Rebel Moon's Plot Explained, Since The Trailer Told Us Nothing

There's nothing tougher than watching a movie trailer and realizing you just learned absolutely nothing about the product the studio is trying to sell you. The dazzling clip reel for Zack Snyder's "Rebel Moon," his upcoming two-part Netflix-exclusive film, reveals very little of the movie's plot but does deliver some very memorable images, including the sight of fearsome-looking creatures, intense battles, and peaceful-looking landscapes.

If you were confused about the storyline behind "Rebel Moon," the official plot summary for it reads as follows: "When a peaceful colony on the edge of a galaxy finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival. Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Mother World, Kora assembles a small band of warriors — outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds who share a common need for redemption and revenge. As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a battle over the fate of a galaxy is waged, and in the process, a new army of heroes is formed."

It sounds as if Snyder's going to combine a good old-fashioned one-rebel-against-the-forces-of-evil plotline with the story of a group of ragtag misfits coming together to form an eventually-elite squad of fighters. Naturally, they're all here to save the innocent from the forces of evil. Since this is a Zack Snyder picture and the director is quite fond of reflecting the difficult ups and downs of being a moral individual who's stuck in conflict with wickedness, one can expect Kora's road to be a bumpy one.

It appears that Kora's team of fighters will be a little less than elite at the start of the movie, but they certainly sound unusual enough to intrigue audiences into watching them. The rest of the team is comprised of fellow farmer Gunnar (Michiel Huisman); Jimmy (voice of Anthony Hopkins), a knight who is gallant but disillusioned by nature and also a robot; Kai (Charlie Hunnam) a mercenary and pilot; General Titus (Djimon Hounsou) an ex-gladiator for the Imperium forces who has switched sides to join the rebellion; Tarak (Staz Nair) who was once royalty but now lives in servitude; cyborg Nemesis (Bae Doona) who has studied the blade; Milius (E. Duffy) a justice-hungry refugee from another world which has already been conquered; and Darrian (Ray Fisher) and Devra Bloodaxe (Cleopatra Coleman), who happens to be siblings.

This group of ragtag soldiers bands together under deserter Kora's teaching to face down the Imperium army, represented by Atticus Noble (Ed Skrein), a tyrant of an admiral and his superior and ruler of their ranks, Balisarius (Fra Fee). Will Veldt be left intact by the end of the fighting? Or will the planet's citizenry be forced to surrender to the Imperium incursion for once and for all? 

Viewers will get part of that answer when "Rebel Moon Part One: A Child of Fire" hits the streamer on December 22. But the conclusion of the adventures of Kora won't arrive on Netflix until April 19, 2024, when "Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver" will be released.