Transformers: The Movie/Trivia

• Creator Backlash: Flint Dille was never too happy with how foolish he made Hot Rod look by having the youth but into Optimus and Megatron's duel. He got the chance to fix this in The Transformers: Autocracy.
• Old Shame: Reportedly, Leonard Nimoy was so embarrassed by his participation that he avoided talking about it. Nowadays, it's remembered as one of his better (and few) villain roles, even by Nimoy himself, who was quoted around the time of Revenge of the Fallen as wanting very much to be a part of Transformers again. The opportunity finally arose with Dark of the Moon, wherein he plays Sentinel Prime.
• The Other Darrin:
  • When Megatron got upgraded to Galvatron, his voice changed to Leonard Nimoy during the story itself. After the movie, he changed back to Frank Welker.
  • In the series, Ultra Magnus went from Robert Stack to Jack Angel, Kup went from Lionel Stander to John Stephenson, Tony Pope replaced Eric Idle as Wreck-Gar, Roger C. Carmel took Orson Welles' position as Unicron's voice actor, and Rodimus Prime's Judd Nelson became Richard Gautier. John Moschitta stayed on board, however.
  • There is a long-prevailing myth among the fandom that Orson Welles died before the recording of Unicron's final lines and that Leonard Nimoy completed for them - with the recordings speeded down to match Welles' pitch. Voice director Wally Burr has since debunked this in interviews however.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Originally, they were to kill Smokescreen instead of Wheeljack, and Red Alert, Trailbreaker, and possibly Mirage would bite the dust as well. Ultra Magnus, Red Alert, Sideswipe, and Tracks would get a scene where they fight Devastator.
  • Likewise, the earlier drafts of the films featured many, many different elements, in one revision, Windcharger was to be flown up and torn apart by Cyclonus, his remains falling down on a shocked Blaster. Another version described Ironhide and Ratchet's deaths as them being fused together from all the laser blasts, then blown apart.
  • At one point, Megatron was not to be jettisoned from Astrotrain, but brought back to Cybertron and killed by a falling statue while other Decepticons fought for leadership, with his ghost ("life spark"), as well as ghosts of Decepticon legends enshrined nearby, being gathered by Unicron to become Galvatron and his troops.
  • Just before facing Megatron, Optimus Prime is inexplicably missing his rifle. The reason for this is a cut scene, where Blitzwing was supposed to knock it out of Prime's hands, before being hurled away by Prime.
  • Early drafts included a large number of generic Decepticons participating in the assault on Autobot city. That way, Perceptor's comment about the Autobots being outnumbered would have actually made sense.
  • Unicron was quite different in early drafts of the film. Ideas include him being Organic Technology (such as organic trees actually being the hair of his robot mode), him being a small entity controlling the planet, or his planet mode being inhabited by malevolent mechanical beasts.
  • Quite a few drafts seem to have had Optimus Prime surviving. One draft, The Secret of Cybertron, even had him merge with Cybertron and giving it a robot mode which he would use to fight off Unicron. Much of what was in that draft made its way into later Transformers media.
  • Several cut lines outright have the Autobots, including Optimus Prime, reassure Hot Rod that he's not responsible for Optimus dying. Megatron was the one who delivered the killing blow and if anything, Hot Rod managed off a warning that Optimus failed to heed.
• Word of Saint Paul: Story editor Flint Dille believes that with or without Hot Rod, the duel would have ended with Megatron killing Optimus Prime.

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