Well, the ground troops had been defeated and the control pillar destroyed. Slurping up the ships was probably the easiest way to finalise the Decepticon's defeat.

The writers were like: "'Kay, Cybertron's gonna get sucked up now, and-"
"Wait, what about the 'Con airforce?"
"Oh yeah, them. Suck them up too, that'll be cool."

 

 

I think you might be right.

 

Sentinel said about the Space Bridge: "It defies your laws of physics, and can transport matter through time and space."

 

If all other sci fi franchises can cavalierly dispense with the laws of phyics for entertainment value, why not Transformers?

 

Basically citing Sentinel Prime's discovery Mass-Energy Equivalence does not apply to 17 dimensions.

This somewhat explains how Cybertron isn't exerting gravity on the local star system within the Space Bridge.

 

I was under the impression that the planet was engulfed by your standard sci-fi "Physics Negation Field" or "Fuck You, its the Plot" system or some sort.

I mean it would have been cool for the climactic battle be done amid small earthquakes and tsunamis and stuff like that, but such is life.

 

 

I think in this case, it's a comparision issue. When Megatron brought Cybertron to Earth in the G1 cartoon, there was a whole load of bad effects on poor Earth from another planet next to it. So, people were all like: "Well, if the cartoon portrays these negative effects correctly, why didn't the movie?"

But if I recall correctly, G1 Megs actually intended for Cybertron to affect Earth like that so he could harvest the energy of the destructive forces on the smaller planet. Sentinel Prime clearly didn't want the targetted planet to get torn apart by the bigger one, so he made sure his pillars had the ability to bend physics over backwards to prevent Cybertron's mass and gravity ruining Earth.

Basically, Sentinel's teleporter thing is better than G1Megatron's teleporter thing.

 

1) sentinel said it defied physics

2) and more importantly, those pieces were not solid. that's why they pulse-more and more is being added to that. once the bridge was closed, the hollow material caved in on itself. for there to be gravity, you need mass. that didnt have any mid-teleportation.

 

Sentinel said, "It defies your laws of physics."

That means we know jack shit compared to what sciences and engineering Sentinel used to build the Pillars. It functions beyond anything humans have designed. He doesn't necessarily mean it defies physics, period; its function as a teleporter goes against everything just us humans have ground into stone about physics.

That said, it's apparent the Pillars do more than teleport matter - they can regulate gravity. Hell, they actually hover when in use. It could hold Cybertron in Earth's orbit without the two planets' gravities interfering with one another. And destroying the Control Pillar obviously upset the gravity, causing Cybertron to collapse in on itself.

 

That's another really stupid line, especially for someone who should be scientifically astute like Sentinel. He should know that if it defies how the universe functions, the space bridge cannot exist, as it exists within the universe. It must function by some principle that exists within the universe, and those principles must apply whether you're on cybertron or from earth (I suppose how they work might be different INSIDE the space bridge, though). It shouldn't "defy" "our laws" of physics, it should operate in a way that is either beyond what we understand of physics, or using an aspect that we currently understand in an incorrect or incomplete fashion (which you appear to recognize). I know it seems like splitting hairs to say this, but from a scientific perspective, it's a very big difference.

I can suspend my disbelief in terms of the cybertronians having technology advanced beyond our reckoning, it's when it's treated like magic and people invoke Clarke's Law that I start to lose that suspension though.

 

Other people have said it and I'll agree that I don't think this is some sort of blanket statement that says Cybertron will never have any mass or gravity when it gets to orbit around our Sun.

I think the statement just means that it can break our understanding of physics by moving an object like Cybertron from it's home star to our solar system without having to travel the distance between the two stars. Instead of the long time it would take Cybertron to get here at light speed it can get here rather quickly.

Something like the Stargate breaks our understanding of physics but that doesn't mean that Jack O'Neill wasn't a solid person on the other side of the gate.

 

This topic is actually in the novel.

When Dylan is explaing that Sentinel is gonna bring Cybertron to Earth, a horrified Carly responds that putting a bigger planet right next to Earth is gonna tear it apart like a piece of paper.

Dylan just responds that Sentinel's got it figured out.

 

Actually, I asked my science teacher about this a while ago, and he said Earth would just be pulled into Cybertron, destroying Earth on impact.   I agree with what Meta777 said, Sentinel figured it out.  

 

Firstly, the mass of Cybertron is probably not much more that the mass of the Moon, because it have a porous structure. On the background of the battle and the widespread destruction which created by Driller, even a fairly strong earthquake may be not noticed but a catastrophic tidal and other things shouldn't been appeared.
If you are not satisfied with this explanation, I can only say that the Space Bridge is not explained by the laws of physics which familiar to us, so surely all that hasn't passed through it completely, actually does not exist!
I say this, as a future physicist (1.5 years before graduation University)

 

Laws of Physics as we understand them in our dimension.

This comes from ROTF when Sam had the Allspark knowledge in his head. E=MC Squared according to Sentinel's discovery only applies to our dimension.

In other dimensions our understanding of physics break down.

 

Pretty much these.

And also, I agree with Gordon. It would've added another visually cool layer to the film to have some sort of environmental effects. Heck, even minor tremors every once in a while, or seeing chunks of Earth start crumbling apart and getting pulled towards Cybertron. Then people would've started complaining that Bay was focussing too much on destruction.   Oh well.

 

Honestly? That would have been good enough for me for the film.

Like I said, that's all well and good for while it's IN the bridge, but Cybertron, and all its inhabitants, are inside our dimension when they interact with us.

Another thing, Sentinel had been online on earth for like what, a couple weeks when he said that line? He's bright, but I doubt he'd had time to really go into all the nuances and detail of the scientific state of an entire alien civilization. How long does it take the cybertronians to absorb the entire internet, anyway?

 

Ninja-fix.

From the first film, the Autobots, right after they'd satisfied their protoform instinct to obtain camouflage, decipher an alien language in mere minutes to the point Jazz can perfectly mimic an ethinic group, as well as Ebay, slang and in Ratchet's case, decent biology.

However, Sentinel had just reawoken from stasis and was preoccupied with Optimus, so even he wouldn't have much time to garner the Internet. I can only assume he either figured that humans were average but not quite to his standard, or that he's an egotist who thinks even the laws of physcis are better applied to anyone except him.

 

I was being as generous as possible, but yeah, I guess it is part of the same scene. I'd be willing to chalk it up to his ego, but even then, it's a really odd statement/assumption for him to make. Even moreso if he'd just woken up.

I think the other Autobots probably did some prep work before they arrived on earth though. Bumblebee had been doing recon for years at that point (supposedly), and was probably sending them info, and they would be able to intercept earth broadcasts and transmissions.

 

Ah well. Maybe he thinks humans have a different perception of physics or something. The laws of physics are constant, but the view on them may differ.

Oh yeah, good point. Yeah, 'Bee probably sent them files about languages, culture and basic human stuff while they were cruisin' through space, but still, I'd imagine they are highly quick to pick up stuff.