Star Trek Into Darkness Shows Off Its End, And R2-D2 Stops By For A Visit
This article is more than 2 years old
One of the best parts of Star Trek Into Darkness is when it finally ends. The closing credits sequence blends the theme song from the original TV show with Michael Giacchino’s new music. It’s a perfect mix. The closing credits also feature numerous cosmic bodies like planets, moons, and asteroid belts that hint to the next film’s possible direction, finally moving beyond that five-year mission. Maybe the Star Trek film series can get back to, you know, exploring space. But while they do that, they may have an interesting, and unnoticed passenger.
This new video shows how director J.J. Abrams and visual effects company Video Co-Pilot created the sequence using Adobe’s After Effects & Element 3D software. It also showcases Abrams pension for lens flares in damn near every shot of all of his movies. Why just entertain an audience when you can blind them too? Finally there’s video proof that Abrams goes out of his way to add as many lens flares as possible.
While the footage is interesting and informative, the video host Andrew Kramer needs to be told he’s not as funny as he thinks. To be fair, he’s not really an on air personality, but rather a visual effects artist. Regardless, the closing credits of Into Darkness are pretty cool. I wonder which retailer has this video as an exclusive bonus feature.
CAUTION: SPOILERS BELOW!
It’s been a busy week, Star Trek wise. Writer Roberto Orci apologized to fans for telling them off for not liking his movie, and his writing partner Alex Kurtzman defended killing off Captain Kirk in a lame attempt to reference The Wrath of Khan, only to bring Kirk back to life 10 minutes later with the aid of John Harrison’s super blood (you heard me). Beyond all of that, an interesting, and telling, Easter egg was found in the Star Trek sequel. The sharp-eyed folks at io9 spotted a curious figure getting sucked into the vacuum of space. Apparently, Abrams added R2-D2 during the space battle between the Enterprise and the Vengeance.
Abrams never made it a secret that he was a bigger fan of Star Wars than of Star Trek, so any attempt to add a piece of Star Wars into his Star Trek film series will be happily taken. Of course, Abrams added R2-D2 before he got the Star Wars: Episode VII directing job. Coincidence, or sign of things to come?
This also isn’t the first time that Abrams added the diminutive droid to one of his films. In the first Star Trek you can spot R2 drifting through space when the Enterprise runs into Nero’s ship, the Narada. Apparently, R2-D2 can also be seen in the tail end of the Enterprise as if the ship were an X-Wing. Perhaps Abrams put R2-D2 in his Star Trek films as a way to subliminally sending messages to Lucasfilm asking for the Star Wars directing job. Nevertheless, Abrams also confirmed that he won’t be back as the to direct Star Trek 3.
Star Trek Into Darkness is now available on Blu-ray/DVD ora as a digital download. Its bonus features, on the other hand, are spread throughout a large array of retail exclusive sets.
