Agent Fowler listens to an instrumental version of Stan Bush's track "The Touch" (from The Transformers: The Movie (1986)) on his car radio.
Miko and Ratchet refer to the false Optimus Prime as "Nemesis Prime", a name first established in Armada Transformers: Armada (2002) as indicating an evil version of Optimus Prime and used a number of times since.
The attack on Alden Military base is a homage to the attack on the SOCCENT base in Transformers (2007).