TMNT 2014: did the turtles really almost become aliens?

I went through Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) scene by scene, and while I'm not a fan of many of its choices, I can't say I hate it at all. It's fine. The 2014 film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay, turned the turtles into six foot super soldiers who look like Shrek with a shell. It's also packed with nods to the original comics, the 1987 cartoon and the 1990 movie.

Megan Fox plays April O'Neil and Will Arnett plays her cameraman Vern Fenwick. Behind the scenes, Raphael actor Alan Ritchson later described the turtle films as the worst experience of his career, and I get into his account below.

Why the 2014 Ninja Turtles almost made the turtles aliens

This was the first Turtles film from Nickelodeon after its parent company Viacom bought the rights from Peter Laird in 2009. It was deliberately released in 2014 for the franchise's 30th anniversary, since the first issue of the comic arrived in May 1984. The film was originally going to be called just Ninja Turtles, because a very early draft imagined the turtles as aliens from another planet. That's ridiculous nonsense.

The internet thought so too when Michael Bay first revealed it. Robbie Rist, who voiced Michelangelo in the first three Turtles films, was so angry he wrote directly to Bay saying he was ruining the whole franchise, which is a crazy reaction. In response to that anger, the production changed course and brought the turtles' origins closer to the comics.

April O'Neil, Channel 6 and the opening scene nods

The film opens in black and white, recalling the original 1984 comics. Just before the camera reaches a manhole, newspapers read "Crime wave tears New York" on the front page, with a picture of Shredder in the top right corner. That's an instant tease for the villain. Then we meet April in a yellow jacket, a nod to her classic yellow outfit. Before Megan Fox was cast, the production considered Elizabeth Olsen, Anna Kendrick and Jane Levy. This was Fox's second Bay production after the first two Transformers films.

April works for Channel 6, the same station from the 1987 cartoon, which never existed in the original Mirage comics. There, April was the lab assistant to the mad scientist Baxter Stockman. Her docks scene reminds me of her interview by the water in The Secret of the Ooze from 1991. Vern Fenwick first appeared as her cameraman in the 1987 cartoon. The two also do a workout with celebrity trainer Harley Pasternak, who worked on the first Transformers as a personal trainer.

At the docks April runs into the Foot Clan, led by Shredder's second in command Karai, played by Minae Noji. It's Karai's second Turtles film appearance after the 2007 animated movie. The Foot carry guns, which is very different from the ninja clan of the comics. They mostly used guns in the 80s cartoon, so it isn't without precedent; it's just not as cool. The turtles beat them from the shadows, much like the 1990 film, and April photographs the word family written in kanji on the containers.

Channel 6 colleagues and Whoopi Goldberg's Bernadette Thompson

April's roommate is played by former Saturday Night Live cast member Abby Elliott, and fellow SNL alum Taran Killam plays Jim McNaughton. McNaughton first appeared in issue 6 of the comics in 1986 as a Channel 6 reporter. He mocks April's story about vigilantes fighting crime at night and congratulates her on finding Superman.

Her boss Bernadette Thompson, played by Whoopi Goldberg, is a female version of Burne Thompson from the 80s cartoon. Apparently Goldberg had been trying to get into a Turtles film since Golden Harvest made the originals in the 90s, because her daughter loved the cartoon growing up. Landing this role was a personal dream come true for her and her family, which is really sweet.

Eric Sacks was originally going to be Shredder

A news report presents Eric Sacks of Sacks Industries as a visionary helping the NYPD fight the Foot. That's a lie. Sacks, played by William Fichtner, works with Shredder. That wasn't always the plan: Sacks was meant to be Shredder, which would have been a very bad decision. To protect fans from outrage, it seems Oroku Saki was added later, with Sacks reworked into his adopted son. Even the name sounds like a Western version of Oroku Saki, with Eric for Oroku and Sacks for Saki.

The real Shredder is played by Tohoru Masamune, whose voice was dubbed over every Shredder scene even though Fichtner wore the suit. The reshoots also added more ninja elements, like Saki dropping a Foot member with his hands tied behind his back. Later, I noticed Sacks wears a black suit, gray shirt and purple tie, colors usually tied to Shredder, especially the 80s cartoon version. During the lair fight, I'll add, the backlash Marvel faced over Iron Man 3 in 2013, when the Mandarin was swapped for Guy Pearce's Aldrich Killian, is what pushed this production to bring in an Asian Shredder.

Raphael's sai inscription and the subway rescue

Donatello has hacked subway cameras across the city, so the turtles head out, all except Mikey, who's obsessed with a cat playing Chopsticks with real chopsticks. That's a version of the famous Keyboard Cat clip from 2007, which makes me nostalgic for the days I had hair. When the turtles grab their weapons, Raphael's sai carry Japanese writing. I put it into Google Translate and it means: peace comes from within, do not seek it outside.

That's great, because it shows Splinter already knew Raph was looking for happiness outside himself and his family. It's why Raph later says he plans to leave at the first chance. By the end he realizes he was running from his family because he felt inadequate, and that self awareness will eventually bring him peace. The turtles then save April and civilians in the subway, the second time the big screen showed them rescuing April from a Foot attack there after the 1990 film.

On a rooftop April faces Raphael, played by Alan Ritchson, who deepens his voice like Christopher Nolan's Batman, and his brothers call him out for it. Raph has part of a Campbell's chicken noodle soup can strapped to his arm as armor, which is kind of funny, and red Japanese characters on his shell translate to Mikey was here.

Alan Ritchson called the turtle films the worst experience of his career

According to Ritchson in an interview, he and the other turtle performers were promised a lot before signing. He was told playing Raphael would launch his career to legendary heights, the way motion capture did for Andy Serkis as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings. Instead, because of their unique contracts, the turtle actors ended up being exploited, paid very little and having their comfort neglected to save money.

Ritchson recalled shooting in Brooklyn with a long trip back to Manhattan, where they were staying, and the turtles weren't allowed cars home. The crew was sent off so their hours would end, since they'd have to be paid if they stayed, but the turtles cost nothing to keep waiting. He described sitting on backpacks in an empty lot after a 14 hour day while calling his team in Los Angeles. The producers apologized and said it wasn't supposed to go that way.

For the sequel, he said, they promised back end profits to make up for the first film. He sat there thinking it would never happen, and it didn't. He was contractually bound for three films and tried hard to get out of returning for the second.

Turtle faces were based on Clint Eastwood, Bill Murray and Leonard Nimoy

Leonardo is voiced by Johnny Knoxville, with motion capture by Pete Ploszek. Michelangelo, Megan Fox's favorite turtle, is voiced and performed by Noel Fisher of Shameless. Mikey wears a shell necklace; he was originally going to wear a gold chain, but it was swapped over fears the stereotype might offend Black audiences. They eventually realized the worry was baseless in Out of the Shadows, where Mikey wears the gold chain. April faints at his face, echoing her first meeting with the turtles in issue 2 of the original comics.

Donatello, played by Jeremy Howard, checks her vitals with goggles built from sewer junk, running his own custom operating system. The turtles are about 14 here, which is crazy given their size and adult voices. Leo and Raph argue over leadership, a nod to how the 2007 film handled that dynamic. Raph twirls his sai like a Clint Eastwood western, deliberately, since his face was modeled on Eastwood and Russell Crowe. Mikey's face is based on Bill Murray, Donnie's on Leonard Nimoy and Leo's on Tom Hanks and Crowe. It seems someone at Industrial Light and Magic is a big Russell Crowe fan.

Even Splinter, played by Tony Shalhoub, is based on samurai legend Toshiro Mifune. Whatever you think of the designs, the CG is incredibly detailed, especially for the time. That realism is what Bay was after, inspired by Weta Digital's work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011.

Project Renaissance, TCRI and the 1990 film's release date

April's childhood shoebox reveals her father worked with Sacks at TCRI on Project Renaissance, a super soldier serum meant to cure any disease. They tested it on a lab rat and four turtles named after Renaissance artists. April plays an old tape she shot as a child dated March 30, 1999. March 30 is the day the first Turtles film was released in 1990. It then jumps to June 30, 1999, showing the ooze canister, designed like the 1990 film and the original comics.

On that tape, young April jokes that the ooze is from outer space, a nod to the alien Utrom race creating the mutagen in the comics and to the early alien draft. Later, when Vern calls the turtles aliens, April calls the idea stupid, a nod to the online backlash. A small jaguar toy is possibly a reference to Jaguar from the Archie comics, who helped save April. The lair was built from scratch as a real set, which is great given they could have done it all in CG.

Mikey wanted to finish his Christmas hip hop album with Raph, a nod to the very awkward 1994 special We Wish You a Turtle's Christmas. Splinter disciplines his sons with his tail but clearly loves them, wearing a green turtle pendant over his heart. He lures them with 99 cent Pizza Hut cheese pizza, a brand long tied to the franchise: 90s VHS copies of the film opened with a Pizza Hut ad, and the first NES game had Pizza Hut ads in the background. At the Sacks mansion, a painting of a warlord in ninth century Japan shows a small pink tentacled creature, a reference to the Utroms and indirectly to Krang.

Splinter's origin and my theory about the mutagen

Splinter tells April how he raised the turtles. Baby Mikey yawns, independent Raph turns his back on Leo, who hugs his father's finger, and baby Donnie rubs his eyes, the first sign he'll need corrective lenses. The turtles dance to Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl, and Splinter finds a ninjutsu book by Eastman and Laird, creators of the comics. He teaches himself from it, unlike the comics and 90s films, where he learned from his owner Hamato Yoshi. Young Leo slicing pizza in the air onto Splinter's face is a nod to the 1990 film.

It seems the serum doesn't just enhance their bodies but makes new skills easier to learn and remember. Splinter mastering ninjutsu from a book shows superior intelligence, and young Raph carves a turtle statue with his sai in seconds. If Shredder replicated the serum, I can imagine him using it on new American recruits who know nothing about martial arts, turning them into real Foot ninja instead of gun toting thugs. One of his main goals is rebuilding his army, so it would be a great shortcut.

As teens they get their masks. Leo wears a New York pin on his right shoulder, and Raph's bandana shows a kanji for anger, the first time we see the full headband later seen in the 2018 series and Mutant Mayhem in 2023. Donnie's goggles are definitely inspired by the 2012 Nickelodeon series, and this is the first Turtles film where he needs glasses. Personally I'm not a big fan of all his gear, because his tech smarts should show through what he builds. But I understand Nickelodeon: they have to make toys, and a high tech turtle is more appealing than a smart turtle with a stick. Mikey's mask is more frayed, likely reflecting how little he cares for his things.

The lair attack, Shredder's magnetic armor and a plot hole

Splinter calls April their hogosha, Japanese for guardian. Leo bows, Mikey follows, and Donnie takes a few seconds, a detail I loved because it reflects his skepticism of the supernatural, a trait I remember from issue 6 of IDW's 2011 comics. Raph refuses to bow at all. Splinter seems to know Sacks is linked to Shredder, which I find odd since he lives underground. But since he came from TCRI, there's a good chance Shredder visited and Splinter overheard them.

The ID card Sacks gave April is a tracker, and the Foot blast into the lair. A poster reading Black Belt Death Match hangs above the masks, which is exactly what Splinter and Shredder do moments later. Shredder fires knives and pulls them back with magnets in his gauntlets. Marvel made glowing magnetic gauntlets for Captain America in Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, so I wonder if Marvel took inspiration. April stabs Shredder in the back to save Splinter.

Shredder captures three turtles after they drop their weapons, recalling the 90s film. What doesn't make sense is leaving Splinter and Raph behind. They thought Raph was dead, but if the goal is extracting mutant blood, why not take them all? Raph then carries all four weapons, one of the first times we see that before The Last Ronin in 2020.

Arrested Development, Usagi Yojimbo and the 2003 Foot logo

The Foot drive past a billboard for Project Almanac, another Bay produced Paramount film, directed by Dean Israelite, cousin of this film's director, Jonathan Liebesman. He went on to direct the underrated Power Rangers in 2017. Vern plays George Michael's Careless Whisper, and since Will Arnett played Gob, uncle of George Michael, in Arrested Development, that's a deliberate Easter egg; Vern even makes a mustard and cheese sandwich, Gob's habit.

Sacks reveals he considered rabbits instead of turtles, a reference to Usagi Yojimbo, Stan Sakai's mutant samurai rabbit. He plans to sell the cure for his plague, which he stresses flows through their blood, a nod to the ooze. I think the cure would likely mutate whoever touched it into animals or monsters. His trident shaped tower mirrors this film's Foot logo, the 2003 series design, a show I think is the best version of the Turtles we've had.

The snow chase, Cowabunga and who beats Shredder

Shredder cracks Raph's shell and then leaves for some reason, despite saying the fourth vat was for Raph, and ignores Megan Fox and Will Arnett freeing the turtles. That makes no sense. The snowy mountain chase is one of my favorite action scenes, and it seems it came from an early draft where Shredder was a spiky alien with a mountain base. Raph calls Karai Little Miss Sunshine, after the 2006 film with Abigail Breslin and Steve Carell.

In the elevator, signs read no weapons of any kind and safety requires teamwork, which is funny given what follows; the turtles singing together there is easily my favorite comedic moment. Before the rooftop fight, Mikey shouts Cowabunga, linked to the franchise since the 1987 cartoon. Writer David Wise included it after seeing Snoopy surf and say it in a 60s Peanuts episode, and the word was tied to 60s surf culture partly because of Chief Thunderthud on Howdy Doody.

Megan Fox was apparently pregnant, so a planned April fight with Karai was replaced by Vern knocking Sacks down. Donnie disables the launch, because Donnie is the best turtle. April drives debris into Shredder's face, continuing a pattern where the turtles don't beat the main villain: Splinter and Casey Jones in 1990, Super Shredder destroying himself in Secret of the Ooze, Walker in TMNT 3, April's truck in 2007. Shredder's fingers twitch as ooze leaks into the tunnels, and the film ends with the 1987 style van and The Turtles' 1967 song Happy Together.

My verdict on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

I think the turtle actors gave great performances despite everything they dealt with behind the scenes, and their personalities made it fun for me. I didn't like Megan Fox as April: without the red hair and right attitude she never felt like the real April, and I'd have preferred Elizabeth Olsen. The Foot never felt like a real ninja clan, just incompetent idiots with guns, and making the turtles huge, near indestructible monsters was a mistake, because they shine when closer in size to their enemies.

But it's a kids' movie, so it's fine. I can switch off and enjoy the ride. It's not the best Turtles film, which is a shame, because the effects are amazing, and hats off to everyone who made these turtles look so real.