Awesome / Twisted Metal

• Twisted Metal 2 gives one with Axel's Ending. Axel wishes for the strength to confront his father, who is responsible for trapping him in his vehicle to begin with. What does he do after he does confront him, after pleading with him one more time to free him, his father talks down to him like a dog. Fed up, Axel does the one thing that shocks his father straight, he literally rips his arms apart from the vehicle, freeing himself from the contraption. Furthermore, after proclaiming his newfound freedom, he disowns his father with a righteous fury and leaves, never to be seen again (at least apart from Twisted Metal 3).
• Any ending where the winner turns the tables on Calypso rather than accepting a corrupted wish from him.
  • Minion's ending in the second game, where he simply confronts a cowering Calypso, regains his powers from him, then casts him back into Hell. Calypso doesn't even bother asking him what his wish is, as he does with others who tried to screw him over; he knows how screwed he is the moment he sees the Big Red Devil in front of him, and immediately starts freaking out.
    Calypso: Minion! Uh, it's... so good to see you again... surely we could work out a deal?
  • Outlaw 2's ending in the second game, where Jamie uses Calypso's own Literal Genie status to get exactly what she wants.
  • Shadow's ending in the second game. Mortimer tears away Calypso's Karma Houdini Warranty right in the face, with his collection of souls that was killed by Calypso's tournament. Give Calypso credit where credit is due, though: he apparently loses them by grabbing the wing of a moving plane.
    • Mortimer also gets a moment of awesome in the fact that he's the only character that has appeared more than twice to have never gotten a bad ending at Calypso's hands. His ending in Small Brawl has Calypso eaten by a mutated frog, while Head-On has him get his wish granted completely straight in a surprisingly heartwarming move for Calypso.
  • The LOST ending for Thumper- where he proves what kind of man he is by walking away instead of killing the man who kidnapped his girlfriend. It's possible he realized that Calypso never offers a gift that isn't poisoned; if it WAS poisoned, in walking away he made sure he became one of the few contestants to get what he wanted. Then Calypso puts a few bullets in the kidnapper after complaining about the scene being anticlimactic.
  • Quatro's ending in the fourth game. How do you beat a Literal Genie? By arresting him on the spot without wishing for anything. Complete with RoboCop quotes.
  • In the fourth game, Calypso gets to do this himself against Sweet Tooth. We never find out who won their battle, though it's implied that it killed the both of them, as a young boy picks up the wish-granting ring in the rubble of the tower. We then get a glimpse of them still struggling for the ring, implying they're trapped inside it while fighting for control.
  Melvin: Calypso! Congratulations on winning the Twisted Metal competition! What wish-?
  Calypso: Spare me the rhetoric… you know what I want.
  Melvin: Out of the question! The competition and the ring stay with Sweet Tooth! Wish for something else!
  Calypso: You forget the rules of the competition. Anything I desire is the prize. I won, and I desire the ring! Hand it over! (Punches a few of Sweet Tooth's minions before getting into a tug of war with him)
  • In Head-On, Crimson Fury's ending follows much the same logic that Quatro did in the fourth game. Calypso seems to realize what he's in for, as he throws his drink to the ground and his guards raise their guns before Agent Shepherd even steps out of his car, while noting that there's always at least one contestant every year who's there to stop him... not that it stops Shepherd, who not only brushes off Calypso's Hannibal Lecture but made sure to bring backup.
  • Cousin Eddie's ending in Head-On. Eddie won despite not even knowing there WAS a contest, joining uninvited simply because it looked fun. When he finds out it was a competition and excitedly asks what he won, Calypso scolds him for intruding on and ruining his contest, and denies him his prize. How does Eddie react to this? He grabs Calypso by the neck and strangles him until he gives him his prize with no loopholes.
    Cousin Eddie: What? I? Win?
• Most longtime fans will pick their favorite Twisted Metal moment as destroying the Eiffel Tower in the second game.
• 4 gives us Mr. Zombie. This driver is none other than Rob Zombie as an undead driver! And when he wins, his wish is to let the world "hear the wails and warcries of a dead man's soul." What this means is we get a music video by the man himself!
• The escalation of bosses in the 2012 reboot.
  • The Brothers Grimm, Hammerhead and Slayer. Two monster trucks capable of demolishing previously indestructible buildings.
  • Iron Maiden, a giant robot made in the image of Dollface with rockets instead of feet, that has to be weakened with two nuclear missiles before the player can take it on, and and continues to fight you as a Faceship after you short out its rockets and drop it off a bridge.
  • Hearing Dollface's metallic loud speaker taunts are a combination of Awesome and Nightmare Fuel.
    Iron Maiden: RUN LITTLE MAN, RUN!!!
  • The Carnival of Carnage, a gargantuan vehicle built in the honor of Needles Kane. You start out beneath the vehicle (if it can even be called a vehicle) being swarmed by Sweet Tooth trucks and dodging fireballs shot by a giant clown head. Then, you are set upon by hordes of Clowns (most looking like different incarnations of Sweet Tooth and his assistant from 4) with chainsaws in a giant pinball machine. Then you have to drive through a winding death course with spinning blades, jets of flame and swinging spiked balls, before you finally reach the actual final boss: a giant, flaming robotic clown head that has to be fought using Talon (a helicopter) while you are swarmed by flying Sweetbots... seriously.
• Needles "Sweet Tooth" Kane's endings, when not hilarious or terrifying, are raw awesome.
  • He's one of the only characters who has a positive track record against Calypso. He did get nailed on his wish in the third game, where he asks to eat all the candy in the world only to end up needing crazy dental surgery, and in the reboot, where he demanded Calypso to take him to his daughter so he could kill her, only to end up in her grave because she had already killed herself because of him. Beyond that, though, he's 6-2 on his wishes.
  • In the first game, he gets his best friend back, Crazy Harold The Wacky Lunch Sack. Even Calypso couldn't try to warp that wish up.
  • In the second game, he wishes to becomes a bug in a tiny garden out in the country, terrorizing other bugs. He is perfectly fine with that.
  • The prologue to the fourth game reveals that he won the first Twisted Metal competition and wished to become its star, which Calypso granted with no strings attached. But the main highlight is where he overthrows Calypso and takes over the competition himself. The narration highlighting Sweet Tooth's growing ambition is particularly good.
    Melvin: Days turned into months. Months into years. Desire turned into envy. And envy...turned into a plan!
  • In Small Brawl, all he asks for is some ice cream, and Billy Calypso obliges, but not before asking why Needles wished for so little. Turns out Needles really wanted the ice cream truck... so he could strap Billy to the front of it and go on a joyride.
  • In Black, Calypso offers him a cure for the curse that makes his head burn perpetually, but warns him that if he ever kills again, the curse will return. Needles contemplates this (for all of ten seconds), and then smashes the cure before cutting Calypso's head off.
  • In Head-On, Needles muses about the cycle that he and Calypso are in. Intent on breaking this, Needles wishes that "you become me and I become you". Calypso refuses, but his powers grant the wish anyway... at which point Needles, now in Calypso's body, has his old body gunned down, killing Calypso. As an added bonus, he even got rid of his flaming head curse and (presumably) his Split Personality Marcus. Needles simply walks away the winner, and ready to continue hosting the contest in Calypso's stead.
  • While he ultimately gets his just desserts in the 2012 reboot, before that we see a flashback to Needles' rampage through the hospital in search of his daughter, seen in glimpses through windows of the building. It's the first time we really see what he is capable of without his truck, and it does not disappoint.
• Although Black is rightfully called the darkest entry of the series, many characters get a Moment of Awesome in their endings. Unfortunately, for Agent Stone and John Doe, this just sets up an even bigger fall for them.
  • Dollface, the driver of Darkside, wishes for the key to her mask and is forced into a Friend-or-Idol Decision. If she takes the key, her old boss would be killed by being slammed into an Iron Maiden... her old boss who, by the way, trapped Dollface inside of her mask at the start just because she spilled coffee over his files. It doesn't take long for Dollface to grab the key and painfully send him to Hell. And even though she tosses the key away at the end because she liked her new face better than her old one, she gets another awesome moment immediately afterwards, where she vows to hunt down those who would hurt others.
  • Raven, the driver of Shadow, gets revenge on the Jerk Jocks who drowned her best friend Kelly because she was a "witch" as a part of a demented prank, by using Voodoo Dolls to gouge their eyes out. "An Eye for an Eye, Blood for Blood" indeed.
    • Raven gets a second one in her profile for Lost. Unlike almost every other character, who have for the most part become much worse as people, Raven instead became better, becoming one of the few honest-to-God heroes of Midtown, defending the innocent from the killers and monsters all around. That Raven basically became a superhero in a setting as grim as Black is an impressive testament to her Heroic Willpower and character as a person.
  • Mr. Grimm, who had been forced to cannibalize his friend Benny because a military adviser had left them starving to death in a Vietcong hole, gets a little reunion with the now Bound and Gagged adviser. And Calypso even has a "special bonus" for Grimm; "dinner for one". The adviser should feel lucky he was killed with an ax beforehand, instead of just being Eaten Alive.
  • No-Face, the driver of Crazy 8, had his eyes and his tongue cut out by Dr. Hatch, a Back-Alley Doctor who was pissed over losing $20,000 from betting on his last boxing match. He wishes for revenge on Hatch, and gets a good old fashioned "rematch" with Hatch Bound and Gagged on a boxing bag. Calypso even gives No-Face a "special bonus" to go with it; a Red Boxing Glove with Hatch's own surgical tools tied to it with barbed wire. No-Face "knocks out" Hatch in just one punch.
    No-Face: I've seen fear in a man's eyes before, but this was different, this was special. I think that doctor… he knew that payback was gonna be brutal. It's funny… even after all these years, I've still got some snap in that left hook of mine…
    (No-Face punches Dr. Hatch in the face, accompanied by a boxing bell dinging and a Smash to Black)
    No-Face: Ya know, that was the first time I've ever knocked someone out in one punch.
    • No-Face also gets one in his Lost profile; while he has become a Serial Killer, he targets only other killers, and he's just trying to repair his mutilated face. Compared to his contemporaries, and given the setting he's in, it's nearly enough to mark him out as one of the forces of good.
  • Billy Ray Stillwell, the driver of Junkyard Dog, had been disfigured after being sprayed by a crop-duster pilot who planned to kill Billy so he could steal his wife and life insurance. For his wish, he confronts the pilot, who is Bound and Gagged right in front of his old airplane. What does Billy need to do to claim his prize? Step aboard the plane, and drive it forward. The only thing left of the pilot is his blood-stained goggles.
  • John Doe, the driver of Roadkill, gets a Moment of Awesome in his flashback to when he lost his memory. He learns that he was The Mole in a doomsday cult, and that he ran back inside the hospital to stop the Depopulation Bomb before it spread diseases across the world. Not having enough time to defuse the bomb, John tossed it out the window, losing his memories in the explosion but ensuring the hospital wouldn't be destroyed, basically saving the world. Too bad this FBI agent was standing right in front of Number 2 on the FBI's Most Wanted List...
  • Agent Stone, the driver of Outlaw, wants to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and he seemingly gets it. This time keeping his Trigger-Happy freak out under control, Stone gunned down the terrorists, this time without killing the mother and daughter in the crossfire. Too bad one of the terrorists was Not Quite Dead, however...
    • Stone's younger self gains one in Small Brawl, with his defeat of Billy Calypso in his ending. He confronts the bully in a classic James Bond-style setup (with Billy cockily lounging in a chair with a Right-Hand Cat), and vows to stop his reign of terror. Billy laughs off Stone threatening him with a water pistol, until...
    Billy Calypso: (putting on a mocking faux-Russian accent) Welcome, Agent Stone! (chuckles condescendingly) You think I'm afraid of... a silly water pistol?
    Agent Stone: No. But she is! (sprays Billy's cat, causing her to lash out and viciously attack him; as Billy screams and panics, Stone blows on the barrel of his pistol and walks away with a triumphant smile)
  • Bloody Mary, the driver of Spectre, doesn't get one herself, but her unnamed 'husband', who had been lobotomized by Calypso to be Mary's 'perfect spouse', does. Even despite his modifications, he still manages to croak out his true feelings for his 'bride' while carrying her out of Calypso's chamber.
    "I... will... NEVER... love you..."
  • Cage, the driver of Warthog, wanted Calypso to remove the part of his brain that made him feel remorse when he killed people. Calypso not only obliged, he gave him Wolverine Claws to boot.
  • Black, the driver of Manslaughter, was sent by an unnamed person to kill Calypso. Calypso knew what was coming and left only a bomb... which Black completely no-sells.

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