Transformers: Age of Extinction

The fourth film in the live action Transformers saga, Transformers: Age of Extinction was released on June 27 2014.

Set a few years after Transformers: Dark of the Moon, the Autobot/Human alliance has collapsed, sending the Autobots into hiding as an elite CIA taskforce, Cemetery Wind, aided by the Cybertronian bounty hunter Lockdown who reserves a special interest in Optimus Prime.

Tropes used in Transformers: Age of Extinction include:

• Adaptational Badass:
  • Hound, usually a Badass Pacifist, is now a Gun Nut.
  • Lockdown, though he was hardly ever a weakling.
• Advertised Extra: The Dinobots. Downplayed compared to most examples of this trope but still present.
• Always Someone Better: KSI's Transformers are hyped as this but ultimately fall short compared to the creative fighting style of the Autobots.
• Artistic License History: The little Psittacosaurus in the opening sequence has no business existing at the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event considering that the species had been extinct for roughly 40 million years at the time.
• Ascended Extra: Lockdown was a Once a Season antagonist back in Transformers Animated. Here, he's one of the main antagonists.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Note that at the end, Optimus tells the Autobots to defend just the Yeager family, not humanity as a whole.
• Become Their Own Antithesis: In the first film, Optimus was very much against even harming humans, bluntly shutting down Ironhide's desire to vaporize Sam's parents and noting that the Autobots had a moral obligation to defend the young humanity. Now, Optimus can't even pretend to give a damn about humans and makes clear that he has no issue killing them.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Attinger and Lockdown form a Big Bad Duumvirate while Megatron/Galvatron acts as an independent antagonist, not directly interacting with them, but taking full advantage of their deal.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The metal that the Transformers are made from is weird. In terms of physics, understanding how it works is said to surpass splitting the atom.
• Brain Uploading: How Megatron infected Galvatron.
• Cool Car: Many of KSI's Transformers turn into them. There are Aston Martins, McLarens, with Stinger, turning into a Pagani Huayra, being the standout.
• Darker and Edgier: The humour is toned down, the antagonists are more serious, and the heroes are being actively hunted.
• Dirty Coward: The very moment the tide of the battle turns against the humans, they run for their lives.
• Earth Is the Center of the Universe: Mocked by Lockdown who says that every planet he goes to, the natives think this of their planet.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • For all his Corrupt Corporate Executive tendencies, Joyce doesn't want any civilian casualties.
  • The Autobots now have a very low opinion of humans but they won't just stand by and let them go extinct via tampering with alien technology. Mind you, removing the technology is all they're prepared to do.
• Fantastic Racism: Cemetery Wind and KSI regard the Transformers as "just metal." It's so bad that Optimus decides that the Autobots' best interests are served by leaving Earth.
• Happy Ending Override: Dark of the Moon ended on a more bittersweet note, but it seemed as though the war was finally over and the Autobots would finally have peace. Three years later and they're fugitives.
• Hostile Terraforming: The Seeds (which have the range of a tactical nuke! LOL!) can convert organic matter into Transformium, the metal that the Cybertronians are made from.
• Humans Are Bastards: As far as Brains is concerned, humanity deserves nothing less than total extinction at Megatron's hand. The other Autobots don't take it to the same extreme but they agree with the sentiment.
• Humans Need Aliens: Cade tries to convince Optimus to stay on Earth on the basis that the human race can't survive without the Autobots protecting them. As Optimus fires back with, humanity has now opted for a total Cybertronian genocide, so he doesn't really care about their survival.
• Just a Machine: KSI's stance on the Transformers is that they're "just metal". Their corpses are "company property."
• Manipulative Bastard: Megatron/Galvatron.
• Meaningful Rename: Averted. Brains outright says that despite the body being called "Galvatron", it's still Megatron underneath.
• Moral Myopia:
  • Savoy lost his sister in Chicago. He has no issue killing other families however.
  • Humans ambushing and killing Autobots? That's fine. Autobots firing back on humans in self-defence? That's crossing the Moral Event Horizon. Optimus lampshades this when the Autobots reunite.
• Mythology Gag: Optimus is first introduced having his classic G1 alternate mode.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Optimus' boot jets. It's implied his sword bestowed them, but it's not made explicit.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Mark Whalberg still has his Boston accent when playing Texas native Cade Yeager.
• Not Worth Killing: Despite swearing to kill all the humans who were involved in the murdering and recycling of Cybertronian corpses, Joyce is ultimately such a slimy little Smug Snake that Optimus doesn't go through with killing him.
• Obviously Evil: Galvatron.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Lacking a Spark, and having a giant hole in his chest to hammer this home, along with his pale colour scheme and unusual transformation style seems to imply that Galvatron is Megatron's ghost.
• Papa Wolf: Cade to Tessa.
• Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: 65 million years ago, give or take an eon, the Creators used their Seeds to enact Hostile Terraforming on several organic worlds to create vast supplies of Transformium, the bombing on Earth wiping out the dinosaurs.
• Reality Ensues: Cade gets into KSI because Bumblebee captured a picture of a badge to create a copy. When the badge's owner uses it, the same code being used twice triggers a security alert.
• Retcon: After the previous films showed the Transformers being born from the AllSpark cube, this one implies that they were built.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once they get Lockdown's auxiliary ship, the Autobots plan to leave Earth and humanity to their fate. Cade manages to convince them to amend that to "take the Seed from Galvatron and then leave Earth."
• The Soulless: Galvatron, something Optimus lampshades. Though as Galvatron comments, having no soul removes a fear of dying.
• Time Skip: A few years have passed since DOTM, though how many is not stated.
• Unfinished Untested Used Anyway: At Attinger's behest, Joyce deploys Galvatron and Stinger against the Autobots after they attack KSI.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The human race has turned on the Autobots after Chicago, branding all Cybertronians as their enemies. The fact that the Decepticons were going to strip mine Earth to restore Cybertron with the Autobots sacrificing their home planet for Earth doesn't seem to enter their thoughts.
• Villain Has a Point: Back in Dark of the Moon, Sentinel told Optimus that humans viewed their kind as nothing more than machines. Guess what KSI's stance is on the Transformers.
• Wife-Basher Basher: The random Chinese guy in that elevator was just minding his business but when the CIA agents started attacking Su, he promptly kicks their asses.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Brains disappears after the train yard. He doesn't even make an appearance in The Last Knight.
• You Are a Credit to Your Race: Averted. Lockdown says that Optimus shames all Cybertronians for having befriended humans.