One of the many casualties of Transformers' breezy storytelling style is an explanation of just what the hell an Allspark is. Truthfully, it wasn't all that big a sacrifice since there's no real consensus on what that silly cube represents, and it really doesn't matter. It's the most transparent cinematic MacGuffin in recent history -- it has no inherent qualities other than drawing the characters to a specific time and place where they can beat the robotic crud out of each other. But is there more to it?

Sort of. The Allspark (which, in the movie is spelled as two words, but I'll stick with a previous iteration here) is meant to be mysterious, so no one goes to great efforts quantifying what it can and cannot do. It's the source of a form of radiation that can repair Transformers (as seen by Frenzy's reconstituted body and Bumblebee's repaired voicebox) but also animate technology, imbuing it with life. In the movie, we see it turn a Nokia phone and a Mountain Dew vending machine into violent robots. Presumably, the process when properly supervised creates non-psychotic robots as well, hence the Autobots and more level-headed Decepticons.

As Prime's awkwardly phased opening exposition describes, no one knows where it came from, so if the Transformers have a creator, He, She or It didn't sign their name on the Allspark's mysterious runes. At least, not legibly. It appears that the Allspark is the source of all life on Cybertron, and in the wrong hands, can be used to subvert a world and its technologies into deadly machinery. Hence, the urgency to destroy or otherwise dispose of it before a bad ### like Megatron gets a hold of it.

It also is huge and collapsible into a conveniently carry-size version. Why and how it can do that isn't explained, but I suspect it may be a way of telegraphing size-changing technology in the inevitable movie sequels that will allow for giant robots to turn into personal electronics like they did in the cartoon.

The Allspark is sort of a distillation of previous MacGuffins in Transformers lore, the latest iteration of a confusing mix of objects and concepts from differing and often clashing continuities. Here they are in order:

The Creation Matrix (from the Marvel Comics series, 1984): When you have a story involving living robots, one of the first questions to come up is: where do baby Transformers come from? The Marvel series answered this by stating that Optimus Prime was the keeper of the Creation Matrix, a computer program/power that could imbue a shell of a robot with life. The Decepticons capture Prime and try to steal the Creation Matrix from him, but he downloads it into the brain of the Autobots' human sidekick, who in the comics was named Buster Witwicky.

The Autobot Matrix of Leadership (from the animated movie and series, 1986): This was a strange orb that rested in Optimus Prime's chest cavity, invented for the animated movie which meant the first two years of Transformers continuity lacked any reference to its existence. Filled with sparkly power, the Matrix was said to contain the combined wisdom of all the Autobot leaders in the past -- the Primes. When a new leader rose from Autobot ranks, he was given the Matrix and assumed the mantle of Prime. The description of its power is steeped in legendary vagueness -- it can "light the darkest hour." What we actually see it do is impressive: it caused a massive planet-gobbling super robot to tear itself apart when opened.

The Matrix in the cartoon continuity is sort of a sci-fi version of the Ark of the Covenant. It's a transmitter for communicating with the hereafter; it can only be wielded by the worthy; it can unleashed great power capable of smiting enemies. Curiously, though the Matrix isn't portrayed as having the abilities to grant life, like the Creation Matrix did. Instead, the cartoon left that ability to a separate MacGuffin, a super duper computer called Vector Sigma.

Sparks (from the Beast Wars animated series, 1996): This series was noteworthy for describing how Transformer life works. Animating their robotic bodies is a tangible life-force called a Spark, which you can think of as a Transformers' soul. The Beast Wars series built on the original animated series by explaining that a Transformer's individual spark comes from the Matrix, and upon death returns to it, thus turning the 1986 Matrix into a Transformer afterlife, and giving extra signifigance to the catchy Autobot slogan, "till all are one."

AllSpark (from Beast Machines animated series, 1999): This follow-up to Beast Wars series renamed the concept of the Transformer afterlife as the Allspark. It is a dimension wherein all Transformer Sparks (or souls) that ever existed, or will ever exist, reside. When a Transformer is "born", a Spark travels from the Allspark continuum and into a Transformer's body, giving it true life. When coupled with previous Transformers lore, it begins to sketch out the following. The Allspark afterlife can be accessed by the Matrix of Leadership, a portal that not only can bring forth Sparks to grant Transformers life. Also, previous Primes seem to be able to retain their individual consciousnesses within the Allspark (kind of like certain Jedi can retain their identity in the Force), so that the current holder of the Matrix can commune with them.

Now, how much the movie Allspark has any of these attributes has yet to be seen.

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