- “Titan: This is the last time you make a fool out of me!
Megamind: I made you a hero! You did the fool thing all by yourself!” - ―Titan and Megamind
Tighten (real name Hal Stewart) is the main antagonist of DreamWorks Animation's 2010 feature film Megamind. He is the former nerdy and creepy cameraman of Roxanne Ritchi who later became a vengeful, traitorous, and destructive supervillain as he was hit by the serum of the titular character, becoming his current archenemy after putting difference aside with Metro Man.
Background[]
History[]
- “ Well, sir, his name is Hal Stewart. He's 28 years old, no criminal records... actually no records at all! Apparently this man hasn't accomplished anything.”
- ―Minion reading Hal's biography.
Hal Stewart was Roxanne Ritchi's cameraman with an obsessive crush on her. Hal appears to live a dull and unhappy life in a tiny one bedroom apartment with the mindset of an immature college student. His constant misfortune and inability to earn people's respect and affection cause him to despise life, even his records say he's never accomplished anything.
After "defeating Metro Man", Megamind grows tired of having no heroes to fight and decides to inject someone with Metro Man's DNA. After Hal is accidentally hit by the ray gun with the DNA, Megamind and Minion use their technology to trick Hal into thinking he is an alien and that they are his "space-dad and space-stepmom" respectively. They train Hal into becoming a hero, having to use video game style training when traditional methods prove hopeless, but Hal's only real reason to become is to impress Roxanne. After the training, Megamind gives Hal a suit and the only name he could trademark, "Titan", which Hal misspells as "Tighten".
Tighten goes to Roxanne and attempts to woo her, but his recklessness and inability to use his power properly causes her to nearly be killed a number of times. After revealing who he is to her, Hal is spurned by Roxanne. Upon later seeing her dating Bernard, who is actually Megamind, Hal gives up on being a hero and decides to use his powers for his own personal gain. Megamind goes along with his plan to face Tighten but when he never shows up, he arrives at his apartment to find him playing videogames, Megamind also sees he has stolen several objects and wishes to become a villain. Disgusted, Megamind reveals to Tighten that he's been tricking him as well as being the man Roxanne dated, causing their battle to go along and Tighten saving the day, as Megamind hoped. However, this doesn't change Tighten's decision to become a villain, as the battle only increased his rage, and unlike Metro Man, Tighten has no problem outright trying to kill Megamind, forcing him to flee. Megamind uses a copper sphere, having learned it is Metro Man's weakness on Tighten, but it has no affect, being the first clue Metro Man is alive and that he only faked his death to retire being a superhero and pursue a musical career. Once Megamind flees, the citizens of Metro City congratulate Tighten for freeing them from Megamind, but he reveals his own evil intentions of domination as Metro City's new villain ("I wouldn't say 'free', more like 'under new management'), starting off by violently flicking the Mayor off with his finger, much to everyone's shock.
Without hesitation, Tighten starts to terrorize Metro City as its new villain by flying around and using his laser beams to create havoc in the streets and buildings, causing so much more damage to the city than Megamind has ever done. Feeling extremely remorseful for letting this happen as well being the failing villain, Megamind turns himself back to prison to pay the price, and Roxanne, having no more leads, attempts to talk to Tighten and get to his conscience. Unfortunately for Roxanne, Tighten denies that he's got any good in him out of spite of being spurned by her, kidnaps her, and ties her up in the top of Metro Tower, forcing Megamind out of hiding by threatening to kill her. Determined to take responsibility for his actions, Megamind escapes form prison (with the help from Minion) and formulates a plan into saving Roxanne and Metro City.
As part of the plan, Minion disguises himself as Megamind to save Roxanne from the falling tower, while the real Megamind disguises himself as Metro Man to verbally berate Tighten for his actions and scare him out of the city and reveal himself to the city. The plan seemed to work, though Minion ends up being stabbed by Tighten with the tower's rod, while Tighten finds out he was tricked when "Metro Man" mispronounces the city as "metrocity" something only Megamind does. Tighten then engages into a final fight with Megamind, but only this time, Megamind refuses to flee. It was then Megamind finally located the Invisible Car that holds the Defuser Gun that gave Tighten his powers. Though Megamind finally manages to get hold of the weapon, Tighten violently throws him up into the sky, hoping him to fall to his demise. Fortunately, Megamind took the opportunity to dehydrate himself to land in the water fountain, where Tighten intends to finish Roxanne. Upon Megamind falling into the water and rehydrating himself, he activates the Defuser Gun to remove Tighten's powers, reverting him back to Hal for good.
As Megamind becomes the city's new hero and also Roxanne's boyfriend, Hal is thrown into Megamind's former cell as punishment for his actions. He is seen dancing in his cell at the end of the movie back to his old self. There is a good chance that Hal might have lost most of his memory after being defused by Megamind's defuser gun.
Personality[]
As his former self Hal, he tends to be somewhat civil and sophisticated towards Roxanne, having a secret crush on her and would try to woo her, though she feels uncomfortable by his (admittedly creepy) 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 is quite childish, immature (as when he throws a tantrum after accidentally slamming his hand on his news van), lazy, nadir and incompatible (as he badmouthed 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). His crush on Roxanne seemed to be obsessive entitlement and lust, since even if Roxanne did like him back, there was no guarantee he would’ve treated her right.
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 "Space Step-Mom" (which in fact was Minion in disguise), even after Megamind admitted his deceit, 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 disguised as Metro Man after he had mispronounced Metro City as "Metrocity".
Appearance[]
At first, Hal is short and obese, with short brown 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 suit capable of stretching.
Role in the film[]
Megamind[]
Hal Stewart was Roxanne Ritchi's cameraman with an obsessive crush on her. Hal appears to live an unhappy life in a tiny one bedroom apartment with the mindset of an immature college student. His constant misfortune and inability to earn people's respect and affection cause him to despise life, even his records say he's never accomplished anything.
After defeating Metro Man, Megamind grows tired of having no heroes to fight and decides to inject someone with Metro Man's DNA. After Hal is accidentally hit by the ray gun with the DNA, Megamind and Minion use their technology to trick Hal into thinking he is an alien and that they are his "space-dad and space-stepmom" respectively. They train Hal into becoming a hero, having to use video game style training when traditional methods prove hopeless, but Hal's only real reason to become is to impress Roxanne. After the training, Megamind gives Hal a suit and the only name he could trademark, "Titan", which Hal misspells as "Tighten".
Tighten goes to Roxanne and attempts to woo her, but his recklessness and inability to use his power properly causes her to nearly be killed a number of times. After revealing who he is to her, Hal is spurned by Roxanne. Upon later seeing her dating Bernard, who is actually Megamind, Hal gives up on being a hero and decides to use his powers for his own personal gain. Megamind goes along with his plan to face Tighten but when he never shows up, he arrives at his apartment to find him playing videogames, Megamind also sees he has stolen several objects and wishes to become a villain. Disgusted, Megamind reveals to Tighten that he's been tricking him as well as being the man Roxanne dated, causing their battle to go along and Tighten saving the day, as Megamind hoped. However, this doesn't change Tighten's decision to become a villain, as the battle only increased his rage, and unlike Metro Man, Tighten has no problem outright trying to kill Megamind, forcing him to flee. Megamind uses a copper sphere, having learned it is Metro Man's weakness on Tighten, but it has no affect, being the first clue Metro Man is alive and that he only faked his death to retire being a superhero and pursue a musical career. Once Megamind flees, the citizens of Metro City congratulate Tighten for freeing them from Megamind, but he reveals his own evil intentions of domination as Metro City's new villain ("I wouldn't say 'free', more like 'under new management'), starting off by violently flicking the Mayor off with his finger, much to everyone's shock.
Without hesitation, Tighten starts to terrorize Metro City as its new villain by flying around and using his laser beams to create havoc in the streets and buildings, causing so much more damage to the city than Megamind has ever done. Feeling extremely remorseful for letting this happen as well being the failing villain, Megamind turns himself back to prison to pay the price, and Roxanne, having no more leads, attempts to talk to Tighten and get to his conscience. Unfortunately for Roxanne, Tighten denies that he's got any good in him out of spite of being spurned by her, kidnaps her, and ties her up in the top of Metro Tower, forcing Megamind out of hiding by threatening to kill her. Determined to take responsibility for his actions, Megamind escapes form prison (with the help from Minion) and formulates a plan into saving Roxanne and Metro City.
As part of the plan, Minion disguises himself as Megamind to save Roxanne from the falling tower, while the real Megamind disguises himself as Metro Man to verbally berate Tighten for his actions and scare him out of the city and reveal himself to the city. The plan seemed to work, though Minion ends up being stabbed by Tighten with the tower's rod, while Tighten finds out he was tricked when "Metro Man" mispronounces the city as "metrocity" something only Megamind does. Tighten then engages into a final fight with Megamind, but only this time, Megamind refuses to flee. It was then Megamind finally located the Invisible Car that holds the Defuser Gun that gave Tighten his powers. Though Megamind finally manages to get hold of the weapon, Tighten violently throws him up into the sky, hoping him to fall to his demise. Fortunately, Megamind took the opportunity to dehydrate himself to land in the water fountain, where Tighten intends to finish Roxanne. Upon Megamind falling into the water and rehydrating himself, he activates the Defuser Gun to remove Tighten's powers, reverting him back to Hal for good.
As Megamind becomes the city's new hero and also Roxanne's boyfriend, Hal is thrown into Megamind's former cell as punishment for his actions. He is seen Dancing in his cell at the end of the movie back to his old self. There is a good chance that Hal might have lost most of his memory after being defused by Megamind's defuser gun.
Gallery[]
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 from How to Train Your Dragon and would later portray a villain version of himself in This is the End.
Template:Villains