10 Movie Goodbyes That'll Break You (When You Know The Truth)

To more casual viewers of Star Trek: Beyond, Captain Kirk's (Chris Pine) closing toast "to absent friends" seems to be a pointed nod to the death of Spock Prime (Leonard Nimoy) at the start of the film, and of course also Leonard Nimoy, who passed away mere months before Beyond started shooting.

But that final toast - which was itself previously featured in the original Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - ended up taking on an extremely unfortunate double meaning due to the real-life tragedy which occurred mere weeks before Beyond's release.

Anton Yelchin, who played Ensign Chekov in the new Trek trilogy, died in a car accident at his home barely a month before Beyond came out, and so Kirk's toast ultimately felt like an unintended tribute to Yelchin also, aided by the camera almost immediately cutting to a shot where Chekov is in the center of the frame.

Knowing that this is our final glimpse of Yelchin's Chekov in this Star Trek universe, no matter whether a fourth Trek film ever actually gets made or not, lends an added layer of poignance to an already powerful closing sequence.