History Film / TransformersDarkOfTheMoon

** Plenty, being both a Michael Bay movie and a Transformers movie; however, one use is also written (semi-gracefully) into the story as a plot point. When Carly's boss gives her a fancy car, Sam starts to angst about his own limited earning power, but the Mercedes itself is a ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:it's Soundwave, sent to keep tabs on both Sam and Carly, and ultimately blackmail Sam into spying on the Autobots]].
** There's also the Wreckers, who, being weaponized UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} Sprint Cup Series Chevrolet Imapalas, are basically walking advertisements for Target, Lowe's and AMP Energy. It says something when Leadfoot was only released as a Target exclusive in America.

* PromotedFanboy: In an in-universe example, it seemed that Sam's boss Bruce is actually very interested in meeting with the robots, and gets a chance to playfully wrestle with Bumblebee.

** Bumblebee sprays Hatchet with a bunch of Stealth Force machine gun bullets as Dino uses anchored blades to hurl Hatchet into an incoming driver - the collision hard enough to decapitate Hatchet.

* OminousLatinChanting: [[spoiler:While the Decepticons takeover Chicago.]]

* PayEvilUntoEvil: The Wreckers killing a Decepticon pilot for vaporizing civilians.

** Soundwave's head explodes when he is killed by [[spoiler:Bumblebee]].
** Starscream's head explodes after Sam plants Que's stick-bombs into his eyes. [[spoiler: Strangely in ''The Last Knight'', his head is intact]].

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: [[spoiler:Carly uses her diplomatic skills to provoke a demoralized Megatron into helping defeat Sentinel Prime by tell him if he doesn't, he'll become "Sentinel's bitch". He comes within a few inches of ''killing her'' before realising the weight of her words.]]

** [[spoiler:Sentinel, disabled and crawling helplessly on the ground, pleads with Optimus not to kill him, and is then promptly shot in the back of the head.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler:Megatron at the end of the novelization, when he helps Optimus defeat Sentinel once and for all and then announces his intention to sue for peace.]]
* TheHeroDies: [[spoiler:Sentinel Prime kills Ironhide at the movie's midpoint, and later on Que is dealt a killing blow by Barricade]]. The comic book even depicts [[spoiler:Dino getting his head ripped off by Soundwave]].

** Megatron [[Spoiler:shoots Sentinel twice in the back before throwing him into the bridge, punching and kicking him in the head, then grabbing him by the midsection and tearing a chunk out]].

** A couple of shots from the highway chase in ''Film/TheIsland'' are recycled, although one gets a robot added in. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7kcqB3thJM Comparison here.]]

** On a larger scale, the movie reveals that the Decepticons made contact with Earth back in the 70s and have been working with human collaborators for decades, which calls into question why it took them so long to locate Megatron and the All-spark back in the first movie, or why they needed to hack our intelligence network themselves, instead of relying on collaborators to do it for them.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Which [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction the sequel]] completely [[HappyEndingOverride negated]]. But overall ''Dark of the Moon'' did not end very happily: Ironhide and Que are dead, at least 1,200 humans perished in the battle of Chicago, [[Spoiler: Cybertron's destruction all but seals the Transformers' fate to a slow extinction]], and Optimus' [[Spoiler: faith in mankind has shattered from how quickly they expelled the Autobots and surrendered to Sentinel, not to mention the emotional scars he'll develop after murdering his brother and father in cold blood]]. The upside here is that everyone else survives; [[Spoiler: Megatron, Starscream, Shockwave and Sentinel are dead, and the invasion force were killed with Cybertron; with the Decepticons effectively decapitated, the War is all but over]]. Even Sam manages to earn some respite at the end, being recognized as a hero for his actions, and finally scores with Carly.

* DarkerAndEdgier: Being the third movie of what was intended to be a trilogy, this is to be expected. In the first 2 films, while there were obvious casualties, they were barely shown. In this film, you not only get to see Laserbeak murder people ([[spoiler:as well as a ''family'']]), you also get to see [[spoiler:Chicago destroyed and people practically ''vaporized'']]. The FamilyUnfriendlyDeath quotient even seems a bit darker. It is undoubtedly the darkest and most violent of the first three films, and arguably still takes the crown within the Michael Bay's Transformers quintology. Michael Bay openly stated he wanted this movie darker and more dramatic than the first two movies. Even the concept art has a much gloomier atmosphere to it.