Bumblebee, a reboot of the Transformers movie franchise, takes the robots in disguise back to the ’80s, complete with a decade-appropriate set of tunes. Part-E.T., part-The Iron Giant, the new adventure has the iconic yellow Autobot team up with Charlie Watson, a teenage girl and car aficionado, to defend Earth from the Decepticons while he awaits the arrival of Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots. A huge music fan, Charlie spends most of her time listening to records and trying to fix up her deceased father’s Corvette, and when she isn’t toiling away in the garage she usually has her headphones on, much to the chagrin of her mother and stepdad.
A number of hits can be heard throughout the blockbuster, accentuating the setting and creating a deeper connection with Charlie and her world. Bumblebee’s voice box is destroyed in a battle with a decepticon early in the film, rendering him speachless. So, when Charlie installs a new radio in his car form, he spends the rest of the picture learning to communicate using songs on the airwaves, like he did in the Michael Bay movies. This breeds a number of situations where Bumblebee creates a diegetic backdrop to the events on-screen, sometimes to Charlie’s amusement, other times not so much, like the use of ‘The Touch’ when Charlie starts panicking about doing a diving.
Those who remember the era will surely recognize many of the tracks, some of which still haven’t left regular rotation. The songs are as follows:
Back To Life (Hailee Steinfeld)
Everybody Wants To Rule The World (Tears For Fears)
Don’t You (Forget About Me) (Simple Minds)
Never Gonna Give You Up (Rick Astley)
Higher Love (Steve Winwood)
Take On Me (A-Ha)
Unchained Melody (Sam Cooke)
Girlfriend In A Coma (The Smiths)
I Can’t Drive 55 (Sammy Hagar)
The Touch (Stan Bush)
It Takes Two (DJ EZ Rock And Rob Base)
There is one track here that’s not like the others, and that’s Hailee Steinfeld’s ‘Back to Life’. Hailee, who plays Charlie, has been a rising pop-star in her own right, having released an EP called Haiz in 2015. Steinfeld wanted to do a song for her character, and it’s the music that plays as we go into the credits of the movie.
Bumblebee doubles down hard on the nostalgia, featuring the ending of The Breakfast Club in addition to the Simple Minds’ synth classic. Fans who have followed the film’s publicity will know of Rick Astley’s involvement, as the first trailer ‘Rick Roll’d’ everyone with Astley’s pop hit that’s since taken on another life as a popular internet prank.
Another notable addition is The Smiths’ ‘Girlfriend In A Coma’ form their 1987 album Strangeways, Here We Come. Charlie, being a teenager of alternative culture in the eighties, is a devout fan of the crooning alt-rock band. When she fits the new radio into Bumblebee, the first tape she puts in is Strangeways, which BumbleBee spits out after mere seconds. In a moment of bonding before Bumblebee dives headfirst into battle with the Decepticons, he plays the same track for her as a way of displaying how much her kindness has meant to him.
The most heartfelt musical cue, though, is Sam Cooke’s ‘Unchained Melody’, the song Charlie plays for Bumblebee when the robot expresses curiosity over her vinyl collection. Inheriting the records from her father, the tune is used as she tries to explain her dad’s death and what working on Corvette and having all his stuff around means to her. Amid all the eighties worship, Bumblebee is about a lot more than just transforming robots.
