WARNING: FULL MOVIE SPOILERS

Optimus Prime and Megatron are iconic adversaries as the heroic and villainous leaders of the Transformers franchise. We’ve seen endless iterations of them in animation, comics, films, and more, and now Transformers One provides an origin story about the two rivals when they were best of friends. Going into the film, I expected at most a decent if predictable work, only to discover a narrative that is surprisingly political. Not only does it focus on a suppressed underclass throwing off their chains, but its portrayal of the differences in left- and right-wing thinking is remarkably enlightening for what is ostensibly a cartoon popcorn flick.

Transformers One centers on Optimus and Megatron when they were known by their original names: Orion Pax and D-16. The two are denizens of Cybertron, where they eke out a living as non-transforming miners of energon, the essential power source that runs their planet. Orion is brash and headstrong, while D-16 is more cautious, but the two have something in common: They both look up to Sentinel Prime, their world’s current leader and the last surviving member of the strongest Cybertronians, the Primes. When the two friends discover a clue to the missing Matrix of Leadership that can restore the once free-flowing energon of Cybertron, they embark on a mission to help Sentinel.

The Cybertronian Caste System

The class friction between the transforming elite and the non-transforming laborers would in itself provide plenty to chew on, but in a major plot twist, it’s revealed that Sentinel is actually a traitor who betrayed the Primes and now sells off the planet’s energon to the very enemy they had been warring against so that he alone can exist at the top. Even worse, Orion and D-16 learn that all are born with the ability to transform, and Sentinel has been forcibly removing it. In other words, Cybertron is a world where a lone robot sold out his people in a coup, enslaves the majority of the people by robbing them of autonomy that is their birthright, and reserves that power for loyalists and those who promote this hegemony. Worse still, the leader has deceived his subjects into believing he is a great and benevolent hero.

I really, truly did not expect this out of Transformers. While this is a franchise with famous lines like “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings” and “Until all are one,” this is a level of overt political theming well beyond what is typical. 

Megatron’s True Driving Force

But it’s with D-16, particularly the way he contrasts with Orion that impresses me most because it shows how Megatron’s own right-wing authoritarian nature comes not from a place of strength, but one of fear. One would think him to be the rule breaker between the two, but D-16 worries about losing what little he has already gained. He sees Sentinel Prime as a leader who can do no wrong until he discovers the truth, and when he does, he lashes out at Orion for shattering the comforting illusion. Every time he gains more power, he increasingly sees himself as someone who must exert his superiority over others because they would do the same to him. And when Orion takes a shot meant for D-16 and the latter sends the former to his seeming death, it’s not a premeditated backstab but an impromptu action fueled by the fact that D-16 blames Orion for the loss of his stable world.

I felt that the 1986 animated movie was very revealing in terms of the inherent cowardice of Megatron. While Starscream is usually portrayed as the snake, it was clear that Megatron was cut from the same cloth when confronted by a vastly stronger being in Unicron. Transformers One complements that image by showing how D-16 would have been satisfied living as a lowly drone if he felt everything was in its place in the social hierarchy. 

As for Orion, he clearly leans towards the liberal and left side of the political spectrum. His self-sacrifice is what grants him access to the Matrix of Leadership and direct contact with the god of the Transformers, Primus. He’s willing to fight to protect the lives and freedoms of all, but his willingness to let Megatron go at the end of the new film can be argued as the wrong choice, given what we know of the Decepticon leader down the line.

Side note: I really like how Orion’s conversion into Optimus Prime is a lot like Megatron’s own forced change into Galvatron by Unicron in the 1986 film. In lore, Primus and Unicron are brothers who are eternally opposed to each other.

Final Thoughts

Transformers One does a remarkably solid job of showing how two individuals could be true friends at a point in their lives when they have next to nothing, and then have it fall apart once they have more. The differences between Orion and D-16 go from small cracks easily ignored to massive fissures that threaten to tear everything apart. And central to it all is the question of what to do with power in the face of injustice.