(This is the final piece of a three-part analysis of the Transformers mythology. Warning: each article contains spoilers for the movie it covers.)

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon: No Heroes Need Apply

After the events of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Sam, in true American style, returns to school to fulfill the college rite of passage, finishing what he started (and probably running up a six-figure debt in the process). Though a higher education is not necessary for a hero of his caliber, it can nevertheless be beneficial in this country, especially if Sam wants to get a good, steady job someday. It looks good on a resume, balancing out other accomplishments, like being the two-time savior of the world.

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(This is the second piece of a three-part analysis of the Transformers mythology. Warning: each article contains spoilers for the movie it covers.)

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen: The Victory of Self-Knowledge

As the opposition, the Decepticons have a solemn duty to wage war against Autobots and the humans perpetually. If the chance to clash with the forces of good arises, then they must take it in spades; they must oppose. In Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, this predisposition is sustained. They are back, again searching for a tool that can help them bring about destruction. But this time, instead of a cube, it is a destructive force that is repackaged in the Matrix of Leadership. But, fascinatingly, this search has been going on for thousands of years, dating back to the earliest age in human history when an original Decepticon, named the Fallen, tried to harvest the sun (and, with it, destroy all life on earth) because he hated humans. Luckily, he was stopped by a group of Primes (the original leaders and distant ancestors of Optimus) in a way that only heroes can: they took the Matrix of Leadership and hid it by sacrificing themselves to cover up any trace of its whereabouts. No one, not even the modern-day Autobots, know of this incredible history linking Transformers and humans. It was knowledge that could only be intuited by heroes.

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(This is the beginning of a three-part analysis of the Transformers mythology. Warning: each article contains spoilers for the movie it covers.)

Every generation has its own hero, a character who stands for and defends the social mores of the particular time and place in which he or she exists by combating hostile forces and ideals that are detrimental to the preservation of the hero’s own society. These heroes, unmistakably present in all forms of art, are the life-blood of their culture, displaying and perpetuating what is collectively honored and desired therein. In his epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer sang of the almost-unbeatable warrior Achilles and the cunning Odysseus to suit the needs and wants of ancient Greece. With The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri created a fictionalized version of himself to break through the barriers of the eternal spheres of God–journeying from hell and purgatory to a heavenly enlightenment–while facing the demons, ancient and ever-timely, of Renaissance Italy. And now, along these similarly epic lines, director Michael Bay has offered up the hero of our time in the Transformers movie trilogy: Sam Witwicky, the 21^st Century American hero who speaks to and for us.

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