I don't mean to put anyone down...but I watched this movie twice and I still don't know what the plot is. Who is Unicron? Why does this "matrix of leadership" scare him so much?

*ermmss*...Basically its long and complicated and depends on what continuity you subscribe to (UK Cartoon /US Cartoon /UK Comic /US Comic)

The one I subscribe to (and many others seem to) s that Unicron was a Dark God out to destroy every sign of life in the Universe, then along comes Primus. Primus and Unicron fight it out for a few millennia before Primus is almost beaten and he "locks" himself into a passing asteroid to escape. Unicron believing that Primus was up to something does the same and Primus uses all but the last of his energy to seal them both up forever inside these asteroids. Eventually over the millennia Primus constructed his asteroid to create Cybertron and the Transformers, giving them the Matrix, which is basically Primuses life force. Unicron on the other hand constructed his asteroid into what you see in the movie.

Now...believe it or not thats a rather shortened version of the whole thing. I used to have a page that has all the different continuities on it but I can't seem to find it anymore.

Best bet is to read the comics and stuff at either www.tfarchive.com or www.transfans.com

Interesting fact: Orson Welles did the voice of Unicron. In fact, that was his last role!

Actually in the third season of the show (which is what the movie is continuous with) we found out Unicron was built by some guy.
Yes Orson did start off doing the voice of Unicron. Unfort'tly he died during production. The rest of his lines where read by... Leonard Nemoy(!) who also did the voice of Galvitron, His voice was them slowed and lowered to match Welles'.

Luigi Novi: Hmm....From Citizen Kane to Transformers the Movie. He musta had grandkids he wanted to make happy, or something.

Adam: Actually in the third season of the show (which is what the movie is continuous with) we found out Unicron was built by some guy.

Yeahs. That was in the cartoon. The continuity that is above is the one from the comics, which in my mind were better. Especially in this case. Who would you rather Unicron be? A Vengeful God out to destroy his nemesis and his nemesis's children or some overgrown Tonka toy that got the better of his creator? ;)

I liked the comics better too.

I once interviewed the Bob Budiansky, the comic's first long-term writer, for my term paper, which I chose to be about comics.


Hey, I was a kid! Sue me!

What grade did you get on the term paper? (Personally, I think a term paper about comics would be pretty cool.)

Also, I will now be humming "You've Got the Touch" from Transformers: The Movie, for the rest of the day. (Loved that video!)

I handed the term paper in too late and failed the course for the year. It was the only time I ever failed a course for the year, and it was quite humiliating. People at summer school that summer looked at me like, "What the hell are YOU doing here?" I don't know what grade for it my teacher intended to give, but when I divided the year's average grade by all the four marking periods, final exam and term paper, the term paper came out to a negative number! Yeah it might've been cool, but I hated literature classes, hated term papers, and didn't have the love of learning back then that I do know, and had way poor research/study habits, so I didn't do the paper the justice it deserved.

Man, what a bummer

Lots of continuity gaps in the movie, especially compared to the cartoon.

1) Starscream's arm guns are shown firing some sort of solid projectile. Those were always where the null rays were located.

2) The Transformers are a lot more easily damaged in the movie than in the cartoons, especially the first two seasons.

3) This can be mitigated somewhat if you say that Megatron's fusion cannon became much more powerful. IIRC, Bluestreak is killed with a single blast from it to the stomach area, (despite what it says on IMDB, both Bluestreak and Prowl die) and a wounded Ironhide is killed with a single shot to the back. In the episode "Fire on the Mountain," Brawn is shot point black in the forehead with the fusion cannon, and essentially says that it made his ears ring.

4) Some deleted scenes cause a nit. In the third season, it mentioned that both Red Alert and Huffer died at this time, however, these scenes were cut out, as was a scene that showed the possible death of Shockwave.

5) The Matrix is shown as sitting just under the main armor plate of Optimus Prime's chest, and it is very large and clearly visible. HOwever, at least three times prior to this. (Roll for It and The Prime Problem at least) Optimus Prime's chest is opened, and there is no matrix.

6) Probable changed premise: It is said both earlier and later that Optimus Prime was origoinally a dockworker named Orion Pax. When Hot Rod is given the Matrix and becomes Rodimus Prime, it highly suggests that Orion Pax became Optimus Prime when he was given the matrix of leadership. However, origionally, it was said that Orion Pax was severely damaged when the Decpticons attacked the dock where he worked, and he was later rebuilt into Optimus Prime.

7) By this point, it is assumed that Optimus Prime and Megatron are the leaders of thier respective armies overall, and that certainly, Optimus is since he had the Matrix. However, it was heavily suggested that Optimus was only the leader of small group of Autobots, essentially a resistance cel, and that Megatron was what seems to be the equivalent of a platoon commander. The origonaly senerio makes more sense, since the Optimus Prime's group was essentially sent on a mission to scout for resources, and hte Decepticons followed them. Additionally the Decepticons that reached Earth were essentially a boarding party. Since Megatron was on the boarding party, it is unlikely was even the highest ranking guy on the pursuit ship.

8) Before hte movie, Shockwave clearly outranks Megatron. In the movie, however, Megatron clearly outranks Shockwave.

I know I have more, way back when, I wrote out a list of 18 continuity gaps. . .I'll post the rest when I find my list.

I recall Shockwave clearly showing deference and loyalty to Megatron before the movie.

The only time Shockwave ever outranked Megatron was for a brief time in the Marvel Comics series when he pulled a coup.

He was a very different character in the comics, however, very devious and power hungry. On the show, he was pretty much Smithers to Megatron's Mr. Burns, minus the sexual attraction, since robots don't have sex.

In the recent Dreamwave comics, Shockwave took command of the Decepticons on Cybertron when the Ark was buried on Earth. He was also the one who modified the Triple Changers.

Omega Supreme: since robots don't have sex.
Luigi Novi: I dunno about that. Ever notice the way Scattershot (of the Technobots) transforms? I had him as a toy, and if you twist his upper torso the wrong way when transforming him, he looks quite able to have it.

Okay, so I meant to say, they don't reproduce through sexual intercourse, even though occasionlly they may have some sort of wang-like protrusion from their midsection.

I'll have to check again, but now that I htink about it, I think I'm half right. I'm pretty sure the first time we see shockwave, he outranks Megatron, but Megatron (and Optimum Prime) started getting more and more important in the "big picture" before the movie.

No, you are not right, not half right, not even .0000001% right, as regards the cartoon.

I'm not saying this to be mean or to pick on you or anything, but that's just how it is.

Shockwave never outranked Megatron in the cartoon.