Lightning McQueen

**Montgomery "Monty" "Lightning" McQueen**, also known as **The Fabulous Lightning McQueen**, is the main protagonist of the Disney·Pixar Cars franchise.

He is a famous race car who learns there is more to life than just racing and winning following a brief but life-changing stay in the remote town of Radiator Springs he was stranded in after getting lost on the way to California. He would later decide to live there. He is also Tow Mater's best friend, Sally Carrera's boyfriend, Doc Hudson's protegé, Cruz Ramírez's crew chief/mentor and idol and also he is Chick Hicks' and Jackson Storm's arch-rival.

## Background

### Early life

In his past, McQueen was racing by Smeel Wheel as an arrogant and self-centered "one-man show" who quickly became a standout in his local racing scene, driven by ambitions of becoming a professional Piston Cup driver and the face of the prestigious Dinoco brand.

Later, McQueen manages to finish third behind the reigning champion Strip Weathers and frequent runner-up Chick Hicks. Impressed by McQueen's talents, The King coins the nickname "Lightning" McQueen.

### Personality and traits

Lightning started out as an arrogant, selfish, and conceited racecar who felt he did not need any help to win races. He was unsatisfied with having the small and unglamorous Rust-eze as a sponsor, intended to ditch them for Dinoco the first chance he got. When asked about his tie-breaker race and who he wanted to give his free tickets to, it dawned on him that he did not have any friends. After winding up in Radiator Springs by accident, he starts to lose his less desirable traits as he forms a bond with the town and its residents. He was very touched when Mater saw him as his best friend and grateful to Sally for offering him a place to stay at her motel.

As a racecar, Lightning is very talented, gutsy, and confident. He strives to be the best at what he does as evidenced when he tries to make a proper turn on dirt. By the time of his tie-breaker race he has changed into a more kind and caring individual using what he learned in Radiator Springs to gain the advantage. Lightning willingly forfeits the Piston Cup and decides to admit defeat so that Strip Weathers could finish his last race, having realized what is really important in life.

McQueen can still be selfish even after the first *Cars* film, which clouds his judgment, and takes his anger out on his friends whenever things go wrong for him. However, he later seems to recognize the error of his ways whenever this happens. He was constantly complaining during his first two days of re-paving the road in Radiator Springs, but later got over it. He lashed out at Mater for costing him the first race at the World Grand Prix in Tokyo, thinking Mater was yelling nonsense at him (Mater was caught in the middle of the fight between Finn McMissile and the Lemons, but failed to properly explain this to McQueen), but later felt guilty about it. McQueen was upset at Cruz Ramirez for both costing him valuable time training on Fireball Beach and for having to protect her at the Demolition Derby in Thunder Hollow. When she told him she always wanted to be a racer, he apologized, and brought her with him to Thomasville to keep training.

McQueen is also known to get angry whenever his biggest rivals (Chick Hicks in *Cars*, Francesco Bernoulli in *Cars 2*, Jackson Storm in *Cars 3*) taunt and belittle him, which further increases his desire and desperation to win races against them. In *Cars 2*, McQueen was especially happy to beat Francesco in the second race in the World Grand Prix in Italy. He was also so desperate to beat Storm in an early race in *Cars 3* that he forces Guido to go faster in the pits and quickly goes back on the track. After Storm taunts him again, McQueen pushed himself as hard as possible to catch up with him, and, not recognizing his own speed limits, resulting in his major crash. However, thanks to Smokey, he understands that can never be faster than Storm, but can be smarter than him. By the end of the film, McQueen seems to understand his speed limits, and decides to keep racing by training Cruz Ramirez, whom he realized has what it takes to be a racer. He temporarily took a break from racing and he trained Cruz Ramirez for sometime. After Cruz became good at racing, McQueen continued, but it is unknown when McQueen continued racing. He still races on the Piston Cup circuits today and is winning most of his races.

### Physical appearance

Lightning has blue eyes and primary has warm colors in his paint jobs. His car model is said to be a stock car and a more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer mixed together, while the *Cars* Blu-ray Car Finder game states it to be a 2006 handmade one-of-a-kind car.

When Lightning was brought to Rust-eze Racing Center, Ramone repainted McQueen back into 2016 Piston Cup paint job, but without lightning bolt on his hood old Rust-eze logos and with the WGP-like flaming bolt.

When McQueen becomes Cruz Ramirez' crew chief, he entirely receives a new paint job, inspired by the Fabulous Hudson Hornet's appearance. Now he is painted blue, on his roof seen four yellow 95 numbers and one on his rear fenders, old yellow Rust-eze wordmarks on his hood and spoiler, instead of lightning bolts. On his doors, it is now written "Fabulous Lightning McQueen". The Hudson Hornet logo replaces the Rust-eze logo on the rear and his rear bumper reads "95 For Doc Hudson", the stickers and 95 under his right headlight was removed.

In LEGO: The Incredibles, he has his LEGO Juniors appearence.

### Voices

* Owen Wilson
* Ben Rausch

## In films

### *Cars*

Lightning McQueen is a rookie racecar in the Piston Cup series and secretly disdains his sponsor, Rust-eze, hoping to be chosen by the more prestigious Dinoco team. Initially, Lightning is portrayed as ungrateful, obnoxious, selfish, and sarcastic, believing he doesn't need a crew chief or much help from his pit crew to win races. During the final race of the season, Lightning blows his rear tires and finishes in a three-way tie with the soon-to-retire Strip Weathers (The King) and perennial runner-up Chick Hicks. On the road to Los Angeles for a tie-breaker race, Lightning realizes he has no true friends. After an encounter with a quartet of tuner cars, Lightning becomes separated from his transporter, a Mack truck named Mack, and ends up in Radiator Springs, a forgotten town along U.S. Route 66. He is soon arrested for accidentally destroying the town's main road and impounded there.

In Radiator Springs, Lightning meets a tow truck named Tow Mater, who takes a liking to him immediately. The local judge Doc Hudson, Sally, and the other townsfolk vote to have Lightning repave the road he destroyed as community service. He rushes and doesn't repave the road properly at first before reluctantly starting over. In the process, Lightning learns about the history of Radiator Springs and begins to relate to the town and its inhabitants. Lightning soon becomes best friends with Mater and falls in love with Sally. As he becomes friends with the residents, Lightning begins to care more about other cars rather than just himself. He also learns a move called "turn right-to-go-left" from Doc and how to drive backward from Mater, which he later uses in the tie-breaker race.

During the final lap of the race, Lightning witnesses Chick Hicks perform a pit-maneuver on The King, causing him to suffer a rollover crash. He forfeits the win to help The King finish the race and is praised for his sportsmanship, so much so that Dinoco race team owner Tex Dinoco offers to hire him to succeed Weathers. Lightning declines, choosing instead to stay with his Rust-eze sponsors for managing to get him where he is today. Tex respects his decision and instead offers to do him a favor whenever he needs it. Lightning uses the favor on a ride on a Dinoco helicopter for Mater, fulfilling Mater's dream.

Lightning returns to Radiator Springs to take residence there and establish his racing headquarters. He resumes his role as Mater's best friend and Sally's love interest, and becomes Doc Hudson's pupil.

### *Cars 2*

Five years after the events of the first film, Lightning McQueen, now a four-time Piston Cup champion, returns to Radiator Springs to spend his off-season with his friends. Lightning's stay is interrupted when Mater inadvertently causes him to participate in the inaugural World Grand Prix, sponsored by former oil tycoon Miles Axelrod, who hopes to promote his new biofuel, Allinol. Lightning is reluctant to bring Mater along at first, fearing that other cars wouldn't understand Mater, but agrees after being persuaded by Sally.

During the night before the first race in Tokyo, Lightning and Mater enjoy exploring the city together. Later at a pre-race party, Lightning is briefly embarrassed by Mater, who mistook wasabi as pistachio ice cream. After losing the first race on account of Mater's involvement with spies Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell (of which Lightning is unaware), Lightning lashes out at him and tells him he does not need or want his help anymore, causing Mater to feel hurt and leave. Soon after, Lightning receives a note from Mater telling him that he left before he could apologize and begins to regret his actions. Later, Lightning wins the second race in Porto Corsa, Italy; more cars suffer engine damage in the race, causing controversy and increased fears over Allinol's safety. In response, Axelrod decides to remove Allinol as a requirement for the final race in London. Lightning chooses to continue with Allinol on account of Fillmore telling him the fuel is safe and for not trusting Mater in Japan, unknowingly endangering himself.

Before the London race, Lightning considers dropping out so he can look for Mater, but is persuaded by Axelrod to continue. After completing a few laps Lightning spots Mater in the pits and tries to apologize for his outburst in Tokyo. When Lightning approaches him, Mater speeds away because of a bomb planted in his engine that will detonate if Lightning gets too close. Lightning manages to catch up and realizes that Mater was telling the truth about having a girlfriend and being on a spy mission. McQueen then apologizes to Mater and tells him to always be who he truly is, and inspires him to confront Miles Axelrod, who is revealed to be the mastermind behind the plot, and forces him to disarm the bomb. Following the arrest of Axelrod, Lightning happily declares that Mater can come to all races from now on. Back in Radiator Springs, it is revealed that Lightning's Allinol supply was switched with Fillmore's organic fuel by Sarge prior to the start of the World Grand Prix, thereby protecting Lightning from danger during the race in London. A mini grand prix is then held in the town, featuring all the World Grand Prix contenders.

### *Cars 3*

Five years after the events of the second film, Lightning McQueen, now a seven-time Piston Cup champion and racing legend, races in the series with his long-time racing friends Cal Weathers and Bobby Swift. High-tech rookie racer Jackson Storm appears suddenly as the first of a next-generation of racecars and begins to win race after race. Lightning pushes himself too hard while trying to compete with Storm in the season's final race and damages his engine, causing him to lose control and suffer a rollover crash.

After being rebuilt, Lightning decides to continue racing. He heads to the Rust-eze Training Center and trains with Cruz Ramirez, a yellow high-performance coupe, during the off-season in hopes of increasing his top speed and beating Storm. Lightning's new sponsor Sterling, a successful business car, tells him he will have to retire if he loses his next race, with Sterling planning to profit off Lightning's retirement merchandise. After several unsuccessful attempts at training, Lightning asks Mater for help, who gives him the idea to seek out Doc Hudson's old crew chief and mentor Smokey, a Hudson pick-up truck, and eventually meets him at the Thomasville Motor Speedway in a fictionalized version of Thomasville, Georgia.

After completing training with Smokey, Lightning runs the first half of the Florida 500 with Smokey as his crew chief before pulling out and giving Cruz her chance to become a racer with him as her crew chief. Cruz and Lightning share the victory due to Lightning starting the race, and the pair receive a sponsorship under the merged Dinoco–Rust-eze brand. Lightning decides to continue racing but spends the rest of the season as Cruz's mentor and crew chief.

## Video games

### *Cars 3: Driven to Win*

Lightning McQueen appears in *Cars 3: Driven to Win*. In the story, he uses a simulator at the studio filming Chick Hicks' talk show to do a race with Cruz, Smokey, and Doc. When Chick begins to talk to the camera about Lightning's career, the latter reminds him and Natalie Certain about how racing is something to experience, only to find out, after Chick has Storm speak, that the studio has been recording everything, and is challenged by Storm to another race on the studio's simulator.

Lightning is one of the playable characters available from the start of the game, in his second Rust-Eze paint job from *Cars 3*. He is also playable in his "Fabulous Lightning McQueen" paint job, which is unlocked with an update patch of the game released on various dates depending on when the film was released in the player's country.

### *LEGO The Incredibles*

Lightning McQueen appears as an unlockable character in the *LEGO The Incredibles* video game, being unlocked by a Pixar Family Build in Waterfront when the player completes all of the story missions in the game. McQueen can be used to compete in races, fight enemies, use jumps and ramps, and bounce on trampolines, but he cannot pull levers, grab onto ladders or ledges, compete in races that require flying characters, perform special attacks, pick up items left by robbers, build bricks, double-jump, jump onto bombs, turn handles, nor survive when in contact with the ocean. However, he does have the special ability to use his headlights in really dark areas that only characters with the power of light can access. He can also drive fast just like the other fast characters. Unlike other vehicles in the game, McQueen steers in a similar manner to humans.

## Gallery

> *Main Article: Lightning McQueen/Gallery.*
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## Trivia

* His racing number was going to be 57 at first, as a reference to John Lasseter's birth in 1957, but the filmmakers later changed it to "95", referencing *Toy Story*'s release in 1995.
* Lightning is named after the late Pixar supervising animator Glenn McQueen.
* For some reason, Lightning is in his original Rust-Eze paint job in the second film's teaser trailer, even though it never appeared in the film. However, it could be that the filmmakers did not have his new customization completed at the time.
* One of the children in *Toy Story 3* who plays in Sunnyside's Caterpillar Room wears a T-shirt that includes Lightning's bolt and racing number in the same style.
* A toy that looks similar to Lightning can be seen in the Butterfly Room in *Toy Story 3*.
* In the first film, Lightning noted the reason why he did not have any actual headlights and tail lights was that he thought racers do not need them on a racetrack that is always lit with lights. However, in the second film, when he was being upgraded for the World Grand Prix, he decided to replace his headlight and tail light stickers with actual headlights and tail lights, though Sally still calls him "Stickers".

* When Lightning and Mater arrive in Tokyo in *Cars 2*, they notice an advertisement that shows a vacuum cleaner called "Lightning McClean" and has a good laugh over it.
* Despite his dislike of Rust-eze in the first film, he does have his own commercial where he tells the viewer about the purpose of the ointment.
* Despite turning down Tex's offer to take on the Dinoco sponsor, "Dinoco McQueen" has appeared in several forms of merchandising and is even an alternate skin in *Cars: The Video Game*; those who play the full game with said skin creates the impression of the game taking place in a slightly alternate reality in which Lightning accepted Tex's offer.
* Lightning McQueen is unique among the Pixar protagonists, as he does technically both lose and win. He gave up his Piston Cup title to Chick Hicks so he can help The King finish his last race, but it was meant as a lesson for him as he learned that helping others is more important than winning races and that his heroic actions made him earn applause from the crowd. Therefore, despite losing, McQueen is still considered the true winner in the eyes of his fans and his new friends from Radiator Springs, due to the actions of Chick Hicks (especially considering Chick cheated).
* With seven Piston Cups won by the time of *Cars 3*, Lightning has reached the same number of championships won by the King himself before his retirement.
* In *Cars 3*, it was mentioned that McQueen got his first win in Glen Allen Speedway during his rookie years before the events of the first film.
* When McQueen thinks of wanting the Dinoco sponsorship, his successes are that he would be taken for a photo shoot with his trophy, being in different media magazines, going to the Chinese Theater in Hollywood with Mia and Tia as their new celebrity, starring in a fictionalized car-ified movie as "Lightning Storm" in which he is a race car and a superhero with fighter jet characteristics who has to stop alien tripod spark plugs from invading Earth, and living in his own penthouse in Hollywood with modified mag wheels and with Mia and Tia being colored gold.
* In *Cars on the Road*, it is revealed that McQueen is a dinophile, someone who is heavily interested in dinosaurs. This might partially explain his past interest in wanting to race for Dinoco.
* Lightning's first name is different in several languages:
	+ In the Spanish and Latin Spanish versions, he is called Rayo McQueen, of which "Rayo" is the Spanish meaning of the words "lightning", "beam", and "ray."
	+ In the French and French-Canadian versions, he is named Flash McQueen.
	+ In the Polish version, his first name is Zygzak (z-ih-g-z-ah-k). This means "zigzag" in Polish.
	+ In the Danish version, he is named Lynet McQueen. "Lynet" means "the lightning" in Danish.
	+ In the Dutch version, his first name is Bliksem, which means "lightning".
	+ In the Italian version, his first name is changed to Saetta, which is the Italian word for "flash of lightning".
	+ In the Swedish version, he is named Blixten McQueen. "Blixten" is the Swedish word for "the flash".
	+ In the Albanian version, he is called Vetëtima McQueen. "Vetëtima" means "lightning" in Albanian.
	+ In the Brazilian Portuguese version, his first name is changed to Relâmpago, which means ''lightning''.
	+ In the European Portuguese version, his first name is changed to Faísca, which means "spark".
	+ In the Finnish version, he is named Salama McQueen. "Salama" means "lightning bolt" in Finnish.
	+ In the Hebrew version, his first name is changed to Spidi, which means "Speedy" and is a reference to the Looney Tunes character "Speedy Gonzales".
	+ In the Hungarian version, he is called Villám McQueen, which means "lightning".
	+ In the Romanian version, he is called Fulger McQueen, which means "lightning".
* As a result of Lightning's first name being translated into several languages, most appearances of the name "Lightning McQueen" in text, across the entire Cars trilogy, get simply shortened to simply "McQueen" in international cuts of the movies.
* The same scream that McQueen was on the simulator in *Cars 3* was the same scream that Mater was deploying a parachute while traveling to Buckingham Palace in *Cars 2*.
* McQueen's theme songs that match his personality are Real Gone by Sheryl Crow and Run That Race by Dan Auerbach. In fact, "Real Gone" alludes to McQueen's cocky personality about wanting to win the Piston Cup, while *Run That Race* alludes to McQueen having fun racing in the Piston Cup with his friends Cal and Bobby, all while pulling jokes after each race.
* Throughout the first film, Lightning had fourteen different appearances, counting the different amounts of dirt and dust he received in several scenes.
* His catchphrase, "Ka-chow!", is said briefly by Mayday in *Planes: Fire & Rescue*, when he is showing some Rust-eze Medicated Bumper Ointment on his bumper. The Home video subtitles reveal he's sneezing.
* A life-size Lightning McQueen is preserved at the Petersen Automotive Museum.
* A 1:55 scale die-cast of Lightning McQueen, with Chick Hicks and Brush Curber, appears in one of the exhibit elements at The Science Behind Pixar.
* In the book, *Cars Origins: Struck by Lightning*, Lightning reveals that his original name was "Monty", short for ''Montgomery'', and that "Lightning" is a nickname he acquired.
* In all three *Cars* movies, Lightning does not directly win any of the main races in the movies due to forfeiting the win to help King, having the race interrupted by the Lemon's scheme, and switching out with Cruz in the second half, although he is still branded as the winner due to sharing the same number as Cruz. Because of this, as stated in Trivia question #10, Lightning McQueen is unique among the other characters due to his role and that his main stories teach us that there are more important things to life than winning and you don't often win in life.

## References

1. ↑ Cars Origins: Struck by Lightning (Disney/Pixar Cars) (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
2. ↑ *Cars 3*

## External links

* Lightning McQueen on Disney Wiki.
* Lightning McQueen on Pixar Wiki.
* Lightning McQueen on Pixar Cars Wiki.
* Lightning McQueen on Heroes Wiki.
* Lightning McQueen on Wikipedia.