Star Trek (2009)
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50 free Star Trek (2009) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The 2009 Star Trek film did something few reboots manage: it recast one of the most familiar crews in science fiction and made audiences care all over again. It sent Kirk and Spock back to their first meeting, bent the timeline so that nothing was guaranteed, and won over critics and newcomers as well as long-time fans. This quiz covers the whole film. There are questions on the story, from the opening attack to the final showdown, on the actors who stepped into famous roles, and on the production itself: the unlikely places that doubled for starships and alien worlds, the secrecy on set, the music and the awards. It is written for anyone who has seen the film, not only for devoted Trekkers. The early questions are ones a casual viewer can work out, and the later ones reward people who stayed for the credits and read up on how it was made.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which filmmaker, better known for his own comedies, plays the admiral who heads Starfleet Academy in Star Trek (2009)?
Tyler Perry
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.
Q 02A Van Nuys plant belonging to which beer brand served as the Enterprise engine room in Star Trek (2009)?
Budweiser
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.
Q 03Which actor plays George Kirk, who stays aboard his doomed starship as his son is born, in Star Trek (2009)?
Chris Hemsworth
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.
Q 04Which Academy Award did Star Trek (2009) win, the first Oscar ever given to a Star Trek film?
Best Makeup
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.
Q 05Which original series actor returns in Star Trek (2009) as an older Spock who has come from the future?
Leonard Nimoy
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.
Q 06Which substance does Nero fire into the core of Vulcan to create a black hole in Star Trek (2009)?
Red matter
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.
Q 07Which actress plays Amanda Grayson, Spock's human mother who dies as Vulcan collapses, in Star Trek (2009)?
Winona Ryder
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.
Q 08Which visual effect did the cinematographer add on purpose to shot after shot of Star Trek (2009)?
Lens flares
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.
Q 09Which supposedly unbeatable Starfleet Academy simulation does Kirk pass by cheating in Star Trek (2009)?
Kobayashi Maru
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.
Q 10A parking lot outside which Los Angeles sports venue stood in for an ice planet in Star Trek (2009)?
Dodger Stadium
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.
Q 11Which filmmaker directed Star Trek (2009), having earlier made Mission: Impossible III with the same two writers?
J. J. Abrams
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.
Q 12Which actor plays James T. Kirk in Star Trek (2009), a role he won only after a second audition?
Chris Pine
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.
Q 13Which actor took over the role of Spock for Star Trek (2009), binding his fingers to practice the Vulcan salute?
Q 21Which actor plays Dr. McCoy in Star Trek (2009), having worked with its two writers on Xena: Warrior Princess?
Karl Urban
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.
Q 22Which actor plays Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek (2009), after the original Sulu reassured the director about the casting?
John Cho
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.
Q 23Anton Yelchin plays which Enterprise officer in Star Trek (2009), keeping the character's habit of swapping v for w?
Pavel Chekov
Zachary Quinto
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.
Q 14Which actor plays Nero, the time-traveling Romulan villain of Star Trek (2009), and improvised his speech patterns?
Eric Bana
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.
Q 15In which US state does the young James Kirk grow up, and the Enterprise get built, in Star Trek (2009)?
Iowa
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.
Q 16On which frozen world does Spock maroon Kirk after an attempted mutiny in Star Trek (2009)?
Delta Vega
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.
Q 17Which starship is George Kirk serving on as first officer when Nero attacks at the start of Star Trek (2009)?
USS Kelvin
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.
Q 18Which Starfleet captain talks Kirk into enlisting and commands the Enterprise at the start of Star Trek (2009)?
Christopher Pike
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.
Q 19Which actor plays Montgomery Scott in Star Trek (2009), having been offered the part by the director in an e-mail?
Simon Pegg
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.
Q 20Which actress plays Uhura in Star Trek (2009), having earlier played a Trekkie in The Terminal?
Zoe Saldaña
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.
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.
Q 24By what nickname is Dr. McCoy, the friend Kirk makes at Starfleet Academy, known in Star Trek (2009)?
Bones
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.
Q 25What kind of trouble has the adult Kirk just been in when a Starfleet captain recruits him in Star Trek (2009)?
A bar fight
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.
Q 26Which original Star Trek star was written a scene for Star Trek (2009) that was never filmed?
William Shatner
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.
Q 27The actor cast as Spock in Star Trek (2009) was then playing the killer Sylar in which television series?
Heroes
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.
Q 28Which composer scored Star Trek (2009), saving the original television theme for the end credits?
Michael Giacchino
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.
Q 29In which city did Star Trek (2009) hold its first premiere, a month before it opened in American theaters?
Sydney
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.
Q 30Which actress voiced the Enterprise computer in Star Trek (2009), finishing the role two weeks before her death?
Majel Barrett
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.