Characters / Transformers Film Series – Humans

The more or less neutral party whose world is caught between the conflict of Cybertronian life-forms, i.e. The Autobots & Decepticons. More often than not the film series shows that mankind has more in common with the alien off-worlders than most if any of them could ever believe, interestingly if unsurprisingly enough the general consensus towards the occupation of their world by these transorganic extraterrestrials is as divided as their cultures are varied. Some believe them to be a sign of god sent down from across the stars as a form of deliverance towards their species, others fear and hate them often reverse engineering the very lifeblood that makes up their unique elemental metals to hunt transformers and often their own kind no less for perceived collaboration. Many more still find their presence on earth largely as lucrative as it is an oddity; many devoting the entirety of their lives discovering their connection to Earth while some have the unfortunate luck of stumbling onto their conflict.

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In General

• Adaptational Badass: In the original 80s cartoon series, while assistance from humans are one of the main reasons why the Autobots ultimately had an edge over the Decepticons, the Transformers themselves are the ones doing almost all the fighting. Over the course of the live action movies, the human military became more adept at fighting the Decepticons, up to the point where they scored numerous kills without the Autobots' involvement. By the events of The Last Knight, humans were even able to safely imprison Decepticons, so Megatron himself was forced to negotiate for their release instead of just crashing into their defenses and doing anything he wants.
• Bystander Syndrome: A great many people end up dying or horrendously maimed due to the conflict between the warring races of Cybertron. A greater deal of them still end up turning a blind eye to the plight of others just to save their own hides when the proverbial shit hits the fan, this is cranked up to 11 in Age of Extinction where all Transformers are treated as enemies of the state. As well as any human beings who are perceived to be helping them.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: While no one can argue with the fact that the Transformers' battles leave costly property damage and millions of casualties in their wake, it's rare for a major war to be bloodless by any means and not everything gets wrapped up in a nice bow. However, if it came down to choosing between mankind being enslaved or rendered extinct, who in their right mind would get in the Autobots' way and try to stop them from preventing these scenarios from happening? Better yet how can a number of people not be inclined to rise to the occasion, help the Autobots, and pull their weight to save the only planet humankind calls home?
• Humans Are Bastards: Can sometimes come off a bit standoffish to outright dickish be it towards those who come to their aid, siding with those who have infinitely less than the best interests at heart or are outright willing to turn on each other due to speciesist paranoia fuel embellished upon by others of their own race. The Last Knight entails that since life on Earth was created by and evolved from Unicron, the Chaos Bringer and Destroyer, humans do come off as pissed off hornets to the Autobots.
• Humans Are Flawed: As shown by the positive and negative traits here, humans are equally capable of good and evil.
• Humans Are Insects: Decepticons certainly believe so. In spite of viewing everything and everyone else as inferior to the Transformer's race, they particularly hold humanity in contempt. The Fallen certainly did in the least, in his case, it veered into outright omnicidal territories.
• Humans Are Morons: Pretty quick to turn on those who saved them as they're likely to turn on one another due to terrible advice put from their less than trustworthy political officials. They're also prone to meddling with Cybertronian technology they can't comprehend, resulting in disastrous consequences. Lockdown in Age of Extinction even questions whether or not if his alliance with his human collaborators was worth it.
  Lockdown: You promised me human intelligence...or is there such a thing?
• Humans Are Special: Optimus believes that they have the potential to be better than he and his kind were. He stops believing in them for a while until Cade convinces him to have faith not in who they are but what they can be.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: The later films seem to showcase this point, something even a few Decepticons took note of, given how they'll pounce on each other out of fear, treachery, and mistrust.
  • Age of Extinction particularly highlights this in the case with Kinetic Solution's Inc. & Cemetery Wind, given their catastrophic incompetence and predatory tendencies against humankind for profit and prejudice respectively.
• Humans Are Warriors: They can be a force to be reckoned with provided they have the necessary means and experience to handle their own business. Just ask groups like Sector 7, N.E.S.T., and Cemetery Wind. A great many of the Decepticon horde found this out the hard way, as did the Autobots when the world at large turned against them.
• Imported Alien Phlebotinum: What a great many humans did with most of the alien technology employed by both sides of the conflict. By Dark of the Moon, even human small arms are a significant threat to Cybertronians if deployed in force.
• Jerkass Has a Point: For all the dickish and idiotic things that anti-Transformer humans do, their cause is not entirely without justification; after all, humanity didn't choose to become involved in the Cybertronians' war, they were just unlucky enough to be on the wrong planet at the wrong time. (Especially so when it turns out that their planet formed around the hibernating body of Cybertron's nemesis.) While it seems most of humanity is neutral at best about the Cybertronians, many just want them to leave Earth alone. Sadly, with the revelation that Unicron, Cybertron's oldest enemy, slumbers within Earth's core, it seems that humanity is fully involved in the war whether they like it or no.
• Money Is Not Power: Dark of the Moon and Age of Extinction feature wealthy individuals who attempt to influence the war. They fail miserably.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Barring a few exceptions, humanity becomes this after Dark of the Moon. During the first three movies, the Autobots repeatedly risked their lives to protect humanity from the Decepticons, even sacrificing the chance to restore Cybertron to do so. Humanity repays them by teaming up with an intergalactic bounty hunter in order to hunt down and kill the remaining Autobots in order to harvest the components needed to make material goods. It's even worse in The Last Knight, where the Autobots are openly targeted, whereas in Age of Extinction, it's implied that the government believes that only the Decepticons were being hunted.
• With Us or Against Us: Played with. Humans tend to stay in their corner of the cosmic superfight between cybernetic titans but some have been known to collaborate with either side of the war or engage in their private battle against both.
• Wretched Hive: Double subverted, on the way to becoming one on a usual basis due to the next diabolical plot by the Decepticons; only to find out it already was that way when in DOTM that the cons made contact with the more influential members of human society to pave the way for global enslavement. Again in AOE, when the wrong kinds of gov. officials are secretly running the show without the U.S. President's say-so to mete out draconian judgment on all transformers and their allies.

Witwicky Family

Sam Witwicky

"No sacrifice, no victory."

Played by: Shia LaBeouf

Appeared in: Transformers (2007) | Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen | Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"I just think there's more than meets the eye... with you."

The main protagonist of the first, second, and third films.

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• Action Survivor: In contrast to Mikaela, who can at least contribute to fights by using makeshift equipment or helping Bumblebee, Sam's contribution to action scenes usually amounts to running through or away from something and screaming "Optimus!" or "Bumblebee!"
• Atrocious Alias: Known to eBay and the Decepticons as "ladiesman217".
• Back from the Dead: Restored to life by the Matrix of Leadership in ROTF.
• Badass Normal: As of Dark of the Moon, where he fights his way through a Decepticon-ruled Chicago, parkours over cars and buildings, and kills Starscream to save Carly and help the Autobots.
• Bus Crash: The Last Knight states that new character Vivian Wembley is the last living member of the Witwiccan line. This would indicate Sam died sometime after Dark of the Moon.
• Butt-Monkey: The majority of the series’s humor revolves around making his life a living hell, be it humiliation or getting hurt.
• The Chosen One: Generally, Sam's main reason for being involved in the war is because it was his destiny. The first film downplayed this, as it was less about his destiny and more his family legacy meant that he had intel that both sides of the war needed, but ultimately he and he alone was key to the Autobots finding the Allspark. The second movie, however, reveals that ultimately, it was his destiny to find the Matrix of Leadership and activate it so that it could be used to revive Optimus Prime and stop The Fallen. The third film deconstructs this to some extent, as Sam became so used to being The Chosen One that he felt returning to normal life left him feeling unsatisfied. The fifth movie retcons that his family were descendants of a secret order that protected the Transformers, making it a case that his entire family were The Chosen One(s).
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Despite being the lead human character of the original trilogy and even taking down a couple of dangerous enemy combatants during the Battle of Chicago, he doesn't even get so much as a mention in Age of Extinction; aside from a probable line when Optimus was rebooted.
  "Sam, Run!"
• Deadpan Snarker: Develops into one in Dark of the Moon.
• Determinator: Particularly in the third film. The whole world is about to fall under Decepticon control, but he won't give up, even if it means going into Chicago to rescue Carly without human or Autobot assistance. Additionally, his reluctance to give up enables him to kill both Starscream and Dylan.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: After serving as the main protagonist of the first three films, TLK offhandedly reveals he died offscreen, which no one seems to care about.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: In Dark of the Moon, as a result of his heroics being covered up by the government and being unable to find a job.
• Expy: A combination of Spike Witwicky from the cartoon series and Sam Collins from Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad series.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Is implied to have died sometime after Dark of the Moon in The Last Knight. However, neither Bumblebee nor any of the other Autobots seem to be deeply affected by his presumed demise.
• Give Geeks a Chance: It is Sam, after all... now meet his two◊ love◊ interests.
• Heroic BSoD: Has one after Optimus's death in ROTF. He gets another one in DOTM when he believes all of the Autobots have been killed.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has his moments. In an early script, Sam acts insensitively towards Mikaela after learning about her criminal past. That being said, he still is a good guy who values his friendship with Bumblebee, and is a very loyal ally to the Autobots.
  Mikaela: Man, if Trent could see me now...
  Sam: ...excuse me, what'd you— did you say 'Trent'? We literally discovered an alien race together and you still care what he thinks about you?
  Mikaela: What are you, my therapist all of a sudden?
  Sam: Wait a minute ... I'm having a vision! We're gonna possibly save the world and go back to school Monday morning and nothing's gonna change — I'll still be the invisible guy with gummy worms in his hair ... and you'll go back to being shallow.
• The Load:
  • Attempted aversion in Transformers; the location of the AllSpark is imprinted onto his great-great-grandfather's glasses.
  • Played straight in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, where he acts very much as The Load to the rest of the Transformers. His only purpose is to have a head (and later, a sock) full of the MacGuffin and to get it where it needs to go, and since that job requires him to run across a battlefield full of giant robots... Mearing calling him a messenger in the third movie is pretty acurate.
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon actually averts this by having him provide valuable intel and has him take down Starscream.
• Official Couple: In the two movies, him and Mikaela. However as of Dark of the Moon, Mikaela has left, making way for his real true love, Carly Spencer.
• Ordinary High-School Student: Technically an Ordinary College Student by the second film—at least, he wants to be.
• Pinball Protagonist: Optimus is the one moving the story forward, Sam is just there for the ride.
• Rapid-Fire "No!": Loves to use this trope, especially when running from Decepticons.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Lets out more than a few shrill screams when attacked by Decepticons. But you can't really blame him.
• Secret Legacy: According to The Last Knight, he's a descendant of one of the Knights of The Round Table.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: In his final confrontation with Dylan. The Decepticon-collaborator mocks his attempts to be heroic, telling him that he picked the wrong side (the Autobots). He sums it up with "You think you're a hero!?" Sam's response: "No. I'm just a messenger!" right before he knocks Dylan into the Control Pillar, electrocuting him to death.
• Supporting Protagonist: The movies are seen from his perspective, but Optimus Prime is The Hero.
• Took a Level in Badass: Though he starts out as being (correctly) outclassed by the giant robots, Sam gradually works his way up to being able to stand toe-to-toe with the Decepticons, buoyed by a combination of experience, confidence and "Always Save the Girl". In his final appearance, he takes on Starscream by himself, and wins.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: As the movies go on, Sam, like a lot of the characters, becomes more and more of a dick. In the first movie, he's just some kid plucked into the middle of an alien war and reacts as can be expected. In the second, he refuses to help the Autobots in any way but is otherwise mostly the same, aside from being more abrasive to others. By the third movie, he's a complete mess of a human with a huge ego while going out of his way to be rude to everyone around him.
• The Unchosen One: After the first film, Sam has little to do with the Autobots' war, yet continues to help out of a desire to do good.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: No mention of him is made in Age of Extinction, leaving his fate and his reaction to the government's turning on the Autobots unknown. The Last Knight implies he died offscreen between movies.

Ron & Judy Witwicky

Played by: Kevin Dunn and Julie White

Appeared in: Transformers (2007) | Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen | Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Judy: Wow. You are so cheap.

Ron: It's his first car. It's supposed to be like that.

Sam's parents.

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• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: They are most certainly this with their quirks. Special note to Judy eating a pot brownie and making a fool of herself at Sam's collage to his horror.
• Break the Cutie: They're thrown into the middle of the war in ROTF and it's pretty heartbreaking to see such fun, goofy characters screaming for their lives.
• Bus Crash: The Last Knight states Vivian is the last surviving member of the Witwiccan bloodline, which would indicate that they died sometime after Dark of the Moon.
• Happily Married: Despite some mutual snarking, they are very much this.
• Open-Minded Parent: Played for Laughs. Sam's mom is open to talking about Sam's presumed masturbation and that it's normal, while his dad tries to insist that it's a private matter that he'd be more comfortable talking about with another man. His dad also gives him a fist bump when it seems like Sam has been seeing a girl.
• Out of Focus: They have a much smaller role in DOTM, but their last scene is a very poignant one, demonstrating that they truly love each other and telling Sam to not let Carly go.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Vanish from DOTM once the plot becomes more serious.

Carly Brooks-Spencer

"I love a boytoy."

Played by: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"I love this car."

Sam's second girlfriend and Dylan Gould's secretary in charge of overseeing his car collection.

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• Aborted Arc: Carly and Sam have a brief talk about her dead brother as a photo of him in uniform is briefly shown in one scene. It's implied that his death gave Carly Commitment Issues when it comes to being in a relationship with a man who might lose his life in a combat situation as she calls Sam out for wanting to be in danger just to matter to people. However, this is never explored in any depth and the few lines about Carly's brother become throwaways.
• Action Survivor: Braved through the Battle of Chicago with debris, explosions and certain death surrounding her just to get Megatron to go against Sentinel Prime.
• Adaptational Nationality: Her animated counterpart was American, but here she was made British to match her actress' nationality.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Throughout this film, with all the stuff she goes through with Sam, she never has a hair out of place or any scrapes to her flawless skin, whereas Sam looks like he's on the verge of needing to be in the emergency room.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Sam she vanishes from the films after Dark of the Moon.
• Damsel in Distress: She becomes this when Gould takes her hostage to use as leverage against Sam until Sam saves her from Gould's Chicago penthouse.
• Defiant Captive: While in captivity, Carly doesn't spend her time whimpering and cowering. She not only manages to learn about the Decepticons' plans from Gould but also takes numerous jabs at him for siding with the 'cons and being uninformed about parts of their plan like when the Decepticons destroy Chicago.
  Dylan: I want to survive, I want forty more years! You think I asked for this? I inherited a client!
  Carly: Yeah? Well, when Cybertron's here and we're all enslaved, I guess they'll still need a human leader!
  Dylan: Don't jinx me! You want to survive, you listen to me!
• Foil: To Mikaela, Sam's first Love Interest. She's a girly girl who fights with words instead of physically, prefers dresses and heels, and never gets dirty herself. Mikaela, on the other hand, was a tomboy Wrench Wench and an Action Girl who was never hesitated to get into the action.
• Guile Heroine: While she lacks the fighting prowess of the Autobots, N.E.S.T., or even Sam, she makes up for it with her smarts. She uses her observational skills to provide intel for the military upon being rescued and, most notably, takes advantage of Megatron's lust for power to trick him into saving Optimus.
• Hannibal Lecture: Rare heroic example executed on Megatron, calling him "Sentinel's bitch" and prompting him to save Optimus Prime's life.
• Military Brat: It's briefly mentioned by Lennox in one scene that Carly is from a prominent military family.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her introduction in the movie is a Panty Shot that shows off her legs. Other than that, she's made to look as hot and sexy as possible in all other appearances, as expected from a Victoria's Secret model.
• Mythology Gag: At the end of the film, Bumblebee hints at his wanting Sam to propose to Carly. In the original cartoon, Carly and Spike (the character Sam is based on) got married and even in some continuities, had a son.
• Named by the Adaptation: This version of Carly was given a last name. Her full name is Carly Brooks-Spencer.
• Non-Action Guy: Or girl, in this case. She contrasts Mikaela by being a non-combatant, though she's not without her awesome moments.
• Official Couple: With Sam, as Mythology Gag above states... It's safe to say they are this in the film series. Sam himself says in DOTM to his parents, "She's the one."
• Posthumous Sibling: She had a brother in the British SAS who died in Afghanistan.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Carly pulls a short one on Megatron when she sees via telescope how Sentinel Prime pushes him around, telling him how he, as the Decepticon leader, is forced to play second fiddle and will ultimately end up being "Sentinel's bitch". She correctly deduced that his ego wouldn't be able to handle it, causing him to go after Sentinel just before he could kill Optimus.
• Replacement Goldfish: To Sam, after Mikaela broke up with him between movies (and because Megan Fox was fired).
• Second Love: Well, she did pop in after Mikaela, and see above, Last Girl Wins... probably helps that she's the original canon love interest.
• Statuesque Stunner: She's almost taller than Sam is without heels, and several characters find her attractive.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: While Sam's love interests never actually interact, Carly in her dresses and heels who fights with words instead of punches is the Girly Girl to Action Girl and Wrench Wench Mikaela's tomboy.

N.E.S.T.

William Lennox

"We got a whole bunch of fight coming our way!"

Played by: Josh Duhamel

Dubbed by: Alexis Victor (European French)

Appeared in: Transformers (2007) | Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Transformers: The Last Knight

"Listen to me! You're a soldier now."

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• Anti-Villain: In The Last Knight, he is ordered by the U.S. military to fight against the Autobots he used to fight alongside with. And it's made pretty clear early on that he is not happy with how things are between them, preferring to negotiate with his former allies rather than shoot it out.
• Badass Normal: He has nothing but his military training and whatever equipment he's got on hand, but he's survived more encounters with Transformers than nearly anyone else and is arguably the most badass human in the movies.
• The Captain: In the first film, he leads a Special Forces squad.
• Colonel Badass: In the third film, he has been promoted to head of N.E.S.T. itself.
  • In the fifth film, he becomes one of the field commanders of the TRF.
• Face–Heel Turn: Unwillingly in The Last Knight.
• Fatal Family Photo: Subverted, he lives and so do his wife and kid.
• Hero Antagonist: As a member of the TRF in The Last Knight towards the Autobots.
• Humans Are Warriors: One of the defining examples in the movies. He fights the Decepticons on the front lines as well as any Autobot.
• Majorly Awesome: In the second film, he is the N.E.S.T. field commander.
• The Mole: Is secretly working to infiltrate the TRF on behalf of the American military.
• Punch-Clock Villain: In the fifth film, due to the loss of public support towards the Autobots.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Reappears as reluctantly part of the Fantastic Racist TRF in The Last Knight.
• Supporting Leader: Arguably serves this role in the second film.
• Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: In The Last Knight, when he becomes part of the TRF, yet still hold sympathies for the Autobots.
• Token Good Teammate: Is this to the T.R.F with his sympathies for the Autobots and manages to get them to pull a Heel–Face Turn.

Robert Epps

"We've shed blood, sweat, and precious metal together..."

Played by: Tyrese Gibson

Appeared in: Transformers (2007) | Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen | Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"Bring It!"

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• Badass Normal: Just like Lennox, one of the first well-trained but otherwise normal soldiers to encounter and survive fighting Decepticons, and he's still alive and kicking Transformer ass in the present.
• Bald of Authority: He's consistently shown as Lennox's Number Two and takes just as an important role at commanding N.E.S.T. soldiers as Lennox when he's not available.
• Black Dude Dies First / Retirony: Averted, despite talking about how he enjoys his new life not being shot at and then volunteering for a near-suicide mission, he survives all three movies.
• Character Catchphrase: "Bring the rain!" This is military jargon for "Even though we're at risk of friendly fire, we need you to shoot toward us anyway." When you're fighting Transformers, you find yourself making this call a lot.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: He disappears completely after 2011's Dark of the Moon. The creators tried bringing back Epps for The Last Knight, but Gibson could not make it due to scheduling conflicts.
• Death from Above: As a Joint Tactical Air Controller, his job is to invoke this trope. Beware the soldier with the radio.
• Humans Are Warriors: He's one of many soldiers working for the US military and later N.E.S.T. who proves his chops time and time again, even when fighting Decepticons.
• The Lancer: To Lennox.

Jorge "Fig" Figueroa

Played by: Amaury Nolasco

Appeared in: Transformers (2007)

Lennox: Fig, how many times must I tell you? None of us here speak Spanish!

Fig: What's your problem, man?

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• Foreign Queasine: Tries to explain the virtues of alligator meat and crickets.
• Gratuitous Spanish: Lapses into this when annoyed/stressed.
• Schrödinger's Cast: Dead in the novels, but Michael Bay expressed interest in bringing him back in the 3rd film.
• Tuckerization: Is named for comics artist Don Figueroa.

Patrick Donnelly

Played by: Zack Ward

Appeared in: Transformers (2007)

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• Dropped a Bridge on Him: He winds up suddenly impaled by Scorponok and dragged under the sand, never to be seen or mentioned again.
• Expy: Of Hudson, being a marine panicking and screaming about how everyone is going to die after being attacked and hunted by an alien enemy.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Scorponok impales him with his tail and drags him under the sand.

U.S. Government

Seymour Simmons

"Years from now they're going to ask us: where were you when they took over the planet? We're gonna say: we stood by and watched."

Played by: John Turturro (Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Transformers: The Last Knight, Nick Pilla (Bumblebee)

"Tell Megatron, let's tango."

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• Agent Mulder: Guys eccentric, weird, crazy, obsessed; whatever you want to call it, he's strange. Strangely enough however, he's often right.
• Alliterative Name: Two "S" names.
• Badass Normal: In the second and third films.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Especially evident in the second and third films, where it's shown he has a lot of eccentric tendencies.
• The Bus Came Back: After being absent for Age of Extinction, he shows up again in The Last Knight, having been granted asylum in Cuba along with the Wreckers.
• Character Development: Starts as a government agent that sees the Autobots as nothing more than alien invaders. By the third film, he's an influential millionaire who is firmly on their side and publicly defends them on television.
• Crazy Is Cool: In-Universe example. The man's smart enough to improvise using a flamethrower on a pushcart to use against Decepticons; and that's only the first film.
• Demoted to Extra: After serving as a major character in the first three films, he only shows up for a cameo in TLK after disappearing entirely in AOE.
• Eccentric Millionaire: Becomes this during DOTM.
• Expy: He's somewhat similar to Mike Franklin from Transformers: Cybertron.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Was a field tactical leader in the beginning but lost his job since his division was shut down. Afterward, he had no choice but to take up work at his mother's sandwich deli, which he finds humiliating. The 2008 financial crisis happened shortly before ROTF, so, understandably, Simmons had to take this type of work.
• Fire-Forged Friends: He at first didn't like Sam or Mikaela (especially Mikaela, who he contemptuously calls a criminal) but eventually they have to put aside their differences to either keep the AllSpark away from Megatron or revive a crippled Optimus.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: Has an all-consuming compulsion with the historical interactions of the transformers species, even his bosses said he was obsessed.
• Future Loser: By the end of the first movie stretching into Revenge of the Fallen.
• Going Cold Turkey: Trying with his Transformers obsession in Dark of the Moon, and failing miserably if not humorously to do so.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Keeps trying this in ROTF, but it doesn't work.
• Honor Before Reason: In ROTF, he takes this concept and makes it work awesomely.
• Humans Are Warriors: Not as much as Lennox and Epps, but has the heart of one, at least.
• Humiliation Conga: Every day of his life between the first and second movies was this having to deal with his mother's ranting, butcher meat and wrap sandwiches at a deli.
• Insistent Terminology: He insists on calling Megatron "N.B.E.-1", even after finding out his name. This even carries into the second film, after Megatron is brought Back from the Dead. "N.B.E.-1 still ticking eh?" Subverted in the third film, where he says the above quote when gearing up to help Sam save the world again.
• Jaded Washout: Loved to hash out how he got canned by his country yet is risking his life to save it, Quickly subverted in the third movie as he's living large and in charge by then.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He may act like a bit of a prat at times, and maybe he's a tad egocentric but deep down he's a true patriot who can be counted on whenever it counts most.
• Large Ham: Particularly from the second movie on, as he's free from Men in Black constraints.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Given what a jerk he was in the first movie, it's hard to sympathize with Seymour being relegated to working as a deli cashier in the second movie.
• Over-the-Top Secret: Loves throwing this around, not so much in the sequel though.
  Simmons: Our best hope is the use of a prototype weapons system called the Rail Gun.
  Lieutenant Wilder: That's classified.
  Simmons: DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT CLASSIFIED, ALRIGHT!?!?
• Put on a Bus: Like with many characters of the trilogy, he disappears in Age of Extinction. However, he (proudly) did go to jail at the end of DOTM because he kissed Charlotte Mearing without consent. Ultimately subverted as he reappeared in The Last Knight.
• Quickly-Demoted Leader: Was once field commander of sector 7's operative forces but ended up living with his mother running a crappy dead-end job at a meat market. He quickly turns this around by DOTM though, see Character Development above.
• Rags to Riches: Made a decent living for himself in three years by DOTM.
• Seeker Archetype: Simmons is this too a tee. Loves discovering new mysteries about subjects and people about as much as withholding whatever info he comes across.
• Single-Episode Handicap: In DOTM, he ends up in a car crash during the Dreads chase scene, and for the rest of the movie is confined to a wheelchair. It doesn't stop him from being as much of a conspiracy nut as he was earlier in the film and the previous one.
• Worth It: In The Stinger for DOTM, he steals a kiss from Mearing and says it was totally worth it when she immediately has him arrested.
• The Xenophile: He's absolutely fascinated by the fact that Transformers have been living among us, even way before Sam was born and before the events of the film series.
• You Are What You Hate: Played for laughs. Simmons used to despise the rich and powerful, until a book he published made him cool millions worldwide.
  Simmons: How the hell'ed she afford that car?.
  Sam: Her boss.
  Simmons: Rich bastards! I used to hate'em but now... well.

Secretary of Defense John Keller

Played by: Jon Voight

Appeared in: Transformers (2007)

"You didn't think that the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?"

The United States Secretary of Defense.

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• Badass Normal: Willing to pick up a shotgun and shoot Decepticons in the face if it comes down to it.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Completely absent in the second two films; most likely either retired, replaced after Obama takes office, or some other reason. Either way, the next time a secretary of defense shows up, it's a different actor, a different character, and a different gender.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Secretary of Defense has no problems kicking Decepticon ass when he needs to.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Unlike many other government officials shown in the movies, while a little rude and condescending at times, he both wants to protect his country and the people too and never attempts to flaunt his admittedly high level of authority to bully others into submission.

Theodore Galloway

"Soldier, you're trained to shoot, not to talk!"

Played by: John Benjamin Hickey

Appeared in: Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Galloway: So let me ask: If we ultimately conclude that our national security is best served by denying you further asylum on our planet, will you leave peacefully?

Optimus Prime: Freedom is your right. If you make that request, we will honor it. But before your President decides, please ask him this: What if we leave, and you're wrong?

The president's National Security Advisor.

---

• Asshole Victim: Shockwave killed him before DOTM. Granted, his stance on the Autobots had improved somewhat after they saved his life, but that only turned him into The Friend Nobody Likes at best.
• Bullying a Dragon: He insults Optimus and the other bots, constantly makes demands of them, and threatens to expel them from Earth. The fact that they're giant alien robots (the smallest of which is as tall as a small building), who could easily turn him into a greasy smear on the ground if they were malicious enough, means nothing to him.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Casually killed by Shockwave in the pre-DOTM comic, when Shockwave busts his way into a N.E.S.T. base and slaughters every human and Autobot that gets in his way.
• Face Death with Dignity: Doesn’t even flinch right before Shockwave kills him.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: After his Heel–Face Turn in the pre-DOTM comics, he becomes this. He’s still kind of an asshole and incompetent, which results in nobody liking him, but he’s a little more respected due to being willing to go into he field and risk his life.
• Heel–Face Turn: In the pre-DOTM comics, after the Autobots save his life.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the tie-in comics, while he’s still kind of an asshole, he softens up after the Autobots save his life and risks his life in the field numerous times.
• No-Respect Guy: It's clear that nobody has a very high opinion of him, and for good reason. Even the general could care less when he becomes stranded in an Egyptian desert.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: As Ratchet notes, "This fool is terribly misinformed".
• Redemption Equals Death: In the tie-in comics, he gets killed by Shockwave after he becomes less of a dick and starts helping.
• Ungrateful Bastard: To the Autobots for always saving the day. He softens up after they save his life in the tie-in comics.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His As You Know ranting allows the Decepticons to know the location of the last Allspark shard and where Megatron's corpse is.

General Morshower

"Well, I guess I didn't get that memo."

Played by: Glenn Morshower

Dubbed by: Patrick Borg (European French)

Appeared in: Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen | Transformers: Dark of the Moon | Transformers: The Last Knight

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later the head of TRF.

---

• Ascended Extra: After a minor role in DOTM, he plays a major role in The Ride, prominently featuring in the queue area.
• Benevolent Boss: He always stands up for his men and trusts their judgment.
• Big Good: Until DOTM, where he's pretty much replaced by Lennox and Mearing.
• Deadpan Snarker: When dealing with Obstructive Bureaucrats, he lays on the snark to show what he thinks of them.
• Deal with the Devil: In The Last Knight, he sees negotiating with Megatron for the release of a few captive Decepticons as this, but admits that it is a necessary evil if the TRF is to obtain the staff.
• Demoted to Extra: After playing a supporting role in ROTF as the Big Good, he has a handful of scenes in DOTM.
• Tuckerization: Named after the actor playing him.

Charlotte Mearing

"It's a little formality called paperwork, it kinda separates us from the animals."

Played by: Frances McDormand

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"As director of National Intelligence, I'm a really big fan of intelligent answers."

Director of National Intelligence.

---

• Berserk Button: For some reason, she really doesn't like people referring to her as "ma'am".
  Mearing: (to Lennox) Stop with the 'ma'am'. Enough with the 'ma'am', do I look like a 'ma'am'?
• Calling the Young Man Out: Does this to Sam.
  Mearing: With all due respect, young man, I appreciate what you did. But you're not a soldier; you're a messenger. You've always been a messenger.
• Crazy-Prepared: The consumerist type as she has her harried assistant carry multiple expensive handbags and accessories. She's prepared enough to have a pair of sneakers ready and waiting in one of her bags when she needs a change of footwear. Daphne Blake would be impressed.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She's initially brusque and dismissive towards Sam, despite his having helped save the world twice over. She later apologizes to him and is willing to accept his input regarding the Decepticons' next possible move or any other information he might have. By that point, unfortunately, Sam has been rendered unable to deliver.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Mearing's straightforwardness makes her some enemies as she prefers to work "by the book"; especially Sentinel Prime, who doesn't take kindly to her "condescending tone". She's also eventually proven right for being wary of Sentinel Prime but no one gives Mearing her due credit for it.
• Iron Lady: She's a no-nonsense government official.
• I Warned You: Mearing lashes out at Optimus after Sentinel reveals his defection to the Decepticons, kills Ironhide, and attacks the NEST base.
  Mearing: Yeah, take a look, Optimus! This is all on you!
• Jerkass: It comes with the job, though she later softens up.
• Jerkass Has a Point: She has Sentinel Prime's pillars detained, and makes an argument that they could be used to bring through weapons or an invasion army. Which is exactly what Sentinel uses them for.
• Noodle Incident: Had a fling with Simmons in the past.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Not as bad as Galloway since she's actually somewhat helpful to our heroes.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her hostility towards the Autobots and insistence on the pillars getting detained doesn't help Sentinel's already negative view of humanity, and forces him to attack the base to steal the pillars, which ends up getting Ironhide killed.

Dutch

Played by: Alan Tudyk

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"That was the old me!"

Simmons's personal assistant.

---

• Battle Butler: For Simmons.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a generally kind person, but tick him off and you. Will. Pay.
• Crossover: Tudyk jokingly insists that Dutch is his character Gerhardt from 28 Days after rehab and spending time as a hitman.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Implied.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: One reviewer called him a "gay ex-Nazi manservant in a weird suit."
• That Man Is Dead: It's implied that he has a rather violent history, something he doesn't want to lapse back into. See the above quote.

Santos

Played by: Santiago Cabrera

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight'

Field commander of the TRF.

---

• Anti-Villain: Despite being antagonistic towards the heroes (at least until the final act of the film), he's just trying to protect the world from the Transformers and their war.
• Badass Normal: He's able to fight cybertronians with nothing but his weapons and military training.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • He, much like Lennox, doesn't like working with the Decepticons despite them helping each other locate Cade's hideout.
  • Despite Izzy and three other kids being in a no-go zone, where lethal force is authorised against trespassers, he instead opts to try to extract them from the area.
• A Father to His Men: He clearly cares about the rest of the TRF under his command, as shown when he berates Lennox after several TRF members are (presumably) killed by Slug and Grimlock.
• Good Counterpart: Downplayed, but he could be considered this to James Savoy. Both are soldiers who are tasked with hunting down cybertronians regardless of faction, and both also serve as the field commanders of their respective teams. However, unlike Savoy, who acts out of pure racist prejudice for Cybertronians and has no qualms about killing humans, Santos is a genuine Well-Intentioned Extremist who simply wants to make the world safer for humanity, and tries to prevent civilian casualties if he can.
• Heel–Face Turn: He and the rest of the TRF help Cade and the Autobots take on Quintessa and the Decepticons.
• Moral Myopia: His solution to hunt down the Autobots, who spent the past four films fighting to defend humanity and Earth, is to work with the Decepticons, who spent those same movies fighting to subjugate humanity and conquer Earth.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: He's the field commander of the TRF and also proves himself to be skilled in his job of helping to take down any Transformers.
• Tranquil Fury: During the fight in the abandoned town, he is clearly angry at Cade for getting several of his men killed, but still remains calm.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite being antagonistic towards Cade and the Autobots, he's just trying to protect Earth from any threats.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: He tries to avoid harming any children, regardless of whether or not they are allied with the Transformers. This is shown when he opts to extract the kids in the no-go zone rather than have them killed for trespassing. Also, during the drone chase sequence in the abandoned town, at no point does he target Izzy despite her being an ally of Cade and the Autobots.

Accuretta Systems

Jerry Wang

Played by: Ken Jeong

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"I'm Wang. Deep Wang."

Used to work for NASA before working at Accurreta Systems.

---

• Defiant to the End: Though it doesn't help him against Laserbeak, he goes out guns blazing.
• Destination Defenestration: How Laserbeak kills him.
• Not What It Looks Like: He lures Sam into the bathroom to give him information about Megatron's plan. Sam's boss comes into the bathroom and hears both of them arguing in the bathroom stall. Upon his death, Bruce offers Sam his condolences and kindly assures him that whoever he's in a bathroom stall with is his own business.
• Properly Paranoid: Due to his association with Laserbeak, he fears every machine near him to be the murderous Decepticon.

Bruce Brazos

Played by: John Malkovich

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

"Come on people! Yes, a workmate died, but looking out the window is not going to bring him back! The man was depressed. You can keep watching him but he's not getting up, you all read Humpty Dumpty."

Sam's eccentric boss and the CEO of Accuretta Systems.

---

• Alliterative Name: Bruce Brazos.
• Ascended Fanboy: If ever so briefly. In exchange for providing some documents to Sam, he gets to meet a Transformer up close and personal, though Simmons shoos him away before long.
• Benevolent Boss: Despite his OCD, he's pretty kind to his subordinates, and immediately comes to respect Sam for saving his life twice (though he seems unaware of the specifics). He understands his pain and promises a job at Accuretta will help him get where he wants to be. And upon Wang's death, offers Sam his condolences and tells him he won't judge who he spends his time in a bathroom stall with. ^note Wang had earlier snuck some private information regarding the Decepticon scheme to Sam in a stall, only for Bruce to walk in on them and see Wang have to pull his pants back up.
• Cloudcuckoolander: He's a bit of a narcissist, and is willing to send employees home crying if they bring a red cup to the "yellow floor."
  Bruce: Come to Daddy. Come on, thrown down.
  Bumblebee: [radio voice] You eat a lot of paint chips when you were a kid?
• Large Ham: Malkovich definitely had fun.
• Not So Above It All: He loses his suave, calm composure and geeks out when he gets to see Bumblebee up close. It probably helped that Bumblebee is yellow, his seemingly favorite color.
• Obsessively Organized: Every floor of Accuretta Systems is color-coordinated and the majority of the staff is made up of control freaks like Brazos himself. If he sees an act of "visual and visceral betrayal" such as bringing a red cup to the yellow floor, he will have a staff member send the employee home crying, and if an employee has a "Latin Meltdown," they will be fired.

Yeager Family

Cade Yeager

"Come on, you old wreck. Judgment Day."

Played by: Mark Wahlberg

Dubbed by: Bruno Choël (European French)

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction | Transformers: The Last Knight

"Well, what do you think being human means? That’s what we do. We make mistakes. And sometimes out of those mistakes come the most amazing things."

A struggling widower, single father, and aspiring inventor. The main human protagonist of the fourth and fifth films.

---

• Action Dad: He may have his faults but when push comes to shove, Tessa's safety always comes first.
• Action Survivor: At first, but he gets more badass once he gets his hands on some good weapons.
• Badass Bookworm: Fearless and can handle his own in a fight (even against trained federal agents), but his passion will always belong in mechanical tinkering.
  • Cade was set to attend college in his youth but abandoned this endeavor after Tessa was born.
  • When Vivian voiced skepticism on the realism of magic and mysticism, Cade counters this by quoting Arthur C. Clarke.
  Cade: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
• Berserk Button:
  • Being reminded of his under-aged daughter's relationship with Shane is one way to set him off.
  • And if you've pointed a gun at her intending to pull the trigger, you can kiss your life goodbye.
• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Didn't even want his daughter to get a date for prom.
• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Cade seemingly has one of those, even though she says she's the grownup of the family.
• Bungling Inventor / Gadgeteer Genius: Is both, but mostly the former in the beginning.
• Celibate Hero: To keep his daughter away from boys.
  Cade: This is a "No Dating" household. You don't date, I don't date.
• Deadpan Snarker: Cade often shows moments of this throughout the fourth and fifth films (but more so in the fifth). In fact, he's easily one of the snarkiest characters in the film.
  Izzy: I'm not a kid. I'm useful, I fix shit.
  Cade: Good for you.
  Izzy: And I have a name, you know. It's Izabella, Izabella with a Z
  Cade: I don't care if it's a z, an emoji, or a dollar sign.
• Embarrassing Rescue: Inverted, when rescuing his bitchy daughter she mistook her idiot boyfriend as her rescuer. Again after they nearly make it off the ship and she chickens out, trying shimmy back onto the alien ship with killer guard dogs right behind her. Needless to say, Cade all but lost all patience with her at the moment.
• Empowered Badass Normal: He gets an alien sword, but uses it as a rifle.
• Every Man Has His Price: While talking to Optimus on the flight to Hong Kong, Cade admits he repaired him for money, not out of goodness of his heart.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Hound and Optimus.
• Genius Bruiser: Cade has gotten through quite a few scraps as a result of using his head as much as his muscles.
• Hidden Depths: Judging from the way he handles the sword-gun, he's had military training of some sort.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After nearly getting killed in the drone ship chase, he takes the opportunity to drink a Bud Light from one of the destroyed trucks.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: When he discovers the derelict truck he just bought is a Transformer, Cade's first impulse is to try and reverse engineer its technology rather than report it to the authorities. Sure it may have turned out well in the end, and his actions do lead to saving both the Autobots and Earth, but doing so costs him the life of his business partner, endangers his daughter's life, turns them into fugitives, and destroys their house.
• Jerkass with a Heart of Gold: While a protective father and a hero who helps out the Autobots, he can be very aggressive and abrasive towards people who mildly annoy him like when a car driver who he nearly kills and totalled his car demands to see his insurance, Cade tells Tessa to hand him the alien gun. He also threatens a realtor and her clients when they come to prospect his foreclosed farm — which she is allowed to do given that he is so late on every single bill he has.
• Loser Protagonist: Considers himself to be an inventor but has yet to invent something that works or is even remotely useful, is fiscally irresponsible, is barely respected by his daughter, has had his house foreclosed on, and is stealing electricity after the city disconnected him.
• Mad Scientist: It'd be hard to argue otherwise. Constantly engaged in impractical experiments, which he treats with a weird reverence, and is quite territorial about his lab, threatening realtors and prospective buyers away with violence. But he's ultimately a benevolent example.
• Mean Boss: He's terrible to Lucas. Not only is he just kinda in general a bit of a douche to him, we learn he borrows money from Lucas without paying it back and that he doesn't pay Lucas while also saying he's lucky to have a job. For the nerve of some people, swindling others out on their money.
• Mix-and-Match Weapon: His weapon, the "alien gun", that he took from Lockdown's ship. It looks like a sword initially but is a rifle.
• Nerves of Steel: Despite having walked himself straight into a disaster movie Cade's the only person who maintains a level head, through both lax and tense serious moments be it while on the run from government assassins or in enemy territory wielding an alien gun.
• Nice Guy: Overprotective attitude aside, Cade is easy to get along with. In The Last Knight, not so much after he and his daughter were separated.
• Papa Wolf: Face it, Savoy was living on borrowed time the moment he put his gun against Tessa's head.
• Parents as People: While not abusive, Cade's impulsiveness and short-sighted nature make him poorly suited to be a single dad. Fridge Logic makes one wonder how Tessa has avoided being put in Foster Care. One possible explanation is that he's been getting worse lately due to his failing fortunes.
• Perpetual Poverty: Age of Extinction ends with Joyce pledging Cade his support (it's implied that the seven figures Attinger has been getting might go to him), but one movie later, he's back in the dumps again. It’s pretty much his own fault since he chose to continue helping the Autobots even when all transformers were declared illegal in the time gap between Age of Extinction and The Last Knight.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed, since he doesn't act in such a way incredibly often, but he still called Sherman, who is a Native American, "Chief" (and even that didn't seem to be done out of malice, although Sherman does call him out for it).
• Science Hero: Often has to use some of his skills as an inventor to get through most of the perils he encounters with the Autobots. Slightly more pronounced in The Last Knight where he is knowledgeable enough about Cybertronian biology to act as a medic to some capacity for the Autobots.
• Took a Level in Badass: After getting his hands on an alien gun he becomes able to go-toe-to-toe with Decepticons, kills Savoy and helps out Optimus in his battle against Lockdown.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the fifth film, after he and Tessa were separated, he becomes hostile and rude to others (although he still maintains his heart of gold).
• What the Hell, Hero?: He berates Shane for dating his daughter, who is a minor because she's not 18 years old yet and gives one to Tessa for breaking the "no dating" rule.

Tessa Yeager

Played by: Nicola Peltz

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

"Dad. You can't keep spending money on junk."

Cade's 17-year-old daughter.

---

• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Can come across as this when arguing with Cade. Considering that she's practically the adult in their relationship, it's pretty justified, though she doesn't do much onscreen to prove it other than call out his selfish, assholeish behavior.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Several instances, a notable one being when Cade mocks Shane for being a rally driver, Tessa points out that unlike him, Shane makes money from what he does. She makes a good point.
• Damsel in Distress: Does her fair share of getting into trouble as her father. Out of all the places she could have chosen to hide when Optimus and Galvatron have their smackdown, she chose to seek shelter in an already busted vehicle close to the action.
  • Damsel out of Distress: She manages to get herself out of a couple of jams.
• Deadpan Snarker: She often makes sarcastic remarks, at times. Generally towards he father.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She has blonde hair and is one of the human heroes.
• Hypocrite: Calls her dad a square using the word "smooching", considering she uses the word "square" to describe him. Like father like daughter, or in her case, pot calling out the kettle.
• I Warned You: Is NOT pleased with the consequences of her father repairing Optimus.
  • Subverted in that Cade told her and Lucas that the government doesn't just give away money. With guys like Cemetery Wind backed by it, we all saw Cade was right in the end.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She might not agree with her dad over many things, but she still loves him all the same. She even told Bumblebee to bring her back to her dad to help him.
  Tessa: Stop the car!
  Bumblebee: You better listen.
  Tessa: No, you listen. I'm not leaving my dad.
• The Load: Never contributed much effort to help her dad and her friends escape danger for most of the movie. She grew out of it towards the end, helping to remove Optimus's sword from his body, and just in time to save Cade from Lockdown.
• Missing Mom: Her mother is mentioned to have died at an early point in her life.
• Ms. Fanservice: For once, played for laughs rather than played straight. This is because she's underage, so naturally, her father spends a majority of the movie attempting to get her to cover up more. Not that she listens.
• Offscreen Breakup: The fifth film implies that Tessa and Shane have broken up since Cade wonders what kind of guy Tessa will date while in college.
• Only Sane Woman: Complains early on about having to be responsible for looking after her father. Subverted as badgering her dad to call the government for reward money when the former advised not too nearly got the family all killed.
• Put on a Bus: In the fifth film, she is a college student and doesn't maintain consistent contact with her father because he is a fugitive and it could get them both put in jail.
• Ungrateful Bitch: Tends to lean into this territory when freaked out of her mind, shows lighter examples of it in normalcy; almost to the point of shut up & let me save you territories. Cade even barked at her when she tried to near her narrow behind back onto Lockdown's prison ship due to freaking out about heights, she even went into a rant when Cade opted to shoot at oncoming enemies while on the high-wire after he repeatedly said to duck.
• What the Hell, Hero?: After her father calls her out for breaking the "no dating" rule, she lambasts him for Lucas' death and for not giving Optimus Prime to the government when he had the chance and sarcastically congratulates him for taking care of her before storming off.
  Tessa: Is that what you were doing when you brought home the truck? All you had to was report it and now Lucas is dead and my life is over. Thank you, you've taking really good care of me.
• Wise Beyond Her Years: Is pretty much the adult in her relationship with her father which has only fueled the tension between them. She has her annoying moments teaming with shortsightedness which contradicts this but not many.
  • Quickly inverted early on, she tried convincing her father to call in Optimus for reward money, all because she believed the falsehood ad in televised propaganda from a friend. Who trusts the government?

Izabella

Played by: Isabela Moner

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight

"I want to stay, and I want to fight them!"

A 14-year-old tomboy orphaned by the Battle of Chicago and Cade's new "adopted" daughter.

---

• A Boy and His X: A girl and her two Autobot companions, with whom she shares as strong a bond as Sam with Bumblebee. Namely, Canopy was her huge yellow guardian (whom she referred to as her "boyfriend") and Sqweeks is the adorable companion whose voice box is damaged and who packs some serious punch.
• Decomposite Character: A gutsy techie girl who doesn't hesitate to face Decepticons to save her friends, she is a child version of Mikaela Banes, just like the other part of her character went to Viviane Wembly.
• Happily Adopted: She basically convinced Cade to adopt her early on in The Last Knight.
• In-Series Nickname: Dubbed "Izzy" at some point in the movie and Cade at one point calls her "Z".
• Leeroy Jenkins: While the Autobots had planned to ambush the Decepticons when the latter invade Cade's junkyard, she walks out into the open to confront Megatron when he picks up Sqweeks. This ruins the Autobots' plans and they are forced to engage the Decepticons to rescue her.
• Little Miss Badass: Survived on her own in Chicago after the great battle in Dark of the Moon throughout Age of Extinction.
• Little Miss Snarker: She has her moments. One exmaple being when she first meets Cade.
  Kid 1: Hey hey, wait, you're that guy.
  Cade: No, I'm not that guy.
  Kid 2: The one who saves Transformers. I thought you were just a legend
  Izzy: Some legend. You were too late.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: She completely messes up Cade and the Autobot's plan to take down Megatron and the Decepticons in the abandonded town when she confronts Megatron after the latter picks up Sqweeks. Cade calls her out on this when they're escaping from the Decepticons soon afterwards.
• Please, Don't Leave Me: She begs her Autobot companion Canopy to get up when he gets mortally wounded by a missile.

Viviane Wembly

Played by: Laura Haddock

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight

"Only in America is having a higher education considered an insult."

A professor of English literature at the University of Oxford and a descendant of Merlin.

---

• Brainy Brunette: Has dark brown hair and is a professor at the University of Oxford.
• Deadpan Snarker: Possibly as a coping mechanism due to her mom.
• Decomposite Character: She takes the "sexy and sassy brunette" from Megan Fox's character Mikaela, just like her Wrench Wench traits went to Izabella.
• I Am Very British: A more modern take on the trope, certainly more so than Carly as she embodies the stuffiness and sass in equal amounts. Even her last name might remind some folks of the famous Wembley Stadium. This is lampshaded by Cade.
• Mistaken for Gay: Her lack of interest in dating and interest in science and sports has caused her mother to try to find her a date, and after she remains indifferent to her findings, her mom asks if she should start seeking women for her.
• Secret Legacy: Sir Edmund has traced her lineage directly to Merlin.

Cemetery Wind

Harold Attinger

"It’s not their planet. Never was. Time we take it back."

Played by: Kelsey Grammer

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

"You're trying to save your family. That's admirable. I'm trying to defend the nation from alien war. We've had a taste of what that looks like and we're not going to tolerate another."

The founder of Cemetary Wind and the main antagonist of the fourth film. He carries a deep, seething grudge against the Transformers, and is out to wipe them all out, good and bad, and doesn't care who gets in his way.

---

• Absolute Xenophobe: Despite teaming up with Lockdown, he is uncomfortable working with him. Justified though with how powerful the average Transformer is. In the end, his partnership with Lockdown is just a means to an end to wiping all Transformers off the Earth because as far as Attinger is concerned, the Earth belongs to the human race and, regardless of their faction, the Transformers are all aliens who have been nothing but trouble and don't belong on the planet.
• Asshole Victim: Is killed by Optimus personally, and nobody feels bad about it.
• Beard of Evil: He sports a well-trimmed beard and is probably the most despicable human in the franchise
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wanted to be the hero who would keep the Earth safe. Galvatron’s rebellion presents an opportunity for him to do that.
• Big Bad: Of Age Of Extinction, as it is his almost successful schemes of committing genocide against the transformers and selling their remains for production into man-made transformers, which drives the plot of the film. He is the first and only human to be a primary antagonist of a Transformers Series Live Action film.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Although Attinger is the general Big Bad of the story, he partially forms this with Galvatron and Lockdown though technically Attinger and Lockdown work together, they have different goals entirely while Galvatron works independently from either of them.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Sees the Transformers not in terms of Autobots vs. Decepticons but as humans vs. aliens. This attitude extends to any humans who aid the Transformers as well, despite his own alliance with one.
• Blood Knight: While he's a Non-Action Big Bad, he is absolutely giddy when he learns that Optimus was sighted in Texas, and is almost cheerfully telling Joyce to not care about civilian casualties.
  Attinger: Innocent people die every day.
• Bloodless Carnage: Optimus kills him with a blaster shot, but all his body suffers are some bruises.
• The Comically Serious: Has no sense of humor whatsoever, but when it turns out he was pulling a gun on an innocent Chinese girl, he slumps, rolls his eyes and nearly face-palms. Earlier, he's practically pleading to get his meeting with the idiot Chief of Staff done with and is relieved when he finally leaves.
• Control Freak: he plans meticulously so that nothing unexpected can happen. When Galvatron rebels, it catches him off guard and starts his Villainous Breakdown.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: while he is more a government agent, his actions point him out like this.
• The Cynic: His work in espionage has eroded any moral sense has had. He states that’s how the world works, but in reality, he’s more than willing to let innocents suffer as long as he doesn’t.
• Dark Messiah: Sees himself as the savior of humanity from the Transformers, ignoring the Autobots who swore to defend humans and that his actions as just as horrible as the Decepticons'.
• Deadpan Snarker: He makes a few sarcastic remarks at several points in the film.
• Diabolical Mastermind: He's a government official who uses the resources at his disposal to carry out his own plans to build a robot army.
• Didn't Think This Through: He never thought any more trouble would come after delivering Optimus Prime to Lockdown. Justified in that the trouble came from KSI drones he was controlling and not an actual alien threat.
• Dirty Coward: Implied; he disappears completely when Optimus and the Autobots invade KSI, even when Joyce actually does confront Prime. He then reappears in the scene immediately after hurriedly fastening his shirt and sounding out of breath - implying he'd run for cover the moment the Transformers arrived.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: An example that he invokes but which does not warrant sympathy at all. During his final rant to Cade, he snarls about how he's had to exercise extreme patience while carrying out his deeds, making clear his desire for glory and recognition for his actions.
• Enemy Mine: Lampshaded, when Lockdown points out their alliance, is more of a "contract" in exchange for Optimus. His response is "On this planet, we have a saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend." It could also be that he's aware Lockdown doesn't plan to stay on Earth once he captures Optimus.
• Engineered Heroics: Set up a scheme to outlaw all aliens with the use of a human-built robot army. It's not long before the Racket itself turns on him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good:
  • Believes Joyce is trying to screw him over by taking the Seed and going, rather than trying not to let Galvatron get his mitts on it.
  • He also condescends Cade's desire to protect his daughter as if it were some childish wish.
• Evil Is Petty: Despite all his preaching about survival and abandoning the heroic Autobots, he just wanted them gone so that HE could protect humanity and profit from it, and cares for people only as much as they are a benefit/threat to him.
  • He’s not above harming people if they don’t give him what he wants. When Cade refuses to hand over Optimus, he orders that Cade’s daughter be shot. And in the final battle, he seeks to have Joshua and Cade killed at any cost, including calling Lockdown to destroy Hong Kong and himself forsaking any chance of escape to take down Cade himself, simply because his schemes have failed.
• Evil Old Folks: Kelsey Grammer was pushing 60 when he filmed the role, and Attinger's as vile as they come.
• Faux Affably Evil: He seems somewhat polite, but it's clear there's a monster lurking just below the surface.
• Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: Probably another reason for wanting to get rid of Transformers in general. The fact that these large sentient machines are real and have already done some damage to Earth raises questions about how many other alien beings are also out there, and could be potential threats to humanity. From his twisted perspective, life on Earth is already miserable enough as it is without their presence.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: is often seen sporting glasses in most of his scenes.
• Greed: At least some of his motivation is to get a nest egg for retirement, by hunting down Autobots, slaughtering them and turning the remains over to KSI, who will then give him some of the profits.
• Hate Sink: A hypocritical and unfeeling sociopathic xenophobe who makes up trying to protect humanity for the sake of filling his pockets.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He promotes this, pointing out that as bad as he may be, he’s guarding Earth against an alien threat much worse. Subverted though: it appears he never expected any more trouble, being four years after the Chicago battle and the defeat of Cybertron, and after all, if the world’s in real danger, the money he made from a robot army would be meaningless. When Galvatron reveals himself, it knocks his profiteering plans to pieces.
• Hoist With His Own Petard: He wants to engineer his own drone Transformers from the remains of dead Transformers. He would have succeeded if he had left Megatron's remains alone.
• Humans Are Bastards: Trope codifier candidate. Says he's here to protect American interest? Secretly funds a Black Ops program operating behind its back. Acts like he's out to protect & serve his country and the populace? "Innocent people die, all the time". Puts on airs that he somehow is the ultimate protector of mankind and putting his kind first? Attempts to erase anything and everyone who know his involvement leading up to a host of actions that are no doubt highly illicit by government or humane law. In short, he's a liar, a brute, a paranoiac, a scoundrel and an all-around sociopathic war profiteer who proves in the end; the greatest enemy to mankind is man itself.
• Hypocrite: Sees all Transformers as enemies, yet is working with one. Also, he claims his actions will save innocent people yet has no qualms with letting innocent people, allied with the Autobots or otherwise, die in the way to get the job done.
  • Goes the extra mile when he and Cemetery Wind commit all kinds of authority abuses worthy of high treason on U.S. soil accumulating to crimes against humanity in general despite constantly saying he was serving his country. Further cementing the fact that he's nothing more than a tight-fisted money monger out to serve himself for self-proclaimed merits he Never EARNED. Which is all but too well Lampshaded considering when he pinned Joshua in his office wondering where his boyhood dream of doing right and making billions along the went away from him.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: He invokes this in his confrontations with Cade, stating that survival is more important than good or evil, and isn’t necessarily part of either. However, given that he only wanted to clear the world of aliens so that he could make money off protecting people, was working with a definite bad robot, and allowing many innocent members of his own race to die so that he could gain a profit and later on for the sake of survival, it’s clear his reasoning doesn’t count.
  • He also invokes this with his alliance with Lockdown, saying "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Since Lockdown is only here for Optimus, he can get them both off Earth simply by keeping his end of the bargain.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Very prominent in several shots.
• Karmic Death: He spent most of his career as an unnoticed government official until he founded Cemetery Wind, and has a desire for glory and recognition for what he's done to the Transformers. In the final battle, Optimus barely pays him any attention when he shoots him, as he's more preoccupied with Lockdown, and only spares Attinger a few seconds. On top of that, Optimus didn't do it for all the misery he's put the Autobots through, he just wanted to save Cade's life.
• Knight of Cerebus: Despite being a Non-Action Big Bad, he's got the resources and power to pose such a deadly threat to the heroes that the majority of the Autobots have been wiped out and being detected by him is pretty much a death sentence. His Faux Affably Evil demeanor brings an aura of sheer menace not seen in previous human antagonists, and he's a greedy sociopath to boot.
• Knight Templar: Believes that killing the Transformers, even the ones who helped out the humans, is right.
• Lack of Empathy: He claims his actions are to protect humanity but it becomes quickly clear he just wants to kill the Transformers for the sake of profit, having zero empathy for absolutely everyone, even civilian casualties which he claims to disapprove of.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Isn't concerned that people are killed during Galvatron's first field operation. Innocent people die every day.
• Non-Action Big Bad: He's a government official, not a field agent like Savoy. He at least knows how to handle a gun, but it doesn't do a damn thing when he's shot at by Optimus with a gun meant to kill Cybertronians.
• Not So Stoic: Thanks to his Villainous Breakdown.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He claims he's out to protect humanity from Transformers and preventing another massacre like Chicago, but he's willing to kill innocent people and their former Autobot allies without any qualms and is willing to allow another massacre in the climax to cover his tracks. He's out to wipe out Transformers to make a profit off it.
• Orcus on His Throne: Cade calls him out on this, seeing as he sends his minions to do his dirty work for him.
• The Resenter: He resents the Autobots for making his spy work irrelevant, as well as people like Cade who want to do good because he never could be straight-laced enough to succeed.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: How he feels about Cade's desire to protect his family.
• The Sociopath: No empathy for others? Check. Narcissistic and having a Dark Messiah complex? Check. Thoroughly enjoys hurting others to get what he wants? Check.
• Straw Hypocrite: Attinger shows Fantastic Racism towards all Transformers yet allies himself with one, claims to want to protect humanity from Transformers but will gladly sacrifice millions to cover his own ass, and goes on at length about protecting his country yet is only working with Joyce because he wants a fat payday when he retires.
• The Stoic: He's extraordinarily soft-spoken.
• Taking You with Me: He threatens Joshua with destruction if he tries to sell him out. In the final battle, having lost any chance for success or escaping accountability for his schemes, he seeks out Cade with this in mind.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Optimus shoots him using a gun that is normally designed for use against other Transformers. Suffice to say, this blows him backwards, ending his time on Earth for good.
• This Cannot Be!: When he sees the Autobots have returned for the Hong Kong battle, he says “Impossible!”
• Tom the Dark Lord: He's a Diabolical Mastermind named Harold.
• The Unfettered: He merely smiles when Cade points out he's willing to have his subordinates hold a family at gunpoint so that he can get what he wants.
• Unwittinginstigator Of Doom: He unwittingly helps in reviving a vicious Decepticon leader who has no interest in serving humans. His finding out what happened was the start of his Villainous Breakdown.
• Villainous Breakdown: He begins to lose his shit when his plans are at risk of being exposed and ruined by Cade and the Autobots, and his last rant is an insane ramble trying to justify his actions.
• Villain with Good Publicity: While he is a nasty piece of work, his claims of protecting the world by abandoning the Autobots sounded good enough to the human race, especially after the events of DOTM, that they went along with what he said. It’s his lifeline to him doing what he wants, and once it’s in jeopardy he seeks to eliminate any link to himself at any cost.
• With Us or Against Us: His final rant to Cade shows he doesn't believe in good or bad aliens, just "us or them." However, it only demonstrates what a colossal Hypocrite he is since he doesn't care how many of "us" die to accomplish his task.
  • Cade's response to choosing "them" once Optimus blows him away? "Any time."
• Would Hurt a Child: When called out on his sending people to kill Tessa, Attinger smiles as if slightly amused. By the time he gets to Hong Kong, he doesn't even care that thousands, if not millions of children are put at risk or killed by Cemetary Wind or Lockdown's actions, so long as Cade is among those casualties.

James Savoy

"I’m seriously pissed we’re not getting paid for this."

Played by: Titus Welliver

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

"Tough luck, Yeager. We all have family."

Attinger's ruthless right-hand man and the field commander of Cemetary Wind.

---

• Badass Longcoat: Wears a black longcoat at times, and is a highly skilled (if evil) black-ops agent.
• Destination Defenestration: Thrown out a window by Cade and fell to his death.
• Disney Villain Death: Courtesy of being thrown out a window by Cade.
• Co-Dragons: Along with Lockdown to Attinger
• The Dragon: To Attinger being his chief human henchman, with Lockdown being Cemetery wind and Attinger's chief Transformer agent
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's implied that he genuinely cared about his sister (who was killed during the battle of Chicago).
• Eye Scream: Subverted. Cade at one point shoves his thumb in his eye socket, but this is forgotten about in the next shot, where his eye is fine.
• The Heavy: Split with Lockdown. He's the big man leading Cemetery Wind's operations in the field and Cade Yeager's equivalent in the movie, whereas Lockdown is Optimus's equivalent.
• Hypocrite: Considering he claims to have lost a sister in Chicago, he does little to spare others this same type of pain. He even uses it as justification for his lack of sympathy for Ratchet in his opening scene.
  • After learning that Cade sheltered Optimus, Savoy asks Cade, "What kind of a man betrays his flesh and blood brother for alien metal?" at the same time, he thinks it's lawful to kill Cade and Tessa but be partners with Lockdown. Does this answer Savoy's question?
• Laser-Guided Karma: Helped in killing Ratchet earlier in the film, threatened to kill the Yeagers just to discover the location of Optimus Prime, singlehandedly caused or was at the heart of twice as much collateral damage as any Decepticon excursion in film history, and on top of that he's an all around heartless dirtbag and professional creep. All in all, Cade handing this jerk his ass near the movie's climax was a long time coming.
• Misplaced Retribution: Savoy thinks Ratchet deserves to die because of losing his sister in Chicago when Sentinel Prime and the Decepticons were responsible.
• Mr. Vice Guy: His persona screams this all its own. Getting paid to kill Autobots or their perceived human collaborators, getting to vent his greed, rage, and violence are all in a day's work for this guy.
  Savoy: I'm seriously pissed we're not getting paid for this.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: He keeps referring to Optimus Prime as merely a truck. No, a truck is Prime's disguise. He's a 32-foot robot who comes with weapons!
• Revenge Myopia: His sister was killed during the Chicago invasion, hence his intense pleasure in killing not only every Transformer he comes across but any humans who help them as well. He even discusses this with Cade.
  Savoy: Never should have hidden that truck.
  Cade: You should have never came after my family.
  Savoy: Tough luck, Yeager, we all have family.
  Cade: Yeah, but I'm gonna live to see mine.
• Slime Ball: If there were a better word to describe this guy, makes out like he's humanity's watchdog like his jerkass boss. Just like said employer however, he couldn't give a rats arse about anyone but himself and his own goals.
• Smug Snake: The guy just smirks like he's having the time of his life whenever he gets up to violent deeds and even mouths off to Lockdown who at the time has no reason not to squash him then and there.
• The Unfettered: Willing, if not outright itching to use and justify excessive force in pursuit of his brand of persecution.
• Villainous Breakdown: Gets more and more dependent on killing Cade to it being his only goal in the face of war.
• Villainous Valor: Sure, Savoy is a Psycho for Hire Slime Ball, but given he is just a mere human with a gang of fellow human henchmen provided by his boss by his side to take down the over-sized Autobots and is fiercely determined to take down their human allies and even engages in a fistfight with Cade fuelled by nothing but The Power of Hate of giant robots can be shown as commendable.
• Would Hurt a Child: Puts a gun to Tessa's head to get Cade to cooperate, and is very willing to pull the trigger. And just like his boss, he also doesn't care if innocents, children included, are killed during Cemetary Wind's fight against Optimus and the Autobots in Hong Kong.

Kinetic Solutions, Inc.

Joshua Joyce

"We can make you now. Don’t you get it? We don’t need you anymore."

Played by: Stanley Tucci

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

"Threatening a professional CIA killer. Possibly not my finest hour. I’d like to have that one back."

CEO of KSI.

---

• Amazon Chaser: Implied if his reaction and comments towards Su Yueming beating up the CIA agents are any indications. In any case, he doesn't find an Action Girl unattractive because of it.
• Anti-Hero: What he arguably becomes by the end of the film, due to Cade Yeager appealing to his better nature, and seeing first hand the ruthlessness of his business associates and their callousness. He pulls a Heel–Face Turn and sides with the Autobots and the Yeagers to save the world.
• Anti-Villain: At first; while Joyce is not out and out evil like Attinger. He has absolutely no qualms about working with a shadowy black ops group that is covertly hunting down and driving to extinction, a sentient race of machines for his own profit and to create an army of his own transformers based on material salvaged from melted down Autobots and seems to show no remorse for his actions, believing that what he is doing is for the betterment of humanity.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: He's very eccentric and hyperactive, especially during the second half of the movie. At one point, he stops to say hi to a group of Chinese kids while hauling an alien WMD through their apartment complex.
• Bad Boss: Implied, given Wembley (his top scientist) refers to him as a "douche" when he's not present.
• Berserk Button: Gets angry when something goes wrong with his technology.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Has some odd opinions on jellyfish, once asking his people to make an advert about them, and claimed they were "erotic yet deadly".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Is noticeably disturbed by Attinger's willingness to let innocent people die and when Galvatron potentially kills innocent people. This ultimately results in his Heel–Face Turn.
• Evil Genius: He's the scientific muscle of Attinger's plan.
• Fantastic Racism: Throughout the movie, Joyce indicates that he doesn't view Transformers as real people. He considers nothing more than a resource, and even though he's upset by the death of innocent humans, he fully supports the wholesale murder of the equally innocent Autobots.
• Heel–Face Turn: Once Cade talks to him and appeals to his inventor side, his conscience gets to him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's an abrasive boss, declares the deceased Transformers as nothing more than dead metal for humanity to exploit, and is a perpetual complainer, but he does have a good heart deep down, which fuels his defection from Attinger's deal and his joining the Autobots. At the end of the film, he also offers to help Cade with his lack of housing.
• Lack of Empathy: He justifies the murder of the Autobots and melting them down for parts by saying they're no longer necessary now that humans can build their own Transformers, completely disregarding the fact that they were sentient beings who had every right to life.
• Mad Scientist: He's the brains behind the creation of the Vehicons drones.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction after Galvatron throws off the facade and seizes control of KSI's Transformer prototypes.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: An obvious stand-in for Apple's late founder Steve Jobs, from his physical appearance (bald head, intense stare, and glasses) to his personality (a staunch perfectionist who emphasizes the visual aesthetics of his products, and is frequently harsh towards his employees).
• Redemption Equals Life: Unlike Attinger, Savoy, and Lockdown, he pulls a Heel–Face Turn and survives the events of the film.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: Lets off a rather high-pitched scream when Grimlock roars right in front of him.
• What You Are in the Dark: When confronted with a rampaging Optimus Prime and his even more trigger-happy men, Joyce smugly invites them to shoot him and show that they are threats who've deserved their suffering from the past five years. Fortunately, Optimus doesn't take the bait.
• Who's Laughing Now?: Joyce's bluster vanishes when, following the Vehicons' assault on Hong Kong, Optimus introduces him to Grimlock.

Darcy Tirrel

Played by: Sophia Myles

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Joshua's geologist assistant and ex-girlfriend.

---

• Anti-Villain: She's not malicious, just misinformed, ignorant, and working for the bad guys.
• Just a Machine: How she sees the Transformers, though it's implied she's not exactly okay with the whole "melt them down" part, even if it's being done to Decepticons.
• Heel–Face Turn: She's willing to work with the protagonists, Autobots included, once she realizes that what's being done is unethical and could spell doom for the human race.
• Locked Out of the Loop: She has no idea that KSI is melting down Autobots as well. Cade tells her but the scene cuts away without any reaction shown on her part.
• Working with the Ex: It's implied that she was in a relationship with Joyce, which ended badly.

Su Yueming

Played by: Li Bingbing

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

CEO of KSI's China operations.

---

• Action Girl: Much to Joyce's surprise, she's highly capable of kicking ass.
• Hidden Badass: Can drive a motorcycle at high speeds and fight off the goons sent to capture Joyce. It turns out she underwent police officer training before completing her MBA.

Order of the Witwiccans

All

• Ancient Order of Protectors: Dedicated to keeping the Transformers Shrouded in Myth or otherwise secret, since the days of King Arthur himself.
• Faction Motto: "No sacrifice, no victory".
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: By the present day, the only Transformers sticking around with Sir Edmund are two WWII relics barely holding together, a Cool Car with a French accent, and a psychotic Battle Butler.

Sir Edmund Burton

Played by: Anthony Hopkins

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight

An old man who is the twelfth Earl of Folgan and the last living member of the Order.

---

• Benevolent Boss: To a small bunch of Transformers that all have some kind of weird quirk.
• Cool Old Guy: Handles both thirty-foot death machines and the Prime Minister's own Secret Service with utter calm and a bit of sass. The cane that's really a Cybertronian-designed weapon helps. He ultimately culminates as Too Cool to Live, but at least he takes Do Not Go Gentle to heart.
• Curbstomp Battle: Is on the receiving end of one these at the hands of Megatron, which leads to his death.
• Do Not Go Gentle: Ultimately sacrifices himself to help the Autobot-Human alliance since he's been at his job for decades, and he'd be damn well sure he goes down fighting.
• Foil: Can be seen as one to Attinger of Age of Extinction. Both are men of honor, with Attinger stating that he hunts the Transformers to keep the world safe, while Burton assists in keeping them safe from the world. While Attinger is a man willing to kill innocents and build an army and is an overall Bad Boss, Burton is only out there to see the safety of the world as well as the Cybertronians and provides shelter for those Transformers without. It's also telling that they somewhat meet a similar Last Stand; while both of them go down wielding firearms, Attinger uses a typical Earth pistol willing to kill a fellow human in the name of "peace", Burton uses an awesome Cybertronian firearm to shoot at Megatron. Both are killed by opposing leaders; Optimus for Attinger, and Megatron for Burton.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: When he’s killed by Megatron, only Cogman acknowledges his death, while the rest of the Autobots and their human allies just simply carry on.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He uses his gun to shoot Megatron, temporarily downing the Decepticon leader so that the TRF can get a few shots of their own in while the Decepticons are distracted. Megatron quickly recovers, however, and kills him for that act.
• Last Stand: When Quintessa and the Decepticons are preparing for the final phase of destroying the Earth, he decides to take matters into his own hands. His cane is then revealed to be a Cybertronian firearm, which he then uses to shoot the Decepticons with. While he managed to get a good number of shots, Megatron quickly manages to quickly off him with one shot from his fusion cannon.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Like Attinger, he meets his end when he is shot at by the leader of a Transformer faction, in this case, Megatron, with a gun meant to used on other Transformers.
• Troll: Questions Cade about his "chastity" in front of Vivianne, despite being shown later to already know everything there is to know about Yeager's life.

Others

Mikaela Banes

"No matter what happens, I'm really glad I got in that car with you."

"You know what I don't understand? If he's like, this super-advanced robot, why does he transform back into this piece-of-crap Camaro?"

Played by: Megan Fox

Appeared in: Transformers (2007) & Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

A mechanics whiz, Sam's high school classmate, and his first girlfriend.

---

• Action Girl: Sort of. She's a skilled mechanic who helps fix Bumblebee in the climax and saves Sam a few times, like with a chainsaw.
• Calling the Old Man Out: In an early script, Mikaela has several moments of this, but Sam and her ex-boyfriend Trent are the ones she calls out. When breaking up with him after he calls her his "little bunny," she tells Trent to take his "daddy-bought car" and use the expensive GPS to find "some other forest creature to patronize." Later, after Sam learns about Mikaela's juvie record, they have the exchange below, and Mikaela calls him out on never sacrificing anything in his life as she has.
  Sam: Wow, you must be totally screwed up—
  Mikaela: Thanks, how'd you like it if I said you must be a total runt for not making the football team?!
• Car Fu: How she kills the Decepticon Pretender "Alice".
• Clear My Name: She had a juvenile record for fixing stolen cars alongside her father and refusing to turn him in for grand theft auto. An early version of the first movie's script reveals that Mikaela refused to testify against her dad so she was labeled an accessory. Her character arc in the first movie is atonement for her past.
• Damsel in Distress: Averted. Unlike Carly, she is never taken captive to be used as a "reward" to bait Sam. She is taken prisoner twice but with Sam, never by herself.
• Defiant Captive: When she and Sam are arrested by Agent Simmons, Mikaela calls him a mall security guard before he jabs backs at her by bringing up her dad's upcoming parole. After the Autobots free them, Mikaela forces Simmons to remove his clothes as payback for threatening her dad. Had she returned in Dark of the Moon, Mikaela would have also been this as Dylan Gould's hostage.
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: In an early Transformers script, Mikaela tells Sam that she wants more out of her life, namely for something "earth-shattering" to happen to her.
• Expy: Initially one of Carly, until the character appears in DOTM. Alternately, she's this to Sydney Forrester of Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad.
• Foil: To Carly, Sam's second Love Interest. She's a tomboy Wrench Wench and an Action Girl who never hesitates to get into the action. Carly, on the other hand, was a girly girl who doesn't fight physically, prefers dresses and heels, and never got dirty herself.
• Informed Flaw: Described as "mean" by Brains in Dark of the Moon, but she hardly acted as such during Revenge of the Fallen.
• Ms. Fanservice: There are quite a few scenes of her being this. Some examples are her checking under Bumblebee’s hood◊ in the first film and her introductory scene in ROTF. The camera plays it straight, but the script deconstructs it. Because of her stunning beauty, nobody takes her seriously as a human being, and nobody recognizes her value except for herself.
• Put on a Bus: She gets mentioned two or three times in Dark of the Moon, but she doesn't appear for the rest of the series.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: It's implied that she and Sam broke up between films; in real life, Megan Fox had a dispute with Michael Bay, calling him "worse than Hitler". Steven Spielberg, who produces the movies, didn't take kindly to that and she was fired from Dark of the Moon. Hence Sam's new girlfriend Carly.
• Redemption Quest: By helping the Autobots, she seeks to redeem both herself and her father for their criminal acts.
• Rescue Reversal: When she, Sam, and Bumblebee are attacked by Barricade and Frenzy, Sam is trying to get himself and Mikaela away from the action. Then Frenzy jumps him and Sam is reduced to screaming in terror and running for his life, trying to fight back with little success. Enter Mikaela with a power saw she finds in a nearby abandoned shed, which she uses to decapitate Frenzy and save Sam.
• Self-Deprecation: After dumping Trent, Mikaela blames herself for falling for tall and muscular guys like him.
• Tank-Top Tomboy: During her first scenes and the ending of the first movie and played a bit more straight in the sequel.
• Took a Level in Badass: Mikaela has her moments such as decapitating Frenzy with a power saw, risking her safety to hotwire a tow truck and take an injured Bumblebee out of harm's way, driving the tow truck in reverse down a littered street at high speed to help Bumblebee kill a Decepticon, and killing "Alice" by raming her with a car and crushing her against a lamppost.
  Mikaela: (to Bumblebee) I'll drive, you shoot.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: While Sam's love interests never actually interact, Mikaela the Action Girl Wrench Wench is the tomboy to dress-wearing diplomat Carly's girly girl.
• Tuckerization: Her name is a reference to Michael Bay.
• What Could Have Been: If Megan Fox had stayed to do Dark of the Moon like originally planned, audiences would have seen the culmination of Mikaela's overall character arc as she went from an overlooked young mechanic with a juvie record to having her record expunged and her automotive skillset acknowledged, to being unable to afford to go to college but acquiring knowledge on how to run a business, to finally being able to get a high-paying job managing a rich man's lavish and expensive car collection.
• Wrench Wench: Learned car mechanics from her car thief dad; he also taught Mikaela how to remove handcuffs.

Maggie Madsen

"There's only one hacker in the world who can break this code..."

Played by: Rachael Taylor

Appeared in: Transformers (2007)

An Australian computer data analyst who used to work for the NSA but now works for the RAND Corporation.

---

• Action Survivor: She doesn't get in on much of the action until towards the end, but she handles herself well enough to run in stilettos and shoot a rifle at an attacking Decepticon.
• All There in the Manual: The novelization reveals that Maggie did modeling to put herself through college. She was also originally designed as a rebel cyberpunk character with green streaks in her hair and a diamond-stud nose ring.
• Alliterative Name: Including her name in early development and the novels, "Maggie Marconi."
• Awesome Aussie: An Australian, like her actress, and a gifted computer data analyst who works out that something doesn't add up about Frenzy's hacking signal.
• Being Good Sucks: She was fired from the NSA for rewriting her supervisor's conclusions in reports twice. She got the last laugh as she was later proven right both times.
• Chekhov's Skill: Maggie is established as a highly talented data analyst after she detects Frenzy hacking into Air Force One but after she's sidelined for most of the film, her analyst skills are never seen nor used again.
• Insistent Terminology: She insists that "Maggie" is the name on her birth certificate and not a nickname, so she hates being called "Margeret".
• Motor Mouth: Rachael Taylor said Maggie "can't keep her mouth shut to save her life."
• No Social Skills: She has problems when it comes to being tactful and not overly blunt. Secretary Keller brings this up when he tells Maggie to work on her "brain-mouth thing." The film novel even reveals Maggie had a subplot cut from the film that focused on her "too brash for her own good" personality.
• Oh, Crap!: As she is investigating the signals, she quickly deduces where the second one is coming from.

"Someone, they're hacking into Air Force One! We need a senior Analyst"

Glen Whitmann

"Shut up, Grandma!"

Played by: Anthony Anderson

Appeared in: Transformers (2007)

Maggie's hacker friend and co-worker at the RAND Corporation.

---

• All There in the Manual: The novel and an early script reveal how he and Maggie know each other, and that Glen potentially has feelings for Maggie.
• Butt-Monkey: Nothing ever goes right for him. For example, he's living with his snobbish grandmother, he's captured by the FBI for hacking into a Cybertronian message and his phone was lost in an experiment within the Hoover Dam.
• Large Ham: Whenever he starts Suddenly Shouting, either at his grandmother, the police, or the government agency holding him and Maggie captive.
• Nerds Are Virgins: He explicitly confirms this after going on an explosive rant in the presence of Maggie and a bunch of government agents.
  Glen: (to Maggie) Hey, I am not going to jail for you or anybody else! I have done nothing wrong in my entire life! (to a government agent) Hey, man, I'm still a virgin...
• Playful Hacker: Capable of hacking into highly confidential data from Maggie, but it was just to find out what was in there and nothing else.
• Race Lift: In the film, Glen is African-American but he's white in Transformers: The Movie Storybook.

Leo Spitz

"I'm the key to this. The aliens, they want me 'cause of my site."

Played by: Ramon Rodriguez

Appeared in: Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen

Sam's college roommate and owner of the alien conspiracy website, TheRealEffingDeal.com.

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• Conspiracy Theorist: Who finds out that, much to his misfortune, one of his theories is right.
• Tagalong Kid: He follows Sam and Mikaela under the false assumption the Transformers are after him because of the stuff he has about them on his website. He contributes next to nothing in terms of the plot except to get Simmons involved.
• What Happened to the Mouse?/Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Absent from Dark of the Moon (despite Michael Bay's "misinformation campaign" stating otherwise before the film's release).

Dylan Gould (SPOILERS)

"I want to survive, I want forty more years! You think I asked for this? I inherited a client!"

"When it's not your war, you pick the side that's going to win."

Played by: Patrick Dempsey

Appeared in: Transformers: Dark of the Moon

A member of the Accuretta Systems board of directors, the CEO of Hotchkiss Gould Investments, an exotic car collector, Carly's boss, and a Deception agent.

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• Adaptational Villainy: The comic adaptation gives him delusions of grandeur that he's going to change history and act as humankind's ruler. The film has him more grounded over his role, and has him act primarily for his own safety and survival.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: When we first meet him, he's a bit full of himself and way too close to Carly for Sam's comfort, but there's nothing that immediately signals him to be a major threat. Then we learn he's working for the Decepticons and his darker persona starts taking over, continuing to his Villainous Breakdown.
• Big "NO!": When he struggles with Sam over the Control Pillar.
• Bloodless Carnage: Despite being electrocuted to death, with flames erupting from his chest, his body seems pretty intact.
• Les Collaborateurs: He's a stooge for the Decepticons, and was using Carly to get closer to Sam for them.
• Cool Car: Has a big damn collection/museum of restored antique cars.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: He runs a lucrative investment company. Unfortunately, one of his investments is the Decepticons.
• Dirty Coward: Sides with the Decepticons and sells out his own species so that he can walk out scot-free while everyone else is enslaved.
• Even Evil Has Standards: When Carly asks him if he wants Earth to be enslaved, he replies “I want to survive!” in an offended tone. Subverted later on: during the Chicago massacre, he is terrified and uncomfortable, but does nothing to stop it.
• Evil Counterpart: Like Sam, he has his own robot vehicle, but he and the vehicle both have more malicious intentions. He also notes both he and Sam are "chosen ones" to aid the alien cause, but in very different ways for the opposite sides.
• Expy: Of the Generation One character Shawn Berger. He also counts as a homage to Goldfinger, a James Bond villain working with outsiders for his own gain.
• Faux Affably Evil: Initially appears to be a somewhat arrogant, but generally friendly guy to Sam and Carly. Then he reveals who his clients are...
• Hannibal Lecture: Snarks at Sam for being a nobody and choosing the "wrong side", before his death.
  Dylan: You chose sides? You chose wrong! I just saved a whole other world! You think you're a hero? Huh? You think you're a HERO!?
  Sam: No, I'm just a messenger.
• Hate Sink: His motives are initially sympathetic: he "inherited" a client, the Decepticons, and was forced to work with them for his own survival. However, as the movie goes on, Gould proves to be such a Smug Snake and Dirty Coward who is willing to do anything for his own survival (including selling out the human race), that any sympathy the viewer may have for him withers away.
  • From the reveal, he starts out simply following orders and keeping his head down. As the battle goes on and his safety becomes more precarious, his actions are more direct and desperate until he pretty much ends up fighting for the Decepticons against Sam and his own people..
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: He says he got this from his dad, who worked for the Decepticons, but he has only been conditioned to do whatever his bosses tell him.
• It's All About Me: Has shades of this in the third act, where he's perfectly okay with the Decepticons' takeover of Chicago as long as he's unharmed. Dylan also envies Sam's place as the Autobots' savior and in turn wants to be the Decepticons' savior and replace him. He also wants to not be embarassed either.
• It's Personal: His reasoning for Soundwave to execute the Autobot prisoners. Contrast to his attitude earlier, where he considered his role in the Decepticons' plan as a simple job. Also by the point he reactives the Pillars, it's only so he can still be on "the winning side".
• I Gave My Word: When he holds Carly hostage so Sam will spy on the Autobots, he promises that she'll be out of harm's way, and he keeps his word. It’s more him condescending to Sam once he is subdued. Later in the film when Carly calls him out on his actions, he says he is more than ready to throw away her life to save himself, and he later uses her as a Human Shield, though he is suitably ashamed of it afterward.
• I've Come Too Far: He doesn't like being forced to work with alien invaders, but it's too late for him to back out; he'll be executed as a collaborator if Earth wins and just wants to make sure the side he picked wins for his own ego. When Sam pleads with him to not reactivate the Control Pillar, he states "There's only one future for me!"
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Initially seems like a condescending love rival to Sam, but otherwise a fairly good and generous guy. Then we found out he's working with the Decepticons, and he just gets worse from there.
• Karmic Death: He reactivates the Control Pillar for the Space Bridge to help the Decepticons complete their plan (he was promised that he would be spared after the takeover). He thus meets his end when Sam knocks him into the Pillar, electrocuting him to death.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Most of what happens to him in the final act falls under this.
  • He keeps Carly in his apartment, and it gets blown apart when Sam rescues her.
  • He convinces Soundwave to execute his villains, but they stick around long enough to be bombarded by a hacked Decepticon ship, which causes Soundwave’s death.
  • He manages to reactivate the control pillar to bring Cybertron to Earth, but in a desperate scuffle with Sam, he falls on the pillar and is electrocuted to death.
• Meaningful Name: A rich man whose surname is Go(u)ld.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: See Beware the Nice Ones.
• Nothing Personal/Just Following Orders: He views assisting the Decepticons as simply working with "clients", and goes through with their plan to ensure that he doesn't get killed off.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He works with the Decepticons since they guaranteed his life if he helped them win. More significantly, he convinces Soundwave to execute Autobot prisoners.
• The Resenter: It comes out in the final battle that he resents Sam for having the freedom to choose his fate, whereas he has never had any choice his whole life.
• Skewed Priorities: "Not the couch! It's Ralph Lauren!"
• Smug Snake: He acts cool and condescending to Sam, and the act lasts as long as his life is safe. At the slightest sign of a threat, he can be seen to visibly crack.
• Spiteful Spit: Gets on the receiving end of this from Sam. It pisses him off, but he’s more concerned that Sam’s defiance will get them both and Carly killed.
• Taking You with Me: He is a human slave working to turn his whole world into slaves. Emphasized in the final battle where he actively supports the Decepticons through reactivating the pillar.
• Verbal Tic: He starts off lines like “You think...?” It ties into him being a spy and subverting assumptions.
• Villain Ball: He's fairly self-serving and sane about it, but the need for the Decepticons to win so that he stays alive degrades his mind until he's convinced that he's saving the world through enslaving it and that Sam's fighting for the wrong side, never mind that the Decepticons enabled a massacre of their own workforce.
• Villainous Breakdown: Starts out relatively cool and collected, but becomes more violent as the Autobots gain the advantage in battle. Arguably justified, as he was sure the 'Cons would win the war, and the Autobots getting closer to victory means he'll have to be responsible for his actions.
• Walking Spoiler: Knowing anything about him beyond that he's Carly's rich boss who collects and races cars gives away a lot of the plot.
• You Will Be Spared: His main intention is this.

Lucas Flannery

"I thought they were going to send a check, not a death squad."

Played by: T.J. Miller

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

A friend of the Yeager family.

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• Anti-Villain: He decides to tell Cemetery Wind about Cade's discovery, as a.), it cannot kill/hurt them if it's away, and b.), they could use the money.
• Butt-Monkey: He is the film's main punching bag, until he gets killed by Lockdown's grenade.
• Karmic Death: After he informs the Cemetery Wind about Optimus's location, he gets killed by Lockdown after escaping from the human soldiers.
• Money, Dear Boy: An In-Universe example of the trope. He informs Cemetery Wind that Optimus is with Cade in hopes of getting money for it. Little did he know that they don't like witnesses.
• Oh, Crap!: Has a few moments of this:
  • He first has one when the truck is discovered to be a Transformer.
  • His second moment comes during the confrontation with Cemetery Wind at the house, when Savoy asks if it was actually cade who called them.
  • He also has a few moments during the following chase scene.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: The Plucky Comic Relief of this film, and he is killed by Lockdown. Things take a really dark turn after that.
• Taken for Granite: Gets turned into a Transformiuim statue by Lockdown's grenade.

Shane Dyson

"I like to smell fresh when I'm making out with your daughter."

Played by: Jack Reynor

Appeared in: Transformers: Age of Extinction

Tessa's boyfriend and a rally car driver.

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• Badass Driver: Well, as a rally car driver, yes, but he outruns what is essentially a gigantic magnet while ships, cars, and various bits of debris crash to the ground around him. And he's doing it in reverse gear.
• Car Fu: Uses his rally car to nail two soldiers who are trying to kill his girlfriend, her dad, and her dad's friend.
• Cool Car: His Chevrolet Sonic RS rally car.
• Cowardly Lion: A stunt driver and all, but when the alien ship and killer sentry robots are concerned, Cade kinda called it while asking if he had his back or would chicken out at the last nanosecond.
• Disappeared Dad: His father ran out on him when he was five.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's one of the good guys but he loves pressing Cade's Berserk Button every chance he gets. Same thing with Bumblebee if not by mistake, which went about as well as you'd expect.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Gets zero mention in The Last Knight and it's implied that he and Tessa have broken up.

Merlin

Played by: Stanley Tucci

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight

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• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: This version is The Alcoholic half the time, but King Arthur himself trusts the other half, for very good reason.
• Doing In the Wizard: Literally! In this verse, Merlin, the archetypal wizard, has no magical powers, rather his feats were the result of possessing a Sufficiently Advanced Alien staff.
• Historical Domain Character: Easily one of the best-known ones.
• Magic Staff: is given one by The Knights of Iacon.
• Touched by Vorlons: He's given the Cybertronian staff.

Jimmy

Played by: Jerrod Carmichael

Appeared in: Transformers: The Last Knight

Cade's co-worker.

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• Black and Nerdy: African-American tech expert.
• Crazy-Prepared: Wired up the junkyard and much of the surrounding area with booby traps and explosives — but probably should have looked into bulletproof vests.