As an executive pushing 40, a husband of 17 years, and a father of four saved sinners aged 7 to 14 years, I find myself in a season of life in which my tolerance for weak-minded, hollow movies is at an all-time low. That’s not snobbery (although that shoe may fit); it’s selfish pragmatism tinged with love and duty. The most rewarding job I’ve ever held is to educate, equip, and entertain my sons and daughters—and if I can double or triple up on these “three E’s” through a single activity, like watching a good flick, that’s efficient and fun.
I love modeling for my kids how to admire a great story, enjoy a good story, and critique a poor story. This goes for both substance and form—both “what” the story tells and “how” it is told. The best way to do this is to get my kids talking about aspects of a movie or book they didn’t realize they could formulate thoughts about. I ask what they thought about X, if they noticed Y, and—when they think they have nothing else to say—if they thought it was as well done as Z.
So imagine my delight at finding Transformers One, the latest film in the franchise, ripe with low-hanging “worldview conversation” starters with each of my kids. I believe practically any parent can spot such fruit on the vine, once they know what to look for. To demonstrate, here are two biblical parallels and one socio-political conundrum anyone can use to “spark” worldview conversations with their teens, preteens, or littles, prompted by Transformers One.
What Not to Do
But first, a quick pro tip for parents less confident in initiating worldview conversations with their kids: Don’t christianize, over-spiritualize, moralize, or suck the fun out of it. Most movies (including Transformers One), shows, and books aren’t Christian allegories or extended metaphors. Pretending they are is counterproductive.
There’s zero benefit to making entertaining or artistic works into something they’re not, and it’s dishonest to distort what they portray. However, honest observations of parallels (and contrasts) are fair game, regardless of the creator’s intention. And considering Christianity tells the greatest hero story ever told, don’t be surprised to find parallels to Christianity in practically every good hero story!
Spoilers follow (with alerts).
Origins
It’s no spoiler to say that from the first scene of a film taglined “Witness the Origin,” our protagonist, Orion Pax, is himself seeking out his world’s lost history. By concerning the main characters with their world’s origins, the writers instantly create a bond with the audience, who are watching Transformers One for the same reason that the characters are living it out: to learn the beginning.
Sending the characters themselves on an origins hunt is a shrewd choice by Transformers One’s writers, and not as obvious a move as it may seem. It sets these characters’ motivations and plot lines apart from those of other hit origin films. Michael Corleone (The Godfather II), Bruce Wayne (Batman Begins), James Bond (Casino Royale), and Peter Parker (any Spider-man) aren’t consciously seeking their beginnings—they’re merely beginning.
The film’s creators wisely played on their human audience’s own universal, natural curiosity about their own origins—a curiosity the biblical God has programmed into each creature made in his image. (Interestingly, none of the film’s characters question the quasi-divine creation chapter of their history, which they and the audience are meant to take for granted.)
Self-sacrifice, Resurrection
No sooner does Orion begin his origins quest than we learn that at (or near) the beginning of time, “the Creator,” named Primus, “sacrificed himself” for his primordial creatures, called “Primes.” He saved them by turning himself into the Transformers’ energy-rich home planet, Cybertron. Although this brand of Creator-sacrifice sounds transcendentalist/Eastern mystic, [SPOILER] it foreshadows Orion’s own self-sacrifice of a biblical flavor at the film’s climax.
Orion absorbs a fatal blow when he interposes himself between his friend D17 and the villain Sentinel. Beyond the obvious Christ parallel lie two surprises. First, our hero has laid down his life not only for his friend but also for his enemy (fulfilling two Christian ideals at once). Second, he does so to protect not D17’s body but D17’s soul from the vengeful hatred that has been creeping over D17 for half the film.
Yet [SPOILER] resurrection awaits. Our hero’s limp body—broken by those he meant to save—descends deep into the planet’s core. There the Creator himself pronounces Orion worthy of the highest honor because of his sacrifice for his fellow creatures. Primus infuses Orion with new life, renames him Optimus Prime, and causes him to rise again to the battlefield—in a perfected Autobot body. There this admittedly incomplete Christ figure banishes (in a sense “binds”?) D17, henceforth “Megatron,” the archvillain.
That’s a story every Christian family has heard before. Christ is the hero who sacrificed himself for his enemies, was raised to life by God’s power and pronounced worthy by him, and will one day bury sin and death for good.
Government-Led Eugenics, Slavery
Yet the most lively worldview discussion starter in Transformers One is not strictly theological—it’s ethical, social, and political. Sadly, for many people groups, it’s also historical. On display in the film is nothing less than government-sponsored, socially accepted, eugenics-induced slavery. (ICYMI, eugenics, broken down to its roots, essentially means “happy [eu] species altering [genics].”)
Transformers One presents Autobots as “one” race, but you wouldn’t know it at first. We learn partway through the film that [SPOILER] the community’s much-celebrated leader has secretly been removing the “cogs” of countless bots. This drastically limits their abilities, supposedly fitting them for only menial jobs, or at best for labor-intensive blue-collar work in the mines. They can’t even transform! Cogless bots are so obviously “less than” that even the main characters accept the government-spun narrative about their social class.
It’s a classic dystopian society. Physiology determines function; function determines value: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” (Karl Marx). It’s Animal Farm’s pigs versus Boxer the horse; Brave New World’s Alphas versus everyone else; Big Brother versus the proles; Hitler versus the Jews; European and North American slavers versus the enslaved. Yet in Transformers One it all starts in the most sophisticated way—a little quiet gene altering.
For families leaning into pro-life conversations, this film opens a convenient door for pointing out that Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood in 1916, would have given the villains of Transformers One a standing ovation. A racist eugenicist, Sanger seems seldom to have passed up an opportunity to recommend social engineering of a strong race by breeding the strong and sterilizing perceived weaklings.
Fortunately for the characters and audience of Transformers One, the voices of truth in the film deliver a clear verdict: All Autobots have value—even those whose cogs have been stolen. Their value isn’t based on function: it’s inborn. As one of the Primes tells Orion Pax, “A Transformer is defined not by the cog in his chest but by the spark in his core.”
Pluck the Fruit
A predictable line? Sure. But not uncalled for, considering that present-day villains all over Planet Earth in our human world reject its parallel, applicable truth: that human beings are made in God’s image—and are inherently, equally valuable.
Though often lighthearted and occasionally silly, the visually stunning, decently scripted movie teases out some mature, universally compelling themes. And the thing about universally compelling themes is that most people—including our kids—are practically born ready to talk about them with us.
For more gospel-centered parenting resources, check out Rooted’s Family Discipleship Curriculum.
