Bumblebee is a 2018 science fiction action film based on the Transformers toy line character. Directed by Travis Knight and written by Christina Hodson, it is the sixth installment in the Transformers film series. It stars Hailee Steinfeld, John Cena, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., John Ortiz, Jason Drucker, and Pamela Adlon. Set in 1987, the film follows Bumblebee being sent to Earth for refuge and befriending a teenage girl named Charlie.
The film premiered on December 3, 2018, at the Sony Center in Berlin, and was released in the United States on December 21, by Paramount Pictures. It received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its action sequences, Steinfeld's performance, Knight's direction, visuals, and the 1980s setting. It was a box office success, grossing $468 million against a production budget between $102–135 million.
It was followed by Transformers: Rise of the Beasts in June 2023.
Plot
On the planet of Cybertron, the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are on the verge of losing their war against the Decepticons and prepare to evacuate the planet. Decepticon forces led by Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave intercept the Autobots during their evacuation, and Optimus sends Autobot scout to Earth in an escape pod to set up a base of operations while he stays behind to fend off the Decepticons. B-127 reaches Earth and crash-lands in California in 1987, disrupting a training exercise by Sector 7, a secret government agency tasked with monitoring extraterrestrial activity on Earth. Colonel Jack Burns presumes B-127 to be hostile and orders his men to attack the Autobot. B-127 scans a Willys MB jeep and flees to a nearby mine, where he is ambushed by the Decepticon Blitzwing. When B-127 refuses to reveal Optimus's whereabouts, Blitzwing tears out his voice box and damages his memory core with a spike-like blade in anger, before B-127 manages to kill the Decepticon with one of his own missiles. B-127 scans a nearby 1967 yellow Volkswagen Beetle before collapsing from his injuries.
Elsewhere, Charlie Watson, who is depressed by the death of her father and resentful of her mother Sally's relationship with her new boyfriend Ronald, finds the Beetle in a local scrapyard owned by her Uncle Hank, who gives it to her as an 18th-birthday present. When trying to start it, Charlie accidentally activates a homing signal that is detected by the Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick while they interrogate and kill Cliffjumper on one of Saturn's moons. The two Decepticons head to Earth, acquire human-made vehicle forms, and encounter Sector 7; pretending to be peacekeepers, they persuade the agency to help them capture B-127, despite Burns' objections.
As Charlie attempts to fix the Beetle, it transforms into B-127, whom she befriends and names "Bumblebee". She then unknowingly unlocks a message from Optimus urging Bumblebee to defend Earth, which restores some of his memories. They are discovered by Charlie's neighbor Memo, who agrees to protect their secret, while Bumblebee learns to use his radio to communicate. While left alone one day, Bumblebee unintentionally destroys Charlie's home and causes an energy spike that attracts Sector 7's attention. When Sally blames Charlie for the havoc, Charlie has an emotional breakdown and finally expresses her pain over her father's death and leaves with Bumblebee and Memo, only to be intercepted by Sector 7 and the Decepticons. Bumblebee is captured, while Charlie and Memo are returned home.
Charlie convinces her brother Otis to cover for her and Memo as they follow Burns to the Sector 7 outpost where Bumblebee is being held. While torturing Bumblebee, Shatter and Dropkick accidentally activate a message from Optimus and learn that the Autobots are coming to Earth. Dropkick then kills Bumblebee and Dr. Powell, but not before they alert Burns to the truth about the Decepticons. Charlie electroshocks Bumblebee back to life, restoring his memories, and he fights off Burns' agents so they can escape.
After evading the military with the help of Memo and her family, Charlie and Bumblebee pursue the Decepticons, who are using a radio tower at a nearby harbor to try and contact their allies on Cybertron. Shatter shoots down Burns' helicopter when he tries to intervene, but he is saved by Bumblebee. Bumblebee fights Dropkick and binds him with a chain, ripping him apart. Charlie deactivates the Decepticon beacon, only to be pursued by Shatter. Bumblebee destroys a dam wall, triggering a flood that causes a cargo ship to crush and destroy Shatter. Bumblebee and Charlie escape the army and later arrive on a cliff overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, where Charlie, realizing that Bumblebee has a greater purpose, says goodbye. Bumblebee takes on a new 1977 Chevrolet Camaro form and drives off, and Charlie reunites with her family and Memo.
Bumblebee reunites with Optimus, who successfully escaped Cybertron. He praises Bumblebee for keeping Earth safe as they watch more escape pods enter Earth's atmosphere. Meanwhile, Charlie finishes repairing the Corvette she and her late father were working on and takes it out for a drive.
Cast
Humans
Hailee Steinfeld as Charlie Watson: An 18-year-old girl and former competitive high diver who finds and befriends Bumblebee. John Cena as Jack Burns: A former U.S Army Colonel and agent of Sector 7. Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as Guillermo "Memo" Gutierrez: Charlie's next-door neighbor who befriends Charlie and Bumblebee. John Ortiz as Dr. Powell: An agent of Sector 7. Jason Drucker as Otis Watson: Charlie's younger brother. Pamela Adlon as Sally Watson: Charlie and Otis's mother. Stephen Schneider as Ron: Sally's fiancé and Charlie and Otis's soon-to-be stepfather. Len Cariou as Uncle Hank: The owner of a junkyard where Charlie sources car parts. Glynn Turman as General Whalen: Burns's superior at Sector 7. Gracie Dzienny as Tina Lark: Charlie's mean-spirited classmate. Ricardo Hoyos as Tripp Summers: Charlie's classmate and Tina's boyfriend. Lenny Jacobson as Roy: A trailer park resident. Megyn Price as Amber: Roy's girlfriend.
In addition, Nick Pilla plays Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons, an older version of whom was portrayed by John Turturro in previous Transformers films. Fred Dryer plays Sheriff Lock, a sheriff who enters into a high-speed chase with Charlie, Memo, and Bumblebee, while Edwin Hodge plays Danny Bell, an agent of Sector 7. Tim Martin Gleason appears in flashback sequences as Charlie's deceased father. Rachel Crow and Abby Quinn appear in deleted scenes as Charlie's friends Liz and Brenda respectively.
Voices Autobots Dylan O'Brien as Bumblebee / : A young Autobot scout who transforms first into an advanced yellow Cybertronian car, then a yellow 1942 Willys MB, before switching for a rusty yellow 1967 Volkswagen Beetle, and eventually a yellow and black 1977 Chevrolet Camaro from the first film. Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime: The leader of the Autobot resistance, who transforms into a 1987 Freightliner FLA semi truck. Grey Griffin as Arcee: An Autobot communications officer. Griffin reprises her role from the 2009 film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Steve Blum as Wheeljack: An Autobot scientist, engineer, and inventor. Andrew Morgado as Cliffjumper: One of Bumblebee's fellow Autobot scouts who is executed by Dropkick on one of Saturn's moons. Kirk Baily as Brawn: An Autobot commando. Dennis Singletary as Ratchet: An Autobot medic.
Decepticons Angela Bassett as Shatter: A Decepticon triple-changer who transforms into a red 1971 Plymouth Satellite and a Harrier. Justin Theroux as Dropkick: A Decepticon triple-changer who transforms into a blue 1974 AMC Javelin and a Bell AH-1 SuperCobra. David Sobolov as Blitzwing: A Decepticon triple changer who transforms into a red and white McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II and is responsible for removing Bumblebee's voice box, and damaging his memory core. Jon Bailey as: Shockwave: The Decepticons' scientist. Soundwave: The Decepticons' communications officer who has a minion named Ravage housed in his chest.
Transformers who appear in non-speaking roles Ironhide, an Autobot weapons specialist. Starscream, the second-in-command of the Decepticons and the leader of the Decepticon Seekers. Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Thrust, Decepticon Seekers under the command of Starscream. Ravage, Soundwave's minion who is housed in his chest.
The Decepticon forces consist of numerous generic Decepticon Seekers who transform into Cybertronian jets, many of whom are duplicates of Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Thrust.
Production Development On February 12, 2016, it was announced that the sixth film in the Transformers series, Transformers 6, was slated for release on June 8, 2018, and it was later revealed that the film would be an untitled spin-off, featuring Bumblebee. On November 11, 2016, Deadline Hollywood reported that Paramount Pictures was moving forward with the project, with Christina Hodson announced as having written the script for the spin-off; Hodson was one of the female writers Paramount and Michael Bay had hired for the series' "writers room." Kelly Fremon Craig performed a rewrite of the script, but was ultimately not credited in the final product. Hodson said the film hadn't changed much since her initial 2015 pitch, and 2016 first draft, with the key elements and broad emotion strokes all staying true, although she notes the film had gotten bigger and more fun, including the addition of visiting Cybertron. Hodson elaborated "Pretty early on, I knew I wanted to tell the story of two broken people who are healing each other. So the broken girl and the broken car kind of felt like a romantic notion."
On March 2, 2017, Deadline Hollywood reported that Travis Knight was set to direct the film. In May 2017, it was revealed that the film's story would be set in the 1980s, and that it would feature fewer robots. In the same month, it was announced that the film's title was then Transformers Universe: Bumblebee. It was Knight's first live-action film, he compared working in live action to his previous work in stop motion, saying he treated scenes featuring the robots as if they were animated scenes, making extensive use of storyboards, breaking down the script and planning out all the details. The scene where Bumblebee explores Charlie's home, he described as "trying to get familiar with this unfamiliar world, it was a lot kind of like Sorcerer's Apprentice". Knight chose to set the film in the 1980s since it was the decade that the original Transformers TV series, of which he was a fan, was released. In spite of Knight's direction differing from the previous films' style, Bay never tried to force Knight to change the film's more story-focused direction, instead supporting Knight during production. Knight also used many elements from the original TV series and the G1 version of the franchise in the film, including the characters' original designs. Knight originally included Megatron when storyboarding the opening battle scenes on Cybertron but used other characters instead to keep continuity with Michael Bay's Transformers.
Casting