Showing posts with label Hollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hollywood. Show all posts
St. Vincent (2014)
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St. Vincent (Bill Murray), a drunken, gambling war veteran retiree, gets recruited by his new single-mom neighbor Maggie (Melissa McCarthy) to watch over her undersized 12-year-old son Oliver (Jaeden Lieberher). Vincent's ideas of after-school activities involve racetracks and strip clubs, but eventually the mismatched pair begin to help each other grow up.
The Best of Me (2014)
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A pair of former high school sweethearts reunite after many years when they return to visit their small hometown.
White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)
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In 1988, a teenage girl's life is thrown into chaos when her mother disappears.
The Signal (2014)
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Three MIT students - Jonah, Nic and Haley - are on a road trip to take Haley to California, a decision that's stressing Nic & Haley's relationship. Haley feels Nic is distancing himself from her and Nic explains he doesn't want his muscular dystrophy to hold her back. During their stay in a hotel, Nic and Jonah discover that the hacker NOMAD (who nearly got Jonah and Nic expelled for breaking into MIT servers), has found their location and is taunting them with strange and ominous emails. They track NOMAD to an abandoned house in the middle of Nevada near their path and decide to go after him. After finding nothing in the house, Nic and Jonah black out as Haley is pulled into the air by an unseen force.
Nic, now with 2.3.5.41 tattooed on his arm, wakes up in a strange and sterile underground research facility, where he is questioned by Dr. Wallace Damon, the head of the "transition group" in helping with his strange situation. He tells Nic what they encountered near the house was an EBE: an extra-terrestrial biological entity. Nic remains in disbelief. He is taken to his room where he hears Jonah talking to him through a small vent in the wall, saying his "body feels weird." Nic also notices that his legs, which were previously weak but functional, were now completely numb. When Dr. Damon questions Nic again, Nic tries to get answers about Haley's condition (who is in a coma at the time), but to no avail. After another night, a security alarm goes off and Jonah disappears. Nic and other personnel in the facility find large scorch marks running across the walls. Nic asks Damon where Jonah went, but Damon says Jonah was "never recovered" from the house. Nic tries to break Haley out, but is stopped. After they restrain Nic, he's shocked to discover that his legs have been amputated and replaced by prosthetic legs, made from alien technology. Using these new limbs, Nic breaks himself and Haley out, only to discover they're in the middle of nowhere.
After hijacking a semi-truck, Nic and Haley try to find a way around a seemingly endless canyon that extends around the facility and surrounding area. At a visitor's center, they soon come across Jonah disguised as one of the facility's men dressed in a white HAZMAT. Jonah reveals that he too had limbs taken from him, as his forearms have been replaced with the same alien technology. Jonah speculates that they're all in Area 51 and that this is all a test. After Nic discovers alien tech also implanted on Haley's spine, the trio drive up to a military checkpoint where Jonah tries to hack into their systems only to be shot at, eventually fatally. Nic and Jonah hug as Jonah prepares for his final stand to enable Nic and Haley's escape. He uses his remaining strength and alien tech to subdue the group of soldiers. However, Nic and Haley's escape is short-lived; as they approach the only bridge that would take them over the canyon to the outside world, they soon run into Damon and his military men who blow out the truck's tires. Haley is evacuated by chopper beyond the canyon and, knowing that Nic has mastered use of his legs, Damon tells Nic "you can't reach her." After hearing a loud horn coming from the sky, Nic realizes Damon is NOMAD. Damon then explains that it was Nic who came looking for him, that this was his fault, and adding that Nic is "the perfect integration of human will and alien technology. Our finest achievement." Agitated and emotionally compromised, Nic's bionic legs enable him to sprint at sonic speed across the bridge in the direction of Haley's chopper where he hits an invisible barrier and breaks through.
Nic finds himself inside what appears to be a different facility that is behind the image of the outside world beyond the canyon. Turning back toward the bridge, he sees Damon remove his helmet to reveal he's actually a robotic alien AI. Nic walks towards a window and realizes he isn't in a facility, but is on an alien ship numbered 2.3.5.41 that is about to dock at their home-world (signaled by the horn).
Godzilla (2014)
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Fifteen years later, Joe's son Ford, a US Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer, returns from a tour of duty to his family in San Francisco but has to immediately depart for Japan after Joe is detained for trespassing in the Janjira quarantine zone. Determined to reveal the disaster's true cause, Joe persuades Ford to accompany him to their old home within the zone to retrieve vital data. They successfully retrieve the data but are captured and taken to a secret facility within the plant's ruins. Inside, a giant winged creature emerges from containment and escapes, destroying the facility. Joe is severely wounded and later dies. The incident is reported around the world as a major earthquake.
Serizawa, Graham and Ford join a US Navy task force led by Admiral William Stenz on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga to search for the creature, dubbed "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism," ("MUTO"). The scientists reveal how a 1954 deep sea expedition triggered the appearance of Godzilla, a prehistoric alpha predator; how early nuclear tests were really attempts to kill him; that Project Monarch was formed secretly to study Godzilla; and that the MUTO caused the Janjira destruction. Ford reveals that Joe had monitored echolocation signals that indicated the MUTO was communicating with something.
The MUTO is found feeding off the wreckage of a Russian nuclear submarine it deposited in a forest in Hawaii. The military attacks and the battle shifts to Honolulu International Airport where Ford is waiting for a flight home. Godzilla arrives, causing a tsunami that devastates Waikiki. After briefly fighting Godzilla, the MUTO flies away, and Honolulu is left in ruin. Meanwhile, at a Nevada nuclear waste facility, a second, larger and wingless MUTO, emerges and devastates Las Vegas. The scientists deduce that the second MUTO is female, the two were communicating and will meet to breed.
After the military fails to stop Godzilla when he arrives at the Golden Gate Bridge, Stenz accepts Serizawa's advice and orders the military to withdraw to allow the three monsters to fight. While they battle, soldiers, including Ford, enter the city by HALO jump to find and disarm the warhead. Unable to disarm the warhead at the nest, they put it on a boat for disposal at sea. Ford blows up the nest before the MUTO eggs can hatch, causing the female to leave the battle. Godzilla then kills the male, using his tail to crush the MUTO against a building. The female finds and kills the team on the boat but Ford is saved when Godzilla kills the female by firing his atomic breath down her throat, thus decapitating her. Godzilla then collapses from injury and exhaustion after roaring in victory. Ford pilots the boat out to sea, and is rescued before the warhead detonates.
The next day, Ford finds his family at an emergency shelter. In the city ruins, Godzilla, thought to be dead, suddenly awakens and returns to the ocean hailed 'King of the Monsters".
Dracula Untold (2014)
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Dracula Untold tells the story of Transylvanian prince Vlad III Țepeș, whose period of peace is threatened by Sultan Mehmed II, who demands 1,000 of his kingdom's boys, including Vlad’s own son, Ingeras, to join his army.
In order to save his son, his wife Mirena, and the kingdom he loves, Vlad journeys to Broken Tooth Mountain, where he encounters an ancient sorcerer, Caligula, and enters into a Faustian bargain—one that gives the prince the strength of 100 men, the speed of a falling star and enough power to destroy his enemies. However, he will be afflicted with an insatiable thirst to drink human blood. This ultimately leads him to embrace his destiny as the mythological vampire Dracula.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
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Two years after the Battle of New York,[4] Steve Rogers works in Washington D.C. for the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. under Director Nick Fury, while adjusting to contemporary society. Rogers and Agent Natasha Romanoff are sent with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team, led by Agent Rumlow, to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from Georges Batroc and his mercenaries. Mid-mission, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another agenda: to extract data from the ship's computers for Fury. Rogers returns to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters to confront Fury and is briefed about Project Insight: three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites, designed to preemptively eliminate threats. Unable to decrypt the data recovered by Romanoff, Fury becomes suspicious about Insight and asks senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce to delay the project.
On his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill, Fury is ambushed by assailants led by a mysterious assassin called the Winter Soldier. Fury escapes to Rogers's apartment, and warns Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised. After handing Rogers a flash drive containing data from the ship, Fury is gunned down by the Winter Soldier. Fury dies in surgery, and Hill recovers the body. The next day, Pierce summons Rogers to the Triskelion. When Rogers withholds Fury's information, Pierce brands him a fugitive. Hunted by S.T.R.I.K.E., Rogers meets with Romanoff. Using data in the flash drive they discover a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker in New Jersey, where they activate a supercomputer containing the preserved consciousness of Arnim Zola. Zola reveals that ever since S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded after World War II, Hydra has secretly operated within its ranks, sowing global chaos with the goal that humanity would willingly surrender its freedom in exchange for security. The pair narrowly escape death when a S.H.I.E.L.D. missile destroys the bunker.
Rogers and Romanoff enlist the help of former USAF pararescueman Sam Wilson, whom Rogers befriended, and acquire his powered "Falcon" wingpack. Deducing that S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell is a Hydra mole, they force him to divulge that Zola developed a data-mining algorithm that can identify individuals who might become future threats to Hydra's plans. The Insight Helicarriers will sweep the globe, using satellite-guided guns to eliminate these individuals. Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson are ambushed by the Winter Soldier, who kills Sitwell. During the fight, Rogers recognizes the Winter Soldier as Bucky Barnes, his friend who was captured and experimented upon during WWII. Hill manages to extract the trio to a safehouse where Fury, who had faked his death, is waiting with plans to sabotage the Helicarriers by replacing their controller chips.
After the World Security Council members arrive for the Helicarriers' launch, Rogers broadcasts Hydra's plot to everyone at the Triskelion. Romanoff, disguised as one of the Council members, disarms Pierce. Fury arrives and forces Pierce to unlock S.H.I.E.L.D's database so that Romanoff can leak classified information, exposing Hydra to the public. Following a struggle, Fury shoots Pierce dead. Meanwhile, Rogers and Wilson storm two Helicarriers and replace the controller chips, but the Winter Soldier destroys Wilson's suit and fights Rogers on the third. Rogers fends him off and replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and have the vessels destroy each other. Rogers refuses to fight the Winter Soldier in an attempt to reach his friend, but as the ship collides with the Triskelion, Rogers is thrown out into the Potomac River. The Winter Soldier rescues the unconscious Rogers before disappearing into the woods. With S.H.I.E.L.D. in disarray, Romanoff appears before a Senate subcommittee and Fury, under the cover of his apparent death, heads to Eastern Europe in pursuit of Hydra's remaining cells. Rogers and Wilson decide to find the Winter Soldier, while Rumlow, who was a double agent for Hydra, is hospitalized following the Triskelion's destruction.
In a mid-credits scene, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, at a Hydra lab, proclaims that the "age of miracles" has begun as scientists examine an energy-filled scepter1 and two prisoners: one with superhuman speed, the other with telekinetic powers. In a post-credits scene, the Winter Soldier visits a Bucky memorial at the Smithsonian Institution.
Fury (2014)
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The film is set during the last month of the European Theater of war during World War II in April 1945. As the Allies make their final push into Nazi Germany, a battle-hardened U.S. Army sergeant in the 2nd Armored Division named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a M4A3E8 Sherman tank called "Fury" and its five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
Annabelle (2014)
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John Gordon has found the perfect gift for both his pregnant wife Mia and their unborn child—Annabelle, a beautiful and rare vintage doll in a pure white wedding dress. Unfortunately, the family's delight with the doll is short-lived. On one horrific night, their home is invaded by members of a satanic cult, who violently attack John and Mia. Spilled blood and terror are not all they leave behind. The cultists have conjured an entity, which is so malevolent that nothing they did will compare to the sinister conduit to the damned that is now Annabelle.
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
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In the future, robots known as Sentinels are exterminating all mutants, as well as any humans who seek to help them. A band of mutants evades the Sentinels with the help of Kitty Pryde, who can project a person's consciousness into the past. Pryde's group convenes with Storm, Wolverine, Professor Xavier, and Magneto at a monastery in China. Pryde sends Wolverine's consciousness to 1973 to prevent Mystique from assassinating Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels. Following the assassination, Mystique was captured, and her DNA was used by Trask's company to create Sentinels, whose ability to adapt to any mutant power makes them almost invincible. Xavier and Magneto advise Wolverine to find both of their younger selves for help.
Wolverine awakens in 1973. At the X-Mansion, he encounters Xavier and Beast. Xavier's Institute for Gifted Youngsters has closed after most of the teachers and students were drafted for the Vietnam War. Xavier, now a broken man, is overusing a serum which allows him to walk and suppresses his telepathy. Wolverine explains his mission and persuades Xavier to help free Magneto from a prison cell beneath the Pentagon, where he is being held for allegedly assassinating President John F. Kennedy. They rescue Magneto with the help of Peter Maximoff, a mutant with superhuman speed.
In Washington D.C., Trask unsuccessfully lobbies Congress to gain support for his Sentinel program. Meanwhile, in Saigon, Mystique prevents William Stryker from appropriating a group of mutant G.I.s for Trask's research. Mystique investigates Trask's office and discovers he has been capturing mutants to use in experiments. Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and Wolverine fly to Paris to intercept Mystique. In Paris, Mystique impersonates a South Vietnamese general to infiltrate the Paris Peace Accords with Trask, who is trying to sell his Sentinel technology to communist nations. Xavier, Magneto, Beast, and Wolverine arrive as Mystique is about to kill Trask. Magneto tries to kill Mystique to ensure her DNA cannot be used for the Sentinels, but she jumps from a window. The fight spills onto the street in view of the public, allowing Magneto and Mystique to escape. During this time in the future, Pryde's control over Logan weakens, who injures Pryde.
Trask is saved, but the world is horrified by the existence of mutants. President Richard Nixon approves Trask's Sentinel program and arranges an unveiling ceremony. Trask's scientists recover Mystique's blood from the street. Meanwhile, Magneto—who has recovered his telepathy-blocking helmet—intercepts the prototype Sentinels in transit and laces their polymer-based frames with steel, allowing him to control them. At the mansion, Xavier stops taking his serum and slowly regains his mental powers, while losing the ability to walk. Through Wolverine, Xavier speaks to his future self and is inspired to work for peace between humans and mutants once again. He uses Cerebro to track Mystique, who is heading to Washington D.C.
As Xavier, Wolverine, and Beast search for Mystique, Nixon unveils the Sentinel prototypes at the White House. Magneto commandeers the Sentinels and attacks the crowd, then sets the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium around the White House as a barricade. Nixon and Trask, accompanied by the Cabinet, Secret Service officers, and Mystique (disguised as a Secret Service member), are taken to a safe room. Wolverine and Beast try to stop Magneto, but he pits a Sentinel against them and then throws Wolverine into the Potomac River. In the future, the X-Men make their final stand as a large army of Sentinels attack the monastery. In 1973, Magneto pulls the safe room from the White House and prepares to kill Nixon and his Cabinet. Mystique, disguised as Nixon, incapacitates Magneto with a plastic gun. Xavier persuades Mystique to spare Trask and allows her and Magneto to flee. Mystique's actions are seen as a mutant saving the President, leading to the cancellation of the Sentinel program. Trask is arrested for trying to sell American military secrets.
Wolverine wakes up in the future to find Iceman, Rogue, Colossus, Pryde, Beast, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops, and Xavier alive. In 1973, Mystique impersonates Stryker and takes custody of Wolverine.
In a post-credits scene, a crowd chants to En Sabah Nur, who is using telekinesis to build pyramids as four horsemen keep watch nearby.
Divergent (2014)
Every year, 16-year-olds undergo a serum-based aptitude test that indicates the faction into which they would best fit, and informs their choice at the Choosing Ceremony. Beatrice takes the test with a Dauntless woman named Tori (Maggie Q) as her proctor. Her test shows attributes of three factions (Abnegation, Erudite and Dauntless), meaning she is Divergent. Tori records her result as Abnegation and warns her to keep the true result a secret, telling her that since Divergents can think independently and the government therefore cannot control them, they are considered threats to the existing social order.
The next day at the Choosing Ceremony, Beatrice's brother Caleb (Ansel Elgort) chooses Erudite, while with hesitation, Beatrice chooses Dauntless. After the ceremony, Beatrice meets Christina (Zoë Kravitz) and Al (Christian Madsen), two Candors who chose Dauntless, and Will (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), an Erudite who also chose Dauntless. The Dauntless initiates are given tests such as jumping from a moving train and taking a leap of faith from a tall building into a large dark hole. During these tests, the initiates meet Eric (Jai Courtney), a brutal leader of Dauntless, and Four (Theo James), the transfer initiates' instructor. Beatrice volunteers first to jump off the building and leap into the hole, which has her branded as First Jumper. After the jump, when Four asks her name, Beatrice decides to shorten it to "Tris."
Tris initially struggles in Dauntless training, ranking 32nd out of 33 after the first evaluation, but slowly improves. After being forced to fight her enemy Peter (Miles Teller) and being hospitalized, Tris almost fails out of Dauntless, but redeems herself by playing a key role in winning a capture-the-flag game.
After the physical stage of Dauntless training, the initiates are put into simulations in order to face their fears. Tris' divergence allows her to excel at these tests, but Four, who strikes up a relationship with Tris, warns her to conceal the reasons behind her success and to solve the challenges the way a true Dauntless would.
Tris visits her brother, Caleb, in Erudite, who tells her that Erudite is planning to overthrow Abnegation and become the ruling faction. On her return to Dauntless headquarters, Tris is attacked due to her success in training, with Peter, Al, and Drew attempting to throw her into a chasm. She is eventually rescued by Four. The next day, Al pleads with Tris for her forgiveness but she refuses and calls him a coward. Later, she is shocked to learn Al has killed himself by jumping into the chasm.
In preparation for her final test, Four takes Tris into his own fear simulations, where she finds out that one of his fears is taking orders he doesn't want to do. She also finds out that his real name is Tobias, and he is the son of Abnegation leader and head of government, Marcus Eaton. After the simulation, Four and Tris realize their feelings for each other and share a romantic kiss. When the day of the test comes, Tris passes without revealing she is Divergent. During the post-test celebration, the Dauntless are injected with a serum which is said to be administered as a tracking device, but which is revealed to be a mind control serum.
Controlling the heavily armed members of Dauntless through the serum, Erudite manipulates them into attacking Abnegation. Divergents are unaffected, so Tris and Four have to blend in and act as though they are affected by the serum. During a raid at Abnegation, Eric spots that Four is not under mind-control, and Four and Tris are caught and separated. Tris' mother Natalie (Ashley Judd) appears and rescues Tris, but dies while doing so. During the escape, Tris is forced to kill Will when, under the effects of the serum, he attacks her. To stop Erudite's plan, Tris, her father, brother, and Marcus sneak into the Dauntless headquarters. Seeing that Peter is not under the serum, Tris orders him to take them to Erudite's operations room. Her father sacrifices himself in a shootout. Tris goes in alone and finds Four, who is now under a more advanced form of mind-control that works even on Divergents. After a fight she manages to wake him from his stupor, knowing he cannot shoot her while looking at her face, for that is one of his fears. Erudite leader Jeanine (Kate Winslet) is about to start the protocols that will make Dauntless kill every Abnegation. Before Jeanine pushes the button, Tris intervenes by throwing a knife that stabs Jeanine's hand. Tris can't make Jeanine abort the program and Tris can't kill her since she knows the code. Instead, she injects Jeanine with the serum and orders her to stop the program. She does and when everyone is released from mind-control, she realizes it and tries to kill Tris. Tris knocks her out and escapes Dauntless with Caleb, Peter, Four, and Marcus on the train, intending to ride to the end of the tracks.
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Hazel Grace Lancaster is an intelligent and sarcastic Indianapolis teenager coping with terminal thyroid cancer that has metastasized to her lungs. Believing her to be depressed, Hazel's mother urges her to attend a cancer patients' support group at a local church to make friends. During a support meeting, Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a teen who had suffered from osteosarcoma that caused him to lose his leg. After the meeting Augustus invites Hazel to his house, where they bond over their similar interests and views on cancer. Before she leaves, they agree to read each other's favorite novels. Hazel recommends to Augustus An Imperial Affliction, a novel about a cancer-stricken girl named Anna that parallels Hazel's own experience. After Augustus finishes reading her book, he is frustrated upon learning that the novel ends abruptly without a conclusion. Hazel explains that the novel's mysterious author, Peter van Houten, had retreated to Amsterdam following the novel's publication and has not been heard from since.
Weeks later, Augustus reveals to Hazel that he has tracked down Van Houten's assistant, Lidewij, and, through her, has managed to start e-mail correspondence with Van Houten. Hazel writes to van Houten with questions regarding the novel's ambiguous ending, to which van Houten replies explaining that he can only answer Hazel in person. Hazel proposes the trip to her mother, but is rejected because of financial and medical constraints. Later, Augustus surprises Hazel with tickets to Amsterdam, attained through a charitable foundation similar to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, namely The Genie Foundation.
Days before the trip, Hazel suffers an episode of pleural effusion and is sent to the ICU, prompting her doctors to question the safety of overseas travel. The medical team argues against the trip but eventually complies with Hazel's parents to accommodate her travel. When Hazel and Augustus first arrive in Amsterdam, they go to a restaurant and find out that Van Houten paid for a meal and champagne on their behalf. Augustus then confesses his love for Hazel that night. Hazel and Augustus finally meet van Houten, but are shocked to find that, instead of a prolific genius, he is a mean-spirited drunk. Lidewij confesses to having arranged the meeting on his behalf, angering van Houten, who proceeds to insult Hazel's cancer and refuses to answer any of her questions. The two leave the author in anger and disappointment.
Accompanied by Lidewij, Hazel and Augustus visit the Anne Frank House. Hazel struggles to climb the many stairs and ladders leading up to the attic but by the end of the tour, Augustus and Hazel share a romantic kiss, followed by applause from the other tourists in the attic. They return to the hotel and have sex for the first time. The next day, Augustus confesses that a recent PET scan revealed his cancer to have relapsed. Resolute, the two affirm their love and support for each other. Upon their return to Indianapolis, Augustus' health significantly worsens. He ends up in the ICU for a few days and realizes that he is really down to his final days. Augustus invites Isaac, his blind best friend, and Hazel to his pre-funeral, where they speak his eulogies. Hazel quotes van Houten about "larger and smaller infinities" and confides that she would not trade their short time together for anything in the world. Augustus dies eight days later.
At the funeral, Hazel is astonished to find van Houten in attendance. He explains that he and Augustus maintained correspondence after Amsterdam and that Augustus had demanded he make up for ruining their trip by attending his funeral. He confides in Hazel that his novel is based on his own daughter, Anna, who died from cancer at a young age. In an attempt for forgiveness, van Houten tries to reveal the fate of Anna's mother and gives Hazel a piece of paper. Hazel, still upset with his behavior, crumples up the paper and asks him to leave. Later, while talking with Isaac, Hazel learns that Augustus had asked van Houten for assistance in writing his eulogy. Realizing what van Houten had given her, she retrieves the crumpled paper and reads Augustus' words, which state his acceptance of death and his love for Hazel, a sentiment she returns. The film ends with Hazel lying on her back on her lawn looking up at the stars; she smiles as she remembers Augustus.
April O'Neil is a reporter for Channel 6 news in New York who has been researching a gang called the Foot Clan which has been terrorizing the city. She questions a dock worker about shipments of chemicals that may be linked to the Foot Clan. April eventually learns that something is being brought in by the docks. That night, she returns and sees the Foot Clan unloading cargo. April tries to record footage using her phone, but a shadowy figure arrives and takes out the Foot Soldiers one by one. She tells her coworkers and her boss Bernadette Thompson, but no one believes her story.
The Foot Clan next attacks a subway station. April rushes to the scene, hoping to encounter the vigilante or find evidence confirming his existence. She sees four figures this time, who disappear after defeating the Foot Clan. She follows them to a rooftop and tries to photograph them. The Turtles Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael notice her and delete the camera's images, warning her not to divulge their existence. She asks them who they are as they leave, and they say, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
April runs home and opens a box filled with documents, pictures, and July 1999 videos on "Project Renaissance", which involved her now-deceased father. She notices that the turtles she cared for from her father's laboratory fifteen years earlier seem similar to the Ninja Turtles. She recalls that her father was developing some type of mutagen. She continues researching and eventually realizes that the Ninja Turtles are the turtles from the laboratory.
Once again, she tries to convince Bernadette Thompson that the Turtles are real. Bernadette becomes so infuriated that she fires April. April tries telling her cameraman Vern Fenwick about them, but he does not believe her either. He does agree to take her to the old laboratory, though. There she finds her father's lab partner Eric Sacks.
April tells him about the Ninja Turtles, showing him the photos. Sacks explains Project Renaissance: he and her father were cultivating the mutagen for its healing properties. Sacks theorizes that, when the laboratory was destroyed, the mutagen must have somehow caused the turtles to mutate into humanoids.
Meanwhile in the sewers, the Turtles tell their master, Splinter, that April has spotted them. Splinter orders them to find April and bring her to their lair, as she is now in great danger from the Foot Clan since she made contact with the Turtles.
The Turtles find April and blindfold her so she won't know their lair's location. They take her to Splinter, who explains how she saved their lives years before when she rescued them from the fire and released them into the sewers. April admits that she has told her father's associate about them, unaware that Sacks is actually the adoptive son of the Foot Clan's leader The Shredder.
Meanwhile, Sacks relays the information to Shredder. Shredder and Sacks plan to spread a deadly virus throughout New York, causing a quarantine, in order to seize control by offering the mutagen as a cure. Shredder needs the Turtles to extract the mutagen from their blood.
He and his gang find Splinter and the Turtles in the sewers, and a battle ensues. They are overwhelmed and Shredder captures Leo, Donnie and Mikey and leaves Splinter severely injured. Thought dead, Raphael survived the wreckage of the lair. Splinter instructs Raphael and April to save the other three Turtles before Shredder can extract the mutagen from them. April calls Vern to give them a ride to the laboratory where the other three Turtles are being held.
When they arrive, April frees the Turtles, who join Raphael in fighting Shredder, but Shredder escapes. April, the Turtles, and Vern escape down a snowy mountain with The Foot and Karai in pursuit, and manage to get away.
The Turtles plan to attack Shredder on the rooftop of Sacks' building before he is able to release the toxin, while April and Vern search for the mutagen and battle Sacks inside the building where Sacks is knocked out by Vern. April finds the mutagen and heads onto the rooftop to give it to the Turtles. With April's help, the Turtles finally defeat Shredder who falls off the roof where he is immediately surrounded by the police. He is last seen touching the spilled mutagen.
That night, Vern attempts to impress April with a Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, but unfortunately fails when the Turtles come in with a vehicle of their own and accidentally blow it up with an RPG. The turtles then offer April a ride home but she kindly turns down the offer. The film ends with Mikey serenading April with "Happy Together" a love song performed by the 60's rock band The Turtles.
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014)
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"Just Another Saturday Night"
Marv (Mickey Rourke) regains consciousness on a highway overlooking the Projects, surrounded by several dead young men and a crashed police car and with no memory of how he got there. He retraces his steps, recalling since it's Saturday, he watched Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) dance at Kadie's Saloon. Stepping outside, he encounters four rich frat boys burning a homeless man alive. When Marv intervenes, the leader of the frat boys shoots him in the arm, calling him "Bernini Boy", which Marv mishears as "Bernie". They flee, and Marv follows, stealing a Police car on the way, which he crashes into their car, leading to his blackout and memory loss. He follows the two surviving frat boys into The Projects, the neighborhood where he grew up, and with the assistance of the deadly residents lurking in the shadows, he dispatches the frat boys. He questions the leader about being called "Bernini boy" and learns that it is the brand of coat he is wearing. After slitting the boy's throat, he considers his coat, and realizes he can't remember how he acquired it.
"The Long Bad Night (Part I)"
Johnny (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a cocky young gambler, arrives in Sin City and heads to Kadie's place, where he immediately hits the jackpot on multiple slot machines. Taking a young waitress, Marcie (Julia Garner) with him as a good luck charm, he buys into the backroom poker game led by the all-powerful Senator Roark (Powers Boothe). Johnny repeatedly wins in the high-stakes game, and cleans the senator out. One other player, the corrupt police lieutenant Liebowitz (Jude Ciccolella), warns him to flee the city, but instead Johnny takes Marcie out for a night on the town. He walks her home when Roark's goons suddenly attack him. He fights them off and tells Marcie to meet him at a hotel before he is escorted into the Senator's waiting limousine. In payment for the humiliation he suffered at the card game, Roark takes back his money and uses a pair of pliers to break three of Johnny's fingers. They toss him from the car and the Senator shoots Johnny in the leg. Roark then reveals that he recognized Johnny as his illegitimate son. However, he remarks that he only considered his dead son Roark Jr. his flesh and blood. He leaves Johnny alive, preferring to let him suffer, and Johnny swears revenge.
"A Dame to Kill For"
Years before "The Big Fat Kill", Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin) attempts to put his violent past behind him, working as a private detective and leading a life of complete sobriety, struggling daily to refuse his inner demons. After saving the life of a young hooker (Juno Temple) who is nearly murdered by her businessman lover (Ray Liotta) he receives an unexpected phone call from his former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green), who left Dwight four years prior for a wealthy tycoon, Damian Lord (Marton Csokas). She begs him to meet her at Kadie's saloon, and despite his embittered feelings, he agrees. When Ava arrives, she begs forgiveness for leaving him, and infers she is afraid for her life before her massive chauffeur, Manute (Dennis Haysbert) arrives to escort her home. Unable to get her out of his mind, Dwight sneaks into Damian Lord's estate, where he observes Ava swimming, but is caught and beaten for his trouble. Dwight is returned home, where a nude Ava waits for him. He tries to throw her out, but can't resist her and they make love. She tells him that Damian and Manute torture her physically and mentally, and she knows Damian will kill her soon. Manute arrives and viciously beats a naked Dwight, tossing him out a window.
Determined to rescue Ava, Dwight recruits Marv to help him, and they mount an assault on Lord's compound. Marv attacks Manute, putting him in traction and tearing out his eye. Dwight confronts Damian Lord, who denies Ava's accusations, and an enraged Dwight beats him to death. As he reacts in horror, Ava appears and shoots Dwight several times, taunting him and thanking him for helping her murder her husband and take over his business. She shoots him in the face and forces him to fall out of a window, where Marv rescues him and takes him to Old Town. Dwight's old flame, Gail (Rosario Dawson), recognizes him and saves his life. With the help of Gail and the deadly assassin Miho (Jamie Chung), Dwight undergoes reconstructive surgery on his face and plots his revenge.
Meanwhile, two detectives, Mort (Christopher Meloni) and Bob (Jeremy Piven) investigate Damian's death. Ava claims Dwight was an obsessive ex-lover, and he killed her husband in a jealous rage. Bob is skeptical but Ava seduces Mort, who believes her every word. They begin an affair and Ava pressures him to find and kill Dwight. When Mort, obsessed with Ava, attempts to track Dwight down in Old Town (an action that would break the truce between the police and the prostitutes), Bob attempts to stop him. An enraged Mort shoots Bob in the head, then turns the gun on himself and dies on the roadside. Out of options, Ava reluctantly partners with the mob boss Wallenquist (Stacey Keach).
Dwight (with his reconstructed new face), accompanied by Gail and Miho, poses as Wallenquist's man from Phoenix. Inside Ava's estate, however, Manute sees past the new face and captures Dwight. Gail and Miho strike from Dwight's car, and Dwight shoots Manute with a hidden .25 he had up his left sleeve. Six bullets fail to kill him, and Manute aims shakily at Dwight as Ava unexpectedly grabs one of Manute's guns, shooting Manute several times. She attempts to convince Dwight to pair with her, and that the pain he suffered revealed his true intentions, but Dwight shoots her mid-kiss, and she dies in his arms.
"The Long Bad Night (Part II)"
Johnny visits an unlicensed doctor, Kroenig (Christopher Lloyd) who shoots up heroin before trading his services for Johnny's last forty dollars and his shoes. Realizing he left Marcie unprotected, Johnny flees to her hotel, but finds the Senator waiting for him along with Marcie's dismembered head and hands. Again, the senator lets him go. Intent on taking down Roark, Johnny scrounges a dollar from a sympathetic waitress (Lady Gaga) which he uses to regain enough money playing slots to buy his way into Roark's game the following night. Playing a card shark's con, Johnny folds his first few hands, allowing Roark to taunt him about his dead mother. He once again cons Roark into going all in, and then reveals his winning hand. Johnny taunts his father, reminding him that tonight's story of how the same man beat him twice will follow him for the rest of his life. His vengeance completed, Johnny smiles resignedly as Roark dismissively shoots him in the head, commanding his men to get rid of the body.
"Nancy's Last Dance"
Set four years after "That Yellow Bastard", Nancy Callahan struggles to cope with John Hartigan's selfless suicide. Drinking heavily, she is obsessed with vengeance on Senator Roark, for having driven Hartigan to kill himself. As she wallows in despair, the ghost of Hartigan (Bruce Willis) watches over her, unable to reach her but still attempting to help. On the same night that Johnny joins the backroom poker game, Nancy attempts to shoot Roark from the stage of Kadie's, but finds herself unable to pull the trigger, possibly due to Hartigan's ghostly influence.
Nancy hallucinates a visit from Roark, and shortly thereafter cuts her hair and smashes a mirror, using its shards to cut her face. She decides to get Marv to help her kill Roark by showing him the scars, and making him believe Roark was responsible. As they step out of the club, they meet a motorcycle gang there to shoot up the place. Marv kills two, but leaves their leader for Nancy to finish off. The pair mount an assault on Roark's compound, and Marv slaughters Roark's bodyguards while Nancy picks off the guards with a crossbow. Marv is wounded, and Nancy continues on to confront Roark by herself. Roark shoots her several times and is about to finish her off when Hartigan's ghost suddenly flashes in the mirror to distract him, which gives Nancy enough time to recover and shoot him dead.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
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A race of aliens called Mimics has taken over continental Europe. General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), head of humanity's United Defense Force, orders Major William Cage (Tom Cruise), a public affairs officer and former advertising executive, to cover combat on the beaches of France during the next day's assault on the Mimics. Cage objects to the dangerous assignment and threatens to use his public relation skills to turn the public against Brigham when the casualties start increasing from the invasion, for which he is arrested and knocked out. He wakes in handcuffs at a forward operating base at Heathrow Airport and discovers he has been labeled a deserter and put on combat duty for the invasion under the command of Master Sergeant Farell (Bill Paxton).
The invasion is a disaster for the humans. Cage manages to kill a large Mimic, but dies as he is sprayed with its acid-like blood. He then wakes up at Heathrow the previous morning. No one believes his story that he knows the invasion will fail. He repeats the loop of dying on the beach and waking at Heathrow until he encounters Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), who recognizes his ability to anticipate events and tells him to locate her the next time he "wakes up".
Cage finds Vrataski at Heathrow. Together they meet up with each other with Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor), a former government scientist and expert in Mimic biology. Cage learns that the kind of Mimic he killed in his first loop, an "Alpha", resets time when it is killed to give the Mimics an advantage in battle. Cage inherited this ability when he was doused in the Alpha's blood as they both died. Vrataski had this ability in a previous battle but lost it after receiving a blood transfusion. She tells Cage that they must hunt the Mimics' hive mind, the Omega.
Over succeeding loops Vrataski trains Cage into a more effective soldier. After getting discouraged from these loops he travels to London, there he realises and sees the Mimics were planning on overrunning London during the invasion on the beach. He and Vrataski spend several loops learning how to survive the battle on the beach and get inland based on his vision of the Omega hiding in a Bavarian Alps dam. After numerous loops end in Vrataski's death, Cage decides to hunt the Omega alone, abandoning her and the rest of the invasion to doom on the beach. When he arrives at the dam, he discovers that the Omega is not there. He manages to kill himself before an Alpha can steal his blood and prevent him from resetting the day. Back at Heathrow, he tells Vrataski and Carter that his vision was a trick.
Cage and Vrataski adopt a new approach: they infiltrate the Ministry of Defence in search of a prototype built by Carter that will allow Cage to discover the Omega's true location. After several failed loops they obtain the device, which reveals that the Omega is located under the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. They are injured as they flee, and Cage's life is saved by a blood transfusion, but it removes his ability to reset the day.
Vrataski frees Cage and they return to Heathrow, where they convince his squad to help destroy the Omega. The other squad members sacrifice themselves to get Cage and Vrataski beneath the Louvre. Vrataski distracts a waiting Alpha while Cage advances on the Omega. The Alpha kills them both, but not before Cage primes and drops a grenade belt into the Omega's core, destroying it and neutralizing the other Mimics.
Cage's body absorbs the Omega's blood. He wakes up en route to his meeting with Brigham the day before. Brigham announces that Mimic activity has ceased following a power surge in Paris. Cage is never arrested and he goes to Heathrow, where he finds his squad mates, including Farell. None of them recognize him and treat him respectfully as an officer, as he is once again a Major. He meets Vrataski, who does not recognize him either. She asks what he wants, as she had many times before, and he smirks and laughs.
The Giver (2014)
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In the year 2048, after a war, the community has decided to get rid of different races and feelings. All the citizens have had their memories erased; except for the Receiver of Memory. As the Receiver of Memory is the only individual in the community who has the memories from before, he must advise the Chief Elder, and the other Elders, on the decisions for the community. Jonas is to become the next Receiver of Memory, and progressively receive memories, from the past receiver, The Giver. Jonas learns of the Giver's past and of his child, Rosemary. She preceded Jonas as Receiver of Memory, and was so distraught from the memories that she committed suicide, by what the Community call releasing. They regard its nature as mysterious; the audience learn that it is death by lethal injection. Jonas begins to teach his findings to his friend Fiona, who he decides to share the idea of feelings with. Fiona is unsure of how she feels about feelings, but they kiss while together privately.
Jonas also shares his memories with the baby his father brought home to their house, Gabe, and develops a close relationship with him after discovering he shares the same mark on his wrist Jonas does, the mark of a potential Receiver of Memory. Jonas decides that everyone should have the memories of the past and eventually, the Giver and Jonas decide that the only way they can help the community is to go past the border of what they call Elsewhere, beyond the community, therefore releasing the memories back into the community. Jonas sneaks out at curfew, and decides to get Gabe at the Nurturing Center, who is to be released of weakness. Asher, his other longtime friend besides Fiona, tries to stop him before he leaves the neighborhood, but Jonas quickly punches him. Asher lies on the ground, stunned, and Jonas rides his bike to the Nurturing Center. He tells Fiona his plan and wants to take her with him, but she refuses and instead helps him retrieve Gabe. Before he leaves, she kisses him and helps him escape.
Meanwhile Jonas's mother and Asher, go to the Chief Elder to tell them Jonas is missing. Guards are sent to contain Jonas, who they say has become "dangerous", but Jonas gets one of their motorcycles and drives off the cliff near the Giver's dwelling into "The Elsewhere". Asher is assigned, by the Chief Elder, to use a drone to find Jonas and "lose" him but when Asher finds Jonas stumbling through the woods, he captures him with the drone. After Jonas implores Asher to think that if he ever cared for Jonas to let him go, Asher drops him into a river, setting him free. Jonas stumbles through the land of Elsewhere, while Fiona has been condemned to be "released" for helping him. Just as she is about to be released by Jonas's father, the Giver steps in and stalls the Chief Elder with memories of his daughter, Rosemary, trying to call out the Chief Elder, in which she succeeded. Eventually, Jonas finds a sled like one he rode in a memory from the Giver and makes his way beyond the border of Elsewhere, releasing memories and color back into the community and saving Fiona because Jonas's father realizes what he was really doing. Jonas and Gabe return to the house of his memories, where people are singing Christmas carols, and his voiceover says that back in the community, he swears he hears music too, or maybe just an echo.
Gone Girl (2014)
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With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)
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In 1991 Manhattan, Mathew Scudder, an off-duty New York Police Department (NYPD) officer, is unexpectedly caught up in an armed robbery at a bar where officers drink for free. Scudder guns down the would-be thieves, however one of his bullets inadvertently strikes a seven year old girl, killing her instantly. Shaken from the experience, Scudder quits the force, and spends the next eight years in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) while moonlighting as a an unlicensed private eye.
One night, after an AA meeting, Scudder is approached by the brother of a man named Kenny seeking to employ the PI to locate his wife's killer. Kenny explains that his wife was abducted for a ransom, the kidnappers killed his wife after he paid the $400,000 ransom, cutting her up in small pieces before returning her in the dismembered state to Kenny. Reluctantly, Scudder accepts the job.
At a local library, Scudder meets an adolescent named TJ, who helps Scudder by locating information on the net concerning similar cases to Kenny's. Scudder eventually traces the kidnappers' MO, and meets a cemetery groundsman who discovered one of the victim's remains while fishing trash bags out of a pond. After trailing the groundsman back to his house Scudder learns that he was an accomplice for one of the murders, and has had trouble getting over his role in the homicide. The groundsman explains that he met the two men that Scudder is after in a movie store; both men apparently shared a fetish-like interest in death. Scudder learns one of the two men goes by the name Ray, but before he can glean any further information, the groundsman abruptly kills himself by stepping off the roof of his apartment building. Upon further investigation, Scudder determines that the two men he is after were at one point somehow affiliated with the DEA, and have been targeting drug dealers from whom to extort money.
In a residential neighborhood, Ray and his accomplice prepare to abduct another woman, however Ray waves the kidnapping at the last minute. As the two prepare to leave Ray observes the target's daughter leave a house, and retools their kidnapping attempt to take the girl. When Scudder learns of the kidnapping he has TJ bring a box or his old police equipment to the victim's house, and instructs the victim to refuse payment unless they can prove the girl is still alive, correctly guessing that the kidnappers will kill the girl regardless of whether the ransom is paid. Scudder lures Ray and his accomplice out by forcing them to pick up the ransom in person. After the ransom is paid, a shoot-out occurs, injuring Ray. Ray and his partner flee the drop site, unaware that in the ensuing shoot out TJ managed to sneak into their van.
At their safe house, Ray attempts to get medical treatment for his gunshot wounds, however Ray's partner elects to kill him instead. After TJ calls Scudder with the safe house's location, Scudder and his ad hoc team arrive, precipitating a brief struggle. Scudder's people successfully restrain the second man, at which point Scudder instructs TJ to return to his place. After offering Kenny the chance to turn him in or obtain his revenge, Kenny opts for the latter, but the restrained second man escapes and kills Kenny before he can fulfill his wish. Another struggle ensues between Scudder and the second murderer, which ends when Scudder shoots the man in the head at close range. As the police arrive to secure and the scene and wrap up the case Scudder then returns to his apartment.
Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)
Sixty-five million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, beings known as the Creators detonate many metallic devices known as Seeds, wiping out most life on Earth. In the present, a geologist named Darcy Tyril discovers a dinosaur corpse covered in a strange metal in the Arctic.
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Five years have passed since the Battle of Chicago and humanity has grown fearful of the Autobots and joint combat operations between them have been severed. Officially the Autobots are granted sanctuary but secretly, even without the U.S. President's knowledge, Cemetery Wind, an elite CIA unit headed by paranoid agent Harold Attinger and team leader James Savoy, tasked with hunting down the remaining Decepticons, is also secretly hunting down Autobots, believing them to be a threat, and have killed most of them. With the aid of the Transformer bounty hunter Lockdown, they ambush and brutally kill Ratchet. Their primary target, however, is Optimus Prime, whom Lockdown personally wants alive.
Meanwhile in rural Texas, Cade Yeager, a struggling inventor, and his friend Lucas buy an old truck to strip it for parts in hopes of sending Cade's daughter Tessa to college. Cade soon discovers that the truck is an injured Optimus Prime and repairs him. After locating Optimus in Texas, Cemetery Wind and Lockdown travel there and confront Cade, Tessa, and Lucas. Optimus comes out of hiding and attacks the operatives, allowing Cade and his friends to escape. They are saved by Tessa's secret boyfriend, Shane Dyson, with whom they escape, though Lucas is killed by Lockdown's grenade. While in hiding, tensions between Cade, his daughter and Shane rise due to the fact that the two teenagers kept their relationship secret. Optimus, meanwhile rallies the last remaining Autobots: Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs. Cade hacks into a drone he took from the attack in Texas, and learns that Cemetery Wind is working with a corporation called KSI. They decide to infiltrate KSI headquarters in Chicago for information.
Meanwhile, Joshua Joyce, the head of KSI, shows Tyril that he has perfected transformium, the codeable, molecularly unstable metal that of which the Transformers are comoposed. He has imprisoned Brains to decode dead Transformers' brains and utilize their data for human-created Transformers. He shows Tyril his prized creation, Galvatron, who was created using data from Megatron's brain. Optimus and the Autobots storm the facility, free Brains, and start to destroy the facility. Joyce stops them, and when he explains that humans don't need the Autobots anymore, now that they can create their own Transformer soldiers, the Autobots leave.
Attinger forces Joyce to launch Galvatron and another man-made Transformer, Stinger, to pursue the Autobots. Galvatron and Optimus battle before Lockdown wounds and captures Optimus, along with Tessa, into his ship, where he locks Optimus in the middle of his trophy room, which also houses the Dinobots, who are regarded as legendary knights. Lockdown explains that the Creators want Optimus back. Before leaving, Lockdown gives Cemetery Wind a Seed, a bomb that can cyberform any area of land, giving Cade, Shane, and the Autobots time to board the ship. Cade and Shane save Tessa, and escape with Bumblebee. The other Autobots save Optimus and escape on the detachable section of Lockdown's ship containing the trophy room, before Lockdown's ship enters deep space. Optimus and Brains reveal that Galvatron is Megatron reincarnated, and that he has been manipulating KSI to build an army and steal the Seed in order to wipe out humans and create more Decepticons. Joyce retreats to Beijing with Tyril and his business associate, Su Yueming, to use the production facilities there. Cade warns Joyce, who decides to go back on his deal with Attinger. As the two argue, Galvatron activates by himself and infects all the KSI prototypes, enabling him to command them to do his bidding.
As the Autobots try to retrieve the Seed in Hong Kong, their ship is shot down by Galvatron's army, leaving Hound and Bumblebee to fight the battle outnumbered. Knowing this, Optimus releases and tames the Dinobots. With their help, they destroy Galvatron's army. Lockdown returns and uses a magnetic weapon in an effort to reclaim Optimus and the Dinobots. However, Optimus destroys it and proceeds to fight Lockdown. Cade, after managing to evade and kill Savoy, tries to help but is held at gunpoint by Attinger, who is disgusted by Cade's choice to side with the Autobots. Optimus saves Cade by killing Attinger, but Lockdown impales Optimus with his sword into a wall. Cade and Bumblebee distract Lockdown while Tessa and Shane take the sword out of Optimus, who then kills Lockdown. Galvatron retreats, vowing to battle Optimus another day. Optimus sets the Dinobots free and requests the Autobots to protect Cade and his family before flying into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators that he is coming for them.
