Chicago

Chicago is the biggest city in the American Midwest. It's full of gangsters, burning railways, corrupt politicians, and, on occasion, robots.

Contents 1 Fiction 1.1 Generation 1 continuity family 1.1.1 The Transformers cartoon 1.1.2 G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers 1.1.3 2005 IDW continuity 1.2 Panini Armada comic 1.3 Live-action film series 1.3.1 Movies 1.3.1.1 Dark of the Moon film 1.3.1.2 Age of Extinction film 1.3.1.3 The Last Knight film 1.3.2 Dark of the Moon Annual 1.3.3 Ask Vector Prime 1.3.4 Studio Series toy bios 2 Video games 2.1 Transformers: Forged to Fight 3 Notes 3.1 Chicago in Dark of the Moon 3.2 Chicago in Age of Extinction 4 External links

Fiction

Generation 1 continuity family

The Transformers cartoon

When held captive on the planet Quintessa in the year 2005, Spike Witwicky prepared Kup and Ultra Magnus for an escape attempt by way of a coded message that involved recalling a football match between the Lunar Colony's team and "the Bears". Whether the game was held on Earth's moon, in Chicago, or elsewhere is unknown. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 2

G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers

When the Teletran 3 supercomputer went berserk and blasted random Transformers into random points in Earth's timestream, teams of Cobras and G.I. Joe troops pursued them. One such group, consisting of the Baroness, Percy, Roadblock, and Beachhead, materialized in a dingy, dirty, dark city, and narrowly avoided getting run over by two cars full of mugs shooting tommy guns at each other. They'd landed in Prohibition-era Chicago! G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #1

The team soon attacked a group of gangsters who were using Optimus Prime as a truck. Freeing him, they next tracked down the gangsters' boss, the notorious Tommy Fingers. Fingers's favored watering hole was a jazz club that he owned; the next four Transformers were located in a garage out back.

Through the Baroness's efforts, the team learned that Fingers was planning a bank heist, using a dynamite-loaded truck which just happened to be the last of the missing Transformers. Unfortunately for the humans, one of the four garage-bound Transformers was Breakdown, who was not at all mode-locked, and he quickly activated his Stunticon compatriots. Optimus Prime and the humans fled from the Stunticons in a running firefight through Chicago's streets; the humans blasted down a suspension bridge along the way.

Coming up on the last Transformer, the Baroness blasted the dynamite, activated the Transformer (Motormaster), and all the time-displaced combatants returned to their own time. G.I. Joe vs. the Transformers II #2

2005 IDW continuity

A counter-infiltration unit under Prowl's command parked their vessel, the Ark-19, beneath Lake Michigan, some ten miles northwest of Chicago.

Panini Armada comic

When Starscream wanted to draw out the Air Defense Mini-Con Team for capture, he blasted a satellite out of orbit. The Mini-Con trio managed to stop the falling satellite from smashing into downtown Chicago's forest of skyscrapers a mere ten seconds before impact, then carried it away and dropped it into Lake Michigan. Panini Armada issue 5

Live-action film series

Movies

Dark of the Moon film

After taking Carly Spencer captive, Dylan Gould headed to Chicago. Sentinel Prime also headed to Chicago to set up few of the space bridge pillars. Needing privacy to conduct their work, Megatron ordered a huge Decepticon invasion force take over Chicago. Several motherships arrived to disgorge a large number of Orbital Assault Carriers, while ground forces took to the streets. A huge portion of the city's population was slaughtered when the Decepticons sealed off the city.

Sam Witwicky headed there to rescue Carly with the help of the ex-NEST soldier Robert Epps and a few other ex-NEST comrades. After taking a look at the Decepticon-fortified Chicago, Robert Epps realized that they had no chance of surviving all that, but Sam pressed on. As Epps attempted to dissuade Sam from rescuing Carly, Sam asked what they should do, and Epps admitted that they had to give up. Soon afterward, an Orbital Assault Carrier attacked the group. Just after killing several civilians and nearly killing Sam and Epps, the fighter was shot down. Sam and Epps looks behind them to see their savior—Optimus Prime, who gave his own answer to Sam's question: kill every last Decepticon. The Wreckers Leadfoot, Topspin, and Roadbuster proceeded to execute the pilot by tearing it to pieces.

Optimus then explained why they had feigned departure; they needed to fool the world's leaders that they were gone, so they could see the truth behind the Decepticons. As the rest of the Autobots arrived on scene, Sam inquired as to how they survived, to which Roadbuster and Leadfoot explained that the Autobots hid in the boosters of their ship, the Xantium which splashed in the Atlantic, and then they traveled to Chicago from there. Wheelie and Brains then reiterated that Autobots would never leave Earth, and Optimus announced that they needed an element of surprise, to which Sam said he knew where to look.

Asking if Bumblebee could fly the downed Orbital Assault Carrier (which he replied with a hand shrug) Bumblebee and Sam departed for Dylan Gould's penthouse suite. Inside, Carly observed an argument between Sentinel and Megatron on the other building using a telescope. Sneaking in through the balcony, Sam confronted Gould, but Laserbeak attacked Sam as Carly appeared, then threw him over the balcony. Bumblebee's captured Orbital Assault Carrier caught Sam, who urged Carly to jump. With the boy and his girl safely secured, Bumblebee opened fire on the human collaborators, but Laserbeak sent a mini-drone dispatched by the United States military into one of the Orbital Assault Carrier's thrusters, then attacked Sam. Pinning Laserbeak above the gun turret, Sam told Bumblebee to fire, killing the aerial Decepticon before they crash-landed onto the ground. As Dylan frantically ran about the streets shouting that the Autobots were alive, Megatron ordered the Decepticon to raise the bridges into the city and find the Autobots.

Reuniting with the Autobots and ex-NEST soldiers, the group was able to use the mini-drone to warn the powers that be about Sentinel and Megatron's plan to transport Cybertron to the Sol system. Colonel William Lennox mobilized NEST for a drop into a city using wing suits. Realizing that they had to destroy the pillars, Epps team and the Autobots head into the city, but were attacked by Shockwave and the Driller, separating Prime from his trailer carrying his weapons. Optimus agreed to take the Autobots on a diversionary attack while Epps and his team made their way to a skyscraper with the necessary height and clear line of fire, but not before Que gave them some urban combat weapons, the boom-sticks and grapple gloves. In distracting Shockwave, Wheelie and Brains became separated from the Autobots.

Following this, Lennox and the NEST forces arrived in the city, but were forced to wing-suit in. As Starscream lead the aerial counter-attack, the NEST soldiers abandoned the plane, gliding away until they lost the Decepticons in a tilted building. Once Epps team made their way to the right floor for the shot, the Decepticon Orbital Assault Carriers began shooting the building, causing the portion above the line of fire to begin collapsing. A Decepticon scout jumped into the building, forcing Epps to throw a grenade to distract it long enough for the humans to slide down the windows, just barely falling into the floors below. One soldier was not so lucky, and the debris fell around Shockwave. Knowing that there were humans inside, Shockwave ordered the Driller to begin eating the building, causing it to collapse onto another nearby building. As the humans evacuated onto the fire-escape on the other building, Optimus Prime, having recovered his flight tech, managed to kill the Driller, saving the humans from pursuit. Furious with the death of his pet, Shockwave fired a cluster of missiles at Optimus, causing him to become tangled in some cables as the Wreckers came to his rescue.

At this point, Sentinel Prime gave the order to launch the pillars into orbit, at the same time as Wheelie and Brains discovered a downed Orbital Assault Carrier. While Epps and his team made their way through the streets, Sam and Carly continued on in another direction. To a position where Starscream spotted them. Relishing a chance to torment a long thorn in the Decepticons side, Starscream had some fun tormenting and threatening Sam. This allowed Sam a chance to use the grapple glove given to him by Que, hitting the Air Commander's right optic. Starscream began flailing around in pain, tossing Sam through a window, which allowed him to arm a boom-stick. The commotion attracted the attention of Lennox and the NEST forces. Just as Lennox arrived, Sam managed to jump on Starscream's head and jam the boom-stick into his left eye. Now completely blind, Starscream lost whatever control he had left and began flailing about trying to get the boom-stick out. Lennox grabbed the rope Sam's glove was attached to, but was unable to cut it. they managed to hit the release mere seconds before the boom-stick went off, which killed Starscream, but nearly fell to their deaths, only just saved by Bumblebee. Once they were sure Starscream was dead, Bumblebee went ahead to the edge of the river.

By the time the two human teams reached the bridge, a SEAL team arrived, informing Lennox of inbound TOMAHAWK missiles, and the military had accessed local security cameras. What they found was not encouraging: most of the Autobots had been taken captive by Decepticons lead by Soundwave. Realizing that the humans needed to get across the river, Dutch was able to hack the bridge controls and lower the bridge. Unfortunately, the orbiting pillars reached the necessary coordinates, and the ground based pillars began opening the space bridge. While this was going on, Wheelie and Brains managed to board a Decepticon cruiser and make their way to the control center. At the holding area, Dylan Gould was shocked that the Decepticons were taking prisoners, and encouraged them to kill the Autobots.

Soundwave happily concurred, declaring "no prisoners, only trophies". Ordering Que to his feet, the Autobot scientist was gunned down by Barricade while begging for mercy. Sam tried to activate a boom-stick, but it was damaged. Just as Soundwave was about to execute Bumblebee, Orbital Assault Carriers from the hijacked cruiser began crashing to the ground. The Autobots and Decepticons scrambled for cover, and Bumblebee was able to kill Soundwave in the ensuring confusion, then escape with the others. However, the cruiser carrying Wheelie and Brains crashed into the river, presumably killing the duo.

Meeting up with some army troopers, Lennox and Epps's teams took positions for a strike on the Decepticons, who were investigating Soundwave's last stand. As Lennox's team parachuted in, Barricade was reprimanding the protoforms for allowing the Autobots to escape when snipers began firing at the Decepticons optics. Momentarily blinded, the several demolitions teams were able to attach explosives to the Decepticons feet, crippling Barricade and several protoforms enough for the humans to kill them. As the Decepticons returned fire, Lennox and his men parachuted onto Shockwave, with one trooper seriously damaging the large Decepticon, while Epps team opened fire on full auto, seriously disorienting Shockwave. With this, the Autobots arrived and attacked. Despite the promising opening, sheer firepower was on the Decepticons side, keeping the Autobots and NEST from reaching the pillars. Declaring that Earth was theirs, Sentinel Prime fully activated the space bridge, and Cybertron began appearing in orbit. Just then, Optimus Prime, freed from the cables, arrived and quite literally tore through every Decepticon standing between him and Sentinel. Finally reaching Shockwave, Optimus punched out half of his chest, then tore his eye out through his head. Firing Shockwave's cannon at the control pillar, Optimus brought down a small part of the building, interrupting the transport and leaving Cybertron in half.

Optimus then demanded that Sentinel confront him, and a furious Sentinel was only too willing to oblige. Using his Primax Blade to descend the building, Sentinel was dumbfounded that Optimus still sided with the humans, but Optimus countered that Sentinel was the one who taught him freedom was the right of all sentient beings. Drawing a sword and Energon-axe, Optimus engaged Sentinel, who vowed to reactivate the pillar, while Sam went off to try and reach it first. With the tide turning, the Autobots, NEST, and the military pushed forward. When Optimus started to get the upper hand over Sentinel, the elder Prime called in the Orbital Assault Carriers to attack Optimus. All the Orbital Assault Carriers. NEST was able to make contact with the remote guided TOMAHAWK missiles, which were five minutes out. With the Orbital Assault Carriers attacking Optimus, the Wreckers attacking the incoming ground Decepticons, and the rest of the Autobots engaging Sentinel, no Decepticons were left to reactivate the pillar, which fell to a cowering Dylan Gould. With the Orbital Assault Carriers on the verge of overwhelming Optimus, NEST was able to guide the missiles to the fighters, downing them.

As Sam made his way to the pillar, he encountered Gould, who tried to stop him at gunpoint. Sam tried to reason with the human agent, but Gould said there only one future for him. As some papers obstructed his vision, Sam attacked, but Gould was still able to reactivate the pillar. Megatron, allowing his Lensmeter Decepticons to repair him, rested easily as Carly approached the Lord High Protector. Carly then pointed out that while the Decepticons were conquering Earth, their leader would not be Megatron, but Sentinel Prime. Megatron was within a hair of killing her when he realized she was right. Meanwhile, Sentinel, under fire from more or less everything at this point, realized that he was losing and fled with Optimus hot on his heels. At the same time, Gould overpowered Sam, knocking him out cold. Optimus caught up with Sentinel at a bridge and the two fought once again. However, when Sentinel severed Optimus's right arm and knocked him to the ground, it came apparent that Optimus was not stronger then his mentor. Lamenting over how the Dynasty of Primes had been gods on Cybertron, Sentinel declared that on Earth, there could only be one.

Just as Sentinel was about to deliver the killing blow, an infuriated Megatron came in firing—at Sentinel, letting loose several thousand years of parental issues out. Sam quickly reappeared, and promptly killed Gould with the pillar itself. The Autobots overwhelmed the last Decepticon, and Ratchet and Bumblebee destroyed the pillar. The effects were instantaneous: not only were the remaining Decepticon ships pulled out of Chicago and into the collapsing space bridge, but the space bridge's collapse destroyed Cybertron in the process. Seeing the plan had failed, Megatron slyly proposed a truce with Optimus, his only stipulation remaining Decepticon leader. Megatron was confident Optimus would accept; they had fought for so long, who was Optimus Prime without Megatron? Optimus declared that he would find out. Picking up his discarded axe, Optimus jammed the weapon into Megatron's head, then tore it off, killing Megatron. The badly wounded Sentinel pleaded for mercy, explaining that all he wanted was to save the Cybertronian race, which was why he betrayed his former pupil. Optimus claimed it was never about betraying Optimus; by allying with Megatron and planning to enslave humanity, Sentinel had betrayed himself. With bitter regret, Optimus Prime raised Megatron's fusion shotgun and executed Sentinel Prime.

With the battle over, Sam and Carly reunited, and with Cybertron lost, the Autobots accepted that Earth was now their home. Dark of the Moon

Age of Extinction film

Chicago proved to be the final tipping point in an already strained relationship between humans and Cybertronians. The United States government officially terminated all joint Autobot-human operations, replacing them with Harold Attinger's Cemetery Wind, a CIA unit tasked with hunting down the surviving Decepticons, whilst the Autobots were granted asylum on Earth. In reality, and under the White House's nose, Cemetery Wind hunted Autobot and Decepticon alike, holding both factions responsible for the loss of life in Chicago, forcing the Autobots underground. During the subsequent cleanup and rebuilding effort, Chicago proved to be a lucrative opportunity to salvage discarded alien technology, and several world governments and independent corporations began reverse-engineering Cybertronian tech.

Five years after the battle, Chicago had returned to its former glory, with a refurbished skyline. Perhaps as a result of easy access to Cybertronian artifacts and transformium, Kinetic Solutions Incorporated built its American division in the city. They were eventually visited by Cade Yeager and the surviving Autobots, who had hijacked a KSI drone and traced it back to its company of origin. Optimus Prime, angered by the mutilation of his former comrades, ordered an assault on the company, but his team voluntarily fell back after a confrontation with Joshua Joyce, and left the city.

After Prime was captured by Lockdown the bounty hunter met up with James Savoy to hand over the Seed. Needless to say, the presence of a giant alien spaceship caused mass hysteria in the streets and the military scrambled fighters to intercept but were ensured that the ship was not there to cause any harm by Harold Attinger. The Autobots later infiltrated Lockdown's ship to rescue Prime and the following battle slightly spilled over into the city's airspace. The ship later left - but without a section which set off in another direction. Age of Extinction

The Last Knight film

Izabella was orphaned during the battle of Chicago, as her parents were killed by Decepticons while she was away from home. By the time Cemetery Wind was exposed and replaced by the Transformers Reaction Force, much of Chicago was still uninhabitable.

Under more government-organised work, the TRF proved to be a liability in the fight against Quintessa. When Cade talked some sense into them, revealing that the real reason humanity turned on the Autobots after Chicago was because they simply gave up on them, the TRF realigned themselves as allies of the Autobots. The Last Knight

Dark of the Moon Annual

NEST Satellite Orion detected the highest energon reading in Chicago, suggesting that the Decepticons were using the tall buildings as an interstellar transmission site. Transformers Dark of the Moon Annual 2012

Ask Vector Prime

In Tyran 609.23-PX Kappa, Megatron also seized Chicago with the aid of collaborationist humans to set up the space bridge technology to bring Cybertron into Earth orbit. Ask Vector Prime

Studio Series toy bios

Thundercracker participated in an areal assault on the Autobots during the battle of Chicago.

Video games

Transformers: Forged to Fight

A demolished Chicago is used as an arena on New Quintessa. Keep an eye out for Chicagos Steakhouse! Transformers: Forged to Fight

Notes

• Out here in the real world, Chicago has twice played host to the official Transformers convention, as OTFCC 2003 and OTFCC 2004 both occurred there.
• Chicago also hosts the annual Wizard World Chicago convention, which frequently features a Hasbro Transformers display booth similar to what's seen at BotCon.
• The package and bio for Thundercracker's Studio Series toy marks him as being from Dark of the Moon, ostensibly as one of the numerous Decepticons who space-bridged in from the Moon and participated in the battle of Chicago.

Chicago in Dark of the Moon

• Chicago filming for Dark of the Moon commenced July 10, 2010 and continued through August 19.

• Many Chicago landmarks "appear as themselves" during Dark of the Moon. Virtually every landmark on the downtown skyline is visible at some point. Buildings of significance in the film include:
  • Trump Tower: the recently completed glass tower is where Dylan has his apartment.
  • 35 East Wacker (aka the Jewelers Building): the cupola'd building where Sentinel sets up the control pillar. It is directly across the Chicago River from the Trump Tower, accurately portrayed when Carly observes Megatron and Sentinel. Megatron is also shown sitting at its real-world base after (presumably) getting thrown off by Sentinel.
  • McCormick Place Busway: the sunken street in Grant Park is where Sam and Epps enter the city amid the fleeing population.
  • Navy Pier: prominently visible as the helicopters approach the city.
  • Aon Center: the vertically striped white building prominently visible during the wingsuiters' descent.
  • The Chicago River: much of the action centers around the river and its movable bridges; the carrier ship crashes there.
  • Willis Tower (previously Sears Tower): used by Lennox's wingsuit team for cover.
  • Tribune Tower: the Gothic-styled building whose crest is crumbled by the crashing troop carrier ship. Also used as a launch pad for Decepticons who attack the wingsuit team, and later as a base for Lennox's sniper team.
  • Wrigley Building: visible in various shots; most notably, the prisoner sequence occurs on Michigan Avenue in front of it.
  • LaSalle Street Bridge: scene of Optimus and Sentinel's final fight.

• Several additional filming locations in Chicago were repurposed as other sites, mostly set in Washington, D.C.:
  • The abandoned south side Rosenwald Apartment Building appears as part of Chernobyl, as Optimus arrives and the soldiers disembark, and where Alexi Voskhod meets his end shortly afterwards.
  • The Old Main Post Office is repurposed as NEST Headquarters in Washington D.C., with a digitally added helipad and smokestacks. The building's east loading docks appears several times, most notably when Sentinel announces his betrayal.
  • North Garland Court, an alleyway between Wabash and Michigan Avenues, is used as the Washington D.C. street where Sam and Carly live.
  • A section of Highway 912 (Cline Avenue, closed since 2009) near Gary in northwest Indiana fills in for the D.C. Parkway. A highway sign added by the filmmakers contains signage for exits to I-88 westbound (about twenty miles north and west) and Business Route 20/State Street (two hours west in Rockford, IL!)
  • The Mexican standoff occurs on S. Indiana Avenue, in front of the McCormick Place Convention Center's westernmost building. A star-shaped auto parts store sign, digitally inserted in to the scene, is actually located a couple of blocks west on State Street.

• Various discontinuities occur within the landscape of downtown Chicago during Dark of the Moon. While not errors per se—such geographic splicing is common within films, and they do not affect the internal storyline—they are still of note:
  • Most significantly, the movie's most prominent set piece—the skyscraper that gets shot in half and partially collapsed by the Driller, with our heroes still inside it— is not shown to be in its real life location. The building is clearly based on the office building located at 155 North Wacker Drive, though in the film it was digitally altered to appear taller. In a couple of shots, it is shown to be sited near the Chicago River just north of the NBC Tower, but the actual location is a parking lot. The real building is actually located five blocks north of the Willis Tower.
  • Detroit's abandoned Packard plant is digitally spliced into Chicago's landscape, south of downtown, as the backdrop as Epps and Sam argue, come under attack, and are reunited with the Autobots.
  • The wingsuit team launches from the Willis Tower, on the west end of downtown. Successive shots show them passing the Aon Center (a good mile or more east), then City Hall (in the center of downtown) heading south, then back to the Aon Center, then north and west to Michigan Avenue.
  • The abandoned Michigan Central Station in Detroit makes its second live-action appearance, this time as a Chicago building, where Prime and company retreat after the Driller's attack on the driving Autobots.
  • Carly states that the control pillar is in the southeast cupola; it's actually in the northeast cupola.
  • Epps can somehow see the Driller plowing through LaSalle Street from the fictional tower, through over a mile of cityscape.
  • After escaping from the fictional tower (north of the river), Sam and company are in a Lower Wacker Drive alley south of the river. A whole segment will subsequently focus on how they are trapped north of the river.
  • Epps and company then duck into an abandoned church: City Methodist, located in Gary, Indiana.
  • Sam encounters and kills Starscream in a parking lot whose real-world location is, again, south of the river (Wabash at Lake). (The adjacent garage was demolished in 2012.)
  • To attack Shockwave and Barricade, Lennox and his team run into the Tribune Tower, but then jump out of the Trump Tower.
  • The under-construction building where Optimus Prime (using his jetpack) gets entangled in cables is the China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing, China. Construction for the CCTV building was finished in 2008, long before Dark of the Moon was even conceived.

Chicago in Age of Extinction

• Many of the downtown Chicago landmarks seen in Dark of the Moon re-appear in the sequel. In particular, the Tribune Tower has its crest destroyed again, while the Willis (née Sears) Tower is once again the focal point of some aerial acrobatics.
• The offices of KSI are portrayed by the main concourse of the McCormick Place Convention Center.
• Chicago's abandoned Damen Avenue grain elevators, located along the Sanitary & Ship Canal, are repurposed as an industrial site in Hong Kong during the film's climactic final battle.
• The near west side's St. Boniface Church—also abandoned—makes a brief appearance as the site of Yeager's lab.
• The Uptown Theater—also abandoned (detecting a trend here?)—was another filming location.
• The scene of the Autobots gathered near some steam locomotives to hear Brains' exposition about Megatron was filmed at the Illinois Railway Museum, in the small town of Union, IL at the outer edges of Chicagoland. Several other scenes were filmed in the surrounding countryside.

External links

• Chicago at Wikipedia
• WGNTV's cover on the topic No seriously, that is a thing.