“Sabotage” by The Beastie Boys is a great song. No one’s denying that. But are we really meant to understand that, almost 250 years in the future, this one song is so awesome, everyone knows it and loves it and still listens to it? It was cute when preteen James T. Kirk stole the car of his mom’s boyfriend and went on a joyride through the fields of Iowa in the 2009 reboot, and we all got to hear the song as he drove the car off a cliff. But we’re three movies deep into the new series, and we’re supposed to just keep listening to “Sabotage” with each new installment? Come on, people.
Anyway, a short teaser trailer for the upcoming Star Trek Beyond was released today, and it’s a bit jarring, as the aforementioned song plays throughout the entire minute-and-a-half montage. The trailer doesn’t exactly scream “Hey, new Star Trek movie,” but then again, old-school contrarians will claim that very little about the new series says “Star Trek” to them anyway. Beyond that, it gives away very little: The Enterprise appears to be destroyed, with Kirk and his team marooned on a mysterious planet, the odds once more stacked against them. Will they come out victorious? Or will this be the Star Trek film that ends with everyone dying, as Chekhov stands over their lifeless bodies, sadly murmuring, “It’s wirtually wery unlikely this could happen”?
On July 22, 2016, Simon Pegg’s script and Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin behind the camera will answer that latter question. (Spoiler alert: The answer is “No, they won’t all be dead.”)