The Transformers: The Movie



The Transformers: The Movie is an animated feature film based on the original Transformers toyline. It was released in the United States on August 8, 1986.

Often referred to by fans simply as "the movie" or "TFTM", this film opens with characters who had been featured in the first two years of the toyline and associated media (cartoons, comic books, etc.), but quickly introduces new characters and kills many of the old ones to make room. In particular, Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Starscream are all destroyed during the course of the film.

The movie was a step up in almost every area from the television series, with a more sophisticated plot, more serious treatment of war and violence, a hugely ambitious scope and a greatly increased animation budget with well-known celebrities providing voice work. For these reasons the film remains very popular with children of the 1980s.

Primary characters and cast

 * Optimus Prime...Peter Cullen
 * Ultra Magnus...Robert Stack
 * Perceptor...Paul Eiding
 * Hot Rod...Judd Nelson
 * Kup...Lionel Stander
 * Blurr...John Moschitta Jr.
 * Springer...Neil Ross
 * Arcee...Susan Blu
 * Wreck-Gar...Eric Idle
 * Daniel Witwicky...David Mendenhall
 * Megatron...Frank Welker
 * Starscream...Chris Latta
 * Galvatron...Leonard Nimoy
 * Unicron...Orson Welles

Brief synopsis


A planet-sized Transformer called Unicron who eats other planets is approaching Cybertron. As part of their continuing wars, the Autobots and Decepticons have a fierce battle on Earth which sees both Optimus Prime and Megatron mortally wounded. Prime passes the Matrix of Leadership to Ultra Magnus and dies, and Megatron is transformed by Unicron into Galvatron. Starscream (briefly) assumes leadership of the Decepticons, but is killed when Galvatron arrives at Cybertron. Galvatron then chases the surviving Autobots on Earth across space, splitting them up and taking the Matrix. The Autobots find their way back to each other, and follow Galvatron to Cybertron just as Unicron transforms into robot mode and begins to eat their world. Travelling inside Unicron, Hot Rod recovers the Matrix, transforms into Rodimus Prime, and uses the Matrix to destroy Unicron.

Full synopsis


In the first sequence of the film, a mechanical planet called Unicron is shown travelling through the depths of space, then approaching and destroying another metal planet which has robotic inhabitants, much like Cybertron. During the attack, robots, vehicles, buildings, and even large chunks of rock float off the surface of the planet and spiral into the large "mouth" on Unicron.

The scene then transitions to Cybertron, and the narrator explains that it is the year 2005, and that the Decepticons are now in control of the planet. The Autobots are preparing to launch an assault to retake the planet from hidden bases on two of Cybertron's moons. The Autobots launch a shuttle to pick up a final shipment of energon from Earth before they strike.

Plans for the attack are overheard by Laserbeak, who reports back to Megatron. The Decepticons attack the Autobot shuttle en route to Earth, wiping out its crew (including Ironhide, Prowl, Ratchet and the guy in the picture up there). Using the Autobots' own shuttle, the Decepticons are able to get very close to the Autobots' base on Earth, Autobot City, before they are detected, and begin a devastating surprise attack on the unprepared city.



During the battle at Autobot City, both Optimus Prime and Megatron suffer mortal injuries, and a number of other characters are also killed. Eventually the Decepticons retreat, but the damage suffered by the Autobots has been severe. Shortly after the battle, Prime lies on his deathbed. He passes the reins of leadership to Ultra Magnus and gives him the Matrix of Leadership. (Though Hot Rod actually touches the Matrix before Magnus does.) Prime relates a prophecy: "One day, an Autobot shall rise from our ranks, and use the power of the Matrix to light our darkest hour." He then gives the oath, "'Til all are one", and dies. This sequence of events is observed remotely by Unicron, who appears unusually concerned by the survival of the Matrix.

The Decepticons are making their escape aboard Astrotrain, but are too heavy for him to get them all home under his own power. After putting the matter to a fair vote, the Decepticons decide to throw their injured members off the ship to better the chance of survival for the rest. One of the most severely injured Decepticons is Megatron. Starscream tosses him out and claims leadership of the Decepticon army.

Megatron and the other adrift Decepticons then encounter Unicron in interstellar space. Unicron offers to rebuild Megatron and his men in exchange for their service. Megatron agrees, and is reformatted into Galvatron. The other Decepticons are turned into Cyclonus, Scourge, and The Sweeps. Unicron provides them with a ship, and sends them to kill Ultra Magnus and destroy the Matrix, stating that the Matrix is the only thing which can stand in his way.



Galvatron first stops at Cybertron to take his revenge by killing Starscream and reclaiming leadership of the Decepticons. Almost immediately afterwards, Unicron arrives in Cybertron's vicinity and devours at least two moons -- both of the Autobots' moon bases are destroyed. Under coercion by Unicron, Galvatron finally heads to Earth to kill Ultra Magnus, but Magnus and the other surviving Autobots flee in a pair of shuttles. Eventually Galvatron manages to cause one shuttle to crash on yet another metal planet (Quintessa), and detonates the other with a volley of missiles. However, the Autobots in the second shuttle escape unnoticed by separating the front portion of their shuttle just before impact.

The Autobots in the crashed shuttle, Hot Rod, Kup, and the Dinobots, find themselves separated and in a hostile environment. Hot Rod and Kup are captured by a squad of Allicons and taken before a Quintesson judge and his court. While being held there, they learn the name and nature of Unicron from Kranix, a survivor of the planet destroyed in the opening of the film, which he calls Lithone. Meanwhile, the Dinobots encounter and befriend a young, wild Autobot named Wheelie who has been living alone on Quintessa. Together, they crash the trial just as Hot Rod and Kup are fighting losing odds against the Quintessons' Sharkticons. The tide is turned, and the Autobots commandeer a Quintesson ship.



The other group of Autobots has landed on the planet Junkion to make repairs, but are attacked yet again by Galvatron, who was tipped off to their survival by Unicron. During the battle, Ultra Magnus tries to open the Matrix to use its power, but is unable to do so, and instead is killed. Galvatron absconds the Matrix, taking it away to Unicron. The remaining Autobots -- Perceptor, Springer, Arcee, and Spike's son Daniel -- are then ambushed by Junkions, the eponymous natives of Junkion, who are also giant transforming robots. This battle is cut short, however, by the arrival of Hot Rod's group in their Quintesson ship. After exchanging the universal greeting they all make friends, and the Junkions restore Ultra Magnus to life. Together, the whole group travels to Cybertron to try to recover the Matrix.

Galvatron attempts to open the Matrix to use its power against Unicron, but is also unable to get it open. Unicron, not pleased with this attempted treachery, shocks Galvatron by transforming from a planet into a planet-sized robot. Unicron plucks Galvatron off his chest and swallows him, Matrix and all, and then begins attacking Cybertron itself. Shockwave scrambles the Decepticon forces to defend the planet, but they are ineffective against so large an enemy. Shortly the Autobots arrive from Junkion, and fly the Quintesson ship straight through Unicron's eye. This impact destroys the ship, and the Autobots fall out inside Unicron. Hot Rod, separated from the others, eventually runs into Galvatron. During their fight, Hot Rod gets his hands on the Matrix and hears Optimus' voice speak the words, "Arise, Rodimus Prime." Hot Rod grows in stature, adopts a much sterner demeanor, and quickly dispatches Galvatron by tossing him through Unicron's hull out into space. He then opens the Matrix, which fills Unicron with light and begins destroying him.



In the meantime, the other Autobots inside Unicron have located some of their comrades from the moon bases who had been presumed dead, including Bumblebee and Daniel's father, Spike. The Autobots, including Rodimus, escape through Unicron's remaining eye just as he begins to fall apart and explode. The scene then immediately shifts to the surface of Cybertron, where -- for unclear reasons -- the Autobots seem to be in charge again. Rodimus predicts an era of peace and prosperity, and the film closes with a shot of Unicron's severed head still floating in orbit around Cybertron.

Significance in Transfandom
Transformers: The Movie remains one of the most important elements of the entire Transformers brand, both within the fiction and from the perspective of the brand's popularity and "mindshare".

Fictionally, it established several story concepts that have been used repeatedly in the years since 1986, some of which -- such as Unicron and the Matrix -- are now central to the entire Transformers mythos. The movie is also the centerpiece of the most well-known Transformers continuity: the G1 animated universe. The G1 cartoon is split into "pre-movie" and "post-movie" sections which feature differenct characters and settings, and even somewhat different visual styles. (Most pre-movie episodes were animated by the studio Toei, while most post-movie episodes were animated by AKOM.)

To an entire generation of young fans, the movie was the most visually spectacular and narratively epic Transformers experience of their entire youth. Events such as the death of Optimus Prime are widely reported to have reduced many little boys to tears. It is hardly a surprise that these emotional experiences embedded themselves deeply in many fans' memories.

This is not all to say that the movie is a "masterpiece", exactly. The film displays an arguably cynical attitude towards itself as a vehicle for advertising toys, especially in the way beloved characters are killed -- sometimes gratuitiously -- for sake of justifying the story's focus on a new group of toys. Further, the two primary plot devices -- Unicron and the Matrix -- have no prior establishment in the fiction. Unicron is given no backstory or justification; he simply exists, and is really dangerous, and is afraid of the Matrix, all for no good reason. The introduction of the Matrix itself is a heavy retcon. The story asks us to accept that this cosmically-powerful artifact has been in Prime's possession all along (even though an X-ray of Optimus Prime's innards in the Season 2 episode "A Prime Problem" show absolutely no signs of said Matrix...), but has somehow never been relevant before. Finally, the movie bears many similarities to Star Wars: There are several character-parallels (Springer is a Han Solo-type and Arcee even has Princess Leia's hairdo!), the primary threat is similar (it's the Death Star... but it transforms!, Spaceballs anyone?), and both feature a climactic battle where the young hero hears the voice of his wise mentor one last time before saving the day. To be a bit more fair to TF:TM, however, most of these similarities are either superficial (Arcee's Leia-hair) or can be seen as elements common to thousands of years worth of epic storytelling through human history, not just common to Star Wars.

Trivia and controversies
This film was one of the last professional performances by Orson Welles, if not the very last. According to production materials shown at BotCon 2000 by Tim Finn, the voice recording sessions for TF:TM were done on September 10 and 11 of 1985. Welles died on October 10 of that same year. It has often been speculated that Unicron's last line ("Destiny... you cannot destroy my destiny...!") was recorded by another actor -- possibly Nimoy -- because it sounds different than the other lines. This speculation has been quashed by statements by Transformers voice director Wally Burr.

Although the movie was billed in some advertisements before its theatrical release as being "widescreen", the movie was in fact animated in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It was intended to be matted down in the projector by the projectionist when screened, but all video transfers of the movie were done without mattes, meaning that there is actually more picture visible in the fullscreen video and DVD releases than there would have been in theaters. In November of 2006, a 20th Anniversary edition DVD of the film was released by Sony BMG which included, for the first time, a widescreen version of the film. However, comparison of frames from this new disc and old editions again shows that there is no missing picture on the sides -- the new "wide" version has simply had the top and bottom of the picture cropped off, meaning less visible picture.

The Dinobot Snarl is mysteriously absent from almost the entire movie, even though the Dinobots as a group are featured prominently. It is unclear why this is the case, but one possible explanation is that copies of the script which have come into fans' hands repeatedly list the Dinobots but never make mention of Snarl by name. In fact, at one point the script refers to "the four Dinobots". Despite this, Snarl does appear in three very brief shots, although he has no lines and no action.

With the exception of Starscream, Unicron, and possibly Shockwave, only the Autobots suffered casualities in the movie. All of the other "dead" Decepticons from the Autobot City battle were rebuilt into Galvatron's new troops, and although Decepticons were shown taking heavy damage while fighting Unicron, their identities and their condition are uncertain. Additionally, both Starscream and Unicron survived in the post-movie series in some form or another. Shockwave's death in the finished film is highly uncertain, although in the script it is fairly strongly implied. He does make some appearances in crowd shots in later cartoon episodes, but these may be examples of the fairly common animation errors in those episodes.

There exists more than one English-language version of the film, with the following differences in content from the American theatrical run:


 * In some versions (notably the European version) the opening credits are replaced with a scrolling text ("Star Wars style") which provides backstory.


 * In some versions (notably the European version) the film ends with a narrator reassuring the audience that Optimus Prime will return.


 * Instances of swearing in the film (there are two) were edited out; sometimes one, sometimes both. Those instances are: Spike yelling, "Oh shit, what are we gonna do now?" after the self-destructing Moon Base 2 fails to scratch Unicron, and Ultra Magnus growling, "Open, damn it, open!" while trying to open the Matrix to fend off Galvatron and the Sweeps on Junkion. The UK cinema version had the swearing included but when it was released on VHS in the UK Spike's line was cut. However it has been restored on all UK DVD releases.


 * Instead of DEG the Rank Film "gong man" appears before the film starts as Rank were the UK distributors.

Though most likely coincidental, the movie bears many similarities to the Marvel Comics Fantastic Four miniseries "The Galactus Trilogy":


 * The presence of an enormous world-devouring cosmic entity that threatens to destroy the heroes' home planet (Galactus/Unicron).


 * The presence of a single item that is the only thing that can stop said cosmic entitiy (The Ultimate Nullifier/The Matrix of Leadership).


 * The presence of a herald of said cosmic entity, who ultimately betrays the entity (The Silver Surfer/Galvatron).

Originally, Ultra Magnus' "death sequence" on Junkion called for him to be lassoed and drawn and quartered by the Sweeps' energy beams, but this was deemed too graphic for audiences, hence the less disturbing "shot to death" sequence seen instead. There is evidence that the original sequence had been fully animated when the decision was made, however; the Sweeps still kept their solid energy lassos when they fire upon Mags, and Mags is seen visibly straining against what appears to be said lassos (edited out and replaced with laser fire) before exploding.

There's a few notable animation errors in the movie:


 * When Ultra Magnus accepts the Matrix, he's seen inserting it into his chest twice. (Some fans have joked that Mags was forcing the Matrix inside him, as another sign that it had chosen Hot Rod as the new leader and rejected him.)


 * Swoop's lower leg appears in Autobot City far ahead of the Dinobot for a brief second.


 * Not so much an error, but if you watch Sludge when he's haymaker'ed by Devastator, his eyes pop out of their sockets in Looney Tunes fashion.

Soundtrack
Released on Scotti Bros. Records, the soundtrack to the movie was made available in both vinyl LP (long-playing) record form and audio cassette. At an undetermined point in the 90's, it was released on CD as well (there are no new markings on the CD booklet or outer case to indicate when the CD was released).


 * 1. The Touch - Stan Bush
 * 2. Instruments Of Destruction - N.R.G.
 * 3. Death Of Optimus Prime - Vince DiCola
 * 4. Dare - Stan Bush
 * 5. Nothin's Gonna Stand In Our Way - Spectre General
 * 6. The Transformers (Theme) - Lion
 * 7. Escape - Vince DiCola
 * 8. Hunger - Spectre General
 * 9. Autobot/Decepticon Battle - Vince DiCola
 * 10. Dare To Be Stupid - "Weird Al" Yankovic

In 1997, the newly-formed 3H produced as a BotCon 1997 exclusive a double-CD set called 'Til All Are One. The second disc contains the all of the background score (by Vince DiCola) that was not on the original soundtrack, including several "alternate" pieces for scenes that used songs from the original soundtrack, plus "Legacy", the audition piece that got Vince the job. Other albums released by 3H which include music from the movie are BotCon 97: The Concert, The Protoform Sessions, Artistic Transformations, and Lighting Their Darkest Hour: The Complete Music Score. All of these 3H albums are long since sold out.

On May 29, 2007, Legacy Recordings re-released the soundtrack in a 20th Anniversary Edition containing the above tracks from the original 1986 release plus these additional tracks:


 * 11. Unicron Medley - Vince DiCola
 * 12. Moon Base 2 - Shuttle Launch - Vince DiCola
 * 13. Megatron Must Be Stopped (Parts 1 and 2) - Vince DiCola
 * 14. The Transformers Theme (Alternate) - Stan Bush and Vince DiCola