Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (film)

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the first of two planned sequels to Transformers. It was released in North America on June 24, 2009.

Revenge is mine!The Fallen, Revenge of the Fallen

Japanese title: Transformers: Revenge

French title: Transformers 2: La Revanche (Transformers 2: The Revenge)

German title: Transformers: Die Rache (Transformers: The Revenge)

Polish title: Transformers: Zemsta Upadłych (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Ones)

Italian title: Transformers 2: La Vendetta del Caduto (Transformers 2: The Revenge Of The Fallen)

Serbian title: Transformers 2: Najveće govno ikada (Transformers 2: The Revenge Of The Fallen)

Spanish title: Transformers: La Venganza de los Caídos (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Ones)

Russian title: Transformery: Mest' Padshikh, cyrillic: Трансформеры: Месть падших (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Ones)

Main cast

Plot details for Revenge of the Fallen (film) follow. Spoilers have expired, you may remove this tag

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
Ironhide (Jess Harnell) (4) Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) (6) Arcee (Grey DeLisle) (8) Chromia (8) Purple motorcycle Autobot (8) Sideswipe (André Sogliuzzo) (9) Skids (Tom Kenny) (10) Mudflap (Reno Wilson) (11) Bumblebee (13) Wheelie (Tom Kenny) (15) Ratchet (Robert Foxworth) (17) Jolt (18) Jetfire (Mark Ryan) (38)	The Fallen (Tony Todd) (1) Demolishor (Calvin Wimmer) (6) Sideways (7) Soundwave (Frank Welker) (16) Ravage (20) Reedman (Frank Welker) (21) Alice (Isabel Lucas) (25) Rampage (Kevin Michael Richardson) (26) Mixmaster (27) Long Haul (28) Scrapper (29) Hightower (30) Scalpel (John Di Crosta) (31) Megatron (Hugo Weaving) (32) Starscream (Charlie Adler) (33) Grindor (35) Devastator (Frank Welker) (39) Protoform army (42) Scorponok (42) An unnamed Decepticon (43)	William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) (2) Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson) (3) Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) (9) Judy Witwicky (Julie White) (10) Ron Witwicky (Kevin Dunn) (11) Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) (14) General Morshower (Glenn Morshower) (16) Theodore Galloway (John Benjamin Hickey) (19) Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez) (22) Fassbinder (Jonathon Trent) (23) Sharsky (Walker Howard) (24) Professor Colan (Rainn Wilson) (34) Tova Simmons (Annie Korzen) (36) Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) (37)	Appliancebots (12)

Short synopsis

For dry, red eyes, the difference is clear: Clear Eyes.

The Autobots have found a home in "NEST", a secret military unit created to seek out and eliminate the remaining Decepticons. All is not well, however. Unbeknownst to them, Soundwave is in orbit, coordinating the Decepticon counterstrike. After Ravage steals the Allspark shard from NEST, a team of Constructicons and The Doctor journey to the bottom of the ocean and use it revive Megatron. The Decepticon leader journeys to the crashed Nemesis, rebukes Starscream, and meets with his master, The Fallen.

The Fallen explains that he had constructed a Solar Harvester on Earth, in violation of the Primes' code to never harm an inhabited planet. The Primes turned on him, banished and imprisoned him. However the Harvester still stands, and only one Prime remains. If Megatron destroys Optimus Prime, The Fallen will be freed to activate the Harvester, which will kill off the humans and provide the Decepticons with enough energon to raise an army. Megatron eagerly agrees, and returns to Earth with a vengeance.

It transpires that the location of the Harvester is hidden within Sam Witwicky, who absorbed the knowledge from another Allspark fragment. The Decepticons begin an all-out war across the Earth as they hunt down the human, and the Autobots and NEST are blamed for the ensuing carnage. Witwicky goes to ground, and must turn to unlikely allies in the race to find a solution. Ultimately, the last of the Primes defeats The Fallen, destroys the Harvester, and proves the Transformers' greatest power is found in their unexpectedly-ancient alliance with the humans.

Full synopsis

In 17,000 B.C., Transformers already were on Earth and built a machine.

Two years after the battle of Mission City, the Autobots have teamed up with the American soldiers, including Lennox and Epps, in a secret team named NEST under the command of the US military, but also incorporating soldiers from other countries such as the United Kingdom. Officially, the US government still keeps the Transformers' existence a secret. In Shanghai, China, NEST tracks down the Decepticons Demolishor and Sideways and kill them. Just before he is killed by Optimus Prime, Demolishor delivers a cryptic message that someone named "The Fallen" will rise again.

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky is preparing for his move to college when he finds a shard of the All Spark which brings numerous kitchen devices to life. After Bumblebee has destroyed the kitchen robots (and parts of the Witwickys' house with them), Sam hands the All Spark shard to Mikaela. He then tells Bumblebee to stay behind, since he isn't allowed to have a car at college.

Arriving at college, Sam meets his roommate, Leo Spitz, who operates a conspiracy website and is convinced that alien robots are hiding on Earth. At a frat party, Sam also meets his fellow student Alice, who attempts to seduce Sam. Whens Bumblebee shows up, she takes a ride with Sam, but Bumblebee does everything he can to convince her to leave. Bumblebee then takes Sam to Optimus Prime, who is convinced—for some reason—that Sam is in danger.

Meanwhile, NEST is visited by National Security Advisor Theodore Galloway, who is convinced that the only reason the new Decepticons have come to Earth is because the Autobots are still there. Therefore, he suggests that they may leave the planet. When Galloway reveals the location of the All Spark shard Optimus Prime had picked up after killing Megatron over an unsecure line, the transmission is picked up by Soundwave, who is stationed in orbit around Earth, disguised as a satellite. Soundwave promptly sends his minion Ravage to Earth, where he he infiltrates the NEST base on Diego Garcia and steals the shard. Ravage and several Constructicons then dive to the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss, where the US military has dumped Megatron's remains. Using the shard and spare parts from one of the Constructicons (who is presumably killed), "The Doctor" is able to revive Megatron, who promptly travels to one of Saturn's moons, where the Nemesis is used as a base by the Decepticons. He is awaited by Starscream and his master, The Fallen.

This scene sold so many toys.

Meanwhile, Sam is starting to see strange symbols, and believes it may have something to do with him touching the All Spark shard. When he calls Mikaela to warn her not to touch it, a Decepticon named Wheelie, disguised as a remote-controlled toy pickup, tries to steal the shard, but is captured by Mikaela. Mikaela promtply boards a plane to see Sam, but whens he arrives, she finds him in what appears to be an intimate moment with Alice. It soon turns out, however, that Alice is a Decepticon as well. Mikaela, Sam and Leo, who has stumbled across her robotic self by coincidence, try to escape, but are captured by the Decepticons. Megatron orders "The Doctor" to remove Sam's brain in order to access the information from the All Spark shard, but Optimus Prime and Bumblebee have managed to locate them and free Sam, Mikaela and Leo. Together, they attempt to flee, but in order for Sam to escape, Optimus Prime has to fight Megatron, Starscream and Grindor all by himself. After killing Grindor, Optimus is impaled by Megatron and dies. Just then, the other Autobots arrive, causing Megatron and Starscream to retreat.

In a hijacked TV broadcast, The Fallen reveals his existence to the world public and demands Sam to be surrendered to him. Decepticons land around the globe, killing several thousand people. In Paris, one of them tracks down Sam's parents, Ron and Judy Witwicky. Galloway uses the attacks an as excuse to shut down NEST and have the Autobots placed under guard, while a manhunt begins for Sam.

Sam, meanwhile, is hiding out with Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee and the Autobot twins, Skids and Mudflap. Leo eventually suggests they may ask his rival, "Robo-Warrior", owner of a competing website, for help. To everyone's surprise, Robo-Warrior turns out to be non other than Seymour Simmons, former agent of Sector Seven. Simmons reveals that symbols similar to those Sam is obsessed with have been found on numerous excavation sites around the world, but in order to read them, they may need a Decepticon. Mikaela then interrogates Wheelie, who suggests they may track down one of the Seekers. At the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, they discover an old Decepticon named Jetfire, disguised as an SR-71 Blackbird.

Jetfire claims he has defected to the Autobots and tells them about The Fallen, who betrayed his brothers, the Primes, many millennia ago. The Fallen intends to destroy the Earth's sun in order to create Energon, the Transformers' source of energy. The symbols in Sam's head are a map to the location of the solar harvester, the weapon the Fallen intends to use to destroy the sun. Jetfire also reveals that only a Prime can stop The Fallen, and a key is needed to activate the Harvester, the Matrix of Leadership. Sam suggests that they may use the Matrix to revive Optimus Prime, which is backed up by Jetfire.

Jetfire opens a space bridge and teleports himself as well as Sam, Mikaela, Leo, Simmons, Bumblebee and the Twins to Egypt. Between the Pyramids of Giza, they find the next clue and travel to Jordan. On the way, Simmons calls Lennox and instructs him to get his team, as well as the dead body of Optimus Prime, to Egypt. In Petra, they discover the tomb of the Primes. Inside, Sam finds the Matrix, which instantly crumbles into dust into his hands. Sam collects the dust regardless, and together, they travel back to Egypt. Meanwhile, Lennox has tricked Galloway into parachuting out of the cargo plane, and eventually the NEST team parachutes down and prepares for battle near the pyramids.

Before Sam and the others can get back to Lennox and his people, the Decepticons start there attack. The Constructicons merge into Devastator, who proceeds to swallow Mudflap. Mudflap, however, is able to free himself, and together with Skids, they try to slow Devastator down. While the Autobots and NEST fight the Decepticons, Megatron intends to use Sam's parents to lure him into a trap. Sam, falling into the trap, offers to hand over the Matrix dust to the Constructicon Rampage, but only to stall for time until Bumblebee is able to attack and destroy Rampage. Ravage attacks Bumblebee from behind, but is killed as well. Sam then orders Bumblebee to get his parents to safety while he and Mikaela try to reach Optimus Prime's body.

In the meantime, Devastator has begun to to take apart the pyramid that has been built around the Harvester. Simmons calls a navy ship off the coast of Egypt and orders the use of a railgun, which is fired at Devastator and apparently destroys him. Meanwhile, Sam is mortally hit by the blast of a shot fired by Megatron. While paramedics try to reanimate him, the Matrix dust gets spilled across his hand, and Sam encounters the dead Primes in a vision. The Primes tell him that he was destined to find the Matrix and save the life of the last Prime. Sam returns to life, and the dust in his hand turns back into the Matrix. With the Matrix, Sam is able to revive Optimus Prime.

Just then, The Fallen teleports himself next to Optimus Prime, grabs the Matrix and teleports himself to the pyramid, where he uses the Matrix to activate the Harvester. Jetfire, who has joined the battle, killing Mixmaster before being fatally wounded by Scorponok, instructs Optimus Prime to use his parts to battle The Fallen, and then rips out his own Spark. Ratchet and Jolt then proceed to turn Jetfire's remains into a battle armor for Optimus Prime, who is then able to destroy the Harvester and kill The Fallen. After the death of his master, Megatron, who has been severely damaged in the battle, follows Starscream's suggestion and retreats.

With the battle won, the Autobots, NEST, Sam and his friends return to the USA on board of an aircraft carrier. Upon his return, Sam continues to attend college.

Quotes

"Ding-a-ling, come out an' get yo' ice cream. Any bad robot out there better get ready for an ass-whoopin'."

— Skids and Mudflap speaking their first line in the movie as the ice cream truck.

"Sam, fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing."

— Optimus Prime

"Need parts. Kill ze little one!"

— Scalpel instructs the Constructicons to kill one of their own, and they happily oblige.

"Starscream, I'm home!"

— Megatron. And the fangirls go wild!

"I know you’re pissed-I know you’re pissed, I tried to kill you, right? It’s totally understandable. I mean, if you tried to kill me, I’d be pissed, too."

— Sam Witwicky tries to relate with Megatron, to no avail.

"Is the fate of our race not worth one human life?"
"You'd never stop at one. I'll take you all on!"

— Megatron tries to justify killing Sam, but Optimus Prime disapproves based on the potato chip theory. Beatdown ensues.

"What planet am I on?"
"Earth."
"Earth? Terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it Dirt. Planet Dirt."

— Jetfire asks Simmons where he is, only to have negative thoughts.

"You know what my father was? A wheel! The first wheel! And you know what he transformed into? NOTHING! But he did so with honor! Dignity!"

— Jetfire tells a story.

"Beginning. Middle. End. Facts. Details. Condense. Plot. Tell it."

— Simmons demands more coherent exposition from Jetfire.

"Lemme show ya how we brought the pain in my day!!"

—Jetfire enters the fray to show us young whippersnappers how it's really done.

"One man, alone, betrayed by the country he loves."

— Agent Simmons being, well, Agent Simmons as he bravely charges off to lure the Decepticons away.

"GIVE ME YOUR FACE."

—Optimus Prime warns The Fallen of his violent fetish.

"Not to call you a coward, master, but, sometimes, cowards do survive."

— Starscream pitches his usual battle plan to an unusually receptive Megatron.

---

Production staff

• Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman recruited Ehren Kruger to help them write the screenplay. Michael Bay and producers Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, and Lorenzo di Bonaventura also returned.

Prequel material

Titan Magazines Transformers movie comics

While the Decepticons were disgusted with the pro-Autobot propaganda of Bay's first documentary #13's Star Screams, they're quite optimistic about the second film. Starscream has taken a strong interest in it, going to the trouble of personally convincing Soundwave to be in the film 15's Star Screams.

The Decepticons promise this new documentary will show a glorious Decepticon victory #10's Star Screams - whether it's in the script or not. #18's Star Screams

Shockingly, even they are under a non-disclosure agreement regarding the script; Starscream fearfully refers to a greater power keeping him quiet. #22's Star Screams Talking about it could even undermine the Decepticon war effort! #23's Star Screams

In the same week the film came out, the Decepticons suddenly became unhappy with it and the detente period ended. Bay, Kurtzman, and Orci are once again marked for extermination for their propaganda films. #1's Law and Disorder

Adaptations

Main article: Revenge of the Fallen Movie Adaptation

Children's adaptations

Soundtrack

Main article: Revenge of the Fallen: The Soundtrack

Score

Main article: Revenge of the Fallen: The Score

• Linkin Park and Hans Zimmer worked with Steve Jablonsky on the score of the movie. Linkin Park also wrote a song, called "New Divide". It was one of the theme songs for the movie, and they did several interpretations on that theme.

Theatrical posters

• 
  Teaser poster
• 
  Theatrical poster
• 
  International poster
• 
  Prime poster
• 
  Bumblebee poster
• 
  Wait...Starscream gets a poster but Megatron doesn't? That's just wrong.

Reception

Transformers: ROTF has mostly gotten pretty hideous reviews, but that's because people don't understand that this isn't a movie, in the conventional sense.Michael Bay Finally Made An Art Movie, Charlie Jane Anders, i09.com, June 24, 2009

[The critics] never seem to understand that I make movies for people to take a ride and escape.forum post by Michael Bay, shootfortheedit.com, June 25, 2009

Revenge of the Fallen had its world premiere on June 8th, 2009, in Tokyo, Japan. Michael Bay, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Isabel Lucas and Ramon Rodriguez attended.. Other countries such as South Korea, the United Kingdom and Germany followed over the course of the next few days. The United States premiere was held on June 22nd, 2009, in Los Angeles.

In the week leading up to the United States release, while the film had been released in Japan and the United Kingdom, Revenge of the Fallen was ranking 38% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.com. As American reviews were added into the ranking on June 24, the movie's freshness slipped slowly to 22%. RottenTomatoes.com's consensus was that "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is a noisy, underplotted, and overlong special effects extravaganza that lacks a human touch." Roger Ebert, who gave the movie one star, remarked that "if you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together." Todd Gilchrist of Cinematical.com said Michael Bay "has exceeded even the possibilities of sequel-driven 'moreness,' combining his own muscular, high-gloss sensibility with the conventions of blockbusters past, present, and probably future to create a monolithic action masterpiece that feels destined to be the biggest movie of all time." Michael Phillips from the Chicago Tribune said "the first, comparatively lucid Transformers was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it....Revenge of the Fallen is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2½ hours." Roger Ebert went back for more in a second article, declaring not only that Revenge of the Fallen was awful, but that it'd ruined action films FOREVER.

A huge controversy revolved around the characters of the "Twins", Skids and Mudflap, which many critics and viewers believed to be racist stereotypes of poorly educated black American teenagers. Director Michael Bay, when confronted with those accusations, claimed that the personalities of the two characters were primarily created in the recording studio by voice actors Tom Kenny and Reno Wilson (the latter of which is an African American himself). Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci confirmed that this portrayal of the characters hadn't been in the script, and admitted that they could understand the controversy.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews, Revenge of the Fallen poised itself quickly as a blockbuster maelstrom. It grossed $16 million in its opening midnight showings alone, an all-time record for Wednesday openings and a second-best for openings on any day of the week behind The Dark Knight. After the full Wednesday was over, Revenge of the Fallen had grossed $55 million in domestic ticket sales, surpassing the previous Wednesday release record, held by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by over $10 million. By the end of the first five days, Revenge of the Fallen had taken an estimated $201.2 million in the United States, just shy of The Dark Knight's record $203.8 million 5-day US total. In the same period, international markets took in $186.1 million, bringing the 5-day worldwide total to $387.3 million.

Trivia

• The official title of the film is Revenge of the Fallen (with a lower-case "t" in "the") even though it is apparently referring to The Fallen (with a capital "T" in "The").
• Leo's room features posters for Naruto, Cloverfield, and Bad Boys 2.
• During the scenes set in and around the deli in NYC, posters for the bands Catch Twenty-Two and Voodoo Glow Skulls are prominently featured.
• Even though Revenge features mostly domestic voice actors for the foreign market dubs, Frank Welker is credited for voicing Soundwave not only in English, but also in the Italian and German dub. As a result, in the Italian dub of the movie, Soundwave speaks with a strange, foreign accent. Meanwhile, German voice acting experts are convinced that the German credit is wrong, as they believe to recognize a different German voice actor.

Transformers references

In addition to carryovers from the previous film, various concepts and characters are derived from previous iterations of Transformers:

• The whole concept of "Transformers disguised as a human" used for Alice is inspired by the Pretenders. Roberto Orci even used the term "Pretender" during an interview before the movie's release. However, a Transformer with an "organic" alt-mode instead of an external shell is a concept more reminiscent of the Beast Era.
• The Generation 1 iteration of Jetfire is frequently portrayed as switching from Decepticon to Autobot (he's usually a young and technologically up-to-the-minute 'bot, however.)
• Soundwave and his ejectible minion Ravage both have Generation 1 counterparts. Movie Soundwave even has the same voice actor as 1984 cartoon Soundwave, using the same voice, though without the synthetic vocal processing that made the cartoon voice so distinctive.
• Sideswipe bears little physical resemblance to his Generation 1 namesake, but is a vaguely similar character archetype, and he does have that characteristic door armor hanging from his elbows.
• Generation 1 Arcee was the first female Transformer with a starring role, and was likewise a pink-colored girlbot. The idea of Arcee the pink girlbot as a motorcycle dates back to Energon.
• Devastator, the combined form of the Constructicons, was the first combiner robot in Generation 1.
• The characters are new, but the names "Mudflap", "Skids", "Jolt", "Rampage" and "Wheelie" are not. Likewise for the concept of "Seekers".
• Optimus Prime dying and coming back to life has been done times beyond counting.
• Prime combining with another 'bot to increase his power (and often gain flight capabilities) is a trope that has occurred in many recent Transformers series (Robots in Disguise, Armada, Energon, Cybertron.) In Armada, a different Jetfire was his most frequent combination partner. This is the first time the other 'bot had to die for it to happen, though.
• The Fallen is based on a comic book character that made his debut in the 2004 miniseries The War Within: The Dark Ages. In fact, according to Hasbro, he is the exact same character!
• The Matrix of Leadership is one of the franchise's oldest MacGuffins.
• Energon (mentioned though never seen) is the Transformers' power source in numerous incarnations, beginning with the original cartoon.
• Though it is almost certainly not an actual reference (it's a pretty generic and predictable sci-fi trope), the solar harvester is quite similar in function to the Solar Needle from the Generation 1 episode "Changing Gears", sucking energy from the Sun to produce energon. Both devices would have destroyed the Sun if allowed to fulfill their function.
• The same is true for Sam having Cybertronian knowledge pumped directly into his brain via a sacred Transformer talisman, which is reminiscent of Buster Witwicky's similar situation in the Marvel G1 comics.

Development details

Cast and crew signing on

On may 30, 2007, a month before the official release of Transformers, DreamWorks announced that two sequels were already being planned. Megan Fox had already been confirmed for the first of those sequels twelve days eaerlier, while Shia LaBeouf had already confirmed his participation in an–at that time still theoretical–sequel in November 2006. Director Michael Bay, meanwhile, only once briefly questioned his involvement in a sequel in August 2007, when Paramount Pictures announced that Transformers would be released on HD DVD, but not on Blu-ray Disc. Bay quickly changed his mind, however, and Paramount would later release the first movie on Blu-ray anyway, after the HD DVD had been abandoned.

In September of 2007, Paramount officially announced the first sequel for June 2009. Bay was given a budget of $200 million, and ultimately managed to come in $4 million below that.

The Transformers screenwriters, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, initially hesitated writing the sequel, but ultimately had a change of mind. In October 2007, Ehren Kruger was confirmed as a third writer, who, according to Kurtzman, brought in a "fresh perspective", and who reportedly impressed both director Michael Bay and Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner with his knowledge of Transformers mythology.

In April 2009, Roberto Orci confirmed that cartoon voice actor Frank Welker would voice Soundwave. Welker had previously been considered as Megatron's voice actor in the first movie, but ultimately Michael Bay had given that part to Hugo Weaving instead. Both Bay and the writers were also hoping that Leonard Nimoy could voice a character in the movie. Even though Nimoy openly asked Bay to simply give him a call, it ultimately never worked out: after watching his guest appearance on Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Bay selected Tony Todd - whom he worked on with The Rock - for the voice of The Fallen instead.

Writing and production

For the movie, Orci and Kurtzman searched the various Transformers comics and cartoons for "the most elemental bad guy", and eventually found one in The Fallen.

In addition to that, they wanted to include many things in the sequel that hadn't made it into the first movie, including the Decepticon Soundwave. Likewise, the Matrix of Leadership had initially been intended to be used in the first movie, but for fear of confusion with the Matrix movies, the cube had been renamed into All Spark. In return, the Matrix in Revenge of the Fallen bears more resemblance to the Generation 1 Matrix.

In late 2007, during pre-production for then-untitled Transformers sequel, the Writers Guild of America went on strike, but according to all parties involved, this didn't slow down preparations of the movie much in the long run. Screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci turned in their first outline of the script the night before the strike officially began. During the strike, director Michael Bay used the script as a basis for preparing the movie. After the strike had ended, Kurtzman, Orci and Ehren Kruger continued their work on the script, based on Bay's changes. One consequence of this development was that Michael Bay and Hasbro had selected some of the new Transformers characters that were to would appear in the movie during the strike, because of the long production run of the toys, while they had legally not been allowed to consult with the screenwriters. The "Twins", Skids and Mudflap, are Bay's creation.

In early June of 2008, DreamWorks, Paramount and Hasbro officially confirmed the movie's title to be Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. A few weeks later, Roberto Orci confirmed that there would be no "2" in the title.

Principal shooting began in June 2008 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Other shooting sites were Philadelphia, the campus of Princeton University, Long Beach, the Holloman Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Some scenes were also shot in other countries, at the Pyramids of Giza and in Luxor, Egypt, in Jordan and in Paris.

According to director Michael Bay, Revenge is the first movie in abour 30 years to be given permission to shoot at the Pyramids of Giza, and the first movie ever to film on top of Petra. He obtained permission to film in Egypt by contacting Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's council of antiquities, who turned out to be a fan of the 2007 Transformers movie.

During the time of shooting, actor Shia LaBeouf suffered a severe injury of his left hand in a car accident. Ultimately, however, filming was only briefly halted, and his injury worked into the film, thereby not adversely affecting the filming schedule. For the movie, director Michael Bay earned himself an entry in the Guiness Book of Records for the "biggest explosion on film with actors present".

Sponsors and partners

Hasbro

Hasbro once again acted both as a licensor and actively participated in the development of the movie. Together with the first Transformers movie, the G.I. Joe movie Rise of the Cobra and several other planned movie projects such as Monopoly, Stretch Armstrong and Battleships, Revenge of the Fallen marks the beginning of a new company policy for Hasbro, believing that the new "the movie of the toy" strategy will be more lucrative than the old "the toy of the movie" concept, which involves hefty licensing fees. Still, director Michael Bay receives an 8% cut of all toy sales from the Transformers movies. During the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, when nobody was legally allowed to consult with the screenwriters, Hasbro and Bay selected several of the new Transformers characters that were to appear in the movie.

US military

The United States military also supported the movie again, providing vehicles, shooting locations and military personnel that appear as extras in the movie. Due to scheduling coincidences, Revenge of the Fallen was given a larger support by the US Department of Defense than G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, which was produced at the same time. Initially, Bay had intended to include German soldiers in the movie (presumably as members of NEST), but even though the soldiers were eager to participate, the German government denied the request.

General Motors

American car manufacturer General Motors once again provided vehicles that were used by the Autobots as their alternate modes. Returning from the first movie were the GMC Topkick (Ironhide), the Hummer H2 (Ratchet) and the new Chevrolet Camaro (Bumblebee), the latter this time as a slightly updated Z/28 model as compared to the first movie's concept car model. Newcomers for Revenge of the Fallen are all from the Chevrolet brand, namely the Chevrolet Beat (Skids), the Chevrolet Trax (Mudflap), a new Chevrolet Corvette Stingray concept car (Sideswipe) and, as a last minute addition, the new Chevrolet Volt electric car (Jolt).

In total, General Motors provided 67 vehicles, 52 of them being prototypes not intended for sale. As a consequence of the 2007-onwards financial crisis, however, General Motors reduced their financial support for Revenge in April of 2009.

Director Michael Bay estimates that, without the support of general Motors and the military, production of the movie would have cost $10 million more than the $195 million ultimate spent. Coinciding with the release of Revenge of the Fallen, General Motors reported that sales of the new Chevrolet Camaro were so strong that orders were outrunning the supply, even though the car was being sold above MSRP in many places. A direct connection to the movie, however, could not be proven.

Product placement

Like in the first movie, numerous companies signed a deal with the filmmakers which allowed for their product being featured in prominent places in the movie. A Mountain Dew vending machine can be seen in Leo's room, computer screens feature visible Cisco logos, Sam and Mikaela intend to communicate via iChat, a huge HSBC logo is seen at Times Squre in New York City, a Budweiser bottle is prominently featured in one of the Paris scenes, CNN is everyone's preferred news channel, and a giant IMAX logo is seen inside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In return, Mars heavily advertized Revenge of the Fallen with their chocolate candy brand M&M's.

Changes before, during and after production

• According to comic book writer Simon Furman, the Dinobots had been in an early draft of the movie's plot, but were dropped from the cast very early in development.
• One scene that didn't make it into the final movie would have explained Alice's sorta-human disguise: In it, Leo watches a TV ad featuring an Alice in Wonderland animatronic from an amusement park, which heavily resembles Alice. The scene was featured in the comic adaptation and the novelization. It's unclear if the scene has actually been filmed; however, the movie still features the follow-up scene in which Leo shows up to tell Sam something about Alice, only to see her robot tongue strangle him.

Disinformation

In April of 2008, director Michael Bay claimed he had initiated a huge disinformation campaign in order to prevent content details from the movie from being revealed to the public before he wanted them to. Ultimately, Bay himself turned out to be the main source of genuine disinformation, despite claiming that only what he said was 100% true. Therefore, the disinformation campaign mostly hinged on fans believing in its existence, and rejecting any genuinely "leaked" information, including set photos, statements by third parties such as Hasbro or IDW Publishing and stolen toy prototypes, as "disinformation". Screenwriter Roberto Orci eventually admitted that the disinformation campaign wasn't really working.

For the longest time, Bay upheld the position that Megatron would not return in Revenge of the Fallen. After concept designs of Megatron's new alternate mode had surfaced (some of which would later turn out to be designs of the RPM Megatron toy), Bay insisted that this was "just Hasbro coming up with a new toy", and Megatron would not appear in the movie. Following officially released evidence to the contrary (including Megatron's brief appearance in the February 1 Superbowl TV spot and the February teaser trailer), screenwriter Roberto Orci confirmed that Megatron would indeed return. Shortly afterwards, Bay retracted from his claims, but not entirely, suggesting that Megatron would only appear in a flashback scene "from the long lost past", despite the fact Megatron could be seen pinning Sam Witwicky to the ground in the aforementioned TV spot and teaser trailer. He also denied that Megatron would transform into a tank.

Bay also tried to have information prematurely revealed by third parties contained after the fact: During San Diego Comic-Con 2008, in an interview on July 25th, comic book writer Simon Furman revealed that the film would feature a character called The Fallen, which was a character they had created for Dreamwave's The War Within: The Dark Ages. Three days later, IDW Publishing writer Chris Mowry corroborated the claim in an interview with MTV Splash Page, calling "The Fallen" the main villain of Revenge. Arcee was also confirmed in the same interview. Less than a week after this, however, Michael Bay reiterated that everything leaked thus far was part of his alleged disinformation campaign, and that only a handful of people involved with the production of Revenge of the Fallen had actually seen the script, contradicting IDW's interviews where their representatives confirm that they have the script. Additionally, Bay claimed the only truth about the film revealed up to that point was Sam going to college. Curiously, on August 5th 2008, after a fan had pointed out the contradiction to Bay, all references to The Fallen (and Arcee) were removed from the aforementioned interviews, as well as any references to IDW Publishing having the script.

Errors

• Bumblebee picks up Sam at a frat party in the evening. He then takes him to a graveyard where it's daytime.

• During Sam's campus freakout, when he drops his notes on the steps, a blonde woman in a suit can be seen coming down the steps to his left, nearly reaching him. However, when the camera angle shifts, the woman is suddenly at the top of the stairs again.

• On the sonar, there are "five contacts" diving down to Megatron's location, and "six contacts" going up after his resurrection. Since one Constructicon was killed to repair Megatron, shouldn't there be only five contacts going up as well? Keep in mind, Scalpel is too small to register on sonar, but Ravage is just large enough.

• When the USS Theodore Roosevelt is sunk by Decepticon transition forms, the hull number of 74 can clearly be seen. CVN-74 belongs to the USS John C. Stennis, a carrier that shows up later in the film and was also the carrier used for filming.

• When Jetfire is activated at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (actually the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian) in Washington, he leaves the exhibition center and exits into the desert location of the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (aka The Boneyard), which is in Tuscon, Arizona. When Jetfire breaks out of the building, we can see a composited image of the Boneyard's rows of planes, so it's arguable that in this universe the middle of Washington DC happens to be a desert full of old planes, and no buildings and uh... heh heh. Given that this and the Transformers are the only changes between this universe and ours, that's a stretch.

External links

• Dreamworks/Paramount's Transformers Movie website
• Hasbro's Transformers homepage
• Interview with Michael Bay 02/09/2009 — Collider.com