Finn McMissile is a master British spy. Though charming and eloquent, it’s his stealth maneuvering, intelligence and years in the field that enable him to thwart unexpected attacks from bad guys, making quick daredevil escapes. Finn's design is sleek and timeless, but he is also prepared for any tricky situation with an arsenal of ultra-cool gadgets and weaponry, including front and rear grappling hooks, a missile launcher, deployable magnetic explosives and a holographic disguise emitter. As a seasoned professional in the game of international espionage, Finn believes there's a conspiracy brewing during the World Grand Prix. His clandestine work surrounding the global exhibition race puts him on a collision course with Mater, whom he mistakes for an undercover American agent with a genius disguise.
Finn McMissile was first seen in the film at the Oil Rig, under a mission to figure out what was going on at the lemons' meeting. After accidentally letting out flame from his tailpipe, he is noticed and is chased through the oil rig, until he jumps off the helipad, and falls down to the ocean below. He then lets out his hydrofoil gear from his undercarriage, and the lemons chase him across the ocean. One of the boats shoots, and Finn fakes his own death by going underwater and releasing four tires from below, implying that he had been destroyed.
After talking things over with Holley Shiftwell at the Tokyo race party, Finn learned that an American agent was on his way, to bring extremely important information about the camera and its uses. However, the American agents' plan was foiled when he was ambushed and captured by Lemons, but before he was taken, he passed along his tracking beacon to Mater. Since the device was now on Mater, Finn thought that he was the American spy.
Finn introduces himself in the Haneda Airport scene, where he and Mater are chased by Acer and Grem throughout the runaway.
Towards the end of the film, the mystery is solved, and Miles Axlerod is turned in and arrested, and Finn is not seen again.
Later, in Cars 2: The Video Game, Finn re-appears running holograms and training with the other characters.
Personality
Finn is extremely smart and eloquent, which is almost mandatory for a spy. He knows every trick in the book, and is always prepared for any kind of situation.
Livery
Finn is painted metallic blue.
Model
Finn's model is an Aston Martin DB5. He is also based on other 1960's English sports cars. However, he is said to be a 1965 Faultless GT, which is a fictional model name, and an allusion to the 1958 Peerless GT, one of hiss design main inspirations.
His top speed is 147 mph, with a 0-60 of 7 seconds. His engine is a 4.2 Liter Straight 6 with Triple 2V Carbs, with a horsepower of 290.
His license plate is 314 FMCM, which includes a reference to his initiales. The number 314 is his voice actor Michael Caine's birthday (March 14, 1933). However, in the video game, it is 0S0 872L.
Occupation
Finn is a master British spy, hired by C.H.R.O.M.E.
Weaponry and Gadgets
Finn McMissile is equipped with more gadgets than the other spies, including:
Four grappling hooks: Disguised as bumperettes, these hooks, attached at the end of strings, can be shot to reach an object at some distance and are strong enough to lift and suspend Finn, giving him extra flexibility.Finn's spy camera
Spy camera: located in the right headlight, it can zoom to see details
Missile launcher: Located in the left headlight.
Digital read-outs: Located on the side mirror, the screen can receive transmissions from other spies or from the surveillance probes.Finn's glass cutter
Glass cutter: Consists of a small and very compact device, launched from the left side mirror. It attaches itself to the glass, deploys a long stick with the cutting unit at the end that cuts with a circular counter-clockwise movement a circular piece of glass that is then ejected.
Magnetic explosives launcher: Located in the front wheel hubs, it sticks to a metallic surface and explodes after a short amount of time.Finn's oil blasters at work
Deployable machine guns: One on each side, hidden in the side vent.
Deployable surveillance probes: Located in the rear wheel hubs. Very light and compacted into a sphere. Finn can discretely drop one that then deploys feet and open its camera, which transmits an image to Finn's digital read-outs.
Oil blaster: Located in the rear turn signal, by spreading slippery oil, the gadget allows Finn to lose a pursuing car. In the beginning of the film, Finn defeats a green gremlin with this weapon.
Mounted quad harpoon gun: Located on his undercarriage, it is used for a similar purpose as the grappling hooks to suspend Finn, but are much more powerful.
Finn disguised as an airport security guardFinn removing his disguiseDeployable holographic disguise emitter: Located on the roof. the device instantaneously makes a disguise all around Finn, and may even simulate supplementary volume (like a lightbar). A known disguise is as an airport security guard.Finn's wheeled motorized jack
Wheeled motorized jack: Launched from the undercarriage. A skateboard-shaped gadget that travels to a chasing car, and then deploys its jack, tipping the car over.
Steel magnets on wheels: Permits Finn to climb up the side of a steel wall. Finn also uses them to grab cars in fights.
Hydrofoil mode: Consists of two retractable foils on the undercarriage. Used for oversea travel.
Submarine mode: Used for underwater escapes. Includes a breathing apparatus, side directional fins, and the rear wheels transform into propellers.
Finn's submarine modeFinn's propellers
Finn is also a master of martial arts, which is of a great help in car to car combats.
Character Design and Development
Several concept arts for Finn's designFinn as he appeared on Cars storyboards
Originally, Finn was supposed to appear in the first Cars movie. In a sequence that never went beyond the storyboarding stage, Lightning and Sally went to the Radiator Springs drive-in theater where a James Bond-type film about a superspy car named Finn McMissile, dispatching "Taxis of Death" was playing. The character was then more of a parody. In Cars 2, the team wanted him to be more serious, realist and understated.
Character Art Director Jay Shuster summarizes Finn's design evolution as : «We started with drawings by Joe Ranft and created an English coupe with Italian touches “Finn is a Pixar in-house design. His design draws inspiration from several sports cars from the 1960s, mainly British, but also Italian.
Shuster said: “We didn’t want to design Finn as a spy, We wanted him to be a really elegantly designed English sportscar from the sixties. We did this really deep search into that kind of car from that era. We took everything from all the cars we love and baked it into Finn.”
Shuster said about using Italian cars for Finn's design: “We wanted to infuse a little more Italian into that. That’s why I created a rear hip, which gave that fin a place to live.”
In the Cars storyboards, Finn had imposing tailfins. While their size was subsequently greatly reduced, it remained an essential element of his design, that influenced the choice of cars used for inspiration. "The car’s name is Finn, so he had to have fins," Cars Franchise Guardian Jay Ward said.
The only car model that Pixar has named as an inspiration for Finn is the 1958 Peerless GT, an obscure British sports car, which was the only British sports car they found that featured tailfins.
With near identical rear sections, and a similar placement of elements at the front, Finn has a huge resemblance with James Bond's Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger. In consequence, Finn has been widely recognized as a 1960s Aston Martin DB5, including by Michael Caine, although this is inaccurate, as according to Shuster Finn draws inspiration from other cars as well. Several differences can be seen, mainly in Finn's profile design, which is much more curvaceous.
The animators felt it necessary to establish limitations of what Finn could do and what gadgets he had, in order to make a more earthbound character. Shuster says he found Finn to be (with Francesco Bernoulli) the hardest design to achieve, because they had to figure out where to place his spy gear. Finding how to resolve this problem had some influence on his design: Finn's side vents were modified so that machine gun could get out, and his bumperettes were made with the idea they could serve as grappling hooks.
Shuster gave other details regarding how they tackled the problem:
"It was decided that no, we don’t want him transforming. We don’t want body panels unnaturally unfolding or doing all that stuff… So that was the trick, designing the outer shell as though he is just a normal pedestrian car, and then we went in and found places we could have stuff unfold from."
According to Story Supervisor Nathan Stanton, the idea of having Michael Caine voicing Finn McMissile came out early in the production. John Lasseter said: “As we were developing Finn McMissile, Michael Caine always came to mind because of all those fantastic spy movies he’s done.”
However, Shuster says: “For the majority of these characters I didn’t know until the very end [who was voicing them]. Honestly, they announced Michael Caine when [the character] was done and all that the animators could do to go back in and start dialing in the mouth shapes and the eye shapes.” Supervising animator Shawn Krause collected old photos of Caine in his earlier spy films and based Finn's expressions on them.
Finn was originally supposed to be a character in Cars, in a movie playing at the drive-in theater, but was cut from the original film so spoofs of other Pixar films could be shown.
Finn's tires reads "Firewall".
Finn's grille resembles a Van Dyke mustache.
According to Cars 2: The Video Game, "Finn McMissile" may not be his real name. One of his phrases is, "Is Finn McMissile my real name? I'm sure you'll never know."
"Do you really think I'm going to let you float away, Professor?!"
"You never feel more alive than when you're almost dead."
""I'm looking for a car.""
—Finn McMissile's first line in Cars 2., [[{{{3}}}]]
"Holley Shiftwell: "Oh, hello." Finn McMissile: "Hello." Holley Shiftwell: "A Volkswagen Karmann Ghia has no radiator." Finn McMissile: "That's because it's air cooled." Holley Shiftwell: "Great. I'm agent Shiftwell. Holley Shiftwell, from the Tokyo Station. I have a message from London.""
—Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell first meet., [[{{{3}}}]]
""He's so good.""
—Finn likes how Mater pretends to be Ivan., [[{{{3}}}]]
"Finn McMissile: "Holley!" Holley Shiftwell: "I'm detecting an extremely strong electromagnetic pulse." (sees the lemon's camera on top of the building) "Finn, it's the camera!" Finn McMissile: "Where?" Holley Shiftwell: "On the tower!" (Finn rushes to stop the lemons.)"
—Finn and Holley find the lemons' camera., [[{{{3}}}]]
"(The gear suddenly moves) "Aargh! Being killed by a clock." (chuckles) "Gives a whole new meaning to 'Your time has come'.""
—Finn commenting on he and Holley's unfortunate doom, [[{{{3}}}]]
"Finn McMissile: "Holley, I'll get Zündapp. You help Mater." Holley Shiftwell: "Got it!""
—Finn telling Holley to go help Mater., [[{{{3}}}]]
