“You see, it takes patience to make a man, the patience to watch and wait, to protect all of us quietly for God and country, without any recognition at all. There are no "good" aliens or "bad" aliens, Yeager! There's just us and them. And you chose them.”
- Attinger's last words.
Harold Attinger is the main Human antagonist of Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Some men try to accomplish their dream of making the world a better place peacefully, he’s truly not one of them because he wanted to response to the devastation inflicted upon Chicago five years prior founded "Cemetery Wind", a faction of the CIA so they can help his wipe out the Transformers to save mankind plan to succeed. Factions are irrelevant to him; they are all menaces to his country and planet. Attinger barely hides the ruthless, paranoid monster he really is under an icy, calm facade. Get in his way, and you'll find out just why he has the bite to back up his bark that the "age of the Transformers" has ended. Attinger may paint himself as a savior of humanity, but it's all a farce. A large part of his crusade against the Transformers is to secure enough money for a healthy nest egg to retire with, and his greed is not just for money, but for fame. Attinger desires recognition for the things he's done, but is pragmatic enough to understand it's best to keep quiet since he's going behind, y'know, the President of the United States. Indeed, this pragmatism extends to field operations and business deals; he's highly observant to the point a man's diction isn't safe from his investigations. He's also willing to ally with a non-aligned alien robot in his mad quest, deeming him his greatest "asset", but considering how he thinks there's only two sides - alien and man - his ally would likely be on the chopping block if he had the resources or time.
History
Formation of Cemetery Wind
Following the events from Dark of the Moon, humanity has become fearful of Transformers and so the U.S. government responded by terminating all joint operations with the Autobots.
During this time, Harold Attinger was requested by his higher-ups from the CIA to eliminate the Decepticons upon forming his own CIA black ops unit "Cemetery Wind". Unbeknownst to his higher-ups, however, Attinger had secretly been hunting down Autobots as well; he believes that all Transformers are a public threat to humanity and personally wants to exterminate both factions regardless.
He separately appeared in both meetings with the U.S. government and the CIA where he manipulated both organizations into viewing the Autobots and the Decepticons as the true enemies. As time passes, Attinger became notified of the presence of the non-aligned Transformer bounty hunter Lockdown, who was sent by the Creators to capture Optimus Prime and kill anyone who interfered.
He soon decided to form a partnership with Lockdown as he came to realize that they both have a lot in common, and the two would go on to make a deal upon their campaigns; Attinger would assist Lockdown in hunting down Optimus Prime, whilst killing off any aligned Transformer in the process, in exchange for a Seed which Lockdown promised to give Attinger once their deal becomes successful.
Killing Ratchet and tracking Optimus Prime
On one occasion, he tracked down an Autobot named Ratchet and had his second in-command named James Savoy lead his tactical squad to brutally ambush him and then allow Lockdown to finish him off after an attempt to coerce him into exposing Optimus' whereabouts. Soon afterwards, Attinger met up with Lockdown at a rendezvous point. Thereupon he questioned Lockdown's purpose of capturing Optimus, becoming curious of his mission. Lockdown, however, was displeased with Attinger since his black ops unit had once allowed Optimus to escape Mexico City and ended up warning him about their partnership; it turned out that Lockdown wanted Optimus to be apprehended safely since the Creators had wanted him alive for unknown reasons.
Eventually, Attinger receive word that Optimus was hiding at Cade Yeager's farm in Texas thanks to an anonymous phone call from Cade's friend Lucas. He gleefully responded by alerting Lockdown about this just before sending Savoy and his tactical unit to confront them at the farm. Cade had denied anything about Optimus' whereabouts until he inadvertently mentions his presence by saying the word "him", allowing Attinger to expose his secret and have Savoy authorize his squad to hold Cade and his daughter Tessa at gunpoint.
After failing to coerce Cade and Tessa into exposing Optimus' whereabouts, Attinger ordered Savoy to execute Tessa in front of Cade. It was at that moment that Optimus finally revealed his presence, and ended up killing a number of Savoy's henchmen before fleeing with the Yeagers and Lucas altogether. Attinger could only watch as Optimus escaped with the Yeagers and Tessa's boyfriend Shane whilst Lucas was killed by Lockdown's grenade.
He was not only unimpressed that Savoy and his mercenaries had failed to kill the Yeagers, fearing that their corrupt activities would be exposed to the FBI and the public, but was stoked further that even Lockdown was unsuccessful in apprehending Optimus. Attinger would later confront Savoy in their private jet after receiving a message from Cade, who warns that he'll be coming for him and is unaware that Optimus had vowed to kill the human who caused the deaths of countless Transformers upon creating Cemetery Wind.
It is soon revealed that Attinger had been collaborating with Joshua Joyce, an ambitious businessman and the founder of Kinetic Solutions Incorporated, during the course of Cemetery Wind's purposes. It also turned out that all the Transformers that Attinger and Lockdown had killed were then given to Joyce as part of his plan to produce man-made Transformers, and that the Seed would actually be given to Savoy from Attinger as the result would provide several million shares in the soon-to-be-thriving KSI. This was the complex deal that would accomplish Attinger's plot against the Transformers and allow Joyce to provide the United States military with an army of man-made Transformers.
Soon Attinger later met up with Joyce to warn him about Optimus and the Yeagers that were interfering with Cemetery Wind's purposes, which has also allowed them to investigate KSI upon learning of their alliance. Joyce was infuriated with Attinger for allowing a pair of humans and some Autobots to become aware of their alliance, and also ended up warning him that Lockdown's presence has only endangered their nefarious activities even further.
Not long afterwards, Attinger witnessed Cade infiltrating KSI headquarters during his own visit of the facilities and had Savoy's bodyguards detain him. When he entered into the room where Cade and Joyce were in, he appeared before Cade while Joyce and his bodyguards returned to their business. Meeting face to face, Attinger acknowledged Cade's attempts to protect his family which was admirable; but then he expressed his own purpose to protect humanity by eliminating the Transformers and unsuccessfully tried to manipulate Cade.
After warning Cade about the danger he allowed himself and his family to be put in after getting involved in his operation, Attinger became unfazed and showed no remorse when Cade berated him for preparing to kill his daughter with some "hired help" from his black-ops. He dismissed Cade just before questioning him about Optimus' whereabouts. Moments later, the Autobots stormed into KSI at which point Bumblebee revealed himself before Attinger could further interrogate Cade, allowing the former to escape when Attinger had escaped from the scene.
Shortly after the Autobots' departure, Attinger declared the raid as a terrorist attack worthy of a CIA-military operation op in retaliation. He then demanded Joyce to respond, which the latter did by sending his two made-man Transformers Galvatron and Stinger to hunt down the remaining Autobots and the Yeagers. Attinger watched as Joyce and his team controlled the two Transformers to pursue the Yeagers and the Autobots. In the ensuing confrontation, Galvatron unexpectedly opened fire on civilians and caused massive property damage without KSI's orders.
Despite this, Attinger showed no concern about the damage Galvatron created and confronted Joyce for sending paramedics to the injured - claiming that innocent lives were lost every day. When Galvatron caught up with Optimus, the two began fighting that was soon cut-short when Lockdown intervened after firing at Optimus. Joyce and his KSI team were shocked by Lockdown's presence, but Attinger told them that Lockdown is his "asset" and ordered Joyce to have Galvatron retreat in order to allow Lockdown to personally capture Optimus himself.
Following this, Attinger arranged for Savoy to meet up with Lockdown in Chicago to collect the seed and settle their partnership while he warned his higher-ups to have the military stand down as there was no need for alarm; assuring them that Lockdown is his "asset" and that his presence is part of his CIA operation with Cemetery Wind.
Hong Kong and betraying Joyce
After Lockdown's departure, Attinger travelled to Hong Kong where he delivered the Seed to Joyce at his newly headquarters. Having seemingly completed their complex deal, Attinger proudly claimed that the two of them will now provide the opportunity to protect humanity without any Transformers' interference once and for all. What Attinger didn't know, however, was that Cade had been warning Joyce about Galvatron and his secret plan to use the Seed to destroy humanity; it had earlier turned out that Galvatron was actually Megatron, the Decepticons' leader who started their war against the Autobots on Earth from the beginning of it all. Because of this, Joyce had taken this into consideration and had a change of heart when he openly attempted to decline his reward. Attinger became surprised about Joyce's change of tune and reminded him the loss of countless casualties following their complex deal.
It was then that Joyce became aware that he and Attinger had a difference about their dreams to make the world a better place; with Joyce hoping to do so in creative terms whilst Attinger had merely the same in rather destructive ways. Realizing Attinger had been manipulating him all along, as well as growing disillisioned with the former's callous indifference to civilian casualties when Galvatron was unleashed, Joyce confronted him over his nefarious activities and threatened to blackmail him with all the blood on his hand. However, Attinger scathingly declared that he'd bring down Joyce with him after pinning him against the wall and telling Joyce that he cannot back out of their deal.
Suddenly their argument is cut-short, however, when Galvatron awakens and orders his KSI droves to launch an assault to the headquarters. When Joyce became notified by this, he had Attinger and Savoy escorted out of the building. It was then that Attinger became aware of Joyce's betrayal and Galvatron's presence when he was shepherded to safety by Savoy, though not after he confronted Joyce outside of the carpark about his change of heart.
Final Confrontation and Death
The next day, Attinger was prepared to kill Joyce when he and Savoy hunted him down across Hong Kong. It was then notified to the pair that the Seed they are searching was in Joyce's possession when Galvatron arrives with his KSI army at the same request. Things become escalated when one of Lockdown's ship arrives. As Savoy questions about this in surprise, it became clear to Attinger that the Autobots were still on Earth and that Optimus had not been with Lockdown ever since he traveled to Hong Kong.
As the Autobots and Galvatron's forces began fighting, Attinger discovered that the Yeagers were also in presence and are now assisting Joyce in fleeing from Galvatron. He told Savoy to split up and kill both the Yeagers and Joyce should he encounter them, warning him that they'll expose Cemetery Wind's illict activities should they survive and the pair die. This was unsuccessful, and Attinger could only watch in horror upon seeing Savoy falling to his death after losing to Cade in a fist fight.
Becoming vengeful over Savoy's death, Attinger contacts Lockdown to inform him about Optimus' location in Hong Kong and tells to do whatever he wants to recapture him. Lockdown responded to Attinger's meesage by activating a deadly weapon that caused Hong Kong to suffer countless casualties. Attinger, though, was unfazed by all the destruction that he had allowed Lockdown to cause in the process - thus showing that Attinger had all but lost what remains of his sanity because of it.
Having survived the battle in Hong Kong, which culminated with the Autobots emerging victorious following Stinger's death and Galvatron's escape, Attinger wandered off alone and ended up locating Cade in the same area where Lockdown was fighting Optimus. He confronted Cade at gunpoint shortly before the latter could help Optimus against Lockdown during their fight. Thereafter Attinger finally loses his temper as he began ranting about how it takes patience to make a man and to work in the shadows to protect all humans - proudly making false justifications for his actions for the good of his country, when everything he’s ever done wasn’t good or protecting humanity at all. He continues to berate Cade by snaring at him for siding with the Transformers over humanity, before proceeding to declare that "There are no good aliens or bad aliens, Yeager! It's just us and them. And you chose them."; henceforth Attinger could never see or realize that Cade chose to be good in this matter.
Attinger then prepares to execute Cade at gunpoint when Optimus, who having witnessed this shortly after overpowering Lockdown, intervenes; he promptly blasts Attinger in the chest, killing him instantly and fulfilling his oath to kill the person responsible for the deaths of countless Autobots and human lives during Cemetery Wind's campaign against the Transformers. Before leaving Cade tells Attinger he would choose them over him and Cemetery Wind anytime. He met his end as his corpse was blown to ashes when Optimus used Lockdown’s grenade to destroy the remaining KSI drones.
Legacy
Shortly after Attinger's death, Optimus would go on to proceed in killing Lockdown before using his last grenade to destroy all of Galvatron's remaining forces - which all but vaparized Attinger's deceased body in the process. Consequently, Attinger's plans died with him and Lockdown as they were all but nothing in the end. Following this, Optimus would then go and find the Creators. It was then afterwards that Cemetery Wind's illict crimes were finally exposed, resulting in the U.S. Government severing all ties with Cemetery Wind and declaring them a terrorist group.
However, their legacy didn't even last long as their traditions would still be continued; this was done by the formation of the Transformers Reaction Force, a worldwide paramilitary organization with the same intent as Cemetery Wind - to destroy all Transformers regardless of faction. This was because the world's governments, including the United States, began to declare all Transformers illegal as more waves continued to arrive on Earth due to the damage in Chicago and Hong Kong - with the exception of a few island countries such as Cuba. The TRF was founded by Santos, a former Delta Force operative who became the unit's leading field commander. His colleague William Lennox, a former ally Autobots and former NEST commander, also worked with TRF but was a reluctant member due to his past experience with the Autobots. TRF also wanted to apprehend or kill Cade Yeager, believing him to be an Autobots sympathizer. But in the end they would ultimately switch sides and redeemed themselves after being shamed by Cade Yeager. They helped Cade Yeager, Optimus Prime and the Autobots to stop Lockdown's employer Quintessa from destroying Earth as well as defeating Megatron and the Decepticons once more.
Afterwards, the TRF was disbanded and thus what remainded of Cemetery Wind's legacy and Attinger had all but perished in the end.
Trivia
- He is considered as the human counterpart of Galvatron from the 1986 animated film.
- If Bumblebee had arrived earlier to save Cade Yeager by distracting Attinger, Cade would have engaged Attinger in a fight, just like Optimus Prime fighting Lockdown.
- Attinger is one of many antagonistic humans to appear.