Shanghai

Big robots in Little China.

Shanghai (上海 Shànghǎi) is a major port city on the coast of eastern mainland China.

Fiction

Live-action film series

IDW Revenge of the Fallen prequel comics

Major Lennox informed Optimus Prime and the newly arrived Autobots that they were heading to Shanghai when Demolishor was spotted there. Alliance #4

The Veiled Threat

While Captain Lennox and Sergeant Epps were relaxing on the beach at Diego Garcia, the Autobot Knockout hurried to them to inform them of a recent Decepticon sighting, and expressed unfamiliarity with the phrase "shanghaied". The Veiled Threat

Revenge of the Fallen film

After receiving word that there might be a Decepticon hiding in Shanghai, NEST deployed a large force there with Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Arcee, Sideswipe, and the Twins, their sixth anti-Decepticon operation that year. The Chinese government evacuated the suspected area under the claim that there was a major toxic spill and they needed to send in search and rescue teams to the district. Once the area was evacuated, the Twins, in their combined form of an ice cream truck, were deployed for reconnaissance while Prime, Arcee, and Sideswipe were held in reserve. Once Ironhide joined the strike team, he transformed and was convinced that there was a Decepticon nearby.

Unfortunately, the suspected Decepticon turned out to be Demolishor, one of the largest of the Constructicons. He transformed and smashed the construction materials around him, sending them and several NEST soldiers flying. Gunships were deployed to deal him, but they had little effect. Amid the chaos, Demolishor's companion Sideways attempted to escape. Major Lennox ordered Arcee and the twins to take him down, but Sideways abandoned caution and transformed to robot mode, jumping through an apartment building to escape the tripartite Autobot. The Twins attempted to go around the building, but the turn was too fast for Mudflap to keep up, and the twins separated. Sideswipe was then deployed to prevent Sideways from escaping, and the Autobot warrior threw one of his swords into Sideways, then sliced him in half with the remaining blade. As Sideways crashed in two separate pieces, Sideswipe reflected that he was good.

One cannot make their film debut without blowing up a few bridges.

Meanwhile, Demolishor had escaped onto the freeway and began destroying multiple cars, whether by rolling over them or flinging them aside. Ironhide was still following, but could not match the larger bot in terms of speed. Sergeant Epps radioed an overhead C-17 to drop Optimus Prime into the battlefield. Once he had landed, the Autobot leader immediately made his way to a freeway overpass that Demolishor was about to drive through and jumped onto him, making his way to his head. When Demolishor refused his command to pull over, Prime then fired a few shots from his ion blaster into the Decepticon's head. His injury slowed him down long enough for Ironhide to jump onto him and shoot out his massive wheels, sending Demolishor off the freeway and crashing into a warehouse below.

As the Autobots and the NEST soldiers advanced on the dying Constructicon, Optimus inquired if he had anything he would like to say. In defiance, Demolishor declared that the Autobots would not save Earth, and that The Fallen would rise again. Optimus replied in the negative and put an energy blast into Demolishor's optical sensor, executing the Decepticon.

Although successful in eliminating the Decepticons, the Shanghai mission was a complete disaster in terms of civilian casualties and property damage. President Obama was horrified at the loss of life and assigned National Security Adviser Theodore Galloway to relay his concerns about the mission, while Galloway also took the time to air some other problems he had. Revenge of the Fallen

Dark of the Moon film

Shanghai was one of many locations across the world where Decepticons released the space bridge pillars to transport Cybertron to Earth. Dark of the Moon

2005 IDW continuity

Circa 2016, Galvatron led his Decepticons to Shanghai aboard the hijacked Ark-7 to initiate their conquest of Earth. However, they were met by Optimus Prime's Autobots, Perihelion who engaged them in battle. The Decepticons were largely immobilized the Earth Defense Command's mindbomb, prompting Galvatron's remaining forces to teleport away. Subsequently, the People's Liberation Army Mecha Force arrived on the scene and started attacking all Cybertronians regardless of faction. The Autobots thus dragged the Decepticons back through the spacebridge and then retreated aboard the Skyroller. Once Upon a Time on Earth

Games

Hunt for the Decepticons

Axor was speeding in a tunnel next to a river in downtown Shanghai. Bumblebee went to stop him before he destroyed the tunnel and flooded the city. Bumblebee repeatedly crashed into him until he rolled over and stopped.

Alternate ending: Axor crashed into Bumblebee enough times that Bumblebee was forced to stop. You are then told that Axor is tough and to continue the pursuit. Hunt for the Decepticons

Notes

Import/export company with the least likely Chinese name near a steel mill. The perfect kind of place for giant mining excavators to hang out.

• The Shanghai operation does not cast a very favorable light on either NEST or the Autobots. First off, Sideways made no hostile actions against the Autobots, and was merely trying to flee the scene without incident. Also, the toy bios make things much worse: Demolishor apparently considered himself something of a protector to the smaller Decepticons who were just waiting for a new Decepticon leader to rise in Megatron's absence, while Sideways is described as being someone who avoids combat entirely. In the Autobots and NEST's defense, they were unaware of this information, and for all they knew, the Decepticons may have been planning an attack. Also, the whole "jumping through an apartment" and "crushing and flinging cars on the freeway" thing make the Decepticons a little less sympathetic.
• The scenes at the Shanghai steel mill were actually filmed at the abandoned Bethlehem Steel ironworks in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (now the site of the National Museum of Industrial History, the SteelStacks campus and the Wind Creek Bethlehem resort and casino). Additional footage was shot at the San Pedro port of Los Angeles, California.^[1] The highway chase scene was filmed in Long Beach, California, most notably on Queensway Bridge.^[2]
• It's not quite clear if the ironworks set was actually supposed to represent an ironworks in the movie, or just a "generic industrial area". Case in point: There are a lot of people not even remotely dressed like workers being evacuated, who usually wouldn't be anywhere near an ironworks in these numbers unless they were on a guided tour. Furthermore, there's a large sign in Chinese characters that translates as "Empire Import and Export". And lastly, Demolishor was hiding out there in the disguise of a Terex O&K RH400, a giant mining excavator, which doesn't make sense near an ironworks nor an import/export company.
• Speaking of the name "Empire Import and Export"... that'd be the Chinese equivalent of an American company named "Soviet Import and Export". In other words, a very, very bad choice for a name.

References

See also

• Xin Shanghai

External links

• Shanghai at Wikipedia