In a post to the LS2 forums, member -=boM=- spoke about his experiences as an extra at White Sands, New Mexico in Transformers 2. To prove he was there he has also provided a large collection of set images that show Sideswipe, Skids, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Optimus, Jolt, Ratchet, Shia and Megan Fox on set, tanks, soldiers, building ruins, a camel, anti aircraft missile vehicles, etc. – I have included these after the break and they come via TFormers, the report comes via TLAMB.

The following report contains spoilers, be warned:

“Can’t wait…i’m in it as an extra. I am a Navy Seal doing a battle scene against the Decepticons. I filmed out at White Sands and on Hollomans flight line. Filmed for 4 days and had a blast. Tons of pics on my Facebook.”

[...]

I had to chase a bunch of villagers out of the area because the Decepticons were attacking, then had to protect Optimus Prime’s body. There were a shitload of us out there.

The food and catering was awesome. A lot of downtime. Just like a deployment.

I did an interview for the DVD. We will see if that is on it too. The asked me a bunch of questions about the military. The autobots are behind me on top of a sand dune. I did a GM plug. They liked that.

Micheal Bay loves the military. I got to speak with him very briefly. He gets so angry on set at the actors but doesn’t dare yell or demean the military. It was a trip. He said something to me like do you want a job as a DA (Directors Assistant), I said hell yeah. He was getting pissed at his DA. His DA was like trust me you dont want this job.

I have two closeup shots if they do decide to put them in the movie. One was walking with the camera on the tracks going along with me but at a slower pace. The camera was right on the side of my face following me but at a slower rate. There were two others behind me. The other close up was while I was defending from a corner of a building on one knee. The boom camera went from the ground to over head of us all. I was up front in the scene. The camera came up to my face then began to ascend over the area. It was pretty cool.

Another scene was Optimus getting dropped off by a chinook. I had to run up to the area then stop as Optimus was getting dropped.

Another was with Josh and Tyrese when they argue with The President on the flightline. I am in the background.

As much time as I spent filming (9-10 hours a day for 4 days) I hope I am seen at least once. Hell I’ll be happy to be on teh DVD.

One of the images also reveals Megan Fox and possibly Josh Duhamel sitting next to a fallen man in a pool of blood, he’s not in military dress and in other images looks like Shia.
TLAMB entertain the idea that Revenge of ‘The Fallen’ may pertain to the fallen Optimus Prime, Re: ‘protect Optimus Prime’s body’, although they conclude that this is unlikely, ‘Revenge’ is not very Optimus like.

USA Today

Article 1: LaBoeuf, Fox Really under fire in Transformers 2

Juicy spoilers and plot synopsis…

This time, the story finds Sam and Mikaela under attack by the evil Decepticons because of something Sam has learned about the origins of the Transformers and their ancient history on Earth.

To acquire this knowledge, the invading Decepticons need to capture Sam instead of kill him. Meanwhile, the U.S. military and an international coalition has united with the good-guy Autobots to fight back the villains’ attack.

Some of the most important newcomers are in the robot cast: Decepticons Soundwave, a fearsome communications expert, and Devastator, whose arms and legs are built out of other Transformers. And on the Autobots’ side is Jetfire, a villain whose age and broken-down physicality leads him to help the Autobots [see scratched out decepticon logo on Jetfire].

Article 2: ‘Transformers’ breaks out the big guns for sequel

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 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.

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.)

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.

Empire

Spoilers from the Empire article provided courtesy of Alienbot:

- Bay and LaBeouf confirm the Fallen is a separate character.
- Egyptian hieroglyphics …turn out to be depictions of Transformers who visited Earth.
- Bay claims Megatron is not coming back and the tank is just a new toy.
- Around 40 robots.
- Budget is $200 million.
- Ramon Rodriguez is the one holding on for dear life to a pole while cars are flung.
- Devastator appears at the pyramid, he’s probably 50 feet tall because that’s the height of the camera crane they used on location.

Note the hand injury in this image – proving it has been worked into the movie.

Possible Fallen images

With Fallen now cited as a separate character in ‘Revenge of the Fallen’, it’s a good time to point out some mysterious shots found on Lining up TV, which claims to have on set images of The Fallen. Behind an old picture? Doesn’t seem to fit inline with the Egyptian plot arc we are seeing, I’ll classify as fake for now.

Pictures from the set

These images show Shia LaBoeuf with ‘battle damage’, Michael Bay filming shooting a catapult launch, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese.

Set Report

Skalor’s Postcard
Greetings from San Diego! Just got back today from deployment at sea on board the U.S. Navy carrier Stennis and thought I’d fill everyone in on what I experienced this past week with the ROTF cast and crew. It’s true, filming did take place this past week, all shooting was completed in a two day span, Saturday the 1st with the IMAX folks filming flight operations, and Sunday the 2nd with Michael Bay in action around the ship. Rumors flew around for weeks about what exactly was going to happen with the movie so it was really cool to see it all go down.

Saturday afternoon two transport planes arrived, the first carrying Shia Labeouf on the first and on the second were Michael Bay, Tyrese Gibson, Megan Fox and Josh Duhamel. They arrived in costume (at least Tyrese and Josh did) and began working almost immediately. From what I saw, all of the filming with the cast was done in “closed” sets. The rest of the filming on the flight deck seemed to be flight operations, of which I was there and will hopefully make the final cut. We were told to just act natural and continue our jobs as normal, which is easy to do when you’ve actually got work to do. I did however try really hard to get into one shot in which I just walked back and forth for about 20 minutes.

The whole experience was a lot of fun and everyone in the cast and crew were really cool. Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox were really hard to find on the ship, I think they were working just about their whole time there. I’m not sure which part of the movie was filmed there but it is probably somewhere toward the end, (Shia had “beat-up” make up on, and Duhamel and Tyrese were in dress uniforms). Overall it was an awesome time.

Sorry if I didn’t give you any good spoilers or anything like that, but I think the suspense is more fun anyway. By the way, the crew working on this movie have been busting their asses to make a good film, that much I can attest to.

This should put to rest any of the rumors that they’ve completed filming for now, although this may have been the last of the filming (I didn’t ask). [...]

Dear Seibertron.com,

Me again – I have some follow-up information concerning the “Bumblebee Sighted” article that you previously posted. I visited the 309th AMARG again today for their last day of filming; and let me tell you, it was busy. Lots of new photos, including a bumper shot of ‘Sideswipe’ and a little snippet of a picture of what I believe to be the blue Chevy Volt (however, during the time I was present this vehicle was never actually taken off the trailer; neither was Sideswipe to my knowledge). No pictures of Shia or Megan; but, as I was informed by plenty of soldiers (concerning Fox, anyways); the two were definitely on set. I apologize for some of the pictures that came out somewhat small and rounded; I actually had to snap those certain shots through a pair of binoculars. Ironically enough, the pictures I took of Bumblebee (yellow 2009 concept Camaro) and the red and green Chevy Trax & Beat (the ‘Twins’, I think?) were actually on my way off the set. Lucky me!

Something else I don’t know if you would be interested in or not – but I’ll add it on here anyways, just in case. The scene that I witnessed them filming consisted of a long, large sheet of metal (maybe a cover up for something of some sort?) being stood up by the side of one of the planes in The Boneyard, and lots of loud gibberish shouting coming from what I believe to be one of the transformers. Keep in mind this scene was watched from about 200 meters away – but why I think its important is because of the loud, booming voice we heard from over 200 meters away. We couldn’t make out what he was saying; but what we could identify was that it was male, and very Decepticon sounding – meaning a very deep, baritone sort of sound to it but with a sharp, manifestly evil edge. In my own opinion (and those of all of the soldiers that accompanied me on the “tour”) this was the voice of Megatron – definitely evil, definitely loud. Then again, it could have been that ‘Jetfire’ character that I’ve heard a little bit about – the plane where the sound originated from wasn’t the exact aircraft he’s been described as, but then again I wasn’t up close and personal with it so it’s a tough one to call. Alas, I wouldn’t be surprised if this mysterious voice did belong to Megatron – had a sort of, feel to it, you know?
Something like, “Damn, that guy is pissed.”
Megatron or not, whoever’s voice that belonged to definitely wanted some sort of Revenge

Well, that’s all the news I have so far. If I hear or (hopefully) see anything else concerning Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen; I’ll be sure to update you guys!

Anonymous

Dee has sent TLAMB this shot of the Chevy Corvette and Volt in White Sands, taken on a cell phone. After the scenes on Queensway bridge and subsequent official statements, it was thought that the Volt was not an autobot – however, if this was the case, why paint it in such a brilliant purple/blue and transport it to White Sands, which is the movie equivalent of Egypt!?

The set report:
- The core cast is at the location, Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and Tyrese Gibson
- Today they shot a fight scene at a desert set similar to one from the first movie.
- Extras on set comprised of various needs including a “Strike Force” and Jordanian soldiers.
- Heard rumor that Julie White and Kevin Dunn (Sam’s parents) where also on the White Sands set.
- Additionally heard that TF2 may film in Ruidoso which is about 30 minutes from Alamogordo. Ruidoso is in the mountains surrounded by a dense forest.

A terrible feature made only to exploit the popularity of Transformers, in the end revealing very little whilst littering our heads with movie buzzwords, attempting to create hype without delivering the dirt. Watch those F16s… over and over again, be sure to mute that presenter though.