By Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Transformers: Age of Extinction director Michael Bay clarified some key aspects of the film’s plot; specifically the character Lockdown.
Lockdown is an interesting character. He travels the galaxy, he works for somebody else. And he’s here for one person, one alien, and then he’s out of here. So he doesn’t really want to take sides. The cause and balance of the galaxy is kind of messed up when different species play with different species. And that opens up a whole other gigantic world for Transformers.
Fans of the Transformers: Animated cartoon may remember Lockdown — voiced by Aliens veteran Lance Henriksen — as a smooth-talking weapons enthusiast. Movieverse Lockdown, much like other characters adapted for the Bay films, appears to have been ramped up. He’s gone from “weapons enthusiast” to “has a gun for a face.” So maybe Bay knows what he’s doing here.
There will also be an explanation for the Dinobots, but ol’ Mikey wants to keep things under wraps. “You’ll understand why they’re there when you see the movie.” Bay was similarly vague about “Lockdown’s ship,” claiming that it had “a lot of meaning that can go into other movies. There’s a lot of backstory about that ship that’s not laid out here.”
I took particular amusement from this little blurb about the audience finally getting to see “angry Optimus Prime.” As if the violent psychopath who once yelled “Give me your face!” whilst ripping somebody’s face off was not angry enough.
This movie’s gonna be dark.