Transformers - The Movie

Later on, some of the Autobots gather around Optimus Prime, and Perceptor says that Prime's wounds are almost certainly going to be fatal. Optimus tells them all not to grieve for him as he shall soon be "one with the Matrix". He then opens his chest compartment and reveals the Autobot Matrix of leadership, a relic which is passed from Autobot leader to leader. He decides that his old friend Ultra Magnus will be the one to lead the Autobots, and...
 

...passes the Matrix onto him, saying that one day an Autobot will use it to light their darkest hour. Prime then says that "until that day, 'till all are one" and Ultra Magnus takes the Matrix and puts it inside his own chest compartment. This is Optimus' last action though as his life signs start to fade.
 

And here's the part where all the kids started crying and leaving the cinema and having to see psychologists. Optimus Prime dies and for some reason loses all of his colour, meaning that the one robot everyone could remember the name of has been removed from the series. Don't worry kids, he'll be back next season!
 

There's then a quick scene where Unicron replays what just happened to himself on his many screens, and is not happy when he sees that the Autobot Matrix of leadership is passed onto a new leader. He then lets out a roar, which shows that he doesn't seem to like the Matrix.
 

Meanwhile, the Decepticons are still on the way back to Cybertron but Astrotrain says he's too weighed down and if they don't do something about it, he'll never make it back to their home planet. Starscream then has the brilliant idea of booting out the injured Decepticons, and soon enough Thundercracker, Skywarp and all three of the Insecticons are thrown out.
 

And now Starscream gets to do something he's being trying to do for years: get rid of Megatron. Even though Megatron is still alive, Starscream doesn't care and just drops him off Astrotrain, leaving him floating through space with the other injured Decepticons. Starscream then says that with Megatron out of the way, he'll be the new Decepticon leader...
 

...but everyone else wants to be the leader too and they start fighting each other instead. Astrotrain heads back to Cybertron.
 

The other Decepticons float aimlessly through space, but they aren't alone for long as they have a run in with Unicron. Megatron seems to be the only one with the power of speech at this point, and is greeted by Unicron, who wants to use Megatron to destroy the Matrix, as it is the only thing the can stop him. He'll rebuild Megatron and give him new troops in order for him to do this. Megatron says that he's already crushed Optimus Prime, only to be told that Ultra Magnus now has the Matrix. Megatron initially refuses but after Unicron threatens to destroy him, he accepts.
 

As promised, Unicron gives Megatron a new body, turning him into a purple and white coloured robot with a orange laser cannon called Galvatron.
 

Megatron isn't the only robot to get a make over here though. Thundercracker is remade into Scourge, whilst the Insecticons are made into things called Sweeps, which look identical to Scourge but follow his command. Skywarp is remade into a robot called Cyclonus, who can transform into a jet. Unicron then gives his new warriors a ship and tells them to go and destroy the Matrix. But first, Galvatron heads to Cybertron to settle some unfinished business with Starscream.
 

Back on Cybertron, Starscream has managed to win the leadership battle and is crowned, and has also given his own body a bit of a tune up with new armour and some new parts. He begins to give a speech but before he can really even start, Galvatron and Cyclonus break up the coronation ceremony. Starscream asks if this new robot is Megatron...
 

...who gives him a hint by transforming into his space cannon mode and shooting Starscream. Starscream is reduced to nothing but a smoking pile of ash within seconds, and the other Decepticons accept Galvatron as their new leader.
 

Unicron also has plans of his own and suddenly attacks Moonbase 1 before Jazz and Cliffjumper even realise he's there. Jazz sends a transmission to Autobot City which Blaster picks up and plays to the others, and Jazz and Cliffjumper inform them that some giant planet has appeared out of nowhere and is destroying Moonbase 1. The transmission then cuts out before any more information can be given out.
 

Moonbase 1 is destroyed and Jazz and Cliffjumper fail to escape, ending up inside Unicron. Spike and Bumblebee contact Autobot City and tell them what just happened, but their transmission is also cut out leaving the Earth Autobots wondering what's going on. Bumblebee sets Moonbase 2's self-destruct sequence off and then he and Spike depart on a ship before Unicron has even started munching on Moonbase 2.
 

Just as Unicron eats Moonbase 2, the explosives detonate creating a large explosion and seemingly destroying him. But just as Spike and Bumblebee think they've won, they see that Unicron hasn't been damaged at all and their ship is then sucked inside him. Galvatron meanwhile watches with rage, saying that Cybertron and all of it's moons belong to him, but Unicron reminds him just who's in charge here by torturing Galvatron from afar. Galvatron then says he'll obey Unicron and tells the other Decepticons to follow him to Earth.
 

At Autobot City, Ultra Magnus tells the others to board the shuttles as they need to head to Cybertron and find out what's happened to their friends on the Moonbases. Springer asks what they are going to do exactly because if there is some huge planet which can destroy other planets, they'll be no match for it. Magnus believes that Matrix might be able to stop it which Hot Rod agrees to, but then Springer notices something...
 

...Galvatron and the other new Decepticons have arrived and start taking pot shots at the Autobots. Ultra Magnus tells everyone to head towards the shuttles as he fights them off, and eventually Hot Rod and Kup get the Dinobots onto a shuttle...
 

...which blasts off. Ultra Magnus gets onto another shuttle along with Perceptor and the other new Autobots introduced in the movie so far, which also takes off and soon both shuttles are in space alongside each other.
 

The peace doesn't last for long though as the Decepticons follow them in their own ship. Galvatron keeps firing out heat seeking missiles and has Cyclonus transform and attack. Cyclonus makes short work of Hot Rod's shuttle, damaging it badly and sending it crashing into a unknown planet.
 

With no chance to escape as they are, Ultra Magnus activates the shuttle's emergency separation sequence, which has the very front end of the ship separate. This is unseen by the Decepticons, and Galvatron fires more missiles at the other part of the ship, destroying it entirely. Galvatron believes that now these Autobots have been destroyed, the Matrix must also be gone, only for Unicron to torture his mind. Galvatron heads back towards Unicron to find out what he wants.
 

The other Autobots have escaped for now, but with their own ship a wreck they cannot go back to find Hot Rod and the others and instead need to try and find a place to stop for repairs. Perceptor does a scan of this area of space and finds that the planet of junk is quite near, so they head towards that.

Optimus Prime's death was without a doubt the biggest mistake Hasbro could have ever made at the time. Hasbro simply thought that if they killed him off, nobody would really make a big deal about it. However, when the movie was released kids were crying in cinemas, and couldn't believe that their hero was dead. There were stories of children locking themselves in their rooms and refusing to come out, and allegedly one child was so badly effected he had to be taken to a psychologist. Because of all this controversy, many cinemas pulled the film within weeks. Whilst they'd managed to just about get away with killing off other Autobots, Hasbro were practically forced into brining Optimus Prime back from the dead and added two extra episodes to the third season showing him come back to life.

This is the first appearance of the Matrix in the cartoon continuity. Many people wrongly think that the Matrix was something made up just for the movie, but it actually wasn't, it had been in the comic books for some time under the title of "creation Matrix". However, it's still a mystery why Optimus Prime only bothers revealing it for the first time now, as it is never mentioned in the previous two series of Transformers.

As I said in the last part, the injured Decepticons had to be carried to Astrotrain, but both Thundercracker and Skywarp can be seen running unaided to Astrotrain, but later on, both of them are in the injured gang and are thrown off without either of them putting up any resistance.

In the original script, Cyclonus was suppose to have a couple of identical robots that looked like him follow him around, as in Scourge and the Sweeps. This actually kind of makes it into the final film, as when Bombshell and Skywarp are remade, they are both turned into Cyclonus robots, but within just a couple of scenes, only one remains. I like to think Skywarp became the real Cyclonus since I like him more than Bombshell.

Sadly, Blaster just vanishes after playing Jazz's transmission and isn't seen again in the movie. He certainly doesn't die though as he shows in several episodes of the third season.

Originally, Unicron was not suppose to destroy Moonbase 2 until later on, but this got changed so in the final film, he destroys both Moonbases at around the same time. However, when Galvatron says "How dare you Unicron, Cybertron and all it's moons belong to me!" here:

You can still clearly see Moonbase 2 to Unicron's left, despite being blown up just seconds a go. Obviously, they had the animation done already before this part of the film was changed.

The missing Dinobot Snarl can be seen a couple of times when Magnus explains that the Autobots have to head to Cybertron:

He can also be seen a shot or two later when the Decepticons return (you can see him in image 49 above). Snarl will make one more appearance in the movie later on.

After the Autobots blast off in their two shuttles, there was supposed to be a scene where they lose the Decepticons in an asteroid belt. This explains why the Decepticons aren't immediately tailing the Autobots in the finished film.

Also, in the original script the Autobots' plan was to take off and head to the planet of junk to refuel first, and then head to Cybertron, but this was cut out and instead Preceptor just happens to find it when he scans for a place to repair their shuttle on. I'll add a bit more on this in the next part.