Giant Freakin Robot

Damn Spock and his rationality.

We already knew that Star Trek Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams’ sequel to his 2009 franchise reboot, is going to be, well, much darker than its predecessor, but damn does this first official clip from the film drive that point home. It’s been suggested that maybe all of your favorite crew members from the Enterprise may not make it out alive, and things definitely look grim for these particular members of Starfleet.

Not only are the majority of them hiding far beneath the surface of the ocean—it looks like they’ve been doing some scuba diving as well in those skin tight body suits—but one of them, Spock (Zachary Quinto) is grave danger. We finally get to see real life footage of the Vulcan first officer in the mouth of that lava-spewing volcano we’ve only seen glimpses of up to now.

The countdown to the J.J. Abrams directed Star Trek Into Darkness is entering the final phase, the phase where we’ve all got our tickets to the first IMAX showing at midnight and are contemplating how we’re going to call out sick the morning after. And maybe go see the movie again. That’s the day when we’ll finally find out the truth about Benedict Cumberbatch’s villain. Is it really a guy named John Harrison, as we’ve been told time after time? Or is he truly Khan Noonien Singh, like so many people seem to believe?

Regardless of what name he goes by, or if he connects to the larger Trek mythology, he’s is absolutely terrifying. We’ve seen that time and again, but never has it been on such prominent display as in this latest Into Darkness promotional spot. Cumberbatch’s monologue, a direct threat to one Captain James Tiberius Kirk (Chris Pine), will make your blood run cold. You’ll also hope that you never manage to piss anyone off like Kirk has pissed off this guy.

The final Star Trek Into Darkness trailer dropped this morning, and it’s a doozie. It’s one jaw-dropping sequence after another, and you can see every penny of its reported $185 million budget up on the screen. If Into Darkness can deliver even half of what it teases in this trailer, it’ll be enough for me to forget all about my issues with J.J. Abrams‘ first Trek outing.

There’s a lot to see in the new trailer, including several tantalizing looks at a mysterious vessel up above, which we presume to be under the command of the villainous John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch). It’s clearly of Starfleet design, but it’s significantly bigger than the Enterprise and looks to be sporting some serious firepower. We’re guessing that sucker is going to be responsible for those shots of the Enterprise falling out of the sky, trailing smoke.

There are several distinct sequences you can see playing out here. There’s Harrison’s attack on Starfleet where he is blasting up a conference room. There’s a chase where Spock is pursuing Harrison on foot. You’ve got Harrison tussling with some Klingons, with one picture giving us a really clear, close-up shot of the iconic Trek villain. And there’s a space battle between the Enterprise and the massive dark vessel that looks to be kicking Enterprise‘s ass. I can’t wait to see more.

Check out the full gallery below. Star Trek Into Darkness opens on May 17th. You better believe our asses will be in the seats.

It’s no surprise that the notoriously secretive J.J. Abrams has done his level best to keep all of Star Trek Into Darkness’ mysteries tight under wraps. But what he has released into the world, in the form of trailers, has been calculated to up the ante each time, and the final Into Darkness trailer above is easily the most epic yet.

There’s a lot of familiar footage — Kirk and Bones sprinting through a forest of red alien foliage, Pike (Bruce Greenwood) giving Kirk words of both warning and encouragement, Harrison’s attack on a Starfleet meeting of some sort. But aside from tossing in some amazing-looking action sequences, this trailer also has one crucial thing worth noting. Namely, it looks like John Harrison has a ship. A big damn ship.