Star Trek Into Darkness Featurette Shows Kirk And Khan Hurtling Through Space
“Shooting real elements adds a truth to the scene.”
Although Star Trek Into Darkness may not be the best of J.J. Abrams Trek reboots, it has some thrilling, albeit recycled, action sequences of the film. One of the more exciting scenes in the sequel film was the ship-to-ship space jump, which is reminiscent of the space dive scene from the first Star Trek, only with space debris. This new featurette highlights how Abrams and the production team at Bad Robot made that scene a reality.
Here’s the situation. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) need to get from the Enterprise to the Vengeance without teleporting because Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller) disabled it, while the only vulnerable point-of-entry for the unlikely pair is a small opening in the cargo bay. How do they complete their mission? They space jump, that’s how.
This featurette is fascinating. It takes a really good look at how Abrams pulled off this bit of filmmaking magic. When you boil down how the scene was made, both Pine and Cumberbatch are just standing on top of a green screen and reacting to nothing, but the end result is so convincing.
The only problem of the scene is that it’s far too reminiscent of the Death Star Trench scene from the original Star Wars and the aforementioned space dive scene. This points to one of my biggest problems with Into Darkness, that it feels and looks too much like its predecessor without doing anything new. It was disappointing when nothing expanded or built upon the last film. Into Darkness is really just a rehash of the 2009 film, not to mention The Wrath of Khan.
The featurette moves on to the next scene after the space jump with Scotty (Simon Pegg) helping Kirk and Khan in the Vengeance. One of the more interesting twists in the film is why Kirk and Khan have to work together to take down Marcus, and this video showcases how Abrams’ production team turned a gigantic airplane hanger into the set for the mighty star ship. This is a really good look at Abrams at work as a director. I swear, there are moments when you actually think he’s making Star Wars: Episode VII.
Looking back at the improbable team-up between Kirk and Khan, and it’s a shame that the writers didn’t run with this idea. If Khan would’ve became an ally with the Enterprise instead of an enemy, Abrams alternative timeline reality would’ve meant something big to the franchise. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but for a moment in the sequel, the direction of the series could’ve amounted to something far more interesting.
