In the film, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Sam Witwicky must lead the Autobots against Megatron and the Decepticons as they battle to possess powerful technology abandoned on the Moon, in order to restore Cybertron.

During a mission to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster to investigate suspected alien technology, the Autobots are attacked by Decepticon scientist Shockwave and his giant worm Driller.

Kruger had frequent meetings with Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) visual effects producers, who suggested plot points such as the scenes in Chernobyl.

[13] Additionally writer Jenni Konner was brought on to help punch up the script, fleshing out the female characters, and adding humorous jokes.

[18] Bay originally was not much interested in the format as he felt it did not fit his "aggressive style" of filmmaking, but he was convinced after talks with Avatar director James Cameron,[19] who even offered the technical crew from that film.

"[20] Bay was reluctant to shoot with 3D cameras since in test he found them to be too cumbersome for his filming style, but he did not want to implement the technology in post-production either since he was not pleased with the results.

[23] After Revenge of the Fallen was almost universally panned by critics and audiences, Bay acknowledged the general flaws of the script, having blamed the 2007-08 Writers strike before the film for many problems.

David Warner (Burton's influence on his Shockwave voice) was briefly considered, but the role was ultimately given to Frank Welker, adding to his already long list of Transformers characters.

[36][37] Skids and Mudflap were omitted from Dark of the Moon in response to Revenge of the Fallen's negative reception and the characters' "dorky comedy", which Bay realized that they formed "a final crescendo".

On October 16, a flashback scene that takes place in the later 1960s was shot at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, using extras with period fashion and hairstyles.

[67] Nevertheless, Cedillo's family filed a lawsuit on October 5, citing seven counts of negligence against Paramount, and several other defendants (not including Bay), with total damages sought in excess of $350,000.

[73] As with the previous Transformers installments, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was the main CGI visual effects company for Dark of the Moon.

[74] Digital Domain also rendered 350 CGI shots, including the characters Laserbeak, Brains, Wheelie, and the Decepticon protoforms concealed on the Moon, the space bridge, and a skydiving sequence.

[77] For said sequence, ILM relied on its internal proprietary physics simulation engine to depict the destruction of the building, which included breaking concrete floors and walls, windows, columns and pieces of office furnishings.

And we'd add destruction to all the backgrounds – smoke, fire, debris, fighter planes, war, battles, torn up streets – to real cityscapes.

"[78] Four ILM employees also traveled to Chicago and photographed buildings from top to bottom at six different times of the day in order to create a digital model of the city to be used in certain scenes.

[13] ILM's crew designed many major action scenes,[13] with many of the Chicago battle concepts coming from the helicopter shooting of the aerial plates.

[74] Animator Scott Benza said Sentinel Prime had a face "more human-like than any of the other robots", with a more complex frame and "a greater number of plates" so it could be more expressive.

[74] For a sequence where Bumblebee catches Sam and Lennox while transforming in mid-air, a digital double of Shia LaBeouf was combined with footage of the actor in high speed so that the effects team could time it for slow-motion.

My Chemical Romance's song "The Only Hope for Me Is You" also appeared and can also be found on their fourth studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys and on the soundtrack.

The graphic novel made reference to several Autobots from the IDW Publishing tie-in comics who died in the stories between Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon.

And yet only a handful knew the real mission behind America's triumph in the space race: to explore the alien ship that has crashed on the far side of the moon.

Electronic Arts released the game Transformers: Dark of the Moon on June 28, 2011, for Nokia Symbian smartphones, Apple products iPod Touch, iPhones, and iPad[99][100] and Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices.

[139] Don Harris, general manager of distribution for Paramount, commented on the results of Dark of the Moon: "If we hadn't chosen to debut the movie later in Japan and China, we probably would have had the all-time record.

The site's critical consensus reads, "Its special effects—and 3D shots—are undeniably impressive, but they aren't enough to fill up its loud, bloated running time, or mask its thin, indifferent script.

Scott in The New York Times wrote "I can't decide if this movie is so spectacularly, breathtakingly dumb as to induce stupidity in anyone who watches, or so brutally brilliant that it disarms all reason.

[170] Neil Schneider of Meant to be Seen, a website focused on stereoscopic 3-D gaming and entertainment, remarked that "while Transformers: Dark of the Moon had the scrapings of a really good story, this 3-D movie was shot with a 2-D script."

"[172] Despite previous discussions regarding Bay's departure of the Transformers film series, he returned to direct a sequel, and development of the follow-up began afterward.

[205] Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) received a less enthusiastic response and achieved similar financial success as Dark of the Moon, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2014.

[209][210] The series narrative was expanded in two films that preceded the first five: Bumblebee (2018) shows the title character arriving on Earth; and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) focuses on the conflict between the Autobots and the Maximals, and the Terrorcons.