The Star Trek film series is the cinematic branch of the Star Trek media franchise, which began in 1966 as a weekly television series on NBC, running for three ...
Star Trek (film series)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Star Trek |
The Star Trek logo from the 2009 film
|
| Directed by |
See below |
| Produced by |
See below |
| Written by |
See below |
| Starring |
See below |
| Budget |
$690 million (all films) |
| Box office |
$2.033 billion (all films) |
The
Star Trek film series is the
cinematic branch of the
Star Trek media franchise, which began in 1966 as a weekly
television series on
NBC,
running for three seasons until it was canceled in 1969 because of poor
ratings. Reruns of the series proved to be wildly successful in
syndication during the 1970s, which persuaded the series' then-owner,
Paramount Pictures, to expand the franchise.
Paramount originally began work on a
Star Trek feature film in 1975 after lobbying by the creator of the franchise,
Gene Roddenberry. The studio scrapped the project two years later in favor of creating a television series,
Star Trek: Phase II, with the original cast. However, following the huge success of
Star Wars and
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Paramount changed its mind again, halting production on the television series and adapting its pilot episode into the 1979
Star Trek feature film,
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Five more films featuring the entire original cast followed. The cast of the 1987–1994 spin-off series
Star Trek: The Next Generation starred in a further four films. After a 7-year hiatus, a new film was released in 2009, simply titled
Star Trek,
serving as a reboot to the franchise with a new cast portraying younger
versions of the original series' characters. A sequel to
Star Trek (2009),
Star Trek Into Darkness, was released in theaters in May 2013. A second sequel,
Star Trek Beyond, will be released in July 2016, which will be on the franchise's 50th anniversary.
The
Star Trek films have received 15
Academy Award nominations.
Star Trek (2009) won for
Best Makeup and Hairstyling in
2010, and four of the previous films were nominated mainly in the areas of makeup, music, set design and sound design.
The early
Star Trek films were originally released on
VHS; competitive pricing of
The Wrath of Khan 's videocassette helped bolster the adoption of VHS players in households.
[1] Later films were also released on
LaserDisc as well. For those films that did not receive an initial
DVD
release, Paramount released simple one-disc versions with no special
features. Later, the first ten films were released in two-disc
collector's versions, with
The Motion Picture and
The Wrath of Khan branded as "
director's cuts", followed by later
box set releases. All of the films are now available on
Blu-ray,
digital download,
streaming media and
video on demand.
Development
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry first suggested the idea of a
Star Trek feature in 1969.
[2]
When the original television series was cancelled, he lobbied to
continue the franchise through a film. The success of the series in
syndication convinced the studio to begin work on a feature film in 1975.
[3]
A series of writers attempted to craft a suitably epic script, but the
attempts did not satisfy Paramount, so the studio scrapped the project
in 1977. Paramount instead planned on returning the franchise to its
roots with a new television series,
Star Trek: Phase II. The massive worldwide box office success of
Star Wars
in mid-1977 sent Hollywood studios to their vaults in search of similar
sci-fi properties that could be adapted or re-launched to the big
screen. When Columbia's
Close Encounters of the Third Kind enjoyed a huge opening in late December 1977, Paramount was convinced that science fiction films other than
Star Wars could do very well at the box office, so the studio canceled production of
Phase II and resumed its attempts at making a
Star Trek film.
Principal photography for
Star Trek: The Motion Picture commenced August 7, 1978
[4] with director
Robert Wise helming the feature. The production encountered difficulties and slipped behind schedule. Paramount had approached
Douglas Trumbull and
John Dykstra to handle the film's optical effects, but each was busy or unwilling.
[5] The production instead went with
Robert Abel and Associates,
[6] who proved unable to handle the film's large amount of effects work. Trumbull was hired and given a
blank check to complete the effects work in time;
[7] the final cut of the film was completed just in time for the film's premiere in
Washington, D.C.
The film introduced an upgrade to the technology and starship
designs, making for a dramatic visual departure from the original
series. The starship
Enterprise
was "refitted" with a modernized design, both exterior and interior.
Many of the set elements created for the earlier aborted "Phase II"
television series were adapted and enhanced for use in the first feature
film.
The film received mixed reviews from critics; while it grossed
$82,258,456, the film's price tag had climbed to about $35 million due
to costly effects work and delays.
- The "Curse"
Fans commonly considered the films to follow a "curse" that even-numbered films were better than the odd-numbered installments.
[8][9] The tenth film,
Nemesis, was considered the even film that defied the curse.
[8][10][11] The failure of
Nemesis and subsequent success of
Star Trek (2009) is considered to have broken the trend,
[12][13] though some have tried to uphold the trend, either by counting the parody
Galaxy Quest as an "honorary"
Star Trek film, by using the sum of the digits as an indicator, or by referring to the 2009 reboot as
Star Trek 0 due to it being set before the others.
[14][unreliable source?]
The curse is well enough known that it has been mentioned often in pop
culture. One of the best known examples occurred in a 1999 episode of
the
Channel 4 sitcom
Spaced, where it was referenced by
Tim Bisley, played by
Simon Pegg: Pegg, quite conscious of the irony,
[15] played
Scotty in the reboot films.
The Original Series
The Motion Picture 's gross was considered disappointing,
but it was enough for Paramount to back a sequel, albeit with a reduced
budget. After Gene Roddenberry pitched a sequel to
The Motion Picture in which the crew of the
Enterprise goes back in time to ensure the assassination of
John F. Kennedy, he was "kicked upstairs" to a ceremonial role while Paramount brought in television producer
Harve Bennett to craft a better—and cheaper—film than the first feature.
[16] After watching all the television episodes, Bennett decided that the character of
Khan Noonien Singh was the perfect villain for the new film.
Nicholas Meyer
became director after he finished a complete screenplay in just twelve
days. Meyer did everything possible within budget to give
The Wrath of Khan a nautical, swashbuckling feel,
[17] which he described as "
Horatio Hornblower in outer space."
[16] Upon release, the reception of
The Wrath of Khan was highly positive;
[18] Entertainment Weekly 's Mark Bernadin called
The Wrath of Khan, "the film that, by most accounts, saved
Star Trek as we know it".
[19]
Meyer declined to return for the next film, so directing duties were given to cast member
Leonard Nimoy for the third film. Paramount gave Bennett the green light to write
Star Trek III the day after
The Wrath of Khan opened.
[20]
The producer penned a resurrection story for Spock that built on
threads from the previous film and the original series episode "
Amok Time".
[citation needed]
Nimoy remained director for
the next film in the series. Nimoy and Bennett wanted a film with a lighter tone that did not have a classic antagonist. They decided on a
time travel story with the
Enterprise crew returning to their past to retrieve something to save their present—eventually,
humpback whales. After having been dissatisfied with the script written by
Daniel Petrie, Jr., Paramount hired Meyer to rewrite the screenplay with Bennett's help. Meyer drew upon his own time travel story
Time After Time for elements
[which?] of the script.
[citation needed]
William Shatner was promised his turn as director for
Star Trek V, and Nicholas Meyer returned as director for
Star Trek VI.
The Next Generation
Both the sixth and seventh films acted as transitions between the films featuring the original cast and those with the
Next Generation cast with the sixth focusing on the original cast and
the seventh focusing on the
TNG cast. The
Next Generation cast made four films over a period of eight years, with the last two performing only moderately well (
Insurrection) and disappointingly (
Nemesis) at the box office.
Reboot
After the financial failure of
Star Trek: Nemesis and the cancellation of the television series
Star Trek: Enterprise, the franchise's executive producer
Rick Berman and screenwriter
Erik Jendresen began developing a new film,
[21] entitled
Star Trek: The Beginning, which would take place after
Enterprise but before
The Original Series.
[22] J. J. Abrams, the producer of
Cloverfield and creator of
Lost, was a
Star Wars fan as a child and confessed that the
Star Trek franchise "disconnected" for him.
[23] In February 2007, Abrams accepted Paramount's offer to direct the new
Star Trek film, having been previously attached as producer.
[24] Roberto Orci and
Alex Kurtzman wrote a script that impressed Abrams, featuring new actors portraying younger versions of the original series' cast. The
Enterprise,
its interior, and the original uniforms were redesigned. While the film
was ready for a December 2008 release, Paramount chose to move the
film's opening to May 8, 2009.
[25] The film earned over $350 million worldwide (from a solid $75.2 million opening weekend, higher than
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)), and surpassed
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as the highest grossing film in the franchise. The
sequel was greenlighted even before the first one opened, and Paramount released the film (the 12th in the franchise) on May 17, 2013.
[26]
The film also has the distinction of being the first film in the franchise to win an
Academy Award. It won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling in 2010.
The Original Series films
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
A massive energy cloud advances toward Earth, leaving destruction in its wake, and the
Enterprise must intercept it to determine what lies within, and what its intent might be.
The movie borrows many elements from "
The Changeling" of the original series and "
One of Our Planets Is Missing" from the animated series.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
Khan Noonien Singh (
Ricardo Montalban), whom Kirk thwarted in his attempt to seize control of the
Enterprise eighteen years earlier ("
Space Seed"), seeks his revenge and lays a cunning and sinister trap.
Both the first and second films have television versions with
additional footage and alternate takes that affect the storyline.
(Subsequent
Trek films tended to have shorter television versions.) Especially notable in
The Wrath of Khan is the footage establishing that a young crew member who acts courageously and dies during an attack on the
Enterprise is Scotty's nephew.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
When McCoy begins acting irrationally, Kirk learns that Spock, in his final moments, transferred his
katra, his living spirit, to the doctor. To save McCoy from emotional ruin, Kirk and crew steal the
Enterprise
and violate the quarantine of the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock, his
body regenerated by the rapidly dying planet itself, in the hope that
body and soul can be rejoined. However, bent on obtaining the secret of
Genesis for themselves, a rogue Klingon (
Christopher Lloyd) and his crew interfere, with deadly consequences.
The first film to be a direct sequel to the previous
Trek film.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
While returning to stand court-martial for their actions in rescuing
Spock, Kirk and crew learn that Earth is under siege by a giant probe
that is transmitting a destructive signal, attempting to communicate
with the now-extinct species of
humpback whales.
To save the planet, the crew must time-travel back to the 20th century
to obtain a mating pair of these whales, and a marine biologist (
Catherine Hicks) to care for them.
The second through fourth films loosely form a trilogy, with the
later plots building on elements of the earlier ones. The third film
picks up within several days of the conclusion of the second, the fourth
three months after the third. (The fifth film takes place a month after
the fourth, but is not directly connected to the plots of the preceding
three films.) The third and fourth films were both directed by
Leonard Nimoy (also co-writer of the fourth), best known as the actor playing Spock.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Spock's half-brother (
Laurence Luckinbill) believes he is summoned by
God, and hijacks the brand-new (and problem-ridden)
Enterprise-A to take it through the Great Barrier, at the center of the
Milky Way, beyond which he believes his maker waits for him. Meanwhile, a young and vain Klingon captain (
Todd Bryant),
seeking glory in what he views as an opportunity to avenge his people
of the deaths of their crewmen on Genesis, sets his sights on Kirk.
This is the only film in the franchise directed by
William Shatner.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
After
Qo'noS is devastated by an environmental catastrophe, the Klingons make peace overtures to the Federation. The Klingon Chancellor (
David Warner), en route to Earth for a summit, is assassinated by
Enterprise crewmen, and Kirk is held accountable by the Chancellor's Chief of Staff (
Christopher Plummer).
Spock attempts to prove his captain's innocence, but in so doing
uncovers a massive conspiracy against the peace process, with
participants from both sides.
This film is a sendoff to the original crew. One
Next Generation cast member,
Michael Dorn,
appears as the grandfather of the character he plays on the later
television series. It is the second and last Trek film directed by
Nicholas Meyer and last script co-authored by
Leonard Nimoy.
The Next Generation films
Star Trek Generations (1994)
Picard enlists the help of Kirk, who is presumed long dead but flourishes in an extradimensional realm, to keep a madman (
Malcolm McDowell) from destroying a star and its populated planetary system in an attempt to enter that realm.
Following seven seasons of
Star Trek: The Next Generation, the next
Star Trek film was the first to feature the crew of the
Enterprise-D along with a long prologue sequence featuring three members of the original cast.
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
The Borg attempt to prevent First Contact between Earth and Vulcan by interfering with Zefram Cochrane's (
James Cromwell) warp test in the past. Picard must confront the demons which stem from his assimilation into the Collective ("
The Best of Both Worlds") as he leads the
Enterprise-E back through time to ensure the test and subsequent meeting with the Vulcans take place.
The first of two films directed by series actor
Jonathan Frakes.
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Profoundly disturbed by what he views as a blatant violation of the
Prime Directive, Picard deliberately interferes with a Starfleet
admiral's (
Anthony Zerbe)
plan to relocate a relatively small but seemingly immortal population
from a planet to gain control of the planet's natural radiation, which
has been discovered to have substantial medicinal properties. But the
admiral himself is a pawn in his alien partner's (
F. Murray Abraham) mission of vengeance.
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
A clone of Picard (
Tom Hardy),
created by the Romulans but eventually exiled to hard labor on Remus,
assassinates the entire Romulan senate, assumes dictatorship, and lures
Picard and the
Enterprise to Romulus under the false pretence of a peace overture.
This film was a critical and commercial disappointment (released in late 2002 in direct competition with the
James Bond film
Die Another Day and
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) and was the final
Star Trek film to feature the
Next Generation cast and to be produced by
Rick Berman.
Reboot films
Star Trek (2009)
When Vulcan is destroyed by Romulans from the future, Starfleet cadet Kirk (
Chris Pine) and instructor Spock (
Zachary Quinto) must set aside their differences to keep Earth from suffering the same fate.
This film acts as a
reboot
to the existing franchise by taking place in an "alternate reality"
using the plot device of time travel to depict an altered timeline,
featuring younger versions of the original series' cast. It is the first
production to feature an entirely different cast of actors playing
roles previously established by other actors, with the exception of an
aged Spock played by
Leonard Nimoy. It was directed by
J. J. Abrams (who produced it with
Damon Lindelof) and written by
Roberto Orci and
Alex Kurtzman. According to Lindelof, this production was designed to attract a wider audience.
[27] It received positive reviews
[28] and a
number of awards, including the film franchise's only
Academy Award, albeit for "
makeup and hairstyling".
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
A Starfleet special agent (
Benedict Cumberbatch)
coerces an officer into blowing up a secret installation in London,
shoots up a subsequent meeting of Starfleet brass in San Francisco, and
then flees to
Qo'noS. The crew of the
Enterprise
attempt to bring him to justice without provoking war with the Klingon
Empire, but find there is much more to the agent's mission, and the man
himself, than what the Fleet Admiral (
Peter Weller) has told them.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Star Trek Beyond
is currently planned to be released on July 8, 2016, in time for the
franchise's 50th anniversary celebrations. The plot reportedly takes
place in deep space, with the
Starship Enterprise and the crew dealing with an unrevealed crisis.
Roberto Orci has stated that
Star Trek Beyond
will feel more like the original series than its predecessors in the
reboot series while still trying something new with the established
material.
[29] In December 2014, Justin Lin was confirmed as the director for the upcoming sequel,
[30] marking the first reboot film not to be directed by
J. J. Abrams, whose commitments to
Star Wars: The Force Awakens restricted his role on the
Star Trek film to that of producer.
[31] In January 2015, it was confirmed that the film would be co-written by Doug Jung and
Simon Pegg,
[32] who revealed the film's title that May.
[33] Idris Elba was cast as the villain,
[34][35] while
Sofia Boutella was cast in an undisclosed role.
[36] Filming began on June 25, 2015.
[37]
Star Trek 4 (2019)
According to
The Hollywood Reporter, both Pine and Quinto have signed contracts to return as Kirk and Spock if a fourth film is made.
[38]
Cast
The following table shows the cast members who played the primary characters in the film series.
Crew and other
| Crew/detail |
Film |
The Motion Picture
(1979) |
The Wrath of Khan
(1982) |
The Search for Spock
(1984) |
The Voyage Home
(1986) |
The Final Frontier
(1989) |
The Undiscovered Country
(1991) |
Generations
(1994) |
First Contact
(1996) |
Insurrection
(1998) |
Nemesis
(2002) |
Star Trek
(2009) |
Into Darkness
(2013) |
Beyond
(2016) |
| Director |
Robert Wise |
Nicholas Meyer |
Leonard Nimoy |
William Shatner |
Nicholas Meyer |
David Carson |
Jonathan Frakes |
Stuart Baird |
J. J. Abrams |
Justin Lin |
| Producer(s) |
Gene Roddenberry |
Robert Sallin |
Harve Bennett |
Ralph Winter, Steven-Charles Jaffe |
Rick Berman |
Rick Berman, Marty Hornstein, Peter Lauritson |
Rick Berman |
J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof |
J. J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci |
J. J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Roberto Orci |
| Music |
Jerry Goldsmith |
James Horner |
Leonard Rosenman |
Jerry Goldsmith |
Cliff Eidelman |
Dennis McCarthy |
Jerry Goldsmith,
Joel Goldsmith |
Jerry Goldsmith |
Michael Giacchino |
| Writer(s) |
Screenplay:
Harold Livingston
Story by:
Alan Dean Foster |
Screenplay:
Jack B. Sowards,
Nicholas Meyer (uncredited)
Story by: Harve Bennett,
Jack B. Sowards
Nicholas Meyer (uncredited),
Samuel A. Peeples (uncredited) |
Harve Bennett |
Screenplay:
Steve Meerson,
Peter Krikes,
Nicholas Meyer,
Harve Bennett
Story by:
Harve Bennett,
Leonard Nimoy |
Screenplay:
David Loughery
Story by:
William Shatner,
Harve Bennett,
David Loughery |
Screenplay:
Nicholas Meyer,
Denny Martin Flinn
Story by:
Leonard Nimoy,
Lawrence Konner,
Mark Rosenthal |
Screenplay:
Ronald D. Moore,
Brannon Braga
Story by:
Rick Berman,
Ronald D. Moore,
Brannon Braga |
Screenplay:
Brannon Braga,
Ronald D. Moore
Story by:
Rick Berman,
Brannon Braga,
Ronald D. Moore |
Screenplay:
Michael Piller
Story by:
Rick Berman,
Michael Piller |
Screenplay:
John Logan
Story by:
John Logan,
Rick Berman,
Brent Spiner |
Roberto Orci,
Alex Kurtzman |
Roberto Orci,
Alex Kurtzman,
Damon Lindelof |
Doug Jung,
Simon Pegg |
| Running time |
132 minutes[40] |
113 minutes[41] |
105 minutes[42] |
122 minutes[43] |
106 minutes[44] |
110 minutes[45] |
118 minutes[46] |
111 minutes[47] |
103 minutes[48] |
116 minutes[49] |
126 minutes[50] |
132 minutes[51] |
|
Reception
Box office performance
| Film |
Release date |
Box office gross |
Budget |
Reference |
| North America |
Other territories |
Worldwide |
Adjusted North America[52] |
|
| The Motion Picture |
December 7, 1979 |
$82,258,456 |
$56,741,544 |
$139,000,000 |
$268,198,020 |
$35 million |
[53] |
| The Wrath of Khan |
June 4, 1982 |
$79,912,963 |
$16,887,037 |
$96,800,000 |
$195,952,097 |
$12 million |
[54] |
| The Search for Spock |
June 1, 1984 |
$76,471,046 |
$10,528,954 |
$87,000,000 |
$174,178,606 |
$18 million |
[55] |
| The Voyage Home |
November 26, 1986 |
$109,713,132 |
$23,286,868 |
$133,000,000 |
$236,845,805 |
$24 million |
[56] |
| The Final Frontier |
June 9, 1989 |
$52,210,049 |
$17,989,951 |
$70,200,000 |
$99,668,633 |
$30 million |
[57] |
| The Undiscovered Country |
December 6, 1991 |
$74,888,996 |
$22,011,004 |
$96,900,000 |
$130,108,881 |
$27 million |
[58] |
|
| Generations |
November 18, 1994 |
$75,671,262 |
$44,328,738 |
$120,000,000 |
$120,812,381 |
$38 million |
[59] |
| First Contact |
November 22, 1996 |
$92,027,888 |
$57,972,112 |
$150,000,000 |
$138,852,177 |
$46 million |
[60] |
| Insurrection |
December 11, 1998 |
$70,187,658 |
$47,612,342 |
$117,800,000 |
$101,899,640 |
$70 million |
[61] |
| Nemesis |
December 13, 2002 |
$43,254,409 |
$24,058,417 |
$67,312,826 |
$56,906,957 |
$60 million |
[62] |
|
| Star Trek |
May 8, 2009 |
$257,730,019 |
$127,950,427 |
$385,680,446 |
$284,274,572 |
$150 million |
[63] |
| Into Darkness |
May 16, 2013 |
$228,778,661 |
$238,200,000 |
$466,978,661 |
$232,406,437 |
$185 million |
[64] |
| Beyond |
July 22, 2016 |
|
|
|
|
$165 million |
|
| Total |
$1,243,104,539 |
$687,567,394 |
$1,930,671,933 |
$2,040,104,206 |
$690 million |
[65] |
Critical and public response
| Film |
Rotten Tomatoes |
Metacritic |
CinemaScore |
|
| The Motion Picture |
45% (33 reviews)[66] |
48 (10 reviews)[67] |
|
| The Wrath of Khan |
88% (49 reviews)[68] |
71 (11 reviews)[69] |
|
| The Search for Spock |
78% (41 reviews)[70] |
55 (10 reviews)[71] |
|
| The Voyage Home |
85% (39 reviews)[72] |
67 (10 reviews)[73] |
A+[74] |
| The Final Frontier |
21% (43 reviews)[75] |
43 (16 reviews)[76] |
A-[74] |
| The Undiscovered Country |
83% (48 reviews)[77] |
65 (18 reviews)[78] |
A-[74] |
|
| Generations |
48% (48 reviews)[79] |
55 (22 reviews)[80] |
B+[74] |
| First Contact |
92% (53 reviews)[81] |
71 (18 reviews)[82] |
A-[74] |
| Insurrection |
55% (67 reviews)[83] |
64 (19 reviews)[84] |
B+[74] |
| Nemesis |
37% (158 reviews)[85] |
51 (29 reviews)[86] |
A-[74] |
|
| Star Trek |
95% (328 reviews)[87] |
83 (37 reviews)[88] |
A[74] |
| Into Darkness |
87% (249 reviews)[89] |
72 (43 reviews)[90] |
A[74] |
| Average |
68% |
62 |
A- |
List indicator(s)
- A dark grey cell indicates the information is not available for the film.
|
Academy Awards
Notes
^1 Michael Dorn, who played Worf in
The Next Generation series and films, portrayed that character's grandfather, also named Worf, in
The Undiscovered Country.
References
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