Sergeant Calhoun

"You are one dynamite gal."

- Felix to Calhoun

Sergeant Tamora Jean “T.J” Calhoun is a primary character in Disney’s 2012 aniamted film Wreck-It Ralph. She is the lead character in the Hero's Duty game and voiced by Jane Lynch.

Background
Sergeant Tamora Jean or T.J Calhoun serves as the non-playable protagonist in her first-person shooter arcade game Hero’s Duty, the newest arcade game in Litwak's Arcade. According to her cohort, Kohut, Calhoun has been programmed with the “most tragic back story ever.” On the day of her wedding to her true love Dr. Brad Scott, Calhoun forgot to complete one of her highly important perimeter checks. As a result, a Cy-Bug breaks into the wedding chapel as they’re exchanging their vows and devours Brad, Calhoun screaming in anguish as she opened fire on the monster. The tragedy left Calhoun with a hardened heart and bitter outlook on life. Fortunately, her now-husband Felix manages to change her back into a very sweet and loving woman.

Official Disney Bio

 * In the sci-fi battle zone of Hero’s Duty, Sergeant Calhoun is more than just a pretty face — she is the tough-as-nails, take-charge leader who fights for humanity’s freedom. When she’s not offering in-game intel, she’s training her troops for the next attack wave. This unrelenting commander is driven by a personal vendetta and will stop at nothing to protect the player and the arcade from a virulent Cy-Bug invasion.

Physical Appearance
Sergeant Calhoun is a tall, beautiful woman wearing heavy, form-fitting black and red armor. She has a large bust, slim waist, and long, shapely legs. Calhoun has fair skin and her golden blonde hair is cut into a short bob style with side bangs. Her eyes are a bright blue and she wears coral colored eye shadow, thick black eyeliner, and has long dark lashes. Her lips are a deep rosy pink. Of all the main characters, Calhoun retains the most realistic appearance and semblance to a real human. At her wedding, she wore a white wedding dress and veil.

Personality
Calhoun is hardcore, tough, and incredibly strict. She commands her troops with a firm and domineering hand, and exhibits a fierce tenacity in which failure is never an option. She has no tolerance for shortcomings, and doesn’t hesitate to roughly reprimand her soldiers, and additionally seems to enjoy goading them with taunts to increase their drive. Although Calhoun comes off at first as crass and callous, she is very serious and stoic when not engaged in gameplay. Her tragic backstory has left her heartbroken and untrusting, with a dry sense of humor. It is her backstory and her dedication to her job that she appears to consider herself a soldier first and woman second.

Calhoun possesses a large heart despite her cold exterior. When she meets Felix she is struck by his innocence and kindness, and in turn becomes more trusting, little by little. She initially refuses to slap him when the two are stuck in the Nesquik Sand, justifying that “he’s a nice guy”, and she abandons her original plans of destroying the Sugar Rush entrance in favor of protecting Vanellope when the Cy-Bugs invade. By the end of the film, Calhoun’s temperament appears to have drastically softened and she is happily in love with, and married to, Felix.

A Dark Crises
In Hero's Duty, Sergeant Calhoun and the soldiers are ready for another day of eradicating the deadly Cy-Bugs. Unknown to Calhoun, video game bad guy Wreck-It Ralph has game jumped into her game. When the game is over due to Ralph's carelessness, Calhoun reprimands Ralph for interfering with a first-person shooter before ordering her troopers back to their start positions.

After the arcade is closed for the day, Calhoun and her troopers hear a strange noise and immediately fire away when they spot a figure. The figure turns out to be Fix-It Felix, Jr. from the game of the same name. Calhoun demands to know why Felix has arrived, and the bashful hero tells her that his cohort Ralph has entered her game. Calhoun brushes it off as nonsense until an escape shuttle flies by with Ralph and a baby Cy-Bug aboard. Calhoun and Felix head to the Game Central Station to find him. The Surge Protector tells them that Ralph went firing into Sugar Rush. Calhoun is immediately worried for the game as Cy-Bugs cannot tell when the game is over, meaning they're truly villainous.

Journey into Sugar Rush
Calhoun prepares to enter Sugar Rush, and Felix asks to join. However, Calhoun tells Felix to stand down, but the handy man refuses to do so, telling her it is his job to fix what Ralph wrecks. Calhoun eventually allows him to join and the duo enter the game. Following a path made by shuttle, Calhoun and Felix find the shuttle that Ralph has crashed, only to find both Ralph and the Cy-Bug absent. Calhoun then uses her Cy-Bug tracking device to find the bug, but the sugar and candy in the world interferes with the connection. While searching in Candy Tree Forest, Calhoun asks Felix why Ralph has gone AWOL, to which Felix reveals to have no clue, but hopes Ralph isn't going Turbo. Since Calhoun's game has been recently plugged in, she is unaware of what "going Turbo" means. So Felix tells her the story of Turbo: years ago, back when the arcade first opened, TurboTime was the most popular game by far, and Turbo, the lead character of the game, enjoyed being the center of attention. However, when a new racing game RoadBlasters arrived and stole Turbo's thunder, an extremely jealous Turbo game-jumped into the new game and tried to take it over, causing it to crash. As a result, both games, and Turbo, were unplugged for good.

NesQuick Sand
Calhoun was openly disgusted by Turbo's story, but now had an understanding of Felix's situation. Suddenly, the duo found themselves walking across a large double-striped candy branch over Nesquik-Sand, but the branch suddenly dissolves, causing them to fall into the sand below. Felix, feeling despaired, goes into panic, causing himself and Calhoun to sink faster. Calhoun slaps the hero to calm him down, causing the living rope-like laffy taffys above them begin to laugh, and the more they laugh, the more they lower. Felix gets the idea to have Calhoun continue slapping him, but the soldier is hesitant to harm Felix, feeling uncomfortable with abusing such a good person. However, Felix reassures his safety as his magic hammer has the ability to heal him, allowing Calhoun to continue punching him until the taffys are within reach. Felix then takes hold of Calhoun and one of the taffys that lifts the two into the air, and Calhoun is briefly taken away by Felix's dashing heroism, but then she notices that the taffys are singing around them. Having enough with the nonsense, she immediately fires her gun to scare them off so that she can get back with the mission. Felix repairs the shuttle, and he and Calhoun fly in the shuttle to search for Ralph and the bug through the air. During this time, Felix becomes smitten with Calhoun, calling her "one dynamite gal."

Dynamite Gal
The compliment reminds Calhoun of her fiancé who had also called her "dynamite gal" but was killed by a Cy-Bug on their wedding day. Insulted, she lowers the shuttle in front of the castle of King Candy (ruler of Sugar Rush), where she orders Felix out of the shuttle, rejecting Felix's affections and leaving him to be captured by King Candy's minion, Sour Bill. Later on, Calhoun stumbles upon an underground Cy-Bug nest, which holds thousands of eggs to hatch. The eggs eventually do and the Cy-Bugs begin to ravage through Sugar Rush. Calhoun finds Ralph on the Sugar Rush Speedway and blames him for causing the game to go down. She then evacuates the game's citizens and prepares to destroy the entrance. However, a little girl named Vanellope who has befriended Ralph is unable leave her game because she is a glitch. After the citizens desert the game, Calhoun hesitates to destroy the portal due to Vanellope's inability to escape, but informs to Felix that without a beacon, the Cy-Bugs cannot be stopped.

Saving Sugar Rush and Romance with Felix
Ralph quickly formulates an idea to erupt the Diet Cola Mountain, hoping to have the lava act as a beacon. He borrows Calhoun's hoverboard to fly to the top of the mountain, where he begins to smash its crater of mentos, but then King Candy (who has become a Cy-Bug after being eaten by one) attacks him and flies him into the air. Calhoun and Felix protect Vanellope from the Cy-Bugs that begin to corner them. Fortunately, Ralph breaks free from King Candy's grasps and brings the entire crater of mentos plunging into the lava, causing a massive eruption that produces a beacon, which attracts all the Cy-Bugs and vaporizes them, along with King Candy, for good. As Felix congratulates Ralph for saving Sugar Rush, he kisses Calhoun on the cheek. Calhoun becomes surprised, and as she yanks Felix up, she initially appears to strangle him, but then she kisses him back, showing that her heavy heart has softened. After Sugar Rush is restored, Calhoun watches in amusement as Vanellope, who has transformed into a princess, decrees to have everyone who has bullied her to be executed. Calhoun then calls for Felix and Ralph that is arcade is about to open. So Calhoun, Felix and Ralph return to their respective games, just in time for Felix and Ralph to save Fix-It Felix, Jr. Afterwards, Felix and Calhoun marry with Ralph serving as Felix's best man and Vanellope as Calhoun's maid of honor. During the end credits, Calhoun is shown to continually join Felix, Ralph, and Vanellope on a series of game-jumping adventures.

Wreck-It Ralph (video game)
Calhoun plays a minor role in the game, taking place after the events of the film. She appears in the opening and ending cutscenes alongside Felix, and makes a few vocal cameos during the Hero's Duty stage of the game.

Hero's Duty
Calhoun plays a major role in the spin-off comic that takes place before the film, revealing the sergeant's programmed backstory. It begins with a mission. Calhoun and her troops were assigned to travel to a planet with no name, a wasteland ravaged by a new robotic enemy known as the Cy-Bugs, to rescue the surviving civilians of the planet's apocalypse. The troop immediately storm out after landing, but the bugs quickly prove to be an invincible force. In the mix of battle, Calhoun and her second-in-command Kohut are accidentally separated from th rest of the troops, and are nearly killed by an overwhelming amount of bugs, only to be saved by a man named Brad Scott.

Brad takes the two back to his refuge, where he introduces himself as one of the original creators of the Cy-Bugs. He explains that the bugs started out as a concept for a toy, but by the time production was nearly complete, scientists realized they had created a powerful weapon instead. Weapons armies around the world would want. Brad warned them not to go through with the mass production, but the scientists didn't listen. Unfortunately, the bugs eventually went berserk, and dominated the planet. The scientists escaped, but Brad voluntarily stayed behind to keep the creatures at bay.

He then informs Calhoun that there is a way to defeat an immense infusion of bugs, but it'll take much work. To defeat them, he'd have to reach the 99th floor of Hero's Duty Tower to activate the beacon, but with the bugs ravaging throughout the tower, it'll take weapons capable of great power to hold them off. Brad takes the time to hand over specially designed weapons to Calhoun and Kohut, specifically built for the Cy-Bug's destruction. The plan is set in motion, and Calhoun is able to reunite with her troops (who had reached the trapped civilians), handing over the special blasters to them, evacuating the civilians, and keeping the Cy-Bugs out of Brad's path in the process. Eventually, the beacon is created, and the bugs are destroyed.

During celebratin, Calhoun and Brad realize they highly admire each other's efforts and actions during the mission, and soon fall in love. And with the Cy-Bugs sure to return, Calhoun and Brad team up to stay on the planet and keep the creatures at bay for the sake of humanity, the troops loyally following along.

Quotes

 * "'Fear' is a four-letter word, ladies! You wanna go peepee in your big-boy slacks, keep it to yourself!"
 * "It's make your mamas proud time!"
 * "All right, ladies! The kitten whispers and tickle fights stop now!"
 * "What's the first rule of Hero's Duty?!"
 * "'Never interfere with the first-person shooter. Our job is to get the gamers to the top of that building so they can get a medal and that's it! So stick to the program soldier!'"
 * "Flattery don't charge these batteries, civilian."
 * "Sugar Rush... Cy-Bugs will chew up that game faster than a chicken hawk in a coop of crippled roosters."
 * "Once those Cy-Bugs finish off Sugar Rush, they'll invade every other game until this arcade is nothing but a smoking husk of forgotten dreams."
 * "... they don't call your friend 'Wreck-It' for nothing."
 * "Nope, lucky for him, otherwise I would have slapped his corpse. No Cy-Bug either."
 * "'So what is it with this Wreck-It joker, huh? Why'd he go AWOL."
 * "'Go Turbo'?"
 * "The selfish man is like a mangy dog chasing a cautionary tail."
 * "Nesquik sand?!"
 * "Stop thrashing. Stop, stop moving, you're making us sink faster! GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF! (punches Felix)
 * "All right, enough with the goo-goo eyes."
 * "Your face is still red. You might want to hit it with your hammer again."
 * "Doomsday and Armageddon just had a baby and it...is...ugly!"
 * "Hope you're happy, junkpile. This game is going down and it's all your fault!"
 * "Oh, this place just got interesting."

Trivia

 * According to director Rich Moore, the character of Sergeant Calhoun was originally planned to be a male. However, as he thought the character being male would be boring, the character's gender was changed to female. Another reason for Calhoun being female may be due to the fact that Moore actually wanted Fix-It Felix Jr. to have a love interest.
 * Her harshness and manner of speech (with lots of obscure metaphors) is very similar to the Glee character Sue Sylvester, that Jane Lynch plays.
 * Also, her facial appearance is similar to that of Jane Lynch.
 * Her attitude is similar to that of Mortal Kombat character Sonya Blade's, specifically the version of her from Mortal Kombat 2011.
 * It is possible that her first name is a reference to Tamora, the Queen of the Goths in William Shakespeare's play Titus Andronicus. Calhoun's middle name, Jean, may be a reference to Saint Joan of Arc, an armored young commander who was the only female member of her 14th-Century French army and led them to several victories.
 * Sergeant Calhoun is the second female Disney character to be strict and not a villainess, the first being Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet. Her strictness is the result of something bad happening to her, however Sergeant Calhoun shares other characteristics with Captain Amelia as well:
 * Both hold a military rank, and are in charge of an intimidating group.
 * Both loose/lost someone important to them because of their line of work. (Calhoun's fiancé is eaten by a Cy-Bug, and Amelia's first mate Mr. Arrow falls overboard into a blackhole.)
 * Both fall in love with and marry a secondary protagonist at the end of their movies, both of whom being kind and well-mannered, but bashful.
 * Calhoun shares some similarities to Helga Sinclair, as the two are both portrayed as strict, female blonde-haired military leaders. However, Helga is a villain while Calhoun is a heroine.
 * Jane Lynch also voiced Queen Neptuna, the leader of the Discarded Fun Meal toy support group in the Toy Story short Small Fry, as well as a part-time role as Mrs. Johnson from Phineas and Ferb. Lynch is famous for her role as Sue Sylvester from the musical TV series, Glee.
 * Her outfit strongly resembles Commander Shepard's N7 armor from Mass Effect.
 * She was likely inspired by such characters as Samus Aran of Metroid fame and the female version of the aforementioned Commander Shepard.
 * Sergeant Calhoun's name is not mentioned on camera till the epilogue told by Ralph. She's only referred to by "she" or "her' by her soldiers and "Ma'am" or "one dynamite gal" by Felix.
 * Calhoun's first name, Tamora, was only mentioned on her bio on the official website for the film.
 * Calhoun's name could be a reference to Barney Calhoun from Half-LIfe.
 * Calhoun's decision to marry Felix must have been for her own good, since Felix was actually trying to "fix" her broken heart.
 * In early drafts Calhoun was going to have skin camouflage. This was cut out because the creators felt the audience would have a hard time relating to her.
 * Calhoun is the only female in her own game, Hero's Duty.
 * It's possible that Calhoun's full name after marrying Felix may now be "Tamora Jean Calhoun-Felix", assuming that "Felix" is indeed her husband's real last name (which means that his real first name is "Fix-It", the same possibly being true with Wreck-It Ralph).
 * However, It's also possible that Felix's full name after marrying Calhoun is Fix-It Felix Calhoun, assuming that he never had a last name before marriage.