In a Terrifying Alternate Reality, Penn and Princeton Join Forces, Unleash Massive Power Tools Onto the World
In a bizarre alternate universe, one where giant alien robots masquerade as roadsters and fighter jets, and where non-banker Ivy League twerps inexplicably manage to land hot girlfriends, Penn and Princeton are not rivals separated by state lines and forty-five miles, but constituent parts of the same university:
Twenty seconds into the newest trailer for Transformers 2, viewers are treated to a sweeping aerial shot of Princeton’s campus. Immediately after that, there’s ground level footage of Penn’s Quad. There the mother of Shia LaBeouf’s character spins around in a circle and says, “Look at this place – I feel smarter already. Can you smell it?”
“Yeah,” her husband replies, “smells like forty thousand dollars a year.”
Actually, it’s more like fifty thousand. And does anyone know why Michael Bay decided to film on two separate campuses? We were baffled last year, and we still are.
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May 9th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Am amused that The Prox referred to Penn as “a nice little community college in Philadelphia,” in their article about the movie.
ha. Too cute.
http://blogs.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/05/transformers-live-from-princeton-on.html
May 10th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
They don’t actually say the name of either university in the film.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
They were going to just film at Penn but kept getting mugged and assaulted so they said fuck it and came to Princeton
May 12th, 2009 at 1:32 am
it’s not just aerial shots of Princeton. The scene where he’s in a lecture hall and sees the numbers in his notes/book was filmed in Princeton’s famed McCosh 50 (Harold Helm Auditorium) lecture hall. see http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S18/72/12A47/index.xml?section=topstories
May 12th, 2009 at 1:35 am
The scene with the sundial (on the right) where Shia is carrying a cardboard box was also filmed in Princeton’s McCosh Courtyard.
May 19th, 2009 at 12:16 am
The probably filmed on two different campuses because they wanted to show that he is going to Princeton, but it might have been cheaper to film on Penn’s campus. Or it made more sense to film on Penn’s campus (because of space, or administration allowing them to film)
July 1st, 2009 at 2:12 pm
..pretty sure that was McCosh 10, not McCosh 50.
July 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
REALLY PEOPLE? Do you not know a thing about the film industry? They use whatever shot looks the best, and if that means a compilation, do you really think the film makers or anyone watching the movie actually care? Expense clearly has nothing to do with it since filming in a city is always more costly than the countryside/suburbs where Princeton is located.