Bumblebee (film)

This article is about the feature film. For the Autobot it features, see Bumblebee (Movie). For a list of other meanings, see Bumblebee (disambiguation).

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According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

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, written by newcomer Christina Hodson, and produced on a far lower budget of around $70 million. The film was released in the US on December 21, 2018.

When Bumblebee is sent to Earth to establish a base for the Autobots, he finds himself hunted by both Sector Seven and the Decepticons. With his memory and voice lost in battle, he is found by Charlie Watson, a young woman in search of a direction in life. The pair work together to try to discover who Bumblebee is and why he's on Earth, but ultimately they'll find themselves with the fate of the planet in their hands...

Thank you...so much...for giving me...my voice.Bumblebee

Synopsis

"In tennis, you attack at the point of weakness!"

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 and Ironhide are pinned down under Decepticon assault until Optimus Prime arrives to momentarily repel their foes. Prime looks for scout B-127, who arrives only a moment after. The arrival of Soundwave, Starscream and Shockwave on the battlefield prompts Prime to order the Autobots to fall back to a launchpad, and Prime 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...

The year is 1987, and Agent Jack Burns' team of Sector Seven agents emerge victorious from a mock battle after leading the other team into an ambush. As Burns good-naturedly chides his unlucky opponent, however, an unknown projectile appears overhead and plows into their midst. Many agents are injured, and 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.

"Everybody knows: you sting someone, you die."

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 own 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 jet 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, but the scout valiantly refuses and asserts that he will "never talk," a move that prompts his foe to "make it official" by ripping out his voice synthesizer. Badly injured, he is thrown off the cliff and prepared for execution... but 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 limps to a riverbank before collapsing from his injuries, his memory cells critically damaged. His systems scan a nearby VW Beetle before he finally fades away to unconsciousness...

In Brighton Falls, Charlie Watson, a 17-year old girl one day away from becoming 18, awakens from her slumber. After dealing with her annoying younger brother Otis and the news that her mother Sally will be marrying her new boyfriend Ron when Charlie isn't over her father's death yet, she bikes to her job at a fair where she is utterly humiliated by Tina and her posse for having no car. She visits Uncle Hank's auto repair after hours to clear off, but discovers an old VW Beetle under a tarmac after accidentally knocking over a series of motorboats. She finds the key in the ignition and tries it on, but is surprised when the car emits an unintelligible signal...

On one of the moons of Saturn, 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... but not before Dropkick vertically bisects Cliffjumper, killing the Autobot.

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

Failing to make progress on repairing her late father's car and feeling left out by her family, Charlie wakes up to the worst 18th birthday imaginable. The feeling is not helped by the disappointing presents from Sally and Ron (a pink bicycle helmet and a book about smiling more, respectively), and 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... 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. She's only momentarily terrified, however, as her fear turns to compassion when she sees that the Autobot is about as afraid of her as she is of him. She manages to placate 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.

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

File:BBfilm-Ravage-ejects-from-Soundwave-towards-Optimus.jpg

"As always, watch your brooms, hockey sticks, dogs, birds, bears and bats."

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 diving shortly made by her father shortly before he died. She installs the radio in Bumblebee, though he forcefully ejects the tapes she inserts into him. While she's looking through her tapes, he starts thumbing through her father's LPs, and she grudgingly starts playing one, recalling how she and her father used to listen 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 be trusted, 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 are more interested in the telephone network.

As Bumblebee plays with his new radio, Memo stumbles into the garage, intending to ask Charlie on a date. 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, in order to track energon signatures. Burns still has his misgivings, but Whalen believes the technology can be turned 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 make 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.

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 surge is detected by the equipment at Sector Seven, and the Decepticons roll out, closely followed by Burns and his men. The commotion is also noticed by Memo. 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 makes no attempt to fight back. Burns and his men arrive and start zapping Bee with electrical guns, and Charlie is knocked out when she attempts to help him.

Charlie wakes up in her own 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 Bumblebee is being held. Otis is assigned to keep the plan secret while Charlie and Memo head to the base.

At the air base, Powell watches the two Decepticons interrogate Bumblebee. Charlie and Memo sneak into the base in time to watch as the Decepticons inadvertently trigger the recording of Optimus Prime, revealing that the Autobots are coming to Earth. As the Decepticons discuss what an opportunity this is, Powell realizes the mistake they've made in cooperating with the giant evil robots, and attempts to radio a warning to Burns before Dropkick kills him.

Sally and Ron pick over the debris in their house. 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 go 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. Ron manages to successfully obstruct Burns's vehicle, but 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. At the port, Shatter and Dropkick integrate their technology into the communications tower in preparation to send their message. Bumblebee arrives and has Charlie hide in a garbage bin for protection before he begins to shoot 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 is 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 fight below moves into a dry dock, with Dropkick transforming to helicopter mode to fire at Bumblebee. Bumblebee throws a chain which hits the Decepticon's rotors, wrapping around Dropkick as he transforms 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 to jet mode to stop her, the Decepticon is shot down by Bumblebee. During the ensuing fight on the ground, Charlie successfully disconnects the tower's power source. 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 is 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 tell 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. And, not far away, Charlie successfully gets the Corvette running and takes it for a first drive.

Quotes

"I'll never talk."
"Is that right? Then let's make it official."

—Bumblebee and Blitzwing, right before the latter destroys the former's voice box.

"I like the way they pop."
"Focus, comrade."

—Dropkick and Shatter, after the former kills a human bystander.

"With all due respect, have you lost your damn mind?!"
"That's with all due respect?"

—Agent Burns and Dr. Powell debate.

"They literally call themselves Decepticons. That doesn't set off any red flags?"

—Agent Burns doesn't trust the giant alien robots.

"Look, I know what you saw is a little crazy. I can explain. ... Yeah, I can't explain, but here's the deal: If you tell anyone what you just saw, I'm going to have to run you over with my car."
"...Jeez!"

—Charlie and Memo

"You think these little chains can hold-"

—Dropkick before being sliced to pieces by said little chains.

"You kidding me? You're telling me you could've been a Camaro this whole time?"

—Charlie says her goodbyes to Bumblebee

"My name... is Bumblebee."

—Bumblebee asserts his new name to Optimus Prime.

Characters

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans
Bumblebee (Dylan O'Brien) Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) Cliffjumper (Andrew Morgado) Ratchet (Dennis Singletary) Arcee (Grey Griffin) Wheeljack (Steve Blum) Brawn (Kirk Baily) Ironhide	Shatter (Angela Bassett) Dropkick (Justin Theroux) Blitzwing (David Sobolov) Soundwave (Jon Bailey) Ravage Shockwave (Jon Bailey) Seekers (Kirk Baily) Starscream Thundercracker Skywarp Dirge	Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) Memo (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) Sally Watson (Pamela Adlon) Otis Watson (Jason Drucker) Ron (Stephen Schneider) Sector Seven Jack Burns (John Cena) Dr. Powell (John Ortiz) General Whalen (Glyn Turman) Seymour Simmons (Nick Pilla) Danny (Edwin Hodge) Jake Adams (Rory Markham) Uncle Hank (Len Cariou) Craig (Kollin Holtz) Tina (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)

Continuity notes

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

• 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.
• Megatron himself, meanwhile, is notable by his absence from the film's Cybertron-set prequel, owing to the fact that, per the events of the first movie, he is frozen on Earth at the time it occurs.
• Sector 7 and their Hoover Dam headquarters were introduced in the first film. 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.
• 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 several big discontinuities between Bumblebee and the other films (even by the standards of the films' usual laissez-faire approach to continuity), leading many a fan to consider it a "stealth reboot" in the vein of X-Men: First Class.

• Most obviously, the film completely throws out The Last Knight's premise that Bumblebee and the Autobots were active on Earth during World War II, showing Bumblebee's initial landing on Earth in 1987 (and by extension, throws the prequel comic out the window). There isn't a No-Prize that we can think of for this one — just go with it!
• Sector 7 seem completely unaware of the Cybertronians and consider their meeting with Shatter and Dropkick to be "first contact", when, per the first film, they have been in possession of the AllSpark and the frozen form of Megatron since the early 20th century. Neither Megatron nor the AllSpark are mentioned in the film, and the fact that Dropkick and Shatter are actually invited into the Hoover Dam base and are allowed to interface with their computers and don't become aware that both Megatron and the Allspark are there raises a lot of questions.
• In keeping with there being no mention of the AllSpark, the Autobots' departure from Cybertron is shown to be necessitated by their being on the losing end of the war, rather than a search for the cube, with Bumblebee going to Earth to establish a fallback position for his comrades. This is not particularly incompatible with the information provided in the first film, but the fact that the Autobots are shown arriving on Earth at the end of the movie, when the first film showed them arriving in 2007, is more incongruous. It's quite possible they will all leave again over the following twenty years to search other planets and systems for the AllSpark, as mentioned in the first film's prologue, only to then return when Bumblebee discovers it had been on Earth all along, but like we said, this movie doesn't mention that. We'd note that, by having Bumblebee only lose his voice after coming to Earth, this movie actually necessitates a meeting between 'Bee and the other Autobots prior to the first movie, as Ratchet noted in that movie 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.
• Bumblebee's '77 Camaro robot mode, seen in the film's mid-credits sequence, is completely different than his appearance in the 2007 film, utilizing a variant of the body he used throughout the Bumblebee film.

Transformers references

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

• Most of the characters' designs are based on their G1 incarnations, such as Wheeljack, Arcee, and Shockwave. Notable exceptions include Blitzwing, who resembles the original Seeker mold, and Dropkick, who is a wholly new Movieverse design despite having a G1 namesake of his own. Shatter, the only Transformer without a G1 namesake, is (believe it or not) based off Nightbird according to Travis Knight.
• The Seekers use their Cybertronian "Tetrajet" alternate modes from "More than Meets the Eye, Part 1". In addition to Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Dirge, there is a variety of generics colored after other familiar faces, including Sunstorm and Hotlink. There's also a conehead colored like Acid Storm.
• 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.
• Optimus Prime's entrance into the battle on Cybertron is a direct reference to his famous leap into battle from The Transformers: The Movie.
• In keeping with the original movie, 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.
• Teletraan 1 can be sighted in the background as the Autobots are entering 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!"
• As is time-worn tradition, Cliffjumper's design is a retool of Bumblebee's Cybertronian body.
• Memo is reading a copy of the real-life GoBots Magazine #1, which he tosses aside when he sees Charlie.
• A snippet of "The Touch" plays when Bumblebee is 'encouraging' Charlie to dive from the cliff.
• The final battle between Dropkick and Bumblebee includes a sequence where Dropkick picks up Bumblebee and throws him, but 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! (The Autobot logo is missing, though, presumably for Prime to disguise himself better.)

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.
• Charlie eats Mr. T Cereal.
• The Watson family dog Conan is named after Conan the Barbarian.
• Charlie visits the Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant, a nod to Big Trouble in Little China.
• Uncle Hank and Charlie's family watch ALF, a sitcom from the 80's about an alien taking refuge in a human home. Fitting.
• The station wagon Charlie's family drives is based on that of National Lampoon's Vacation.
• One of the motorboats Charlie knocks over has the name 'Bayliner' on its side, in a clear reference to the movie's producer (and past director for the series). It's not the first time, either.
• 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 common 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.
• Bumblebee watches The Breakfast Club, leading to him emulating Judd Nelson's fist pump a number of times throughout the rest of the film.
• Charlie is a fan of The Smiths. After repairing Bumblebee's radio, she inserts a cassette of their album Strangeways, Here We Come and "Girlfriend in a Coma" briefly plays before Bee ejects the tape.
• One of the tapes Charlie inserts into Bumblebee is Rick Astley's "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. This is 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 game of Pong.
• Memo has posters for The Thing, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Tom Baker-era Doctor Who in his room.
• 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 US 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

• Shatter and Dropkick are tasked with tracking down B-127, but don't know his location until they're interrogating Cliffjumper and B-127's signal is found on Earth. This, despite Blitzwing not only managing to find B-127, but also scan an Earth jet mode. If they could find his signal on Earth, when they're on a moon of Saturn, shouldn't Blitzwing have been able to alert them? It's also not explained how Blitzwing got to Earth when only Optimus knew about it.
• 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 technology behind the Internet originated from the Decepticons. However, the idea of an interconnected network of computers for communications and data transfer had been developing for decades prior to the film's setting of the late 1980s, and the term "Internet" first appeared in the mid-1970s.

Tie-in material

During the lead-up to the release of the movie, IDW Publishing released the four-part comic mini-series Transformers: Bumblebee Movie Prequel, 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.

Music

Two albums were released for the film:

• Bumblebee (Original 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".

Theatrical posters

• 
  Yellow-black,
• 
  yellow-black,
• 
  yellow-black,
• 
  yellow-black...
• 
  Ooh, black and yellow!
• 
  Yeah, let's shake it up a little.

Reception

Mankind has split the atom, sent a man to the moon, and now, in arguably its most unlikely achievement, it has produced a watchable Transformers movie.Scott Tobias, NPR review

Coming off the notoriously poor reception to The Last Knight, Bumblebee had a ways to go in terms of redeeming the Transformers film franchise for both Paramount and the general movie-going public. However, the film was positively received by critics, who generally praised Travis Knight's restrained directorial approach, Hailee Steinfeld's acting ability, the Generation 1-styled robot designs, and the dynamic between Charlie and Bumblebee, comparing the film to its spiritual predecessors E.T. and The Iron Giant. The film currently holds a 93% and a "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

After making $500,000 at 325 theaters from its December 8 preview screenings, , Bumblebee made its domestic opening alongside Aquaman, Welcome to Marwen, and Second Act, and proceeded to gross $21 million over its first weekend, finishing third behind Aquaman and Mary Poppins Returns. In its second weekend, Bumblebee grossed another $20.5 million, remaining in third place.

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, Hasbro Studios'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, as well as Optimus Prime's design. Additionally, shots were revealed of the three Triple Changers in the movie, as well as 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 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 attended 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

Originally, 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 simply a desire to take the franchise in a new direction. Some of these dropped scenes and plot points include:

• The original cut of the film did not include any scenes set on Cybertron, opening on a shot of Earth with some expository narration by Bumblebee before cutting directly to Sector Seven agents pursuing Bumblebee 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; in the final cut, however, 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.
• 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 a more eccentric character, though remnants of his original personality still appear at times.
• In the test cut, Cliffjumper was not part of the scene in which Shatter and Dropkick detect Bumblebee on Earth.

"TiVo. You can just freeze live TV? That's insane!"

• 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 and Charlie 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. The scene was cut late enough in production that a version of it found its way into the junior novel and Junior Reader adaptations, and a remnant of the sequence remains in the final cut when Sally asks why the television's cord has been cut—something of a non sequitur in this cut of the film.
• 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 of 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 onscreen appearance of Bee in the original cut. It seems likely, with that cut being more closely aligned with the live-action continuity at large, that the scene was intended to be a little 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.

Additional changes 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.
• Travis Knight initially wanted to feature Megatron during the Cybertron scenes, but the Decepticon leader was ultimately omitted, specifically because continuity dictated he was still frozen on Earth at the time, despite the aforementioned removal of the scene showing this.

Other changes include:

• Very early stock art for the film depicted Bumblebee with his now-traditional "wings" formed from the doors of his car alternate mode; this was changed late in production to give his final CG model a more humanoid appearance, but evidently not early enough to change his concurrently-released toys, which almost unanimously depict Bumblebee with said door-wings.

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".
• An Entertainment Weekly article confirms some of the background characters in the scene set on Cybertron.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Bumblebee (バンブルビー Banburubī)
• Cantonese: Daai Wong Fung (大黃蜂, "Bumblebee")
• Hungarian: ŰrDongó ("Space Bumblebee")
• Korean: Bumblebee (범블비 Beombeulbi)
• Mandarin: Dàhuángfēng (Taiwan, 大黃蜂; China, 大黄蜂, "Bumblebee")
• Russian: Bumblebee (Бамблби Bamblbi)

External links

• Bumblebee on Wikipedia
• Bumblebee on IMDB