Trivia for
Star Trek (2009) More at IMDbPro »

• 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.
  
  
• 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" (1966) 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."
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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, was invited by J.J. Abrams to appear as an extra in this film. 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.
  
  
• This is Leonard Nimoy's first live-action film role since Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
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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.
  
  
• The character that Bruce Greenwood plays, Captain Christopher Pike, was the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise in the unaired original series pilot episode, "Star Trek: The Cage (#1.0)" (1966). 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 (#1.11)" (1966). In the mythology of Star Trek, Captain Pike is considered to be Captain Kirk's predecessor, a plot line to be (potentially) played out in the film.
  
  
• Majel Barrett, the wife of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, has a role in this film as the voice of the Enterprise computer. She'd also been the computer voice in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987), "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) and "Star Trek: Voyager" (1995), and had played Pike's first officer in "Star Trek: The Cage (#1.0)" (1966). She completed her voice-over work two weeks before her death on December 18, 2008.
  
  
• 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 "Trek" movie with the longest hiatus to date since the last motion picture (7 years).
  
  
• Tyler Perry's first movie role outside one of his own projects.
  
  
• 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. Simon Pegg was on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" (1993) and said that Chris "plays my assistant in one of the scenes". It is also known that Chris has a scene with Marlene Forte, who plays the part of Transport Chief on the Enterprise.
  
  
• Composer Michael Giacchino decided to use the original "Star Trek" theme by Alexander Courage for the end credits, which director J.J. Abrams said symbolized the momentum of the crew coming together.
  
  
• 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 (1979) had a budget of $46,000,000 and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) had a budget of $60,000,000.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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 (2002) This new Star Trek (2009) is the eleventh film. Years before, Simon Pegg's character in "Spaced" (1999) 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."
  
  
• 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" (2003) score.
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• The first "Original Series" film to be rated PG-13 in the US and 12A in the UK. All of the other films starring the Original Series characters were rated PG, in the US and 12A in the UK, respectively, except for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), which was rated G in the US and a U in the UK, and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) which originally received a 15 certificate (it has since been reclassified by the BBFC as a 12A).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Eric Bana's character, Nero, is missing the tip of one of his Romulan ears. In the movie Chopper (2000), Bana's character Mark 'Chopper' Reed has both ears cut off in order to be moved to a different jail.
  
  
• In the Federation Council Chambers, there is a briefly-seen sign that reads "Admiral Komack". This is a reference to a character portrayed by Byron Morrow in the original series.
  
  
• Brief mentions are made to "Admiral Archer" and his beagle. Then-Captain Archer (Scott Bakula) was the captain of the title ship in "Enterprise" (2001) (which takes place before this movie), and kept a Beagle named Porthos.
  
  
• IDW published a comic prequel series entitled "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.
  
  
• 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: The Wrath of Khan (1982). (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.)
  
  
• 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/II), which has included several references to "Star Trek", and featured George Takei (Sulu) in the recurring role of Kaito Nakamura.
  
  
• James Marsden was considered for the role of McCoy.
  
  
• Zoe Saldana previously played a big Star Trek fan who admits she loves going to the conventions in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal (2004).
  
  
• Karl Urban is a longtime self-described "religious" fan of the Original Series. 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.
  
  
• 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 (2000), because he was fed-up of action-oriented roles.
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• To perfect the Vulcan salute, Zachary Quinto had his fingers glued together by J.J. Abrams.
  
  
• Adrien Brody had discussed playing Spock with J.J. Abrams.
  
  
• Zoe Saldana never saw "Star Trek" (1966), 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.
  
  
• Eric Bana improvised Nero's speech patterns.
  
  
• John Cho cited masculinity as an important aspect of the role of Sulu, and spent two weeks training in fighting.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Carol Marcus, Kirk's old love interest and mother of his son from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982), 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.
  
  
• Eric Bana shot his scenes toward the end of filming.
  
  
• There are references in the film to J.J. Abrams's series "Alias" (2001): At the bar, Uhura orders a Slusho drink, and Spock Prime's ship is seen to contain red matter compressed into the form of a ball (Slusho drinks and the red ball were trademarks on the show).
  
  
• 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" (1966). The concept would not be heard until the late 1980s, between Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). David Loughery wrote a script entitled "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 (2002) and the cancellation of "Enterprise" (2001), 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.
  
  
• Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and director J.J. Abrams all signed on while filming Mission: Impossible III (2006).
  
  
• The USS Kelvin, the ship Kirk's father 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• When Chris Pine was cast as James Kirk, he sent William Shatner a letter and received a reply containing Shatner's approval.
  
  
• 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" (1966), encouraged him to take the role as Sulu was a character who represented all of Asia.
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• J.J. Abrams claimed it was surreal to direct Leonard Nimoy as Spock: "This guy has been doing it for forty years!"
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Uhura in "Star Trek" (1966), was going to make a cameo as Uhura's grandmother.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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 (2005) ("being realistic and being dark are not the same thing"), and wanted to retain the humor and sex appeal that made "Star Trek" (1966) a hit.
  
  
• The Romulans were chosen as the Enterprise's antagonists as they had been featured less than the Klingons in "Star Trek" (1966). J.J. Abrams felt it was fun to have them meet Kirk before he meets them in "Star Trek" (1966), 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" (1987) two-parter "Unification."
  
  
• Roberto Orci cited Star Wars (1977) as an influence in giving this film an epic feel: "I wanted to feel the space, to feel speed and to feel all the things that can become a little bit lost when Star Trek becomes very stately - although I love that about it." The film pays homage to Star Wars (1977) in the Cantina scene, in the action sequences, and particularly in Kirk and Spock's relationship ("Han Solo wasn't friends with anyone when the journey started, then..."). Additionally, the name 'Vader' is mentioned when the cadets are boarding the Starfleet vessels and Captain Pike says 'Punch it' before going to warp, just like Han Solo does. Sound technician Ben Burtt, a noted Star Wars (1977) technician, was also hired on the film.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• According to designer Ryan Church, the design of the Enterprise ship in this film pays homage to the designs from "Star Trek" (1966) and Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Church also applied the Aztec motif from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987). The overall external design resembles a hot-rod, with more moving parts (the disc expands and the fins on the engines split).
  
  
• Production designer Scott Chambliss used the layout of the Enterprise bridge from "Star Trek" (1966), 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.
  
  
• 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 (2006), 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Steven Spielberg convinced J.J. Abrams to direct the film, and provided advice on some of the action sequences.
  
  
• Much of the film's cast/crew are fans of Star Trek, including writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, Karl Urban, Eric Bana.
  
  
• The film is dedicated to Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barrett.
  
  
• The film is influenced by: "Star Trek: Balance of Terror (#1.14)" (1966) (Kirk encounters Romulans for the first time); Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) (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).
  
  
• 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 (1968).
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• When Scotty is introduced, a small ball of fur can be seen just behind him, and we hear a kind of odd cooing. This is a tribble, as made famous in the classic episode "Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (#2.15)" (1967).
  
  
• Just before the "space-jump", Kirk asks Sulu what sort of combat training he's had, and Sulu answers, "Fencing." This is a subtle reference to the classic episode "Star Trek: The Naked Time (#1.4)" (1966), where Sulu can be seen bare-chested and brandishing a sword.
  
  
• Aside from the title card, there are no opening credits, making this the second consecutive Star Trek film that doesn't list its cast at the beginning. An opening sequence of sorts appears before the end credits.
  
  
• This is the first 'Star Trek' motion picture since CBS assumed ownership of the 'Star Trek' franchise from Paramount Pictures.
  
  
• 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 (#1.15)" (1966), "Star Trek: Arena (#1.18)" (1967), "Star Trek: The Alternative Factor (#1.27)" (1967), and "Star Trek: Friday's Child (#2.11)" (1967), had scenes filmed in this area.
  
  
• William Morgan Sheppard, who plays the Vulcan councilor who 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 (#2.6)" (1989) and "Star Trek: Voyager: Bliss (#5.14)" (1999). He also appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) 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.
  
  
• When the young Spock asks his father why he married his mother, Sarek responds that it seemed logical at the time. This is the same response he gives in "Star Trek: Journey to Babel (#2.10)" (1967).
  
  
• Spock's logic reveals a Sherlock Holmes influence when he refers to the essence of truth. Spock uses the same line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). This is the same line Data uses in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987).
  
  
• 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" (1966) 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 ("Enterprise: Broken Bow: Part 1 (#1.1)" (2001)), 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 (1991) 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" (1987). Since Spock has lived into that era, it makes sense that he would adopt the new version.)
  
  
• Spock Prime reveals himself to Kirk declaring "I Am Spock". This is the title of Leonard Nimoy second autobiography, his first autobiography titled "I Am Not Spock."
  
  
• 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).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Spock Prime gives Scott a method for beaming between two vehicles at warp, which Scotty himself invented in Spock's version of the future. This echoes a moment in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), when Scotty, in the 1980s, gives a plastics company boss the formula for "transparent aluminum", which hasn't been invented yet. Scotty justifies it because that man might have gone on to invent it anyway. In the novelization, he was in fact the inventor, and Scotty recognized the name.
  
  
• Kirk's mother's name of Winona came from the tie-in novel "Best Destiny" by Diane Carey.
  
  
• This film features several similarities or references to Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982): - 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; - and Spock serves as a Starfleet instructor in both films (also supervising the test).
  
  
• The captain asks for crew with hand-to-hand combat training. Sulu volunteers, then later reveals his only real training is fencing. This is a tip of the hat to George Takei, who played the original Sulu from "Star Trek" (1966). Takei has admitted in interviews that he was so eager to keep his job that he falsely claimed to know fencing and was forced to learn it immediately for an episode.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Uhura's roommate is an Orion. On the original show, fans identified Kirk and Pike (and "later" Capt. Archer's) fascination with Orion slave dancers.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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."
  
  
• The planet Delta Vega that Kirk is marooned on is a homage to the second pilot of the original series: "Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (#1.3)" (1966). It is the location of the Lithium cracking Station where navigator Lee Kelso was murdered and where Jim Kirk defeats his radiation-mutated friend helmsman Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell and his companion, Dr. Elizabeth Dehner.
  
  
• In the original TV series, 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.
  
  
• Pike's whistle (to break up the bar-fight) had the same "boatswain whistle" pitch used in the original series for intercom paging.
  
  
• The computer listed in the credits that was used to help create the movie is called the "Roddenberry".
  
  
• Nero is an amalgamation of the same-named emperor from ancient history and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo. He is thus a self-absorbed commander of the Narada (Nautilus) with second-in-command Ayel (Aronnax) from a lost Romulan (Roman) Empire.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Eric Bana plays Nero, a Romulan. He also appeared in a non Star-Trek affiliated movie called Romulus, My Father (2007) and plays the title character, Romulus.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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".
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Winona Ryder who plays Spock's mother is only 6 years older than Zachary Quinto who plays Spock, and is 24 years younger than the actor who plays her husband
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Chris Pine's father Robert Pine had appeared in "Star Trek: Voyager: The Chute (#3.3)" (1996) and worked with Michael Dorn (Worf from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) on "CHiPs" (1977).
  
  
• Marks 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.
  
  
• Gary Sinise, who bears a strong resemblance to 'DeForest Kelly', was rumored to have been in consideration to portray Dr. McCoy.
  
  
• 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 (#1.3)" (1966).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Kirk, Sulu and Olson "space-jump" from Pike's shuttle to the Romulan energy drill. Kirk's first scene in Star Trek: Generations (1994) was supposed to show him performing a similar orbital skydive; the scene was filmed but cut from the final film.
  
  
• As Spock and Spock Prime talk near the end of the film, the shuttle behind the elder has the number "12091" on the side. This corresponds to the release date of the last film to feature the entire original cast, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), which was released in December 1991.
  
  
• 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 series.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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" (2004), first seen in the Season 2 episode "Maternity Leave.". J.J. Abrams, of course, was deeply involved in both.
  
  
• The line "thrusters on full" was completely improvised. The scene was originally supposed to show Spock thoughtfully walking away without saying anything. It was filmed that way but then 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!"
  
  
• Leonard McCoy mentions joining Starfleet after his divorce. This fact wasn't original to the film. 'Dorothy Fontana', one of the Original Series writers, wrote an unfilmed episode story for the third season that would have established this failed marriage and also McCoy's daughter Joanna.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• John Cho and Jennifer Morrison had previously worked together on "House M.D.: Love Hurts (#1.20)" (2005). They have also both worked with Kal Penn, whose character in "House M.D.: Don't Ever Change (#4.12)" (2008) said he was a Dahar Master of the Klingon Empire, a title first mentioned in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Blood Oath (#2.19)" (1994)
  
  
• One of the buildings in San Francisco near Starfleet Academy resembles the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago.
  
  
• 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 (2009), 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 (1986), 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).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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" (1966) 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."
  
  
• The communicator, as seen in the film, was designed by Russell Bobbitt in collaboration with the Finnish cellphone company Nokia.
  
  
• Russell Bobbitt tracked down a model of the original tricorder from "Star Trek" (1966) 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.
  
  
• An Aptera Typ-1 automobile was used on location.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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 (1997), which depicted "a sleek ship with an incredible gut."
  
  
• Dr Carolyn Porco, a NASA scientist, was consulted on how to properly present the planetary science/imagery/effects seen in the film.
  
  
• The audio FX were designed by sound effects technician Ben Burtt, who is noted for his work on Star Wars (1977). 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• In designing the Romulan ship the Narada, production designer Scott Chambliss was heavily influenced by Art Nouveau architect Antoni Gaudí, 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.
  
  
• The Narada ship's interior was made of six pieces that could be rearranged to create a different room.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Production designer John Eaves, who had worked on every Star Trek series from the original onwards, was brought on this film to aid and guide his junior partners Ryan Church and Neville Page.
  
  
• This was the first film where Industrial Light & Magic used entirely digital ships.
  
  
• 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 (1977) cantina sequence, and decided to dot the designs around the film.
  
  
• The Romulan Narada is five miles wide and 15 miles long.
  
  
• 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".
  
  
• Officer Uhura (Zoe Saldana) calls Kirk "Captain" in a style similar to Saldana's previous role of Anamaria in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003).
  
  
• 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 (1989) (widely regarded as the worst Star Trek movie).
  
  
• On November 4, 2009, Wil Wheaton announced that he had recorded dialog for many of the Romulans on Nero's ship. Most of this dialog was digitally altered prior to release.
  
  
• As of 2009, this is the highest grossing film based on a live-action TV series.
  
  
• 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 none other than Victor Garber from TV's "Alias" (2001) (created by J.J. Abrams).
  
  
• Continuing the tradition of including the number 47 in some way, 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.
  
  
• In keeping with the 47 tradition Uhura (Zoe Saldana) mentions she intercepted a message in which 47 Klingon ships were destroyed.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Three members of the Enterprise crew have also been replacement actors in other franchises. Karl Urban succeeded Tommy Lee Jones, Jon Voight, James Garner, and Jonny Lee Miller as Woodrow F. Call in "Comanche Moon" (2008). Anton Yelchin replaced Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese in Terminator Salvation (2009). 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.
  
  

• SPOILER: 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.
  
  
• SPOILER: 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.
  
  
• SPOILER: The grey and white uniform the newly promoted Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) wears in the final scene where Kirk relieves him of command is a direct reference to the uniform worn by William Shatner in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979).
  
  
• SPOILER: Admiral Pike (Bruce Greenwood) is in a wheelchair in his final scene. This is a nod to the first time we saw Pike's character in the Original Series where he used a wheelchair in the episode "Star Trek: The Menagerie: Part I (#1.11)" (1966).
  
  
• SPOILER: In resetting the historic storyline for the Star Trek universe, Captain Kirk has become Captain of the USS Enterprise at an earlier age. In the original series, 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.
  
  
• SPOILER: 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 (1986) in the original timeline). However, Paramount told Kurtzman and 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.
  
  
• SPOILER: 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 (1994). 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 the Kirk's death in Generations, but also concurred that resurrecting Kirk would be detrimental to this film.
  
  
• SPOILER: Much of Spock's actions/behaviour are inspired from Superman (1978): - Spock defies the High Council of his planet, like Jor-El; - the Vulcan Council's pyramidal chamber pays homage to the Fortress of Solitude; - Spock develops a quasi-relationship with a co-worker (Uhura), like Superman/Clark Kent's relationship with Lois Lane; - the planet Vulcan is destroyed in an explosion, like Krypton; - Spock conveys to Kirk his destiny in an arctic setting; - Sarek frequently provides advice to Spock, similar to Jor-El and Kal-El; - and Spock travels back through time to save his friends;
  
  

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