Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (novel)
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 "GIVE ME YOUR FA-- Oh, wait, that doesn't happen in this version. Sorry, my bad." | |||||||||||||
| Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Del Rey Books | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 19, 2009 | ||||||||||||
| Screenplay | Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, & Ehren Kruger | ||||||||||||
| Writer | Alan Dean Foster | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Movie continuity | ||||||||||||
| ISBN | 978-0345515933 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 336 | ||||||||||||
Synopsis
On ancient Earth, early human hunters are stalking a tiger when they find what they believe to be a god. Said being briefly examines one, then lets it drop and walks off. The hunters follow the god when they find smaller gods building something....
In the present, the city of Shanghai is being evacuated due to a major chemical spill. However, the team sent in are not hazmat teams, they're NEST, special force of soldiers from multiple Earth governments working with the Autobots to locate and eliminate Decepticons still on Earth. Ironhide, Arcee, Sideswipe, and the Twins are deployed to locate a Decepticon in an industrial sector. When Major Lennox discovers two children who were not evacuated, the Decepticon Demolishor strikes. As Demolishor attacks, his partner Sideways tries to escape, and is forced to fight Arcee and the Twins. He fights them off but is killed by Sideswipe. Demolishor continues his attempts to escape, but is intercepted by Optimus Prime. He and Ironhide fatally damage Demolishor, but the dying Decepticon relays a warning: "The Fallen shall rise again."
Back in Burbank, Sam Witwicky is packing up for college while watching a report of the cover up on Mission City, which laid blame on Massive Dynamics. Sam dismisses it with disgust and resumes his packing. He then has to deal with his mom Judy suffering from sadness over Sam's departure. As his father Ron expresses pride in Sam for getting a scholarship to Princeton, Sam gets a call from Mikaela, who halfheartedly announces that they're breaking up. Sam then announces that he has a long-distance relationship kit for her, including some personal items, a Sector Seven badge, certain glasses, and even offers up the shirt he was wearing that day. As he unfolds it, a fragment of the AllSpark falls out. Picking it up, Sam experiences a brief flash of images, then is shocked by the fragment and drops it, which burns through his floor and lands in the kitchen. The resulting surge of energy brings several appliances to life, who immediately make their way to Sam's room and attack him. Sam jumps out the window and seeks cover with his father, before Sam yells for Bumblebee. The little Autobot manages to destroy the rampaging mutations, but is overzealous and destroys Sam's room in the process, damaging the house.
Emergency services are already there when Mikaela arrives and Sam gives her the fragment, telling not to tell anyone about it. Judy then announces that Bumblebee will be leaving when he leaves, and since freshmen aren't allowed to have cars on campus, Bumblebee is going back to the rest of the Autobots. Sam and Mikaela share a goodbye, but reach a minor rough patch when both hesitate to be the first to say "I love you". They move though, and Sam and his parents head for the airport, while Mikaela heads home. Unknown to her, Wheels, a Decepticon, is watching her, and discovers that she has the AllSpark fragment with her. He relays his discovery to Soundwave, who orders him to retrieve to the fragment.
On Diego Garcia, NEST is returning to base after the operation in Shanghai when Director Galloway arrives, saying he has a message for the Autobots. NEST is preparing to debrief Admiral Morshower, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, via satellite conference. Soundwave promptly hacks into the satellite and listens in on the message. Optimus Prime relays the warning of "The Fallen", and admits that he is unaware of its origins. It implies a link to the past, but since the only recorded history of Cybertron was contained in the AllSpark, they cannot research it. Director Galloway then interrupts, asking why the Decepticons are still interested in Earth with the AllSpark's destruction. Galloway reveals the President is concerned over the destruction resulting in Shanghai, and takes issue with the Autobots refusing to share weapons technology with the humans and continued sending of transmissions into space inviting more Autobots to come to Earth. Major Lennox and Sergeant Epps defend the Autobots, but Galloway dismisses their defense. Galloway then explains that with Megatron at the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss, and the last fragment of the AllSpark locked on Diego Garcia, there is only one reason for the Decepticons to be interested in Earth: they're here to hunt the Autobots. Galloway then asks that if they conclude that humanity would be better protected by denying the Autobots further asylum on Earth, would they leave peacefully? The other Autobots and NEST personnel are less than thrilled with the concept, but Optimus says that as freedom is the right of all sentient beings, he will honor the request. However, Optimus aks Galloway to relay a question to the President: what if they leave, and the Decepticons do not? Having learned of Megatron and the AllSpark shard's location, Soundwave begins to formulate a plan...
Arriving at Princeton, Sam makes his way to his dorm and meets his roommate, Leo Spitz, owner of The Real Effing Deal, an alternate news website trying to prove the existence of alien robots on Earth. He and his partners are working on a scope regarding the recent events in Shanghai, but they are beaten to the punch by their rival, Robo-Warrior, at GiantEffingRobots.com. Sam quickly realizes that they may have some conflict of interest, and asks if there is another room available, but there are no other rooms available. Sam and Leo are introduced to Alice, an attractive young girl who seems interested in Sam, but Sam has other priorities—namely, controlling his mother, who has just ingested marijuana laced brownies and nearly reveals the existence of the Autobots.
Over Diego Garcia, Soundwave releases his partner Ravage, who sneaks onto the base and releases the microcons comprising Reedman. Reedman manages to remove the AllSpark fragment in the vault, and kills several soldiers in the process. Rejoining Ravage, the pair blast off for their next destination.
At Princeton, Sam is dragged to a fraternity party by Leo, despite his insistence that he has a webchat date with Mikaela. While he avoids any brownies, he does feel strange at the party, seeing strange images. Alice is there, and starts chatting him up, until a member of the fraternity announces that a yellow camaro is parked outside in the bushes. Sam runs out and sees Bumblebee, and quickly decides to take him away. Alice hitches a ride, and makes it clear she's interested in Sam. Bumblebee disapproves of the girl, and douses her in lubricant, causing her to get out in a huff. Sam is angry at Bumblebee's behavior until he mentions a meeting with "the boss". Mikaela eventually gives up on the live chat date, while Sam is taken to an abandoned graveyard to meet with Optimus Prime, who informs Sam of the theft of the AllSpark fragment and the trouble he's having with the United States. Optimus needs outside help, and believes Sam to be a worthy ambassador. Sam is upset, as he just arrived at college. Optimus knows that fate rarely calls at a moment of one's choosing, and believes that there is greatness in Sam. Sam, however, disagrees, and declines the request. Optimus is disappointed but respects his decision.
On the Bayos, a ship traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, a sailor finds of his comrades dead, but is quickly killed himself by four of the Constructicons on the ship. Ravage arrives on the ship, and the five Decepticons jump overboard and begin diving for the ocean floor. A Naval submarine detects their presence and begins diving as well. Finding Megatron's shell, the Doctor is released and declares that he needs more parts. Three Constructicons descend upon the smallest of them and kill him, quickly using his components to repair Megatron. Once they're complete, the Doctor inserts the fragment into Megatron's spark core. The plan works, and Megatron is reactivated, hitting the submarine on the way to the surface.
At Princeton, Sam attends Professor Colan's Astronomy 101, and quickly begins seeing the images from before. He quickly reads Colan's book in seconds, and then stands up and says that Einstein was wrong about the theory of relativity. It's only accurate if you take this dimension into account, but false if you take the other seventeen. He then writes down complex equations on the chalkboard in alien script and cites the Sentinel Prime expedition as his source. Furious, Colan orders Sam out of class. Realizing something is wrong, he looks up information on his great-great-grandfather, Archibald Witwicky, drew the same images after he discovered Megatron.
Elsewhere, Megatron has reached a dying star system and made his way to a dead, cold world, where the Nemesis lies in ruins. Once he reaches the cargo hold, which still houses hundreds of Protoform Decepticons in stasis, an image begins to form, the face of The Fallen, who is gathering forces in other dimensions, and Megatron bows before him as his master. Megatron tells the Fallen that the AllSpark has been destroyed, but the Fallen tells him that the Cube was destroyed, while the knowledge within the AllSpark was instead transferred into Sam. With it, they can find another source of Energon to raise their army. Once he has succeeded, The Fallen will grant Megatron the powers of "The Dynasty". Starscream, incredibly fearful, tells Megatron he needed to take command in Megatron's absence. Megatron swats him aside and warns him that even in death, there is no command but Megatron. He then activates thirteen protoforms...
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Humans | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Quotes
Starscream: Forgive me, Lord Megatron, but in your absence, someone had to take command. I have deployed spy drones to the insect planet. They have already located the child who—bested you.
[Megatron rises and smacks Starscream into a wall]
Megatron: Even in death, there is no command but mine. My words ring truer in my absence than yours when you are present!
- —Megatron and Starscream reunite, but without the slashy subtext.
"Anyone else get the feeling we got the dregs of the Cybertronian gene pool?"
- —Seymour Simmons on Skids and Mudflap.
"Everyone's after me because of what I know? Well, I know that this is gonna work."
"How"?
"Because I believe it."
- —Sam lets Mikaela know that he'll raise Optimus through Burning Justice if necessary.
"You dare challenge me?! I am a Prime!"
"You abandoned that name when you slaughtered your brothers. There is only one Prime now, and my ancestry will be avenged."
- —The Fallen and Optimus Prime settle their family feud.
Errors
Items of note
- Devastator is formed from a green hauler, a dump truck, a front loader, a construction crane, and three other unidentified Constructicons.
- The appliances in the Witwicky kitchen that are brought to life include a cappuccino maker, a toaster, a garbage disposal, a cell phone, a microwave, a blender, and an electric mixer. They are called "appliancebots."
- Rampage (here unnamed) chases after Sam and Mikaela by bouncing like a pogo-stick.
- In Defiance issue 4, The Fallen claimed he would be imprisoned in his sarcophagus until the star harvester is rediscovered. This is apparently literally true. It seems the act of finding the harvester somehow freed him from prison.
Differences with the movie
- In the film, six Primes killed themselves to create the Tomb of the Primes. Here, eleven Primes have already been killed by The Fallen, and the twelfth creates the tomb from their bodies, only killing himself to seal it up.
- Wheels talks in a very Dinobot-like fashion, but is normal, albeit pretty rude, in the movie.
- More information is given as to how Mikaela gets Wheels through airport security. She told the young male ticket agent that the case contained expensive mechanic's tools an therefore may look strange on the X-ray. That explanation along with her good looks and cleavage distracted the ticket agent enough that he failed to notice anything wrong.
- The Fallen is not present on the Nemesis when Megatron visits it. Megatron instead speaks with The Fallen by means of an odd communications device which consisted of millions of tiny mechanisms which rose from the deck and formed a likeness of The Fallen's head.
- Optimus does not die, but instead goes into a form of stasis lock.
- Instead of the Fallen, Megatron is the one who hijacks the news broadcasts.
- Epps and Lennox receive their coordinates via a roundabout conversation from Epps' wife Monique, with some input from Sarah. Simmons is the one who directly tells them where to go in the film.
- Only Skids talks in jive, while Mudflap merely has a severe lisp.
- Bumblebee speaks with his own voice several times throughout the novel.
- There a lot of differences in deaths. Mixmaster (who is unidentified in the novel), is blown up by Jetfire instead of being bisected and crushed, and then Jetfire rips Scorponok's head off instead of smashing his head. Ravage's death is not mentioned. And finally, like in almost every piece of media, The Fallen is killed by being stabbed through the head with the top of the Solar Harvester.
- Optimus' final words in the novel are different. They are the same that were in the comic adaptation.
- Another similarity with the comic adaptation is that Megatron is shown raising his army on the Nemesis.
International printings
Japan
- ISBN 4150117152
- ISBN 978-4150117153
- Date published: June 10, 2009
- Publisher: Hayakawa Publishing Corp.
- Translator: Naoya Nakahara
- Pagecount: 416
