Star Trek into Darkness - Synopsis

[Jon]

The final trailer before release, lots of new footage



Also;

Looks like we'll be seeing some kind of Starfleet Dreadnaught

[darth_timon]

Is it me, or have the writers done everything in their power to make Kirk and Co really suffer in this film?

[Stark]

Suffer yet another time Enterprise gets blown up by the big ship from out of nowhere? I hope the drama sells the jeopardy because that is a bit tired. Maybe they figured nobody saw Nemesis so no harm recycling it?

[DaveJB]

Every film from The Wrath of Khan to Generations (bar The Voyage Home, where there wasn't any starship combat per se) used the "theoretically inferior starship beats down on the Enterprise" plot device, so I'm guessing Abrams & co. figured they were still good to use the "motherfucking huge ship beats down on the Enterprise" thing for another few films before it gets worn out.

Aside from that though, from its general profile Harrison's ship looks an awful lot like an Abrams-verse incarnation of the Excelsior, so with a bit of luck it'll be shown as being more heavily armed than the Enterprise, but not stupidly so.

[Stark]

I was really sad at what appeared to be space nazi federation ship. I hope the space combat looks better than usual because I'm starting to wonder if the west is just unable to do it.

But narratively it looks like the movie will be a good step in Kirk's personal journey. I'll see it.

[Jon]

Some major spoilers.
Spoiler

The film was screened in Sydney today and key plot elements have been revealed (apparently, could be a troll):

Kirk's tenure as acting captain of the Enterprise is ended at the start of the film, just prior to its first planned five year mission, due to gross violation of Prime Directive. Cumberbatch's character is ex-Section 31 (Harrison) and kills most of the highly ranked Starfleet leadership in a terrorist attack, including Pike. John Harrison is Khan. A section 31 member, Admiral Marcus, found the Botany Bay (possibly due to info from Spock Prime) and woke Khan to work with him. Harrison was a pseudonym whilst working as an S31 agent. An extended sequence takes place in battling Klingons over the remaining genetic supermen who are still in stasis. The USS Vengeance lays waste to the Enterprise but is ultimately defeated and kamikazed by Khan into San Francisco/Starfleet Academy, the Enterprise is saved by Kirk in a reversal of the climax of TWOK. Kirk dies with spock on the opposite side of the glass... but we dont have to wait until nuTrek III for his resurrection, something about khan's superman blood here.

Spoiler

USS Vengeance, built in and operated in secret by Section 31, who are the main antagonist in the film

[Jon]

Spoiler

Funky saucer section...

[Lord Revan]

hmm it seems odd to me that this new ship looks more like late TNG-era design then reboot-TOS.

[Crazedwraith]

oh god, why did I click that link. That looks, and its origin sounds, incredibly stupid.

[Stark]

Interest in film drops to zero.

[Batman]

Nope. Not seeing this one in theaters either.

[Jon]

It does sound extraordinarily fan wankish. Here's a much more detailed apparent synopsis of the film posted on IMDB;
Spoiler

ive minutes before entering Pike's office, Kirk had been skipping along after Spock saying, "Yeah, we're cool. I haven't lost a single man. Pike's gonna give us the five year mission" and the meeting with Pike completely bursts his bubble. When Spock is dismissed from Pike's office and he talks to Kirk alone, he really rips into him, in a different take to the one we saw in the trailers. He's really angry, but you realise that Pike sees Kirk almost as a son and feels he can do much better. Kirk's command is ripped away, they give the Enterprise back to Pike, Spock is assigned to the USS Bradbury. Kirk leaves with his tail between his legs. Greenwood was fantastic in this scene. The movie really started here for me.
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Er, yes, it's Kirk and Spock's hands on the glass. Yes, BC is Khan. Yes, Marcus is Section 31 Black ops.

There's another fantastic scene between Pike and Kirk the bar. Kirk is completely gutted an Pike tells him he asked for him as first officer aboard the Enterprisr, because he believes in him. Apparently he really had to go to bat with Admiral Marcus for the appointment.

Back in London, we all know Khan's blood saves the dying child and he enlists the father to bomb the Starfleet Data Archive. All the captains and first officers meet at Starfleet headquarters to plan strategy. Marcus reports that it was Harrison, and ex Sect 31 black ops specialist. Kirk is looking at vids from the bombing, and in a very cool extreme Google Earth kind of thing, he zooms in on Harrison. Kirk starts to ask why Harrison would bother to bomb a Data Archive when he knows all th material is n public record and starts to question the real motive, but for once he's unsure of himself and shuts up. Marcus has to wheedle it out of him.
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Kirk realises its just a ploy to get everyone together in the one room just as Harrison shows up to blow them all to Kingdom Come. Pike is badly injured, Spock runs to help him while Kirk picks up a gun and starts firing away at Harrison's ship, then throws some sort of piece of metal on the end of a fire hose thing into the ships vent, sending it crashing down, but not before they get a look at each other. As Pike gasps his last Breath, Spock melds with him. Kirk runs over and sees Pike is dead and bursts into tears, literally sobbing uncontrollably with Spock looking on. It's a very Powerful scene. It feels like that is Kirk experiencing the loss of his father.
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They find out that Harrison has fled to Kronos, in Klingon space, "The one place we cannot go." But Kirk insists on being allowed to go after him. So they devise a plan to travel to the edge of the Neutral Zone and Marcus organises for Kirk to carry a payload of advanced torpedoes that they have been developing. They beam them all aboard Enterprise, but Scotty won't sign off on the manifest because their shielding means he can't scan them to see what's inside. Therefore he refuses to have them aboard his ship because he doesn't know what danger they present. He also has a philosophical problem with the torpedoes and challenges Kirk. He doesn't like the military op. He wants to know if they are still explorers. Kirk orders him and he refuses, saying Kirk will have to fire him. So he does. Kirk appoints Chekov as Chief engineer and tells him to go get a red shirt. We all squeal. Scotty leaves the ship
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Spock/Uhura are fighting. It's almost like a teenage spat. Spock is seriously having girl trouble. Uhura's mad at him because she thinks he doesn't feel. That he endangers his life without a thought about how it affects him. It's not unlike the accusations Kirk was hurling at Spock earlier. Calling him a traitor and a robot. She's pretty snitty and they have a bit of an argument on the way to Kronos with Kirk reluctantly in the middle. Then Spock suddenly reveals that he does feel. He recounts feeling Pike's death - the pain, the fear, the loneliness. He says he felt a similar thing at the death of Vulcan. He never wants to have to feel like that again. We see Kirk and Uhura both rect, chagrined. They have been unfair on Spock. On a side note, Uhura seems to really like Kirk now. She worries about him a lot. There is also a lot of touching. Everyone is always caressing everyone else. Lots of closeups of hands on arms or shoulders. Fanfic, here we come.
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Sorry, just trying to say things the way they happened because it's more engaging that way. Just a fact dump is not going to be very fair to the movie.

In Engineering, Chekov discovers some weird fault or anomaly with the engines and Kirk instructs him to work on it. He leaves Sulu in command, and Sulu broadcasts to the surface that he has a whole pile of high-powered torpedoes pointing at them. Uhura goes with Kirk and Spock in the shuttle to find Harrison. She speaks Klingon, so this actually makes sense. After a StarWars-esque chase, the Klingons outnumber our galant trio but then Harrison shows up and starts wiping the floor with them all. He then walks up to Kirk and Kirk just lays into him (very neanderthal) and the blows just bounce off Harrison. Then Kirk decides he's not going to kill him, but take him into custody so he can stand trial on behalf of Admiral Pike.

I forgot to mention, a weapons specialist called Carol Wallace has joined the Enterprise to look after the torpedoes. Spock is suspicious and runs her data. Discovers Wallace is her mother's name. She's Marcus' daughter. I am getting a little confused about the scene order, but they decide to beam one of the torpedoes down to some planet to see what's inside. McCoy goes with Carol, but when the torpedo arms and catches McCoys arm in it, he screams at them to beam Carol up to save her, but she bravely stays to try and disarm it, sort of winning their trust. She yanks loose some big component, the outer casing slides open, and of course inside is a cryotube with a frozen body. Back on the ship, Harrison asks Kirk how many torpedoes they have and they tell him, they have a payload of 72. Isn't that how many cryotube turns were aboard the Botany Bay?
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Kirk asks Harrison who he is really. He replies that he was a product of genetic engineeriing from 300 years ago and says his name is Khan (audience whoops, groans, cheers). He starts to cleverly bait Kirk, saying that Marcus scanned space for their vessel then revived Khan and held his crews' lives over his head, forcing him to work for them, develop superior weaponry etc. He asks, is there nothing you wouldn't do for your crew, Captain? This gets Kirk in his Achilles heel. He obviously has separation issues and doesn't want to lose a single member of his little family. Bones takes some of Khan's blood and injects it into a dead Tribble.

Then Marcus shows up in a huge Dreadnaught-class ship. He tells Kirk that Khan is manipulating him and is surprised that Kirk didn't kill him. Kirk is suspicious of Marcus and won't hand Khan over. Says he's gonna take him back to Earth to stand trial. Marcus targets Enterprise and starts blowing them out of the sky. Kirk pleads for the lives of his crew, offers his life in their place, but Marcus just wants to destroy them. Carol jumps in so her father knows she's aboard, hoping that will stop the slaughter, but he just beams her aboard, then just as the Enterprise is about to be blown away, the Dreadnaught's weapons go offline. Scotty has smuggled himself aboard and is in control of the engineering deck. By communicator, Kirk decides to space jump aross with Khan with Scotty opening the port at his end. I the meantime Spock calls New Vulcan...
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Spock Prime appears on the view screen. Young Spock asks if, in his travels, they ever encountered a character called Khan? Spock Prime replies that Spock knows he swore he would never reveal details of their lives, but Khan was the most dangerous foe they ever faced and would kill them all without a thought. Spock asks whether they were able to defeat him and Spock Prime replies, "at great cost".
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Just as Spock is hearing of Khan's treachery on the Enterprise, Khan escapes from Kirk on the Dreadnaught. To cut a long story short... A big space batltle ensues, with Khan demanding that the cryotubes be beamed aboard the Dreadnaught, but Spock is a step ahead of him and Bones has removed the Cryotubes and Spock has armed the torpedoes, so they blow a hole in the Dreadnaught and as Khan plummets towards Earth (did I mention he had pursued them at Warp back to Earth? ) he aims the dying ship at Starfleet Academy to wipe them out. But the Enterprise is also in trouble. The Warp core is offline and the area is irradiated with no way to fix it. So begins the final scenes of TWOK, in reverse, even with most of the same dialogue. Kirk goes into the chamber / giant beer factory, with Scotty screaming after him, gets the core back on line, Spock defeats Khan then gets a frantic message from Scott that he'd better get down there.

It's a lovely death scene, really. Poor Spock/Quinto is inconsolable. There is a lot of crying in this movie. Kirk dies.
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Now you can guess what happens after that, can't you? We certainly did. And it did.

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Everything I hear about this film as more information rolls out validates my initial disdain.

Turns out if you put a smug hack who still doesn't know how to end his fucking movies in charge of your franchise, Frankenstein fanservice is what you'll get.

[Burak Gazan]

Great merciful Zeus

If half this is accurate, it is going to achieve NEMESIS suck levels. This has so many shoutouts and cutsey stuff in it, it reads like the ultimate fanwank.

Eh boy...

[Batman]

Why is it every time something is declared fanwank, it completely fails to deliver what I as a fan want?

[Stark]

Because - shock horror - fans don't actually know what they want.

It's like asking a child what he wants for dinner and being shocked and amazed that what they want is unhealthy and will eventually kill them.

[Batman]

Um-no, it's not? Kids (or grownups, for that matter) having dietary desires that are bad for them has absolutely nothing to do with this. Unless an absolute standard on what is and is not proper Star Trek has been established while I wasn't looking.

[Stark]

People don't know what is good or even good for them. They only know what they ask for. When they ask for stuff and get it, it isn't always actually good.

I know you're incapable of introspection (probably a good thing given your personal problems) but people who say 'we did what they asked and they didn't like it wah' are just dumb.

What next? Amazement that doing what video game fans demand results in a game video game fans don't actually like?

[Iroscato]

Oh Jesus.
Erm...you're fucking kidding me, right? Did I actually just read that? What the actual fuck.
I once read a full synopsis for Prometheus, just a couple of weeks before it was released, and it turned out to be nothing like the film. I sincerely hope it's a fake this time as well.

[tezunegari]

Please make it stop. It hurts.

Though I have to admit that parts of it are appealing.
Spoiler

Kirk developing separation issues over Pikes death.
Spock showing trouble with emotion.

The reversal of the iconic WoK death scene.

But are they really going to one of their cash cows with this?

The less being said about this synopsis the better.

And if it is a real synpsis and not fanfiction at its worst... then Hollywood really needs new writers.

[Jedipilot24]

Slightly off topic but about your sig, Chimaera. If Atheism isn't a religion, then why does the current crop of atheists whine and complain every time they see or hear anything related to the Bible? Why are they trying to force their particular point of view to be taught exclusively at schools? Why are they trying to use the government to legislate their point of view into law? I'll stop treating Atheism as a religion when it stops acting like one.

[Lilgreenman]

The USS Please Be Intimidated Please.

It looks like it was made for Star Trek Online, right down to the low polygon count. What does a square-shaped deflector dish do to make the ship more advanced?

Oh Jesus.
Erm...you're fucking kidding me, right? Did I actually just read that? What the actual fuck.
I once read a full synopsis for Prometheus, just a couple of weeks before it was released, and it turned out to be nothing like the film. I sincerely hope it's a fake this time as well.

Please find me a link to that - I want to believe that this is a lie.

(No X-files jokes, please)

[Iroscato]

Slightly off topic but about your sig, Chimaera. If Atheism isn't a religion, then why does the current crop of atheists whine and complain every time they see or hear anything related to the Bible? Why are they trying to force their particular point of view to be taught exclusively at schools? Why are they trying to use the government to legislate their point of view into law? I'll stop treating Atheism as a religion when it stops acting like one.

Could you not have just messaged me? I'm happy to discuss and debate about religion and philosophy until the end of time, but this is a thread about a Star Trek film that has most of the fandom shitting into their hands from fear right now. If you pm me, then we can talk.
(And I have never treated my lack of belief in God and the supernatural as religious in itself)

[tezunegari]

OMFG... Spoiler

SOURCE

What does a square-shaped deflector dish do to make the ship more advanced?

It looks more like a coverable deflector to me. All stealthy and shit... it is a Section 31 Blops ship afterall. Would explain its ridiculous low-poly look.

More importantly: WHY IS THERE A HOLE IN THE FUCKING SAUCER SECTION AROUND THE BRIDGE?!

While I can forgive the design of the new Enterprise (I still would have prefered a more classic Constition design) this is just an abomination. And if I squint just enough the engineering section looks like a Firefly... BLASPHEMY!

I do like the nacelles though...

[TOSDOC]

A rehash of The Wrath of Kahn? A Starfleet vessel named Vengeance? That's a name for a Klingon or Mirror universe ship, not Starfleet. Screw this, I'm not even going to risk it. My money's going to Pacific Rim.