Cade Yeager

Cade Yeager is an Autobot-allied human from the movie continuity family.

Not shown: the 'Q' behind his head. Fashionable!

All humans make mistakes. Sometimes, what comes from those mistakes comes the best thing that ever happened to them. That's what Cade Yeager believes when he looks at his daughter, to whom he and his girlfriend gave birth at the cost of their high school graduation. While Cade is not the most responsible father in the world, his most redeeming quality is that when it comes to keeping his daughter safe, he does not go back on his word, no matter what; a promise he made to his bride before she passed away. He does have a creative and optimistic mind, lending it to building all kinds of inventions to make a good business out of. Sadly, none of these inventions have brought in much profit for his family. Knowing all of the opportunities he lost, he has sworn not to let history repeat itself, which is probably why he disapproves of Tessa dating boys before she graduates from high school.

Cade found himself thrust into the Autobot-Decepticon war, and quickly sided with the former, helping them recognize that humanity was not too far gone. Developing a deep admiration for Optimus Prime, Cade has come to preferring the Autobots' company over his fellow humans. The Autobots, for their part, have come to recognize him as one of their own and are even willing to defer leadership to him if the situation calls for it. Cade has learned more about the Cybertronians' biology and has become a fine field medic in his own right.

Sometimes his name is spelled Kade Yeager.

Fiction

Movies

Age of Extinction film

Actor: Mark Wahlberg

Voice actor: Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese dub), Marek Holý (Czech dub), Bruno Choël (European French dub), Martin Watier (Canadian French dub), Oliver Mink (German dub), Chetanya Adib (Hindi dub), Zoltán Miller (Hungarian dub), Choky Sitohang (Indonesian dub), Massimiliano Manfredi (Italian dub), Wang Mingjun (Mandarin dub), Jacek Kopczyński (Polish dub), Marco Antônio Costa (Portuguese dub), Marcus Jardym (Portuguese dub, teaser trailer), José Gilberto Vilchis (Latin-American Spanish dub), Daniel García (Castilian Spanish dub), Umut Tabak (Turkish dub), Murat Şen (Turkish dub, teaser trailer)

Cade is clearly a G1 kind of guy.

One fateful day, Cade came across an old dilapidated truck rusting inside an old movie theater. Thinking he could buy it and strip it for parts to send his young daughter to college, he jumped at the opportunity to purchase it....with his friend Lucas's money. Upon closer inspection of the truck, it was discovered to be full of artillery shells. Cade had the truck, along with other broken theater equipment, brought back to his farm and puts it in his garage. Tessa, Cade's daughter, observed this while video-chatting with her boyfriend and criticized her dad for buying the heap of junk. While attempting to salvage the truck's engine to sell, Cade realized it's actually a badly-damaged Transformer. After calling Lucas and Tessa, he connected jumper cables to its engine, only for it to begin replaying a distress message to the Autobots. Lucas and Tessa advocated calling the government, claiming that there was a huge reward for turning in Transformers. Cade convinced them not to call the authorities until he could spend more time working on the truck, as he could stumble on a technological breakthrough if he could figure out how the Transformers work. When Cade removed a live missile from the truck's "power core," it transformed into the Autobot leader Optimus Prime. The badly damaged Autobot roared in a fit of rage while waving a shotgun but Cade managed to calm the disoriented Transformer. Cade questioned why Optimus was so badly damaged, to which he replied that he was ambushed and that the Autobots are being hunted and he must help them.

"You ever seen that movie Boogie Nights? Had a really good song. No? Hm. Thought you would've liked it."

Cade began to repair him, and sent Lucas to buy the parts that would help him fix Optimus. The Autobot wondered why Cade would help him, to which Cade responded because he trusts him to. The two began to bond as they discussed the similarities between a Transformer's Spark and a human's soul. Soon afterwards, Cemetery Wind, the group hunting the Autobots, came to the farm looking for Optimus Prime. Cade almost convinced them to leave until he referred to the truck as "He" rather than "it". James Savoy, the violent leader of the group, had the agents turn their guns on the Yeagers and threatened to shoot Tessa. Cade watched in horror as Savoy threatened her until they were saved by Optimus, who burst from the barn and attacked the soldiers. Cade, Tessa, and Lucas made their escape with the aid of Tessa's secret boyfriend, Shane Dyson, whom Cade took an instant dislike to. During their escape, their house was destroyed by Lockdown, a bounty hunter Transformer who was after Optimus. Cade, Tessa, and Shane managed to escape in Optimus while Lucas was killed by one of Lockdowns grenades.

The newly formed team took shelter in an abandoned gas station, shaken by the recent events. While Optimus scouted, Cade and Shane discussed the latter's relationship with Tessa, which Cade was strongly against due to the circumstances of Cade and Tessa's mothers relationship. After they spent the rest of the day and night there, Optimus returned to collect the trio, and began to assemble the rest of the remaining Autobots. Before that could be done, Cade made a pit stop to see if he could access his credit card account using a modified Cemetery Wind drone he had captured, only to find his account had been locked. As the scattered Autobot forces reassembled, Cade, Shane and Tessa initially found themselves having guns drawn on them by Hound and Crosshairs, before Optimus ordered them to stand down. Later that night, Cade took note of how disorganized and chaotic the Autobots were without their leader. Afterwards, Cade was able to access the Cemetery Wind drone's memory, revealing an attack on Ratchet and Leadfoot's death. Intending to gain more information on the fate of the Autobots, the group traveled to Chicago where Cade, Shane and Bumblebee infiltrated KSI. As soon as they made it safely inside the building, Cade found his way to where they were melting down severed Ratchet's head, and used the drone to transmit footage back to the Autobots. Cade was discovered, captured and taken into custody by Harold Attinger, who began to question him. The two icily faced off as Cade realized that it was Attinger who ordered the attack on his home and threatened his daughter. The building soon came under attack by the enraged Autobots, looking to avenge their friends, and Bumblebee rescued Cade.

Once out of KSI, the Autobots were pursued by the KSI-built Transformers Galvatron and Stinger, along with Lockdown. When Tessa was scooped up by Lockdown's ship along with Optimus, Cade was unable to rescue her. He joined the Autobots in stowing away on Lockdown's ship to search for Optimus and Tessa and ended up roaming the ship with Shane. The pair came across a large armory, from which Cade took an extremely powerful gun, which allowed him to take out a number of Lockdown's minions. After some searching, he and Shane finally found Tessa, who was more thankful of Shane than her father, frustrating him. Unfortunately, the only way off the ship for them was the tow cables launched by the Autobots, which were connected to nearby skyscrapers. The trio then began to make their way down the cables to the tops of the buildings, until Lockdowns Steeljaw beasts began to pursue them, destroyed all but one cable. Bumblebee came to the rescue, killing much of the enemy forces and saving the three humans when the cables released. They were soon picked up by Crosshairs who had commandeered an Orbital Assault Carrier, and they soon took flight with the enemy close behind them. After a lengthy aerial battle with Cade and Shane operating the rear-mounted guns, Bumblebee lost control of the ship and crashed. The humans miraculously survived, though Cade had to deal with the issue of automotive insurance.

Where's my thunder buddy when I need him?

After meeting up with the Autobots and learning about the Seed and Galvatron's true nature, Cade contacted Joshua Joyce to plead with the man to keep an eye on his creation. Before he and the Autobots departed to Hong Kong to prevent the detonation of the Seed, Optimus declared that the Autobots would leave Earth forever. During the flight, the two debated the matter, with Cade attempting to reignite Prime's faith in humanity, with mixed success. Arriving in Hong Kong, Cade joined Joyce who was trying to keep the Seed from Galvatron, leading to a chase through the city. Savoy found the Yeager's and Joyce on the rooftop and opened fire on them, but Cade led him away from the others. The two jumped across rooftops, eventually crashing into a house and getting into a fist fight which ended with Cade pushing Savoy through a window to his death. Cade reunited with the other Autobots and joined the battle, despite overwhelming odds, but thankfully, Optimus arrived with the invaluable aid of the Dinobots and turned the tide. As Optimus went to face Lockdown, Cade followed him to help, but ended up held at gunpoint by Attinger, who berated Cade for choosing to side with the Autobots. Optimus killed Attinger before Attinger could shoot Cade, though it resulted in Lockdown impaling Optimus. Cade kept the bounty hunter distracted while Tessa and Shane freed Optimus, allowing him to deliver the final blow to Lockdown.

Once the remainder of Galvatron's forces were dealt with, the Yeagers, Autobots, and Joshua regrouped on a waterfront. Cade and Tessa happily reconciled, and he finally accepted Shane. Joshua also promised to help the Yeager family with finding a new home. Optimus then chose to leave Earth with the Seed, instructing the Autobots to defend Cade's family. Cade asked if they will ever meet again, to which Prime was unsure, but informed them to consider one of the stars above to be his soul. Cade, saddened by Optimus' choice to leave, watched with the others as the Prime blasts off into space to confront his mysterious Creators. Age of Extinction

The Last Knight film

Actor: Mark Wahlberg

Voice actor: Hiroshi Tsuchida (Japanese dub), Marek Holý (Czech dub), Bruno Choël (European French dub), Martin Watier (Canadian French dub), Oliver Mink (German dub), Chetanya Adib (Hindi dub), Zoltán Miller (Hungarian dub), Massimiliano Manfredi (Italian dub), Lee Gyu-seok (Korean dub), Wang Mingjun (Mandarin dub), Jacek Kopczyński (Polish dub), Marco Antônio Costa (Portuguese dub), José Gilberto Vilchis (Latin-American Spanish dub), Daniel García (Castilian Spanish dub), Umut Tabak (Turkish dub)

In the years since Optimus Prime's departure from Earth, Transformers were declared illegal on Earth and Cade was branded a fugitive by the Transformers Reaction Force. Though Tessa was able to safely go on to college, Cade had to go on the run with Bumblebee, Hound, Drift, Crosshairs, and the Dinobots. They were able to find refuge in a junkyard on Sherman's Sioux land, and Cade became unofficial leader of the team alongside Bumblebee. Cade led the Autobots out on regular searches to rescue new Autobot arrivals on Earth, as well as long-running survivors like Wheelie. To accomplish this, Cade learned much about the Transformers' biology and how to treat the injured. However, many of the team's missions ended with the group returning empty-handed, as often the TRF would kill the new arrival before they could reach them. One day, Cade, Bumblebee, and Hound went to the ruins on the outskirts of Chicago to search for a recently crashed ship. Cade encountered a group of trouble-seeking kids and Izabella getting chased by some TRF Sentinels, and fended off their assailants with Bumblebee's help. After helping the kids get to safety, Cade found the ship's pilot mortally wounded, who tried to give him a Talisman as protection. Cade denied his offering, sad that the Knight perished despite his efforts to save him.

As Cade prepared to head home, he was monitored by Barricade (who watched the Talisman stow away in Cade's car), but found himself surrounded by the TRF. Cade got on his knees, and was asked about the whereabouts of the Autobots by TRF field commander Santos, but refused to sell out his friends. Bumblebee arrived, and though he briefly took the TRF by surprise with his reforming ability, the two still ended up in a stand-off with the TRF. William Lennox arrived to try to defuse the situation, but it wasn't until Hound arrived to the scene that Cade convinced the TRF to let them go. Unbeknownst to Cade's crew, the TRF managed to land a tracker on Bumblebee, giving them the location of the junkyard. The group returned home, with Cade displeased that Grimlock had been trying to snack on Sherman's cruiser and that his assistant Jimmy had let the unscrupulous Daytrader onto the premises. Things looked up when Daytrader gave them a new voice box for Bumblebee, but Cade was confused when Daytrader noticed that he had the Talisman in his possession and annoyed when Izabella revealed she had snuck into the junkyard. After wrangling the Mini Dinobots, Izabella managed to impress Cade with her knowledge of Transformer biology and medical care, and Cade agreed to let her stay for a little while. As the day came to a close, Cade made an untraceable satellite phone call to Tessa, who asked him to find a girlfriend and told him she was doing okay, but was unable to tell him she loved him before Hound was forced to cut the call short, to Cade's despair.

The next morning, Cade and Izabella worked together to give Bumblebee his new voice box, though to their dismay, it was a bust, giving Bumblebee the wrong voice. Things kicked into high gear when Sherman called Cade and alerted him to the approaching Decepticons. Noticing a drone in the sky, Cade realized their location had been compromised, and ordered an immediate evacuation of the junkyard. While Hound stayed behind to buy them some time, Cade led Bumblebee, Crosshairs, Drift, Izzy, Jimmy, Wheelie, and Sqweeks to a nearby town to set up an ambush for their assailants as they'd rehearsed. The Decepticons arrived shortly after them, and Cade accidentally broke cover when the Talisman attached itself to his arm. Cade opened fire and set off explosions which disoriented the Decepticons. Cade and Izzy were saved from Barricade and Dreadbot by Grimlock's arrival to the battle, and the Autobots were able to fend off the rest of the Decepticons. Cade, Izzy, and Jimmy then found themselves pursued by unmanned TRF drones, who they led on a merry chase through several buildings before encountering Cogman. A quick disagreement nearly turned fatal for Cade when the diminutive Autobot knocked Cade out of a window, but luckily Cade was able to survive the fall. Cogman informed Cade that he was needed in London, and that the Talisman wouldn't leave him until it fulfilled its mysterious purpose. After being convinced that Izzy and Jimmy would be safer in his absence, Cade journeyed to England with Bumblebee.

Cade and Bumblebee met up with the eccentric, elderly Sir Edmund Burton, whose mysterious way of speaking quickly annoyed Cade. Upon being introduced to Viviane Wembly, Cade was further incensed by the presence of the attractive, far more successful and well-educated English woman. Burton began to tell them the history of the Transformers on Earth, and Cade was surprised to learn that Bumblebee and Hot Rod were a pair of ferocious fighters in World War II–Bumblebee was so nice, after all. Burton further explained that Cade was the last knight of an ancient myth come true thanks to the Talisman choosing him, and that Viviane, as Merlin's descendant, had the power to retrieve the Staff of Merlin and save the world from imminent destruction. The TRF and MI6 arrived to interrupt the discussion, and Cade and Viviane escaped to the latter's house to find clues to the Staff's location. Pointed towards the HMS Alliance, an epic chase through the streets of London ensued, during which Bumblebee was able to shake the pursuing Barricade. Upon reaching the Alliance, Burton declined to further accompany the group, and thus Cade, Viviane, Cogman, and Bumblebee were left to venture into the depths of the ocean in the Alliance, evading the TRF on the way.

Cade awkwardly flirted with Viviane on the way to a sunken Cybertronian ship, after he noticed her appreciation of his solid physique. Cade and Viviane ventured through the sunken ship and found Merlin's sarcophagus, though Cade was irate when the Staff inside appeared to be a simple staff of wood. A Knight activated and attacked them to protect the Staff, which was properly activated in Viviane's hands. The TRF arrived in time to kill the Knight and the humans were under further assault by other reactivated Knights, but suddenly Optimus Prime, brainwashed into Nemesis Prime, barged in and demanded the Staff. Cade was aghast when Nemesis did not remember him, and reluctantly asked Viviane to hand over the Staff lest she be killed. Agreeing with Bumblebee that Optimus was not in his right mind, Cade and Viviane ventured to the surface of the rising ship while Bumblebee dueled Nemesis. The sloshing waves proved hazardous for Cade as he tried to convince Optimus to snap out of it, but Nemesis nearly killed him and Bumblebee until the latter finally spoke with his real voice.

Optimus regained control of himself, to Cade's relief, but Megatron and Nitro Zeus arrived and stole the Staff from him. The Guardian Knights arrived and beat Optimus into submission, and decided to execute him for submitting to Quintessa. Cade moved to defend Optimus, with the Talisman suddenly transforming into Excalibur itself. The Knights relented, and Optimus apologized to Cade for failing him. Cade dismissed his regrets, stating that they would be unable to save the world without Optimus. Roused by his words, Optimus reasserted himself, and Cade formed an understanding with the TRF as they headed for Stonehenge. The junkyard crew arrived soon afterward, and Cade was reunited with Izzy and Jimmy. After Optimus flew off the lead the attack in advance, Cade rode with the TRF aboard an Osprey parked on top of the Autobots' newly acquired ship, and made peace with Santos after shaming him for turning on the Autobots. Cade was dismayed when it turned out that Izzy had stowed away with the group on their way to the ignition chamber, but it was too late to do anything about it. Cade also took the time to ask out Viviane, provided they survived.

The group was pinned down by the Decepticons and Infernocons, even with the aid of their Autobot allies. Thanks to Sqweeks and Optimus, the group broke through the Decepticon line, but unfortunately, the TRF was ordered to abort as a nuclear strike had been called in to destroy the ignition chamber. Cade and Viviane elected not to retreat, and after sharing a kiss, charged the ignition chamber with the Autobots. Cade helped escort Viviane to the Staff while the Autobots defeated Megatron and Nitro Zeus. By this point, the ignition chamber had been blown out of the sky by the nuclear strike, but Optimus and Hot Rod were able to save the pair from falling to their deaths. On the ground, Cade and Viviane embraced, the day saved, and Cade thanked Izzy for her part in the battle. Cade watched as Optimus gave a speech summoning all Autobots to come home, as Cybertron was now left parked on Earth indefinitely. The Last Knight

Ask Vector Prime

In Tyran 511.0 Kappa, Cade Yeager also revived Optimus Prime. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/09/16

Toys

Kre-O

I got smokies on my trail!

• Optimus Prime Dino Hauler (2014)

• Set number: A7796
• Pieces: 275
• Kreons: Ratchet, Vehicon x2, Autobot Driver

Available only with the "Optimus Prime Dino Hauler" building set, Cade Kade Yeager is a human Kreon who uses the new smaller Kreon body from the Kre-O "City Invasion" brand. The toy was only referred to as "Autobot Driver" in its initial release but its identity was later confirmed by the Facebook edition of Ask Vector Prime with a Kreonized spelling.

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Cade Yeager (ケイド・イェーガー Keido Yēgā)
• Korean: Cade Yeager (케이드 예거 Keideu Yegeo)
• Mandarin: Cade Yeager (Taiwan, 凱德·伊格 Kǎidé Yīgé)