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The Gruesome Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen Death You Likely Never Noticed
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” continued the franchise’s intense and chaotic Autobot and Decepticon action with the film not holding back when it came to explosions and massive set pieces. However, director Michael Bay managed to sneak something in that seemingly wasn’t noticed until well after the 2009 blockbuster’s release: an on-screen decapitation of a human character that certainly pushes its PG-13 rating.
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” the second installment of the franchise, follows Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela Barnes (Megan Fox) as the duo is thrown into more chaos as an ancient Decepticon named the Fallen (Tony Todd) makes it his personal mission to destroy Earth and all of life in the universe. The Fallen works alongside Megatron (Hugo Weaving) and Starscream (Charlie Adler) as they search for Sam. Eventually, the Fallen comes into conflict with Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), his Autobot allies, and the U.S. military. However, towards the end of the film, one of the soldiers is decapitated by a spear from the villain in a blink-and-you’ll-miss moment amidst destruction on Earth.
In response to a fight sequence from “Revenge of the Fallen” being posted on X (formerly Twitter), @kylecorbett29 shared, “Fun fact: ROTF features an onscreen HUMAN decapitation,” with a picture of the gruesome moment. The image shows soldiers being knocked back as the Fallen attacks, with one of their heads flying off his body, blood spurts and all. It’s safe to assume the film might not have qualified for its PG-13 rating if someone noticed the quick, gnarly death.
Why did Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen fail?
Paramount Pictures
While Michael Bay’s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” continued the franchise’s box office success, earning more than $800 million worldwide against a budget estimated to be in the $200-210 million range, the film was a major critical flop — especially compared to the first “Transformers.”
2007’s “Transformers” wasn’t a critical darling by any means, but it did earn a 57% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 61/100 on Metacritic — the highest score among the Bay-directed movies. Meanwhile, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” saw its scores sharply fall from its predecessor, with a 20% critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 35/100 on Metacritic. So, what changed? According to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, a major factor for the film’s critical downfall was a rushed script and production, and the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike. “That really screwed us up,” di Bonaventura told Empire Magazine (via Readly). “The problem is you don’t get to evolve your script […] Paramount didn’t have a lot of other assets at that time, so the decision was to plough forward.”
While the third film in the franchise performed slightly better with critics, the last two installments directed by Bay never reached higher marks than the low scores of the Megan Fox-less “Transformers: Dark of the Moon.” Thankfully, dedicated fans wanted to see visual effects and style over substance, as the first five “Transformers” films all performed well at the box office, as they didn’t skimp on the blockbuster action and were true popcorn flicks, regardless of the critical reception.