Empire, USA Today TF2 Articles (Updated)

As promised, articles are now online from USA Today and Empire magazine about Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. USA Today's articles (here and here) have no pictures and provides less spoiler information and more confirmation of a few rumors that have leaked over the few months. Empire Online teases their magazine article while providing the dynamic but spoiler free images in this post. To summarize:

- As a picture below shows, confirmation that Shia's hand injury was written into the movie.
- Story plot is for the Decepticons to capture Sam due to information he "learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history of Earth."
- To counter Decepticon goes, "the US military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots." (This explains Matthew Marsden's role in the movie).
- Decepticon Soundwave is the "fearsome communications expert." (Nothing about alt mode).
- "...Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers." (This appears to confirm the gestalt rumor, but no details on how many TFs it takes to form him)
- "...Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots." (Verifies that he will follow the G1 arc of joining the good guys and that he will likely have a crutch of sorts).
- New Mexico filming was for a plot point about running from "ancient temple while villainous Decepticons stomp and crush their way through a village in pursuit" and into a "line of tanks and soldiers blasting guns at the giant robots above and behind them."
- "Not that we don't trust (special effects coordinator James D.) Schwalm and the boys," he adds. "But even an eyelash flying at you at 700 miles an hour will cut you. You're running past them, and your clearance is only about 10 feet. These dudes are moving, and if one trips or falls and we run into the muzzle of a blank, that could blow your chest open or burn you."
- "The U.S. Department of Defense gave its official stamp of approval to the Michael Bay-directed film, not only allowing production amid the pristine dunes of the Army's New Mexico [White Sands] missile range, but also letting filmmakers follow jets and fighter planes through the sky from nearby Holloman Air Force Base. More scenes were shot on the Navy's aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis, and Marines fill the ranks of the strike team battling the invading Transformers."
- "The film's Army liaison, Lt. Col. Gregory Bishop, notes: "As far as I know, this is the biggest joint military operation movie ever made, in terms of Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines. I can't think of one that's bigger."
- "Among the equipment the movie is using in this desert sequence alone: two A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog" tank-killing jets; six F-16 Fighting Falcons; 10 armored Humvees; the Army's Golden Knights parachute team; two Abrams tanks; two Bradley tanks; two missile-launcher vehicles; two armored personnel carriers; and a quarter-mile of the missile testing range, cleared of unexploded ordnance and built into an Egyptian town and temple. (Signs warn not to cross a perimeter just over the gypsum dunes, because live bombs could be hidden in the sand.)"
- Off-duty enlisted where used as pay extra for many scenes shot with the military's assistance.
- "The final battle the military is helping Bay create is supposed to be an enormous firefight in Egypt, but much of it is being shot in the White Sands dunes in a town built over the roughly quarter-mile cleared span."
- "After completing work in New Mexico, the cast and crew moved to Giza for scenes at the actual pyramids, getting first-time access to the 5,000-year-old site from the Egyptian government. "It plays a big plot point," Bay says, noting that they were allowed to shoot on the pyramids — not just around them."
- "The studio has to reimburse the U.S. Treasury for live munitions and other requests for troops or equipment that unit commanders don't consider to be valid battle simulation or part of military training, Bishop says."
- "During this shoot, an F-22 Raptor [Starscream] roars by like a mechanical arrowhead, blasting the earth with the banshee scream of its engines. It circles the set dozens of times before heading off to complete its scheduled training."

Overall not as much information as hoped. Hopefully once the Empire Magazine hits newsstands (not sure when) that will provide more details and context for the below pictures. Thanks to Rich and April for the links.



Update: USA Today has posted a six picture photo gallery (3 above, 3 new below) related to their articles. The Optimus Prime picture is the same as the Empire image just without all the text to covering it.