“Transformers One”: Chris Hemsworth plays the lead role in the animated film
Before they became sworn enemies, Orion Pax (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) were friends in the animated origin story “Transformers One.”
Spoiler alert! We’ll discuss major plot points and the ending of Transformers One (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen the film yet.
The image of Optimus Prime transforming into a truck and rolling off with his Autobots is burned into the brain of every viewer of the old “Transformers” cartoons from the 1980s or the more recent live-action films.
So it’s an amusing sight in the animated origin story “Transformers One” when Optimus — or Orion Pax (voice: Chris Hemsworth), as his younger self is known — and his robot friends get their transformation gears for the first time and have trouble. Mechanical heads go back in when they shouldn’t, and limbs don’t work while trying to change into new vehicle modes.
This is a moment straight from director Josh Cooley’s toy box.
“One of my memories of Transformers was that some of them were too complicated to really work. You’d get about halfway through and think, ‘I can’t figure this out. Dad, help me!'” says Cooley (“Toy Story 4”). “For most of my childhood, the Transformers were lying on the floor half-finished.”
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Cooley grew up watching Saturday morning Transformers cartoons and has included plenty of Easter eggs and references in Transformers. The film tells the story of how Optimus and his Decepticon rival Megatron — also known as D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry) — went from best friends to sworn enemies. Here, the filmmaker breaks down the ending, the best cameos and a key post-credits scene:
What happens at the end of “Transformers One”?
With their friends Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) – best known as fan favorite Bumblebee – Orion and D-16 embark on a quest to find the mythical Matrix of Leadership, but discover that their leader, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm), sold their homeworld of Cybertron to the evil Quintessons and is responsible for the deaths of the ruling Primes. Orion seeks to hold him accountable, while an enraged D-16 seeks to kill him. During their revolution, D-16 accidentally shoots Orion when he aims at Sentinel, and instead of saving him, he lets him fall into the planet’s core. But that’s exactly where the Matrix is: he is resurrected by the Primes, transformed into the powerful Optimus, and defeats his former best friend, who exiles him and his new followers.
Cooley initially considered an ending that didn’t pit them against each other in an epic way, but “that’s what you want,” he says. “When (Megatron’s) gun comes out, that’s a moment. When (Optimus’) mask comes out, that’s a moment. Those are the things you wait for.”
Are there cameos from the old “Transformers” school?
Fans of the ’80s cartoon series will see plenty of familiar faces. Certain characters, like the Autobots Jazz and Decepticon main characters Soundwave, Shockwave and Starscream (the latter played by Steve Buscemi), have significant scenes, while many others are mentioned by name or can be seen in the background for attentive viewers. At one point, Cooley noticed that animators were “sneaking characters into the shots that they liked best,” he recalls. “I said, ‘You know what? Keep doing that.'”
Cooley even cast himself in a role, lending his voice to the Decepticon jet Skywarp. “Decepticons are so much fun,” says the director. “Honestly, it was an opportunity to act like I was a kid again.”
Is there a post-credits scene in Transformers One?
There are actually two additional scenes. One comes after the first part of the credits, where B-127 proudly shows his laser-like “knife hands” to the trash he considers his “friends” – and accidentally cuts off one of their “heads.” The other comes just before the theater lights go up: Megatron brands all of his new followers with the familiar Decepticon seal, enraging them. “We will not be blinded by his deception,” he says of his old pal. “Decepticons, rise!”
“We knew it was important that he call them Decepticons at some point,” says Cooley, and the original plan was to have that moment before the climactic battle. It felt like it was “crammed” into the narrative there, so Cooley decided to give it a special place at the very end of the film, which was “kind of awesome.”
It also provides a rationale for the villain faction’s name, Cooley adds. “Nobody would go out and say, ‘We’re the bad guys!’ By having (Megatron) give his own kind of evil Optimus speech at the end, he was able to say, ‘We’ve been screwed and we’re not going to be the ones taken for granted anymore. We’re going to own it.'”
