Shortly before filming began on Star Trek Beyond Leonard Nimoy, the man known around the world as the iconic Spock, died at the age of 83 as a result of end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition that Nimoy had attributed to many years of smoking, a habit he had given up decades earlier.
Not long after Star Trek Beyond had finished filming, Anton Yelchin, the 27 year old actor who had portrayed Chekov in 2009's Star Trek and it's sequel Into Darkness, had died following a traffic accident involving his car.
As expected both receive a tribute at the end of the film and just before the credits roll, the screen reading “In loving memory of Leonard Nimoy” and “for Anton”. The movie does however go further to salute the two with some in story tributes taking place in several scenes of the film.
Obviously I can't go in to details without providing some information about the content of Star Trek Beyond, I personally do not think anything past this point reveals any important plot points or would ruin anyone's enjoyment of the film however there is a spoiler warning in place, please do not read past this point if you are concerned about finding out information you would not want to know before seeing the film.
MINOR SPOILER WARNING - DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT TO AVOID MINOR SPOILERS FOR STAR TREK BEYOND
With Nimoy, both Simon Pegg and Doug Jung knew they had to pay tribute to Nimoy in the film. "We knew immediately we wanted to pay tribute to him in some way.", said Pegg in an interview with the Daily Beast.
With Nimoy dying before filming had begun, it was possible to write him out of the series and it's revealed during the course of Star Trek Beyond that 'Spock Prime' has died, resulting in his younger self (played by Zachary Quinto) and other crew members reflecting on his life and his achievements. In one scene Spock goes through some of 'Spock Primes' possessions and finds a photograph of the original Star Trek cast including William Shatner, George Takei and Nichelle Nichols, a touching nod to his 'family' and to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.
With Yelchin having died after production was finished and just weeks before the premiere there was simply no chance of being able to include an in story tribute matching that of Nimoy's however a further tribute that takes place near the end of the film has been given a special touch to acknowledge the passing of Yelchin and to pay tribute.
At the conclusion of the film, Kirk leads the crew in a toast “to absent friends”, a callback to The Search for Spock, undoubtedly intended as a tribute to Nimoy, the toast is however made all the more poignant by the death of Anton Yelchin, before the scene ends the camera focuses on Yelchin's character Chekov just lingering for a moment, a subtle goodbye to the promising young actor.
END OF SPOILERS
Are you pleased that Beyond included a tribute to both actors and what do you think of the tributes?
