Bumblebee (Transformers Cinematic Universe)

"Permission to speak, sir? (Optimus Prime: Permission granted, old friend.) (Sam: You speak now?) I wish to stay with the boy. (Optimus Prime: If that is his choice.) (Sam: Yes.)"

- Bumblebee's first words in the live action film series

"I am Bumblebee. Your oldest friend. Optimus. I would lay down my life for you."

- Bumblebee convinced Optimus in the Transformers: The Last Knight

Bumblebee (aka ZB-7, Bee, B-127) is the one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Mikaela Banes, Carly Spencer, Tessa Yeager and Viviane Wembly) in the Transformers live-action film series and the main protagonist of the 2018 prequel film Bumblebee. He is one of Optimus Prime's most trusted lieutenants. Although he is not the strongest or most powerful of the Autobots, Bumblebee more than makes up for this with a bottomless well of luck, determination and bravery. He would gladly give his life to protect others and stop the Decepticons. Badly damaged in battle, Bumblebee lost the ability to speak verbally after Megatron torn his voicebox out, though he can still communicate over inter-Autobot frequencies (in a fashion that seems somewhat akin to instant messaging, a usable but more distant and less personal means of interaction). He can also communicate with the Autobots' human allies and his friend, Sam Witwicky, by playing audio clips from popular media on his radio.

Transformers
Bumblebee appears in the 2007 live-action Transformers movie, returning to his role as the friend of the Autobots' human ally - in this case, Sam Witwicky. Sam possesses the glasses of his great-great-grandfather Captain Archibald Witwicky, a famous explorer. Unknown to Sam, the glasses are engraved with the coordinates showing the location of the life-giving All Spark. Bumblebee is assigned to guard Sam from the Decepticons, and poses as a dilapidated 1977 Chevrolet Camaro as Sam and his father are buying a car for Sam. They eventually purchase Bumblebee, due in no small part to Bumblebee damaging every other car at the dealership to ensure his purchase. Later, Bumblebee drives away from Sam's home to summon the Autobots. Sam thinks Bumblebee is being stolen, and chases the car on his bike. Sam then witnesses Bumblebee transforming into robot mode and reports it to the police, who believe he is on drugs. Bumblebee returns to Sam and his crush Mikaela Banes and protects them from an attack by Barricade and Frenzy, earning Sam's trust. When Mikaela criticizes the poor condition of Bumblebee's vehicle mode, he scans a passing Camaro Concept and transforms into the same model. Bumblebee then drives Sam and Mikaela to an alley where they meet the other Autobots. They return to Sam's house and retrieve the glasses, but a secret government agency, Sector 7, arrests Sam and Mikaela. The Autobots attempt to rescue them but Bumblebee is captured and taken by Sector 7. There he is tested/tortured by the Sector 7 scientists using electric shocks that appear to hurt him. Sam eventually negotiates his release. Bumblebee survives the massive battle at the film's climax, although he loses the use of his legs after helping Ironhide deflect missiles from Starscream. With Mikaela's aid, he is able to rejoin the battle supported by a tow truck (later confirmed to be the Autobot Longarm), and destroys Brawl. After the battle, Bumblebee is fully repaired and asks to stay with Sam and is granted permission from both Sam and Optimus Prime. He is later seen alongside Ironhide, Ratchet, and Optimus watching the sunset while Sam and Mikaela recline on his hood at the end of the movie.

Bumblebee is voiced by Mark Ryan in the films, but he mostly speaks with his radio, because his voice processor was damaged (though his actual voice squeaks and whines laboriously through much of the movie). He also speaks with quotes from television shows and movies, in a way similar to Wreck-Gar from the 1986 film and season three of the G1 cartoon series. Screenwriter Roberto Orci explained Bumblebee regained his voice through the regenerative laser Ratchet fires at his neck as they meet, and it eventually works its magic by the end of the film. He agreed this was not made clear. Frenzy is regenerated upon coming into contact with the All Spark, and so it is entirely plausible that Bumblebee's voice, along with his legs, is also healed by the All Spark, though no mention of this is made in the film. It was said that making Bumblebee mute was to show that his bond with Sam went beyond words.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Bumblebee also appears in the film's sequel, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. When a fragment of the All Spark inadvertently turns the kitchen appliances in Sam's home into feral robots, Bumblebee intervenes to save him and his family. In doing so, he nearly destroys their house. He still uses his radio to speak, despite his voice processors being repaired in the first film. However, he does respond half-way when Sam tells him to get in the garage by saying "whatever." Bumblebee shows excitement at the thought of going with Sam to college, only to be disappointed later when Sam tells him that he can not come. Because of the incident at the Witwickys' he is also forced to leave their garage. Soon after Sam begins his semester at college, Bumblebee follows him and tries to alert him to the Decepticon Pretender (named Alice) that is following Sam. As both Sam and Alice are riding inside Bumblebee, the Autobot attempts to warn Sam through his radio. Having failed at this, Bumblebee intentionally brakes hard multiple times and throws Alice around the interior in an attempt to damage the Pretender. Bumblebee then proceeds to spray lubricant over Alice, thereby embarrassing Sam and forcing Alice to flee.

Soon after Megatron and Scalpel begin to torture Sam, Bumblebee arrives alongside Optimus Prime to fight Megatron, Starscream and Grindor. After Optimus dies, Bumblebee arrives with Sideswipe, Ironhide and Ratchet to cover Sam's escape. As they mourn for Optimus, Sam tells Bumblebee that he has failed the Autobots, but Bumblebee tells Sam through his radio,..."You are the person I care for most in my life, and if there is anything you need I won't be far away..." After taking Sam, Mikaela, Leo and Simmons to the Smithsonian museum to reawaken Jetfire, Bumblebee then travels with the humans through a Space Bridge to Egypt (caused by Jetfire) along with Jetfire, the Twins Skids and Mudflap, and Wheelie to find the Matrix of Leadership. While the twins have a sibling argument (resulting in a fist fight) inside the ruins of Petra (which supposedly houses the Matrix when everyone thinks it is a dead end), Bumblebee breaks them up and tosses them out before seeing their fight. But once seeing the Tomb's entrance after the Twins' brawl reveals it, Bumblebee helps the humans enter it by blasting the rest of the wall off.

During the final confrontational battle, Sam and Mikaela inadvertently spring a trap set by Rampage (who uses Sam's parents as the bait). Bumblebee stays hidden from Rampage's sight, allowing Sam to put Rampage in a spot where Bumblebee can initiate a surprise attack. During the subsequent fight Ravage attacks him from behind and jumps on his back. After a brief struggle, Bumblebee gets a hold of Ravage and literally tears him apart with his hands, allowing him to finish off and kill Rampage. With Sam's parents free, Sam tells Bumblebee to take care of them, thus removing him from most of the final fight. After Sam is killed by Megatron, Bumblebee arrives with Sam's parents and sees Sam's body on the ground, he is heartbroken, overcome with sadness and stricken with sorrow, believing that he has failed in his duty to protect Sam, but is overjoyed to see him return. Bumblebee is among the remaining Autobots at the end of the film.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Bumblebee no longer lives with Sam and goes on other missions with the Autobots such as dismantling a secret nuclear facility in the Middle East. When Sam arrives with Carly, Wheelie and Brains, Bumblebee saves them from the soldiers taking them captive. Bumblebee is reassigned to protect Sam and moves back in with him. Bumblebee later teams up with Dino to take out Hatchet while trying to protect Sentinel Prime who later attacks him and the other Autobots. After Sentinel forces the Autobots' exile from Earth, Bumblebee sadly says goodbye to Sam and reunites with him in Chicago where he helps him rescue Carly and kill Laserbeak. After Sam kills Starscream, Bumblebee saves him and Lennox from a great fall. Bumblebee is captured by Soundwave and is nearly executed in front of Sam (telling Sam "we had a hell of a run") after Barricade executes Que before Wheelie and Brains save him at the cost of their own lives, allowing him to break free and attack Soundwave. Bumblebee battles Soundwave while the other Autobots fight the other Decepticons and proves more than a match for the Decepticon spy-master, even managing to kill another Decepticon during the fight. Finally Bumblebee knocks Soundwave off-balance with a shot to the leg, knocks his gun from his hand and uppercuts his cannon into his chest, firing at the same time, destroying Soundwave's head and killing him. Bumblebee fights Sentinel alongside the other Autobots and humans but is no match for him, but avoids injury. After Sam kills Dylan Gould, Bumblebee destroys the Control Pillar by crashing through it, shutting off the Space Bridge and destroying Cybertron and the remaining Decepticons. Bumblebee survives the battle and gives Sam a bunch of gaskets to use as rings while playing wedding music after Sam and Carly admit they love each other. Though Sam says to Bumblebee that he's thinking too fast. He replies by 'saying', "I'm just trying to help out."

Transformers: Age Of Extinction
In Transformers: Age Of Extinction, Bumblebee along with Crosshairs, Drift and Hound were the only Autobots that heard about Optimus's warning about, that humans and Lockdown are hunting and killing us. They saw what happened to Autobot Leadfoot and Autobot Ratchet, having been torn down by Cemetery Wind. They discovered a base in Chicago called Kinetic Solutions Incorporated (KSI), they are actually making their own human-controlled transformers. Bumblebee found himself hated by humans at every turn, be it right next to him (Shane) or on the screen (both Chinese and American corporates) being insulted and often called inferior to the KSI robots, making Bee extremely furious and going on a rage to start physically kicking, punching and choking Shane and Stinger.

They were able to find Autobot Brains in the facility from the Chicago war that he survived and then they feel like that the humans don't need the Autobots anymore because they've got their own. Cade, along with his daughter Tessa and her boyfriend Shane Dyson, and the Autobots were chased by the Decepticon Galvatron and Stinger, before Lockdown captured Optimus Prime and he was taken to his ship. So the remaining Autobots go to rescue their leader. After he was rescued, they escaped to a safe location. Optimus discovers the presence of Megatron, Brains explaining that he was downloading the dead Decepticon heads to their new bodies. Then, Megatron infected the new Galvatron body with his evil nasty chromozones, the name of Galvatron was Megatron reincarnated. Galvatron is going after the Seed to rebuild his new Decepticon army, then detonate it in the biggest city and kill millions of innocent people. Then they traveled in a space ship to get to Beijing, China. In the KSI factory inside China, Galvatron has gone active automatically, awaken with some of his Decepticon army and their orders from Galvatron is to go and find the seed to rebuild his new Decepticon army. Joshua along with Darcy Tirrel and with her girlfriend Su Yueming drive away from the KSI facility with the seed. Harold Attinger and James Savoy track Joshua down with a satellite device. Su was able to fight Savoy and Attinger's henchmen, after she defeated their enemies's troops, Joshua got up to the roof safely in the elevator with the seed. They tried to get Joshua with the seed in the Autobots ship but Decepticon Stinger shooted two missiles at the ship which caused the Yeager family, Shane, Bumblebee and Hound off the ship, while Optimus Prime, Crosshairs and Drift were separated some where else in China. Cade and his family have to get Joshua and the seed safely, while Hound and Bumblebee hold off the Decepticons. James tried to kill Cade and his family, but Cade decided to fight off James while Shane, Tessa and Joshua run for it with the seed. Cade and James continue fighting until they were in someone's apartment and Cade threw a football at James's face and pushes him out the window falling to his death, breaking his spine and killing him. So Bumblebee and Hound kept on fighting, until Optimus got reinforcements called the Dinobots led by Grimlock. With Hound running out of ammo and out of ideas, Optimus showed up with the Dinobots fighting against the Decepticons. After most of the Decepticons were killed Galvatron retreated. Lockdown use his magnetic weapon to get Optimus, the Dinobots, the humans and the Autobots, he was able to save China by shooting Lockdown's magnetic weapon from his shield gun. After they were free from Lockdown's weapon, Optimus faces off Lockdown in a 1 on 1 battle. Cade is shocked to see Optimus going on his own to fight Lockdown. So Cade decided to go and help him. While Lockdown and Optimus were fighting, Tessa told Bumblebee to stop and tells him that he is not leaving his father on his own. So the Dinobots blocked the bridge so the Decepticons won't get to Joyce with the seed. While Cade was preparing to fire his weapon behind a wall, suddenly a few bullets were shot and missed caused Cade to drop his weapon from Harold, he is hold hostage and Harold said "You see it takes patience to make a man, the patience to watch and wait...for God and country, without any recognition at all". Then Optimus saw that Cade was in trouble, before Harold died he said "There no good aliens or bad aliens, Yeager, its just us and them...and you chose them!" and Optimus shot Harold from the chest killing him on the impact and avenging the deaths of the Autobots he had killed. After Harold was killed by Optimus they kept on fighting, then Lockdown used Optimus's sword to stab him in the chest and saying to Optimus "You saved a human instead of saving yourself. You bring shame upon us all". Cade shot Lockdown a few times, until Bumblebee with Shane and Tessa came along to help Optimus and Cade. Bumblebee and Cade were able to distract Lockdown long enough for Tessa and Shane to remove Optimus's sword from his chest to kill Lockdown. Before Cade is nearly killed by Lockdown, Shane driving the tow truck to remove Optimus's sword from his chest, he picked it up, used it to stab Lockdown's chest and cutting up to his head. Bumblebee, Cade, Shane and Tessa shared their victory after killing Lockdown. Shane and Tessa were able to share their first kiss before the remaining Decepticons came. Optimus quickly gathered the Yeager family together because Optimus is getting ready to fly and set off Lockdown's grenade to kill the remaining Decepticons. After the Decepticons were killed Optimus flew to a different landing spot in China, while Galvatron left Earth and tells Prime "We shall meet again, Prime! For I am reborn!", after they landed safely by Optimus Cade and Tessa hugged each other along with Shane, then Tessa knows they don't have a home because they blew it up. Joshua was able to help them with that problem. Optimus sets the Dinobots free while Joshua and Su are staring to date, but decides to confront the Creators, knowing the Seed must be kept away from Earth as much as possible. He requests the Autobots to protect Cade and his family before flying into space with the Seed, sending a message to the Creators that he is coming for them next.

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)
Bumblebee returns in the fifth film ''Transformers: The Last Knight. ''It is revealed by Edmund Burton that Bumblebee has been on Earth since the 1940s, even having been in action during World War II, helping the Allied Forces, alongside Hot Rod, infiltrate a Nazi stronghold in Germany, even fighting them himself. In the present day, following Optimus Prime's departure, Bumblebee and the Autobots, alongside Cade Yeager, are branded fugitives. Tessa and Shane go into hiding, while Cade and the crew retreat to a junkyard, setting up base there. Seymour Simmons and some of the Autobots, including the surviving Wreckers, Roadbuster and Topspin, were granted refuge in Cuba, which is now a safe haven for Earthbound Cybertronians.

In Prime's absence, Cade and Bumblebee act as co-leaders to the remaining Autobots, with Wheelie and the Dinobots having joined their ranks. Meanwhile, more Transformers have been crashlanding on Earth, only to be captured and detained by the Transformers Reaction Force (TRF), a less-villainous military faction, who are tasked with detaining Cybertronians, regardless of alligence (although Major Lennox, former NEST commander, now allied with the TRF, prefers to capture Decepticons exclusively). Cade and Bumblebee work together to help rescue wayward Autobots, or any crashed Cybertronian in general, from the violent detainment of the TRF. One particular mission involved saving a group of nosy kids from TRF walker drones, aided by a street-smart orphaned girl named Izabella. After rescuing the kids, Cade goes to help a crashed ship holding a wounded Guardian Knight, Steelbane. While trying to stop the Energon bleeding, Steelbane simply hands Cade a talisman, saying it would protect him. Cade refuses, claiming he doesn't owe him anything. With the knight all but dead, Cade is unknowingly stalked by both Barricade, Bumblebee's old Decepticon rival, and TRF squads. The squad, led by Commander Santos, corner Cade, questioning him about the whereabouts of the other Autobots. Bumblebee drives into the rescue, only to be literally blown to pieces by the firepower. However, due to unspecified, but exponential upgrades, Bee slowly begins magnetically reassembling himself, even blasting them with his cannons. After fully rebuilding himself, he and Cade hold Santos at gunpoint, only to be talked down by Lennox. Lennox regretfully explains that despite his own interests, the TRF are the protectors of Earth, and that they need to play by the rules. Bee is angry about this apparent betrayal, even pointing his cannon at Lennox for a moment, with backup arriving in the form of Hound. Eventually, Cade and Lennox come to an agreement to let them go, which Bumblebee even mockingly chicken-clucks at the mercenaries. Despite this, Santos orders a tracer shot onto Bee. After returning back to the junkyard in Cuba, Cade is informed by the police chief that Grimlock has stolen one of the police cruisers. While Cade yells at Grimlock to spit the car out, Crosshairs snarked about their altercation with the TRF, boasting that he made a better leader. Bumblebee didn't take kindly to Crosshairs crap-talking, before the two tackled each other. To add on to headaches, weaselly Autobot junk dealer Daytrader arrived, bearing gifts. Amongst them was Starscream's long-since severed head, and even a new voice box for Bee himself, to which he joyfully grooved to "Can't Touch This" in excitement. However, Daytrader noticed Steelbane's talisman laying on the table, and warned Cade that it meant disaster was ahead. Suddenly, Izabella, the girl from earlier, and her damaged partner Sqweeks, arrive. Offering her mechanic skills and help Cade, he constantly rebuffs her. Heartbroken over the death of her Autobot friend, Canopy, at the hands of the TRF, Izabella stubbornly and tearfully demands that she stay to fight them. Cade asks her why she's alone, and she explains that her family were killed during the Decepticon invasion of Chicago. After some back and forth, Cade agrees to let Izzy stay. The next morning, Izzy's skills are put to the test as she works on fitting Bumblebee with his new voice box. It works, but the voice is female, to which Bumblebee vulgarly voices his displeasure at Daytrader, calling him a "punk-ass bitch", and tearing it out.

Optimus Prime, having been brainwashed by Quintessa, is corrupted into taking Merlin's Staff away and use it to make Cybertron merge with Earth, and Bumblebee had no choice but to fight Optimus for the Staff. The two fight on top of the Knights of Iacon's ship that is floating up into the surface, and having to fight in the sea as their battle is hindered by oncoming waves of the ocean and the elevation of the ship. Optimus gains the upper hand and as he is about to stab Bumblebee to death with his arm-sword, Bumblebee finally speaks, "I am Bumblebee! Your oldest friend. Optimus, I would lay down my life for you." Upon hearing Bumblebee's words, Optimus breaks free of Quintessa's control and recalls that he had never heard Bumblebee's voice since the fall of Cybertron. Megatron arrives and forcefully takes the staff from Optimus, before the Knights arrive and they are about to execute Optimus for siding with Quintessa, unaware the fact that Optimus was not willing to serve her. Cade, refused to let this happen, uses his sword to stop Optimus' death sentence, and because of this, the Knights swear allegiance to Optimus before the battle on Cybertron begins and he seemingly kills Quintessa until it is revealed that she survived his encounter at the end of the film.

With Optimus and the Knights banded together, Bumblebee joined them into charging towards Quintessa's headquarters where he assists Optimus in battling Megatron and kills Nitro Zeus by shooting Nitro in the head. Through Bumblebee's efforts, Earth was saved and he returned to Cybertron to start rebuilding the still war-torn planet.

Bumblebee (2018)
Bumblebee is the titular protagonist in the film of the same name. As a prequel to the original 2007 film, it depicts Bumblebee's untold past, taking place in 1987, in addition to making his alternate mode a Volkswagon Beetle, in tribute to his G1 incarnation. It focuses on a younger, tenderer Bumblebee than the battle-hardened soldier from the eariler films, befriending a young girl named Charlie Watson and being on the run from Sector 7, in addition to the Decepticons Blitzwing, Shatter, and Dropkick.

Personality
Despite his massive, hulking size and rather violent, brutal nature on the battlefield, Bumblebee is actually a gentle and sweet Autobot. He appears to hold a lot of attachment towards his human companions as he consider Sam Witwicky as his closest friend and on some level brother, he also protected the Yeager family from the threat of Cemetery Wind, Harold Attinger, James Savoy and Lockdown. Tragically, however, he cannot speak as his voice-box was damaged while travelling from Cybertron to Earth, so he compensates by communicating with the radio, proving that he was accustomed to Earth customs.

Critical Reception
Bumblebee earned highly positive reception and is one of, if not the most popular Autobot in Michael Bay's live-action Transformers film series. However, audiences and critics complained of Bumblebee's limited screen time and at least until Age of Extinction, that he was rarely seen without Sam Witwicky.

Trivia

 * Bumblebee, along with Optimus and Megatron, are the only characters to appear in all movies of the Transformers live-action cinematic universe so far.