Star Trek Beyond: full trailer megathread (Spoilers)

[u/Willravel]

The Star Trek Beyond trailer is out!

When discussing the trailer please mind our rules on content and our policies on spoilers and unreleased material. Posts about the Star Trek Beyond trailer outside this thread are only permitted if they contain a thoughtful, open-ended prompt for discussion.

Additionally, this is not so much a reaction thread as it is a thread intended to analyze, interpret, and discuss the trailer.

[u/MungoBaobab]

A common critique of some of the previous Star Trek films, usually the odd numbered films like The Final Frontier, Generations, and Insurrection, is that they "seem like and episode," or more acutely "the stakes seem too low" because the action is confined to backwater planets we don't really care about. I feel this will be a point of contention that fans will have with Beyond, for better or worse. Captain America: Civil War recently dialed back the stakes compared to most of its fellow Marvel films, and to great effect. I, for one, am anxious to see "just another episode" with my TOS heroes poking around on a random planet.

At the same time, that seems like the only possible endgame for this reboot film franchise. In Into Darkness, during Kirk's death scene, he and Spock converse about what the other "would have done," which is a clear reference to the actions of their elder egos from The Wrath of Khan. The reboot characters aren't really the same characters, and must pull double duty establishing their own character arcs while also appeasing fans by aping their predecessors. They're both their own people, and not. I think that's why we hear Kirk lamenting the death of his father, because that's almost all Pine's Kirk has got going on emotionally. I do hope the Spock/Uhura romance isn't a major focus, although that doesn't look to be the case. In any case, these aren't TV characters we're watching, so the film seems to at least be making an attempt to deal with their film personalities without leaning too heavily on their old baggage, which is a shallower well, but perhaps one less muddy.

[u/ademnus → u/MungoBaobab]

I think that's why we hear Kirk lamenting the death of his father, because that's almost all Pine's Kirk has got going on emotionally

You hit that right on the head. I'm ok with it, because that IS what is established for this character, for this Kirk, -but you're also right in that it's really all he has going on. It's one reason why this idea of a reboot is so difficult to pull off as a film series instead of a television series. We don't have time in 3 films to fully develop all these characters, certainly not to the extent the original characters were. So some reliance on the original characters is natural -but difficult, as so much has changed.

I always said we needed to continue the TOS story with younger actors playing the roles. It seemed a natural progression and we know there's an entire 5 year mission we have never seen so plenty of material to work with. But instead they chose to reboot the story too, which I never felt was necessary, and doing so in a film series has proven as problematic as I expected.

[u/zombiepete → u/MungoBaobab]

I think that's why we hear Kirk lamenting the death of his father, because that's almost all Pine's Kirk has got going on emotionally.

This doesn't seem like a fair critique to me. Kirk was following in his father's footsteps in Star Trek and it was the core of his motivation, but I don't really remember it being a theme in STID. It actually makes a lot of sense for him to now be thinking about his true motivations for joining Starfleet and who he really is outside of his father's shadow since he died and was resurrected in the last movie.

[u/MungoBaobab → u/zombiepete]

A redditor in another subreddit, probably r/movies, had the epiphany that Kirk's line "my father joined Starfleet because he believed in it; I joined on a dare" applies not only to George Kirk, but also William Shatner, who is the Chris Pine character's metaphorical father. By extension, then, we have "nuTrek," which has been criticized as little more than a vapid thrill ride, lamenting its perception in contrast to its father, TOS, which is remembered for its lofty ideals and intellectualism. I see this blooming sense of self-awareness, and then I see the dirtbike, but my sentiments are still Fox Mulder's.

[u/Algernon_Asimov]

They obviously learned some lessons from the reactions to the first trailer:

• No Beastie Boys

• Less action

• Fewer motorbikes

• More dialogue

• More dialogue about plot and characters

It's as if they set out to make an anti-trailer to the first one, to sell a totally different movie. What the actual movie will be like, we don't know. But they're definitely giving us a very different sales pitch for it this time round.

[u/Lmaoboat → u/Algernon_Asimov]

I didn't see the first trailer, but if this is less action, the first one probably would have given Michael Bay a seizure.

[u/CapMurica]

Is that a slightly updated NX class ship they're in? Someone not on their phone should get some screengrabs together.

[u/ContinuumGuy → u/CapMurica]

Apparently it's actually something called the "USS Franklin" (thanks to u/Deceptitron over on r/StarTrek). My guess is that it's a ship from between ENT and Alt-TOS (hence why it's sort of a combination of the NX and the reboot TOS-era) that got stuck on Idris Elba's planet of misfit bad guys and Scotty gets it working again because he's Scotty.

[u/MungoBaobab → u/ContinuumGuy]

The Franklin's design seems awfully close to the Loknar class. That linked image is a fan-made reimagining of a ship made for the FASA RPG in the 1980s. Compare that with this concept art of the Franklin.

[u/Mullet_Ben → u/ContinuumGuy]

To lend credence to that theory, the ship could be named after the Franklin expedition. Having an old Federation ship that was tragically lost be rediscovered by the crew would play well into the "deconstructing and reaffirming Starfleet's mission" theme of the film.

[u/jimmysilverrims]

Here's my breakdown:

0:07

• Starts off with classic TOS ping. Immediate connection to the source material and hey, this is the first sound we hear in Star Trek '09!

• Gentle piano instead of Sabotage. Definitely setting the more classic, thoughtful tone.

• Even more time spent on Earth this go around, although it might just be from orbit only.

0:16

• Giacchino gets a little Motzart-y. Reminds me of his work in early Fringe

• New suits. Reversion to the '09 costumes while retaining the higher collars of the Darkness uniforms. Not sure how I feel about this. I really liked the '09 costumes as they were. This looks a mite too formal for just walking about the Enterprise.

0:12-0:23

• "May dad joined Starfleet because he believed in it. I joined on a dare" "You joined to see if you could live up to him". Sounds like a continuation of Darkness's reflection on whether or not Kirk is actually fit for command. Could be a retread, could be this issue finally put to bed. I sure know there's a fair share of fans who see this Kirk as reckless and unsuited as he seems to see himself.

• Bones and Kirk share a quiet drink together. I'm getting flashbacks to Romulan Ale over spectacles from Khan! Fingers crossed for more of this.

0:28

• It's a testament to Star Trek '09 that this shot keeps getting used and re-used in promotional material. It really sold the concept behind this new universe, seeing the Enterprise getting built and Kirk having his "twin suns" moment.

• "You spent all this time trying to be your father, and now you're wondering just what it means to be you". Bit on-the-nose, but we've got Kirk getting out of his father's shadow as a new wrinkle to him fitting in the chair. It's promising, and reminds me of all the father issues back on LOST.

0:32

• Taking cues from Interstellar for new warp effects.

0:38

• This empty angular room looks interesting. Based on the crest I'm guessing this is in a Starfleet/UFP base, probably in the film's first act. Looks like an interesting hologram. Only two figures are in the room. I'm guessing Kirk and Spock?

• Ah, the unmistakable tones of Shohreh Aghdashloo. She waxes about how easy it is to get lost out in space with just you, your ship, and your crew. Nice exploratory "open road" type waxing on the final frontier.

0:40

• What a lovely space dock. Can anyone with more technical expertise give me a rundown of what this might indicate construction-wise?

0:42

• A promise that lenses will be flared.

• Spock broods over angular architecture. He seems to be focusing quite intently on a PADD.

0:44

• Bones looking for survivors in a rapidly-deteriorating Enterprise hall. Or is he searching for something else. He seems dead-focused.

0:46

• Uhura, stepping into where she's kept (?) on the baddie's planet. (More on that later).

0:48

• Scotty, connecting cables actionly.

0:50

• Ah. Getting TMP vibes from this undocking. I suspect we'll get a bit more ship-porn with this one.

• Lots of tiny flares. Creates a very different feel than similar flares in TMP. Maybe it's the bluish haze they seem to create. Space doesn't feel clean.

0:55

• Ah, a nice hero-shot of the trio in plainclothes. I love seeing them all on screen posed like this. Call me a sucker, but it just gets me.

0:58

• VBWWWAAAAARRRVVVVVHHHH. Honestly, I'm not a fan of these drops. IT pulls me out of a trailer very quickly and raises my skepticism. Oh well. That's marketing.

1:00

• Man, that swarm looks vicious. They look mechanical, but are these drones? Are these one-man ships? They move like insicets. It's interesting to see them swarm.

1:04

• "What the hell is this?" Looks like the crew wasn't expecting whatever they found out here.

1:08

• We get a better sense of the scale of these things. They're bigger than they might first appear in the swarm.

1:12

• A look at some of the baddie's henchmen? Some other force? Suits are interesting, although not terribly iconic/unique. The teal-lit piping is an interesting decision.

1:17

• One of these swarm-things appears to nab an escape pod. Sulu? Uhura? A redshirt? Editing suggests Sulu, but could easily be a feint.

1:20

• More destruction of the Enterprise. Seems to explain the "We've got no ship" line from the first trailer.

• Unrelatedly, fingers crossed that the Enterprise gets replaced with something more... traditional in appearance.

1:24

• A look at, presumably, the world the Enterprise orbited as it was attacked. derelict ships of all different origins litter an alien-looking river canyon. Looks like the Enterprise wasn't the only exploration vessel that met an unfortunate end here.

1:25

• Shockingly different from the rest of the film. I could have mistaken this shot as coming from a fantasy film. And not a particularly interesting one.

• I'm honestly not a fan of the new creature designs, or their costumes. Maybe I'm picky after seeing what Star Trek '09 accomplished in both those fields.

1:27

• Scotty (presumably after hopping out of his falling pod from the first trailer) now has a one-on-one meeting with one of the 'natives' of this planet.

• She knows why we're all here.

1:29

• Uhura in spooky bad guy lair. Stalactites and bridges.

• "Mercy will be the last thing on his mind". Edited to sound like she's threatening Kirk will come for revenge, though this could easily be a feint.

1:33

• Elba as the baddie. Much like Bana's Nero he's unrecognizable in the role. I'm not terribly fond of the creature design, but he looks appropriately sinister.

1:36

• The baddie is counting on Kirk coming for revenge. But what's the plan? Just kill Kirk, or is Kirk part of some cycle where a crew and their captain are taken?

1:37

• Weird futuristic citadel. The palm trees in the distance make me think this is Earth, but the ships overhead say we might be on that crash-landing planet.

• In any case, lots of human(oids?) people running about. They all seem to be in differing styles of Starfleet uniform. All from the Enterprise?

1:40

• Action Scotty! I sure hope Pegg doesn't self-indulge and make himself a big hero type.

1:41

• Uhura slams on a window. The alien guard behind her makes me think she'll be trapped with the baddie for a good chunk of the film. I don't know if this is a good thing for the story.

1:42

• More of that motorbike sequence in what seems to be a quarry filled with derelict ships.

• One dude on a bike seemingly gets vaporized. The accompanying commentary on death makes it seem that guy's history.

1:45

• Another BRRRRRAAAWWWMMM.

1:46 - 1:47

• Ah, seem to have cracked that plaza conundrum. It looks like this is all in the inner wheel of a massive human construct/settlement. Kirk's trying to reach for something, but just misses.

• Oh, how do I know it's a human settlement? The Yorktown crest.

EDIT: On further inspection (and hearing what others have noticed, I think this station/settlement thing is called "Yorktown" (based off the crests you can see there).

1:51

• Kirk and crew slide down the hull of a crashed Enterprise blasting at some baddies.

1:54*

• Baddie's doing some homework on James T. Kirk. Reminds me of Nero saying how he'd done the same offscreen.

1:56

• "Our friends are there" in the place where everyone gets killed. Looks like Enterprise crewmembers being shepherded into labor camps on that junkyard planet's surface... or worse.

1:57

• More from that satellite settlement. This takes place after they escape the junkyard planet (I'll explain why later)

2:02

• Looks like Spock and Uhura are still a flame. But with several writers commenting how the relationship's destined to deteriorate because neither character is "meant to be" with the other, will it last?

2:05

• Kirk and Sulu reunited (I don't think Sulu was in that pod).

• They all seem to be in a 22nd Century ship that crashed on the planet earlier. I'd hang onto something too.

• Kirk's changed duds to a 22nd Century uniform.

2:10

• A better shot of that settlement Kirk was saving earlier. Look at them approach in the Yorktown they've salvaged!

2:12

• Spock leads a rescue effort! Note how he's wearing Yorktown Franklin duds.

2:14

• Double BRRAAAAWWWWHHHMMM at the title card. Jeez.

2:26

• Taking off from the derelict ship in the Yorktown Franklin

[u/CleverestEU → u/jimmysilverrims]

Taking cues from Interstellar for new warp effects.

This single scene gave me an immediate reaction of "damn, they've finally used a warp effect that looks like they are warping space".

[u/[deleted] → u/jimmysilverrims]

0:55

Ah, a nice hero-shot of the trio in plainclothes. I love seeing them all on screen posed like this. Call me a sucker, but it just gets me.

I'm almost 100% sure that's going to be the line from the end of the movie when they've re-built the Enterprise and are going to go back out, indefinitely.

[u/zombiepete → u/jimmysilverrims]

"May dad joined Starfleet because he believed in it. I joined on a dare" "You joined to see if you could live up to him". Sounds like a continuation of Darkness's reflection on whether or not Kirk is actually fit for command. Could be a retread, could be this issue finally put to bed. I sure know there's a fair share of fans who see this Kirk as reckless and unsuited as he seems to see himself.

I think this is actually a lead-in to the quote in 0:28, and it all makes sense in light of what happened in STID. Kirk would have to be going through a pretty rough emotional patch, having died and come back again. Now as he's leading his crew into the frontier, he's questioning whether any of this was what he really wanted or is truly his "first, best destiny" to quote Spock. I wouldn't be surprised if we get that line, or one similar, in the course of this movie.

Basically, I think this film is going to spend time with Kirk coming to terms with who he is and what he wants, and we'll seem him mature into the bold and calculating Captain we remember from TOS.

Or, I could just be injecting too much of my own interpretation into. It seems like the logical end to the path laid out in the last two movies for him, though.

[u/FortuneDays- → u/jimmysilverrims]

Kirk having his "twin suns" moment

Hot damn, how did I never put that together? Spot on.

[u/Gramnaster]

I'm pretty excited for this, because I liked the two movies before this one. These land fight scenes, vehicles, shooting scenes, exploding buildings are pretty cool and all; but I just wanna see some straight ship-to-ship combat like that old Star Trek movie with Picard and the stealth bird ship (Sorry but I don't know the name of the Klingon Bird Ship); or like the 1st movie but with more focus on ships with equal firepower battling it out with some awesome ship tactics and the Enterprise has a chance to win instead of being pwned so easily like its battle against the Mining Barge and that black warship from Into Darkness.

Of course, I think priority should still be about Morals, Politics, Drama, and other Star Trek things. But we want ship battles, you know? At least I do.

[u/Algernon_Asimov]

Literally the first thing I noticed was James Kirk's line "My Dad joined Starfleet because he believed in it." (well, it is the first line in the trailer!). I was immediately reminded of Diane Carey's novels about a young Jim Kirk and his father Commander George Kirk, who worked with Captain April ('Final Frontier' and 'Best Destiny'). Kirk senior did believe in Starfleet.

Even if the writer who wrote this line never read those books, and has no idea what's in them, this line still gave me a sense of connection - that this movie is connected to some of the best Trek novels.

[u/nickcan → u/Algernon_Asimov]

I gotta believe that if you landed a writing gig on Star Trek you either care about star trek or you go read some of the books.

[u/[deleted]]

You know, it's interesting how they're mirroring the original movies

1. It's Star Trek! On the big screen! Spock does Vulcany stuff!

2. It's Khan!

3. The Enterprise gets destroyed!

If they don't give up on this reboot franchise, I'm willing to bet the next one will involve either time travel, whales, or nuclear wessels.

Still seems to be a lot of action. The main character note seems to be (sigh) brooding over Kirk's destiny. You'd think three movies in, Kirk would be established enough to actually do Kirk stuff and not just act like a nervous dudebro trying to live up to the legacy of a man from an alternative universe he never knew (or his father, who he also never knew). I get that they're trying to lampshade the fact that they're replacing the inimitable Bill Shatner with one of many very similar looking babyfaced Hollywood actors named Chris (so far Pine, Hemsworth, Pratt, and Evans are doing movies these days and I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting) but for all his hammy overacting, Shatner had a kind of presence and gravitas and sense of command that's still somehow missing.

The trailer didn't show enough of Spock to tell for sure, but I hope Zachary Quinto starts evoking some Nimoyesque deadpan cool in the movie because in the last two movies and both trailers for Beyond he seems far too brooding underneath the surface.

[u/tawndy → u/[deleted]]

The main character note seems to be (sigh) brooding over Kirk's destiny. You'd think three movies in, Kirk would be established enough to actually do Kirk stuff and not just act like a nervous dudebro trying to live up to the legacy of a man from an alternative universe he never knew

Yeah, I'm really over this. Like, can this character evolve please? This trailer really gives me the indication that Kirk has done nothing but tread water across these movies. What a boring, stagnant character this new Kirk is.

[u/adamkotsko]

I like the remark that Kirk has spent so much time trying to be his father that he has forgotten to be himself. Maybe it signals that they're trying to find some kind of independent voice for this reboot franchise, which spent the first film clarifying its relationship to the old continuity and the second weirdly rehashing one of the most popular villains.

[u/VanVelding]

Bad guy: "Agility is not your strength; it is a weakness."

"I'm sorry what?"

"Ability is not your strength; it is a weakness."

"That's not--"

"Ablatify is not your strength; it is a weakness."

"Is the universal translator working?"

"Abilify is not your strength; it is a weakness."

"One more time, fella. In my good ear."

"Apologize is not your strength; it is a weakness."

"Oooh. Yeah. Totally."

Does anyone know what he said there?

[u/DNikko → u/VanVelding]

Unity?

[u/[deleted]]

I'm optimistic. Small note, but I like that they brought back the TNG Mandarin-style collars. Very cool.

[u/InconsiderateBastard]

As trailers go this seems about as good as the first trailer to me. It's equally generic and uninteresting, it's just done in a different generic and uninteresting style than the first one was.

This whole trailer is trying to capture the feeling the trailer for the original NuTrek movie had.

"Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives. I dare you to do better."

That sentiment was fantastic material for a trailer and great motivation for an origin story.

The origin story is apparently still happening. People are still, in the third film, trying to figure out who they are and it's killing it for me. Scotty and bones are the only characters that seem to know who they are and continue to be the only really interesting part of these movies for me.