Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

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Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the first of two planned sequels to Transformers. It was released in theaters June 19th, 2009, June 24th in North America.

Synopsis
The film begins with a flashback to 17,000 B.C. A group of hominids are hunting a tiger, when they come across some transformers building the Star Harvester. At this, The Fallen teleports in front of them and begins to attack. He picks one of them up and examines his biological levels and molecular structure.

Two years after the events of the 2007 film, the Autobots have joined forces with the British and American military to form NEST, an organization whose mission is to combat the Decepticons hiding on Earth. Optimus Prime leads NEST into Shanghai, China, to eliminate Decepticons Demolishor and Sideways. He is joined by newcomers including Arcee and her sisters, Sideswipe, Jolt and the twins, Skids and Mudflap. Sideswipe kills Sideways with the help of Arcee and the twins, and Optimus and Ironhide kill Demolishor, but not before the Decepticon utters that "The Fallen will rise again".

American National Security Advisor Galloway berates the Autobots and NEST for the massive collateral damage they caused in Shanghai, suggesting that the Autobots leave. While Optimus does agree to this if the President commands it, he questions what will happen if the planet is left defenseless. Meanwhile in orbit above the planet, Soundwave hacks into a satellite and discovers the locations of Megatron's corpse and the last piece of the All Spark. Soundwave deploys Ravage to retrieve the shard, which he accomplishes by deploying hundreds of bug-like nanobots that group to form a single robot. Deep within the Laurentian Abyss, four of the Constructicons, Ravage, and Scalpel revive Megatron using the piece of the All Spark and parts cannibalized salvaged from one of their own. Megatron flies to the Decepticon spacecraft Nemesis on one of Saturn's moons, where he is reunited with Starscream and The Fallen. The Decepticons are seen trying to grow hatchling Transformers. However, these die immediately at birth due to insufficient energon. The Fallen intends to destroy the Sun (and Earth in the process) in order to create more energon.

Sam Witwicky prepares to head off to college, intending to live a normal life. Whilst packing, he finds another shard of the All Spark which fills his mind with ancient Cybertronian text. The All Spark fragment burns his hand, and through his room's floor into the kitchen, bringing various appliances to life. The resulting robots are then destroyed by Bumblebee, wrecking the Witwicky family's house in the process.

Sam entrusts the shard to his girlfriend Mikaela, who hides it in her father's safe at the motorcycle workshop where they work. Wheelie tries to steal it, but is spotted by Mikaela, who captures him with a pair of welding tongs, torches his left eye, and locks him into a toolbox, which she later takes with her.

At college, Sam meets his roommate Leo Spitz, who runs an alien conspiracy website, and a girl named Alice who makes disturbing advances on Sam. Sam begins to see Cybertronian text in his mind, and compulsively writes them on everything. After one such episode in his astronomy class, he calls Mikaela. She arrives to find Sam and Alice in a compromising position. When Alice is revealed to be a Decepticon Pretender, Mikaela, Sam, and Leo drive off, with Alice chasing them. Mikaela, being the car's driver, disposes of Alice by ramming her into a street light. As they attempt to escape, Grindor harpoons the roof of their vehicle and transports them to a warehouse building, where the trio are confronted by Megatron, Starscream, and Scalpel. Megatron pins Sam to a makeshift table as Scalpel probes his brain for information on the location of a new energon signal, and subsequently insists that the brain itself be removed. As Scalpel prepares to cut into Sam's temple, Optimus and Bumblebee arrive. Megatron pursues Optimus and Sam to a nearby forest, with Starscream and Grindor in tow. Optimus soon realizes it is a trap and urges Sam to hide, as the three Decepticons converge on them. Optimus manages to kill Grindor and disarm Starscream before Megatron impales him from behind and discharges his cannon. Prime uses the last of his strength to tell Sam to run. The other Autobots arrive on the scene and fend off the remaining Decepticons while Sam is evacuated by Bumblebee and the Twins.

The Decepticons then proceed to invade the planet, sinking an aircraft carrier upon their arrival. Soundwave hacks into all television and radio signals to broadcast The Fallen, revealing the existence of extraterrestrial life in the form of the Decepticons and himself, and demands that Sam be surrendered to them. Meanwhile, Galloway shuts down NEST and Sam's parents are captured by Rampage in Paris.

Sam, Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee, Wheelie and the twins rendezvous in a remote location to hide Sam. Leo suggests seeking the help of his website rival "Robo-Warrior", whom turns out to be Simmons. Simmons reveals his hidden archive of alien research and explains the history of the Transformers on Earth. It is explained by Wheelie that the language Sam sees is of the Dynasty of Primes, the original thirteen Transformers who powered the All Spark like a battery by destroying suns. Wheelie leads the group to Jetfire, an old Seeker who joined the Autobots due to "personal choice". Upon learning that he has a choice, Wheelie too decides to join the Autobots. Once he is informed of the situation, Jetfire uses a space bridge to transport the group to Egypt. Upon arrival, everyone is ejected out of the space bridge in different directions, and Sam's hand is injured in the process. After everyone regroups, Jetfire explains that the Primes used the suns to power the All Spark by using machines called Solar Harvester, which uses the Matrix of Leadership as a key. The Dynasty of the Primes, however, maintained that the Solar Harvester not be used in a star system with life forms. One of their own — now known as The Fallen — betrayed them, and sparked the war for the All Spark. The other Primes defeated The Fallen temporarily and then sacrificed themselves to seal away the Matrix in the Tomb of the Primes which is hidden in Egypt.

Through clues, the Matrix is found in Petra but it crumbles to dust in Sam's hands. Nevertheless, Sam piles the dust into his sock. Simmons contacts Major William Lennox and his troops and asks them to bring the Autobots and Optimus' corpse to Egypt so Optimus can be revived, what with a Prime being the only one capable of killing The Fallen. The military arrive, but so do the Decepticons. Leo, Simmons, and the twins face off against Devastator, the combined form of several Constructicons, who scales a pyramid to uncover the Solar Harvester. Devastator is ultimately destroyed by a rail gun round fired from a nearby destroyer on Simmons' orders.

Bumblebee rescues Sam's parents, killing both Ravage and Rampage, while Arcee is wounded in the fight. Additional reinforcements are summoned, killing Long Haul, Scrapper and the rest of the protoform Decepticons. However, Sam is caught in the attack and is severely injured by Megatron, rendering him unconscious. While in this state, Sam has a vision of the Dynasty of Primes. He then reawakens, telling Mikaela that he loves her just as the Matrix regenerates, and uses it to revive Optimus. However, before Optimus can be fully revived, The Fallen travels through a space bridge and takes the Matrix back out of Optimus' spark.

After killing Mixmaster by slicing him in two and blowing his head off, Jetfire fights and smashes Scorponok, but is mortally wounded. He then removes his own spark and gives up his parts to Optimus, which are attached to Prime with the help of Jolt and Ratchet. Optimus uses his new strength to destroy the Solar Harvester and kill The Fallen with Megatron and Starscream making a tactical retreat.

Optimus Prime concludes the event by proclaiming that the Transformers and humans now share an untold history and will combine their differences.

Rating
This film has been rated PG-13 in the US for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, language, crude and sexual material, and brief drug material.

In the UK it was rated 12A for the same reasons.

Quotes
"Ow! That's my eye you crazy bitch!"
 * —Wheelie

"Punkass Decepticon."
 * —Ironhide

"Is the future of our race not worth a single human boy?"

"You'll never stop at one!"
 * -Megatron and Optimus Prime.

"My father was a wheel! The first wheel! And do you know what he transformed into? Nothing! But he did it with honor!"
 * —Jetfire

"Bollocks!"
 * —Jetfire

"I'm too old for this crap."
 * —Jetfire

Errors

 * In the film, there were some repeated shots of characters and scenes. Such as Soundwave in space, Bumblebee whooting at the tiny appliance robots, and a heavily damaged Optimus looking up. Did Michael Bay and the crew members actually get lazy?!


 * The BACK of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (actually the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, an annex of the Smithsonian) is a desert?!

Glitches

 * TBA

Continuity errors

 * Bumblebee picks up Sam at the party in the evening and arrives at the cemetery in the daytime. Is the distance between the two places so far?


 * Frenzy's head is intact in a glass container even though it was destroyed. It's possible that Simmons had it rebuilt or repaired to keep it as a memento.
 * In the official prequel "The Veiled Threat", Simmions is shown to be experimenting on Frenzy's head and Frenzy speaks.


 * When Megatron is revived, five Decepticons go down to revive him, one is torn up for parts to repair him, and somehow six still come up out of the water. If one was torn up, it would have still been five total leaving the water.


 * When Bumblebee fights Rampage in Egypt, he gets his face mask ripped in half, yet in the next shot, it shows him wearing his complete face mask.


 * USS Theodore Roosevelt is sunk by the crashing of the Decepticon Protoforms. However, There are large words "74" on it. Not to mention USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) shows up later in the film. Possibly nobody remembers to change "74" to "71" by simply using CGI.


 * It's never clear why Alice is after Sam. She could be after the AllSpark fragment, or she could be after the information that's been encoded onto his brain or she could be trying to kill him. No explanation is explicitly stated.


 * Megatron tells Starscream that the Decepticons aren't going to "hide" from the humans anymore. But when did Megatron ever hide? He came back to life, immediately starting fighting Autobots in broad daylight in a major city, died, came back to life, and immediately started fighting Autobots in broad daylight again. Sure, someone may have told him offscreen that the Decepticons had been in hiding before finding him inside the Hoover Dam and again during his two-year underwater entombment, but it's an awkward line given Megatron's past actions.

Not actually an error

 * When Sam holds up the pictures of the older Transformers to Wheelie, the two pictures switch between shots. Do'h 


 * A shard of the cube can revive Megatron, Sam has a shard, but rather than use it to revive Optimus, he uses it on Jetfire.
 * Jetfire complains about his old and rustyness, but says to Optimus: "Take my (rusty old broken down) parts, and you will have a power you never imagined."


 * Decepticons somehow think letting Sam's parents go free in the middle of a battle is a good idea, rather than ransom them.


 * Sam is so smart that when he has "a few miles to go" he decides to run them on foot and have his car follow him, rather than drive to the meetup point and get there before most of the Decepticons arrive.


 * The Primes "fuse" their bodies together to protect the Matrix. It works so well that one shot from Bumblebee provides access. The sandstone walls of Petra held up better than their bodies.


 * When Sam's identity was practically given out to everyone (probably those who were watching their TVs) on Earth, his magical hoodie gave him instant immunity from millions of possible death mobs and the ability to freely walk the streets to greet his secret agent-turned-chef friend. Maybe he took lessons from Clark Kent.

Transformers references

 * Optimus Prime gets killed off, eventually. Don't worry, he will be back to online very soon, but much later than his Animated incarnation, whose death only lasted for 75 seconds.


 * Sam's brain contains lots of Sparks, similar to Buster Witwicky, whose brain contained the Creation Matrix for a while.


 * When Sam has his "meltdown" in astronomy class, he begins to explain the mathematics behind mass-shifting while he is up at the blackboard. As a part of his babble, he blurts out Sentinel Prime's name, as well.


 * This is not the first time that Egypt is related to the Transformer race.


 * Optimus Prime spits something like his teeth in the forest battle, much like Optimal Optimus spat his tooth in the Beast Wars episode "Nemesis Part 2".


 * Mudflap gets sucked by Devastator's suction vortex, similar to Optimal Optimus got sucked by Nemesis' tractor beam in the Beast Wars episode "Nemesis Part 2". It has similar gears and blades inside, along with light behind them.


 * Soundwave says "Yessss".


 * The Sun Harvester is remarkably similar to the Solar Needle in The Transformers episode "Changing Gears".


 * For some reason, the Transformers demonstrate many organic actions, such as Starscream spitting, Bumblebee crying, and killed bots leaking fluids like humans drip blood.

Real-world references

 * When Megatron returns to the Decepticon mothership, the place in the scene slightly resembles the nest of the Alien.


 * Starscream states they don't have enough Energon to keep the young Protoforms alive. It somehow resembles Dracula's need for The Monster's life source to bring his undead children to life in the film Van Helsing.


 * A Decepticon climbs the Empire State Building, just like Devastator's homage to King Kong in The Transformers episode "City of Steel".


 * Professor Colan says the line "I am alpha and omega", a line from the Christian Bible as well as the Covenant of Primus.


 * A chase occurs in the library, just like the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , also starring Shia LaBeouf.


 * Your classmate is a hot fembot? Riiight.


 * Alice is a hot Pretender, not a hot alien like Sil. Stop asking.


 * In Sam's room in the college dorm there are various posters for real world movies, such as Cloverfield.


 * Like the film Armageddon is mentioned in the previous movie, there is a poster of the film ''Bad Boys II on the wall of Sam's room.
 * Both films are directed by Michael Bay.


 * In Leo's computer room, there's a textile scroll/poster for the anime series Naruto in the background. Believe it!


 * President Barack Obama is indeed the president in this film. A clip of him is shown during the video threat from The Fallen. And a news reporter mentions Obama being flown to a safe zone, after the threat is made.

Trivia

 * Barricade, who vanished from the first film and supposedly scheduled to make a return, doesn't. Disapointment. His fate remains a mystery (unless one takes the novelization and comic of the first film as canon), or the Autobots working with NEST defeated him during the two year gap between the first movie and Revenge of the the Fallen.


 * Just out of curiosity, why did Demolishor even warn Optimus about the The Fallen? If he kept his mechanical lips shut, than the Autobots would be unprepared for their attack. Nice goin' Demolishor. You just ruined the next sequel!


 * Knock offs: Star Wars, Terminator, Van Helsing, and many many more.. With direct quotes, or technologies, or concepts. (All unnecessarily since they did have a decent amount of original material they could have pulled from.)


 * Optimus has become an even more violent fighter. He shoots without mercy a badly damaged Demolisher at point blank range. Stabs Grindor in the head with both of his blades. Cuts one of Starscream's arms off and hits him with it. He even rips the Fallens face off. Maybe he did take Jazz's death hard after all.

Transformers sequel and the 2007-2008 Writers Strike
In late 2007, during preproduction for then-untitled Transformers sequel, the Writers Guild of America went on strike. At the time, Roberto Orci stated that the strike could likely delay Transformers 2's release. However, Michael Bay refuted this, claiming the movie was still on schedule. The reason behind Bay's confidence was discovered by Orci shortly after the strike ended. The director had apparently taken the outline the writers had handed in the night before the strike, and begun movie prep based on it.

External link

 * Dreamworks/Paramount's Transformers Movie website


 * Interview with Michael Bay at Collider.com


 * Revenge of the Fallen Quotes -


 * Ten Things About Transformers Revenge of the Fallen That Didn't Make Any Sense at Film.com