My theory on Into Darkness

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS! IT'S PROBABLY JUST MY CRAZY THEORY, BUT I'M WARNING YOU ANYWAYS, FOR THOSE THAT REALLY DON'T LIKE DISCUSSING PLOT DETAILS.





So as we all know by now, Benedict Cumberbatch is playing a character named "John Harrison". Khan was rumored for a long time to be a featured charater in this movie, but there's been no mention of him and no official sighting. The press release states that Cumberbatch is playing "John Harrison", but who is this John Harrison? There's no mention of him in previous Trek lore. Some believe that he may just be a renamed Charlie X or Gary Mitchell, perhaps even an amalgam of both.

We've been led to believe that Khan is not in this movie and that John Harrison is the villian. After watching the trailer closely a few times and looking back at some very old articles on Into Darkness, before it even had that name, I have a theory.

John Harrison is not THE villian, he's a "villian". I think John will be a new villian in Trek lore, but have many elements in common with Gary Mitchell, perhaps some Charlie X as well. But mostly I think he's going to be a re-envisioned version of Gary Mitchell. I think John will a major antagonist throughout the film, but I think his mission, is a means to an end. His end goal you ask? Free Khan and the other genetically engineered soldiers.

I think he'll be on a mission to free/unthaw/awaken Khan and his bretheren and this clearly puts him at odds with Starfleet. However, the twist, I believe, is going to be that John's not such a bad guy afterall. John's "villianous" act of defying Starfleet and trying to free Khan will be out of desperation. I think he'll believe that Khan and an army of genetically enginnered soldiers will be the only thing to save the Federation from....THE KLINGONS!

Yes, I think the Klingons will be a major part of the plot and the drive for Harrion's actions. We know the Klingons are in the film, we know we'll see their homeworld. I believe we're going to see a lot of Starfleet vs. Klingon battles taking place.

Think about it, after the events of the first film, Starfleet is going to be weakend. The Narada destroyed a significant number of ships and the Vulcan homeworld was destroyed. Not to mention that clearly there is some other large fleet engagement going on as Captain Pike references "join up with the rest of the fleet in the Laurentian system". Could the reason the fleet is in the Laurentian system is because they're engaged with the Klingons and in Into Darkness we're going to see that conflict? What if Starfleet is getting whooped by the Klingons and because of the events of the first film and the Klingons winning the war agains the Federation, John Harrison feels that in order to save the Federation/Starfleet he'll have to unleash a weapon they've forbid (Khan/genetically engineered soldiers).

I also think it's possible that it will be revealed that John himself was the recepient of some genetic upgrades and that'll explain why he does some of the crazy stuff he does in the trailer. Could Peter Weller's character be a reprisal or clone or descendent of the character John Paxton from the Enterprise series? That character was quite concerned with human superiority and "saving" humanity. Perhaps it is his company that created Khan an d the other genetically engineered soldiers and perhaps it is his company that "upgrades" John Harrison.

The reason I think Khan is in this fim is because if you watch the trailer, you can see a scene where it looks like it's John walking out of a room filled with cryostatis chambers. As he's walking out of the room, he's walking with a 2nd man on his left, a man, with a much bigger build than him.

Again, just my theory. But I think that Khan being revealed will be the big surprise of the movie.