History Creator / MichaelBay

* AuthorAppeal: Bay likes to make the US Military look good, but he's less charitable toward the faceless bureaucracies that give them marching orders. A great deal of his films have heroic military members screwed over by the government, and it sets off the whole plot of ''The Rock''.

He started out directing commercials and music videos (most notably the very first [[Advertising/GotMilk "Got Milk?"]] ad, and "I Would Do Anything For Love" by Music/{{Meat Loaf}}) before Don Simpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer hired him to direct ''Film/BadBoys1995''. The film was a modest hit and kicked off Bay's film career, after which ''Film/TheRock'' (one of his more well-liked movies) came out and solidified him as someone capable of making energetic, entertaining and profitable action films. It was around the time ''Film/Armageddon1998'' came out that the polarized responses that would continue to follow Bay's films began rolling around.

* AssociatedComposer: Music/SteveJablonsky is his, having scored all [[Film/ThirteenHoursTheSecretSoldiersOfBenghazi but]] [[Film/SixUnderground three]] [[Film/{{Ambulance}} of]] Bay's directorial efforts since ''Film/TheIsland'' (which were instead scored by Music/LorneBalfe) and several other films produced by Bay.

* ''Film/UntitledTransformersProject'' (2022)

* EnforcedMethodActing: Whenever possible he gets the actors to do the big shots in the middle of all the explosions. The Scorponok sand explosion; told them to not stop running no matter what. Sam holding onto a statue on the edge of a building, had Shia [=LaBeouf=] strapped in 30 stories up. He admits he antagonized Megan Fox during the scene where she hacks up Frenzy with a demolition saw, because she was so timid about it.

* ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' (1998)

* ArtisticLicense: A few of Bay's films take certain liberties with things like history or astronomy in the name of telling a story. Famously, NASA managers are, as part of the training, required to view ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' and record any inaccuracies they find; to date, 168 have been caught.

** Michael Bay isn't too fond of ''Transformers 2''. Bay has also stated that for ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', claiming ExecutiveMeddling was responsible for some of the flaws: he only had a limited timeframe to do the special effects and would have had a different third act (although [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/apr/24/michael-bay-no-apology-armageddon he did insist that he was not apologizing for the movie, and that stories claiming so were misquoting him]]).

He started out directing commercials and music videos (most notably the very first [[Advertising/GotMilk "Got Milk?"]] ad, and "I Would Do Anything For Love" by Music/{{Meat Loaf}}) before Don Simpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer hired him to direct ''Film/BadBoys1995''. The film was a modest hit and kicked off Bay's film career, after which ''Film/TheRock'' (one of his more well-liked movies) came out and solidified him as someone capable of making energetic, entertaining and profitable action films. It was around the time ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' came out that the polarized responses that would continue to follow Bay's films began rolling around.

!!Films he's produced (via his production company Platinum Dunes):

* HiddenDepths: Bay is a lot more intelligent and observant than people give him credit for. He normally doesn't care much about the critical hatred he gets, but he did once make a poignant observation that movie critics have their own quasi-fandom and thus will often say things that would make them popular controversial, and hating Michael Bay is pretty popular.

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Has a habit of making sequels with elaborate names filled with {{Stock Subtitle}}s. ''Film/BadBoysII'' was an aversion.

In 2008, possibly to hype ''Film/{{Postal}}'', Creator/UweBoll called out Bay (among others) for his supposed lack of talent (at least from Boll's point-of-view) while insisting he's "the only real genius in the whole fucking business." Bay's [[http://www.shootfortheedit.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27387&postcount=2 response]] is pretty awesome.

** At the [[Wiki/TFWikiDotNet Transformers Wiki]], one of the film's errors: "[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Transformers_%282007%29#Errors Sunset occurs roughly every fifteen minutes.]]"

[[caption-width-right:350:[[CelebrityEndorsement "Hi, I'm Michael Bay]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0 and I demand things to be awesome!]] [[GrillingPyrotechnics Awesome barbecue!]] '''[[StuffBlowingUp *BOOM!*]]''' [[UpToEleven Awesome pool!]] '''*BOOM!*'''"]]

* ChaseScene: From ''Film/BadBoys'' to ''Film/TheRock''.

** For the movies themselves, both ''Film/BadBoys'' films.

* FollowTheLeader: Bay admitted that his quick-cutting style was to bring more energy to the relatively low budget ''Film/BadBoys'', which couldn't afford the same scale of actions sequences his later movies would offer. He also said that since then action movies have become more like his style and sometimes include ''even more'' cuts than even he would do.

* ''Film/BadBoys'' (1995)

He started out directing commercials and music videos (most notably the very first [[Advertising/GotMilk "Got Milk?"]] ad, and "I Would Do Anything For Love" by Music/{{Meat Loaf}}) before Don Simpson and Creator/JerryBruckheimer hired him to direct ''Film/BadBoys''. The film was a modest hit and kicked off Bay's film career, after which ''Film/TheRock'' (one of his more well-liked movies) came out and solidified him as someone capable of making energetic, entertaining and profitable action films. It was around the time ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' came out that the polarized responses that would continue to follow Bay's films began rolling around.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: While working on storyboards for ''Film/Raiders of the Lost Ark'', he didn't think it would be any good. When he saw the finished product, he not only [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail ate his words]], it made him want to direct films himself.

* SelfDeprecation: He's known to poke fun at himself, and contrary to popular belief, his response to Megan Fox comparing him to Hitler was positive, admitting that it was just part of her quirky charm. He even parodies his tendency to blow things up, like in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0 this ad]], and also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTG0_jEvOnA this one]]. [[JustForTheHeliOfIt He used seven helicopters!]]

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Has a habit of making sequels with elaborate names [[ClicheStorm filled with overused words]]. ''Film/BadBoysII'' was an aversion.

!'''The Films He's Directed To Date:'''

!'''The Films He's Produced To Date[[note]]through his production company Platinum Dunes[[/note]]:'''

** ''Film/TheForeverPurge'' (2021). (Changed from its original planned release in 2020.)

* AmericaSavesTheDay: He uses this a lot--as noted below, he likes the US Military, and they like him because they always look good in his movies.
** One exception is ''Film/TheRock'' which was a major aversion--Creator/SeanConnery Saves The Day instead. The United States Army even lent their tanks and helicopters to Bay for the first Transformers movie.
** This is also [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] in ''Film/ThirteenHoursTheSecretSoldiersOfBenghazi''. While it's primarily the efforts of the American GRS that resulted in the safe evacuation of any survivors rather than a complete slaughter, it's also made clear that a friendly militia "17 Feb" do provide some assistance. [[spoiler: Also, the arrival of Libyan army reinforcements confirms they are in the clear and can make it to safety.]]
* ArtisticLicense: A few of Bay's films take certain liberties with things like history or astronomy in the name of telling a story.
** NASA managers are, as part of the training, required to view ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'' and record any inaccuracies they find; to date, 168 have been caught.

* OptOut: He has a reputation as a exceptionally harsh director, as well as one of Hollywood's most prominent conservative creatives. Then 2017 happened and in the MeToo Era: his style of directing, the rumors surrounding his treatment of Megan Fox and ALL the controversy surrounding 13 Hours was a cause celebre waiting to happen. The result, is he took a massive step back from his public persona, and shifted more on to producing than directing.

* PetTheDog: Bay is an animal-lover, owning two mastiffs (who can occasionally be seen in his films), and [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308458/Michael-Bay-offers-50k-track-girl-filmed-throwing-puppies-river.html offered a $50,000 reward for anyone who had information leading to "the arrest and successful prosecution" of a woman tossing puppies into a fast-moving river]]. He also donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter when he was a teenager. There's also [[https://variety.com/2017/film/features/michael-bays-furry-friend-appears-in-transformers-1202440074/this story]] where he read of a dog tht had gone unadopted in a shelter for over 6 years. Not only did he create enough buzz virally around the dog it got adopted, he even put it in ''The Last Knight'' as the pet of Anthony Hopkins' character.

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer known for his incredibly energetic -- and [[LoveItOrHateIt highly divisive]] -- directing style.

* PetTheDog: Bay is an animal-lover, owning two mastiffs (who can occasionally be seen in his films), and [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308458/Michael-Bay-offers-50k-track-girl-filmed-throwing-puppies-river.html offered a $50,000 reward for anyone who had information leading to "the arrest and successful prosecution" of a woman tossing puppies into a fast-moving river]]. He also donated his Bar Mitzvah money to an animal shelter when he was a teenager.

Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965 in Los Angeles, California) is an American film director and producer known for his incredibly energetic -- and [[LoveItOrHateIt highly divisive]] -- directing style.

* GenreSavvy: He ''knows'' that no matter what he does or how hated his movies are going to be, they'll be commercial successes anyways. In other words, he ''knows'' that people LoveToHate him. The exception to this is ''The Island'' which was less than successful to say the least. In fact, Creator/RogerEbert (not usually Bay's biggest fan, repeatedly saying that he is disappointed that Bay stopped making "real movies") said in his review that the main problem with ''The Island'' was that Bay seemed to be PlayingAgainstType trying to make a more cerebral movie and that the movie reflects Bay as not really enjoying it. He essentially admitted that while he might not always like Bay's movies, they at least usually conveyed Bay's own sense of sincerity, fun, and belief in the RuleOfCool.

* IDoNotLikeGreenEggsAndHam: Initially turned down ''Transformers'' due to this, until Creator/{{Hasbro}} [[ConvertedFanboy made him a fan]].

->''"Michael Bay Presents: Explosions!!!"''