10 Insane Movie Moments You Couldn't Believe Directors Actually Went There

6. The Death Of Optimus Prime

Moonfall Twist
Sunbow Productions

A truly harrowing sight for any young viewers upon a first watch, the death of Optimus Prime in Transformers: The Movie was the stuff of utter nightmares.

This shocking moment from Nelson Shin's 1986 picture would be the equivalent of Disney killing off Mickey Mouse, of The Simpsons killing off Homer, of Pokémon killing off Pikachu, of Thundercats killing off Lion-O, of SpongeBob SquarePants killing off... well, you get the point.

Transformers: The Movie set its stall out early, with a handful of Autobots brutally murdered by Megatron and his nefarious Decepticons. While a later battle between our heroes and villains has Megatron getting the advantage over long-time rival Optimus Prime, nobody at the time of a first watch would ever think that the film could possibly kill off Prime.

Shockingly, that was indeed what happened. After a battle that left both Optimus and Megatron with fatal damage, the leader of the Autobots dies on an operating table after the colour literally drains out of him.

Of course, in reality this was done as a way to erase the old guard of the greater Transformers franchise and introduce a slew of new characters; a slew of new characters who could make for shiny new toys to shill to the kids of the day.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.