Orson Welles' Final Role Was Yet Another Underrated Movie

Later writers, particularly comic scribe Simon Furman, would flesh out Unicron where the film failed. Building on the character's evil appearance (as conceived by Floro Dery), Furman established Unicron as the Cybertronian Satan. He wishes to destroy Cybertron because the planet is actually the dormant, transformed body of Primus, his twin brother and creator of the Transformers. The planet contains Primus' soul, which is why Unicron is vulnerable to it.

However, none of this grand fantasy is present in the film as it is. All of Unicron's gravity (beyond the literal) comes from Welles. Miraculously, his unbiased delivery works: Unicron sounds like a bored god, indignant that he has to stoop to communicate with lesser beings. Whenever the villain has personality moments, Welles' famous spirit shines through (e.g., "No one summons Megatron!" "So I'm glad to be the first one").

Welles undoubtedly deserved a better parting role, but even on the phone his talent shone through.