Comparing the Original Test Screening of Rise of the Beasts to the Final Film

The first big obvious changes I’ll get out of the way are the beginning and the ending.

The scene I see everyone talk about, that's notoriously known for being cut, was the Transit fight. Funny enough, this scene was one of the more completed sequences in my cut, since the rest of the movie was still very much in production (about 80% pre-vis)



So the movie originally opens with an Optimus Prime monologue about how for the last few years, the Autobots have stayed hidden as they continued to be hunted by Decepticons, but he's still determined to find a way to get back home and take the fight back to Cybertron and there's a line about how "The hunted have now become the hunters..."

Visually you see stars that transition to the wet streets of NY as Prime drives through the city and pulls into a bus lot. He transforms (you see this in the 2nd trailer) and announces "I know you're here..."
A bus pulls out, revealing a Decepticon logo on the front grill, and transforms saying things like "You can't find us all, Prime. We'll get you eventually!" A fight ensues and it's pretty sick. There's a part where Prime grabs Transit's head and pushes it into a nearby bus and grinds it throughout the inside of the bus. Prime demands to know where the con's ship is, but Transit laughs and tells him that he blew up his ship just for the satisfaction of knowing the autobots can't get off this planet to save his Autobots back home, and even shows a hologram of Autobots being executed as they swear Optimus will return to save them (rough, right?) and this pisses Prime off. I don't remember the specifics of how Transit dies, but I know Prime uses his axe.(which, in my version, they borrowed the DOTM axe model AND that was actually the only time he used the axe in my cut iirc) The scene ends with Optimus dragging Transit's body, and dumping it into a nearby river, and as it floats, Transit lands on top of a revealed pile of cons so you know Optimus has been doing this for a while. HE monologues about not giving up on finding a way off Earth and back home. This then transitions to Noah back home.



As for the ending battle, there were a good amount of changes with how it was approached.


One was the original plan to destroy the control console using Airazor’s deceased spark as a bomb. I can’t remember how they lose the bomb, but they have to change plans using the codes Elena found to stop it instead.

Then there’s Mirage’s fate. In my cut, Mirage first turns into a shield like form and protects Noah from Scourge’s attacks, then the scene plays out like normal and he turns into the suit, but doesn’t hint at him being ok. This version ends on the assumption that Mirage sacrifices himself to become the suit and that’s it.

Then there’s the big change. Instead of Prime escaping from being pulled in by the transwarp key explosion, in my cut, he actually DIDN'T! He gets sucked up, and everyone assumes he died sacrificing himself. This leaves the movie with only 3 of the original Autobots (and Stratosphere) alive and everyone kind of feels like shit. (I think that shot was in one of the trailers or ads too?) This goes into Noah embracing his family, and that’s how the film ended.

The after credit scene reveals Optimus has survived the transwarp teleportation and drifts in space...towards Unicron. He floats inside Unicron where his two big eyes open, looking straight at Optimus. Cuts to black. (This change was also interesting since this was the only time we saw Unicron's eyes, as the earlier scene with Scourge and Unicron, after the museum fight, just had either a burning light or his planet form [hard to remember] looming over him instead)


There were a bunch of other small changes. Here what I can remember:

There was a shot of Airazor flying over New York after Elena discovers the Falcon vase.

Bumblebee explains humans aren't all bad to Optimus at the autobot meet up scene instead of before the museum. “The people…ZZzzt…They ain’t all bad..zzt.” In fact, the whole scene of Optimus, Arcee, and Bee waiting for Mirage and Noah outside the island was an additional scene. Same goes for Mirage explaining Optimus to Noah in the car. Since Optimus didn’t have his beginning monologue explaining the situation, they added this scene to do that instead.

Another widely known cut was the Wheeljack and Arcee relationship. When the Bots land in Peru, Arcee hears Wheeljack is joining and gets flustered. “Wheeljack’s coming…?” Later on, while Arcee is inside Wheeljack waiting for Noah and Elena, Arcee mentions how it’s been a long time since they've seen each other and Wheeljack embarrassingly says, “Yes, it’s been a while since you’ve been inside me…Erm, I mean…”. The final battle has Wheeljack be a little more concerned for Arcee too when they get swarmed.

One scene I wished they saved was when the Autobots are staking out the city in Peru, Wheeljack lends his glasses to Optimus to zoom in. so there’s a little funny look of Optimus wearing Wheeljack’s glasses that was sadly cut out.

There’s a cool line where the heroes are charging, Scourge just looks at them and says “Defend the bridge…” and that’s when a gate appears, releasing the terracon army, instead of them being materialized. Optimus has another little inspiring speech before charge too.

The lines about Optimus Primal’s name being an inspiration from Optimus’s name were added. Good, since I thought that it was bizarre that they all just glossed over that.

Airazor’s introduction to the Autobots was slightly changed since there was originally no Maximal planet opening. Like Optimus in 2007, she uses her eyes to show holograms of her planet for a quick scene of a bunch of generic beasts being chased by two Scorponoks and Scourge as he fires his blaster at them. She then shows Unicron and tricks Noah and Elena’s vision with holograms of as if Unicorn was in the sky, about to consume the Earth, showing them the threat that now faces them. If I recall correctly, Optimus originally thinks Unicron was a myth, but Aiirazor reassures him he’s real. The scene with Elena saying "It's not real. It's not real..." was there too.

Airazor and Elena had more communication between each other. In the scene where they’re waiting for Stratosphere, there’s a part where Elena mentions how she bets Airazor was “making bots turn their necks as she flew by” with Airrazor agreeing “ I did know to shake a tail feather or two.” In fact that whole scene was different. Stratosphere doesn't even show up. It’s just them grouping up and having more dialogue and then someone asks how they are going to get to Peru, smash cutting to them inside Stratosphere. Mirage makes a joke that they are probably going to crash, but Stratosphere responds saying they are safe inside him. Here, Noah and Elena’s dialogue was a bit different. I don’t think Elena ever mentions her dad and Noah explains that he’s worked with military people like Optimus before and doesn’t trust him.

Stratosphere still transformed in the film. The scene where he transforms with Bumblebee in hand was the first time you see him in my cut.

The scene with Noah and Elena going through the caverns and finding the empty key tomb was followed by the freezer attacking them, but after Noah blasts it, they get discovered by Cheetor and Rhinox. The Maximals chase the humans around the caverns for a while until Rhinox chases them to a crack only the humans can fit too. That's when they lead out into the jungle to be stopped by Primal. The first teaser’s shot of Rhinox is from this scene.

When Mirage says "Don't ask what part of my body it came from", Wheeljack follows up and says "He's talking about his butt."

Scourge's character was twisted between cuts too. He had some lines that made you know he was forced and tortured working for Unicron. When Scourge and Unicron have the meeting, Unicron ends it by threatening to make his life a living hell if he doesn't find the remaining Transwarp Key and Scourge responds to himself afterwards with “...it already is…”. When Scourge meets Primal after corrupting Airazor, there was some dialogue between the two that made it seem like they knew each other personally, but I can’t remember the exact words. Near his death, Optimus tells Scourge to stop the Transwarp keys, and Scourge mentions something like “It’s too late. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t stop the keyes now.” A lot of the new lines in the official cut make him seem more like a cookie cutter villain with only the drive to do what Unicron demands. Also, his design was the one from the promotional art and toys (possibly including a mustache, but I may not be accurate on that). They showed his final design for a split second in one of the more completed scenes, so I knew he was going to be changed eventually.

The scene at the end with the G.I Joe tease was obviously added in later, including the Elena redemption part. I was part of the focus group at the end, and I remember we all realized that Elena didn’t have any resolution to her arc, so I’m glad they added it.

Obviously this includes the Mirage surviving scene being a later addition too. Personally, I’m not a big fan of this decision since that just means everyone can get revived. Let's get Airazor back! Why not! Woo Hoo! No consequences! We can have our cake and eat it too!

Mirage seemed more insufferable in my cut. I remember rolling my eyes more than half the time he spoke. I think he’s better in the official cut. I wouldn't be surprised if Pete D. ad libbed some better lines.

Mirage’s head crest was white, like what we see in some promotional material. Also he never had the weird Vader mask thing. Don’t know what that was about.

When Mirage turns into a garbage truck, they made it more clear the back half was a hologram.

Optimus’s character arc was a little wishy washy in my cut. He seemed to not like humans at all for the majority of the film until Noah decides not to shoot the Transwarp key. Then, after the whole Airrazor death scene. Optimus makes a speech about how great humans are and how wrong he was. It was a bit jarring how quick Optimus decides to trust humans and protect Earth. I'm glad they gave Optimus a bit more scenes with Noah to pad out the trust and care he develops for Earth. This speech also had Optimus say “For Cybertron!” Primal says “For Earth!” and Rhinox jumps in and says “For HOME!” and they all turn to Rhinox and Noah says “You can talk!?” . The scene in the trailer about “How big can this guy be?” was also in this scene, but was obviously cut out.

In the final battle, Cheetor says the line “We’re right behind you, big bot!”

Primal kills Battletrap the same way, but Optimus wasn’t there to help kill him and make the joke.

When Airazor is escaping with Elena and the key, my cut had the DOTM track “I’m just a messenger” with a bit of a jungle beat playing. I wish that was still there.

When Primal fights the corrupted Airazor, Airazor doesn't talk back or says to kill her, she's completely farrell. Also Primal snaps her neck instead of crushing her chest.

When Unicron is entering through the transwarp portal , he sucks the energon from around the area, including where Bee is, causing the energon to go through Bee first. Also Bee is considered dead in my cut. There’s no lines about possibly saving him, so they just like carrying around his body, I guess?

Primal says "Maximal maximize" instead of calling out Cheetor and Rhinox specifically

When Unicron drops Scorponoks onto the battlefield, Noah yells what those things are, and Primal responds “Predacons….”

Like Optimus's axe, his swords were the first trilogy swords that were probably place holders until they designed the new ones

Noah gives the final speech alone, since Prime was teleported and assumed dead.