The Original Draft Of Transformers: The Movie

[thechase]

twitter.com/chrismcfeely/status/1561079478771748865

[Push R Truth]

I'm guessing a toy engineer saw the Rails prototype and explained to management that it would retail at 500+ and break in under 10 seconds

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

For the benefit of those who don't want to click through to Twitter.

It is NOT the year 2005! Our story begins an indeterminate amount of time in the near future, as the Decepticons attack an Autobot steel mill. The Constructicons use ore stolen from the mill's carts to build siege towers.

Defending the mill is the mighty Magnus, who catches Decepticon missiles and rounds in an iron bucket and hurls them back at the attackers. He's joined by the youthful Hot Rod; Tanker, the grizzled, one-eyed old Sherman tank; battlefield medic Arcee; and Wheeljack.



Wheeljack and Arcee have a bickering relationship throughout the draft, the mysoginistic Wheeljack constantly underrating her skills, oblivious to the fact she's constantly averting disaster and saving his life in the background.



A trio of Decepticons combine into a cannon that unleashes blasts of "fire snow," a napalm-like substance that badly wounds Tanker. Magnus heads out to take them down!





Meanwhile, Optimus Prime is on the way with reinforcements and more fuel for the besieged heroes. He and the other Autobots ride in vehicle mode on flatbed cars towed by a freight train, crewed by their human allies: Colonel Rusty Steel and General Blaze!



Rusty is a wise-cracking "Indiana Jones"-type hero, while Blaze is a gruff, Patton-style general. They and the Autobots are deliberately travelling by this unconventional method to make themselves into a target Megatron won't be able to resist.





Predictably, Megatron's forces attack! Starscream tears up the tracks ahead of the train to try and stop it... but it turns out the train is actually an Autobot named Rails, who transforms from freight train to ultra-tech hover-train and smashes Screamer out of his path!



Back at the mill, Hot Rod and Tanker fight a Decepticon wielding a laser-chainsaw, and bisect him with his own weapon. Magnus takes out the fire snow cannon – and just in time, as Rails arrives and transforms again into a colossal snake robot!



Rails uses his flame breath, laser eyes, and massive body to crush and melt the 'cons and their siege towers! Meanwhile, Optimus and Megatron have their final showdown, which is functionally identical to the finished film.







The defeated Decepticons depart for Cybertron. Rusty makes a plan: Ratchet and one group of 'bots will take the wounded Prime to headquarters, while Wheeljack and a second group build spacecraft to pursue the weakened 'cons. Gears grouses about a human taking charge.



The Decepticons return to Cybertron to enshrine the dying Megatron's life-essence in an urn in the Hall of Heroes. However, before this can be done, they begin arguing over who will be the next leader.

(Enshrined life-essences can still be seen in the finished film!)



The argument erupts into a full-on fight, during which the urn intended to hold Megatron's essence is destroyed. Megatron expires, and with nothing to contain it, his essence floats off into space to decompose to nothingness.



Ratchet's party of Autobots returns to Autobot Headquarters, which now encompasses the entire volcano, having become a huge complex where Autobots and humans work together. We meet Springer, and computer programmer Ellen Prentiss and her son Daniel.



Daniel hero-worships Rusty, but Ellen's not a fan of the colonel; she'd much prefer Daniel focus on his studies. Meanwhile, the Autobots rush to treat Optimus; Tanker consoles Hot Rod, who is consumed with guilt over his role in Prime's wounding.





Meanwhile, Megatron's essence drifts through space to the planet Unicron, a strange, slab-shaped world covered in metallic crystalline scales and undulating trees and grass. There, he is greeted by the disembodied voice of an unseen being known only as... "The Entity."



The Entity offers Megatron a new body, and new power, if he will serve him. Megatron accepts - and Galvatron is born! He sports a new isignia, and his body is also wreathed in the scales that cover Unicron.





Back on Earth, Optimus Prime's wounds are declared fatal. Before he dies, he passes his life-essence - called his "matrix," a small, glowing Optimus made of pure light - to Magnus, who becomes the Autobots' new leader, ULTRA Magnus.



Galvatron returns to Cybertron to reclaim leadership of the Decepticons. The light of the Entity shines on the planet from across space, and ALL the other Decepticons are converted into larger, more powerful scale-covered forms!



The Entity orders the Decepticons to travel to Earth, and acquire the energy of the planet for him. They depart, but as they go, the Entity's light expands to cover all of Cybertron...

...and Cybertron is destroyed, collapsing in on itself and being sucked away across space through the beam of light for the Entity to feed upon. Under his breath, Galvatron vows... revenge!



On Earth, the Autobots are preparing to pursue the Decepticons in the spaceships Wheeljack is buliding. At Autobot HQ, massive shields are built and dispatched to Earth's major cities, to serve as defense in case of an attack while they're off-planet.



The description of the construction process is detailed and takes multiple pages... but when Galvatron and the Entity-empowered Decepticons arrive, they cut through the shields and Wheeljack's spacecraft like butter, destroying them utterly!



Overmatched, the Autobots are forced to abandon headquarters and scatter to the four winds. A short timeskip later, and the Decepticons have taken over. Rusty narrowly avoids a party of black "Gestapo"-like Decepticons searching for fugitives.



These 'Cons are described as a "sweep party" - that is, a party that conducts sweeps of an area. Future drafts will turn this descriptor into a proper name, as the characters are developed into Scourge and his Sweeps!



At an Autobot mountain hideout, Wheeljack and Arcee bring news that the Decepticons have constructed a cage around Earth that is draining the planet's energy and beaming it off into space (to Unicron, but they don't know that yet!) leaving Earth with only days to live!



The camp is then discovered by the sweep party. The Autobots keep the 'cons busy so the humans can escape on a raft via a nearby river; Hound uses his holograms, and Sideswipe and Sunstreaker bat the baddies with steel beams.



When Magnus runs some Decepticons over, the script suggests "a harvester with thresher blades" or "a gasoline truck with huge battering ram bumpers" as possible alt modes for him.

(pictured: Floro Dery's alt mode for Orion Pax, who was based on his original Magnus design)



The Autobots escape under cover of a smokescreen created by a 'bot named Chemico. Hot Rod and Tanker are sent to find other scattered 'bots to form a crew for a new mission into space, to locate the Decepticons' mysterious new power source.



A little later, Hot Rod and Tanker locate the huge Arnold Schwarzenegger-like Autobot, Springer, in the desert, and watch as he uses the leaping power for which he's named to take out multiple Decepticons solo.



Springer leads the pair to a nearby Autobot refinery to recruit more troops; they're attacked by Insecticons and more Decepticons on the way, but when they reach the refinery, help awaits in the form of the Dinobots, and the refinery's resident brainiac, Mentlar!



Mentlar – a large-headed Autobot scientist who turns into a radar truck – has invented an "Immuno Destabilizer Field" that cuts the Decepticons off from the Entity's power, allowing the Dinobots to send them packing.



Unfortunately, the field's effectiveness is already wearing off (ie: this will never be mentioned again), so Mentlar and the Dinobots, along with their high-speed advance scout, Blurr – a "slow-talking Jimmy Stewart sort" – agree to join the mission into space.



The Autobots all regroup in an Arctic ice cave, where Wheeljack and Arcee have been able to salvage a single spacecraft. Rusty will be going on the mission with the 'bots, and bids farewell to Daniel and Ellen... but then the Decepticons attack!



In the chaos, Daniel and Ellen are forced to board the ship with Rusty, Magnus, Springer, Blurr, and Mentlar as it blasts off. Hot Rod, Tanker, and the Dinobots fly alongside it. Wheeljack, Arcee, Blaze and other 'bots continue the fight on Earth.



The Decepticons try to close the energy cage around the Autobots to prevent their escape, but Ultra Magnus does a barrel roll (literally!) and they get away. The Entity provides Galvatron with a "flat-top aircraft carrier" spaceship to pursue them.



Things get very long and rambly at this point. Briefly: Mentlar and Ellen compute the location of the Decepticon power source, tracking it to the "Shadow Nebula." Mentlar provides the humans with exo-suits. The Decepticons catch up to the 'bots, and our heroes split up.

Hot Rod's group takes refuge on a nearby geologically unstable asteroid, while Magnus's team keeps the Decepticons busy. Mentlar computes a plan: the Autobots blind the 'Cons with flares, allowing them to slip away and join back up with Hot Rod's team on the asteroid.

Unfortunately, Laserbeak has been dispatched to follow Hot Rod's team, so Galvatron knows where the 'bots have done. The battle moves to the asteroid, during which a Decepticon bombing run flings Hot Rod's group off into space.

Then, a "Galactic Warp Hurricane" strikes, causing the Decepticon carrier to crash into the asteroid. Magnus's group relucnatly take the opportunity to escape; Galvatron emerges from the wreckage and believes all the 'bots dead.



We open with familiar scenes! Hot Rod's group land on an alien moon; Rod rescues Tanker from a robot squid. Magnus's group make it to the planet Unicron, but a brainwave-tractor-beam forces them to crash on its moon. The Entity summons Galvatron, but he ignores the call.



In a variation of the "Universal Greeting" scene we all know, Hot Rod and Tanker encounter and are captured by the Sharkticons. The creatures have also captured Sludge and Swoop, immobilizing them with stun sticks, and begun taking bites out Swoop.



Rusty and Daniel practise using their exo-suits. Ellen refuses to let Daniel go with Rusty, Mentlar, and Blurr to explore the moon. Mentlar removes a scale from the moon's surface to study; The Entity senses its removal, making him aware the Autobots still live.



Furious that his summons was disobeyed, the Entity tortures Galvatron from afar, forcing him to leave Earth for Unicron's moon to wipe the Autobots out. The Autobots on Earth rally and push back against the remaining Decepticons; Arcee and Wheeljack start to get along.

The captive Hot Rod and Tanker meet a fellow captive, the rock-robot Granix, "rector of Lithone, the planet of marble," last survivor of an expedition to the alien moon. He will, of course, evolve to become the not-at-all-made-of-rock Kranix!



The Quintessons throw Granix to the Sharkticons – not into a water-filled pit as in the finished film, but into a gladiatorial arena! He's even given a stun stick so he has a fighting chance – but it still ends with him being swarmed and devoured.



Hot Rod notices that the Sharkticons use primitive sensors to differentiate between enemies and other Sharkticons, and comes up with a plan to blind those sensors using grease and lubricant from his and Tanker's bodies.



On Unicron's moon, the Autobots set a trap for the approaching Decepticons, setting up "cardboard cutouts" of themselves to lure the Cons into range of explosive charges. Magnus instructs Rusty to make a break for safety with Springer, Daniel and Ellen.



Hot Rod & Tanker are thrown to the Sharkticons. The plan to blind their sensors works, but the Quintessons – spindly beings with huge heads & mental powers – telekinetically make new Sharkticons out of scrap metal.





Just as all seems lost, the Dinobots arrive! Grimlock has freed Sludge and Swoop and they soon subdue the Sharkticons. Hot Rod forces the lead Quintesson to probe space with his mental powers for the location of Magnus's crew, and the team departs.



On Unicron's moon, Magnus's team trips their trap. Rusty tries to help the Autobots fight. Rumble tries to force Daniel to watch as Dirge kills Ellen, but Daniel masters his exo-suit and saves his mum from the 'Cons, proving his indepdence to her.



Springer, Rusty, Ellen, and Daniel relucantly leave Magnus, Blurr, and Mentlar to battle Galvatron and the other Decepticons. Their escape route leads them through a strange fogbank, to a dried-out riverbed-like area, where they are confronted by... the Junkions!



The Junkions are an eccentric tribe of "Road Warrior"-style robots, led by the Nazi-helmet-wearing, sidearm-wielding, metal-adorned Wreck-Gar. Springer guides the humans in transforming their exo-suits to flee from the strange newcomers.



Magnus, Blurr, and Mentlar are killed by the Decepticons. Sensing the presence of Optimus Prime's life-force, Galvatron cuts Magnus open, removes Prime's "matrix," and places it in a bottle-like pendant. He departs to "renegotiate" with the Entity.



The Junkions take Springer and the humans prisoner, but Hot Rod's group arrives and defuses the situation with the Universal Greeting. Ellen decodes a print-out of data Wreck-Gar provides, revealing The Entity's origin: it was created by the Junkions' ancestors!



The Entity was built to be a universal protector, but something went wrong, and it became evil. The Junkions had to live behind the veil of fog to be free of it. Fortunately, it does have a weak spot... but the script's missing a page, so we don't know what it is!



Also, Grimlock befriends a Junkion named "Scrapo," and teaches him that women are great and to respect them. We stan a woke king.

Galvatron attempts to break his contract with the Entity by threatening to destroy the planet Unicron with a thermal charge. Unsurprisingly, the charge has no effect. Then, the truth is revealed: the Entity and the planet Unicron are one and the same being!



Thanks to the energy of Earth, the Entity now has the power to transform to robot mode and break the orbit it has been trapped in for generations. The "tree trunks" and "grass" on the planet's surface are but hairs on the back of its colossal hands!



The Entity heads for Earth to finish devouring it. The Dinobots & Scrapo strafe him, while the others venture inside his body. Springer & Tanker battle his "immune system" of metallic leeches; Hot Rod & the humans head for the weak spot at his core.



Reaching the opening to the core, they find it is too small for any explosive. Hot Rod senses the weapon they need; the group returns to the surface to recover Optimus's matrix from Galvatron. He refuses and tries to destroy himself AND the matrix...



...until Ellen, finally getting the hang of her exo-suit, surprises everyone by kung-fu-ing the Decepticon leader into submission! Matrix in hand, the team returns to the core once more...



...where Daniel, the only one small enough to fit through the opening, climbs in and opens the Matrix! Optimus's life-force destroys the Entity from within, and Galvatron is sent hurtling off into space on a piece of debris.



Hot Rod takes charge of the Autobots and orders them to evacuate the Entity's body, and our heroes all triumphantly return to the healed, restored Earth for a victory ceremony at the new Autobot Headquarters! THE END!