Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (live-action movie)

Trivia:

During filming, Shia LaBouf was involved in a car crash and required surgery on his hand. His injury delayed production by only two days, as director Michael Bay made up for the delays by filming the second unit scenes. Shortly after returning to the set, LaBeouf injured his eye when he hit his head on a prop, requiring seven stitches.

Prior to filming, Megan Fox had lost a considerable amount of weight for her role in the film Jennifer's Body. She was required by Bay to gain 10 lbs. within three weeks before filming.

Bay was able to earn the Egyptian government's approval to film at the Giza pyramid complex and the ancient ruins of Luxor through contact with renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, who is a fan of the first film. Hawass made Bay swear not to damage any of the buildings during filming. To further promote the film, a giant poster shrouded the Luxor Hotel & Casino - which is also a pyramid - in Las Vegas, NV.

Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman wanted legendary Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy to do the voice of The Fallen. Nimoy was previously the voice of Galvatron in the 1986 animated movie. He eventually lent his voice for Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

In addition to Egypt, the production team filmed scenes in Jordan with the aid of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, as a prince of the country was a fan of the first film.

A "Naruto" poster can be seen at one time during the film, just as Sam enters the back room of his dorm.

At Sam's dorm, posters of Cloverfield and Bad Boys II are seen on the wall. Cloverfield is a film produced by Paramount Pictures, while Bad Boys II is a Michael Bay film.

Frank Welker reprises his role as Soundwave for this film. However, he uses his Dr. Claw voice (from Inspector Gadget), which is actually the unsynthesized version of Soundwave's cartoon voice.

Like the first film, Revenge of the Fallen shattered box office records worldwide. On its midnight premiere, it grossed $16 million, the most ever for a Wednesday midnight debut. It then grossed $60.6 million by the end of that day - second only to The Dark Knight on all-time opening day records. Within its first five days, the film brought in $200 million.

Mikaela's dog is played by Bonecrusher the Mastiff, Michael Bay's pet.

The iconic "Jaws Theme" can briefly be heard on the radio in Bumblebee. "Jaws" is an early film by Executive Producer Steven Spielberg.

This was the last Transformers film starring Megan Fox, who was fired prior to the production of Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The Sun harvester subplot is loosely based on the Generation 1 episode "Changing Gears", where the Decepticons create a device to extract energy from the Sun for Energon.

Shooting started the day after Transformers won the MTV Movie Award for Best Movie.

Michael Bay considered making Pain and Gain between Transformers and this film, but he "didn't want someone else to take his baby" and so stuck around to make three more Transformers films.

According to Roberto Orci, Jonah Hill was offered the part of Leo Spitz, and even received a copy of the script, but negotiations fell through.

Alex Kurtzman came up with the film's title. His co-writer Roberto Orci jokingly stated he would also like Transformers to be named "Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye."

Screenwriter Ehren Kruger was signed on for his encyclopedic knowledge of the Transformers and because he was a good friend of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

The Autobot Arcee was originally meant to appear in the first film, but was replaced with Ironhide because the writers thought robot genders would be difficult to explain. Afterward, they decided to include Arcee to please fans, and ignore the gender issue. Arcee's alternate mode was felt to be too small for her to be an effective warrior, so she got two partners, Chromia and Elita-1.

The Decepticon Soundwave was originally meant to appear in the first film, but could not be properly reworked. He was a helicopter, but that was rewritten as Blackout; he then became a radio, then that was rewritten as Frenzy. His alternate mode in this film is a satellite, which fits his role as a communications officer.

To stage an action scene at White Sands, the buildings built on the sand had explosives inside of them, and six F-16s were flown over the area.

During production, Michael Bay attempted to create a misinformation campaign to increase debate over what Transformers would appear in the film, and try to throw fans off of the story of the film. According to Roberto Orci it didn't work.

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman chose the Fallen as the film's primary antagonist because they felt he was the most elemental villain (he was originally seen in the "Transformer" comics as an apocalyptic god-like robot) and would make a fine master for Megatron.

Megatron's alternate mode in this film is an alien tank. This combines events from The Transformers: The Movie (he was resurrected as Galvatron, whose alternate mode was a tripod laser cannon/pistol and later an Israeli Merkava tank) and the 1980s Transformer comics (he was resurrected as a tank).

John Turturro was allowed to climb the pyramids during filming in Egypt. At one point, he simply broke down crying. When Michael Bay questioned him, he said, "You just don't get to do this in movies. You don't get to shoot in a place that's 4000 years old."

The Forest Battle and Operation Firestorm were shot with IMAX cameras. Because of the increased resolution, it took ILM animators 72 hours to render one frame of those scenes.

The Autobot that transformed into a Chevrolet Corvette (Centennial Concept) sportscar was originally called Hot Rod, but he was later renamed Sideswipe. He is also inspired by the Autobot Drift, who transforms from a sportscar, wields blades in battle, and has a similar headcrest.

Ravage's alternate mode in The Transformers was a tape cassette, but that was considered old-fashioned. He retains his robotic panther form throughout the film.

The Dinobots, a faction of Autobots who took the forms of dinosaurs, received strong support from fans to appear in the film. Alex Kurtzman dismissed them as an unlikely concept for an alien robot film, but decided to reserve them for a sequel because of their popularity among fans. Michael Bay however, claimed that he disliked them and that they would not make an appearance in the films.

The college scenes were shot at both the University of Pennsylvania and the Princeton University. Neither school is named in the film, however, as both schools felt that the Judy Witwicky scenes were damaging to their image.

Bumblebee's alternate mode in this film is a 2010 Concept Chevrolet Camaro. This was a redesign of his previous 2009 Chevrolet Camaro mode, carried out to emphasize Bumblebee becoming stronger and sturdier after his injury in the first film. The Chevrolet logo on Bumblebee's grill in the first film is yellow, but in this film it is black with a red outline.

The Shanghai Skirmish was planned to shoot in Japan, in homage to the original birthplace of the Transformers, but the filmmakers thought it was too Godzilla-like.

Wheelie was originally an Autobot Cybertronian car in The Transformers: The Movie, but this was revised to a Decepticon radio-controlled truck. His overall personality, a fast-talking, street-smart spy on wheels, is based on the Beast Machines version of the Maximal, Rattrap. In both a joke and homage, Wheelie gets his foot caught in a mousetrap.

In The Transformers, there were two sportscar brothers named Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Sideswipe had already been selected as a single character. When Michael Bay saw the Chevrolet Trax and Beat, he thought they looked good together and had the potential to be as cool as any big truck. The Twins were altered to miniature automobiles, and were renamed Skids (after the Autobot from the 1980s "Transformer" comics) and Mudflap (after the Transformers: Cybertron Autobot).

Caterpillar Inc. provided three vehicles to portray Decepticons: the 992D wheel loader (Scrapper), the 773B dump truck (Long Haul), and the D9N bulldozer (Rampage).

The Decepticon Mixmaster's alternate mode is a Mack Trucks concrete mixer.

The Decepticon Hightower's alternate mode is a Kobelco CK2500 Crawler Crane.

The Decepticon Demolishor's alternate mode is a Terex O&K RH-400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator, considered to be the largest hydraulic excavator in the world.

The Autobot Jolt's alternate mode in this film is a Chevrolet Volt, a new vehicle designed by General Motors. The car company wanted to promote their new vehicle, but the writers had been dazzled by the Volt, and wanted it in the film anyway.

The Decepticon Barricade, seen in the first film, was going to reappear in Shanghai as the Audi R8 automobile, but the Hasbro Company vetoed that idea in favour of the Audi being a new Decepticon, so he was renamed Sideways.

The animators modelled Devastator's stooped stature and lumbering movements after a gorilla.

According to Roberto Orci, the script struggled to maintain "a more evenly-balanced focus between the humans and the robots" and "to modulate the humor more." The Transformers' more intense war was balanced by outrageous jokes.

The film shot in Egypt for 3 days, primarily at the Giza pyramid complex and Luxor. According to Lorenzo di Bonaventura, the shoot was highly secretive: "A crew of 150 Americans and several dozen local Egyptians ensured a remarkably smooth shoot."

The film shot for 4 days in Jordan, at Petra, Wadi Rum and Salt. The Jordanian royal family, who loved Transformers, provided the Royal Jordanian Air Force for assistance.

Before filming at La Place de la Concorde in Paris, Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia was used as a stand-in.

The Transformers were created with a mix of computer-generated imagery and props, including include a life-scale model of Bumblebee (the same used from the first film), a life-scale model of Optimus Prime, a life-scale puppet of robot-mode Wheelie, a model of the Matrix of Leadership, Jetfire's landing gear/cane, a puppet of Ravage, a puppet of Scalpel, Megatron's claw, and the Fallen's face. CGI was used extensively so scenes could be filmed easily.

According to Roberto Orci, the film's central theme is "being away from home and adapting to a new world." Sam must leave home for college, and the Autobots make Earth their new home.

Originally there was going to be a massive army of Insecticons (a The Transformers faction of insectoid Decepticons) that would merge to form the Hive, (inspired by the Swarm from the 1980s "Transformers" comics). This was changed as it would have been too expensive, and not as spectacular as the combiner Devastator; in the end, only one Insecticon appears, seen tracking down Sam and Mikaela in Operation Firestorm. The concept was not scrapped though but evolved into the Microcons-Reedman sequence.

Teresa Palmer was originally cast as Alice.

Michael Bay wanted Amaury Nolasco to reprise his role as Jorge Figueroa, but Nolasco was unavailable due to schedule conflicts with other films.

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman approached Leonard Nimoy to voice the Fallen while the three of them worked on Star Trek. Nimoy voiced Galvatron, Megatron's successor, in The Transformers: The Movie. Michael Bay was nervous about approaching a relative (Nimoy is married to Bay's cousin), particularly a famous one: "I just feel kind of bad about asking him. 'I can't pay you that much, but would you do this voice?'" Nimoy later got the role of Optimus Prime's predecessor Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

The Fallen's face resembles the Decepticon insignia, with an Egyptian crown attached. He also has red magma lines running across his body, a reference to his original aflame appearance in the comics. His features also resemble the multi-faced Quintessons, the god-like bio-mechanical creators of the The Transformers.

The Hasbro and Takara Toy Company, who own the "Transformers" toy line, recommended that the film feature combining robots.

While rendering Devastator, one ILM animator's computer reportedly overheated, and its internal circuitry melted.

Ravage's first scene shows him leaping over the Diego Garcia beach. This scene is based on the famous image of a leaping Ravage that appeared as his original packaging art, was used repeatedly in the Marvel Comic, and is copied in coloring and story books.

Michael Bay described the tone of the film as "Ben-Hur fused with Apocalypse Now."

John Turturro offered to voice Jetfire because he thought it would be a fun role.

The filmmakers polled Transformers fans to decide which robots to cast in the film. The most popular robots were Soundwave (20% of the vote), the Constructicons and Dinobots (tied with 16%), Jetfire (11%), Ultra Magnus and Shockwave (tied with 9%).

Attending a preview of the film, Steven Spielberg is reported to have said upon seeing Devastator in Operation Firestorm, "That is f***ing awesome!" Michael Bay was proud of the fact that he could make the normally well-mannered Spielberg swear.

When filming the Operation Firestorm scene where Leo rescues Simmons from Devastator's vortex Ramon Rodriguez endured artificially-generated 100-mph winds, which clogged his eyes with sand and dislocated his shoulder. It took him 45 minutes to clear his eyes.

Megan Fox cannot ride a motorcycle, so when she shot her riding scenes someone had to push her so that she could get a good start, and when shooting ended someone was always on hand to catch her bike.

Steve Jablonsky brought in his mentor Hans Zimmer and the rock band 'Linkin Park' to assist in composing the musical score. The trio collaborated on making a musical score set to the band's song "New Divide."

The Autobot Sisters' alternate modes - a pink Ducati 848, blue Suzuki B-King, and a purple MV Agusta F4 312R - were designed and built by the sports bike company retroSBK.

The Twins were specially designed to reflect each other: Skids has an oversized left arm/eye and Mudflap has an oversized right arm/eye, and Skids's face is the top part of the Autobot face and Mudflap's face is the bottom part.

The massive air strike in Operation Firestorm was caused by a 1,000-gallon gasoline bomb. Special effects supervisor John Frazier spent seven months setting it up, longer than it took to shoot the whole film. The bomb made the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest bomb ever filmed with actors close by.

It took 140 terabytes to process the CGI for all the robots in this film.

Starscream paints his body in purple Cybertronian markings. Purple is considered the Decepticons' mascot color.

The ILM animators studied each others' eyes to get an impression of how to express emotion in the robots' optics (eyes). In the previous film, they'd relied on the light from the optics, in this film, they relied on the optics' movement to express emotion.

Megan Fox had lost weight before shooting, so Michael Bay prescribed a "cake diet" for her to follow. Within three weeks, Fox gained 10 pounds.

In The Transformers the Constructicons transformed into construction vehicles, and could combine into the giant robot Devastator. In this film, there are two fleets of Constructicons: one fleet combines to become Devastator, the other fleet is disguised individual robots. Devastator was made a separate entity because it was not possible for the VFXperts, with the alien multi-segmented design used on the robots, to effectively design combining Transformers. Hasbro faced a very similar situation; they had to release the Constructicons and Devastator in two sets.

A single IMAX shot (df250) would take almost 3 years to render on a top-of-the-line home PC running nonstop. If the entire movie was rendered on a modern home PC, it would've had taken 16,000 years to finish.

According to the ILM animators, Devastator is made of 52,632 pieces (more than 10 times the number of individual parts in an ordinary car), 11,716,127 polygons, and 6,467 textures, and took up 32 gigabytes of computer space. If his components were laid end-to-end they would stretch 13.84 miles. All the gold ever mined in human history could build a little more than half of it.

The Shanghai Skirmish, set in China, was shot at the Bethlehem Steel site in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and in Long Beach, California.

Casting sheets leaked in early 2008 mention the CEO of a corporation called "Massive Dynamics". The middle-aged male would have testified before Congress about robotic weapons in a short scene. A few months after the leak, Fringe debuted. Co-created and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, it included a mysterious corporation called "Massive Dynamics", later renamed to "Massive Dynamic". Steve Tom noted on his website that he would be playing the CEO of "McClaren Robotics." The novelization says that the government created a fake corporation called "Massive Dynamics" as a cover for the events of Transformers. The cover story stated that Massive Dynamics had developed search-and-rescue robots that malfunctioned during tests and caused the damage seen in the finale.

General Morshower is named after the actor who plays him, Glenn Morshower.

Simmons' codename "Robo-Warrior" was often used by Transformer fans online and in convention circles.

At the frat party, Sam takes some icing off a cake, which has the letters PSIU on it. This letters represent to the Psi Upsilon fraternity, which Michael Bay was in. The house the party was shot in, often referred to as "The Castle," is also a Psi Upsilon Chapter house.

Michael Bay's pet dog Bonecrusher, adopted during the making of Transformers, can be seen at Mikaela's house.

According to Megan Fox, Michael Bay used multiple cameras in some scenes to film her from the front and behind: "I'm bent over airbrushing the bike, and I'm wearing these really short shorts. I thought I was performing the scene with the camera on my face, but he had a multiple camera going that was on a dolly, sliding in and out from behind me. My dialogue isn't even on camera!"

In The Transformers, Soundwave's distinctive voice was created by Frank Welker using his deep ominous Dr Claw voice from Inspector Gadget, and then filtering the voice through a vocoder. In this film, Welker's voice was not treated with a vocoder, but it was in the video game Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

White Sands Missile Range doubled for Qatar in Transformers, and for Egypt in this one. This military installation is unique in that every weapon in the US Army arsenal can be fired within its borders.

The submarine scenes were shot at the Point Loma Submarine Base in San Diego, CA. Some of the extras were serving Navy sailors.

Rachael Taylor who starred as the Australian Maggie Madsen in Transformers turned down a chance to reprise her role.

Originally, the Twins and the Autobot Sisters were planned to respectively combine into bigger stronger robots. However, this was too expensive and would have been too much in the film anyway (however, the Twins are seen at the beginning of the film combined in an ice cream truck).

NEST is the alliance between the humans and the Autobots. It has different meanings: "Networked Elements: Supporters and Transformers," "Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Team," and "Non-biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty." It could also refer to Earth being a nest (refuge) for the Autobots. There is also a real-life NEST agency: The Nuclear Emergency Support Team.

The Decepticon Scalpel (described in the film as the Doctor) takes the alternate mode of a lensmeter, a device used by optometrists to check the various aspects of a prescription lens for eyeglasses (his toy gave him a different alternate mode: a microscope, in tribute to the The Transformers Autobot Perceptor). His bug-like design and sadistic attitude were based on Tarantulas, the twisted Predacon scientist from Beast Wars: Transformers.

The elderly Autobot warrior Kup was originally going to be in the film, but he was altered to become the ex-Decepticon Jetfire.

The word "transformer" is heard only once in the film, used by Simmons in his bunker ("The Transformers, they've been here a long, long time."). Its derivatives are used by the Fallen and Jetfire.

Throughout the Transformers saga, Jetfire has possessed an aerial mode and an accent: In The Transformers he was an accentless VF-1S Valkyrie jet, in Transformers: Armada he was an accentless X-71 space shuttle (seen in Michael Bay's Armageddon), in Transformers: Cybertron he was an Antonov An-225 carrier with an Australian accent, in Transformers: Animated he was a Cybertronian jet with a Russian accent, and in this film, he is a SR-71 Blackbird jet with a British accent.

From the Autobot Sisters, the pink motorcycle is Arcee, the blue bike is Chromia and the purple motorbike is as Flareup; their toys are marketed and sold as such. However, Roberto Orci maintains that the Sisters are all Arcee.

The interior design of the Nemesis was based on photographs of sawed-open bones, including marrow and vessels.

In The Transformers, the Seekers were Decepticons who took the form of jets. In this film, the Seekers are a special class of Transformers who explored the galaxy.

The photos of Seekers are a Ford Model T automobile, a B-24 "Liberator" bomber, an F-104 "Starfighter" jet, an "Albatross" D III biplane (Ransack, who appears only in the movie novelization), and an SR-71 "Blackbird" jet (Jetfire). These photos allude to the "Transformers: Evolutions" comics, where the Transformers awoke in the 1800-1900s and took the form of locomotives, steamboats, zeppelins, and other turn-of-the-century vehicles.

The Decepticon Overload's alternate mode is a Komatsu HD465-7 articulated dump truck.

Tom Kenny, Reno Wilson, Mark Ryan and Jess Harnell have voiced both an Autobot and Decepticon. Kenny voiced Skids and Wheelie, Wilson voiced Mudflap and Frenzy, Ryan voiced Bumblebee and Jetfire, and Harnell voiced Ironhide and Barricade.

The VFXperts believe Soundwave is their most interesting robot: "While he doesn't have a transformation, he is a combination of mechanical robotic pieces and these organic space-age tentacles. He will lock onto a satellite and as his tentacles search out, they lay out these very geometrically shaped and patterned tentacles akin to the structure you see on a circuit board. The bigger ones look like metallic rubber; the little ones look more like glass. They creep over the satellite almost like an L-system. You can see a very mathematical pattern as these guys learn where to go."

The Decepticon who steals the Allspark at the NEST base is named Reedman, because he was made out of hundreds of miniature bug-like robots (described as Microcons). The VFXperts described him as "a bunch of razor blades really, but cooler looking than that! He's able to orient himself in a particular axis to make himself invisible from that axis."