Transformers One: Movie Novelization
Transformers One, now in a convenient prose form!
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| Transformers One | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Simon Spotlight | ||||||||||||
| First published | August 20, 2024 | ||||||||||||
| Story | Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari | ||||||||||||
| Screenplay | Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari | ||||||||||||
| Adapted by | Ryder Windham | ||||||||||||
| ISBN | ISBN 1665959355 ISBN 978-1665959353 | ||||||||||||
| Page count | 144 | ||||||||||||
Synopsis
Orion Pax breaks into the upper levels of Iacon Tower which houses the city archives for Iacon. In search of information about the Matrix of Leadership, he finds an old message from Alpha Trion detailing the history of Cybertron leading up to the Quintesson invasion and death of the Primes, but is found by two guards who give chase as he escapes the building. The chase ends when Orion's friend D-16 points the guards off in the wrong direction. The two cogless miners returned to the Energon mines where they work under Elita-1 however when the pair disobey Elita-1's orders during a mining incident so they san rescue Jazz, Darkwing reassigns Elita-1 to waste management. Orion and D-16 get into a fistfight with Darkwing until the other miners break it up.
Later the two miners watchs a transmission from Sentinel Prime following their leader's return from the planet's surface having failed to locate the Matrix. Sentinel announces the Iacon 5000 will take place, and Orion hatches a plan to enter the race with D-16 as a way to demonstrate the worth of miners. Though D-16 isn't keen, Orion tricks him into taking part with the aid of jet packs. The pair end up falling short of the finish line despite their efforts, and are taken to the stadium's medical facility where they are visited by Sentinel himself. Sentinel is pleased with their work in inspiring the miners to work harder, and promises them a treat, however after he leaves, Darkwing throws the pair into the lower levels of Cybertron.
Orion and D-16 encounter B-127, who has been working salvage alone on sublevel 50 for some time. They discover that B-127 has an ancient beacon containing a distress call from Alpha Trion which gives coordinates on the surface of Cybertron and the three of them resolve to reach the surface in the hope the coordinates will lead them to the Matrix. On the way, they stow away on a supply train, resulting in Elita-1 accidentally joining them when she see capturing some intruders to be her way to a promotion. The train takes them to the surface, where they are separated from their ride by a storm of metal dust.
Evading a Quintesson ship, the four of them reach a cave within which they find the remains of the lost Primes. They are able to revive Alpha Trion, who fills them in on what had happened all those cycles ago — Sentinel had betrayed the Primes to the Quintessons and led them into a trap. Though some of the group don't believe it, they emerge from the cave to see Sentinel Prime meeting with the Quintesson High Commander, which is enough to convince everyone. The group resolves to overthrow Sentinel. Trion provides them with conversion cogs from his fallen kin however they're interrupted moments later by an attack by Sentinel's forces, and Trion has to keep the the Trackers busy while the quartet escape.
The four ex-miners are next found and captured by the former High Guard led by Starscream, who have been fighting from the shadows since Sentinel's betrayal. D-16 defeats Starscream, taking control of the group shortly before Airachnid arrives with a force of Trackers to assault their hideout. As a result, D-16 and many of the High Guard are captured and taken away. Orion, Elita-1, B-127 and the remainder of the High Guard "transform and roll out" to Iacon.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Miners | High Guard | Primes | Others |
|---|---|---|---|
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Notes
- Much like recent "junior novels" for Transformers films such as Transformers: Bumblebee: The Junior Novel and The Search Is On, the entire third act of the film is just... left out. The novelization instead ends on the rather anticlimactic note of Orion Pax ordering the High Guard to roll out, presumably to entice children to go watch the movie in theaters to find out how the story ends.
- As is common with promotional material released around this time, Transformers are referred to as "Transformers robots" or "Transformers bots". While in vehicle mode, they're referred to as "Transformers vehicles".
- Some text in Ancient Autobot can be found decorating the pages:
- "CYBERTRON" is used to be a divider between scenes.
- "ORION PAX" and "OPTIMUS PRIME" are written down the edge of even numbered pages.
- "DSIXTEEN" and "MEGATRON" are written down the edge of odd numbered pages.
Differences with the movie
- In general, lines where characters threaten to kill each other are toned down.
- The dialogue prior to the start of the Iacon 5000 tends to generally deviate more from the film.
- Rather than breaking into Iacon Tower via an air vent, Orion ducks past an empty security station and down a corridor. There's an additional sequence where he hides from the two guards after he trips a silent alarm.
- The recording of Alpha Trion that Orion views is longer, mentioning the Quintesson invasion.
- The scanning drone that detects Orion is absent, with the guards instead responding to noises they hear. Likewise the later one that Orion attempts to use to fly while escaping is an old camera drone he grabs off a library shelf.
- The guards don't recognize Orion and he tries to explain that he's searching for information on the Matrix.
- Most of Orion and D-16's expository conversation about how Sentinel is up on the surface searching for the Matrix is absent. The same information was delivered in prose earlier in the book.
- Elita-1's pep talk and her banter with Orion as they reach the mine are left out. Elita-1 has to contact a control room to request permission to start mining.
- It's Jazz who hits the unstable Energon rather than Wheeljack.
- D-16 doesn't punch Orion after Darkwing takes a swing, instead both miners fighting with Darkwing until the other miners break it up.
- D-16 is later utilizing a punching bag in the barracks while he and Orion talk. The film just has the pair sitting down.
- The running gag of B-127 trying to get the others to call him "BADASSATRON" is completely absent.
- Orion brings up Sentinel Prime while discussing the beacon they found in Steve with D-16, causing B-127 to be impressed they've met Sentinel.
- On the surface, the train is hit by a wave of metal dust or sand, while in the film the terrain itself morphs, causing the train to crash.
- Orion and D-16's brief talk after Elita-1 takes control of the beacon is absent. Much of B-127's chatter from this sequence is absent as well.
- "Transformation cogs" are instead named "conversion cogs".
- D-16's lines as the four miners process Sentinel's betrayal, up until he snaps on Orion, are missing.
- Alpha Trion's line about having given the miners the ability to change the world is missing.
- The narrative follows Orion after he leaves Alpha Trion, meaning Trion's fight with the Trackers and Arachnid is left out.
- The film has the four miners immediately under attack by Trackers after emerging from the cave, whereas the novelization has the Trackers turning up partway through their attempts to transform.
- D-16 has additional dialogue after taking out the Tracker in tank mode, loudly challenging whoever to send more bots for him to offline.
- The scene with Sentinel interrogating and offlining Trion is absent.
- The discussion before the miners are ambushed by the High Guard is very different, with D-16 believing he can take out Sentinel without needing the evidence, Elita-1 trying to break up the argument between him and Orion, and B-127 expressing how impressive he finds the new D-16.
- Following their capture, there's an extra scene where Airachnid finds the location of the ambush and works out where they've been taken.
- Elita refers to the High Guard as "hotheads" rather than "nutjobs".
- Starscream's lines encouraging D-16 to keep punching him are absent, leaving just the line where he pleads with D-16 to stop.
- The tower that houses the archives and the tower which Sentinel has his seat of power are one and the same, named Iacon Tower in the book, while in the film they're different towers.
