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"You stay, I go... no following." -Giant to Hogarth.
The Iron Giant is the unnamed deuteragonist of the Warner Bros. animated cult classic film of the same name. He is a genial 50-foot tall autonomous "Metal Man" from another world that crash lands on Earth before becoming friends with a young boy named Hogarth who rescues him from his own internal defensive mechanism.
He is voiced by Vin Diesel.
Why He Is What He Chooses to Be
- Director Brad Bird pitched the idea for The Iron Giant (and essentially the premise of the character) entirely on the phrase: "What if a gun had a soul?"
- He had a shocking backstory where his creators made him as a weapon who wreaks havoc, kills innocent lives, and destroys worlds. When he crash landed on Earth, he received a dent on his head and he lost his memory. During his time on Earth, he befriends Hogarth and Dean and learns that he is what he chooses to be and uses his strength for good rather than destruction, proving to the world that he recognizes the value of human life.
- Even after the Iron Giant regains his memories, he chooses not to be a threat and the scene was executed really well.
- He enjoys playing with Hogarth pretending to be Superman with him and help make amazing, beautiful looking sculptures and art with Dean.
- The Iron Giant's chemistry with both of them is pretty well-developed and entertaining.
- While capable of incredible destructive powers and equipped with highly advanced and destructive weaponry, the Iron Giant would not ever want to harm anyone or any living thing.
- After losing his memories, the Giant is portrayed is portrayed as a curious, childlike, innocent, and gentle individual.
- Vin Diesel did a phenomenal job voicing the Giant, fitting his towering, mysterious but metallic physique. His screaming and gravelly are also quite memorable.
- His sound design is exceptional. With every motion of his metallic body, from his footsteps to simply moving his head in a different direction, are followed by a noticeably heavy noise.
- He has a very classic, nostalgic design that feels like a cool homage to robots in old sci-fi movies.
- Additionally, he does look pretty cool and menacing when he deploys all his weapons.
- His solution to a loud, annoying car alarm? Throwing the entire car way like a football.
- Like every child in their lives, he learns the concept of life and death: Through a hunter killing a deer, this incident causes Giant to denounce violence and death as a whole.
- In the climax of the movie, he tries to prove himself that he's not a gun by saving two boys from falling to their deaths. However, the paranoid and corrupt Kent Mansley frames him for destruction and murdering Hogarth, making the military attack him. The Giant tries to escape while protecting Hogarth (who is in his hand). While flying in the air to protect himself and the boy, he gets knocked out by a missile and crashes to the ground. When he sees Hogarth unconscious, he is traumatized and thought that Hogarth died during the impact. When Kent, General Rogard, and the rest of the army find the Giant still alive, they attack him immediately, only for the Giant to regain his memories (we also see the dent fix itself), deploys his weapons, and starts attacking them, withstanding their weaponry and destroying their tanks. Kent then makes a plan of luring the Giant away from Rockwell and firing a nuclear missile at him. The Giant almost destroys a battleship, but Hogarth (who is still alive) tries to make him remember that he doesn't have to be a weapon.
- Hogarth: No, wait. It's me, Hogarth. Remember?... It's bad to kill. Guns kill, and you don't have to be a gun. You are what you choose to be. You choose. Choose.
- The Iron Giant: Hogarth... (deactivates weapons and starts panicking)
- Hogarth: It's okay. It's okay. We've gotta show them you're good.
- He gives Kent Mansley his deserving comeuppance by stopping him from driving away from Rockwell and leaving everyone to die from his paranoid move of commanding the nuclear missile to be launched at the Giant at once, not realizing that the Giant is still residing in town and the missile is targeted there, which will lead to the death of everyone in Rockwell. This also gives the military the chance to arrest Kent for his actions.
- His iconic sacrifice: He willingly shoots himself into space to stop a nuclear missile from obliterating Hogarth's home town, even if it meant his own death. His final thoughts are Hogarth telling him "You are what you choose to be."
- In the ending, everyone in Rockwell believed that The Iron Giant died after colliding himself with the nuclear missile. General Rogard finds only one piece of the Giant and gives it to Hogarth, thinking he should have it. Later on, while Hogarth is sleeping in his bedroom, he hears something and find the Giant's piece missing, only to find it going somewhere. Hogarth remembers the Giant's ability to rebuild himself and lets the piece go. In Iceland, we see the rest of the Giant's pieces coming together and his head awakens and smiles as he starts to rebuild himself.
Trivia
- The Iron Giant is loosely based on the title character of The Iron Man, a 1968 novel by Ted Hughes.
- The book served as the basis for the film.
- At night, his eyes are normally blue (a possible type of night vision) but then in the day, they turn yellow or white for a more normal type of vision to see regularly with the current light at hand.
- He remains unnamed throughout the entire film, though he is referred to as "Giant" by numerous characters.
- In a rare twist of events, Giant returned to pop culture in the live-action film adaptation of Ready Player One, where he serves a mecha vehicle/custom avatar skin option for players in the OASIS.
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