29-Jun-11 – Between June 2010 and June 2011, Marina City Online published 27 news articles – more than 8,000 words, illustrated by more than 50 original photographs – about arguably the biggest thing to hit the Chicago riverfront since the great fire. Filming for a bona fide Hollywood blockbuster movie.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon would be about an ancient struggle between two extraterrestrial clans of robots, the good Autobots and the evil Decepticons. It is based on the animated television series of the 1980s.

June 29, 2010 – We learn from Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, there will be filming along the Chicago River starting in July. What makes it unusual is that while filming a few years earlier for The Dark Knight took place mostly during dark nights, this movie will be shot in broad daylight.

“It promises to be one of the bigger films to be shot here,” says Moskal.

We also learn that producers of the movie are negotiating with Marina City’s commercial property management for, at the very least, a camera position to film action on the Michigan Avenue Bridge and Wacker Drive. Trump International Hotel & Tower, we report, “might” show up in the film, as well.

July 12, 2010 – Crews have started filming on LaSalle Street in Chicago’s financial district. After a trip to Milwaukee, they will be back by the weekend to film on Michigan Avenue. On the shot list are “stunt performers skydiving from a helicopter.”

Director Michael Bay, according to Moskal, “likes to put [his characters] in very real situations and real locations. And the destruction that they create digitally is in part created out on real locations.”

July 15, 2010 – And here we go…

(Above) A Yellow Cab is the last northbound vehicle to drive onto the Michigan Avenue Bridge before workers (at 7:57 p.m.) start closing Michigan Avenue for filming.

July 16, 2010 – Scenes are filmed with actors running through a street littered with debris and damaged vehicles. Access to the area is limited but not impossible. (Below) A Buick sits wrecked in the median of Michigan Avenue. In the background, a pickup truck is flipped on its side. Behind that, more movie mayhem.

July 17, 2010 – “Birdmen” drop in on the Transformers set. (Left) Five wingsuit flyers – wearing special jumpsuits that create lift – have jumped from the roof of Trump International Hotel & Tower and are opening their parachutes. They all landed safely on a barge on the Chicago River and then did the stunt two more times.

July 19, 2010 – The movie people blew up Wacker Drive. Several times. Here, a helicopter films another brief series of explosions in front of Hotel 71. July 23, 2010 – Filming had become so common that we actually reported on a day during which there would be no filming.

(Above) A Chicago police officer guards fake debris – including bicycles, traffic lights, lampposts, patio umbrellas, file cabinets, car bumpers, and a child safety seat – that was neatly piled along Wacker Drive.

July 24, 2010 – Rain cancels some exterior filming, so scenes were shot inside 35 East Wacker Drive, also known as the Jewelers’ Building.

What a coincidence – the UNITRIN sign is blue and has letters U and N…

July 26, 2010 – When we saw the giant turret lying crushed near the corner of Wacker & Wabash, it became clear that some Chicago landmarks were doomed. In fact, a fight scene was filmed on the toppled turret, looking like one of the four large turrets that rise from the corners of 35 East Wacker Drive.

During this time, we learned how to recognize Michael Bay. The director will generally be the tall man who is always pointing.

(Below) Closer view of actors Shia LaBouf (left) and Patrick Dempsey (right) filming a scene.

July 28, 2010 – Again, a story about there being no filming near the Chicago River.

August 1, 2010 – Fire in the hole and on the bus. Marina City resident Mark Pelczarski shoots video of a bus exploding in the middle of Wacker Drive. The bus then broke apart and rolled.

The explosions became almost routine for nearby residents and spectators. They were always preceded by a crewmember warning, “Fire in the hole!” They were generally followed by simulated gunfire of automatic weapons and then cheering from the crowds.

August 5, 2010 – Explosions, fireballs, rooftop scenes, scenes of people fleeing to a bus and, sadly, the bus exploding. Not to mention an eerie smoke that blanketed the riverfront. If you did not know it was for a movie, you might not have left home without full body armor.

“We stand for an hour in eager anticipation. We notice the choreography of carefully planned mayhem. Police boats move into position. Bridges are cleared of pedestrians. Crewmembers bark orders into their radios. A countdown, a series of huge explosions, and it is such a spectacle that you cannot resist applauding.” (Left) Frame from video by Mark Pelczarski.

August 7, 2010 – The LaSalle Street Bridge is closed for the weekend for filming.

August 13, 2010 – The end – of filming – is near. We can see just another couple weeks of fake Armageddon and then we will have to go back to our own amusements.

August 22, 2010 – Low-flying daredevil. (Right) A helicopter has just flown through the raised bridges at Michigan Avenue, Wabash Avenue, and State Street, and is seen here starting to turn around directly in front of Marina City on a Saturday morning. The bridges were raised simultaneously shortly after 9 a.m.

September 1, 2010 – We report on the last scheduled day of filming anywhere near the Chicago River – at Millennium Park in the morning and Wacker Drive in the evening. But the movie people decide they have enough and move on to Hammond, Indiana. Sadly, an extra, 24-year-old Gabriela Cedillo, will be seriously injured when a car stunt goes wrong.

November 17, 2010 – Imagine our surprise when we learn there were plans to send four burning cars off the west tower parking ramp at Marina City. A date and time had even been scheduled, August 8 at 7 a.m. In the end, producers of the movie could not agree on terms with Transwestern, the manager of Marina City’s commercial property.

Marina City Online quotes Chicago Film Office director Rick Moskal as saying the stunt was cut because the film was “way over budget.” Bay (angrily, we noted) responds to this by saying the Marina City stunt was cut because the property manager wanted a $40,000 location fee.

Said Bay, “I told my producer we are not paying that. Why? Because I like to stay on budget, and I also don’t like to get ripped off.”

(Below) Director Michael Bay talks with crewmembers and points during filming of Transformers 3 on Wacker Drive on July 26, 2010.

Between February 9, 2011 and June 24, 2011, we could only catch glimpses of the movie and the devastation it depicted. In trailers for the film, many buildings in River North appeared heavily damaged, including Marina City, which looks to have suffered an attack near the rooftop deck of its west tower. Actually, damage to both towers is extensive, mostly to the top floors, some of which are gone.

Smith & Wollensky appeared to be, well, no longer taking reservations. The plaza level between the two towers at Marina City is entirely destroyed. And that’s not the worst of it.

Whether it was caused by a weapon of intergalactic war – or a crashing alien craft – a large explosion definitely lowered property values of units on about seven floors of Marina City’s west tower.

Says actor John Turturro in one of the movie’s trailers, “Years from now, they’re going to ask, where were you when they took over the planet?”

For many people, the answer will be Chicago, on the front line of an intergalactic war.

 All MCO stories about Transformers 3