Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leaning forward over the driver's wheel in Ambulance
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Shawn S. Lealos
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Shawn S. Lealos is an entertainment writer who is a voting member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has written for Screen Rant, CBR, ComicBook, The Direct, The Sportster, Chud, 411mania, Renegade Cinema, Yahoo Movies, and many more.
Shawn has a bachelor's degree in professional writing and a minor in film studies from the University of Oklahoma. He also has won numerous awards, including several Columbia Gold Circle Awards and an SPJ honor. He also wrote Dollar Deal: The Story of the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers, the first official book about the Dollar Baby film program. Shawn is also currently writing his first fiction novel under a pen name, based in the fantasy genre.
To learn more, visit his website at shawnlealos.net.
Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recapMichael Bay has a lot of successful action movies to his name, but one of his most forgotten films is now a big success on Netflix. After a career that saw Michael Bay make millions off of movies like Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, and Transformers, his career has slowed recently. Since 2017, Bay has only made three movies, and none have been hits.
One of those movies was an action film from 2022 that had a big theatrical release and ended up as a minor box office release for Bay, but it was also one of the lowest-budget action movies of his career. That movie, Ambulance, has mainly been forgotten already by fans, but it has received a resurgence on Netflix, hitting the top 10 most-watched.
Michael Bay's Ambulance Is A Hit On Netflix
Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II play adopted brothers, Danny and Will Sharp, in Michael Bay's Ambulance
Three years after its release, Ambulance hit the top 10 on Netflix's most-watched movies, and there are likely a few reasons for this success. One is the fact that it was new on Netflix this month, so action movie fans who might have missed out on it finally had a chance to see it on the small screen.
It is also notable since Michael Bay has only made two action movies since his last Transformers film in 2017. While a lot of people love to mock Michael Bay and his high-octane filmmaking style, he is still a very popular director and has a lot of fans. Enough time has passed that some fans might want to see a Bay movie again.
It also helps that this was a very low-budget Michael Bay film. By the end of his Transformers run, his movies were costing well over $200 million. Even his Netflix movie, 6 Underground, had a $150 million budget. With Ambulance costing only $40 million, Michael Bay was forced to hold back on his tendency to go big on everything.
That worked perfectly in a smaller story about a man who needs money for his wife's surgery and asks his adoptive brother for help. The two then plan a $32 million bank heist, and then everything goes wrong. Ambulance had a slightly positive 68% Rotten Tomatoes rating, an improvement over Bay's last few films.
Michael Bay's Previous Movie Was A Netflix Original
Ryan Reynolds as One in 6 Underground
It is also no surprise that Michael Bay has found this late success on Netflix. Bay's previous movie before Ambulance was a Netflix exclusive. Bay received $150 million to make his high-octane action movie 6 Underground, which had Ryan Reynolds in the lead as part of a vigilante team setting out to stop a ruthless dictator.
That Michael Bay movie received terrible reviews, sitting at 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, with most critics blasting Bay's directing. Some of the worst reviews said that the selling point of the movie was the car chases, explosions, and action scenes. However, Bay did so much in these scenes that it almost made all his action "boring."
Michael Bay quickly left Netflix, even though the 83 million viewers on the streaming service were one of the biggest at the time for an original Netflix release. It was also likely why Bay got less money to direct Ambulance, which resulted in a better viewing experience.
Michael Bay Hasn't Directed An Action Movie Since Ambulance
Jake Gyllenhaal with a machine gun in Ambulance
Between the terrible reviews for the last Michael Bay Transformers movies, the critical failure of 6 Underground, and the underwhelming box office of Ambulance, Michael Bay has slowed down on his filmmaking. As mentioned, he has only directed three movies since 2017, and only two of them were action movies.
However, Bay did direct a film that was released in 2025 called We Are Storror. Leaving his action movie career in the rearview mirror for now, We Are Storrer was a documentary film about a group of British parkour and freerunning athletes known as Storror. It premiered at the South by Southwest Film & TV Festival.
The documentary received high praise, with a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Bay mises in everything from color to black & white photography and even adds some slow motion to the proceedings, which uses regular and GoPro cameras to tell the story.
What Is Next For Michael Bay?
Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox standing in front of Optimus Prime in Transformers
However, while Michael Bay has only made two action movies since he left the Transformers franchise, don't expect him to remain gone for long. Making his documentary might have reinvigorated Bay, and seeing some minor success with Ambulance on a lower budget, it seems like Bay is looking at the big time again.
This could come with the Transformers franchise itself. The last movie, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, was a fun movie, but it was also not a big hit critically, and the box office numbers have dropped since Bay left the franchise. Even Bay's worst movies were still box office successes, even if critics hated them.
It was announced earlier in 2025 that Michael Bay is returning to the Transformers franchise. He has a new movie in development, and he plans to direct it. This would come after Transformers One was a box office bomb, and the future of that animated film franchise ended. The Transformers and G.I. Joe tease might be put on hold, too.
However, there are also some rumors that Michael Bay might not direct the new Transformers movie, and will possibly be a "hands-on producer." Whatever is decided, it sounds like Michael Bay's time away from the spotlight is ending just as his last action movie, Ambulance, is becoming a streaming success story.
7.3/10
6/10
Ambulance
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed R Drama Crime Action Release Date April 8, 2022 Runtime 136 minutes Director Michael Bay Writers Chris FedakCast
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