Okay, McMissile. I'm here. It's time for the drop.
„
~ Rod Redline arrives in the bathroom to prepare his meeting with Finn.
“
Acer: Hey! What's so funny? Rod "Torque" Redline: Well, you know, I was just wearing a disguise. You guys are stuck looking like that.
„
~ Rod making an insulting joke about the lemons
Rod "Torque" Redline is a minor character of Pixar's 12th full-length animated feature film Cars 2.
He's the American agent that Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell were supposed to meet until circumstances forced him to pass crucial information to Mater, whom the two British spies mistook for Redline wearing a "clever" disguise.
"Rod "Torque" Redline is considered by many as the greatest American spy in the world. Recruited after the Cold War for both his brains and brawn, Torque is a tough-as-nails Detroit muscle car with a mastery of disguises. In his latest deep-cover operation, he obtained vital information about the plot to sabotage the World Grand Prix. So Rod plans a rendezvous with his British counterparts to share his discoveries at the World Grand Prix welcome reception in Tokyo, Japan. But with the bad guys hot on his tailpipe, Rod was forced to ditch the intel early and with the first party guest he sees — a rusty American tow truck named Mater."
History[]
Cars 2[]
He was first seen on the oil rig (at the beginning of the movie) disguised as a Gremlin. Rod later came to the Tokyo party to exchange info with Finn McMissile, but his plan was infiltrated, and he was ambushed by Acer and Grem, who damage him heavily. When Mater comes across them, Rod passes the device with the info onto Mater's undercarriage when no one was looking.
After doing this, Rod was captured by Grem and Acer, who brought him to Professor Z in their secret lair, where he was restrained with three Denver boots. He was then pumped with the fuel "Allinol", which he claimed was good for cars. However, Professor Z demonstrated, on the agent himself, what happens when cars fueled with Allinol are exposed to an electromagnetic pulse generator disguised as a camera. As Allinol began to react, the lemons demanded to know who Rod passed the intel to, putting up a slideshow of all the cars he made contact with. Rod resists, but he has an involuntary reaction at an image of Mater, which Professor Z catches. Rod could only show horror at allowing an oblivious civilian tow truck to become a target, before he was killed from the spontaneous explosion of Allinol.
After his engine was blown, his corpse is visible slightly among flames in the reflection of the screen. Despite this, his death was not in vain as it provided a crucial role for Mater in an effort to defeat Professor Z and Sir Miles Axelrod. His death later avenged when Mater exposed Sir Axelrod as the mastermind behind the conspiracy.
Cars 2: The Video game[]
Rod appears as a character who can be downloaded on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Cars 2: The Video Game, along with a version of him in his Gremlin disguise. Both require purchases to download them. Players can use him in certain events such as races, which are simulations run by Finn, Holley and their friends. Since the game takes place after the film, Rod is implied to be part of the simulations, like how the lemons are also part of the simulations. He is one of the heavy characters, meaning he does not have as much as speed as some of the other characters. However, he does have more power than some of the others.
Personality[]
Rod has a cool manner. He does not worry even though he knows there is no chance for him to live even after the encounter with the lemons. Instead of worrying, he tries to keep up a smile and even insults the lemons.
Under his disguise, he is seen smiling at everyone he talks to except when meeting with the lemons.
Powers and Abilities[]
Weaponry and Gadgets[]
Gremlin disguise: Rod has an integrated disguise of an ocre AMC Gremlin which is not a hologram but composed of physical pieces, unlike the disguises of his British colleagues. Nevertheless, he is capable of removing it within seconds.
Concealed gun: Located in the front left wheel. Locked up by a parking boot which prevents the Lemons from destroying the EMP emitter.
Telescoping utility arm: A small screwdriver-like arm, located in the right wheel. Rod used this to attach a small device on Mater that was containing top-secret information. Locked up by a parking boot which prevents him from escaping.
Status bar: Right under his eyes, Rod has a screen in the form of a bar that gives him his sitrep, amount of fuel, and several other parameters. Destroyed in a fire amid Rod's death.
Specifications[]
Top Speed: 145 mph (233 km/h)
Zero – 60 mph: 4.4 seconds
Engine Type: 5.5-liter V-8
Horsepower: 550
Occupation[]
Rod was an American spy for the C.H.R.O.M.E. agency.
Behind the Scenes[]
Rod's interrogation scene has been criticized as surprising or even inappropriate. In an interview, John Lasseter said that the scene was necessary to explain efficiently and visually the working and high danger of Lukas's camera.
It also enabled to get in the movie a certain tone of the spy genre. Story Supervisor Nathan Stanton said that while "watching spy films, where your character is basically tortured and it can be a really horrifying scene, I remember thinking if we could just get five-percent of this in one of our scenes, [...] if we could just get a little of this in what we want, it would be great. It would go a long way."
Both Lasseter and Supervising Animator Dave Mullins mentioned that the scene as it had originally been conceived was much darker and crueler, and that several people at the studio reacted to it. They say in consequence that they "backed off tremendously." Lasseter mentions that the changes included making Rod a "tough guy".
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
The bathroom fight in Tokyo between Rod "Torque" Redline, Acer and Grem is a reference to the pre-credits sequence of the James Bond film Casino Royale.
Rod's design is a mix of a 2005 Ford Mustang GT and a Dodge Challenger R/T.
G4 DXR labels on Rod may be stating the fictional name of his car model.
According to the Meet the Cars book, he is a 2006 Deringer DXR.
His license plate is M1911A1. This is a reference to the Colt M1911A1, a semi-automatic handgun popular for military, civilian, and law enforcement use.
According to his license plate, he is from Michigan, which is the birthplace of actor Bruce Campbell, who voices Rod.
A Toys "R" Us Lego exclusive of Rod was released for free on October 15, 2011 in the US.
Rod is seen talking to Shigeko while in his Gremlin disguise.
When Rod has his Gremlin disguise on, his eyes are brown instead of blue.
Rod is downloadable in Cars 2: The Video Game, even though he was killed in the film. However, since all the tracks are just simulations, it's possible that Rod is part of the simulations.
In the Cars Toon short, To Protect and Serve, the sheriffs Mike 07 and Didi 05 will reuse Rod's model. This is a nod to some real life police cars, which are Dodge Challengers, and Rod's design is chiefly based on a Dodge Challenger.
In Cars 3, a pace car called Pat Traxson reuses Rod's model.
In the short YouTube documentary A Day in the Life of John Lasseter, it is shown that during the end of production of Cars 2, Professor Z's lines in the interrogation scene with Rod "Torque" Redline were changed to remove any references to radiation ("electro-magnetic pulse" was originally "blast of radiation"). John Lasseter asked that the lines be changed out of respect for Japan, due to what happened there three months before the film's release in the United States, which it was caused by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. However, in the Cars 2 Junior Novelization and the Cars 2 magazine, "blast of radiation" was used, probably because they were made before they changed the line.
Rod was technically, but indirectly responsible for the ultimate defeat of Sir Miles Axlerod, since if ever the former didn't gave the spy images he had to Mater, then the latter wouldn't have been able to expose Axlerod's true nature publicly.
Heroes
