Tear Jerker / Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek (2009) not only brought the Trek franchise back to the forefront of pop culture, it also brought a fair share of heartrending moments.

WARNING: Spoilers are unmarked.

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Film

• The first ten minutes. Yes, ALL of them. If you know anything about the film at all, you know George Kirk is going to die. Giacchino's music is what really sells it.
  • The expression on his face when he realizes that the Kelvin will have to be manually piloted and rammed into the Narada.
  • George hearing his newborn son's cries over the intercom and declaring his love for Winona right before the Kelvin collides with the Narada.
    • To say nothing of Winona's stunned and grief-stricken expression immediately after.
• Almost every scene Leonard Nimoy appears in, especially considering this film would end up being the last time in the entire franchise that he would have a prominent role as Spock.^note His true final performance as Spock, and in film overall, would be a cameo in the next film.
• The entirety of the Battle of Vulcan, but specifically the part where the Enterprise finally arrives: Dozens of starships with graduating cadets were wiped out in a similar manner as the Battle of Wolf 359, and to top it all off, Vulcan itself gets eradicated by a black hole, all within an hour.
• Spock's quiet shock after Chekov informs him what the Narada is doing to Vulcan, especially as it's already begun and there's no way to stop it. Not to mention Chekov helplessly telling him how much time his homeworld has left: "Minutes, sir. Minutes."
• Chekov, when he loses the transporter lock on Amanda. Anton Yelchin's heartbreaking facial expression caps it.
  • It's worse when you realize that he himself had recognized his Moment of Awesome from earlier, and so had assumed he'd perform the miracle twice. Failing to do so, and so shortly afterwards, must've absolutely crushed him.
  • Also taking into account the way he shouts "I'm losing her! I'm losing her!" and then, once he has, he starts whispering "I lost her... I lost her..." in a voice so quiet and broken that you almost can't hear him.
  • He's a sewenteen-year-old Russian whiz-kid, fresh out of the academy, doing a job for officers at least five years older. This whole sequence was one big wake-up call that probably kept him awake at night for a while.
  • Similar to Nimoy's scenes, Yelchin's death in 2016 makes this particular scene harder to watch.
• The heart-wrenching scene where Spock is trying to remain stoic after Vulcan's destruction. Uhura keeps saying "I'm so sorry" over and over again. She offers to hug Spock who, surprisingly, accepts it and, for a heartbreaking moment, buries his face into Uhura's shoulder, looking like he's going to cry. Watching a crying Uhura comforting a devastated Spock is quite possibly the saddest part in the entire film.
• Spock's log entry after the destruction of Vulcan, but especially this line:
  I am now a member of an endangered species.
• Just... this:
  Kirk: So you're saying I have to emotionally compromise you...guys.
  Spock Prime: Jim, I just lost my planet. I can tell you, I am emotionally compromised.
  • When we finally see Spock emotionally compromised, it is sad to see his stoicism break to the point that he nearly KILLS Kirk. For a second, it seemed not even his father could stop him...
  • "Billions of lives lost, Jim, because of me. Because I failed..." Leonard Nimoy absolutely nails Spock Prime's grief, both in his narration and his facial expression.
  • Think about what the destruction of Vulcan must've been like for both Spocks. In "The Immunity Syndrome", we learn that Vulcans can sense when large numbers of their fellows are killed at once in a manner similar to Obi-Wan Kenobi sensing the destruction of Alderaan. If the deaths of four hundred Vulcans on the Intrepid could break Spock's stoic exterior and cause actual pain, what must the deaths of six billion Vulcans have done to the two Spocks? Especially since Nero made sure that they both had front-row seats for the catastrophe. When Spock Prime tells Kirk that he's "emotionally compromised", he's not kidding.
• After Spock leaves the bridge following his Rage Breaking Point moment, Kirk has a deeply regretful look on his face. He knows what losing a parent is like and he just seriously hurt somebody.
• Sarek finally reconciling with his son.
  Sarek: Speak your mind, Spock.
  Spock: That would be unwise.
  Sarek: That which is necessary is never unwise.
  Spock: I feel as conflicted as I once did as a child.
  Sarek: You will always be a Child of Two Worlds. I am grateful for this...and for you.
  Spock: I feel anger, anger for the one who took Mother's life. An anger I cannot control.
  Sarek: I believe she would say..."Do not try to." You asked me once why I married your mother. I married her because I loved her.
• Spock's theme is a musical Tear Jerker all by itself. Also Awesome.
• Spock Prime repeating his famous line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ("I have been and always shall be, your friend")...which is followed by a Funny Moment by Kirk.
• Spock Prime reciting the classic "Space, the final frontier" narration over the music that everyone knows and loves.
  • Also, Spock Prime bidding farewell to Kirk with a Vulcan salute.
    Spock Prime: Live long and prosper.
• The entire character of Spock Prime. Think about it. He lived through the entirety of TOS and the movies that followed it. Based on his age, it's been years since Kirk's death. Who knows how many others of the original Enterprise crew have died. He loses Romulus, all because he was too slow to get there, and is burdened with the guilt of that. Then he goes through the red matter singularity and ends up in what comes to be called the Kelvin Timeline. He's gone back in time, but everything's different. He loses his entire planet and considers that his fault as well. And, on top of that, he finally sees Kirk and the rest of the crew again, but he knows that they're different people and that he can't interfere because he wants Kelvin Timeline Spock to live out those adventures on his own terms. It all boils down to him being laden with guilt for the loss of two planets and very, very alone.
  • It gets worse when you remember TNG's "Unification", in which Spock was working towards peaceful relations between Vulcans and Romulans, and the destruction of Romulus ruined all of it in more ways than he could ever imagine.
    • Worst of all is the revelation that Nero's paranoia about Romulus being deliberately destroyed was half-right. The only problem? It wasn't Spock. In one timeline It was Colonel Hakeev, a fellow Romulan who triggered the supernova, In another timeline it was the Zhat Vash usage of simulants to attack mars shipyards and force star fleet to cancel the rescue mission. All the atrocities that Nero commits is a result of misplaced rage that could have been directed at the true culprits.
    • On top of this, the sheer tragedy of Nero's situation. He's just a miner driven mad by Romulus's destruction who tries to kill Spock Prime in a fit of rage and despair over the destruction of his homeworld, only to be dragged through a singularity over a hundred years into the past. Instead of realizing that he has a chance to save Romulus, he instead comes out of the rift swinging, destroying the Kelvin before retreating to search for Spock Prime, stewing in his hatred for twenty-five years so he can inflict the same pain on him. Had he calmed down in that time, perhaps there wouldn't have been a conflict in the movie at all. Vulcans wouldn't have lost their own homeworld and become endangered, Romulus would've had over a century of warning for the supernova and perhaps even prevented Hakeev from triggering it, and the Federation and the Romulan Empire might have finally made peace. Instead, he created nothing but carnage and sorrow. What a waste.
    • And then, Star Trek: Picard reveals that the Federation really did leave the Romulans to die from the supernova, meaning Nero's hatred for the Federation isn't completely unwarranted.

Behind the Scenes

• The fact that Leonard Nimoy was moved to tears by Karl Urban's performance as McCoy.

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