50 Fun Facts About Star Trek (2009)

Which filmmaker, better known for his own comedies, plays the admiral who heads Starfleet Academy in Star Trek (2009)?

Tyler Perry took the small role at the director's request, and it was his first film appearance outside his own projects. His admiral is the commandant of the school Kirk attends.

A Van Nuys plant belonging to which beer brand served as the Enterprise engine room in Star Trek (2009)?

Budweiser's plant gave the engine room the highly industrial look the director wanted, to stress the sheer size of the ship. A power plant in Long Beach played the engine room of another starship.

Which actor plays George Kirk, who stays aboard his doomed starship as his son is born, in Star Trek (2009)?

Chris Hemsworth's character has to fly his ship into Nero's by hand, because its autopilot is disabled. First he orders everyone else, his pregnant wife included, to abandon ship.

Which Academy Award did Star Trek (2009) win, the first Oscar ever given to a Star Trek film?

Best Makeup was one of four nominations for the film, beside visual effects and two sound categories. Each of its Romulans wore three prosthetics on the ears and forehead.

Which original series actor returns in Star Trek (2009) as an older Spock who has come from the future?

Leonard Nimoy mattered so much to the film that the script would have been rewritten had he disliked it. He had turned down many earlier chances to revisit the role.

Which substance does Nero fire into the core of Vulcan to create a black hole in Star Trek (2009)?

Red matter takes the form of a red ball, a motif the director had been using since the pilot of his TV series Alias. The elder Spock had first carried it on a rescue mission that failed.

Which actress plays Amanda Grayson, Spock's human mother who dies as Vulcan collapses, in Star Trek (2009)?

Winona Ryder's character falls to her death a moment before the transporter can lock onto her. Spock's father and the planet's high council are beamed out safely.

Which visual effect did the cinematographer add on purpose to shot after shot of Star Trek (2009)?

Lens flares were made by shining a flashlight or a mirror at the lens. The editors were not told, and at first asked the developers why the film looked overexposed.

Which supposedly unbeatable Starfleet Academy simulation does Kirk pass by cheating in Star Trek (2009)?

Kobayashi Maru is a test Kirk says it was fair to cheat on, because it was designed to be unbeatable. It is Spock who brings the charge against him, and a distress call cuts the hearing short.

A parking lot outside which Los Angeles sports venue stood in for an ice planet in Star Trek (2009)?

Dodger Stadium's lot also played the drilling rig above Vulcan. Iceland was considered for the ice scenes, but the production designer enjoyed the challenge of filming snow in southern California.

Which filmmaker directed Star Trek (2009), having earlier made Mission: Impossible III with the same two writers?

J. J. Abrams first joined only as a producer, then chose to direct after reading the script. He said he would have been agonizingly envious of anyone else who got to make it.

Which actor plays James T. Kirk in Star Trek (2009), a role he won only after a second audition?

Chris Pine called his first audition awful, because he could not take himself seriously as a leader. He chose not to copy the original star's speech pattern, feeling it would border on imitation.

Which actor took over the role of Spock for Star Trek (2009), binding his fingers to practice the Vulcan salute?

Zachary Quinto caught the director's eye through a newspaper interview in which he said he wanted the part. He also shaved his eyebrows, and wore a blue shirt to the audition to feel the role.

Which actor plays Nero, the time-traveling Romulan villain of Star Trek (2009), and improvised his speech patterns?

Eric Bana shot his scenes toward the end of filming and wore one more prosthetic than his crew, for a bite mark on Nero's ear. He said he took the part because he loved the script.

In which US state does the young James Kirk grow up, and the Enterprise get built, in Star Trek (2009)?

Iowa could host the shipyard because canon never settled where the ship was built. A piece of fan art had inspired the idea of constructing the Enterprise on Earth.

On which frozen world does Spock maroon Kirk after an attempted mutiny in Star Trek (2009)?

Delta Vega is where Kirk runs into both the elder Spock and Scotty, who is posted at a Starfleet outpost there. Nero had stranded the old Vulcan on it to watch his home planet die.

Which starship is George Kirk serving on as first officer when Nero attacks at the start of Star Trek (2009)?

USS Kelvin was named for the director's grandfather as well as for the physicist Lord Kelvin. Its crew uniforms were modelled on science fiction films of the 1940s and 1950s.

Which Starfleet captain talks Kirk into enlisting and commands the Enterprise at the start of Star Trek (2009)?

Christopher Pike later gives himself up to Nero, who tortures him for Earth's defense codes. Kirk gets him out alive, and he ends the film promoted to rear admiral.

Which actor plays Montgomery Scott in Star Trek (2009), having been offered the part by the director in an e-mail?

Simon Pegg had help with the accent from his Glasgow-born wife and from the film's Glaswegian first assistant director. He called Scotty a positive Scottish stereotype.

Which actress plays Uhura in Star Trek (2009), having earlier played a Trekkie in The Terminal?

Zoe Saldaña had never seen the original series, but her mother was a fan and left her voice mails of advice during filming. She also met the first Uhura to learn how the character's background was created.

Which actor plays Dr. McCoy in Star Trek (2009), having worked with its two writers on Xena: Warrior Princess?

Karl Urban, a fan since the age of seven, went after the part once he had rediscovered the series on DVD with his son. He was cast at his very first audition.

Which actor plays Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek (2009), after the original Sulu reassured the director about the casting?

John Cho got the role once the director heard that Sulu was meant to represent all of Asia aboard the ship. He called the part the realization of a dream of going into space.

Anton Yelchin plays which Enterprise officer in Star Trek (2009), keeping the character's habit of swapping v for w?

Pavel Chekov struck Yelchin as an odd character, a Russian added to the original show in the middle of the Cold War. Actor and director both felt the v-to-w habit sounded more Polish than Russian.

By what nickname is Dr. McCoy, the friend Kirk makes at Starfleet Academy, known in Star Trek (2009)?

Bones gave its actor a comedy-heavy role, which he welcomed because he was tired of action parts. He set out to honor the essence of DeForest Kelley's doctor, not to make a carbon copy.

What kind of trouble has the adult Kirk just been in when a Starfleet captain recruits him in Star Trek (2009)?

A bar fight with Starfleet cadets, who are out with Uhura, brings Kirk to the captain's notice. Three years later he is a cadet himself, defending a charge of cheating.

Which original Star Trek star was written a scene for Star Trek (2009) that was never filmed?

William Shatner was written a scene as a recorded message from the old Kirk, to be played to the young Spock. The writers left it out, and he later said nobody had offered it to him.

The actor cast as Spock in Star Trek (2009) was then playing the killer Sylar in which television series?

Heroes nearly supplied a second crew member: a co-star was keen to play Sulu, but the show's producers did not want to lose another cast member for three months.

Which composer scored Star Trek (2009), saving the original television theme for the end credits?

Michael Giacchino, the director's most frequent collaborator, admitted he went in scared, having grown up on the series' music. He recorded with a 107-piece orchestra and a 40-person choir.

In which city did Star Trek (2009) hold its first premiere, a month before it opened in American theaters?

Sydney Opera House hosted the premiere a day after a surprise screening in Austin, Texas. The audience there had been promised an older Star Trek film, which appeared to melt a few minutes in.

Which actress voiced the Enterprise computer in Star Trek (2009), finishing the role two weeks before her death?

Majel Barrett, the widow of Star Trek's creator, was reprising her old voice role one last time. The film is dedicated to the two of them.

What is the name of Spock's father, whom the Enterprise rescues before Vulcan is destroyed in Star Trek (2009)?

Sarek is beamed to safety with the Vulcan high council, though his human wife is lost. A later talk with him is what persuades Spock to help Kirk.

What threatens the planet Romulus in the future that the elder Spock describes to Kirk in Star Trek (2009)?

A supernova destroyed Romulus and Nero's family before the elder Spock's rescue plan could work. The black hole that followed threw both their ships back in time, 25 years apart.

To which species does Gaila, the cadet Kirk seduces at Starfleet Academy, belong in Star Trek (2009)?

Orion cadet Gaila worked in the operations division, a cut scene explained. She agreed to open the e-mail carrying the patch that let Kirk beat his final simulation.

Which creature from the original series can be seen in the background of Scotty's first scene in Star Trek (2009)?

A tribble was placed in the background of the engineer's introduction at a remote outpost. The film's other aliens were built in a rush by a team that had expected most of them to share one scene.

What first name for Uhura, never before spoken on television or film, is established in Star Trek (2009)?

Nyota, Swahili for star, was coined for a 1982 tie-in book and used in novels for years. The film makes a running joke of Kirk trying to learn it.

Which famous director visited the set of Star Trek (2009) and gave advice on its action scenes?

Steven Spielberg had also helped persuade the film's director to take the job, because he liked the script. Few outsiders were allowed on the set at all, such was the secrecy around it.

Before the part of Kirk's father was cast in Star Trek (2009), the director met with which star about it?

Matt Damon was sounded out for a part that ends in the opening battle, when George Kirk rams his own ship into Nero's.

The director joked that the redesigned Enterprise bridge in Star Trek (2009) made which retailer look uncool?

The Apple Store comparison suited a bridge rebuilt in brighter colors to reflect the optimism of Star Trek. More railings were added at the director's request, to make it look safer.

The actor cast as Kirk in Star Trek (2009) borrowed elements of Tom Cruise's performance in which film?

Top Gun was one model for the new Kirk, along with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones and Han Solo. The actor had stopped studying old episodes, feeling weighed down by the urge to copy them.

The writers of Star Trek (2009) read papers likening Kirk and Spock's friendship to which songwriting partnership?

Lennon and McCartney were one comparison the writers took from graduate school papers on the series. The same reading likened Kirk, Spock and McCoy to Shakespearian archetypes.

Which species holds Nero prisoner in a subplot that was cut from Star Trek (2009) after early screenings?

Klingons were to have jailed Nero during the years Kirk was growing up. The subplot explained his long absence, but it confused many of the people the director showed the film to.

Which Star Trek: The Next Generation actor voiced several of Nero's Romulan crew in Star Trek (2009)?

Wil Wheaton, known as Wesley Crusher, was brought in at the urging of Greg Grunberg, who has a vocal cameo of his own as Kirk's stepfather.

Which fake working title was used to keep the production of Star Trek (2009) secret?

Corporate Headquarters was only one layer of secrecy. Actors rode in covered golf carts, could not walk around in costume in public, and some were given only their own scenes of the script.

Which famous ocean liner inspired the industrial look of the Enterprise engine room in Star Trek (2009)?

RMS Titanic struck the director as a sleek ship hiding an incredible gut. That was how he explained the look to the actor playing the chief engineer.

Which California filming location, already used in the original series, supplied Vulcan exteriors for Star Trek (2009)?

Vasquez Rocks tied the reboot to the 1960s show, which had filmed various episodes there. Other scenes went to Utah's San Rafael Swell and to a Los Angeles university campus.

The first teaser for Star Trek (2009), showing the Enterprise under construction, debuted in theaters with which film?

Cloverfield audiences saw welders at work on the starship while voices from the 1960s played, John F. Kennedy's among them. The director shot the opening himself, using professional welders.

Which phone maker worked with the prop master on a $50,000 prototype communicator for Star Trek (2009)?

Nokia was also one of the film's promotional partners. The director said the hard part of designing the future was that real phones already did more than the old communicator.

Which architect's inside-out-looking buildings inspired the design of Nero's ship, the Narada, in Star Trek (2009)?

Antoni Gaudí's influence shows in exposed wires made to look like ligaments, giving the ship a foreboding feel. Its interior was six pieces that could be rearranged into different rooms.

Which instrument, played by Karen Han, carries the Vulcan themes in the score of Star Trek (2009)?

Erhu music marks Spock's people in the score, while the Romulans were given a distorted recording. The soundtrack album reached shops three days before the film opened in the United States.

Which Star Trek film, the tenth in the series, was the box-office failure that preceded Star Trek (2009)?

Nemesis flopped in 2002. The reboot's director said he had never watched it, because he felt the series had disconnected from the original show.