Transformers 3 Screenplay

I wrote a part 3 to the Transformers live action movies. What came of it was a 15 page treatment. I tried to stick to the story, and the characters, and keep everything in line with what has come before, but…better…

Then I took out my toys and acted out the first part and put it on YouTube here:

 

What follows is the first and second parts.  I hope you enjoy it.

Transformers

The Last Autobots

Opens at Sam’s house. It’s early morning. They’ve got a new house, rebuilt with government funds. The alarm goes off. Sam’s eyes were open anyway. He’s very excited. Everything’s going great with his life: family, girl, new job at NASA. But today is special, but he hasn’t said why yet.

Sam goes downstairs. His mom is up to her usual shenanigans. The house was rebuilt by a reincorporated Sector Seven, now called Sector Eight. Because of this, there are tons of gadgets. Everything’s at a push of a button. But she can’t get anything to work. He’s having a blast. He gets whatever it is working with just one push of a button.

“Wow, Honey. You’ve got the touch,” she says.

He confidently walks outside. “They shoulda built us a lawn that mows itself,” his father says in the front yard, as Sam runs out the door. He’s trying to fix the lawn mower. “Where you running off to?”

Sam can hardly speak. “Today’s the day.”

His mother comes out. “Today’s the day!?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Oooooh! Today’s the day!” She hugs him.

“The day for what?” his father asks.

Sam is smothered by his mother. “Mom…Mom.”

“I knew this day would come!”

“Is anybody going to tell me what’s going on?”

“Mom…one of us is going to die if you don’t let go…”

“I’m so sorry. It’s just that…Oooooh!”

The father just shakes his head and goes back to tinkering with the lawnmower. Sam’s mother gushes over him a bit longer, then is interrupted. Something jams in the lawnmower. It was turned on its back, and the automatic thrust kicks in and the blades spin. Sam’s dad has a second to get out of the way as the chopping blades charge past.

“Bumblebee!” Sam calls. True to form, his protector launches out of the garage and blasts the lawnmower to pieces.

In the aftermath, they look around. Sam’s mother offers her advice. “Y’know, honey. Just because a major appliance is broken doesn’t mean it’s a Decepticon.”

Across town, an alarm comes on, and Mikaela drags herself out of bed. Throws a robe on. Stumbles to the kitchen where Wheelie is smooth-talking the coffee machine. Then, when he sees her, he tells the coffee machine, “Act natural.”

Mikaela knows what’s going on. “The TiVo’s going to be jealous.”

“That was just a fling. This…this is special. This is love.”

“Yeah, well, I love my coffee maker, too. Move over.” She gets past Wheelie to make some coffee. Wheelie has a Tailgate thing going on, not realizing that inanimate objects are not alive. On her way out, she steals a line from a great YouTube video: “By the way, that’s a Mister Coffee.” Wheelie just looks at it.

Bumblebee pulls up in front of Mikaela’s. She’s dressed and ready to go. Although she’s not terribly thrilled to be going on a picnic or whatever insane thing Sam has planned this time.

So they go to the lake where he first “picked her up.”

As they look out over the lake, Sam bends down on one knee and fishes a ring out of his pocket. “Mikaela. There’s something I want to ask you…”

He cues Bumblebee, and he starts playing “If you think I’m sexy and you like my body, come on baby let me know!”

Sam waves the song off. “Real funny, ‘Bee! C’mon, we practiced this!”

It doesn’t matter. Mikaela says “Do you really think I’m going to be a little housewife with 2.5 kids and a white picket fence?”

“The fence is optional.”

“You really think this is for the long haul?”

“Sure. Don’t you?”

“Well, most of our relationship is about almost getting blown up. If you really want me around, you’re going to have to keep our lives that exciting.”

Cut to Optimus Prime leading Ironhide, Ratchet, Mudflap and Skids into an abandoned town in a desert. There are mountain ranges nearby. Prime warns them to be on the lookout for anything.

Suddenly, five Transformers spring out of hiding from several vehicles that appeared to be abandoned on the side of the road. A red sports car and a faded race car chase the Autobots, funneling them down a path toward a big tank. The faded race car emits a trail of thick smog. Wings flip out of a blue Corvette and it takes to the sky, raining down black beams that blind them. A huge fire truck hits them with freezing fluid.

The Autobots match them in battle. But it becomes clear really quickly that the weapons each side are using are not doing any damage. They are tagging each other with electrical impulses. There’s even some playful banter between both sides.

In the end, the Autobots win, with only receiving a few tags. We see inside the new robots, and learn that they are Major Lennox and his crew. Sector Seven might be no more. But there is now Sector Eight, a worldwide anti-Decepticon team that has reverse engineered their own Transformers. The Autobots have been training the soldiers to use these battle mechs to help them in the war against the Decepticons. They used to do remote control, but the one-on-one interface is much better than remote. They found that remote control was easily tapped. The new Sector Eight NEST Transformers are Windcharger (piloted by Lennox), Inferno (piloted by Epps), Warpath (piloted by a new guy), Smokescreen (piloted by a new guy) and Tracks (piloted by a new guy, Sgt. Furman).

The Autobots and Sector Eight NEST crew are called back into a nearby compound. Giving high-fives and pats on the back. Mudflap and one of the other soldiers even give each other a chest bump.

Prime tells Lennox that the new ‘bots performed well. Lennox said that if you liked these, the 2.0 models are almost complete.

What they don’t see is a small, metallic insect stowing away on one of the Sector Eight robots.

Inside, Agent Simmons, now back in charge of things, welcomes them back into the base. He makes a derogatory comment about his assistant, who we find is the hyper tech-head Leo. Simmons proudly shows them Sector Eight’s newest toy: A Killswitch designed from Transformer parts that can remotely shut down aggressive robots. It hasn’t been tested yet on real Cybertronians.

Prime, of course, volunteers. Ironhide steps up. “Let me go instead, Optimus. You know I’d take a bullet for you any day. We can’t afford it if something goes wrong. You can lose a grunt like me and keep fighting.”

Prime: “You’re my right hand for a reason, Ironhide. Besides, there isn’t any sacrifice I’d call on you to make that I wouldn’t make myself.”

Simmons nervously pull the switch. Prime goes into a mechanized coma. Then Bombshell, the little insect, injects a cerebro-shell into Simmons. He turns the Killswitch on Ironhide next, shutting him down. Leo gets the Killswitch away from Simmons. But they can’t figure out a way to reverse it.

Then Decepticons attack. Lennox and his troops first pick up what they think is a dust storm gathering outside. They get a visual and realize that it’s actually a plague of Insecticons. Millions of tiny little metal bugs have swarmed the facility, sneaking their way into every little crevice. They pour into the building. They rise up, insects stacking and climbing over each other, until they form three distinct characters: Bombshell, Kickback and Shrapnel. Their armor is a blur of crawling insects. When they transform, it’s like all the bugs crawl into a new place. Then they look like giant insects made up of millions of smaller insects. Whenever they take damage, several insects crumble off. When they talk, it’s like each insect is talking, giving their voice a creepy whispering echo.

Taking instructions from Ratchet, Leo crushes the cerebro shell, and Bombshell goes crazy, like every insect in his body screams. He’s a big blur for a few seconds, and can’t hold himself together well. Lennox, driving Windcharger, takes this opportunity. He uses his magnetic powers to spread the insects apart, keeping Bombshell from coming back together. He then uses the magnetism to crush them.

Prime and Ironhide are left in limbo while the others try to bring them back. Ratchet radios for help while trying to get Prime back on line.

Back at the lake, Bumblebee tells his friends there’s trouble and leaves to help. Plays “Hold On, I’m Coming” by Sam and Dave.

“Our ride just left to fight evil,” Mikaela says.

Mudflap asks where these guys came from, and Skids answers. They are Seekers. There were five Seekers who were searching for the Matrix of the Primes during the last movie. They all took ancient forms. Jetfire was one. Here’s three more. Well then, where’s the fifth?

A huge explosion racks the place. You can hear heavy footsteps. Building tension. Until finally, we see Grimlock in all his glory tear a whole through the place. They see dozens of Autobot insignias all over Grimlock’s body and for a second they are hopeful. Until Grimlock informs them that the insignias are his “scalps,” trophies of Autobots he’s killed. Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream are right behind him. Even with the Sector Eight NEST bots, the Autobots are badly outnumbered.

Issue 2

Soundwave ejects Rumble and Buzzsaw to help in the fight. Rumble causes an earthquake that wrecks havoc on the NEST robots. Buzzsaw ejects as a circular saw and carves into Tracks. Buzzsaw transforms and tries to claw and peck at the human inside (Sgt. Furman). When he can’t, he transforms back, and continues to slice deeper. Tracks tries to grab the spinning blade, and loses a hand. Megatron blasts the Warpath Sector Eight NEST bot and destroys it, killing the driver. Soundwave and his henchmen tear apart Smokescreen.

We see some Autobot back-up coming, but they won’t be here in time. Bumblebee is leading a troop of reinforcements: Arcee, Jolt and Sideswipe.

Ratchet tries to protect the lifeless bodies of Prime and Ironhide, but is having trouble. Mudflap and Skids step up to the plate against Grimlock. And this ends badly as Mudflap is literally devoured.

Megatron sees this as his opportunity to strike Prime while he’s down. Ratchet bravely stands between them, but is knocked away by Megatron, trying to get to his prize. Just as Megatron is about to deliver the killing blow, he’s stopped by Grimlock. “There’s no honor in a victory like this.”

Magatron is furious. “You’d defy me? Do you think you should be giving commands?”

“No,” Grimlock says. “I’m not the one who wants your crown,” as he looks at Starscream.

The other Autobots finally get there, and the battle is rejoined. Bumblebee and Sideswipe team up to take on Megatron. Grimlock looks at Ratchet and tells him to get the others back online so that he may have a real battle and that Prime may “die a warrior’s death.” He goes off to fight someone else, letting Ratchet work.

Bumblebee sings “Welcome back” from “Welcome Back, Kotter.” Megatron doesn’t know why he’s making that infernal noise until he sees that Optimus and Ironhide have risen. They soundly pummel Megatron, and he’s forced to sound a retreat. Megatron and Starscream are chased out of the compound by Prime and Ironhide. During this fight, Starscream sees an opportunity to help Megatron against Prime, but chooses to let Megatron get defeated.

Megatron and Starscream break away from Prime and Ironhide. Megatron is severely injured and asks for Starscream’s help in getting him out of the battle.

“Help, mighty Megatron?” Starscream taunts. “It seems I’m always helping you. You landed on this dirtball, and got yourself frozen. I had to thaw you out. Then, you let a fleshling defeat you. I had to find your body and bring you back. And now, another of your failed plans brings us low.”

“Starscream! You wish to take my place? You’ll draw a target on your back for every Decepticon beneath you.”

“I’ll tell the others you died valiantly,” he tells Megatron.

“Only a coward would wait until now!”

“It’s not fear, Megatron. It’s strategy. Too bad you never heard of it.”

With this, Starscream fires a set of missiles and ends Megatron’s life. Starscream transforms and flees the scene, but he doesn’t see Buzzsaw watching the entire scene.