Star Trek Beyond is a 2016 science fiction action film directed by Justin Lin, and written by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. It is the 13th installment in the Star Trek franchise and the third installment in the reboot series, serving as the sequel to Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto reprise their respective roles as Captain James T. Kirk and Commander Spock, with Pegg, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldaña, John Cho, and Anton Yelchin reprising their roles from the previous films. Idris Elba, Sofia Boutella, Joe Taslim, and Lydia Wilson also appear.
Principal photography began in Vancouver on June 25, 2015. Two weeks after its Sydney premiere, it was released in the United States on July 22, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. The film is dedicated to the memory of Yelchin and actor Leonard Nimoy, who both died before the film was released. The film grossed $343.5 million at the box office, and received positive reviews from critics. At the 89th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling. A sequel entered development but was ultimately canceled.
Plot
The Federation starship USS Enterprise arrives at Starbase Yorktown for resupply and shore leave for its crew. Struggling to find meaning in the third year of their five-year exploration, Captain James T. Kirk has applied for a promotion to vice admiral, while recommending Spock as his replacement. Meanwhile, Hikaru Sulu reunites with his husband and daughter, Montgomery Scott works to keep the ship operational, and Spock and Nyota Uhura have decided to take a break from their relationship. Soon, Spock receives word from New Vulcan that Ambassador Spock—Spock's alternate-universe counterpart—has died.
Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission after an escape pod drifts out of a nearby uncharted nebula. Its occupant, Kalara, claims that her ship is stranded on Altamid, a planet in the nebula. Upon arrival, a massive swarm of small unknown ships ambush and quickly overwhelm the Enterprise and begin to tear it apart. The swarm's leader, Krall, and his followers board the Enterprise, and capture and kill many crew members, in an attempt to capture the Abronath, a relic recovered during a recent mission. Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship, leaving the disintegrating Enterprise saucer section to crash land on the nearby planet Altamid.
On the planet, Krall captures Sulu, Uhura, and other survivors. Kirk and Pavel Chekov, accompanied by Kalara, locate the Enterprises saucer section. Knowing that Kalara knew they would be attacked, Kirk tricks her into revealing herself as Krall's spy. She is killed when Kirk and Chekov escape Krall's soldiers and flip the Enterprise saucer, crushing her. Dr. Leonard McCoy and a wounded Spock search for other survivors elsewhere on the planet. Spock tells McCoy that he ended his relationship with Uhura and is leaving Starfleet to help the Vulcan survivors and continue the late Ambassador Spock's work. Jaylah, a scavenger who previously escaped Krall's encampment where her father was killed, rescues Scotty and takes him to her makeshift home, the grounded USS Franklin, an early Starfleet vessel reported missing over a century earlier. Scotty is reunited with Kirk, Chekov, McCoy, and Spock. Krall coerces the captive Enterprise crew to hand over the Abronath, then uses it to complete an ancient bioweapon. With the device complete, Krall intends to kill Yorktowns inhabitants, then use the base to attack the United Federation of Planets. Kirk and the others free the crew as Krall launches into space with the bioweapon, leading his drones to Yorktown.
The Enterprise survivors power up the Franklin and launch her in pursuit of Krall. Theorizing the swarm's system may be vulnerable to high frequencies such as VHF or radio; they jam and destroy the swarm by broadcasting the song "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys. Krall is chased by the Franklin through Yorktown. Uhura, Kirk, and Scotty discover from the Franklins logs that Krall is Balthazar Edison, Franklins former captain. A pre-Federation human soldier, Edison rejected the Federation's principles of unity and cooperation with former enemies like the Xindi and the Romulans. When he and his crew were stranded on Altamid by a wormhole, the survivors used the extinct natives' technology to prolong their lives at the cost of the others, and repurposed the ancient race's dormant mining drone workers into the swarm. Thinking the Federation had abandoned them, Edison planned to destroy the Federation and resume galactic conflict. Kirk pursues Edison into Yorktowns ventilation system, where Edison activates the bioweapon. Before it can spread, Kirk ejects it and Edison into space, where the weapon disintegrates Edison. Using a commandeered alien ship, Spock and McCoy save Kirk moments before he is also blown into space.
In the aftermath, Commodore Paris closes the files of Captain Edison and the USS Franklin crew. Though offered the promotion to vice admiral, Kirk decides to remain as a captain with his love of adventure restored; Spock, after receiving a photograph of Ambassador Spock's Enterprise crew, chooses to remain in Starfleet and renews his relationship with Uhura. On Kirk's recommendation, Jaylah is accepted into Starfleet Academy. As the crew celebrates Kirk's birthday, they watch the construction of their new ship, the USS Enterprise-A, and resume their mission.
Cast
Chris Pine as Captain James T. Kirk, commanding officer of the USS Enterprise Zachary Quinto as Commander Spock, first officer and science officer Karl Urban as Lieutenant Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy, chief medical officer Zoe Saldaña as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, communications officer Simon Pegg as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, chief engineer John Cho as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, helmsman Anton Yelchin as Ensign Pavel Chekov, the ship's navigator and tactical expert. This was Yelchin's final performance as Chekov, as he died in a car accident on June 19, 2016, after filming his scenes. Idris Elba as Captain Balthazar M. Edison / Krall, former commander of the USS Franklin who became a powerful mutated alien creature Sofia Boutella as Jaylah, an alien scavenger. Joe Taslim as Anderson Le / Manas, Krall's henchman and former first officer who was also transformed. Lydia Wilson as Jessica Wolff / Kalara, Krall's henchwoman and former science officer who was also transformed. Sara Maria Forsberg voices Kalara during the translation scenes Deep Roy as Keenser, Scotty's assistant Melissa Roxburgh as Ensign Syl Shohreh Aghdashloo as Commodore Paris, commanding officer of Starbase Yorktown Greg Grunberg as Commander Finnegan, Yorktown first officer Danny Pudi as Fi'Ja Kim Kold as Zavanko Anita Brown as Tyvanna Doug Jung as Ben Dan Payne as Wadjet Shea Whigham as Teenaxi Leader
Leonard Nimoy appears in a photo cameo appearance as Spock Prime, alongside George Takei, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols as the Prime versions of Sulu, Chekov, Kirk, Scott, McCoy, and Uhura, respectively. Jeff Bezos cameos as an alien Starfleet official. Carlo Ancelotti has a brief cameo as a doctor at Starbase Yorktown.
Production Development Having directed and produced Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), J.J. Abrams returned only as a producer so he could focus on directing Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Writer-producer Roberto Orci was announced as director in May 2014. He would have been making his directorial debut. However, in December, Orci's role was also listed as a producer only, with Edgar Wright considered to replace him as director, along with a short list of others, including Rupert Wyatt, Morten Tyldum, Daniel Espinosa, Justin Lin, and Duncan Jones. Also, Star Trek actor and director Jonathan Frakes expressed interest in the job. At the end of the month, Lin was announced as director of the third installment after declining an offer by Universal Studios to return to the Fast & Furious franchise as director of The Fate of the Furious (2017) after James Wan's departure from the project.
Screenplay In 2013, Orci had begun writing the script with Patrick McKay and J. D. Payne, with Payne saying of the script in March, "We really want to get back to the sense of exploration and wonder. The kind of optimistic sense of the future that Star Trek has always kind of had at its core. It's the Chicago Bulls in space, in terms of these people who are all awesome at their job." In January 2015, after Orci's departure as director, Simon Pegg and Doug Jung were hired to rewrite the screenplay, with Pegg saying about the previous draft that Paramount "had a script for Star Trek that wasn't really working for them. I think the studio was worried that it might have been a little bit too Star Trek-y." Pegg had been asked to make the new film "more inclusive", stating that the solution was to "make a western or a thriller or a heist movie, then populate that with Star Trek characters so it's more inclusive to an audience that might be a little bit reticent." Pegg and Jung used Memory Alpha, a Star Trek fan wiki, as a resource in the writing of the film.
Casting The first film's major cast members signed on for two sequels as part of their original deals. In 2014, early in the film's development, William Shatner said that he was contacted by producer Abrams to see if he would be interested in a possible role, but as the process continued and the script changed hands, the role never materialized. Alice Eve was not included in the film despite her character having joined the Enterprise crew at the end of the last installment, because Pegg, in writing the script, did not have anything meaningful for her to do; however, he stressed that Eve could appear in a later installment. Joseph Gatt's cyborg Science Officer 0718 was dropped from the film after a rewrite. In March 2015, Idris Elba was in early talks to play the villain, and he was confirmed for the role in the following months. Pegg noted that the villain would be an original one, rather than a known antagonist from past stories in the Star Trek franchise. In April, Sofia Boutella joined the cast in a lead role, and in early July, Deep Roy was confirmed to reprise his role of Keenser. That month, Joe Taslim was added to the cast opposite Elba's villain, and by August, Lydia Wilson joined as well. In March 2016, Shohreh Aghdashloo was cast as Commodore Paris for reshoots on the film.
Filming Principal photography on the film began on June 25, 2015, in Vancouver, and Squamish, British Columbia (in the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park), after several delays caused by multiple script rejections. Additional filming locations were Seoul, South Korea, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the Nahanni National Park Reserve in Canada's Northwest Territories. Principal filming ended on October 15, 2015. In March 2016, production underwent reshoots, with Aghdashloo added to the cast.
Visual effects The visual effects are provided by Atomic Fiction, DNEG and Kelvin Optical and supervised by Kevin Baillie, Ryan Tudhope, Pauline Duvall and Peter Chiang as the Production Supervisor with help from Rodeo FX.
Music
In August 2015, composer Michael Giacchino confirmed that he would return to write the score.Giacchino announced his return at an appearance at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia on August 1, 2015. On June 26, 2016, singer Rihanna released a teaser across her social media accounts for a single for the film entitled "Sledgehammer", and the song premiered the following day. The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" was used in the movie's trailer, as well as the final battle scene.
Marketing