Don't be fooled by the stardates note . He lived a very long and very prosperous life.
WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.- When Bones joins Kirk for his birthday, the latter muses that he's a year older...specifically, a year older than his dad ever got to be. Then Kirk says his father joined Starfleet because he believed in it, while he "joined on a dare", even if that's no longer his reason for continuing his career. Though he never got the chance to meet his dad, Kirk clings to the memory of who he was (and indirectly, Pike as well, given that he knew his dad well).
- Spock learning about the death of his older counterpart, drenched in the Reality Subtext of Leonard Nimoy's death. It gets very heavy as Spock later talks about how he intends to live up to his Alternate Self's legacy and take up his work with the Vulcans, very likely channeling Zachary Quinto's own feelings on Nimoy with whom he bonded over the course of filming the previous two films, and now has to carry on the role of Spock in his place.
- Special mention to Spock opening a box of Spock Prime's belongings near the film's end, and finding an old photo of the original core seven while a few notes of the TOS theme play in the background.
- There's also the audible waver and slight break in Spock's voice when he says "Ambassador Spock is dead".
- Spock Prime died in an Alternate Universe populated by alternate counterparts of people he knew—similar, but still essentially strangers. He had no real friends or family with him in his final days. In addition, those friends and family that he still had left only knew he went missing in 2387 after failing to save Romulus; they never learned of his true fate.
- The destruction of the Enterprise. After everything she had gone through in the previous two films, seeing her going down in flames for the final time is heart-wrenching, especially considering that, in Into Darkness, her own captain died saving her and the crew. This time, Kirk can do nothing but watch her fall apart piece by piece until there's nothing left but her main hull that finally crashes into Altamid. In the end, the Enterprise finally succumbs, possibly taking more than half her crew with her.Krall: [in alien language] Cut its throat.
- Kirk being the last of the crew to leave the ship, watching the Enterprise finally crash into Altamid's surface. The look on his face says it all, as the very first ship in his command suffers such a fate and the crew's survival becomes all the more dire.
- Unlike her Prime Timeline counterpart, which had been in active service for 40 years, the Kelvin Timeline Enterprise only had less than 5.
- Kirk being the last of the crew to leave the ship, watching the Enterprise finally crash into Altamid's surface. The look on his face says it all, as the very first ship in his command suffers such a fate and the crew's survival becomes all the more dire.
- Spock's line "When one has lived as many lives as he, fear of death is illogical" is heartbreakingly resonant in light of the deaths of Nimoy and Anton Yelchin.
- Another Spock moment, mixed with a Heartwarming Moment: Spock and Bones argue over whether or not Bones should leave Spock behind due to his injuries being a liability. Spock argues Bones needs to find the rest of the crew as quickly as possible.Bones: And here I was thinking you cared.
Spock: Of course I care, Leonard. I always assumed my respect for you was clear.- It's Spock's delivery that makes it. He sounds genuinely hurt that Bones might not consider himself friends with Spock.
- A bit of Fridge Brilliance here, as the last time Spock insisted on being left for dead if it meant saving many lives in the process, it caused quite a amount of grief in his relationships, especially with Kirk and Uhura. Bones just happens to remind Spock that nobody on the crew would ever leave him behind, no matter how bleak the situation is, and that Spock really should appreciate that fact (though given Spock's reaction, he clearly does).
- When Chekov asks when he started to suspect Kalara was a mole, Kirk merely states "not soon enough". He clearly regrets ever listening to her in the first place and feels everything that happened, from the destruction of the Enterprise to the crew's precarious situation, is on him.
- Syl's gruesome death at Krall's hands. What's worse is, even though he might not realize it, Kirk is partly responsible for it, as he requested Syl to hide the MacGuffin that Krall wanted when the Enterprise went down. When Krall figures this out, he coerces her into giving it up by threatening to drain Sulu's life and, when she gives it up, Krall repays her by using her as a live target to test his weapon.
- Although Krall is the Big Bad, when you learn he is actually Balthazar Edison, a lot of things become quite sad. Edison watched his fellow soldiers and friends die in the Xindi and Romulan wars, only to have his career and profession taken away and be foisted off with an obsolete ship. Whilst he still had his humanity, he would no doubt have blamed himself for the deaths of the Franklin's crew because he'd have been the one who chose them. He managed to keep his remaining crew alive for over a century, only to then have both of them die.
- Moreover, Edison hadn't yet used the abandoned technology by the time of his last log entry, and so got to the point of madness and losing his humanity while still fully human.
- His final log entry deserves mention.Edison: Captain's log... I don't remember the stardate. All distress calls unanswered. Of the crew, only three remain. I WON'T ALLOW IT! The indigenous race abandoned this planet long ago. They left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce. They have some sort of technology that prolongs life. I will do whatever it takes for me and my crew. The Fed-Federation do not care about us. You'll probably never see me again. But if you do... be ready.
- He's calm for most of the entry, but during the Suddenly Shouting part, he sounds so distraught and worn down by everything that's happened to him.
- Believing the world he fought to protect had abandoned him and his crew couldn't have been much fun, either.
- After learning of Edison's Backstory, Kirk tries to reason with him while trying to prevent him from killing everyone on Yorktown. Edison has given Kirk every reason to despise him, destroying the Enterprise and killing a majority of his crew, yet Kirk instead attempts to knock some sense into him. It nearly works...but fails, forcing Kirk to throw him into space to save everyone.Kirk: What happened to you out there, Edison?
Edison: "Edison"...I have to say, Kirk...I've missed being me. We lost ourselves, but gained a purpose! A means to bring the galaxy back to the struggle that made humanity strong...
Kirk: I think you underestimate humanity--
Edison: I FOUGHT FOR HUMANITY! Lost millions to the Xindi and Romulan wars! And for what?! For the Federation?! To sit me in a captain's chair and break bread! ...with the enemy!
Kirk: We change. We have to. Or we spend the rest of our lives fighting the same battles.
Kirk: You lost! There's no way you can make it back there. Give up.
Edison: What, like you did? I read your ship's log, Captain James T. Kirk. At least I know what I am. I'm a soldier.
Kirk: You won the war, Edison! You gave us peace!
Edison: Peace is not what I was born into.
Edison: You can't stop it. You will die.
Kirk: Better to die saving lives than to live with taking them. That's what I was born into. - Especially sad is the moment when Edison sees the reflection of his now almost-human face in a shard of glass and, for a split second, it seems as if he realizes in this moment what kind of monster he has become...but it doesn't help.
- Even after death, Edison can't catch a break, as he has willingly destroyed his reputation in Starfleet as a hero. While Commodore Paris and Kirk express disappointment (though in a sense, they sympathize with him due to the tragedies he suffered), one can't help but imagine how the rest of Starfleet will react learning that Edison not only hated what they have become, he was willing to kill countless people to make that point.
- Plus, when Edison is looking out over Yorktown to start deploying the weapon, he is able to see the Franklin crashed below, which would have reminded him of when it first crashed on Altamid and the Federation seemingly abandoned them. No wonder he ignored his chance at redemption.
- Worse, Edison has been able to hack the Federation database for approximately a year, maybe two. He probably knew the Federation lauded him and his crew as heroes, yet was so disillusioned and angry that he carried out his plans of revenge anyway.
- Added to because Kalara was talking to him and Manas just before her death and they'd have heard her die, just like they saw the rest of their crew die a century before.
- With Kirk's surprise birthday party in the epilogue, there's the fact that the crew people lost many people who probably were friends or even more, in a matter of minutes, and now they're supposed to return to business as usual. They may all know what could've happened going into this business, and they may have the fortitude to face the future head-on instead of lingering upon the past, but it's a very sobering point regardless.
- "And to...absent friends."
- Intentionally invoked out-of-universe, as the camera centers on Chekov during this point, Anton Yelchin having tragically passed shortly before the movie was released. Too late to give him a proper tribute, but just enough time to make it clear that he is loved and missed.
- The memorial cards.In loving memory of Leonard Nimoy.For Anton.