'Transformers One' Ending Explained And Summary: Is Orion Pax Dead Or Alive?

The new animated action film Transformers One is a commendable effort at bringing the beloved robots back to the screen after a series of live-action failures, essentially rebooting the franchise with an exciting future ahead. The film presents the origin stories of the central characters of the toy line-turned-cartoon series. On the home planet of the Transformers, Cybertron, two young mining robots named Orion Pax and D-16 strike up a great friendship during their brave effort to find out more about the first Primes who served as the protectors of the planet. Overall, Transformers One is quite enjoyable and successfully uses nostalgia to tell a unique story about the lost friendship of two characters most noted as sworn enemies.

Spoiler Alert

What is the animated film about?

Set in the city of Iacon, located on the planet of Cybertron, a young robot is seen climbing the high walls of a tower looking for an entrance into the building. As he is able to do so through an air vent, the robot hurriedly looks for a holographic chip that he intends to play on the nearby viewing machine. This character is a mining robot named Orion Pax, and his current adventure has brought him to the archives of Iacon, where he wants to learn more about the creator of the universe, Primus, and the first Primes that he had created to protect Cybertron. The information embedded on the chip also introduces us to the world of Cybertron, which was created when Primus transformed himself into the planet. He then gave birth to the first set of Transformer robots from the core of the planet, and they were named the Primes. The Primes were given the responsibility of protecting the current and future generations of robots, and they were given access to an entity of supreme power known as the Matrix of Leadership. As long as the Primes held on to the Matrix of Leadership, the natural power and life source of the Transformers, called Energon, flowed all around Cybertron in great abundance. 

But after decades of peace and prosperity, the Matrix of Leadership was lost, leading to the Energon becoming a very rare resource, and the Primes were defeated as well. It is in such a deprived world that Orion Pax currently lives and works as a mere miner with no authority to access the archives. Naturally, he has to escape the security guards once he is caught inside the archive building, and his best friend, D-16, helps him get away. Both Orion Pax and D-16 are mining robots working under their supervisor, Elita-1, in the mines of Iacon City. All three of them are robots without cogs, built solely for the purpose of mining, and belong to what is considered to be the lowest strata of society. But things start to change when Orion bravely enters the Iacon 5000, a city-wide race, along with D-16, despite the race being reserved only for Transformers, who have cogs in their bodies that enable them to transform into various kinds of vehicles. Although Orion and D-16 eventually lose the race, the leader of Cybertron, Sentinel Prime, takes notice of them and praises them for having pushed the other competitors to perform.

Although Sentinel Prime states that they will be rewarded for their efforts, the two robots are trapped inside an incineration chamber by a rival racer named Darkwing. It is here that they befriend another young robot named B-127 and discover a chip embedded in one of his toys. This chip seems to be hinting at the location of the Matrix of Leadership, which has been missing for many years now, and Orion Pax does not want to waste any time in locating the object and restoring the power that was once held by the Transformers.

What does Orion find inside the cave?

When Orion Pax and D-16 make acquaintances with the eccentric young robot B-127, the latter shows them his two robot companions, both of whom are basically dead. But as Orion fidgets with one of the dead robots, a small holograph chip falls out of it, and it starts to play by itself. The chip shows one of the Primes, Alpha Trion, calling for help from the High Guard, which were basically a soldier unit created to protect Cybertron, during an ambush attack by the invading clan of aliens known as the Quintesson. B-127’s dead robot friend was actually one of the sentry bots that accompanied the Primes during this attack many years ago, and so Alpha Trion had used its memory to record a call for help as a sort of last resort. Incidentally, the Primes were known to have lost this battle, following which the Matrix of Leadership had also disappeared, and so the chip excites Orion and D-16 immediately. Since the Matrix of Leadership was last known to have been in possession of the Primes, and as the holograph chip also shows the last known location of the Primes, the protagonist decides to go on a perilous adventure to find the place.

The chip marks an old cave to be the last spot where the Primes were detected, but going there is not an easy task since it is located on the surface of Cybertron. Unlike humans living on planet Earth, the robots in Transformers One do not live on the surface of their home planet but inside it, since the surface is a very dangerous place and is out of the reach of normal citizens. In recent times, only the great leader of the robot civilization, Sentinel Prime, had traveled to the surface with his army to fight off the enemies, which are currently the alien beings called the Quintessons. These very same beings had seemingly defeated the Primes and made things incredibly difficult for the Transformers, and so Sentinel Prime is considered a heroic figure who has managed to bring peace to the lives of his subjects. As Orion and D-16 step out to find the cave on the surface of the planet, B-127 immediately agrees to accompany them, and their former boss in the mines, Elita-1, who had been recently fired, also joins them despite not really wanting to. 

The four robots eventually become friends, as their circumstances require them to, and they journey to the surface of Cybertron, where the dangers of the place become very apparent. They also soon spot a Quintessons vessel in the sky, closely searching for any life forms on the planet’s surface, and so have to take shelter at an abandoned building complex before finally reaching the cave marked on the holograph chip. As they enter the cave, it becomes very evident that the Primes had indeed been killed at this very spot, as the bodies of the once-powerful Transformers lie scattered all over the place. The empty container of the Matrix of Leadership is also found, but the energy force that acts as its core is missing, meaning that it is of no use. Exploring the cave some more, Orion and his friends find the lifeless body of Alpha Trion, but unlike the others in the cave, this robot still has its spark intact, meaning that it can be powered back to life with Energon.

What is the secret behind Sentinel Prime’s peaceful reign?

B-127 gives up some Energon from his storage to power up Alpha Trion, and as the latter comes back to life, he reveals some horrific secrets about the current situation in Cybertron and Sentinel Prime’s apparently peaceful reign over the planet. Sentinel was originally one of the Primes, who were meant to protect and guide the future generations of Transformers, but he started to secretly drift away from their purpose and wanted to secure his own wealth and power instead. This was why he made a secret pact with the very invaders of the land, the alien Quintessons, by agreeing to betray his own brethren. Sentinel told the other Primes that he had gathered some crucial intel that could be used to defeat the Quintessons and end the war once and for all, and the Transformers agreed to meet him confidentially inside a cave on the surface of Cybertron to avoid any unwanted danger.

However, Sentinel had already made a pact with the Quintessons, and as the Primes gathered at the cave, the aliens launched the ambush attack on them. With the direct help of Sentinel Prime, for he fought against the other robots as well, the Quintessons defeated all the Primes and attempted to take control of the Matrix of Leadership as well. This artifact had been their target for all this while, but the Matrix of Leadership was actually protected by some charm placed on it by Primus when he had created it. This charm allowed only those whom the spirit of Primus deemed worthy and capable to take control of the Matrix and the power that it contained. Therefore, the Quintessons were able to find the Matrix but were not able to wield its power, and so abandoned its empty container in the cave along with the slain Primes. 

Sentinel Prime’s pact with the aliens ensured that the latter would not attack Cybertron anymore, but only if the former kept his promise of supplying them with Energon on a regular basis. Sentinel wanted to become the ruler of his planet, and the Quintessons wanted a steady source of Energon for some undisclosed reason, and so the two made an arrangement between each other. But, since the Matrix of Leadership was lost and the natural source of Energon on the planet had dried up, Sentinel Prime started heavy mining on the planet to get hold of the resources needed for his secret trade with the aliens, and he also created the mining robots for this purpose. Although all Transformers are created with cogs that should let them transform, Sentinel Prime had removed the cogs from the bodies of mining robots before they were brought to life, simply to make them more subservient. A class of robots with no cogs would be easy to dominate, as there would be a literal lack in their physicality, and so the likes of Orion Pax, D-16, Elita-1, and B-127 were all intentionally robbed of their cogs.

Why does D-16 betray his friends?

It is only after Alpha Trion tells the protagonist the whole truth and also returns the transformative cogs to him and his friends that the real difference between Orion and D-16 starts to become evident. Although the two had become great friends after meeting each other in the mines, they are very differently affected by the news of their leader’s betrayal, which essentially suggests that they have been inherently quite different to each other all along. As Orion finds out about the corrupt and evil nature of Sentinel Prime, he immediately thinks of liberating the robots of Cybertron from his unjust rule and also bringing the leader to justice. The new powers of transformation and the abilities and weapons at his disposal do not change his stance in any way, and there is an unselfish goodness in him, which makes him think about how all his friends and brethren had been cheated by the robot pretending to be their leader. However, to D-16, the revelation of Sentinel’s true colors has a very personal effect, as he thinks only about how he, as an individual, has been duped by the leader. D-16 had always been very faithful and reverent towards Sentinel Prime, hailing the leader as a heroic warrior who gave his all to protect his people. Now that he learns of Sentinel’s real nature, the rage and frustration bring out the inherent negativity and violent tendencies that had always existed deep in D-16’s mechanical heart. Therefore, he soon takes control of the High Guard faction, who had abandoned society and were living by themselves in the wild, and marches towards Iacon to expose Sentinel Prime and then kill him.

During Transformers One’s ending, Orion liberates the other mining robots by telling them the truth, and then works on trying to unmask Sentinel’s secret deal with the aliens, and he is finally able to do so with the help of Elita-1. Sentinel’s bodyguard, Airachnid, had been present on the scene when the leader talked about his deal with the Quintessons in an effort to blackmail the revolting robots, and so its memory is now broadcast publicly. Within a matter of minutes, the entire population of Cybertron learns of their leader’s secret and demands his punishment. Once again, the difference between the once-best friends becomes evident, as Orion wants to avoid Sentinel Prime’s death so that the evil robot can be punished in a lawful manner. However, the anger driving D-16 still makes him want to kill Sentinel Prime, and in the process of doing so, he even kills Orion and refuses to help him.

What happens to Orion Pax and D-16?

Although Orion Pax technically dies and falls through the void inside Cybertron, he is soon revived by the spirits of Primus and the other Primes, for they have been keeping an eye on his heroics during all this time and have found him worthy of being their successor. Thus, Orion is given the superior powers of the Matrix of Leadership, and he transforms into the heroic Optimus Prime, who is the new leader of Cybertron. This development is not taken well by D-16, as he is further enraged by the Primes’ decision, and he wages war against the robot who was once his best friend.

In Transformers One’s ending, D-16 is ultimately defeated, but he promises to be back soon. A short post-credits scene also makes it clear that D-16 has been consumed by evil completely, and he has transformed into the villainous Megatron, and he, too, has an army of his own, made up of robots who once served in the High Guard. This short teaser does set up Transformers One as the ultimate franchise reboot, and it is almost certain that the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons will be featured extensively in further films. 

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