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Sentinel: Optimus... All I ever wanted was the survival of our race. You must see why I had to betray you. Optimus: You didn't betray me. You betrayed yourself.
Sam gets one in DOTM.Dylan: [laughs at Sam] You think you're some kind of hero? Sam: I'm just the messenger. [smacks Dylan with a pole and knocks him against the pillar, electrocuting him.]
Previews Pulse: The films' trailers loved these.
Product Placement: Aside from the obviousnote which is a given as the franchise is essentially a vessel for toys, you have:
General Motors, General Motors, General Motors. Also eBay, Mountain Dew, Panasonic and Xbox 360.
Most college students would use Logitech webcams, not Cisco.
Cisco got another very prominent name shot when panning across the military's War Room in DOTM.
And to up the ante, of of the robots in ROTF turned into a Cisco Aironet. Also present was one that was formed from a Dyson DC 25 vacuum.
Green Day, anyone? The fact that "21 Guns" was the BGM for four separate scenes in ROTF is just shameless...
Army! Navy! Air Force! Marines! These movies are serious product placement for the US Military. Even the Coast Guard has a Jayhawk helicopter appearing towards the end of the final battle in ROTF.
Megatron and Starscream landing atop the Met Life building in ROTF, which is a bit ironic considering the association of a life insurance company with a plot to destroy all life on Earth.
The conspicuous shots of the Constructicons' hood ornaments could be seen as a nod to Mack trucks.
The third film no longer has a monopoly of GM cars, due to the company's bankruptcy issues. While the already established characters are still GM brands, this allows a great deal more variety. In addition, the other product placement is relatively subtle, compared to the first two films. It mostly consists of not obscuring brand names.
Real Song Theme Tune: Played straight with the first and DOTM (with "What I've Done" and "Iridescent" respectively) and subverted with "New Divide", which was specifically recorded for ROTF.
Remember the New Guy?: Happens often in regards to both sides, with characters introduced as if they had been there the whole time. Although they probably have thanks to offscreen events.
Ridiculously Human Robots:
Played with. Optimus Prime explained that they learned Earth's languages and cultures through the internet. Certain Autobots took on speech characteristics that they felt appropriate to their character and is the reason Jazz is considered black, besides the homage to G1 Jazz and G1 voice actor Scatman Crothers.
In ROTF, they went even further to try and emphasize how these robots are living creatures and not hand-built machines. The robots replicate things like crying and how they react to getting old or injured.
Alice makes this trope literal.
Robo Family: Optimus Prime and Megatron are apparently brothers in this continuity.
Possibly retconned by Word of God, that says it was more a brotherhood kind of usage.
Jetfire mentions both a mother and a father.
He's also senile and out of his gourd, so we can't be too sure on this.
The Twins.
The Arcee bikes are apparently sisters.
Or they're one consciousness in three bodies...the associated materials don't really agree on this.
The Dynasty Of Primes were all referred to as brothers. Optimus (and by possible extension; Megatron) is a great descendant of one of them.
As is Sentinel Prime, but Optimus treats him more as a mentor than a relative.
Rollerblade Good:
Bonecrusher in the first movie; Sideswipe, the Arcee triplets, Wheelie, Demolishor in ROTF.
ROTF's robot designs have a lot of fun with unusual methods of robot propulsion. Apart from the aforementioned, there's also a Pogo-Stick (Rampage) variation. The toy version of Rampage goes yet a step further, turning him into a "crab centaur" of sorts. Some of the unused Constructicon concepts are even weirder.
S-Z
Sapient Tank: Brawl from the first movie.
Say My Name:
Optimus Prime arrives in the city and confronts Megatron (who had just killed Jazz). They haven't seen each other in over 10,000 years. Their first words to each other? Optimus Prime: MEGATRON! Megatron: PRIIIIIME!
Optimus seems rather angry to see Megatron alive and well (well, the fact he's holding the corpse of one of Optimus's friends doesn't help), whereas Megatron seems almost happy to see the former.
And:Ironhide: IT'S STARSCREAM!
The first thing Megatron says once freed from his ice prison is his name, since the humans have been getting it wrong for decades.
Interestingly, in the comics, they have been getting it almost right, with many calling him "Mega Man" instead of NBE-1, after hearing him say it to Jetfire decades before but mishearing it. This includes Simmons' (great-)grandfather, one of the founders of Sector Seven.
Screams Like a Little Girl: Sam, Leo.
Screen Shake: Every action scene of importance.
Sealed Evil in a Can:
In Transformers, Megatron is kept on ice inside the Hoover Dam, and is pretty angry upon thawing out.
Prequel comics for Transformers: Dark of the Moon reveal Shockwave to be this; he was found by the USSR decades ago and had been sealed under Chernobyl for years. When he gets out, he's ticked off. And there's Sentinel Prime, who's been locked in stasis on board the Ark, which crashed on the moon.
Secondary Character Title: Judging from the amount of screentime and backstory the Transformers themselves received, it's safe to say they are the secondary characters in these adaptations. The reason why this is complained about so much is probably due to their being the main characters in other Transformers universes, while in this film they serve the same role as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, but with the ability to speak.
Seen It All: Agent Simmons.
Sequel Escalation:
The filmmakers openly admitted that the first film had the robots kept in the background solely because of cost and as an experiment if the SFX would work. As a result it was mostly a small skirmish between 5 Autobots and 8 Decepticons. With the FX worked out, ROTF had at least 30 named robots (some only in supplemental materials) and another 10-15 generic unnamed robots. Dark of the Moon goes to the logical breaking point, an all out Alien Invasion and Robot War.
The Gorn gets more over the top in each installment, although it was slightly toned down after Dark of the Moon.
Sequel Hook:
Optimus' closing narration and the shot of Starscream flying into space. The sequel has both Megatron and Starscream slinking away after they've lost, with Megatron vowing "this isn't over". That, and nobody ever knew about Soundwave who remains in orbit. Makes sense since they're the three quintessential Decepticons.
All it's supposedly the last film DOTM still doesn't have a direct ending, finishing just as the first two, with Optimus musing over their new home and how they'll protect it, although all the Decepticons, Megatron and Starscream included, are killed this time.
Like that's ever stopped Megatron and Starscream before.
Serkis Folk: This would be the only way to do decent live action Tranformers. Apparently, Bumblebee's movements were inspired by Michael J. Fox's performance in Back to the Future and Optimus Prime's movements were inspired by Liam Neeson in everything he does.
Shape Shifter Weapon: In an homage to the G1 cartoon where Optimus Prime and Megatron were shown to have energy weapons they could generate in place of their right hands (an axe and a flail, respectively), the first two films have all the Transformers' weapons be generated from their own bodies. Others had weapons adapted from the human weapons built onto their copied vehicle form, such as Blackout's Vulcan miniguns and tail rotor blades.
Shipper on Deck: Bumblebee to Sam and Mikaela in the first two movies, trying to set them up and keep Sam from cheating. Then he outdoes himself with the rings in the third.
Shown Their Work:
The movies are practically dripping with references, mythology, and characterization from the entire rest of the franchise ranging from the original cartoon to the Furman-written comics to the IDW stuff to some of the pre-movie games, sometimes coming close Continuity Porn. Things such as names being exceptionally important to Transformers, Bumblebee being rough and tough, being able to give life to lifeless machines, Decepticlones, Transformers being able to be frozen by extreme cold... most of the things in the movie (especially the griped-about bits) are actually pretty obviously attempts to reference stuff from earlier iterations of the franchise.
In particular, the Fallen is from a relatively recent and obscure comic book and they chose him as a character because he was both "primeval" and not immediately known to anyone who's even heard of Transformers.
There is also a level of great accuracy shown in the scenes when the military is involved. For example, the scene where Lennox's team calls for an air strike in the first film not only uses accurate dialogue used by U.S Air Force personnel in initiating an air strike, but has actual U.S military personnel speaking this dialogue and acting out their real-life roles.
Silent Bob:
Bumblebee's voice synthesizer is broken. He uses audio clips to convey his thoughts. The sequel kind of lampshades this by showing it can be hard for 'Bee to explain things to Sam like this, such as the hot blond girl being actually a Decepticon.
It's also insinuated that Bumblebee is intentionally doing it to be cute, as Sam mentions that he's "playing it up."
The Smurfette Principle: The series has exactly one female Autobot, who gets one short line and appears on screen in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen for the entirety of thirty-eight seconds (before getting blasted away), making her appearance more or less a cameo.
Depending on the medium. In the film itself there are three female Autobots: Arcee, Elita One and Chromia. Arcee gets the most screen time and the line, but the sisters do get a good fight scene with Sideswipe at the beginning. In the novel and comics Arcee is the central component with Chromia and Elita One as drone units she controls and they can combine into a larger robot.
Arcee was cut at the last minute from the first movie and was replaced by Ironhide because of negative fan reaction to her. Also, it was decided that there wasn't enough time to discuss why there were female Transformers in the first place (not that it stopped them from appearing in the second movie). There are a handful of female human characters, though most are simply eye candy.
Space Is Cold: Averted. The Transformers are vulnerable to extreme cold, but are fine in space. The trope's prevalence led to some calling this a Plot Hole.
Speaks in Shout-Outs: Due to a damaged voice box, Bumblebee "speaks" entirely by replaying radio transmissions he's heard.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A major complaint against the film series is that the humans, particularly Shia Labeof, get way too much screen time and more attention should be paid to the robots.
The Starscream:
Although Starscream doesn't really do his usual thing...in either film... although a popular theory is that Starscream hid himself among the F-22's firing on Megatron.
In fact, Megatron punishes him mercilessly for fleeing at the end of the first movie's climactic battle and assuming leadership over the Decepticons since then.
He does, however, act like his usual self in the prequel novel for the first movie. He attempts to take control of the 'Cons in Megatron's absence, but they're not having it (only the fact that he's stronger than they are keeps them from getting rid of him.)
Megatron is the biggest Starscream of them all in the third movie, to Sentinel Prime.
Supporting Leader: Optimus Prime.
Team Power Walk:
Rather, Power Drive Down Desert Highway.
And again in Fallen, with them cresting a bridge.
Technology Porn: The transformation sequences can get really elaborate.
They Look Like Us Now
This Loser Is You: Sam Witwicky is supposed to be the "everyman" in the Transformers movies, but he's entitled, unsympathetic and self-centered, and intended to be an Audience Surrogate.
Those Two Guys:
Skids and Mudflap in ROTF
Wheelie and Brains in DOTM.
Time Abyss: The Fallen betrayed the Dynasty of Primes nearly 20,000 years ago, and Optimus and Megatron were born after that. This makes them considerably younger than most incarnations.
Token Romance: Sam and Mikaela/Carly. Their relationship could be removed and it wouldn't affect the story at all.
Too Dumb to Live:
Keeping your headphones on whilst a giant insectoid is crawling underneath the sand is a sure way to get impaled through the chest. Sgt. Donnelly learned this the hard way.
At first, The Fallen seems fairly smart. He absolutely does NOT come to Earth until Optimus Prime (apparently, the only one who could kill him), is dead. After Optimus is brought back to life, The Fallen makes his appearance by scattering the Autobots and soldiers, stealing the Matrix (the only thing capable of bringing Optimus to life), pinning Optimus to the ground whilst sneering down at him... and then teleporting away to turn the Harvester on. Sure, at the time Optimus was too weak to do anything and no-one could predict Jetfire giving him his parts, armor and weaponry, but if The Fallen had killed him then (y'know, just to be sure), he could have avoided giving Optimus his face. In his defense, he was more concerned with activating the machine than disposing of his enemies.
Took a Level in Badass:
Simmons levels up between the first two films.
Sam in the third. Oh wow, Sam in the third. He kills Starscream! He also helps bee take out Laserbeak and lives up to his threat of killing Dylan.
Trailers Always Spoil: The trailers for ROTF blatantly show the resurrection of Megatron. Also Devastator. Also, Sam gets the Matrix. The Matrix is unrecognizable as such until one actually sees the film.
The first one is a subversion though, in that it puts the audience on the wrong foot. Since people know that Megatron comes back, they assume that he is the Fallen from the title, and therefore they will not look for more obscure possibilities, like Megatron only being second in command).
Subverted by the trailers for DOTM. You may think Shockwave is the Big Bad. And his spectacular entry in the movie itself may still lead the viewer into believing that.
Trilogy Creep: Hasbro has recently announced there will be a fourth film. Michael Bay stated that third film would be his last, but the sheer profitability of the movies has plenty of people pushing for another. Bay later said he might return but he wants to do a smaller movie in between, as the two sequels were filmed on a breakneck schedule with only two years in between installments.
Troperiffic: And how!
Uncle Tomfoolery: Michael Bay may have induced moderate fan anger by killing the only "black" transformer in the first film, but it is the portrayal of Skids and Mudflap as violent jive-talking hood rats in Revenge of the Fallen that has attracted outright hatred over the internet. Click here for an example. Most this hatred is questionable of robots that learn to speak through the internet, but oh well.
Vehicular Assault: Ridiculously common.
Villain Ball:
Given that the Decepticons could hack the Pentagon's mainframe, they could have easily used the same skills to get themselves a post office box and a paypal account, and bought the glasses off of Sam, since he was openly trying to sell them. Instead they tried to shake him down for the glasses, which brought Sam into contact with the Autobots.
To build a Solar Harvester the Primes demanded to use solar systems that did not support life, Earth was originally believed to be uninhabited and the Solar Harvester was already complete when humanity was discovered. The Fallen refused to look for another planet and tried to activate the Havester without their consent, just because he didn't like having to start over.
The comics published by IDW would go on to explain that the Fallen had been displeased with this rule for some time, and had been preparing to betray the other Primes over it. This was simply when he chose to do so.
War Is Glorious AND War Is Hell: Amazingly manages to convey both sentiments.
What Happened to the Mouse?:
In the first film, Barricade shows up in the group of Decepticons chasing the Autobots before Bonecrusher's rampage, but disappears for the rest of the film. The comic and novelization of the first movie have him killed by Optimus right after Bonecrusher, but apparently this was changed at the last minute. Roberto Orci said that his disappearance was intended as a possible thread for Revenge, but things just got lost somewhere along the way, possibly due to the 2007 Writers Strike. He does show up in DOTM, but nothing is made of his absence.
Scorponok vanishes after getting shot up in the desert, then shows up during the climactic battle in ROTF.
Wheelie vanishes before the combat begins at the climax of ROTF, but he shows up as being in Sam's custody in DOTM where he has a full presence up to and including an apparent Heroic Sacrifice.
Scalpel (the Decepticon doctor) disappears immediately after Optimus and Bumblebee become Big Damn Heroes. The novelization states that Optimus blew him up right after. In DOTM, we see two non-speaking robots that look just like him, though - one or the other may be the doc-bot, or not.
Fig, the soldier talking about how juicy alligator meat is from the first film, the one wounded in the fight with Scorponok and carried out on a stretcher. Presumably, he doesn't show up for the rest of the movie because he's recovering from his injuries, but the only reason he's absent in ROTF is the actor having a scheduling conflict and being unable to film it. Then again, his role was just minor enough that we might not think of him were it not for Bay mentioning this to begin with.
So if we want the story with the plotlines filled, we should forget the movie and just read the comic/novel.
The twins attempt to fight Devastator but fall off. They then disappear for the last half-hour of the movie. However, we do see Simmons and Leo again, so...
John Malkovich's character disappears completely after the first half of DOTM, although since his importance to the story was gone at that point he's not really missed.
What Measure Is a Mook?: Soldiers, federal agents and Decepticon troops drop like flies in the intense battle scenes.
What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
The protagonists seem to be a bit too eager to torture, mutilate, and murder Decepticons when given any opportunity. Mikaela takes a blowtorch to Wheelie's eye, Sideswipe boasts how awesome he is at vivisecting a fleeing Decepticon, Ironhide executes the critically-wounded Demolisher, and Optimus seems terrifyingly eager to mutilate Decepticon faces.
There's a scene in DOTM where the Wreckers are ordered to pull out a Decepticon pilot from its downed ship and kill him, and they do it by tearing him piece by piece, not giving him a swift death. Okay, he had gratuitously killed several humans just before, but some may find it disturbing still.
In every movie, the robots' deaths are gratuitously violent. To those arguing the opposite, watch the movies, but imagine the robots were human. Be horrified. Alternately, put yourself in the shoes of a robot.
Word of God: Various information such as Barricade's disappearance from the movie and how much Sam's parents knew at the end credits were explained by the screenwriters and tie-in comics.
World of Badass: Cybertron. And Earth, apart from all the comic reliefs, too. And some of them can get dangerous as needed.
World of Ham: Where to start?
World of Snark: Go on, just watch the films and try and point out one character who isn't a smartass. In fact, Optimus seems to be the only one who isn't a complete snarker.
Xenofiction: Averted; see Pragmatic Adaptation above. Technically, the only Transformers series that has nothing to do with humans or Earth is Beast Machines, so it's more of a ratio rather than straight Human-Focused Adaptation.
The X of Y: All subtitles of the sequels so far.
You Can't Go Home Again: A recurring motif in the series. Cybertron was damaged beyond repair by the war, and the AllSpark's destruction ensures that it may never be brought back to its pre-war state again. The third film also possibly implies that the Space Bridge's destruction caused Cybertron to collapse on itself, leaving the Autobots with only Earth as their home.
You Will Be Spared:
Megatron tells Sam that in exchange for the AllSpark, Megatron will make Sam his pet.
In DOTM, Dylan Gould mentions that the Decepticons promised to keep him safe in exchange for his help.