Lightning McQueen

Template:Cars character Lightning McQueen, typically referred to by his surname only and occasionally called "stickers'" is the main fictional character, an anthropomorphic racecar and the protagonist in the 2006 animated Disney/Pixar film Cars. He is voiced by actor Owen Wilson. In the Japanese version, he is voiced by Hiroshi Tsuchida.

Story

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Cars Movie

In the beginning of the film, Lightning McQueen, the Rookie of the Year, was a cocky, chatterbox car who was very selfish towards his pit crew (which lead them to quit after the first race of the film), and cared little for much except trophies, fame and winning big races. A rookie in the Piston Cup race, he hopes to be the first newcomer to win the trophy, and gain a lucrative endorsement deal from Dinoco (the gasoline company from Toy Story), but forms a three-way tie with perennial runner-up Chick "Murphy" Hicks and veteran Strip "The King" Weathers after losing his huge lead due to two blown tires. En route to California for a tie-breaker race, he is detoured off Route 66 by The Delinquent Road Hazards and winds up in Radiator Springs, a nearly abandoned town whose livelihood was largely destroyed by the construction of Interstate 40 decades ago. McQueen inadvertently destroys the city's main road, and is made by the townsfolk to repair it. Over the course of his stay in the town, he comes to form friendships with the residents of the town, including Mater, the town's buck-toothed tow truck (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), falls in love with a former city-dwelling attorney Porsche named Sally Carrera (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), and gains a deep respect and reverence for the town's judge and doctor, an ex-race car named Doc Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman). These experiences lead McQueen to understand the importance of friendship and love, and how winning is not the most important thing in racing. When he eventually gets to the Piston Cup tie-breaker, with his friends from Radiator Springs as his pit crew (relieving Mack, who had volunteered to be his pit crew, of the duties), McQueen manages to make it to the finish line before Chick Hicks and The King, but after seeing The King spin out of control and crash onto the pit (Chick deliberately took The King out), and remembering how a crash had ended Doc's career, McQueen, sitting right in front of the finish line, refuses to cross, instead allowing Chick to cross and win the cup, and decides to help The King cross the finish line in order to retire with dignity. McQueen gains a large measure of respect from the public for this act, and although he is offered the Dinoco endorsement after Chick is jeered by the crowd and denied the opportunity for his reckless cheating act, he decides to stay with his original sponsor, Rust-eze, and moves to Radiator Springs, along with all of his racing operations. Thanks to Lightning's endorsement, Radiator Springs sees a huge boost in tourism and the town is saved.

Cars Video Game

In the Cars video game, written by Pixar and considered a continuation to the story started in the movie, Lightning McQueen finds himself at the start of the next Piston Cup season. With the help of the citizens of Radiator Springs, McQueen readies to start his quest for the Piston Cup, taking lessons in powersliding from Doc, boosting from Filmore, and racing backwards from Mater. With his skills, Lightning once again makes a championship run in the Piston Cup, much to the irritation of Chick Hicks, who hates him. Fearing his title is in jeopardy, Chick enlists the assistance of The Delinquent Road Hazards—DJ the Scion xB, Boost the Mitsubishi Eclipse, Wingo the Nissan Silvia, and Snot Rod the Plymouth Barracuda —the same rowdy cars who detoured McQueen to Radiator Springs, to hijack McQueen's racing gear from Mack on Interstate 40. Lightning is able to retrieve the goods and bring the delinquents to justice before winning the next race, which sends Chick into a frenzy. Lightning challenges Chick to a Grand Prix in Radiator Springs, followed by one more Piston Cup race in L.A.. Lightning wins these events, taking the Piston Cup in his sophomore season.

At the end, Lightning, Mater, and Sally decide to take a celebratory trip across the country. When asked if he brought his trophy, Lightning notes he did not, but left it in a good place, at Doc Hudson's clinic next to the legend's own three Piston Cups.

Though Lightning McQueen is still sponsored by Rust-eze, players are able to unlock McQueen with a Dinoco paint job.

Design

Unlike the other characters, Lightning is no car in particular. He does, however, have characteristic of a variety of sports cars. His headlights are just stickers and he has many sponsor decals on his sides, both similarities to NASCAR cars. Pixar was shown a Corvette by GM, which influenced his design. His overall profile was inspired by the Ford GT40. His tail resembles that of a Dodge Viper, while the tail lenses and roof are consistent with a Ford Mustang. The full size tour car is based on a 3rd Generation Chevrolet Corvette. His custom two-tone paint and tires are from a 1st Generation Chevrolet Corvette. Overall, his appearance is a hybrid between a stock car and various other sports cars, but tilted slightly towards the stock car style. He can be considered an overall generic race car. Also, due to the resemblence of the twins Mia and Tia (when they painted themselves in his colors), he has somewhat of a Mazda-inspired design, since the girls are Miata's, the only Mazda car to resemble a Miata was the RX-7, particularly the Savannah model.

International Names

In the French version his name is "Flash McQueen", In the Italian version his name is "Saetta McQueen" (Saetta means Lightning), In the Swedish version his name is "Blixten McQueen" (Blixten means Lightning), In the German version his name is "Lightning McQueen", In the Spanish version his name is "Rayo McQueen" (Rayo means thunderbolt), In the Polish version his name is "Zygzak McQueen" (Zygzak means zigzag, and it concerns the picture of thunder on his body), In the Brazilian version his name is "Relâmpago McQueen" (Relâmpago means Lightning)

Trivia

Lightning McQueen's primary sponsor is Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment, and Lightning himself advertises the Rear End Formula. Rust-Eze is a parody of Blistex Medicated Lip Ointment, as the bumpers are often where the cars' 'mouths' are. Blistex does not sponsor any NASCAR teams.
Lightning's number was originally going to be 57, to represent the year that John Lasseter was born (1957), but was changed to 95 to represent the year Toy Story came out. In the final film, there is a 57 car who bears a striking resemblance to McQueen, and is probably an older model of the character that Pixar used. This car wins the race in the first teaser trailer (some are led to believe that this car is McQueen, but he is also seen in the trailer in his final form).
The name McQueen was a reference to Glenn McQueen, a Pixar animator who died in 2002 of melanoma, not, contrary to popular belief, a reference to famous actor and car buff Steve McQueen, or his son Cliff McQueen, a professional auto racer.
Lightning's Piston Cup is dated 2006, won in his second season. This would place the events of the film at the end of the 2005 season.
Sally calls Lightning "Stickers," a teasing reference to the stickers he wears that mimic headlights. This later becomes a sort of pet nickname.
McQueen's wheel rims are the same color as his body, resembling several NASCAR racecars of the past.
McQueen also, at one point in the movie, wears Lightyear Buzzard Tires. This is obviously a reference to the Goodyear Eagle tires used on real-world NASCAR race cars (the Lightyear Blimp is seen during the fireworks scene after the first race) and to Buzz Lightyear, one of two main characters from Pixar's Toy Story and Toy Story 2.
In the offseason, Lightning sports a red-and-white paint job done by Ramone, the owner of Radiator Springs' body art shop, and wears whitewall tires supplied by Luigi, the owner of the town's tire shop. Lightning also wears a decal disc of his racing number in print. This paint job seems very reminiscent of the classic two-tone paint done on the early Chevrolet Corvettes in the 1950s.
In the video game, Lightning breaks the fourth wall by sometimes saying phrases such as "Hey, this isn't how the story goes." or "Kids, dont try this at home."

With the addition of Lightning, his driver Mack, and his two number-one fans, Mia and Tia (identical twins who are both volunteer workers at Flo's V8 Café), and the Rusteze brothers the population at Radiator Springs is 18.
In the Mattel die cast Cars toy line, five different versions of Lightning are available: race version, Dinoco blue version, modified race version (red/white pattern seen at the film's end), a "cruisin" version (where he had become a customer of the town and has removed his tailfin) and a Willys Butte Version (A muddy race version) exclusive to Radiator Springs Mountain Challenge.
In Japan, Tomy made two race die-cast versions of McQueen. One has his regular face and the other has his determined face.'
McQueen's engine is a 750 hp V8 with RWD
McQueen's "catchphrase" is "Float like a Cadillac, sting like a Beemer." This is a parody of Muhammed Ali's catchphrase and a reference to Cadillac vehicles generally having soft suspension and BMWs in general having stiff, sporty and potentially unforgiving rides.
In the French version of the movie, the catchphrase becomes "Vif comme l'éclair, puissant comme la foudre" ("Quick like a bolt, strong like a lightning").
McQueen has two stickers on his hood shaped like lightning bolts; he uses these to reflect sunlight into fans eyes. He refers to the one on the right as his "lucky sticker". Owen Wilson came up with the idea for these stickers, as well as McQueen's catchphrase, which usually goes along the lines of "ka-chow".
A CD produced by Fred Mollin called Lightning McQueen's Fast-Tracks (Walt Disney Records) contains "revved-up road tunes" inspired by the Disney/Pixar film "Cars." These include new versions of Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" (Joy Lynn White), the Delicates' "Black and White Thunderbird" (Jaime Babbitt and Britt Savage) and Hank Snow's "I've Been Everywhere" (Webb Wilder).
Lightning is not street legal, lacking headlights and numerous other safety features mandatory for road-traveling vehicles. This attribute is integral to many major plotlines:
- Had Lightning headlights, he might not have encountered Radiator Springs, as the cabover rig he mistook for Mack led him to the crossroads town. In the tractor-tipping scene, he alludes to lacking a horn; instead he WOT-starts his engine, scaring all the tractors and waking Frank. Frank frightens Lightning so much he has a nightmare.
- Lightning's nightmare about Frank wakes Lightning earlier than either of his first two days in Radiator Springs, and this early start contributes to the discovery of Doc's "Hudson Hornet" identity.
- Mater notices Lightning has no rear-view mirrors, proceeds to teach him to drive a speedy reverse, teaching Lightning to flick the dirty trick Chick Hicks sticks to him in the tiebreaker race.
In a deleted scene from the DVD, Lightning would have been given the option of participating in a local race or performing community service. He refuses to race, and has a nightmare about the community service wherein he's converted into a street-paving machine and Mater gets his race car body, leading Mack to mistake Mater for Lightning when he comes looking for him. When he wakes up, he fervently refuses the community service, opting instead to partake in the race.
In the daydream sequence, Mcqueen is called Lightning Storm Mcqueen. The sequence bears striking similarity to the War of The Worlds movie, and in the movie, Tom Cruise says " It came down in a Lightning Storm!" therefore giving lightning his name.^{[citation needed]}
Somewhat ironically, Owen Wilson previously portrayed a talking vehicle in the cancelled television pilot Heat Vision and Jack.
After the tiebreaker race, Lightning became the official citizen of Radiator Springs.

External links

"Cars" webpage on Lightning McQueen
Lightning McQueen Photo of "real life" car on tour in Monaco