Warning: SPOILERS Below For Bumblebee!
Transformers movies. Directed by Travis Knight, Bumblebee is set in 1987, twenty years before the events of Bay's original Transformers. While it's focused on the relationship between Bee and a teenage girl named Charlie Watson (Academy Award-nominee Hailee Steinfeld), the prequel does feature a number of Autobots and Deceptions and it seems to set up the events of Bay's saga - or does it?
As a prequel that also doubles as a soft reboot, Bumblebee both does and doesn't adhere to what fans saw in the five previous Transformers films which are set decades later but also contain flashbacks establishing a great deal of Transformers history. The very fact that the robots are all in their Generation-1 designs immediately contradicts how the Transformers looked both in the past and present time periods in Bay's films.
Related: Every Transformers Film Ranked (Including Bumblebee)
And yet, Bumblebee does take pains to not disrupt other aspects of Bay's films and sets up some key plot points of the first Transformers (while still ignoring others). The result is a strange muddle where Bumblebee sometimes sticks what was seen in the prior films while also diverging completely at other points. Bumblebee also sets up a possible new direction for the Transformers franchise (that could involve a shared universe with other Hasbro properties like G.I. Joe and M.A.S.K.), but it still tries to synch up with Bay's films, creating confusion.
Given how Bumblebee ends (and sets up Bay's first Transformers), the events from 2007 onwards in the films about Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and Cade Yaeger (Mark Wahlberg) could still happen as fans saw (although much of it is tied to the ancient Transformers history that could now be altered). Until Bumblebee's sequels provide answers as to what does and doesn't remain canon, here are all the plot holes Bumblebee creates with Michael Bay's Transformers:
- This Page: Plot Holes With Transformers History
- Page 2: Plot Holes With The Future Events of The Transformers Movies
The Transformers Don't Have A Secret Earth History In Bumblebee
Every Michael Bay film showed flashbacks that the Transformers have been visiting Earth for millions of years, while Earth itself is actually Unicron, the ancient enemy of Cybertron. Bumblebee didn't address any of the secret history of the Transformers; in fact, when he evacuated the Autobots from Cybertron at the start of the film, Optimus Prime indicated Earth was a planet he'd just found and dispatched Bumblebee to protect it until the rest of the Autobots arrived.
If Earth is a new discovery for the Transformers - and the Order of the Witwiccans may never have been formed.
Bumblebee Didn't Fight Nazis In World War II
Another plot hole involving Transformers: The Last Knight is that Bumblebee is supposed to have been on Earth since World War II. Then known as ZB-7, Bee fought for the Allies alongside a vicious military unit called the Devil's Brigade and he slaughtered his share of Nazis. However, Bumblebee makes no mention of any of this.
Related: Transformers 5 Easter Eggs And Secrets
When we meet the yellow Autobot in Bumblebee, it's 1987 and he's on Cybertron fighting alongside Optimus Prime's Autobot Resistance under the designation B-127. When Prime sends him to Earth, B-127 doesn't behave as if he's been to our planet before, knows the people and terrain, or has allies he can call upon. That said, Bee does suffer a Memory Core Critical Failure while fighting Blitzwing before he hides as a Volkswagen Beetle and meets Charlie Watson some time later. Until his memory core was repaired, Bumblebee's lack of knowledge of Earth and humans makes it possible that Bee has been on Earth before and his World War II history is still canon. However, what's shown in Bumblebee still doesn't quite synch up with what Transformers 5 established.
Cybertron Is Different
In Bumblebee, Cybertron resembles how it appeared in the Generation-1 cartoons, which should please longtime Transformers fans. However, the "new" Cyberton contradicts nearly everything in Michael Bay's films. Not only do Cybertron and the Transformers themselves look entirely different from how they appeared in Bay's films, it raises the question of whether the history of the planet Bay established still applies.
Since the smaller scale of Bumblebee centers on his relationship with Charlie, with the Autobot vs. Decepticon war as a backdrop, it's understandable that Bumblebee purposely doesn't deal with the details of Cybertron's complex history. There's no mention of Quintessa, one of the Transformers' Creators, or the AllSpark Cube, for example. This doesn't necessarily mean that the established movie history no longer applies, but Bumblebee sequels could mean even more changes to the significant retcon fans have already been shown.
Page 2 of 2: Bumblebee's Plot Holes With Future Events Of The Transformers Movies
Optimus Prime And The Autobots Arrive On Earth 20 Years Too Soon
Bumblebee's ending seems to set up how he'll meet Sam Witwicky 20 years later: Bee parts ways with Charlie Watson and then (to her chagrin) he transforms from a Volkswagen to a Chevy Camaro - the same form he's in for all of Bay's Transformers. This seems to enable Bay's five films to still happen - until the mid-credits scene that shows Bumblebee and Optimus Prime walking through the forest and looking up at the sky as seven more Autobots arrive from outer space. Bumblebee's ending has the Autobots landing on Earth 20 years too soon.
Bay's original Transformers established that Optimus Prime and the Autobots arrived on Earth in 2007 because Bumblebee ed them that he'd located Sam Witwicky and the map to the missing AllSpark Cube, which was the McGuffin of the first film. Of course, what happens between 1987 and 2007 is still not known (and could be explored in a Bumblebee sequel) so it's possible Optimus and the Autobots left Earth in the interim decades and then returned in 2007.
Now, being fair, as of Bumblebee, Agent Burns (John Cena) and Sector Seven have only met Bee and three Decepticons who are now dead, which doesn't contradict Agent Seymour Simmons (John Turturro) meeting the Autobots in Transformers. But Prime and the Autobots are still on Earth two decades earlier than they should be.
No Mention Of Megatron And The AllSpark Cube
The absence of Megatron - or even any mention of the Decepticons' leader - is arguably the most glaring omission in Bumblebee. However, if Bumblebee is meant to synch up with Bay's films, Megatron missing in action makes sense: Transformers established that in 1897, Captain Archibald Witwicky discovered Megatron frozen in the Arctic. Sector Seven was then formed around keeping Megatron a secret. The AllSpark Cube is later discovered in the Colorado River and is held within Sector Seven's Hoover Dam base along with Megatron, who known by the designation Non-Biological Extraterrestrial 1 (N.B.E.-1).
In Bumblebee, Sector Seven forms an alliance with Decepticons Dropkick and Shatter because they want access to their alien technology - tech Sector Seven should already have in their midst if they've been studying Megatron for 90 years. Agent Burns and his superiors don't seem to have any knowledge of Megatron, which could indicate that in this rebooted canon, Sector Seven never captured the evil Decepticon. This is even further reinforced by the fact that Shatter and Dropkick actually go to the Hoover Dam base but they never sense Megatron or the AllSpark's presence.
So if the canon of Bay's films holds, then the Decepticon leader properly doesn't have any role in Bumblebee since he's still frozen in stasis at the Hoover Dam and will remain there until 2007. However, if Megatron appears in a Bumblebee sequel set before 2007, all bets are off. But a more glaring change is that the AllSpark Cube is something all of the Transformers are supposed to be searching the galaxy for at this time, but there's no mention of the life-giving device in Bumblebee. Instead, the Decepticons are on Earth hunting for Optimus Prime.
Bumblebee's Real Voice Is Different
Bumblebee speaks in his own prequel movie - briefly. Bee's voice is provided by Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner), though he loses the ability to speak when his memory core is damaged in a fight against Blitzwing. After Bee loses his voice, Bumblebee reveals it's Charlie Watson who helps teach him to use the radio to "speak" and Bee doesn't utter his own words again for three decades.
But Bee does finally speak again in Transformers: The Last Knight (although Bee also spoke at the end of Transformers 2007, which the sequels completely forgot). When Quintessa turned Optimus into the evil Nemesis Prime, it's the sound of Bumblebee's true voice that reverts Prime back to his true, benevolent personality. But in Transformers 5, Bee's voice is very different; sound designer Erik Aadahl recorded himself as a temp voice, but Michael Bay liked it and kept him as Bumblebee's voice. So while the voices of Bumblebee don't match, this plot hole can be explained away by the many repairs Bee has undergone since 1987.
