- “You're so naive, Roxie. You see the good in everybody, even when it's not there. You're living a fantasy. There is no Easter Bunny, there is no Tooth Fairy, and there is no Queen of England. This is the real world, and you need to wake up!”
- ―Tighten expressing to Roxanne that there is no good in him anymore.
Tighten (real name Hal Stewart) is the main antagonist of DreamWorks Animation's 2010 feature film Megamind. He was once the nerdy cameraman of Roxanne Ritchi, who had an unrequited crush on her, but the former had no interests in him. This time, Hal becomes a vengeful, traitorous, and destructive supervillain when he gets hit by the power serum of the titular character in hopes of turning him into Metro City's newest superhero after "destroying" Metro Man and taking over the city, thus becoming Megamind's new archenemy and putting difference aside with Metro Man who faked his death and retired as a superhero.
Background[]
Personality[]
- “I can't believe you… all your gifts, all your powers, and you squandered them for your own personal gain!”
- ―Megamind berating Tighten for abandoning his destiny for his own selfish gain.
As his former self Hal, he tends to be somewhat civil and sophisticated towards Roxanne, having a crush on her and would try to woo her, though she feels uncomfortable by his attempts. One example being were he invites her over to his place for a party where it's just going to be the two of them with a wedding photographer and a bouncy castle there. He also tends to be quite childish, immature (as when he throws a tantrum after accidentally slamming his hand on his news van), lazy, nadir and incompatible (as he criticized Roxanne’s sentimental news script on Metro Man, unknowing that she had in fact written the script herself).
After being equipped with Metro Man's powers, Hal (going by the name Tighten) became more determined to use his powers to win Roxanne's heart much like how Metro Man stuck with being a hero in order to gain adoration, but his recklessness caused Roxanne to reject him, much to Hal's distress and anger and leading him down into a dark path, where he starts abusing his powers for nefarious and diabolical purposes, something that even Megamind is disgusted to learn about. After learning that Megamind was the one who gave him the powers and was dating Roxanne at that time, Tighten became hell-bent on destroying Megamind for "stealing his girlfriend" and later causes havoc on Metro City with his powers, much to his pleasure and everyone's dismay and horror (including Megamind).
As such, Tighten is more evil than Megamind ever was. While Megamind acted as a villain to get attention and balance out of his former rival Metro Man, Tighten acted purely out of spite, caused so much destruction for his amusement and has shown no signs of sympathy or remorse for it. He also has proven to be in denial; retorting to Roxanne that he didn't have any good in himself and blaming Megamind for making a fool out of him (though Megamind rightfully points out that Tighten is making a fool out of himself by squandering his powers for his gain).
Tighten also proved to be quite cowardly and overwrought, as when Metro Man (who was Megamind in disguise) arrived to confront him for his rampage, Tighten panicked and tried to fly away, though he later learnt the truth and fought Megamind for it.
One of his most notable traits is his complete lack of intelligence, as he fell for all of Megamind's lies, still believed Megamind's lie about his "Space Step-Mom" (which in fact was Minion in disguise), even after Megamind admitted his deceit (which may actually be his sole redeeming quality and a suggestion that he has standards against cheating) and later told Roxanne that fictional characters weren't real by using the Queen of England as an "example", apparently unaware of this fact. However, there are moments where Tighten does have intelligence as he was able to deduce Megamind was disguised as Metro Man after he had mispronounced Metro City as "Metrocity".
Tighten himself is shown to be very short tempered, sadistic, irate, violent, unstable, vengeful, rude, destructive, and wrathful when Megamind fooled him into thinking he was his Space Dad.
Physical appearances[]
Hal is a short and overweight young man with short ginger hair and brown eyes. He usually wears a light vest and a black t-shirt with emoticons on it. After gaining Metro Man's powers, Hal also gains his height and body shape, his hair is long and curly, and his face and eyes are the same. He also wears a red and white suit with flames on it and is capable of stretching. After getting his powers taken away by Megamind, Hal gains his short hair and overweight body again, but he still wears his suit. When he is arrested and sent to jail, Hal wears an orange jumpsuit, and he still has his short hair and overweight body. After obtaining Metro Man and Megamind's DNAs, Hal not only regains his body shape and his suit, but his skin also turns blue, just like Megamind's.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Megamind's Serum (formerly): After being accidentally infused with Metro Man's DNA, Hal gained Metro Man's powers and abilities, making him significantly more powerful than an average person. It was later taken away by Megamind in their final battle.
- Near-Invulnerability: Tighten is highly resistant to pain and can survive huge explosions. He can also withstand the weight of a skyscraper as he lifts it over his head without any part of his body breaking, and is extremely resistant to his own strength. When he flies and lands suddenly, when he sends Megamind several meters into the sky or when he uses all his strength to lift a gigantic building, rip the door off a car and smash through a reinforced copper wall, Tighten doesn't get hurt.
- Superhuman Strength: After gaining Metro Man's powers, Hal gains significant strength. He can pick up and throw objects with extreme force. His strength is so vast that he is able to lift a Skyscraper and throw it against Megamind with precision.
- Superhuman Stamina: Hal is able to keep up with a long fight against Megamind without being slightly or not at all tired or out of breath, as well as a day of mass destruction in the city, all while remaining perfectly athletic.
- Superhuman Endurance: After receiving Metro Man's powers, Hal also inherited the latter's Endurance, having spent an entire week wreaking havoc all over the city.
- Superhuman Senses: After being enhanced with Megamind's super-serum, Tighten's senses have been significantly developed to enable him to detect anything at great distances, while retaining astounding sensitivity.
- Superhuman Hearing: Although not all of Hal's senses (as Tighten) were shown, he does have super-hearing, able to hear Roxanne Ritchie from miles away while flying.
- Telescopic Vision: Like Metro Man, Hal gains supervision after obtaining his powers. He is able to see his targets clearly from afar.
- Accelerated Perception: Titan’s perception has a superhuman perception, especially when it flies and explodes a sound boom, he is able to perceive the world around him. However, he was completely disoriented when Metro Man (Megamind in disguise) appeared and he began to make mistakes, while losing his head, he stopped and fled when Metro Man grabbed him by his shirt.
- Flight/Levitation: He has the ability to fly and levitate from the ground. Although he was somehow unable to fully manoeuvre it first-hand, he got used to it afterward. As Tighten, he has incredible speed, he can easily catch on Megamind as the latter attempts to flee from him. Under the influence of the fear of being stopped by Metro Man, he even manages to break the Sound Barrier and cause a Sonic Boom.
- Aerial Adaptation: Tighten is able to survive and adapt to extremely high or low air pressure (not becoming disoriented or deprived of normal breathing capacity), and high wind friction, which is accompanied by innate immunity to vertigo and/or fear of heights.
- Acceleration Immunity: Tighten is immune to the various effects of rapid acceleration, including air resistance, inability to breathe, dynamic shock resulting from contact with objects at high speed, breaking the sound barrier, etc.
- Heat Vision: Powerful cherry red laser beams generated by Tighten's absorption of ambient heat are powerful enough to vaporize any material.
- X-Ray Vision: Given that Tighten has all the powers of Metro Man, he also has an X-Ray Vision, although it remains less powerful and accurate than Metro Man’s, it would not be surprising that it is limited to seeing through lead.
Skills[]
- Intimidation: At first, Hal wasn't very intimidating at all, but once transformed into Tighten, everyone dreaded him, because unlike Megamind, who did the "crime" to "have fun" with Metro Man and everything was just a big act, Hal acted with fury and never tried to do anything good, destroying everything in his path out of sheer fury.
Appearances[]
Megamind[]
Video games[]
Megamind: Ultimate Showdown[]
Megamind: Mega Team Unite[]
Trivia[]
- Hal's name is a combination of the names Hal Jordan and John Stewart, two of the Green Lanterns. His name may also be a reference to a character from the short lived series, Masked Rider, a spin-off of Power Rangers.
- He was played by Jonah Hill who also voiced Snotlout Jorgenson from How to Train Your Dragon and would later portray a villain version of himself in This is the End.
- Following Queen Elizabeth II's death on September 8th, 2022, many people on the internet post Tighten's famous quote: "There is no Queen of England".
- Tighten is considered one of the most popular DreamWorks villains, alongside many other DreamWorks villains before and after him.
- Hal Stewart (Tighten) in Megamind is similar Syndrome in The Incredibles. Both were regular individuals who idolized a certain person in their life (Mr. Incredible for Syndrome and Roxanne Ritchie for Tighten) and ended up becoming the villain because they were rudely rejected by them. In certain aspect both spite the protagonists when they're at their lowest, have red/orange hair and both are easily short-sighted. The main difference is that Syndrome's abilities came directly from him while Tighten's powers were given to him by accident.