It's Come To This: Autobots Vs Decepticons Vs Maximals Vs Terrorcons Vs Predacons
Director Steven Caple Jr. has boasted about expanding the "Transformers" world in the newest sequel, "Rise of the Beasts" — "I thought it was time to step out and build out into the universe.
Previous films stuck to the franchise's central conceit: Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons. Taking its cues from the 1996 cartoon "Beast Wars" and the 1986 "The Transformers: The Movie," "Rise of the Beasts" brings in new groups of transforming robots: the Maximals, the Predacons, and the Terrorcons. Each faction has its unique motivation and aesthetic too. This is still a straightforward story of good versus evil, but now there are new pieces on the chess board.
"Transformers" lore is often both silly and labyrinthine, especially if you don't have a history with the franchise. Let's cut through the confusion and explain what each type of Transformer in "Rise of the Beasts" is.
The Autobots
Members: Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Mirage, Arcee, and Wheeljack.
The heroes of "Transformers," the Autobots, hail from planet Cybertron. They're big believers in peaceful cooperation, hence their guiding ethos: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings" and "'Till all are one." These beliefs are why they're at war with the Decepticons — a war they're losing.
The Autobots came to Earth to hide out and regroup, but when "Rise of the Beasts" begins, they're now looking to get back home and resume the fight. That's why they're pursuing the Transwarp Key; they don't just want to keep it out of the bad guys' hands, they want to use its power to open a portal back to Cybertron.
While on Earth, the Autobots disguise themselves primarily as cars — their name refers to both autonomous (as in free) and automobile. In "Rise of the Beasts," Bumblebee and Mirage are both sports cars while Wheeljack is a minibus van. Optimus Prime, as the leader and most powerful Autobot, has traditionally transformed into a trailer truck; it's the same type of vehicle as a car but larger and more powerful. Likewise, Arcee (the one female Autobot), transforms into a motorcycle, which is more demure than a full-fledged car.
The Decepticons
Members: Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave.
The Autobots' enemies are no-shows in "Rise of the Beasts" — a scene of Optimus Prime fighting a Decepticon named Transit was cut. However, they cast a shadow over the film: "Bumblebee" established that they were in control of Cybertron, which is why the Autobots had to flee.
This is important — the Autobots and Decepticons are the same species (known officially as Cybertronians). The division between them is factional and ideological. Optimus Prime succinctly explains: "Pride and a lust for power divided us. Now [the Autobots] fight enemies who were once our brothers." We'll see this divide play out firsthand in Josh Cooley's upcoming animated prequel, "Transformers One."
Unlike the Autobots, the Decepticons are imperialist conquerors — their vision for Cybertronian society is "Peace through tyranny." When it comes to alien races, though? "Everything is fodder." Fittingly, they generally transform into military vehicles: jets, tanks, and helicopters. Depending on the version, they were either created to be soldiers or are former gladiators; the Decepticons are literally made for war.
Due to their alt-mode preference, the Decepticons can usually fly, while Autobots generally can't. However, there is often the odd car among their ranks. In "Bumblebee," the triple-changing Decepticons Shatter and Dropkick split the difference: they each had a muscle car mode, but the former also turned into a jet and the latter a helicopter.
The Maximals
Members: Optimus Primal, Airazor, Cheetor, and Rhinox.
The Maximals are the Autobots' counterparts in the animated series "Beast Wars," and "Rise of the Beasts" has the two groups fighting alongside each other. Instead of vehicles, the Maximals transform into mechanical replicas of living beings — specifically, warmblooded animals: apes, cats, birds, etc.
In the original "Beast Wars," the Maximals were the descendants of the Autobots, hailing from a now peaceful Cybertron. The series followed a small group of Maximals who became stranded on prehistoric Earth — that's why they transformed into terrestrial animals. "Rise of the Beasts" alludes to this backstory. The Maximal Airazor (Michelle Yeoh) describes herself as hailing from the Autobots' "past and future," while Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman) says he was named in tribute to Optimus Prime. However, the film is ultimately vague about the connection. In the opening, the Maximals' home planet is destroyed by Unicron millennia in the past — that forested world didn't look a lot like Cybertron, nor was it identified as such.
In any case, the Maximals came to Earth to hide the Transwarp Key from Unicron and the Terrorcons. Primal says his people used the key's power to explore the galaxy — this might explain why the Maximals already had their Earth animal modes on their home planet, and indeed how they knew about Earth in the first place. However, the film doesn't explicitly confirm this.
The Terrorcons
Members: Scourge, Nightbird, and Battletrap.
The villains of "Rise of the Beasts" are the Terrorcons, servants of Unicron. Since their boss is literally planet-sized, he uses smaller heralds to directly interact with his opponents; the primary Terrorcons are the same size as the Autobots, while their ranks are filled out with human-sized "Freezer" drones. The Terrorcons come to Earth to get the Transwarp key for their master. This puts them at odds with both the Autobots and Maximals, who believe in the preservation of life while the Terrorcons represent oblivion.
Like the Autobots, the Terrorcons also choose car alt-modes on Earth: their commander Scourge is a "Duel" style tanker truck, Battletrap is a tow truck, and Nightbird is a sports car. The Freezers, meanwhile, transform into simple hovering orbs. However, these vehicles are utilitarian, not representative of a faction theme. The Terrorcons are defined by their weapons more so than their vehicle modes: Scourge's claw, Battletrap's flail, and Nightbird's swords and jetpack.
The film doesn't confirm their origins, but it does leave enough breadcrumbs for a viewer to infer. When warning Scourge about failing him, Unicron tells him he'll "wish he died with his planet." It's also revealed in the climax that Scourge's face is a mask made in tribute to his master.
The conclusion? The Terrorcons are recruited from worlds Unicron destroyed and then forced into service to him. It's unclear if all three of the Terrorcons were from the same planet — there do seem to be multiple worlds of giant, transforming robots out there.
That leads us to the final Transformers faction present in "Rise of the Beasts."
The Predacons
Members: Scorponok.
In "Beast Wars," the Predacons were the descendants of the Decepticons. Since their ancestors lost the Great War, the Predacons found themselves marginalized on the new Cybertron. The villains of the series were a group of rebel Predacons (led by one calling himself Megatron, in tribute to the OG), who wanted to resume the war. The Predacons transformed into the types of animals that humans find repellant or sinister: reptiles, insects, and arthropods, capped off by Megatron himself assuming the form of a T. Rex scanned from fossils.
However, in yet more proof that "Rise of the Beasts" is barely a "Beast Wars" movie, the Predacons aren't in it much; their role is upstaged by the Terrorcons. The name "Predacon" is never even uttered in the film. Caple Jr. has said, "There's a few Predacons that we had to take out of the film that I wanted to get in, for sure."
The only Predacons in the final film are a legion of Scorponok clones, and they're servants of Unicron. Scourge also has Predacon insignias among his badge collection. In this movie's world, could the Predacons be from a different planet than the Maximals, one that Unicron destroyed? This will remain speculation unless "Rise of the Beasts" gets a follow-up, this time with some proper Predacons.
"Transformers: Rise of the Beasts" is playing in theaters.