him to fly. The rockets are powerful enough to leave Earth's atmosphere and travel through space at tremendous speed, and even the Giant himself can fly fast enough to outrun and outmaneuver a military fighter jet.
- Matter Ingestion: The Giant regularly consumes metallic objects as a form of sustenance.
Equipment[]
- Arm Cannon: On his right arm, the giant's arm retracts to reveal a massive cannon similar to a tank gun. The weapon itself fires a blast of green energy that explodes on contact with the target.
- Laser Vision: Similar to Superman's heat vision, the giant can emit powerful laser beams out of his eyes that effectively destroys and burns straight through metal surfaces.
- Tri Scorpion Cannons: Three scorpion tail-like cannons that protrude from the giant's back. The tails appear to target enemies with a spotlight before firing. Although the weapons use spotlights, they appear to not be heavily accurate and more designed to maximize destruction.
- Energy Claw: On his left arm, the giant's arm retracts to reveal another cannon with a claw mounted at the end. The claw itself fires a bubble-like sphere of green energy that appears to levitate and vaporize a target on contact.
- Spark Spinner Gun: A rotating disc atop the arm cannon that, when the top spins and is repeatedly poked by two extendable mechanical needles, fires small sparks at multiple targets. The sparks impact and are implied to destroy the vehicles it hits. It was used on several M41 Walker Bulldog tanks, all of which had a cloud of smoke after impact around them.
- Energy Cannon: In the center of the giant's chest, he can charge a gigantic green plasma ball to fire at a large target. The destructive power of it is unknown, but it can be assumed that it would have at least vaporized its target, as the blast appeared to be several kilometers in diameter. This is assumed to be the most powerful weapon in the Giant's arsenal.
Trivia[]
- He is constantly thought to be the tritagonist of the film, with Dean McCoppin as the deuteragonist.
- The specific creator of the giant is never revealed and unknown. The only hint comes in the opening sequence, specifically that the giant comes from somewhere beyond the Earth's moon. It can also be inferred from his weapons that the giant was sent to Earth for unpeaceful purposes. (Note: From a deleted scene from the film, he has a brief vision of robots similar to him destroying a different planet, which can suggest that the Iron Giant originally was a weapon of mass destruction and the giant's original objective was to destroy the earth.) However, the dream sequence also suggests it arrived on Earth by accident.
- The Iron Giant makes a cameo in the 2018 film Ready Player One alongside several other famous characters in the Oasis. He also has a showdown with Mechagodzilla.
- The Iron Giant also makes a cameo in the 2021 film Space Jam: A New Legacy alongside other characters from other Warner Bros properties attending the basketball stadium in the Server-Verse. LeBron also suggested putting him on his basketball team and pairing him up with his hero, Superman.
- Many fans admires the friendship between Hogarth and the giant, since its two people in different size and showing that some giants cares about small people like humans.
- In an early concept art, the Iron Giant was originally going to look like a toy robot.
- The only time the Giant ever got angry (without triggering his defense mechanism) was towards Kent (just right before the latter foolishly attempts to end him out of paranoia), showing that the Giant expresses disliking towards Kent because of his cruelty towards him.
- Originally, the Giant first in an alternate opening where a barge bumps into during the eye of the hurricane.
External Links[]
- Iron Giant on the Pure Good Wiki
- Iron Giant on the Warner Bros. Entertainment Wiki
- Iron Giant on the Iron Giant Wiki
- Iron Giant on the Vs Battles Wiki
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