Trivia
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.
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The film's teaser trailer (welders working on the half-built Enterprise starship, amidst narration from U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Leonard Nimoy's Mr Spock) was personally directed by J.J. Abrams. Real welders were brought in to film the trailer. The words of Spock and Kennedy were taken from the 1960s (the decade where Star Trek began) and thus linked past and present, enhancing the film (as well as hinting at the time-travel). According to Roberto Orci, Kennedy's words were also chosen as he was the one who started the "space race," and so would be appropriate for a space film: "If we're going to have a Federation, it makes sense for Kennedy and his words to be in there."
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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.
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Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science professor (and "Star Trek" fan) who gained widespread fame as the author of a "Last Lecture" in which he discussed living the life of his dreams in the face of terminal pancreatic cancer, appears as the Kelvin officer in the beginning. Pausch wrote in his blog about the experience, "I got a custom-made Star Trek uniform and my own station on the bridge, where I had lots of buttons and controls. I even got a LINE!!!!" Pausch died on July 25, 2008; his paycheck of $217.06 from working on the film was donated to charity.
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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". There are several nods to this history in the movie: first, when Kirk first meets (and hits on) Uhura in a bar and tells her, "if you don't tell me your name, I'm gonna have to make one up," and then when she refuses to tell Kirk her first name throughout the film.
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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.
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The character that Bruce Greenwood plays, Captain Christopher Pike, was the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise in the unaired Star Trek pilot episode, Star Trek: The Cage. In that episode, Pike was portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter. Initially, the episode was rejected but when a second pilot was ordered, Hunter dropped out of the series so the part was rewritten and recast with William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk. The footage from the unaired pilot was later woven into the episode Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part I.
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Majel Barrett, the wife of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, is the voice of the Enterprise computer. She'd also been the computer voice in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, and had played Pike's first officer in Star Trek: The Cage. She completed her voice-over work from her home, two weeks before her death on December 18, 2008.
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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.
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The "Trek" movie with the longest hiatus to date since the last motion picture (7 years).
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Christopher Doohan, the son of the late James Doohan (Scotty from the original series), has appeared in the new Star Trek alongside the new Scotty, Simon Pegg, as his assistant.
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Of the now 11 films, this is the most expensive "Star Trek" film by far, at an estimated $150,000,000. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had a budget of $46,000,000 and Star Trek: Nemesis had a budget of $60,000,000.
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Prior to this film, the highest-grossing "Star Trek" film ever made was Star Trek: First Contact with a worldwide gross of $146,000,000. This film exceeded that gross by its second weekend of US release alone.
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There is a supposed "odd-numbered movie curse" associated with the Star Trek films in which the odd-numbered films tend to be weaker and the even-numbered ones tend to be stronger. This curse was supposedly proved false with the poor reception of film ten, Star Trek: Nemesis This new Star Trek is the eleventh film. Years before, Simon 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."
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The first theatrical trailer uses the track "Down with the Enterprise" by Two Steps From Hell. This was an adaptation of Brian Tyler's track "War Begins" from his Children of Dune score.
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To prepare for his role as Captain James Kirk, Chris Pine watched classic episodes and read encyclopedias about the Star Trek universe. However, his research was rudimentary, as he wanted his performance to be original and not an imitation of William Shatner. He based his performance on Tom Cruise's Maverick and Harrison Ford's Han Solo and Indiana Jones, heroes who Pine felt possessed the archetypal hero qualities Kirk has (humour, arrogance, decisiveness).
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The first "Original Series" film to be rated PG-13 in the US and 12 in the UK. All of the other films starring the Original Series characters were rated PG, in the US and 12 in the UK, respectively, except for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, which was rated G in the US and a U in the UK, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan which originally received a 15 certificate (it has since been reclassified by the BBFC as a 12).
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Due to the confidentiality and secrecy of the movie's production, various fake working titles were used. The official one chosen by Bad Robot Productions was "Corporate Headquarters", but, also, each of the Key Assistant Location Managers chose additional fake titles for paperwork, permits, and signage. Kathy McCurdy named the movie "Untitled Walter Lace Project" after her grandfather, Steve Woroniecki named it "Untitled Blake Allen Project" after his son, Rob Swenson used "Christa & Christan's Big Adventure" after his twin step-daughters, and Scott Trimble used "The Ernest Castelhun Chronicles" after his great-granduncle who had drowned in beer at the Anheuser-Busch factory in 1937.
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IDW published a comic prequel series titled "Star Trek: Countdown" that fleshed out Nero's back story and the reasons for Spock Prime's involvement. It also features characters from the last films and TV series, serving as a tie-in between the two periods.
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In the scene where Kirk is taking the Kobayashi Maru test, he is eating an apple, which is also what he is eating while recounting his tale of taking the Kobayashi Maru test in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (According to Director J.J. Abrams in the commentary for the DVD, this was not intended to be a reference to The Wrath of Khan. He was simply told at one point that lead actors seem cocky eating apples.)
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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.
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This movie marks the film debut of Zachary Quinto, who's best known as Sylar on the hit TV series Heroes, which has included several references to "Star Trek", and featured George Takei (Sulu) in the recurring role of Kaito Nakamura.
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Zoe Saldana previously played a big Star Trek fan who admits she loves going to the conventions in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal.
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Karl Urban is a longtime self-described "religious" fan of the Star Trek. He used to watch it on Saturday mornings in New Zealand with his dad. Shortly before word came down about the development of this film, he bought the complete series on DVD and watched them with his son.
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Karl Urban was cast at his first audition, which was two months after his initial meeting with J.J. Abrams. He said he was happy to play a role with lots of comedy, something he had not done since The Price of Milk, because he was fed-up of action-oriented roles.
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Zachary Quinto was attracted to the role of Spock as he wanted to explore the character's dual heritages and his position of being caught between both Earth and Vulcan cultures: "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."
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To prepare for his role as Spock, Zachary Quinto grew his hair longer and dyed it, and shaved his eyebrows. He claimed that the change in appearance cemented his performance: "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. I was sporting that look for a good 4 or 5 years. There's no question I was born to play Spock."
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Zoe Saldana never saw Star Trek, but agreed to play the role of Uhura after J.J. Abrams had complimented her previous performances ("For an actor, that's all you need, that's all you want: to get the acknowledgment and respect from your peers."). However, Saldana's mother was a Star Trek fan and sent her voice mails during filming, giving advice on the part.
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John Cho cited masculinity as an important aspect of the role of Sulu, and spent two weeks training in fighting.
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Paul McGillion auditioned for Scotty, and while he didn't get the role, he impressed the filmmakers enough to be given another role as a barracks leader.
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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.
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Carol Marcus, Kirk's old love interest and mother of his son from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, featured in an early draft of the script as a childhood friend of Kirk's in Iowa but the role was cut by the final draft. Nurse Chapel from the original series also is also referenced in the film and has a line of dialogue: Dr. McCoy calls orders her to prepare a medication after Kirk's hands begin to swell, and she responds, "Yes, sir!" However, she does not appear on-screen.
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The film has its roots in the 1968 World Science Fiction Convention, where Gene Roddenberry declared he would make a film prequel to Star Trek. The concept would not be heard until the late 1980s, between Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. David Loughery wrote a script titled "The Academy Years," but it was shelved due to objections from the original cast and the fan base. Finally in 2005, after the failure of Star Trek: Nemesis and the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise, development got underway. Another novel treatment of the beginnings of Kirk's command of the Enterprise was described in the novel "Enterprise: The First Adventure" by Vonda N. McIntyre which was based upon a Star Trek movie script that was to be used if a contract could not be reached with the original cast after the first set of movies were made.
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Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and director J.J. Abrams all signed on while filming Mission: Impossible III.
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The Kelvin's captain, Richard Robau (Faran Tahir), is named after Roberto Orci's Cuban uncle. According to Orci, Robau was born in Cuba and grew up in the Middle East.
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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.
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Damon Lindelof likened the Romulans in the film to pirates, with their unique tattoos, disorganized costuming, and practical ship with mechanics visible.
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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.
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J.J. Abrams selected costume designer Michael Kaplan because he had not seen any of the Star Trek films and so would approach the costumes with a new angle.
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When Chris Pine was cast as James Kirk, he sent William Shatner a letter and received a reply containing Shatner's approval.
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The Korean-American actor John Cho was initially uncertain about being cast as the Japanese-American officer Hikaru Sulu, but George Takei, who played Sulu in Star Trek, encouraged him to take the role as Sulu was a character who represented all of Asia.
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Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and J.J. Abrams personally called upon Leonard Nimoy's home to request for his role in the film. According to Orci, the actor gave a "Who are you guys and what are you up to? manner" before being told how important he was to them. He was silent, and Nimoy's wife Susan Bay told the creative team that after their conversation he had remained in his chair, emotionally overwhelmed by his decision to return as Spock after turning down many opportunities to revisit the role. He decided to act in this film as he was turned on by the script's scope and its detailing of the characters' histories: "We have dealt with Spock being half-human/half-Vulcan, but never with quite the overview that this script has of the character's entire history, his character growth, his beginnings and his arrival into the Enterprise crew."
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J.J. Abrams claimed it was surreal to direct Leonard Nimoy as Spock: "This guy has been doing it for forty years!"
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Simon Pegg described Scotty as a Scot stereotype, but a positive one ("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 Scotsmen with technical expertise, like John Logie Baird and Alexander Graham Bell.
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Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura in Star Trek, was going to make a cameo as Uhura's grandmother.
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To perform Scotty's accent, Simon Pegg was assisted by his wife Maureen, who is from Glasgow. However, later 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.
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To make the film appeal to the casual audience, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman cut down on the technical terms, increased the action and named it simply "Star Trek" to indicate to newcomers they would not need to watch the other films. As a prequel, J.J. Abrams wanted the film tone to be optimistic in contrast to revisions like Batman Begins ("being realistic and being dark are not the same thing"), and wanted to retain the humor and sex appeal that made Star Trek a hit.
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The Romulans were chosen as the Enterprise's antagonists as they had been featured less than the Klingons in Star Trek. J.J. Abrams felt it was fun to have them meet Kirk before he meets them in Star Trek, and Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman noted it would be backwards to have the antagonists Klingons, since they had become heroes in later Star Trek shows. The Romulan presence also harks to Spock's previous appearance in the Star Trek: The Next Generation two-parter "Unification."
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Roberto Orci drew on his personal relationship with Alex Kurtzman as a basis for the relationship between Kirk and Spock: "We're from different worlds; I was born and lived in Mexico City until I was nine, and Alex was born in the US. Kirk and Spock are opposites from two worlds; that's us in a nutshell. We're drawn to each by what each of us lacks. This film is about two guys who are such opposites that they might end up strangling each other, but instead they bond and thrive together." Inspiration also came from the friendship of Beatles members John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
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To develop the female characters, the wives of J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman were consulted. In fact it was Katie Abrams's approval of the strong female characters that convinced her husband J.J. to sign on to direct.
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According to designer Ryan Church, the design of the Enterprise ship in this film pays homage to the designs from Star Trek and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Church also applied the Aztec motif from Star Trek: The Next Generation. The overall external design resembles a hot-rod, with more moving parts (the disc expands and the fins on the engines split).
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Production designer Scott Chambliss used the layout of the Enterprise bridge from Star Trek, but gave it brighter colors to reflect the optimism of Star Trek; (J.J. Abrams quipped that the redesigned bridge "made the Apple Store look uncool"). The iconic viewscreen was altered to a window that could have images projected on it to make the space more tangible. At the director's behest, more railings were added to the bridge to make it look safer, and the set was built on gimbals so its rocking motions when the ship accelerates and is attacked was more realistic.
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The film was shot in 2.35:1 anamorphic Panavision, which is director of photography Daniel Mindel's preferred format (he shot J.J. Abrams' previous film, Mission: Impossible III, in Panavision as well). To take full advantage of the format, Mindel caught as many lens flares (a photographic effect where light sparkles everywhere) in the film as possible, to create a sense of wonder that enhanced the film: "There's something about these flares, especially in a movie that potentially could be incredibly sterile and overly controlled by CGI, that's just incredibly unpredictable and gorgeous." He would create flares by shining a flashlight or pointing a mirror at the camera lens, or using two cameras (and therefore two lighting set-ups) simultaneously.
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According to Karl Urban, film production and shooting were ULTRA-secret: "There is a level of security and secrecy that we have all been forced to adopt. It's really kind of paranoid crazy, but sort of justified. We're not allowed to walk around in public in our costumes and we had to be herded around everywhere in these golf carts that are completely concealed and covered in black canvas." No amount of precaution was enough - Simon Pegg read the script with a security guard close by, and supporting actors like Jennifer Morrison were given scripts with only their scenes. The few people given access to the film during its highly secretive production were Rod Roddenberry, Ronald D. Moore, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Ben Stiller, Tom Cruise, and Steven Spielberg.
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Steven Spielberg convinced J.J. Abrams to direct the film, and provided advice on some of the action sequences.
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Much of the film's cast/crew are fans of Star Trek, including writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Karl Urban, Eric Bana.
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The film is influenced by: "Star Trek: Balance of Terror (#1.14)" (1966) (Kirk encounters Romulans for the first time); Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (an past enemy returns to confound the crew); "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Yesterday's Enterprise (#3.15)" (1990) (a black hole causes the past and future Enterprise crew members to meet each other); and the Star Trek novels "Prime Directive", "Spock's World" and "Best Destiny" (the latter focusing on Kirk and his maturity into a Starfleet Captain).
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The design of the Enterpise ship was influenced by the sleek modernist work of 1960s artist Pierre Cardin, and the realistic sets from the landmark sci-film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
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According to John Cho, after filming ended J.J. Abrams gave the cast small boxes containing little telescopes, which allowed them to read the name of each constellation it was pointed at: "I think he just wanted each of us to look at the stars a little differently."
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This is the first 'Star Trek' motion picture since CBS assumed ownership of the 'Star Trek' franchise from Paramount Pictures.
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The outdoor scene on Vulcan viewed by Spock's mother, Amanda (Winona Ryder), is based on multiple repetitions of the iconic profile of the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park Area just north of Los Angeles along State Highway 14. The rocks have a highly recognizable weathered peak that rises at a 45 degree angle to the horizon. Nine episodes of the original series, including Star Trek: Shore Leave, Star Trek: Arena, Star Trek: The Alternative Factor, and Star Trek: Friday's Child, had scenes filmed in this area.
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William Morgan Sheppard, who plays the Vulcan Councillor whom Spock sees regarding going to either the Vulcan Science Academy or Starfleet Academy, had two previous Trek guest appearances in Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Schizoid Man and Star Trek: Voyager: Bliss. He also appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as the warden of the Klingon prison planet Rura Penthe, in which Nero and his crew had been held for twenty years in a deleted scene.
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SERIES TRADEMARK: [Holmes] For the second time in a "Star Trek" movie, Spock (Zachary Quinto) quotes Sherlock Holmes's famous mantra, "If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) uses the same line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where he refers to Holmes, without naming him, as "an ancestor of mine." Data (Brent Spiner)also uses the line in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
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Among the famous buildings hidden inside the futuristic San Francisco skyline in the first Starfleet Academy scene is the Santiago Calatrava's Hemispheric Theater (which is actually located at Valencia, Spain).
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During Chekov's emergency beam-out, the transporter room symbol graphic is the same scheme design used from the Enterprise set of the 1980s films.
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Uhura's roommate is an Orion. On the original Star Trek, fans identified Kirk and Pike (and "later" Capt. Archer's) fascination with Orion slave dancers.
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The first time that Zachary Quinto met Leonard Nimoy in the set, Nimoy said to the young actor: "You have no idea what you're in for."
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In the original Star Trek, props used on the set (notably McCoy's medical scanner) were actually salt shakers doubling as futuristic equipment. In the 2009 movie, after picking (and losing) a bar fight on Earth, Kirk (Chris Pine) sits at a bar table. Licking his wounds, he lifts a small metal model of a starship off the table. As he fidgets with it, you can see it's in fact a salt shaker - there's an "S" on the dish portion of the ship's hull, and when Kirk turns it over, salt streams out.
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Pike's whistle (to break up the bar-fight) had the same "boatswain whistle" pitch used in the original Star Trek for intercom paging.
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The computer listed in the credits that was used to help create the movie is called the Gene Roddenberry.
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Nero is an amalgamation of the same-named emperor from ancient history and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo from '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' and 'The Mysterious Island'. He is thus a self-absorbed commander of the Narada (Nautilus) with second-in-command Ayel (Aronnax) from a lost Romulan (Roman) Empire; seeking revenge against the Federation (England) for the destruction of his home and family with the use of extremely advanced technology. As well, before the Federation is aware of the origin of the distress signals, a fleet is sent with spaceship USS Farragut among them. In Verne's novel, Captain Farragut is in command of the expedition to track the "sea monster" which ends up being Nemo's submarine.
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A shuttlecraft (before Starfleet deploys the rescue starships) is seen with the name Moore. This may be a reference to "Trek" writer Ronald D. Moore.
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Every new incarnation of Star Trek had someone from a previous series appear in the premier: DeForest Kelley as Admiral Leonard McCoy in ST:TNG: Encounter at Farpoint; Patrick Stewart as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard on ST: Deep Space 9: Emissary; Armin Shimerman as Quark on ST: Voyager: Caretaker; James Cromwell as Zephram Cochran (ST: First Contact) in ST: Enterprise: Broken Bow; and this movie, where Leonard Nimoy plays Spock.
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The crew on the U.S.S Kelvin use communicators that were of the same style used on the original series; you can see this when the engineer comes into frame and when Kirk's wife is contacting him during the evacuation of the Kelvin. After Nero changes the time line and starts the alternate universe the communicators change drastically.
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Leonard Nimoy, Majel Barrett, William Morgan Sheppard, Greg Ellis and Paul Townsend are the only actors to appear in the film who had previously appeared in "Star Trek".
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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 Ben Cross who plays her husband. Ryder was cast in the role (instead of an actress who was actually old enough to be Quinto's mother) because the movie originally was to start with a scene of Amanda giving birth to Spock, but that scene was cut.
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The sets for the ice planet of Delta Vega and the Romulan drill were located in a parking lot of the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
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The engine room of the Enterprise was filmed in a Budweiser factory in Van Nuys, California. The engine room of the Kelvin was shot in an old power plant in Long Beach, California.
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Simon Pegg didn't audition for the part, he simply received an email from J.J. Abrams asking if he'd like to play Scotty. Pegg said he would have done it for free, or even paid Abrams to be in the movie if he wasn't offered a part.
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Chris Pine's father Robert Pine had appeared in Star Trek: Voyager: The Chute and worked with Michael Dorn (Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation on CHiPs.
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This is the first time in Star Trek that the Stardate corresponds to the year in which the story takes place: Nero travels back in time from 2387 to 2233 and most of the proceedings take place in the year 2258.
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Gary Sinise, who bears a strong resemblance to DeForest Kelley, was rumored to have been in consideration to portray Dr. McCoy.
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In early drafts of the script, Delta Vega was originally written as a desert planet, rather than a snow planet, which was more in line with the planet of the same name seen in the original series second pilot, Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before.
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Kirk, the "black sheep" of the Enterprise crew, wears only his black undershirt up until he is formally given command; everyone else wears a colored overshirt reflecting their area of responsibility.
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Kirk, Sulu and Olson "space-jump" from Pike's shuttle to the Romulan energy drill. Kirk's first scene in Star Trek: Generations was supposed to show him performing a similar orbital skydive; the scene was filmed but cut from the final film.
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Near the end of the film, a shuttle behind Spock Prime has the number "12091" on the side. This corresponds to the release date of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the last film to feature the entire original cast, which was released in December 1991.
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In earlier drafts of the script, the USS Kelvin was originally named the USS Iowa, named after the US state where Kirk was born in the original Star Trek.
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During the scene where the cadets are assigned to their star-ships, Uhura complains to Spock that she has been assigned to the Farragut. In Star Trek lore, the Farragut is the ship Kirk was assigned to after graduating from the Academy and before his promotion to Captain of the Enterprise.
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Although the first Star Trek film to pass the $100m barrier internationally, the film continued the series' tradition of only earning a third of its worldwide total gross outside the USA. By contrast, the average blockbuster makes around two thirds of its total gross outside the USA.
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The set used for the long dark corridor on the Delta Vega Federation outpost appears to be the same one (or very similar to the one) used for the Dharma station The Staff on Lost, first seen in the Season 2 episode "Maternity Leave.". J.J. Abrams, of course, was deeply involved in both.
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Leonard McCoy mentions joining Starfleet after his divorce. This fact wasn't original to the film. D.C. Fontana, one of the Star Trek writers, wrote an unfilmed episode story for the third season that would have established this failed marriage and also McCoy's daughter Joanna.
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Early in the film, when McCoy is getting Kirk to the Enterprise, they board a shuttle craft named "Gilliam". This may be a reference to Dawn Gilliam, a script supervisor for the film. She was responsible for maintaining the film's internal continuity and for tracking the production unit's daily progress in shooting the film's screenplay.
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John Cho and Jennifer Morrison had previously worked together on House: Love Hurts. They have also both worked with Kal Penn, whose character in House: Don't Ever Change said he was a Dahar Master of the Klingon Empire, a title first mentioned in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Blood Oath. On the DVD commentary, J.J. Abrams mentions that there is an extra playing a crewman on the Enterprise bridge who many viewers mistake for Kal Penn (assuming that Penn had a cameo because John Cho was in the movie), but Abrams says that man is not Penn.
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One of the buildings in San Francisco near Starfleet Academy resembles the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago.
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During filming, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman asked Leonard Nimoy to voice the title character in their next scripted film Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, directed by Nimoy's relative-by-marriage Michael Bay. According to them, Bay was nervous about approaching a high-profile relative to carry out a minor voicing role; however, Nimoy had voiced the robot Galvatron in The Transformers: The Movie, and was enthusiastic about doing another Transformers film. Unfortunately, Nimoy had other commitments; however he is credited in this film as "Spock Prime" as a tribute to the Transformers (whose figurehead is the heroic Autobot Optimus Prime). Nimoy would later go on to voice Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
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Greg Grunberg was considered for the role of womanizer Harry Mudd, who was in an early draft of the script but was eventually written out. Then Grunberg was considered to play Olson, but due to a scheduling conflict had to drop out of the film. However, his voice can be heard as Kirk's alcoholic stepfather on the radio.
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Some scenes of Leonard Nimoy and Eric Bana required that part of their bodies be animated. Nero required extensive damage to his teeth, which was significant enough to completely replace Bana's mouth in some shots. For Spock Prime's first scene with Kirk, Nimoy's mouth also had to be completely reanimated; the filmmakers had filmed Nimoy when he rerecorded his lines so they could rotoscope his mouth into the film, even recreating the lighting conditions, but they realized they had to digitally recreate his lips because of the bouncing light created by the camp fire.
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According to J.J. Abrams, the difficulty of depicting the future in the film was that much of modern technology was inspired by Star Trek and made it seem outdated; therefore the production design had to be consistent with the original series, but also feel more advanced than the real world technology developed after it: "We all have the iPhone that does more than the communicator. I feel there's a certain thing that you can't really hold onto, which is kind of the kitschy quality. That must go if it's going to be something that you believe is real."
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The communicator, as seen in the film, was designed by Russell Bobbitt in collaboration with the Finnish cellphone company Nokia.
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Russell Bobbitt tracked down a model of the original tricorder from Star Trek and brought it to the set, but the actors found it too large to carry for filming action scenes, so technical advisor Doug Brady redesigned it to be smaller.
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Costume designer Michael Kaplan wanted aged, worn and rugged clothes for the Romulans because of their mining backgrounds, and found some greasy looking fabrics at a flea market. Kaplan tracked down the makers of those clothes, who turned out to be based in Bali, and commissioned them to create his designs.
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In Star Trek, Romulans are usually presented with V-shaped ridges on their foreheads, but in this film they do not have such features. This was because Neville Page wanted to have Nero's crew ritually scar themselves, forming keloids resembling V-ridges; but the idea was unfortunately not pursued enough, and was abandoned.
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According to Simon Pegg, J.J. Abrams wanted to emphasize the size of the ship and gave the Engine Room a highly industrial appearance; he explained to Pegg that he was inspired by Titanic, which depicted "a sleek ship with an incredible gut."
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Dr Carolyn Porco, a NASA scientist, was consulted on how to properly present the planetary science/imagery/effects seen in the film.
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The audio FX were designed by sound effects technician Ben Burtt, who is noted for his work on Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. To recreate the sounds of photon torpedoes and warp drive, Ben Burtt capped a long spring against a contact microphone, and mixed in the sound of cannon fire. To give a musical hum to the sounds of warping/transporting, Burtt used a 1960s oscillator.
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The transporter beams are normally seen to speckle and sparkle in Star Trek, but in this film the beams swirl and flow. J.J. Abrams conceived this redesign to emphasize the transporters as beams that can pick up and move people around, rather than a signal of people's scrambled atoms that can go anywhere.
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In designing the Romulan ship the Narada, production designer Scott Chambliss was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau architect Antoni GaudÃ, who created buildings that appeared to be inside out. By making the ship's exposed wires appear like bones or ligaments, it would create a foreboding atmosphere.
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The Narada ship's interior was made of six pieces that could be rearranged to create a different room.
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The VFXperts developed a program that would realistically portray what an explosion in space would look like (short blasts sucking inward, leaving debris floating). For shots of an imploding planet, the same program was used on a greater level, but the animators had to manually composite multiple layers of rocks and wind sucking into the planet.
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The Enterprise was originally redesigned by Ryan Church using features of the original, making it 1200 feet (370 m) long; however this was later scaled up by a factor of 1.94 to 2,357 feet (718 m) to make it seem grander.
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Production designer John Eaves, who had worked on several Star Trek series and films, was brought on this film to aid and guide his junior partners Ryan Church and Neville Page.
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Make-up artist Barney Burman supervised the makeup for the aliens in the film. His team had to rush the creation of many of the aliens, because originally the majority of them were to feature in one major scene (to express the variety of life in the universe). Towards the end of filming, however, J.J. Abrams deemed the scene too similar to the Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope cantina sequence, and decided to dot the designs around the film.
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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.
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At the Spike TV 2009 Scream Awards, Star Trek won for best movie. William Shatner accepted the award, despite having absolutely nothing to do with the movie. In the acceptance speech, he jokingly accepted it as director of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (widely regarded as the worst Star Trek movie).
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Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation, recorded (digitally altered) dialog for many of the Romulans on Nero's ship.
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SERIES TRADEMARK: [47] Continuing the tradition of including the number 47 in some way into a Star Trek feature, the transport shuttle for new recruits leaves from Shipyard 2-1A (SFC Division: Sector 47). Further, Uhura picked up a transmission that 47 Klingon ships had been destroyed by the Narada.
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Spencer Daniels was originally cast at James T. Kirk's older brother. However, the role didn't make it to the final film. But, Spencer did appear briefly in the movie as Johnny.
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Three members of the Enterprise crew have also been replacement actors in other franchises:
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- Karl Urban succeeded Tommy Lee Jones, Jon Voight, James Garner, and Jonny Lee Miller as Woodrow F. Call in Comanche Moon
- Anton Yelchin replaced Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation
- and Chris Pine is set to succeed Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck as Jack Ryan in the as-yet-untitled fifth film in the series.
The Kelvin's shuttles are basically an upgraded version of the original Star Trek's Class F shuttles.
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With 4 Academy Award nominations each, this film and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home have the most nods for any Star Trek film. This is the first Star Trek film to receive a nomination for Best Visual Effects since Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the first in the entire series to win an Oscar (Best Makeup).
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According to the audio commentary, J.J. Abrams had a meeting with George Lucas. During the meeting, Abrams asked how can he make the film better, to which Lucas stated that he should add lightsabers.
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Scotty makes some reference to finally understanding how, during "warp speed" travel, it is in fact space which is traveling around the ship, and not the ship moving through space. This coincides with present day theories on how faster than light travel, if possible, may actually work.
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The large creature on the ice planet was nicknamed "Big Red" by the filmmakers, and has approximately 250 eyes.
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Chris Pine described his first audition as being awful, mainly because he couldn't take himself seriously as a leader. He was fortunate in that J.J. Abrams didn't see his first audition and readily agreed to another one after Pine's agent bumped into Abrams' wife and pushed for his client.
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In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Zachary Quinto mentioned that he had heard of the reboot of Star Trek and was extremely keen to play the part of Spock. The article was widely circulated and came to the attention of J.J. Abrams who was very interested in talking to the actor. For his audition, Quinto wore a blue shirt and flattened down his hair.
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James Kyson was interested in the part of Sulu but the producers of Heroes were not keen on having two of their leading cast members away for three months (Zachary Quinto obviously being the other).
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Despite being fans of Star Trek, writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were initially very nervous about accepting the assignment to pen the reboot. They both felt that expectations were too high among the fanbase.
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When the film premiered at Sydney's Opera House on April 7 2009, there was spontaneous applause from the audience when Leonard Nimoy first appeared onscreen.
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The sound of the automatic doors opening on the Enterprise is a Russian train's toilet flushing.
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Since the 1993 tie-in novel 'Best Destiny' by Diane Carey, Kirk's mother's first name has been established as "Winona". In this film, Spock's mother is played by a Winona Ryder.
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Just before he died in 1991, Gene Roddenberry was asked in an interview what was to become of Star Trek in the future. He replied that he hoped "some bright young thing would come along and do it again, bigger and better". The critical and commercial consensus about this film would seem to indicate that Roddenberry's wish came true in the shape of J.J. Abrams.
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When Cameron Crowe saw a rough cut of the film, he kept asking who played the villain. He was staggered to realize that it was an unrecognizable Eric Bana.
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The snowscapes would have been shot in Iceland, but it was too expensive so were shot in Alaska instead.
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The transporters' energizing sound is the same as the one used in the original Star Trek.
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According to an article in Cinefex Magazine, one idea regarding the look of the enemy's ship (The Narada) stemmed from the idea that being pulled through the black hole time warp caused a 'mutation,' causing the once simple mining ship to grow the long and jagged prongs one sees when it first emerges.
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There is a scene in which cadets are boarding shuttle craft inside a huge, cavernous hangar. This hangar is real; one of two giant blimp hangars located at Marine Corps Air Station Tustin, in Tustin, CA. The base is now operated by the Orange County Sheriff's Academy and consists mostly of cadet housing.
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SERIES TRADEMARK: [Vasquez] A reference was made to the inclusion of Vasquez Rock to the Vulcan landscape, however, it was not mentioned that in the cave when Kirk is first carrying on a conversation with the original Spock, a scene pans past a miniature model of Vasquez Rock inside the cave to Spock's left in the scene frame.
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On many of the bridge scenes there is a blonde woman wearing black slacks in the background. Many fans speculate that this is 'Elizabeth Dehner', who appeared in Where No Man Has Gone Before (#1.3).
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Star Trek canon states that Vulcan orbits the star 40 Eridani A, approximately 16.5 light-years from Earth.
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The Romulans are wearing Japanese tabi boots; shoes that have a separate section for the big toe. Such footwear actually gives the wearer more stability than ordinary shoes.
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When Sulu stabs the Romulan, his blade exits the body looking green. This is because Romulans, like Vulcans, have blood that is based on copper instead of iron.
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A character from Kirk Prime's past who does not appear in the film is Gary Mitchell, who debuted in Where No Man Has Gone Before (#1.3). Mitchell was described as Kirk's best friend at Starfleet Academy, and studied in a class that Kirk taught while he was a lieutenant. Since Kirk leaped from Cadet to Commander in the new film, and never taught a class, he will probably never meet Mitchell, either.
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Deep Roy's eyes were digitally replaced with "eyestalks" to give Keenser a more "alien" appearance.
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Ricky Gervais was offered a part in the film. But he turned it down stating that he was not a "Star Trek" fan.
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Dominic Keating, who played Malcolm Reed on Star Trek: Enterprise, auditioned for the role of Kirk's uncle.
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Like his predecessor in the role of Russian Starfleet officer Pavel Chekov, Walter Koenig, Anton Yelchin is also the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants (Koenig's parents were from Lithuania; Yelchin's from Leningrad/Saint Petersburg).
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While arguing with Kirk, Spock says "I'm aware of my responsibilities, Mister." His protégé Lt. Saavik says the same thing in the simulator at the beginning of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
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Derek Mears was the first choice to play the long-faced "Alien barfly" in the Shipyard Bar. Due to his schedule, he was unable to take the part and recommended his friend Douglas Tait.
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Admiral James Komack, played by Ben Binswagner, is a tribute to James Komack who directed Star Trek: A Piece of the Action.
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The San Francisco skyline, as seen from the Star Fleet Academy grounds, contains the distinctive Transamerica Pyramid building. Although it is now San Francisco's tallest skyscraper, it is nearly lost among taller "future" buildings.
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The sound made by the "motorcycle" that Kirk rides to the shuttle departing to the Star Fleet Academy is the same sound used in the 1960's TV show for the Jetsons for the "cars" they fly.
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The futuristic white car road car in the background of some of the the Star Fleet Academy exterior shots is a prototype of the Aptera 2 series. Aptera Motors went out of business in 2011.
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When Chekhov manages to transport Sulu and Kirk aboard from a fall, he shouts "Yo-moyo!" This is a Russian exclamation of surprise and excitement, roughly corresponding to English "Hot damn!"
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Spock Prime and Nero both travel back in time from the future year of 2387 - eight years after the events depicted on Star Trek: Nemesis. Using the TNG-based Stardate format would put this time period between Stardates 64000 and 65000.
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On the behind the scenes feature on the DVD, it was revealed that in some scenes, J.J. Abrams would physically shake the camera to give the feeling that the scene was shot with a hand held camera. The special effects crew also set up a motion capture rig which so that an operator could physically shake the camera for CGI shots. Both techniques can be seen most noticeably in the space jump scene, where the camera shakes to give the appearance of turbulence from being in free fall with the away team.
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For the space jump scene, the actors were initially filmed on harnesses, facing downward. However, they constantly passed out from the rush of blood to the head. J.J. Abrams ultimately came up with the idea of filming the actors standing on mirrors. When shot from the angle, the reflection of the sky behind the actors gave the appearance that they were actually falling out of the sky.
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During the Star Fleet shuttle craft hangar scene, a forklift with very unusual wheels is visible. This is a production forklift, not a movie prop. The conical rollers around the wheels allow it to move in any direction at any rate of rotation.
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In the scene in which Kirk is being chased by predators on Delta Vega, a child was used a stand-in for Chris Pine order to make the set appear larger.
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Olson, played by Greg Ellis, is the first named/featured officer from the Enterprise to die. Tellingly, he is dressed in a red spacesuit, a reference to the infamous "redshirts" of the original series.
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Not the first time that bright spotlights have pointed straight into camera on the bridge of the Enterprise. The first shots on the Enterprise bridge in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country show bright white spotlights, though with far less lens flare.
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The first shot of Uhura and Spock in the Star Fleet Academy shuttlecraft hangar shows them standing in front of a computer display. The silver metal knob on its bezel is a Griffin PowerMate, a USB device for controlling software functions on Macs and PCs.
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The concept of different-colored uniforms to indicate crew members' functions was inspired, in part, by the working uniforms of aircraft carrier flight deck personnel. Different-colored jerseys provide instant visual indication of each crew member's area of responsibility. This is essential because of the extreme noise and constant danger of flight operations. Also, the original Star Trek show aired when color TV was still fairly new, so the brightly colored uniforms added a futuristic look to the show.
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Simon Pegg had previously worked with J.J. Abrams on Mission: Impossible III, one of the movie iterations of the TV show Mission: Impossible that Leonard Nimoy had appeared in.
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Cameo
Victor Garber:
There is a deleted scene of Nero, imprisoned in the prison colony on Rura Penthe, being interrogated by a Klingon guard wearing a metal mask. In a commentary for the DVD release, J.J. Abrams identified the Klingon interrogator as being Garber from Abrams' Alias.
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Joe Quinto:
Zachary Quinto's brother, who is credited as a stuntman, is clearly visible as a Romulan during a late scene on the Romulan ship. The people who recorded the DVD Commentary track, including J.J. Abrams, remark at how much Joe looks like Zachary in the scene.
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Director Trademark
J.J. Abrams:
[Kelvin]
The USS Kelvin, the ship Kirk's father serves on, is named after 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. Abrams commonly uses this name in his work, such as "Kelvin Inman" from one of his previous works, Lost, and "Kelvin Gasoline" from Super 8.
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Spoilers
Originally the writers, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, had written a cameo for the original James T. Kirk, William Shatner: Spock Prime was to give his younger self a recorded message from Kirk. According to Orci, "it was basically a Happy Birthday wish from Kirk, knowing that Spock was going to go off to Romulus, and Kirk would probably be dead by that time." This would then dissolve into Shatner reciting the famous "where no one has gone before" line. However, they were divided on the cameo, and decided not to waste Shatner's time. Orci expressed some regret about not including the scene, but was very proud of the ending in the final film.
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The final scene is a tribute to the opening title sequence of Star Trek, and symbolizes the Enterprise crew finally coming together to carry out their destiny.
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The time travel aspect of the story was the most difficult part of the story to develop: time travel was used previously in the series a few times, but in this case it would create serious jeopardy for the crew (by messing up the history everyone knows) and it serves a good purpose in creating a new set of adventures for the original characters. The time travel also enabled Leonard Nimoy to make an appearance in the film, to help usher in the new cast.
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At the end of the film Leonard Nimoy, in voice-over, repeats the iconic opening lines from the opening credits to the original Star Trek series. However, one line is changed from "...where no man has gone before." to "...where no one has gone before." (The canon establishes that the Enterprise mission statement originated with Zefram Cochrane (Star Trek: Enterprise: Broken Bow: Part 1), and that Captain Kirk changed it in his Captain's log, "where no man...where no one has gone before" in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country after having learned lessons about racism and xenophobia in that picture. Accordingly that version of the mission statement was used by Captain Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Since Spock has lived into that era, it makes sense that he would adopt the new version.)
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An ongoing joke in the Star Trek universe is the redshirt character, a slang term for a stock character whose primary purpose in the plot of a story is to die soon after being introduced, thus demonstrating the dangerous circumstances faced by the main characters. When Kirk and Sulu jump on to the space drill, they are joined by Olsen who is wearing a red uniform and meets his death soon after.
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This film features several similarities or references to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan:
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- Nero uses a parasite to extract information from Captain Pike, which Khan does to Chekov;
- the Kobayashi Maru test is seen, which Kirk took three times, reprogramming it the third time;
- Spock serves as a Starfleet instructor supervising the test;
- And some lines from that film appear in this one ("I don't believe in no-win scenarios", "Are you out of your Vulcan mind?" and Spock's closing monologue).
Kirk's father dies in the line of duty near the Laurentian System. William Shatner (the original Kirk) in real life worked in the Laurentian Mountains of Canada, as a young adult.
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In resetting the historic storyline for the Star Trek universe, SPOILER: Captain Kirk has become Captain of the USS Enterprise at an earlier age. In the original Star Trek, Kirk became Captain at about the age of 30 and Spock had served with Captain Pike 17 years previously on the Enterprise. Now Pike has been confined to a wheelchair at an earlier date, Spock served under him for only a brief time and Kirk became Captain of the Enterprise while still attending or having just graduated from Star Fleet Academy while in his early twenties. Meanwhile, the Enterprise itself is actually constructed much later than in the original series. According to data readouts in the films and television series, the original ship is launched in 2245. In the rebooted universe, the ship is completed in 2258.
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As Spock (Zachary Quinto) sits down to pilot the ship from the future that Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) pilots back in time, we see the back of the pilot seat. When viewed from behind and combined with the forward view-port, the combination of these items form to create the Vulcan IDIC, a symbol for the Vulcan saying, "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations" that first appeared in the original Star Trek series.
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The original opening for the movie was going to feature the Enterprise NCC-1701 under the command of Robert April, with George Kirk second in command. At the climax of the scene the Enterprise would have been destroyed, and the Enterprise featured through most of the movie would have been its successor, the NCC-1701-A (which didn't debut until Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in the original timeline). However, Paramount told Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci that the one thing they absolutely could not do was destroy the Enterprise, even if they were going to replace it with a newer one, and so the "original" Enterprise was rewritten into the USS Kelvin, with Captain April becoming Captain Robau.
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Spock Prime's last line line "thrusters on full" was an improvisation. The scene was originally filmed showing Spock thoughtfully and quietly walking away. Afterwards Leonard Nimoy approached J.J. Abrams and said "If you give me one more take, I have a thought I would like to inject here and see if you like it." They did and he said "thrusters on full". Abrams later called Nimoy to tell him how well he thought it led into the final scene as it begins with Sulu talking about the thrusters. Nimoy said the inspiration for the line was a way of saying to the younger cast "Go ahead. Take the torch and go!"
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William Shatner had wanted a major role in the film like Leonard Nimoy, and wanted James Kirk to accompany Spock Prime back in time; this even though Kirk had officially died in Star Trek: Generations. He suggested the film draw on the novels where Kirk is resurrected, but J.J. Abrams felt that if Kirk accompanied Spock, it would then be a film about the resurrection of Kirk and not about reintroducing the Star Trek saga anew. Nimoy disliked Kirk's death in Generations, but also concurred that resurrecting Kirk would be detrimental to this film.
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After the scene in the bar Captain Pike says to Kirk "You know your father was Captain of a Starship for 12 minutes. He saved 800 lives. Including your mother's and yours. I dare you to do better." From the moment that Kirk first takes his seat as acting captain of the Enterprise it is 12 minutes until the point where Spock destroys the Narada's space drill, saving the lives of everyone on Earth.
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This is the third film in the franchise where Leonard Nimoy speaks the famous "where no man has gone before" speech. The other two are at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the beginning of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
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