Star Trek Into Darkness Guide

Star Trek Into Darkness, the second nuTrek movie, was released in 2013. This page is an introduction to key information about the film, with links to more information, and details of tie-in products.

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My reviews: spoiler free or spoiler-full.

Plot and setting The following is the official synopsis of the film: In Summer 2013, director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness. In the wake of a shocking act of terror from within their own organization, the crew of The Enterprise is called back home to Earth. In defiance of regulations and with a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads his crew on a manhunt to capture an unstoppable force of destruction and bring those responsible to justice. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew. Kirk, Spock, and the mysterious "John Harrison" The film is set about a year after the first nuTrek film, and features all the main USS Enterprise crew, as well as the return of Admiral Pike, while joining the crew is Carol Marcus (Alice Eve). The villains of the piece are Khan Noonien Singh, know initially under the psuedonym "John Harrison" (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Section 31 corrupted Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller). The USS Enterprise is of course be a key location. Earth, specifically San Francisco and London, is also feature prominently. The opening scenes occur on a new primitive planet called Nibiru, while the Klingons and Qo'noS also feature later in the film. There is also a new Starfleet ship, the USS Vengeance, a Section 31 built warship, referred to as a dreadnought. The dreadnaught USS Vengeance

Home video releases Into Darkness got its initial home video release in August 2013, with advance availability as a digital download, ahead of disc releases in September. Like the previous film there were multiple release formats, with the film being offering on  3D bluray, standard bluray, or DVD. See details of extra features (and details of lack of extra features) plus an excerpt from one of the behind-the-scenes documentaries. In 2014, following fan backlash at the mishandling of retailer exclusive extra features, Paramount announced Star Trek: The Compendium, a four disc release of both nuTrek movies, including all the extra features, and some enw ones, for Into Darkness, as well as including the IMAX version of Into Darkness. In addition to the standard releases there are also multiple retail exclusive variants, including various steelbook designs, and other unique covers (you can see those here, and here). Amazon also offered a limited edition version of the 3D bluray release with a QMx phaser. In France and Germany the limited edition also featured steelbook packaging, while it Italy the package came with the 2D bluray. Limited edition bluray with phaser. Walmart in Canada also offering an exclusive version, with all formats they included an exclusive Klingon Mimobot USB stick/character. While Walmart in the US are offering Steelbook packaging, coupled with a Hot Wheels USS Vengeance: There have also been a couple of promotional covers, including one with a piece of meteorite. In some markets there will also be an Into Darkness/Star Trek two-pack, on either bluray or DVD. See the covers the UK and Italian versions of this, here.

Behind the Scenes USS Vengeance battle concept art. There have been several behind-the-scenes featurettes releases, and many of the artists who worked on the film have also shared their work: Concept art and set photos. Production artwork. Concept art from Xbox extra features. Klingon concept art.  Unused Klingon Bird of Prey design. Scenic concept art.  Creature design. Video deconstructing several effects sequences. ILM deconstruction video and equipment concept art. Effects video, and more concept art. USS Vengeance concept art and crash sequence effects video. Behind-the-scenes effects information. Time lapse of how a room at Bad Robot was used.  Making of the end-title sequence video. General promotional behind-the-scenes video. IMAX featurette.  Character/actor profiles on Kirk, Scotty, McCoy, Spock, John Harrison, Carol Marcus, Uhura, Sulu, and J.J. Abrams. Harrison deleted scene.  Deleted scenes and USS Vengeance concept art. Details of all deleted scenes, and more concept art.

Music The soundtrack, composed by Michael Giacchino, was released on the 14th of May 2013, by Varese Sarabande Records, on CD and download. Later in the year it was also released on Vinyl, the first Star Trek film soundtrack on vinyl in more than two decades! See covers and track-listing. The complete soundtrack was released in July 2014. There are some international variations of the soundtrack (see separate article for French version) with the track used in the nightclub scene having covers by six different artists, depending where in the world you are. In some markets the download version of the soundtrack came with the local version of this track as a bonus track. You can listen to twenty-two minutes of excerpts, as well as samples from every track. Or watch a performance of John Harrison's theme, a few clips from the recording of the soundtrack, and behind the scenes featurettes on the recordings. Select tracks from the soundtrack were released as a piano solo score, published by Hal Leonard. Giacchino's colleague, Chad Seiter, also wrote two hours of new music for the Star Trek video game, so we can only hope that gets some sort of release as well! You can listen to several tracks of the game's music.

Release formats and dates   The film was shot in 2D, with some parts filmed on IMAX cameras. The film was also be released in 3D, having been through post-production conversion. The film was therefore released in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D. The film first opened in the UK, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand on the 9th of May 2013. Many other countries, including North America, followed on the 16th and 17th. Countries that did not open in May had releases in the following months,with the latest release in Japan, on the 23rd of August. For a full list international release dates, click here. The world premier of the film took place in Sydney, Australia, on the 23rd of April.

Posters There have been many posters released for the film: First poster (pictured right) International variants Motion poster Giant versions International poster Motion poster UK poster  Japanese version International character banner poster  Individual character posters Scotty character poster Domestic poster (pictured top of page) Banner versions Billboard version  Domestic character posters  Harrison character poster Kirk character poster   Marcus, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov character posters  Mural version  Motion poster IMAX poster

Trailers and promotion Numerous trailers were released, with many international variations and different edits for TV. Links to trailers and screencap analysis: Longer trailers: "Announcement" - First trailer (1:03) "Teaser" - Second trailer (1:57) Teaser trailer attached to Oz the Great and Powerful (1:17) International theatrical trailer (2:15) Tweaked twitter version  3D version TV trailer (1:03)  Domestic theatrical trailer (2:31)   3D version Viral trailers: Harrison on Kirk viral trailer (0:43) Harrison on Spock viral trailer (0:43) Harrison on Uhura viral trailer (0:43) Short TV spots: "Big Game Ad" - Super-bowl trailer (0:33) German version German TV trailers (various)  UK TV trailer (0:31)  MTV trailer (0:31) US TV trailer (0:33) Japanese trailer (1:03)  South American TV trailer (0:31) TV trailer (0:32)  TV trailers (0:33 and 0:33) TV trailers (0:18 and 0:33)  TV trailers (6 at 0:31, and 4 German at 0:10)  1701 trailer (0:10), TV spot (0:18), music video (0:48)

Other promotion Spock's volcano mission, from the opening of the film. There were several previews of footage from the film: Attached to the IMAX release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was a nine minute preview of the opening scenes from the film.  Shown to press, was a thirty-eight minute preview of the opening, and two later sequences.  A short clip was played at the MTV Movie Awards. Another press screening played eighteen minutes, including the opening, and a different later sequence.  Several short clips were released online, see them here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Several promotional stills have been release, you can see those, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Cast promo photo on Empire cover. Promo photos were used on magazine covers, see: here, here, and here. The Star Trek movie website hosted trailers and links to other promotional devices, such as the mobile ap, which regularly released images, trailers and other bits. The Are You the 1701 site also released several images and videos, including a Starfleet report on John Harrison. Several companies cross-promoted with Into Darkness: The Esurance Facebook page had an app, with extras such as, this short behind-the-scenes video, as well as a series of amusing adverts featuring the starship USS not-the-Enterprise.  Acer had a website, which cross promoted its Iconia tablets and Aspire laptops. The site includes wallpapers using promo photos, and a series of adverts which inter-cut between footage of the film and laptops flying around like starships. They also auctioned a special Star Trek laptop.  Mazda released an advert, and a Facebook page ap, promoting the Mazda 6 car.  Japanese lubricant Kure 5-56 created an advert using footage from the film.  ESPN did a video featuring one of it's presenters in the film.  Several food comapnies promoted the film: See my round-up of other tie-ins, including KFC, Burger King, Fisherman's Friend, Cadbury's, Budwisers, Real D, and more!  There was also a Star Trek hotel room in Brazil. IMAX offered an exclusive print to viewers of the first IMAX screening of the film. Two versions were the released, the first batch with a red background, and another run with a blue background. See: details here, glow in the dark image here, and details of development work by the artist. IMAX FANFIX exclusive print

Tie-in stories There is to be a novelization of the film, which like the previous film's novelization, was written by Alan Dean Foster. This was also be released as an audiobook version, narrated by Alice Eve (who plays Carol Marcus in the film). You can see the cover, which uses the first poster art, here, and the audiobook version, here. Leading up to the film is a four-part comic miniseries, Countdown to Darkness, which leads into the events of the film in the same manner as Countdown for the previous film. See previews for issue 1, 2, 3, and 4. The Star Trek ongoing comic series also laid out hints and/or easter eggs for things we might notice in Into Darkness. Issue twenty-one of the series was the first story set after the film; the first of a three part story, After Darkness, which continues plot points from both Into Darkness and Countdown to Darkness. There is also a five-part prequel series on, titled Khan, which gives background on Khan both in the Eugenics Wars, and once he was awoken by Section 31 prior to the events of the film. The new Star Trek video game takes place between the two films as well. Like the ongoing comics, this is a stand-alone story between the films. Key articles on the game: Covers and pre-order bonus details. Pre-order bonus Kre-O set.  Trailers: here, here, here, and here. Shatner vs Gorn advert. Behind the scenes videos: here, here, here, and here. Game-play footage: here, here, here, and here. To promote the game there was also a simple browser game, New Vulcan: Reborn, where you helped to build the new Vulcan homeworld. There was also be a Prima Guide book for the game (see cover and blurb).

Toys and games Kre-O version of the new Klingon Bird of Prey The main Toy producer for Into Darkness is Hasbro, who have concentrated their efforts on construction sets in their Lego-compatable Kre-O range. The range includes model ships, locations, and collectable "kreon" figures. Articles with images of the Kre-O sets: First official images Toy Fair displays High quality images and packaging Kreon figures Animation  USS Vengeance set Fighter Pods USS Enterprise set Hasbro also launched a Star Trek range in their Fighter Pods brand, which will included some Into Darkness designs. Toy Fair displays. Attack pod photos Enterprise and figurines photos Star Surger Attack Pod photos  Hasbro did not release any action figures or role play items, so you'll have to fall back on your 2009 Playmates toys to fill that role. Mattel is also relaunched it's Hot Wheels Star Trek range, with including the USS Vengeance and Klingon Bird of Prey from Into Darkness (see images of the models and packaging). They have also released a new smaller scale model of the nuTrek USS Enterprise. Hot Wheels USS Vengeance and Bird of Prey Revell's nuEnterprise model kit In Germany, Revell released a model kit of the USS Enterprise. Star Trek: The Video Game is also getting a bit of it's own merchandise. There were Gorn figures in Hasbro's Kre-O and Fighter Pods ranges, as well as a Gorn Statue being released. Wizkids' latest Star Trek Heroclix game, the 2-Figure Mini-Game, was also launched around the same time as Into Darkness, and is based on nuTrek designs. Wizkids also released a Connect With Pieces puzzle/game based on the Into Darkness poster.

Other merchandise The Star Trek Magazine provided ongoing coverage of Into Darkness, including covers focusing on the film, and extended features. There is also a 2014 Star Trek Into Darkness calendar. High-end replica costume makers, Anovos, announced plans to make new and reappearing costumes from Into Darkness, including the black Starfleet undershirt seen worn by John Harrison. Rubie's Costumes will also reissued their nuTrek costumes, and releasing new costumes and props based on Harrison and the Klingons, see their range. QMx who produced many props used in the actual film, have also annouced a large range of replica items, including a new Starfleet Academy ring, phaser, Federation flag, re-issues of their Starfleet badges, and models of several Starships, including the USS Vengeance. QMx USS Vengeance model