10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About 'Transformers'

10. Optimus Prime's opening voiceover contains the line "across the inanimate vastness of space." This bit of wordplay was actually lifted from Orson Welles' legendary 1939 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast. Ironically, the 1986 animated "Transformers: The Movie" would be Welles' last film before he died. (He voiced the sentient planet Unicron.) 

9. Did you honestly think Hasbro would pass up this monster chance to plug some of its other toy lines? When the little girl watches one of the Transformers emerge from her swimming pool, she’s clutching a "My Little Pony" doll. During the final battle, Bumblebee and Ironhide momentarily take cover behind a Furby truck, and you also see a sushi joint called Takara Sushi. Takara was the Japanese manufacturer of Transformers before the toy line was sold to Hasbro. 

8. Hasbro wasn’t the only entity getting name-checked throughout the movie. Executive Producer Steven Spielberg’s fingerprints were all over it as well. Optimus Prime is a Peterbilt truck, just like the one from Spielberg’s debut film, "Duel." The way the scorpion-like Decepticon Scorponok circles the soldiers in the desert echoes the shark in "Jaws." The movie features characters searching for an artifact (Archibald Witwicky’s glasses) in order to find another artifact (the Allspark), just like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Finally, when asked where he’s from, Bumblebee points to the stars in a way that mimics "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."

7. While the movie was in production, Michael Bay used the official website to allow fans to submit dialogue suggestions for Optimus Prime. He promised that one line would be chosen and worked into the script. The winner was "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," a line Optimus never actually spoke before, but is on the back of the original packaging for the Optimus Prime toy in the '80s.

6. Something only animators notice: If you pay attention, you’ll see that every time a character transforms from robot to vehicle, the transformation is unique. They never do it the exact same way twice. ILM animators claimed they actually took into account factors such as intent of action and terrain to determine how the character would transform. 

5. Think Optimus Prime couldn’t be more badass? Consider this: Peter Cullen, the voiceover veteran who voiced Prime on the animated series and in the movie, claims he based Prime’s cadence on John Wayne. Also, Bay says that he based the Autobot leader’s body language on none other than Liam Neeson.

4. The incredible freeway chase sequence where the Decepticon Bonecrusher body-checks a bus in half was not entirely CGI. Bay actually loaded a real bus with cables and explosives so it would detonate and split in half in time with the animated action to be added later. 

3. Sweet Revenge: In the 1986 animated movie, Optimus Prime tells Megatron during their final showdown: "One shall stand, one shall fall" before he is actually beaten by the Decepticon leader. In the 2007 movie, Prime says the same line, but it's Megatron who falls.

2. Peter Cullen, whose voice is as associated with Optimus Prime as James Earl Jones' is with Darth Vader, has a very distinct link to another massively popular '80s robot: Voltron. Cullen was the show’s narrator, and recorded the famous "From days of long ago..." monologue that opened every episode.