Mikaela

She’s the chick every guy in high school has his eye on. She’s hotter than a rally yellow Chevrolet Camaro. And she’s the girl who ends up with the biggest prize of all—being part of the team that ultimately saves the world from annihilation. I am thrilled to present Mikaela Banes of the Transformers series for this week’s Women Who Wow Wednesday.

As a little girl, Mikaela (Megan Fox) learned about cars from her jail-prone car thief dad. She’d never admit her mechanical talents to her boyfriends though, why ruin a good relationship with their inferiority complex. But when she meets Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who incidentally drives around in a piece-of-crap, broken down, 1977 Camaro his dad had purchased for him on his birthday, she feels compelled to help the kid out with his ride:

Mikaela: You got a high rise double-pump carburetor. That’s… that’s pretty impressive, Sam.
Sam Witwicky: Double-pump?
Mikaela: It squirts the fuel in so you can go faster.
Sam Witwicky: Oh… I like to go faster.

The next time we meet Mikaela is on her back, after Sam runs into her moped on the street.

You see, Sam’s not some ordinary kid. He’s what you call special. Not special in a weird way, but special in the sense his great-great-grandfather in 1935 had made one of the most awesome discoveries in the history of the world. He discovered frozen in ice, Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, a race of robots sent to deplete the earth of its resources. This is a big deal ‘cause by the time the remnant of the Decepticons catch up with Sam, eBay username ladiesman217, in the middle of the street with Mikaela, Bumblebee, the piece-of-crap Camaro Sam owns, rides in to save the day.

The chase is on. They hit the street leaving smoke behind. After several cat-and-mouse games, Bumblebee throws the kids on the ground behind him and transforms into an Autobot, a good guy from the planet Cybertron. A battle ensues, but the more interesting battle happens when a smaller, meaner Decepticon chases after Sam.

Mikaela darts to a tool shed to find her choice instrument of pain. She revs it up and goes after the puny, insignificant weasel that dares attack her friend, Sam. Brandishing the chainsaw, she makes meat out of the Decepticon.

When Bumblebee vanquishes the larger Decepticon, he confesses his identity to Sam, transforms back to a Camaro. Then Sam utters the words that I think makes the whole movie worth the cost of admission and then some:

Sam Witwicky: He wants us to get in the car.
Mikaela: [laughing nervously] And go where?
Sam Witwicky: Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?

And right there is a lifetime of journeys.

I can tell you more about Mikaela, the glasses, of how she uses a tow truck to defeat the Decepticons with Bumblebee in tow, but I think I’ll end it here—with the decision of a lifetime. Mikaela had to make that decision, and at one point in our lives, we too have to make some major decision somewhere. We may have already made it. We may not know what it is, but at least we had guts enough to make it.

RANGER MARTIN AND THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, on sale October 22.

Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?