Continuity mistake: In the scene where Sam is on the phone and explaining his hallucinations in college, he drops his papers on the stairs and there is a man that passes him. When they change the shot, the man is behind him again walking from the top of the stairs.
Continuity mistake: When Mikaela phones Sam and says that she's breaking up with him, in the first shot of Sam as he walks down the hallway toward his room there is no curtain in front of the window to the right, but in the second shot as he reaches his room, there are white curtains draped over the windows. Then, when Sam runs into the hallway because of the fire, the curtains are gone again. In fact, the white curtains are actually outside the window - someone had closed the windows over the curtains. The curtains reappear again when he runs back into his room with the extinguisher. (00:11:15)
Continuity mistake: The multiple shots of the sinking Aircraft carrier are primarily shots of the CVN 74 (USS John C. Stennis) but also have shots of the CVN 72 (USS Abraham Lincoln) and the CVN 71 (USS Theodore Roosevelt). It is reported later on the news as the Roosevelt, and the Stennis is seen towards the end of the movie perfectly fine and providing air support.
Continuity mistake: In Astronomy 101, after Sam has written the symbols on the board, one symbol actually vanishes just after his professor's first close-up, and then reappears after the professor says, "I will not be punked in front of the dean." (00:45:10)
Continuity mistake: In the secret room below the deli's meat locker, when Wheelie explains that the symbols are the "language of the Primes", Sam picks up two photos, but both photos don't just switch hands as stated in another entry, one changes entirely. In the fist shot Sam holds a photo of a jet, but in the close-up he holds a photo of an old plane, then in the following shot it's back to the jet. (01:19:45)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where everyone arrives in Egypt, when everyone is standing around Jetfire, there is a wide shot showing everyone and you see Mikaela sitting down wrapping Sam's hand. Then she stands up in that same shot, and it cuts to a close up that shows Mikaela sitting down again wrapping his hand. (01:27:45)
Continuity mistake: In the basement of the deli, Sam holds two photos of Seekers, one in each hand. The image of the car and plane switch hands and back again in different shots. (01:19:55)
Continuity mistake: When Alice is kissing Sam on the bed there is a fan in the window beside the Bad Boys poster. It is there when she grabs him with her 'tongue'. When Mikaela returns and throws the metal box, it just breaks glass in that window frame, and we see the fan is suddenly sitting on the bed leaning against the Bad Boys poster, to the left of the window. (00:51:45)
Continuity mistake: When Sam, Mikaela and Leo arrive at Simmons's deli, in the exterior shot the deli has a single front door with its glass covered, and bars on the store's windows. However, when Sam walks in and when Simmons tries to walk away from Sam, we see there are double front doors with a meat poster on one, and there are no bars outside of the store's window. (01:14:55 - 01:16:30)
Continuity mistake: When Mikaela deliberately rams the Saturn into the pole, in the front shot both headlights are perfectly intact after the impact, but in following shots the car's left headlight is gone. (00:54:40)
Continuity mistake: At the end, in the first aerial shot of the aircraft carrier, only a huge number '7' is imprinted on deck, but after the close-up of Mikaela and Leo there is also a huge number '4' imprinted on deck beside the '7', that is seen as Optimus and Sam stand beside one another. (02:21:25)
Continuity mistake: When Judy is crying over Sam's departure for college, Ron picks up his golf bag and carries it on his shoulder as he tells Judy to go up and pack. In the next shot, facing his back, the golf bag is gone only to reappear in the next shot as Judy goes upstairs. (00:09:40)
Continuity mistake: In one scene we're shown a Predator B UAV taking off. This is a shot of an actual Predator B, which is a pusher turboprop. In a later scene we come back to the Predator, now on site, in a CG shot. The CG model is some kind of mutant Predator with a turbojet - no prop at all. This is the same mutant CG model used in TF1, but here it is a continuity error with the real shots.
Continuity mistake: When Mikaela's car is carried by a Decepticon helicopter, they are dropped in the building and there's a shot showing the airbags activating, but in the following shots (when the car stops moving or when they are getting out) the airbags are nowhere to be seen.
Continuity mistake: At the deli, when Sam, Mikaela and Leo are talking to Simmons, his mother shouts, "Moron, where's the white fish?" and there are four cans on the meat counter, but when it cuts to close-up there are only three. (01:16:10)
Continuity mistake: When Sam is on the cell with Mikaela, the Cube sliver falls onto the floor and Sam reaches down to pick it up with his left hand, as he holds the cell with his right hand. However in the close-up it's his right hand picking up the sliver. (00:12:10)
Continuity mistake: Just after Jetfire sacrifices himself, Ratchet orders Jolt to electrify, and we see Sam and Mikaela standing near Ratchet, but in the next shot when the Transformer's parts are flying towards Optimus, Sam is now a couple of feet away helping Mikaela stand up again.
Continuity mistake: When Mikaela is talking to Sam on the phone after Sam had his "nervous breakdown", when he is picking up the dropped papers, the people on the right coming down the stairs come down twice.
Continuity mistake: While we're repeatedly shown map views of the region while events are taking place in Jordan and Egypt, and characters even say things like they're "five klicks" (kilometers) from the water during the battle, things cover distance impossibly fast. For example, we're shown M-1 Abrams tanks being landed ashore by LCACs (Landing Craft Air Cushion), but just seconds later they're on site, engaging the Decepticons. This does not appear to be a time-lapse in the film itself, as we're shown the battle unfolding in what appears to be real-time. And that's ignoring that the pyramids, around which the battle is taking place, are really roughly 140 kilometers from the tip of the water. Even the closest point is around 120km from the water to pyramids.
Continuity mistake: During the shot where Mikaela runs into the lamp post, both the Pretender and the front bumper slide under the car as she backs up and drives forward again. Seconds later, as the camera angle changes and they drive away, the front bumper is re-attached with only a dent where it hit the post.
Chosen 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.
dablues7