It stars Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci, with Kelsey Grammer, Nicola Peltz, Jack Reynor, Sophia Myles, Bingbing Li, Titus Welliver, and T.J. Miller in supporting roles.

Optimus, badly damaged in Mexico City, hides in Texas and is discovered by Cade Yeager, a financially struggling inventor and a single father.

Hoping to collect an advertised reward, Lucas alerts the authorities, and James Savoy, Attinger's field commanding operative, attacks the Yeager farm, but Optimus, and Tessa's secret boyfriend, Irish rally car driver Shane Dyson, rescue the family.

CEO, Joshua Joyce, is in league with Attinger to revolutionize global defenses and improve human society using the Seed to make more Transformium.

While Lockdown's large prison spacecraft hovers over Chicago to hand over the Seed, Cade, Shane, and the Autobots sneak on board to rescue Optimus and Tessa.

Cade informs Joshua, who agrees to hand over the Seed with help from Darcy and his Chinese business associate Su Yueming.

During the fight, Cade sends Savoy plummeting to his death while Optimus frees the Dinobots and wins their allegiance through trial by combat, becoming essential to the Autobots' victory.

Optimus asks the Autobots to protect the Yeagers while Joshua offers to help them build a new home, before flying away into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators that he is coming for them.

During production for Dark of the Moon, Shia LaBeouf and Michael Bay stated that they would not return for a fourth installment of the franchise.

[32] Roland Emmerich, Joe Johnston, Jon Turteltaub, Stephen Sommers, Louis Leterrier and David Yates were rumored to replace Bay.

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner revealed that he was able to announce the film as he was talking with Steven Spielberg, Bay and Paramount Pictures.

[59] From May 28 to June 24, 2013, Michael Bay uploaded photographs of several cars featured in the film, all apparently Autobots, to social networks including Facebook and Flickr.

On October 29, Michael Bay's Official Twitter Account tweeted that principal photography of Transformers 4 had been completed in Hong Kong, and the cast and crew were heading to the Chinese mainland.

[63] On October 17, 2013, while filming in Hong Kong, director Michael Bay was assaulted by two brothers surnamed Mak, who demanded a payment of HK$100,000 (12,900 U.S. dollars).

[64] The Mak brothers pleaded guilty to both charges in February 2014 and were incarcerated, with the prosecutor noting that the case had attracted a great deal of media attention and affected Hong Kong's image.

[65] Industrial Light & Magic's VFX supervisor Scott Farrar, who had also supervised the three prior films in the Transformers franchise, rendered the visual effects.

It is also the first Transformers film for which rock band Linkin Park did not contribute an original song, though their single "Until It's Gone" is included in the soundtrack of the video game based on the movie.

[75][76] On November 20, 2014, Steve Jablonsky released a statement via Facebook saying that the score would no longer be available on iTunes and other digital music stores after it had reached its limit of 15,000 units before re-use fees would have to be paid.

[citation needed] Chevrolet aired a commercial at the New York International Auto Show featuring General Motors vehicles with clips from the film, along with putting them on display.

[82] Hasbro released an app on May 8 surrounding the film available for iOS and Android devices, allowing users to access exclusive material such as character biographies, images, and the interviews with the stars, among other things.

[citation needed] During an appearance on the Canadian version of The Morning Show, both Reynor and Peltz promised big things that would please fans.

[citation needed] At the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards on March 29, 2014, Mark Wahlberg, who stars in the film, hosted the event.

[citation needed] There was also a transmission from Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime, and Nicola Peltz and Jack Reynor assembled with Wahlberg to take out cannons that fired slime.

[97] In February 2014, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark, developed by Edge of Reality, published by Activision was announced as a companion to the film.

The site's critical consensus reads, "With the fourth installment in Michael Bay's blockbuster Transformers franchise, nothing is in disguise: Fans of loud, effects-driven action will find satisfaction, and all others need not apply.

"[148] A. O. Scott of The New York Times said in his review that "The story is scaffolding for the action and like every other standing structure, it is wrecked in a thunderous shower of metal, glass, masonry, and earth.

"[149] Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter commented on his review that it "barely skirts the idea that humankind and planet Earth are about to be totally annihilated.

"[150] Roth Cornet of IGN gave the film a score of 6.3 out of 10, praising the "slightly darker/surprising tone and Lockdown" and his ship while criticizing the "logic/script issues and long running time.

"[151] Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave the film one out of five stars, commenting that "If the 'human scenes' all reek of adolescent dialogue and dopey snark masquerading as character development, it's a toss-up if that's better or worse than seeing clattering collections of caliginous junk.

[153] The sequel, titled The Last Knight, was released on June 21, 2017, to both critical and commercial failure, with Bay stating it was his final entry of the series.