Star Trek (2009)

''Star Trek'' is a 2009 American science fiction action film directed by J. J. Abrams and written by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. It is the 11th film in the ''Star Trek'' franchise, and is also a reboot that features the main characters of the original ''Star Trek'' television series portrayed by a new cast, as the first in the rebooted film series. The film follows James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) aboard the USS ''Enterprise'' as they combat Nero (Eric Bana), a Romulan from their future who threatens the United Federation of Planets. The story takes place in an alternate reality that features both an alternate birth location for James T. Kirk and further alterations in history stemming from the time travel of both Nero and the original series Spock (Leonard Nimoy). The alternate reality was created in an attempt to free the film and the franchise from established continuity constraints while simultaneously preserving original story elements.

The idea for a prequel film which would follow the ''Star Trek'' characters during their time in Starfleet Academy was discussed by series creator Gene Roddenberry in 1968. The concept resurfaced in the late 1980s, when it was postulated by Harve Bennett as a possible plotline for what would become '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', but it was rejected in favor of other projects by Roddenberry. Following the critical and commercial failure of '' Star Trek: Nemesis'' and the cancellation of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', the franchise's executive producer Rick Berman and screenwriter Erik Jendresen wrote an unproduced film titled ''Star Trek: The Beginning'', which would take place after ''Enterprise''. After the separation of Viacom and CBS Corporation in 2005, former Paramount Pictures president Gail Berman convinced CBS to allow Paramount to produce a new film in the franchise. Orci and Kurtzman were soon approached to write the film, and Abrams was approached to direct it. Kurtzman and Orci used inspiration from novels and graduate school dissertations, as well as the series itself. Principal photography commenced on November 7, 2007, and ended on March 27, 2008. The film was shot in locations around California and Utah. Abrams wanted to avoid using bluescreen and greenscreen, opting to use sets and locations instead. Heavy secrecy surrounded the film's production and was under the fake working title ''Corporate Headquarters''. Industrial Light & Magic used digital ships for the film, as opposed to miniatures used in most of the previous films in the franchise. Production for the film concluded by the end of 2008.

''Star Trek'' was heavily promoted in the months preceding its release; pre-release screenings for the film premiered in select cities around the world, including Austin, Texas, Sydney, Australia, and Calgary, Alberta. It was released in the United States and Canada on May 8, 2009, to critical acclaim. The film was a box office success, grossing over $385.7 million worldwide against its $150 million production budget. It was nominated for several awards, including four Academy Awards at the 82nd Academy Awards, ultimately winning Best Makeup, making it the first (and to date only) ''Star Trek'' film to win an Academy Award. It was followed by the sequels ''Star Trek Into Darkness'' and ''Star Trek Beyond'' in 2013 and 2016, respectively.

Plot

In 2233, the Federation starship USS ''Kelvin'' investigates a "lightning storm" in space. A Romulan ship, ''Narada'', emerges from the storm and attacks the ''Kelvin'', then demands that ''Kelvin''s Captain Robau come aboard to negotiate a truce. Robau is questioned about the current stardate and an "Ambassador Spock", whom he does not recognize. ''Narada''s commander, Nero, kills him, and resumes attacking the ''Kelvin''. George Kirk, ''Kelvin''s first officer, orders the ship's personnel, including his pregnant wife Winona, to abandon ship while he pilots the ''Kelvin'' on a collision course with ''Narada''. Kirk sacrifices his life to ensure Winona's survival as she gives birth to James Tiberius Kirk.

Seventeen years later on the planet Vulcan, a young Spock is admitted to the Vulcan Science Academy. Realizing that the Academy views his human mother, Amanda, as a "disadvantage", he joins Starfleet instead. On Earth, Kirk becomes a reckless but intelligent adult. Following a bar fight with Starfleet cadets accompanying Nyota Uhura, Kirk meets Captain Christopher Pike, who encourages him to enlist in Starfleet Academy, where Kirk meets and befriends doctor Leonard McCoy. Three years later, Commander Spock accuses Kirk of cheating during the ''Kobayashi Maru'' simulation. Kirk argues that cheating was acceptable because the simulation was designed to be unbeatable. The disciplinary hearing is interrupted by a distress signal from Vulcan. With the primary fleet out of range, the cadets are mobilized. McCoy and Kirk board Pike's ship, the .

Realizing that the "lightning storm" observed near Vulcan is similar to the one that occurred when he was born, Kirk convinces Pike that the distress signal is a trap. When the ''Enterprise'' arrives, they find the fleet destroyed and ''Narada'' drilling into Vulcan's core. ''Narada'' attacks ''Enterprise'' and Pike surrenders, delegating command of the ship to Spock and promoting Kirk to first officer. Kirk, Hikaru Sulu, and Chief Engineer Olson perform a space jump onto the drilling platform. While Olson is killed mid-jump, Kirk and Sulu disable the drill, but are unable to stop Nero launching "red matter" into Vulcan's core, forming an artificial black hole that destroys Vulcan. The ''Enterprise'' rescues Spock's father, Sarek, and the high council before the planet's destruction, but Amanda falls to her death before the transporter can lock onto her. As ''Narada'' approaches Earth, Nero tortures Pike to gain access to Earth's defense codes.

Spock maroons Kirk on Delta Vega after he attempts mutiny. On the planet, Kirk encounters an older Spock from an alternate timeline, who explains that he and Nero are from 2387. In the future, Romulus was threatened by a supernova, which Spock attempted to stop with red matter. His plan failed, resulting in Nero's family perishing along with Romulus, while the ''Narada'' and Spock's vessel were caught in the black hole and sent back in time. They were sent back 25 years apart, during which time Nero attacked the ''Kelvin'', changing history and creating a parallel universe. After Spock's arrival, Nero stranded him on Delta Vega to watch Vulcan's destruction. Reaching a Starfleet outpost, Kirk and the elder Spock meet Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, who devises a trans-warp transporter system, allowing him and Kirk to beam onto ''Enterprise''.

Following the elder Spock's advice, Kirk provokes younger Spock into attacking him, forcing Spock to recognize himself as emotionally compromised and relinquish command to Kirk. After talking with Sarek, Spock decides to help Kirk. While ''Enterprise'' hides within the gas clouds of Titan, Kirk and Spock beam aboard ''Narada''. Kirk fights Nero and rescues Pike, while Spock uses the elder Spock's ship to destroy the drill. Spock leads ''Narada'' away from Earth and sets his ship to collide with ''Narada''. ''Enterprise'' beams Kirk, Pike, and Spock aboard. The older Spock's ship and ''Narada'' collide, igniting the red matter. ''Narada'' is consumed in a black hole that ''Enterprise'' barely escapes.

Kirk is promoted to captain and given command of ''Enterprise'', while Pike is promoted to rear admiral. Spock encounters his older self, who persuades his younger self to continue serving in Starfleet, encouraging him to do what feels right rather than what is logical. Spock becomes first officer under Kirk's command. ''Enterprise'' goes to warp as the elder Spock speaks the "where no one has gone before" monologue.

Cast

* Chris Pine as James T. Kirk: Pine described his first audition as awful, because he could not take himself seriously as a leader. Chris Pratt also auditioned. Abrams did not see Pine's first audition, and it was only after Pine's agent met Abrams' wife that the director decided to give him another audition opposite Quinto. Quinto was supportive of Pine's casting because they knew each other as they worked out at the same gym. After getting the part, Pine sent William Shatner a letter and received a reply containing Shatner's approval. Pine watched classic episodes and read encyclopedias about the ''Star Trek'' universe, but stopped as he felt weighed down by the feeling he had to copy Shatner. Pine felt he had to show Kirk's "humor, arrogance and decisiveness," but not Shatner's speech pattern, which would have bordered on imitation. Pine said when watching the original series, he was also struck by how Shatner's performance was characterized by humor. Instead, Pine chose to incorporate elements of Tom Cruise from ''Top Gun'' and Harrison Ford's portrayals of Indiana Jones and Han Solo.
** Jimmy Bennett as Young Kirk.
* Zachary Quinto as Spock: Quinto expressed interest in the role because of the duality of Spock's half-human, half Vulcan heritage, and how "he is constantly exploring that notion of how to evolve in a responsible way and how to evolve in a respectful way. I think those are all things that we as a society, and certainly the world, could implement." He mentioned he heard about the new film and revealed his interest in the role in a December 2006 interview with the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'': the article was widely circulated and he attracted Abrams' interest. For the audition, Quinto wore a blue shirt and flattened his hair down to feel more like Spock. He bound his fingers to practice the Vulcan salute, shaved his eyebrows and grew and dyed his hair for the role. He conveyed many of Spock's attributes, such as his stillness and the way Nimoy would hold his hands behind his back. Quinto commented the physical transformation aided in portraying an alien, joking "I just felt like a nerd. I felt like I was 12 again. You look back at those pictures and you see the bowl cut. There's no question I was born to play the Spock role. I was sporting that look for a good four or five years." Adrien Brody had discussed playing the role with the director before Quinto was cast.
** Jacob Kogan as Young Spock.
* Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime: Nimoy reprises the role of the older Spock from the original ''Star Trek'' timeline. He was a longtime friend of Abrams' parents, but became better acquainted with Abrams during filming. Although Quinto watched some episodes of the show during breaks in filming, Nimoy was his main resource in playing Spock. Abrams and the writers met Nimoy at his house; writer Roberto Orci recalled that the actor gave a Who are you guys and what are you up to?' vibe" before being told how important he was to them. He was silent, and Nimoy's wife Susan Bay told the creative team he had remained in his chair after their conversation, emotionally overwhelmed by his decision after turning down many opportunities to revisit the role. Had Nimoy disliked the script, production would have been delayed for it to be rewritten. Nimoy later said, "This is the first and only time I ever had a filmmaker say, 'We cannot make this film without you and we won't make it without you'". He was "genuinely excited" by the script's scope and its detailing of the characters' backstories, saying, "We have dealt with pock's being half-human, half-Vulcan but never with quite the overview that this script has of the entire history of the character, the growth of the character, the beginnings of the character and the arrival of the character into the ''Enterprise'' crew." Abrams commented, "It was surreal to direct him as Spock, because what the hell am I doing there? This guy has been doing it for forty years. It's like 'I think Spock would.... Leonard Nimoy voices the "Space, the final frontier..." lines at the end of the film, lines which were voiced by William Shatner in the original TV series and original cast films.
* Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Like Pine, Urban said of taking on the role that "it is a case of not doing some sort of facsimile or carbon copy, but really taking the very essence of what DeForest Kelley has done and honoring that and bringing something new to the table". Urban has been a fan of the show since he was seven years old and actively pursued the role after rediscovering the series on DVD with his son. Urban was cast at his first audition, which was two months after his initial meeting with Abrams. He said he was happy to play a comedy-heavy role, something he had not done since ''The Price of Milk'', because he was tired of action-oriented roles. When asked why McCoy is so cantankerous, Urban joked the character might be a "little bipolar actually!" Orci and Kurtzman had collaborated with Urban on '' Xena: Warrior Princess'', in which he played Cupid and Caesar.
* Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura: Abrams had liked her work and requested that she play the role. Saldana never saw the original series, though she had played a Trekkie in ''The Terminal'' (2004), but agreed to play the role after Abrams had complimented her. "For an actor, that's all you need, that's all you want. To get the acknowledgment and respect from your peers," she said. She met with Nichelle Nichols, who explained to her how she had created Uhura's background, and also named the character. Saldana's mother was a ''Star Trek'' fan and sent her voice mails during filming, giving advice on the part. Sydney Tamiia Poitier also auditioned for the part. The film officially establishes the character's first name, which had never been previously uttered on TV or in film.
* Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott: Abrams contacted Pegg by e-mail, offering him the part. To perform Scotty's accent, Pegg was assisted by his wife Maureen, who is from Glasgow, although Pegg said Scotty was from Linlithgow and wanted to bring a more East Coast sound to his accent, so his resulting performance is a mix of both accents that leans towards the West sound. He was also aided by Tommy Gormley, the film's Glaswegian first assistant director. Pegg described Scotty as a positive Scottish stereotype, noting "Scots are the first people to laugh at the fact that they drink and fight a bit", and that Scotty comes from a long line of Scots with technical expertise, such as John Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell. Years before, Pegg's character in ''Spaced'' joked that every odd-numbered ''Star Trek'' film being "shit" was a fact of life. Pegg noted "Fate put me in the movie to show me I was talking out of my ass."
* John Cho as Hikaru Sulu: Abrams was concerned about casting a Korean-American as a Japanese character, but George Takei explained to the director that Sulu was meant to represent all of Asia on the ''Enterprise'', so Abrams went ahead with Cho. Cho acknowledged being an Asian-American, "there are certain acting roles that you are never going to get, and one of them is playing a cowboy. laying Suluis a realization of that dream — going into space." He cited the masculinity of the character as being important to him, and spent two weeks fight training. Cho suffered an injury to his wrist during filming, although a representative assured it was "no big deal". James Kyson Lee was interested in the part, but because Quinto was cast as Spock, the producers of the TV show ''Heroes'' did not want to lose another cast member for three months.
* Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov: As with the rest of the cast, Yelchin was allowed to choose what elements there were from their predecessor's performances. Yelchin decided to carry on Walter Koenig's speech patterns of replacing "v"s with "w"s, although he and Abrams felt this was a trait more common of Polish accents than Russian ones. He described Chekov as an odd character, being a Russian who was brought on to the show "in the middle of the Cold War". He recalled a "scene where they're talking to Apollo ho says 'I am Apollo.' And Chekov is like, 'And I am the czar of all Russias.' ..They gave him these lines. I mean he really is the weirdest, weirdest character."
* Eric Bana as Captain Nero: The film's time-traveling Romulan villain. Bana shot his scenes toward the end of filming. He was "a huge Trekkie when ewas a kid", but had not seen the films. Even if he were "crazy about the original series", he would not have accepted the role unless he liked the script, which he deemed "awesome" once he read it. Bana knew Abrams because they coincidentally shared the same agent. Bana improvised the character's speech patterns.
* Bruce Greenwood as Christopher Pike: The captain of the ''Enterprise''.
* Ben Cross as Sarek: Spock's father.
* Winona Ryder as Amanda Grayson: Spock's mother.
* Clifton Collins, Jr. as Ayel: Nero's first officer.
* Chris Hemsworth as George Kirk: Kirk's father, who died aboard the USS ''Kelvin'' while battling the Romulans. before Hemsworth was cast, Abrams met with Matt Damon about playing the role.
* Jennifer Morrison as Winona Kirk: Kirk's mother.
* Rachel Nichols as Gaila: An Orion Starfleet cadet.
* Faran Tahir as Richard Robau: Captain of the USS ''Kelvin''.
* Deep Roy as Keenser: Scotty's alien assistant on Delta Vega.
* Greg Ellis as Chief Engineer Olson: The redshirt who is killed during the space jump.
* Tyler Perry as Admiral Richard Barnett: The head of Starfleet Academy.
* Amanda Foreman as Hannity, a Starfleet officer on the ''Enterprise'' bridge.
* Spencer Daniels as Johnny, a childhood friend of Kirk. Daniels was set to play his older brother, George Samuel "Sam" Kirk, Jr., but the majority of his scenes were cut and James Kirk's callout was overdubbed.
* Victor Garber as Klingon Interrogator, the officer who tortures Nero during his time on Rura Penthe. His scene was cut from the film and was featured on the DVD.

Chris Doohan, the son of the original Scotty, James Doohan, makes a cameo appearance in the transporter room. Pegg e-mailed Doohan about the role of Scotty, and the actor has promised him his performance "would be a complete tribute to his father". Chris Doohan previously cameoed in '' Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. Greg Grunberg has a vocal cameo as Kirk's alcoholic stepfather. Brad William Henke filmed scenes in the role which were cut out. ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' star Dominic Keating also auditioned for the role. Grunberg was up for the role of Olson but dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. Grunberg was also interested in playing Harry Mudd, who was in an early draft of the script. Paul McGillion auditioned for Scotty, and he impressed producers enough that he was given another role as a 'Barracks Leader'. James Cawley, producer and star of the webseries '' Star Trek: New Voyages'', appears as a Starfleet officer, while Pavel Lychnikoff and Lucia Rijker play Romulans, Lychnikoff a Commander and Rijker a CO. W. Morgan Sheppard, who played a Klingon in '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', appears in this film as the head of the Vulcan Science Council. Wil Wheaton, known for portraying Wesley Crusher on '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'', was brought in, through urging by Greg Grunberg, to voice several of the other Romulans in the film. ''Star Trek'' fan and Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch (who died on July 25, 2008) cameoed as a ''Kelvin'' crew member, and has a line of dialogue. Majel Barrett

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