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For the "vehicle", see Axel (Vehicle).

"No! There's been too much destruction! It was a mistake for me to compete. And it would be a mistake to let Twisted Metal continue! ...I want to remove violence from the world!"
—Axel, Twisted Metal: Head-On

Axel is a character from the Twisted Metal series. He drives an unusual "vehicle" throughout the series, a mechanical waist harness (sometimes depicted as a standing platform), connected to a pair of large tractor tires mounted with a pair of machine guns and missile launchers. Like Sweet Tooth, the vehicle Axel drives is named after him. Unlike Sweet Tooth, he has only the name he shares with his vehicle.

Twisted Metal 2[]


"A prisoner in his own vehicle, Axel has roamed the world looking for an escape. A noble man pushed to the brink, Axel will destroy anyone who prevents his quest for freedom. But true freedom means confronting the man who placed him in the machine."
—Twisted Metal 2 - Instruction Manual

Axel's first ever appearance is in Twisted Metal 2, alongside his iconic vehicle. He competes in this year's competition in order to gain the strength to confront the man who imprisoned him in his machine.

Bio Dialogue

  • "For 20 years, I've been stuck in this hellish contraption, hiding and waiting for the day when I would be brave enough to fight back. If I win, I'm confronting the man who did this to me. I promise you, I won't be a freak forever."

Ending:

Twisted_Metal_2_-_Axel's_Ending_-HD-

Twisted Metal 2 - Axel's Ending -HD-

Axel_Ending_(JPN)_-_Twisted_Metal_EX

Axel Ending (JPN) - Twisted Metal EX



Twisted Metal III[]


"When Axel was a boy, his father strapped two giant wheels to his son's arms and legs. For twenty years, Axel has lived a tormented life filled with daily retread and challenging trips to the bathroom. He's back to win Twisted Metal and become one with his machine forever."
—Twisted Metal III - Instruction Manual

Bio Dialogue:

  • "Many years ago, my father forced me into this terrible machine. When I finally freed myself, I was permanently disfigured. My torment was not over. I'm climbing back into my machine one last time. When I win I'll finally be free!"

Info and Ending



Twisted_Metal_3_-_Axel's_Ending

Twisted Metal 3 - Axel's Ending


Twisted Metal 4[]

His vehicle appears in Twisted Metal 4 as Super Axel as the boss of Amazonia 3000 B.C.. While information on the driver is scarce, it's likely that Axel has returned to his machine once again.

Ending[]

Twisted_Metal_4_-_Custom_Car's_Boss'_Ending

Twisted Metal 4 - Custom Car's Boss' Ending

Note: This ending is shared with all other boss vehicles of the game as well as custom vehicles.

Twisted Metal: Black[]


"Axel entered the contest to find and kill the man who murdered his wife. He knows that revenge is the only thing that will ease his anguish. But is he prepared to face his true love’s killer?"
—Twisted Metal: Black - Instruction Manual
  • How to Unlock: Select the Freeway as the second level in Story mode. Drive to the construction site and you'll see a yellow crane. Use the hill to aim yourself at the yellow box and shoot at it until its destroyed. Upon doing so, the crane will then operate and lower the crate down to the corner and turning the lights on around it. Destroy the crate to unlock Axel.

Story[]

TMB Axel Revenge

Axel is looking for the person who killed his wife. He feels responsible for her death and feels revenge is the only sense of closure he will get. So he enters a contest hosted by Calypso who said that he will reveal the killer.

Dialogue[]

  1. "Someone killed my wife. She was my life. Calypso says if I win, he'll reveal the killer to me. What husband would refuse?"
  2. "We were at the park. I looked down at my paper...when I looked back up, she was gone. My wife...gone."
  3. "3 months later, her body was shipped to us...in pieces. It took 8 months to get it all back...my dear wife..."
  4. "Minion won last year's contest. But I'm not afraid. If I can find a way past his force field, I know I can beat him."
  5. "I made this vehicle with my own hands. It's my penance, my punishment for letting my wife die. I will not fail her."
  6. "This battleground is small and full of enemies. I must keep moving if I want to survive this."
  7. "This is the last battleground in the contest. If I win I'll discover the truth. I'll face my wife's killer..."
  8. "The law won't stand in my way. Where was the law when my wife went missing? To me, they're as guilty as the killer."

Ending[]

Axel won the contest and went to Calypso and demanded to know who killed his wife. It turns out that it was Sweet Tooth who killed his wife. Axel then began blaming himself for his wife's death, until Sweet Tooth said that she didn't die easy and that she begged for him as he killed her. Axel then shot Sweet Tooth, killing him. Although Sweet Tooth was dead, so was his wife. He then drove off, deciding to stay in his vehicle with his powers, stating "The clown is dead, but so is my wife. I will never be free."

Axel_-_Twisted_Metal_Black

Axel - Twisted Metal Black


Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]



Unveiled in a deleted ending, Axel is the kid in the wheelchair that Calypso kicks down the hill in the intro cutscene of TM:SB. His wish at the end was to walk again. He is unlocked on the level Playground Peril by shooting the middle swing and collecting the icon.

Deleted Ending:

Twisted_Metal_Small_Brawl_-_Axel's_Ending

Twisted Metal Small Brawl - Axel's Ending


Twisted Metal: Head-On[]


"More than a decage ago, Axel was imprisoned in a massive, two-wheeled contraption by his father. At the end of Twisted Metal 2, he confronted his father about this and he was told he'd have to spend another decade imprisoned. In a show of defiance, he tore his arms free from the contraption and disappeared. Even though he was now free, he found he couldn't handle living without the thing he'd been part of for so long. He felt he'd lost a part of his body. Axel met a doctor who constructed cybernetic arms and feet that would allow him to drive the vehicle once again, on the condition that Axel would have to turn over his wish should he win Twisted Metal."
—Twisted Metal: Head-On - Axel's Bio.

It’s been over 10 years ever since Axel's father incarcerated him inside a two wheeled machine. Finally going against his father, Axel in defiance tore his arms free from the contraption only to find later that he was incapable of living without it. He came across Dr. Zemu, who created cybernetic limbs for his arms and feet that would allow him to be able to pilot his vehicle once again. However, there was one thing Axel had to do in return. Should he win the Twisted Metal Tournament, Axel must turn his wish over to the Dr. Zemu.

Axel is an unlockable character in Head-On, where he is obtained after completing the Shooting Gallery minigame in Russia.

Twisted_Metal-_Head-On_-_Axel's_Ending

Twisted Metal- Head-On - Axel's Ending


Twisted Metal: Lost[]


"Axel is still aching over the murder of his wife. Feeling her death was his fault, he chooses to stay strapped to the wheels, his feet dragging against hot asphalt, ripped apart, bleeding, and causing him tremendous pain. One day he hopes he will have done his penance and the spirit of his wife will forgive him."
—Twisted Metal: Lost - Axel's Bio

Axel appears in Twisted Metal: Lost.

Twisted Metal TV Series[]

Main article: Axel (TV Series)
TMSeriesAxelCameo

Axel appears as a cameo in Season 1 of the TV series by Peacock, as one of the candidates for the tournament that is being set up by Calypso in Episode 10: SHNGRLA.

Trivia[]

General[]

  • In Twisted Metal 2 and III, when damaged enough, his arm will be missing.
  • Axel's name is most likely a reference to the fact that he is essentially a part of the axle between the two giant wheels.
  • Despite being imprisoned in the machine for over twenty years, Axel hasn't suffered from muscle atrophy. In fact, he's pretty well built; this may be because, theoretically, it should take extreme strength to control his vehicle.
  • In Twisted Metal 2's cutscenes and illustrations, a large cable is attached to the back of Axel's head leading onto the base platform of his vehicle, this presumably aids him in controlling his vehicle, but the cable itself does not appear on his actual player model. The cable is entirely absent for his appearances in other games other than Twisted Metal: Black, where the cable instead leads up into a weapons system suspended over his head.
  • The appearance of Axel in TMIII suffers from many continuity errors. His ending in TM2 shows that Axel confronted his father, tore his arms out of the machine and walked off with only half of his arms left. In TMIII, he is in the machine, but his arms appear to be completely fine in his ending, and his bio states that he climbs back into his machine. This doesn't make sense, because he only has half of his arms, with the other halves still in his machine. His arms would need to be stitched back together in order for him to use it again, but there are no stitch marks. Even if the previous game's ending was taken into account, he wouldn't be able to use the machine again anyways because he had walked away from it, leaving it near his father's house. Because of these reasons, it remains unknown how his arms appear to be fully intact, and how or why he uses the machine again in TMIII. This is likely due to the change of developers, with 989 studios wanting to include a popular character regardless of past games.

Twisted Metal 2[]

  • His bio states that he is from Louisiana. However, in his ending after confronting his father, Calypso narrates that he disappeared into the Kansas fields. It's possible that he and his family moved from Louisiana to Kansas at a young age.
  • While Outlaw is the canon ending for Twisted Metal 2 in 2005, Axel could have won the contest and got his wish as the Twisted Metal Contest happens Yearly, and since Twisted Metal Head On is the next canon game in the series, and it takes place three years after Twisted Metal 2 that means there were three other contest that happened between that time, the other two characters who likely won the contest and got their wish are Amanda who ends up dying, and Marcus Kane who wanted to "wake up" in Twisted Metal 2.
  • Axel makes a brief cameo in the Twisted Metal 2 comic.

Twisted Metal 4[]

  • There could have been a possibility of Axel having an info screen, as his TMIII info screen can be found in the game's files under the name "AXEL.TIM[0]."

Twisted Metal: Black[]

  • Needles Kane's appearance in Axel's ending doesn't make sense. Sweet Tooth was a contestant, therefore for Axel to win, he should've already killed Sweet Tooth. However, it is possible that Calypso revived him so Axel could find out who killed his wife.
  • Unlike other games, Axel is suspended in the air from his vehicle as opposed to standing on a platform. Due to this, his bare feet constantly come into contact with the ground during combat, which according to his bio, is a form of masochistic relief for him.
  • Axel, along with Charlie Kane's son, are the only Unlockable characters to be Blackfield Asylum patients.
  • Axel could represent Needles' assumption about how society in general views him, or Marcus's endless guilt on not stopping his evil alter ego.
    • Axel may also represent Needles' selfishness, as instead of using his wish to resurrect his wife he instead used it to attempt to ease his own pain and get revenge.
  • Axel's storyline was originally supposed to be avenging his dead son in the Beta, but was changed to being his wife, most likely to avoid controversy.

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]

  • Axel was supposed to be a character that was unlocked from the start with a proper bio and ending, but had to be changed to a secret character around two months before the game's release[1] due to Sony demanding the Small Brawl team to remove his ending as they considered it problematic, because of the line "You said you could make me walk!"[2]. In the ending, which was found in the samples section from the Argonaut CG Films website,[3] Axel is in a wheelchair and asks Calypso to make him legs. Calypso does build him a pair of robotic legs, but Calypso has a remote that is able to control them, making him walk into garden rakes, hurting him. Axel's driver can still be seen in the game's introduction cutscene being kicked down a road by Calypso, and with the other kids at the playground.
  • When saving a game in Tournament or Cooperative modes, Axel's name is misspelled as "Axle".
  • Axel was based on a foosball table player.[4]

Quotes[]

Twisted Metal 2[]

  • "Father, please, release me."
  • "No, father, I've learned my lesson. Let me show you what I've learned."
  • "I am a free man, and you are no longer my father!"


Twisted Metal III[]

  • "AAAAAAHHH! Let me out of heeeeeereeee!!"


Twisted Metal: Black[]

  • "I had won the contest. I went to Calypso and demanded my prize. I wanted to know who killed my wife... and I wanted revenge."
  • "It was him! That freak in the ice cream truck! He was ALWAYS around the neighborhood! I had not been more careful. I should have sensed something was wrong."
  • "It was MY fault! Maybe I'M the one to blame for my wife's death!"
  • "But then, he spoke to me."
  • "The clown is dead. But so is my wife. I will never be free."


Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]

  • "Pay up, Calypso! You said you could make me walk!" (unused ending)
  • "Whoa..." (unused ending)
  • "So, how do I make 'em go?" (unused ending)


Twisted Metal: Head-On[]

  • "Dr. Zemu?"
  • "Yes. He was the man who gave me these. I tore my arms free of this contraption, and he gave me new ones. He let me drive again."
  • "I promised him... my victory wish."
  • "I..can't do it."
  • "No! There's been too much destruction! It was a mistake for me to compete. And it would be a mistake to let Twisted Metal continue! (Zemu: WHAT?!) I want to remove violence from the world!"
  • "I'm sorry. But I... wish... for peace...AAAGGGHHH!!"
  • "No!"
  • "Let me out of this thing!"

Gallery[]

Twisted Metal 2[]

Twisted Metal III[]

Twisted Metal: Black[]

Twisted Metal: Small Brawl[]

Twisted Metal: Head-On[]

References[]

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