Michael Bay is known for big, bombastic set-pieces. It’s no shock, then, that he requested artists on one of his Transformers movies to go above and beyond in his pursuit for spectacle.
According to visual effects artist Rassoul Edji on Twitter, Bay asked for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen villain Destroyer to be “bigger and more detailed” after first being presented with the mammoth Decepticon.
From there, Destroyer was “almost doubled in size and complexity” with the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) artists deciding that it “should be comprised of multiple different rigs, the two arms, the two legs, the torso, and the head.”
It should come as little surprise that hardware in 2008 couldn’t handle this bad boy. As Edji explained, “It was so complex and so heavy that it melted a couple computers of the artists at ILM.”
While Devastator was later bested in scale by Dark of the Moon’s Driller Bot, the figures are still eye-watering: 52,362 individual parts, 100-feet tall, and parts that – when laid out – would be 14 miles long. Watch Devastator in action for yourself below.
Devastator from #Transformers Revenge of the Fallen was the biggest creature ILM had ever done up to that point. It was so complex and so heavy that it melted a couple computers of the artists at ILM.The first time they showed Devastator to Michael Bay he said that it needed to… pic.twitter.com/KCnrK5s1hHDecember 12, 2024
Despite the middling performance of animated prequel Transformers One at the box office, the live-action portion of the franchise is moving forward in surprising fashion – with a G.I. Joe crossover movie. That follows on from the Rise of the Beasts ending setting up the special forces team last year.
For more, check out our guides to upcoming movies and new TV shows.