The secret agenda of Star Trek Into Darkness

Posted December 24, 2012 - 12:08 by David Konow

With the new year just around the corner, it means that one of the most anticipated genre films in recent memory, Star Trek Into Darkness, is nearly upon us.

Well, actually it’s about five months away on May 17, 2013, but that time should fly by pretty fast. There’s still major speculation about the villain, who may be a whole new character named John Harrison, and those Khan rumors still won’t settle down.

We’ve already seen the teaser trailer for Darkness, as well as the first nine minutes of the film, which played before IMAX screenings of The Hobbit, and so far it looks terrific. And now there’s a new report on Cinema Blend where Benedict Cumberbatch goes into greater detail about playing the villain, without giving away too many spoilers.

First of all, who is this John Harrison guy? Well, actually, Mr. Top Secret himself JJ Abrams clued us in. As Abrams told GyaO!,

"His name is John Harrison and he is sort of an average guy who works in an organization called Starfleet. He turns against the group because he has got this back story and this amazing secret agenda. After two very violent attacks, one in London and one in the U.S., our characters have to go after this guy and apprehend him. It is a far more complicated and difficult thing than they ever anticipated."

Even though Abrams has said that the next Star Trek won’t be like the increasingly darker Christopher Nolan Batman films, this may indeed be a much tougher Trek than before. Abrams continued that Into Darkness “is very much about how intense it gets and what they are up against.”

Cumberbatch himself said that when JJ described the role of Harrison to him, "he described someone who was, in movie terms, a mixture of Hannibal Lecter, Jack in The Shining, and the Joker in Batman. He’s someone who has enormous physical strength. He’s someone who is incredibly dangerous." Also like the recent incarnations of the Batman villains, Harrison "performs acts of what I would describe as terrorism."

As Chris Pine told the site ComicBookMovie, "Benedict is a great actor and portraying a really complex and layered bad guy in this film. Benedict plays a guy who is just as physical and just as strong as [the ’09 villain Nero], but who’s real weapon is the fact that he is a master manipulator and is able to use the weaknesses of the crew to his advantage and against them. A psychological force to be reckoned with."

Sound exciting so far? To us at TG, it definitely sounds like Trek Into Darkness could indeed be a sequel that could be on par, if not better, than the first Abrams installment.