Tai Freligh was at the press junket for Transformers: The Last Knight and has this footage description…
I was among members of the press in Los Angeles on Wednesday who watched a fifteen to twenty minute IMAX preview of Transformers: The Last Knight footage. It was several vignettes featuring the main cast members, including Mark Wahlberg, Anthony Hopkins, Laura Haddock and also new supporting cast in Isabela Moner and Jerrod Carmichael. We’ll have our one-on-one interviews with them up later this week.
The opening salvo showed a battle in medieval times with giant fireballs launched into the air, blowing men off their horses. A huge battle is raging and we see armored men fighting on the ground and on horses. We soon discover that one side of the battle is being fought by King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who get name checked. They are looking for a magician named Merlyn, but some of the men are doubtful he’ll show up. Cut to a scraggly bearded and drunk Stanley Tucci on a horse in the middle of the mountains. We’ll just assume that he’s the magician. He discovers a staff with Transformer markings on it and a cross in the ground with blood dripping off the corner.
We now see Optimus Prime floating in space, but talking to his makers about wanting redemption.
Now we see some young kids walking onto a football stadium field and looking at Transformer wreckage. They look inside the crashed ship and see a robot. They think he’s dead until he opens his eyes and moves. They freak out and start running. At the same time, security robots come onto the scene and tell them they are in a restricted area and need to leave immediately. Other robots are now chasing them and threatening to fire. A small blue robot is trying to run away and gets blasted by a security bot. Suddenly a small girl appears at the top of a hill and yells to the security bot. She then throws some gas bombs at them. Bumblebee comes out of an alleyway and helps. The girl, Izabela, brings the kids and robot under a pile of rubble which turns out to be another Transformer-Canopy. He rises up and they start to run away, but not before a military plane shoots him with a missile, effectively destroying him. Izabela wants to try and save him, but it’s too late. Cade shows up in a truck and tells them all to get in while he throws bombs and shoots at the security bots. They all drive off with security in pursuit of them.
Cut to another scene where Cade is walking through the rubble and finds himself with green laser targeting sights on his chest. He kneels down and puts his hands behind his head as multiple military vehicles and men surround him. An officer asks him where his friends are, but he won’t give them up.
We’re now in a car lot where Cade and Jimmy are working. Jimmy spots a flying drone and sounds the alarm. Everybody grabs their stuff and flees the scene. Military trucks launch a bunch of drones and flying attack bots. The group runs into an abandoned church with the drones hot on their tails. A bunch of gunfire is exchanged while they run up and lock themselves in a room. Jimmy whines about forgetting his gun and it looks like they are all trapped.
Another time jump takes place as we now see Cade come flying into an abandoned area on top of one of the drones that is smoking and damaged. He rolls onto the ground and is greeted by some Autobots and a new smaller humanoid-looking robot that reminded me of C-3PO. He tells Cade that he is the one and that he needs to make the most important choice of his life. Izabela and Jimmy show up and he says good bye to them.
We’re now out in the English countryside with sweeping views of an enormous castle. We see Anthony Hopkins’ character, Sir Edmund Burton, walking his dog. Cade and the smaller robot are walking towards the castle and eventually meet up with Burton, but not before an old and decrepit tank Transformer tries to shoot at them. Sir Edmund shows Cade the small Transformer medallion and says he was chosen. The medallion crawls up Cade’s arm and attaches itself to him. Burton starts to explain why they are here when a fancy sports car comes speeding up and transforms into a robot, throwing a woman out of the car and onto the ground. She is obviously distraught and tries to fight the robot. This is our other main character, Viviane, who Burton has enlisted for help.
Cut to a scene inside where the woman is introduced as Viviane Wembley, a professor of history and other assorted titles, There’s some fun banter between her and Cade, who defends himself as an inventor despite not inventing anything she’s ever heard of. Burton shows them the original round table from the Knights of the Round Table, which the entire castle had been built around. We now see a flashback to Arthur and the Knights at the table toasting to an alliance. In the background we see several large Transformers with swords also raising them in solidarity. The legend says one knight would be chosen to save the world.
More Optimus shots in space. We now see Transformers fighting each other throughout history, including in front of a mansion with giant Nazi banners hanging on them. Burton is narrating, talking about how they always come back. Cade learns that Izabella’s parents were killed by Decepticons and she’s been on the run since. Josh Duhamel’s character has heated dialogue with Cade about how the mission is over. There are a lot of cut scenes here….robots fighting, Transformers coming out of the water, Knights fighting Optimus, a plane crash with people falling out, and finally Bumblebee fighting Optimus as Cade lays defenseless on the ground. And then…the screen fades to the title, Transformers: The Last Knight.
Tai Freligh is a Los Angeles based writer and can be followed on Twitter.
(This was originally published on Flickering Myth)