Bumblebee (Film)

***Bumblebee*** is the sixth movie in the live-action film series. A "reset" of the film series as a whole, *Bumblebee* acts as a prequel to the previous five movies, albeit taking some liberties with continuity. The film is directed by Travis Knight rather than Michael Bay (who still pitches in as producer), written by newcomer Christina Hodson, and produced on a far lower budget of around $100-137 million. The film was released in the U.S. on December 21, 2018.

## Bumblebee

### Produced by

Lorenzo di BonaventuraTom DeSantoDon MurphyMichael BayMark Vahradian

## Synopsis

War rages on Cybertron, and things look bad for the Autobots. The Decepticons have broken through the front lines, contact has been lost with the capital, and Ratchet, Brawn, Arcee, Cliffjumper, Wheeljack, Ironhide, and several other survivors are pinned down under Decepticon assault until Optimus Prime arrives to momentarily repel their foes. Prime looks for scout B-127, who appears only a moment after. The arrival of Soundwave, Starscream and Shockwave on the battlefield, as well as the surge in Decepticon forces, prompts Prime to order the Autobots to fall back to a launchpad. He instructs the Autobots to board escape pods and flee from the planet. He also gives B-127 a secret mission: go to Earth, a well-hidden planet Prime has identified, and establish a base for the Autobots to regroup and strike back. As the Seekers under Shockwave's command begin attacking the launchpad directly, Prime leaps into the horde of Decepticons to buy B-127's pod some time to escape.
"This isn't a goodfella. This is a *bad*fella!"

The year is 1987, and Agent Jack Burns' team of Sector Seven agents emerge victorious from a mock battle after leading Danny Bell and his team into an ambush. As Burns good-naturedly chides his unlucky opponent, however, an unknown projectile appears overhead and plows into their midst, injuring many agents. Burns, believing his team to be under projectile assault after confirming that no other military practices using live ammo are occurring nearby, immediately calls for backup... upon which he comes face to face with B-127 rising from the crater. He immediately orders his forces to give chase, and the Autobot flees after scanning and transforming into a nearby military jeep.

Even though the military attempts to capture him with harpoons and machine guns, B-127 evades them and emerges into a clearing leading to an empty mineshaft. Burns gives the order to cut it off from escaping into the mine, which one of his soldiers executes by blindsiding B-127 with his jeep. However, B-127 begins talking to the humans in English, assuring them of his peaceful intentions and that he is not here to hurt anyone. Burns orders the soldiers to stand down, only for a jet to appear overhead. Burns is baffled that the Air Force was alerted this early, but the robot corrects him—the plane is, in fact, the Decepticon Blitzwing, who bombards the clearing with missiles and swoops in to attack the yellow Autobot!
"I have been felled by a winged beast of destruction!"
B-127 puts up a valiant effort against Blitzwing and even manages to damage his opponent's flight systems, but is soon subdued and dangled over a cliff. Blitzwing interrogates the scout about Optimus Prime and the Autobots' whereabouts; the scout valiantly refuses and asserts that he will "never talk," a move that prompts Blitzwing to "make it official" by ripping out his voice synthesizer. Badly injured, he is thrown off the cliff and prepared for execution. But B-127 uses a moment of quick thinking to rip a missile from the Decepticon's arm and shove it into his chest. B-127 takes advantage of the Decepticon's momentary confusion to kick himself away before opening fire on the missile, detonating it, and killing Blitzwing. As he limps away, Burns watches him leave trapped under a destroyed jeep. The Autobot crawls to a riverbank before collapsing from his injuries, with his memory cells critically damaged. His systems scan a nearby Volkswagen Beetle before he finally fades away to unconsciousness...
"What about you?"
"He really is dead."

In Brighton Falls, Charlie Watson, a 17-year old girl one day away from turning 18, awakens from her slumber. Since Charlie isn't over her father's death yet, she brushes off her annoying younger brother Otis, and her mother Sally's infatuation with her new boyfriend Ron. Charlie bikes to her job at the boardwalk, where she is utterly humiliated in an encounter with Tina Lark and her posse. She visits Hank's Marine Repair and Parts after hours to look for car parts, discovering an old V.W. Beetle under a tarmac after accidentally knocking over some motorboats. She finds the key in the ignition and attempts to start it, but is surprised when the car emits an unintelligible signal...

On one of Saturn's moons, Decepticon hunters Shatter and Dropkick interrogate Cliffjumper about Optimus Prime's whereabouts. The Autobot remains resolute, which angers his interrogators, until B-127's signal, activated on Earth by Charlie, reaches the three Transformers. The two Decepticons agree to go to Earth and hunt down B-127 instead, and Dropkick vertically bisects Cliffjumper, killing the Autobot.

In a Texas trailer park, the dysfunctional couple, Roy and Amber, argue about Roy spending the down payment for their house on a tricked-out new car, among other things. Their spiel is interrupted when a meteor crashes mere feet from them, missing Roy's new car, much to his relief. However, he's not so lucky when a second one falls as it obliterates both his prized car and their house. Headlights shining from inside the inferno give the irresponsible man some hope until Shatter and Dropkick reveal themselves and transform before them. As Roy attempts to greet the newcomers, Dropkick kills the unlucky man and leaves Amber before the Decepticons drive off to the West Coast following B-127's signal.

Failing to make progress on repairing her late father's Corvette and feeling left out by her family, Charlie wakes up to the worst 18th birthday imaginable. The disappointing presents from Sally and Ron (a pink bicycle helmet and a book about smiling more, respectively) only worsen the feeling. She fumes in her bedroom before storming over to the auto repair and asking Hank for the Beetle. She even offers to work at the shop for a year in exchange for the car, but Hank refuses since he isn't hiring employees, and Charlie can take the car for free if she can get it to start. Charlie gets to work and soon triumphantly drives her new car home.
"You like jazz?"
Charlie parks her new Beetle in the garage but is surprised when a part falls out from its undercarriage. She's even more surprised when an inspection of the vehicle reveals what appears to be a *face* under the car... moments before B-127 transforms and reveals himself to her. However, Charlie's only momentarily terrified as her fear turns to compassion upon seeing that the Autobot is about as afraid of her as she is of him. She manages to soothe the scared scout and emotionally connect with him, giving him the name "Bumblebee" after the warbled beeps and buzzes he makes.

Agent Simmons relays the news of the Decepticons' landfall to Burns, who immediately prepares a team to travel to Texas and intercept them.
"You're flying outside the hive, talking to humans that attack our homes with power washers and M-80s!"
Charlie awakens the next day and goes straight to the garage, but discovers to her horror that Bumblebee has vanished without a trace. A quick interrogation of Otis reveals Sally has appropriated Charlie's car to take their dog Conan to the vet, as Ron needed to use the family station wagon. Charlie frantically chases her mother on her moped and manages to pull her over, despite Bumblebee almost blowing his cover by extending an arm out from his trunk and waving at her. She later takes the Autobot to a secluded beach, where she teaches him that he should always assume vehicle mode unless the two of them are alone.
"Mr. Bee, I'm going to ask what I think the entire court here would like to know... what exactly is your relationship to that woman?"
Burns' team and Dr. Powell intercept the two Decepticons in Texas and ask them to state their business. Dropkick wants to eliminate the humans, but Shatter comes up with a better idea; lying to the humans that they are a "peacekeeping Decepticon patrol." She asks Sector Seven's aid in tracking down the "dangerous escaped criminal" B-127. While Burns is doubtful, Powell, enthusiastic at the prospect of first contact with an alien species, eagerly agrees to talk to his superiors about the matter.

Bumblebee and Charlie bond in a secluded forest, but when Bee's chest starts sparking from the damage he took during his fight with Sector Seven, Charlie attempts to fix it, only to activate a holographic message sent by Optimus Prime accidentally. While the message is garbled and incomplete, hearing it jolts a memory in Bumblebee...

*Leaping from the collapsing launchpad and latching onto a Seeker to make his way down, Optimus fights his way through several Seekers before Soundwave deploys Ravage to attack him. Prime manages to fight off the feline minion with some effort, but his distraction has allowed dozens of Decepticons, including Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream, to surround him. The Decepticons move in to attack the Autobot leader even as B-127 watches, unable to help, from his departing escape pod...*

Charlie realizes that Bumblebee is on the run from something serious. When he attempts to use his broken radio, she decides she can at least fix that, and they return to her garage, where she sets about extracting the radio from the Corvette. Bumblebee starts playing a video, which turns out to be footage of her last dive meet made by her father shortly before his death. She installs the radio in Bumblebee, though he forcefully ejects the music tapes she inserts into him. While she's looking through her tapes, he starts thumbing through her father's L.P.s, and she scolds him. However, after she notices a specific record, her mood changes, and she starts playing it, recalling how she and her father used to listen to it while working on the Corvette. She tells Bee how her father died of a heart attack, and she's continued working on the car in his memory.

At Sector Seven, General Whalen leads a discussion over whether to allow the Decepticons access to their equipment. Burns believes they can't trust the Decepticons, but Whalen promises to turn them over to him once they track down B-127. Shatter and Dropkick are duly introduced to Sector Seven's array of computers, though they're more interested in the telephone network.

As Bumblebee plays with his new radio, Charlie's neighbor Memo stumbles into the garage, intending to ask Charlie on a date, and is shocked at the sight of the giant robot. Charlie swears him to secrecy, and the pair go for a drive in Bumblebee. Charlie borrows Memo's shirt so she can show off by "driving" blindfolded, and they hang out of Bumblebee's sunroof.

Dr. Powell marvels over the radio at the massive worldwide interconnected web the Decepticons are constructing using the computers and telephone network to track energon signatures. Burns still has his misgivings, but Whalen believes they can turn the technology on the Decepticons.

Still driving in Bumblebee, Charlie and Memo realize that the reason the Autobot has been playing with his radio is to teach himself to speak with it. They arrive at a cliff by the seaside, where Tripp Summers challenges Charlie to dive off the cliff. When she's unable, despite urging from Bumblebee, she's cruelly mocked by Tina. Though Charlie claims not to be bothered, Memo and Bumblebee both want revenge. That night, they head to Tina's house and attempt to educate Bumblebee on the art of throwing toilet paper and eggs; this doesn't go well, culminating in Bumblebee enthusiastically jumping on Tina's car and the trio making a quick getaway before she emerges to find the damage. Their frantic driving is spotted by Sheriff Lock, who gives chase in his cruiser. Bumblebee is easily able to outmaneuver Lock's vehicle, which ends up totaled as a result. The three fugitives return to Charlie's home, where they say their goodnights.
"I told you, stop flying in the house!"
The next morning, Charlie tells Bumblebee he needs to stay in the garage as the authorities will be looking for him, and leaves for her job. Bumblebee instead ends up following Conan into the house, and his curious exploration ends up demolishing just about everything in the living room and kitchen. Finally, he ends up plugging himself into a wall socket, causing an energon-infused power surge that travels down nearby power lines. The equipment at Sector Seven detects the surge, and the Decepticons roll out, closely followed by Burns and his men. Memo also notices the commotion, so he calls Charlie, who returns home where the pair survey the devastation. Memo manages to get Bumblebee back into the garage, but Charlie realizes she's screwed. Meanwhile, the Decepticons have reached Brighton Falls.

Sally returns home with Otis to find the destruction. An argument ensues between her and Charlie, who ends up storming out. Charlie and Memo go driving to cool off, but they run into a roadblock set up by Sector Seven. Charlie tries to keep Bumblebee calm, but when the Sector Seven soldiers seize her, Bumblebee transforms and carries her off. Unfortunately, they immediately run into Shatter and Dropkick, who attempt to interrogate Bumblebee but are perplexed when the Autobot doesn't try to fight back. Burns and his men arrive and start zapping Bee with electrical guns, and Charlie gets knocked out when she attempts to help him.
"Remember what Van said, why is your life more valuable than mine?"
"Funny, I just can't seem to recall that!"

Charlie wakes up in her bed and emerges from her room to find Agent Burns telling her parents that she had stolen valuable government equipment. Despite her protests, her mom banishes her back to her room. She promptly slips out through her window, and Otis catches her trying to get Memo's attention by throwing rocks at his window. She manages to stop him from alerting her mother. Joining Memo in his house, they watch a news report about Sector Seven setting up shop at McKinnon Air Base, and Charlie reasons that's where they're holding Bumblebee. Otis is assigned to keep the plan secret while Charlie and Memo head to the base.

At the airbase, Powell watches the two Decepticons interrogate Bumblebee. Charlie and Memo sneak into the base in time to watch as the Decepticons inadvertently trigger Optimus Prime's recording, revealing that the Autobots are coming to Earth. As the Decepticons discuss the presented opportunity, Powell realizes their mistake in cooperating with the giant evil robots and tries to radio a warning to Burns before Dropkick kills him.

Sally and Ron pick over the debris in their house, and Otis is entirely unsuccessful at convincing them that Charlie is still in her room.

Shatter locates a nearby communications tower they can use to call in the Decepticon army. Once Dropkick blasts Bumblebee, the pair depart, and Charlie and Memo run to the lifeless Autobot's side. Charlie believes they can still revive him using the electrical guns, and though at first, it seems as though she's unsuccessful, Bumblebee sits up, and his memories start to restore. Agent Burns and his men arrive outside and blow up the exterior door before advancing inside. Charlie tells Bumblebee to run as the troops attempt to take her and Memo away, but the soldiers harpoon Bee. It's not until Burns throws Charlie to the ground that Bumblebee finds the strength to get up and start blasting, unfazed by anything the humans throw at him. Sector Seven retreats, but Charlie has to talk Bumblebee down. Charlie tries to persuade him that they need to hide, but Bumblebee is set on stopping the Decepticons. While Charlie leaves in Bee, Memo tries unsuccessfully to slow down the pursuing Sector Seven vehicles.

As Bumblebee and Charlie race through Brighton Falls, pursued by Sector Seven, they're joined by Sally and Ron in the station-wagon. Though Ron manages to obstruct Burns's vehicle successfully, he ends up spinning out as they approach a set of traffic lights, and there's an almost-pileup as multiple vehicles skid to a halt just inches from hitting each other. Shatter and Dropkick blend their technology into the communications tower at the port in preparation to send their message. Bumblebee arrives and has Charlie hide in a garbage bin for protection before he begins shooting the tower, prompting Dropkick to descend and engage the Autobot in a fierce fight. An errant missile throws Charlie from her hiding place, and, seeing Bumblebee occupied, she heads for the tower. Narrowly avoiding Bumblebee and Dropkick's fight, she starts ascending a nearby crane. Burns also arrives in a helicopter, ordering the pilot to open fire on the communications tower. The battle below moves into a dry dock, with Dropkick transforming to helicopter mode to fire at Bumblebee. Bumblebee throws a chain that hits the Decepticon's rotors, wrapping around Dropkick as he changes to robot mode and allowing Bumblebee to terminate him.

Charlie reaches the top of the crane and jumps across to the tower. Above her, Shatter shoots down the Sector Seven helicopter, sending it plunging towards the ground. Bumblebee manages to grab it before it can crash, saving Burns's life. Charlie moves to disconnect the Cybertronian power source, and when Shatter transforms into jet mode to stop her, Bumblebee shoots down the Decepticon. During the ensuing fight on the ground, Charlie successfully disconnects the tower's power source.
"You snap out of it!"
"*You* snap out of it!"

An enraged Shatter pounds on Bumblebee, who shoots the wall of the dry dock. Shatter mocks him for missing until the wall gives way, and Shatter gets crushed between a ship and the side of the dock. As Bumblebee sinks to the bottom of the flooded dock, Charlie overcomes her fear and dives in, finding Bumblebee at the bottom and helping him to get back to the surface. Finally seeing Bumblebee's true nature, Burns tells the pair they need to make their escape before the rest of Sector Seven arrives, and as they leave, Memo turns up just slightly too late to save the world.
"Beautiful day to fly."
"Sure is."

Bumblebee and Charlie end up on a hill overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie tells the Autobot that she can't interfere with his greater purpose, and they have to go their separate ways. After a tearful farewell, Bumblebee scans a passing Camaro as his new alternate mode and drives off to rendezvous with Optimus Prime on the bridge, leaving to continue his mission. Charlie returns home and reunites with her family and Memo.

That night in a nearby forest, Optimus commends Bumblebee on keeping Earth safe, as the two watch more Autobot refugees appear in the sky over Earth. Not far away, Charlie successfully gets the Corvette running and takes it for a first drive.

## Cast

* Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen)
* Cliffjumper (Andrew Morgado)
* Ratchet (Dennis Singletary)
* Arcee (Grey Griffin)
* Wheeljack (Steve Blum)
* Brawn (Kirk Baily)
* Ironhide
* Autobot soldiers
* Dropkick (Justin Theroux)
* Blitzwing (David Sobolov)
* Soundwave (Jon Bailey)
	+ Ravage
* Shockwave (Jon Bailey)
* Starscream
* Thrust†
* Seekers (Kirk Baily; see below)
* Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.)
* Sally Watson (Pamela Adlon)
* Otis Watson (Jason Drucker)
* Ron (Stephen Schneider)
* Uncle Hank (Len Cariou)
* Craig (Kollin Holtz)
* Tina Lark (Gracie Dzienny)
* Tina's girlfriends (Isabelle Ellingson, Mika Kubo)
* Tripp Summers (Ricardo Hoyos)
* Sheriff Lock (Fred Dryer)
* Roy (Lenny Jacobson)
* Amber (Megyn Price)
* Charlie's Dad (Tim Martin Gleason)
* Bill (Antonio D. Charity)

**Sector Seven**
* Jack Burns (John Cena)
* Dr. Powell (John Ortiz)
* General Whalen (Glynn Turman)
* Seymour Simmons (Nick Pilla)
* Danny Bell (Edwin Hodge)

† The individual Seekers are identified as such in packaging bios for *Studio Series* toys of characters featured in the film.

## Continuity notes

As a prequel to the rest of the live-action film series, *Bumblebee* includes set-up elements for several of them:

* Ancillary media dating back to 2007 has credited Megatron with inflicting the injuries that caused Bumblebee to lose his voice (with both the Aligned continuity family and the *Cyberverse* cartoon adapting the idea for their continuities), but internal to the films themselves, no specifics were ever provided, with "damage in battle" being the only reason given for the little Autobot's muteness. *Bumblebee* tells the on-screen version of the story, revealing that Blitzwing was the culprit.
* Meanwhile, Megatron himself is notably absent from the film's Cybertron-set prelude since, per the first movie's events, he is frozen on Earth at the time.
* The first film introduced Sector 7 and their Hoover Dam headquarters. A young Seymour Simmons (played by John Turturro in the present-day films) appears among the organization's ranks.
* Thanks to Charlie fitting him with a working radio, Bumblebee learns how to "speak" by using snippets of music to express himself, which is, of course, how he communicates in all the other films.
* Burns warns Whalen of the potential for Decepticon attacks on Earth, citing Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago as possible targets. All three of these cities experienced Decepticon activity in other *Transformers* films: New York in *Revenge of the Fallen*, and D.C. and Chicago in *Dark of the Moon*.
* At the end of the movie, Bumblebee scans the 1977 Camaro mode that he had at the start of the original *Transformers* film.

Despite its notional "prequel" status, the film underwent significant reshoots (see below) that resulted in the deletion, alteration, and addition of scenes that create disjointedness between *Bumblebee* and the rest of the film series; even by the film series' usual *laissez-faire* approach to continuity. The breaks in continuity lead many fans to consider it a "stealth reboot" similar to *X-Men: First Class*.

* The *big* principal continuity-breaker is that the film completely throws out *The Last Knight'*s premise that Bumblebee and the Autobots were active on Earth during World War II, and instead shows Bumblebee to have first come to Earth in 1987. By extension, this also throws the film's prequel comic, which also operated on *The Last Knight*'s premise, out the window.
* More circumstantially, the film's aesthetics are notably different, hewing much closer to Generation 1. Cybertron itself closely resembles its G1 design instead of the "honeycomb" design seen in *Dark of the Moon* and *The Last Knight*. Bumblebee's '77 Camaro robot-mode body, seen in the film's mid-credits sequence, is entirely different from his 2007 film appearance, instead depicted as a variation of the body used through the rest of this film.
* Sector 7 refers to their meeting with Shatter and Dropkick as "first contact," which feels a little off since, according to the first film, they've kept the AllSpark and the frozen Megatron in their Hoover Dam base since the early 20th century. Neither Megatron nor the AllSpark are mentioned in the movie's final cut, with Dropkick and Shatter showing no awareness of them despite being allowed into the base where Sector 7 keeps them—but these aren't really true inter-movie continuity-breaking discrepancies, as the same thing happened in the *original* cut of the film, where Megatron *did* appear in Sector Seven's possession in a mid-credits scene (again see below).
* In-keeping with the AllSpark going unmentioned, the Autobots leave Cybertron because they are on the losing end of the war, with Bumblebee going to Earth to establish a fallback position for his comrades, rather than to search for the cube. This isn't particularly incompatible with the information provided in the first film; however, the fact that the Autobots are seen arriving on Earth at the end in 1987 when the first film showed them coming in 2007 is more incongruous. There's nothing to say they won't leave again over the following 20 years to search other planets and systems for the AllSpark, as mentioned in the first film's prologue, only to return when Bumblebee discovers it was on Earth all along—but as we said, this movie doesn't mention that. Notably, having Bumblebee lose his voice *after* coming to Earth actually *necessitates* a meeting between 'Bee and the other Autobots before the first movie. Ratchet noted in that film that he'd been trying to fix Bumblebee's voice for a while, meaning his arrival in 2007 couldn't be the first time he'd seen Bumblebee since he lost his voice.

## Transformers references

"All right, scramble, jocks! It's time to fly."

* During the opening battle on Cybertron, the Autobots' weapons fire orange laser blasts, while the Decepticons' fire blue ones, replicating the color-coded blaster fire of the Generation 1 cartoon (though there, the Decepticons' weapons fire *purple* blasts).
* Optimus Prime's entrance into the battle on Cybertron is a direct reference to his famous leap into action from *The Transformers: The Movie*.
* In another seeming *The Movie* homage, Brawn is downed by a shot to the shoulder during his cameo. This time, however, he survives and is seen among the Autobots getting into the escape pods.
* The well-known Autobots are accompanied by generic recolors of Ironhide with one of two new heads.
* The Seekers' Cybertronian alternate modes are loosely inspired by their "tetrajet" modes from the first Generation 1 episode.
* Starscream is the only "unique" Seeker to appear during the film's Cybertron sequences. The rest of their forces are made up of countless robots that recycle five generic designs: blue-and-white (based on Generation 1 Thundercracker), purple-and-grey (based on Generation 1 Skywarp), green-and-grey (based on *Armada* Thrust), teal-and-white, and grey-and-red. The "Thrust" model has a triangular protrusion position behind its head, loosely replicating the character's "Conehead" appearance without actually giving him a genuine conehead.
	+ While it is hard to determine which (if any!) of these generic robots are the *actual* movie universe incarnations of Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Thrust, *Studio Series* toy bios help clear matters up: the *real* Thrust is stated to be the one who joins Starscream in "blast[ing] the Autobot[s'] launchpad with missile fire to stop their escape from Cybertron".
	+ Of course, the console version of the *Revenge of the Fallen* game features Seeker Warriors colored like Thundercracker, Seeker Snipers colored like Skywarp, and Seeker Scouts colored like Thrust. Coincidence?
* As Optimus calls retreat, Arcee and Cliffjumper wield pistols that are a direct design match to the "generic" pistol design used for Autobots in season 2 of the Generation 1 cartoon.
* The Cybertron tower containing the launchpad is based on the Great Dome.
* Shockwave's eye flickers very subtly during his brief line of dialogue like his Generation 1 counterpart.
* Shatter, according to Travis Knight, is based on Nightbird.
* The concept of Cybertron falling into Decepticon hands and the Autobots initiating a mass exodus originates from the Aligned continuity family, although in this case, the Autobots depart in individual escape pods instead of a single gargantuan starship.
* Teletraan-I can be sighted in the background as the Autobots enter their escape pods.
* Blitzwing drops a well-known Furmanism as he fights B-127, stating that the Autobot will "die screaming... like [B-127's] friends!"

* Memo is reading a copy of *GoBots Magazine*, which he tosses aside when he sees Charlie. Though *GoBots Magazine* was a real publication, the issue Memo reads isn't one of the five real-life issues that exist; however, it faithfully emulates their cover style, down to the "Collector Poster Inside" cover tag. In a deleted scene, Memo even theorizes that Bumblebee is a GoBot.
* A snippet of "The Touch" plays when Bumblebee is "encouraging" Charlie to dive from the cliff.
* The fight between Bumblebee and Dropkick includes a sequence where Dropkick picks up Bumblebee and throws him. Then the Autobot lands in car mode, veers around, and jumps to punch him in the face—which harkens back to the fight choreography between Skywarp and Jazz from the G1 cartoon's season 1 opening credits.
* Optimus' vehicle mode at the end of the film is a Freightliner cab-over truck *very* similar to his G1 counterpart. He's even pulling the classic trailer, which has the signature 'stripe' on its side!

## Real-life references

* One of the vehicles Bumblebee rejects scanning is the Urban Assault Vehicle from *Stripes*.
* Charlie has a poster for the rock band The Pretenders, which coincidentally is the name of a Transformers sub group involving the robots disguising themselves as human.
* Throughout the film, Charlie wears band shirts for Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Motörhead, The Damned, The Rolling Stones, and The Smiths.
* Charlie eats Mr. T Cereal.
* The Watson family dog, Conan, is named after Conan the Barbarian.
* Uncle Hank and Charlie's family watch *ALF*, a sitcom from the '80s about an alien taking refuge in a human home. Fitting. However, see Errors.
* The station wagon Charlie's family drives is based on the one in *National Lampoon's Vacation*.
* Cliffjumper repeats his name and rank while being interrogated by Shatter and Dropkick, which references a real-life rule in the Geneva Convention that states these are the only things soldiers have to divulge under interrogation. More specifically, this references a typical exaggeration in film and TV in which soldiers *only recite these* in response to their captors.
* The transmission that Cliffjumper and the Decepticons pick up from B-127 is the theme song to *Cheers*.
* Dropkick and Shatter's arrival on Earth almost mirrors the appearance of the Bug in *Men in Black*.
* Bumblebee watches *The Breakfast Club*, leading to him emulating Judd Nelson's iconic fist pump several times throughout the rest of the film.
* After repairing Bumblebee's radio, Charlie inserts a cassette of The Smiths' album *Strangeways, Here We Come* and "Girlfriend in a Coma" briefly plays before Bee ejects the tape.
* Charlie also tries inserting a cassette of the Rick Astley album *Whenever You Need Somebody*, causing it to play a snippet from "Never Gonna Give You Up".

* Other musicians featured in Charlie's drawer of cassettes include Joan Jett, Adam and the Ants, Guns N' Roses, Talking Heads, INXS, Pink Floyd, Oingo Boingo, Huey Lewis and the News, and PRiSM. She also mentions Stevie Nicks and The Rolling Stones while searching for tapes.
* The record Charlie takes from her father's collection is Sam Cooke's 1961 album *Sam's Songs*, and when she puts it on, Sam Cooke's version of "Unchained Melody" plays. However, see Errors. Also seen in the collection of records is Roxy Music's *For Your Pleasure*.
* Shatter asks Powell to "take [the Decepticons] to your leader," referencing the ages-old trope from early alien-related science fiction.
* The letters 'BFG' are written on Charlie's jean jacket, a reference to *The BFG*, a children's book about a young girl befriending a big, friendly giant and defeating a group of evil giants together. Also quite fitting.
* Sector Seven uses a variant of the WOPR supercomputer from *WarGames*.
* While looking around the Watsons' house, Bumblebee is briefly intrigued by a can of Tab soda and a game of *Pong* running on an Atari 2600. However, see Errors.
* Otis wears a Bruce Lee T-shirt during the third act.
* Memo's room has posters for *The Thing*, *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, Tom Baker-era *Doctor Who*, and a Heather Thomas pin-up.
* Bumblebee's rampage is a direct nod to the 1999 Warner Bros. animated film *The Iron Giant*, in which the titular robot protagonist assaults the U.S. military with glowing red optics in retaliation for them harming his human best friend.
* Ron claims he learned his driving skills from *Miami Vice*.

## Errors

* The episode of *ALF* that Charlie's family watch is episode 20 of season 2, "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog". The episode originally aired on February 29, 1988, a year after the movie is meant to occur.
* Charlie starts playing the first track on Sam Cooke's album *Sam's Songs*, which ought to have been "Little Things You Do" rather than "Unchained Melody". The latter song doesn't even appear on the album, being the last track on side A of Cooke's earlier release *Hits of the 50's*.
* Powell remarks that the Decepticon modifications to the S7 computers have created an "interconnected web of information," implying that the Internet's technology originated from the Decepticons. However, the idea of an interconnected network of computers for communications and data transfer was developing for decades before the film's setting in the late 1980s. The term "Internet" first appeared in the mid-1970s.
* Bumblebee watches a game of *Pong* running on the Atari 2600 plugged into the Watsons' television. However, *Pong* was never released as a standalone game for the 2600, only appearing as part of the *Video Olympics* game compilation, which featured a colorized remake that looked entirely different from the classic black-and-white version shown on the screen. The paddles are also seen moving on their own, despite no one touching the controllers and the game lacking an attract mode.
* Simmons identifies Brighton Falls as a "coastal town."However, both the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge and East Marin Island can be seen in the background of the Watsons' house establishing shots, which would place Brighton Falls within the San Francisco Bay, not quite on the coast. Furthermore, this causes problems with the Brighton Falls Boardwalk, which faces the ocean… maybe Brighton Falls is just a *very* large town?

## Tie-in material

* *Transformers: Bumblebee Movie Prequel*

During the lead-up to the release of the movie IDW Publishing released a four-issue limited series detailing an adventure set in the 60s, during which Bumblebee works with British intelligence to foil the plans of a group of Decepticons, including Blitzwing. It seems likely that author John Barber was working off an earlier draft of the film, which simply began with Bumblebee already on Earth in the time frame between *The Last Knight* and *Bumblebee*.

* "Sector 7 Adventures: The Battle at Half Dome"

A one-shot promotional comic, that was released as pack-in material with the home video release and as a motion comic among the film's special features. The comic follows Seymour Simmons two years after the film's events, and serves to help bridge the gap between *Bumblebee* and the 2007 film.

## Music

Two albums were released for the film:

* *Bumblebee (Motion Picture Score)* - showcasing composer Dario Marianelli's score for the film.
* *Bumblebee (Motion Picture Soundtrack)* - featuring the film's diegetic music as well as Hailee Steinfeld's end credits song, "Back to Life."

## Home video releases

*Main article: Bumblebee (film)/home video*
*Bumblebee* was released on digital platforms on March 19; and on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K on April 2. A limited edition VHS copy was sent out as a promotional item, but was not available at retail.

## Development details

* March 27, 2015 — Paramount Pictures negotiates with Akiva Goldsman, hiring him to create a "writer's room" with the intention of building a cinematic universe. Goldsman goes on to hire a number of writers over the next few months: Steven DeKnight (*Daredevil*), Robert Kirkman (*The Walking Dead*), Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (*Iron Man*), Christina Hodson (*Shut In*, *The Fugitive*), Lindsey Beer (*Dig*), Zak Penn (*Pacific Rim 2*), Jeff Pinkner (*The Amazing Spider-Man 2*, *Lost*), Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari (*Ant-Man*), Ken Nolan (*Black Hawk Down*), and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Involved in the pitching process are Steven Spielberg, Michael Bay, Brian Goldner, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Mark Vahradian, and Don Murphy.
* October 3, 2015 — During his keynote speech at the MIP Junior Conference, Allspark's Stephen J. Davis notes that the writing team has come up with film concepts for Transformers 5, 6, 7, and 8. "My sweater is Ralph Lauren, and I have no pants."
* February 12, 2016 — At ToyFair, Hasbro reveals the projected release date of Transformers 6, along with those of its predecessor and Transformers 7, as well as the fact that Transformers 6 will focus on Bumblebee.
* December 29, 2016 — Lorenzo di Bonaventura names Christina Hodson as the screenwriter in an interview.
* March 3, 2017 — Travis Knight is appointed director.
* May 26, 2017 — A poster at Licensing Expo 2017 gives the name of the film as *Transformers Universe: Bumblebee*.
* June 10, 2017 — Hailee Steinfeld reveals in an interview that she's been cast in the film.
* July 11, 2017 — Jorge Lendeborg Jr. is reported by The Hollywood Reporter to have been cast as the male lead.
* July 13, 2017 — More actors including Jason Drucker, Abby Quinn, Rachel Crow, Ricardo Hoyos, and Gracie Dzienny join the cast.
* July 23, 2017 — Pamela Adlon joins the cast.
* July 31, 2017 — John Cena is announced as a cast member. Also, Bumblebee is a Volkswagen this time. The film is pushed back to December of 2018. Production begins, with the filming going under the codename "Brighton Falls".
* August 6, 2017 — Hailee Steinfeld reveals on Twitter that her character's name is Charlie Watson.
* September 9, 2017 — At HasCon 2017, di Bonaventura discusses some hints on the film, including that the movie is set in 1986. "There's a bee in the car!"
* September 12, 2017 — Actor and stuntman Rory Markham reveals on Instagram that he is playing a Sector Seven agent named Adams.
* September 20, 2017 — Travis Knight reveals the first Decepticon vehicle mode in the form of a 1971 Plymouth GTX.
* October 2, 2017 — Peter Cullen has a role in the movie.
* October 26, 2017 — John Ortiz is revealed to be a cast member.
* November 12, 2017 — A wrap party for the movie reveals the movie's title as *Bumblebee: The Movie*.
* December 11, 2017 — Martin Short is revealed to be doing some voice work for the film.
* December 29, 2017 — A "first look" photo is released showing Hailee Steinfeld and Bumblebee's Volkswagen alternate mode.
* January 28, 2018 — During an interview at the Grammys, Hailee Steinfeld suggests Bumblebee may sing during the movie.
* February 16, 2018 — At Toy Fair 2018, Hasbro states that the film series will be reset after *Bumblebee: The Movie*.
* April 24, 2018 — Footage of the film is shown at Cinemacon."Thanks for the coffee. Sorry, I couldn't finish it. If I did, I'd be up the rest of my life."

* June 5, 2018 — The official teaser trailer is posted by Paramount Pictures, also revealing the film's title has been shortened to just *Bumblebee*.
* June 6, 2018 — Charlie Adler reveals he is not in *Bumblebee*.
* June 8, 2018 — Starscream is initially stated to be in the film in a blog post on Paramount's parent company before his name is later scrubbed from the post afterward.
* July 13, 2018 — Entertainment Weekly reveals Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux will voice new Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick respectively.
* July 20, 2018 — A *Bumblebee* panel at the San Diego Comic-Con 2018 reveals more information on the film, such as details regarding the characters. Also, John Cena dressed as Bumblebee.
* August 26-30, 2018 — David Sobolov confirms he is part of the cast of *Bumblebee* as the voice of Blitzwing.
* September 22-23, 2018 — Three teasers were released on various platforms with many different languages, revealing Soundwave and Ravage's appearance in the movie. Additionally, shots were revealed of Optimus Prime's design, the three major Decepticons in the movie, and Cybertron.
* September 24, 2018 — The official trailer is uploaded by Paramount Pictures' YouTube channel, revealing (among other things) Shockwave and the Seekers' appearances in the movie. A second international trailer is released, showcasing some more scenes. An interview with Travis Knight on the new trailer is also published, revealing Starscream (*now* it's legitimate) and Wheeljack's appearance in *Bumblebee*.
* September 27, 2018 - Before a special showing of the animated movie, another interview with Travis Knight and Hailee Steinfeld was seen AND a brief scene of Charlie and Bee's first interaction.
* November 13, 2018 - *Bumblebee* is rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence.
* November 23, 2018 - A new trailer is released showcasing some new scenes, namely, Bumblebee's Cybertronian robot mode. Another trailer is released animated with...Play-Doh.
* November 27, 2018 - A new featurette demonstrates the more G1-inspired designs of the Transformers, including a proper look at Optimus's model and brief shots of Arcee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack and Cliffjumper.
* December 2, 2018 - Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirms Dylan O'Brien as the voice of Bumblebee.
* December 4, 2018 - New footage of the movie drops, showing Soundwave's voice, as well as many new shots of Cybertron and the battle between Bumblebee and Blitzwing.
* December 8, 2018 - Special early screenings of the film take place in specific areas. Fans who attend are given free Tiny Turbo Changers toys, and short behind-the-scenes featurettes are shown before and after the film.

### Changes before, during, and after production

Initially, *Bumblebee* would have served as a more direct prequel to the 2007 movie, bridging the gap between Bumblebee's World War II adventures in *The Last Knight* and setting up some plot points from the original *Transformers* film. Many of these elements were subsequently dropped during reshoots following test screenings in 2018; this may have been a result of feedback from the test screenings, Paramount's concerns over the negative commercial and critical reception to *The Last Knight*, or a desire to take the franchise in a new direction. Some of these dropped scenes and plot points include:
"TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane!"

* The film's original cut didn't include any scenes set on Cybertron, opening on a shot of Earth with some expository narration by Bumblebee, who laments that the humans are now hunting him after being sent to protect them and declaring humanity isn't worth saving. All the while, he attempts to hide and flee from Sector Seven agents pursuing him in his Jeep mode. This was presumably to maintain continuity with *The Last Knight*, which presented Bumblebee as having already been on Earth for decades. However, in the final cut, the scene was reshot to have Bumblebee's escape pod crash-land near Burns's Sector Seven squad—who are in the woods because of a training exercise—by pure coincidence. The original opening is included among the deleted scenes on the home release.
	+ Unfortunately, this last-minute reshoot creates some new discrepancies: Sector Seven is *already* driving SUVs equipped with anti-Transformer harpoon weaponry. This mid-1980s special forces unit keeps a World War II-era Willys Jeep around for some reason. And Bumblebee can speak English not more than a few minutes after landing on Earth.
* Burns was originally going to have a markedly different personality. In the test cut, he was depicted as a far grimmer character who had lost someone close to him in a prior Transformer attack. In the final version of the film, he became more eccentric, though remnants of his original personality still appear at times.
* Otis appeared more frequently in the original cut of the film, particularly in the first act. Deleted scenes include: Charlie "dropping him off" at karate practice by having him ride a skateboard while clinging to the back of her bike Marty McFly-style; Charlie leaving to buy Bumblebee while she is meant to be watching Otis, warning him that she will kill him if he dies while she is away; Charlie coercing Otis into helping her clean the new Beetle when she returns; and Bumblebee breaking down on the road while the two are taking it for a test drive, leading Otis to abandon Charlie and walk off while a passing Tina taunts her. All of these scenes are among the deleted scenes included in the home release.
* Originally, Charlie was to have two friends named Liz and Brenda "Bren" (played by Rachel Crow and Abby Quinn respectively), who worked with her at Hot Dog on a Stick. The two originally appeared in the first Boardwalk scene where they tell Charlie they "aren't a match anymore," following her personality change after her father's death, upsetting her. They later reappear at the cliffside party, having bribed their way into Tina's friendship by giving her free corn dogs and abandoning Charlie for their new "cool" status. Both scenes are present as extras on the home release, and the characters still appear in the Junior Novel adaptation.
* In the test cut, Cliffjumper was not part of the scene in which Shatter and Dropkick detect Bumblebee on Earth. Cliffjumper's inclusion was made because his similarities to Bumblebee would set the stakes of the story: "You have to understand that if Shatter and Dropkick encounter Bumblebee, things are not going to end well."
* The scene where Bumblebee explores Charlie's house originally had the Autobot inadvertently bring the house's electronics to life with his energon radiation, necessitating a slapstick fight sequence in which Bumblebee, Charlie, and Memo had to unplug the hostile Transformers to deactivate them. Martin Short would have featured in the scene, presumably as the voice of at least one of the mutations. This scene was cut *very* late in production, enough so that a version of it would find its way into both the junior novel and Junior Reader adaptations. As a result, the movie's corresponding scene features an unusually high number of rapid-fire jump cuts to mask the missing footage, including a strange, swaying "POV" shot that originally belonged to the mutant washing machine as it watched Charlie and Memo enter the house. Eagle-eyed viewers will realize that the house's television is gone from its usual spot. At the same time, the washing machine is, for no apparent reason, sitting in the middle of the family carpet, the "real" reason being that these appliances had been brought to life and summarily dispatched in the original cut of the movie. Another remnant of the sequence surfaces when Sally asks why the television's cord was cut—something of a *non sequitur* in this version. The complete sequence is included as one of the deleted scenes on the home release, though it does not feature Short's voice.
* The test cut of the film featured a post-credit scene with Burns, Simmons, and Whalen discussing that the Autobots can never learn of "N.B.E.-01:" Megatron, frozen in ice as per the 2007 movie, albeit redesigned to have a more Generation 1-styled appearance. This scene was replaced in the final cut by entirely new scenes of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee watching more Transformers arrive on Earth and Charlie finishing her and her father's car repair project.
	+ The scene where Bumblebee joins Optimus Prime on the Golden Gate Bridge was, however, the same in both versions and would've been the last on-screen appearance of Bee in the original cut. With that cut being more closely aligned with the live-action continuity at large, it seems likely that the scene was intended to be a bit more ambiguous - the audience at large would've been able to read it as "Bumblebee goes off to join Optimus Prime", while the filmmakers would've retained some plausible deniability in the form of "it's just a truck that *looks* like Optimus Prime" - thus better allowing for the arrival of the Autobots to occur as seen in the 2007 movie.
* A scene of Bumblebee being on the run in Vietnam in his World War II body made it to concept art stage."You see? You can't treat them like equals! They're striped savages! Stinging's the only thing they know! *It's their way!*"

Additional changes, some of which took place *after* the introduction of the film's Cybertron scenes, include:

* The first trailer to include Cybertron scenes featured Blitzwing among Shockwave's Seekers. In later trailers and the final film, he was replaced with Starscream, sporting his traditional color scheme and seemingly a new head lacking the 'flight mask' design motif.
* In a statement for Seibertron.com, Jon Bailey noted that he auditioned for Ironhide, suggesting the character was originally intended to have dialogue. This was confirmed in a Seibertron.com podcast, in which he also said Starscream was supposed to yell "Die Autobots!", in a slightly reworked version of his appearance. Soundwave was also supposed to say "Operation: Destruction" and/or "Operation: Annihilation" after ejecting Ravage as a direct reference to the original cartoon.
* The Cybertron tower was supposed to look more Great Dome-like before opening up to display the launchpad, with concept art to boot, though it was cut for time.
* Optimus Prime was to have an extended role in the opening scene, having a Cybertronian vehicle mode, though it was cut for time. Concept art for a more Cybertronian robot mode and vehicle mode was created by Alex Jaeger, though the film ultimately uses a model closer to his Earthen robot form.
* An additional render and a deleted scene depict Shatter and Dropkick inside Sector 7 with their car-only robot forms, indicating they may have been supposed to scan their aerial modes later in the film.
* Travis Knight initially wanted to feature Megatron during the Cybertron scenes. However, the Decepticon leader was ultimately omitted, specifically because continuity dictated he was still frozen on Earth at the time, despite the removal of the scene mentioned earlier showing this.
* When Bumblebee's memories are restored and he fights against Sector 7, his eye color is red, as opposed to the blue in the trailer (right).
* Very early stock art for the film depicted Bumblebee with his now-traditional "wings" formed from his car's doors alternate mode. This was changed late in production to give his final C.G. model a more humanoid appearance, but not early enough to change his concurrently-released toys, which almost unanimously depict Bumblebee with said door-wings.
* Shatter went under the working name **Fracture**.

## Notes

* During production, the film was referred to in presentational material under a variety of names, including "Transformers 6", "Bumblebee: The Movie," "The Bumblebee Movie," and "Transformers Universe: Bumblebee."
* Hasbro Pulse occasionally refers to the movie as "Transformers: Bumblebee" or "Bumblebee Movie".

### Foreign names

* *Japanese:* ***Bumblebee*** (バンブルビー *Banburubī*)
* *Arabic:* ***Bumblebee*** (بامبلبي *Bamblibi*)
* *Cantonese:* ***Daai Wong Fung*** (大黃蜂, "Bumblebee")
* *Greek:* ***Bumblebee*** (Μπάμπλμπι *Bámplmpi*)
* *Hindi:* ***Bumblebee*** (बुमबलेबी *Bumabalebee*)
* *Hungarian:* ***ŰrDongó*** ("Space Bumblebee")
* *Korean:* ***Bumblebee*** (범블비 *Beombeulbi*)
* *Mandarin:* ***Dàhuángfēng*** (大黃蜂, 大黄蜂, "Bumblebee")
* *Russian:* ***Bumblebee*** (Бамблби *Bamblbi*)
* *Tamil:* ***Bumblebee*** (பம்பல்பீ *Pampalpī*)
* *Telugu:* ***Bumblebee*** (బంబుల్బీ *Bambulbī*)
* *Ukrainian:* ***Bumblebee*** (Бамблбі *Bamblbi*)