On Saturday, we finally got another trailer for the next Star Trek movie. We still have no real idea what the plot is, but there was still plenty to piece together. So we went through the trailer frame by frame, so you wouldn’t have to.
“My dad joined Starfleet because he believed in it,” a Kirk voiceover informs us.
“I joined on a dare,” he continues. Putting aside that characterisation of James Tiberius Kirk, we do see him walking through the the Enterprise in the new uniforms. The neckline of the new ones definitely echoes the later Star Trek uniforms, which had higher collars and, sometimes, turtlenecks underneath.
“You joined to see of you could live up to him,” says Dr McCoy, along with his favourite prescription: booze. The most striking difference between this trailer and the first one is the focus on the beliefs and ties of the crew of the Enterprise.
There was also a little flashback to the first reboot movie. Continuity: it’s not just for breakfast anymore.
“You spent all this time trying to be your father, now you’re wondering just what it means to be you,” continues Bones. So James “Daddy Issues” Kirk is what we’re getting in this film, I guess. Along with this fairly lovely shot of a ship flying.
Also, this new haircut makes Chris Pine look even more like William Shatner did in the original series:
For comparison.
We see this projection, is it a starmap or something else?
Also this tube for launching or docking spaceships. This trailer shows a lot of this steel and glass city structure, which looks like a Federation/Starfleet starbase and not like it’s part of the planet the crew gets marooned on.
This shot asks us to remember JJ Abrams and all that he’s done for this franchise.
Meanwhile, the last-minute cast addition of Shohreh Aghdashloo as a member of the High Command of the Federation says, “It’s not uncommon, you know. It’s easy to get lost in the vastness of space.”
Bones checks out damage on the Enterprise, which looks like it’s not surviving the beginning of this movie.
Uhura emerges from an escape pod, it looks like.
“There’s only yourself, your ship, your crew,” Aghdashloo continues. In the first trailer, we saw the crew in an older starship, with Scotty working hard to get it up and running. This looks like more of the same.
Contrast the older, junkier ship to the sleekness of a new Federation ship — I’m assuming this is the Enterprise.
“You really want to head back out there, huh?” asks McCoy. And here is our original series power trio. This is so them, that I’m kind of verklempt.
And the Enterprise exits that tube we saw earlier and away from this glowing space orb that we’ll see much clearer in a later shot. But keep it in mind.
These drones/mines/missiles attack, which we saw in the first trailer.
“What the hell is this?” is a fair question from Kirk.
We know the crew ends up stranded on a planet and this is totally how they end up abandoning the Enterprise.
If I had to guess why Scotty’s holding a communicator, it’s to tell the captain that the ship is screwed.
So screwed.
“They’re boarding us,” says Uhura, which is helpful since we then see attackers blow open the walls and enter.
It’s hard to tell, with the masks and all, if Idris Elba’s Krall is the one blowing a hole in the door.
But based on what we’ve seen of his costume, these are certainly his people.
“Abandon ship,” orders Kirk. Which is easier said than done for Chekov:
Sulu:
And McCoy:
And in case you were wondering if the Enterprise survives this attack:
The implication seems to be “no.”
The crew all lands in different parts of this planet, with Scotty meeting up with Jaylah (Sofia Boutella).
“I know why you’re here. Why we’re all here,” she says. Good, because other than “Krall hates the Federation”, it’s kind of unclear.
We get a sense that most of the crew of the Enterprise didn’t get away from Krall, who maybe has them all in a prison/work camp of some kind. Which Uhura sees.
Here’s our first real good look at the face of Krall.
“Our Captain will come for us. Mercy will be the last thing on his mind,” says Uhura. This is the only clue we get about where Kirk is when the crew abandons ship in this trailer. We see him on the Enterprise and reunited with the split up command crew, but not wandering the planet alone. Of the command crew, only he and Chekov don’t have an individual vignette on the planet in the trailer.
In the last trailer, we saw him get out of the pod in a forest — looks similar to where Scotty encounters Jaylah.
“I am counting on it,” says Krall.
Beyond the destruction, note the big curved structures in the background. This looks like an attack on the floating orb space station the Enterprise left from earlier in the trailer. San Francisco might get a break this movie.
Scotty leaps for his life, as we’ve seen before.
And something happens in that camp that upsets Uhura.
There’s some sort of transporter chase/fight in this movie. In the first trailer, this same zapping dumped Kirk — in his jacket and googles — and Jaylah on a transporter pad. This looks like Kirk’s being moved from one place to another.
“Fear of death is illogical,” says Spock.
Jaylah looks like she’s strapped into the older ship we saw the crew on in the first trailer, since her harness looks just like the one Sulu had on in the first trailer.
This looks like Kirk tries to grab something, but falls out of a tower in that bubble-station. It also looks much later in the movie than the launch of the Enterprise, going by Kirk’s jacket.
“Fear of death is what keeps us alive,” replies McCoy to Spock. What a shock, McCoy and Spock have different views on the value of some form of emotion. This is the dynamic we all love and remember.
Here’s the first glimpse we have of the crew fighting off the boarders, with Uhura leading the fray.
I know this is Kirk and I think he’s with Scotty, fighting in what looks like the spaceship graveyard that’s rumoured to play a role in this movie.
Also, is this the resting place of the Enterprise?
There’s a bit of an action montage, full of things from the first trailer. What is new is Krall studying up on Kirk. Can’t tell if he’s hacked into Federation files or if this is the future version of Wikipedia.
“Everyone who goes there, he kills,” Jaylah says. Perhaps explaining the horror on Uhura’s face earlier.
Sulu and Uhura seem to be the only senior crew members in that place. “That’s our friends out there. We canna just leave ’em behind,” says Scotty.
More of the attack, with an even better view of the superstructure, which kind of proves that this city is the floating space station.
Here’s a still to compare to the full thing:
This is from later in the trailer, but I wanted to show how we can see the two are related.
“Unity is not your strength. It’s a weakness,” Krall says.
This relationship is still going strong, by the way.
“I think you’re underestimating humanity,” Kirk responds. Oh man, I do hope he gets to give a Kirk Summation in this movie.
Kirk’s (I assume) hands on the captain’s chair of their junker.
“Hold onto something!” yells Sulu. We know that the command crew gets separated when they land on the planet — we also see them back together on this old ship that they have repaired.
The motorcycle bit is the rescue. If I had to piece together the basic structure of Star Trek Beyond, it would start with the Enterprise at the space station — which has some McGuffin, clearly. Then Kirk meets with Aghdashloo and gets the mission, which goes badly, stranding the crew on Krall’s planet. There’s the rescue of the captured by the non-captured and the use of a ship from the ship graveyard to escape. Krall’s plan involves the space station somehow and Kirk and crew go there in the old ship to face him.
Meanwhile, is this the saucer of the Enterprise falling to the planet?
This looks a lot like the old ship the Enterprise gang uses to escape arriving back at the space station.
And our crew (partially) reunited — with Spock and McCoy as part of the rescue force.
Here’s the closest we get to a good look at the ship they fix.
The angles and armour give it a look like it’s from the Star Trek: Enterprise era — or closer to the 22nd century aesthetic than to the 23rd.
The trailer ends with this little bit of comedy, with Jaylah sitting in the captain’s chair.
And the rest of the cast reminding us how good they are at reaction shots.
Spock’s eyes here are amazing.
“He likes that seat.”
We still don’t know much about the villain’s motivation other than that it’s meant to question the philosophy of the Federation, but we can track the broad structure of the acts. Attack, stranded, reunion, repair of ship, rescue and race to save the Federation. And some comedy.