Bumblebee (2018) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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There’s way more than meets the eye!

This unlabeled Transformers prequel creates the most true-to-form version of the characters from the 1980s television series. It becomes an action-packed adventure into the robotic franchise, a nostalgic look back at the 80s, and a heartfelt coming-of-age story.

First Impressions

This trailer shows a teenage girl finding an old, yellow VW Bug at a junkyard, taking it home, and discovering it’s a giant robot in disguise. She and her friend teach it to be careful around other humans. Two flying robots, who appear to be the bad guys, tell the Army that the yellow robot is a fugitive and dangerous. This leads to a fight between the military and the yellow robot, with the girl caught in the middle. Time to find out if the buzz about Bumblebee is accurate!

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

On the robotic planet of Cybertron, a war wages between the rebellious Autobots and the fanatical Decepticons. Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) sends soldier B-127 (Dylan O’Brien) on a mission to establish a base on Earth, where he and the other Autobots will join him. The giant yellow robot crashes into the Pacific Northwest in 1987, during the middle of a training exercise for government agency Sector 7, led by Agent Jack Burns (John Cena). The soldiers mistake B-127 for an enemy and attack him, wounding him. He is then attacked by Decepticon Blitzwing (David Sobolov), who damages B-127’s memory core and voice box, causing him to shut down. Right before going offline, he manages to scan a yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Sometime later, Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld) discovers the dusty yellow VW Bug at Uncle Hank’s (Len Cariou).

Charlie is still upset about the death of her father and the fact that she feels she’s the only one grieving. Her mother, Sally (Pamela Adlon), has moved on to a relationship with Ron (Stephen Schneider), whom Charlie dislikes. Charlie collects parts from the junkyard as she tries to complete the repairs on a Camaro she worked on with her father. Something draws her towards the junky yellow car, and she convinces Hank to give it to her for her birthday. In her garage at home, Charlie discovers there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the vehicle, as B-127 transforms back into a robot, whom she calls Bumblebee, or just Bee. In space, two Decepticons, Shatter (Angela Bassett) and Dropkick (Justin Theroux), torture and kill Autobot Cliffjumper (Andrew Morgado) for the location of Optimus Prime’s secret base, when they pick up a transmission from B-127 and follow it to Earth.

Charlie drives around with Bee, teaching him about having to hide in his car form, since humans will fear him otherwise. Agent Burns gets a notification that two more alien NBEs landed in Texas, and takes a squad to intercept them. Both he and Doctor Powell (John Ortiz) meet with Shatter and Dropkick, who convince the humans to allow them to find the “dangerous criminal” B-127 using the humans’ communication network. Powell is eager to work with aliens, but Burns is less enthusiastic. While working with Bee in the woods to gather more information about his purpose, Charlie accidentally activates a holographic message from Optimus Prime outlining the robot’s plan. She realizes Bee’s radio is broken and replaces it with the one from her Camaro, which allows him to begin rudimentary communication. Powell convinces General Whalen (Glynn Turman) to allow the Decepticons to use their technology, and Whalen plans to gather as much intel from them as possible.

Charlie’s neighbor, Memo (Jorge Lendeborg, Jr.), stumbles into her garage to ask her for a date, when he discovers Bumblebee in robot form. Charlie swears him to silence, letting him in on the fun. They take a ride to a nearby cliff, where students are gathered to watch athletic Tripp (Ricardo Hoyos) jump into the ocean below. Bee “volunteers” Charlie to join him, but she backs out as the event brings back too many memories of her platform diving meets with her dad. She is bullied by mean girl Tina (Gracie Dzienny) for not having a dad. Later that night, Charlie, Memo, and Bee toilet paper Tina’s house, but Bee accidentally trashes Tina’s car, unaware of his own strength. When Charlie goes to work the next day, she leaves Bee alone. He wanders into the house, breaking things with his immense size. When he plugs himself into a power socket, he sends up a flag to the Decepticons monitoring the grid.

Sector 7 sets up a roadblock, capturing Bee and returning Charlie and Memo to their houses. Charlie sneaks out, asking her younger brother, Otis (Jason Drucker), to cover for her. At the Sector 7 HQ, Charlie and Memo witness Dropkick killing Bee and Dr. Powell, who realizes the robot’s true plans too late. Charlie uses an energy weapon to shock Bee back to life, which also helps restore his memory core. They depart after a brief encounter with Sector 7 units. A chase ensues, but Ron, with Sally and Otis in the car, manages to block the pursuit of Sector 7 trucks, allowing Charlie and Bee to arrive at the port where the Decepticons have holed up. The two evil robots are rigging an antenna to transmit information back to Cybertron about the Autobots’ whereabouts.

Dropkick battles Bumblebee, but the yellow robot manages to get the upper hand, destroying the Decepticon. Charlie climbs a crane to remove the power module from the tower and is attacked by Shatter. Burns arrives by helicopter and is shot down by Shatter in her jet fighter guise. Bee manages to save Burns, making the Agent realize that not all robots are bad guys. Bee then fights with Shatter, who gets the upper hand while Charlie turns off the signal from being sent to Cybertron. The Autobot blasts a hole in the drydock, causing a tanker ship to crush Shatter. Charlie uses her diving skills and jumps off the tower into the water to make sure Bee is okay. They crawl out of the tank, and Burns tells them to take off since reinforcements are on the way. Bee and Charlie drive to an overlook of the Golden Gate Bridge, and she says goodbye to him, thanking him for everything. He takes the form of a yellow Camaro and drives off, following a blue and red Freightliner semi truck. A mid-credits scene shows Bumblebee and Optimus Prime awaiting the landing of their Autobot friends, while Charlie has completed her Camaro and drives along a highway, finally happy and free.

“They literally call themselves Decepticons. That doesn’t set off any red flags?” – Agent Jack Burns

History in the Making

Bumblebee is the best Transformers film for fans and casual viewers alike. It’s a great entry into the franchise as a prequel to the live-action series started in 2007 and a fun adventure film about a girl and her robot. The film was the first live-action film for director Travis Knight, whose previous work was the animated Kubo and the Two Strings. Interestingly, he’s currently finishing up another adaptation of a famous 1980s toy line, with the upcoming Masters of the Universe film, due out later in 2026. Bumblebee is the sixth of seven live-action films involving The Transformers, a 1980s toy line created by Hasbro and spanning animated television shows, films, comics, and a variety of other media. The first film featuring the Autobots and Decepticons was The Transformers: The Movie, an animated movie, released 40 years ago in 1986. It was a spin-off from the syndicated animated series at the time, and polarized fans with the death of Optimus Prime. The modern era of film started in 2007 with Michael Bay’s Transformers, which began a profitable, but unevenly regarded, franchise including Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Dark of the Moon (2011), Age of Extinction (2014), and The Last Knight (2017). Bumblebee stands out from the pack as a prequel, taking place 20 years before the events of the first film, and is also the highest-rated and well-liked film in the series.

As a prequel, Bumblebee sets up elements for the franchise, telling a self-contained story in the process. It deals with the origins of the Transformers’ presence on Earth, having been sent from Cybertron to use our planet as a safe haven. The film also corrects one of the biggest stumbling blocks to fans of the original Transformers franchise, Bumblebee’s chassis. In the 2007 film, the character of Bumblebee is depicted as a yellow Camaro, but he is more famously known (from the toy line and the original cartoons) as a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, something that stood out to viewers. It’s not an idea that’s completely radical, as VW Bugs weren’t as popular in the early 21st Century as they had been in the 1980s, and the Camaro was chosen as a similarly “cool” substitute. This film corrects that oversight, having B-127 take on the guise of a Beetle during the 1980s, only to transform into the Camaro at the end. Between that basic element, the well-thought-out story, and the entertaining cast, Bumblebee has become the highest-rated Transformers film of them all.

Genre-fication

The Transformers franchise has very specific elements to it. They are all part of the larger robotic mecha genre, which includes many characters seen in last week’s Ready Player One article. Those characters include Mechagodzilla, The Iron Giant, and a Mobile Suit Gundam, along with appearances by Optimus Prime, Megatron, and yes, Bumblebee as well. But the Transformer characters are so much more than mecha. There are no pilots inside these robots, as seen in the Pacific Rim franchise. These are sentient robotic creatures who are able to change from a robot into some other object, often vehicles, but sometimes tape cassettes or guns. This is the primary element of the characters, and their selling point as toys. As a fun easter egg, the “other” transforming robot line from the 80s, The Go-Bots, makes a blink-and-you ’ll-miss-it appearance as a magazine Memo is reading. For this film, the Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick actually have three total modes. They start as robots, take on the guise of a jet fighter or attack helicopter, and eventually change into cars. Other elements of the franchise that are expected by fans include Cybertron (the home planet of the Autobots), which gets its most screen time here (also appearing in Dark of the Moon and The Last Knight), energon, the power source that gives the characters their lifeforce, and the aforementioned transformations of the characters–often while battling one another.

Does making a science-fiction film as a period piece create a better movie? It might depend on the property, but for Bumblebee, it seems like an absolute slam dunk. The Transformers is a quintessential 1980s property, from their inception as toys to the animated episodes in which they first appeared. While the modern Transformers films work well enough, having giant transforming robots from outer space around in a time of high-tech computing, the internet, and cell phones feels odd. The wonderment of these creatures existing in a more naive world is part of the charm and magic of the franchise, which also fits into the wild and fantastical films of the 1980s. It allows Bumblebee to exist with a sense of nostalgia that works for audiences in several ways. Fans of the 80s will be drawn to the music and vibe of the film (which includes some deep cuts as Charlie is a fan of The Smiths), while fans of the franchise will enjoy seeing some of the original characters as they were initially presented. Overall, Bumblebee feels the most like watching the animated television show, and the fun that playing with these toys elicits. It’s got summer break vibes, the burgeoning of young love, characters discovering something new and amazing about the world, and fun action moments and fights–some with Autobots versus Decepticons, and some with humans trying to stop the robots.

Societal Commentary

Creating a Transformers film without adding a human character’s arc would be disastrous. The human characters, while secondary in the naming of the franchise, are the primary elements of these films. They are the steps to taking the movie from an extended toy commercial to an actual story necessary to make the film successful. Bumblebee has an engrossing tale that audiences can relate to. It’s a coming-of-age film for Charlie, while also dealing with the grief and loss of her father. The film opens with teenager Charlie rebelling against her family, specifically her mom, for having gotten over the loss of her father, apparently quickly. She sees Ron as a replacement father figure who jeopardizes her memories of her real dad, even though he’s a totally cool guy doing his best to support her and give her space. Charlie also has angst and anxiety about the broken Camaro in her garage, a project that she and her father worked on together to repair. Enter Bee, a transforming robot from another planet. He becomes Charlie’s new project, as she helps to repair him, allowing her to heal from her grief and anger.

Charlie also grows by starting new friendships. Bee is the beginning of this blossoming for her, which sees her growing closer to her nerdy neighbor, Memo. She and Memo have a fantastical adventure, avoiding the police, the military, and killer robots while becoming something more than friends. Kudos to the filmmakers for not having these two characters develop a complete romantic arc in the film, however. At the end of the movie, when Memo slowly reaches out to take her hand, she pulls back, letting him know that they’re not quite there yet. This is a radical departure for the type of teen adventure films Bumblebee is based on, but a more realistic presentation of the awkwardness of young love–even in the midst of a robotic revolution.

The Science in The Fiction

While Bumblebee is a prequel to the original five Transformers films, it never feels like it’s constantly trying to set up elements for the “future” of the franchise. Its basic premise is setting up the reason why the Autobots are on Earth, with Bumblebee having been sent to secure the planet as a haven for the rest of the resistance. There are, of course, easter eggs for fans of the series, including a young Seymour Simmons, John Turturro’s character in the original films, in a training exercise with Agent Burns, and the beginnings of Sector 7, with all their advanced technology–which is made possible by the Decepticons. The military elements of Bumblebee are very much in line with the 1980s vibe of the film. Whether it’s the war-mongering government in WarGames or the secret military group from Night of the Comet, Sector 7 is a type of shadowy agency that many fear. The biggest question that arises is how these robots actually transform into other objects. It’s a marvel in the toy line and an even bigger one on the movie screen. It’s all about the suspension of disbelief, since these are creatures from another planet who function wildly differently than any creature humans understand.

The Final Frontier

There would only be one further live-action Transformers film following Bumblebee, which was also a prequel (taking place in 1994). Rise of the Beasts, released in 2023, continued the adventures of the Autobots on Earth with a new cast of human characters. It also teased the biggest crossover that fans would love to see, which was a tie-in to the GI Joe franchise. So far, nothing has come of that. There was also the animated 2024 Transformers One, a story that takes place in the distant past and serves as an origin story for both Optimus Prime and Megatron. As an animated film, it doesn’t necessarily fit in with the continuity of the live-action films, but it is still a fun watch.

Bumblebee has one homage to 80s films that feels spot on, which is Bee being left home alone while Charlie goes to work. It echoes a similar sequence in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial when Elliott goes to school, leaving the alien to explore the house. E.T. trashes some of the house while watching television and getting drunk on beer, while Bee trashes the whole house (due to his size) and accidentally telegraphs his location to the Decepticons when he taps into the power grid. It’s a fun and funny moment that drives the story forward, but is mostly there to entertain the audience as a “what if” scenario.

The cast is the final thing that really makes the film work. John Cena sells it as a military agent who can think for himself. Fresh off his wrestling career, Cena had made smaller appearances in a number of films, having his breakout role earlier in 2018 with Blockers. He would go on to portray superhero Peacemaker in the Suicide Squad film and a self-titled television show with the DC film universe. Hailee Steinfeld had been acting for quite a while, having her breakout role when she was just 14 in True Grit. Bumblebee was a transition film for her into more adult roles, having completed the Pitch Perfect trilogy, amongst others. She, too, would go on to be a superhero, starring in the Hawkeye television series (and associated films) for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Her emotional honesty is what drives this film to be the best example of the franchise. Bumblebee is mostly a fun adventure film about transforming robots fighting each other and humans, but it contains a much more emotional core about connections between people and how those relationships can help us all through the darkest moments of our lives.

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