Transformers Ending Credits Meme

Origin

The "Transformers ending credits" meme is known in English as "But It Came Out in 2007" or "Directed by Michael Bay." Its source is Michael Bay's 2007 film Transformers, which used Linkin Park's "What I've Done" to carry the final scene into the end credits. Beginning on a quiet piano riff and cutting the moment the song breaks open, that transition became a signature of mid-2000s blockbuster sentiment.

The first documented instance of transplanting that transition onto another work dates to August 17th, 2022, when X (then Twitter) user @CastCretaceous posted an edit laying "What I've Done" over the finale of Jurassic World. The post passed 11,000 reposts and 86,000 likes, establishing the format.

Format and Spread

The editing rules are followed strictly. The piano intro of "What I've Done" runs under the work's final scene, and the title card drops onscreen at the exact moment Chester Bennington sings the word "Done." The timing is the whole point — an edit that misses that sync is generally not accepted as a proper entry.

The spread was concentrated in a single month. On August 18th, 2022 @mane_tank posted a Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers version; on August 20th @TheChunkierBean's Halo 2 version (2,800 reposts, 26,000 likes) pushed the format into game footage. It peaked on August 23rd, when @AlingMedia's The Godfather version (9,400 reposts, 54,000 likes) and @EzraCubero's Knives Out version (5,500 reposts, 47,000 likes) landed back to back. The more revered the original, the sharper the contrast with a 2007-style edit, and the better it played.

Variations

By late August, derivatives were swapping the year and the song. A 1999 version used Smash Mouth's "All Star"; a 2005 version used Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek." The shared premise — "if this film were from that era, this is the song that would have played" — generalized the format beyond a single track into a broader exercise in transplanting period sentiment.

How It's Used

• Video edits reinterpreting the ending of a recent film or game with mid-2000s sensibility
• Comedy built on the gap between a quiet, serious ending and an overwrought rock ballad
• Posts and comments trading nostalgia for Linkin Park and 2000s blockbusters
• Remarking that a situation ended too dramatically — "cue What I've Done right here"

Sources

• Know Your Meme, "But It Came Out in 2007 / 'Directed by Michael Bay'" — the August 17th, 2022 @CastCretaceous original, key derivative accounts and engagement figures, year and song variations
• The Mary Sue, "Transformers 'If Movie Came Out in 2007' Meme Is AMV-Style Nostalgia" — the character of the meme and when it trended
• DailyO, "What is the But It Came Out in 2007 meme" — confirmation that the Transformers credits transition is the source