Which Transformers Died During The Transformers: The Movie? 

Here is a look at what Transformers met their end during the events of the original 1986 Transformers movie! Big thanks to Joe Monzo for being a part of this episode! This video is remastered from an older version that has better information and audio clarity, just in time for Transformers the Movie's 36th Anniversary. Many of you have asked about other characters that were not killed in the Movie of which I did INDIVIDUAL videos on. Be sure to check them out: Inferno Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d2_jCFMHHI0.html Grapple Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NZxYF86y8Y8.html Sideswipe Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-P30vv0AjhzU.html Sunstreaker Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qxf9q8ZQK7M.html Gears Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--8YUK7cs2wQ.html Huffer Retrospective: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE--TIM453ZrEs.html

You forgot one other important casualty: Our innocence.

The most romantic scene in TF has always been Megatron pleading, "Don't leave me, Soundwave!" Gets me everytime.

I speculated that the reason Brawn goes down from that one shot is due to Megatron's fire power being either stronger or more concentrated when he is in his alternate mode. Otherwise why would he ever transform and give up his autonomy? It's ironic that despite losing the need to be wielded by another as Galvatron he is still the weapon of another for the duration of the film.

this movie holds a soft spot in my heart,its even better than the entire wfc triolgy and all the bayverse movies,make it even better,we sadly lost a lot of our fan favourite characters,but we got a unique character arc for rodimus

Good coverage. You’re right about those autobots on Moon Base 1 & 2, most likely they bit the dust if they weren’t Bumblebee, Spike, Jazz and Cliffjumper. See everyone, Cliffjumper doesn’t always die lol

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best. Since the Decepticons wanted to use the shuttle as a way to raid Autobot City, they had to make certain all the Autobots on board were dead. So even if Brawn had survived that shot to the shoulder, it was likely he was killed later on if the Decepticons found him still functional.

It's amazing how for all the controversy regarding Prime's death over the years, I'm surprised how no one ever realized that Optimus Prime didn't die alone. When he died, Didn't Roller and the robot combat deck from his trailer dies with him too? (After all, they're an extension of Optimus Prime himself.)

honestly speaking about this film.... I feel it sucks how they treated the fan favorites of the series to just end them the way they did in like the first 10 mins of the film I felt is the most offensive part of the movie and entire lore of the show.. like they basically cleaned house of the old guard before the story even started, not a dignified ending those characters deserved to have....

I saw the movie on opening weekend in 1986. While Optimus Prime's death was sad, the most traumatic for me was Prowl, considering how dramatic and explicit they made his death scene.

I think a much more gentler way they could have made this movie was to have the sparks of those who had fallen implanted into new or spare bodies, such as Brawn to Outback, Huffer to Pipes, Gears to Swerve and so forth. If they're able to reformat Megatron to Galvatron and later on Bumblebee to Goldbug, then why not the others?

First off, this is your best video by far! Second, the unsolved mysteries opening is a tie in to Robert stack playing ultra magnus-nice touch or better yet you got the touch! Third, I learned a lot tonight on the 36th anniversary of the best movie ever made! The opening to this video is awesome! Thanks for the info and great entertainment! Til all are won!

I first saw Transformers The Movie in the theatre back in the day. It was my friend's birthday party, but there was nothing to celebrate. They killed Optimus Prime, and it scared me to this day.

As tragic as Optimus Prime's death was, it wasn't as bad as killin' off Starscream. He's the toy that every kid had in the Eighties.

Despite all the problems this movie had, us Transformers fans can agree that it’s a classic!

Ha! Robert Stack was the actual host for the 80’s show AND the voice of Ultra Magnus. Well played!

Something I’ve always wondered is who deserves credit for those shuttle kills: Starscream and his marksmanship or Megatron and his firepower?

Aas a child watching this in the cinema, I never got over the shuttle slaughter. I was still in shock when I saw wheeljack & windcharger, thinking it cant get any worse, then Prime quickly followed by Starscream......yeah....that film (as much as I loved it) scarred me - my first real exposure to death!

I saw The Transformers: The Movie when it came out in 1986. I was 14 at the time! It shocked the hell out of me that my favorite characters were being slaughtered like cattle especially Optimus! It's still one of my favorite movies of all time. I own the 20th, 25th, 30th, and 35th anniversary editions on DVD and Blu-ray!

Saw it in the theater. I was 10. Holds a special place in my heart as well! I remember when it came out on VHS my friend and I rode our bikes to the video store every weekend over summer break and rented it. Then would reenact scenes. Still watch it now with my kids.

Happy 36 anniversary to 'The Transformers: The Movie' 🥳

I saw the movie in the theater the saturday it came out. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Prime died and my brothers and I were bawling like idiots.

Thank heavens for all those generic Decepticons, In my mind Shockwave survived. Thanks for this remastered video Rodimus, I can tell a lot of love went into this update.

God... I missed this kind of retrospective! Ultra Magnus (Robert Stack) as the Unsolved Mysteries host! That was awesome! This video was just AMAZING!

I like to simply say Snarl was there (since he was in some shots) fighting alongside the other Dinobots in my minds eye, so in other words even though he wasn't physically on screen attacking Devastator officially he was. I like to say Smokescreen lived simply because he has always been a fave of mine :P Your explanation for Brawn makes total sense, I mean Megatron in gun mode is always him working at 100% power (in my head canon) and he could have scored a 9999 crit lol. As a kid I remember finding Prowl's death to be the one that freaked me out, mainly due to it being right up in your face with him essentially burning completely out from within. I really wish Hasbro would commission a "rebuilt" animated version of the film utilising the unused storyboards, fixing the errors and getting as many of the original VA's they can to do it for the anniversary.

I first watched The Transformers: The Movie in 2007/2008 (i was 5 years old) and i always really liked it, especally the opening with the Decepticon assault of Autobotcity and Unicron introduction, then last year i watched the original series and I really liked it. Thanks to you, Rodimus Primal, i started having a passion for Transformers and started watching every Transformers series, since the other only Transformers media i watched were the first the first three Bay's Transformers movie.

I saw the 1986 Transformers film in theater when it was first released. I was just a kid, but to me it was amazing. I was thrown off by all the deaths... Ive probably seen this film over 100 times over the years and watch it at least a few times each year.

One factor often overlooked in the Movie is that the Decepticons were at Full power while the Autobots were not. During the time on Earth, Brawn was likely at his peak while on the Shuttle to earth he was not.

My way of seeing this is that the autobots died easily because the decepticons were at full power and didn't have to limit their weapons power after conquering cybertron. Since both sides might had to conserve their ammo/energy because of cybertron being low on energy. Also Rodimus primal you missed one thing in transformer the movie. After Astrotrain transformed into train mode, if you look closely you can see Thrust carrying an injured Shrapnel or Bombshell. I saw transformers the movie on DVD years ago. From the first DVD release of the movie.

Very thurough video. It's good to have a comprehensive lore resource like this!

6:05 Let´s consider that the Decepticons had control of Cybertron for a couple of years, and during that time they could have the time to upgrade their weapons, specially Megatron

I didn't see the movie until it came out on VHS, and man, I bet I watched it 100 times when we rented it. When Starscream got blasted is when the reality of the amount death in the movie set in. In all its flaws, it's still one of the greatest animated movies to date.

My dad took me to see the movie in the theatre in 1986 at the age of six. Loved it from first viewing, and I rented the VHS tape so many times I thought that the store should've just given it to me. I think you covered everything here. The animation errors certainly make keeping sense of whose killed and who survivors very difficult.

Great video! A 7 year old me was sitting in the theater to watch this on release week and I never got past Ratchet and Prowl dying before I assumed every hero of the cartoons was going to be gone. Heck, I figured there wouldn’t be new cartoons and in a way, they never were really right after that.

Thank you for doing this! I was a bit traumatized at age 10 seeing this film on it’s opening night in theaters!

Well done sir. Very comprehensive. I first saw The Trsnsformers The Movie when it originally hit theaters.

Hello again rodimus, I hope your doing well and just wanted to say this is a great remaster. It's always been one of my favourite episodes. Keep up the good work.

I love this movie so much, sometimes when I as m bored I start trying to quote it start to finish. I was a youngin when I saw it for the first of so many times. It is the first experience with the concept of death that I can remember, so much do when a loved one ended up dying I often found myself picturing Optimus taking that first shot to the gut.

Happy 36 years to one of my favourite transformers movies.

The death of Optimus Primes was one of the most important moments not only for the movie, but for the franchise and the world of animation in general, without it the movie wouldn´t be as important as it was, and so the rise of Rodimus Prime was so significant, without those moments we wouldn´t have such jewel

I was 19 years old when this came out. I was in the Air Force at the time. I and another Airman, we took the married guy's kids in the Helicopter Unit to go see it all together. Everybody was hyped to watch it. But it didn't take long before we had a group full of little kids crying as their favorites were being offed. I was trying my best to console them. Telling them it's going to be alright. THEN, I see the flash of animation that showed Wheeljack's lifeless body. My heart sank, he was my personal favorite. (And still is) By the end of the movie, we all liked it, but I think it jaded everybody to a certain degree.

"Its good to have you back Prime." - Megatron (Armada)

In my universe, I would not make Ron die, but make him injured. However, he’s just tough as iron hide in live action movies, and he was just repaired.

In the episode, "Fight or Flee", Wheeljack and Ironhide were spotted in a small group of Autobots but Wheeljack appears as a cameo and Ironhide appearing in it was a animation error.

Yo, the Ultra Magnus/Robert Stack/Unsolved Mysteries joke is CLUTCH. Nicely done.

Bro I can't believe they named Brawn's repaint off of where he got shot.

It was shocking to see so many beloved Autobots die in the movie, Optimus being the most shocking! I would say the Wheeljack and Ironhide were next to it as well.

I love it when loyal fans go to such creative lengths to find reasonable explanation for continuity errors in G1 instead of just saying “The animators were loaded up on coke and did not give af.”

0:40 - 0:58 oh wow. Thats my stop mp work! Its great to see my stuff is still out there. Thanks Rodimus Primal!

In my research of behind the scenes facts for the movie, I found that a lot of the deaths that did end up in the movie were originally more violent than the final cut: *Brawn was blasted in half as opposed to getting shot through the top of his chest. *We would've gotten a close-up shot of Prowl's fatal chest wound. *Ratchet and Ironhide would've been fused together, then blown apart by blaster fire. In deleted storyboards, they're shot so many times that they literally explode into pieces upon falling to the floor! *Megatron would've lived long enough to return to Cybertron after his fight with Optimus Prime. Then while the Decepticons fight for leadership, a statue gets knocked over onto Megatron and crushes him, causing his spark to be sent floating off into space. *Don Messick recorded a line for Gears to say around the time Devastator appears in the film, suggesting that he might have been killed by him at that point. But this line never makes it into the final film. *In one early script draft, Windcharger and Gears are depicted surviving the Battle of Autobot City, but die when Galvatron returns later to kill Ultra Magnus. The Sweeps initiate a bombing run that obliterates Gears and sends Windcharger flying into the air, where Cyclonus kills the hapless Autobot by flying through him, dismembering him. *Ultra Magnus was drawn and quartered instead of being shot until he falls over and blows up. (This was at least partially animated, since Scourge and the Sweeps initially fire energy ropes before they turn into regular blaster fire in the next shot.)

I saw this mythical film at the cinema with my grandfather when it was released, I was ten years old. It's still my favorite movie of all time, and nothing will change that. Good video RP.

I watched it way back in 2002 when I was in my final year of Kindergarten. This was during the advent of TF Armada and I was still watching Beast Wars and Voltron the 3rd Dimension. After the movie ended, the network that was showing the movie back then switched to Tom and Jerry..that 70's version with the episode of the missing bones, missing treasure and Tom and Jerry on the beach. That's what I can recall.

Might as well have killed Cliffjumper since Casey Cassum quit (justified though). I wish Scatman hadn't died after making the movie I love jazz he'd be a great addition to season 3

Having Robert Stack AKA Ultra Magnus doing Unsolved Mysteries was pretty damn cool

THIS IS GOOD!!!! Unfortunately about the Autobots deaths, but the beginning is funny and cool with the tie-in to Unsolved Mysteries bit with Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus. The movie still holds a special place in my heart and I still get misti eyed about Optimus Prime's death. Great video once again, til all are one!!

I always assumed that given the Decepticons had taken over cybertron , they had access to more Energon therefore when Megatron shot Brawn it’s was more powerful then the tv series (in that they were always running at 50% - always looking for Energon and constantly lost to the Autobots)

I've seen so many videos covering this topic but i still keep coming back just to see if people found out more Transformers who died/survived

I will never accept that a single shot from Scavenger's pea shooter would take down Prowl.

Brawn, Prowl, Ratchet, and Ironhide died on the ship that was ambushed by the Decepticons. Wheeljack and Windcharger died at the base, and then Megatron shot Optimus to death. Galvatron killed Ultra Magnus, but he was resurrected by the Junkions. As for the Decepticons, Megatron, Kickback, Shrapnel, Bombshell, Thundercracker, and Skywarp were all thrown out of Astrotrain and were reborn by Unicron (who died in the final battle). Some other deaths included Galvatron destroying Starscream, all the Coneheads (Ramjet, Dirge and Thrust) were chomped on by Unicron, and then Rodimus threw Galvatron out of Unicron, even though he somehow still survived. Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Spike and Jazz were almost dropped into a vat of acid, but thankfully Daniel saved them. It's insane how many characters died or came close to death.

I will always love this movie, the break down is amazing.

I always thought it was weird that they would kill a bunch of characters off permanently, but then Ultra Magnus blows up into several pieces and gets rebuilt all in the same movie. In the first episode of the original cartoon, all the characters die and then are brought back to life. Death doesn't seem to be a big deal for Transformers.

Hope everything is going good for you,review was awesome like always thanks

Too many. Remember the kid friendly version that they had the disclaimer to say Optimus would return

14:42 "So Snarl was there, probably holding the camera." 🤣 This literally made me LOL. Oh, and here in the Philippines I don't recall it being released in theaters, or else we didn't get to watch it on the big screen, as I watched it instead on TV.

My headcannon for why characters were killed by stuff that wouldn’t normally kill them is because it’s set 20 years in the future, so everyone’s a lot older and weaker now

Bonus points for Ultra Magnus hosting, voiced by Robert Stack in the movie...

i watched when i was like 9. optimus prime's death hits the hardest for me. and the fact they killed off wheeljack was also tough to take in

I am surprised Cliffjumper didn’t die in this one 😂

That was cool using Magnus to host the show since he was voiced in the movie by the actual shows host Robert Stack.

When my father first sat me down to watch this movie, it was while Transformers: Animated was still airing. It was towards the later seasons, I think. I was quite young. So immediately, Unicron traumatized me and gave me nightmares that night, I was horrified by the massacre on the shuttle, as well as the corpses that Arcee looks at, got a little bit sad at "Don't leave me, Soundwave", cried because Optimus Prime died, but still didn't back out. Then Starscream got turned to dust, and that was it. I marched over, pressed the power button on that DVD player, then cried into a pillow about all of that stuff for like an hour, and couldn't sleep for about three nights after that. I still can't believe that it was *Starscream* that managed to send me to the point of just stopping the movie, and not Optimus, or even Prowl. Maybe even the intro. Then again, Starscream has always been my favorite character.

If you understand why using Ultra Magnus as the host is hilarious and amazing we can be friends...because we are probably of the same age group!

I think there were/are similarities with the seekers and Cyclonus and Scourge. Cyclonus is shades of the same purple that Skywarp had, as well as Scourge having the same shades of blue as Thundercracker.

I LOVE the Unsolved Mysteries theming, especially with Robert Stack as the voice of Magnus. Great Job Primal! #TillAllAreOne

The intro is really well done and funny! :D

Interesting assessment. Many Transformers weren't present in the movie, which leaves plenty for the imagination to wonder about where they were.

That intro was excellent Rodimus!!!!

I saw this movie for a free pre-screening the day before it released. It was amazing and I loved what they did with it. I've watched it several times despite the minor alterations they've made to it.

No matter how many years go by I'll never understand why they thought these gruesome kills were "what kids wanted."

Now I just want to dub real Unsolved Mysteries Robert Stack as well as Airplane 2 Robert Stack over Ultra Magnus clips

Great video as always Rodimus 👍. I never get tired of this movie and all the great theories surrounding it.

"He's probably holding the camera" Me: I know he's gonna be unstoppable cuz the cameraman never dies

Fantastic video. I knew most of the deaths, but learned of some too. Well done!

I love this!!! I love the opening you did, super amazing.

very creative and great Robert Stack voiceover - tie in to Ultra Magnus - I saw what you did there! Well done!

I'll never understand why Optimus had three of his top officers on one ship. That was strategically unsound. Like many kids, I was crushed to pieces when I saw my beloved TFs die, particularly my favourite, Prowl, which I'll go into further when you do his retrospective. Happy 36th birthday to TF:TM!

I was the only boy in my class who didn't see it at the cinema...so I made up for this by buying it on VHS and watching it many many times...years later I bought the OST on CD as my first ever internet purchase (circa 1998).

Awesome work as always. You should do one on what happened the Marissa Faireborn and Old Snake aka Cobra Commander, and why they were absent during GI Joe Extreme.

Loved ur retrospective view on such a tragic time in transformers history in that far off year 2005. 1st saw this 30 or so years ago on vhs as well as so many deaths what a killer soundtrack

Honestly, I'm not bothered by so many characters dying as I am by the fact that their deaths were so unceremonious. Wheeljack and Ironhide were key players in the first two seasons, and you hardly get any time to mourn them. Don't get me wrong. I really like the 86 movie and love all the new characters it introduced, but that's just something that bugs me.

I first saw it in the cinema when it came out in the UK in December 1986 2 weeks after my 11th birthday. Of course I had read Target: 2006 before then so I knew some of the events of the movie before I even saw it.

You forgot that in one of the earlier scripts, Trailbreaker and Mirage survive the battle, but you are on point with Red alert dying. Still, Gears died in two versions of the script, one version of the script had him crushed by Devastator in one of the turrets, another had him blown up by the Sweeps. I always wondered what happened to Bluestreak after the battle of Autobot city, he may have been a casualty offscreen.

I first saw Transformers: The Movie as a very small child, watching it on VHS. In fact, it was my introduction to Transformers and set my tonal expectations going forward into the franchise. I did see some reruns of the original series afterward, but it was almost time for Beast Wars to begin at this point.

That blast to Brawn had a hell of an exit wound. And you just said that too glad I'm not alone

I’m just glad that Optimus and Starscream made a return

The Ole 'I got better offscreen' trope was heavily implemented here. I saw the movie before the cartoon, so the shock did not hit me as I didn't recognize anyone. But man I remembered those Dinobots.

Speaking about how easily Brawn dies, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the great little article on TFWIKI about the "shoulder" on transformers. It's apparently a real weak spot! 😆

"Jettison some weight or we'll never make it to Cybertron" was just Astrotrain bidding for power

Yeah as kids we needed therapy to deal with the death's we saw. I never got over my boy Prowls mouth smoking chest blasting death and yes Brawn death was hard to believe..he was shown to be a tough guy..I remember he once picked up either starscream,skywarp or thundercracker and toss him like he were nothing..he had as much strength as the large full sized decepticons which blew my mind back then so his shoulder blast death in TF the movie really shocked me..my head canon is by the time of the movie the Decepticons having been in the position of power have amped themselves on energon so now a single direct hit could kill the autobots.

Man that was quite a surprise when the decepticons finally actually for sure terminated some autobots, was not expecting that after many episodes with all-character plot armour lol.

I saw it in August 1986 when it came out. What about all the Junkions killed when Unicron crushed their ship?