‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2′ Trailer Introduces a Populist Villain & New Music by Trent Reznor

A new trailer for "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2," the latest entry in the massively successful video game franchise, juxtaposes big explosions with two no-less stunning revelations: the big bad guy has a complicated history with America, and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor is composing the title's theme song.

According to developer Treyarch, "Black Ops 2"'s chief antagonist Raul Menendez is widely considered a hero by the economically downtrodden, earning the provocative nickname "The Messiah of the 99%." The studio has called upon David S. Goyer (co-writer, "The Dark Knight Rises") to breathe life into the character. In the game, Menendez brazenly hijacks near-future American war machines and turns them against their creators: us.

Keeping with the futuristic formula, which is a first for the series, Trent Reznor told USA Today that composing "Black Ops 2"'s theme song meant eschewing the traditional -- something the Grammy Award-winning musician is familiar with.

What I learned in listening to the full story and the amount of effort that has gone into the back story and the characters and the full preparation (is) there is a lot of reservation and angst and sense of loss and regret and anger bubbling under the surface. So it didn't make sense to have a gung ho, patriotic feeling theme song. It has to feel weighty. There is a lot of remorse and apprehension here. So choosing to arrange it a bit more with guitars and drums and aggressively sounding, that struck a tone with them.

Check out the "Villain" trailer below: