Poster © Paramount Pictures. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreAction, Adventure & Sci-Fi
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 7 mins
ReleasedMay 8, 2009
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorJ. J. Abrams
StarringJohn Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood
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Star Trek (2009)
| ▶Stream It | ★The Numbers |
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| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| Star Trek's Details | |
| Genre | Action, Adventure & Sci-Fi |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 04/07/2009 (Sydney Opera House); 05/08/2009 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 7 mins |
| Budget | $150M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Star Trek's Interests | |
| General | Lens flares, the Kobayashi Maru, red shirts, transporter beams, Iowa shipyards. |
| Music | Michael Giacchino. Big brass, and the classic theme shows up right on time. |
| Movies | Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). Same young crew, warp speed sequel. |
| Television | Star Trek. The 1966 original, where this whole crew got started. |
| Heroes | Scotty (Simon Pegg). Shows up late, steals every scene he is in. |
| Star Trek's Crew | |
| Director | J. J. Abrams |
| Writers | Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman |
| Producers | J. J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof |
| Cinematography | Dan Mindel |
| Music | Michael Giacchino |
| Edited By | Mary Jo Markey, Maryann Brandon |
| Production | Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Bad Robot Productions |
| Distributed By | Paramount Pictures |
Starfleet promotes a cadet facing a cheating hearing to captain of its flagship within one movie, and nobody files a complaint. The academy clearly has no HR department. J. J. Abrams doesn’t care, and weirdly, neither do you. Chris Pine plays Kirk like a brash farm kid who can’t believe nobody has stopped him yet, and Zachary Quinto’s Spock is all clenched jaw and buried anger. Karl Urban does a Bones McCoy so spot-on it feels like time travel. Simon Pegg shows up late as Scotty and steals every scene he’s in. The movie also leans on a coincidence on an ice planet so huge it should get its own credit, and Eric Bana’s villain is mostly a scowl and a giant spiky ship. The 127 minutes fly by anyway. An 8.0 because it made a dusty franchise fun for people who had never seen a single episode. $17.64 says you try the Vulcan salute right now and need two attempts.
What works: A perfectly cast crew, especially Pine, Quinto and Urban, and a pace that never lets you stop to poke holes in it.
What doesn’t: The plot runs on a giant ice planet coincidence, and Eric Bana’s Nero is a forgettable villain with a cool ship and little else.
Who it’s for: Sci-fi fans who never got into Trek, and longtime Trekkies who can forgive a reboot for being fun.
Spoilers
Nero destroys Vulcan, and Spock’s mother dies in the collapse. The time travel creates a brand new timeline, Leonard Nimoy’s older Spock sends Kirk to Scotty, and Kirk ends the movie as captain of the Enterprise.
Iowa kid James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is a gifted troublemaker going nowhere, until Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood) dares him to join Starfleet. On Vulcan, half-human Spock (Zachary Quinto) is tired of proving himself to everyone. Three years later they are both at the Academy, and they cannot stand each other. Then an emergency call sends the cadets out on the brand new USS Enterprise, with Bones McCoy (Karl Urban) and Uhura (Zoe Saldaña) aboard, toward Nero (Eric Bana) and his enormous mining ship. J. J. Abrams directs. One hundred twenty-seven minutes, more lens flares than stars.
Anyone who can beat the Kobayashi Maru. Without cheating, ideally.
| Chris Pine | James T. Kirk |
| Zachary Quinto | Spock |
| Karl Urban | Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Like Pine |
| Zoe Saldaña | Nyota Uhura |
| Simon Pegg | Montgomery "Scotty" Scott |
| John Cho | Hikaru Sulu |
| Anton Yelchin | Pavel Chekov |
| Eric Bana | Captain Nero |
| Bruce Greenwood | Christopher Pike |
| Ben Cross | Sarek |
| Winona Ryder | Amanda Grayson |
| Clifton Collins Jr. | Ayel |
| Chris Hemsworth | George Kirk |
| Jennifer Morrison | Winona Kirk |
| Rachel Nichols | Gaila |
| Faran Tahir | Richard Robau |
| Deep Roy | Keenser |
| Greg Ellis | Chief Engineer Olson |
| Tyler Perry | Admiral Richard Barnett |
| Amanda Foreman | Hannity |
| Spencer Daniels | Johnny |
| Victor Garber | Klingon Interrogator |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $385.7M; Domestic box office $257.7M; Opening weekend $75.2M; Profit / loss (est.) -$32.2M; Rotten Tomatoes 94%; CinemaScore A; box office chart updated; RT 94% (351 reviews); Metacritic 82 / 100; CinemaScore A; IMDb users 7.9 / 10 (642,072 votes); movie.guru score 9.2.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.