The Movie
- Scotty making an escape pod out of a torpedo and bailing out of it before the thing crashes into a precipice.
- Jaylah's introduction, saving Scotty from some hostile scavengers with handy tricks and her own combat skill. And not only is she skilled in combat, she's one hell of an engineer: coming across a crashed alien ship years ago - the U.S.S. Franklin - who's very systems and language are a mystery to her, she takes it upon herself to do what she can and repair it. And she succeeds, patching the ship up overtime to the point that it could fly one last time (with some help from Kirk's crew at the end). It's no wonder Kirk offers her entrance to Starfleet Academy; she's already a miracle worker, and proper experience/training will only make her more so.
- This exchange overlapping with CMOF:Spock: [injured] Fear of death is illogical.
Bones: Fear of death is what keeps us alive. - Starbase Yorktown is gorgeous, coupling elements of the special effects in Inception with the elements of the design of the Citadel from Mass Effect and other space habitats in fiction.
- After Spock is beamed out of danger before him, there is a short shot of Bones staying Defiant to the End, putting up fisticuffs against several fighters. He gets beamed too just before he gets blasted, but props nonetheless.
- Even after the Enterprise is destroyed and crash-lands on Altamid, Kirk and Chekov still manage to use it to crush a good number of enemy mooks by flipping over the entire saucer section. Especially poignant since the remnants of the Enterprise effectively get to kill the person responsible for her "death" at the hands of Krall. If ever a starship could pull off a Last Breath Bullet (of sorts), this would be how they do it.
- Kirk getting to show off his Badass Biker skills in the camp rescue.
- "Let's make some noise." Kirk and the crew defeat the seemingly-impossible-to-destroy alien swarm ships using The Power of Rock, represented as Gale-Force Sound in space. Seeing the USS Franklin literally surfing through the alien swarm as it gradually explodes into a wave of flames (to the tune of Beastie Boys, no less) is nothing short of epic.
- And then Kirk orders Uhura to give their "disruption frequency" to Starbase Yorktown, which sets its massive power output upon the alien swarm.
- The Franklin is a 22nd-century starship that's been lying derelict for a really long time, which you wouldn't have guessed if you saw how much punishment it can take. At the climax, it crashes through Yorktown's docking bay at full speed, then proves itself maneuverable enough to fly around inside the starbase, scraping the sides all the way, and is still intact when it finally settles onto the ground (after physically forming a blockade for Krall's drones). This, after scraping against mountains and straining against terminal velocity to achieve lift-off via an atmospheric "bounce" effect a short while ago.
- Fridge Brilliance: Enterprise—the series, not the ship—established that, back in the 22nd century, Starfleet didn't have shield technology yet. So instead of shielding, all that energy and all those resources went into hull plating. No wonder she could take so much punishment!
- While Scotty and Chekov are frantically beaming the whole crew back aboard, they're waiting on Kirk, who wants to make sure they also get Jaylah out. He then drives his motorcycle off a ramp and grabs her in mid-air before he fully beams away, taking her with him.
- Shortly thereafter, Kirk learns from the others that Krall is planning to attack Starbase Yorktown with the bio-weapon. Jaylah only has one thing to say to Kirk:"You take my house, and you make it fly."
- Shortly thereafter, Kirk learns from the others that Krall is planning to attack Starbase Yorktown with the bio-weapon. Jaylah only has one thing to say to Kirk:
- Something about watching the Enterprise-A being built via time-lapse. It just works.
- Jaylah's one-on-one fight with Manas.
- Kirk's showdown with Krall is significant for him since this is the first time he manages to duel the central villain in the new film series and actually win. For that matter, this is the first time he gets to win a number of his fights rather decisively. That this time he actually gets to do in the central villain is icing.
- The best moment has to be when Kirk delivers a magnificent retort to Krall's declaration that his cause is hopeless:Kirk: Better to die saving lives than have to live with taking them. That's what I was born into.
- The two moments where he gets the advantage. Kirk's main strength in fights has been his ability to take a punch, either when outnumbered or up against enhanced humans/aliens. In his fight with Krall, he manages to know where to hit him to actually do damage. And then at the end, Krall grabs a shard of glass to get an In the Back attack on Kirk. The captain delivers a powerful kick that sends the villain flying right into his Artifact of Doom.
- The best moment has to be when Kirk delivers a magnificent retort to Krall's declaration that his cause is hopeless:
- Most of what Uhura does in the movie is awesome.
- She takes down two of Krall's drone mooks single-handedly.
- While Kirk is fighting with Krall aboard the Enterprise, Uhura activates the saucer separation to make sure the others have a chance to escape.
- And no matter what Krall says to her or what she sees he can do, Uhura never loses her cool or shows any fear in front of him. The woman's got Nerves of Steel.
- Possibly her most badass moment in the movie is recognizing Krall is actually Balthazar Edison by hearing him sputter a single sentence in an old video of the USS Franklin crew.
- McCoy using the piece of equipment from the Swarm ships to create heat to temporarily stop Spock's bleeding.
- Sulu and Chekov finally get to demonstrate exactly why they're at the helm by dropping the Franklin off a cliff and using that to launch the ship into space. Notably, even as the other crewmembers start to look nervous and Kirk shouts that they can go at any time, Sulu insists on waiting until exactly the right second.
- It's also prime heartwarming material and is listed as such, but the core crewmembers all getting a chance to say a portion of the oath (the iconic opening lines) as the Enterprise-A warps into corners unknown is awesome.
- The fact that, early on, despite just how quickly things grow worse for the Enterprise by the minute, the crew quickly forms a plan to get the ship the hell out of dodge which actually works. Too bad Krall quickly finds a way to ensure that the ship will go down no matter what...
- For that manner, the swarm attack itself is every bit as incredible as it is terrifying. Few adversaries have ever had the Enterprise (or any Enterprise in either timeline) so dead-to-rights within seconds of engagement. They cripple, board, and slaughter with contemptuous ease, applying surgical precision on top of their already daunting numbers. Seriously, how often do you see someone garrote a spaceship?
- In a sense, the entire Enterprise crew (Red Shirts and all) as a whole get points for facing such insane odds against them without losing their cool. As the ship gets punctured by numerous swarm ships ready to board them, Kirk orders the crew to ready a defense. An added bonus for the fact many of the defenders do not go down like chumps.
- And Kirk, as befitting The Captain, makes sure that everyone else has evacuated the saucer (including what's left of his bridge officers) before saving himself.
- Also, in a sense, the massive swarm attack on the Enterprise is quite spectacular. Trek has rarely shown anything like small fighters and Spock literally says the Enterprise is not equipped for such a battle, at least not with such an extreme number of semi-kamakazi opponents.
- A minor one, but Kirk's immediate order for the ship to go to red alert once he realizes something is very wrong the moment the swarm, in the disguise of a large ship, just does nothing but head closer to the Enterprise. It heavily contrasts with Kirk Prime's encounter with the Reliant in Wrath of Khan, failing to raise shields in time despite the red flags given to the crew that something is suspicious. Most of all, this moment shows how Kirk took the harsh lessons from the last movie to heart.
- This also contrasts two different Kirks at two different points in their careers: Prime!Kirk had been out of the chair for years and openly wondered if he was getting too rusty for the job, while in this film Kelvin!Kirk is in his prime, much closer in age to Prime!Kirk during TOS, riding the power curve of young instincts and hard-earned experience.
