Transformers Reimagined as a Fifties Monster B-Movie

They captured our childhood imaginations. It’s easy to see why: Cars and trucks and airplanes and ships were already our superheroes, so the notion that they’d metamorphosize and defend the planet was a simple and logical leap. Transformers remind us cars are fun. Transformers kick ass.

So it’s not surprising that Michael Bay’s big screen adaptation dragged in nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars worldwide at the box office. A legit blockbuster, but what if it hadn’t been? What if Transformers were a sci-fi monster attack B-movie, made fifty years ago, shown at drive-in matinees alongside Attack of the 50 Foot Woman or Kronos or The Beast With a Million Eyes? That’s the idea behind this recut Transformers trailer by editor Bobby Burns.

The excitable narrator, the black-and-white film effect, the dramatic horn overture—execution here is spot-on. Check it out.