20 Explosive Facts About Michael Bay And His Movies
![20 Explosive Facts About Michael Bay And His Movies](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/9/4/874294_320x180.jpg)
We like our Michael Bay movies like we like our burgers: big and tasty and slimy enough for us to indulge our worst tendencies, but just the perfect size for us to finish it before getting tired of it. Just as it happens with fast food, there might indeed be good Michael Bay movies. Is this controversial? It depends on your stance. Some say he has made no true cinematic contribution, which might just be having impossibly high standards pampered by the Camerons and Woos of the world. Others, however, say the man does have a unique style, and that said style can indeed produce interesting outcomes.
You already know what this Pictofact will be about. We’ll take a brief look at Michael Bay and examine some of his best and most explosive movies (and we’ll leave his overt misogyny for another time). And what makes a good Michael Bay movie, then? Well, our criteria is highly technical and we don’t want to bore you, but it all comes down to “everything that didn’t annoy us all that much.” Bad Boys II? Cringe. 6 Underground? We’re not even sure that movie exists. Pearl Harbor? Cuba Gooding needed a bigger part, he’s way better than Ben Affleck. The Transformers sequels? Be kind to us and jam a broken Con Air DVD into our eye holes instead. But then there are other Bay flicks that… do not fail. Not at all, actually. We now take a look at them.
Bayhem
![Michael Bay and his movies Не has been obsessed with explosions his entire life. As a child, Bay attached firecrackers to a toy train to film the ensuing disaster with his mom's 8mm camera, and the fire department had to be called. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/8/874318.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: DreamWorks Pictures, Simon Davidson/Wiki Commons
Raiders of the Lost Ark
![CRACKED.COM Michael Bay and his movies Raiders of the Lost Ark inspired him to become a director. A 15-year-old Bay worked as an intern filing storyboards for Raiders, which he thought would be a terrible movie. Then he actually saw it in theaters, and was so amazed it that he then decided to become a film director.](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/5/874315.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures, Simon Davidson/Wiki Commons
Music Videos
![CRACKED.COM Michael Bay and his movies His early music videos already show his visual trademarks. The true gem of the bunch is the video for Meat Loaf's I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That), but he also directed Divinyls' I Touch Myself, and Aerosmith's Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees).](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/6/874316.jpg)
Sources: Wikipedia, Digital Trends
Image Source: MCA Records, Columbia Records
Bad Boys
![Michael Bay and his movies Bad Boys It wasn't an easy shoot. Bay hated the script, so he would encourage Will Smith and Martin Lawrence to improve scenes and improvise dialogues. Also, the limited budget meant they couldn't film the action scenes for as long as they wanted. For a final shootout, Bay paid out of his own pocket to get it made. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/9/874309.jpg)
Bad Boys
![Michael Bay and his movies Bad Boys The opening scene was shot during post-production. Lasting a bit more than two months, the shoot was very tight because the stars had to return to their respective shows, Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Then they returned because the studio wanted a more comedic introduction. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/2/874312.jpg)
The Rock
![Michael Bay and his movies The Rock Studios didn't see Nicolas Cage as an action star. Apparently, Cage took up the leading role in The Rock precisely because he was told he wouldn't be able to pull it off. Then came Con Air and Face/ Off, and Cage was a bonafide action star. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/7/874307.jpg)
Source: Screen Rant
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
The Rock
![Michael Bay and his movies The Rock Sean Connery was very supportive. Connery might have brought his own script doctors and made diva-like demands, but this also spoke of his commitment to the creative process. At one point, he asked to be in a meeting between Bay and the skeptical producers, in which he openly supported the director in front of the suits. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/6/874306.jpg)
Source: Screen Rant
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
The Rock
![Michael Bay and his movies Star writers worked on the script (but went uncredited). David Weisberg and Douglas Cook wrote the original spec script, which was reworked by several writers, including Quentin Tarantino, Aaron Sorkin, and Jonathan Hensleigh. Besides Weisberg and Cook, however, the Writers Guild of America only gave a third writing credit to Mark Rosner. The Rock CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/7/874317.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
Armageddon
![Michael Bay and his movies The Rock Bay had a sequel planned. In his director commentary, Bay describes the thriller he envisioned. It was to pick up the story right after Cage steals the microchip, with him being hunted by the government and helped by Sean Connery. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/8/874308.jpg)
Source: /Film
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
Armageddon
![Michael Bay and his movies Armageddon Bruce Willis did the movie to get out of a lawsuit. Willis did Armageddon right after Broadway Brawler, which you've never heard of because it was shelved, mostly due to Willis' pushy behavior. To avoid a lawsuit, he agreed to greatly cut his pay and do three movies for Disney, beginning with Armageddon. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/4/874314.jpg)
Source: CBR
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
Armageddon
![Michael Bay and his movies - .... POLICE MH MH HH HH MM HM HH HH Armageddon 104 This was Michael Clarke Duncan's first speaking role. Duncan gushed crying during the audition, but acted all stiff during the shoot. Bay told him to just be his adorable, genuine self, and every actor took him under their wing. A year later, The Green Mile earned him an Oscar nomination. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/3/874313.jpg)
Source: Collider
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
Armageddon
![Michael Bay and his movies Armageddon The movie was an intentional Deep Impact knock-off (allegedly). Deep Impact writer Bruce Joel Rubin claims a Disney bigshot took notes on his remarks on Deep Impact during lunch, and ordered Armageddon right away. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/4/874304.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Armageddon
![Michael Bay and his movies Armageddon The meteor impact on Paris was a last-minute addition. Three months before release, Disney chairman Joe Roth raised the budget by $3 million just to make this scene, in order to put it on TV ads and help differentiate the film from Deep Impact. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/2/874302.jpg)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Buena Vista Pictures
The Island
![Michael Bay and his movies The Island It was one of Michael Bay's lowest-grossing movies. Bay blames the domestic advertisers. The international ad campaign focused on the action, so the movie did well overseas. The domestic campaign, however, tried to sell the film as brainier stuff, and it failed to draw in crowds. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/1/874311.jpg)
Source: IMDb
Image Credit: DreamWorks Pictures
The Island
![Michael Bay and his movies The Island The film is suspiciously similar to a B-movie. Robert S. Fiveson, director of 1979's Parts: The Clonus Horror, sued DreamWorks citing around 100 points of similarity between both movies. The suit was considered to have merit, but it was settled before going to trial for a seven-figure amount. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/5/874305.jpg)
Sources: IMDb, Wikipedia
Image Credit: DreamWorks Pictures, Clonus Associates
The Island
![Michael Bay and his movies The Island The ad with Scarlett Johansson's model character is a real ad. Rather than making a fake ad, they just used one Johansson had made (which might have doubled as product placement for Calvin Klein). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/1/874301.jpg)
Source: IMDb
Image Credit: DreamWork Pictures
Transformers
![Michael Bay and his movies Transformers Linkin Park asked to be featured. The band met Megan Fox at an aftershow, and they told her they had heard about the film and wanted a song of theirs in it. As a result, What I've Done plays during the end credits. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/1/0/874310.jpg)
Source: IMDb
Image Credit: DreamWorks Pictures
Transformers
![Michael Bay and his movies C 01 Transformers Megatron is no longer a gun for a reason. According to the writers, it'd be like having Darth Vader transform into his own lightsaber and someone else swinging him around.' CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/3/874303.jpg)
Source: IMDb
Image Credit: DreamWorks Pictures, Sunbow Productions
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
![Michael Bay and his movies 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi Bay claims the movie is historically accurate (it isn't). There's no real consensus on what actually happened. The movie shows the stand down order, which has not been proven to be issued. According to a Libyan minister, Bay turned America's failure to protect its own citizens ... into a typical action movie all about American heroism. Damn. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/3/0/0/874300.jpg)
More: 5 Problems With Movies About History (From A Few Years Ago)
Source: Wikipedia
Image Credit: Paramount Pictures
Ambulance
![Michael Bay and his movies FALCH Ambulance A near-accident on set was proudly advertised. In early 2021, Bay's own Instagram account uploaded footage of a stunt with exploding cars swirling through the air, telling us it's actually super safe, you guys. But watch the video: one crew member should be thankful they're alive. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/2/9/9/874299.jpg)
More: 'Ambulance' Continues Michael Bay's Questionable History With Stunts
Image Credit: Universal Pictures, Michael Bay/Instagram