Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) - 27 questions

Question: Is Barricade (the Ford Mustang police cruiser) ever mentioned or shown in this film? Or do we still don't know what happened to him after the first movie?

Answer: He has not been seen since the first film. However, according to the comics that take place between the movies, Barricade has been working reconnaissance ever since the first film.

Question: Were the CGI artists running out of time at the end of the movie? I ask because towards the end there is an increase in reusing footage, and masking the Transformers off with dust, explosions, sheets of fabric, pillars and some more uninteresting stuff. What's the reason behind this? This only starts after the forest battle, before that, everything looks just fine.

Answer: It was probably as much to do with cost as it was with time. Although, there's no real way to know which scenes the CGI was actually made for, and which scenes it was borrowed for since they could very likely have animated a sequence for the climax then use elements of it for much earlier scenes. No reason to assume they'd work on the effects in the order we see them in the movie.

Question: Sam says that the Energon source is before the Autobots. So to find it they need to talk to a Decepticon. Wheelie is the first one at hand, but how does he know about the source, let alone the Seekers, what they look like and where they are? He doesn't look like he is as old as Jetfire, and as he puts it, "Nobody tell me nothin".

Answer: He knows from stories passed down to him from older generations of bots, not much unlike stories about the past passed down to us from our ancestors. His line about no one telling him anything is just a way to avoid being put back in the box or being tortured by Mikayla.

Question: How did the Transformers stay hidden during the days when there weren't any mechanical devices? Jetfire explains that he's been here for millenia, and there are probably more like him all over the world. For that matter, why didn't the Egyptians or the Chinese or the Greeks ever make a note about the Transformers, while their markings are all over the structures?

Answer: A lot of historians, or pseudo-historians some would say, believe the Ancient Egyptians did in fact have technology that surpasses even our own today. And that this technology was handed down to them from extra-terrestrials they worshiped as gods. This seems to fit the context of the movie, where the Transformers would be those extra-terrestrials.

Question: If The Fallen can only be killed by a prime, and Megatron killed Optimus prime in the forest, doesn't that make Magetron stronger than the Fallen?

Answer: No. We don't know exactly what limitation means that only a Prime can kill the Fallen, only that such a limitation exists. Given the demonstrated ability possessed by the Fallen, it certainly seems unlikely to be a question of raw power, so is more probably a question of the nature of that power, some aspect of being a Prime that's unique to them. It certainly doesn't follow that if somebody can defeat a Prime in combat, that automatically makes them stronger than the Fallen is.

Question: At the end of the forest battle, Megatron stabs Optimus right through the back and chest, then blasts a hole in the same spot. Later, Sam merges the Matrix of Leadership with Optimus's chest. Where exactly does he put it? The logical place would be to unite it with his spark, but his spark is gone. Furthermore, Optimus then gets up to reveal that the hole in his chest is gone. Does the Matrix harbor the same regenerative abilities as the All Spark?

Answer: There are 2 possible scenarios: First, is that Optimus wasn't really dead, he only went into status lock, in which the spark is active, but the body is inert. So the Matrix rebooted Prime back to normal. Or the second possibility is that the Matrix did in fact regenerate his spark. In the cartoons, the Matrix was a kind of gateway to the Transformers afterlife - so it is possible it brought Prime back from the dead.

Question: Why don't EMPs affect the Transformers? Heck, Starscream even used one as a weapon. It had no adverse effect on himself or any of the other Transformers in the area. I know their life force is mostly Energon, but aren't they also powered by electricity to some extent?

Answer: The transformers are far too advanced to try and guess if the run on normal electricity, and EMPs can be assumed to have no effect on them at all. It's possible to protect human electronics to varying degrees, so there's no reason to assume the Transformers wouldn't have mastered the technique.

Question: If the Fallen can teleport (or open space bridges, whatever), why does he need an alt mode?

Answer: The alternate form is a type of camoflauge to hide in their surroundings, it's got little to nothing to do with their traveling needs. Legs, wings, or wheels, it's all the same to them; just some can teleport also.

Question: Why was the commander of Nest not allowed to see Optimus during the video conference? He was high enough in rank and security clearance to be entrusted with seeing Prime for himself, wasn't he?

Answer: Not exactly. Even the highest level of clearance can still bar people from something if it's considered very important. It was a decision made by the leader of the operation, and whatever he says goes, even if there is someone higher in authority than him.

Question: It takes Galloway's chute a full 5 seconds to deploy from the time he pulls the cord, until he is swept out of the military plane. Do parachutes usually take so long to deploy?

Answer: The average time for a parachute to deploy is 3-5 seconds. depending on how it is folded in the pack.

Question: Does anyone know if the Skorponok that attacks Jetfire is supposed to be the same one from Blackout or a new one (from, say, Grindor)?

Answer: According to the filmmakers, yes, this is the same one back from the previous film, who's been hiding out in the desert repairing himself in the interim.

Question: Bumblebee started talking at the end of first movie, so why doesn't he talk in this sequel?

Answer: Sam says in the film that Bumblebee is milking it. Mikala asks if he is still having voice trouble so maybe he can only talk for a while before he can't talk again.

Question: What Ivy League university is Sam attending?

Answer: The name is never said in the film, but some of the university scenes were shot at UPenn, and others at Princeton. Both are Ivy League.

Question: When Jetfire mentioned that "A Prime can only kill the Fallen", he never gave a reason why. Does anyone know the answer?

Answer: Because only a Prime can kill another Prime. the Fallen was one of the ancient primes that arrived on Earth centuries ago.

Question: What happened to Wheels (the little remote controlled car that Mikaela was turning into a pet) at the end? The last time I remembered seeing him in the movie was him entering that one building in Egypt, where Bumblebee, Mudflap, and Skids can't get into. He mutters something about "stupid Autobots". But, after that, he kind of disappears? Or was he around and I just didn't notice?

Answer: After the tomb, he doesn't appear onscreen again. There's no indication as to what happened to him.

Question: Was Arcee killed during the final battle? Or did any/all of her survive?

Answer: Only two of the three Arcee units were hit during the final battle, Arcee and Flareup. Whether or not they survived is unable to decide from this movie alone. The only way we'll know for sure is to wait untill the next movie. However, I think the chances they survived are pretty high. Transformers have been known to survive much worse injuries. For example, Bumblebee getting his legs blown off in the first movie, or Jetfire getting his chest ripped out in this one.

Question: If Optimus is a Prime, then how come he didn't know who/what the Fallen was? Or what its intentions towards Earth were?

Answer: Optimus isn't one of the original Primes who faced off against the Fallen, but is a descendant of that group. As such, it's reasonable that he should not be familiar with the Fallen, who has remained hidden for millenia, and its goals.

Question: Near the beginning of the movie when the kitchen appliances go on the rampage, Sam yells for Bumblebee. However, after Bumblebee takes the kitchen robots out, Sam orders him to get back in the garage. Why is Sam angry with Bumblebee? He was only doing what Sam wanted.

Answer: Well, for one thing, he blew up Sam's room and half their house. Sam knows Bumblebee meant well, but is still mad at him because of the destruction he caused. It's the equivalant of a child knocking over a vase while trying to hit a fly.

Question: Why is it that in this film, a Decepticon now suddenly has the ability to "transform" into a human, instead of a vehicle, like all the other Transformers?

Answer: It's actually an established Decepticon called a 'Pretender' that was in the Transformers comics a long time ago. That this movie didn't bother to explain it properly or even make great use of the character, or even to explain why all Decepticons couldn't be Pretenders is just one of many problems with this movie.

Question: It seems that new transformers created by the Allspark are either evil or actual Decepticons immediately after being made into Transformers. Why? Also, Wheelie appears to be only hours old yet he too is a Decepticon and hates working for them even though he has apparently never met one. He also has knowledge of Transformer history. Anyone know of an explanation for this?

Answer: The newly born Transformers aren't good or evil. They just don't know the difference yet. As infants, they do unintentionlly evil things in the excitement of being born. And Wheelie isn't a newly born Transformer. He's been serving the Decepticons for quite some time.