Transformers: The Last Knight | 2017
- Locations |
- Detroit, Michigan;
- Arizona;
- London;
- Hampshire;
- Hertfordshire;
- North Yorkshire;
- Northumberland;
- Oxfordshire;
- Tyne & Wear;
- Surrey;
- Wiltshire;
- Scotland;
- Wales;
- Northern Ireland;
- Republic of Ireland;
- Cuba;
- Namibia
- DIRECTOR |
- Michael Bay
Following instructions from Agent Simmons (John Turturro), Sir Edmund pursues clues to be found in Trinity College Library. No, that's not in Oxford. The huge wood-shelved library is the Long Room of Trinity College, Dublin, in the Republic of Ireland. The Library is open to the public and houses the Brian Boru harp, which is a national symbol of Ireland, a copy of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic, and the famous 9th century Book of Kells illustrated manuscript.
Think of the airmiles…
Here Sir Edmund learns that the six alien horns focus on a central point – Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire. We get to that later.
From Dublin, or is it Oxford, Sir Edmund now picks up his car from Treasury Court in Westminster. For a private court in the heart of the UK's government buildings this seems to be an odd spot to begin a car chase never mind two, but nevertheless, it’s here the motors assemble for the street race in Fast and Furious 6.
If you were thinking a car chase through London would be straightforward... well, you haven't been paying attention. The chase takes them not only through the City of London but along Grainger Street and Grey Street in Newcastle-on-Tyne, some 280 miles north.
The destination is the 'Royal Naval Museum', which turns out to be the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Haslar Road, Gosport on the coast of Hampshire.
As HMS Alliance sets sail, Sir Edmund leaves them. He has other business, turning up at the front door of Number Ten, Downing Street.
Amazingly, this is the real thing – very rarely is onscreen. If you're not familiar with London, you might be surprised to learn that you can't march straight up to the door of Number Ten for a selfie, as you once could have done. In 1989 when Margaret Thatcher was PM, iron security gates were installed at the end of the street on Whitehall. How Sir Edmund got through these gates isn't shown.
We don't see the door opened (there are limits even to Michael Bay's power) so Sir Edmund is obliged to use the old rear entrance.
I suppose by now I shouldn't be surprised to discover that the back way into Number Ten is the disused Aldwych Underground Station entrance on Surrey Street, running south from the Strand. How this connects to Downing Street... Oh, never mind.
Aldwych Station, which closed in 1994, is the station used to film period underground scenes in productions such as Atonement, An American Werewolf in London, Gary Oldman’s directorial debut Nil by Mouth, the Gwyneth Paltrow romantic fantasy Sliding Doors, quirky gangster film The Krays, the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears and Robert de Niro's The Good Shepherd. You can visit on a fascinating tour with London Transport Museum Hidden London.
The 'European Space Agency', where all the end-of-the-world stuff is discussed, is very recognisably London City Hall, housing the offices of the London Assembly and the Mayor of London. It's the thing that looks like a first generation iMac on the South Bank near to Tower Bridge.
The earthbound part of the great final battle centres on Stonehenge, the famed and still mysterious megalithic rings of stones which have stood for over 5,000 years. This is a unique and fiercely protected monument so in the end had to be recreated in another part of Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
Finally…extended with the help of CGI, the vast barren battleground is the disused Ystrad Quarry at Trefil, three miles northwest of Tredegar in the Brecon Beacons, Wales.
