Transformers: Age of Extinction is a 2014 live-action film directed by Michael Bay. The sequel to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it is the fourth instalment in the live-action film series. Like its predecessors, it was directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger, with Steven Spielberg and Bay as executive producers. It stars Mark Wahlberg, Jack Reynor, Nicola Peltz, Stanley Tucci, Kelsey Grammer, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, and T.J. Miller with Peter Cullen reprising as the voice of Optimus Prime. It is the first live-action film in the series not to feature the original human cast from the previous three films, but features a new cast of human characters and many new Transformers, including the Dinobots.
Synopsis[]
After the battle between the Autobots and Decepticons that levelled Chicago, humanity thinks that all alien robots are a threat. So Harold Attinger, a CIA agent, establishes a unit whose sole purpose is to hunt down all of them. But it turns out that they are aided by another alien robot who is searching for Optimus Prime. Cade Yeager, a "robotics expert", buys an old truck and upon examining it, he thinks it's a Transformer. When he powers it up, he discovers it's Optimus Prime. Later, men from the unit show up looking for Optimus. He helps Yeager and his daughter Tessa escape but are pursued by the hunter. They escape and Yeager learns from technology he took from the men that a technology magnate and defense contractor named Joshua Joyce is part of what's going on, so they go to find out what's going on.
Plot[]
"God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs."
Five years have passed since the final battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons left Chicago in ruins and claimed the lives of over a thousand civilians. The U.S. government has severed its ties with the Autobots and branded them as fugitives. An elite CIA unit called "Cemetery Wind" is formed by Harold Attinger with the intent of hunting down and exterminating the surviving Autobots with the aid of Lockdown, a Transformer assassin and bounty hunter. Meanwhile, using data obtained from destroyed Transformers, business tycoon Joshua Joyce and his technology firm Kinetic Solutions Incorporated (KSI) have discovered "Transformium", the molecularly unstable metal that is the lifeblood of Transformers. Joshua's prized creation is Galvatron, a Transformer created from the data inside Megatron's severed head.
In rural Texas, struggling robotics inventor Cade Yeager and his friend Lucas Flannery purchase an old Marmon 97 semi-truck in hopes of stripping it down and selling the parts to get Cade's daughter Tessa into college. Cade discovers that the truck is an injured Optimus Prime, and it is not long before Lockdown and Cemetery Wind operatives led by James Savoy storm into the Yeager's farm and threaten them. Optimus comes out of hiding to fend off against the operatives while Cade, Tessa, and Lucas are rescued by Tessa's boyfriend Shane Dyson, an Irish rally racer. They lose the operatives in a lengthy chase in Paris, Texas, but Lucas is killed by Lockdown's grenade during their escape. Using a drone he took during the raid, Cade discovers that the operatives and KSI are working together. Optimus rallies the remaining Autobots - Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs - and travel with their new human allies to infiltrate KSI's headquarters in Chicago. There, Cade, Shane, and Bumblebee discover the firm's reverse engineering of Transformer technology. Upon discovering that Ratchet has been slain and his head is being melted down, Optimus and the Autobots storm into the headquarters to destroy the laboratory, but Joshua convinces them that their actions are futile.
"Dad, help me!"
As the Autobots leave the premises, Joshua launches KSI's prototype Transformers Galvatron and Stinger. Optimus and Galvatron engage in a grueling battle where Optimus realizes that Galvatron is Megatron in a new body. Suddenly, Optimus is blasted from behind by Lockdown, and in the midst of the chaos, he and Tessa are captured into Lockdown's ship. Aboard the ship, Lockdown explains to Optimus that the Transformers were created by a mysterious alien race known as the "Creators", who hired him to capture the Autobot leader and kill any Autobots who refuse to give up his location . As a reward for Optimus' capture, Attinger's operatives are given the "Seed", a powerful relic that cyber-forms any wide area of land. Cade, Shane and the Autobots storm into the ship to rescue Optimus and Tessa; while Bumblebee, Crosshairs and the humans escape and crash into Downtown Chicago, the other Autobots detach the rear section of the ship before it leaves into space. Joshua and his business partners Su Yueming and Darcy Tyril retreat to Beijing, where Attinger hands Joshua the Seed in exchange for a stake in KSI control. The Autobots and their human allies follow them to prevent them from detonating the Seed.
At KSI's Beijing factory, Galvatron suddenly activates by himself and infects all 50 of the firm's prototype Transformers to do his bidding. Realizing the folly of his creations, Joshua betrays Attinger before he, Yueming, and Darcy take the Seed to Hong Kong. There, the Autobots struggle to protect Joshua and the Seed from Galvatron and his minions, which shoot down the Autobots' ship. Cade kills Savoy during a fight in an apartment building. Outnumbered and outmatched, After drawing his sword from the ship and beating Dinobot leader Grimlock in trial by combat, Optimus Prime and the other autobots lead them back to the city to destroy Galvatron's army. Lockdown returns to Earth and uses a magnetic weapon to pull vehicles under his ship and drop them on the Autobots. Optimus destroys the weapon and engages in battle with Lockdown before killing Attinger to save Cade. Lockdown grabs Optimus's sword and impales him, but the combined efforts of Bumblebee, Cade, Tessa, and Shane distract the bounty hunter before Optimus stabs him in the heart and slices his head in half. Galvatron retreats, vowing to battle Optimus another day. With Lockdown destroyed and Cemetery Wind dissolved, Optimus sets the Dinobots free before flying into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators.
"I don't know. I guess... I guess we'll just have to evolve too."
Directed by Michael Bay. Screenplay by Ehren Kruger.
Trailer: Preview[]
Following the devastating events of Chicago in Dark of the Moon (film), humanity no longer trusts the Autobots and forces them underground in an attempt to wipe them out entirely. Government officials led by an arrogant engineer named Joshua have created their own robots and spaceships similar to Transformers in because of the discovery of a metal which they carbonize and galvanize in an attempt to replace them. Some of these transformers are Stinger and Galvatron.
Four years later, a single father and mechanic named Cade Yeager purchases a rusty old truck so that he may scrap it and sell its parts to obtain enough money to send his daughter Tessa to college. When the truck seems unable to be scrapped, Cade opens the front door and discovers gigantic bullet casings in the front seat. After hearing strange sounds after hooking it up to an electric circuit, he soon realizes that he has stumbled upon a lobotomized yet alive Autobot - Optimus Prime.
Not long after, a paranoid government official who leads the charge against the Autobots sends several of his men and Galvatron to kill Cade, Tessa, and Tessa's boyfriend Shane so they may recover Optimus. Just then, Optimus springs to life, defeats the humans, and takes the three to safety. But soon a robot named Lockdown captures Tessa and Optimus Prime who was fighting Galvatron.
The man-made transformers become sentient. Now it's up to Cade, Tessa, and Shane to ally themselves with the Autobots and defeat humanity's greatest failure. }}
Characters[]
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons/KSI Prototypes | Humans | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
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Cameo[]
Ironhide, Arcee, Wheeljack, Shockwave, Loader, Driller and Starscream make cameos, depicted on cards stamped with an X to indicate their deaths, Dino (though he is listed as "Mirage"), Skids, Mudflap, Roadbuster, Garagebot and Igor indicate as alive. The leader of the Wreckers, Leadfoot, makes a cameo voiced by Robert Foxworth in video footage shown after Cade steals the KSI spy drone, shown being killed by humans from Cemetery Wind. Sentinel Prime and Megatron's heads ares seen in the KSI labs, where they download data from the dead Transformers' remains. Barricade and some Decepticon Protoforms make cameos in footage from the Battle of Chicago. The Insecticons make a cameo, transferring data from Megatron's mind, infecting the Galvatron drone.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Both this film and The Fate of the Furious have these things in common:
- They are both are set in 2017
- They both have "The Rules Have Changed" message
- They have avenged deaths even though another villain escapes:
- Ratchet is killed by Lockdown and then he is killed by Optimus Prime; Megatron/Galvatron escapes
- Elena Neves is killed by Connor Rhodes and then he is killed by Dominic Toretto; Cipher escapes
Production[]
Like its predecessors, it was directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger, with Steven Spielberg and Bay as executive producers. It stars Mark Wahlberg, with Peter Cullen reprising his role as the voice of Optimus Prime, as the lead roles. It is the first live-action film in the series not to feature the original human characters from the first three films, but features a new cast of human characters and many new Transformers, including the Dinobots. Returning Transformers include Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Leadfoot, Brains and Megatron (now known as Galvatron). The film was released on June 27, 2014, in IMAX and 3D.
Transformers: Age of Extinction was panned by critics, many of whom considered it overlong, poorly acted, and badly written. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it is the worst reviewed film in the series. It also received seven nominations at the 35th Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel, with Bay and Kelsey Grammer winning the awards for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor respectively. However, many praised the visual effects, the action sequences, Steve Jablonsky's musical score, and the performances of Wahlberg, Grammer and Tucci. Despite the poor reviews, the film was a major box office success. The film grossed over $1.104 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2014, the second highest-grossing film in the Transformers series, the 19th film to gross over $1 billion, and the 16th highest-grossing film of all time. It was the only film to gross over $1 billion in 2014.
Music[]
- Main article: Transformers: Age of Extinction/The Score
Like its predecessors, Steve Jablonsky composed the film's score, marking his sixth film collaboration with director Michael Bay, four of which are Transformers films. The film's score was praised by critics and fans. The soundtrack album sold more than 15,000 units worldwide. It is also the first Transformers film not to feature a Linkin Park song.
Skrillex worked on sound design for the film, having said that he was creating "the craziest Skrillex sounds I could ever make" and mentioned working on sounds for the Dinobots.
Imagine Dragons wrote a single specifically for the film itself, titled "Battle Cry". The track "Leave Planet Earth Alone" samples the drum beat of Battle Cry so that the former serves as an intro to the latter as the credits start, though this version is only present in the film; Battle Cry isn't featured on the soundtrack album, and Leave Planet Earth Alone has a unique outro. No mashup version or otherwise is available for purchase. Imagine Dragons also worked with Steve Jablonsky and Hans Zimmer to contribute additional music to the film's score.
Linkin Park's new single "Until It's Gone" is included in the video game soundtrack of the movie.
On June 30, 2014, an extended play was digitally released on iTunes, featuring four tracks as a teaser for the full official score, which features variations of the four themes. On July 4, 2014, the long play was released digitally on iTunes containing the full score of the film. The soundtrack album was released on CD by record label La-La Land Records on October 7, 2014.
On November 20, 2014, Steve Jablonsky released a statement via Facebook saying that the score would no longer be available on iTunes and other digital music stores after it had reached its limit of 15,000 units before re-use fees would have to be paid. Jablonsky personally expressed his own disappointment in the turn of events, hoping there would be a way to eventually re-release the score, along with the score to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which had also been removed from iTunes and other digital music stores several months prior when it too reached the 15,000 unit limit.
Release[]
The film had its world premiere in Hong Kong on June 19, with a live concert by Imagine Dragons. The table below lists the release date of some countries.
| Country | Release date |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong | 19 June 2014 (Hong Kong) (premiere) |
| China | 22 June 2014 (Shanghai International Film Festival) (premiere) |
| Indonesia, South Korea, Philippines, USA (New York City, New York) (premiere) | 25 June 2014 |
| Australia, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Hong Kong, Croatia, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Republic of Macedonia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Portugal, Serbia, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Thailand, Ukraine, Uruguay | 26 June 2014 |
| Bangladesh (Dhaka), Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, India, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Taiwan, USA, Vietnam, South Africa | 27 June 2014 |
| Cambodia | 1 July 2014 |
| Cyprus, Netherlands | 3 July 2014 |
| UK, Ireland | 5 July 2014 |
| Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Mexico, Sweden, | 10 July 2014 |
| Norway, Panama | 11 July 2014 |
| Belgium, France, Italy | 16 July 2014 |
| Austria, Brazil, Switzerland (German speaking region), Germany, Peru | 17 July 2014 |
| Egypt | 23 July 2014 |
| United Arab Emirates, Lebanon | 24 July 2014 |
| Kuwait | 28 July 2014 |
| Spain, Japan | 8 August 2014 |
| Venezuela | 22 August 2014 |
External link[]
