These multitudinous plot holes would be more forgivable if the series leaned in harder on its noncommittal relationship with the story. However, the entire Transformers film series, especially the Michael Bay entries, present themselves as epic sagas, each of them breaching the 2-hour mark in runtime with a maddening insistence on their unremarkable human casts. As it stands, there's no excuse for the blatant issues with continuity the franchise has grappled with since its conception with Transformers in 2007.

8 The Fallen Was Defeated By Prehistoric Humans

Sticks and stones may somehow break advanced alien weaponry

Introduced as the titular villain above even Megatron in rank among the Decepticons, The Fallen from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was revealed to have been on Earth for millennia. The ancient mastermind behind the sinister faction spends most of his screen-time confined to a sort of life- throne aboard the Nemesis, clearly still nursing some old wounds. The circumstances behind this injury, when they're finally revealed, are some of the most impossible to believe bits of lore from the entire series.

It turns out that The Fallen had originally attempted to terraform the Earth in the image of Cybertron, callously disregarding the lives of the primitive humans who were already living there. But somehow, the pre-historical humans were able to defeat him, even though the films clearly show modern military hardware struggling to keep up with the Decepticons of the present day. The prospect of paleolithic hunter-gatherers somehow standing a chance against a Transformer stretches suspension of disbelief far past its breaking point.

7 Frenzy Snuck On To Air Force One As A Boombox

One of the most secure flights in the world didn't notice an outdated piece of technology

The first Transformers made some effort to depict the Decepticions as actually being deceptive, especially in a scene in which the pint-sized espionage expert, Frenzy, infiltrates Air Force One. Of all the great devices for Frenzy to emulate in order to gain access to the prestigious airline, he chooses to Transform into a Boombox, which somehow goes unnoticed by the Secret Service underneath one of the plane's seats. An outdated piece of technology even by 2007 standards, it's baffling that the presidential plane would let Frenzy slip under their radar in this form.

6 The Existence Of The Transformers Somehow Manages To Be Kept Secret

The Transformers series suggests an impossibly good cover-up

Though the Transformers' famous subtitle, "Robots In Disguise", implies a certain subtlety to the Cybertronians' presence on Earth, the cybernetic aliens of the Michael Bay films are anything but subtle. After the open brawl between Autobots and Decepticons in the middle of a crowded city in broad daylight at the climax of the first film, it should be impossible for anyone on the planet to not be aware of the species' existence. Yet for the next two films, audiences are asked to believe that knowledge of the Transformers is still largely a secret, with civilians being utterly shocked at future battles in similarly dense urban environments.

5 Sam Witwicky Isn’t Able To Get A Job After Publicly Saving The World

The job market can be rough, but Sam's luck is cosmically bad

After the Transformers become even more of an open secret in the explosive final battle in Egypt in Revenge of The Fallen, Sam Witwicky's bravery in the face of whirling robot destruction is publicly acknowledged, with President Obama himself bestowing him a Medal of Honor. Yet somehow, Sam isn't able to find a job anywhere in Dark of the Moon, despite being famous for having quite literally saved the world twice. No wonder Megan Fox's Mikaela left him in between films.

4 The Former Primes Don't Warn Sam About Sentinel

His trippy dream sequence was all for nought

In Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Sam makes a brief detour into a sort of metaphysical Transformers heaven, coming face to face with all the previous primes in an ethereal realm in the style of Avatar: The Last Airbender's Aang. Yet the former primes didn't give Sam much useful information, including a crucial warning of the duplicitous Sentinel Prime, who secretly betrayed the Autobots with a pact with Megatron. If they couldn't tell him this information for whatever reason, Sam should've still learned it when the AllSpark's knowledge invaded his mind, even mentioning Sentinel by name during his ramblings.

3 The Creators Plan To Terraform Earth Makes Zero Sense

The introduction of a higher species above the Cybertronians introduces a mess of issues

The Transformers franchise was constantly moving the goalpost in of how long the aliens had actually been on Earth for, revealing history of extraterrestrial meddling further and further in human history. The breaking point of this trend comes when Transformers: Age of Extinction, when it's revealed that a race of Creators originally slated the Earth for renovation for machine life as far back as the dinosaur age. This lore dump completely breaks the established canon in countless ways, including making The Fallen's previous efforts to terraform Earth seem like a moot point.

2 Lockdown And Attinger Work Together Despite Hating Each Other

By all s, neither of Age of Extinction's main villains have any business working together

Finally, having moved on from Megatron, Transformers: Age of Extinction presents several new villains for the Autobots to contend with, namely Attinger, a rogue C.I.A. agent with a personal vendetta against the Transformers, and Lockdown, an unaligned Cybertronian bounty hunter working for the Creators. Yet despite Attinger hating Transformers and Lockdown despising humans, the two work together, delivering Transformium to Joshua Joyce so can can mass-produce human-made Transformers. This working arrangement runs completely counter to both of the antagonist's ideals, yet it happens anyway simply so that the film's hackneyed plot can continue to lurch forward.

1 Optimus Prime Could Suddenly Fly

Even though the Autobots are mostly cars, they fly now

Optimus Prime's characterization is completely unhinged in the Michael Bay movies, frequently breaking into bouts of psychotically cruel dialogue and partaking in some of the Transformers series most brutal kills. In Transformers: Age of Extinciton, he accumulates yet another mark against his character by revealing that he has rocket boosters he could've used to fly the entire time, despite insisting on riding Grimlock into battle earlier in the film. What's worse, this reveal makes the Transformer Jetfire's sacrifice in Revenge of the Fallen completely irrelevant, since Optimus could've apparently flown by his own power.