Struggling to find meaning in the middle of their five-year exploration, Captain James T. Kirk has applied for a promotion to vice admiral, while recommending Spock as his replacement.

Meanwhile, Hikaru Sulu reunites with his family, Montgomery Scott works to keep the ship operational, and Spock and Nyota Uhura have ended their relationship.

Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship, leaving the disintegrating Enterprise saucer section to crash land on the nearby planet Altamid.

Jaylah, a scavenger who previously escaped Krall's encampment where her father was killed, rescues Scotty and takes him to her makeshift home, the grounded USS Franklin, an early Starfleet vessel reported missing over a century earlier.

With the device complete, Krall intends to kill Yorktown's inhabitants, then use the base to attack the United Federation of Planets.

A pre-Federation human soldier, Edison rejected the Federation's principles of unity and cooperation with former enemies like the Xindi and the Romulans.

When he and his crew were stranded on Altamid by a wormhole, the survivors used the extinct natives' technology to prolong their lives at the cost of the others and re-purposed the ancient race's dormant mining drone workers into the swarm.

Leonard Nimoy appears in a photo cameo appearance as Spock Prime, alongside George Takei, Walter Koenig, William Shatner, James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, and Nichelle Nichols as the Prime versions of Sulu, Chekov, Kirk, Scott, McCoy, and Uhura, respectively.

[38] Principal photography on the film began on June 25, 2015, in Vancouver,[39] and Squamish, British Columbia (in the Stawamus Chief Provincial Park), after several delays caused by multiple script rejections.

[40][41][42][43] Additional filming locations were Seoul, South Korea, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and the Nahanni National Park Reserve in Canada's Northwest Territories.

[38] The visual effects are provided by Atomic Fiction, DNEG and Kelvin Optical and supervised by Kevin Baillie, Ryan Tudhope, Pauline Duvall and Peter Chiang as the Production Supervisor with help from Rodeo FX.

[47] On June 26, 2016, singer Rihanna released a teaser across her social media accounts for a single for the film entitled "Sledgehammer", and the song premiered the following day.

In August 2014, it was announced that Paramount had pushed back the release of the film to 2016, for the 50th anniversary celebration of the debut of Gene Roddenberry's original sci-fi series.

It opened alongside Ice Age: Collision Course and Lights Out, but critics noted that the film did not face any direct competition with them.

[73] The film came in 14% lower than the opening of its immediate predecessor, Star Trek Into Darkness, but box office experts noted that the fall was mild in comparison to other sequels of 2016 and is still considered a hit.

[61][66] It opened in 37 markets in conjunction with its North American release in its first weekend, including in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia — territories where the franchise has traditionally performed well.

Beyond debuted at first place in 16 of them and recorded the biggest opening weekend ever for the franchise in 17 markets, including Russia, Taiwan and Thailand.

The Guardian cited J. J. Abrams's departure as the director and fans' unenthusiastic response to Idris Elba as the villain (in comparison to Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek Into Darkness) as some possible reasons why the film failed to generate lucrative revenue.

[91] It is projected the film will end its run there anywhere around $70–100 million,[92][93] a disappointing figure considering the robust marketing effort by investors Alibaba Pictures and Huahua Media.

"[98] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said the screenplay by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung "injects a welcome strain of humor that's true to the original Gene Roddenberry creation, delivering nostalgia without stiff veneration", and went on by saying, "While Beyond won't unseat 1982's thrilling The Wrath of Khan as the gold standard for Star Trek movies, it's a highly entertaining entry guaranteed to give the franchise continuing life.

"[102] Dave Robinson of outlet Crash Landed writes that "Star Trek Beyond fails to push beyond its own roots and becomes just another very safe sci-fi popcorn movie in an increasingly crowded market, that will likely have you leaving the theatre feeling exactly as you entered.

"[103] Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C+ and wrote, "[w]ith Beyond, it feels like just another summer tentpole with not enough going on underneath the tent.

"[104] George Takei, the actor who played Hikaru Sulu in The Original Series, criticised the decision by the writers to make the character gay.

The actor said "I'm delighted that there's a gay character, unfortunately, it's a twisting of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's creation, into which he put so much thought.

[122] Paramount Pictures officially announced the fourth film in July 2016, with J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay set to write the screenplay.

[123] In December 2017, Quentin Tarantino approached Abrams and Paramount about an idea he had for a new Star Trek film, and a writers room was hired consisting of Mark L. Smith, Lindsey Beer, Drew Pearce, and Megan Amram.

[126] S. J. Clarkson entered talks to direct the Beyond sequel in April 2018,[127] but contract negotiations with Pine and Hemsworth ended in August with the pair leaving the project.

[130] Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct a new Star Trek film for Paramount in November 2019,[131] based on his own vision for the franchise.

[132] This project was "very close" to production beginning in August 2020 when it was placed on hold by new Paramount Pictures president Emma Watts, whose top priority at the studio was to figure out the direction of the Star Trek franchise.

[140] Abrams and new Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins announced in February 2022 that the main cast from the previous three Star Trek films would return, including Pine, Quinto, Pegg, Urban, Saldaña, and Cho.