Star Trek (film)/Awesome

• Well I'd like to say the first crowning moment of awesome in the film belongs to none other than Jim's old man - George Kirk. How can you call being in command of a starship for only twelve minutes, yet still end up saving 800 people including your wife and new born kid, who you name in your final moments as you deal a crippling blow to the enemy vessel by ramming yours down its throat, anything but awesome?
• The first time you see the Enterprise. Full stop.
  • And, by extension, seeing it after jumping back into the solar system. The image of the Enterprise raising out of Saturn's rings is such a perfect herald to the fact that the whole team's back that it merits tears of beauty.
• Captain Pike: "Punch it!" - maybe the most memorable quote of the movie.
• The beginning of that other great friendship -

Mc Coy:Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. A solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait 'til you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles. See if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs bleed! Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence.
Kirk: Well, I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space.
McCoy:Yeah. Well, I got nowhere else to go, the ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I got left is my bones.

• Kirk: "I got your gun."
• Followed up by Pike who uses that same gun to shoot two romulans sneaking up on Kirk with near-instant reflexes. Then add in the fact his mind should be practically broken following the implantation of a Centauri slug (similar to the bugs from Wrath of Khan). Yeah.
• Sulu's "fencing".
• Spock charging the Narada, with no real expectation of rescue. He was going to die taking down the man who killed his mother and Vulcan, and he was okay with that.
• Spock turning down the Vulcan Science Academy after they insult his mother. In fact, any time someone insults his mother he basically gets something akin to one, but this time, he gives what is hands-down the most irony-dripping Vulcan salute in the history of Trek. He could not have made it more bitter even if he added a "Fuck you" for good measure.
  • As Chester A. Bum put it: "Live long, and SUCK IT!"
  • Spock beating the hell out of Kirk for saying Spock never loved her, too. Did Kirk need to do it? Yes. Did he mean it? No. Did that change the fact that seeing him get owned for being a bastard was so, so sweet? Hell no.
• The Kobayashi Maru. This troper expected Kirk to break into giggles any moment. It's a bonus to original fans who know Kirk is going to cheat.
  • It's also the fact that that scene was the absolute zenith of Chris Pine acting like William Shatner. The entire rest of the main cast channelled the TOS actors at various points, too, but this was Pine's finest hour of Ham.
    • If you pay attention to Uhura, you can tell she's just a little petulant about how Kirk isn't really taking anything seriously.
• The final scene was one for the whole franchise. Elder Spock's narration was just AWESOME.
• A mysterious figure uses a flaming torch to save Kirk from a big damn monster, then turns to the camera, pulls back his hood... and the crowd goes wild!
• The Enterprise's came with its Gunship Rescue moment, as it quite literally shows what a Cool Ship it is - by pulling off the biggest use of Arsenal ever seen in the history of Star Trek. It then goes on to break the Narada bit by bit, Photon Torpedo by Photon Torpedo.
• Let's not forget the Enterprise escaping a black hole by riding a REALLY BIG EXPLOSION. Not even the all caps do that scene justice.
• The Narada vs Kelvin battle that opens the movie is a Crowning Moment of Evil Awesome. No question.
• This troper thinks that Chekov gets his own moment with his "I can do zis!" part.
• Kirk falling through the atmosphere of Vulcan to catch Sulu.
  • And shortly before that, Kirk and Sulu blasting away at the drill. This troper is fairly certain that, were he Mr. Abrams, he would have been unable to resist the temptation to put some rock music in that scene. Maybe The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again". Yeah, the same bit the CSI: Miami intro uses.
• "Either we're going down...or they are."
• "I would rather die in agony, than accept assistance from you." "You got it. Arm phasers! Fire everything we've got!" Why, hello there, Captain James T. Kirk. Welcome back.
• Zachary Quinto's performance as Spock. The whole cast kicked ass, but why him in particular. Because now Non-Trekkers know what true Trekkers have always known; Spock. Is. A. 'Badass!! Nuff said.
  • Also Chris Pine's performance as Kirk, in which he somehow manages to both radiate Kirk-ness from every pore while not copying Shatner's performance. And the chemistry of Pine and Quinto together absolutely makes the movie.
  • There are points in the movie where it feels like DeForest Kelley has possessed Karl Urban and is acting through his body. He's that good.
    • This troper isn't completely sure Mr. Kelley didn't do just that, particularly when he convinces the pilot to let Kirk onto the shuttle with him.
    • So good it affected Leonard Nimoy—he said in an interview that Urban's portrayal of McCoy moved him to tears.
    • Quinto narrates the audiobook version of the novelization of the film. He does the characters' impersonations pretty well, especially McCoy (Spock goes without saying).
• Michael Giacchino, the composer of the music of the film, deserves special mention for being able to compose an incredible score, which incorporated the Alexander Courage opening of The Original Series in the End Credits of the Movie, in full orchestral/choral beauty. Icing on an already excellent musical cake from a most excellent composer.
• "As you were!"
• "Is there a problem, officer?"
• After Spock orders security to take Kirk away, Kirk starts taking on security, and doing pretty well for himself. Then Spock drops Kirk in less than a second with the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, throwing in a Continuity Nod at the same time.
• Nero hailing the Enterprise in perhaps the best such scene since the second movie:

"This is Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?"
"Hi, Christopher. I'm Nero."

• Kirk's promotion. Welcome back, Captain Kirk. The airwaves have missed you.
• "I hereby confiscate this illegally obtained ship and order you to surrender your vessel. No terms."
• The entire sequence beginning with the Space Jump and finishing with Kirk and Sulu plunging to their apparent deaths: pure undiluted maximum WIN!!!!
• When Kirk asks Sulu what combat training he has. Sulu responds, "fencing". Kirk looks like he's either gonna laugh in his face or cry. Just....keep that in mind....
• The final conversation before the Enterprise destroys the Narada:

Kirk: This is Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Your ship is compromised. You're too close to the singularity to survive without assistance, which we are willing to provide.
Spock (aside): Captain, what are you doing?
Kirk: Showing them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with the Romulans. It's logic, Spock. I thought you'd like that.
Spock: No, not really. Not this time.
Nero: I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you.
Kirk: You got it. Arm phasers. Fire everything we've got.

• Undoubtedly, Nimoy!Spock gets one just for showing up in the film.
  • Of course there is also the exchange between Nimoy!Spock and Quinto!Spock at the end of the film. Especially since Nimoy!Spock is unrepentant about "implying" certain things to Kirk.
• "She took the whole damn planet in the divorce, and all she left me were my bones."
• Also, the way Kirk finally "wins" The Kobayashi Maru scenario pretty much cements his reputation as the biggest Magnificent Bastard in the Star Trek universe.
  • Although let's face it, the way we're told he won it in the original timeline, as per the novel The Kobayashi Maru, was even more badass: instead of simply removing the enemy's shields so that he could blow them up, he had the scenario reprogrammed to acknowledge the reputation he intended to have as a starship captain, with the result that when he introduced himself as Captain James T. Kirk, the enemy promptly surrendered.
• Captain Pike has a Crowning Moment of Awesome when, despite being crippled, tied down, and implanted with a mind-influencing slug, is still fast enough to grab Kirk's gun and shoot the two Romulans who are coming up behind him.
• Nimoy!Spock passing the torch at the end with the classic monologue
  • Somewhat related to that moment, the teaser trailer: Not sure what was being advertised, just images of welders working on a huge structure, with quotes from and about the space program, then the camera pans up at the start of the iconic line, "Space...the final frontier..." and you see ENTERPRISE on the structure being built... This troper cheered in the theater.
    • File this one under YMMV: what some fans immediately noticed, and complained about, was that they were building it on the ground, not in orbit, and the name was in the wrong (for TOS) typeface.
• Kirk facing down four hulking Starfleet recruits in a bar. His boast of "Get some more guys and it will be an even fight" was cool, but he lived up to it by beating the shit out of them and still getting to second base with Uhura, all while pissed off his head. And while He does proceed to take a beating, it's still probably best Pike stopped it before Kirk sobered up.
• The last scene: Kirk taking his place in the captain's chair of the USS Enterprise, with Uhura at communications, Chekov at navigation, and Sulu at the helm. Scotty is at Engineering, McCoy is at his captain's side, and at last Spock offers himself as second-in-command, and Kirk accepts. And then, the words of Ambassador Spock:

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone... before.

• Pike demonstrating Starfleet's method of ensuring that only the Badass need apply:

"Your father was captain of a starship for 12 minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother's... and yours. I dare you to do better.

• The scene where little Spock finally snaps and goes to town on the bully for bad-mouthing his mother. You see the other bullies' faces and they're so terrified they don't even jump in.

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