FILM · 2013 · USA

Star Trek Into Darkness

Directed by

J.J. Abrams

Runtime

132 min

Studio

Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures, Skydance Media

69 archived facts · 6 topics · 1 source · Last reviewed Sep 2026

When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis. With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and…

Summary: TMDB

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10 Easter Eggs and References in Star Trek Into Darkness

1. #009

   One of the shuttles in the shuttle bay is named "Takei," a reference to the original Hikaru Sulu, George Takei.

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2. #021

   According to J. J. Abrams, the alternate-reality time-travel concept used in the previous film was a deliberate move to open a clean slate for the new films: "Now that we're in an independent timeline, this idea allows us to use any of the material from the past to create potential stories or to find brand-new material."

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3. #023

   As with the previous film, J. J. Abrams considered casting William Shatner in a secondary role but could find no way to fit it into the story.

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4. #026

   When Sulu calls the crew to the shuttle bay, he orders them to prepare the transport captured during the "Mudd incident last month," a reference to the same character who appeared as a rogue trader in Mudd's Women (1966) and I, Mudd (1967). It also appeared in the comic-book prequel "Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness."

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5. #028

   After the attack on the Kelvin Memorial Archive, all senior officials were summoned to the Daystrom Conference Room at Starfleet Headquarters. The conference room is named after Richard Daystrom, who invented the duotronic processor that formed the basis of the Enterprise's computer. The character was also the inventor of the faulty M-5 AI computer featured in The Ultimate Computer (1968).

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6. #034

   As Bones and Carol are about to open one of the 72 torpedoes to prove Khan's claim that there is more than a torpedo inside, Bones mentions that he once performed an emergency caesarean section on a pregnant Gorn and points out that "those little bastards bite!" This is a reference to an off-screen event tied to the Star Trek (2013) video game, in which Sulu stunned a pregnant Gorn and Bones performed the caesarean in question.

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7. #047

   When Captain Kirk first looks inside the torpedo, Bones is wearing the light blue doctor's shirt version of the Starfleet uniform (wide collar, short sleeves), a nod to the outfit DeForest Kelley regularly wore in the original series. Kelley's smock version bears the normal Starfleet insignia, while the Starfleet insignia on this updated uniform uniquely features a white and red cross. Karl Urban's version wears this variation of the uniform for the first time.

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8. #048

   In one of the conversations between Doctor McCoy and Captain Kirk, McCoy says: "Are you out of your corn-fed mind?" This is a reference to the fact that Kirk is from Iowa.

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9. #052

   The time gap between Star Trek (2009) and this film is covered in a comic book series published by IDW. The stories all consist of retellings of episodes from the original series, but placed within the new timeline and circumstances created by the events of the first film. Two of these stories concerned the crew's encounters with the Tribbles and with Harcourt Mudd, or with his daughter in the new timeline. Both of these stories were not only told in the original series but were also revisited in the animated series. Both stories are referenced here (the "Mudd Incident" and the Tribbles in Dr. McCoy's medical section), foreshadowing that this film would also revisit a story from the original series: Space Seed (1967). In Mudd's Women (1966), Mudd actually uses a false identity, just as Khan does here.

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10. #058

    This is Peter Weller's second "Star Trek" appearance. He had previously guest-starred as John Frederick Paxton in Demons (2005) and Terra Prime (2005). He played villains in both appearances.

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