// STREAMING NOW ON PARAMOUNT+
Witness how legends are made.
Josh Cooley’s Transformers One sent the saga back to Cybertron and back to animation for the first time in 38 years, telling the origin nobody had told: how best friends Orion Pax and D-16 became Optimus Prime and Megatron. It earned the best reviews the franchise had seen in years. This is the deepest record of it anywhere: every score, every character, every secret, and the long road that got it to the screen.
// THE VERDICT
This was the surprise of the franchise: an 89 percent Certified Fresh Tomatometer against a 97 percent audience Popcornmeter, a generally favorable 65 on Metacritic, and an A from CinemaScore on opening night. Critics called it the best Transformers film since the 1986 original, praising its heartfelt origin, its animation and the friendship-to-enmity arc between Orion and D-16.
Transformers One approaches the well-known characters with a degree of nuance and complexity, as well as violent finality in a few cases, that marks the most sophisticated onscreen portrait of them to date.
Just when you are about to give up on stories that endlessly repackage the same trademarked properties, along comes a movie like Josh Cooley’s Transformers One. It carries itself as if nobody had ever made a Transformers movie before.
Transformers One provides numerous witty jokes of both the verbal and visual variety and, surprise surprise, genuine emotion. Consider this a franchise revitalized.
The best movie in the Transformers franchise since the 1986 original. More than meets the eye in the best Transformers movie in decades.
A fun, action-packed outing with surprisingly effective emotional resonance, adding layers to existing Transformers lore while being a worthwhile story in its own right.
Thrilling Transformers animation is the boost of energy the franchise needs. Industrial Light and Magic knocks it out of the park.
The animators bridged the gap between the live-action renderings and the emotive cartoon models, with enough colorful touches and retro-futuristic flourish for the action to read as excitingly coherent rather than cluttered.
While the art style is sometimes off-putting, its ideas are interesting enough to make it a decent, and often surprisingly heartfelt, addition to the franchise.
On a reported budget near 75 million dollars, Transformers One opened softly in September 2024 and finished around 129 million dollars worldwide, roughly 59 million at home and 70 million abroad. Despite the strong reviews and an A CinemaScore, a crowded market and the hard sell of an animated Transformers film made it one of the lowest-grossing entries in the franchise. Its reputation as the hidden gem of the series kept growing on streaming.
// THE STORY
Long before they were sworn enemies, Orion Pax and D-16 were best friends, two lowly miner bots on Cybertron who cannot transform, scorned by a society that prizes the cog that grants that power. They idolise the ruling Primes and dream of more than their assigned place.
Together with the chatty B-127 and the ambitious Elita-1, they uncover a buried betrayal at the heart of their world: the leader they revere, Sentinel Prime, is a fraud who sold out Cybertron, and the truth about the lost Primes and the planet’s stolen lifeblood changes everything. Their discovery forges two opposite responses. Orion’s idealism hardens into the principled leadership of Optimus Prime, while D-16’s rage at the lie curdles into the ruthless conviction of Megatron, and a friendship becomes the founding tragedy of the entire Transformers war.
The film carries itself as if no one had ever made a Transformers movie, giving the war’s founding figures a real friendship, a real betrayal and a genuine emotional arc rather than a given rivalry.
Set entirely on the metal planet with no human characters, the film builds a dazzling alien world and makes the robots themselves the emotional leads, a first for the live-action-era film series.
By making the power to transform a privilege denied to the heroes, the film turns the franchise’s signature move into an earned, emotional moment rather than a background ability.
It reframed Optimus and Megatron not as eternal opposites but as friends broken by a shared truth, a tragic foundation that recolours the entire saga.
// INTERACTIVE CHARACTER EXPLORER
Tap any character for the voice actor, the backstory, and our read on how faithful the design and role are to the wider Transformers canon. Faction tags mark who they become.
// THE FILM, MOMENT BY MOMENT
The beats the film is built on, walked in order. Click any still to enlarge. Everything from The Truth About Sentinel Prime on is a spoiler. These slots are built to take two-minute scene clips as they are added; for now, official stills stand in.
Orion Pax and D-16 toil in the depths of Cybertron, cog-less bots who cannot transform and are scorned for it. Their friendship, and Orion’s habit of breaking the rules, sets everything in motion.
Opening, ILM animation
Orion drags D-16 into the forbidden surface race, the Iacon 5000, a dazzling, chaotic set piece that shows off the film’s speed and world-building and lands the pair in deep trouble.
First-act showpiece
Cast out, the two friends team with the lonely motor-mouth B-127 and the driven Elita-1, venturing beyond the sanctioned world of Iacon to chase a truth the Primes have hidden.
The crew forms
The group uncovers the buried betrayal at the heart of Cybertron: Sentinel Prime is a fraud who sold out the planet and murdered the true Primes. The lie they lived under collapses.
The betrayal
Granted the cogs they were long denied, the friends transform for the first time, the franchise’s signature power arriving as a genuine emotional and narrative payoff rather than a given.
The turn
Orion’s idealism hardens into principled resolve while D-16’s wounded rage curdles into a thirst for vengeance. The same truth pushes best friends onto opposite paths.
Friendship fractures
The confrontation with Sentinel Prime turns violent and final. D-16’s ruthlessness surfaces in full, and the gulf between the future Optimus and the future Megatron becomes unbridgeable.
Climax
Orion takes up the mantle and the Matrix as Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, while D-16 embraces the name Megatron. The founding tragedy of the entire Transformers war is complete.
Resolution
// THE ROAD TO TRANSFORMERS ONE
The years-long road to the first animated Transformers film in nearly four decades, a deliberate return to the medium and the world that started it. Scroll the timeline.
Directed by Toy Story 4’s Josh Cooley and animated by Industrial Light and Magic, the film set its entire story on Cybertron with no human characters, betting that the origin of Optimus and Megatron could carry a feature on its own. It premiered at the Sydney Film Festival before its wide release, earning the franchise’s strongest reviews in years.
// CRAFT & ANIMATION
Industrial Light and Magic, the house behind the live-action Transformers effects, produced Transformers One as a fully animated CG feature, its first as lead animation studio on a theatrical film. The team bridged the gap between the photoreal live-action robots and the emotive, cartoonish models of earlier animation.
Setting the entire film on Cybertron, with no human characters, freed the artists to invent a dazzling alien world of transforming architecture, high-speed surface races and mining depths, and to make the robots themselves the emotional leads.
The design challenge was expressive metal: rigid Cybertronian faces that still carry a real performance, so the friendship and betrayal between Orion and D-16 land as drama, not just spectacle.
It is the first theatrical animated Transformers film since the 1986 classic, a deliberate return to the medium that started the whole saga, betting that the origin of Optimus and Megatron could carry a film on its own.
Directed by Josh Cooley; fully animated by Industrial Light and Magic; set entirely on Cybertron with no human characters; original score by Brian Tyler, recorded with a full orchestra and choir.
// THE SOUND OF CYBERTRON
Brian Tyler composed and conducted the score for Transformers One, recorded at the Eastwood Scoring Stage at Warner Bros. in Burbank with a full orchestra and choir to avoid a purely electronic sound. The 27-track album, released by Sony Classical and Milan Records on September 20, 2024, drives the film’s origin sweep, from the mines of Cybertron to the birth of the Autobots and Decepticons.
Original score by Brian Tyler, the official soundtrack album playlist via SonySoundtracksVEVO on YouTube.
// OFFICIAL TRAILER
Official trailer via Paramount Pictures on YouTube. Embedded with youtube-nocookie for viewer privacy.
// THE CAMPAIGN
Marketing leaned on the untold origin: Optimus Prime and Megatron as best friends before they were enemies, selling emotional stakes rather than the usual robot-on-robot destruction.
Trailers foregrounded Chris Hemsworth, Brian Tyree Henry, Scarlett Johansson and Keegan-Michael Key, using marquee names to signal a more prestige, character-driven Transformers.
The campaign made a point of the film being the first animated Transformers movie since 1986, courting nostalgic fans of the original animated feature.
A premiere at the Sydney Film Festival and strong early reviews were used to reframe the film as a critical surprise, the best-reviewed entry the franchise had seen in years.
// STAY SEATED - MID & POST-CREDITS
The mid-credits scene returns to B-127 in his room in sublevel 50, reuniting with the collection of inanimate junk he has named as friends. Showing off his new knife hands, he accidentally decapitates them one by one, a comic beat that lightens the film’s dark ending.
The post-credits scene shows Megatron with Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave enacting a ritual of defiance, branding themselves with the Decepticon insignia derived from the face of Megatronus Prime. Megatron gloats over killing Sentinel and rebrands the High Guard, vowing they will not be blinded by his deception. It formally seeds the Decepticons and a Cybertronian civil war for a sequel.
// EASTER EGGS & DEEP CUTS
Tap a card to flip it.
// COLLECT THE MOVIE
The young bots of Cybertron who become the Autobots and Decepticons, each linked to its full dossier and figures in our encyclopedia.
Optimus Prime The idealistic Orion Pax who becomes the Autobot leader, voiced by Chris Hemsworth. Read his dossier and track the figures in the archive. View dossier → 
Megatron The loyal friend D-16 whose betrayal forges the Decepticon tyrant, voiced by Brian Tyree Henry. Explore his encyclopedia entry. View dossier → 
Bumblebee The motor-mouthed B-127 before he lost his voice, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key. Browse his Autobot entry and figures. View dossier → 
Elita-1 The driven, capable bot who joins the crew, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. See her dossier in the encyclopedia. View dossier → 
Sentinel Prime The revered ruler who is secretly a fraud, voiced by Jon Hamm. Walk the treacherous Prime’s history. View dossier → 
Starscream The scheming High Guard commander seeded for the sequel, voiced by Steve Buscemi. Read his profile in the archive. View dossier → // THE GALLERY
Official stills, grouped by act. Open a section, then click any frame to view it full screen. Built to take the full screencap set as it grows.
// FREQUENTLY ASKED
Yes. It is a Cybertron-set origin story that takes place long before the other Transformers films, showing how best friends Orion Pax and D-16 became Optimus Prime and Megatron. It is a standalone animated feature and does not directly continue the live-action timeline.
Chris Hemsworth voices Orion Pax, the future Optimus Prime, and Brian Tyree Henry voices D-16, the future Megatron. Scarlett Johansson voices Elita-1, Keegan-Michael Key voices B-127, Jon Hamm voices Sentinel Prime and Laurence Fishburne voices Alpha Trion.
It earned the best reviews the franchise had seen in years: 89 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with a Certified Fresh rating, a 97 percent audience Popcornmeter, a 65 on Metacritic and an A CinemaScore. Many critics called it the best Transformers film since the 1986 original.
Yes, there are two. A comic mid-credits scene with B-127 and his named junk friends, and a post-credits scene in which Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave and Shockwave brand themselves as the Decepticons, formally seeding a sequel.
No. Transformers One is a self-contained origin story set entirely on Cybertron with no human characters, so it works as a clean entry point. It rewards long-time fans with lore and Easter eggs but assumes no prior viewing.
It underperformed commercially, grossing about 129 million dollars worldwide against a production budget reported near 75 million. Despite the strong reviews and A CinemaScore, a soft opening and a crowded market limited its theatrical run; it found a warmer reception on streaming.
In the United States it streams on Paramount+ with a subscription, and is available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, Google Play and YouTube, plus DVD, Blu-ray and 4K.
A sequel has been discussed and the post-credits scene deliberately sets up a Cybertronian civil war, but as of 2026 no sequel has been officially confirmed with a release date. Treat any window as unconfirmed.
// WHERE TO WATCH
Streams on Paramount+, or own the steelbook 4K with digital copy.
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