Star Trek Into Darkness

Those hoping to get some definitive answers on who or what is creating the darkness that will be Star Trekked into, this teaser for J.J. Abrams' sequel doesn't offer much in the way of closure. It's mostly a montage of mass destruction, shocked and screaming faces, and the obligatory intense horn blasts—a Star Trek Into BWAAAMPness that tells us little beyond what we already know, plot-wise. Again, Benedict Cumberbatch's villain has returned from… somewhere, seeking vengeance that may or not be wrathful, and not even the pleasant curl of his proper British pronunciation can mask his righteous anger at the Enterprise crew or the entire Earth.

Is he Khan? Gary Mitchell? An alternate-timeline version of Jean-Luc Picard? A particularly well-groomed Tribble? All of these possibilities except the Tribble thing have their defenders; none of them are conclusively borne out by this minute of footage. We'll likely learn more once the first nine minutes of the film debut before IMAX screenings of The Hobbit beginning Dec. 14, followed thereafter by the full trailer. But in the meantime, there's plenty in this teaser to have the message boards going crazy—particularly when you add in this Japanese version, which tacks on an extra scene that seems to nod overtly to a classic Star Trek movie moment. (Not the one where Spock knocks out the punk with the boom box, but another, almost as classic one.)