Transformers: Age of Extinction is a 2014 American science fiction action film based on Hasbro's Transformers toy line. It is the sequel to Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) and the fourth instalment in the Transformers film series. Like its predecessor, the film is directed by Michael Bay and written by Ehren Kruger. It stars Mark Wahlberg, and Stanley Tucci with supporting roles done by Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Sophia Myles, Bingbing Li, Titus Welliver, and T.J. Miller. It does not feature the original human cast from the previous three films and instead introduces a new human cast and many new Transformers, including the Dinobots. A struggling inventor and single father discovers a damaged truck, which turns out to be a Transformer in disguise.
It was released in the United States on June 27, 2014, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics for its runtime and Bay's direction, but was a box office success, grossing over $1.104 billion worldwide against a $210 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing film of 2014, the only film in 2014 to gross over $1 billion, and the tenth-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release. It was followed by Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017.
It was released in the United States on June 27, 2014, by Paramount Pictures. The film received generally negative reviews from critics for its runtime and Bay's direction, but was a box office success, grossing over $1.104 billion worldwide against a $210 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing film of 2014, the only film in 2014 to gross over $1 billion, and the tenth-highest-grossing film of all time at the time of its release. It was followed by Transformers: The Last Knight in 2017.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00It's the next chapter.
00:00:13It is not reinventing it.
00:00:16It's not a reboot in the way people traditionally say that.
00:00:20We acknowledge what's happened before, so in that sense it's a continuation, but because
00:00:26it's a brand new human cast, it is a whole other chapter.
00:00:31We're definitely trying to do something fresh and different.
00:00:35I love the first three movies, but we're just trying to do our own thing.
00:00:41So we needed new cars, new robots, new characters, because that's what the audience is hungry
00:00:46for, injecting a lot of fresh elements.
00:00:53Bringing in new heroes and autobots is another key that brings it to a new level.
00:01:00Hound is a great new character, voiced by John Goodman.
00:01:03His vehicle is an Oshkosh truck, which is very militaristic and powerful, and that's
00:01:07his character.
00:01:09Drift is a black and blue Bugatti, voiced by Ken Watanabe, and as a samurai, he's very
00:01:17elegant in terms of his fight moves.
00:01:19He was going to be a black and orange Bugatti.
00:01:23That changed because the car that we were going to use was sold, because they only make
00:01:27a few of these cars.
00:01:30Crosshairs is a green Chevrolet Corvette Stingray.
00:01:35What we wanted to try and make was a character that wore a duster, so what I did is I took
00:01:39a Corvette, and what would happen if you cut it and then flayed it open?
00:01:46Just look at the characters, and what they become, and how realistic they are as characters.
00:01:55Michael went to a very big effort to make these guys character-driven, more human-like.
00:02:03As the technology has advanced, we're able to get more emotion from them and really be
00:02:08able to identify with them.
00:02:11They do have much bigger personalities, and you get to know them a lot more.
00:02:18We introduced triple changers, which they've never had before in Transformers.
00:02:22It's good to introduce new bad guys.
00:02:25The introduction of Lockdown is a big deal.
00:02:28He's a badass character.
00:02:30In car form, he's a Lamborghini, who is able to go underwater, which we've never seen in
00:02:37underwater character.
00:02:39Stinger is the Pagani, the arch-enemy of Bumblebee.
00:02:45Galvatron is a brand-new Freightliner truck that was custom-made for the movie.
00:02:51Galvatron in the original Transformers mythology is a kind of reborn, reconstituted Megatron.
00:02:58We wanted to pay homage to that idea, but do it a little differently than it had been
00:03:03done before.
00:03:05His physical form in this version is a man-made human creation.
00:03:10And then it just goes over the top in a great way with the Dinobots, one of the most sought-after
00:03:16characters of Grimlock.
00:03:19With Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, you can't miss with that combination.
00:03:33My initial pitch for this movie didn't involve an adult at its center.
00:03:39But before Michael had any sense of what he wanted visually or what he wanted in terms
00:03:43of action set pieces, he, from the beginning, and wisely so, decided that he wanted a protagonist
00:03:50for this movie that was completely different from the protagonist that the previous three
00:03:54movies had involved.
00:03:59So he was very adamant that the core character story be about a father and his daughter.
00:04:04Dad, you can't keep spending money on junk.
00:04:07I think the idea of a father-daughter story, there's a lot of emotion, a lot of poignancy
00:04:12to that relationship.
00:04:14And that grounds the movie and keeps it very centered.
00:04:18Being able to ground this movie in a way where it's not just about a boy and his car, but
00:04:23making family the key to it is something that we're really excited about.
00:04:27You know that the best thing that ever happened to me, do we look disappointed?
00:04:30It's the greatest day of my life.
00:04:32We've never had the heart that this story has.
00:04:35I'm not leaving my dad.
00:04:38Once we decided that the core relationship for the human characters would be between
00:04:42a father and his daughter, Michael very much was all about trying to get Mark Wahlberg
00:04:47to do the movie.
00:04:50You're in my house now.
00:04:51Okay?
00:04:52I'm an engineer.
00:04:53My name is Kate Yeager.
00:04:55Leaving the Transformer franchise, a new cast was a big job.
00:04:59It started with Mr. Mark Wahlberg, became great friends on Panty Game.
00:05:04And at some point in there, the conversation began between the two of them about whether
00:05:08or not, you know, he'd be interested in coming into the franchise.
00:05:11Can we put some debris on, please?
00:05:12Put some stuff in his hair?
00:05:15Once Mark said he was into doing it, then it became about Aaron writing a story around
00:05:19Mark and then building a character for him.
00:05:22Took a hell of a hit, you know?
00:05:28Missile just missed your power source.
00:05:29We call it a spark.
00:05:33Beyond being a movie star, he's an adult.
00:05:35He's a male action hero.
00:05:38That's a different vibe than what we've done previously.
00:05:41It's opened up a whole new window of how you look at the lead character and how the lead
00:05:45character interacts in the movie.
00:05:50Take that gun down right after, right as that dolly's arriving, all right?
00:05:54Don't take it down before.
00:05:55It'll be cooler when we meet you.
00:05:58I like the fact that I'm now playing the dad.
00:06:01I'm embracing getting older.
00:06:03It's happening, it's inevitable, so I might as well embrace it.
00:06:06Mark is one of the most hardworking people I've ever met in my entire life.
00:06:11He's so prepared.
00:06:12Part of his process is him reading the script over and over and over.
00:06:16He knows everybody's dialogue.
00:06:19And yet, he never showboats with it, he never throws it in your face.
00:06:24He doesn't want you to know that he got up, you know, when you were sleeping to work out
00:06:28three times before he came to set that morning, and that he produced seven television shows
00:06:33before you had your breakfast, and that he just got thrown off the side of a building,
00:06:38you know, by a Decepticon.
00:06:42He is the real deal.
00:06:46What's great about Mark is there's a very American aspect to who he is.
00:06:51There's a certain amount of average Joe about him.
00:06:55And that serves this plot in a great way, because we meet him as a character who is
00:07:00living a precarious financial situation in his life, like many people in our country.
00:07:09He is skilled and talented, but life hasn't entirely gone the way he planned it to.
00:07:16So it was important to us in a story that's dealing with how private enterprise is trying
00:07:21to take advantage of transformer technology, to have a character who is comfortable dealing
00:07:27with technology, but has no worldly goals for himself in mind other than trying to provide
00:07:32the best life he can for his family.
00:07:36Yes, you can take a ride with your friends.
00:07:39Okay.
00:07:40Don't work all night.
00:07:44Don't try this at home, kids.
00:07:46Dad!
00:07:47There's a missile in the family room!
00:07:49The two kids were fantastic to work with.
00:07:53It's a hard deal to come into this franchise.
00:07:56It's such a massive production.
00:08:00They're young and they're new.
00:08:01Keep this yell and yell as loud as you can.
00:08:03Get in the car, all right?
00:08:04Okay.
00:08:05You gotta amp it up.
00:08:06It's pretty much the deep end for Jack and Nicola.
00:08:08Don't put her in reverse.
00:08:09Don't let she go into reverse, okay?
00:08:11It was kind of a young actor boot camp.
00:08:13Three, two, one.
00:08:17It was just a matter of having them understand how vigorous the pace would be.
00:08:21Go back, go back, go back, go back, go back!
00:08:23That you have to be ready for anything.
00:08:26Whoa, look at that.
00:08:27I did not expect that.
00:08:30You know, paying attention to everything that's going on in the script, even if you're in
00:08:35a scene where you don't necessarily have dialogue, so you're just kind of showing up on that day.
00:08:38No, you need to understand everything that's going on around you.
00:08:40There's a lot of moving parts.
00:08:42Three, two, one, action!
00:08:45Especially when you've done smaller things, television.
00:08:49The scale at which we're doing things is overwhelming to people who've done scale.
00:08:57There's a huge physical aspect in this film.
00:09:00It was really intense.
00:09:01To suddenly be thrown in that and you're trying to find yourself as an actor
00:09:04and then, wait, there's these creatures that are there but I can't see them
00:09:07but I have to learn to act with them.
00:09:09Looking back.
00:09:10Robot goes right over you.
00:09:12Looking right up and over you and getting into the car.
00:09:17At the same time, I have really accredited actors I'm playing against and, oh my God.
00:09:24It's an incredible experience to be able to come on the set of a film like this every day
00:09:28and do things that you actually watch in these movies.
00:09:31I feel very honored to be there and to be part of it.
00:09:33I'm just really proud of both their performances.
00:09:36And there's a real long line of actors and actresses
00:09:41that have brought something to this franchise that is special.
00:09:45And look, bad guys are important.
00:09:50Kelsey and Titus are great bad guys.
00:09:54Kelsey is not known, I think, as much for that type of role but he's awesome.
00:10:00Titus is a great bad guy too.
00:10:02I mean, I think his line where he says to Mark,
00:10:04I'm James Savoy, I'm a federal agent.
00:10:06I want to be that guy when I grow up, right?
00:10:12They're very different to any of the characters that we've seen before in the Transformers series
00:10:16because they really mean to get out there and get the job done even if they hurt people.
00:10:20Even if they hurt innocent people, they make no bones about it.
00:10:26Fewer than a decade ago,
00:10:28fewer than a dozen Decepticons were still on the run
00:10:31thanks to our CIA unit, Cemetery Wind.
00:10:35Savoy and I are twinned in spirit about what we're trying to do
00:10:39and that is to make sure that we're protecting our planet.
00:10:42As for the alien technology,
00:10:45our objective remains to keep it in American control.
00:10:48But we're both on the good team as far as we're concerned.
00:10:53So I'm sort of the tip of his spear.
00:10:56He delegates to me and I take the action.
00:11:00We don't waste any time. Kelsey and I just, you know, we get it done.
00:11:03If we don't like what's happening, we change it very quickly.
00:11:06You have no idea what you're involved with here.
00:11:09All you need to know is that I alone can get you out.
00:11:13I think in the end you believe that this man could exist
00:11:16and that if he does exist, you should be scared of him.
00:11:22But there's a couple of moments in this where I'm a little dry maybe
00:11:25and you might get a laugh.
00:11:27It's this close to winning.
00:11:29That's what I'm upset about.
00:11:33If you look at every Michael Bay movie, they're all funny.
00:11:36You know, there's probably only one movie in that whole group
00:11:39that doesn't have a tremendous amount of humor
00:11:41because it wasn't supposed to be funny.
00:11:43There's a reason why they're funny. Michael's a funny guy.
00:11:46And he also loves to collaborate with comedians.
00:11:49What are you going to do, play around with it?
00:11:51I like to play with it.
00:11:53What are you going to do, play with it?
00:11:55So do you want to land on that and just drop the joke about the barn lab?
00:11:58A lot of it is improvisational. I'm an improviser by trade.
00:12:01You can't just keep an alien in your barn.
00:12:03What are you going to do, play with it?
00:12:06If you die, that GTO is mine.
00:12:08Okay, good. Let's go again.
00:12:10If he eats you, I get the GTO.
00:12:14You know you're on a roll if he comes out from behind the monitors
00:12:18and he's crying and the crew is stifling laughter.
00:12:21So it's been really quite an experience.
00:12:23And I think that Lucas, you know, who's the character that I play,
00:12:27but I talk about him in third person
00:12:29because I think he talks about me in the third person.
00:12:31I know I do when I'm him talking about me.
00:12:33Mike loves his comedy.
00:12:35T.J. is one of the ways that he delivers that.
00:12:37Stanley delivers a lot of that comedy as well.
00:12:40Really? You want to do this now?
00:12:42Can we just get this alien ticking, beeping bomb to the bridge?
00:12:46Come on!
00:12:47He does make my job very difficult, I have to say,
00:12:49because he is so funny.
00:12:51And I got into trouble, I think, day one or two,
00:12:54where Michael said, you know, Michael Bay said,
00:12:56you're ruining my shot, you can't laugh at him.
00:12:58And I said to Kelsey Grammer,
00:13:00I was like, dude, I don't know what to do.
00:13:02Like, what do I do?
00:13:03And Kelsey, you know, having worked in comedy himself for so long,
00:13:06he said, honey, you just got to freeze him. Freeze him.
00:13:11Now I can't imagine anyone else playing Joshua Joyce.
00:13:15We wanted Joshua to be a different version of what Cade is.
00:13:20Someone who, in his heart,
00:13:22is a real optimist and creative and an inventor.
00:13:26But his success has twisted that
00:13:29into something somewhat megalomaniacal.
00:13:33Algorithm!
00:13:34So part of this movie is a redemption story for Joshua,
00:13:37finding a way to get him back to the Cade-like inventor
00:13:41that once upon a time he was.
00:13:43His conscience gets the better of him, and he flips.
00:13:46Then you have Li Bingbing, who gets kind of caught in the middle.
00:13:50Between Su Yueming and Joshua,
00:13:52in China we would say one is red face,
00:13:55another one is white face.
00:13:57You know what?
00:13:58He always very funny and very, like, a little bit stupid,
00:14:03but for funny way.
00:14:05And I am always very straight and serious and very tough.
00:14:10Let's see, what can I say? Because she says no.
00:14:13Uh...
00:14:20You know, sorry, but actually,
00:14:22maybe I don't even say the Mandarin thing.
00:14:24Just say, you know I can't understand you when you're angry.
00:14:27Just totally disregard. Do you know what I mean?
00:14:29Yeah.
00:14:30Is that funnier?
00:14:31You can try both.
00:14:32Yeah, try both, yeah.
00:14:33You know I don't understand you when you're angry.
00:14:35He is the boss of me, but it's like I am the boss of him.
00:14:39Action, Batman, action!
00:14:43Galvatron is hacking into the others.
00:14:45He's activating them all.
00:14:46Su Yueming controlled him.
00:14:48And then the next thing you know,
00:14:49she's kicking ass and saving the day as well.
00:14:54She's tough, yeah.
00:14:56I would not want to get on the wrong side of Ding Bing.
00:14:59I love you.
00:15:02Get to the roof.
00:15:05The cast is really important to the movie and to Michael.
00:15:08Mike is really responsive to them as a group of actors
00:15:11and I think that elevates the film.
00:15:18I think we've had good fortune in this franchise
00:15:21to have some really talented actors
00:15:24come and play with robots and dinosaurs and cars.
00:15:30A new era has begun.
00:15:32Oh my God!
00:15:34This is not war.
00:15:39It's human extinction.
00:15:53I think our cars are not just cars.
00:15:57They are characters in the movie.
00:15:59And when people see the Autobots lined up in the street,
00:16:02it's different than five cars.
00:16:04They are five characters and they are the Autobots.
00:16:06So, you know, people get excited about it.
00:16:09They want to have their picture taken.
00:16:11And it's a big deal.
00:16:12We pull from the Hasbro library,
00:16:15you know, the rich list of characters that they have.
00:16:18And there's an infinite supply of Transformer characters.
00:16:21I mean, it's amazing.
00:16:22And the mythology is amazing.
00:16:24I mean, it's amazing.
00:16:25Then you start calling up the car companies
00:16:27and opening it up a little bit
00:16:29and see who's interested in participating.
00:16:31And in this case, you know, we've had a great response.
00:16:55One of the things that we always try to do
00:16:57is give the vehicles sort of a facelift, if you will.
00:17:04Optimus, you know, has had some tweaks
00:17:06in the first three films.
00:17:08But on this movie, he got a complete overhaul
00:17:10with Daimler and Western Star.
00:17:12So he's a brand new vehicle altogether this time.
00:17:25The Western Star is a custom build
00:17:27from almost every detail all the way up.
00:17:30I think the only piece that that would be common
00:17:32to a production Western Star is the door panel
00:17:34and the beginning of the sleeper cab.
00:17:36Everything else that you're seeing,
00:17:38from the hood to the bump to the grill to the bumper
00:17:41to the rocker panels to the fenders
00:17:43is all custom for our show.
00:17:45And the flames was a very exciting part
00:17:47of the design process, number one.
00:17:49How do we begin with, as a departure,
00:17:51the flames that we've looked at for the last three movies
00:17:54and create something that's wholly new
00:17:56and fresh for the project
00:17:58but also brings us back to and has a dialogue
00:18:00with some of the design cues from the old Optimus.
00:18:02So you still knew that we were looking
00:18:04at the same character.
00:18:06I did the initial concept work for the flames.
00:18:08That was then handed to an artist
00:18:10that was working with the Daimler group
00:18:12to refine those flames.
00:18:14And then we worked with a painter
00:18:16who had laid out his first stripe job
00:18:18on a hot rod in 1962
00:18:20and has been in paint booths
00:18:22painting hot rods out of Southern California
00:18:24ever since.
00:18:26But I think my favorite aspect of this truck
00:18:28in particular is the stance
00:18:30from the nose and how we were to develop
00:18:32in the face of the car
00:18:34a truck rendition
00:18:36of the Optimus Prime robot.
00:18:38The headlights are completely custom built.
00:18:40The hood ornament
00:18:42is a complete custom build.
00:18:44The sheet metal visor
00:18:46and the tightness of the windscreen
00:18:48just really pulls the entire vehicle
00:18:51together and makes it a very mean
00:18:53very aggressive but also very
00:18:55recognizable character for the feature.
00:19:03Want to hook these wires back to a working battery?
00:19:09And then they have the hiding Optimus
00:19:11which was an old Marmon truck
00:19:13which they quit making in 1993
00:19:15which is like the coolest
00:19:17old square truck.
00:19:21You can't go with the conventional
00:19:23long nose because he's hiding
00:19:25so he's got to be a little bit different.
00:19:27So he's kind of done a chameleon effect
00:19:29made himself look really old
00:19:31decrepit so it's
00:19:33he's not looking like he usually does
00:19:35so people wouldn't even think of him hiding
00:19:37because it's just an old old truck.
00:19:43And so we're making it look
00:19:45old and rusted like it's been there a long
00:19:47long time.
00:19:49It's a really fun project so you don't get something like this
00:19:51very often.
00:19:55I drove the old beat up Optimus
00:19:57on our first day of shooting out
00:19:59in Utah. I was driving that and it was
00:20:01pretty cool because they were like you can't drive
00:20:03the truck. I said dude my dad was a teamster
00:20:05driving a double clutch 13 speed
00:20:07so you know I used to sit on his lap
00:20:09when I was 12 years old and drive like this
00:20:11you know he'd let me hold the wheel
00:20:13so that was pretty cool.
00:20:15The Optimus Prime trucks
00:20:17take their design cues from
00:20:19the hot rod world, from the trucking world
00:20:21for the Galvatron
00:20:23project we looked more towards the industrial
00:20:25design world to create
00:20:27a clean look that we would expect
00:20:29from a high end robotics company such as KSI.
00:20:35The base model for the truck is an Australian market
00:20:37Freightliner Argosy.
00:20:39It's very very different from the Optimus
00:20:41Prime Western Star in which it's a cab
00:20:43over designed for the Australian or European
00:20:45markets. The truck is over height
00:20:47for American roads which establishes
00:20:49its large nature appropriate to
00:20:51the character Galvatron for the film
00:20:53and with any of the robot vehicles
00:20:55there's a constant dialogue with Michael
00:20:57with regards to the personality of the
00:20:59vehicle. Michael's cue to
00:21:01the designers was constantly to make it
00:21:03meaner, to make it stronger.
00:21:05The designer Jeffrey Beecroft's input
00:21:07was to make it continuously more
00:21:09high tech, more clean lined
00:21:11and appropriate to a very contemporary
00:21:13product design market.
00:21:15In the same sense that the robots are
00:21:17distinct and individual characters within the
00:21:19project, we have pushed and
00:21:21developed and ideated the design
00:21:23of the trucks to be
00:21:25personalities in and amongst themselves.
00:21:29I think the general idea is to
00:21:31concentrate on a freshness.
00:21:35So Bumblebee is redesigned.
00:21:37We took a
00:21:39Chevrolet Camaro Super Sport
00:21:41and we took the whole front end off of it.
00:21:43We cut the whole back end off of it.
00:21:45We made a whole new front end and a whole new
00:21:47back end.
00:21:49This vehicle has the hood on it because we're
00:21:51still pre-fitting all of the gaps and everything else
00:21:53to make sure that those are factory.
00:21:55This is one of the
00:21:57ways that we block out and we know how far to go
00:21:59is they'll put a surface coat
00:22:01on it and then they sand through
00:22:03and when all of that is gone they know that they've
00:22:05reached the primer and it's smooth.
00:22:07So that's what he's doing now.
00:22:09There's a lot of effort
00:22:11and heart and soul that go into each of the
00:22:13vehicles that we make. When all is said and done
00:22:15this car will probably have around 3,000
00:22:17hours in it.
00:22:21The color and the overall paint
00:22:23scheme is a lot different
00:22:25as well.
00:22:27This is a candy color
00:22:29so it's very difficult to mask the paint
00:22:31so if you scratch or dent a door
00:22:33you're doing the whole side, which is different than before.
00:22:36Before it was a metallic, now it's a candy.
00:22:38It's a three stage so you have
00:22:40your base color, your candy
00:22:42and then your clear coat over the top.
00:22:47The rear end is much
00:22:49wider and much more aggressive
00:22:51than the previous models. It also has a
00:22:53more aggressive rear spoiler.
00:22:55And then the front headlights are
00:22:57significantly different. They're much more narrow
00:22:59kind of giving the vehicle more character.
00:23:01The hood, the roof
00:23:03and the back all get stripes and then the whole vehicle
00:23:05in general is a lot more
00:23:07aggressive from a styling standpoint.
00:23:11It's a Michael Bay movie. It's got to be
00:23:13something that's special that not everybody
00:23:15can get or everybody can have.
00:23:17This is worth $15 million.
00:23:21That Corvette is one of the most
00:23:23amazing cars I've ever seen so I have to say
00:23:25out of all these cars, I'm taking the Corvette.
00:23:27This is the 19th generation
00:23:29I'm taking the Corvette.
00:23:31This is the 1959 racing Stingray.
00:23:33It was the first Corvette ever
00:23:35called a Stingray and it also has
00:23:37a little Hollywood history also because Elvis
00:23:39Presley drove this car in a movie, Plan B.
00:23:41I want this one for my wall.
00:23:43I like the muscle cars
00:23:45and I like that, I think it was a 69
00:23:47Riviera that was out in front of the theater.
00:23:49Just beautiful.
00:23:51All white, mint condition.
00:23:53One of those cars that you can't not walk
00:23:55over and look inside of.
00:23:57I like the new
00:23:59Lamborghini. That's kind of
00:24:01a great car.
00:24:03That's like the cool car.
00:24:05Lamborghini's a cool car, come on.
00:24:07Ah, that's a good shot.
00:24:09That Corvette.
00:24:11There's a Bugatti
00:24:15and the Bugatti.
00:24:19This is the Bugatti Huara.
00:24:21It's a one of a kind, hand built, Italian
00:24:23made. It's very torturous
00:24:25to drive slow in this kind of car.
00:24:27You know, I'm really not a car guy.
00:24:29I have to say, I'm not, but there
00:24:31were a couple cars there that were
00:24:33pretty incredible. The Bugatti
00:24:35and the Pagani, I mean they're really amazing
00:24:37beautiful works of art. Of course
00:24:39they're all Italian. That
00:24:41is a lyric ballad
00:24:43and epic ode
00:24:45and you brought me
00:24:47a dirty limerick.
00:24:49That toxic clutch grinder wishes it was
00:24:51this car.
00:24:53And then there's
00:24:55the old Bumblebee, the hiding Bumblebee.
00:24:57It's a 67. We
00:24:59found one that was almost where we wanted
00:25:01it to be and then we kind of finished it.
00:25:03Bumblebee's going to start,
00:25:05he's going to spin
00:25:07his thing. He's then going to back up
00:25:09and he's going to start throwing donuts at you.
00:25:15You're dealing with very, very expensive
00:25:17cars on this. So the margin of error
00:25:19is you don't have any margin of error
00:25:21because if you mess up, you're going to
00:25:23go home. Hey guys, let's not have to
00:25:25be close to this $2 million car like this.
00:25:27Okay? Thank you.
00:25:29Can we move this car over 5 feet please?
00:25:31That's expensive.
00:25:43And there's some very expensive
00:25:45cars. That was a little
00:25:47intimidating.
00:25:51Background slightly walking,
00:25:53background slightly walking, and now she'll come out on the street.
00:25:55And run into the street, run into the street.
00:25:57And run.
00:26:01This is a 2013
00:26:03Chevy Sonic, which
00:26:05has been completely redesigned for the movie.
00:26:07The overall
00:26:09look of it looks like a
00:26:11modified Sonic. So if a kid took
00:26:13a Sonic and tore it apart and put
00:26:15their own panels and stuff on it, that's what it looks like.
00:26:17We've conferred with all the stunt
00:26:19guys from pretty much the beginning
00:26:21and we've specced out everything that they
00:26:23require, they want, they need.
00:26:25Making sure the cars, especially the stunt cars
00:26:27are as safe as humanly possible.
00:26:29So what you're seeing here is
00:26:31a fully reinforced, fully caged
00:26:33vehicle. You can roll this car
00:26:35as many times as you want to and it won't
00:26:37crash.
00:26:393, 2, 1, action!
00:26:41Go Jack! Get in the car daddy!
00:26:43Come on baby, get in the car, let's go!
00:26:49Jack is, I think,
00:26:51born to be a race car driver. He has
00:26:53one speed and it's fast.
00:26:57Well I was brought up watching
00:26:59Formula 1. That's, you know,
00:27:01a big one for us at home.
00:27:03I've been working with the
00:27:05stunt guys for
00:27:076 weeks maybe. And I'm just driving
00:27:09as much as I can, just getting as much wheel time
00:27:11in as I can. So we started out with really basic
00:27:13stuff like cone slalom.
00:27:15Now on to kind of like drifting.
00:27:19Doing 180s and
00:27:21all that kind of thing. A lot of e-brakes.
00:27:23Basically just get the feel
00:27:25of a rally car. You know, obviously on the day
00:27:27we're going to have a car with 700 horsepower.
00:27:29Fully race competitive, you know,
00:27:31that level of a car. It's going to be all wheel drive.
00:27:35Just like this Evo right here.
00:27:37This is basically our beater car.
00:27:43Came here with some good fundamentals
00:27:45and we're just giving him the time and the
00:27:47instruction he needs to take it to the next level.
00:27:49So we're just teaching him how to shift, how to get
00:27:51back in control, dealing with uneven
00:27:53terrain. All of those
00:27:55things that he's got to be dealing with all at the same time.
00:27:57Almost having to be able
00:27:59to act while he's doing all these things.
00:28:01You know, he's got his mind going 3 or 4 different
00:28:03directions. So to me it's just
00:28:05repetition. I can't say it enough.
00:28:07Alright Jack, so here's the deal. So you're going to
00:28:09come up hot first gear. When you get halfway
00:28:11to the cone, pull the e-brake,
00:28:13cut the wheel hard to the left.
00:28:15As soon as the car turns a 180, power back on it,
00:28:17steer towards your mark, come around to the side
00:28:19and slide the opposite side 90 right to these cones.
00:28:21Alright, let's send it.
00:28:27Nice, nice.
00:28:31Perfect, that's good right there.
00:28:33That's exactly what you want.
00:28:35He's a fast learner.
00:28:37It's not very often we get a chance to drive with
00:28:39somebody who can pick it up really fast.
00:28:41He drives just as fast, his reactions
00:28:43are just as fast and his moves are just as crisp
00:28:45as some of the top stunt guys I've worked with.
00:28:51Here we go.
00:28:55Boom! Right by the boys.
00:28:57Want to go again?
00:28:59I love cars
00:29:01and I always have. So to be able to get
00:29:03behind the wheel and to be drifting and actually
00:29:05throwing a car around is just
00:29:07so much fun.
00:29:13You
00:29:23You
00:29:25You
00:29:41The movie is
00:29:43very rural in Texas in the beginning as
00:29:45opposed to urban, which is what we've
00:29:47spent most of the franchise inside
00:29:49of. So I think it's a nice taste of
00:29:51something different. It's a different look
00:29:53at, you know, the beautiful sunsets
00:29:55and all that in Texas.
00:29:57And it starts the movie out
00:29:59in a nice slow way.
00:30:01It's beautiful.
00:30:03The light.
00:30:09Michael has something that draws him to Texas.
00:30:13Michael feels that Texas
00:30:15as a state and as an image is heroic.
00:30:17He knew
00:30:19that Cade had to come from Texas.
00:30:21This father, this hero.
00:30:27We scouted for the Cade house
00:30:29for months and months and months.
00:30:35We combed through Texas.
00:30:37We went through the whole Austin area.
00:30:39We went through the whole Dallas area.
00:30:41We looked at Waxahachie.
00:30:43We know Paris, Texas.
00:30:45We probably scouted over 200 houses
00:30:47to get that right.
00:30:53It was furnished for a house full of children.
00:30:59So we basically had to strip it and start over
00:31:01and try to come up with character notes for
00:31:03Cade.
00:31:05He's constantly out of money.
00:31:07He doesn't have money to buy a lot of new furniture,
00:31:09but he's a guy with taste.
00:31:15He's constantly looking around
00:31:17trying to find cool parts to make things with.
00:31:19So we used the idea that he's a picker.
00:31:23He's able to pick.
00:31:25He's picked the coolest things in the world.
00:31:27So we did a lot of thrift store shopping
00:31:29and antique store shopping around the Austin area.
00:31:31So one of the challenges
00:31:33with Cade's house was the fact that
00:31:35we wanted a relatively small house,
00:31:37but a giant barn to accommodate Optimus.
00:31:39And the two never really went together.
00:31:41The barn at the house was pretty small.
00:31:43So what we did, we did an extension on it,
00:31:45and then we cut to an interior of a
00:31:47cotton gin in Elgin, Texas,
00:31:49which was a huge, cavernous interior.
00:31:51It was completely empty when we got here.
00:31:55Everything you see in here, we brought in.
00:31:57Every piece, every light,
00:31:59everything except for the pigeons.
00:32:01We started about 12 weeks ago with the idea
00:32:03that it was a cotton barn originally.
00:32:05So we wanted to give a little back history.
00:32:07We have some old farm implements.
00:32:09We've decided on areas that would be
00:32:11the blacksmith area.
00:32:13We've got an area with welding tools.
00:32:15There's a woodworking area.
00:32:17Of course, a lounge and a gym,
00:32:19because we all know that Mark Wahlberg
00:32:21and Cade are very fit people,
00:32:23so they spend some time working out.
00:32:25And then, of course, the robotics area.
00:32:29We did our robot search all over the country,
00:32:31actually all over the world,
00:32:33looking for life-saving products.
00:32:35And we found a lot of them.
00:32:37We actually went all over the world
00:32:39looking for lifestyle robots
00:32:41that could be the next million-dollar idea for Cade.
00:32:43We went through quite a long time of vetting
00:32:45and figuring out what Michael liked,
00:32:47what style he liked.
00:32:49What we're really looking for is not professional robots
00:32:51you would find in Detroit in a factory.
00:32:53We're looking for something that somebody
00:32:55that was an enthusiast had made,
00:32:57maybe a really smart enthusiast as Cade is.
00:32:59Here we go.
00:33:01We really enjoyed getting to know that community.
00:33:03They're really wonderful people.
00:33:05They tend to be a little bit unusual in nature.
00:33:07I also build them from more common materials, let's say.
00:33:11And they don't have that polished,
00:33:13commercial look to them.
00:33:15What's the estimated time of arrival usually?
00:33:17Average.
00:33:19I think they liked the fact that they looked that way,
00:33:21that they looked homemade.
00:33:23There's some sensors on it,
00:33:25but those are disabled for the most part
00:33:27just so it does the exact same thing every time
00:33:29as much as possible.
00:33:31He's happy to be here. Any mood wants.
00:33:33Working with Michael is interesting as well.
00:33:35Getting the robots to work on demand for him
00:33:37has been challenging.
00:33:41But I've enjoyed the challenge.
00:33:43Probably the best part of this
00:33:45is being able to see all the gadgets.
00:33:47Also the attention to detail
00:33:49is amazing.
00:33:55Had a good morning this morning.
00:33:57We started this morning
00:33:59at very early, first light.
00:34:01We did some helicopters
00:34:03flying around.
00:34:05Cars coming up
00:34:07that road, that road.
00:34:11First we'll do the tow truck coming up.
00:34:15And then we'll do
00:34:17the Savoy vehicles coming up.
00:34:19Three Suburbans come up this way.
00:34:21Titus, this is going to be your car.
00:34:25Beautiful.
00:34:27Got some really good stuff going.
00:34:29Standing out here in a super hot Texas field.
00:34:31It's hot.
00:34:33It's hot.
00:34:35Now I'm going to do something. It's a crouching run.
00:34:37It's a signature acting move of mine.
00:34:39I call it crun.
00:34:41Mark's in the shot too, but it's mostly
00:34:43all about me just crouching
00:34:45as I run in a banana fashion.
00:34:47And then I do a tree cower.
00:34:49Or a trower.
00:34:55Optimus Prime busted out of the garage.
00:34:57Door's out for that.
00:34:59There's going to be a good loud pop out of the door.
00:35:01If you need air protection, Props has it.
00:35:05So the pole represents
00:35:07where Optimus probably is standing
00:35:09after he's on the run coming out of the barn.
00:35:11He won't be sitting still
00:35:13when you see it in the film.
00:35:15And so then here's the truck that gets flipped.
00:35:17It'll be a near miss
00:35:19where Optimus almost gets hit by the missile
00:35:21but the truck gets hit instead.
00:35:23And then he runs around out front
00:35:25and he starts blasting up the soldiers at this end.
00:35:27Three, two, one, go.
00:35:33Well, what's going to motivate them guys
00:35:35flying through the air is rocket hits.
00:35:39We're putting in some black powder lifters.
00:35:41Pretty benign stuff.
00:35:43Some topsoil.
00:35:45A little bit of broken up cork.
00:35:47When we set them off, big boom of dirt.
00:35:53They fly through the air.
00:35:59Looks great.
00:36:07One missile is fired by Optimus
00:36:09and it randomly goes shooting out of the barn.
00:36:15An accident goes into the farmhouse
00:36:17and the farmhouse blows up.
00:36:19We had to blow up their real house
00:36:21and put a facade on the porch.
00:36:23So we used the porch and we drywalled
00:36:25the whole inside of the porch,
00:36:27put the mortars in and then put fake walls up
00:36:29where the porch posts are.
00:36:31This is a real house right here.
00:36:33All this black wall.
00:36:35And it is protected so that nothing happens
00:36:37to it. This is the phony wall here.
00:36:39All deaded out.
00:36:41Ready to go like nobody's business.
00:36:43You don't want to put one canny pack
00:36:45that shoots dust bomb out that way.
00:36:47You can do that right next to the back porch.
00:36:49It really just gives a streamer.
00:36:59There was a facade here that blew out.
00:37:01It looked like the exterior of the house,
00:37:03just like that.
00:37:05There was a little bit of damage.
00:37:07Some of the inner windows blew
00:37:09because of the concussion.
00:37:11I think one of the posts needs some repair.
00:37:13That is an important part of supporting the house.
00:37:15But other than that, it went really well.
00:37:17Farms are fun, but they're more fun
00:37:19when you're blowing them up,
00:37:21I think is the consensus.
00:37:23Action, guys.
00:37:25It's been really, really strange
00:37:27to be trying to keep up with Wahlberg.
00:37:31Come on, run!
00:37:35Because we'll run 100 yards
00:37:37and Michael Bay will be saying,
00:37:39let's go, we got to reset.
00:37:41Let's go one more time.
00:37:43We've got the choppers going.
00:37:45We've got all the SUVs going.
00:37:49We're firing rounds.
00:37:51So we'll run back
00:37:53and Wahlberg doesn't even break a sweat.
00:37:55All right, camera's ready, guys.
00:37:57Action, action, action, action, action, action.
00:37:59Come on.
00:38:01Come on!
00:38:03I'm just trailing behind like...
00:38:07Wahlberg was in two guns, you know?
00:38:09He was in the shooter.
00:38:11I was recently at a Hardee's.
00:38:13Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
00:38:15Cut it, cut it, cut it, cut it!
00:38:19Well, we're in Taylor, Texas.
00:38:23Small town.
00:38:25Yeah, it's a pretty quiet town.
00:38:27Nothing really happens.
00:38:29All right, we're rolling. Ready.
00:38:31Nothing big.
00:38:37You're sending warning shots above.
00:38:39Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
00:38:41Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
00:38:43Did it look good?
00:38:45Yeah.
00:38:47All right, let's move.
00:38:49It was three weeks
00:38:51of filming all the great, iconic
00:38:53little towns around Austin.
00:38:57Day 12.
00:38:59Lovely Lockhart Town Square.
00:39:03We kind of cobbled Elgin,
00:39:05Taylor, and Lockhart,
00:39:07and we cobbled bits and pieces together
00:39:09of this small town that had lots of
00:39:11alleys and squares,
00:39:13and I still had that small town feel,
00:39:15but gave us enough real estate to have this rally car chase.
00:39:21Four full loads are gonna go.
00:39:23Blowing this. He's coming through.
00:39:25You all know where you're going.
00:39:27B-14.
00:39:35We had the car pipe ramp
00:39:37and cannon through a cotton truck.
00:39:39The speed of the two cars coming down is 4-0,
00:39:4140 miles an hour.
00:39:43First, the cannon car's going first,
00:39:45then the pipe ramp car's going second.
00:39:47We have an air mortar and a primer cord ring
00:39:49to blow the cotton up in the air
00:39:51to accentuate the impact
00:39:53as they hit.
00:39:59We're in 97-degree heat up on top of the hill.
00:40:01Very limited vision.
00:40:03Traveling 40 miles an hour.
00:40:05I hit the button at the right time.
00:40:07You feel, you know, the cannon. Boom!
00:40:09And then you're flipping, and then you feel the impact
00:40:11on the ground, and you're, bang!
00:40:13Oh, that was serious. And then someone else,
00:40:15I see a shadow of a bumper. Bow!
00:40:17And I'm like, oh, there's that.
00:40:19And it comes to a stop,
00:40:21and I'm like, okay, we're good.
00:40:23It was absolutely as safe as you could possibly make that.
00:40:25Fantastic.
00:40:27We finish up here tomorrow and on to Michigan
00:40:29for the next seven weeks.
00:40:31That was great.
00:40:35Thank you.
00:40:55This is the first time
00:40:57that one of the movies in the franchise
00:40:59has traveled the entire schedule.
00:41:01You know, we needed to inject
00:41:03fresh locations, which Mike is very passionate about.
00:41:05We have started this movie
00:41:07in the most incredible place, Monument Valley.
00:41:09From there, we went to
00:41:11Austin, Texas, Hong Kong,
00:41:13state of Washington, Beijing, Chicago.
00:41:15Now we're in Detroit.
00:41:19We filmed at GM locations
00:41:21in Detroit and Michigan
00:41:23for two months.
00:41:27General Motors bought into
00:41:29the Transformers franchise
00:41:31with the rest of us
00:41:33from the start when nobody
00:41:35knew if this was a good idea
00:41:37for a movie.
00:41:39They've given us...
00:41:45...which is where they test
00:41:47all the vehicles. It's an amazing freeway
00:41:49and road system.
00:41:51It was great because we had these freeway-type
00:41:53situations without any other traffic on there.
00:41:55It was great.
00:41:57This is where the robots are running down,
00:41:59chasing the group.
00:42:01This Winnebago is parked,
00:42:03and the big trailer is jackknifing
00:42:05and slamming into here.
00:42:09It jumps over the jackknife truck,
00:42:11jumps on this wall, and crashes through
00:42:13the big semi, 48-foot
00:42:15semi-trailer.
00:42:17We're rolling camera, rolling camera!
00:42:19Crane moving!
00:42:21Then we were at their
00:42:23Lansing plant
00:42:25where we were on the factory line.
00:42:27The higher-end production line
00:42:29in Lansing.
00:42:31We turned into KSI China.
00:42:33It was
00:42:35hugely beneficial to us
00:42:37because the background that
00:42:39we got with just being there was...
00:42:41We couldn't create that.
00:42:43It was such a gift.
00:42:47And then
00:42:49we were at the Tech Center.
00:42:51We're at Warren, Michigan
00:42:53at the General Motors Tech Center campus.
00:42:55And we're at the Aerodynamics Wind Tunnel.
00:42:59It's got a great sound.
00:43:03We have a 4,500-horsepower
00:43:05motor that turns a
00:43:0743-foot-diameter fan.
00:43:09You also need to get
00:43:11a separate sound to this thing, okay?
00:43:13It's been wonderful
00:43:15having Transformers here.
00:43:17Our day-to-day testing is a lot of fun.
00:43:19We do a lot of interesting things here.
00:43:21Alright, stand!
00:43:23Great.
00:43:25We all got soaked in there.
00:43:27But this is a nice
00:43:29change from our day-to-day activity.
00:43:31Go!
00:43:33I'm under no illusions
00:43:35that we got to do some very special things.
00:43:37Are you gonna invent a sway out of this one?
00:43:39Filming in that
00:43:41giant wind tunnel, nobody's ever done that before
00:43:43and I doubt anybody ever will again.
00:43:45Alright, daylight this way. Come on.
00:43:49We were able to find a wonderful
00:43:51location for the CIA in Detroit,
00:43:53which is the design building
00:43:55of GM, which is a marvelous
00:43:57office that was designed by
00:43:59Eero Saarinen.
00:44:01This fabulous
00:44:03mid-century modern feel.
00:44:05I was fascinated by that place.
00:44:07Beautiful reflecting pools.
00:44:09The dome and that staircase
00:44:11with the water underneath the staircase
00:44:13and the way the landscaping was.
00:44:15It was so quintessentially post-war
00:44:17modern architecture. All Eero Saarinen.
00:44:19It was beautiful.
00:44:21It was a fantastic experience. Amazing architecture.
00:44:23Amazing facilities.
00:44:25That was a really great partnership and a really great
00:44:27synergy between GM and Transformers.
00:44:29They're really a part of the fabric. They're a part of the look.
00:44:31They're a part of the support.
00:44:35They're really part of the
00:44:37Transformers family.
00:44:43And then we shot the spaceship in around
00:44:45the Detroit area in Michigan.
00:44:49The lockdown craft, let's call it,
00:44:51was a big deal, design-wise.
00:44:57The prison ship is really a departure
00:44:59from what has been done before
00:45:01for Transformers because this ship came from
00:45:03another planet, another world.
00:45:05It had nothing to do with Cybertron.
00:45:11I wanted to create something that we hadn't seen before.
00:45:15The idea of the ship is it's almost built like a cathedral.
00:45:19Different illustrators, different gamers
00:45:21worked with me extensively on the ship
00:45:23and with Michael,
00:45:25who really got involved in the ship as well.
00:45:29Transformers, for the most part,
00:45:31have always gone into real locations
00:45:33and not built as much as this
00:45:35where you're building a whole ship
00:45:37that was all built at 23 feet.
00:45:43It's completely different than anything
00:45:45I've ever done.
00:45:47It's completely different than anything you'll see
00:45:49because, of course, it's made for the
00:45:51proportion of Transformers.
00:45:53And the robots are often 30 feet tall.
00:46:13I really like the prison ship stuff
00:46:15because it's just, you walk in,
00:46:17it's like a whole other world.
00:46:19It's dark and slimy and steamy.
00:46:21It's just, you walk in
00:46:23and you feel like you're somewhere else.
00:46:25It's really cool.
00:46:27Jeffrey and Mike came up with a way
00:46:29to design it and execute it
00:46:31that was a lot of modular pieces, basically.
00:46:35There were eight to ten pieces
00:46:37that were able to be recombined
00:46:39into various shapes
00:46:41and reused.
00:46:45We made it as pieces that could interlock
00:46:47and be spun around
00:46:49and so you could get a whole lot of different looks
00:46:51out of it to create corridors
00:46:53and walkways.
00:46:57And when we need
00:46:59big open spaces of the ship
00:47:01like where the landing bays are or anything like that,
00:47:03we literally can shoot off this way
00:47:05into green screen and then duplicate that.
00:47:11We've got really massive,
00:47:13amazing sets,
00:47:15but we still have to supplement with green.
00:47:17So what we do is we photograph pieces of this set
00:47:19to recreate
00:47:21what would be the panels of all the walls
00:47:23that are missing right now.
00:47:25So it's a really nice combination of the departments
00:47:27making this thing look good.
00:47:29And action!
00:47:31And one!
00:47:33Two!
00:47:35Three!
00:47:37And then we added the concept of the
00:47:39almost like the veins of the ship
00:47:41with a ton of tubing and wild textures.
00:47:43We've got three kinds of vines here.
00:47:45We call them vines,
00:47:47but are they natural?
00:47:49Are they mechanical?
00:47:51Who knows? Who can tell?
00:47:53That's where your mind fills in the blanks.
00:47:55So the idea is to make the room look like it's been here
00:47:57for a really long time
00:47:59and that's what the layers of growth do.
00:48:01And this weapon room is an ancient part of the ship.
00:48:03It's kind of a spiritual space.
00:48:12Cut.
00:48:14The swords themselves
00:48:16were based on museum research
00:48:18made by hand by my crew.
00:48:22Some of the swords were 30 feet long.
00:48:24They're enormous.
00:48:26And they were hung up on these giant hooks.
00:48:28And of course it becomes a ladder
00:48:30for our characters to climb up
00:48:32and grab their weapons.
00:48:34Got you.
00:48:36Mark them here. Go like that.
00:48:38Go like that.
00:48:41And then just give me some more...
00:48:43You know?
00:48:45A couple of dagger guns
00:48:47with 50 Cal Smith & Wessons internal.
00:48:49Alien weapon
00:48:51with real American technology inside to make it fire.
00:48:53Action!
00:48:55Gunshots
00:49:03We're in the grinder right now,
00:49:05what we consider the grinder,
00:49:07which is part of the interior of the spaceship.
00:49:09This is where they're getting ready
00:49:11to take the car into the disposal area,
00:49:13which, as you can tell,
00:49:15is only a partial of a set again.
00:49:17And it will be in CG
00:49:19the rest of the balance of the set.
00:49:21You're going, ah, like on one, okay?
00:49:23Keep a little motion going.
00:49:25That thing goes. Go, okay?
00:49:27Here we go. Ready, guys?
00:49:29On action!
00:49:33And side. Bam.
00:49:35Okay?
00:49:37And action!
00:49:45I continue to be in awe
00:49:47of the scope and the size of the movie
00:49:49and what it takes
00:49:51to keep this whole thing running
00:49:53and how on top of it Michael is
00:49:55when it comes to every aspect of it.
00:49:57Right here, I fire.
00:49:59This wall, this goes up.
00:50:01They either turn around and look at it
00:50:03for a fraction of a second,
00:50:05or they're running, and they've made it in 4.6 seconds
00:50:07all the way out.
00:50:09Michael actually had a technician
00:50:11come out of retirement for this one explosion
00:50:13because it was so huge.
00:50:15All these troughs are gonna fire.
00:50:17All the flash tubes and all the salutes
00:50:19are gonna go off.
00:50:21Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:50:25Well, they'll run through it,
00:50:27and I'll run about halfway,
00:50:29and then that's curtains for me.
00:50:31This is the end of it.
00:50:33I mean, not the end of filming,
00:50:35yet, but this is
00:50:37the end of Lucas.
00:50:39Roll it! Bang!
00:50:41Bang!
00:50:43Faster!
00:50:47Okay, they were right here.
00:50:51That's 4.6, baby.
00:50:55All Michael said was,
00:50:57run as fast as you can and make sure your head's up.
00:50:59Don't give me this,
00:51:01because that's what you will get, because it's so slow motion.
00:51:03You'll be like that. You understand?
00:51:05So it's got to be...
00:51:07You've got to be looking to that water tower
00:51:09and just running.
00:51:11You know what I'm saying?
00:51:213, 2, 1!
00:51:29Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:51:47All right?
00:51:49All right, let's get some ice.
00:51:53You like that?
00:51:59All right.
00:52:09Oh, my God.
00:52:11That's cool, Jack. Were you yelling?
00:52:13Were you yelling, Jack?
00:52:19Richie,
00:52:21you can go back to retirement now, okay?
00:52:23You're the master.
00:52:25Good job, Richie.
00:52:27Beautiful city of Chicago.
00:52:29It's a great place.
00:52:31I love this town.
00:52:33Very welcoming, very hospitable.
00:52:35Italian beefs and Chicago dogs.
00:52:39They will make you sick
00:52:41if you eat more than two in one sitting.
00:52:43Scramble Cemetery win.
00:52:45On all the other Transformers,
00:52:47with our monitor rooms,
00:52:49we've always built them on stage.
00:52:51On this one, we got permission to work
00:52:53in the Office of Emergency Management Communications
00:52:55which was technically a live 9-1-1 call sensor,
00:52:57and it was almost turnkey.
00:52:59We could go in there,
00:53:01shoot it, and then leave.
00:53:03Team and assets are in place.
00:53:05Thank you for your efforts, ladies and gentlemen.
00:53:07This room is going dark.
00:53:09I'll take it from here.
00:53:11Okay, let's go.
00:53:15We started at 300 East Randolph,
00:53:17which is the Blue Cross Blue Shield building.
00:53:19You know, it's like people, it's like a bee.
00:53:21You know, a bee coming at you,
00:53:23and then you freak out.
00:53:31We are Mr. Joyce's assistants, Joshua's.
00:53:33He expects us to do everything
00:53:35without even having to be told or asked.
00:53:37Read his mind, basically.
00:53:39Not ask stupid questions.
00:53:41Don't waste his time. Don't get fired.
00:53:43Ryan.
00:53:45Make sure the doors sound the way he wants them to.
00:53:47I asked for boundless, transcendent.
00:53:49You walk through a door in this building,
00:53:51it's like you've just stepped into the future.
00:53:53Okay, cut.
00:53:55We shot down Roosevelt Bridge.
00:53:57Again, that was shoehorned
00:53:59between Bears games, Sox games,
00:54:01and college football games.
00:54:03That road's really difficult to close
00:54:05because that's a main archery into Chicago.
00:54:07Mark's in order to sit here
00:54:09in the middle of this console
00:54:11beside Mark and Corey
00:54:13so that I don't have to jump out of the back of the car
00:54:15because when I jump out of the back of the car,
00:54:17I'll show you how it looks.
00:54:21Now, this is Transformers,
00:54:23so everything has to be really smooth and fast,
00:54:25obviously, and graceful.
00:54:27For me to get out of the back of this car
00:54:29with any speed kind of looks a bit like this.
00:54:33Like that.
00:54:35So I can't do that on the day.
00:54:37So instead, I'm gonna sit on the middle bit
00:54:39and I'm gonna jump out like I was
00:54:41right there the whole time.
00:54:47So we filmed at McCormick Place,
00:54:49a huge conference center, very, very busy,
00:54:51and we managed
00:54:53to shoehorn ourselves into a really
00:54:55small, tight window of opportunity
00:54:57to film in one of their main
00:54:59exhibition halls where we recreated
00:55:01kind of a robot
00:55:03morgue forensic lab
00:55:05where Joshua
00:55:07is dissecting Transformers
00:55:09and seeing how they're built
00:55:11and made so he can create his own.
00:55:13The way this set came about is that as a
00:55:15child, I had gone to a plane
00:55:17reconstruction with my father
00:55:19that had been in a big accident,
00:55:21so as they were putting it back together and had all those
00:55:23pieces like a giant puzzle, I thought of
00:55:25this set as that.
00:55:27What we've done is try to create it
00:55:29to give enough depth so you didn't
00:55:31have to CGI the whole thing.
00:55:33We used everything from
00:55:35every lab we've done, every
00:55:37automotive part we could find, and truck
00:55:39and airplane part, and put it
00:55:41together and make it look clinical.
00:55:47Hey!
00:55:49That's company property!
00:55:51They're not your property.
00:55:53They were my friends.
00:55:55This is my
00:55:57fourth outing with the
00:55:59Transformers.
00:56:01We are
00:56:03not your technology.
00:56:05I run around the set basically
00:56:07being the voice of all the robots
00:56:09that, you know, when they're in a scene,
00:56:11doing their dialogue.
00:56:13Pleasure.
00:56:15No, look, perfectly fine.
00:56:17I'm completely deaf, but it's all right.
00:56:23Let's go, let's go!
00:56:25We're in the Uptown Theater on the
00:56:27north side of Chicago.
00:56:29This was built in 1925,
00:56:31closed down in the 1980s.
00:56:35The hardest sell was to
00:56:37make this believable that it was a
00:56:39small town theater in Texas
00:56:41because it's so small.
00:56:43Doesn't quite fit in the tiny town
00:56:45of Taylor, Texas, but Michael
00:56:47only shot a part of it.
00:56:49You don't find it on many websites,
00:56:51even the urban explorer websites.
00:56:53It's not open to the public.
00:56:55It's slightly mysterious.
00:56:57No one really knows what's behind
00:56:59these doors. The outside doesn't
00:57:01look very big, and you come through
00:57:03these doors and then walk into the
00:57:05theater and see 4,000 seats.
00:57:07No one ever expects to see 4,000
00:57:09seats.
00:57:11That's what makes Michael Bay
00:57:13great, is that he would choose
00:57:15this vast, expansive
00:57:17theater, you know, once grand,
00:57:19now dilapidated, which is true
00:57:21in real life.
00:57:23And have that be the place that
00:57:25we find Optimus Prime.
00:57:27And that could have been in a junkyard
00:57:29or a tow station or a car auction.
00:57:31There's plenty of places that
00:57:33would be the obvious choice.
00:57:35How much for the truck?
00:57:37$4,000.
00:57:39How much for the truck?
00:57:41The idea of the theater is
00:57:43pure magic, and we wanted
00:57:45it to look like a ghost was there.
00:57:47There's a whole sense in this whole film
00:57:49of ghosts and
00:57:51of age and of time
00:57:53gone by, and that's one of the reasons
00:57:55locomotives and the ships
00:57:57and the barns.
00:57:59We shot in the original projection
00:58:01room that was up there.
00:58:03We brought in equipment to make it look
00:58:05old and haunted and did
00:58:07a lot of dusting and used a lot of
00:58:09plastic and webbing and stuff to
00:58:11try and make this place look as old as possible.
00:58:13It's fantastic.
00:58:15I hear they're going to restore it.
00:58:17That's a big job.
00:58:19That makes my work on my kitchen at home
00:58:21look very manageable.
00:58:29We were in the real heart
00:58:31of Chicago.
00:58:33We chose La Salle. It's in the financial district
00:58:35and it's relatively quiet, and it's a real
00:58:37classic Chicago canyon.
00:58:39We chose it because it was a really
00:58:41long stretch where we could shoot
00:58:43the Decepticon fighter, tail gunner
00:58:45bouncing down the street.
00:58:53The gag was that the
00:58:55truck's getting hit, sideswiped
00:58:57by the gunship
00:58:59that broke apart a piece of its pod,
00:59:01hit it, and knocks it off kilter
00:59:03and blows the end of that
00:59:05truck up.
00:59:07It's a real nice effect.
00:59:11And then the pod
00:59:13kept on skidding and bouncing in the CG
00:59:15world through about four blocks
00:59:17down La Salle.
00:59:29We're on this main
00:59:31Chicago street, and there's supposed to be all these extras
00:59:33screaming because there's this other
00:59:35spaceship going above us, and I love days
00:59:37like that because there's so much going on. It's high energy
00:59:39and it's so fun.
00:59:43You know, we're going to have a really amazing sequence
00:59:45here.
00:59:47Big explosion, a lot of craziness.
00:59:57It's Dorothy Driver here.
00:59:59You better have insurance.
01:00:01I got these scratches on my face today. I was
01:00:03driving my car, minding my own business
01:00:05when an alien spaceship crashes into it.
01:00:07Not the usual. Pretty crazy stuff.
01:00:09It's a freaking spaceship.
01:00:11You go get insurance on a freaking spaceship.
01:00:13Good luck with that, buddy.
01:00:15And then the other big closure we're doing is on
01:00:17Whacker.
01:00:19We have a three block
01:00:21street closure on Whacker Drive, which is
01:00:23one of the major streets in Chicago.
01:00:25This set
01:00:27is supposed to be Hong Kong. We were looking for
01:00:29a lot of glass and steel, a lot of
01:00:31modern architecture like they have in Hong Kong.
01:00:33So we've covered every sign,
01:00:35every street sign. There's 168
01:00:37street signs.
01:00:39We're reversing
01:00:41the traffic, painting out the street
01:00:43markings.
01:00:45We try to be prepared
01:00:47for lots of curveballs because he's
01:00:49a very spontaneous and creative guy.
01:00:51So, you know, when he gets here,
01:00:53he's thinking up shots
01:00:55as we go.
01:00:57I have
01:00:59everybody's phone number in my cell phone.
01:01:01Any question, like they just decided
01:01:03they wanted to have a camera inside that lobby.
01:01:05So I call up the general manager.
01:01:07Can we put a camera inside the lobby?
01:01:09I have people stationed at every single
01:01:11building to kind of create a playground
01:01:13for him.
01:01:15Four, three,
01:01:17two, one.
01:01:19Here we go.
01:01:21Go, go, go.
01:01:33The city call it Lakeside
01:01:35and it's the old US steel site.
01:01:37Nothing there anymore.
01:01:39It's a 600 acre leveled
01:01:41site really close to Chicago.
01:01:43The only thing that remains are the iron ore
01:01:45walls which were so hard
01:01:47and so substantial that it broke the
01:01:49machine that tried to take it down.
01:01:51That's why they're still standing.
01:01:53We're looking at that blue band, that blue band right there.
01:01:55Blue band. Okay, here we go.
01:01:57On your mark.
01:01:59Ready.
01:02:01And 21,000.
01:02:0321,000.
01:02:09One 1,000.
01:02:11Two 1,000.
01:02:15A great backlog for us to create
01:02:17some Hong Kong tsunami
01:02:19type events
01:02:21and have a bit of room to move.
01:02:23That's what I'm talking about.
01:02:25It's going to be action.
01:02:27It all starts lifting on action.
01:02:29You know what I'm saying?
01:02:31Three, two, one, action.
01:02:37The spaceship is a big giant magnet
01:02:39and it's lifting all these metal things up.
01:02:41So it lifted the bus up,
01:02:43we had rigged on its side,
01:02:45lifted up, rolled it over
01:02:47and the stunt people fell out through
01:02:49breakaway glass windows onto the ground.
01:03:01Action.
01:03:03We have stunt guys falling out
01:03:05and as the bus starts flipping upside down
01:03:07we go right under where the debris is
01:03:09so directly under the bus
01:03:11and then towards another convertible
01:03:13where other guys are then flying out of.
01:03:15It's pretty exciting stuff.
01:03:19You have people literally within inches
01:03:21not only running by the cart
01:03:23but also falling on top of the cart
01:03:25or falling right in front of the cart
01:03:27so a little bit of avoidance there
01:03:29plus keeping a smooth path for the camera.
01:03:31It's a pretty exciting deal.
01:03:33Action.
01:03:37All right, this is going to work beautifully.
01:03:41All right, cut.
01:03:47Three, two, one, action.
01:03:55What we were trying to assimilate here
01:03:57is that a boat was being lifted up
01:03:59and it was dropped into the water.
01:04:01That was the splash
01:04:03and we had come up with this concept
01:04:05of using those tanks
01:04:07because you need to get a lot of water a lot of times
01:04:09so dump tanks have been around
01:04:11since the beginning of movies.
01:04:13It's a device that holds a lot of water
01:04:15and lets a lot of water go at one time.
01:04:17John Frazier built six of these dump tanks
01:04:1911,000 gallons each
01:04:21and there's six of them up there
01:04:23with big trap doors that are fired
01:04:25by cutting a cable and dumping
01:04:27all the contents at once.
01:04:31You need a lot of head pressure.
01:04:33Those tanks are 40 feet in the air
01:04:35so when you let that water go
01:04:37it moves things.
01:04:39Are you pulling all of them?
01:04:41You're lifting up that way
01:04:43and then you say back up, back up
01:04:45right away, okay?
01:04:47Three, two, one, and action.
01:04:49And action.
01:04:59Yeah, baby!
01:05:07The bus we had put a bunch of weights
01:05:09on the back top of it
01:05:11and then we weakened the frame real good
01:05:13so that when it crushes
01:05:15the accordion real flat on the ground
01:05:17simultaneously.
01:05:29So this is the grand finale.
01:05:31We're supposed to be in Hong Kong
01:05:33but we're at the Damon Silos
01:05:35which is state-owned property for sale
01:05:37off the north side of the 55
01:05:39going out of Chicago.
01:05:41Quiet, guys, let's roll on this floor.
01:05:43Ready, and dust
01:05:45and boom.
01:05:49As long as we left it in a safer
01:05:51or as safe condition as found
01:05:53we could do pretty much anything we liked.
01:05:55Okay, let's go hot.
01:05:57Three's going hot.
01:06:01And fire.
01:06:05These were silos
01:06:07built in, I think, 1930s.
01:06:09Get out of here now!
01:06:15Michael came in and destroyed the shit out of them.
01:06:23Basically brought his chaos
01:06:25to Chicago.
01:06:37Don't shoot him!
01:06:39Come on!
01:06:41Run to me!
01:06:45Everything that we do
01:06:47in the movies is, we're not really ever
01:06:49blowing anything up.
01:06:51I got it!
01:06:53We're simulating.
01:06:55Oh my God.
01:06:59Oh my God, the helmet's filled.
01:07:03When we blow up the two
01:07:05walkways that connect the silos
01:07:07that was the real deal.
01:07:09They did ask us if we could drop
01:07:11the walkways when they knew
01:07:13that we were interested in shooting there.
01:07:15It just turned into a big gag for us
01:07:17that's pretty big and exciting.
01:07:21And what happens though is
01:07:23when you're doing the real deal
01:07:25that's when you really have to be careful
01:07:27because that's when things fly.
01:07:29I wouldn't be any closer than this.
01:07:31That's a real, real
01:07:33heavy-duty causeway.
01:07:35They used to transport
01:07:37the grain through it
01:07:39on big conveyors.
01:07:41It's 10 feet high.
01:07:43Three inches thick of concrete all the way through.
01:07:45And I had to go up with a concrete saw.
01:07:47We cut it in three places
01:07:49just to make sure that when it fell
01:07:51it would all break away.
01:07:55Everybody stay out of the set!
01:07:57Everybody stay out of the set!
01:07:59Alright, let's roll video!
01:08:01Alright, we need to roll
01:08:03honeymoons!
01:08:05And we blast it and down she falls.
01:08:07Hey!
01:08:09Hey!
01:08:11Hey!
01:08:21You know, you're 125 feet in the air.
01:08:25You don't want to have to have the fire department
01:08:27or any of the special effects crew members
01:08:29to run up those stairs and put out a fire.
01:08:31So we ran our own sprinkler system
01:08:33in the whole building.
01:08:35And then as soon as the
01:08:37explosion went off,
01:08:39the water was right there. We just revved up the pumps
01:08:41and put all the fires out.
01:08:43And those are things that you do
01:08:45just to make everything safe.
01:08:57Good, that's great.
01:08:59It looks great. It also goes in.
01:09:01Let's do it again.
01:09:03I didn't think it was going to be that big.
01:09:07It's 8 a.m. and we're thinking about
01:09:09maybe
01:09:11dropping those two bridges.
01:09:13Well, where did they go?
01:09:15Where'd they go?
01:09:17Somebody beat us to it.
01:09:37Yes, another situation
01:09:39where I thought,
01:09:41okay, Michael's finally lost it.
01:09:43He wants us to do
01:09:45Hong Kong in Detroit.
01:09:47Hong Kong in Detroit.
01:09:49Well, it says it itself, does it not?
01:09:51Hong Kong in Detroit.
01:09:53You sort of go...
01:09:55You sort of clean your ears out.
01:09:57Uh, okay.
01:09:59Creating Hong Kong
01:10:01in the middle of downtown Detroit
01:10:03is just pretty damn remarkable, you know?
01:10:05We did build
01:10:07a huge amount there
01:10:09that you could never do in Hong Kong.
01:10:11Hong Kong is so dense.
01:10:13You're cheating exterior photography
01:10:15in a U.S. city for Hong Kong.
01:10:17So the look of those sets
01:10:19is vital to that illusion.
01:10:23We're in the middle of downtown Detroit.
01:10:25This is an empty lot.
01:10:27And we have a big area
01:10:29we can build our buildings
01:10:31that we're going to destroy.
01:10:33And this is great.
01:10:35I mean, there's not much around here.
01:10:37You can close off the streets,
01:10:39and we sort of have our peace.
01:10:41That's the part that's going to break off.
01:10:43We're going to build scaffolding
01:10:45behind it, because we want to hide that building
01:10:47because it would give Detroit away.
01:10:49So it's going to be like this bamboo scaffolding
01:10:51covering the whole building.
01:10:53We're not covering the street in Hong Kong.
01:10:55We're just trying to put buildings together
01:10:57that make sense while they're shooting them
01:10:59and make sense when they come.
01:11:01And part of filming in an environment like this
01:11:03is we have different entities,
01:11:05including the Detroit People Mover.
01:11:07We just wrapped that.
01:11:09If you look at it, it's in Chinese.
01:11:11It runs about every two to five minutes.
01:11:13And they're willing to work with us
01:11:15while we're filming here.
01:11:17So they're actually going to be
01:11:19a big part of our set.
01:11:23We built a lot of things that could be knocked down
01:11:25because they're going to be
01:11:29a lot of things that could be knocked down
01:11:31because, you know, you've got 50-foot dinosaurs
01:11:33going through Hong Kong.
01:11:35They're going to knock a lot of stuff down.
01:11:37It's not a city built for dinosaurs.
01:11:43For us in the construction end,
01:11:45it's very important to have that coordinated effort
01:11:47between the art department and us in construction
01:11:49because we have a tendency
01:11:51to like to build things straight and true.
01:11:53And in this particular instance,
01:11:55this thing's been aged.
01:11:57It's deteriorating.
01:11:59So it's a matter of how much age,
01:12:01how deteriorated the buildings need to look.
01:12:03And in this case, what we did
01:12:05is we did a series of one-by-three plan-ons,
01:12:07and then we put lath over it.
01:12:09So it gave that broken-away look.
01:12:11And this here, of course, is not real rebar
01:12:13because it could be a safety issue.
01:12:15We had four or five weeks
01:12:17working with construction,
01:12:19putting bullet hits in the walls.
01:12:21They would build a partial set,
01:12:23and then we would go in and put
01:12:25our explosive charge in that cavity.
01:12:27We have to run wires down
01:12:29each one of these holes,
01:12:31number, label them.
01:12:33Then we'll go back and put our swibs in,
01:12:35some debris.
01:12:37And then they would plaster over that.
01:12:39When it's detonated,
01:12:41it gives you that illusion
01:12:43that we've made this big hole.
01:12:45But the hole's already there.
01:12:47So we're gonna walk over to the noodle shop right now.
01:12:49These were very difficult to make,
01:12:51and Kevin Kropp, one of our set dressers,
01:12:53one of our buyers,
01:12:55figured out how to do this.
01:12:57Exhibit A, first trial at making noodles.
01:12:59Shredding paper towel through a shredder.
01:13:01It seemed to work from a distance,
01:13:03but then we'd have to paint them
01:13:05and weigh them down because they would blow too readily.
01:13:07So step B was to come up with something
01:13:09that had more weight
01:13:11and that the color was right.
01:13:13These are 48-foot-long
01:13:15runs of rubber bands
01:13:17used to power model airplanes.
01:13:19The idea was based on images,
01:13:21references that Jeffrey found
01:13:23of noodles hanging from the rafters,
01:13:25essentially, of these noodle shops in China.
01:13:27And then the other part of the equation
01:13:29was a noodle-making machine.
01:13:31So it was just a matter of finding,
01:13:33grabbing found parts.
01:13:35These are old conveyor belts.
01:13:37These are valve covers from a car engine.
01:13:39Uses chain guards, a couple of pistons,
01:13:41and voila, we have a noodle shop.
01:13:45So off the top of my head,
01:13:47so our first day in Detroit,
01:13:53Michael said,
01:13:55okay, so here's your path.
01:13:57Don't crowd my Steadicam when the explosion goes,
01:13:59which means stay this side of the Steadicam.
01:14:01You're going to go around here,
01:14:03take a left there, go forward a little bit more.
01:14:05We're going to see the two explosions.
01:14:07We've got a circle. We're going to go to them.
01:14:09We were like, okay.
01:14:11The circle's here. You're going to find your place
01:14:13towards your dad. You're going to go to the other side.
01:14:15And then you go around there and follow that post around.
01:14:17Jack, you cut in this way.
01:14:19Mark, come wide. Come in here.
01:14:21You're going to go to this mark right here.
01:14:23I'm going to shout missile.
01:14:25When I shout missile, you duck.
01:14:27Boom! That thing goes.
01:14:29You guys then cut in this way.
01:14:31So we were like, okay, yeah, that's fine.
01:14:33Okay.
01:14:35Because one thing I love about Michael Bay
01:14:37is that he really gets into the trench
01:14:39with his troops.
01:14:41Ready in three, two, one, action!
01:14:43All right, come on.
01:14:45We've got to wait to get behind hound, all right?
01:14:47Once we started shooting outside
01:14:49in the Hong Kong set in Detroit,
01:14:51I'd never experienced anything like that
01:14:53because there were explosions going off,
01:14:55the likes of which I'd never seen before.
01:15:01Come on!
01:15:03Come on!
01:15:07Get in!
01:15:09Tessa!
01:15:11Tessa, let's go!
01:15:15And pose!
01:15:17One,
01:15:19two, three,
01:15:21four, five!
01:15:25Tessa, go!
01:15:27Run! Run!
01:15:29We were way busy.
01:15:33Every shot, we're setting off
01:15:3510 or 12 pounds of black powder.
01:15:37Let me out! Let me out!
01:15:41We had bombs everywhere there.
01:15:43Action!
01:15:45All right, come on, we've got to move now!
01:15:49It was really exhilarating.
01:15:51Come on!
01:15:57Mark has done these movies,
01:15:59but nothing to this scale.
01:16:01Come on, come on, come on!
01:16:03Go, go, hustle!
01:16:05Hustle!
01:16:07Tilt down and fire the thing.
01:16:09Go, whip! Fire!
01:16:11I mean, I have crew members
01:16:13that have never seen anything like this.
01:16:17And pistol!
01:16:19We'll pick up new guys all the time,
01:16:21and it's just like,
01:16:23you guys are nuts.
01:16:25These are special effects guys.
01:16:27He's coming around!
01:16:29He's coming around this way!
01:16:31That was awesome!
01:16:33That was awesome!
01:16:37I had no idea.
01:16:39Oh, that was pretty.
01:16:41I feel hot. A little fire.
01:16:43A little fire.
01:16:45The amount of damage we had to do,
01:16:47it required building a set.
01:16:51Five seconds of that, okay?
01:16:53Bamboo comes down.
01:16:55Then he gets frustrated.
01:16:57He's got to walk.
01:16:59It's going to take another three seconds.
01:17:01Go!
01:17:07A couple strands on your head.
01:17:09Give me a couple cut little small strands.
01:17:11Right, right.
01:17:13Good.
01:17:15Each take, you put a couple on, right?
01:17:17Whoa, whoa, whoa!
01:17:19I'm going up!
01:17:21I'm going up!
01:17:23Go!
01:17:27Easy.
01:17:31Go!
01:17:37That was good.
01:17:39That was a pretty good shot, huh?
01:17:41How many more car flippers
01:17:43do you have, Swap?
01:17:45There's three wild ones.
01:17:47Two cars were up there
01:17:49with car flippers coming this way.
01:17:55Run, run, run!
01:17:57Screaming!
01:17:59We have special effects
01:18:01pointing out where all the events are.
01:18:03When these guys start moving,
01:18:05that bomb goes off,
01:18:07sending all these people.
01:18:09Finding out how far this event may go,
01:18:11adding a safety factor in,
01:18:13we'd say, okay, we're safe
01:18:15to put extras from this point forward.
01:18:17You're going to come right here.
01:18:19You're going to run right at the start, okay?
01:18:21We have to have stunt people from this point back.
01:18:23The chief comes right across there,
01:18:25so there's going to be stunts.
01:18:27Everybody, okay, ready?
01:18:29Three, two, one, action!
01:18:31Screaming!
01:18:43Excellent!
01:18:45Okay, good.
01:18:47We just dropped this train car.
01:18:51Rigged it on two cranes.
01:18:53And the reason for the two cranes
01:18:55is because we have to drop the load,
01:18:57and normally a crane does not like to release the load
01:18:59because the boom can go back and flex.
01:19:01So we split the load between the two cranes,
01:19:03and then we were able to drop it
01:19:05with an explosive charge.
01:19:07The last shot we did in Detroit,
01:19:09we dropped that Pagoda.
01:19:11It was built by us, so it was concreted in
01:19:13and bolted in place like standard construction.
01:19:15And then just before you roll camera,
01:19:17you take all the bolts off,
01:19:19all the nuts off the bolts,
01:19:21and it's really just standing there
01:19:23and you're ready to go.
01:19:33Just as it was tipping over,
01:19:35coming straight at camera,
01:19:39a huge fireball came out the roof.
01:19:41That was a fun one.
01:19:47That was a beautiful week.
01:19:49Hard as hell.
01:19:51It was a tough week, actually.
01:19:53I think this might be a record
01:19:55in our weekly adventures with Mr. Bay.
01:19:57We tipped the scale this week.
01:20:03I love being in the city of Detroit.
01:20:05I love the people in Detroit.
01:20:07They're very proud, hard-working people.
01:20:09Michigan workers!
01:20:11It's a shame the economy in the state that it's in now,
01:20:13but it will rebound.
01:20:15I was really glad and proud that Michael
01:20:17would take the movie there and put a real boost
01:20:19to the economy.
01:20:25I loved it there.
01:20:27I loved it there.
01:20:47Early on, when we were developing the story,
01:20:49we knew we needed a big battle
01:20:51at the end of the picture.
01:20:54And we knew for the story,
01:20:56we wanted it to involve somewhere very, very modern,
01:20:59a city that was very, very vertical.
01:21:01From the beginning, one of the places
01:21:03we were talking about was Hong Kong.
01:21:05We always look to bring an audience
01:21:07somewhere they've never been before,
01:21:09they've only heard about.
01:21:13And there's something completely unique
01:21:15about Hong Kong.
01:21:35It's really exciting.
01:21:37It's my first time being here.
01:21:40So this is our first day of production in Hong Kong.
01:21:43Day one of shooting here in Hong Kong.
01:21:45We're building up a 3D camera
01:21:47so we can go hike it up four flights of stairs
01:21:49into this apartment compound.
01:22:00We'll be going to the rooftop,
01:22:02which is the big exciting sequence
01:22:04where Savoy is chasing after Cade.
01:22:11Well, at times, he has to do this whole chase
01:22:13and run across these buildings that are,
01:22:15you know, it's 180 feet up in the air.
01:22:17It's like 18 stories.
01:22:29You've got this chase that's going
01:22:31from balcony to balcony
01:22:34so it has that fear of heights
01:22:36that some people, I have certainly.
01:22:43I overcame my fear of heights on this one.
01:22:48I was forced.
01:22:49So there are a lot of firsts for me.
01:22:56We are by far the biggest action movie
01:22:58that had ever been there.
01:23:00But you can see that that's a culture
01:23:02that's gained a lot of...
01:23:11Just another day in Michael Bay world.
01:23:32I would say there's no city
01:23:34in the world like Hong Kong.
01:23:36I like it. It's a crazy city.
01:23:38We got a lot out of it.
01:23:40Michael was able to turn the camera, 360,
01:23:42and get a great shot no matter
01:23:44what angle you shot.
01:23:46And Michael was running around
01:23:48shooting as much as he could every day.
01:23:54We got Chong with us.
01:23:56And he's our driver, and he helps out.
01:23:58He's a great hand. He knows where everything is
01:24:00in the whole city, whatever parts and tools
01:24:02that we need to get, this guy knows where to get it.
01:24:04We couldn't have done it without him.
01:24:06He's a pyrotechnician right here.
01:24:08We do everything he says.
01:24:10Yeah.
01:24:12A lot of the crew did not speak English,
01:24:14so you have a whole crew of interpreters.
01:24:16I mean, every department has interpreters.
01:24:18Then that's one, two, three, four, five.
01:24:20Like that, okay. Six sets, six sets.
01:24:22Just find the hole.
01:24:24One guy goes this way, next guy goes that way.
01:24:26One, two, three, four, five.
01:24:28It's exciting, you know.
01:24:30It's like being in New York.
01:24:32You can't really close down streets and lock off things,
01:24:34so people are kind of moving around everywhere,
01:24:36but it's really exciting.
01:24:38That's what they call doing it Hong Kong style,
01:24:40where we throw a bunch of production assistants
01:24:42across one road, hold traffic,
01:24:44nobody's getting run over.
01:24:46As soon as I get a red light down here,
01:24:48as soon as I get a red light, we go.
01:24:50And then we go, and the red light's at the other,
01:24:52so you've just got to time out the lights.
01:24:54In this case, we had 37 seconds.
01:24:56Blocked the road.
01:24:58Ready, and action!
01:25:00And people went crazy. It was awesome.
01:25:04So the American crew are so used to
01:25:06lock down the whole street,
01:25:08which it's an impossible thing to do in Hong Kong
01:25:10because of limited space.
01:25:12And this is such a crowded city, you know,
01:25:14so there's no such thing as locking down,
01:25:16so we have to deal with the crowd.
01:25:18As a place to shoot,
01:25:20it's kind of crazy because we have
01:25:22people around all the time.
01:25:24We've got all these hordes of paparazzi
01:25:26and people with their phones out
01:25:28just taking pictures all the time, so that's nuts.
01:25:30There are tons and tons
01:25:32of fans here.
01:25:34Nice to meet you as well.
01:25:36How are you?
01:25:38And, you know, we're going to go shoot in Beijing,
01:25:40and I'm actually very excited about that.
01:25:52A lot of what the movie is about
01:25:54is about the collision
01:25:56of the very, very old
01:25:58and the very, very new.
01:26:00China with its rich history
01:26:02and its explosion into modernity
01:26:04just seem to exemplify that idea
01:26:06in one place in the world.
01:26:08Transformers has always been important in China.
01:26:10It was one of the few
01:26:12Western properties that was released there
01:26:14in the 90s, so we thought
01:26:16it was only fitting that we
01:26:18spend more time there and include
01:26:20China as part of the storyline.
01:26:22Welcome to China.
01:26:24Book Albatron in containment. Tell your techs
01:26:26do not activate it.
01:26:28As part of that script, if you will, you have to inject
01:26:30appropriate cast, so we have Bing Bing
01:26:32in the cast.
01:26:34It was really an honor to have her in the film
01:26:36and to have her be part of
01:26:38our franchise.
01:26:40Cool, cool. You have to go this way.
01:26:42Like this.
01:26:44Where is this?
01:26:46Transformers has
01:26:48accumulated fans in China
01:26:50and very deep.
01:26:52And the fans follow
01:26:54Transformers, not one year, two years.
01:26:56It's like one generation.
01:27:00He's going to see the spaceship
01:27:02before it starts. He's going to see that.
01:27:04We had some cameos. Han Gang is a
01:27:06very popular singer in
01:27:08the Asian community
01:27:10and it's starting to kind of break out
01:27:12and become very well known around the world.
01:27:14Whoa!
01:27:16Yeah, I've been watching
01:27:18Transformers since I was a kid.
01:27:20Since then, I've been very
01:27:22impressed by Transformers.
01:27:24I was also
01:27:26a fan of Transformers
01:27:28and I still am.
01:27:30At home, there are a lot of Transformers,
01:27:32Transformers surroundings, cups,
01:27:34and so on, and toys.
01:27:36I think this is... I kind of like it.
01:27:38Faster, faster, speed.
01:27:40Five miles an hour, right?
01:27:42That's good with head.
01:27:44Ready and go.
01:27:46Zhu Shiming is a Chinese
01:27:48boxer, very famous.
01:28:06We are approximately
01:28:08three hours outside of Chongqing
01:28:10in the middle of what is the
01:28:12Sichuan area of China.
01:28:14We're in a place called the County of Wulong
01:28:16and we are in a park that is called
01:28:18Three Natural Bridges, which is
01:28:20one of numerous beautiful
01:28:22natural parks in this area.
01:28:24This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
01:28:26and we're about 5,000 feet
01:28:28up above sea level and as you can see
01:28:30behind me, it's about 700 feet
01:28:32from where we're standing to the bottom of the canyon
01:28:34where we did our filming.
01:28:36How's the climb?
01:28:38It's awesome.
01:28:40I think this location is really unique here
01:28:42because of how difficult it is
01:28:44to get in and out of it.
01:28:48Just getting people up and down
01:28:50into the canyon. There's no road there.
01:28:52There's an elevator, but it only goes
01:28:54halfway. Most of the crew walks down
01:28:561,263 steps to get
01:28:58into the canyon.
01:29:00Every day, everybody walks in and out.
01:29:02I might have a heart attack.
01:29:04That leaves us with the challenge of
01:29:06getting all of our equipment in as well.
01:29:08We're going up to the top there.
01:29:10We're going to take this IMAX camera.
01:29:12Up we have two positions.
01:29:14There's two dolly tracks.
01:29:16We have found the solution of bringing
01:29:18in a 300-ton crane
01:29:20to lower all of our equipment in.
01:29:26There's been one movie that shot in the canyon
01:29:28before, but they did it all with manual labor
01:29:30and they didn't have any of the gears
01:29:32that we brought in, so we're the first ones
01:29:34to do it like this.
01:29:42The atmosphere is unbelievable.
01:29:44Look at that fog. It's incredible.
01:29:46It's given such an ambiance
01:29:48to the whole scene.
01:29:50We're making do with the weather.
01:29:52We're going to turn it into an asset.
01:29:54It's going to make a very moody kind of feeling to it.
01:29:56Michael's having some fun with it.
01:29:58I like the fog today.
01:30:00It's very painterly.
01:30:06The sequence that we're shooting here
01:30:08is obviously a very heroic turning point
01:30:10in the movie where Optimus gets help
01:30:12from the Dinobots, so he persuades them
01:30:14to join him in the fight against
01:30:16the Decepticons.
01:30:18Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
01:30:20Fourth second of transformation.
01:30:22And then he starts running.
01:30:24Okay?
01:30:26Three, two, one, boom!
01:30:30Even though Michael drives me crazy
01:30:32sometimes, he is also
01:30:34incredibly respectful of
01:30:36things like World Heritage sites,
01:30:38the Wonders of the World we've shot at,
01:30:40military personnel, and so on and so forth.
01:30:42He's really good about that.
01:30:44Woolong is very sensitive ecologically,
01:30:46so again, Michael wanted
01:30:48to shoot there and push
01:30:50the envelope, but he was very respectful
01:30:52of the constraints put upon us by the local authorities.
01:30:54It's a big deal here.
01:30:56They've gone out of their way to let us do this.
01:30:58It's a really big deal.
01:31:24This is the Great Wall.
01:31:26Michael wanted to show that we were in China,
01:31:28so how could you not
01:31:30go to China and not shoot the Great Wall?
01:31:36The dropship that is coming
01:31:38to China is
01:31:40passing over the Great Wall,
01:31:42and so that's our scene.
01:31:44Hey, Jacques.
01:31:46I'll hand this to you, okay?
01:31:48Certainly, as China's become
01:31:50such an important part of the movie business
01:31:52and as we start to develop relationships today,
01:31:54China is certainly a part of that
01:31:56in terms of their cooperation and assistance with us,
01:31:58and being able to shoot here at the Great Wall
01:32:00has certainly been part of it.
01:32:02I never thought I'd be standing
01:32:04on the Great Wall of China,
01:32:06certainly not shooting Transformers here.
01:32:08It's quite a statement in terms of where
01:32:10Transformers has gone and also
01:32:12in how big the Chinese market has become
01:32:14for movies in general
01:32:16and Transformers in particular.
01:32:18Okay.
01:32:20Good.
01:32:22Part of my job is to write a call sheet memo
01:32:24to remind the crew of the do's and don'ts,
01:32:26and one of the things I put on the do's
01:32:28for the Great Wall of China is
01:32:30take a moment to remember where you are,
01:32:32that you're on the Great Wall of China,
01:32:34a wonder of the world, and you're working there,
01:32:36and you're getting paid for it.
01:32:38Yeah, this means so much.
01:32:40I work here for a film, and I'll be here.
01:32:42This is magic.
01:32:44I mean, it's really someplace
01:32:46that you can't imagine
01:32:48that you're here
01:32:50shooting a major film,
01:32:52and it's terrific to be with all these people
01:32:54I've been with over 100 days.
01:32:56It culminates here.
01:32:58That's a moment.
01:33:00That's one of the things we've all reflected on.
01:33:02I mean, we've been with a movie camera at Petra.
01:33:04We've been with a movie camera
01:33:06at the Pyramids in the Valley of the Kings.
01:33:08Now at the Great Wall of China,
01:33:10it's amazing what the franchise
01:33:12has allowed us to do.
01:33:32I still remember the first poll
01:33:34that came out after the first Transformers movie,
01:33:36and it was in USA Today.
01:33:38And it was in USA Today,
01:33:40and they polled the audience
01:33:42and said, after Transformers 1,
01:33:44what would you like to see next?
01:33:46And that was back in 2008.
01:33:48And at that time, people all said
01:33:50the thing we would like to see the most
01:33:52would be the Dinobots.
01:33:54And so, you know, three movies later,
01:33:56we get to show the Dinobots.
01:34:00The story's about origins
01:34:02and creation.
01:34:05So immediately,
01:34:07we wanted to go very primeval
01:34:10and deal with the origins
01:34:12of Earth and the origins
01:34:14of the Transformers.
01:34:16And that involves dinosaurs for us,
01:34:18and so we wanted to make the backstory
01:34:20such that it involved Dinobots for them.
01:34:23What we started then working with
01:34:25is what would these dinosaurs look like?
01:34:28So we had five of the illustrators
01:34:30working on dinosaurs.
01:34:32Trying to create the different looks.
01:34:35What would make them look more dangerous?
01:34:38What would make them look more fantastic?
01:34:44The Dinobots have a long history
01:34:46in the Transformers lore.
01:34:48Once our artists here at ILM
01:34:51began to hear that the Dinobots
01:34:53would be in the movie,
01:34:55there was really a palpable excitement about it.
01:34:57They were really thrilled to start building them.
01:35:01When we started in on the Dinobots,
01:35:03obviously we're starting with a lot of concept designs,
01:35:05pieces of artwork that we're trying to recreate
01:35:07inside the computer.
01:35:09As we were working on them,
01:35:11a lot of challenges came in.
01:35:13Chief among them was just the scale of them.
01:35:18And they're huge. They're massive.
01:35:20We've actually made them bigger
01:35:22than what they were in the concept art,
01:35:24because when we first put Optimus Prime
01:35:26riding Grimlock, it was kind of silly-looking,
01:35:28so we made the dinosaurs bigger.
01:35:30And in turn, since we made the dinosaurs bigger,
01:35:33we had to make their robot forms bigger
01:35:35when they were barbarian.
01:35:43This is Wulong in China, mainland China.
01:35:47So one great thing about this
01:35:49is it's a huge environment,
01:35:51so a large animated character can fit quite well.
01:35:54A disadvantage is,
01:35:56what are your scale indicators?
01:35:58If you have a person in the shot,
01:36:00and we have none,
01:36:02that'll tell you how big one of these guys is.
01:36:04Human scale versus the size of the Dinobot.
01:36:08But trees and plants and things like that,
01:36:10we're going to utilize that as much as possible
01:36:12so that the audience knows how big these things are.
01:36:15I think we've established in previous films
01:36:17how big Optimus is,
01:36:19so we generally know he's 20-something feet.
01:36:22But as you can see,
01:36:24you look at a great big stone wall in the background,
01:36:26and you have something large in front,
01:36:28you don't really know how big that is.
01:36:30So that's a challenge.
01:36:33Another one of the responsibilities we had
01:36:35was to convey a sense of weight
01:36:37and massive presence of these Dinobots,
01:36:39especially when Optimus Prime slugged Grimlock.
01:36:43He went flying through the air and sent up a wall of dirt.
01:36:49And it was that CG dirt that made Grimlock feel really heavy.
01:36:55With a Transformers movie, from the very beginning,
01:36:58we're looking for real visual moments
01:37:01that are going to feel new and fresh
01:37:04with these unbelievable characters
01:37:06that are in this unbelievable world.
01:37:08Early on, we talked about kind of a Western motif
01:37:11and the idea of a cavalry charge for the end of the movie.
01:37:16But a cavalry charge that you'd never seen before
01:37:19in any movie ever.
01:37:22It's just like you'd see something
01:37:24that was shot in Monument Valley,
01:37:26where John Wayne would be on the horse galloping along,
01:37:29and you've got the camera following him and the horse head.
01:37:32Well, now we've got Grimlock, the dinosaur head,
01:37:35with Optimus Prime riding along,
01:37:37and it's like classic Western shots,
01:37:39only it's a robot on a dinosaur.
01:37:45And when you do put them in an environment like a city,
01:37:48how they interact with that environment is a lot different
01:37:51than just the normal Transformers,
01:37:53just by their sheer size.
01:37:55So all of a sudden now you have tails
01:37:57going through sides of buildings.
01:38:00They're running down the street,
01:38:02and with their claws we're being asked
01:38:04to kind of crack up the concrete
01:38:06and help meld them into that environment a little bit more,
01:38:09versus a typical Autobot running down the street
01:38:11might not destroy or crack up
01:38:13or pulverize the environment that they're in.
01:38:15One of the challenges also in the heat of a heavy action sequence
01:38:18is in a quick shot to read the story
01:38:20and be able to tell who is who, basically.
01:38:22For that reason, each of the Dinobots
01:38:24has a little bit of a different tint or hue in their base metals
01:38:28that make it easy to really read in just a quick cut.
01:38:40You go into these films hoping you can do something
01:38:42that people have never done before,
01:38:44but the Dinobots are something that people have never seen before.
01:38:48I think Transformers fans love the Dinobots
01:38:50because they're just such a bizarre idea.
01:38:53You already have superior aliens from another planet
01:38:55who choose to hide as vehicles.
01:39:00Then on top of that, you're adding extinct dinosaurs to the mix.
01:39:04It's just crazy.
01:39:07It's crazy and it's so amazingly visual
01:39:09that once you tell someone the idea
01:39:12of a dinosaur that changes into a robot and vice versa,
01:39:16they just want to see it.
01:39:19So, I think that explains why fans have been waiting.
01:39:23Is it this movie? Is it this movie? Is it this movie?
01:39:26Well, it's this movie.