Top 10 Moments in Michael Bay Films
One of the most critically (and audience wise) dividing filmmakers out there, Michael Bay is undoubtedly though a box office king. Despite his larger than life appeal to the masses and his string of commercially successful films, he seems to be getting quite the flack due to his insistence on his trademark style which has not seen much evolution over the course of three decades; the inclusion of shameless product placement (particularly in his later films), crude underage humor and borderline walking caricatures.
Nevertheless, he is one of the few filmmakers that can handle productions of massive scale, creating novel shots with state of the art effects and excessively putting strong emphasis on practical set pieces that shame everything that the copy/paste factory of Marvel produces these days.
Film Mining 101 presents the top 10 moments in Michael Bay films. Some might surprise you.
extra moment: Bad Boys (1995) - The chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Tea Leoni, Joe Pantoliano
Genre: Buddy cop action comedy
Release year: 1995
Country: USA
Bay’s directional debut is nothing too memorable in terms of action or plot. His later well known trademarks have not fully developed at this point but placed complementary and in small doses around the electric chemistry of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence which let’s be honest is the main attraction here. While this is not really a “moment”, Bay sets up gun fights, corpses, gorgeous women and the exotic locale of Miami as a playground for Smith’s and Lawrence banter to hilarious effect since they improvised most of the dialogue much to our amusement. If a film can rise and fall with its stars, then “Bad Boys” is one of the most entertaining buddy comedies in film history.
10. The Rock (1996) - Navy Seals massacre
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Sean Connery, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, William Forsythe
Genre: Action thriller
Release year: 1996
Country: USA
Easily Michael Bay's best movie, "The Rock" has great one liners (with an uncredited scripting pass by Quentin Tarantino), an excellent cast, a multi-dimensional villain and heroes you can related to. Despite several memorable set pieces - setting the mark for Bay’s career like the chaotic San Francisco car chase, nothing stands out more than the massacre of the Navy seals. While attempting to stop Harris' general from launching biochemical weapons, a team of NAVY Seals enters the Rock just to get ambushed. Shot with a tremendous panache (and restrain from Bay’s part who does not glorify the violence here) and complemented by the excellent score of Nick Glenie-Smith and Hans Zimmer, we witness a truly heartbreaking moment making an interesting counterpoint for our villain’s motivations: he relied on terrorism to protect those who serve their country only for some to die in vain. Poetic irony? It is a well done emotional moment that lends more gravitas and impact to the proceedings without rendering them mindless.
9. Armageddon (1998) - "That is my father up there"!
Starring: Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thorton, Liv Tayler, Michael Clark Duncan, Steve Buscemi
Genre: Science fiction disaster
Release year: 1998
Country: USA
Proof that Michael Bay can handle emotion, the last closing moments of the cheese-fest that is "Armageddon" can cause even a grown up man to cry. Following up one of the best action flicks of the 90’s Michael Bay tackled the disaster genre with spectacular box office results. Packed with an incredible cast and tip toeing between heavy melodrama, full on action flick and comedy, it was most surprising to see that no matter how many explosions he can craft, Bay can be supported by a good scripting segment. After learning that her father (Willis) will stay behind to and blow up the behemothic asteroid, Liv Tayler’s character starts screaming "That is my father up there!" against Billy Bob Thorton's NASA chief. Assisted by the excellent cinematography of John Schwartzman and a truly thunderous score by Trevor Rabin, Bay showcases diligently that no matter how many lives are at stake, the family ties guide our emotions even on our final moments. If that does not get you, I am not sure what will.
8. Pearl Harbor (2001) - Attack on Pearl Harbor
Actors: Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett, Kate Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin, Jon Voight
Genre: Supernatural horror
Release year: 2001
Country: USA
Although the film was a spectacular (and expensive) misfire that tried to echo the massive success of "Titanic" (1997) and serious war flicks due to its corny love triangle and weak leads, “Pearl Harbor” has one saving grace that helps the film avoid cinematic mediocrity: the actual attack. Michael Bay goes ballistic in the forty minute set piece and accurately recreates entire segments of the doomed harbor with incredible special effects and vast sets surpassing “Titanic” in terms of scale. While the rest of the film relies of heavy handed cliché and poor dialogue, during these actual 40 minutes, you will definitely feel awe, sadness and panic despite the numb PG-13 rating. It makes you wonder what Bay could do with an incredible script at his hands. And that bomb drop is one of the greatest shots in the history of cinema. Period.
7. Bad Boys 2 (2003)
Starring: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Jordi Molla, Gabrielle Union, Joe Pantoliano
Genre: Buddy cop action comedy
Release year: 2003
Country: USA
The freeway car chase
Considering the heavy blockbuster competition back in 2003 that promoted more than 10 minutes car chases e.g., (“Terminator: Rise of the Machines” and “The Matrix Reloaded”), “Bad Boys 2” standout segment is the car carrier sequence in the streets of Miami. Implementing stellar stunt work that sees cars (and boats too!) participating in an outstanding demolition derby, it is hard to argue with Bay’s ability to practically craft outrageous sequences without a single note of unbelievability.
The rotating shot
Slightly cheating here but “Bad Boys 2” offers perhaps one of the most ambitious and visually appealing shots of Bay’s career. In a film that contains so much movement, style and sound, Bay captures Lawrence and Smith’s cop duo during a gun battle with a group of baddies in the opposites sites of the same wall. His camera rotates 360 degrees around the characters’ location showcasing the sides of the same wall interacting with bullets. It is an undeniably neat trick for the eyes which he will later reuse on other films like "Transformers" (2007) and "Pain and Gain" (2013).
6. The Island (2005) - The trainwheel chase
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Sean Bean, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi
Genre: Science fiction action
Release year: 2005
Country: USA
Easily one of his better films, "The Island" starts promising enough - with the exception of the in-your-face product placement - only to become a traditional Michael Bay action film. Having said that, it still contains one of my favorite car chases (it almost feels that Michael Bay has to put a car chase) on celluloid that sees the protagonistic duo attempting to flee the clutches of Djimon Hounsou’s team by using … train wheels and a hover bike. As the audience, we would have never thought that these items could be the catalyst of for spectacular car crashes.
5. Transformers (2007) - Arrival of Autobots/Optimus Prime assembles
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turtoro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Peter Weller
Genre: Science fiction action
Release year: 2007
Country: USA
Before he became obsessed with larger than life explosions, the incorporation of unlikeable caricatures and messy scripts that saw the Transformers influencing key history moments, it is easy to forget how reliably self contained the first film felt. Having shown restraint at revealing the talking robots, Bay wisely builds up their presence in the first half until we see the Autobots arriving on Earth in a beautifully scored sequence by Steve Jablonwski. When Optimus Prime finally assembles in front of the eyes of Sam and Mikaela in such a photorealistic fashion with thousands of parts moving, it is hard to resist this impact of this moment, and like them, we feel puny and mesmerized at the same time.
4. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) - Forest battle
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, John Turtoro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Peter Weller
Genre: Science fiction action
Release year: 2009
Country: USA
While “Revenge of the Fallen” dropped the ball significantly in the quality department with even Bay and star Shia LaBeouf acknowledging its faults (which to be fair these can be blamed to the writers’ strike in Hollywood at that time), the sequel to the smash hit of 2007 does pack a few wonderous moments (if you can get past the incomprehensible plot and stock characters). The forest fight between Optimus Prime and the three Decepticons (Megatron, Starscream, Grindor) is quite incredible with metal clashing against metal. With clear geography and camera work that showcases the scale of the fight, we witness how brutal of a warrior Optimus can really be even at overwhelming odds, culminating in a terrific emotional moment. In a film that lacks real thrills, it is perhaps this moment alone that makes you feel that you are watching an actual story.
3.Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) - Skyscraper collapsing
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, John Turtoro, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, Peter Weller, Hugo Weaving
Genre: Science fiction action
Release year: 2011
Country: USA
In an attempt to erase from the memory the negative taste of the previous entry, Bay decided to go into a less child-friendly territory and if ambition could be measured in excess, then “Dark of the Moon” could be the most ambitious movie ever made. Despite Bay populating with film with various catastrophic set pieces, the standout from a technical and directional point of view is the collapse of a skyscraper by Shockwave (with our heroes trapped inside). Not only the special effects are top notch and offers something unique in terms of visuals, a film connoisseur is unable to decipher where CGI ends and starts. This is a testament of Bay’s ability to handle exquisitely large scale spectacle and to provide sequences that we have not seen before. No matter what criticisms you may have, this is undeniably a landmark moment in action cinema.
2.Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014) - Dropping a steamboat from the sky
Starring: Mark Walberg, Stanley Tucci, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson , Kelsey Grammer
Genre: Science fiction action
Release year: 2014
Country: USA
With the now billion dollar franchise of “Transformers”, it felt impossible for Bay to expand his mechanical mayhem beyond the scale of the “Dark of the Moon”. Yet unsurprisingly, Bay indulges on his best (and worst) action impulses delivering a similar event of Chicago destruction. This time around Hong Kong gets obliviated from the skirmishes between the Autobots and the Decepticons. And just when you think you have seen it all, Bay’s eye for gorgeously detailed explosive visuals provides an even more outrageous moment: buildings, and ships are being pulled up by a spacecraft only for them to crash land and block our heroes path. It is a phenomenal sequence that demonstrates again Bay’s ability to deliver the (novel) goods in the action department with fresh sequences of mayhem.
1.13 Hours: The Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Mortar attack
Starring: James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Pablo Schreiber, Max Martini, David Denman
Genre: War
Release year: 2016
Country: USA
Bay was back in serious action movie mode with the modern warfare of “13 Hours” following seven years with the transforming aliens. Seeing surprisingly restrained with the still explosive action sequences, Bay presents during the mortar attack sequence a greatest hits compilation. With stylistic influences from “The Rock” to “Pearl Harbor” - a shot of the mortal dropping echoes the same shot of the bomb drop in “Pearl Harbor”, sparks fly on the heroes faces, gorgeous slo mo, he manages to maintain a sense of suspense and drama during the raid in the American embassy with respect to those involved. Although there are still Bayerisms to be found, the sense of restraint makes this sequence (and film) worth your attention.