Monday, October 08, 2007

Transfomers 2 Leaked Script?

A possible draft of the Transformers 2 script has leaked online. Emphasis on possible. It could be fan fic or any number of other things. The PDF of the treatment can be found here or here or here (at least until removed). Below is a rather extended description of the film, in inviso-text, as I read through the script. To read highlight the section below. Just in case it’s a real treatment, a warning that there may be SPOILERS here, so consider yourself warned.

Act One
- Starscream returns, now self-declared leader of the Decepticons.
- Rallies the others around his goal is a new energy source derived from the Allspark that rests on Earth. Plans overheard by Hot Rod.
- Soundwave leads a faction that is still loyal to Megatron and with his followers battles Starscream and co and gains control of the resurgence ship Nemesis
- Sam and Mikaela are in college, her at community and Sam in New York. Still together.
- Sam and Bumblebee have a strained relationship since the city of gridlock makes driving a car impractical.
- Shige, unspecified Asian, is Sam's roommate and learned English from Baywatch closed caption. Guessing he is the comedian role that Anderson was for first movie.
- Nemesis slams into the ocean, destroying an aircraft carrier and taking on its form. IE Nemesis becomes a transforming aircraft carrier (something rumored to be in the sequel for a month and more).
- Soundwave takes on the form of a "large, military-grade focused sound laser" while the other Decepticons take on military vehicles that where on the downed carrier.
- Megatron's crushed lifeless form is retrieved and placed in a Cybertronian chamber. Since sound is a form of energy, therefore making Soundwave an unlimited source of energy, he is able to heal other Transformers and restore Megatron. The reason mainly because the merging of the Allspark with Meg's spark caused an overload and shutdown of his system rather then death.
- The resurrection’s side-effect results in dependency on Soundwave for energy but (I think), Meg's wouldn't like depending on anyone for survival so needs something from Prime to complete his return and sends his minions to capture Sam as leverage.
- Hot Rod lands on earth to warn Prime of Starscream's plans and coordinates for unknown energy source. The alt form, Ferrari F430, is taken from a "high-profile action movie director’s car (a cameo perhaps for Bay?).
- Autobots head to Las Vegas, with Hot Rod (with Mikaela) running ahead of them due to his speed.
- Bumblebee also heads to Vegas with Sam and Shige in tow (after a scene involving street racing).
- Mikaela finds Agent Simmons, who now works for LUXOR in Vegas, to get the location of the object.
- Everyone but Sam and company form up at the home of Linus Ellison, descendent of the Sector 7 founders.
- The second source, "City of Lights" is an orb that stores the Allspark's excess energy that was collected while being studied by Sector 7 and is used to meet the United States energy needs. The electrical conduit for the orb runs from Hoover Dam to Vegas, in effect Vegas was built to hide the orb much like Hoover Dam was built to hide the Allspark.
- The Luxor (the black pyramid) provides the access point to the orb (hence Simmons working there) resulting in a White House ordered evacuation of the entire city.

Act Two
- Sam and co still heading to Vegas, Shige still unaware of Bumblebee is a robot; watch their dorm destroyed by a giant robot on TV. Sam recognizes that means he is in danger.
- Creation Matrix is introduced and contained within Prime. The Allspark provides life, the Matrix provides the Transformers with a soul and free will. Without the matrix the Transformers are soulless primal beasts ("hence the cell phone, Xbox and Mountain Dew machine"). Decepticons therefore came from the Allspark and Matrix but used free will "to follow a path of evil". (Very slick and very obvious, I feel pretty stupid for not thinking of this).
- At this point, Starscream wants the Orb and Megatron wants the Matrix.
- Meanwhile Sam and co reach the roadblock of traffic from the evacuation of Vegas and come head to head with six construction vehicles...who merge to form Devastator.
- While trying to escape Ultra Magnus and his car load of Transformers arrive to attack Devastator and defend Sam. Meanwhile Shige pees in his pants (thinking BB wouldn't like that). A vicious battle ensues.
- Devastator is slowed buying time for a tactical retreat down Route 66 to Vegas (historic American landmark, worth googling).
- In Vegas, the largest defense force ever assembled is ready as Starscream's faction arrives in protoform.
- The force is intercepted by protoform Autobots (so three groups of Autobots) resulting in a free-fall battle until forced to break for crashing landing to Earth. The fight is rejoined and moves toward Vegas.
- Once the fight reaches Vegas, the military learns that the Decepticons no longer effected by the sabot rounds making them ineffective in the battle.
- The assault continues above ground while below Mikaela watches as Ellison and Simmons wordlessly hatch a plan.
- Night falls as the Autobots defense of the Luxor barely holds. Reinforcements arrive in the form of Sam and co. pushing back Starscream's faction.
- Sam and Shige are escorted down below as Skorponok drills through to the underground bunker undetected.
Act Three
- Skorponok is detected and despite best efforts from the military below ground, manages to sever the orb from the electrical conduit, stopping the flow of energy to the nation, plunging cities and Vegas into a blackout.
- Military re-enforcements arrive in Vegas, only to discover they where infiltrated by Megatron's forces and destroyed.
- The military lies in waste, the Autobots outnumbered and exhausted, Megatron's forces begin their assault.
- Seeing the odds, Ellison makes the call to go to the Stratosphere Tower and release a Sector 7 built electromagnetic pulse that would destroy all electronic systems within 50 miles including the Transformers and the orb. Despite knowing it would kill them; Optimus approves of the plan and orders the Autobots to clear a path up the strip.
- Soundwave, overhearing the orders, moves to intercept.
- Prime, Magnus and Hot Rod stay to defend the Luxor, the others move to defend human's move to the tower.
- Starscream, thinking the advantage is his, moves to attack the Luxor to claim the orb.
- The fight up the strip against Soundwave's troops results in a kamikaze move by two Autobots that opens the lines but also kills the military specialists for the EMP.
- Sam and Mikaela ascend the tower under assault from a Deception with Bumblebee trying to defend. Eventually Bumblebee wins forcing the weak Megatron to enter the battle and clumsily but effectively stopping the EMP and possibly killing Mikaela.
- Soundwave attacks Starscream's faction with a sonic pulse that also hits Prime who was chasing a determined Hot Rod that had ordered his retreat orders.
- Soundwave uses that opportunity to rip the Matrix from Optimus and brings it to Megatron restoring him to full strength.
- First order of business to regain the role of undisputed leader of the Decepticons by taking out Starscream those results in a dogfight in the Grand Canyon.
- The defeated Starscream's last act of defiance is a message to his faction on Cybertron, "I have prepared the way..." resulting in a mass exodus from Cybertron to Earth. (HMM so TF 2 Vegas battle is what Helm's Deep was to the Two Towers, with I guess TF 3 having a battle that will be like Return of the Kings Minas Tirith - if true sweet)
- Movie ends with the Autobots recovering in Ellison's compound, Optimus severely wounded, Hot Rod determined to right his wrong (I guess getting the matrix from Megs), Sam feeling betrayed by Prime with the death of Mikaela, and Mikaela regaining consciousness, the forcefield of the Bumblebee defeated Decepticon failing after having protected her from the destroyed Tower.
- ...to be Concluded in TF 3.

My take is this is a wish list script that is not going to happen as written simply because its too expensive. The main ideas are good, but with 6 seperate Transformers "teams" total in the script, probably more then a few will go to the wayside. The ideas here are very good though and the epic feel is something to drool over. If one thing that could be an easy cut it is the addition of Shige. He is basically Sam as an Asian kid. Sam's humor was sarcasm, Shige is situational. Sam was "omg, he Transformed" and so is Shige. The film already has a Sam and doesn't need another. The ending has an unfinished feel to it, but then so did Pirates of the Caribbean 2 amd that didn't hurt the box office any. The Constructicons are an idea that should carry over no matter how many drafts. The teaser trailer would need one thing, and one thing only, and that is the merge to form Devastator. There is a noticable lack of characterization but to be honest I can't say that I care. Its Transformers doing big things in big ways. When playing Transformers as kids, I didn't imagine conversations and angst, I imagined them beating the snot out of each other in creative ways. That's this treatment on a city wide scale.

I don't know if the script is true but there are touches in the draft that seems authentic and in some cases realistically answer some fan concerns from the first movie, beats that now seem intentionally done. If this isn't the script, maybe it should be. It has an epic feel that Transfans always wanted to see in the cartoons but rarely got. The focus definitely shifts from the humans to the Transformers. In this draft, it seems it would be easier to count the scenes that don't have Transformers then ones that do. If this is the script though, it’s an expensive one, like in the $200-$250 million range because it probably would break a few records for visual effects. It also meets the needs of pre-production for the sequel, as provides enough to indicate what sites, sets, cast, and Transformers (but leaving plenty of latitude in this regard for Bay, Hasbro and the digital effects studios) are needed. Should add that even if this treatment is real, the movie is still two years away so this and the final version could end up having nothing in common.

Thanks to Maximus and Frank S for the links to a copy of the script.

Update from Don Murphy's site:
1- Some idiot posted some stupid story
2- Apparently it was good.
3- It thankfully wasn't real, because, well writers don't start writing
till deals are done and they aren't.
4- Not one single person/fan/stooge/alleged friend alerted me to the
situation which, HAD it been real would have been bad for the film, not to
mention illegal.
Murphy is referencing the report that Orci, Kurtzman, and Kruger are in negotiations to be the writing team. However, Murphy does have a history of denying leaks that later turn out to be true. Also, nothing helps say "pay up" then having a treatment ready before the writer's strike begins on November 1st. In the end, like most rumors, we really will not know until someone official confirms information (rare) or the day the movie is out.

Another Update:
More information is coming up online that indicates this treatment may be real (other then Murphy's very angry denial). According to TFormers.com, the leaked treatment came from CountingDown.com, a Dreamworks owned website, before it was pulled down. How true this is, I don't know as TFormers is posting this bit of information two days after this site posted about the same leaked script.

In additon, ComingSoon.net reports that "Spielberg told us there are going to be multiple "Transformers" films that [Shia LaBeouf] is signed on to do and that there's already a story for the second one, but production depends on the pending writer's strike." This is further backed up by IESB.net "they have a story that will be turned in a couple of weeks. If they get it before pre-strike great if not oh well. T2 not certain to be pre-strike but he believes that they can put it together quickly if they meet the deadline." This contradicts Murphy's statement of "don't start writing till deals are done and they aren't."

Finally at Michael Bay's forums, Nelson (head admin) posts that the script isn't fan made reminding readers "It's a treatment...far cry from a shooting script." Which is an excellent way to summarize this entire post and to know things will change. At this point, I believe this treatment is the real deal and while the big ideas will make its way into the film, not all of them will.

26 comments:

  1. god damn! I didn't read it all, but this script is good...better than the 1st movie...haha.

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  2. Thats an awesome script even if its not real did anyone read don murphys website replys to the board he went psycho i dont blame him but man its funny

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  3. Damn, Don Murphy is nuts

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  4. I say it is legit. It makes good sense to follow this one. This is the foundation for the script. It follows the 1st movie too well.

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    1. It is. I can't believe that it has been like five years since it came out. I have the whole series!

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    2. It is legit. I checked with two other websites and the actual film.

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  5. lol.. that don's thread was funny..
    he would be this pissed unless it was real right.. lol

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  6. i ment "he wouldnt be"

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  7. the thing that is wierd is that they have a car out for hot rod already...that's fake. This person sound more like they saw the movie, rather than create it...haha.

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  8. it follows the original very closely and incoporates alot of things that fans want to see and what Michael Bay and team would want (aircraft carrier, constructicons, etc.) on the other hand (and maybe its cuz this is a possible treatment), other than a few new characters mentioned, there really is no description of what other characters will be in the film. and i hate to spoil things and i will be as non descript as possible, but m not really liking the cliffhanger-ish ending. the story could definitely use some polishing if this is the real deal, and so far things are pointing to that.

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  9. I havent read it. And I plan on not to. But can anybody tell me if there are any of the original transformers from part one change their vehicles or colors? Cuz Im almost sure Hasbro would want a different Optimus Prime or Bumblebee so they can sell toys.

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  10. i reckon megs will end up with an earth-form in t next movie, i fully understood and appreciated him NOT having one in the first movie but seeing as they'll be spending more time on earth this time round (cybertron cannot be replennished - no allspark, etc... ) i reckon al t returning tf's will have aerth forms... and yes most probably new one's. with certain existing (from movie 1) bots not being mentioned in t script, i reckon they'll get killed off early on or damaged in battle (again early on) thus needing new earth forms, i.e. more toys! depends what cars will be coming out at that time and which car/vehicle companies are on board... does anyone know what GMC's contract with the movie is, i.e. contracted to license for
    the second film etc... (hope not as wider range of vehicles will be needed). got fed up of seeing the GMC logo everywhere throughout the first film. remember the tow-truck first being showed... G M C being shown centrally in big bold shiny letters... on a scrappy vehicle! talk about product placement!!

    hot rod's form (won't say it tho) would go down a treat tho... or the new version at least anyway (whatever it may be!)!!

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  11. I read the script most of it and I got to say that it's going to be hot and on fire, but I think that if Megatron comes back he should come back as Glavatron and if Ultra Magnus is going to be in it will he combine with Prime like in the cartoon and what about the Contructicons the six that make one robot and for the third movie has anyone ever heard of Nemesis Prime? The Optimus Prime like robot
    contructed by an American scientist!!

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  12. after reading and pondering about some things mentioned in this treatment, I think that soundwave should be handled in a different way. i've seen a design for him online (fan made, obviously) that fit him much better than what was used in the treatment. His lt-mode in the treatment fits Shockwave much better, considering that its uch closer to Shockwave's G1-form than Shockwave's (but we all know the Boombox thing wasn't gonna work). I am however hoping that Ultra Magnus is included in the sequel and that he resembles his G1 mode with the trailer. I would love to see the erielbots show up (so as to even things out against airborne decepticons and the constructicons), possibly scanning an earth forms at an air show or something like that. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

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  13. Thats sounds so cool i would love to see that but just 1 question,
    WHAT HAPPENED TO ARCEE!!!
    I want to see her in the movie. And Michael Bay said that they will be leaking out alot of false info so for all we know Soundwave could be a car with an extra large sound system, Megs will come back as Galvatron, Jazz might come back from the dead or
    something like that. So u don't know whats gonna happen even if this is sounds wicked AWESOME!!!

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  14. i think i could be a movie writer too. Heres a good idea for t2... the Allspark when charged, can regenerate the robots...
    why couldn't it regenerate itself? c'mon people thats so simple. And also i always liked Astrotrain. He still is faithful to Megatron and uses Soundwave to intercept Starscream calling for backup and Optimus Prime's s.o.s. Astrotrain takes the form of the space shuttle that he destroys on the moon. He comes to earth looking for Megatron not knowing about the battle that took place(johnny come lately). Immediately blasting off on the tracks as a locomotive, then soundwave takes the form of an armoured vehichle like the ones used in the first movie. Scorpinok digs down under the ocean and finds Megatron then he uses his own spark to bring Megatron back. Megatron remembers nothing about his former self other than he must find the allspark and enslave everybody. So He renames himself GALVATRON!
    Regenerated from the remains of his former minions(blackout,Brawl,bonecrusher)
    so now Galvatron has more power than ever before, also more evil and crazy.
    The Autobots are in for it this time! Ultra Magnus also hears the s.o.s. from prime. He and HotRod witness astrotrain and soundwave destroying the space shuttle, then they come to earth to warn the autobots about astrotrain's plot to find Megatron.
    Ultra Magnus is an old comrad of Prime and served in wars back on cyberton. He takes the form of a new Volvo Semi, HotRod takes the shape of The new Corvette ZR1(bright red).
    Now, The two new teams of Transfomers meet for a lengthy battle. On the other hand Galvatron Jets to site of the battle near the end but is intercepted by Starscream and his new army. Enter new decepticons: Vortex(Comanche' helicopter) and Scourge (Military Hum-V).
    Galvatron Takes out Scourge right away then fights off Vortex and Starscream Leading to the last Battle for Leader of the Decepticons. Galvatron Reigns supreme again. As for the other major mattle the autobots have hidden the new Allspark with the help of the former S7 members and The Sec of Defense(now the President). The autobots defeat Astrotrain and Soundwave but lose IronHide and Ultra Magnus in the process. The Ending is more difficult to come up with but id like to see a third installment. Thats all folks!

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  15. No offence but your version is kinda sucky.

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  16. You's have no life, why can't you guys just wait for the dammn movie to come out.

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  17. I wonder what the real script looks like. I just want to see Soundwave beat the hell out of Starscream.

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  18. So Mikaela might die?? That's pretty cool.
    I like her though, I just want to see that happen.... :D

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  19. I DONT KNOW IF YALL KNOW BUT THIS CAME OUT 6 MONTHS AGO!!!! ITS BEEN TOUCHED UP BUT THINK ABOUT IT!!!! ITS A FAKE!!!!!!!!!!!

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  20. obviosly the script is fake cos if it was real it would mention the fallen that theyve mentioned and! sideswipe, arcee, jolt, and the twins!!!!!

    but i gotta admit this script would be pretty cool

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  21. optimus almost got killd.

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  22. wayyyy off bumblebbe isnt taken to college, there is no chinese dude especially no hot rod and sector seven is cool with the autobots. One part is and thats the getting megatron part. Most of the rest is garbage the all spark power is coming from the all spark shard probably and megatron whats the secrets in sam's head that he got from the shard that will help megatron and the Fallen take over earth. No jazz black out still here major fight in egypt screts in the pyramids many more autobots alot more decpticons devastoator!!!! and three moto sistters.

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  23. can anyone PLEASE put the working links back up

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  24. Can anyone PLEASE re-upload this script somewhere?

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