Michael J. Caboose

Michael Jesus Caboose, also known as Michael J. Caboose, The Beast, Morphumax, The Vehicle Destroyer and The Stupid Stupid One, is one of the main characters from the Red vs. Blue series.
== Charactah Account ==
Caboose, who accidentally enlisted in the Blue Army after mistaking a recruitment center for a college, is introduced as the fool, but quickly devolves into a complete idiot. As his name suggests, he is the last to arrive at any train of thought's destination. Occasional journeys into his mind have revealed that Caboose's view of the world is at drastic odds with reality - he has mental constructs representing the rest of the cast running around inside of his head, ranging from a Church who vehemently insists that Caboose is his best friend, to a Sarge that talks like a pirate. Caboose is a bigger danger to his teammates than to his enemies, to the extent that the surest way to get him to shoot someone is to tell him they're on his team, and Command has a keyboard shortcut to report his teamkills (Ctrl+F+U).
Though unintelligent and unskilled with weaponry, Caboose possesses tremendous physical strength when angry or in simple situations, thought by Church and Tucker to be "God's way of compensating."
Despite his lack of intelligence, Caboose has shown a surprising skill in engineering. In Recreation Caboose alone was able to put Epsilon into an alien artifact, and in Revelation, he was shown to successfully use the crane controls in the battle against Epsilon-Tex.
== Appearance ==
=== Web-Animation ===
* Red vs. Blue
* Red vs. Blue Season 2
* Red vs. Blue Season 3
* Red vs. Blue Season 4
* Red vs. Blue Season 5
* Red vs. Blue Season 6
* Red vs. Blue Season 7
* Red vs. Blue Season 8
* Red vs. Blue Season 9
* Red vs. Blue Season 10
* Red vs. Blue Season 11
* Red vs. Blue Season 12
* Red vs. Blue Season 13
* Red vs. Blue Season 14
* Red vs. Blue Season 15
* Red vs. Blue: The Shisno Paradox
* Red vs. Blue: Singularity
== Trivia ==
* According to the Season 3 DVD Character Profile for Caboose, he is from a low gravity colony on the Moon, he was the middle child of eighteen children, with all of them implied to be female in Reconstruction: Chapter 3, and he was the first member of his family to attend high school.
* Caboose has shown that he might actually understand Lopez when he responds to a comment Lopez made correctly in Lost Time.
* Caboose has nine toes, as his left “pinky toe” fell off after Church shot him in the foot during Motion to Adjourn as an excuse to get Doc over to him.
* At the beginning of his tour in Blood Gulch, Caboose believed himself to be an exchange student visiting southern France.
* Behind the scenes, the origin for Caboose's name (along with Donut’s) is that of the randomly generated names assigned to temporary multiplayer profiles in Halo: Combat Evolved.
** Caboose's name may also be a reference to actor Michael J. Fox. It could also be a reference to Burnie Burns‘ given name, “Michael J. Burns”.
* Caboose's last name is very appropriate since the caboose is always the last car on a train. Likewise, Caboose's train of thought is considerably slower than that of his friends, and his mind will always come in dead last.
* Caboose is one of the few characters to have his name included in the title of an episode: Caboose's Guide to Making Friends, Caboose's Guide to Finding Your Home, and Caboose's Travels.
* Caboose apparently does not know how to spell his own name as he is shown on a few occasions to misspell it as “CABOSE”. His name is spelled like this in Visiting Old Friends, Oh Captains, My Captains, and Caboose's Guide to Making Friends.
* Caboose is very bad at eulogies. He doesn't seem to have any idea what they are as he started Church and Tex's with: "Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to witness the joining together of Tex, and Church, in eternalness together, smuh- speak now, or forever rest in peace! With liberty… and justice… for all. The end!" His second one in Revelation, while almost salvaging Epsilon's "Parable" quickly deteriorates into another bunch of ceremonial cliches: "let there be cake, hallelujah, gesundheit!"
* Caboose used crayons for ammunition in Season 4, although he did not fire a single shot through the whole season.
* It seems Caboose's claims of being a “vehicle destroyer” are actually true, as seen in his initial appearance in Reconstruction where he had destroyed every single one of the Rat's Nest Blue Team's vehicles on his own, and he is mentioned as having been forbidden from operating heavy machinery for the New Republic.
** Ironically, despite Tucker blaming it on Caboose in the Season 11 Teaser Trailer, Caboose is the only member of the Reds and Blues not shown to have potentially caused the crash that strands them on Chorus.
* According to Tucker in Repent, the End Is Near, Caboose separates everything into two categories: Either he doesn't understand, or he doesn't care.
* Caboose has only participated in the characters' "SON OF A BITCH!" moments twice. Once after being crushed by the falling debris of Donut's Ghost at the end of the "Fight! Fight!" alternate ending of Why Were We Here? and once before being taken over by O'Malley (The Bitch part of that is spoken by O'Malley).
* In the Halo 3 engine, Caboose is seen wearing the MJOLNIR Mark V helmet, rather than the Mark VI helmet (With the exception of any appearances made prior to Reconstruction, where he is shown wearing the default Mark VI helmet). When this is pointed out to him, he claims that he was "upgrading", and that "In a top ten list, five is better than six!" In reality, it's because Caboose and Church would have looked too similar due to their armor coloring, as well as the Mark V's simplistic helmet design, better suiting Caboose's personality. Caboose's helmet choice has proven to be useful, as it made Caboose immune to the effects of the "Armor Lock" safety protocol while the other characters in the Freelancer facility and the Power Facility were affected during Revelation and Season 15, respectively. Caboose's Epsilon-double also wears a Mark V helmet in Halo: Reach. With the change to Halo 4 however, which initially did not feature the Mark V helmet at the time of Season 11's release, Caboose returned to wearing the Mark VI helmet. When the helmet was later made available through the Champions Bundle DLC, Caboose once again regained it during the episode Neighborhood Watch. Early promotional material for Season 15 showed Caboose using the Mark IV helmet, whilst the Mark V Delta helmet was used in filming. This is likely due to the Mark V helmet being added to Halo 5 around 3 months before the release of the season. In Halo InfiniteCaboose wears the Mark VII armor core alongside Mark V Zeta helmet and UA/Agathius shoulders.
* Caboose is typically shown carrying an Assault Rifle, the iconic weapon of Halo: Combat Evolved, instead of the other characters who carry Battle Rifle’s, the iconic weapon of Halo 2.
* Recovery Command has a shortcut on their keyboard for the sole purpose of recording Caboose's team kills: “Ctrl + F + U”.
* When Washington scans Caboose with a "BioCom" in Reconstruction: Chapter 10, Caboose's Brain Activity is listed as "UNK" (unknown), a reference to his limited intelligence.
* Revealed in Reconstruction: Chapter 18, Caboose can only operate a manual gear system on vehicles, not automatic. The reason for this remains unknown.
* Between Relocated and Recreation, it's been noted in the Valentine PSA that Church would rip out Caboose's heart and Doc would have to sew it back in.
* Caboose has the most appearances in the second saga of the series out of all the other characters (58 episodes).
* Caboose has the second highest A.I. count in the series, being beaten only by the Meta, who has had ten. Caboose has had six A.I. (Alpha, Beta, Omega, Delta, Epsilon, and Santa).
* Caboose is the last of the eight main characters to appear animated in Poser. It was stated in the Rooster Teeth Panel at Comic Con 2010 that they had no plans to animate Caboose in Poser as of now (which led to a disappointing outcry from the audience). Though he was planned to be animated in Poser, and by the behind the scenes special feature on the DVD, Monty Oum made a model for Caboose. He was finally shown animated in Poser in the Season 10 episode "True Colors", fighting alongside the other Reds and Blues against an army of Tex drones.
** Although, Caboose was seen previously rendered with Poser on the Caboosisms poster and, although not done by Rooster Teeth, in the Season 9 PSA, What I Did On My Summer Vacation, where he appeared computer animated by Halo: Reach's in-game cinematic campaign animations.
* After Omega left Caboose the first time, Caboose gained the ability to unlock berserk rage within himself saying "O'Malley taught me to be mean" during this enraged state Caboose talks in Omega's deep voice and is capable of incredible destruction. This, however, has only been shown twice in the series, likely due to, as per his claim, forgetting to do so.
** As said above, Caboose has used that ability only twice, but he may have used it off screen. This is hinted in Reconstruction: Chapter 5 when Washington, Caboose, and Church find Sheila. Caboose gets angry when Wash keeps calling Sheila a program prompting Caboose to say, "Do not speak to her like that, she is not a program!" Church chose to hide behind Caboose, hinting that he fears his O'Malley state.
* In Halo 4 - Spartan Ops mode, in the last mission of Episode Departure, The Core, if the player unlocks an RvB Easter Egg, Caboose will be heard slip in the radio transmissions between the SPARTANS Sarah Palmer, Robert Dalton, and the Majestic Squad.
* Caboose, along with Sarge and Grif, is one of the only characters in the series to make an appearance in nearly every season of Red vs. Blue. He, along with the other two characters, is only absent in Red vs. Blue: Zero.
* It is revealed in Self-Fulfilling Odyssey that Caboose kept Church's helmet after accidentally killing him in Blood Gulch. After Epsilon was destroyed, Caboose would like to hold his helmet to remember him.
* Geoff Ramsey made a reference to Caboose and his team kills in Fails of the Weak: 126; "It's like that guy is playing on a team of multiple Cabooses."
* Caboose's promotion to Captain in Season 12 now makes him among the highest ranking soldiers encountered in the series, along with fellow captains Flowers, Grif, Simmons, and Tucker.
* Caboose once had a guinea pig named Mr. Frittles, but he unfortunately crushed him to death after "showing him his affection." This is similar to how Lenny from the classic American novel, "Of Mice and Men," accidentally kills a rabbit. Coincidentally, Caboose and Lenny are both fans of small animals, mentally disabled, and freakishly strong.
* According to the Red vs. Blue: The Ultimate Fan Guide Caboose was stationed on a station near the moon where he was supposed to fill the suits of the astronauts who went outside with oxygen, but was transferred to Project Freelancer due to not understanding how breathing works in space.
* Caboose can apparently understand the font Wing-Dings as mentioned in the episode Tourist Trap, considering it a language, and calling it “very misunderstood”.
* In the 64th episode of Screw Attack's hit series Death Battle Caboose is shown to know about the show, and seems to know Wiz and Boomstick as well.
* Caboose states that he got a "purple heart" after being shot, during The Nesting Theory and hopes to one day make a full purple person to be his best friend. This is a reference to the Purple Heart medal, a United States military decoration awarded to those wounded or killed while serving with the U.S. military.
* Although Caboose was introduced in episode 3 of Season 1, his name wasn't stated until episode 9, when Tucker tells Caboose to get out of the tank just before Sheila is destroyed in an air strike.
* Prior to the series, Caboose was born and raised in a colony on the moon with his 17 sisters. He joined the army after mistaking a recruiting center for college.
** Assuming that Simmons exaggerated the amount of illegitimate children Tucker sired during the Temple of Procreation, Caboose has the most relatives out of all the characters.
* He apparently had to have an illustrated field manual, and apparently at first thought that he had to hold a grenade over his head while it fired arrows at enemies, due to the diagram being unspecific.
* In Why They're Here, it is revealed Caboose wasn't supposed end up in Blood Gulch and was only there because Flowers accidentally corrupted Vic's list.
* Caboose bears many similarities to Freelancer Agent Iowa.
** Both wear blue armor.
** Both have relatively low intelligence.
** Both lost oxygen while in their suits, which likely caused brain damage and probably the cause of low intelligence.
** Both inadvertently destroy vehicles.
** Iowa's real first name is Mike, a short form of Caboose's first name, Michael.
* Caboose also appears to have decent talent on the drums, as he performs an impressive drum solo at Carolina's command in the song “VelociROCKtor” which is performed by Grif, Tucker, Carolina (vocals), and Caboose (drums). It can be heard during the ending credits of Season 15.
* One episode of RWBY references Caboose, as Joel Heyman's character Oobleck asks while on top of a train "Blake! Detach the caboose! It will kill us all!"
* Caboose shares many similarities to TeamFourStar's Depiction of Goku in Dragon Ball Z Abridged.
** Both began as somewhat dimwitted, but suffer head trauma that cause them become less intelligent and more childlike.
** Much like Caboose believes Church is his best friend, Goku thinks Vegeta is his best friend and like Church, Vegeta is annoyed by this.
* In the PSA Hard Truths, Sarge reveals that Caboose does not have a belly button.
* Caboose says he is colorblind after confusing Grif for Simmons in "Grif Does a Rescue".
** Interestingly, Caboose has had relatively little problems in determining colors in the past, only getting Grif's armor color wrong, believing it was yellow. Other than that he had believed Donut was female due to his pink armor and Church's trips to Caboose's mind showed Caboose can recognize colors correctly. It maybe that he became colorblind sometime during his ten-month retirement, or his intelligence has degraded further that he cannot deduce one color from an other. Some types of color-blindness can also start to show symptoms when a person is an adult despite its hereditary nature, or be caused by external factors.
** Based on previous comments Caboose has made regarding other characters' armor colors (recognizing Sarge's red, Tucker as not being a shade of blue, Grif as yellow or mixing him up with Simmons and recognising Donut's pink), it can be inferred that he has a mild case of blue-yellow colour blindness known as tritanomaly. Tritans can recognise red and dark shades of blue, but greener shades of blue (Tucker) tend to appear more aqua or green, while orange (Grif) can either be seen a light yellow/pink (if a lighter shade) or red (darker shade).
* Caboose seems to harbor a decent amount of knowledge about time travel. This is shown twice in the series: in Have We Met?, one future Church says that only Caboose seemed to understand the time travel situation when it was explained to the Reds and Blues, and in Limbo, Caboose is able to leave and fix the timeline on his own, without any prior explanation from Washington or Donut.
* Following Joel Heyman's departure from Rooster Teeth, the Death Battle "Red vs. Blue" episode featured Michael Malconian voicing Caboose.
* In the video game The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile, there is an achievement called "Bleep Bloop", a reference to Caboose repeatedly saying the phrase in the PSA Small Rewards.￼
* In the 2014 video game Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, when playing as the character Claptrap, if a rover is at low health there is a chance he'll say "Sheila! Noooo!!!!!", a reference to the same phrase Caboose uses in the episode After Church.￼
== Gallery ==
File:Michael J. Caboose Render 01.png
File:Michael J. Caboose 01.png
File:Michael J. Caboose 02.png
File:Michael J. Caboose 03.png
File:Michael J. Caboose 04.png
File:Michael J. Caboose 05.png
File:Michael J. Caboose Fan Art 01.png
== External Links ==
* Michael J. Caboose at Red vs. Blue Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Males
Category:Red vs. Blue