Transformers Oneis an amazing addition to the Transformers franchise, but it’s tantalizingly close to being even better with one key change to the soundtrack. Taking place in Cybertron long before the Transformers ever landed on Earth,Transformers Oneis easily thebest Transformers moviemade, at least since the original 1986 filmTransformers: The Movie.However, that movie included a key element thatTransformers Oneis bitterly missing, that being the original song made specially for the OST, Stan Bush’sThe Touch.
Coming hot off ofThe Transformers: The Movie - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack,The Touchis a key component of what makes the film so memorable, even all these years later. The song is used in two key battle sequences throughout the film, most notably, when Optimus Prime takes on the Decepticons all by himself in Autobot City shortly before he sacrifices his life,traumatizing young Transformers fansfor a lifetime. The song is then played again when Hot Rod opens the Matrix of Leadership, spiritually succeeding Optimus and becoming Rodimus Prime.
Transformers One Needed “The Touch” By Stan Bush
One Song Would Have Exponentially Improved The Entire Story
It’s hard to point to many flaws inTransformers One, but not includingThe Touchamong the film’s soundtrack is perhaps one of the film’s biggest blunders. For starters, it would have been a prescient callback to the original movie that started the Transformers' career in film in the first place, withTransformers Onebeing only the second major theatrical release of an animated Transformers movie many decades later. But more importantly,The Touchwould have fit in brilliantly both thematically and stylistically into the action ofTransformers One.
Transformers Oneis, appropriately enough, a movie all about transformation, showing how two best friends as close as brothers became bitter enemies and very different people all because of their ideological divide. As both Cybertronians gain the ability to harness the awesome power ofthe Transformation Cogs, so too do they decide to use their newfound strength to polar opposite ends as a response to Sentinel’s corruption. The film even shows Orion Pax becoming Optimus Prime via the Matrix of Leadership, just as the ’80s film did with Hot Rod.
Finally, the action ofTransformers Onewould have fit very well with the blaring power rock ofThe Touch.Playing the song over the film’s final battle makes it an eerily appropriate choice, and considering how well the decisive blows of the Cybertronian combatants line up with it, it’s easy to believe that the animators actually created the scene to be set to the tune ofThe Touchbefore the soundtrack was finalized. The battle even mirrors the ’80s film, being Optimus and Megatron’s first fight rather than their last, and similarly has Optimus taking down hordes of Decepticons alone.
“The Touch” Has Been Used Many Times Since The 1986 Movie
The Cultural Impact Of “The Touch” Goes Beyond Transformers
The Touchhas been used throughout the variousTransformers cartoonsand films since the 1986 film many times. During the serialized retelling of the film’s events broadcast in the first generation animated series, Optimus Prime tells the human boy Tommy “I leave you with ‘The Touch!'” before leaving, prompting the footage to cut to the song’s music video. InTransformers Prime, one human character makes reference to the song by humming it, and inTransformers Earthspark, its notes are faintly heard when another human character tells another “You’ve got the touch”, referencing the initial lyrics.
Stan Bush himself has made multiple updates of the song over the years to sync up with the release of the live-action movies, once in 2007 for the first Michael Bay film, and oneuniquely Linkin Park-inspired version, complete with early-2000s angst and a rap section, forTransformers: Revenge of the Fallen.The Touchactually did make it intoBumblebee, with the titular Autobot hero briefly playing it from the radio to encourage his new human friend. Even inTransformers One, Elita-1 actually references the song’s lyrics, telling Orion he doesn’t have “the touch” or “the power” in her introduction.
The pop culture influence ofThe Touchhas even extended beyond the Transformers franchise. Mark Wahlberg sang a karaoke version of the song in the 1997 filmBoogie Nightslong before he would star in a Transformers movie himself. Various cartoons and video games likeRegular ShoworGuitar Hero: World Tourhave also similarly included the song as a pure distillation of ’80s nostalgia. In some ways, the fame ofThe Touchhas almost eclipsed that of the Transformers franchise itself.
Why Transformers One Is Transformers’ Best Movie In 20 Years
Even If It Was Failed By Its Marketing
Even withoutThe Touch,Transformers Onehas still distinguished itself as easily the best piece of Transformers media created in a very long time. Orion Pax and D-16’s diverging arcs and the painful destruction of their believable bond is made all the more poignant by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry’s top-notch vocal performances. The actual animation, fight scene choreography, and set dressing are all stunning as well, making a world like Cybertron, supposedly devoid of any organic life, feel more alive and real than many science fiction planets in contention with it.
Orion Pax and D-16’s diverging arcs and the painful destruction of their believable bond is made all the more poignant by Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry’s top-notch vocal performances.
Sadly,Transformers Onewas a huge box office flop, earning only $129.4 million against a budget of $75–147 million before any advertising. Speaking of which, the marketing forTransformers Onewas admittedly abysmal, focusing on quippy one-liners that came across as cringey in a vacuum and betraying the depth of the film’s emotional core by reducing it to a jokey blockbuster cashing in on its star-studded cast. Few films have been as betrayed by their advertising asTransformers Onewas, contributing to its poor financial standing.
Because of this, anypromise of aTransformers Onesequelis made on shaky grounds, with Paramount likely to be nervous taking another risk on an animated Transformers film despite the overwhelmingly positive critical response. PerhapsThe Touchcould have made all the difference in giving the film that much more bit of appeal to nostalgic audiences and fans of the original cartoon. Knowing that the film itself is aware of the song’s influence because of Elita-1’s throwaway line, if there is a sequel toTransformers One, it had better haveThe Touch.
