Chris as: George Kirk
  Cast: Chris Pine, Zach Quinto, Anton Yelchin
  Director: J.J. Abrams
  Written by: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
  Release Date: May 8, 2009
  Genre: Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi
 Rated: PG-13
 Runtime: 127 min.

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.

Trivia & Facts

- In a UK interview with Edith Bowman on BBC Radio 1, Matt Damon mentioned that he called J.J. Abrams when he heard rumors that he was being considered for the role of Captain Kirk. The response from Abrams was a very polite “no”. He explained that Damon was “too old” for the role.

- Sydney Tamiia Poitier auditioned for the role of Uhura.

- This is Leonard Nimoy’s first live-action film role since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).

- The first teaser trailer and posters for this film showed its original release date, December 25, 2008. On February 13, 2008 Paramount Pictures pushed the film to May 8, 2009 so it would have less competition and be a summer blockbuster contender. The teaser trailer was then amended to show Summer 2009.

- While most Trekkies will have known this detail for decades, this is the first time that Uhura has been given a first name on screen: Nyota. Gene Roddenberry never came up with a first name for her, so many thought this meant she did not have one, although in literature, Uhura is often referred to as Nyota by her comrades, and she is also referred to as Nyota Uhura in the DC Comics publication Who’s Who in Star Trek.

- J.J. Abrams’ only two choices for Nero were Russell Crowe and Eric Bana.

- Josh Lucas was considered for the role of Christopher Pike.

- Simon Pegg filmed his role in 5 weeks.

- J.J. Abrams’ “good luck charm” Greg Grunberg had to turn down a role in this film due to other commitments. However, Grunberg was worked into the movie during post-production, voicing James Kirk’s step-father.

- The role of James T. Kirk came down between Mike Vogel and Chris Pine. Vogel was reported as being the front runner for the part but J.J. Abrams decided to cast Pine in the end. Joshua Jackson also auditioned for the role.

- The final scene is a tribute to the opening title sequence of Star Trek (1966), and symbolizes the Enterprise crew finally coming together to carry out their destiny.

- Prior to this film, the most expensive Star Trek film ever made was Star Trek: First Contact (1996) with a worldwide gross of $146,000,000. This film exceeded that gross by its second weekend of US release alone.

- This is the first Star Trek film to list its cast in alphabetical order, rather than by who the leads are. This was done to reflect the ensemble nature of the film’s cast.

- This movie marks the film debut of Zachary Quinto, who’s best known as Sylar on the hit TV series Heroes (2006), which has included several references to “Star Trek”, and featured George Takei (Sulu) in the recurring role of Kaito Nakamura.

- To perfect the Vulcan salute, Zachary Quinto had his fingers glued together by J.J. Abrams.

- Eric Bana improvised Nero’s speech patterns.

- The gun battle that takes place on the mining ship was originally written as a fistfight until the day those scenes were going to be filmed.

- The USS Kelvin, the ship Kirk’s father, George Kirk serves on, is named after J.J. Abrams’ grandfather and her hull number of NCC-0514 is derived from the man’s birthday. It was also a scientific reference towards the temperature scale Kelvin, which itself was named after physicist/engineer Lord Kelvin.

- Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, who play the odd couple Kirk and Spock, were previously acquainted with each other as they work out at the same gym.

- Damon Lindelof likened the Romulans in the film to pirates, with their unique tattoos, disorganized costuming, and practical ship with mechanics visible.

-The actors playing the Romulans spent 2-4 hours applying make-up; three prosthetics were applied to the ears and foreheads, and Eric Bana had a fourth prosthetic applied for the bite mark on his head. The actors also shaved their heads in order to differentiate them from Vulcans; previous series designed the Romulans with ridged foreheads.

- When Chris Pine was cast as James Kirk, he sent William Shatner a letter and received a reply containing Shatner’s approval.

- Winona Ryder, who plays Spock’s mother, Amanda, is only 6 years older than Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock, and is 24 years younger than the actor who plays her husband.

- The Beastie Boys, whose song “Sabotage” is featured in the film, had referenced Star Trek in their songs “Intergalactic”, “Ch-Check It Out”, and “Brouhaha”. “Sabotage” itself was often a word William Shatner said with his with accented cadence on the series.

Goofs and Errors

Continuity: After Spock boards the Vulcan ship on board the mining vessel, Kirk is seen walking through some pipes. His Starfleet phaser has switched to a Romulan gun (longer barrel and no lights), before switching back to the Starfleet one again in the next scene. He actually acquires the Romulan gun a few scenes later.

Continuity: When Nero is told that Spock has destroyed the drill and Nero yells, “Spock,” Nero’s left ear is the one missing its tip instead of his right ear. (This shot was obviously reversed in editing.)

Continuity: When the crew are discussing the plan to beam aboard Nero’s ship Ensign Chekov states that in order to arrive in time they will need Mr Scott to get them to Warp factor 4 – however, the HUD on the view-screen behind the group clearly shows the ship to already be traveling at a speed in excess of Warp 4.3.

Continuity: When Kirk first lands on the drill, he removes his helmet and throws it to the side and engages a Romulan in hand-to-hand combat. Several seconds later during a pan-out, we see Kirk hitting another Romulan in the head with the helmet he earlier threw off to the side, even though there would be no time for him to retrieve it from across the platform.

Revealing Mistakes: The planet where Kirk finds Spock Prime has an arctic terrain with no trees, but the fire in the cave is made with wood.

Revealing Mistakes: When Kirk is making out with the Green Orion cadet in her bed, you can see green make-up on the front of his boxers (and a little on his skin above the boxers) when he first lifts himself from on top of her for some dialog. After the scene cuts to another camera angle and then back to Kirk, the green coloring is no longer visible on Kirk.

Factual Errors: Saturn’s moon Titan orbits in the plane of the rings, but when the Enterprise rises out of the atmosphere of Titan, the view looks down on the rings.

Miscellaneous: In Checkov’s ship-wide report to the crew about the Enterprise’s mission to investigate a lightening storm near Vulcan, he states that distress transmissions were received at 2200 hours. When Kirk storms the bridge to alert Captain Pike, he states that the transmissions were received at 2300 hours.

Movie Quotes

Scotty: “I like this ship! You know, it’s exciting!”

Sarek: “Spock, you are fully capable of deciding your own destiny. The question you face is: which path will you choose? This is something only you can decide.”

Nero: “James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man. He went on to captain the USS Enterprise… but that was another life. A life I will deprive you of just like I did your father!”

Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy: “Dammit, man! I’m a doctor, not a physicist!”

Christopher Pike: “I’m Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?”
Nero: “Hi, Christopher. I’m Nero.”

George Kirk: “What are we going to call him?”
Winona Kirk: “We could name him after your father.”
George Kirk: “Tiberius? You kidding me? No, that’s the worst. Let’s name him after your dad. Let’s call him Jim.”
Winona Kirk: “Jim. OK, Jim it is.”
George Kirk: “Sweetheart, can you hear me?”
Winona Kirk: “I hear you.”
George Kirk: “I love you so much. I love you.”

James T. Kirk: “Who is that pointy eared bastard?”
Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy: “I don’t know. But I like him!”

Vulcan Council President: “You have surpassed the expectations of your instructors. Your final record is flawless, with one exception: I see that you have applied to Starfleet as well.”
Spock: “It was logical to cultivate multiple options.”
Vulcan Council President: “Logical, but unnecessary. You are hereby accepted to the Vulcan Science Academy. It is truly remarkable, Spock, that you have achieved so much. Despite your disadvantage.”
Spock: “If you would clarify, Minister. To what disadvantage are you referring?”
Vulcan Council President: “Your human mother.”
Spock: “Council… Ministers, I must decline.”
Vulcan Council President: “No Vulcan has ever declined admission to this academy!
Spock: “Then as I am half-human, your record remains untarnished.
Sarek: “Spock, you have made a commitment to honor the Vulcan way.
Vulcan Council President: “Why did you come before this council today? Was it to satisfy your emotional need to rebel?
Spock: “The only emotion I wish to convey is gratitude. Thank you, Ministers, for your consideration. Live long and prosper.”

Captain Robau: “If I don’t report in 15 minutes, evacuate the crew.”
George Kirk: “Sir, we could issue…”
Captain Robau: “There is no help for us out there. Use autopilot… and get off this ship.”
George Kirk: “Aye, Captain.”
Captain Robau: “You’re Captain now, Mr. Kirk.”