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The All Spark is a term for two different objects within the Transformers media franchise:

• In the Beast Machines: Transformers television series, it is a term for the Transformers' afterlife.
• In the Transformers 2007 live action film, it is a cube-shaped artifact adorned with glyphs and designs which is capable of granting independent life to normal electronic and mechanical objects and is the source of life for all Transformers. It was known as The Matrix, but presumably changed to avoid confusion with the film franchise of the same name.
• In the Transformers Animated 2008 TV series, it shares a similar history and capabilities with its 2007 film counterpart, but resembles the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. It is referred to as the "Matrice" in the French version of the show.

[edit] Beast Machines: Transformers 1999-2001 TV series

[edit] Origin

The term "All Spark" was created by writer Robert N. Skir, who responded to a fan question about the TV series Beast Machines July 21, 1999 web page.^[1] Skir explained that the Beast Machines entity called The Oracle was actually the All Spark, consisting of "the spark of every transformer who has ever lived, or ever will live". In a November 6, 1999 web page, Skir clarified that the Matrix was something called the All Spark and was "made up of every Spark that ever was, and every Spark that ever will be".^[2] Note: "All Spark," the term Skir created, was spelled as a single word with the "S" capitalized.

[edit] Description

Although the concept of the Transformers afterlife was briefly touched upon in the original series and Beast Wars series, it was not until Beast Machines that the concept was explored further. The Autobot Matrix of Leadership, as seen in the original series, was not merely a receptacle for the consciousness of deceased Autobot leaders - it was a gateway that led to the All Spark - also called the Matrix - the Transformers afterlife, from which all current and future Transformers' sparks came. Possessing a sentience, the All Spark had sent Sparks out into the world to live. When any Transformers, good or evil, was destroyed their Spark would return to the All Spark and share with it all that it had experienced, thereby adding to the timeless fountain of knowledge and wisdom.

[edit] Other uses within Beast Machines

The facility on Cybertron which produces Maximal protoforms was named after the aforementioned Matrix, and was analogous to human's Heaven. A similar Predacon facility also exists, named the Pit, and was analogous to Hell. The Pit was also known as the Inferno until the late-season addition of the character Inferno.

[edit] 2007 Transformers movie

Detailed view of the All Spark.

In the 2007 Transformers movie, the All Spark (spelled as two words in the movie) is able to bring mechanical and electronic objects to life, essentially turning mundane objects into Transformers.

The Autobots and the Decepticons seek the All Spark throughout the film. The Autobots intend to use the All Spark in an attempt to rebuild Cybertron and end the war, while in stark contrast the Decepticons desire to create an army of robot soldiers by which to defeat the Autobots, wipe out organic life on earth, and conquer the universe.

The movie's All Spark is a combination of the Creation Matrix and the Underbase from the US Marvel Comics series. The All Spark takes the shape of a gigantic metal cube with Cybertronian runes carved into it, but is converted by Bumblebee into a smaller form that a human can carry in his hands (described as football-sized in the Alan Dean Foster novelization). During the conversion, the All Spark is shown to be composed of numerous smaller cubes, which fold inward upon each other to shrink the whole.

In the novelization and early movie scripts, the All Spark is referred to as "the Energon Cube". It is also referred to as "the Cube" several times in the film itself.

[edit] History

In the prequel comic book, the All Spark is described as being of unknown origins, and the reason of existence of the alien race and its planet Cybertron. It is also described as a sacrosanct object that gave them life, sustenance and kept their society in complete equality and peace.

Optimus Prime is shown sending the All Spark away from Cybertron to prevent the Decepticons from controlling it. The comic book shows, and Megatron aludes to a wormhole in orbit that the AllSpark is heading towards and then travels through. This could explain, if you assume that the wormhole deposits the Allspark not only spatially but also chonologically (4 million years in the past) along with Megatron, the reason why the Allspark has been on Earth for 4 million years when the 13 original transformers in Revenge of the Fallen do not appear until 17,000 BC. The prolonged absence of the All Spark causes the planet to die, and forces both sides of the conflict to search the galaxy for it. The All Spark is revealed to have landed on Earth, in the future site of the Hoover Dam. It, and the Transformer Megatron, are later hidden inside the Dam by a (fictional) Men in Black-like Federal agency called "Sector 7".

In the prequel novelization and film it is revealed that the Autobots and Decepticons have been seeking the All Spark for millennia, following transmission signals released by the All Spark once every thousand years. The Autobots seek it to rebuild Cybertron; when they have become desperate, however, Optimus Prime decides to destroy it rather than let it fall into Megatron's hands. Prime believes that a new home world can simply be rebuilt by means of the All Spark once Megatron is no longer a threat. The Decepticons are looking for the All Spark and Megatron, intending to dominate all life with the use of one and under the leadership of the other. The All Spark is ultimately driven into Megatron's chest by Sam Witwicky, destroying both Megatron and the All Spark. A shard of the All Spark remains, which is claimed by Optimus Prime before he gave it to the US government for safe keeping on their behalf. However, by the events of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Ravage steals the shard and gives it to the Constructicons so they can revive Megatron with it. The movie also revealed another All Spark shard that was on Sam's jacket the day he killed Megatron, which transferred the knowledge of the location of the Matrix of Leadership in the form of visions of Cybertronian symbols directly into Sam's mind. Sam entrusts the shard to Mikaela, who places it within her dad's auto garage. The shard is then later used to reactivate the ancient Autobot Jetfire.

[edit] Effects

In the film, exposure to the All Spark can repair Tansformers (as shown when it heals Frenzy during the film) and convert Earthly machines into feral Cybertronians. A Nokia N93i cell phone, a Mountain Dew vending machine (named "Dispensor" in the Robot Heroes toyline), the airbag compartment in a sport utility vehicle's steering wheel, and an Xbox 360 are all shown being converted in this way. The cell phone robot was destroyed following the demonstration, but the fates of the other feral Transformers remain unknown and presumed to have been dealt with. In Revenge of the Fallen, even as a sliver of its former self, the All Spark's power is potent, as it brought kitchen appliances from Sam's kitchen to life, one of which was a pyromaniac toaster bot, named Ejector in the toy line, among others. Just like the first movie, they are seen forming instantaneously and immediately upon contact with the All Spark's power and then furiously attacking the things nearest to them, armed with a full arsenal of diverse weapons. The kitchen robots were taken out by Bumblebee before they could cause more trouble.

The prequel comic cites that the Three Mile Island accident was caused by a failed attempt to extract energy from the All Spark.

The energy output of the Allspark is cited in the prequel comic as have a greater power output than the entire city of Chicago at its time of discovery. Based on the Revenge of the Fallen film, it must also be assumed that the Allspark has a finite maximum power output, about equal to that of a star.

In Transformers: The Game, the Autobot Campaign and the Decepticon campaign will determine the fate of the All Spark. If the player completes the Autobot Campaign, Optimus Prime will use the All Spark to kill Megatron. If the player completes the Decepticon Campaign, Megatron will become one with the All Spark and use its power to turn Earth into his own empire by converting all machines into his Decepticon army. in addition, The All Spark creates small bug like transformers called "Energon Drones" whenever Energy is expelled from the All Spark.

[edit] Marketing

• Two entire lines of toys was marketed after the release of the film in late 2007, which played on the idea that the All Spark granted life to human machines after being exposed to its mysterious power:
  • All Spark Power - While the majority of the transformable toys were merely repaints (ex: Autobot Cliffjumper), several new designs were introduced based on vehicles- but not characters- that appeared directly in the film (ex: Autobot Landmine). The All Spark Power line is recognized by neon blue plastic and paint applications being added to the toys; some select repaint toys have slightly different parts such as visors covering their faces. The neon-blue coloring is to denote that they have the power of the All Spark flowing through them.
  • Real Gear Robots^[3] - A completely original line of transformable toys shaped like common modern-day electronic items; cell phones, portable multimedia players, digital video camera, video game controllers, etc. However, none of them are functional like their real electronic counterparts. There were seven original toy designs released, with later ones being repaints. None of these toys carry hand-held weapons, and are advertised merely as spies for their respective faction (Autobot or Decepticon). While none of the Real Gear Robots appears in the film, some of them are homages to earlier Transformers characters - the most notable being a portable media player (Decepticon Booster X10) being colored and shaped similarly to the animal robot character Laserbeak, who acted as a spy/partner for the larger Soundwave.

In the comic book sequel to the movie, Starscream uses the knowledge gained by Frenzy while inside the Hoover dam complex from Sector 7 to build a new cube. He then sacrifices several transformer (3-4 Autobots and 1 Decepticon) "traitors" in order to use their sparks to jumpstart the cube. Various Autobots are shown throughout the comic as working on the cube, including at one point using a hammer and chisel to engrave new glyphs on the new Allspark. Other than this engraving and activating process, little is shown of the construction of the All Spark.

[edit] Transformers Animated 2008 TV series

In this new series, the All Spark plays a similar role to its 2007 film counterpart (although Starscream mentions "The Well of All Sparks" in one episode, implying that the afterlife from Beast Machines still exists in this continuity). It is the source of all Transformers' life (In the episode "Blast From the Past", Ratchet states that the Cybertronian race is over 10 billion solar cycles (years) old). Megatron states he shall use its power as an ultimate weapon to crush the Autobots. In order to end the Great War (shown in the series debut as 'historical' clips from the 1984 G1 series), the Autobots cast the All Spark into a space bridge network gate to a random destination somewhere in the galaxy, thereby preventing the Decepticons from getting it. This ends the war, and finally allows the Autobots to drive the Decepticons off of Cybertron and into exile. Unlike the live-action film, it is the shape of a round sphere, rather than a square cube.

[edit] Series Debut

In the series pilot "Transform and Roll Out!", four million years have passed since the All Spark was intentionally lost. A young Optimus Prime (now featured as an ambitious washout from the Autobot Academy) and his maintenance crew accidentally come across it while clearing asteroids away from another space bridge gate. At that same moment, the Decepticon warship Nemesis appears, carrying Megatron and his crew aboard as they search for the All Spark. A battle ensues, and the damaged Autobot ship eventually crashes on Earth. 50 years later, a young human girl named Sari Sumdac manages to convince Bumblebee to take her aboard the repair ship so that she can secretly see more of the Autobots. When Bumblebee tries to hide Sari to avoid suspicion, she comes across the dormant All Spark in the ship's cargo hold. Opening itself up, it scans Sari, thinking that she is another Cybertronian, but can only identify her key card as mechanical. The All Spark then reformats the card. Later on, Starscream manages to take the All Spark - according to the new series, the first Decepticon ever to do so - and he uses it to create powerful blasts which can destroy entire city blocks. However, within an hour, the Autobots manage to recover it, and the power of the All Spark itself drives Starscream away.

After realizing the potential of Sari's key card and her carelessness in using it, in "Lost and Found" Megatron instructed Lugnut (and thus Blitzwing) to capture Sari's Key. However, they too were disabled by the Autobots before they could complete their task.

[edit] "Megatron Rising" Parts 1 and 2

In the two-part season finale, Blitzwing manages to steal the key from Ratchet (who, in turn, was ordered to take it from Sari) and used it to complete Megatron's body. Megatron then uses the key card's power to punch Starscream for his betrayal at the beginning of the series; an act which put the Decepticon backstabber immediately out of action for the remainder of the episode. Then, with the key card integrated into himself, he uses it to find the real All Spark. During the battle, Optimus Prime and Megatron fall into the Autobot's maintenance ship, and the same cargo bay where the hexagonal artifact is resting. Megatron then uses the key card to open the All Spark containment vessel, and extract the round glowing sphere so he can merge it with his own spark (an action which, by contrast, had devastating consequences for the alternate character Megatron in the live-action film). Intending to use his new-found power to begin his conquest, Sari found that her key card had been released from the Decepticon's body, and she threw it to Optimus Prime- who used it to create a super-charged punch which threw Megatron out of the ship, and made the All Spark explode in a shower of blue light. (Prime's super punch is shown as mirroring the one that Megatron used on Starscream earlier.)

Optimus later speculated that the explosion had not outright destroyed the All Spark but rather dispersed its power for what may be a limited time; which meant that Sari's key card (which he returned to her apologetically) was now the most important and valuable Cybertronian artifact. What is also known is that Megatron's new body survived the explosion intact with moderate damage, but he managed to kidnap Prof. Sumdac in the final moments of the episode. In the episodes to follow, shards of the All Spark appear in various locations, either bringing new Transformers to life or being used by the newly immortal Starscream, as well as elements of Detroit's criminal underworld. Below is where the known All Spark fragments were located:

• The first fragment was in one of Isaac Sumdac's robots while he was working on Megatron's Space Bridge. It went haywire and the Decepticons thought it was Sumdac, so Megatron blasted it and found a fragment in what was left of the arm. It was later used to power Megatron's Space Bridge.
• The second fragment was in the police drone assembly line at a Sumdac System warehouse.
• The third fragment is inside of Starscream's head. It not only brought him back to life since his Spark was extinguished at the end of Season One by Megatron, but endows him with a form of rapid healing abilities and immortality. Starscream later used chips of this fragment to give life to his clone legions.
• The fourth fragment was in a truck that Starscream later planted on a train to lure out Megatron.
• The fifth fragment gave life to Wreck-Gar.
• The sixth fragment was in Master Disaster's remote.
• The seventh and eighth fragments gave life to the Constructicons Scrapper and Mixmaster respectively at the same time.
• The ninth fragment was in Slo-Mo's timepiece.
• The tenth fragment fused a Headmaster unit and a forklift together creating Dirt Boss.
• The eleventh fragment had been dispersed and was reassembled by Prowl's processor-over-matter technique.

The All Spark fragments recovered by the Autobots were used in the season two finale "A Bridge Too Close" to restore Omega Supreme to life.

[edit] "Transwarped"

In the season three opening special, Sari, discovering that she was a techno-organic being, used the key to upgrade herself into a teenage, combat-equipped form. The act drained all the key's energies, placing them into Sari, causing her to overload, requiring Ratchet's EMP generator to temporarily shut her down. In later episodes, Sari demonstrates abilities similar to that of her deactivated All Spark Key (such as calibrating a Space Bridge's control panel), which may indicate that it was no longer needed.

[edit] All Spark Reassembled

In "Endgame" season finale, when the Lugnut Supremes are reprogramed by Starscream to activate their self destruct protocols, Prowl and Jazz used Processor Over Matter to reassemble the All Spark, hoping to use it's power to contain the explosion. But they would only able to make it half way as Prowl decides to use his own spark to complete it, sacrificing himself in the process. The completed All Spark is later seen around Optimus' neck, in a container resembling that of the Matrix of Leadership

[edit] Effects and Capabilities

The All Spark bestows some of its own powers onto Sari Sumdac's security key - one of which allows the card to recognize when an Autobot is injured, and initiate seemingly-impossible repairs (according to field-medic Ratchet) - which reformats it into a Cybertronian key. However, it cannot repair damage inflicted by organic substances, such as Blackarachnia's poison. The card also demonstrates the ability to bring a Cybertronian - specifically Optimus Prime - instantly back to life, with no signs of trauma or the passage of time. The re-formated key card acts as a super-advanced multi-tool, which can deal with many types of technology and situations by instantly reconfiguring itself for whatever and whenever Sari or another Autobot needs it. Sari's key card also shows an ability to detect Cybertronians, Cybertronian technology and later fragments of the All Spark by emitting a glow.

The All Spark Key demonstrates the ability to bestow a Spark onto Earth technology, much as it did in the "Transformers" film. This is seen in the Dinobot incident when, by accident, Sari Sumdac's key card boosts the effect Bumblebee's electric shocks as he and Ratchet attempt to shut down the rampaging Dinobots, giving them true life as a result. A similar, and direct, result was seen in the creation of Soundwave.

• In "Along Came A Spider", Blackarachnia attempted to use the key card after taking it from Sari, in order to purge the organic elements from her techno-organic body. The key sent out energy waves into the surrounding city sucking the life out of everything within range and causing them to age at a highly rapid rate. But this proved nearly fatal to Blackarachnia, due to her organic elements being a vital part of herself. When the key card was removed, the organic life in the area was restored.

• In the 2008 season finale, "Megatron Rising, Part 2", Sari confronts the All Spark in the Autobot's ship, asking it in frustration why it is that it chose her to wield the key card since she was not a Cybertronian. A moment later, in response, the All Spark opens itself up, and displays a holographic projection of a human DNA strand mixed with a Cybertronian spark, which is later hinted to be Sari's physical makeup. While the All Spark itself was dispersed by Optimus Prime's actions later on, the geometrically-shaped container vessel that carried it is assumed to still be in the cargo bay but deprived of its powers.

• In "Velocity", the villain Master Disaster used a fragment of the All Spark in a remote control, which allowed him to control machines(Apparently the Autobot Elite guard intelligence agent Blurr) and fix the results of his underground races.

• In "SUV: Society of Ultimate Villainy", a fragment within the villain Slo-Mo's time piece was able to slow down time around any machine it was used on. It also was used to restore Nanosec to his rightful age.

• In "Three's a Crowd," an All Spark fragment somehow merged a forklift and a Headmaster unit together to form Dirt Boss.

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[edit] References