Transformers: The Story So Far

Now I know what some of you may be thinking. Why the hell am I doing another installment of Rhode Island Movie Corner’s ‘Story So Far’ series, in which I go over the events in a franchise’s previous outings to catch people up on the overall story in time for the latest installment of that series, for… Michael Bay’s Transformers films? These films have NEVER been known for their writing, so why am I doing it for a series that’s been all over the place plot-wise? Well, first off, for obvious reasons; the new Transformers film, Transformers: The Last Knight, is coming out this weekend so this is meant to tie into that film’s release. And to be honest, I couldn’t think of anything else to do for it. I mean, there’s no way in hell that I could’ve done an ‘In Defense’ post for these films because I’d just be laughed off the internet if I had even attempted that. So instead, I figured that by doing this, I’ll be saving some of you folks the trouble of having to re-watch the previous films, which I will be doing. Because as I’ve made it clear in the past, I am a fan of these films; yes, even the critically-maligned sequels. Obviously, though, I’m in the extreme minority on that. However, despite being on par with the Star Wars prequels as one of the most critically despised franchises in recent years, these films still manage to be huge hits at the box-office, with the last two entries even going over $1 billion worldwide. Thus, it seems to me like no matter how much critics and film buffs rag on them, a lot of these folks will still go watch them regardless of their hatred for them. With that in mind, hopefully, this is helpful in some way, shape, or form; if not, well… I don’t know what to tell you because I’m no miracle worker. Thus, let’s look back on the ‘infamous’ saga that has been Michael Bay’s Transformers series.

(Disclaimer: I’m aware that quite a few other websites and YouTube channels have done exactly what I’m doing now, from Collider to io9 to Screen Junkies. With that in mind, I’d like to assure you, folks, that there was absolutely no intent on copying what those other sites have done in their respective posts/videos that recap the events of these films. Heck, as someone who does like these films, I’d say that this does give my post a different spin to it compared to others.)

TRANSFORMERS (RELEASED: 2007)

The film opens with narration from Optimus Prime (voiced by the character’s original voice actor from the 1984 TV series, Peter Cullen), the leader of the Autobots, a group of ‘autonomous robotic organisms’ from a planet named Cybertron who can transform into any mechanical object that they’ve analyzed, hence the name of the series, Transformers. Optimus explains that their planet had been destroyed following a long and intense war with a rival faction known as the Decepticons, led by the evil Megatron (voiced by Hugo Weaving). Part of the war was over an ancient Cybertronian artifact known as the AllSpark, a cube-like object that contains the power to create life by giving the Transformers their ‘soul’ AKA their ‘spark’. When the planet was destroyed, the Cube was lost as well, leading to both sides traversing across the galaxy trying to find it. It isn’t until quite sometime later when both sides learn that the Cube now resides on the planet Earth. In the present day, Decepticons Blackout and Frenzy attack a U.S. military base in Qatar and Air Force One, respectively, to acquire information about the Cube’s whereabouts. This information comes courtesy of an old pair of glasses that an old explorer named Captain Archibald Witwicky (W. Morgan Sheppard) wore when, on a mission into the Arctic Circle in 1895, came across the body of Megatron, who had crash landed on Earth when he tried to find the Cube. Witwicky’s encounter with Megatron led to the cube’s coordinates being imprinted on his glasses.

Back in the present, Archibald’s great-great-grandson Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) ends up buying his first car; an old 1976 Chevrolet Camaro. However, he soon discovers that the car is in fact one of the Autobots, Bumblebee, who can only communicate via radio/TV recordings due to damaged vocal cords (He does have a few spoken lines at the end of the film, in which he’s voiced by Mark Ryan, but then goes back to using radio/TV audio to speak in the subsequent films) and has been appointed the role of being Sam’s guardian. After being pursued by several Decepticons who are looking for his great-great grandfather’s glasses, Sam and his classmate/love interest Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) come across the other Autobots; Optimus, first lieutenant Jazz (voiced by Darius McCrary), weapons specialist Ironhide (voiced by Jess Harnell), and medical officer Ratchet (voiced by Robert Foxworth). The Autobots inform them of Megatron’s plans to use the AllSpark to create a new army and take over Earth. But when the two go to get Archibald’s glasses for them, they are arrested by a government group known as Sector Seven, led by agent Seymour Simmons (John Turturro), that has been monitoring alien activity on Earth for several years. When the group ends up at Sector Seven’s headquarters, hidden inside the Hoover Dam, they discover the still-frozen Megatron AND the AllSpark locked away inside it. However, the Decepticons soon start to attack, allowing Megatron to awaken from his frozen slumber. With the aid of a group of Army Rangers who had survived the attack on the Qatar base, including Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sgt. Robert Epps (Tyrese Gibson), Sam, Mikaela, and the Autobots head to the nearby Mission City to try and get the AllSpark away from Megatron.  

During the intense battle that follows in Mission City, the protagonists manage to defeat most of the Decepticons. However, Bumblebee ends up losing his legs after an attack from Megatron’s second-in-command Starscream (voiced by Charlie Adler) and Jazz is torn in half when he tries to fight Megatron. Bumblebee ends up giving Sam the AllSpark as the latter tries to get it away from Megatron. But Megatron soon comes after Sam, resulting in him being saved by Optimus, who tells Sam to push the Cube into his chest to destroy it, even though it would mean his death as well. Sam instead forces it into Megatron’s chest, killing him. Thus, with the AllSpark destroyed, save for a small shard that Optimus collects from Megatron’s body, the Autobots end up taking refuge on Earth. The U.S. government disbands Sector Seven and the remains of the deceased Decepticons are disposed of (for now, at least) in the Laurentian Abyss. The only surviving members of the Decepticons are Starscream, who escapes into space, and Barricade, who would later cameo in the third film where he is killed by human soldiers during the big final battle in Chicago… and yet, he is apparently set to return in the new film despite this. Ah well, anyway, Sam and Mikaela begin a new relationship and Bumblebee opts to stay with Sam. The film ends with Optimus sending out a message to his fellow Autobots who are still out there, “taking refuge amongst the stars”, to join them on Earth. “We are here… we are waiting…”   

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (RELEASED: 2009)

First off, let me answer the one question that I’m sure you all have right now… yes, Revenge of the Fallen has a plot. I know that it may seem unfathomable, but the critically reviled second installment of this Transformers series did indeed have one. It’s just that the film doesn’t get into it until more than halfway through its 2 ½ hour runtime; trust me, I legitimately timed it when I re-watched this film in 2014 prior to the release of Age of Extinction. Anyway, the film begins two years after the events of the first film. The Autobots have joined forces with the U.S. Military to form a special task force known as the Non-Biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty (NEST) to deal with any surviving Decepticons still on Earth. During their latest mission in Shanghai, one of the Decepticons that they’re hunting, Demolisher, warns them that “The Fallen shall rise again”. When they get back to base, National Security Adviser Theo Galloway (John Benjamin Hickey) scolds them for the chaos that they’ve caused in Shanghai and suggests that the reason why Decepticons are still on Earth is that they’re hunting the Autobots. He also suggests that perhaps it is time for the Autobots to leave Earth once and for all so that humanity will no longer be attacked by the Decepticons. Meanwhile, the Decepticons steal the AllSpark shard that Optimus took from Megatron’s body and use it to revive their fallen comrade at the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss. Once resurrected, Megatron heads into space to meet with his master, The Fallen (voiced by Tony Todd), an ancient Decepticon who seeks to conquer the planet that he had tried to take over once before. Because as we see in the opening scene, which is also noted by Optimus in his traditional opening narration, Transformers existed on Earth long before the events of the first film and The Fallen was one of them.

Meanwhile, Sam is about to head off to college in Philadelphia. However, this also means that he’ll be leaving behind Bumblebee (because freshmen can’t have cars on campus) and Mikaela, who he promises he will stay faithful to but has trouble when it comes to saying the three words that truly matter (‘I love you’). While getting ready to make the move to college, Sam comes across a second AllSpark shard that was lodged within the clothes that he wore during the battle in Mission City. When he inspects it, he is suddenly inundated with Cybertronian information. After dealing with a bunch of kitchen-appliance Transformers that came to life via the shard’s power, which also results in his house being destroyed in the process, Sam gives the shard to Mikaela for safe-keeping. Once he gets to college, however, this new information that he has starts to materialize via symbols that he starts to see all over the place. But when Optimus comes to warn him of the impending threat, Sam insists that he wishes to live a normal life and that “this isn’t [his] war”. Soon, though, Sam, Mikaela, and his eccentric roommate, conspiracy blogger Leo Spitz (Ramón Rodriguez) are captured by Megatron and the Decepticons, who try to extract the information that Sam has from his brain. The Autobots manage to come in and save them just in time, but during the subsequent battle in a nearby forest, Optimus is killed by Megatron. With no one left to stop him, having previously noted that only a Prime can do so, The Fallen begins his plan of world domination and demands that Sam is delivered to him with the information that he has.

This forces Sam into hiding with Mikaela, Leo, Bumblebee, and Autobot twins Mudflap (voiced by Reno Wilson) and Skids (voiced by Tom Kenny). Sam deduces that the symbols that he’s seeing are a map that leads to a new source of Energon, the Transformers’ energy source. Leo then proceeds to bring them to someone who could help; a rival blogger known as ‘Robo-Warrior’. As it turns out, ‘Robo-Warrior’ is Agent Simmons, who now works at his mother’s deli since the disbandment of Sector Seven. It is through Simmons that the group learns about the Seekers, a group of ancient Transformers that still reside on Earth. They end up finding one, Jetfire (voiced by Mark Ryan), at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. and revive him with Sam’s AllSpark Shard. Although they are initially concerned to find that Jetfire is a Decepticon, he informs them that he has since switched sides. Likewise, Wheelie (also voiced by Tom Kenny), a Decepticon spy that had tried to steal the AllSpark shard from Mikaela and was subsequently brought along for the ride, switches sides as well once he learns about this new information. After transporting them all to Egypt, Jetfire informs them that The Fallen seeks to restart an Energon machine known as the Sun Harvester that absorbs energy from stars. And in this instance, he plans to use it on Earth’s sun. Jetfire also instructs them to find the Matrix of Leadership, the artifact that is used to start the Sun Harvester but can also be used to revive Optimus… which also basically makes this film a live-action adaptation of 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie since the Matrix appeared in that film as well and there was also a scene in which Optimus dies after a battle with Megatron.

Sam and the group then travel to Petra (AKA where Indiana Jones found the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade), where the Matrix of Leadership is supposedly located in an ancient tomb made from the bodies of the Primes who had first stopped The Fallen from destroying Earth back in the day. While they do manage to find the Tomb and, supposedly, the Matrix, it evaporates into dust in Sam’s hands when he tries to pick it up. Meanwhile, they manage to convince Lennox and the NEST team to fly Optimus’ body and the other Autobots out to Egypt, despite not really having the means to revive Optimus just yet. Of course, the Decepticons then proceed to attack them, resulting in another long and intense battle. During this fight, Sam is supposedly killed by Megatron; however, in death, he is approached by the Primes who inform him that he’s earned the right to use the Matrix. Thus, he is revived and the Matrix materializes in his hands, which he immediately uses to revive Optimus. Jetfire then volunteers to sacrifice himself so that Optimus can use his parts to defeat The Fallen before he’s able to start his machine. Optimus does so, destroys the Sun Harvester, hidden within one of the Pyramids at Giza, and then kills The Fallen. Megatron and Starscream then proceed to flee the battle but vow that they will return. Victorious once again, the Autobots and their allies return home. Sam returns to his normal life and his relationship with Mikaela stays strong, especially after he finally tells her ‘I love you’… for now, at least. Which brings us to…

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON (RELEASED: 2011)

After helping the Autobots stop the Decepticons from taking over the world twice, Sam has since graduated from college and is gearing up to find a new job. However, it’s revealed that Mikaela has broken up with him for ‘reasons’ (i.e. Megan Fox was basically booted off production after an incident in which she called Michael Bay ‘Hitler’). Luckily, for Sam, he’s found a new girlfriend in Carly Spencer (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), an assistant curator. Sam manages to get a job at a telecommunications company, Accuretta, later learning that his employers had gotten a letter of recommendation courtesy of Carly’s flirtatious boss, Dylan Gould (Patrick Dempsey), who happens to be one of the company’s board of directors. The stress of this close relationship between his girlfriend and her boss, along with the disappointment of being nothing more than a mail carrier at work, begins to put more and more pressure on Sam, who wishes that he was out there working with the Autobots instead and doing stuff that truly matters. Meanwhile, the Autobots and NEST have continued to monitor alien activity on Earth while also assisting the military in other global conflicts. On their latest mission to the abandoned facilities of Chernobyl, they come across a fuel cell which Optimus recognizes from an old Autobot ship known as the ‘Ark’.

The film’s opening sequence reveals that during the final days of the war on Cybertron, the Ark, captained by Optimus’ mentor Sentinel Prime (voiced by Leonard Nimoy), was severely damaged in battle and subsequently crash-landed on the Earth’s moon. Once this is discovered by NASA in 1961, they use the iconic Apollo 11 mission to the moon as a cover for investigating the crashed ship. Inside it contains the comatose Sentinel and a series of artifacts that he created known as the Pillars, which can teleport matter between two points via a space bridge. Optimus and the Autobots then proceed to collect the Pillars from the Ark and revive Sentinel with the Matrix of Leadership. While this is going on, Megatron and the other Decepticons, who know about the Ark and have apparently laid a trap for the Autobots, start to eliminate various humans who were involved in the manned missions to the Moon to investigate the Ark. When Sam and Simmons, along with Simmons’ personal assistant Dutch (Alan Tudyk), investigate further into the matter, they learn that the Decepticons have already collected several other Pillars from the Ark and were simply waiting for Optimus to revive Sentinel, the only one who knew how to use them. And to make matters worse, Sentinel then reveals that he has joined forces with the Decepticons in their plot to use the Pillars to transport Cybertron to Earth and use Earth’s resources to rebuild their planet. He then kills Ironhide and uses the Pillars to bring several Decepticons hidden on the Moon to Earth. When Sam tries to warn Carly, they learn that Dylan is also in league with the Decepticons. Carly is taken prisoner and the Decepticons coerce the world’s governments into forcing the Autobots to leave Earth to allegedly prevent any future conflicts. However, the Decepticons then proceed to destroy the Autobots’ departure ship and invade Chicago to begin the process of transporting Cybertron to their current location.

Sam, meanwhile, embarks on a personal mission to save Carly with the aid of Epps, who had left NEST after the events of Revenge of the Fallen, and some other former members of the task force. While initially overwhelmed by Decepticon forces, they are eventually saved by Optimus and the Autobots, who reveal that they weren’t on the main section of their ship when it was destroyed. Sam manages to save Carly and the group begins to fight back against the Decepticons, later aided by Lennox and NEST once they’re able to successfully infiltrate the city. During the battle, they manage to temporarily halt the Pillars’ transportation process until it is restarted again by Dylan. The subsequent confrontation between him and Sam results in the former being killed when he gets electrocuted by the main Pillar. The Pillar is then subsequently destroyed by Bumblebee, preventing the transportation of Cybertron from occurring and resulting in the planet’s apparent destruction. Meanwhile, Carly manages to convince Megatron to turn against Sentinel by making him believe that Sentinel will overtake him as the leader of the Decepticons if they succeed in rebuilding Cybertron. Megatron then attacks Sentinel before he manages to kill Optimus, who then proceeds to kill Megatron by removing his head and spine from his body. Optimus then kills his former mentor, bringing an end to the devastation in the Windy City. Sam and Carly reunite and affirm their love for one another while the Autobots once again embrace Earth as their home. And thus, Dark of the Moon officially concluded the arc of Sam Witwicky, the boy who became a vital part of an intergalactic war when he bought a car that turned out to be an alien robot (“Who knew?”). But this ultimately wasn’t the end for this series, as it continued in a new direction in…

TRANSFORMERS: AGE OF EXTINCTION (RELEASED: 2014)

Age of Extinction served as a ‘soft reboot’ of the franchise, focusing on new characters while still taking place after the events of Dark of the Moon. Since the big battle in Chicago, the truce between the Autobots and the U.S. government has ended, as the former now find themselves hunted by an elite black ops group known as Cemetery Wind, led by government official Harold Attinger (Kelsey Grammer), who views all Transformers as a threat to mankind, and field agent James Savoy (Titus Welliver), who claims that he lost a sister during the Battle of Chicago. They’re also aided by a neutral Cybertronian bounty hunter named Lockdown (voiced by Mark Ryan) and immediately establish themselves as a serious threat when they find and execute Ratchet, who refuses to reveal the location of Lockdown’s primary target, Optimus. Meanwhile, in a small town in Texas, widowed inventor Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) struggles to make a living and provide for his teenage daughter Tessa (Nicola Peltz), who’s about to go off to college. When he and his business partner Lucas Flannery (T.J. Miller) come across an old, rundown semi-truck in an old theater, the three learn that the truck is, in fact, Optimus, who was severely wounded after an encounter with Lockdown in Mexico City. This then results in them being attacked by Savoy and Cemetery Wind, but they all manage to escape with the help of Tessa’s boyfriend Shane (Jack Reynor), a rally car driver. During their escape, however, Lucas is killed by Lockdown.

Now fugitives, Cade and company, along with Optimus, meet up with the surviving members of the Autobots; Bumblebee, commando Hound (voiced by John Goodman), tactician Drift (voiced by Ken Watanabe), and paratrooper Crosshairs (voiced by John DiMaggio). They discover that a robotics company named K.S.I. is working with Cemetery Wind in their efforts to eliminate the Autobots. In return, K.S.I. CEO Joshua Joyce (Stanley Tucci) is given a rare metal alloy, which he and his associates call ‘Transformium’, to build his own robots. This includes Galvatron, who was created via data from the deceased Megatron (fittingly enough, Galvatron is voiced by Megatron’s original voice actor from the 80’s animated series, Frank Welker, who will finally voice Megatron in The Last Knight after the character had been portrayed by Hugo Weaving in the original trilogy), and Stinger, modeled after Bumblebee and touted as a ‘superior’ model to Bumblebee’s annoyance. After infiltrating K.S.I., the group is attacked by Galvatron and Stinger, as the former conveys some of Megatron’s sinister qualities and subsequently breaks free from Joyce’s control. Eventually, Lockdown enters the picture and takes Optimus prisoner, claiming that he plans on bringing Optimus back to those who created him, the ‘Creators’ AKA Lockdown’s superiors. Tessa gets captured as well, resulting in Cade, Shane, and the Autobots having to save her and Optimus before Lockdown’s ship leaves Earth per the agreement that he had with Cemetery Wind, who are given a device referred to as a ‘Seed’ that they subsequently give to Joyce, who intends on using it to create more Transformium. After saving Tessa and Optimus from the ship, along with dealing with a few enemy forces in Chicago, the protagonists learn that the ‘Creators’ used these Seeds to terraform planets and create Transformium, which also resulted in the destruction of all life forms on the planets that they used it on.

After convincing Joyce of the Seed’s dangerous capabilities, the group heads to Hong Kong to get it away from Lockdown and Cemetery Wind. Meanwhile, Galvatron, now fully reincarnated as Megatron, takes control of the other robots in K.S.I.’s inventory, fully intent on using the Seed to take over the world. After initially being outnumbered by the Decepticons, Optimus and the Autobots manage to gain a leg up on them with the aid of ancient Transformers known as the Dinobots that were previously imprisoned on Lockdown’s ship, with Optimus riding Dinobot leader Grimlock, who transforms into a Tyrannosaurus Rex, into battle. Meanwhile, Cade manages to kill Savoy as revenge for all the harm that he and Cemetery Wind have caused to him and his daughter. After the group manages to get the Seed to safety and away from Galvatron and Lockdown, Optimus ends up in a fight with the latter. Cade and Attinger get involved as well, resulting in the latter being killed by Optimus, who had previously vowed revenge against the human responsible for the deaths of his comrades. Optimus then manages to kill Lockdown with the aid of Cade, Tessa, and Shane. Galvatron then proceeds to retreat, once again vowing that he’ll return. And thus, with his faith in humanity restored thanks to Cade and his family, the film ends with Optimus heading off into space (with the Seed in tow) to finally confront his Creators. In his final narration, he warns them to “Leave planet Earth alone…” and that he’s coming for them, thereby setting up the events of this week’s new release, Transformers: The Last Knight.

And, thus, that’s the ‘Story So Far’ for the Michael Bay-directed Transformers films. Thanks for following along and you can expect a review of Transformers: The Last Knight sometime in the next few days. Given my track record with this franchise, I’m predicting that I’ll probably be one of the few people crazy enough to like it even when it inevitably gets slammed by critics. Only time will tell…