New Star Trek Into Darkness Plot Synopsis Offers Fresh Clues

JJ Abrams and Paramount have done a pretty good job of keeping us all in the dark about Star Trek into Darkness, which means even the tiniest of scraps of information are suddenly significant. It doesn’t get any tinier than this: Star Trek into Darkness has a brand new, official plot synopsis. Here it is as we got it from Paramount:

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.

Actually what’s more interesting than the newness of it, are what the differences between the old one and this one. Here’s how the previous official synopsis read:

In Summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

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.

Two big changes worth noting here:

First, the new synopsis makes it clear that Kirk is acting without orders. Historically, Kirk is kind of big on disobeying orders to do what he thinks is right, but this is the first indication we’ve had that thumbing his news at Starfleet is his mode of operation in this movie.

Second: Kirk is hunting down “those responsible”. Apparently Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain character isn’t just some lone, super-being but actually has an organization or a group supporting him in some way. To me that makes it pretty unlikely he’s the classic Trek villain Gary Mitchell, as some have suggested. Mitchell is not a team player.