A Romulan miner from the future, Nero, destroys the USS Kelvin and creates an alternate timeline in which a young Kirk and Spock meet at the Academy.
Star Trek, released in 2009 and directed by J. J. Abrams, is a reboot of the franchise that tells the story of the early years of Kirk, Spock and the crew of the Enterprise. It opens with a Romulan ship from the future attacking the USS Kelvin, which changes history and creates a new timeline. James T. Kirk grows up without his father and becomes a restless young man in Iowa.
Captain Christopher Pike persuades Kirk to join Starfleet, and he enters the Academy, where he meets Spock, Dr. McCoy, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov. When the Romulan Nero attacks Vulcan and destroys the planet, the young crew is thrown into a crisis. Kirk and Spock clash over how to respond, and they must overcome their differences in order to defeat Nero. The film is about friendship, destiny and the importance of choices.
The movie brought a new cast to the roles and began a new set of stories in an alternate reality, often called the Kelvin timeline. It also includes an older Spock from the original timeline. It reintroduced the franchise to a new audience and set the stage for the sequels that followed.