The first teaser trailer! It has voiceover! Explosions! Lava! Kirk checking out a blond chick! (Janice Rand? Carol Marcus?) Scotty cuddling someone!
But what does it all mean?
(Possible spoilers at the bottom of the post)
So… some pretty rote revenge monologuing, made lovely by the deep, dulcet tones of Benedict Cumberbatch. Still unclear what villain he could be playing, if it’s one we would recognize at all, and the lines give no solid proof either way. We see a starship crash into the water (and one rising out of it?), and it could be the Enterprise, but we do know this villain is going to leave the fleet in shambles so maybe not.
There is fighting on lava that is weirdly reminiscent of Revenge of the Sith, a lot of people looking either sad or horrified, and a hilarious lack of most of the core cast in their regular Starfleet uniforms. Where is Kirk’s green captain’s shirt? We want it back.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOLLOW
The Japanese version of the trailer is the same in nearly every way, EXCEPT, it bizzarely includes a few extra seconds of footage and dialogue. Cumberbatch asks “Is there anything you would not do to protect your family?” And THEN. For some reason, we see someone (Spock’s?) hand pressed up against glass doing the live long and prosper sign. What does it mean? Here’s the screen shot:
Extended Japanese trailer here:
Now how about some screenshots for speculation?
Spock hunting for, assumably, Cumberbatch with a gun. Live long and eat phaser?
Looks like Starfleet but not a ship, maybe the building that gets blown up in the trailer?
Scotty, who is rocking his standard-issue Starfleet sweater, comforting Uhura.
Kirk facing off against Cumberbatch.
Cumberbatch in a Starfleet undershirt, totally not being Gary Mitchell.
The Enterprise plowing into the water.
Cumberbatch is about to get Pine-slapped!
Future San Francisco! With the iconic Transamerica Building on the left there. If this is facing the Golden Gate, then it looks like the residential Russian Hill and North Beach neighborhoods have seen serious development by the 23rd century. (Okay, sorry, done nerding out about socio-geography now.)
Kirk in formal uniform, daring Cumberbatch to make a move, hombre.
Hey look! An alien planet!
That Kirk and McCoy have to run through! (Probably being chased by a monster? Didn’t we see that movie already?)
And then off a cliff, possibly…INTO DARKNESS?
Here’s our new Starfleet main character, being all “I’m friendly but can you trust me?”
Kirk being all, “I’m totally into making out with you, but can you trust me?”
The hooded leap-y assailant, which might be Cumberbatch or might be, as commenters theorize below, a Klingon? Which would be awesome. Klingons being genuinely superfast and strong in this universe would make them a threat again, and not just a bunch of puffed-up ridgy guys (and Worf).
Kirk and Uhura reacting to Cumberbatch’s assault.
An awesome shot of Uhura.
And finally, the Enterprise turned 90 degrees and Kirk and Scotty hanging on while a redshirt goes tumbling. This is possibly as they’re crashing into the water? It would explain why gravity is wonky here.
Was that a glimpse of a pissed-off Klingon swinging a steampunked I-beam around? I could get excited about Klingons…
ETA: My favorite Benedict Cumberbatch theory so far:
http://mademoisellenara.tumblr.com/post/37330255476/micathemineral-ussawesome
(Spoilers, potentially, if speculation is spoilers.)
wow that was excellent… and I have no idea what is going on. I am thinking Cumberbatch is an all new villian. At least From what we see in this video, I just cant place him as any of the “classic”villians
matociquala, thanks for the link… maybe. thats a good guess at least.
Sigh. I’m reminded of Futurama, when the Planet Express ship is dragged down to the bottom of the sea, and someone asks the professor how many atmospheres of pressure it can take. I think he says, “Well, it was designed to travel in space, so somewhere between zero and 1.”
That does look like the Enterprise rising out of mist/fog, not water. The crashing ship’s nacelles look too far apart to be her as well, though.
I have my own gut reaction for a villain, if they are doing a re-used one. Bear’s link above tracks with that line of reasoning.
Spoilers, so I guess I’ll write in white text:
I totally think it is Gary Mitchell. The blonde woman in the trailer is just another hint. I’ve thought it was him from the start. All the superhero jumping & fighting? Tracks as “nascent godling” to me. Gary is a perfect fit; he’s got enough canon to be fan service, but not enough continuity to get in the way of storytelling. Plus, don’t the drop him off on a planet at the end of the comics? Fits with his whole “I’m back!” monologue. Also, the existence of a comicbook prequel featuring Gary is another big hint. Yeah. I think it is clearly him.
Ship coming out of the water has lettering ” NCC-170…” visible for a moment. That’s enough for me to assume it’s the Enterprise.
@modicai,
Does a guess have to be marked as a spoiler?
In any case, I think you’re on to something, especially given how it parallels the relationship between another classic TV episode and another original cast movie. If you think about it, there is a ton of work that could be done in the Trek universe to examine what happens after the episode ends and the main case leaves (Landru planet, Roman planet, Nazi planet, etc.). Kirk & Co. left a lot of messes behind them.
Should’ve been subtitled The Wrath of Gary. That would have been awesome.
In the last shot of Benedict Cumberbatch, he appears to be wearing a blue Star Fleet shirt.
KHAN!!!!!!!!!
@SaltManZ – exactly! That shot from the Japanese trailer is echoing tWoK (though of course it could be a misdirection), and the smiling woman with the blonde hair looks like Dr. Dehner.
I think it can’t be Gary Mitchell. Why would be need a gun or needlessly fight a Klingon hand to hand when he could zap folks with his mind?
I think its Khan. Maybe the ‘Bontany Bay’ was found by Klingons. Khan and company awake. Overpower the Klingons and return to Earth to gain revenge on humanity.
The ROK mirror scene is between new-Kirk and Leonard Nimoy. Spock dies permanently this time.
Blondie= Carol Marcus The red junk is the genesis effect creating life possibly in San Francisco.
is that a redshirt falling through the corridor? i thought it was uhura.
um… if that is Gary Mitchell, than doesn’t the blond have to be Dr. Elizabeth Dehner? Hair style looks right too.
If speculation is *spoilers* then don’t read:
I’m reasonably sure that the still of Scotty comforting Uhura is from the same scene where Spock and Kirk are doing the mixing-chamber scene from tWoK. That said, I’m reasonably sure that Alice Eve is filling the character arc of Dr. Dehner, the look is too close.
BUT. I don’t think this tracks with either Gary Mitchell OR WoKahn perfectly…and I suspect that we’re going to get some kind of thematic mash-up with a new iconic villain.
I agree that the planet getting torn up/regrown looks a lot like a post Genesis device and the scene from the end is calling back to WoK…but I’m suspecting that BC’s character is a New Thing(TM) and not a rehash. They’ve been all about creating new from the old, I suspect this will be the same deal. It calls out to Kahn and other TOS classics, but it’s a new take.
And I’m STOKED.
Mirror universe Spock.
Just a quick note for reference: the Japanese subtitles for the shot when the voiceover says “Is there anything you would not do for your family?” is somewhat different in emphasis. The subtitle is “Ningen Saidai no Jakuten ha Ai da”, which translates as “the greatest weakness of humans is love”.
The problem with all this “Ben is a new villain” speculation is that producer Roberto Orci has explicitly said that Ben’s character is canon. He has denied that he is Gary Mitchell, but in the same breath said that he was canon.
It is weird to me that people think that just because a character might have the same name & general theme as a ST:TOS character, that means it will track the same story. I don’t think that at all, I would never think that, especially in a universe predicated on “big explosions” like the current reboot (& I’m not complaining).
Which canon villain comes to mind when you listen to the trailer? For the villain to want revenge, it means that something unplesant happened to make him hate humanity so. (being in suspendened animation and booted off earth nught make for a ticked off villain) Kahn is a superior human, both physically and intellectually. My vote is still on Kahn, but a rebooted Kahn that we have not seen before.
I have heard some speculation that this might be a lesser known canon villain like Garth of Izar. Garth would definitely fit the revenge angle.
Whatever happened to the optimism of Star Trek? The “seek out new life” bit? Now it all seems to be vengeance and destroying planets.
Maybe Cumberbatch is someone who acquires Gary-like powers, but in this timeline it’s someone else from the crew instead of Gary. Could be any random “canon” crewmember. Just like it could be Kirk making the self-sacrifice this time instead of Spock, in the WoK echo-scene from the Japanese trailer.
Will the first nine minutes on IMAX be the events leading to the Exile of Khan and the Augments.
The problem with the Gary Mitchell and probably the Captain Garth theories is that BC’s character seems to not have any “superpowers”. This also knocks out of few obviously canon characters such as Charlie X and Trelaine.
Is it me or do the nacelles of the ship crashing into the water look like something post-TNG? Should we be looking for a villain that we would expect to come much later in continuity, but whose origin is in the TOS era?
Back to Gary Mitchell, though… what if his powers faded over time (i.e., had Kirk waited him out would he have eventually returned to normal) or were used up returing from presumed death. (I haven’t read the comic, does Gary basically meet the same fate as in the TV show?) It would neatly wrap up the memorial and the “I’m back”.
Hey Stubby, no worries re: nerding out about San Francisco’s geographic reboot, I did the exact same thing when I saw that pic. I still do it every time it’s shown in one of the movies or any of the series. One of the side effects of living in and loving The City. Of course Starfleet is based there!
If it’s not Kahn then that scene at the end of the Japanese teaser *must* be a deliberate misdirect because it’s basically an exact copy of the WoK scene and Abrams is going to know that fans will know that (assuming he had any say in what goes into the teaser of course, directors don’t always by any stretch).
Though it’s not ideal I can live with them remaking WoK but i’m *very* ambivalent about them recreating scenes “verbatim”, particularly scenes as key to the Star Trek mythos as that one. Seems almost disrespectful to the original films/cast which, despite how some may feel, is a line I don’t think they crossed in the first film.