Rolling Out Transformers: The Last Knight – Michael Bay’s Mythology

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Before the new installment next week, a rundown of Michael Bay’s Transformers movies is in order.

Michael Bay. Bayhem. The Bayverse.

Call it what you will, or love them or hate them, or both, Michael Bay’s take on the franchise is HUGE. Since 2007 and the debut of the first film; Transformers, these movies have consistently been box office smashes. The movie alone brought in a whopping $709 million dollars. Once you factor in the books, comics, toys and eventually the home video release; this thing made money. It sparked not only 3, and soon 4, sequels, but revitalized the franchise in a way. Transformers had been going strong for 2 decades at the time, but massive marketing campaigns and a major Hollywood presence led to a resurgence of products. New animated TV series’, a Universal Studios ride and so much more.

Fans new and old were treated to a “reimagining” of the original story and characters, and the movies have pieced together a new version of the Transformers mythology.

Transformers (2007)

In the first film, the plot revolves around a powerful Cybertronian artifact; the AllSpark. The AllSpark is the source of the Spark, or soul, that resides in all Transformers. The story tells that during the war between the Autobots and Decepticons many years ago, Optimus Prime launched it into space, to avoid falling into the wrong hands. Megatron pursued it and crash landed in the Arctic Circle where he remained frozen until 1895.

Human protagonist Sam Witwicky, who is a callback to Spike and Daniel Witwicky from the original cartoon series, is a descendent of the explorer who discovered Megatron all those years ago. Now the target of the Decpticons, as he has the coordinates for the AllSpark, he is protected by the recently arrived Autobots. Optimus Prime and team arrive on Earth in a “Protoform” or their original Cybertronian aesthetics. After landing, Transformers can disguise themselves as human machinery. Bumblebee, who was already here disguised as Sam’s beater Camaro, reveals himself and Sam is thus dragged into their war here on Earth.

This movie sets up nicely the storyline that is being told across all films.

By laying the groundwork, that Transformers have some potential history here on Earth is explored in more detail in subsequent films, along with some here who have known about it.

Revenge Of The Fallen (2009)

The sequel continued the tradition of mixing the Transformers history with our own. This time in 17,000 B.C. The Fallen, one of the original Primes gone bad, attempts to destroy the Earth’s Sun in the films prologue.

He aims to due this with a weapon called the Sun Harvester, powered by the Matrix of Leadership. The remaining Primes prevent him from doing so however. Defeating and banishing him, their final act is to sacrifice themselves to entomb the Matrix.

In the present day, Decepticon survivors get a hold of the Shard, a piece of the destroyed AllSpark, and revive Megatron. Megatron and the Fallen work together to locate the hidden Matrix, which is in modern day Petra. Sam, who experiences strange visions, ends up recruiting  an unlikely ally to help. The former Decepticon Seeker, Jetfire, knows the location of the Matrix and takes Sam to it. Revealed also, is that these Seekers have been on Earth for many years, searching for the Matrix. Seeking the Matrix to resuscitate Optimus who was killed earlier, the Decpticons follow to take it from them. The Sun Harvester turns out to be hidden beneath one of the Pyramids in Egypt, and is the location of the final battle.

Michael Bay weaves together some iconic Transformers lore i.e., the Matrix of Leadership and the Dynasty of Primes. Giving it his own spin keeps the films rooted in existing content, but also stand the ability to stand on their own.

Dark Of The Moon (2011)

At the start of Dark of the Moon, more of the war on Cybertron is narrated, this time focusing on an Autobot ship known as the Ark. The ship and it’s captain Sentinel Prime, the Autobot leader prior to Optimus, flee Cybertron with an invention to save their world. Or at least they attempt to. Heavily damaged during the escape, the Ark drifts and eventually crashes on the Moon. This event is what led the race between Russia and the United States to reach the moon first.  The mission was a success and several artifacts were retrieved and brought back.

Jumping back to present day, one of these artifacts is rediscovered, which sows some distrust between the U.S Government and the Autobots working with them. Optimus especially, who is angered that not ALL of Earth’s pre knowledge of the Transformers was shared with him. Heading to the Moon, the Autobots retrieve the lifeless Sentinel Prime along with the technology locked onboard. Sentinel, upon being revived by the Matrix, explains how he was going to use this technology to give new life to their home world.

What is then revealed is that Megatron and Sentinel made a deal before his flight from Cybertron. They would work together to restore Cybertron, using the Earth’s population as a workforce. The Pillars, Sentinel’s creation, would create a bridge through space, and pull Cybertron to Earth. The Decepticons had already pillaged most of the Pillars off the ship decades earlier, known now due to Russian satellite images from the 1960’s.

All that was needed was Optimus to resurrect Sentinel so he could operate the Control Pillar.

Age Of Extinction (2014)

This time, the director goes back even further. Millions and millions of years ago.

A mass of alien ships descend on prehistoric Earth, rumors abound about who they were and what they were doing. The current front runner is that they were using the organic matter from Earth and other worlds, transformed into metal, to be used in the construction of Cybertron itself. The process resulted in an extinction event which wiped out the dinosaurs at that time.

An event with very real world connections.

Archaeologists discovered this metal material which was used to construct mankind’s own Transformers. Transformium. The existence of alien technology hidden here enables humanity to advance their own technology.

They also introduce the concept of the Knights of Cybertron, very inspired by our own Knights of the Round table, and something that will play a major role in The Last Knight.

The Last Knight (2017)

In just under a week, Michael Bay’s fifth Transformers film The Last Knight will hit theaters and add even more depth to the lore and mythology of the Transformers.

In just the small amount shown in the trailers and TV spots, there is already a TON of hints at how Michael Bay will deliver again. There are scenes showing Transformer involvement during the medieval era and during World War II. And that’s just what they’ve released so far.

With the release of The Last Knight and with more films in the works, the mythology will continue to grow. It makes for great cinematic moments into their history and our own, and adds some realism into a popular sci-fi franchise.

This is the fourth article in the roll out to The Last Knight. Previous articles can be found here, here and here.