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The Transformers: The Movie
original movie poster
Directed by	Nelson Shin
Produced by	Joe Bacal Thom Griffith Margaret Loesch (executive) Lee Gunther (executive)
Written by	Ron Friedman
Starring	Judd Nelson Orson Welles Leonard Nimoy Robert Stack
Music by	Vince DiCola
Distributed by	De Laurentiis Entertainment Group
Release date(s)	August 8, 1986
Running time	84 min. (USA)
Country	United States
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Transformers: The Movie is an animated feature film based on the animated series of the same name. It was released in North America on August 8, 1986.

The film was directed by Nelson Shin, who produced the original Transformers television series, and features the voices of Eric Idle, Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, Casey Kasem, Robert Stack, John Moschitta, Peter Cullen and Frank Welker. It was also the final roles for Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers.

The story takes place 20 years (in the year 2005) subsequent to events of the TV series' second season and serves to bridge into the third season. Set to a hard-driving rock music soundtrack, the movie has a decidedly darker tone than the television series, with detailed visuals in Toei Animation's typical animated feature film styling, and Decepticon villains that are more menacing, killing without hesitation. The film features several grand battles in which a handful of major characters meet their end. The film’s tagline was: "Beyond Good. Beyond Evil. Beyond Your Wildest Imagination."

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Character deaths 2 Cast 3 Release 4 Reception 5 Commercial releases 5.1 20th anniversary DVD 5.2 Comic book adaptations 6 Soundtracks 7 Cultural impact 7.1 Merchandise 8 External links 9 References

The opening scene shows Unicron, a space-roaming artificial planet, grinding and consuming the peaceful robot planet Lithone, along with the vast majority of its civilians. Only two ships escape, with Arblus and Kranix as its only survivors, though both of them are later executed by the Quintessons. A third ship almost escapes, but is sucked into Unicron. Following the opening credits, the narrator states that the evil Decepticons control the Transformers' homeworld, Cybertron. The heroic Autobots are readying themselves on two of Cybertron's moons for a strike against the Decepticons, preparing a supply shuttle for launch to Autobot City on Earth. Their transmission is intercepted by the Decepticons, who ambush the shuttle and kill its crew to use the ship to infiltrate Autobot City on Earth without being detected.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Daniel Witwicky and Hot Rod race to greet the shuttle. They notice its damaged exterior and spot Decepticons aboard the damaged shuttle, upon which Hot Rod fires at the stowaways. After a brief battle pitting Hot Rod and Kup against the Decepticons Blitzwing and Shrapnel, the Decepticons begin their attack on Autobot City. The outnumbered Autobots, including Autobot City Commander Ultra Magnus, Blurr, Springer, Perceptor, and female Autobot Arcee, fare poorly. Ultra Magnus sends orders to alert Blaster to radio for assistance from their commander and leader Optimus Prime. An attempt to thwart the transmission by Decepticon Soundwave fails, and the broadcast reaches Moon Base One where Optimus is stationed. Optimus Prime and the Dinobots arrive to successfully repel the Decepticon invaders, including the unstoppable Devastator. Optimus faces Megatron in a battle that leaves Optimus mortally wounded and Megatron severely damaged. The Decepticons retreat with Megatron and their other war-wounded loaded aboard Astrotrain for transport back to Cybertron, on the orders of Starscream.

Inside Autobot City's walls, Perceptor alerts the other Autobots that the wounds that Optimus Prime has suffered during his battle with Megatron are fatal. The dying Optimus Prime calls on Ultra Magnus to assume command of the Autobots and bestows him with the Autobot Matrix of Leadership, which Optimus extracts from his chest. Optimus asserts that the Matrix one day will light the Autobots darkest hour, right before he dies. Back in space, Astrotrain's shortage of fuel prompts the Decepticons to eject the dead weight of their injured — including the protesting Megatron. This leaves the remaining Decepticons to bicker among themselves for leadership.

Drifting aimlessly, the Decepticon castoffs encounter Unicron, who offers to give Megatron and the others new bodies on the condition that they destroy the Autobot Matrix, which, Unicron says, is the only thing that can stand in his way. Megatron reluctantly agrees, and Unicron uses his power to kill Megatron off, recreate, and reformat him as Galvatron, with his damaged underlings fashioned anew into Cyclonus, Scourge, and the Sweeps. Unicron provides them with a craft on which they travel to Cybertron, where Galvatron confronts and obliterates the treacherous Starscream and takes command of the Decepticons, as his alter-ego Megatron did before him.

Back on Earth, the Autobots are alerted as Unicron consumes Cybertron's two moons, along with Autobots Jazz, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Daniel's father Spike (who are ultimately rescued). Galvatron leads the Decepticons in another assault on Autobot City. The Autobots board a pair of shuttles and flee toward their threatened planet of Cybertron. Hot Rod, Kup and the Dinobots are shot down over the planet Quintessa, while Ultra Magnus and company evade their pursuers and set down on the planet of Junk for repairs.

Captured by Quintessa guardsmen, Hot Rod and Kup witness the sentencing and execution of Orbilus and are then subjected to a trial by Quintesson executioners. Before the trial, they see Kranix, now Lithone's last survivor, who then tells them about Unicron, before he's taken away by the Quintessa guardsmen to be fed to the Sharkticons. At the trial, Hot Rod and Kup battle the Sharkticons with difficulty, but luckily, they are rescued only by the arrival of the Dinobots. Grimlock intimidates the Sharkticons to rebel against the Quintessons with ease, while the Autobots escape. With help from the Dinobots' new ally, Wheelie, the group locate a ship and depart for the planet of Junk to join the other Autobots.

Meanwhile, Galvatron finds and hunts down the Autobots on Junk. Ultra Magnus tries but fails to awaken the Matrix's powers, and then is obliterated to pieces by the Sweeps. Galvatron steals the Matrix, stating that he intends to use it to make Unicron his slave. The remaining Autobots are harassed by hostile Junkion natives, led by Wreck-Gar, until Hot Rod's party touches down to befriend them. The Junkion allies repair Ultra Magnus and volunteer a vessel to help the Autobots fight against Unicron.

Back in space, Galvatron attempts to subjugate Unicron using the Matrix but is unable to unleash its power. Unicron, seeing that Galvatron is underestimating him, transforms into a huge planet-sized robot and attacks Cybertron. As protest against this, Galvatron opens fire on Unicron, but Unicron simply swallows him up. Decepticon defenders scramble to counter Unicron's attack, but he destroys each one of them, including Shockwave, Dirge, Thrust, Ramjet, and countless others. As the Autobots reach the scene, Hot Rod crashes his ship into through the giant's eye and finding themselves separated within Unicron's body. At that time, Wreck-Gar and his Junkions fight back against Unicron, but Unicron crushes their only ship, although they survived.

Inside, Hot Rod fights the recently consumed Galvatron. Hot Rod secures his grip on the Matrix, and the power of The Matrix is unleashed, transforming him into Rodimus Prime. Rodimus unleashes its power to destroy Unicron from within, but not before he throws Galvatron deep into space. Rodimus leads the other Autobots out of Unicron's body before it explodes, sprawling parts of the giant across the galaxy. Reclaiming Cybertron, the victorious Autobots declare the beginning of a new age of peace and happiness while the defeated Decepticons scramble away to a burned world called Chaar. Ultra Magnus decided to step down his position as leader of the Autobots, handing it over to Rodimus. The movie ends with Unicron's monstrous head circling Cybertron, a dark replacement for the two moons that once existed.

An intention of the movie was to rid the Transformers cartoon universe of the majority of characters from Seasons 1 and 2. Story consultant Flint Dille elaborated:

“

In the next season (3), we were going to have all these new characters, and people are going to be wondering what happened to the old characters that they liked so much. What we knew, in a business sense, is that they had been discontinued, because they were the 1984/1985 (toy)line – but, we needed to tie them off. So, we had this one scene where the Autobots basically had to run through a gauntlet of Decepticons. Which basically wiped out the entire '84 product line in one massive "charge of the light brigade". So, whoever wasn't discontinued, stumbled to the end. That scene didn’t make it into the finished movie. But if you think kids were locking themselves in the bedroom over Optimus Prime, basically in that scene they would've seen their entire toy collection wiped out.[1]

”

The movie was produced by Sunbow/Marvel simultaneous to G.I. Joe: The Movie. The writers of the G.I. Joe film asked for permission from Hasbro to kill a character, Duke. Hasbro not only approved the request but "insisted" that the writers of Transformers: The Movie adopt the same fate for Optimus Prime.^[2] However, Optimus Prime's death sparked some controversy which later caused the writers to make changes so that Duke simply ended up in a coma.^[3]

Actor	Role
Norman Alden	Kranix
Jack Angel	Astrotrain | Ramjet
Michael Bell	Swoop | Scrapper | Junkion
Gregg Berger	Grimlock
Susan Blu	Arcee
Arthur Burghardt	Devastator
Corey Burton	Spike | Brawn | Shockwave
Roger C. Carmel	Cyclonus | Quintesson Leader
Victor Caroli	Narrator
Regis Cordic	Quintesson Judge
Scatman Crothers	Jazz
Peter Cullen	Optimus Prime | Ironhide
Paul Eiding	Perceptor
Ed Gilbert	Blitzwing
Dan Gilvezan	Bumblebee
Eric Idle	Wreck-Gar
Buster Jones	Blaster
Stan Jones	Scourge
Casey Kasem	Cliffjumper | Bluestreak | Teletran 1
Chris Latta	Starscream
David Mendenhall	Daniel
Don Messick	Scavenger
John Moschitta	Blurr
Judd Nelson	Hot Rod - Rodimus Prime
Leonard Nimoy	Galvatron
Hal Rayle	Shrapnel
Clive Revill	Kickback
Neil Ross	Bonecrusher | Hook | Springer | Slag
Robert Stack	Ultra Magnus
Lionel Stander	Kup
Frank Welker	Megatron | Soundwave | Rumble | Frenzy | Wheelie | Junkion
Orson Welles	Unicron

This was Orson Welles's final film. He was in declining health during production. Shortly before he died, he told his biographer, Barbara Leaming, that he had spent the day "playing a toy"^[4] in a movie about toys who "do horrible things to each other." Film historian Joseph McBride quotes Welles saying of his participation: "I play a planet. I menace somebody called Something-or-other. Then I'm destroyed."^[5] Welles' voice was apparently so weak by the time he made his recording that technicians needed to run it through a synthesizer to salvage it. The voicework for Transformers: The Movie was the last movie project he worked on; his voice session was on October 5, 1985, and five days later on October 10, 1985, Welles died of a heart attack.^[5]

The credits list several characters that either do not appear or do not speak in the finished film. Bell is also credited as Prowl, who does not speak. Messick is credited for Gears, who doesn't speak, instead of Scavenger, who does. The credits include Bud Davis as Dirge, who had lines cut from the film's original script, and Walker Edmiston as Inferno, who does not appear in either the film or script.

Peter Cullen is credited above Scatman Crothers, even though the cast members are usually listed in alphabetical order.

Jack Angel does not receive credit for Ramjet, although Ramjet has one line.

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (July 2007)

Although the trailer hails the film as "spectacular widescreen action", the movie was animated in 4:3 "fullscreen" format. The feature was vertically cropped to widescreen dimensions for theatrical showings and released in fullscreen on home video and DVD. The 20th anniversary release of the movie by Sony, however features the cropped widescreen presentation.^[6] The UK version of the film features scrolling text and narration at the beginning of the film replacing the cast credits, and an additional closing narration assuring viewers that "Optimus Prime will return." The Japanese version of the movie also includes these additions, and displays each character's name briefly at the bottom of the screen when they first appear. In Japan, a direct-to-video Transformers episode, "Scramble City", was created as a bridge between the television series and movie events, intended to resolve continuity conflicts resulting from the film's belated Japanese release.

The Transformers: The Movie was met with incredibly negative reviews. Critics panned the film for it's animation style which was then unfamiliar to American audiences. The movie was also criticized for flat characters, as well as the grief it caused younger viewers with it's massive character deaths (Optimus Prime's death came as a great shock, and sparked some controversy for the show).

The Transformers: The Movie was also a huge flop in the box office, thanks to it's limited theatrical release. Never the less, the film has developed a cult following towards audiences inside and outside Transformers fandom.

The film was originally released in 1987 on VHS^[7] and LaserDisc^[8] in North America by Family Home Entertainment. This version removed Spike's "Oh, shit!" line. The video transfer suffered from a slight clockwise tilt (but no more than a couple of degrees).^{[citation needed]}

The film was first released on DVD in 2000^[9] by Sunbow Productions and distributed exclusively in Canada by Seville Pictures.^[10] This version restored Spike's "Oh, shit!" line. The film was later released on DVD by Rhino Entertainment in North America and Maverick in the UK, both in 2001. Metrodome later licensed the movie to Prism Leisure to release a budget version in June 2003.

On September 5, 2005, Metrodome Distribution released a remastered DVD entitled Transformers: The Movie Reconstructed. Returning to the original negative of the film, Metrodome reconstructed the picture image, adjusting and shrinking it to reveal additional footage hidden by overscan, as well as remastering the video quality. Some complaint^{[attribution needed]} arose from the fact that this exposed areas of unfinished animation as these parts of the frame were not intended to be seen. Magno Sound's Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound remix contains many sounds not in the original version, as with the remixes done for the Transformers season boxsets, and Magno subsequently claimed that they had always been present.^{[citation needed]} The DVD also included the first subtitled episode of the Japanese-exclusive series, Transformers: The Headmasters, the entirety of which was released in a DVD boxset for the first time in the UK, and the west, on September 26, 2005.

Sony BMG released "The Transformers: The Movie 20th Anniversary Special Edition DVD" in North America (Region 1) on November 7, 2006. It features both the 16x9 widescreen version seen in cinemas and the full-frame version of the film. This version also restores the DEG opening logo that was part of the original screened version but was cut from the Rhino DVD. The two-disc set contains the following features:

Disc 1

• 16x9 Theatrical Widescreen Version
• Autobot Matrix of Knowledge (full-length movie featuring fun facts and trivia)
• Commentary with Nelson Shin (Director), Flint Dille (Story Consultant), and Sue Blu (Voice of Arcee)
• Fan Commentary
• Original Theatrical Trailer and TV Spots
• Cinex and Credit Test
• Photo Gallery
• Scramble City Episode with Commentary
• Remastering Side-by-Side Comparison
• TRANSFORMERS 2007 Live Action movie trailer and special sneak peek

Disc 2

• Full Screen Version
• Activate Autobot City Trivia Game (DVD-ROM)
• All-New Featurettes: "Death of Optimus Prime", "Cast and Characters" and "TRANSFORMERS Q&A" with Nelson Shin (Director), Tom Griffin (Producer), Joe Bacal (Producer), Flint Dille (Story Consultant), and Sue Blu (Voice of Arcee)
• Promotional Trailer with Commentary
• Test, Deleted/Alternate Footage with Commentary
• Animated Storyboards
• US and Japanese Toy Commercials
• Scramble City Commercials
• DVD-ROM Link to Exclusive Content

The version selling at Costco came with an exclusive bonus disc featuring the original 1984 pilot. The Wal-Mart edition included an iron-on Autobot symbol decal.

Metrodome Distribution released an Ultimate Edition of The Transformers: The Movie DVD in June 2007 in the UK (Region 2).^[11] The extras include many of the extras that were contained on the "Remastered" edition of the film on the first disc, with fan commentary serving as the only addition besides a fan-made Transformers movie trailer. The second disc contains interviews with Peter Cullen and Flint Dille. Despite promises of the only episode of Transformers: Zone^[12], only "Scramble City" is included.

The film was also released on Universal Media Disc for the PlayStation Portable by Pink Entertainment and Metrodome in the UK. The UK cinema version (4:3 aspect ratio) of the film was used and the disc contains no extra features.

See also: List of Transformers comic book series

A three-issue miniseries adaptation of the feature film written by Ralph Macchio and drawn by Don Perlin was published by Marvel Comics to market the film, with no continuity ties to the regular comic series. Differences to the animated feature include the original designs for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and Ultra Magnus' original death at the hand of Scourge and the Sweeps.

Although the cartoon and comic book stories by Marvel were normally kept unrelated,^{[citation needed]} the movie linked the two in the UK comic series, where it is portrayed as the eventual future of the comic's timeline. The direction the comic took afterwards pertaining to the origin of Unicron once again diverged from events depicted in the cartoon: a disruption to the fabric of spacetime caused by actions of Galvatron was explained to have altered the timeline, with the "movie future" becoming an alternate potential chronology for the comics, while a story in the U.S. title saw Unicron attacking Cybertron and being destroyed in the present day.

Corresponding with the animated movie's 20th anniversary DVD release, IDW Publishing, the current Transformers publisher, released a four-issue adaptation of the animated movie entitled Transformers: The Animated Movie. It was written by Bob Budiansky and drawn by Don Figueroa. The trade paperback features three pages of scenes not featured in the movie, including the activities of Omega Supreme and the other Combiner Teams and why they were not present at the battle for Autobot City.

Main article: The Transformers: The Movie (soundtrack)

In 1987, the official soundtrack was released in the USA by Scotti Bros. Records (now Volcano Entertainment).

The soundtrack was re-released on May 29, 2007. This version includes all ten tracks from the original soundtrack, plus new bonus material provided by Vince DiCola, who composed and produced the film's score. The bonus material includes three additional score cues and an alternate version of the Transformers Theme.

In 1997, 3H Enterprises released an album titled 'Til All Are One that features the film's score on two CDs. In 2001, 3H also released Lighting Their Darkest Hour, featuring the instrumental score; The Protoform Sessions, featuring early demos, outtakes, and alternate themes linked with narration by Dicola; and Artistic Transformations, featuring ten instrumental themes from the movie interpreted for solo piano.

v • d • e The Transformers: The Movie music
Soundtrack	The Transformers: The Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Score	Til All Are One • Lighting Their Darkest Hour
Alternate versions	The Protoform Sessions • Artistic Transformations: Themes and Variations
Live	BotCon'97: The Concert
Related	Stan Bush • Vince DiCola

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (July 2007)

The song "The Touch" was later covered in the 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson film Boogie Nights by the character Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg).

The universal greeting used by Kup and Hot Rod appears in the PC game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: when clicking numerous times on the hero Illidan, he responds with "Bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong! It's the universal greeting."

A Unicron toy was designed, but the prototype was poorly received by test audiences. A Unicron toy would not be released to the general public until 2003, as part of the Transformers: Armada toyline.

• Transformers The Movie 20th Anniversary Edition DVD by Sony BMG - Region 1
• Transformers The Movie DVD by Metrodome - Region 2
• Transformers: The Movie at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Transformers: The Movie at the Internet Movie Database
• The Transformers: The Movie at Yahoo! Movies .
• Transformers: The Movie at the TCM Movie Database
• Transformers: The Movie at Rotten Tomatoes
• Transformers: The Movie at Box Office Mojo
• Storyboards from Transformers The Movie not included on the DVD

v • d • e Transformers
Characters	Optimus Prime · List of Autobots · Megatron · List of Decepticons · Optimus Primal · List of Maximals · Megatron (II) · List of Predacons · Primus · Unicron · Witwicky family · List of Mini-Cons
Factions	Autobots · Decepticons · Quintessons · Maximals · Predacons · Vehicons · Mini-Cons · Insecticons · Constructicons · Dinobots · Heralds of Unicron
Toy lines	Transformers: Generation 1 · Transformers: Generation 2 · Beast Wars · Machine Wars · Beast Machines · Robots in Disguise · Armada · Universe · Robot Masters · Energon · Alternators · Cybertron · Titanium · Classics · BotCon · Movie (2007) · Star Wars Transformers (2007)
Comic series	Marvel Series The Transformers · G.I. Joe and the Transformers · Headmasters · Universe · Generation 2 · New Avengers/Transformers Dreamwave Series Generation 1 · Armada/Energon · Transformers/G.I. Joe · The War Within · More Than Meets the Eye (G1/Armada) · Summer Special · Micromasters IDW Series The Transformers · Spotlight · Beast Wars · Generations · Evolutions · Movie Prequel · Movie Adaptation BotCon Exclusives The Wreckers · Universe
TV series	Generation 1 The Transformers · The Headmasters · Super-God Masterforce · Victory · Zone · Generation 2 Beast Era Beast Wars · Beast Wars II · Beast Wars Neo · Beast Machines Robots in Disguise   Unicron Trilogy Armada · Energon · Cybertron Transformers: Animated
Films	The Transformers: The Movie (1986) · Transformers (2007)
Audio CDs	The Transformers: The Movie (1986) · Transformers: Theme Song Collection (2003) · Transformers: History of Music 1984-1990 (2004) · Transformers: The Album (2007) · Transformers: Song Universe (2007) · Transformers: The Score (2007)
Video games	The Transformers (1986) · Battle to Save the Earth (1986) · Convoy no Nazo (1986) · The Headmasters (1987) · Beast Wars (1997) · Beast Senshi Saikyo Ketteisen (1999) · Beast Wars Transmetals (2000) · DreamMix TV World Fighters (2003) · Transformers (2003) · Transformers (2004) · Transformers: The Game (2007)