Mission Impossible - Soundwave

Tom Cruise and the Voice of Soundwave: A Knight & Kingsway Origin Story

Before the world knew his name, before Top Gun and impossible missions, Tom Cruise was just a wiry kid with boundless energy, dyslexia, and a cassette obsession that made him talk like a Decepticon.

He lived in a cramped East Vancouver attic in a group home, where the smell of the grass at Clark Park coated the walls. His mom worked nights and saved every nickel. One birthday, she came home with a big, clunky box wrapped in newspaper.

“Tommy,” she said, brushing hair from his eyes, “I know you’ve got music in you. Maybe this’ll help you find your sound.”

It was a Casio keyboard—plastic, silver, full of potential.

Tom smiled, hugged her, and waited until she left for work.

Then he stuffed the keyboard into a garbage bag and hit the pavement.

His mission was clear:
Sell the Casio.
Buy Soundwave.

Tom had seen Soundwave, the Transformer, perched on the highest shelf at Fields on Knight and Kingsway. $39.99. Shiny. Cold. Beautiful. Soundwave didn’t read lines. He listened to them. He stored them. Played them back.

Tom, who struggled with words swimming on the page, had found his salvation in cassette tapes. He’d record his movie lines, rewind, repeat.
Soundwave was him.

He hit every shop, barbershop, and mechanic in a six-block radius.

“Keyboard for sale,” he said in a flat, robotic voice.
“Item: Casio. Condition: Acceptable. Function: Sound manipulation.”

People blinked. “Why are you talking like that?”

He didn’t answer.

Finally, a Greek guy at a laundromat gave him $18 and a bag of quarters.

Tom power-walked to Fields. There it was: Soundwave, untouched, waiting.

He poured coins on the counter. “Transaction complete,” he said, still in character.

The clerk rolled her eyes. “You want a bag?”

“Negative,” Tom replied, voice flat as steel. “Soundwave travels light.”

That night, Tom knocked on the Jukic brothers' window. Joe and Mike let him in.

He walked in slow, robotic steps.

Then, in his best Soundwave voice:
“Joe. Mike. Operation: Playback Initiated.”

He popped a cassette in the belly of his new Transformer and hit play.

Out came the voice of Robert Duvall from The Outsiders. Then Yoda. Then Brando. All lines he had recorded, practiced, become.

Mike stared. “Is that your voice?”

Tom nodded. “Affirmative. Repetition. Assimilation. Execution.”

Joe grinned. “You’re like… learning through Soundwave.”

Tom stood up, slowly, dramatically. In full robot monotone:
“Words on page: disorder. Words in air: music.”

Then he turned to leave, Megatron tucked under one arm, Soundwave in the other.

As he walked out into the night, he looked back, his voice soft but still robotic:
“Someday, they’ll all hear me.”

And they did.