Transformers: Dark of the Moon (film)

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third film in the live-action film series. It was released in 3D and IMAX at 9PM on June 28, 2011 and in wide release on June 29, 2011 in the United States, and between June 29 and July 1 for other markets.

The film is set three years after the events of Revenge of the Fallen. The Autobots continue to work for NEST, but no longer in secret, and for the goal of keeping peace between humans by taking out volatile overseas political targets. But after discovering a strange artifact during a mission in Chernobyl, it becomes apparent to Optimus Prime that the United States government has been less than forthright with them.

And SCENE!

“	We will kill them all.	”
—Michael Bay Optimus Prime, Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Synopsis

In the distant past, during the latter days of the Cybertronian civil war, Sentinel Prime struck a secret deal with Megatron. Leaving the planet with groundbreaking space bridge technology on board the Ark, he was planning to meet up with Megatron. However, his ship was shot down by the Decepticons and, after being sent hurling through space for a while, eventually crashed on the Earth's Moon in 1961. The crash is noticed by the humans on Earth, leading to the Space Race under President John F. Kennedy. Landing on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin use several minutes of radio silence to investigate the spaceship and discover that mankind is not alone in space.

In the present day, the Autobots are still part of NEST, cooperating with the US Armed Forces. On a mission to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, a NEST team led by Lt. Col. Lennox and Optimus Prime discovers an unknown alien fuel cell which had led to the Chernobyl disaster. While trying to secure the cell, they are attacked by the Decepticon Shockwave and his pet, the Driller, who are eventually forced to retreat by Optimus Prime. Meanwhile, Laserbeak kills Alexi Voskhod, who had called NEST to Chernobyl and was secretly working for him. After securing the fuel cell and identifying it as part of the Ark, Optimus Prime is angry at the humans for not following through with their agreement of sharing all known information relating to Cybertron and its inhabitants. Despite this, he eventually informs his allies and Charlotte Mearing, the Director of National Intelligence, about the space bridge technology the Ark contains. Together with Ratchet, Optimus travels to the moon, where they find Sentinel Prime inside the ship. Together with four pillars of the space bridge and the accompanying control pillar, they return to Earth, where Optimus uses the Matrix of Leadership to reactivate Sentinel Prime.

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky, the Autobots' human friend, is suffering from everyday problems. Even though President Barack Obama has awarded him a medal for saving the Earth twice, Sam has trouble finding a job. Together with his new girlfriend Carly Spencer, whom he had met in the White House (after his former girlfriend Mikaela had left him), he also gives the stranded Autobots Wheelie and Brains a home. After a long search, he finally finds a position as a mail carrier at a telecommunication company named Accuretta Systems. From his colleague, Jerry Wang, he learns about a conspiracy by humans who collaborate with the Decepticons. Before Jerry can tell Sam more, however, he is killed by Laserbeak.

Subsequently, Sam turns to Seymour Simmons for help. Simmons, who has become a millionaire as a writer, and his aide Dutch help Sam find out that the Soviets have taken photos of Decepticons removing hundreds of space bridge pillars out of the Ark even before Apollo 11 had landed on the moon. Sam and Simmons conclude that the Decepticons had left Sentinel Prime behind on purpose, knowing that only he would be able to activate the space bridge, and only Optimus Prime could reactivate him. Sam is able to warn the Autobots in time so they can protect Sentinel from a Decepticon attack and escort him back to the NEST headquarters. Arriving there, however, Sentinel Prime reveals that he had made a deal with Megatron, knowing that the Autobots could never win the war. After killing Ironhide and several NEST soldiers, Sentinel Prime claims the remaining pillars and escapes. The other Autobots track him down to Washington, D.C., but before Optimus can stop him, Sentinel activates a space bridge to the moon, which brings more Decepticon troops that had remained hidden under the moon's surface to Earth, forcing the Autobots to retreat.

In the meantime, Sam is worried about Carly and searches for her. He finds her with her employer, Dylan Gould, who reveals to Sam that he not only arranged for him getting a job with Acuretta, but is also a collaborator with the Decepticons. At their request, his father had used his influence to ensure that NASA would not conduct any more missions to the moon. While attempting to flee, Carly's car turns out to be a disguise for Soundwave, who takes her captive. Dylan instructs Sam to ask Optimus Prime about the Autobots' strategy, otherwise Carly would die. To ensure that Sam would not try to warn the Autobots, he attaches a Decepticon disguised as a watch on Sam's wrist, which taps into his nervous system.

Meanwhile, Sentinel Prime has given mankind an ultimatum to exile the Autobots from Earth, since he is only trying to save Cybertron, or so he claims. The US government promptly passes a bill to this effect. Before the Autobots leave Earth abourd their spaeship, the Xantium, Sam asks Optimus about his plan. Optimus replies that there is no plan, mankind is on its own now. With all Autobots on board, the Xantium takes off, but is promptly intercepted by Starscream, who had waited in Earth's orbit. With the Xantium destroyed, the Decepticons believe the Autobots to be dead and let Sam go.

With the Autobots out of the way, the Decepticons conquer Chicago, kill most of its population and set up the control pillar for the space bridge inside the city, placing the other pillars around the world. Dylan informs Carly that the Decepticons do not intend to return to Cybertron; instead, they want to transport Cybertron into Earth's orbit, because Earth not only has the necessary resources, but also six billion slaves to rebuild the Transformers' home planet.

Sam decides to go to Chicago, where Dylan has taken Carly. Former NEST soldier Robert Epps, who now works for NASA, accompanies him together with other former NEST members. Upon arrival in Chicago, they are promptly attacked by the Decepticons, but are rescued by Optimus Prime and the other Autobots. Having never intended to leave Earth, they had hidden themselves inside a modified rocket booster that had been jettisoned before Starscream had destroyed the Xantium.

The Autobots and the humans soldiers make their way to the skyscraper where Dylan is located in order to destroy the space bridge's control pillar. Due to another attack by a team of Decepticons led by Shockwave, the team is separated once more. While the Autobots battle the Decepticons, Epps and his team try to destroy the pillar from another skyscraper. However, they are attacked by Shockwave's "pet", the Driller, who brings the skyscraper crashing down. Optimus Prime comes to their aid and destroys the Driller.

In the meantime, Lennox and the rest of NEST have managed to make their way into the city using wingsuits, and with Lennox's help, Sam destroys Starscream using weapons provided to him by the Autobots' inventor Que. Meanwhile, the Decepticons have captured several Autobots, but Dylan convinces them not to take prisoners and kill them all. Barricade executes Que, and Soundwave proceeds to kill Bumblebee next, but the Autobots Wheelie and Brains have managed to make one of the Decepticons' ships crash, thereby distracting Soundwave long enough for Bumblebee and the other Autobots to get free. While NEST and the Autobots fight the Decepticons and kill most of them, Optimus Prime topples over the space bridge's control pillar, deactivating the bridge.

A fight between Sentinel Prime and Optimus Prime ensues, during which Optimus loses an arm, with Sentinel gaining the upper hand. Carly, who had been freed by Sam in the meantime, stumbles across Megatron, who is still suffering from the wounds Optimus Prime had inflicted upon him during their battle in Egypt, outside the main battle zone. Having previously witnessed a violent argument between Sentinel prime and Megatron, she appeals to his pride, she makes him realize that he would never be able to rule over Cybertron as long as Sentinel Prime is alive. Infuriated, he intervenes in the battle and turns on Sentinel, declaring that Earth is his planet to rule, and severely damages him. Meanwhile, Dylan manages to reactivate the toppled pillar, but is attacked by Sam, who hurls him against the pillar, killing him. Subsequently, Bumblebee destroys the pillar for good, thus destroying the space bridge and, presumably, Cybertron with it. Megatron offers Optimus Prime a truce as long he could remain in charge of his Decepticon forces, but Optimus ignores his plea and splits Megatron's head with an axe. Subsequently, he uses Megatron's shotgun cannon to kill a weakened Sentinel Prime, who is trying to excuse his actions.

Believing their home planet to be destroyed for good, the remaining Autobots accept Earth as their new home.

Seymour Simmons uses the opportunity to kiss Charlotte Mearing, whom he still has feelings for. Mearing responds by having him arrested.

Quotes

Mearing: "What is this, the silent treatment?"
Ironhide: "No, I've seen that. This is not that."
Que: "Definitely not."
Ironhide: "This is worse."

—NEST discusses Optimus Prime's foul mood.

"What you must realize my Autobot brothers, is we were never going to win the war. For the sake for our planet's survival, a deal had to be made... with Megatron."

—Sentinel Prime, before his betrayal.

"Here we are. Fight us now."

—Megatron, pulling the evil overlord cliche on us while sitting atop the Lincoln Memorial

Simmons: Don't worry, I speak their language. <doorman opens sliding hatch> Do svidaniya.
Doorman: That means goodbye. <closes hatch>

—Simmons tries to reason with a Russian, to no avail.

"It's a Cyrillic alphabet; it's like all the buttons you never push on a calculator!"

—Dutch tries to translate Russian, also to no avail.

"The Decepticons have my trailer. I need that flight tech!"

—Optimus Prime, selling toys.

"I'm gonna kick you!"

—Starscream attempts to threaten Sam.

"The Leader is me, it will always be me!"

—Megatron reminds Sentinel that he's the main vilain.

"In any war, there are calms between the storms. There will be days when we lose faith. Days when our allies turn against us... but the day will never come when we forsake this planet and its people. For I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to the universe: We are here. We are home."

—Optimus Prime's closing narration.

Main cast

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy) Bumblebee Ironhide (Jess Harnell) Ratchet (Robert Foxworth) Sideswipe (James Remar) Dino/Mirage (Francesco Quinn) Que/Wheeljack (George Coe) Wheelie (Tom Kenny) Brains (Reno Wilson) Topspin Roadbuster (Ron Bottitta) Leadfoot (John DiMaggio) Skids Mudflap	Megatron (Hugo Weaving) Starscream (Charlie Adler) Soundwave (Frank Welker) Laserbeak (Keith Szarabajka) Shockwave (Frank Welker) Crankcase Crowbar Hatchet Driller Hatchlings Barricade (Frank Welker) Igor (Greg Berg) Scrapper type Decepticon Sideways type Decepticon An unnamed M1 Abrams Decepticon Long Haul type Decepticon Garbage truck Decepticon Superfund Decepticon Unnamed Lensmeter Decepticons Unnamed protoforms Watch-bot	Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) Charlotte Mearing (Frances McDormand) Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey) Bruce Brazos (John Malkovich) Hardcore Eddie (Lester Speight) Morshower (Glenn Morshower) Dutch (Alan Tudyk) Ron Witwicky (Kevin Dunn) Judy Witwicky (Julie White) Jerry Wang (Ken Jeong) Neil Armstrong (Don Jeanes) Buzz Aldrin (Cory Tucker)/(himself) Walter Cronkite Bill O'Reilly (himself)

Errors

• The Moon does not rotate with respect to Earth, and Mare Tranquillitatis is near the middle of the near side. Therefore, Tranquility Base could never be described as being on the far side/dark side, and Earth is never as close to the horizon as shown in the movie.
• The Apollo 11 Command/Service Module is seen flying to the Moon without the Lunar Module. The Lunar Module is attached when the vehicle is orbiting the Moon, however.
• The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shown to be located inside of, or at least right next to the abandoned city of Pripyat, and the human characters access it through nearby buildings. In reality, the power plant is situated on the outskirts of the city. Even worse, Alexi Voskhod explicitly says that the entrance leads through a school. Who builds a school right next to a nuclear power plant?
• Furthermore, Prypiat's infamous Ferris wheel as shown in the movie is not only the wrong model (the real one's passenger cabins have canopies), but the real one is also located in an open field far away from any buildings. But hey, at least it's the right color!
• Also, why exactly is the Sputnik mission case inside the Chernobyl reactor building? Did the Soviets never bother to discard the packaging of their toy after starting to play with it?
• When the modern day site of the Apollo 11 landing is seen, the ascent module (the cabin Buzz and Neil flew back to orbit in) is still there.
• In a fairly common cinematic contrivance, the film depicts multiple skyscrapers in the background of many scenes set in Washington, D.C., while the real-life city has no skyscrapers.
• Also, Washington, D.C. almost entirely lacks old industrial buildings that could be converted into lofts.
• Despite being stuck in the Ark for years and not yet having scanned a vehicle mode Sentinel Prime has kibble from his Rosenbauer fire truck alternate mode when he is first seen.
• Like in Revenge of the Fallen, Ironhide sports his license plate from the first movie, "4PCI382", on his robot mode chest, but doesn't have a license plate in vehicle mode.
• Speaking of inconsistency between robot and vehicle mode: Bumblebee's updated Chevrolet Camaro alternate mode no longer has pinstripes bordering his black racing stripes, but the CG robot model still has the pinstripes.
• In the highway battle scene with the Dreads, Bumblebee enhances his front wheels to evade Hatchet, yet in the next scene he's fully in Stealth Force.
• During Ironhide and Sideswipe's "Mexican standoff" with Crankcase and Crowbar, all combatants drop their firearms, but when Ironhide is speared, his guns are on his back again. They disappear in subsequent shots.
• When the Autobots are boarding the Xantium, it's said that nine of them are leaving. Wheelie and Brains apparently don't count. Poor little guys!
• Throughout the sequence of Barricade kicking and shoving Que along before executing him, he is speaking with Soundwave's voice.
• The Wreckers claim they had been hiding inside a rocket booster that was jettisoned from the Xantium before Starscream destroyed it. The movie never shows any boosters detaching, and Starscream blows up the ship after it had barely taken off the ground.
• Despite being captured by Soundwave in her evening gown, Carly is somehow able to change into more convenient clothes before arriving in Chicago, and has yet another outfit the following day. Not only that, she changes her earrings, too!
• Though it's a standard action movie contrivance, it sure is convenient that the glass windows inside skyscrapers are extremely fragile when needed, and glass shards are as dangerous as bread crumbs so nobody suffers a single cut from sliding across them.

Transformers references

• The Ark gets its name from the Autobots' crashed spaceship in the Marvel Transformers comics.

• "Carly" was the name of Spike Witwicky's girlfriend and eventual wife in the original cartoon.

• When the worker at Accureta Systems is trying to make the photocopier work, it beeps the "more than meets the eye" refrain from the original cartoon's theme song.

• The corrosive end met by Ironhide comes at the hands of Cosmic Rust, the oxidizing pathogen that first appeared in the Generation 1 cartoon episode of the same name. Though not named in the film, its identity is made clear by production artwork by Josh Nizzi which labels Sentinel Prime's gun a "Cosmic Rust gun".

• Megatron removing Abraham Lincoln from his chair at the Lincoln Memorial and then sitting in it is a scene taken directly from the Generation 1 cartoon episode, "Atlantis, Arise!", and the Decepticon ending for Transformers: The Game (sort of).

• The idea of bringing Cybertron to Earth via space bridge and enslaving humans was the plot of the well-regarded Generation 1 multi-part episode "The Ultimate Doom."

• Likewise, the idea of an influential and powerful human joining forces with the Decepticons, resulting in the Autobots being exiled from Earth by the government via a spacecraft, only for that spacecraft to be destroyed, was the plot behind another popular Generation 1 cartoon multi-part episode, "Megatron's Master Plan."

• The Xantium is the name of the Wreckers' spaceship in the IDW Publishing's Transformers comics.

Real-world references

• When Brains and Wheelie are watching Star Trek: The Original Series, the screen features Mr. Spock, portrayed by Leonard Nimoy — who voices Sentinel Prime. They comment that it is "the one where Spock goes nuts," which foreshadows Sentinel's heel turn.

• Sentinel Prime says "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." The voice actor said the same line in the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as Mr. Spock. However in that movie, Nimoy's character dies a hero.

• To finish the Spock trifecta, when Bumblebee says his goodbyes to Sam, he uses a clip of Leonard Nimoy, as Spock, saying "I will always be your friend.", another line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

• Dutch and his fake girlfriend's name, "India", are a reference to Dutch India.

• Que's name may be a reference to Q from James Bond novels and films. Que also gives weapons to NEST soldiers while explaining the advantages and abilities for the weapons much like Q does for James Bond.

Theatrical posters

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Reception

On June 23, 2011, the world premiere of Dark of the Moon was held in Moscow, Russia, with band Linkin Park performing a concert that included their title song for the movie, "Iridescent".

The official release date was movie up from July 1 to June 29 to allow breathing room between its release and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. On June 28, 2011, the film was released in 3D and IMAX at 9pm in the US. Some theaters cheated a little and showed it at 8:45.

Dark of the Moon launched with nearly 10,000 copies in 4011 theaters nationwide. On its opening day, the movie earned $37.3 million, making not only for the best opening day of 2011 up to that point, but also ranking as the sixth most successful opening on a Wednesday ever, while at the same time ranking well behind Revenge of the Fallen, with $60 million on its opening day (also a Wednesday). (Of course, a lot of the print material still listed the release date as July 1st, the following Friday.) As of July 13, 2011, Dark of the Moon has earned $277 million domestically, and over $693 million worldwide.

Development details

Cast and crew signing on

Featuring a surprise appearance by Optimus Prime!

On May 30, 2007, a month before the official release of Transformers, DreamWorks announced that two sequels were already being planned. On March 16, 2009, over three months before the premiere of Revenge of the Fallen, Paramount announced the third movie for July 1, 2011. Director Michael Bay promptly backpedaled, as he had intended for the third Transformers movie to be released in 2012. He officially changed his mind in October 2009, agreeing to the release date set by Paramount.

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, two of the previous two movies' screenwriters, had already announced in March 2009 that they would not return for a third part. In September 2009, their Revenge co-writer Ehren Kruger was confirmed as the screenwriter of Transformers 3. Kruger had already impressed both director Michael Bay and Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner with his knowledge of Transformers mythology prior to working on Revenge.

In an interview with Wonderland magazine in September 2009, Megan Fox, the main female star of the previous two movies, discussed the harsh conditions on the sets and compared director Michael Bay to Adolf Hitler. Bay initially played down the affair and still welcomed Fox back for the third installment a month later. Even though Fox was still spotted on the Transformers 3 set in May 2010, Paramount announced a few weeks later that she wouldn't return for a third movie after all. Still that same month, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was confirmed to replace her as the lead female actress. Her character's name was confirmed as "Carly" by Nelson Lauren, the webmaster of Michael Bay's official website, in July 2010. In 2011, Michael Bay finally confirmed in an interview with GQ magazine that it had been Steven Spielberg, executive producer of the Transformers movies, who had urged him to fire Fox following the Hitler comparison. In a later interview, however, he claimed this statement had been taken out of context.

In March 2010, Oscar winners John Malkovich and Frances McDormand as well as Comedian Ken Jeong were confirmed having signed on for supporting roles.

In April 2010, Kevin Dunn and Julie White were confirmed as returning as Sam Witwicky's parents.

In May 2010, Paramount confirmed that Patrick Dempsey has been cast in Transformers 3 to play Mikaela Banes' boss (this was before Megan Fox was fired from the production).

In July 2010, Nelson Lauren confirmed that former American footballer Lester Speight would play a soldier in the movie.

Leonard Nimoy was confirmed as the voice actor for Sentinel Prime in March 2011. Nimoy, who had previously voiced Galvatron in 1986's The Transformers: The Movie and is married to Michael Bay's cousin Susan, had previously been under consideration for The Fallen's voice in Revenge of the Fallen, but Bay had been hesitant for fear of offending his relative with the relatively low pay allotted to voice actors. Even though Nimoy openly asked Bay to simply give him a call, it ultimately never worked out, and The Fallen was voiced by Tony Todd instead. For Dark of the Moon, Bay finally overcame his anxiety and hired Nimoy, who accepted the offer. In return, screenwriter Ehren Kruger included several nods to Nimoy's well-known character as Mr. Spock from Star Trek in the movie.

Writing and production

After having defended the almost universally critically panned Revenge of the Fallen for a long time, Michael Bay finally acknowledged flaws of the script, but blamed the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike prior to the movie for many problems. As a definite error, he singled out the "dork comedy", which he promised to avoid with Dark of the Moon.

Principal shooting began in May 2010. Shooting locations were Chicago, Moscow, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Milwaukee (Wisconsin), Detroit, Washington, D.C. and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

For the scene where Lennox and his soldier jump out of a V-22 Osprey using wingsuits, Michael Bay used real parachutists and thus avoided unnecessary CG effects. In fact, he had been inspired for this scene in the first place by watching the parachutists in their wingsuits on television and wrote the scene with the intention of using the parachutists in the movie.

For the Apollo 11 moon landing mission in the flashback sequence at the beginning of the movie, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are played by actors Don Jeanes and Cory Tucker, respectively. In the present day timeline, Aldrin himself appears briefly as his own older self.

Over 500 cars were destroyed in the making of Dark of the Moon, all of them damaged property from insurance companies intended for destruction.

Two accidents happened during shooting: In September 2010, while shooting in East Chicago, Indiana, a female extra was severely injured when a stunt scene went wrong, leaving her with permanent brain damage, the left side of her body paralyzed and her left eye stitched shut. Paramount was subsequently sued for damages by the victim's family. As a consequence, part of the scene of the car chase battle in Washington, D.C. (which would have included the shoot that had led to the accident) was instead "borrowed" from Michael Bay's 2005 film The Island. While shooting in Washington, D.C., in October 2010, one of the Chevrolet Camaro prop cars that serve as Bumblebee's alternate mode crashed into a police car. Nobody was seriously injured this time.

Dark of the Moon is the first of the Transformers movies to be released in 3D. Despite early considerations to shoot the movie in 2D and convert it into 3D later, Michael Bay ultimately shot 60% of the film in native 3D, another 15% were done digitally, and the rest was shot in 2D and converted later. James Cameron assisted Michael Bay with the 3D effects. The movie's budget amounted to $195 million, which is about the same budget Revenge of the Fallen had. About $30 million went into the 3D effects.

Sponsors and partners

Hasbro

Hasbro, licensor of the Transformers brand, hoped that the third movie would once again boost toy sales, after profits had dropped in the first quarter of 2011.

US military

Like the previous two movies, Dark of the Moon featured real military personnel as extras, supported by the US Department of Defense. Shooting locations were Hurlburt Field and Edwards Air Force Base.

General Motors and other car manufacturers

General Motors once again provided several vehicles. All recurring Autobots retain their alternate modes from Revenge of the Fallen despite some minor tweaks, such as Sideswipe now being a convertible, and Bumblebee now sporting a rear spoiler. Once again, the cooperation was mutual, with General Motors using Bumblebee for TV commercials. The first of those, aired during the 2011 Super Bowl, also revealed some minor tweaks to Bumblebee's robot mode. According to Chevrolet, the Transformers movies notably affect car sales, as about ten percent of all Camaros sold in the preceding year were yellow, twice as many as with other models.

New additions for Dark of the Moon are a Ferrari 458 Italia (Dino) and a Mercedes-Benz E550 (Que). Both robots sport names in the movie which aren't recycled from existing Hasbro toys. In the Ferrari's case, the reason for this is that Hasbro's greatest competitor, Mattel, has an exclusive license for Ferrari toys. "Dino" is named in reference to Alfredo "Dino" Ferrari, as per Ferrari's request. The Mercedes-Benz E550, meanwhile, was specifically customized for the movie. "Que" is named in homage to Q from James Bond.

Since the heavily armed Chevrolet Impalas that serve as the Wreckers' alternate modes are directly based on existing NASCAR race cars, the prop versions of Roadbuster, Leadfoot, and Topspin made an appearance at 2011 Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 20, four month before the movie's release, appearing both off the track as display cars, and on the track, participating in the ceremonial first lap. Director Michael Bay, actor Josh Duhamel and actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley also attended the event, and during the television broadcast of the race, a new Dark of the Moon television spot was aired.

Other product placement

As always, various companies have their products and names prominently displayed throughout the movie, such as Northrop Grumman, CNN, Fox News, Cisco and Superfund. Of particular note is the large number of Chinese brands such as Lenovo, Yili Shuhua Milk, Metersbonwe Mtee shirts and TCL HDTV screens.

For Nokia, the product placement turned out to be dated by the time the movie came out, as a mobile phone featured in the movie ran on Symbian, despite Nokia mostly dropping Symbian as an operating system due to their recent partnership with Microsoft.

Changes before, during and after production

• In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in June 2009, Michael Bay suggested that Ramon Rodriguez would reprise his role as Leo Spitz from Revenge of the Fallen for the third movie.

• As stated above, Megan Fox was originally intended to reprise her role as Mikaela Banes from the previous two movies. She was still spotted on the Dark of the Moon set during the previsualization stage in May 2010, but was fired from the production shortly afterwards due to a falling out with director Michael Bay. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's character of Carly Spencer was written in as a replacement, though the fact that her part was originally written for Mikaela still shows in some parts: For example, Carly is overseeing Dylan's car collection, which could be viewed as an extension of Mikaela's history with working with cars. Furthermore, Sam and Carly not only have Wheelie (who had been previously "domesticated" by Mikaela) as a "pet", but also her dog Bonecrusher (played by Michael Bay's eponymous real-life dog).

• In January 2010, James Avery claimed in an interview that he would be playing a new Autobot named Silverbolt. In June 2010, representatives of James Avery, responding to a bizarre rumor that he had passed away, confirmed that the actor was indeed alive and would be playing Silverbolt in Transformers 3. Despite this, neither Avery nor Silverbolt ultimately appear in Dark of the Moon.

• In an earlier draft of the movie's script, Megatron is sincere when he offers Optimus Prime a truce at the end. Optimus accepts, and Megatron and the remaining Decepticons leave Earth to rebuild Cybertron. This ending is used for the novelization and the comic adaptation.

• Furthermore, it was originally supposed to be Mirage/"Dino" rather than Wheeljack/"Que" who would have been executed by Soundwave in Chicago. This version made it into the comic adaptation and the junior novelization.

• The Twins, Skids and Mudflap, were originally supposed to return for Dark of the Moon. Even though General Motors provided two Chevrolet Sparks to serve as their alternate modes which were still spotted on the set as late as October 2010, the two were mostly edited out of the final movie (their vehicle modes can barely be glimpsed in a brief shot). Michael Bay even went so far as to offer a $25,000 reward for anyone who would see the Twins "perform" in the movie. In the novelization and the comic adaptation, Skids and Mudflap still appear.

• Another plot point that was apparently dropped was an anti-Autobot sentiment among the human populace. Graffitis with a crossed out Autobot logo with the words "go home" below it showed up in several set photos. In the movie, Congress instantly passes a law exiling the Autobots from Earth following Sentinel Prime's ultimatum.

• Early working names included "Ultra Magnus" for Sentinel Prime, "Enzo" (after Enzo Ferrari) and "Rush" for Mirage/"Dino", "Warpath" for both Roadbuster and Topspin, "Tempest" for Topspin, "Flash" for Leadfoot, "Dreadwind" for Crankcase, "Hooligan" for Crowbar, "Dirtbag" for Hatchet, "Blitzwing" for Shockwave, "Breakdown" for Soundwave's new vehicular design, "Colossus" for the Driller, "Buzzard" for Laserbeak, "Undermine" for Igor and "Steeljaw" for Wheeljack/"Que". However, it's quite possible a few of these were code names used to keep character identities a secret during production as images of Megatron's new cloak obscured face refer to the character as "Cyclonus".

• Roadbuster was originally intended to have Jeff Gordon's #24 DuPont-sponsored Chevrolet Impala as his alternate mode, rather than Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #88 Impala sponsored by Amp Energy.

• Que/Wheeljack's head was once considered to be based on Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown from the Back to the Future movies, rather than Albert Einstein.

• The Wreckers were originally intended to have a robot pet dog, whose working names also included "Warpath". Hasbro's official Transformers website identifies the dog as "Steeljaw".

• In an interview with MTV.com, actors Shia LaBeouf and John Malkovich hinted at at some smaller scenes that were cut from the final edit of the movie. In addition to some add-libbing by the actors, one scene would have featured Malkovich's character, Bruce Brazos, attempting to get Carly's phone number.

Leaks and disinformation

The movie's title, then "Transformers: The Dark of the Moon", was first discovered on October 6, 2010 via listings for childrens' books on Amazon.com. The title was further confirmed by a whois check for "www.transformersdarkofthemoonmovie.com". On October 31, the official website for all three movies, transformersmovie.com, was updated to show the Transformers: Dark of the Moon logo as well as international release dates.

Shockwave was heavily touted as the new main villain, no doubt in an attempt to conceal Sentinel Prime's unexpected betrayal halfway through the movie. A piece of information that commonly popped up in official plot "summaries" was the claim that Shockwave was the ruler of Cybertron while the other Autobots and Decepticons were duking it out on Earth. The last bit could be written off as a case of chinese whisper: Shockwave got announced as the villain for Dark of the Moon, mainstream media (such as USA Today) who aren't versed in Transformers lore looked up the character, found out about his Generation 1 namesake's role in the cartoon, included it as a piece of trivia to show they did their research, and then the trivia note got picked up as gospel by other media. Nevertheless, it was included in the official plot summary by Paramount's German branch (which also claimed that Shockwave was the robot discovered inside the Ark as seen in the trailer).

Michael Bay and other official parties tried really hard to suppress the plot twist of the silver Mercedes SLS AMG given to Carly by Dylan turning out to be the new alternate mode of Soundwave. After the Mercedes had been spotted on the set, with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley exiting it, the first hint that it was more than meets the eye came with the trailer for the video game, which showed Soundwave's robot mode with car kibble such as wheels that heavily resembled those of the Mercedes. In addition, issue 3 of Rising Storm depicted Soundwave's robot mode not only with car kibble, but with a Mercedes star on his chest. Despite this, director Michael Bay insisted that the Mercedes was simply Carly's car, claiming that "Mercedes would never let us make their car into a bad Decepticon. Car company's [sic] really frown on that. I can't say what the game company and comics do that's their own thing. They don't have the same constraints movies do. It's Carly's car." On April 19, 2011, an event for promoting the Spider-Man: Edge of Time and Transformers: Dark of the Moon video games was held in London. As part of this, High Moon Studios released promotional stills from the Dark of the Moon game, one of which depicted Soundwave's new robot mode, again with Mercedes parts. However, a news embargo was enforced on the attending press, which was broken by South African video game site egamer. The site was soon asked to take down the article and images, as were various Transformers fan sites that had reported on the article and mirrored the images. On May 2, 2011, Hasbro's official Transformers website was given a massive overhaul, including the addition of the new Vector Sigma database. The entry for Soundwave initially identified his alternate mode as a Mercedes SLS AMG, but was soon changed to "satellite". On May 3, 2011, the embargo for the video game article and promotional stills was finally lifted, allowing sites to freely show the image of Soundwave's new robot mode.

On May 5, 2011, several weeks before the trade paperback collection's official release, preview pages from IDW's Dark of the Moon comic adaptation were discovered on Amazon.com. Through some bizarre system error, several dozen pages were made available, which included the major plot twist of Sentinel Prime showing his true colors and killing Ironhide. Unsurprisingly, this discovery was quickly posted on several major Transformers fan sites, often without a spoiler warning.

Notes

• A 126-page script for the movie was leaked in December 2009, causing much discussion among the fandom. It was later confirmed as fake.
• When word hit that Megan Fox was off the picture, Heidi Montag put an "audition" for her part on YouTube. Sir Ben Kingsley and Ashton Kutcher made fun of her, because life is rad.
• Bumblebee finally achieves a certain consistency between his two primary modes: Ever since his upgrade to a modern Camaro in Transformers (2007), his license plate had alternated between "900 STRA" in vehicle mode and "4NZZ 454" in robot mode. Dark of the Moon finally uses "900 STRA" for the robot mode as well. Hasbro's toys, which had previously favored the CG robot model's "4NZZ 454" (barring the occasional "4NZZZ 454" flub), follow suit.
• Speaking of license plates: Dutch's Maybach 62S Landaulet sports a German license plate, "S MM 6201", registered in the city of Stuttgart. In reality, that plate is registered to the manufacturer and used for promotional photos.
• Michael Bay's private Gulfstream Aerospace G-1159A jet (registration number N4500X) has a cameo in the movie as Charlotte Mearing's plane.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Transformers/Dark Side Moon (トランスフォーマー/ダークサイド・ムーン Toransufōmā/Dāku Saido Mūn)
• Finnish: Transformers: Kuun pimeä puoli ("Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon")
• French: Transformers 3: La Face cachée de la Lune ("Transformers 3: The Hidden Side of the Moon")
• German: Transformers 3
• Polish: Transformers 3
• Portuguese: Transformers: O Lado Oculto da Lua ("Transformers: The Hidden Side of the Moon")
• Russian: Transformery 3: Tjomnaja storona Luny (Трансформеры 3: Тёмная сторона Луны, "Transformers 3: The Dark Side of the Moon")
• Serbian: Transformers 3: Tama Meseca ("Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon")
• Spanish: Transformers: El Lado Oscuro de la Luna (America, "Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon")
• Swedish: Transformers 3
• Mandarin: 變形金剛3：黑月降臨

External links

• Official Transformers: Dark of the Moon website
• Trailers.Apple.com Transformers: Dark of the Moon page
• Designer portfolios: Josh Nizzi, Warren Manser, Joel Chang, The Aaron Sims Company (at Concept Art World), Wesley Burt (at Concept Art World)