Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an upcoming American science fiction action film due for release on June 19, 2009, in the United Kingdom, and June 24, 2009, in North America.[2] It is the sequel to 2007's Transformers, which was the first live action Transformers film. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg return respectively as director and executive producer, while Shia LaBeouf reprises the role of Sam Witwicky, the human caught in the war between Autobots and Decepticons. The film introduces many more robots and the scope has been expanded to numerous countries, most notably France and Egypt.

The main hurdle in getting the film produced was overcoming the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike, as well as possible strikes by the Directors Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild. Bay finished his production on time with the help of previsualization and a scriptment by his writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and series newcomer Ehren Kruger. Shooting took place from May to November 2008.

Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) discovers something about the origins of the Transformers and their history on Earth after receiving visions from a remaining piece of the Allspark. The evil Decepticons need to capture him for information.The climactic battle takes place at the Giza pyramid complex, where a temple is located within. Lorenzo di Bonaventura explained the film will start before the pyramids were built, tying the Transformers to the beginning of civilization, and implying that "all our heroes end up here because of the Decepticons' master plan." Furthermore, Egyptian hieroglyphs resembling helicopters and other present day vehicles in real life will be explained in the film as being depictions of those Ancient Cybertronians who visited Earth.

Bay explained the battle at Mission City did not expose the Transformers to the public. "Everybody has gone ahead. It's realistic. Two weeks after the tsunami, nobody talked about it anymore. It's very weird. We decided to do the same with the Transformers. The government talks about a military thing, says all is false, that it's a joke, and people don't know what they really saw." Orci cited the Phoenix Lights incident as an inspiration for how the Transformers manage to stay covert after the previous film, and added it was an interesting idea for how would the government "hide Optimus Prime". The human soldiers have joined the Autobots' ranks in a team called NEST (Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers in the tie-in novel or Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Team on official film tie-in web sites). A government front called McClaren Robotics covers up the robot sightings, and they have an Allspark shard kept in storage in NEST headquarters, in Diego Garcia

Cast and characters

• Shia LaBeouf plays Sam Witwicky, the teenager who killed Megatron. In this movie, Sam is trying to get some personal development, and have a normal kid's life, getting over his world-saviour status, and out of the overprotection from his parents and Bumblebee. He attends an East Coast college to learn astronomy. During his time there, Sam starts having mental flashes about Cybertronian symbols that turn out to be the key to finding a source of Energon on Earth, so now the Decepticons are after him to get that information. On July 27, 2008, LaBeouf was involved in a car crash, with fellow actress Isabel Lucas, and had to undergo hand surgery. The character getting burned in the story was an unrelated decision. LaBeouf said production was only delayed by two days after his accident because Bay made up for it by filming second unit scenes, and he recovered from the accident a few weeks earlier than expected, allowing him to return to the set. Bay had suggested the hand injury would be written into the story, and Orci said on-set rewrites were done to protect his hand for the remainder of the shoot. Towards the end of filming though, LaBeouf injured his eye when he hit a prop, which required seven stitches. He resumed filming two hours later.

• Megan Fox plays Mikaela Banes, Sam's girlfriend, who cannot afford to attend college with him,[59] and gets a job at a motorcycle repair shop. Fox cannot ride bikes in reality and had to have someone push her vehicle around as she rode on them. Fox had lost a lot of weight for her role in Jennifer's Body, and had to gain ten pounds within three weeks. She explained "Michael doesn't like skinny girls."

• Josh Duhamel plays Major William Lennox, a U.S. Army Ranger and ally of the Autobots. Since the first film Lennox has become part of NEST, an international taskforce battling Decepticons with the Autobots.

• Tyrese Gibson plays Robert Epps, a U.S. Air Force Combat Controller and a member of NEST. He has been promoted to the rank of Master Sergeant.

• John Turturro plays Reggie Simmons, former agent of the terminated Sector 7 unit, which monitored Transformer activity on Earth. He is now off-duty, working in his mother's deli restaurant when Sam enlists his aid. Turturro was allowed to climb the real pyramids during filming.

• Kevin Dunn and Julie White play Ron and Judy Witwicky, Sam's parents. They learned the truth about the Transformers while off-screen in the last film. The Witwickies go on vacation to Paris and get caught up in the war by themselves.

Ramon Rodriguez plays Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate who owns a website on conspiracy theories. He accompanies Sam and Mikaela all the way to Egypt. Rodriguez endured 100 mph winds created by fans while filming in Egypt, which resulted in him dislocating his shoulder and having to spend 45 minutes having his eyes flushed of sand.
• 
  

• Matthew Marsden plays Graham, an agent of the fictional SASF, and a member of the United Kingdom Special Forces who joins NEST. Marsden grew up reading the comics and loved the first film. Bay was impressed with his audition and decided to increase the character's screentime.

• Rainn Wilson cameos as Professor Colan, Sam's sleazy college lecturer. Bay based the character on one of his professors at Wesleyan University, who was rumored to be chatting up his female students.
• Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime, the Autobot leader. He retains his alternate mode of a blue Peterbilt truck with red flame decals. Cullen recorded a voiceover for the opening scene in August 2008, but began the majority of voice work in November.A live action cameo has been written for Cullen.

• Mark Ryan voices Bumblebee, the Autobot who befriended Sam and disguises himself as his fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro. Ryan also continued his role as stand-in for the robots on set. Bumblebee's voice is still malfunctioning, and he still uses radio soundbites to express some of his emotions. Sam cannot take him to college as they do not allow freshmen to have cars on campus, and he'll also be forced to leave the Witwickys' garage due to an incident that resulted in Bumblebee wrecking their house. The filmmakers used the Super Sport version of the 2010 Camaro rather than the concept version. Ed Welburn, vice president of GM Global Design, said the redesigned car emphasized Bumblebee as becoming stronger after having his severed legs reattached in the first film: the new intakes and spoilers show he is a sturdier character.

• Jess Harnell voices Ironhide, the Autobot weapons specialist who transforms into a GMC Topkick.

• Robert Foxworth voices Ratchet, the Autobot medic who transforms into a search and rescue Hummer H2.

• John Turturro voices Jetfire, a former Decepticon who transforms into a SR-71 Blackbird. His wounds and age have made him choose to become an Autobot. He can combine with Optimus, as they did in the Transformers: Armada series, which provides Optimus with the ability to fly. The writers wanted a geriatric robot, and during scripting they gave Jetfire that personality. He creaks, does not transform well, and is said to be running out of Energon. Also, he walks with a cane, which doubles as a battle axe. In the movie, he is found in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center by Agent Simmons and Sam, who break into the museum at night and reactivate him by using the AllSpark shard.Turturro offered to voice the character because he thought it would be a fun part.

• Susan Blu voices Arcee, a single consciousness driving three female Transformers that transform into motorcycles. Although this ability was dropped from the movie, in the novelization and the toy line the robots that make up Arcee are able to combine. Arcee, who initially transformed from a single bike, was dropped from the first film due to concerns of her being too small compared to the other bots, and the fact that the writers felt there was not enough time to explain her "gender", despite her and several other female Transformers appearing in the first film's toy line and tie-in comics.Whether to explain robotic gender or not was something the writers were unsure about, and it remained undecided until post-production. The motorcycle vehicle modes for Arcee were provided by custom sportsbike builder retroSBK. Although they aren't individually named in the movie, for the toy line each motorcycle was given a separate name.
  • A pink motorcycle, named Arcee in the toy line.
  • A blue motorcycle, named Chromia in the toy line. In the 1980s cartoon, Chromia was Ironhide's girlfriend, something reflected by the film version's toy biography, which states Chromia was "friends with Ironhide for centuries, and their reunion on Earth was one of the high points of the war for both of them. Now they work side by side, hunting and destroying Decepticons. Neither of them has ever been happier."
  • A purple motorcycle.

• Mudflap and Skids, also known as The Twins, these Autobot infiltrators transform respectively into a red Chevrolet Trax and green Chevrolet Beat. Mudflap is very hyperactive, while Skids believes himself to be the smarter of the two and tries to come across as mature, but nevertheless appears unable to keep quiet. Bay compared the message of the bumbling but heroic characters to the story The Little Engine That Could. He chose the Beat and Trax for the Autobot twins because he thought those two small cars looked good together. Ed Welburn added when they had designed the cars before Bay selected them, the "character" they wanted to bring to the concepts was a sense that small cars could be as cool as large ones. The Twins have the ability to combine. They start the film by combining into a pink and white ice cream van, and at some point they combine to form a bigger robot.

• Jason Griffith voices Sideswipe, a silver Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept. He is an expert fighter with his swords and tries to get in close with his opponents. According to the writers in panel at Botcon Sideswipe was originally scripted to be a Lamborghini like his Generation 1 counterpart, but Bay had his choice of cars and went with the Stingray.

• Jolt, a blue Chevrolet Volt. Being an electric car, Jolt's weapons are a pair of electric whips. He was a last-minute addition to the cast as General Motors, the film's car supplier, wanted to promote the Volt. The writers had already wanted to include the car in the script before the Writers Guild strike, so they had to work out a character that would fit well within the Autobot team afterwards and convince Bay to approve the addition. Welburn was pleased the Volt's character was christened Jolt by the filmmakers, as it reflected that car's design "character".

• Wheelie, a blue radio-controlled toy monster truck. Wheelie initially serves the Decepticons, but because he is frightened of them he joins the Autobots - he refers to Mikaela as a "Warrior Goddess". He is called "Wheels" in the film novel. Bay revealed that Kenny would be voicing a character in the film during an interview, but the character's identity remained unknown until the film's release in Japan.
• Hugo Weaving voices Megatron, the Decepticon leader. Killed and thrown into the Laurentian Abyss in the first film. He is resurrected by the Constructicons with dead robots' parts as a Cybertronian tank (although some sources claim he is now a Triple Changer, retaining his jet mode and adding the tank mode). He has become stronger as a result of absorbing the Allspark fragments that originally killed him. When reviving the character, the writers chose not to rename him Galvatron so as to not confuse the general audience.

• Charlie Adler voices Starscream, the air commander who transforms into an F-22 Raptor. He flew into space at the end of the previous film, and now returns bearing Cybertronian symbols on his body and commanding a new Decepticon army. Orci confirmed he will have more dialogue. Chris Mowry, writer of the comic book prequels, stated Starscream differs from his 1980s incarnation because "His motivations are more for the species. He's definitely at odds with what Prime and Megatron have been doing. He thinks that they've both been consumed with greed, for their own selfish reasons, but as he finds out, his plans start to fall through as he’s kind of becoming overwhelmed with the same greed that they had." However, Orci explained that during post-production, dialogue additions edged Starscream closer towards his 1980s counterpart.

• Tony Todd voices The Fallen, one of the original thirteen Transformers and the one who corrupted Megatron into forming the Decepticons. He is trapped in another dimension and was able to communicate with the Decepticons via an interdimensional window. He is capable of opening Space Bridges at will. It was the Fallen's face, distorted by this window, that inspired the image the Decepticons would use as their insignia. Lorenzo di Bonaventura compared the Fallen to Judas Iscariot. He transforms into a Cybertronian aircraft. The writers selected the Fallen after looking through various cartoons and comics for new characters, because he was the most "elemental" villain. Orci and Kurtzman approached Leonard Nimoy, who they had collaborated with on the Star Trek movie, about voicing the part. Nimoy voiced Galvatron in 1986's The Transformers: The Movie and is also married to Bay's aunt Susan. Orci said Welker might take on the role due to "fan outcry". Bay was apprehensive about approaching Nimoy as "I just feel kind of bad about asking him. Like 'I can't pay you that much, but would you do this voice?'" During a press conference for Star Trek, Nimoy answered that the director should "Call me!" He also said he had heard that Bay was afraid to get a hold of him "for some reason", but he would gladly be a part of Transformers again.Todd noted on his official website that he would be voicing a character in the movie, although the character's identity remained unknown until the film's premiere in Japan.

Frank Welker voices Soundwave, Megatron's intelligence officer. He transforms into a Cybertronian craft with jet and satellite capabilities. The concept artists also designed an Earth form of a Chevrolet Silverado for him to upgrade into, which Orci stated was dropped. In the 1980s toyline, Soundwave's alternate mode was a micro-cassette player. The filmmakers had tried to work him into the first film twice, and these roles eventually evolved into Blackout and Frenzy. The latter character was particularly thought to be too different from the original. Welker voiced Soundwave, as well as Megatron, in the original cartoon.
• • Ravage, a minion of Soundwave that resembles a large one-eyed jaguar that transforms into a missile.

Frank Welker also voices Devastator, a 46 feet (14 m) tall (hunched over) massive robot formed by several combining construction vehicles known as the Constructicons, who walks in a four-legged fashion resembling a gorilla.He is physically unable to stand upright, but would be 100 feet (30 m) to 120 feet (37 m) tall if he did. His jaws can open up to form some sort of suction vortex, and he seems to have grappling hooks he is seen using to climb a pyramid. In the first film, the name "Devastator" was mistakenly given to Brawl, a tank. In the theatrical trailer for the movie, Long Haul, Mixmaster, and two unidentified Constructicons are seen heading down to the bottom of the ocean in hunt of Megatron's corpse, ultimately reactivating their fallen leader.
• • Scavenger, a red Terex O&K RH 400 hydraulic mining excavator, closely resembling Demolishor. He forms the torso of Devastator, along with Overload.
  • Hightower, transforms into a yellow Kobelco CK2500 crawler crane and forms the left arm.
  • Long Haul, a green Caterpillar 773B dump truck, which forms the right leg.Long Haul's individual robot mode was designed by freelance artist Josh Nizzi as fan art of the original character. The fan art impressed Bay enough to hire him on to the film.
  • Mixmaster, who transforms into a black and silver Mack concrete mixer truck. He forms the head. He has a third "battle mode" which appears to be a gun emplacement. He is an expert in chemistry and explosives who makes explosives and poisons for the other Decepticons weapons.
  • Rampage, a yellow Caterpillar D9 bulldozer who forms the lift leg.He also sports a third "jackhammer" mode. He lives to pound his enemies into submission.
  • Scrapper,a yellow Caterpillar 992G scoop loader who forms the right arm.
  • Overload, a red articulated dump truck that also forms Devastator's torso.

• Grindor, an MH-53 Pave Low helicopter, and Scorponok, his scorpion-like minion. After Lennox killed Blackout in the first film, Scorponok hid in the desert, repaired his tail, and is now teaming up with a new character who is virtually a clone of his previous partner.

• Isabel Lucas plays Alice, a Pretender who stalks Sam. Her character's form is based on an animatronic Alice in Wonderland figure and her cover is blown by Leo.

• Demolishor,a red Terex O&K RH 400 hydraulic mining excavator; He seems to be almost identical to Scavenger in both robot and alt modes, having only coloring differences. Demolishor is the protector of a small Decepticon community in Shanghai. He is the one seen running through the overpass in the trailers. He is killed by Optimus Prime. During production, the film writers simply called him "Wheelbot", and he is referred to as "Demolisher" in the film novel.

• Sideways, a silver Audi R8 hiding with Demolishor in Shanghai, China until he is discovered by the Autobots.

• Ejector, a small pyromaniac robot who turns into a toaster, brought to life by an Allspark fragment in Sam's kitchen. Ejector appeared, unnamed, in Mountain Dew commercials for the 2007 Transformers film.

• Scalpel, a small, spider-like robot who turns into a microscope. He is a medic and scientist equipped with tools he is seen using to torture Sam. The other Decepticons call him "the Doctor". The packaging of his Scout-Class figure details he is skilled in dissecting and rebuilding almost any living organism.

There will be other minor robots, including Insecticons, some robots who can transform into weapons and some cooking appliances brought to life by the AllSpark shard. Tarah Paige was said to play a key role also.

Articles from: http://www.wikipedia.org