Dylan Gould

Dylan Gould is a human from the live-action film continuity family.

McCreepy

Dylan Gould is the CEO of Hotchkiss Gould Investments. He managed to snag the young Carly Spencer to help run his collection of exotic cars, a hobby which helps "keep him sane". He's inordinately fond of his new recruit, calling her "my duchess", giving her cars, and hooking up her boyfriend with career opportunities using his amazing connections because he's so hot and rich. That's not threatening to said boyfriend at all, no.

Not the couch! It's Ralph Lauren!Dylan knows his priorities, Dark of the Moon novelization

You think you're a hero? YOU THINK YOU'RE A HERO?!!Dylan has some anger issues! —Dylan

Fiction

IDW Dark of the Moon prequel comics

Dylan's father was a NASA accountant, who was approached by Soundwave in the early 1970s to manipulate the NASA budget and make further moon landings financially infeasible, thereby preventing humanity from discovering the wreck of the Ark on the lunar surface. Soundwave provided the money Gould desired by tapping the stock market, and so the man went to work, ensuring that the 1972 landing would be the last. Years later, in 1979, believing matters on Earth to be secure for the time being, Soundwave called another meeting with Gould to announce that he would be leaving the planet for a time. Gould brought Dylan to this meeting, as he intended for his son to take over his position as Decepticon liaison in the future. Soundwave was impressed with the child's tenacity, and could see in him greater desires that the base riches sought by his father.

Dylan had inherited his father's responsibilities when Soundwave return to Earth in 2007, now running the family company and continuing to maintain the veil of secrecy around the moon, with the help of Soundwave's numerous other human pawns. Summoning Dylan upon his return, Soundwave could see that his desires had blossomed: not content purely with money as his father had been, Dylan wanted power. Convergence chapter 4

Dylan poached administrative assistant Carly Spencer from the British Embassy some time after 2009 to serve as his personal assistant. According to her, fighting robots was kids' stuff compared to working for him. Rising Storm issue 4

Dark of the Moon film

Actor: Patrick Dempsey, Yasuhiko Nemoto (Japanese dub), Sergio Gutiérrez Coto (Spanish dub)

File:Dylan 3.JPG

Seeking to exploit Carly's boyfriend Sam Witwicky's connection to the Autobots for the Decepticons' own evil ends, Dylan arranged a job interview for him at Accuretta Systems, on whose board of directors he had a seat. Visiting Carly at work to tell her the good news, Sam took an immediate dislike to the smarmy Dylan and the closeness he and Carly displayed, feeling further emasculated when he discovered Dylan had set up the interview for him. Dylan even gifted Carly a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, and invited the young couple to a party at his estate, but Sam refused to go as he had begun to unravel the lunar conspiracy, though he had no idea Dylan was at the heart of it.

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Soon after, when the recently-revived Autobot leader Sentinel Prime revealed his treachery and joined with the Decepticons in using his space bridge to attack Washington, D.C., Sam raced to Dylan's estate to get Carly to safety. There, Dylan finally showed his true colors: The "Mercedes" was revealed to be a disguised Soundwave, who held Carly hostage while Dylan attached a Decepticon watch to Sam's arm, instructing him to learn all he could about the Autobots' plans to fight back. With Carly Dylan's hostage and his nervous system tortured by the watch, Sam was forced to comply. But before leaving, he vowed to kill Dylan. Sam learned that the Autobots were planning to leave Earth with no retaliation due to being exiled at the demands of Sentinel Prime. Content with this information, Dylan gave the signal to Starscream, who blew the Autobots' spacecraft out of the sky, apparently destroying them. Dylan then said "We all work for the Decepticons now".

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I know I'm a douchebag for working for the Decepticons....But at least I'm Alive.

As the Decepticons set about razing Chicago, turning the city into a fortress, Dylan took Carly to his penthouse and explained that the evil robots were planning to teleport Cybertron into the solar system, and put humanity to work rebuilding the planet: he had secured his and Carly's freedom by selling out his own race. When he tried to watch he was ordered to leave by Megatron ("I hate that guy, he's such a dick"). Dylan was visibly disturbed by the Decepticons' invasion and massacre of Chicago, but when questioned by Carly, all the traitor had to say was that everything was alright, as long as he was safe.

Chicago soon became a battleground, however, when the Autobots' seeming deaths were revealed as a deception, and they helped Sam break into Dylan's penthouse. Sam had Dylan at gunpoint, but Laserbeak entered the room, grabbed Sam and threw him off the side, but he was saved by Bumblebee's commandeered fighter and saved Carly. Dylan later reported the Autobots survival to Megatron himself. As the fighting grew more intense, several Autobots were captured by the Decepticons; formerly having viewed everything as "just business", Dylan urged Soundwave to execute them all for making things personal. Fortunately, the intervention of Brains and Wheelie saved most of the Autobots, and in the renewed fighting that followed, the control pillar for Sentinel's space bridge was shot from its perch and knocked offline.

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With the Decepticon ships firing on Optimus, the Autobots battling Sentinel, and the Wreckers handling all ground-bound Decepticons, despite Sentinel's orders, the task fell to Dylan to reactivate the Control Pillar. Dylan made his way to the pillar but Sam tried to interfere, but Dylan pointed Sam's own gun at him. Sam tried to plead with Dylan to not go through with the Decepticons, but Dylan disagreed, stating that now there was no turning back from the future he had helped prepare for himself for years. However a piece of newspaper was caught on his face, providing a distraction and Dylan was forced to fight off Sam to reactivate the pillar. Dylan mockingly asked Sam if he thought he was a hero compared to himself, who had saved all of Cybertron. Sam refused, and struck him with a rebar. Toppling backward into the reactivated pillar, Dylan was fatally electrocuted by its energies.

It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Dark of the Moon

In and earlier draft of the script, Dylan was actually disintegrated by the pillar instead of electrocuted, however this is still kept in the novelization.

Toys

Dark of the Moon

• Soundwave / Mr. Gould with Laserbeak (Human Alliance, 2011)
  • Japanese ID number: DD09

Dark of the Moon Human Alliance Dylan Gould is partnered with Soundwave and Laserbeak. He is compatible with other Human Alliance figures.

As with many late-wave Dark of the Moon products, this toy had no US release.

Notes

• As the movie progresses, Dylan and Carly appear to have some history together.

• He is the first human villain introduced in the live-action film series, while most Transformers cartoons do have human villains, but not all are Shawn Berger.

• Dylan seems to have some respect from the Decepticons (although Megatron refers to him as an "insect operative"), who listen to him. This can be seen when he first ordered Soundwave to watch over Sam and Carly covertly (as her new car) and then for Soundwave to keep Carly contained but not kill her in order to get Sam to cooperate. Next, his cries of the Autobots' return are taken without question. Soundwave also listens to his advice about not taking prisoners.

• Dylan suffers a worse death in the comics and novel, being disintegrated. The scene in the film where he is shown being killed was possibly very limited due to timing or complications on several 3D CGI graphics. It could have been changed due to being too violent, however— this is Michael Bay we're talking about...

Foreign names

• Japanese: Dylan Gould (ディラン・グールド Diran Gūrudo)