The Decepticon Lieutenant you are looking at was among the first members of the Cybertronian group to reach Earth. If you consider yourself a true Transformers fan, you must remember Barricade’s triumphant entrance in the franchise’s first live-action film. When he showed his true mechanical personality to Sam Witwicky for the sole purpose of aggressively questioning him, he personified the one fundamental law of all genre fiction: “The evil guys have to seem cooler than the good ones.”
It is only fair to say that when Barricade changed from his alternate mode, a black Saleen S281 Ford Mustang Police Cruiser, into a menacing-looking Transformer, he terrified the living daylights out of Sam.
Of course, the evil Barricade poses a significant threat, one that even the Autobots must watch out for, and he has amazingly managed to survive numerous situations in which he ought to have perished.
This takes us to the major points of today’s film, in which we will examine the history of this terrible Decepticon who enjoys “to punish and enslave,” as well as a lot of other fascinating information about him. You prepared? Let us get going!
Barricade’s Presence In The Transformers Cinematic Universe Explored
Transformers (2007)
In the movie, Frenzy first appears as Barricade pulling up to pick him up after the latter not only successfully penetrated the American defense network aboard Air Force One but also quickly and successfully hacked the national air-guard frequency. Frenzy is seen covertly hopping inside Barricade’s black Saleen S281 Ford Mustang Police Cruiser as it approaches. Please be aware that Barricade can create a hologram driver when he is in police car mode to avoid being recognised.
Next, using the data Frenzy now has access to, he and Barricade can learn details on the highly classified Sector 7 government agency, the top-secret Project Iceman, and Captain Witwicky. The latter not only happens to be Sam’s great great grandfather but he is also the one to have discovered the frozen Megatron while exploring the Arctic Circle and inadvertently activated his navigational system thereby getting the co-ordinates of the All Spark’s location imprinted on his eyeglasses. Upon further using the internet, they learn about Sam’s plans of selling the antique glasses on eBay. Accessing his eBay account and id, LadiesMan217, Frenzy and Barricade are able to track Sam’s location.
Barricade is next seen having located Sam, while the latter is seen attempting to hide himself from Bumblebee. He initially appears as the same black cop car and this time we actually get to see a proper look at the vehicle. There’s a Decepticon sigil on its very fender and the phrase, ‘to punish and enslave’ on the passenger door of the car. Of course, Sam is relieved to find a legitimate police car rolling up in front of him and goes right in front of the car explaining his situation to the officer inside and asking him to help him out.
However, the car keeps moving ahead and hitting the breaks; in fact, a spiky weapon like thing also emerges from the sides of the headlights so you can imagine Sam’s condition when Barricade transforms right in front of him, much to his horror. With Sam trying to escape from him, Barricade knocks him on to the hood of another car and violently interrogates him asking, ‘Are you username Ladiesman217?
Where’s the eBay item 21153? Where are the glasses?’ Sam is able to flee from Barricade and runs into his classmate Mikaela, and together they hop inside Bumblebee upon seeing no other options. A wild car chase begins and Barricade is also seen transforming himself back into the cop car and pursuing them to some kind of an abandoned chemical plant. Upon reaching there, Bumblebee throws Sam and Mikaela out of the car and transforms to his robot self to engage himself in an intense battle with Barricade.
The Decepticon changes too and pounces on the Autobot attacking him with his spiky bladed nunchucks. Barricade is also seen sending Frenzy after Sam and Mikaela to take care of them while he himself is seen to battle Bumblebee. One look at the battle and you will find things working out in favor of Barricade only for him to lose eventually and get severely damaged.
Now one doesn’t really know how but Barricade had already repaired himself when Frenzy sent out an alert from inside the secret base of Sector 7 revealing the location of AllSpark to the other Decepticons. Realizing that the Decepticons will be coming after the AllSpark, the humans assisted by the Autobots decide to take the artefact along with them to Mission City. However, they are encountered by Bonecrusher on the way, especially on the highway along with Barricade, the latter having been able to catch up with them by activating the siren of his cop car and thereby having the path cleared for him.
While there’s no denying that Bonecrusher puts up a great fight but he doesn’t really stand a chance against Optimus Prime, who easily defeats him. This leaves Barricade all alone with the rest of the Autobots who block him from not only getting to the humans but also the artefact. Barricade wasn’t seen taking part in the battle that later took place in Mission City.
Dark of the Moon (2011)
Here, he is seen assisting the Decepticons as they take over Chicago. Stressing on the situation at this very point, the Decepticons seem to have everything working in their favor; for starters, there aren’t any Autobots. Next, the whole city is literally theirs. Enter Barricade and one actually gets to see him relishing his position within the Decepticon army. He is happily seen gathering the Autobot prisoners mainly for execution; he is accountable for shooting Wheeljack aka Que in the back post which the latter’s body fell on to the ground.
In fact, there actually comes a point when he is even seen kicking Bumblebee at his back only for fun. Had it not been for the intervention of Wheelie and Brains, more executions would have been carried out with Bumblebee certainly topping that list. But it was the interruption that served as a distraction and allowed the other Autobots to flee from there in the first place.
This was later followed by a surprise sniper shot attack by the NEST that left him partially blinded because let’s not forget Barricade has four eyes. Of course, he went restless with pain and the humans took advantage of this very situation and managed to set a boomstick into his leg. When the bomb went off, his legs were completely blown off and he was last seen attempting to crawl away to someplace safe.
The Last Knight (2017)
The fact that he is not only alive here but also seems to have undergone some upgraded transformation simply shows that Barricade is well aware of when he has to check himself out of a situation where he has a low chance of success. His alternate mode in the 2017 movie not only happens to be a 2016 Ford Mustang cop car but his robotic self is also a lot sleeker than his previous appearances.
It has been seven long years since the battle of Chicago; Barricade is seen to be the second in command to Megatron, or in other words, literally his new right hand. It is also fair to address him as someone eagerly filling in the shoes of Starscream, especially post the latter’s death. From helping Megatron hunt down an ancient Cybertronian talisman to giving him the idea of using human hostages as a leverage plan to secure the release of the Decepticons – Onslaught, Mohawk, Nitro Zeus and Dreadbot, the character of Barricade is certainly not the one to be taken lightly.
It is the Stonehenge meeting point where Barricade is last seen making an appearance along with Megatron and Nitro. With the duo of Megatron and Nitro leaving or should we be saying flying to meet Quintessa on Cybertron, Barricade is left there all by himself to subsist amidst a bunch of Autobots which very much includes Optimus Prime, the deadliest of tanks and the Knights of lacon. If you ask us, the wisest thing to do here would be to retreat to safety and given that Barricade manages to disappear from there shows his very survival skills right on point.
Barricade Toy Line History
The first Transformers Barricade toy was released in the year 1990, one that happens to be the last year of the Transformers: Generation One toy line in America. As part of the line’s range of small Micromaster figures, Barricade transformed into a Formula-1 race car in the shade of blue and magenta. He was also the abusive team leader of the Race Track Patrol that consisted of high-volume gearhead Groundhog, naïve rookie Motor Head and the cruel speedster Roller Force. The quartet was available in a pack and none of them had any individual character profiles.
In fact, they did not even make any appearances in classic media until they were featured in the Dreamwave Generation One continuity. The comics, which published in the early 2000s demonstrated Barricade as a leader who mercilessly berated his men for the slightest of mistakes.
Barricade is seen enjoying a principal role in the four-issue comic book limited series titled, Transformers: Micromasters, which has he and his team rebelling against the Decepticons and joining forces with their old friend, the Autobot Hot Rod Patrol to prevent the wicked Skystalker from obliterating every full size Transformer out there. Barricade is also seen appearing the 2005 IDW continuity along with his team as bio-mechanical aliens from the planet, Gorlam Prime.
The second bot named Barricade was released as part of the Transformers: Energon toy line in 2005. The Energon Barricade was not at all linked to the Micromaster; instead he was a Decepticon who was capable of transforming into an armored rocket-launching vehicle.
The third popular version of Barricade was introduced in 2007 as part of the cast of the first live action movie, Michael Bay’s Transformers and the rest as you all know is history.
IDW Comic Book Origins Explored
IDW Continuity 2005
As a Decepticon police officer, Barricade purposely chose to settle on the post war Cybertron of Starscream in order to reconstruct a peaceful society. But he remained a Decepticon by heart, having his faith inclined towards the true Decepticon cause of equality. The peacekeeper is seen probing deeper into the deaths of Wilder, Treadshot and Brisko – all whilst putting stress on the fact that the trio weren’t just random ‘cons’ but Cybertronians instead.
Starscream was not of the same opinion; in fact, he did not even consider it significant and therefore told Barricade to take things easy. However, post the death of three more Decepticons, Barricade was able to identify one of the victims, Stratotronic, which further takes the investigation to Gutcruncher and the latter’s eventual death along with more Decepticons. As for Barricade, he is seen joining forces with Chromia, Sandstorm as well as the Dinobots in capturing the Firecons, or in other words, the primary suspects.
Of course, the trio of Cindesaur, Flamefeather and Sparkstalker were eventually put in the clear and by then, Barricade was already on with the fourth murder scene. Only this time, Starscream commanded Barricade to assemble a crew and demolish buildings in the Decepticon ghetto hoping that someone would act as an informer. But Barricade simply refused to turn on the fellow Decepticons, and this earned him commendation even from Optimus Prime. It was then that Barricade aided Prime with his plan of enticing the real killer whilst making use of the Dinobots as bait.
Post the new alliance of Cybertron with Caminus, Barricade is seen beginning a relationship with the Camien Swift. In fact, the duo along with Strafe even made plans to ship a truck full of Camien spark to Alyon, the uninhabited region of Cybertron in order to make them grow there. And, because they did not want Starscream or Optimus Prime for that matter to be aware of their plan, Barricade turned to Slug. Please know that he did not really trust Slug and therefore did not tell him anything.
As for the Dinobots they decided to turn in Barricade to the Badgeless but Slug eventually altered his plan after getting to know what the real cause. The trip ahead was extensive and dangerous given that the travelers were constantly being put at risk by a list of Badgeless, Sweeps, and let’s not disregard the Turbofoxes. But it was Slug, who persistently kept pushing the others to keep moving thereby causing Barricade to finally realize that he actually knew what they were transporting in the first place.
Touched by Slug’s actions, Barricade went on only to be bisected by the feral warrior, Bludgeon, who attempted to destroy the spark. Barricade was able to apologize to Swift for not being able to accomplish his task before Bludgeon exploded the truck’s fuel that ended finishing off the sparks as well as Barricade.
IDW Continuity 2019
Here, Barricade is seen to be a member of Cybertron’s law enforcement organization. After the death of Brainstorm, he and Sideswipe were assigned to track the potential members of the radical group called The Rise. Of course, Barricade hated the fact that he had to provide extra security at some forging ceremony taking place in the Forge Pyramid in Iacon. But this is where he chanced upon Bumblebee disintegrating a fight.
With Rubble putting forward his help in relation to the Brainstorm investigation, an agitated Prowl is seen asking him along with Bumblebee to leave. Also, Prowl, was oblivious to the fact that Barricade was connected to the notorious Ascenticon faction. So, with Prowl and his subsidiaries starting to dig the Iaconian underworld for pieces of information concerning a Voin that had seemingly witnessed the killing of Brainstorm, it was Barricade who initially came to know about the Voin’s location from Headlock.
No points for guessing what Barricade did after obtaining the information; for those of you who are still wondering, he wasted no time in passing the information first to Soundwave and then to Shockwave in order to do away with the unfinished business. But, having said that, the entire operation took a 180 degree turn when Shockwave’s hitman, the berserker Quake ended up killing the Voin as well as Rubble.
Post coming to a realization that his actions would eventually be discovered, Barricade not only left Cybertron’s law enforcement organization but he also opted for a new life in the Ascenticon Guard. But this caught the attention of Bumblebee who was quite startled to find Barricade being employed and not having to undergo any of the difficulties that he himself had to go through in order to get in.
Of course, Barricade paid no attention to it thereby concluding that he was way more desirable than Bumblebee. Imagine what happened when Prowl was able to make out that it was Barricade who had duped him! A standoff took place between the Ascenticon Guard and the law enforcement organization which went on till Shockwave was able to scheme some kind of a counterfeit ‘attack’, one that culminated with Barricade being apparently taken hostage by Sixshot and securely extricated.
With Bumblebee getting to know that Barricade to an extent was accountable for the death of Rubble, he was ticked off to a whole new level. So after Barricade was repositioned to one of the secret bunkers of The Rise, Flamewar was reported to have deliberately directed him to the wrong personal quarters. We are stressing on Barricade entering Shadow Striker’s room without the slightest bit of knowledge and getting spot on cast out by her.
As far as Bumblebee was concerned, he was even seen accepting to work for Swindle and in barter getting a chance to kill Barricade and take his revenge. After supervising Elita-1’s relocation from prison to the Senate building post her being expelled as commander of the former Ascenticon Guard, Bumblebee was seen to disrupt the process intentionally in order to spring Elita. While he was successful in having Barricade at gunpoint and was almost on the verge of killing him, Bumblebee decided not to take that plunge but he sure did have Charger melt Barricade’s very hand.
Titan Movie Comics
Here, Barricade is seen getting killed in the Los Angeles battle only to be resurrected by Starscream using the AllSpark energy. In fact, it wasn’t only Barricade who was revived; Blackout and Devastator joined him too and the trio were transformed into mechanical, persistent zombies. We’d like to put special emphasis on the word ‘mindless’ here because the zombie Barricade is literally seen holding his very own severed head in his hands and going after Optimus Prime.
Of course, the battle did not continue for long because Ratchet was quickly to figure out how the Decepticon bodies were getting resurrected in the first place. With Ratchet telling the other Autobots to target the AllSpark energy signatures, they were finally able to put down Barricade and the other zombies for good.
In fact many years later, Barricade was seen joining forces with Starscream at an anti-Transformer rally. To be honest, he was chiefly beaten up by Ironhide. It did not work when he grabbed Ironhide from behind and it certainly did not work even with Ironhide getting caught in an explosion. The pair was left with no other options but to escape from there especially after Optimus Prime turned up.
What Makes Barricade So Special?
To begin with, he is a committed Decepticon, one who wholeheartedly believes in the cause. In that way, he is seen to be exceedingly loyal to Megatron and while there is no denying that he does have the courage to voice his opinion especially when it comes to the leadership of Starscream, he hardly does it. This shows how he is ready to endure and accept things as long as they actually locate Megatron.
A closer peek at Barricade’s personality and it becomes pretty clear that he knows exactly when is the right time to start a fight and also retreat from one. His survival instincts are streets ahead of the rest of the Decepticons and there are no two ways about it. He is deadly, he is powerful and he is a threat, one that every Autobot has to watch out for.
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