Transformers (novel)

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Transformers
Publisher	Del Rey Books
First published	May 31, 2007
Story	Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, and John Rogers
Screenplay	Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci
Writer	Alan Dean Foster
Continuity	Movie continuity
ISBN	ISBN 0345497996 ISBN 978-0345497994
Page count	304

An ancient conflict between those who worship chaos and those who follow freedom has come to Earth. Our World. Their War.

Synopsis

The book begins with the history of Cybertron's destruction at the hands of Megatron, and his quest to obtain the Energon Cube. Megatron discovers the Cube on Earth, but crash-lands in the Arctic Circle, becoming frozen in the ice. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumble upon Megatron's body in the late 19th century. Megatron's navigational system is unintentionally activated, and Archibald's eye glasses are imprinted with the coordinates to the Cube's location. Sector Seven, a secret organization of the United States government, discovers the Energon Cube and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask the energy signal. The still-frozen Megatron is moved into this facility, and is reverse engineered to further advance human technology.

In the present day, the rest of the Decepticons—Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Bonecrusher, and Devastator—have already landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles. Blackout and Scorponok attack a U.S. military base in Qatar in an effort to use the military database to discover the location of Megatron and the Cube, but they do not succeed. A small group of survivors from the military base attack wander through the desert and are attacked by Scorponok. The Autonomous Robotic Life Form (shortened to "Autobot") known as Bumblebee is also on Earth, disguised as a 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, and looking for Sam Witwicky, the descendant of Captain Archibald Witwicky. As soon as he locates Sam, the two quickly begin to bond as Bumblebee helps Sam try and woo his crush, Mikaela Banes; Sam is unaware of the fact that Bumblebee is an alien, until he witnesses Bumblebee transform and send out a homing signal for the rest of the Autobots. After Blackout's failure, Frenzy infiltrates Air Force One and discovers that Sam possesses the map that will lead the Decepticons to the Energon Cube. Frenzy and Barricade begin tracking Sam's location.

Barricade confronts Sam, demanding Archibald's glasses. Bumblebee, who is following Sam, transforms and battles Barricade. Mikaela, who is also following Sam, is caught in the crossfire, and leaves with Sam and Bumblebee to rendezvous with the rest of the Autobots. The Autobots—Optimus Prime, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet—land on Earth and take on the forms of several Earth vehicles. Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots return to Sam's home to retrieve the glasses. However, agents from Sector Seven arrive to take Sam and Mikaela into custody. Bumblebee is also apprehended, against the pleas of Sam who assures the agents—to no avail—that he means them no harm.

Frenzy secretly accompanies the group to the Hoover Dam, and releases Megatron from cryogenic stasis. Locating the Cube, he sends out an alert to the rest of the Decepticons. Megatron escapes, and Sam convinces the Sector Seven agents to release Bumblebee so that he can get the Cube to Optimus Prime. The Decepticons chase the Autobots, who now possess the Energon Cube, into a neighboring city. An battle ensues, resulting in casualties on both sides, with Sam ultimately destroying Megatron and the Energon Cube when he rams it into Megatron's chest. The remains of the Decepticons are cast into the Laurentian Abyss. With no other home to go to — Cybertron having been destroyed by Megatron and the Cube being the only thing that could have restored it — the Autobots decide to stay on Earth, and Optimus sends out a signal across space in an effort to locate any surviving Autobots, while Sam and Mikaela begin a relationship. Starscream, one of the Decepticons that survived the battle, leaves Earth.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bumblebee Ironhide Jazz Optimus Prime Ratchet	Barricade Blackout Bonecrusher Devastator Frenzy Megatron Scorponok Starscream	Tom Banachek Mikaela Banes Bobby Bolivia Robert Epps John Keller William Lennox Maggie Madsen Seymour Simmons Glen Whitmann Judy Witwicky Ron Witwicky Sam Witwicky

Quotes

"Whoa, hey. I thought we'd wait till she was at least two before we got into the R-rated stuff."

—Lennox needs to head back to parenting classes.

"Actually, it's not Margaret. I hate that. It says Maggie on my birth certificate and whenever anyone calls me Margaret I tend to—never mind, sorry. I got a little impulse-control problem, no filter. Like I probably shouldn't say your bushy eyebrows are kinda throwing me right now..."

—Maggie needs to get her filter fixed and quick.

Optimus: Did you look within the oblong clothing-storage device?
Sam: The what?
Mikaela: I think he means the dresser.
Ratchet: Perhaps it is beneath the four-point floor sheath.
Sam: Okay, totally stumped.
Mikaela: The rug?

—Optimus and Ratchet not understanding Earth culture, Sam not understanding alien language, and Mikaela being the smartest around.

"I owe you my life. Humans do not always think rationally, but you can think fast."

—Optimus unintentionally insults and compliments humans in the same sentence.

Notes

Several scenes differ between the film and the novel because Foster worked from an earlier script version. These include:

• The AllSpark is known as the "Energon Cube," although its function in the story is nothing like that of energon cubes from "Transformers" history. Instead, it serves the same purpose as the AllSpark in the film.
• Jorge Figueroa doesn't talk in Spanish during the Osprey ride and later dies on the plane that's taking Lennox and his men back to America. Fig's death scene was filmed but ultimately cut from the movie, and it was suggested before the release of Dark of the Moon that Fig would return in that film, rendering his death non-canon.
• Sam's mom DOES NOT make any reference to a certain embarrassed boy masturbating. Which is a good thing.
• The Autobots, after being described, in narration, as downloading the entire Internet in a matter of seconds, attempt to communicate with Sam and Mikaela in a dialect of Chinese, as that is the language spoken by most humans on Earth, trying several other languages before getting to English. It's unclear why they wouldn't have just started with the language primarily spoken in their current physical location, as it seems likely that that would be mentioned somewhere on the Internet.
• When Ratchet scans Sam and Mikaela, he reveals their undergarments. Weird.
• As with the film, Optimus Prime and Megatron refer to each other as "brother."
• During the battle in some city, the energy released when the AllSpark hits the ground causes lots of video game consoles to become Transformers. Interestingly, guns can become Transformers if in range of the cube's energy.
• The novel has the final battle take place in Las Vegas instead of Mission City.
• Sam and Mikaela don't make out on top of Bumblebee at the end; they instead kiss in the school parking lot.
• Starscream chats with Megatron at Hoover Dam, where they seem to be on good terms. Starscream's fight with the F-22s is not included, though much of the final battle scene is greatly abridged.
• Devastator appears out of nowhere during the city battle.
• Megatron rips out Jazz's spark instead of tearing him in half. In addition, during the hologram flashback to Cybertron, Megatron is shown killing an Autobot in the same way instead of spearing him from a distance.
• Neither the movie nor its adaptations explain exactly how global communications were restored or how long it took for it to happen (or anything that happened beyond the events involving the Transformers). They also assume that no one used a camera (or even a camera phone, for that matter) to record the battle and post it on the Internet after it was restored.
• Jazz doesn't talk "street" in the novel; in fact, all Autobots speak an unnaturally formal form of English to enhance their alien status. In the film, Jazz's first line is, "What's cracking, li'l bitches?"; while in the novel, his first line is "Greetings, terrestrial adolescent humans." This also reflects Foster's depiction of the character in Ghosts of Yesterday.
• Mikaela drove in demolition derbies for her dad.
• Mikaela refused to rat out her father in court, so the authorities charged her as an accessory out of spite.
• Mikaela's mother goes unmentioned in the film, but the novel implies that Mrs. Banes is still alive. Mikaela describes her to Sam as having a habit of falling for "romantic, yet tragically irresponsible men" like her dad. Yet Mr. Banes loves his wife as much as he loves working on cars.
• Mikaela has moments where she shows some advanced scientific knowledge, even using complex vocabulary. She even uses a scientific question to put Trent in his place one last time back in school.
• Mikaela and the Autobots barely have any notable interactions in the movie; the novel has more moments and dialogue, and the Autobots even call her by name, which they never do in the film.

International printings

Japan

• ISBN 4150116229
• ISBN 978-4150116224
• Date published: July 15, 2007
• Publisher: Hayakawa Publishing Corp.
• Translator: Naoya Nakahara
• Pagecount: 415

External links

• Product page at Del Rey Online